What will you do?

What will I do, before the world comes to an end?

You might ask why I’m writing this – there’s a contest at Cognizant Blogs and this was my entry for that.

I don’t know when someone told me that the world’s going to come to an end and exactly who it was! But then, as innocent as I was back then, I believed it immediately. I searched at the only place where I thought there are people who are smarter than me (internet) and found a lot of websites supporting my belief. Even the series ‘The X-Files’ where a lot of unexplained phenomenon were explained (fictionally, atleast) told me that the aliens had decided to take the planet back into control as we (humans) are polluting and destroying it (somewhat planning for a later destruction anyway). When I saw the 2 sun videos and a lot of other un-explained stuffs which claimed for a doomsday, I thought I should do something.

Well, I’m not a superhero, so I’m not going to try and stop the doomsday. Instead, I will continue my belief and prepare a list of stuffs that I can do with the little time left. First thing would be to spend a couple of hours to create a photo-shop-version-of-me photo and post it in a social network. Even though the world comes to an end and if miraculously some data (including my ‘photo-shopped-version-of-me’) survives, I’d be atleast respectable (or even dared for God knows what I’d do to me) for the new world (if created). History is important?

Visit Sachin Tendulkar once (atleast) and get a real photo with him (and probably tell him to keep playing until he dies coz, the world will end in a couple of weeks). Meet Manmohan Singh sir and talk (?) to him. Meet the Iraq-Palestine presidents and ask them to stop killing people earlier. The same would apply to the Srilankan Army. Congratulate Obama for being the last president of America. Ask Rajinikanth if he’d come to politics or not. Request Cognizant to declare a holiday on 20th December 2012, we can do some preparations for the doomsday. Curse whoever-predicted-the-doomsday as they predicted it to be on a Friday.

Thank Christopher Nolan for taking movies which I have to watch atleast twice to understand. Thank Vinodh Alagan (you probably have no idea who he is – he’s the one who introduced me into the world of series) for making me watch series and then become addictive to them. Find the phone number for the director of the series “The Big Bang Theory” and ask him a couple of questions. “Will Penny marry Leonard? & will Sheldon marry (?) Amy? (And probably what he’ll do after that.)” Finally, thank the director of Shawshank Redemption for making Andrew escape from the prison! Thank (late) Louis Armstrong for that ‘Wonderful World’ song!

Eat almost anything that is eatable and that I’ve never ate before. Fill my bike tank and drive all the way until dry. Pray for a rain (and if answered, drench). Take a trip to a foreign country and put some photos [especially a photo standing next to a beautiful girl by requesting/begging the girl] on the FB (to make my friends jealous and to use the passport atleast once). Some tattoos on visible areas of my body (which I thought would be cool). Laugh at all the bachelors (unfortunately, I’ve to laugh at mirror too) and congratulate (and be happy for) all the married men (although I’m not sure if all of them would feel the same). Thank my first IT company for offering me a change of track (and probably the same company encouraged me to write) to IT. Curse my first IT Company for offering a career track in ITIS. Read a lot of books (well, on the other thought, just buy books and tell everyone that you’ve read those books).Thank God for giving such a wonderful friends and family!

Thank the Blogs for publishing whatever the crap that I wrote! Finally, thanks to you, for reading! So long, then – What will you do?

Image Courtesy: Google.
Dedicating this post to Vinodh Alagan. Happy B'day Vinodh!

Back on Track

When I started to write back in 2011 when one of my best buddies was getting married, I swore that I'd be writing atleast one entry in a month. I'd been out of my game for about two months and now all of a sudden, I was totally free. I thought of writing again. Well, things been a little messy with Polaris after I joined this May and I'd been struggling to find a way out. Unlike the other time when I faced the same crisis, where I ended up taking drastic decisions, I was patient this time (and I could not believe it!) and it paid off well (at least, so far!).


I'm back to my career track and it's been just a little over a week. What we, in IT industry call this time as "Honeymoon period" (Time you joined a project until you start working). I've had a lot of time to kill and lots of doodling in my diary. When I joined Cognizant two days after I left Polaris and on the way to the induction, I thought of meeting new friends again. I made some good pals in Polaris (Induction and in the project) and I thought of doing the same here. Unlike Polaris where the induction program was for 3 days, Cognizant had only one day. I was completely soaked in the rain before entering into the MEPZ and was literally shivering during the one-half of the induction! The time was to short to make any friends and most of my batch mates were either sent to Thoraipakkam or Pallikaranai.


Well, the good thing is that all my room mates (except Rajesh) are from Cognizant and two of'em are from Siruseri where I'm posted. Good to have their company. My team in Cognizant got introduced and it looks like lots of fun going on there! Hanging on to make some good friends now. In the mean time, I've seen some good movies like The Green Mile, Rango and some good series like Game of Thrones and completed The X-Files. Once again, the lizard inside my brain tells me that something is going to happen during December and it won't be like what we expect (Like Earthquake, Tsunami or Volcano). Something man-made is going to come and haunt us back! Fasten your seat-belts, just less than two months to go!

Starting a new chapter in my life - hope to come here often!

Mixed Feelings

He is the first friend that I made in Infosys. An enthusiastic, a caring but sometimes a little stupid - that's all he is. A part of me always thought he's  lying when he said that he's going to Canada very soon, about a couple of months ago. Well, he did not lie and infact, he is in Canada now. He's Shyam - one of my best buddies that I made in Infosys. He was my room mate in Pune as well as in Chennai. The room's never the same without him! When we went to the airport to send him off, I thought I saw some tears (Well, Rajesh also told me so), but not sure if he cried because of leaving us or because of leaving his love/family behind.

When we were in the airport, apart from sending off Shyam, we noticed a couple of other things. A scene in the Tamil movie "Unnale Unnale" where the heroine gets a 'spiritual' and emotional sendoff from her family, we saw one similar there on the airport - except that was a guy. Ofcourse, it was funny and Rajesh kept saying that until we came back to the room. The other one was an elderly couple who were there to send off their granddaughter. The tears that were shed by those elderly couple made my heart heavy. They were waving goodbye to the granddaughter even after she was out of their sight. How alone are we going to be in the world!

Well, Saturday early morning was Shyam's flight, so we had to send him off on the Friday night. Saturday was off for all of us in the room and Karthic suggested that we go see The Dark Knight Rises. I've already seen the movie - but all Christopher Nolan's movies are worth watching more than once (Well, some of them had to be watched more than once to get the real story). So, I decided to join them. It was booked for the evening show and we were too much preoccupied watching The Dark Knight (in my laptop), we forgot the time. It was already 5:30 and the show was at 6:15. We'll need atleast of 30 minutes to travel and none of us were ready!

So, a quick face-wash/bath were done in a hurry and we started our bikes. As if it was waiting for that to happen, the sky started pouring down herself! I've always felt good when it's raining when I'm riding. So was the case with Karthic, so we started and the others stayed. We went there on time and it was about 10 minutes after the movie started the other joined us! It was one hell of an experience - riding while it's raining (that too in Chennai after very very long time! The last time I did in Chennai was by 2006 when Vettaiyadu Vilayadu movie was released and it was a rainy bike trip to Mayajal!)! Ofcourse, I had a lot of those in Pune! Good old days!

Dedicating this Post to Shyam Nainamalai. Wish you best of luck buddy! Hope you're doing good (whatever, that you're doing there)! Miss ya!

Kettal Kedaikkum!

Despite all the advice from my friends – I decided to join NIIT to take a career jump once again. As expected, it was a tragedy and I ended up paying 25K (as a first installment) and they never scheduled a class for me. I still remember the date on which I paid the amount - 3rd of April 2012. The course was supposed to be 3 months (or even less) and until 15th of May, I did not receive a single call from NIIT about the class schedule. When I enquired about the course (MCITP), during my admission, the sales head told me that the classes are starting the next day (4th of April). And up until 15th May, the class was never scheduled. I believe I was the only person who chose the MCITP course and no one else!

                So, after paying the money, it's my responsibility to ask for a class and almost every day from the day I paid the money, I called NIIT and every time I received the same response – the classes will be starting from this weekend sir. The weekend never came for them! Soon, I got a job on the same profile that I was working earlier and decided to give up the course. Now started the real pain. I walked into the NIIT office and told them that you guys are never going to schedule a class for me – I'd like to quit. They tried to trick me once, but since I was strong, they decided it'd be better if we leave this guy or something like that!

                On the first day, when I said that I'm requesting a refund from them, they said “Refunds are processed at the end of every month sir – your refund will be given by the first week of June”. From that time on, I'd been struggling to get the money back from them. Every time when I call for the refund, they said that the refund is being processed and requested to give a week's time. June 5th, a Tuesday, when I walked in to enquire about my refund, they requested me to write a letter to the NIIT Center head so that the refund may be initiated (I was puzzled as why this was not told to me when I said I want my money back!). So after that they said that it'd take a week's time to process and give my money back.

                Weeks came and went and I never received a call from NIIT. Until 4th of July, I was very patient and was frustrated when they said that your refund was not processed by this month and will be processed only by July month end. That's when I decided to reach out to a society that's been nothing but helpful in Facebook – “Kettal Kedaikkum”. When I posted my situation in Facebook Kettal Kedaikkum, I received a response from the founder, Mr. Sureka Sundar that he'll help solve the problem for me. Following that week, I walked into the NIIT Adyar  and called Sureka Sundar and asked him to talk to the Sales head and the Center head.

                I could observe the change in the faces of the center and sales head's as they were talking to Sureka. Until that moment, the promise from NIIT was that they'd not be able to give the full amount that I paid (an amount of Rs. 6000 to 8000 will be deducted for the Book charges) and that only the reduced money will be given. After they talked to Sureka, they told me that full amount will be settled to me. The whole refund processing took them less than two weeks and I received the full amount that I paid in cheque. When Sureka talked to them on what will happen when they failed to refund me in Legal Terms, I could see that they were terrified.

                What Sureka told them was the rights I have over the NIIT failing to provide a refund. That, if I buy a product and never use it, I have the rights to get a refund (full amount) upon return. Even I didn't know these until then. I'm sure the NIIT guys over there may be well aware of that! For a 3 month duration course, no class was scheduled for over a month and they still said that the full money will not be refunded. After Sureka's interference – I 'asked' and I 'got it'.

                I'm writing this article to create a basic awareness. When you keep quiet, people step on you and go forward. When you ask, you'll get it. This is the motto of the Facebook group “Kettal Kedaikkum” (You'll get it when you ask). It is your rights that you are demanding and not someone else. I'd have certainly got the money from NIIT had I not been to Kettal Kedaikkum – the difference here is the time and quality. I may have received the money only by the end of August or even September – also, not the one which I paid in full – only  the deducted money. Don't give away your rights – fight for it. “Kettal Kedaikkum” is a group that helps you fight.

Religious Rally

As soon as I joined Polaris, I knew there's going to be a trip to Srikalahasthi. Because, a batch mate of me was from that very town. What I didn't expect was it happened in a month's period. When my batch mate Bhargav (the Srikalahasthi native) and another, Mathen who has a SWIFT DZIRE decided to visit the temples in and around Kalahasthi, I decided to join them on a religious rally. Friday, 22nd of June, we started our journey towards Kalahasthi after office hours. We had a little snacks in Chennai, gave our car a little drink and soon we were on the highway, hit 100 KM/h in no time. A little music inside excited us and we reached Kalahasthi at around 9 in the evening. Bhargav's family welcomed us and treated us as if we were also their son. Warm hospitality and an A/C room to sleep - well, I couldn't get up earlier in the next morning!

Mode of Transport

Saturday Morning - we took bath and skipped breakfast as it's a kind of custom to go to temple with an empty belly. We had some pooja arranged for one of our friends - Mathen (For Rahu and Kethu - specially done here in SriKalahasthi) and it took about an hour to finish the pooja. We finished seeing Mr. Kalahastheeswarar (Vayu Lingam) and his wife Gnanaparasunambika Devi a little while later. Kalahasthi is known for one of the Panchaboootha Sthalam (Vayu) and for the famous devotee Mr. Kannappan (Hope you all know the Kannappan story). I didn't take any snaps there as I consider it an offensive to take snaps of the Gods (Well, they don't allow you as well). So, you're not going to witness snaps of Gods, but just a religious rally.




As soon as we were out of Kalahasthi temple, our next plan was the Sahasralingam temple - less than 10 kilometers from SriKalahasthi. I also happened to know the name definition of SriKalahasthi - the serious devotees of Lord Shiva Sri (Spider), Kala (Snake) and Hasthi (Elephant) at the neighborhood. My sincere thanks to Bhargav and his family for the arrangements made inside the temple which reduced a lot of time waiting in the queue. It'd have taken atleast 6 to 8 hours if we'd not had their help! So, Sahasralingam - well, as the name suggests, the lingam at this temple has 1000 lingams carved on it. When Bhargav said that it's on a hill, I imagined it to be a little like Chathuragiri and Sabarimalai. It was not as such!

The Sahasralingam temple

Before heading towards the Sahasralingam temple, we took a room at a lodge near the temple as it's a kind of custom that after finishing a pooja, one should directly go home. If that's not a case - you should not stay at a friend's home. Otherwise, the effects of the pooja that you did would go to the home on which you're staying. So, as per Bhargav family's advice, we took a room. Had a little nap after the Dharshan (ofcourse, after meals) and by this time, we made a new buddy - Bhargav's brother-in-law Lokesh came along. Funny in nature, we liked in immediately. After our formal introduction, we took our cameras and headed towards the Sahasralingam temple. As opposing to the great crowd at Srikalahasthi, I didn't even find a single guy who came there for worship.




The place was great, the temple situated at the top of a small hill. It was nothing like I imagined, a small hill and at the top, you can see the God. All that goes up were the stairs (My old enemy - Stairs - as said by the "Po" in Kungfu Panda). It was kind of an exercise for us after a heavy meals and we even had vendors selling 'butter milk' at one top. The temple was blocked by another small hill - we had to climb up, down and then up to see the Sahasralingam. The path was clear and good, we took some snaps there!

 Bhargav and his Brother-in-law - Lokesh

Polaris Batch mates - (From left) Mathen, me and Bhargav.

We reached the temple just before the closing time and finished our worship. Took some snaps while we came back and a lots of chats. On the way, we visited another temple - Sri Dhakshina Kalikadevi temple. Bhargav told us that it's a very powerful goddess. We took some more snaps and headed towards the lodge. On the way, we found a Mutt (or Madam) and the doom of the building was a giant Shivalingam. It was late and so, the snap wasn't a great one. We also visited another temple which is just near a park (it was closed). When we reached back at the lodge, it was late and we slept almost immediately.

 At the top of the world!

 Sun's Rays or God's Grace?

The next day's plan was supposed to be the Thada falls - just at the border of Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh, but considering the advice from our friend Bhargav we decided against at it. They said that the place has become dangerous for the visitors - robbing and mugging happens quite often there. So it was decided that we go for the Thalakkona falls which was 60 kilometers from Srikalahasthi as told by Lokesh, his brother-in-law. As we were tired, we were pretty late to wake up in the morning and it was a little past 11 when we started towards the Thalakkona falls. We have to go via Thirupathi to go there and when we passed Thiruppathi after about 45 minutes - Mathen asked Lokesh how many more kilometers from here? That's when Lokesh said that the falls is 60 kilometers from Thirupathi and not from Kalahasthi.




It was already late and so, we decided to skip Thalakkona and head back to Thirupathi (lower Thirupathi or Alamelu Mangapuram). Fate, already decided that this was a religious rally and no falls to interrupt! On the way, we went to the Chandragiri fort - the one used by Srikrishna Devarayar for 'relaxation'. It was an old one and just had two buildings Raja mahal and Rani mahal. Rani mahal was pretty much empty while Raja Mahal was converted to a little museum. Photography was prohibited inside the museum, so we could just take snaps outside. The headless rows of Gods (or probably Buddhas - couldn't remember) stay opposite of the Raja Mahal where all the old statues of Gods and old weapons used by the Old Indian people were kept.

It was a little past 2 when we decided to head back towards the lower Thirupathi and on the way, we had a heavy 'Andra' meals. We reached Alamelu Mangapuram at around 3:30 and when we came back after the Darshan, we were delighted both physically and spiritually. The 'rich ghee' laddu was the reason for the physical delightfulness! We thanked another relation of Bhargav for the help provided here and headed back towards Kalahasthi. It was about 5:30 when we started to leave Lower Thirupathi and it started to rain! The cool climate and a spiritual enlightenment - oh we had a good time!

We reached Kalahasthi late in the evening and it was hard to say good bye to Bhargav's family. We headed back towards Chennai after having a little snacks and we know it was a memorable trip. All the other thing that we had in mind was the Thada and Thalakkona falls. We made a good friend during this trip and decided to come back soon for the missed adventure. Wait for it!

:-(

I had a topic in mind to write, but unfortunately, I fell ill. Will come back soon!

I'm Back!

Gone are the days, when I was unemployed. But then, it was something that I wanted. I’d say that I’m glad that those dark days are behind me now. I was almost out of patience when it was about 5 months since I left Infosys. I even joined a course and almost start a new career once again! It was all for the best – I’m back. It was a normal day, I was at home – watching series and laughing (yes, I was unemployed, but I never stopped watching series – I had no other ways of passing time). Since I had all the time in the world, I used to check my gmail all the time. Then came an email from my buddy Shyam for whom an interview schedule for Polaris was sent. He sent that to me and I sent my updated resume to that particular consultancy (Thanks, Shyam!). I’d say that I never expected the consultancy to call me and schedule an interview because I received a lot of calls from a lot of consultancies for the same Polaris profile and everyone said that they’ll schedule an interview and never did.


It was a surprise for me when I got a call at around 8PM on a Monday night when I was spending some ‘quality’ time with my roomies Rajesh and Karthic at the Chennai Marina Beach. It was from the consultancy to which I sent the resume earlier that day. They wanted a confirmation to be available for a face to face interview on the following Saturday. I said yes and I did not receive any confirmation email. I thought this is another consultancy who just forgot to send me an interview schedule and I was back to watching series and to be in a stressed condition. Out of the blue, they called me back on Friday of the same week and sent me a confirmation email. I should say I was surprised. And, I also did prepare a little for the interview on the next day. By that time, I had lost a lot of confidence.


The interview was scheduled on Navalur Polaris. It was a sunny day and I didn’t sleep well (well, I used to be unemployed, so I start to sleep at around 2 in the morning and get up at around 10 or 11 in the morning. So, sleeping at 1 AM and waking at 6 AM on that day was not that good for me). I reached on time and the interview was conducted at the food court. The AC was on and a fan was also nearby me and I had to wait for about an hour to be interviewed. I started to feel sleepy and occasionally I’d check my email on the mobile and tried my best to stay awake. Finally it was my turn and surprisingly, I gained confidence as soon as I answered my first question. It was a very good set of questions and I didn’t know I could answer them earlier! May be, it was because of the fact that out of 10 interviews that I attended, 9 of them were a profile change.


So, I cleared the interview, got a confirmation that I got selected and I was happy. I’d say that the time I spent between the day I got selected and the day I started attending my Induction classes at Polaris were the longest week that I ever passed. In the meanwhile, I lost my first android (Sony Ericsson Xperia X8) and I got a new tablet (Pantel – T-PAD IS701R). I loved that X8 very much because it was my first android and I had made a lot of customization (Thanks to Rajesh here – he inspired me to do so)! I had to get a new mobile and after careful consideration, I decided to buy Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo or Neo V. But then, I didn’t have a lot of money after spending 5 months of unemployment. In the end, it was a ‘strong’ battery Samsung Hero (Duos) that I bought!


I’m writing this after about 2 weeks of something-good-happening-again-week. Always writing makes me happy and today I was way too happy. A record breaking stuff happened today at our weekly cricket – it was a guy who scored 7 sixes in an over (one no ball)! You don’t get to see that too often! The earlier record was 5 sixes in an over by the same guy (ofcourse, a different bowler). Also, a miracle happened today – the three loses by RR, KXIP and RCB made a clear path for the CSKs to make it to the playoffs, 5 times in a row. Thanks to Deccan Chargers once again! You’ve got to feel for Dale Steyn – the one of only 2 performers in Deccan Chargers along with Shikar Dhawan. Except for the one IPL (#2) where they won – they ended up in the last almost all the other seasons!

The 2 Awesome days with the Old Scorpions

It has been quite sometime since I saw them. The old Scorpions Venki and Ranga had to come to Chennai for some reason and they decided to come to Velachery where the other Scorpions Vignesh, Shyam and me are. When Vignesh told me that they're coming here this Saturday, I didn't know that I'm going to have an awesome 2 days. It was indeed one of the great times I had in this life time. Nothing so special - what we did was what we were good at - cricket. They came on Saturday, late at around 12 in the noon. When we were busy planning what to do - either to go to a movie or to go to some nice place in Chennai. Shyam was on an early morning shift, so he joined us late at around 3 in the evening and when he arrived home, we were still deciding whether to go to a water sport theme park that was opened recently in Poonamalli or just to go to the beach. Ofcourse, we had plans for the night!




As soon as Shyam entered, he decided we play cricket - just like the old times. It seemed to be a good idea, but rather one unlikely because we normally play cricket on Sundays only. The other guys around our area didn't know that they are in for a surprise and Shyam made some calls and fixed the match. It was just like the old times, Venki brought his buddy Gopi as well and they mingled into the group very well. We were indeed surprised by the number of people turned on for the match and it was fun to be playing with and against the fellow scorpions. The insults (the one where Venki got out off Gopi) the surprises when Vignesh took catches and some usual's where I always get hit by the ball.




Vignesh told some lies to his family and brought his car for us to go to a friend of his's place. Being a family man is not always great, pff! We took a long ride there with all the jokes cracked and catching ups. Night rides and a special place to hang out - made our day! We had a great time there, the one was very special. We got up early in the morning and headed back to Velachery and continued to play some cricket. The time between after match and lunch was the relaxing - we just slept, coz we had a lot of time to talk the other night than to sleep! Vignesh had arranged a very special lunch at his home and invited us all there. Shyam, once again, had an early morning shift and joined us directly for the lunch.




It was a great lunch - Thanks Vignesh! We were at Vignesh's home for about an hour after the lunch and the time that we spent there was awesome! Vignesh's 7 month old son was so cute! For some reason, he kept on staring at me (well, he didn't smile at me, but something on my face felt so curious for him!!)! While Shyam's new toy that he brought for Vignesh's son kept him busy, we again had some nice talks and the evening time once again, went on  cricket. We missed all our fellow scorpions today! When Rajesh, not a fellow Scorpion, but a mutual friend (err... our room mate in Pune) for us joined us after the match, I felt like I was back in Pune in my room!




The time that we spent together was magic and we have plans for some more like this!

Life Sucks, big time!

Unemployment can do anything to a man. In the beginning, you start to enjoy being at home all the time and doing nothing! After a certain point of time, you start to envy your friends who are in good jobs and at one point of time, you will be frustrated that a person who you think is pretty low in knowledge compared to yourself gets a job and you don't! Life sucks, alright!


Just 3 months of unemployment and I've reached to a point where I dare see myself! I got kicked out of interviews for being less confident, over confident and most of the time, it was the profile change. Expecting a Unix Shell Scripting job, I got questions for Performance Tuning in Oracle! This happens just when I feel like I can get this job and feel like entering into a comfort zone.


Now, when I finally get a good job opening - for which I'm perfectly eligible and what did I do - walked out of the interview room, because I didn't like the way they conducted the interview. I regretted a little as soon as I came outside the building of that reputed MNC, but nevertheless It's a gone option. I hope the next 3 months would be more crucial in my job hunt as the 'break-in-job-for-more-than-6-months' would be a pretty nasty damage to an already damaged guy! I hope!

A day with a North Indian in Chennai

It was a Saturday night. Boring day time and Rajesh suggested that we go somewhere. I suggested Marina Beach and Rajesh immediately accepted. Since Shyam was in office and decided to go to a movie with this ‘team mate(s)’, I and Rajesh walked to the Perungudi station and caught a train to Triplicane. Rajesh is fairly new to Chennai, so I took the tickets and we reached Triplicane. We crossed the heavy traffic Marina Beach Road and stepped into the beach sands. I checked my mobile to see the time and found a call missed.


It was from Rahul Kumar – one of my Pune team-mates. I remembered him calling me earlier that week about going somewhere. He was in Chennai for training for a short period. I completely forgot about that and left without him. So, I called him again and asked him to come to Marina. It was about 5:30 PM in the evening when he called me back and said that he’s going to get an auto. I kept telling him that autos in Chennai are quite expensive - the buses are frequent (even told him the bus numbers) and still he took an auto and the fellow took his time and showed them (Rahul and his friend Asim) most part of the Chennai.


We finally met at around 7 in the evening and until then, what interested me and Rajesh was the giant building sitting just opposite to the Marina Beach. The building was named as “Ezhilagam” and Rajesh asked me what kind of building is this or who works here? I absolutely had no clue and told him it should be something that belonged to our Government of Tamil Nadu. Until Rahul and Asim came, we roamed from the Anna Square bus-stand until the half-part of Marina and asked some people what is that Ezhilagam. Apparently, no one had a clue!


So, it was dark when Rahul and Asim finally showed up and we took some pictures and walked in the beach with all our jeans up above the knee. It was good to catch up with an old friend who’s new and unfamiliar to Chennai. Except me, all the three guys (Asim, Rahul and Rajesh) are Non-Veg. Asim was so eager to taste the ‘fresh fish’ and we stopped at a stall and brought some. They said it was good and we took more snaps. It was almost 8:30 when we decided to go home before it’s too late. I suggested that Rahul and Asim come to our room and from there, they can catch a bus to their guest house.


They accepted and we walked back to the Triplicane station and took a train to Velachery. During the train journey, Rahul showed us some of the pictures that he had taken during his Vizag trip. He was also telling us that he feels good about Chennai! We came to know that he and his friend Asim eats at an Andhra mess and it is famous for its spicy food. Along with all the other curries, they have something called “podi” which you should put in the rice and add some oil/ghee to eat. Rahul said me that when he asked for ‘podi’, everyone around him laughed out loud! He was spelling podi as pOdi (with a long o) and in Tamil, it’s an informal way of telling a girl to get lost! I told him that he should call that as podi (with a short o).


He was also staying in Guindy and he had trouble telling the name to the auto drivers. He said that as Gundy (err… means butt in Tamil) and we all laughed! When we reached Velachery, we offered Rahul and Asim the south-Indian dinner – ‘Kothu Parotta’. Both seemed to like that very much and Rahul kept asking me how to ask for this dish again! We again talked for some more time and it was almost 10 when we realized that the buses from Velachery to Guindy are not that quite often after the peak hours. We tried calling our buddy Shyam who has a bike and can drop them at their guest houses. The place is pretty near to Velachery and before Shyam could reach, we saw a bus and boarded them on it.


I called Rahul and told him the stop name that he should get down and ask the conductor to tell him once the stop comes. We had a long walk towards our room and on the way we saw Shyam and asked us to join at the Baskin Robins ice-cream parlor. Meanwhile Rahul reached Guindy and messaged us that he got into the guest house safely. We eat cones – 2 butter scotch and one vanilla. When we finished eating and the bill came by – Rs. 270. It was a shock that an ice-cream and Baskin Robins costs 90 per head! We then decided that we would never have an ice-cream again at Baskin Robins! Apart from the Ice-cream comedy, the day was wonderful with all the memories back again!

முதல் அருங்காட்சியகம்!

இருபத்தியொரு வருட திருநெல்வேலி வாழ்க்கையிலும் அதன் பிறகு அவ்வபோது வந்து சென்ற போதும் கேள்விப்படாத ஒரு விஷயம் இம்முறை என் காதில் விழுந்தது. பாளையம்கோட்டை பள்ளி/கல்லூரி சோலைகளுக்கு அருகில் அமைந்திருக்கும் அரசு அருங்காட்சியகம் தான் அது! எனக்கு நினைவு தெரிந்த நாளில் இருந்து இதுவரை ஒரு அருங்காட்சியகம் கூட சென்ற நினைவு இல்லை! தொடக்கம் சொந்த ஊரில் இருக்கட்டும் என்றோ என்னவோ இது நாள் வரை தள்ளிச் சென்ற அந்த 'அருங்காட்சியகம்' விசிட் இம்முறை நிறைவேறியது!


அருங்காட்சியகமா? திருநெல்வேலியிலா? என்று ஆச்சர்யபடுபவர்கள் (அட நானும் முதல்ல இப்டி தான் "Shock" ஆனேன்!) சமதானபுரம் அடுத்த ஸ்டாப்பில் (மார்க்கெட் மார்க்கம்) இறங்கி அங்கே இருக்கும் ஆட்டோ டிரைவரிடம் கேட்டால் சொல்வார்கள். கேள்விப்பட்டவர்களுக்கு - Water Tank பின்புறம் இருக்கிறது இந்த அருங்காட்சியகம்!


காலை பதினொரு மணி அளவில் அருங்காட்சியகத்தின் உள்ளே நுழைகையில் முதலில் கண்ணில் பட்டது அந்த பெரிய டைனாசர் உருவ பொம்மை தான்! சிறிய அருங்காட்சியகம் என்பதாலும் பெரிய கூட்டம் இல்லை என்பதாலும் அங்கே வேலை பார்பர்வர்களிடம் பேச்சு கொடுக்க தோன்றியது. 'ரதி' என்ற என் பட்டியின் வயதை ஒத்த ஒருவர் தான் நுழைவுச்சீட்டு கொடுத்தார் (ரூ. 5). புகைப்படம் எடுக்க மற்றொரு சீட்டும் தரப்பட்டது (ரூ. 20). வரவேற்பறையில் அவர் நுழைவுச்சீட்டு கொடுக்கும் அந்த அறையிலேயே அருங்காட்சியகம் ஆரம்பமாகிறது. Simple புகைப்படங்கள் - பாணதீர்த்தம், ஐந்தருவி, குற்றாலம், சங்கரன்கோயில் சுவர் ஓவியம் என ஆரம்பித்து பத்தமடை பாய், சுடுமண் பொம்மைகள் என் நீள்கிறது!

அதைத்தொடர்ந்து அருங்காட்சியக வெளியீட்டு புத்தகங்கள், நூல் நூற்கும் இராட்டு, குற்றாலம் மற்றும் டைனாசர்களின் மாதிரி (தமிழ்ல அத எப்டி சொல்றதுன்னு தெரியல - சும்மா பொம்மைங்க தாங்க). மானின் தலை மட்டும் (கொம்போடு தான்), எருமையின் தலை மட்டும் என தொங்கவிடப்பட்டு முடியும் அந்த ரூம்-ன் வலது பக்கத்தில் திரும்பினால் பழைய நகைப்பெட்டி, கல்லாபெட்டி, படிமங்கள் (Bronze) அதில் அரிசி/நெல் அளக்கும் உழக்கு என அருங்காட்சியத்தில் சற்று பழைய விஷயங்கள் ஆரம்பமாயின! இந்த லிஸ்டில் எனக்கு தெரியாதது "மரக்கால்"!

மன்மதன், ரதி மற்றும் அர்த்தநாரீஸ்வரர் புகைப்படங்களைத் தொடர்ந்து உலோக கைவினைப் பொருட்கள் (அதில் இருக்கும் சீப்பு [Comb] என்னை ஆச்சர்யப்பட வைத்தது!), அதை கடந்து வந்தது நாணயக் குவியல்! பழைய நாணயங்களின் தொகுப்பாக (Maximum Original Coins) சில புகைப்படங்களும்! அந்த புராண நாணயங்களின் லிஸ்ட் இதோ (மேலும் சில Coinகள் [அருங்காட்சியகத்தில் இல்லாதது, புதியது] பார்க்க இங்கே கிளிக்கவும்!):

கி.மு. 400 (சாதமனார்), அதன் பின் கி.பி. 100 முதல் - கணிஷ்கர், வாசுதேவர், சத்ரபர், சாதபர்னி, குப்தர், பாண்டியன், கேரளர், ராஜபுத்ரர், சாளுக்யர், டில்லி சுல்தான் அலாவுதீன் முகமது ஷா, ஷேர்ஷா, அக்பர், ஜகாங்கிர், விஜய நகரம் கிருஷ்ணதேவ ராயர், மைசூர் சுல்தான் ஹைதர் அலி, திப்பு சுல்தான், கடைசியாக East India Company!

தொடர்ந்து வீட்டு அலங்காரப் பொருட்கள், மர சிற்பங்கள், விடுதலை போராட்ட வீரர்களின் புகைப்படங்கள், சிறுவர் பொருட்கள் என முடிகிறது அந்த ரூம்! வெளியே சென்றால் தோற்பாவைக் கூத்து, பழியர் பழங்குடிப்பொருட்கள், காட்டு நாயக்கர்களின் பொருட்கள், ஆயுதங்கள், கல் ஆயுதங்கள், வரலாற்றிற்கு முற்பட்ட மன்பாண்டகள், முதுமக்கள் தாழி (Urn Burials), தனியக்குதிர், இசைக்கருவிகள் என முடிகிறது கீழ் தளம்! (இதைப்பற்றி அதிகம் எழுதி மொக்கை போடாமல் புகைப்படங்கள் சில கீழே!) என்னைப் பொருத்தவரை இதோடு அருங்காட்சியகமும் முடிகிறது! First Floor-ல் உள்ள பத்திக் ஓவியம், கலம் காரி ஓவியம் மட்டும் தான் பார்க்கும்படி! மற்றவை அனைத்தும் புகைப்படங்களே!

I liked these lines very much!

புகைப்படங்களின் குவியலில் ஒரு சில நம் கவனத்தை ஈர்ப்பது என்னவோ உண்மை தான்! Bimbetca Rockart, கழுகுமலை Jain Sculptures, Ginjee Fort, ஸ்ரீபுரம் வெல்லூர் Golden Temple என்று நாம் பார்க்க முடியாத சில நல்ல புகைப்படங்களும் உள்ளன! தொடர்ந்து கடற்பாசிகள், உலர் தாவரங்கள், தாவரவியல் பொருட்கள், மர வகைகள், கடல் விசிறிகள், பவளங்கள், துளையுடலிகள் (Sponges), முட்தொலிகள் என (புகைப்படங்கள் அல்ல) Most Probably நாம் பார்த்த விஷயங்கள் அல்லது Science Center-ல் பார்க்ககூடிய விஷயங்கள் தான்!