The Year that will be

With this year coming to an end in a few hours, this will be my last post for this year. So I have decided to wrap it up with a look-back of 2014 and what I want to do in 2015.

The past year has been a roller-coaster ride for me except for that I haven't been in a roller-coaster this year. Jokes apart, I have learned so much this year, worked a lot and had fun alongside. Relived many nostalgic memories and created new ones. This year has truly been exciting. There are some mistakes I did this year and I will make sure I will not repeat it in the following year. Even though they say old habits die hard, I will try to become more active in doing things and stop being a lazy sloth.

Major global events had an emotional influence on me. Germany winning the world cup, Manchester United's comeback after a terrible season, the LoL world championships, India's first mission to mars. These are some of the notable events which indirectly influenced me and the way I perceived life. Also, how can I forget movies? I have watched countless number of movies this year. I have watched so much that I am planning to start writing reviews of everything I watch.

There are some events which showed stupidity of humans. The war in Syria and war in the name of religion. Terrorists taking over some parts of certain countries and abusing of human rights. These indicate that humanity is moving backwards and whatever faith we had in humanity has been lost. Speaking of lost things, mysterious disappearances of certain planes has been a big loss for the aviation industry.

When humanity has lost its way, we have google maps and GPS to find our way. I am not joking, from my previous statement, I meant when we lose our way, use technology to come back into the right path. Science and technology can save humanity from stupidity. So my new policy for 2015 is that I use my knowledge and skills for the good of humanity. If everyone does that, humanity can live for ages, not just survive. Speaking of ages and time, it is almost 2.5hrs left for the new year so I am going to stop writing now and prepare myself to welcome the New Year. So I leave you with the best wishes for a New year and have an optimistic and prosperous 2015!

Swalpa adjust maadi! (Part 2 of 3)

Unsurprisingly,this is my second consecutive post on a similar topic. From the title, you would've have figured out the golden words told by lakhs of inhabitants of a particular South Indian cosmopolitan city. The title portrays the general attitude of the population(including me) living in Bangalore. It literally means that you have to adjust yourself.

One of the most important rituals of Bangaloreans. It has been protected and passed on through generations.It is being practised even today by young and the old alike. Aliens from other states and countries also learn of their ways. They have to go through a rite of passage until they can finally be accepted into the local clan. People have written books about it and readers of these texts simultaneously practising it. Many experts on this matter are found in this part of the world. Even animals perform this ritual. They have named this above mentioned ritual as 'Laziness'.

Laziness is considered an art. When they do it, it is classy. You would be considered a social evil if you were found waking up before 7.00 am. Shopkeepers will run out of business if he starts his day at 7.00am. That is the time when the city sleeps and you don't want to wake up a sleeping lion.

 The three most frequent words uttered by the people are the three words frequently used in local movies. The three words define the very character of a Bangalorean. Everyone knows the words and use it frequently. From couples, autorickshawallas, bosses, bus conductors, policemen etc. The list is endless. Even three constellations are named after these words. People worship gods having similar names. People come from different geographical backgrounds, race, gender, religion, orientation and beliefs but these three words keeps them united. The three words is the whole point of this post. The three words are in the title of the post.

I know this is a terrible post. I want to end your torture with my parting words, Swalpa adjust maadi.

What's in a name?(Part 1 of 3)

For anyone who has been reading my blog for some time, you would have observed a certain trend in my words. Excessively lamenting about how I miss a particular South Indian city which I consider my home, may have found its way into some of my previous updates. Yes, I will repeat it again. Bangalore, the city I treasure, the city which I love more than anything in the world, the city which enveloped my childhood, the city..., my home. But now, this city has changed. Ever since I moved away from it, it has changed to my dislike. The peaceful, harmonious morning tree-scented air has been replaced by garbage stench and blaring traffic noise. Roads have widened, gardens trimmed, parks exterminated, lakes engulfed and even the people have changed.

I feel that it has lost its original identity. Now, they have even changed the official name which has to be pronounced with extra syllables for added effects at the end. I can make a list of 'Things that take longer than pronouncing 'Bengaluuuuurrruuuu''. They say that the name reflects the present state of the city retaining its heritage. The only thing it reflects is the long traffic lines which can be comparable to the tail of Hanuman. The old word 'Bangalore' is short and crisp and portrays modern culture of the city. The modern information era, where speed is important and time is precious, the former name sounds ideal.

 Now people may make more effort to pronounce the new name. They expend extra work from their facial muscles just to get that 'oooo' syllable. The lips should crumple about to form an 'o' and a short breath of air and sound should be exhaled. It was much simpler when one said 'Bangalore' which can be easily done with a proud smile.

After reading my title, you may ask what's in a name? Well, nothing actually. Name is just a unique noun to refer to someone , someplace or something.  Name of a place can change over time. People may like it, they may dislike it. But it is changed for the greater good of the city.

This has been a pointless lament from my mind. I agree with the concept of 'what's in a name' but I still dislike the fact that my home has nomenclatural irregularities. As a purist, I like the original and original is what I'm going to use. 

Sweets and kisses

Have you ever wondered why Hershey have named one of their products as kisses? Apparently, the machine which makes that type of chocolate makes a 'kissing sound'. Hershey's kisses has been one of my favourite chocolates.  The shape and size is unique and no one has managed to imitate the quality of Hershey's kisses. Not even the French kiss.

It is a festival season in India. The months of August, September and October hosts numerous festivals, both religious and non-religious. The exciting thing about this for students is that we get holidays during those festivals and it becomes even more beneficial if the festival  falls on a Friday or a Monday. The weekend becomes longer and everyone loves a long weekend. People take off to mini vacations or people just stay at home and celebrate with their friends and families. Last weekend in particular, we had one of these 'Long weekends' and as usual I was looking forward to this. The festival named Ganesh Chathurthi is celebrate to offer blessings to the Hindu elephant-headed god Ganesha. One main reason why I'm excited to celebrate this festival is because of sweets. My family makes a lot of sweets and I love to gobble all of them. There is this one particular sweet called the Modaka. In my language, we call it Kozhukatai. It has the same shape as Hershey's kisses. It is just bigger in size. That is why I started writing this post with Hershey's kisses. So these enlarged version of kisses are hollow inside filled with a sweet stuffing. The outer covering is made with flour. Hershey's kisses are entirely chocolate and it is solid throughout.

The similarities between these two are that they melt in the mouth when eaten. The kisses chocolate melts as a whole and the Modakas melt in layers.

Enough with the comparative study. The purpose of this blog post is to derive a relation between a sweet south Indian dish and an American candy. Another purpose of this post is my love for sweets. I want to declare to anyone reading this that I will never refuse sweets when offered. (Make notes).

An AD Carry's lament

I am a gamer and I play this particular MOBA(Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) called League of Legends. I made the following poem from my experiences in the fields of justice on the rift(sometimes in the abyss). The game is played as a team and each person on the team volunteers for a specific role. This game is one beautiful example of what an individual can do and how each individual's strength put together make up a team. Teamwork is the most important aspect in this game. A team is like strings of a guitar. When you pluck a couple of strings in a particular pattern, it resonates to produce a chord. More of this produces music. But when you pluck the strings in wrong patterns, it just produces noise. Teammates perform well when they understand each other's strengths and weaknesses. This game requires a lot of strategy and communication between the players. As the summoners term it, Teamwork OP!

The following poem is too technical and only summoners and rioters can understand. Don't blame me if you find this stupid.

An AD carry's lament

Early game when playing as vayne

I get bullied and dominated in lane,

I need someone to share my pain

Help me with your heals, shields and stuns

Just to hear the words,"An enemy has been slain".

You buy wards and trinkets;

even if it costs the last of your gold,

You go around warding the river

face-checking bushes and drake,

Just to make sure I farm safely.

When their jungler ganks, you protect me

making sure I receive the least damage

you spam stuns,slows,snares to disable them,

you would even die for me

Just to see me stay alive.

In battle, you always stand in front of me,

wielding an impenetrable shield,

You may throw a lantern, make a whirlwind,bind them,

stun them with your bear or taunt a zed

Just to make me get fed.

Late game approaches and winning is no longer a dream

I am now able to carry you and the team,

You have done well to peel for me.

5K gold and I'm sitting Pretty,

Let's have one last push for a Victory!

(This Poem is dedicated to all support players in League of Legends(and dota2 too!) without whom the carry cannot exist.) 

Of Ice cubes and Buckets

First of all, let me break the ice by stating that I thought long and hard for a good title. I even googled for 'Ice puns' but I couldn't get anything title-worthy. Some titles what I thought of gave me the chills.

  Lately, I have been spending abnormal amounts of time on a website which lowers your IQ. As I was going through this site called Facebook(yes, literally lowers your IQ), my 'Timeline' was filled with videos of people dumping buckets of ice over their head. My first thought was that this year's summer has been really hot and people have discovered a new(and stupid) technique to keep themselves cool. After further analysis, I realized that they are doing it for a cause and I ceased making fun of them.

ALS Ice bucket challenge, as they call it, is becoming rapidly popular across the interwebs. A serious neurological syndrome is affecting thousands of people everyday. ALS, which has some long biological expansion which I can't remember with 'S' standing for sclerosis. This syndrome basically affects the motor neurons in the body which leads to paralysis. There is this organization which is dedicated to ALS research and curing. The ALS ice bucket challenge is a medium through which people can be aware of this condition and if possible donate towards its research.

The basic idea of the ALS Ice bucket challenge is that you have to expel a bucketful of ice and water over your own body. The only condition is that the temperature of water/ice should be less than 0 degrees Celsius. It doesn't matter if you tilt the bucket, invert it over your head, use two hands,one hand, use legs, use fire engines, use helicopters,drones. It has all been done. I have been watching videos of creative people having ice-cold showers in front of the camera. The rule of this challenge is that you have to nominate 3 other people to take up this challenge and they have to do it within 24 hours. The person who accepts the challenge donates $10 for charity but the person who refuses the challenge or is unable to do it has to donate $100 to the same. If I ever get challenged by someone, I would accept the challenge and still donate $100. For such a serious condition which is affecting people, I wouldn't mind donating an extra $100 dollar. Anyway, I would still go ahead with the challenge because it is fun to make a video about it and it cools me down in this ridiculously hot Indian weather.

The only down-side to this otherwise fun challenge is that people focus more on the challenge than the cause of it. (The other down-side is the state of the bucket after I complete my challenge). There are viral videos of hollywood stars, NBA stars, football players getting wet on camera. But how much are people actually paying attention to all the neurologically affected people in the world. A charity for a cause can be done without these silly games but this ice bucket challenge, no matter how silly it is, creates awareness. It is a creative way to inform people about the neurological disease and that it is a serious syndrome.


(PS: You may find it chilling but all puns written above were intended.)

Desi-style English

I was going to write this next week but I decided to prepone it. Yes, you might have guessed it by now, this post is about the uniquely amusing Indian way of speaking English.The title says 'Desi English' where 'desi' means 'of the country'. As always, my fascination for the English language has brought me closer to home.I have started noticing the way people speak English(or Hinglish). In this country, about 35 Crore people(350 Million) speak English as a language of communication. But, the language is not according to what everyone speaks around the world. The British have ruled here for over 400 years, yet our English is still different from the British.

This Indianization or "Chutneyfication" of the Indian language is due to various factors like local language, economic conditions of the place and geographical features. English is spoken in different ways, different accents across India. This is attributed to the influence of local tongue. The accents, you can describe it as 'exotic' or 'elegant'.

Modern day conversations are full of Indianness in the English language. Because we are like this only. It is amazing how one adverb can be placed anywhere in the sentence. For example, "I only told him to go", "Only I told him to go" or "I told him to go only". I still can't understand how the phrase ,"You only live once"(YOLO) entered the English language because that is a wrong placement of an adverb. Adverbs usually come as a supporting adjective to verbs.

Coming back to conversations, an encounter between two strangers start with and introduction which goes like this,

"What is your good name sir?"

"Myself xyz, what is your name,Ji?"

"My name is abc. How was your lunch?"

"It was first-class."

There are many funny phrases used in the language which means differently in Hinglish and the traditional English. It may make perfect sense to Indians but foreigners can have a good laugh about it. A student who completed 12th grade and just entered college is described as 12th pass-out. An Indian may have cousin brothers and cousin sisters living in foreign and he plans a trip to foreign during the summer holidays. When someone makes a mistake on a typewriter, they cannot revert back the changes because 'Revert' and 'back' mean the same. People keep asking me whether I am convent-educated because I speak English very well. If I am writing a leave-letter to my boss, I would conclude by requesting him to do the needful. Whenever there is a change in schedule, timing or venue of a predetermined event or a program, the hosts will intimate the cordially invited guests in advance. Have you ever been so busy that you have airdashed? It means to go somewhere in a hurry. Did you know that Bollywood releases about 100 cinemas a year? If that is the case, Bollywood should be owning more than 10000 cinema theaters across the country. Where do they get space to build that many? Cinemas are Indian for movies. Some movies stop running in theaters if there is no demand.

I write these kinds of posts just for time-pass. I add masala to my words to make it spicy. Sometimes, when it goes as dry as curry, I add some humour into it. It makes people laugh so much so that they complain that their stomach is paining. Labouring throughout the day trying to get home in the traffic causes much headache. They come home and complain that their head is paining. Fortunately, their near and dear ones will be waiting for them at home. 

I hope I am cent percent right on the way I have portrayed the Indian way of speaking the language. Now, my sleep is coming so I need to go to bed. If you want to know more about this, you can give me a ring. No, I don't mean a wedding ring. It means that you can contact me.

Thank you, reader for labouring through this highly exaggerated post and reaching to this stage. Convey my regards to your near and dear ones. That includes your neighbours because they live near to you right?(unless you are living isolated). Now before I unite with my bed, I want to point out that I have heavily used Italics in a purely  100 percent Desi post. I am proud to be an Indian and I am proud to have our very own Desi Language. 

No Backspace!

My Backspaace key is brken. I am writinh this pos t without using backspace key or delete key. Actually,I lied, it is not broken, i ma just trying to experiment something. This post has no particular topic. It just reflectss the inner reaches of my chaotic mind. I am writing whatecer comes to my mind and I am not correcting my mistakes. No editing , no rephrasing,just the original.

So just like I never go back on my words, I will not (Literally) go back on my words in this post. I call it a "Literary Experrimrnt" . Sometimes, It is fun to see the unintentional speelling and grammatical erors a person can make while writinh. Aftger all, we are humans and we are not perfect. We all have flaws and we should not be asheamed of it. In fact, our flaws should be flaunted. I am usually (sometimes) proud of my fllaws.

This paragraph was started 24 hours after I wrote the first two paras. The reasone is I got distracted while writing and I just put it waway. Now to continue my stupidity, I start with a completely irrelevant subject as compared to the first two Paragraphs(The no Backspacce rule still hold s here.). Due to unavailibility of topics to write here(and in my mind), I will write about the term 'writers block'(I am experienceing it right now). As you have noticed, I havent written any blog post for quite some time. one Reason is that I didnt find time to unblock this writer's block(am i using it right?) from my mind. The term basically means stifling a writer's creativity/. That and desperation drove me to write this kind of post. Also, my nobackspace rule was insoperied from one of the subreddits of reddit called /r/nobackspace.   Also, there is one more reason as to why I wrote this post. I will explain this in the next paragraph because I have unintentionally started the sentence in the same old para which is not consisitent with litereary structures and I am not allowed to use backspace.

Now that I have come to the next para, let me start by saying that the world is full of fake stuff. Fake people, fake food,fake flowers, fake everywhere. There is a fake foor everything . For example, there are fake cversions of samsung and apple phones in China. Other word popularly used by Indians is duplicate. Faking has beome an integral part of people's behavious. People are more concernecd about how they look,their external appearances. Covering up is one method of gfaking. By covering up, I don't mean the Burqa although that also applies here. People covetr up their flaws, their mistakes. People cover up things that they dont kmow of. Many companies and organizations spend monet to cover up their secrets and lies. Governmaents cover up scams and illegal practices. People spend a lot of time trying to cover up flaws in their external appearances as well as internal. Why should they be ashamed of this? After all, we are humans and flaws should be accepted. If a person has a lisp, why shoud he avoid talking at all? If a person lost his leg,what stops him from playing sports? If a writer makes mistakes,why should he be critized unnecessarily?

Sometimes, life does not need editing. We can take life as it comes. We should not fear for the future. Failing is just a part of life. Misstakes do happen but as we make mistakes, we become wiser(as I have demonstrated in this very sentence). Next time, we will not make the same mistakkes. Maybe, we may make a different one. After all, the number of mistakes one can make is finite(or limited in layman's terms).

Now I dont know how to conclude this post so I will just take your leave with this incomplete sentence. The only purpose of

The 'F' word.

A lot has been talked about this 'F' word and a lot of people have been enjoying it. It has become the only topic of discussion lately and people have had sleepless nights watching it. The Americans may define it differently,it is the favorite pass-time in some countries. It is enjoyed by young boys and girls regardless of race, country, religion. Some people take it too seriously so much so that they abuse each other over it. It has become and integral part of communication and people practice it to relieve stress too.Yes, I am talking about football, the beautiful game!(It is not what you think :P)

It is that time of the year again, or rather it is that time of  four years. The FIFA world cup is here. It has been almost 20 days since the world cup started. Fortunately, during the first half of the world cup, I had semester holidays and I was at home. I spent every night watching every single match of group stage and also pre and post game analysis. Just like a hardcore football fan, I lived football for these 20 days. I went to bed with the game fresh on my mind and my dreams were filled with crowds and players cheering on for their team. It is a time for players to fulfill their national duty. More than selfish pride, patriotic pride comes into play. This tournament is not about the money. It is about that one cup, which brings glory to any country which can clinch it.

The prospect of hosting the tournament in Brazil was exciting. Brazil is a country where football is a heritage. Just like how  the Americans can boast about their victories in the World war battlefields, Brazil can boast about their legendary victories in the football field. The fans literally worship their players and some have even made religions with their national players. For example, this particular player named Neymar Jr. is respected and worshiped as a player even though he is young and this is his debut world-cup.

This world cup has produced many upsets and conjured many football wizards. No one expected the preceding world champions to get knocked out in the group stage, the spanish team have graced the record books with this feat. Some stars disappointed us and some newbies became stars. Underdogs like Costa Rica and Chile played brilliant.

This world cup has been an emotional and adrenaline-producing ride and it has been the most exciting so far. There are some incidents which the football community may regret(I am pointing at you Suarez), because some players' actions on field can come back biting at them.(had to insert a pun there :P). Anyway, this World cup has exceeded my expectations and I am waiting for the semis and The Grand Finale.

(PS: I want Germany to win the world cup.) 

10:10 on 10

The Central Railway Station in Chennai is what I consider my gateway to paradise. Let me explain to you why. The only reason why I come to this densely overpopulated place is because the train takes me home. As I have expressed in one of my previous posts, I live in Chennai currently and I go back home frequently. You may say that going home is no big deal but for me, it is something I cherish. After braving a month's summer in Chennai, I can't wait to go back to Bangalore, a place which stays cool during summer unlike rest of India.

I cannot explain the feeling when the train starts pulling out of the railway station and starts trudging towards Basin Bridge junction. A few minutes later, I see vyasarpadi jiva in the distance and the train starts picking up speed. At this moment, I lay back on my seat/berth smiling to myself knowing that I will be home in exactly 6 hours and 20minutes. I take out a book to read and forget about sleep. I read till my eyes droop, ocassionally checking outside to see how much closer to I have come. With practiced accuracy, I guess where exactly the train would be at that moment. When the next station comes, I chuckle to myself after I conform that I was right. Even though it is a useless talent, it keeps me entertained in the night train and it keeps me from falling asleep. Finally, I get really tired and drift off to sleep.

When I wake up after sometime, I look out of the window, still dark in the morning, the train is bursting through the cold morning air as I can see fields and farms whiz past me. I lose track of time and I continue to stare outside trying to figure out where I am. The cold wind strikes like icy knives and there is a tinge of petrichor in the air(yes, I like to use that word repeatedly :P). After few moments, I spot a yellow board of an upcoming station but the train doesnt seem to be slowing down. The yellow board read 'Devanagonthi'. I lay back and relax because that word made me happy. We are in the outskirts of the city and we will soon, be entering the city. Only 45 minutes more. I start thinking about my bed and how it missed me. After reaching home, I wanted to do nothing but sleep, on my own bed.

You maybe wondering why the title of this is '10:10 on 10'. I am presently writing this standing inside Central railway station between platforms 3 and 4. I am waiting for the train which takes me home,to paradise. With two hours of time in hand and after a heavy meal in Saravana Bhavan, my Mind is racing with all kinfs of stuff and my fingers are aching idly. So I decided to write this on my phone. I can hear the automated announcer repeating arrivals and departures in 3 languages. I have now memorized whatever she says. One particular line which caught my attention is that the Kovai express will arrive on Platform no. 10 at 10:10 pm.Hence the title. Also, I will be posting this exactly at 10:10 pm to be consistent with coincidences. Now I need to go because I need to memorize the rest of the train timetable.

Rain and Sunshine

From a Bangalorean who hates Chennai climate

Before the month of May dawned, I was a little worried. I was scared, not because of the exams. But because of the weather conditions here in Chennai. From past experience, I learnt that Chennai summers are the most treacherous with the mercury rising over 40 Degrees Celsius. The Month of May is the hottest month of the year in Chennai. When April came, I experienced the preview of what was going to come in the succeeding month. April was unbearably hot with blazing mornings and hot and humid nights.Towards the end of April, the temperatures rose to colossal magnitudes. I feared the worst for May.

 Due to a small break between exams, I had a chance to go home to a city with the best climate. It was hot there on the first two days. But after that, the weather changed incredibly, It changed to something which I would call as a "Typical Bangalore weather". It became so unpredictable even the stock markets were made to look like sitting ducks. Sunshine by dawn and storm by dusk. That was what was happening for some days.

While returning to Chennai, I was preparing myself mentally and physically to face the Chennai summer. When I exited my Air-conditioned train, I was expecting to be hit with a high temperature furnace-like atmosphere with exorbitant amount if humidity. But I was really surprised when none of the above happened. Instead, I was greeted by a wisp of gentle breeze which pleasantly cool. The night air smelled of rain or I would like to call it petrichor. There was a tinge of humidity in the air and the weather was a not-so-typical Chennai weather. Ever since then, it has been cloudy everyday with the sun peeking out among the clouds. Chennai, for once has matched the perfect Bangalore weather.

This has been a great start to the summer and I hope this weather continues throughout the month.

 

Stuck in a lingo

Just a few weeks back, I was challenged with a big decision to make. This decision once made cannot be reversed. It could potentially make my life better or ruin my life. Moreover, there were many constraints which made the decision making process tougher.

Our college had given us 5 choices of foreign language to learn for the rest of our course.  We had to choose between Chinese, French, German, Japanese and Korean. But there were many constraints. Each subject had limited number of seats. Due to limited number of seats, the most popular ones will get filled up quickly. Also, the factor of speed of information plays a role here(not internet speed). The earlier someone comes to know about it, he has better chances to get the language he wants. It so happened that the German language course was a popular choice because the Aerospace Industry is more relevant in Germany. I had a decision to make. I wanted to learn Chinese because it was a different language with different script. Also, Chinese is the most spoken language in the world. I wanted to learn Japanese because I can understand anime better. I wanted to learn French because it is a beautiful language. I wanted to learn German because of popular choice. If i had a chance, I would have taken up all four. But unfortunately, I had to choose only one. I logged onto the website where I had to choose and I realized that there were only four seats left for German. I quickly clicked on German and submitted my option. After the confirmation came, I heaved a sigh of relief as the people around me started panicking because German was full.

I decided to take German because it is more relevant to our industry. Also, German is kind of an angry language so I can sound a little rough when speaking it. Moreover, I have been learning French online so that it helped me make the decision. Now, I don't even regret taking German and I am looking forward to the third semester to learn the new language.

A 21st Century Tambrahm wedding

In my childhood, parents used to take me to different weddings and marriages. At that time, I only went along with them for the food. Reception food is always grand and delicious. Nowadays, I go to weddings to meet long-lost friends and relatives. In a typical Tambrahm wedding, the reception is usually on the eve of marriage day or it is on the evening of the marriage day. The preparations for the 2-day(sometimes 3) marriage ceremony start months before. The "eligible" bachelor's parents start sending out jathakams(horosccopes) and advertise in every possible media that their son has reached a marriageable age and is ready to accept any proposals from eligible women.

Last week, I attended my cousin's marriage. It was a not-so-typical Tambrahm wedding. My cousin met his bride in the USA when he was doing his MS. They liked each other and since they were reaching a marriageable age, they decided to get married. The parents agreed and the marriage was arranged. They got engaged and the engagement ceremony was held through skype. They were in California at that time, the ceremony was held in Chennai at around 5:00pm when it was around 4:30 am in California. I was watching all the proceedings through a stream from Bangalore. So the ceremony was modern yet traditional or as I like to term it- mod-trad.

The wedding was held in Chennai because skype cannot be the answer for everything.  Days before the marriage, my brother(cousin) went out with her a few times or as the westerners like to call it, they went on a few dates. The preparations in their homes went in a typical way with both the parties buying dresses, ornaments, saris for each other. The bride and the bridegroom spent thousands to get a makeover. Relatives from distant places arrived at their house to stay for the wedding and after the wedding.

On the eve of the marriage, they had a ceremony called reception. The bride and the groom stand on stage and people flock onto the stage to shower them with gifts and blessings. The general rule is that they stand alongside the couple and pose for pictures. This ritual is usually accompanied by a musical performance. After their plastic smiles get plastered on negative films, they will be ushered by the parents to devour the food provided for them. The food is a mixture of all popular Indian foods and it is usually completed with an ice-cream along with an Indian specialty sweet. These guests, when they start leaving is interrogated by their hosts about the food and they have to keep repeating that they had their fill and the food was excellent even though it is not.

The next day is called muhurtam day. This is the day when the main ceremony happens. This went on in a traditional way and nothing out of ordinary happened here. I don't want to go on with the details but the two families who are modern yet traditional came together in the event of marriage and blessed their children.

This is what I call a 'Mod-Trad' Tambrahm family and I think I belong to that category too.

The English Language Duality

(A word of warning to my readers. The following articles contain some critical stereotypical opinions against a particular race or a country. If these are insensitive to you, please do not proceed. Even though the words are a little bit overly insensitive, I have no grudge of any type against that particular country or its people. I respect all kinds of people in the world.)

As people say, language is a medium of communication. Every language is different in their own way; be it the script, grammar, phrase construction or style of communicating, each language has a different way to implement the rules of language. It always amazes me how the same language is used differently in different parts of the world. English is one such language spoken globally. The grammar, script and syntaxes are the same. A person coming from Asia can understand the english spoken in Britain if he has been pre-educated in the language. Though the language is taught differently in different countries, english is still english in those countries.

As I have said before, English is a language which never changes regardless of its geographical location. But there are subtle differences which changes the way the language is spoken across countries(continents). History tells us that the language was born in Britain and evolved there for centuries before propagating to other places. I use this irrelevant sentence to thank them for giving the world this beautiful medium of communication. Now coming back to my point, the language has evolved in different ways. Mixing of cultures and traditional languages, social factors, past history and relations between countries are some of the factors which contribute to the afore-mentioned "subtle" differences in the language. The americans started learning english only after a fleet of ships searching for "India" landed in the "west". After this incident, there is no turning back. The americans churned the language with their own local language and created the modern "american" english.

A purist will not be happy with what the Americans did to the original language. An optimist will say that it evolved for the better. Even though i'm not a pessimist, my opinion is that the americans have destroyed the very essence of the language. They have taken it in their own two hands(or 1 billion?) which are coated with arrogance and squeezed out all the essence from it.

Football is one game I love to play. But for Americans who are reading this, a picture of the egg-shaped football comes to their mind. Ofcourse, we all know the original meaning of football, a game played with a round ball(not egg), where the players kick the ball to goal. I frown at the Americans who use the original English words for something meaningless.

I am now sad to hear that nowadays, the popular British culture is now influenced by american culture. They forget about their history and prefer modern american culture. It is not only happening in the UK. India is also experiencing this. People are more inclined to american culture than our own country's culture.



  

Just a BIT more...

Have you heard of the Butterfly effect? In chaos theory(mathematics), Butterfly effect is explained as the sensitive dependence on initial conditions, where a small change in one place can affect largely to a later state. The name of the effect is derived from a hypothetical situation where a hurricane is formed because a butterfly flapped its wings several weeks before. Well, I have experienced the butterfly effect in a different way and that incident does not involve a butterfly or any other insects with wings or hurricanes.

It was the year 2011, the month of August(if I recall correctly), I was studying in 11th grade. During the start of the year, they had announced that we, the 11th graders are going to host a school fest called Napsonic. We were really excited at the fact that we were going to organize and host a mega-event, all by ourselves. Each student signed up for one particular department of their choice. It was decided that the one-day fest will consist of 4 departments(Music, Art, Computer Science and Quiz). The whole event was informally and unofficially code-named MACQ. We segregated ourselves into the respective departments based on our interests.

I joined the Computer Science department. The first few days, we put our creative part of our brains to work to make some events which we can organize with limited availability of software,hardware, finances and man-power. After hours of debating and deciding, we came to the conclusion that we will break up the Computer Science department into four groups, namely; Programming, Pictionary, Treasure hunt and gaming. We divided ourselves into these four groups. Treasure hunt was supposed to be on the computer only. So it was kind of a virtual treasure hunt. Everything went well while preparing for the event. We were working hard day and(not night) evening. In the name of testing few games in our computer lab, we ourselves played the game for hours. In between the games, we took short breaks to salvage some on our treasure hunt and programming events. Moreover, we were all competitive gamers, so we take our job seriously. But, that proved to be costly because we couldn't finish preparations for our school fest.

One week before the deadline, we started working overtime, that is after school hours(or after 2.45pm as we call it).  We finally stopped playing games and started doing work. Ofcourse, we were just following great people's words-'Play hard, work hard'. So that play hard part was accomplished even though we were not satisfied. Now, we had to satisfy the second objective. By the eve of D-day, we managed to complete our work and were ready to organize a great, fun-filled event.

The next day dawned and I was excited to host one of the first event of my life. I went to school early and inspected everything to see if they are in the right place. As if the president is going to be present, I left no stone unturned. I even checked if all the chairs are arranged in proper orderly manner. The participants arrived and there were about 32 schools present. The first and second round went smoothly without any incident. It was time for the third round called treasure hunt. The teams breezed through the first few levels of treasure hunt only because the puzzles were too easy. Throughout the duration of the round, I was walking around the computer lab trying to act majestic and boss-like. After some time, when the teams were at half-way mark before finding treasure, I spotted a few nervous glances. Slowly, some teams started getting worried as they were racking their brains to get through one level. I smirked to myself thinking that the level was too smart for them. Slowly, I could see that the teams were getting a little uneasy. They started using other methods of calculations and also primitive methods.

After a few minutes, I realized that there was a serious problem. The voices in the room were getting louder. One person from one of the team came up and explained the situation. He mentioned that the team couldn't get the write password even though they have done everything right. I looked into the problem and he was indeed right. He had done the right calculations and the answer was right. But when he typed the answer in the password window, the prompt said wrong password. That particular level involved binary number system. The task was that the teams will be given a 4-letter word. This word should be converted to binary digits and they must be arranged in order. The number of 0's and 1's should be counted and the password for the next level is the number of 0's in the left and number of 1's in the right. It so happened that the number of 0's and number of 1's were both 16, so the password was supposed to be 1616. But according to our records, we had set the password as 1716. Since I already knew the password as we had set it previously, I knew that the password they entered was wrong. Also, the password which was preset was logically wrong. Any binary number obtained from letters or words are always expressed in 16 bits. But our password was 17 bits which was wrong.

Eventually, all the teams realized that the pre-set password was wrong. We decided to share the points equally among teams and we sympathetically apologized to them for taking away the fun in the game.

This error was in fact a mere human error. This could have been avoided if more number of people had checked manually but since we didn't have time, we couldn't do it. This incident had a great impact in my life because it practically showed me how The Butterfly Effect works. One small bit created a huge chaos in the otherwise peaceful system.

I hope I haven't bored you with such a long story. I just felt I had to share this with my readers because there are small things in life which we tend to overlook. These small things can later snowball into big problems in the future. In Mathematics, there is a chaos theory called butterfly effect. There is a separate research on that topic. If you want to know more, try reading on it. Also, the chaos theory is another interesting read.
For the movie buffs out there, there is this mind-blowing movie called 'The Butterfly Effect'(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289879/?ref_=nv_sr_1). 

The night train

For the past few months, I've been shuttling between the two great South Indian cities, Bangalore and Chennai. They are so similar to each other yet they are different. Bangalore is famous for its London weather and Chennai is famous for its beaches and food. I currently live in Chennai because I am going to a college in Chennai. But since Bangalore has been my home, my only home, I have been going back home frequently. Wherever I go, I'm still tethered to my home. As I grow older, that tether grows longer but never breaks. Just like an Astronaut performing a space-walk, my tether stays until I'm safe back home.

 I am not doing an Indian version of Charles Dickens' classic 'A tale of two cities', i merely write about the journey between these two cities. Even though the two cities are just 300 kms apart, travelling between these have been an adventure so far. One can achieve this by many methods. Travelling by train,bus,car,back of a truck,by foot(not recommended), by aeroplane or any other expensive means you can think of! But the most popular method used by the middle class is train or bus. I have tried and tested all the methods mentioned above(except travelling by foot).

 Train travel is the easiest method but reserving your ticket for your journey is an arduous task. Take my word, securing admissions in Engineering colleges in India is an easier task as compared to reserving tickets in IRCTC. These two words, IRCTC and TATKAL are the two words which haunt the people who travel by train. Whenever I try to log in to the irctc website, I get greeted by a message saying 'Server has crashed'. The Ideal time to log on to the website is at 2:00 am, because at that time the 'older' people will be asleep. When I successfully log on to the site and search for trains between the two epic south Indian cities.

After carefully trying out different methods of transport and analyzing the pros and cons,  I can safely conclude that train is the best method for travelling. A one-way journey takes exactly 6hrs(5 hrs in Shatabdi) and it is the safest means of transport. There are plenty of trains between Bangalore to Chennai and the fares are also sensible. The comfort of night train is better than day train. Although I never sleep in the night train, I prefer travelling in the night train. I get some "alone time" with which I can utilize to put my thoughts in order. Also, I get opportunities to pursue my favourite hobby, observing and studying people.

I know that it is a weird and a creepy hobby. But I find it entertaining to observe people and amuse myself on how different each one are. Sometimes, their flaws make me wonder, their behaviour makes me laugh, their language makes me impressed and their behaviour makes me angry. A night train journey is a perfect time for me to pursue my hobby.

Right now, I am sitting in my alloted side-lower berth, unable to sleep. I write this partly due to boredom and partly because I want to write. This post will be posted online on some other day because I don't have an internet connection. Now, as the train speeds up towards a familiar lands, I look out of the window. The air gives a hint of petrichor(a new word i learnt recently). Through the mist and darkness, I spot the name of a station which whizz by. I could decipher the word 'Devanagonthi'. That moment, I start to smile because the Devanagonthi is located in the outskirts of the city. It also shows that I am merely 30 minutes away. My happiness reaches new levels when the train speeds past whitefield. Now, no one can stop me and I am home. After toiling in a city like Chennai, it is indeed welcoming to come back to Bangalore. The familiar chillness of the air gives me a warm welcome. The clean atmosphere makes me nostalgic.

Before I get too emotional,  let me wind up this long and endless rant. Another sleepless night spent in the train and another unproductive way of spending it. But it doesn't matter to me because I am finally home. I hope I haven't bored my imaginary readers. Bangaloreans living in hostels in another city can relate to this. If, by any minute chance, anyone reading this, please give a honest and critical feedback. I would love it.