The Inner Voice

Realized the importance of inner voice:
There is this inner voice within us that keeps telling us what is right.
A couple of instances where the inner voice has helped me do the right thing:

1) I saw a visually impaired person standing right in front of me not able to cross the road. I desperately wanted to help him but by my instincts I was not very convinced. It is like when my instinct questions me 'Should I help him?' (I do not know why it didn't come instantaneously) the inner voice tells me 'The right thing to do is to help him'. And I went by my voice.
2) I was sleeping when I was disturbed by someone opening the door. I could hear my friend talking to someone over phone. It was unusual for him to be at home at that time. I could hear him talking about an accident that happened to him. I wanted to continue rolling in my bed (Seems selfish and stupid eh?!). But the inner voice again forced me to get up and ask him if he was alright.

It is like the auto correct feature in MS word. It is always there unless you force yourself not to listen to it.
What would have happened if there was no such inner voice? We all would have been nothing more than living examples of selfishness.

Social Security

More of an outburst this time!
We have often taken the privilege to say - 'India would have attained real freedom only if a woman can walk alone on road at midnight 00:00 hrs.' Of late, people have even quit quoting this ideal-ideology. My thoughts on this:
1. Guwahati molestation - People watching a girl being molested in public?! And the first public statement that Assam CM could say is "We have made 8 arrests on suspicion". What good will arrests do when the very statement that the CM says has the meaning -we will make arrests and that shows I have taken a step towards it as a CM? On a pretentious note he says something in this sense -I expect some responsibility from the journalists. HaHa!
2. Mangalore Morning Mist incident - Social activists attacking girls and boys assuming they were into illegal activities. Oh boy! These activists-Are they god-sent symbols of purity & morality? I wish they rot in hell. And the public again -Silent watchers? When the cameraman was questioned as to why he was not trying to save the girls from the attacks all he says is 'this has been happening regularly in Mangalore. I wanted the rest of India to realize what was happening'. Does that mean you allow a girl to be attacked in cruel ways?
Do I need any more incidents to explain the apathy in India?

Things that make me restless in this regard-
 a) What social security means to Indians when they very well know that the police is lax when it comes to offenders?
 b) In the first place, when are we going to realize that silent protest does not work in all situations?
 c) How can people stand the sight of someone being attacked brutally? Why do they have to form a crowd of silent watchers? I am saying 'Move away from the god damn place!'. If none can muster the courage to fight lawlessness in front of them he/she does not have any right to stand and watch! This is not a public show!
 d) Speaking of police - Have they forgotten what is good/bad and right/wrong? I desperately want to see what police training involves.
 e) To whom should we seek help if we are in a crisis when corruption, laxity & lawlessness have infiltrated all levels of authority? Who will provide us social security?
                      India's situation now is similar to that of Gotham compounded so many times both in size and severity. I am skeptical if any League of Shadows would come to destroy India as we ourselves are self-sufficient to destroy ourselves. Not sure if it is bad governance or coward people or immoral journalists or useless social activists or a combination of all these but it is high time we had a Batman to save us!

Final Destination III

Second year and I was close to a popcorn,
When movies and strategic games
Should have suffused my desktop entirely
Playing the verbal and the quant game
The hat of responsibility that I adorned myself onerously.

Third year and I became a stupor,
When the feline infection was becoming malignant
Making me look old in the eyes of the infected 
I smelled salubrious air of company
And in my preparation, seriousness reflected.

Final year and I faced the stage,
Where to prove the hard work that was sufficient
The head or tail decision went against my wish
I lacked consistency and it was evident
Not to fret, a little payback I did relish.

Independence and the humbleness to learn,
No preparation and no wonders expected
Without having the effect gone was the infection
Back to third year but as a forlorn
Thrice now, will this be the final destination?



Meanings for clarity:

• "feline infection"         - CAT
• "head or tail decision" - Job or higher studies
• "payback"                    - Was able to pay the loans back

Conflicts of the Conscience

Great to be blogging again!

If at all I were to be asked 'Has there been any change in you/your life?', I would say yes.

I was in a life where going to classes/assignments/attending lab sessions/writing records/preparing for internals were the only things that mattered apart from the regular tackling I had to do in my home. Having come to a place where guessing the language of the state in which it is in is very difficult, I feel I have been pushed to handle responsibilities(though I am loving it), learn things the hard way(as always it has been) and most importantly, learn to walk alone(for the benefits of your own self). Yes, it is Bangalore! I have been asking 'do I miss Coimbatore in ways I can't compensate for in Bangalore?' to myself. The true answer is NO. It might sound strange hearing this from someone who has spent 12 years in Coimbatore. It was strange to myself! I had to figure out why i was so comfortable in Bangalore (or rather) why wasn't I uncomfortable in Bangalore. The reason is that I am living a life of less apprehension when compared to what I was in Coimbatore. Fear of failing my parents/fear of not living up to expectations/ lack of confidence over which people called me over-confident/ lack of clarity in what I want to do are a few of the fears I had been managing for those 12 years. It became difficult at a point where I locked myself inside the door and kept thinking of all these fears, sometimes with watery eyes. I have been able to overcome all these fears.

Though I would not say that I have got clarity in thoughts, I would definitely say that I am being more of myself in this busy city. I am living all those I-am-also-a-normal-guy-with-normal-wishes moments laughing out loud whenever possible (even in my workplace). I am opening up my mind. I am trying to help people around me. I cater to my selfish needs with a lot of caution. I try to save money. But, I am still doing the mistake of thinking beyond what I should be. I take things to my heart very easily. Bangalore is easily teaching me to live the corporate life. Is this the voice of a frustrated kid? I don't know. What do I want to do in my life? I don't know. Am I doing the right thing? I don't know. Overall, the conflicts still remain the same but the fear because of others is gone, though the fear arising from my uncertainty still remains. In short, conflicts of my conscience still persist.

Not many wishes for the coming year. I only hope I get a little more clarity. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! :)

Athirapally

I was having the impression that the WCTC vacation would go without visiting any place.Having shown my angry face on my friend on friday(18th June) evening for reasons I never knew(probably frustration for not going out anywhere much),I was convinced that this hols would go as boring as any other holidays.But,I was wrong.Moonar being the initial place for our visit,we ended up finalising on Athirapally falls(or Chalakudy falls as we knew initially!..It was later that we realised that both meant the same location) for our visit on Monday(21st June).

Referred to as the Niagara of India,the Athirapally Falls is situated 150kms from Coimbatore.

Coimbatore-Ukkadam check post-Valparai-Malakkiparai -Sholayar-Peringalkuthu Dam -Vazhachal-Athirapalli.

The roads were perfect till the start of the hilly region;called as the entry point to the falls.Reaching the entry point of Athirapally Falls,which was 34kms from the falls' view,the road was not so good for some 5 kms.After that we had a smooth ride.

The entire river was fenced.We stopped at a place where we found we could have access to river water beyond the fence through an opening in it.We played in the river for nearly 2 hrs.Water in the river was cold and we found it drinkable.

We continued our ride up the hill for some 20 min.Getting an entry ticket for the falls we reached to view the highest point of the falls.We could never go really nearer to the falls due to protective fencing.Frustration crept into us as we felt Rs.105( 5 per person for 6 of us and 25 per bike for 3 bikes)had gone waste.Thanks to my friend who saw the board "This way for a full view of the falls".We went down the hill and found ourselves awestruck!

A video of the Athirapally Falls taken by us :)

Then I knew why this place was preferred by many directors for shooting movies.Nature at its beauty!The river fell down the rocks as two sources of Waterfalls.Standing near the foot of the falls one could get drenched easily within seconds.The force with which it fell threw water drops all over us that even made taking snaps difficult.Down,the Chalakudy river branched into two(as you can see in the video) and in one of those river branches we had played.

P.S: *The song "Enna satham" from "Punnagai Mannan" was shot here.

*Director Maniratnam has a special fascination for this place.Raavanan was almost entirely shot here.Other movies as "DilSe","Guru","Iruvar" and "Kannathil Muthamittal" have songs shot here.

India is sinking!

Bhopal memorial for those killed and disabled by the 1984 toxic gas tragedy.

The hindi words on the wall read "Hang Anderson! ". I thought this was a perfect memorial.

"Keshub Mahindra, 6 others get 2-year jail for Bhopal tragedy"

All get bail by evening;verdict after 26 years; no mention of Warren Anderson.

Either things are beyond my head or apparently, India is sinking! I say this for a few reasons-

*"no mention of Warren Anderson"- Where did this Keshub Mahindra come from?? Even the memorial speaks of Warren Anderson! I feel like asking "How much money?"- yes! that is definitely what I feel. Just by making it to the front page, the apparent meaning was for people to understand how important this issue is! But beneath that, there lies another meaning..which I felt as.. "People! Please awaken yourselves!".

*"verdict after 26 years"- Of late, I have come to understand that Tamil cinema(no other industry i am aware of that much) has presented REALITY(Yeah, I definitely meant that Vijaykanth movie where he gives statistics of the number of cases pending!). This isn't delayed-thus-denied justice; this is just USELESS JUSTICE.

*"All get bail by evening" - this sounded like, 'Mr. Mahindra, just make your presence in the district court.It is just a formality.Your are free to go in the evening.' (sounds better na?) - There is just no Justice in India.

*"2-year jail" - This case could have been left untouched instead of such a verdict.Even a criminal would have asked wtf??

If the Mumbai attacks( 26/11/2008) could get justice on 6th May, 2010( Kasab's death sentence), why can't the Bhopal Gas tragedy (1984) call for justice sooner?

Can only a city like Mumbai demand timely justice? Can't Bhopal?

A cry of 3000+ souls has been left unheard?

Can Justice go any worse?

Can people get corrupted any better?

Where is the country which had seen men like The Mahatma, heading towards?

Where is Anderson??

Many more questions are there to be answered.

I am just another Indian;I can only say.Let us hope.

Rate(out of 10) this verdict..Judge the Judgement! Drop in your rating as a comment.

JUST PASS in Operating Systems !

Prologue:

For those who really think Operating Systems is just a paper in an engineering course, it has something to do with BaLa :-O . IT HAS TAKEN THE HELL OUT OF ME! What with the 5th semester holidays getting over, my entry into the 6th was just like 'Ah! just another semester.' Given the elective options in the 5th semester, O.S and RDMS were the electives that were opted by many. And I took Embedded Systems(Very easily identified as The Colour Sensor thing! :P ) and O.S.

The Crime Scene:

Into the 3rd internals and 6 subjects done, I was there in front of The Godfather Of O.S- Mr.John Tony. He taught me with real should-teach-them-with-dedication attitude and I was like feeling really light after the enlightenment. Back home, I remember studying! But, the other day in the internal exam I found myself sneaky enough to hide the Bit Paper/Mal Practise material/Evidence-that-was-supposed-to-prove-me-guilty-of-my-crime or whatever it is called. Having successfully committed The Crime Of Copying any person with a mind would have discarded it but Mr. Mindless(yours truly) had it beneath his answer sheet with his mind trying to THINK (How genuine na? ) of the next question! After minutes of thinking, I could only remember someone pulling out that material and asking 'what is this??'. With an Oh!-s***-I-just-got-caught face I gingerly gave those silly replies and found myself storming out of the exam hall handing the paper(actually, it was snatched from me!) to The Lady(she wanted to teach me a lesson saying 'what would happen to PSG standards if I leave you?' Look at who is speaking of it! ) and I was there inside the HoD cabin.

Aftermath and a lot:

I spoke,pleaded,begged,wept and tell you what? She(the HoD) never felt sympathetic! Expecting sympathy after having indulged oneself in malpractice in ECE Dept of PSG Tech is like C'est impossible. The issue went to CoE(Controller of Examinations). I had to bring my parents to college to speak with the HoD.

The enquiry day and I told all my hooked-up stuff of what had happened? Kept my fingers crossed until the results were out. All were praying 'I should pass' , 'I should get a 9 in Microwave',' Wish I get a 10 in STC(Statistical Theory of Communication).

My prayer was 'My results should get displayed!'

Result Day:

Result day, and I had to wait for nearly 1 hour and 20 minutes and the wait was worthy!

5E in Operating Systems(this will be the last time I use this word! ) and it meant my internal marks had totally been scrapped off! This gave me a SGPA(Semester GPA) of 8.59 and I could still maintain a CGPA(Cumulative) of 9.19. Thanks to my previous CGPA of 9.32.

That's the story of 'JUST PASS in Operating Systems' :)