The Recap continues...this time of the decade

This has been the most satisfying day of the year. As an obedient daughter and a prospective bahu, I have done it all today. Right from cooking to washing and cleaning, I have done it all. Whenever Amma visits hometown she normally prepares me everything, even for the dinner, but today she wasn't well and hence no other go. But even when I did all these, I did find time to see The National treasure 2 for the zillionth time. Actually, I must have watched it everytime it's played on TV. And I'm secretly happy as I found out I can sneak time for movies even after marriage. Infact I'm sure I'll find time for everything while he does my chores.

So, coming back to the recap thing. Its the decade end. Is it 2009 or 2010 the decade end? I'm not sure how it goes. But then you don't call the '70 the end of 60s. Going by that logic, 2009 is surely the end of the decade. Even during the millenium time, there was a total confusion. Anyways me and my then bestfriend, we conveniently made 2000 the millenium and exchanged cards and gifts. So this post is about the decade. The past decade at a glance. I mean my past decade.

2000 :- Can't really remember anything except for the Y2K fuss. Around this time I started writing diary. Must tell you, I really love my first diary. It was really funky. I used to cut colored papers in different shapes and paste in on my diary. Made one of my classmates a rakhi brother. Call it a bad decision! I'll say very bad. After that we talked less. I say, such formalities are not-so convenient to me.

2001 :- My 10th. Loads of pressure. But still I managed to score not-so-bad marks. Rift in my 6 year long friendship. So much bitching around. It was like tit for tat. I never regretted it then, may be now, sometimes. This was also the time of decision making. I so wanted to take up Commerce but had to take yucky Science and not so bad Mathematics (no offense to Science lovers) because of my father.

2002 :- This was the baddest year of studies (then I hadn't foreseen that more worser years were yet to come). I still remember the 55 marks I scored in Maths. As far the bitching in our friendship...it went on and on. We stopped talking to each other. Had different friend circles.

2003 :- I wanted to announce ceasefire with my first bestfriend. So one miss-you card and we were fine. Following the catastrophe at 12th grades, I promptly got admitted into an Engg college. The nearest one to our home. Walking was the only option as I was too afraid to drive a scooty. I lost kgs in quick pace. New friends and new enviro. Although at first, I thought school was much more fun but slowly realised it was otherwise.

2004 :- Slowly I realised I'm so gonna make mess of my studies. Maybe I never had the Engineer material in me. 1st year and 3rd semester completely explained my inability. Friends started to feel I'm no-innocent girl eventhough my face has written INNOCENCE (Yes, in CAPS) all over it. Me, Poo and SR had the job of educating fellow classmates, raising their frequency levels. While I was successful with my entire group, all 3 of us couldn't do anything with Soumi and Aanakutty. And yep, I was a part of a gang. If you put the first letters of our names together it reads PSSS.

2005 :- Amongst my usual pathetic semester results, I had one 75% after the improvement exams. I was overthrilled. I decided to write all the improvement exams. Bad decision again. I scored not even 1 mark as improvement after that.

2006 :- Ok, you're gonna so so laugh at it. It was the election year. And I was super-excited about it. Because 1. it was the first I'm going to vote 2. V.S. Achuthanandan was the candidate.(For those who don't know, he is the CM of Kerala and is considered to be one of the better politicians of the state). So I bought myself a new dress on the election day. Friends call it the election dress. The same year we went to tour. Post the trip, pairs changed, friends changed and our gang decided not to go to tours anymore.

2007 :- There was an IV (Industrial Visit). Time for another of my dress. And friends called it the IV dress (obviously). End of college times. But I realised I had made a one precious thing out of college life. Friendship for a lifetime. Me and OG. We don't like pretentions of calling each other and reporting everything to each other. It was all good and I was happy. By the end of the year I joined the company. Horrific times of training. But I enjoyed stay away from home. Hyderabad, I love the place.

2008 :- I would call it the year of friendship. I saw all of it. From the making to the breaking of it. Laid back comfortably in the Bench, I realised the value of friendship. And that I have so many whom I can rely on at any time of the day. Blore, AM, Lallu, Koratty, Ramettan, Pookutty, Pattar, Tuttudu, Eldhose. I was happy to confide my secrets, wishes, aspirations to all of them. The blunder of the year has to be the Govt. job I rejected because I felt so comfy with my IT job. Shifting to Bangalore wasn't easy but I got used to it.

2009 :- The year that saw all. I had briefed it earlier. So nothing more.

2009 : A Recap

Year end is my most favorite part of the year. Coz it's this time when almost all the channels and newspapers review the year's happenings and I get to learn the events I missed out. And the most interesting part, they also review the films of the year. Somehow, all are fun.

2009: My Life
Jan-June was the perfect half of the year. I had loads of money eventhough I spend less. (Believe me, I am last kind of spendthrift you want to meet). Had lots of fun. Writing many bank tests, never clearing one. Shuttling between Bangalore and Palakkad for t-interviews. Forum was a perfect locale for t-intrvws, hanging out, movies etc etc. Everytime when we used to go to Forum and see very cute guys I used to wonder, "why is that no good looking guys come for my t-intrvw". Somehow I always used to land up with someone who has height issues or be not my type (as in looks). May be marriage wasn't my cup of tea, I thought. I haven't seen any other girl working so hard to get married. But only one thing kept me on- There's only one life and as far as I'm concerned I'm not going to marry twice, so the decision has to be a full-hearted one, something I won't regret later.
July-Dec, I knew what was it like to be jobless again. My new arena was CAT. Meow. While I was getting coached, there was parallel search for a spouse. And it all ended in September. And it was all sudden. Got engaged in Oct. After that it has been a monotony of exams. But it was during this year I lost a person close to my heart. My Grandma. It was a wednesday when she left us. And the wednesday previous to that was the day when I visited her. Even when I was sitting in the bus after hearing the news, I imagined that when I reach there, she will be there to greet me as always. You haven't gone Ammamma, you are there in my heart and my thoughts and you'll always be there.

2009: The world around me
Every article I read about the calendar events of 2009 had a significant portion for Obama. WTF. Its ok to say he got elected as the 44th President of the US of A, but then you can't comfortably forget the Manmohan Singh Govt. was re-elected in April. I just have to remind these guys that Obama is the Pres of USA not of the world. Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize. What for? For having "Change" as his Campaign tag. The nominations for Nobels are done in Feb and I can't stop wondering what this guy did for the one month he was in the post which earned him the nomination. May be I should also get a Nobel, I have been running a frigging blog for over a year now!
Berlin wall's 20th anniversary. Do anyone care eventhough everyone knows that the wall is still erect in the minds of Germans. Asterix became 50. So did Kamal Hasan (50 years in Cinema). I kinda started admiring him a lot these days.
This year saw a lot of deaths. Michael Jackson passed away. I still remember the way I sat for hours infront of the TV not believing he died. The void created by his death would never be filled. Great actor like Nagesh and so many veterans of Malayalam film industry passed away. The death of YSR also shocked me. During the two-day search operation, I was hoping the search squad would find him alive.
Indian cricket is all being prasied for their top spot in test cricket. I still can't understand what the fuss is all about. There are only 10 countries which play cricket and you're making a big deal of it. F**k. Roger Federer earned his 15th Grandslam (Whatever!). All I'm missing is Rafael Nadal's magic in the clay court.
Copenhagen summit was the top-flop of the year. Hundreds of dignitaries landed in the city for the summit in their separate jets, which naturally added to the pollution level. No legal binding and kill Kyoto was the main agenda which most of the countries totally agreed on. India said it would reduce some pollution level by 20% and wouldn't allow any supervision of any sorts. US in return showed some old stats and said it would also reduce the levels. When the mathematicians calculated the stats later, they found that the Americans had proposed a 4% reduction while they actually had to reduce 40%. Funny, Copenhagen also had groupism. Many countries had secret meetings on the final days. Now we have a BASIC four- Brazil , South Africa, India and China. Next year you can expect some fantastic five, sagacious six too.
Ajmal Kasab has learned the tactics now. He's now playing with Indian Judiciary. He says he hasn't ever seen an AK47 in his life. "Thanks, yaar. We know it was your ghost who posed the CCTVs with an AK47. "

This is not the end of the recap...the flashback will continue.

A snippet from my previous blog

First things first. Happy Christmas everyone. Hope you had a great day. And let the spirit of Christmas prevail all through the coming year. Hope everyone had their share of cake and wine today. Btw, I must tell you one thing. Wine has the highest alcohol content amongst all beverages. So all those who say "I'll just have wine", beware. Anyways, my Christmas, as usual, has been a total boredom, except for the movies on TV and the cake we bought a day earlier. But I still maintained a good spirit of wishing all my friends through my status updates in Facebook and Orkut.

Upon public demand (truce - 2 persons, 1. Obamamol and 2. a guy from Indiblogger), I have decided to change the template of this blog. I was convinced by one very simple template when Pattar told me that he didn't like it. So I'm in search for another. I am hoping to introduce the new template by my first post in the new year. But the problem with searching for a template online is that I can't think beyond the Trebuchet MS font and the POST part should be more wider than the usual ones we get online. Plus I'm too terrible at HTML to make the necessary changes.

And because I had no courage to experiment anything with this blog, I chose my previous blog as the scapegoat. Its only then I found some of my scribblings unpublished. And publishing something, for me, is a one big ritual. Just like a father doing his daughter's kanyadaan. Once you've done, you'll feel like the biggest headache of your life has gone. (Just kidding!!!).

I landed on this draft which had no titles and I couldn't believe I was the one who wrote it. Of course, the verses which start the post is of a very famous song and I don't mean to violate anyone's copyright issue. But it sounded so much philosophical. So..o not me(atleast the current me). It was an unfinished post and I don't think I could replicate the same emotion I had that day to complete it now. It was about a popular show called The Wonder Years (this draft dates back to december 2007 when I was high on my fanship for The Wonder Years )and my friendship during school days. I am putting it down just as it was on my dashboard. So, here it goes...

"What would you do if I sang out of tune

Would you stand up and walk out on me

Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song

And I'll try not to sing out of key"

It wasn't ringo star who wanted to sing "with a little help" from his friends, it was Joe Cocker. But what happened next was wondering for years and years. It was the "THE WONDER YEARS". The Wonder Years, a gentle, nostalgic look at Baby Boom youth and adolescence, told stories from the point of view of Kevin Arnold. Kevin recalls all those 20 years after the incidents happened. He has a lot to tell about pretty much everything he did at school, he did with friends...beit the poker games with his friends or his crush for Winnie Cooper...the list is too long to be jotted down.

What really amaze me is that while Kevin has a lot to talk about, I don't think I have much to wonder about my school days or my friends there. Am I the only person like this...I guess, there is a whole bunch out there who feel the same way as I do.Well.. everyone say that at school, there is less of politics in your relationships or friendships but from what I recollect, College was far better.

Making friends may be a difficult thing but maintaining the same rapport for a longer duration with the obvious highs and lows of our lives is much more difficult. In the course if it breaks, you start off the blame game and would never admit your wrong doings. But from a relationship that was 6 years long, I learned that it is easy to give up your attitude...........

Oh-k. That was it. I won't bother you more with these old stuffs. But I coudn't help myself with this one. Anyways, I will be coming with more meaningless craps before we wrap up the year. Cheers again.

P.S. :- I tried a lot formatting for the snippet but failed and hence the color change. That was the only feasible measure I found out.

Drawing Hall memories

Post JMET (for non-MBA aspirants lemme tell you that this is a competitive exam conducted by the IITs for their PGDM course and only Engineering graduates can apply. Eventhough, it narrows down the number of aspirants, I'm still skeptical of my capabilities both as an Engineer and an MBA-aspirant), where I was allotted into a drawing hall to write the exam, I have been trying to recollect all my memories related to Drawing Hall. Since I have not been into many colleges (colleges where I write exams don't count in here coz who's got the time to explore the college then! ), I really don't know if non-engg colleges have a drawing hall, but we at NSS proudly had 4 big drawing halls(read now onwards as DH). Being Electricals, we normally had our drawing class (it sounds funny, still reminds me of the drawing class at school) at D1 and D2.









The very first competitive exam I wrote was the AIEEE at some engineering college in Cbe itself. It was then that I came to know the existence of DH. I, being a mere 5' 1", had to literally climb to sit on what looked like a KBC hot seat. And there it was a big board, which was mounted horizontally on a four-legged stand. Even when I was having a horrendous time writing the test, I couldn't help wondering what was the actual purpose of such a large board for an Engr. Silly me, I know. Honestly, then I never knew who an engr was except for a civil engineer.

The next encounter was of course the graphics classes of the first year. Must say, carrying that mini-drafter to college was more than a proud moment. The fact that I was the first ever engg student of our colony only added to my pride. Lets push aside the fact that our colony was just old as me with only 2 or 3 buddies who were elder to me. Anyways, thanks to Suresh Sir, who took the fundamentals of graphics with such fine detail that it created a strong basic of drawing amongst all of us. At the first look, Suresh Sir was a true mech, good-looking, the only problem being his height. Most of the girls equalled him. But any thought of mouthlooking him was trashed into the bin when I saw him smoke in the campus.(Btw I really hate guys who smoke, aleast those who smoke in my presence). By the middle of the academic year, we got a new lecturer but his classes weren't as impressive as Suresh Sir's class. Eventhough we first laughed on the fact that our new lecturer was doing M.Tech at IIT and he had arrears on graphics itself, but then as they say, you learn more of a subject when you have arrears of the same. Guess what, that's why I learned nothing through out my 4 years of Engg.

Besides D1-D2 posing only as drawing halls, it was the favourite examination halls of many teachers and many students. The boards are so far placed that there's very little chance for the students to pass the answer sheet without being caught. But somehow many of the boys still managed to pass the sheets and copy while I never managed to do that. The only thing we frigging creatures would do was to write notes on the drawing boards. Sometimes you had to carry razor to clear off some parts of the board because they had been written on by many amaeturs before you. No wonder, we always used to turn up early for the exam at a DH.

DH was also a favorite venue for many celebrations. Christmas celebrations in particular. Well, I don't have any good memories of having a Christmas friend. The first time it was a north-eastern guy, who gave a card and chocolates, fair enough. But the next time, Velli gave me 1 kg rice and some vegetables only because they saw me buying vegetables from a shop and carrying that back home! Well the only reason why I never saw them doing the same is that they were all hostlers and I was a day-sche. But must say, the guys who brought me that rice would really suck at cooking. It was the worst rice I ever tasted so much so that Amma (who is infamous for her non-humorous nature) commented that they would've got the rice directly from FCI. Lol.
(Ok Velli, here is my revenge. The word "Velli" is used by musicians for the awkward sound thats gets out of your throat when you sing improperly. More appropriately, he was named so because it takes a lot of time for things to Click for him. And then he was "doubter" of our class. I still donno how he used to come up with doubts on utterly boring lectures too).

While the lovers of our campus had some favorite places like the Banyan tree near the bus bay and our Sania Mirza tree, D1-D2 was also a very cozy place for them. Many such lovers have been caught red-handed. Well it happens in every college, I guess.

Our college, it was more of a sanctuary. Cows, goats, dogs, puppies were all part of the campus. Sometimes you literally had to give way for them. When you're in a Govt college, all these come as a bonus, you know.

The CATastrophe And The Coimbatore Visit

Everytime I visit Cbe(Coimbatore), I fall in love with the place again.( My love for Chennai and Tamil, which I never deny, had forced my friends to call me Pandi. But that's ok. ) It's more than just the people and the place. The fm radio that is played in every transport bus. The long wider roads- the buses still charging a minimum charge of Rs.2. The conductor who would take the correct change from Achan's hand and put back the money directly into Achan's pocket when they come to know about my father's illness. Even the ladies get up and give their seat to Achan. The first course of the rice meals, when they pour daal and ghee . The filter coffee. I just can't resist anything that Cbe has to offer.


But this time it was not just any exam. It was CAT. It should have been a good one, considering the fact that I dedicated 3 months completely to its coaching. To the extend that it changed my vocab. Maths became Quants. English became Verbal. Aptitude got split into data sufficiency and data interpretation. But then bigger things happened. I getting a "he" to refer to. The engagement. The late night phone calls. And missing him when he's off sailing. Quite a big reason to flunk it. But not for Achan. He always wants to see me buried in books. At times, I do get buried into books-but those are by Sydney Sheldon, Jeffery Archer :P.


The week was really a busy one. 22nd I had SBI test, then on 29th I had BHEL for which I had gone all the way to Bangalore(details in another post). I came back on 30th morning. The very next day it was CAT. Again I had to get up early. At 4 am. Actually, after all these exams, I have quite got used to getting up early. Rushed to station. Boarded the train and got down at Podanur station at 7. We found that there was only one small hotel opened at that time and I was dying for a breakfast . After having breakfast from there, while we were walking towards the bus-stop, Achan told me that this was the only hotel near the railway station and that Rajagopalan Sir( Sir has always been a mentor of my father), as a child always used to have food from this hotel. He continued this practice even when he became the Sr. DME of the Palakkad Division.


When I had the first glance of Srikrishna College, I thought it was an apartment or something. It looked so neat, even the girls' hostel. At the exam hall, we were inducted by 7.30 (two and a half hours prior to the exam). Even wrist-watch wasn't allowed inside the hall. The wallets were also taken away. And I thought, if you had taken a little more effort on real-time testing of CAT, instead of such gibberish security concerns, we wouldn't have our media celebrating CAT as a catastrophe. Btw, I loved the usage of Catastrophe. And then, inside the hall, we weren't allowed to utter a word. In the next 2 hours, these are the different things I tried
1. read and re-read the instructions (atleast 5 times)
2. played with my pancard
3. sleep. (but then I woke up when I realised that I was about to dream some stupid things)
4. drew flowers, plants and wrote my name in 100 different ways in the scrap booklet
5. (this is my favourite)...wrote hindi songs in Hindi first and then in English
I saw some fellow exammates doing the same.Yawning is a contagious disease. You yawn at a person and the next moment, you see him yawning too. It's so much contagious that even when I'm writing this, I yawned twice. I saw one girl flipping through her passport desperate to find a page that has not been read earlier. Really desperate!


But waiting for such a long duration wasn't helping me. My "tank" was getting filled and peeing had become a matter of urgency. I don't remember myself writing an exam without having the pee tendency. Right after the exam, I would always rush to the loo. I call it the PEE PRESSURE. Then I saw many exammates going to the loo accompanied by the volunteers. Humme tab bhi akele nahi chodoge? Whatever! I too went to the loo. Still it was no different, I again had to go to the loo after the exam. The exam was any day better than the mock CATs. In terms of the content, it was a way lot easier. But then, Verbal was too difficult for me. I have no hopes to clear the cut-offs. Anyways, still there's a sense of satisfaction, of having able to attempt a few questions convincingly.

We then went to the Coimbatore town, had lunch and then went to a market to buy some vegetables. Infact, I have started to think of doing regular visits to Cbe for the same. It just costs Rs 9 by train. And if you could get fresh vegetables, it's worth the money you spend. The next 2 hours I spend listening to Radio City, Suryan FM, Radio Mirchi in the train before it started from the station. And there I'm, back to Pkd. But I'm not going to miss Cbe. Atleast not for the next few weeks. The next two sundays have been booked for, surprise surprise, exams in Cbe itself.

P.S. :- With the high prices of vegetables, my pure veggie stand is at stake. Amma is strongly thinking of buying fish everyday. It was last June that I celebrated my first anniversary of Vegetarianism. Somehow, it makes me feel proud of myself. This is something were I have total control of myself.