SOM Batch of 2007

My only class foto till date after schooling and engg. somehow.

so i guess i wanted this one pretty badly.

Okay some more fotos at close ranges -

This one is an uglier shot in the sense that it is not shot centrally. atleast faces r visible a bit more. the prev one ws shot beautifully but at a distance. the background was decent but faces were hardly visible!










kulveer this one is for u. u r in full size;)

Big is beautiful....??

I dont know. Some say small is beautiful.

When we put in the indian context ( govt....in particular), i come back to the former. heres why....

1. take todays paper. the supreme court report on the " unconstitutionality" of the dissolution of the bihar assembly was of 450 pages. When asked why congress was yet to take action against the governer, The home minister says, he has just finished reading 275 pages. he cud not read the rest due to " other " engagements. hows that?

even the telgi scam report ( or charge sheet) weighed over 1500 pages. n so many others.

i guess how much can people write?

2. my appointment order from ONGC ( in 2003) with all details ( i mean all...............it was one long list) went upto 35 to 40 pages. and i finally never read more than 4-5 pages i guess ( n din join there either). in gen these orders come upto max of ten pages.

3. my b.tech project report including all irrelevant useless data ( the most part of the report) only made up to 35 pages. my batch mates seemed to have the knack of filling 150 pages of tripe. n it sure looked impressive than ours....

4. all these board exams operate on this gravitational effect F = Mg. more the 'M' factor the more marks u get. in univ exams, i struggled to get past the initial booklet of 22 pages . occasionally i did take upto 3 extra sheets. and my classmates end up with 65 pages ( that is nearly 12 xtra sheets ( whopping). n these ppl score more than me eventually me. :O

i dont understand this funda.

why all this big? to think n dream big is okay. but how big n in wat kind????

The Phd thesis of John Nash ( remember beautiful mind)was only 25 pages. why do ppl here r obsessed with " big" reports n stuff. ( strangely so is the population scene in india;)

if only someone has an answer..........

Change of my blog address

Owing to local demand (from tamils here), I have decided to change my blog address from

http://ara-aca.blogspot.com
to
http://lottu-losukku.blogspot.com

The new address will become operational by the coming monday, the 30th of Jan.

Thanks and regards to all.

Aravindan Krishnan

Where You wanted to be

Actually its the reverse.

I had just gotten hold of the lyrics of a 'Darren Hayes' Song , i never actually heard till date! (i m still hunting for the same)

The title of the post is the song i m talking abt. guess the lyrics really stuck me.

and if anybody has / gets this song, pls do lemme know!

and heres how the lyrics go----

Hey there stranger
Do you remember?
You were a part of my life
Early December
Think I remember?
Sentiment cuts like a knife
The seasons are changing
Life's rearranging
Full of good times
Would have beens
Its all your fault
And whereve you been
And how time goes
And though I dont even know
How to fill in the spaces
of the love youve erased in my life

Are you where you wanted to be?
Did you get there easily?
Did I make you sacrifice?
Did you make a sharp left
When you should have turned right?
Are you where you wanted to be?
Did you sell off all your gold
Did you trade it in?
Did you wait for love
Or settle for somebody to hold?

And barely symphonic
But strangely ironic
Moments contained in one glance
Oh how i adored you
But now im ignored by you
Nowhere a tint of romance
And now its vaguely familiar
i think i remember sharing every single intimacy
It doesnt seem so strange to me that we barely entertained
Even the politest of phrases
But sometimes at night
I conjure you up in my mind

Are you where you wanted to be?
Did you get there easily?
Did i make a sharp left
When you should have turned right?
Are you whereyou wanted to be?
Did you sell off all your gold
Did you trade it in?
Did you wait for love
Or settle for somebody to hold?

While I was busy
Perfecting the art
Of deflecting compliments
I took it too far
And i let a ripple run right through my heart
Of battle stations we're building
You and i just grew apart
We grew apart

While i decided
To make everyone else happy
i just put aside
My foolish pride
I guess I denied
My own desire
I was too busy pleasing
To ever be pleased
I forgot how to breathe
Or question anything
Or ask why?
Am I?

Am I where I wanted to be?
Did i get here easily?
Did I make a sacrifice?
Did I take a sharp left
When i should have turned right?
Am I where i wanted to be?
Can i sell off all of my gold?
Can I trade it in?
Will I wait for Love
Or settle for somebody to hold

I'd settle for somebody to hold now

You know that ive been up and ive been down
ive been picked up and spun around
id do it all again
if i could just have somebody to hold now
I just need somebody to hold now
Could somebody hold me now?
I just want somebody to hold me now
I'd do it all again

from his album " Tension and the Spark" (2004)

Some dilemma

I was feeling down for the past few days....

i knew the pressure was getting to me. it was one of those times i had to make those crucial decisions. i know it is not unusual . for anyone to make such decisions in some part(s) of their life. but the Q was why i shd have been in a such a wrangle.

anyway....

it was one Early saturday morning when i woke up. 11 AM.

With eyes half opened, i managed to grab a toothpaste and a brush and made my way to the wash basin. as i started my job (of brushing) suddenly sth seemed to hit me ( not physically). i meant a thought hit me. on observing my face on the mirror.

what i saw might not be sth totally surprising. but it was still was kind of . atleast for me.

what did i see?

A single little white hair in my moustache.

but, i had no such white thing in my beard. and this little one seemed to disturb me. by waking me upto reality. reminding me that," boss, ur time is running out, and it wont be too long when u step out of college, u will be left with one black hair and none more"

i retired back to my room with a heavy heart. thinking abt this deeply. and i shared this misery
to my friends. dint get any solace though.

A day or two passed. certain flash backs started playing.
One month back:-

I usually have a clean shaven face. and I decided to give this one a try. a french beard. after all only in college can u experiment things. nobody cares how u look. and even if they, u need not care a damn for that. once u get into corporate life, u cant fool around with ur looks. u start living for others. worrying abt stupid things and all. and they attach a term. corporate dignity. or some such crap. so i decided to consciously pursue this decision. NOW.

i knew the kind of protest it wd instigate back at madras. running the risk of my father disowning me. and paati ( my fav) wd be pained. at such (stupid)antics. anyway i had decided to take the plunge.

and i did.

and one night i had gotten sleep way too early. 11pm. all of a sudden one friend appeared from nowhere. i just sat up half awake. without a warning, he took out of his mobile camera, took a foto of my sleepy face, with this french beard. well. i thought. i might as well mail this home. to paati and appa. let them see how it looks now itself. maybe when i reach home, they might get accustomed to my face with 'that'.

the mail did not recieve an encouraging response. however sudha chithi did call up and warned me against removing this french beard. and i did not refuse.

landed up at home. few days later. grand welcome ofcourse from appa, amma and paati on my arrival.

next morning.

the ' discussion' started as i was browsing this indian express.

appa and paati started off in unison.

that they were deeply 'grieved'. at this 'incident' .

what???? grieved??????

and u call this " incident" ????

after much of parrying, i got away with their compulsions. mostly all chithis approved of this french thing. and some chithappas. amma din like it too. but she does not opine much in these things.

this tamashaa continued for ten days. then thot, i just wanted an opinion on this. and got it from all quarters. so remaining three days, i shd keep appa and paati happy as well. so got back to my original clean look. yeah. it generated animated expressions in their faces.

and they said " ippo thaan daa u r true iyengar".

wait. i was the first among 'perans' in my whole family to complete upanayanam. and even " samaashanam" along side previous generation. to get into the league of " Sri Vaishnava". I dont understand these jargons. . atleast for namesake, i can mention these. and how come i become this " true iyengar" all of a sudden. after these many years of service. anyway.

son enough i was finally back to hostel.

Back to Original Time now: ( and that dilemma)

two days after things seemed to change.

actually kind of started loving that lil white thing. after all not every one gets a single white strand like this. i seemed to enjoy this. and took immense pride in it. and that " sami " thing was playing in the background.

again all 'gud' things come to end. i cud not afford to grow my beard any further. the irritating part is to provide explanations for not shaving. as though, i was doing a 'devdas'. so had to decide on shaving off the whole stuff ( as i either keep some beard or have a "mazha mazha look" ).

and it seemed to be hardest decision i was to take in life). the thought of losing my beloved 'white hair' was too much for me....ultimately, mind prevailed over heart.

i dunno if i have taken the right decision. ( all the while, i tried confirming with junta here whether that 'single' white strand wud appear again with the moustache)....

i only hope it does.

kaalamelaam kaathirupen ;)

What I have learnt from this management course........

well we ( i mean myself and this course) do have a serious problem? somewhere. somehow.

I haven't studied so less for engg even. and i cant even recall let alone relate what i am doin in here!!!! what exactly did i get to learn here?
well thats a tough Q ( just as i was asking amru, the other day, as to why we guys live at all)

What I have gotten however is self realisation ( not the 'nirvana' stuff)

I learnt quite a few things (abt myself and the system here) after gettin here. heres how they go ;)

1. I have a proverbial starting problem with scoring in the " first quiz/test " i take in a given year, sem or a term. u can say " First quiz" syndrome .okay it kind of started from school days. and the first test results in all three terms here have only accentuated my grief. a look at my 'first quiz' scorecards will show how one can score literally obscenely low marks. i know its tough to publish such stupid marks so openly. but i cant help it. As long as the end of the day is fine, who cares?
class 11 - 2/(25 or 50)....dont remember exactly ( and that too in math 'vectors' - and these biology studs thought vectors infect only bodies) ;
college first yr univ - 67 pc ( amidst all that second jee attempt hungama)
first term here - 14/25
second term here - 1.5/5 ( started OR on a shaky ground)
this third term however has been path breaking - 1.5/9 (ops - damn this overconfidence) . whats worse, was expecting to get a negative score with negative marking scheme being applied. somehow ended on a positive note....err....i mean a positive score.

The truth however is, GOD pulls me up from such abysmal levels to some degree of respectability, in the tests to follow thus saving the day for me.

2. I have become a sort of expert in this word game- cow/bulls -( some ppl call it Black/White in madras). and I have Amru and sujay to lock horns with. and classrooms are the only places we play this game. cant afford to waste time in the hostel. where we have other modes of recreation. It is a word game where one guy will think of some 4 letter word. the other guy has eight chances. he must guess 4 letter words. if the letters in the original word is in same position as in the suggested word, we mark 1/2/3/4 cows ( or whites)/ if the letters in the original word is present in a different position in the suggested word, we mark 1/2/3/4 bulls ( or blacks). and then logicise the position of the 4 letters and find the word. our notebooks are littered with uncountable 4 letter words.( its really amazing to understand how many 4 letter words have been created by man). we are curently contemplating reducing the number of guesses to 6. and it is our earnest endeavour to spread this culture through out the class. ( we have deal with the stationary shop, that this word game really necessitates purchase of rough books....cant reveal the commission though)

3. I can handle Antakshari, in hindi as well. amrutaunshu gives company as ever. he has a gud voice, i shd admit. and yeah it happens in classrooms only. when too much of discussion happens ( most of it pretty useless, i am sure), one can afford to sing a bit louder. the voice is drowned in the din. yeah now and then there are obstacles, with surprise Qs, being shooted ( and for which we have no answers) . But i know we can still do it. What amru?

4. I am much more worse at music composing than I thought. My first attempt was not much of a hit. blame it on the staid rythm tracks of this synthesiser. and add to it , the absence of drumpad ( to get that human touch) and the recording quality( straight from keyboard to comp). With Kiran getting his electric guitar in place and hoping rohit to bring his tabla soon enough and amrutaunshu to contribute to this 'stuff' with his classical knowledge , i am sure we gonna go places.

5. I have this insatiable appetite for sleep. I sleep 10 hrs in a working week. and 12-14 hrs in the weekend. atleast if not sleeping, just lying in bed, dreaming of things i know i cannot accomplish (like music composing for instance). ( and we hear B-schoolers sleep for 4 hrs a day and other rotten stuff, well atleast i dont do. neither do my batch mates afaik). actually i misunderstood it. seniors told me they sleep for 4 hrs in a day. i realised pretty late that we actually had classes for 4 hrs a day. and it is this 4 hrs they were talking abt ;)

6. people dont respect frankness. We had a comm skills presentation. had to present on our passion. I ws the last to present. that after 4 hrs. class was almost dead. and when i started mine and told them that my passion was kids and ultimate happiness was in being a good father, the class burst into laughter. ( and even after confirming that i was a bachelor as on date, I didn't recieve any application for the same!!!!). pity them how do they know the difficulty of parenting................yeah....atleast i got decent grades for my presentation.

7. The first comers to the class always fight for the last benches. and whats worse, its not the work ex guys who do it, its these so called 'enthused' freshies.......

8. We all guys here, fully believe, in the infallibility of yahoo polls, as the custodian of free and fair demo'crazy' in making any decision that involves the interests of the whole class. we have different reasons for conducting such polls. like whether exams shd be open book or not, grps shd be random or self made. ( for eg, one such stupid decision made me mug 650 slides for a single paper,that too in a dry subject like MIS). Recently the class think tank (headed by me) is discussing on a framework for identfying the scope of this yahoo poll thingy. It is expected to extend this yahoo polling to crucial decisions like how much time we shd ask prof for breaking in between sessions, how much shd the topper score to make RG less painful for others ( by keeping the std deviation lower) , how many students at most can sleep in the same session, whether we shd come to class, fully prepared with the cases that are to be discussed by prof in the next class and many more..............

9. Taking the cue from my lil cousin sis pooja, i have also started this carrying out conversations thro rough book scrapping....in sessions that have no takeaways, only getaways actually......see what 7 yearolds can teach u....

10. We have more fun things to do in class than just sleeping the time away ( and whats more, we also perform 'value added services' like waking up ppl after class, that too free of cost)

11 . and If i gotta survive this term ( the most painful so far), I gotta stop this blog NOW.

Tata

I call this Mu'sick' -

" Kanda Naal Muthalaai kaathal peruguthadi....kaiyinil vela piditha karunai siva baalanai....."

A few disclaimers before i proceed further. I am not a music critic. I have no grt music knowledge as such. But I have the locus standi of being an ardent music fan. So i guess i have all the moral rights to spell out my take on music, the contemporary style.

Whats with the music composers these days.....? Is it a dire shortage of creativity or the prospect of unearthing obscene money in this film industry ? The film industry itself, btw,is, of late, redefining its boundaries, at a tremendous pace. Why the quality of music is never quite the same like it was a few decades back or say atleast a decade back. This is regarding both tamil as well as hindi music ( I will talk abt hindi later on).

Before we get to provide a critical analysis of contemporary music, we shd stop to think how music is being redefined, in terms of its focus, since last 50 years.
and Music as everybody knows is an eclectic mixture of vocal and instrumental components, institutionalised, into a soulful rendition of the intangible inner voice .

Early days, music was a support function in the film industry ( it still is, but still major changes have happened). That was the Tyaagaraaja Bhaagavathar era. There ws not much of instrumental component happening. focus was totally on content of song in a simple style.

Then came our M.S.Viswanathan era. The instrumental component was still relatively low profile. but this era saw the effect of english jazz, pop etc finding its way. Still the songs were focussed on lyrics and vocal while the instrumental part was a perfect foil to the vocal rendition. I wd say the best ever songs ( from my viewpoint) came from this era.

Then came the IllayaRajaa era. now this era is again divided into two distinct phases. The first phases was a painless transition of the MSV music style based on more vocal components into a partial instrumental commitment. There ws more use of the tabla, flute, strings etc. Then with more ' competitors' the focus was to absorb and appreciate the role that instrumental component had to play. The music industry was on the threshold of witnessing an enormous change now. The pros were the new developments in sound technology resulting in a better transmission of vocal and instumental outputs.

Then ofcourse came A.R.R. Instrument suddenly became the king. The songs were now more closely treading the carnatic path and ofcourse others were there too. But music was heavily instrumentalised.

now there are different players. Not much to talk abt them.
In all these eras , i have had fav songs. so it is not like i advocate a particular era.
Now the problem lies with the practice of using technology substituting it for human creativity. I do love techno music but not when they manifest as noise signals without the human element in them.

run a track. start mixing music with it. this is hardly the way music as started by man, with his brain-mind interconnection envisaged itself.
most often, the spirit of a song gets lost in the music that engulfes it. and there are thousands of sounds operating in absolute incoherence that u cant understand whats happening. I call this robotic music. the only difference between human and robots is humans can feel and think for themselves. we are tring to logicise the musical exercise even though it is supposed to be an art!

next overt plagiarism.
keep downloading foriegn music and add a bit of masalaa to it. and u are done. the song becomes a chart buster. for heaven sake, dont write " music composed by....". instead mention "music adapted by"! that wd be more honest.

Remixes. The song i mentioned at the top ( kanda naal....)is a typical example. adding a supremely fast beat to what is a slow mellifluous song achieves what purpose. Just imagine if if u were to listen to a similar fast remix of Bombay Jayashree's Sarvam Brahma Mayam....u will go crazy. I also listen to remixes. i liked alaipaayuthey remix. but teh difference is the instrument sounds were light, more connecting to a bhajan / devotional song. ofcourse carnatic music buffs would ridicule even that. they have the right to do so.

Technically a remix of a carnatic song or a old song is like fast food. i prefer the term junk food when the stuff gets more ruthless (acc to me). nobody has time to compose. take a base. add a lot of ingredients to it. make sure it is spicy ( peppy in music terminology). while fast food hurts the stomach, remixes hurt the original composer. second it is ' covert' plagiarism. what is the fun in a taking an old song and adding technology to it and presenting it as oldwine in a new bottle? it may still require talent. but pls dont call that creativity for heaven sake.

finally i hate " dapaanguthu" or tapori songs! these have become a regular feature of films nowadays. for attracting masses. video and audio are in intense competition to decide which is the worst between them in illustration of such dapaanguthu songs.

Even if i am not a purist in listening to music, i cannot stand such gross indifference to music, the way it is done.

Thats market driven approach for u. music is hot business. not an art for self actualisation!

For the purists, I have nothing to say.

for guys like me, just keep hoping for sth better. cribbing in the meanwhile.
and for the masses who like such masalaa stuff - its ur time baby.

That leaves to another fundamental debate -
which of the two is superior - Creation or the creator ?

PS :

The charanam of kanda naal muthalaai song sounds similar in tune to the charanam of " Kurai ondrum illai...." song sung by MS. isn't it?

'Algorithmic Analysis of an Intimidating Infant'

Job satisfaction is a buzz word nowadays.

For me, the "Job" gave me tremendous satisfaction. peace. bliss. mess. and what not. Infact i had waited for this "job" the past 4 months. the wait did not go in vain.

whatever. however. 'It' did prompt me to think.

whether this "job" was an Art or Science.

Location of " Job " : Lloyds Apartments ( Akka's house)
In charge of : Shreya
The Job : Baby sitting

Shreya is my ' marumaa' or sister's daughter who is just 4 months old. After missing her " Punyaavachanam" , My wait to see her finally ended in my recently concluded trip to madras. and i had a earful of her sweet but shrill cum splitting voice.

She gave me fresh insights into the delightful world of cute little kids/ babies. ( perhaps the reason why i chose to give a presentation on my passion - cute li'l kids- in my comm skills course, a month back )

i have pretty much experience in handling these kids ranging from 2 years and over. that is they can recognise you. talk to you. and sometimes even understand u ( and overstand / outstand etc) . so the "Job" was not really that difficult.

but welcome to the world of just borns. u have a challenge , i can assure.

As far as the debate as to whether the Job was about Arts or Science, i tried experimenting with it :-

the trouble shooting , the way i used to earlier in my chem engg career ( if at all i did manage any) was sth i was close to stumbling on, in this baby sitting exercise. call it a new sphere of management. KM. not knowledge management.

Kozhanthai Management!!!!!!!!

these days management is one of the most talked abt word.

now kozhanthai management is all abt ur 'soft' skills. communication skills. non verbal communication, at that, for these new borns. ofcourse we always had an overdose of it in our e-schools and b-schools. but the demand is high, solid, immediate and inescapable when it comes to new borns. better face the music now. or u may never face any music ( ur eardrums wd have become redundant by then)

so what cd have been a side spliiting experience ends up being an earsplitting experience - and i decide to answer in the affirmative for an algorithmic analysis of a 'shreiking' shreya!!!!!!!!!!!

just as we do elsewhere - get a checklist ready - but make sure u have researched into all the root causes of any 'cry'! the interesting thing abt these lil ones is not a drop of tear appears in their eyes ( i am really serious) . for the din they make, this is hardly expected at all.

true enough - " Child is the father of Man" - considering the way she dictates terms to my akka.

in my typical engineering style, i try to document the causes and possible solutions! the language is called " hope less less" ( much like C++. btw i am hopelessly illiterate wrt computers )

wheeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllll here she goes ..............now...........

1. has she been given 'nestum'? or milk? ( depends on the time of the day)
2. if ans = nestum then when was that? if ans = milk then goto step 12
3. sleep time after nestum = 3 hours. that is, both done after bath. if sleep time <=1.5 hrs and crying = 85 decibels then feed = milk;
4. if milk = unaccepted; then try " aanai.... aanai...." rocking her back and forth in a sitting position! ( one of the singly powerful technique i have seen)
5. if " aanai aanai" = ineffective then take her to UMAACHI room and teach her UMAACHI KAAPAATHU. this is my own technique. this also works at times. small kids can communicate with GOD in their own special manner. so it is not surprising that PERUMAL pacifies her. sometimes PERUMAL decides that she gotta fun for some more time [ much to our discomfort -:)]. so the wheeeeeeeeeeeling does not stop.
6. one more issue. who said kids dont have ego? try giving milk a bit late to these lil ones....they go on strike refusing to drink. what more they spit it outside. thats their way of teasing u ( child - father of man - Ahem).
7. now if the din is not done, time to check her diapers. when was the last time u changed diapers - if time >= 4 hrs then better change it and observe.
8. let her do the expurgation if any.
9. if wheeling = continue then check for diaper rash; apply cream
10. try moving her up and down making crazy sounds. she may end up giving u glances as though u were insane and she is perfectly normal! ( i really mean this!)
11. now comes the tech savvy part! akka has a projector to watch movies full screen. and shreya relishes watching it. this is one sure shot way of calming her down! btw a normal tv soap wd do as well. 'kolangal' and 'Anandham' btw are her fav picks. now i understand the logic of using soaps to calm her. after seeing ppl on soaps cry, she does not want to contribute more water to chennai ( by crying), what with already chennai reeling under these unprecedented rains! ( i guess we shd ban all tamil soaps if chennai is to be saved from this demolishing deluge)
12. if last milk time - nowtime >= 1 hr then feed = milk : goto step 4
13. if nothing has worked so far ; blame it on 'electra complex' . the father daughter special attachment theory ( this is really true. of me and my akka and appa atleast). now all 'athimber' has to do is look into her eyes and say ' ondi maa' and she giggles as if she is floating on soap bubbles.
14. now she has calmed down almost. yes. btw she has transferred all her tension unto you :D
15. a caveat; dont habituate her to taking in ur lap or carrying her around! if u then try leaving her on a rubber sheet - her decibel levels may blast past 200. and ur music system will get insulted!!!!!!

Even as i had painstakenly tried to trouble shoot, most of the times athimber solves it in a jiffy.

need i say more whether Art or is it science that rulzzzzzz in this "Job" ?

so thats how the saga of an amateur baby sitter ends....well wonder how akka manages it.

All day. Every day. Full play. Shreya's way.

oru "O" podanum Akka ku!!!!