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Showing posts from 2016

Travelling

Earlier this year a close friend of mine took a break from the rat race we call “furthering our careers” and set off to explore the Indian landscape on his newly acquired Royal Enfield. I envied him. I still do. He travels all over the country, taking pictures, meeting people, relaxing in different places – the usual travel stuff. But little did I know that running away to a far away land to “further my career” would not leave me trailing behind very far. Yes, I’m not atop a mountain sipping tea made by a chaiwallah who gets the leaves from shrubs in his backyard. But I am also meeting people of various cultures. I get to talk to people from different countries and enjoy conversing with them. So this post is dedicated to all those short encounters I had with people at airports, train stations, mountain hikes, etc. I have always enjoyed conversations, more so during journeys. These conversations become more interesting when they are with people I have never met before. It is fascin

My Dad

I don't know why but I felt like writing about my dad. People generally do such things as obeisance but what's the point? I want him to know how much I appreciate him in my life. Not just everyone other than him. Everybody (at least most people I know), looks up to their dads. I'm one such person. As a kid, I saw my dad as the strict and angry man who came home smelling the same way he went out in the morning. How was that even possible? And he always managed to egg me on with things I had to do. I was always a round and plump kid (still am I suppose). My dad would make me exercise. And it's not the sort of, "Go for a walk around the block" sort of thing. I used to dread waking up on Fridays and Saturdays (that was the weekend in Dubai) because he'd be home and he'd make me sweat, quite literally! XD Only later in life did I realise how much it helped me. I managed to remain "fluffy" but yet rather flexible and was able to get till Black

When will we change?

I'm sitting in a train bound for Bangalore. A city where people from so many different places congregate to make a living. One might assume that the train bound for Bangalore might be filled with quite an array of pluralistic men and women who get along with many cultures. But I seem to have the misfortune of being stuck with 2 burly men who cannot stop berating the woes of having North Indian people (indha Hindi kaaranunga) "take our jobs". Seems even the Railway Police Force should be controlled by the state in which the train runs! Haha! Are these the sort of people that predominate our diverse country or are they mere dots in a sea of people with great respect for other ethnicities? Am I just naïve in assuming that the latter is true? For a country that fought oppression together and is divided by states but united as a nation, do we still see India as a country that is an amalgamation of many states or do we see it as a nation divided by mere cartographic boundaries

Namma veetu kalyanam

My sister just got married. Life is never going to be the same for us cousins henceforth. It all started in Feb 2015. I was out chilling with the dudes during a free hour when suddenly +Varshini Raghavan  calls and says, "Vishu I'm getting married!" Now when your cousin, who you've grown up with, who you pretty much shared everything with, with who you have infinite stories together, tells you those words, your first reaction is generally not, "Congratulations!" Especially not when it comes out the blue. Your reaction would be, "WHAT?!" And give that reaction I did! We spoke for about an hour, about how it started, what transpired with the folks at home, her roller coaster ride to getting them on board with her decision. I happened to bunk the next hour but who cares? History will speak of how I stood transfixed in one place with my phone to my right ear staring away into nothingness. It will not speak of how I missed taking notes about HLA recept

My last year at SASTRA

It started in July 2012. It ended in June 2016. 4 years of my life cooped up in Tirumalaisamudram (quite literally). I really could just lash out at all those things I hate about the place - every instance that made me feel like a Jew in a Nazi gassing chamber, every idiot who made it miserable for me there. But I'd rather not. Not only because I don't want to sound like a grumpy old man, but also because all 4 years of my life there was not, as I've lamented on many an occasion, life in a hellhole. Case in point - nostalgia started kicking in back in July 2015. So i n keeping with tradition (the one I just created for myself), I decided to write such a post. Now when people generally ask a student here at SASTRA, "How's college?" they might start off into a monotone of how hostel is a pain, a certain bald person makes their lives miserable, the food is horrible, they don't let you go home, they don't let you go out, they this, they that. (Phew now

Summer grays

Walking down the street, eyes aimed at her feet, fingers pinched, nostrils clenched, she ponders of cleaner air, kissing her face as she steps out her lair. A car whizzes past, leaving a trail that does last, making her huff and cough, and wonder with a laugh, "If only I could behold the sky azure, it would be utopia for sure!" Pick up those shoes and go for a walk, you’ll see for yourself and begin to gawk, for it does seem that we couldn’t care, or give “two f**ks” as some may swear, about the toxic sludge we breathe and drink, that puts us on extinction’s brink.

Adulthood

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I don't know if this is a  mentality that is quintessentially Indian, South Indian or just restricted to SASTRA. Recently a friend of mine narrated an incident to me in which his father was summoned to the university by his Dean because my friend has 5 arrears. Upon arrival, his dad had lunch and made a beeline for the Dean's office where the Dean, my friend's mentor (oftentimes a misnomer) and the dad proceeded to humiliate my friend. Now you need to understand that my friend is a fully functional 21-year old Homo sapiens with his own ambitions in life, hopes, desires, etc. The Government of India has deemed him fit to vote, to be able to make an informed decision with regards to marriage, being able to drink and smoke knowing full well the consequences it may have on his body and many other responsibilities. The Government has deemed him a "major" who can sign in cheque books and can be held personally accountable and fully responsible for his actions. Yet, tod

#startupindia

Many days back my uncle  +Bhoo Thirumalai  received an invite for an event called Startup India and asked me if I was interested in tagging along. He would make the necessary arrangements for the acquisition of an invitation for me, he said. I was more than just happy to say I was in on the plan. After all, who would miss an opportunity to visit Delhi? :D So I did as he asked me to - sent a few emails and voila! A week and a half later I was invited to the event. So I started planning my Delhi trip. Called up a friend of mine and made plans to meet with her when I was in the city, found out that a school friend of mine who I had not seen since 2010 was also in Delhi. So made plans to meet her too. I was excited to go! For my folks at home, the agenda was, "He's going to listen to the Prime Minister speak" but for me it was primarily, "Delhiiii!!" :P So when my college deigned to let me go home for Pongal, I took the chance to fly out to Delhi the very day I lan