My ill-tempered uncles...

This post is about my dad's younger brother and my mom's elder brother who have always been critical about me and things that I do. If you really wish to know then you can consider reading this post.

Let me start with my mom's elder brother, Chandru, who used to tease me by calling "ammana gumma" (roughly translates as Mama's boy) when I was seven. My mom still recollects the time when I didn't feel like interacting with my relatives much, instead just wanted to be with her all the time. Uncle Chandru after wasted efforts in pursuing me to spend time with him came up with that intimidating phrase. I guess I used to not like him. I know for sure that I disliked him when I was twelve. He had this high pitch voice and seemed very self righteous when ever he uttered something. I still remember that summer going to his place when my sister and I got our respective report cards of the final exam. I had got 19th rank and my sister had got third rank in our respective classes. He had appreciated my sister's efforts and encouraged her to do better. When he saw my marks card he had belted me right and left. He had shown extreme sense of disappointment towards my performance. I was myself little disappointed after seeing my report card and after  listening to his words I had made up my mind that I shouldn't voluntarily go to his place ever again.     

Well, I was wrong, for many reasons. Let me tell you why. When I was in 11th (PUC), I had opted Science. During that time he had come over to my place for some festival or some function. Like always, he wished to know my progress in studies. I happen to say that I had a hard time in chemistry. As such I used to hate chemistry then. He asked me the topics that I had, as he was from pure chemistry background, to be more precise, he had majored in chemistry during his bachelors degree and later did a masters in applied chemistry from IIT Bombay. After I mentioned the topics, he told me that they were very easy if I understood them properly. I asked him if he could help me understand, for which he immediately agreed. After that interaction with him I started visiting his place when ever had I tough time with chemistry. When I was in 12th he used to come over to my place regularly to drop his daughter, my cousin Surabhi, for her tenth standard maths tuition, which was near my place. During that time I used to get all my doubts cleared. Like always he used to yell at me when ever I made some stupid mistake or when I had a mediocre doubt, but never the less taught me the subject with great interest and commitment. Due to this I got totally indulged in chemistry. More than teaching me the subject, without his knowledge he had showcased the passion he had for science. I could figure out his genuineness and sincerity, which was wrapped around by the very irritating ill-temper towards me. In this way he became more of my mentor and less of my uncle. It so happened that I scored more in chemistry than any other subject in my engineering entrance exam.      

Like Chandru uncle, my dad's younger brother Dr. Gopal has also been a very ill-tempered person with whom I have survived over the years. Since I used to meet him once in a while during my childhood I didn't experience his yelling as much as I am in my adulthood. He was in Tamil Nadu back then. When I was in school, dad used to tell me that he was the first person in our family circle to study at Indian Institute of Science and also to get a Doctorate. Listening to my dad's words, I had aspired to become like my uncle Gopal - a scientist. I always had this very high respect for him and when ever I had a chance to talk about our family I used to proudly mentioned that he did pioneering works in silicon technologies in India. I still feel very proud to be his nephew.

Fortunately, he shifted to Bangalore when I had just completed my engineering. During that time I had tried to start a business with a few close friends but we had failed to launch it. Since that didn't work out I was looking for an electronics engineering based job. My uncle, Gopal had come to my place one of those days when I was in that phase. He wanted to see my resume to make an assessment of my profile. After seeing my resume he told me that I had done a very poor job in making it. He sat with me and prepared my resume in a way that could help an employer understand by credentials for the job that I was applying for. That was my first interaction with him as per career goes. I still remember writing mails to him during my masters about my courses and my research work. I was glad that I got a seat in Indian Institute of Science - the same place he had studied thirty years back. He visited while I was there once and had even interacted with my close friends during that visit. I also remember those days when I had become little careless with my research work for which he had shown extreme displeasure. The worst was when I had not completed my thesis but still went on to do an adventure trip at Kashmir which lasted for three weeks. His typical way of expressing resentment towards anyone is " Have you got some little brains at least?" I might have been at the receiving end for nearly thousand times in last seven to eight years. Though I know that I should be super cautious when I make a statement in front of him with respect to science or engineering or for that matter any topic as he has the tendency to get infuriated with superfluous argument, I still end up getting into some or the other debate with him. Over the years my admiration to him has consistently increased and as much I crave to get his attention towards my work I have also developed this irrational aspiration to win intellectual arguments against him.        

When I left my job at GE to start an engineering enterprise of my own, these two uncles, who apparently are my parents favorite siblings, were the first people in family I approached to seek for advice and help. They graciously offered their assistance in all possible ways they could. I guess in the long run I will do very well in my business, I should be able to take it to the level that I aspire. I know it sounds like I'm being little over confident, and well, if my uncles read this post they may snap at me for being too optimistic and will bring me down to the ground realities, but you know what, to a large extent they are the reason; I wouldn't have been this confident without them as my mentors.    

that phone call...

I happen to get a call from some random number today after noon and the lady who had called me said " Am I speaking to Mr. Ganesh HS?" I said  "Yes" after which she went to on to say "there is a case filed on your name at Delhi High court, you have to be at the court the day after tomorrow to attend the proceedings" after hearing this, all of a sudden, I recollected a call that I had got a few months back from a person saying that she would be filing a case against me, however if I care to do the settlement outside the court then I should contact some lawyer whose number she had given, which I didn't even bother to note down properly. I had totally ignored that call thinking that it was some prank by someone who knows me. When I talked to that lady today over the call I realized that it wasn't a prank. I became nervous, but still I managed to ask her "What case, and what for?" for which she replied" You can contact our lawyer Mishra who would be able to tell"  This time I carefully noted the number when she told and I reconfirmed all the digits that too twice.

I was clueless after the call. I wondered who could have possibly filed a case against me and for what. As I'm a businessman, this reminded me about one of the risks of running a business, which is not knowing when and for what reason people can file a case. I was trying to reach that lawyer Mishra but I wasn't able to get connected. This led to more random thoughts hovering over my head. May be since this getting married thing was in some corner of my mind, I thought about my near future like this, first of all not many fathers would let their daughters to marry a young businessman or an entrepreneur, and now on top of that background having a legal case, that too at Delhi High Court - now God can only get me married to a sane girl. I also tried to reconcile my mind simultaneously with some constructive thoughts. I thought, may be fighting this court case was some freaking adventure that wasn't too early in my life, I also remembered the time when I had failed in a subject during my final year of engineering, subsequently losing a job offer and also getting awful grades during my masters degree, which had screwed my career options badly - while all these unfavorable events, in retrospect, made my life better than what I had thought of. Though I couldn't imagine being guilty for anything, I tried hard to believe that this court case was some sort of a test that I had to go through, which can perhaps make me a stronger person. To be honest these thoughts weren't working all that great on me.                 

I could finally reach this lawyer Mishra's number after multiple try. A lady who was lawyer Mishra's assistant took the call. I told here my name and asked her about the case. She told that the case was filed by a mobile internet connection company against me for not paying the final month internet charges after disconnecting my connection, which was perhaps pending for more than a year. She also told me that they had tried to contact me a few months back but they weren't successful. She went on to tell me that I was left with two options, one was to attend the court proceedings the day after tomorrow at Delhi High Court with my lawyer or do the settlement outside the court by depositing the unpaid bill amount which was rupees two thousand one hundred and forty four, at the nearest company outlet with in next half an hour.

As my dad recollects...

I was born in the year 1983, it was the same year the "Time" magazine eschewed its "Man of the Year" award in favor of "Machine of the Year" - the computer was the winner (1). In that way I can say that I grew up during the time when information technology revolution had just about begun. Well, this post is not about information technology revolution but it’s about the time when there was limited or no access to such technologies.

Yesterday my cousin, Sridhara came over to our place with his newlywed wife Supreetha. Mom had invited them to have dinner with us. We had a general discussion before having our dinner. During that time I shared my experience of visiting Sridhara's place in Mandya (2) nineteen years back. In fact I had nearly spent my entire third standard summer holidays at his place during that visit. I fondly remember how Sridhara and his brothers were such a crazy cricket pundits when it comes to cricket statistics whether it is test cricket or one day international (well, they use to play as well). I guess my interest in cricket can strongly be attributed to my interaction with him back then. Somehow this cricket thing came up in our discussion yesterday as well. Though Supreetha was no way interested in cricket, we continued to talk about it and this time my dad also participated in the discussion that too with extreme enthusiasm. Let me tell you about it.

Dad, like always, started sharing his insights with his all time favorite match that happened  between India and West Indies way back in year 1975 - that was the time when India was getting belted by Andy Roberts, a West Indian super fast bowler. Dad still remembers, little emotionally, how he and his friends got greatly disheartened when the radio commentator announced the fall of the tenth Indian wicket while their favorite batsman G R Vishwanath remained not out on 97, and how eventually India manged to win the match. He also recollected, with a bit of agony, the very famous India-Pak final at Sharjah (3), in which Pakistan's Javid Miandad hit a six to a full toss delivery bowled by Chetan Sharma in the last ball to win the match. He even mentioned that there were intermittent power cuts during the match which made them go to nearby localities where ever there was power. From that part of the discussion I could sense that his generation Indian cricket fans couldn't get over that defeat against Pakistan, perhaps even now. My cousin Sridhara was able to comprehend to most of the stuff as he was very aware of all the matches that my dad was talking about. I was just a listener till they came to Sachin Tendulkar era. While in no time, Supreetha went to the kitchen to offer assistance to my mom in the food department.        

This discussion further led to a discussion on how things were a lot different back then, I mean during 70s, 80s and 90s. Dad recollected the time when having a mobile radio receiver, which they used to call as transistor, was like having an IPad now. He went on to tell about a program called Binaca Geethmala that was aired by Radio Ceylon with the famous Ameen Sayani's voice starting with "Bhaiyo aur Behno" - this is something all my uncles and aunts can imitate; in fact I do remember listening to the program during early 90s when it was aired by All India Radio. That radio program aired countdown of the then Bollywood songs which apparently got the whole nation’s attention. I was also told that everyone in the house remained completely silent from the start to the end of that radio program.

After some time Supreetha and my mom joined us at the hall when the discussion had picked up fair momentum. Mom made an entry into this discussion by pointing out this link between the insanely popular television series "Mahabharata" by BR Chopra (4) and my early school days. When this serial was initially aired I was in first standard and our school didn't have a weekly holiday on Sunday but instead we had it on Monday (as Monday was considered very auspicious day by many God Shiva devotees dwelling in Gulbarga district). While the TV program was aired every Sunday morning 9:00AM, my school also rang its first bell. Since the program was super popular and also in a way religious in nature, many didn't turn up or were reluctant to attend classes. Mom recollected how she had to fight with the school authorities to change the timings of the school on Sundays so that I could see the program. Sridhara and Supreetha also reminisced their days when seeing the television programs such as Ramayana, Rangoli, Chitrahar, Jangle book, Duck tails, Mungeri lal ke hassen sapne, flop show and also those weekend Hindi and Kannada movies was such a delight and a satisfying experience. What made the equations completely different from then to now is that we had only one TV channel called Dooradarshan – the National Network, which offered us the much required entertainment that too at no cost.

Sridhara and Supreetha left our place after having the dinner, I’m sure they enjoyed the time spent at our place. After they left I was wondering if its still possible to live a life with such minimal access to technology. I don't think so but what I feel is that I have just written a post which may sound very strange to my nephew or my niece when they grow up to read this post.

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(1) January 1983 issue of "Time" magazine, The man of the year 1982 is the computer though. 

(2) Mandya is a district in Karnataka state

(3) Sharjah is one of the emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Where cricket matches used to be held every year.

(4)Baldev Raj Chopra (B.R. Chopra) was an Indian director and producer of Bollywood movies and television serials

  

About getting married...

My parents, my sister, my brother in law, my nephew and my niece have gone to Mysore to witness Dasara (1) celebration at the Mysore palace. I declined the offer to join them as I didn't want to take off from work and also I didn't want them to hire a bigger vehicle just to include me. As my dad is a very agile person, he has been traveling as and when he gets a chance to attend some function or the other while my mom is having this knee pain for a few years, hence she generally doesn't prefer to travel. She decided to do this trip probably for the great love she has for her grandchildren, also she feels that the knee treatment that she is taking has shown good improvement. With this development, I'm home alone for last couple of days and perhaps will be for next couple of days.

What I've realized in these two days is that I have been fairly pampered by my parents, especially by my mom. I'll tell you why. First thing I do after getting up is brush my teeth and during that time mom would start making a cup of coffee for me. I'll have my coffee while checking my e-mails and then she serves me delicious breakfast exactly after having my bath. Like-wise, I'll have my lunch, evening snacks and dinner. And she also sees to that my room is clean all the time. I'm sure there are many other things she takes care, which I'm currently ignorant about. Well, I'm missing all these stuff today hence I'm able to point out. Having said the nice part I'll now tell the irritating part, at least that's how I used to feel. During all these interactions of mine with my mom there is a great chance of she bringing up the topic of me getting married. Let me put up a sample conversation of my mom and me, though its a little inaccurate translation (from Kannada) but you'll pretty much get the idea: 

Mom: here is your coffee, take.

Me: haan

Mom: So for how long do you want to drink the coffee that I make.

(Since I'd know what she means by that and where it could possibly go, I'd keep my mouth shut and react as if I hadn't even listen to what she said.)

Mom: I've decided to find a girl for you!

Me: What? Well, I mean how can you make an autonomous decision that too which is concerning me? 

Mom: Why do you say so? You have reached an age to get married and your dad, who is always on your side, doesn't do anything about it. Now, who else apart from me has to take the initiative? 

Me: Aren't you forgetting the most important person here?

Mom: who?

Me: ME?? Is it not about me getting married - should I not have a say about it?

Mom: See its our responsibility to ensure that you get married to a good girl.

Me: Is that not something I want as well? - that is, to get married to a good girl.

Mom: So you have found someone?

Me: NO.

Mom: It's okay, tell, if there is someone you have in your mind tell me, I'm your mother - I'll understand.

Me: As of now, NO, I'll tell you if I find one.

Mom: See I know that you have difficulty even speaking to girls, I don't think you'll be able find one. What makes you think that we wouldn't be able to search for a good girl. See its a long process, if you say YES now may be you'll get married in a year's time. If you don't then you'll unnecessarily be getting old and will eventually not find a right match.   

(I'm angry, waiting for her to finish her sentence) 

Me: HELLO!!! who told you that I have difficulty in speaking to girls? Have you ever seen me outside home - see this is the exact reason why I don't what you to search a girl for me - you don't even know what I'm like. I have major doubts in you finding a right match for me.

Mom: ohhhh that means you have some one in your mind, come on speak up, tell me who is it. I hope she is a Brahmin girl, if not also tell - all I care is you to be happy and perhaps happily married.

(Now I'm pissed off, just want to shout at her)

Me: Oh God! why don't you leave me alone!!? I'm fed up of having the same conversation over and over again. Why don't you mind your own business for god sake?

(Now she is equally pissed off and shouts back at me)

Mom: you get lost from my sight!!! what kind of son you are, who doesn't listen to parents - I don't know what sin I did in my previous birth to have such a son! I'm glad that your sister didn't trouble us regarding her marriage like you are doing now. 

(I get out of her sight just like the way she orders, with great relief)   

Anyway, as I told you its little inaccurate, some times it gets more dramatic. And some times I don't even take it seriously at all. You know, on a few occasions I've taken full advantage of being the subject of the discussion and I've tried to take the argument closer to her victory but in the end I'd show great resentment and just disagree, making her all unhappy for yet another futile effort in convincing me to get married - I just love her expression when this happens.    

In midst of all these stuff, you may ask me - why wouldn't I get married as suggested by my mom. To be honest I don't know. There are many thoughts in my mind regarding getting married. Some of which I'll mention here, which I guess are primary reasons for the indecision.

Firstly, there aren't any doubts regarding me getting married, like all the experiences that I have had, I believe, being in a marriage is one experience that I wouldn't want to miss and subsequently to it, I even wish to have kids after some years of marriage- in fact I think raising kids is by far the greatest experience of any mans life. You know, I've even written a serious post on parenting (2). But what stops me from taking this plunge is that I see marriage as an irreversible thing not just associated to me but to a lot of people involved. All the decisions that I've taken in my life till now are only to do with me and me alone. I also have this smug attitude of doing things related to me by my effort alone, say like getting a seat in an engineering course by merit or perusing a masters degree by earning a monthly scholarship or starting a business with my hard earned money and now I think in order to get married I've to find a girl all by myself. Though I've been successful in doing most things according to my terms and condition, this finding a girl by myself  and asking her to date me is all together a different ball game. Its not like I'll convince a girl to date me by putting some ten rocking pictures of mine in Facebook or raise my hand in a big shot discussion to give a very intellectual argument or climb Mt. Everest or even help a girl to win some prize or some award. It doesn't work that way guys, believe me, I have done it all - except the Mt. Everest thing of course. As per getting a girl, my experienced friends say that it requires a lot of effort on a daily basis, such as to build trust, continuously care about the girl's needs, keeping the girl assured of how awesome you are and even being fine about all the nagging that girls do a lot apparently - see its a tough thing. Coming to the topic, this arranged marriage thing what my mom majorly endorses is definitely not a bad idea considering the fact that I have failed very badly in all my ventures in convincing a girl to date me - see except for the nagging part which has to be taken care, rest everything could be taken care by the awesome family boy image that I have effortlessly built over the years. 

While I'm in no mood to write a serious article on marriage, I'm guessing that these fights that I have with my mom will sooner or later end - either by me agreeing to marry a girl of her choice or I might just find a girl who thinks that I'm a superman! :D

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(1) About Dasara : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysore_Dasara

(2) My post on parenting: http://isiganesh.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/what-matters/ 

         

Tunes...

I have been containing my thoughts to write this post for quite a long time, here I go, my first post regarding my interest towards music.


When I was very young, that is when I was a school going kid, I used to hate my mom's thing of loudly playing the tape-recorder set early in the morning. To elaborate on it, she used to get up at around five thirty - six range to start the household work. Probably because she came from a pretty orthodox South Indian family she had this great love for carnatic classical music, like many, M S Subbalakshmi was her favorite singer. Playing Sri Venketeshwara Suprabatha(1) sung by Subbalakshmi early in the morning was no doubt a divine pleasure to her but a torture to me. By the time I reached high school I knew 90% of the lyrics of that sacred chant. Being in her company for such a long time I must have listened to hundreds of songs composed by greats like Saint Purandara Dasa, Saint Tyagaraja and Muthuswami Deekshithar in the Carnatic classical space. My dad also used to like and still likes Carnatic classical but he has been more of a Hindustani classical lover. Mom didn't like Hindustani classical until one day when dad took her to one of  Parveen Sultana's, apparently mind-blowing, concert. Dad has been a big fan of Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Pt. Jasraj, Pt. Hariprasad Chowrashia and many other Hindustani classical musicians. Back then, the tape recorder was clearly his possession when ever he got a new cassette containing tracks of his favorite musicians. He has been specifically fond of some raagas (2), as I recollect him telling me about Raaga Thodi and Malhar a few years back. 


I neither liked Carnatic nor Hindustani classical. I used to wonder what was so great about these genres of music. I used to even make fun of these Hindustani classical singers when ever their performance was aired on the television. Besides the love for Indian classical music, my parents had interest in other kinds of music as well, which clearly had a direct influence on my sisters' and my own taste for music. Since Dad spent quite a lot of time in Bombay during his twenties, he was fairly attracted to Bollywood songs(from 60s and 70s). My sister and I grew up listening to melodies of Mukesh and Hemant Kumar as they were his favourite singers; we also had audio cassettes of movies like The Guide, Jewel thief, Sangam, Baiju Bawara, Navrang, Mera Nam Joker and many more. "Rangoli" and "Chitrahar" - some of the very successful Doordarshan (3) programs were based on the Bollywood songs, increased our database with respect to the old hindi songs. Mom has also been pretty fond of these Hindi songs but she would any day prefer songs based on our mother-tong, Kannada. When my mom was in her twenties and thirties, "Bhavageethe" (Kannada - songs about feelings) became very popular - all thanks to legendary singers and music composers like Mysore Ananthswamy, C Ashwath and BV Karanth. Dad had got several cassette tapes based on these genre, which I am sure would have been played umpteen number of times during my childhood days. These songs not only had great tunes but communicated strong emotions, moral values and many a times genuine human spirit.


The kind of music that I was totally attracted to during my childhood was the hard core Bollywood songs of the 90s. Our favorite television program during school days was "Super Hit Muqabla" - a Bollywood countdown show. The show aired latest songs from movies which were running at that time. Each song in that show came for hardly less than a minute but it fervently grabbed our attention. Unlike now, where we have access to youtube and other video sharing networks, back then we didn't have any medium to see videos apart from the broadcast medium, hence we would never be able to explain the present generation the feelings that we had for these shows. I still remember listening to songs from hindi movies Baazigar, Saajan, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Tezaab, Mohra, Main Khiladi Tu Anadi etc from the tapes, we knew complete lyrics of the songs from these and many other movies without even putting an ordinary effort to memorize. The greatest tune maker who totally ripped apart our souls was A R Rahman. His music created an altogether different sensation. Roja, Bombay, Kadalan, Rangeela and many more were his compositions which revolutionized the music industry during the 90s. Whether his songs were in Tamil, Telugu or Hindi it didn't matter.Well, he still remains my favourite musician of all time, even after the exposure to wide variety of music in my later years.


My taste for music didn't change much during my college days, except that I got acquainted to little bit of western music after attending a few rock shows during college fests and other gatherings. I didn't like rock music, in general western music much as I could hardly follow the lyrics or the rhythm when ever they sang - or rather when they 'shouted' - that's how I used to interpret rock music back then. Savage Garden, Enigma, Michael Learns To Rock (MLTR), Michael Jackson and Backstreet Boys were some English music titles that I remember to have liked during my college days and also during part of my school days.


After getting my admission done for a masters program, I started living in the hostel (which was inside the institute campus). It was the first time I left my parents and started living all by myself, though the hostel and my home were in the same city. I bought a super awesome laptop set from my savings from previous job, in which I loaded movies and songs from my friends collections. Subsequently I got a set of powerful speakers also called as woofers from my scholarship money. Unlike my childhood days when listening to music was limited due to unavailability of tapes, I had access to any damn stuff I wanted - thanks to the free internet connection in the campus. I could clearly make out the difference between living in the twentieth century and twenty first century. During my masters I met people coming from various parts of the country and people with various backgrounds. The institute was filled with intellectual minds who had varied tastes for movies, music and art in general. I happened to attend a few music programs as well. In one of these programs I heard songs which had an Indian classical music touch. I got goosebumps after listening to those. I knew that I had heard similar tunes from my parents collection of Indian classical music. After that I went on  to explore Carnatic classical and Hindustani classical music from the internet and even indulged in various discussions about those genres of music with some of my campus mates. When ever I went home I played the cassettes of the classical music. I fell deeply in love with songs from "Shankara Baranam", "Hamsageethe" and "Sandhya raaga", which has some amazing compositions sung by great vocalist like Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Dr. Balamurali Krishna and others. Though I didn't understand the intricate details involved in these Indian classical music, I could some how appreciate the beauty in it. The Pancharatna Kritis(4) composed by Saint Tyagaraja sung by Maharaja puram Santanam, which use to disturb my early morning sleep, became some of my all time favorite collection - I still listen to it when ever I travel long distance. Though I haven't yet got the real feel for Hindustani classical music I listen to it quite often.

For a brief period of time I had joined Latin American dance classes in the institute campus because of which I came across some dance numbers like "Lemon tree" by fools garden, "Hips dont lie" by Shakira etc., as they were played by the instructor during the practice sessions. Since I totally sucked at dancing, I forced myself to discontinue from the classes. By that I again missed a chance to develop a taste for western music, however couple of years back, I badly wanted to like western music as I had a crush on this girl, who mostly loved western music and also played it. In order to impress her I started listening to various tracks in western music, I even shared those on various social networking site and also as my gtalk status, though I didn't like it as much as the stuff that I had developed a real taste. My close pal, Somesh who had this big collection of western music gave me all his favorite tracks. I did like the kind of songs he shared with me, mostly because I heard those from his sexy car stereo when ever we went out for long drives along with our other pals - those were super awesome tracks if you ask me now. What by far created this real interest in western music was this American TV series called "Scrubs". Though it was more of a comedy drama, the program is intertwined with some amazing tracks in the background. I heard "how to save a life" by the band "The Fray" in one of the very well made episode during the show, after which I searched for the song on the internet to became an instant fan of the track and the band. With time, I started liking songs from REM, Perl Jam, Pink Floyd, Imogen Heap, Coldplay, Infected mushrooms, The Beatles, Nirvana (acoustic) etc, some of which sounded like absolute noise a few years back. If I wish to make this write up any more cliched I would say that I finally fell in love with those English numbers which I never thought I would, however the flip side of the story is that I failed to impress that girl 'cause of whom I started listening to the western music in the first place - damn! it never works!!

I am pretty convinced that no genre of music sounds nice until we develop a taste for it, though some takes a lot of time to get the feel - in my opinion, its an awesome thing to pursue, no mater what the reason be. So, tell me, what song are you listening to right now?



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(1) Sri Venketeshwara Suprabatha - is a collection of hymns or verses recited early morning to awaken the deity in Hinduism
(2) Raaga - is one of the melodic modes used in Indian classical music.
(3)Dordarshan - a government Television channel which most the Indians have access to.
(4)Pancharatna Kritis - is one of a set of five kritis (songs) in Carnatic classical music, compossed by the 19th century Indian composer, Saint Tyagaraja. Four of the five pancharatna kritis are composed in Telugu language, and one in Sanskrit.

The Fire!

This is yet another post on my time spent during my engineering days, unlike my previous post I won't be cribbing much in this one. This post is about what kept me running.

It was 17th May 2002, I was in the second semester of my engineering. My branch of engineering was Telecommunication. And it was "World Telecommunication Day". I came to know that there was some function arranged by my seniors of my branch. I went to my department to check it out. (In the first year we had classes in the college administration block hence we were fairly disconnected from our department ). I was pretty excited to know that the function was some kind of a department festival, and the celebration was mostly in terms of having contests, technical paper presentation and exhibition of engineering stuff done by students of our college. I didn't take part in anything, I just observed the events. It was completely organized by my seniors, while the professors and other staff members of the department were very much there to witness the proceedings. I could sense the excitement in the crowd. I felt like being part of a very fresh and super interactive club. I felt awesome!

The first year of my engineering was fairly insignificant and less eventful. I hardly have anything to say about it, where as if you ask me about my second year I should have so much to talk about. The subjects in my second year were very specific to my branch of engineering. Since my dad was also from similar background he had many books related to my subjects. They were very quality books mostly by foreign authors (rather from international book publishers). Turning the pages from those books made me feel like I should some day be equipped with all the knowledge to create stuff, solve problems in engineering and do advancement in technology. Seeing my enthusiasm, dad bought me some more books which were useful for my studies and also for the long term reference. Many of my classmates were comfortable reading the books written by the local authors which were tailor made for the syllabus. In my opinion they were bad books. They helped a student to get good marks but the authors of the book didn't communicate the engineering ideas quite well, though I guess there were few exceptions. While I took my own time to understand the concepts from the books I referred, I was also losing out on the race of scoring marks. Since I wasn't answerable to anyone, I didn't care much about scoring high.

During my third semester and fourth semester holidays I happen to spend most of my time in a state-of-the-art electronics Lab which was located some where in the industrial hub of Bangalore(in Peenya). Dad knew a person who was a trainer in that lab who made arrangements for me and my friends to use the lab for doing any electronics circuits we wished to do. The lab was pretty much a paradise for an electronics geek if you ask me. Some of my friends who came with me were super excited about trying out all the circuits we learnt in theory but never got a chance to do the same in our collage laboratory due to limited time and components. The place was pretty far from my home and almost took two hours to reach there, however the bus journey wasn't less interesting as I had lots of discussions with my friends regarding the circuits we were about to try and other things pertaining to electronics design. The time spent in that lab was so influential that I convinced my dad to setup an electronics lab on top our house when I was the third year. Incidentally I currently work in the same lab.

Some day in the mid of fourth semester, our third year seniors came over to our class to do an announcement. It was about celebrating "The World Telecommunication Day", they also mentioned that unlike previous year, this time they were planning to have the fest for two days and at an inter-college level. They were accompanied by a lecturer who wanted to assist in organizing. I was super thrilled to hear that announcement. They wanted volunteers for the fest from our class, but unfortunately none of my class mates including me raised our hands. I was waiting for some one to raise their hands. Looking at the nil response, our seniors were forced to pick few people whom they already knew in our class to volunteer. I felt like killing myself when they left the room. After the class I went to that lecturer's room and told him that I wished to volunteer. Looking at my enthusiasm, that lecturer immediately took me to a member of the organizing committee, a senior, and told her to include me. She was very glad that I wanted to volunteer. She was part of the creative team that was mostly into stage decoration and advertisement of the fest - exactly what I was interested in.

During the fest preparation I became friends with many of my seniors, especially the third year folks(The final year students were mostly in the verge of leaving the college hence weren't visible in the college much). I could infer that they were very inclusive and kind towards me. When I told them that I had an idea for the backdrop for the stage they supported my idea with great conviction. I must say that it was a fantastic experience working with my class mates and my seniors in creating that backdrop. I also did lots of posters for the fest with them. All the skills that I had acquired in painting and craft during my childhood came in very handy while doing the posters and the backdrop. I gained great attention from all, including the teaching staff. I felt damn good, I felt like I was building my own identity.       

When I was in the third year it became our responsibility to take the lead in organizing the fest. I did no injustice to it. This time I was more confident and as a matter of fact I was a bit aggressive as well. We started off much early. We did posters that were just like those TV promotions saying "coming soon" types. Two of my class mates were equally excited in doing the posters for the fest. We had great fun in doing them. I requested more funds for art materials which helped us literally pant the campus walls with posters and banners. I had this bunch of juniors who were ready to do anything and everything for the fest. I still remember running around the city market with them to get thermocol sheets, card-boards, paints and many other things for the fest. Like my seniors, I did encourage my juniors, especially this guy called RP. He was super creative. We did lots of posters together and almost all were his ideas. We also made a back drop that was partially lit by LED lights - which were powered by our laboratory power supplies and made with bunch of electronic components from the lab. All in all we had kick-ass fun before the fest and during the fest. Well, after the fest I was pretty much the guy I always wanted to be :)

I was in the final stages of my final year engineering project when the fest was organized by my juniors from the third year and the second year. I could some how make some time to attend the fest. The same bunch of juniors who worked with me were the most active members of the organizing committee. They told me quite many stories that happened while arranging the fest and also introduced me to some of the second year folks. The fest was more successful than any other year. I could see so many students from various colleges coming up with self-designed electronics gadgets for the project display, high-funda topics on communication for the paper presentation and many participating in contest like dumb charades, quiz, JAM, gaming etc. I could see the same excitement that I saw when I was in the first year. At that moment I felt I would miss my college like hell. Though I hated the education system, I could never deny that it was the same system that gave me the chance to do some thing worth while, something meaningful - an experience that I would remember forever.               

Those exams...

Engineering eduction was painful, when we were actually there, however in retrospect it was a joke - At least I see it as a joke that makes me laugh and also wonder at times. I am very sure some of my friends also feel the same about it. 

When I joined engineering, I felt I was reasonably smart and also pretty capable in doing my engineering well, with good scores and all - as per records, I was a merit candidate, studying in a fairly reputed college, admitted to the second or third most "lucrative" branch of engineering - at least during that time. By lucrative, I mean the branch which gets maximum job offers to its students after completing engineering. I had this strong feeling that the greatest battles of my life were the twelfth standard board exam and the engineering entrance exam and I also felt that nothing could possibly be more painful than the years spent in preparing for those exams. Actually, to an extent that's how I still think. But, as I started of, doing engineering wasn't less painful either, I should say that for multiple reasons. To start with, we had 64 exams (64 Subjects) to clear in four years and 64 X 3 mini exams, also called as internal tests that kept our souls occupied. Well, this post is all about the misery that we went through during those four innocent years. 

Vinod, who was my close pal during my 11th and 12th, ended up becoming my classmate in Engineering as well. I was super happy to do my four years of engineering along with him, however he wasn't interested in doing the same with me, not that he disliked me or something, because he desperately wanted to move to the most "lucrative" branch in the college by next year. To get there he had decided to toil madly, which he did, but unfortunately the result didn't show up the way he expected, at least in the very first semester.

What ever caused Vinod's failure in getting that great marks in the first year, thankfully, in a way worked out very much in my favor - Let me tell you how. He had this incredible sixth sense or may be some kind of predictive algorithm that ran on his brains, because of which he could quite well guess the questions that used to appear in the exam question papers. For instance, my preparation for this exam Mechanical Engineering Science in the first semester was absolute crap, I knew nothing in that subject. Our boy had seven to eight previous years question papers with him, based on some calculation and statistical analysis, he advised me to read few stuff while we were going in the college bus (an hour or so before the exam). As I had no idea what to read and what not to read in that one hour, I went through the stuff he told me. Not just that I was too happy seeing some familiar questions in that paper I even manged to score more than 60% marks in that. Neither him nor I would ever forget that bus ride. Well, if you ask me, there are many such unforgettable stories that followed for next three and half years.

No matter how horrible experiences we may have had while doing our engineering, nothing beats the experience of doing an experiment in the lab and not getting the expected output, especially if its a lab exam - believe me its a real nightmare. Having said that, I must admit that the lab was also a place where we made great friends, probably because we make great friends when we share the same pain and of course some joy (once in a while). As the college had  limited equipments and space, the whole class was divided into four batches to do the stipulated experiments. I was in the first batch and Vinod was in the fourth batch. I became friends with Ajeet and Jay in my batch, while Vinod became friends with Vivek in his batch. The events in the lab used be a great deal of fun to share with each other during our free time . Since we had limited time in the lab for a given semester, our focus was in getting the right output. Not getting the right output for a given experiment meant that we were running a risk of flunking (failing) in the lab exam. Needless to say that some of my classmates went to lab tutorials to cover the risk. Vinod and I had access to a lab in my dad's office where we repeated all the experiments that we did in our collage lab. The time spent in that lab gave us great confidence to take up our lab exams. How much ever we had practiced doing the experiments, the tension used to peak before the day of our lab exam. I guess those Phone calls, that apprehension , those assurance, those last minute tips, those short cuts and those prayers will never leave our memories. At the end of it all, back then getting the right output in the lab exam was perhaps bigger relief than any damn thing.

Like any college, even we had many places to hang out in the campus. One place which comes to my mind immediately is this place just next to the college gate, where Vinod, Vivek, Jay and I used to hang out just before the internal tests and final exams. There was this rectangular shaped stone chair where we use to sit and prepare really hard. Although we had a month or little more holidays before the exams, most concrete preparation used to happen in that place. We all had many stories on how we spent our study holidays, like Vinod would have seen one complete season of a English TV series through his computer, Jay would have watched a compete test cricket series between Pakistan and Bangladesh, Vivek would have spent many hours with his locality friend near some chats place, I would have spent time playing galli cricket day in and day out. In the end, either we lacked that competitive spirit or just loved whiling away our time or just didn't value these exam much or perhaps we even didn't apply our minds much; However one thing for sure that must have played a very crucial role in us getting our degrees was the time spent near that place just next to the college gate :)