We had an 8 hour session on Software testing today and the class was striving valiantly to stay awake after lunch. The instructor decided to pep us up a bit and so he asked each one of us to introduce ourselves and also list the names and hobbies of those who spoke before us. I managed somewhat because I was the 5th person to speak but the information got distorted as it passed further and further. I had listed my hobbies as reading novels and writing humour. Thus I was slightly taken aback when bengali girl right at the end got up and hesitantly said " He is Dinesh. He enjoys drinking and washing TV's"

Training is kinda hectic. I have 4 tests and an assignement to submit tommorow. When I get back home, I only want to eat dinner and crash into bed. Guess I got used to the easy life at company P :-(

My first day of training and I'm already having some severe time management problems. It took us some time to settle down, understand the local computer network , figure out where all the study material was stored, login, access information etc. Then the schedule for the next 2 months comes out and we find we have a test on 6 subjects on wednesday! We open the material online immediately and also find that 3 assignements are due tommorow :-(. So how do I spend my day? Do assignements which must be submitted before the deadline, or study for the test where we must get more than 75%?

The assignements are partially done, will finish them today. How am I going to study for the test? I havent had time to even open my books :-(.

Other than the one post about my own experience with the tremor and the tsunami that followed, I havent written more on the subject unlike my fellow bloggers.
Bloggers like Kiruba (http://kiruba.com) have dedicated the last three weeks to gathering information and more importantly collecting aid to help those affected. Hats
off to them.

Why the silence then on my part you might ask. Curiously enough, I havent felt the urge to write about the suffering of the people in Tamil Nadu. One reason being
that its been more than adequately covered in other blogs. The more important reason being....I just didnt feel like.

At the moment, I am quite immune to other people's sufferings. I dont want information on how many thousands lost their lives or how many lost their homes and livelihoods. Somehow, I dont really care. My own life has been turned upside down in the last 6 months. I'm too tired from figuring out where I stand and towards where I'm heading to bother about the difficulties of other people.

7 months back, my house was alive with laughter. Weekends would be the time my dad would be home. My cousin Harita would have come home for physics tution. Prashant would have finally got a day off from work and would have hilarious Taj tales about eccentric guests and gargoyle staff. My mother would be multitasking, dividing her time evenly between cooking lunch and arguing with my father. I would wander from room to room, savouring the life in my house. My apartment looked gorgeous in the morning. The light streaming in through the large windows in the hall, the very pretty clock above them..it was picture perfect. My house was warm and comforting. Other than the occasionaly argument with my dad about my career and my education, I had nothing to crib about.

Now my house seems lifeless. I'm confused about my own life. A lot of responsibility has suddenly dropped on my unprepared shoulders. I'm in charge of my own
life, my father isint there to keep me in line. I could cross the boundaries he had set if I wanted to, I havent yet but I'm scared I might.

I think its going to take me some more time to figure out where I stand and where I'm heading to. Until then I'm not going to care if people die from tsunami's or earthquakes. I'm not going to feel outraged if Jayendra Saraswati is arrested or released. I'm going to be an apathetic citizen until I have my own life figured out. Until then, I ask the world not to share its problems with me. I'm not interested.

No other expression conveys with so much feeling, the horror I had to go through with the HR from company P as "MACHHAN! ROD YETHITANGE!".

I actually dont want to write about it. Let me just say that I wanted to let the P HR know I was going officially. So I came up with this phony story and gave it to them........ and I got caught. I gassed for an hour and they asked one tricky question after the next until they forced me into a corner. It was so humiliating.

It smarted for a while. The HR made it seem like I was the liar, I was the bad guy..they made me feel guilty about lying...it hurt. Not that I ever admitted to them I was lying..

Now however, I've had time to reflect in all that happened and I realise...I dont give a shit. If they didnt have a bond, I would never have lied. Its completely wrong on their part to force me to stay. Given a choice between paying Rs 1 lakh plus interest and lying, I chose the latter. I have nothing to feel guilty about. I had a better opportunity in a better company and I took it. So screw them.

I've also completed my joining formalities with company C. I have a two day induction program and then I start training. A new start, a new beginning. Might as well forget about the past. Wish me luck.

My cousin's kids visited a couple of days back. The son was 4 years old and hell bent on destroying all my property. The daughter was 1 and would scream bloody murder if her mother put her down even for a second. Between the two of them I nearly went out of my mind. Most of the day was spent running behind the boy coaxing him to put the phone down, pleading for the safety of my cell phone, imploring him to stop banging on my keyboard, gently preventing from ascending my cupboard and most of all fighting my temptation to let him jump off the balcony. As background music we had the second kid wailing her misery all through the day. My sorrows doubled when they decided to spend the night. I cornered my mother right then and warned her that I would not be having any children of my own and she'd better not entertain any hopes of becoming a grandmother.

The next morning as I bade them goodbye, I could'nt help but sigh with relief. Turning to my mother, I asked her how I was as a kid.

" You never ate and would shit green pellets " came the terse reply.In those brief words, my mother described the beauty that was my childhood.

I'm so glad I'm 21.

2 major updates in my life:

1) I've quit my job in company P...and not in the most straightforward manner. I told my PM I wanted to leave as soon as possible.Told the HR I wanted to leave...and then I just left. I dont plan on going back to my office.... I feel terrible about the way I've gone about it but I just didnt have a choice. If not for the bond, I wouldnt have had to slink out..I could have left with my head held high.

2) My cousin Prashant who lived with us for 4 years left for his home in Calcutta. His mother wanted him back. Now its just my mom and I.

I've been sitting quite vetti at home for the past couple of days. I spent day 1 watching XXX (the Vin Diesel one in case you think otherwise). It was admittedly one of the most cliched, mind numbing action movies I had ever seen.Its all attitude and no stuff. There were times when the dialogue was so corny, I thought the movie was some sort of spoof. You sort of expect the film to build towards something better but it disappoints you right till the end.Vin Diesel looks like a beefed up Adam Sandler. I kept expecting him to trip and fall.

I havent done much on day 2 and it makes me wonder if I'm wasting away my youth.

That so called mild tremor I was talking about was worse than I thought!

http://www.ndtv.com/environment/Earthquake.asp?id=15959&callid=0

Well, I've had my share of excitement in the morning thanks to the mild tremor
which gently shook Chennai.I was lying in bed awake but too lazy to get up
when I felt someone try to tug the mattress from beneath me. I sat up and
looked around but my cousin Prashant was fast asleep.I then looked at the half
empty water bottle next to me and I saw the water in it sloshing about though
no one was touching it. Puzzled I got up and came to the hall. I asked my uncle
if he'd felt anything too. I then saw that all the bottles on the table had the water
shaking a bit. Quake, I decided. So I woke Prashant up and tried to bundle my
grandmothers and get them downstairs. Grandmother 1 was ready to come
down while grandmother 2 was too involved with her morning religious dose
from the TV to bother. " Its fine now! " she insisted. " All ok, we dont need to
move!". Prashant and I had to almost forcefully drag her out of the house.

" I have to go to the bathroom!" she announced and locked herself in much to
my irritation. I was getting pretty worried and as my cousin waited next to the
door,I got all our slippers out, took my wallet, cell phone and the cordless. My
grandmother finally emerged and we dragged the entire lot down insisting that
the lift shouldnt be used.

A few puzzled people were standing outside unsure of what had happened. Not
many people came down because they were fast asleep on a sunday morning I
guess. We stood on the road for a while not sure of what to do. Grandmother 2
was quite annoyed that she was missing out on her daily dose of spiritual
enlightenment and kept insisting that we go back up. Here I was, her noble
grandson who'd probably saved her from a wall crashing down on her head and
she was more interested in some pot bellied priest dispensing holy tit bits.

The initial excitement soon wore off and people began returning home. I waited
a little longer to see if my building would come crashing down but sadly it
did'nt.So much for a grateful grandmother I guess. We came back home, made
a few calls and checked if everyone was ok. I called up my mom who'd left for
Bangalore yesterday and asked if she'd felt anything there. Nope, only Chennai
seems to have been affected.

I've finally got my joining date from company C : Jan 7'th. A nice way to start the new year :-).

I'm bunking work at P today. I'm just wasting my time as well as my project manager's. My PM is a pretty nice guy, it makes me feel guilty that I'm going to have to lie my ass off to get out of P. I cant help it though, the bond I had to sign claims I have to pay Rs.1 lakh if I quit before 2 years. So I have to lie and squirm to avoid payment.

Wish me luck...

Well, 6 did become 12 and 12 equals 1 so everybody's happy :P

I decided a couple of days back that I have to go swimming on sunday. I used to love swimming as a kid but I never got around to visiting the pool often. The last time I went swimming was about 3 years back at the IIT pool.

So on friday I realise I dont have have a pair of trunks. I walked into a shop and asked for them. The chap looked at me and displayed some pretty bright looking stuff. Various shades of neon were displayed. I took my time and finally picked a turquoise blue shade. " This is the large size, could you give me the medium size please?" I asked. He looked me up and down and said " No sir, this will be perfect ". I was slightly insulted, I didnt have a big waist did I? I ended up buying the large size anyway. I came home and tried it on and it was so bloody tight :-( . My once 30 inch waist is now 32...have to get it down.

This morning, I wake up early have some coffee and bannanas for breakfast, squeeze into my trunks and get onto my cycle ( incidentally, I was wearing a Tshirt and jeans in case you think I would cycle around Chennai clad in nothing but neon trunks). I get past the IIT gate and the watchman stops me and tells me the pool is no longer open to visitors :-(. All my efforts were a complete waste....

Are there any pools in and around Adyar? If you have any info, do let me know.

I envy those guys with smooth silky hair. Those whose hair bounce and shine with health all the time. Those whose hair through which you can pass your fingers smoothly and not encounter any road blocks.Well, I am NOT one of those guys.

My hair defies any attempts to model it. It remains flat when I try to make it stand up and stands to attention when I try to flatten it. Its thick and dry and believes in inertia. To pass a comb through it in the morning is pure torture. Every strand firmly refuses to bend itself into shape. My hairs interlock and cause immense pain when I pass a comb across my head.

As a child, my father taught me to comb it from right to left, like he did. Now for the past year or so,I have reversed directions. Now different parts have to be combed in different ways. The front can be coaxed into bending right while the back of my head just bristles at the touch of a comb. It stands erect and refuses to accept any change in direction. So I comb the back like I used to as a kid. The middle of my head wont bend either way so I just comb it towards the front and hope it will stay down (it rarely does). The all important 'vagidu' or line of parting is not a straight line but a meandering curve.Hair on either side of it always want to move to the other side.

I have discovered that applying water on the head is an admirable way of decreasing hair ressistance.My hair can then be shaped perfectly.This phenomenon though is temporary and as my hair becomes dry in an hour, my head resembles a battleground.

Oil by itself is not a shaping agent as I have found. You head can drip Parachute or Himalaya or Dabar Amla but in no way is the hair going to be subdued.

So what I usually do is wet my hair, add oil and then comb it. The theory is that the water can be used to shape the hair and the oil causes the hair to stick to its position.

Yesterday I purchased some Brylcream Extra Strong Hair gel and applied it vigorously this morning.The bottle claimed I could style my hair in any way I wanted it, be it a funky spiked look or a a casual tousled look. I chose the conventional parting of hair and what do you know, it works! My hair now feels like its been stuck into position with fevicol. Its quite plastic in places and I'm afraid that if I bend a single strand, it will snap like a twig.

I think the entire problem is because different parts of my head are accustomed to different inclinations. I was wondering if I could perhaps ask the barber to just cut straight instead of choosing a parting, my hair problem will be solved. Isint that what they do when they spike your hair? Should I spike my hair? Do let me know.

I walked home from office yesterday (ie) from Spencer Plaza to Adyar Grand sweets. Took me about an hour and a half. Why did I do it? Well you see I usually take an auto home from work every evening and it costs me Between 50 to 60 Rs ( I cant even get into the bus, its that crowded). Now thats about 300 a week and 1200 a month! So I thought I would walk a little further and perhaps get an auto at a cheaper rate. I walked and I walked and I walked and I thought to myself " perhaps I can walk the entire distance" and I did. Its not that tiring if you do it in the evening. I certainly wouldnt attempt it while going to office.

Perhaps I shall try it again today...

Well a weekend quite different from my usual weekends. I'm afraid I cant give you too many details. All I will say is that I went on a trip ;-). A very magical two days indeed.

Now that I'm back in Chennai, I ask myself "Did the weekend really happen? How did it get over so fast?" Everything seems so unreal.

Work at P continues to be what it was. I was tempted to tell my project manager that I'd quit by mid jan max but he was on leave.

I have a strong feeling my brain is wasting away. I honestly think the last time I used my head was for the CTS test.

Have to get ready for work now....goodbye until then. May the Pillayar of the Rockfort temple bless you :-).

Once again I am guilty of not tending to my blog. There have been quite a few things going on in my life but I just havent had the urge to chronicle them.Call it lethargy on my part. For those of you who are eager to know whats going on, here's a brief summary :

1) Company C said I would be called in Jan. When in Jan? That they didnt specify.

2) I told my Project Manager that I'd be leaving soon. So for now he's put me in a new project. There's no work for now. I'm jobless all day.

3) My cousin Prashant quit his job at the Taj Coromandel, Chennai. The job didnt suit him because he had a screaming banshee for a boss.

On a more positive note, I submitted my dentures article to Sulekha.com for the India Smiles Global Writers contest. Its an old one. In case you havent read it, do check it out at :

http://www.sulekha.com/weblogs/weblogdesc.asp?cid=21776

Do let me know what you think of it.

Also, you can read what the others have submitted at :

http://www.sulekha.com/penguin/readsubmit.asp

My friend Aparna is currently pursuing her MBA in a prestigious institution in Trichy. That basically sucks because BSNL's cellphone network coverage is terrible and I hardly get to have a decent conversation with her.

I pick up the phone and I dial her number. These are the responses I usually get.

1) beep beep beep beep beep beep beep (pause) different kind of beep beep beep
2) Dead silence

3) Loud engaged tone the milli second after I've dialed the number

4) ALL THE LINES IN THIS ROUTE ARE BUSY( and that lady's voice is just so damn rude!)

5) The subscriber you are calling is out of coverage area, please try after sometime.( If you wait patiently, the same message will be repeated in Tamil)

6) The subscriber you are calling has switched off. Please try after some time.

There are those rare days when I do manage to get through to her.....though trust BSNL to screw my happiness.

Myself : " Hey! I managed to get through! What are you upto? "

Aparna: " What? Cant hear.Hello?"

Myself :" Hey! I managed to get through! What are you upto? "

Aparna :" Hello? "

Myself :" Can you hear me?"

Aparna :" Now I hear you! What were you saying before? "

Myself : " I said I managed to get through! What are you upto? " "

Aparna : " Hello? "

Myself :" Grr. Hello??"

Aparna " Hellooo"

Myself : " Hullo Hullo"

Aparna : " Hallo Hallo Hallo"

Myself : " Can you hear me or not! "

Aparna : " Now I do! Tell me!"

Myself : " Well, bugging day at the office, nothing went well, need someone to crib to and extract sympathy from :-( "

Aparna : "Hallo?"

and she accuses me of losing my temper...

One of the solutions I received for the sock problem was "To change my socks everyday". I'm quite insulted to think that my readers wont credit me with the intelligence to do that without suggestion.Ofcourse I change em everyday! and when I run out of socks, I steal my cousin Prashant's socks...so thats never really been a problem...

Nowadays I usually spray deo on my feet and socks before I leave for work...also I'm considering washing my feet in office every couple of hours....

Nothing smells more hideous at the end of the day than my feet. I get back home from work, remove my shoes and peel of my socks...lo and behold! USA has another reason for passing sanctions against us...the potent power of my smelly feet.

The moment I enter the house, I run to the bathroom and wash my feet with dettol soap...but its of practically no use, the smell just lingers around the house. I wake up in the morning to the smell of yesterdays smelly feet.

I dont remember facing this problem in college..does it have something to do with the air conditioning in the office? Solutions are welcome.

I havent blogged in a while..guess I've just been too lazy too :P.

I attended another bloggers meet at Besant Nagar beach on Sunday, Nov 14'th. About 11 of us turned up...all male, so fellow blogger Karthik Kannan was highly dissapointed. I enjoyed this bloggers meet a lot more than the previous one. It was a lot more casual.

There's a lot of stuff I havent written about. I blew my first and second salaries on rimless glasses and a very exclusive gym membership respectively. My bank balance is looking distinctly starved now, cant wait for this months sal.

C wont call me until December, so I'm stuck in P till then.Oh well, another month of ctrl C, ctrl V...

One more thing...who are you KS?

I recieved some pretty flattering comments for my previous post :-). Thank you guys, but I'm warning you, my ego is close to reaching critical mass. Any more compliments and it just might explode!

At the moment I'm still waiting for my call letter, I just hope it comes by this week. I dont know what to do with myself in my current job....time just drags.

Today marks the completion of an entire year of blogging...and I must say I've had a lot to write about : I met someone special, I prepared haphazardly for the CAT, I completed my engineering degree, I searched desperately for a job, my father passed away, I received two good job offers....well quite a lot to blog about indeed.

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure what the purpose of my blog was. Initially I just wanted to write something funny everyday so that people could tell me how witty I was :P. However as I began to blog more and more often, things changed. I felt the urge to chronicle every single thing that happened in my life. Perhaps being a blogger, the assimilation of experiences whether mundane or important obliged me to write about them. Blogging is a conceivably a way to put my thoughts down on paper and then ask myself " Is this how I feel about this experience?" or "do these words really echo my thoughts?". Very often I have this nagging feeling that I've written down something totally irrelavant to how I feel.

Then once again there is the question of " How much of myself do I wish to reveal to the world?". A lot of what I've written is in fact extremely personal...but yet I know that I have not met a large percentage of the people who read my blog. It does feel odd at times when a total stranger comes and tells me he's quite familiar with all the intimate details of my life. Sometimes its gratifying, sometimes I actually resent it.

There are times I blog because I saw something really hilarious and I want to share the joke with everyone. Sometimes I blog for the purely selfish reason that I think I write well and I want everyone to tell me so :P.Sometimes I find that I can deal with emotional issues better when I write about them. Perhaps this blog will serve a diary and remind me 50 years from now what it felt like to be 20 years old.

I think the real reason I blog is because I think it helps me learn more about myself. Writing down every thought, every feeling, every experience tells me how I think, how I react to situations both good and bad. It certainly is an educational experience, I do recommend it :-).

So exactly one year back I wrote the " Personal Computer Systems " exam...little did I know that life would change so much in 12 months....