Hostel Days - Rat

First Day
Robin

Serious face.
No Smile.
No jokes.
Studious Best.
Book Worm.
Minimal Talk.
Talks are always formal.
Dipu*, in our third year commented,
"What a thing were you?! Speaks nothing. Communciation
is restricted to a Yes/No or a nod of the head."

All the above lines describe Rat in year 1999.
But nobody objected my being what I was..
I troubled nobody, nobody troubled me..

I'm always like that. I can sit as pillion rider on a bike
for two years, and yet at the end of year2, put up a blank
face when somebody asks the rider's name.
I believe a lot in the power of silence.
(Thats more of a spiritual trait.. do i belong to the class of Yogis?)

Thats one part of the story..
But the same Rat has more friends than many others around me.
And for me, once a friend, always a friend.
(Thats one saying which I use leisurely)

The positive part of this I-wont-talk-first trait is that,
I get friends who are more of my type.
My type - less talk, no jokes, no smile, boring, irritating ?
a BIG NO!

Surprising, isnt it ?
But not for my age-old friends.
They have seen me thru ages, and have almost forgotten
completely the initial glitchful days.
Very recently, Dipu commented (on my past n present)
"Looks - no change
Behaviour - diff between dawn and dusk
Attitude, personality - ithenkurichonnum parayan njan alalla...

Behaviour

1. Typical padipist, very less talk
2. The best guy around, becoming better as time passes. "

I had always wanted to be proactive.
The head-first kinda guy.
The Mr Smart
Mr Cool
But thats not me..
I prefer to be me, myself.
I'm happy and confined with what I am!
And so are my buddies... (I hope)
:-S


More buddies in the next part...

*This is 2nd character, after Robin. My class-mate for 4 yrs
of Engg, my room-mate for 2 long (funny) years.

Tail
1. padipist - book worm (studious)
2. ithenkurichonnum parayan njan alalla - I'm noone to comment on this

qqq

pp

Test

Blim

Face-lift

Did some face lift to the blog page..
(No, I dint do it..)

Credit goes to Geo, who spent more than an hour on
this project at two and a half hours past midnight his time.
(2.34AM, to be precise)
Note that, he is in Chicago these days..

For the maestro, it dint take much time, but the
link between us - gmail and yahoo played some tricks,
that got the work(and Geo's sleep) delayed.

But in the end, I got the much-needed left panel,
among many other changes..

A ton and a half of Thanks to Geo :-)

Had put a pic of mine too..
But then removed it.. Its like advertising myself, isnt
it? And once the great man has commented, why do you
wanna scare of your readers by putting a pic of yours
in every other article of yours? ;-)

Happy reading folks..

IT Guys

Two IT guys were chatting in a pub after work. "Guess what, mate," says
the first IT guy, "yesterday, I met this gorgeous blonde girl in a bar."

"What did you do?" says the other IT guy.

"Well, I invited her over to my place, we had a couple of drinks, we got into the mood and then she suddenly asked me to make her feel special"

"You're kidding me!" says the second IT guy.

"I then I lifted her and put her on my desk next to my new laptop."

"Really? You got a new laptop? What configuration?"

"It's a 1 GB RAM and mobile internet connectivity card and ....................."

Tail
1. This one required no typing.. Just ^C ^V :-)

Hostel Day - Day1 : Robin

Hostel Day - First Day

Huge, unguarded gate.
Right at the bus stop.
Long n straight, tarred road with an upward slope.
A huge cross, near the gate, outside the compound wall.
The road led us to hostel, after a climb and a descent.

Dont remember seeing the who's-gonna-be-the-most-familiar-face
of the hostel, the hostel warden - Santhoshachan.
(He doesnt like to be referred to be as warden. He prefers to
be called Rector - he who rectifies your mistakes, and leads
you through the right path)

Aneesh Baby showed us the room. In the first floor..
A small room. Three beds. One table, one chair. There is
barely any space for moving around. Its a dungeon just
for sleeping, nothing else. Hot and congested.

Rested the brown bag, beside the fluorescent blue bag.
Thats when I learned I already have a room-mate.
Robin came with the best flashy smile I've ever seen on
the face of a room-mate.
(It was my first stay at a hostel. So that statement makes no sense)
From the very mannerisms and talk of Robin, I gathered that
this guy is a real funny easy-going person.
But I bet he would have had different opinion about me.

Left with bro n Dad to go shopping.
One bucket, one mug, one bed. Well its not a bed.. a thick
blanket kinda thing - called kosadi. Back in room..
And soon back to the bus stop to see off dad n bro.

Back to room and into general topics - native, first time in
hostel?, how many at home?, will there be ragging?, any
other first year chaps came yet?....

Talking to Rat, in those days, can easily get a nomination
to the Best Boring Things to do. Yes, it was a totally different
Rat..

More on "that" Rat in the next episode.

OPT : Rasathantram

Sympathy, or rather, care and love for the poor
and unprivileged class has always been a turn-on
for me. And when you go on an OPT venture which
features a touching story of this kind, you sure
gonna like it.

MUA was done on tuesday this week, ditching the
traditional Wednesday date. Sand, Kir and me.
A low head count this time. Coz Geo is in Chicago.
Well, we named him ChicaGeo, during the film...

The theatre was jam packed.
Movie started off nice..
The first half flew away. (just like RDB)
The second half was intense.. a bit of senti, but
not too much..
(Let me not write anything about the story. I
recommend the movie as a Must Watch)

Had some situational comedies in the theater as well.
The hero calls up his dad.. "Maashey.. Maashey.."
The silence between the two calls was echoed by a
3-some yr old kid in its own cute voice "maasheyyy"
The theatre went berserk with laughter..

The 50-some yr old lady beside me, and her 20-some
daughter(?) enjoyed every bit of it.. So did we.
The entire movie.

Mohan Laal, these days, is getting tailor made stories.
Thanmaathra was a big hit - mainly due to the fact
that it brought the attention of the public to the
deadly memory leak disease , Al Zheimers.

So Mallus, what are you waiting for ? Go watch it.
Others, go with your mallu friend, or wait for a
Priyadarshan to remake the film in Hindi.
(Dont expect a remake in English, though) :-)

Over over

Tail
1. Dr Rajkumar condolence day today. So expect some
fireworks (with cars n bikes being set ablaze) today
2. Due to the same reason above, no theatres will be
open today. Now I know, why we had OPT y'day!
3. Rasathanthram means 'chemistry'
4. Hostel Day series will continue with a new episode
tomorrow..

Vishu - A flash back...

From the archive...

A Vishu Flash back

News : As on April 14

News:
1. Kannada movie star Dr Rajkumar(7) dies of heart attack.
An angry fan crowd goes on rampage, leading to the death of 6.
Bringing more than just shame to the name and fame of the great man..
2. Holiday yesterday due to the reason above. But no cable.
The stupid cable operators did a black out of entertainment channels
and only news channels and kannada channels went on-air.
Forced grievance? Highly unfair. Are these ppl mad?
3. My uncle landed in Bangalore, from native with family.
Gonna have fun for the next two days :)
4. Its Vishu (New year) for Keralites.. Day to celebrate with
crackers, and here i am in office :(
5. Came to office in formals!! Now, if some of you think "Whats
new in that?", ask somebody who is a friend of mine :-S

Hostel Days - First Day

Had been my long cherished dream.
To come up with a weekly series on my hostel life.
Undoubtedly, the best days of my life.

Still remember the first day in hostel.
Incidentally, it was the first day in college too.
Being born to a pair of loving and caring parents,
stay in college-owned-hostel was not allowed.
That opened the doors to the best hostel in the
city. The Bethany Hostel.
(Well the real name is Bethany Students Centre.
I wonder how many of 'em know this name)
Located just about 7 km from the heart of the city,
and about 10km from the college, it was an ideal
nest.

First day in college was just some formalities for
admission. Doing B.Tech in the pioneer Engg college of the
state, CET(College Of Engineering, Trivandrum) is a dream
come true. All I remember about the first day in the college
is the conversation with the Principal, Ashalatha Thampuran.
A lady with a lot of air..

Straight comes the question
"You are coming from the other end of the state. Why did
you not opt for a college in your place, Kannur?"

I tried the diplomatic way of answering..
"Trivandrum is the capital of the state. The best place to
live in. Very friendly people, all around"

I'm not an expert in lying. And that answer of mine is not
what the lady expected. She was seated with pointed ears
to listen to some praise about herself and the college which
she administers..

Thud came the interruption.. "Nice people? What do you
know about the people in this place?"

I was game for an argument (just to save my face), but dad
interrupted and changed the course of discussion.

After "voluntarily" donating "generously" to the PTA fund,
to the lady at the counter - who turned out to be a lecturer,
whom I saw displaying a smile on her face, ONLY on that
particular day, and not during our 4 year tenure at the college
- we left for the hostel..

Heart beating at a decent pace, 'coz dad is gonna dump me
there and leave for native...

(To be contd...)

Whats Cooking

A weekly updated write-up on the "Best Days Of My Life"
My Hostel Life !
The characters will be familiar ones...
Keep hitting this URL for updates..

Update: April 12, 2.17AM PST
Well, wbix, the wait is over..
Keep reading..
The ups (rarely has been any down) of hostel life!
Enjoy reading..

MUA Recruiting

Yeah, you have heard it right.. !!!

MUA is finally recruiting...

Thanks to the recent boom in software industry,
s/w Engineers in Bangalore are the rulers of the universe.
Their aspirations are no longer trapped inside India.
Each and everyone has started to think globally.

The sad part is that... it has resulted in high attrition rates
in companies back home. Its not only applicable for s/w giants..
Even startup lifestyle organizations like MUA and OPT
are starting to feel the heat.

But we're not going to windup. We're not going to cry out loud.
We are not going to sleep on weekends...

Instead, WE ARE RECRUITING.. :)

Here comes the current openings..

1. General Mgr (Transportation and beverages)
This position is vacant now bcoz of the transfer of our
GM to chicago. He's deputed to start a MUA subsidiary
there and is planning to open that by next quarter of the FY.

Skill set:
Min of 17,253km of driving experience. Driving without headlights
in the night is an added advantage. Should have excellent
color blindness and should be wearing glasses with thickness
varying between 1 cm and 1 inch. Excellent management skills
and communication skills are added advantage.
Knowlege of languages like spanish, mangolian, assameese,
siamese, tsunamese etc are expected.

2. Project mgr (Photography)
Skill set:
Should have natural skills to take "photo of the year".
Normal skills like portraiting humans etc are ignored.
We are looking for talented persons who normally take
closeup fotos of flowers, insects, sand, water etc.
Should have worked in lie down photography,
jump in the air photography and upside down photography..

3. HR exec (planning and cancellations)
You can refer our rulez at a previous post in our bulletin.
Skill set:
Good absence of mind. Education not more than PUC.
Yrs of exp between -1 and 4.

4. Cheif recuritment officer
For conducting this recruitments
Skill set: N/A

Benefits
We offer Competitive compensations among indian MNCs.
Perks also include free vacations every weekend at rejuvenating
tour destinations in India and abroad, at your own expenses.

You will be on probation for 3 trips and will be confirmed later in writing.

This requirements are immediate and the successful candidates
will be taken for training to OOTY within a week's time.

NOTE THAT WE ARE AN EQUAL OPPURTUNITY EMPLOYER.
(If you don't know the meaning, do a google)

Signed
Sand (COOOO - Chief Operating Officer, Offshore n Onsite)