En iniye pon nilave (5 things - Week 51)

To say that it came as a breath of fresh air in our college lives would be a lie to say the least. The freshest of airs were provided much earlier by the on screen campus lives of a group of friends in 'Happy Days'. What 'Vaaranam Aayiram' brought to us non-level headed souls was the dream.

Watching the actor Surya live out three awesome, completely different love stories in a span of under three hours was the most enthralling experience of our lifetime. It still is for me. The way the whole movie was crafted by GVM, the controlled acting by Surya, the music by Harris, each and every frame and note in that movie inspires a feeling in your heart.

And it is those high points in this movie that we are going to look at, for this week's post. It might be the effect of having just finished watching the movie, but this post on THAT movie was long overdue. Let's not make it wait any longer.

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1. At first sight

Whenever a guy hears this movie being mentioned, he'll first remember this scene.

As Surya takes his seat on the train, he takes a casual glance across and sees Meghna for the first time. What follows is a frame by frame representation of what goes on in most guy's heads. Instead of reading me describing that scene to you, you should be spending your hoarded MBs of internet data on that 11 minute video. It's that good.

P.S. One of the best bits in that scene is when the Ticket Inspector asks from Surya, his ticket and the ensuing 10 seconds of expressions. We've all been there.

P.P.S. In case you think that the behaviour of the character is stretched for effect, I would like to tell you that I know someone who would behave in the exact same way (including the air guitar part). I'm looking at Mr.ShivJ. :P

2. The songs

Talking of Mr.ShivJ, I think he was the one who started the trend of having the songs from the movie as the hellotune. There are eight songs in this movie, each brilliant in its own sense. But three songs caught the imagination of the youth - Nenjukkul Peidhidum, Mundhinam and Ava Enna. Of the three, I have lost count of the number of phones I've heard ringing to the tune of Nenjukkul Peidhidum. In case you were wondering, yours truly had Mundhinam as his ringtone for a long time.

3. Three types of love

In the movie, GVM depicts three different types of love.

The Krishna-Malini love is the purest form there is. Falling in love at first sight, and then living together happily for many years.

The Surya-Meghan love is the perfect love, expect that it doesn't have a happy ending. No matter how hard the two souls try to make it work, something or the other crops up to quash it out. If it was a terrorist attack in the movie, it's arranged marriages in real life. ;) :D

The love between Surya and Priya is what you can call real love. One friend of mine put it elegantly as, "Even if you don't get to live with the person you loved, live with the person who loves you."

4. Six pack

I guess this was the movie which brought the six pack phenomenon. Surya worked hard and showed off his six pack in the movie. And it became a trend through out the nation, with other leading stars putting in the effort for the same.

5. This song

Did you really think that I would do a post on this movie without giving due space for this song?? It will always be one of the most romantic songs.

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This must have been the fifth time that I watched this movie, but it still sets bells ringing. I don't have words to describe this feeling. You need to watch this movie to get that. So I suggest you get yourself an original DVD of the movie (with english sub titles, if required) and watch it.

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That's it for this week. Next week marks the 52nd part in this weekly series. That's one whole year that we've dragged this through. I hope that I get enought time to do the special thing that I've planned on doing. And I hope I haven't jinxed it by saying that.

You all have a great weekend.

'til next week.

To teach is divine (5 things - Week 50)

Among the numerous conversations that I've had this week, the subject of my love for teaching cropped up. I've always had a peculiar urge to teach things. Since I have always been a blabbermouth, I never feel any pang in sharing any/all of my knowledge with anyone who has asked me for help.

I always feel happy when that person comes and asks me to explain something else. That means that I was able to help him/her the last time out, and they are hopeful of me being able to do the same once again.

And that brings us to today's post. We'll go through the basic qualities that we all look forward to from teachers.

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1. A Teacher should have intelligence

We're not talking about knowledge here, but INTELLIGENCE. What's the difference?? Knowledge is just the know-how about the stuff. Intelligence is how to apply that in real life. Let's be honest. We all "loved" to find quotients and remainders in our primary classes. But when you use that to get the mileage of your bike, that's when you are happy that you know it.

2. A Teacher should be inspiring.

A subject's level of tediousness and boredom can be reduced by the level of enthusiasm that the Teacher shows to it. If the first thing you heard in your first algebra/calculus class is that it's tough, then you would still be cursing your fate that you had to learn them.

3. A Teacher should be patient.

Not all of us are bright to the same level. Not all of us can grasp the concepts at the same rate. A Teacher should be patient enough to guide and encourage all students.

4. A Teacher should be humble.

In most cases, a Teacher will have a better grasp of the subject, but it is still possible that the student will have something new to add to it, or have a new way to look at the problem. For the better development of the student, a teacher should be humble enough to encourage him/her.

5. A Teacher should be rewarding.

NO!! I'm not talking about physically rewarding us with candies and toffees (although I won't say no to that). What a teacher should reward is the effort a student puts in, and that is most effective with encouraging words.

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And then, I was introduced to this 10th standard student, who was, to put it lightly, not so humble. He demanded  me to tell him about how to reduce the turning radius of a vehicle. Even though I knew the answer, I withheld it from him. It's not any rocket science that he can't find it from somewhere else, but I felt uneasy for the first time in my life about teaching.

That's when one remembered something that my grandfather had told me,

"What you teach is Vidhya, the purest form of Goddess Saraswati. Share it with only those, who'll value it."

All the qualities that I had talked about earlier has to be there, but it should be there only in a measured quantity. It has to be balanced. If not, you'll either be a bad teacher, or you'll be an ineffective one.

Not this balance!!!

This BALANCE!!!

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Well, that's it for this week.

You all have a great weekend.

'til next week.

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EPILOGUE

This is the prologue. I'm too lazy to move it to the top. So, the post which should have been posted on this week's Friday, comes out 14 hours late. I hope you are wondering why. I'm involved in a few projects right now, and one which was supposed to be completed by 8am today morning decided to take us all on a ride yesterday. If I hadn't heard of the saying, "Whatever will CAN wrong, WILL go wrong", I would have made it up by myself after the experience, which left me awake for nearly 24 hours.

Anyways, sorry for the delay. Hope you have a great weekend. Well, of what's left of it at least.

All because of a red light...

Yellow has been found to be the most visible of colors. That is why people use it for headlights when there is fog. That is why marketeers use it for getting people attracted to their ads. That is why yellow is used to indicate the CAUTION state in traffic lights.

Yellow comes just before it turns red to indicate that the flow is going to stop. And that is what I precisely understood as I saw the yellow on the traffic junction. And like every "busy" modern man, I tried to squeeze through, so that I won't have to wait at the junction for the light to turn green again.

But sadly, I was a little too late to start my acceleration and ended up just not bumping into a car. And so I was stuck at the junction for 120 seconds, as this is arguably the most crowded traffic point in the city. And the story is about how those two minutes I spent at that traffic point killed another being.

You see, I was in a hurry because it was 7.40pm already and I was supposed to visit the temple before it closed at 8pm. And that was because I was mad enough to challenge myself to visit the temple every day for a month. It felt really simple at first, cos this temple was right in front of my house.

And today was the 14th day. I couldn't lose now. Well, you might think why I didn't go in the morning. Well, that was cos I was trying to practice the SUNDAY - Sleep Until Noon DAY. I failed in that too. I woke up by 10am, by which time the temple had closed. And so, the visit was to be, as planned, in the evening. But like all things planned, it had to go wrong.

A friend called up for something important and I had to go out without a fixed time to get back. But when I was able to leave his place by 7.30pm, I saw a chance to keep my challenge alive, at least for another day. And that was the reason for the rush.

Now, about the killing part. I got to the temple in time, prayed before the temple closed, felt proud to have been fortunate enough to keep my challenge alive, when I unfortunately did something to kill something else. As I was stepping out of the temple, I didn't pay attention to where I was stepping and I stepped on a leech, squishing the life out of it in the process.

This got me thinking. All other things remaining constant, what would have been the case if I had got through that junction without having to wait two minutes. Would I have been the one who takes the life?? Would it still have been taken by someone else, or would it have been left for me to finish off??

FATE. It's something we all are too afraid to believe in, but still we can't ignore the fact, that the concept of it not being alterable is far too unnerving. And if you are asking me if I have an answer, then I'll have to say no. All I have, are more questions.

Recap (5 things - Week 49)

*** When a TV series's scriptwriters have a shortage of ideas for the next episode, they improvise on a simple, short script by adding a lot of flashbacks They, thus make an entire episode, which is basically a look back at the best moments in that series. This is my own humble attempt at the same. ***

One of the worst kept secret in this world is that everyone is unique. I won't digress by trying to explain the difference we all have in our personalities, our behaviours and our intelligence. You don't need to have a keen sense of observation to realize that.

Even in this blog, in this series, I've seen that uniqueness - on what different people want from the posts. The humour I often try to employ, the way I describe my experiences, my style of writing and the selection of topics - everything has been influenced to cater to those varying needs. And the response to a post has always varied due to the variety of people who read these random mumblings of mine.

But still, among the 75+ posts in this blog, there is one post which has been read the most. 

"Ormayundo?"

Why is it so, you may ask. Well, let me tell you that it's cos it has got everything. A climax, a funny twist, a real life incident and maybe, most importantly a bit of self mockery.

In the past, you had to submit your creation, whether prose or poem, to an editor and then be dependent upon his taste and his whims to get your article published somewhere; anywhere. But all I got to do now is to click the orange "Publish" button at the top. It's that simple, it's that tough. You get judged by a far bigger crowd with widely varying tastes and preferences.

But thanks to constant feedbacks (both positive and negative), we have been able to keep this blog alive. So, for this week's "5 things", we'll have a look at the favorite posts, which were not a part of this series.

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1. "Ormayundo?"

This was always going to be the first. Click that link and read on to find out how interesting/embrassing meeting an old friend can be.

2. Seven stages of Love

One punch line gave life to a whole post. Go on and read about the seven stages of love, and how, in the right relationship, you'll fall in love over and over again.

3. On his last game

A personal favorite, because it was the first poem I had written in a decade. What got me so swelled up with emotions?? Well, I had to play my last game of football. And in that one game, I felt, for one last time, all the things which made me fall in love with this beautiful game.

4. Right next to her

Three hints.

Hint 1 : A flight journey from Delhi to Trivandrum.

Hint 2 : "God!! Please let her sit right next to me."

Hint 3 : God wishes you had be more specific about your wishes.

5. Aise na mujhe tum dekho

My tribute to one of the best voices I've had the luck to listen to. Read that post and find out how Kishore Kumar will have you laughing through one song, and crying as you listen to the next one.

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I know I'm not allowed to give excuses, but still I've been swamped with work. It's ironic that this has happened only after I quit my job. If it weren't for the "Leap of Faith", I would have been writing this post out in my room at Gurgaon, after another week at office, getting ready to enjoy the weekend. It would have been easy, but it wouldn't have been the same. Take your own leap of faith to know what that means.

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Well, that's it for this week.

You all have a great weekend.

'til next week.

Where's the snooze button?? (5 things - Week 48)

I've been back on the wheel for a whole week now. Having schedules to meet, stuff to brush up on, meeting new people, getting up at a fixed time in the morning, etc etc. You could call these the chores of an average individual, and it is nothing but that. But after enjoying the forbidden pleasures of indulging in absolute laziness, having to jump back on the wheel showed the expected glitches of moaning from yours truly. Hence the cliche, "Where's the snooze button?".

Somewhere in the past week, I heard something that I really liked. "Living in this world is like trying to force yourself to run up a escalator. You are successful as long as you keep running. But the second you stop to celebrate your triumph, you are knocked back on your arse. So, keep moving forward."

Don't get me wrong, I've not suddenly started supporting the rat race, or that, I'm against it. My personal opinion on all subjects, let it be the current topic of rat race, politics, religion or homosexuality is the same - "To each his own." But I'm always against people trying to enforce their opinion on you. You can make a case for your viewpoint in a sane, logical manner, and I'll be all ears for it. I'll hear it out, I'll think over it and if I find your points to be genuine, I'll support you.

But if you try to forcefully convert me to achieve some personal glory, then please don't blame me if I turn a deaf ear to what you say. And if you think that this whole rant is because I'm sick of all these sms forwards/ whatsapp messages/ emails related to the impending Lok Sabha elections, then I won't say that you are wrong.

And in case you were wondering where my loyalties lie, if I had to press a button on the voting machine, I would prefer it to be for the "NONE OF THE ABOVE" option.

RANT OVER.

And we shall get back to the task of this post. The "5 things" for this week is now coming your way.

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1. Recursive Acronym

The expansion of the acronym GNU is [Gnu is] Not Unix.

Simple right, but also extremely intriguing in its concept. Anything recursive has always captured my imagination. From the time I had to write loops in computer programming, I took immense pleasure to sent the artificial intelligence into a fit by writing infinite loops. And when I heard of this concept, the first thing, okay the second thing that came to my mind was posting it here for you. The first thing was to check if there are more like it. There is.

2. "Is there a mall at Kazhakootam?"

One of the punch lines this week. And it came from a classmate at the CDAC course, Rachit. He's from Delhi, and by the looks of the Technopark campus, where we have our classes, he expected the surrounding area to have at least a mall, where the techies can go off to have some fun. Thursday being a holiday, he wanted to get around the place as well as do some shopping. And it was for this purpose that he called me on Thursday morning and asked me the above.

My first reaction was to laugh at the preposterous nature of the question (since Trivandrum is still waiting for its first official mall, there being many mall-like buildings). But later, I was apologetic for the lack of a mall in my favorite city, and offered to help him around the main shopping areas in the city. He is yet to take me up on that offer, though that might be due to the fact that he will have to travel almost 10+ km to reach here.

3. Godwin's Law

Godwin's Law states that "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."

Interesting because I've seen it happen on many a forum. The said Nazi name calling might be in its pure form, or in some derived form like Grammar Nazi. Talking about derived forms of Nazi, for the Seinfeld fans out there, hope you remember this guy.

Soup Nazi !!!

Anyways, we can all be safe in the knowledge that Godwin's Law doesn't apply to this site. There has to be a discussion for that probability meter to start working.

4. Man and Machine - Power Extreme.

Sorry. That was due to the good old Centurions catch phrase.

What I intended to convey with my poorly constructed excuse of a heading was that not only have I started gaining weight after coming back home, but some similar improvements have been noticeable in my machine, the Avenger. The bike, which used to give about 35-38 km per litre of petrol I pour in it, had been pushing that number upwards of 40 ever since I got here. And after the past week, when I had to travel about 30km of the NH 47 every day, this has been found to reach 47.34* kmpl. The * is to indicate that the measurements are still ongoing.

If I were a person interested in statistics, I would have told you that this was a 29.69% increase on the previous average. But I'm not, so I'll not. Anyways, it's good for me in this period of enforced austerity.

5. Inside out

I came to know about a discovery that a friend of mine has made recently. He claims that he has found a way to increase the life of the undergarments that he uses. If you can't put the last sentence and the point topic together to get what he meant, you are one lucky ***.

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Well, that's it for this week.

You all have a great weekend.

'til next week.