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IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THIS
Monday, May 29, 2006
Blood and gore.These three words would aptly signify the movie Pudhupettai.And it has been manifested to a large extent in the movie.It is the story of two gangs,one belonging to the ruling political party and the other to the opposition.The movie starts with Danush sitting inside a cell narrating how he started as a meek schoolboy and then how he went on to become a gangster.

The tagline below the title reads "Survival of the fittest".But I myself cant believe that I have survived after watching the movie(considering the fact that I have gained a few extra pounds lately).I would recommend this to anyone who wants to take revenge on someone else.The song "Oru Naalil" did not feature in the movie and this was a big disappointment.

Overall an O.K movie.Consider yourself lucky if you endure three hours of bloodshed and emerge alive.
Property of Sheks @ 11:44 pm   0 comments
GIFT FROM NATURE
Friday, May 26, 2006
Rains are generally not dreaded in a city like chennai for the sole reason that it brings down the mercury.It can also set some things right as in what happened to my bike today.My bike's horn had been acting in a rather peculiar manner.It blows only at low speeds and refuses to budge at 40 or 60 kmph.But after getting drenched in the overnight rain(in the process of which some water seeped into the engine cylinder),the horn seemed to blow at any speed.Nature does have its own benefits.
Property of Sheks @ 5:31 pm   0 comments
EXERCISE IN FUTILITY
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
BULLS HIT
These two words struck me the first thing in the morning when I picked up my copy of The Economic Slimes from my doorstep.It is normally believed that to ensure a joyous,buoyant day ahead,begin the day on a happy note.As it was the opposite case here,it goes without saying that my day turned out to be rather bad.

Topping the agenda for today was a trip to Hyundai car plant at Irungattukottai,to apply for a 2 week internship.After waiting in the visitors' room for about half an hour,a lady from the HR department spoke to me over the phone.She said that to undergo internship I must have some referrals,which I did not have,unfortunately.I was sent back and when I reached home in the afternoon after a tiresome 3 hour journey by three buses,I realised that all this was an exercise in futility.
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After reading mafiadon's notification about the arrival of this book,I set off to Odyssey to buy it.Another attempt at story telling by an IIT student,after Five Point Someone(which has become a best seller).The difference between this and FPS is that while the latter was written by a graduate,the former's by a final year student.It costs just 100 bucks,so check it out.
Property of Sheks @ 6:54 pm   0 comments
PROJECT BLUES
Saturday, May 20, 2006
The previous semester had been sort of hectic what with weekends snatched away and the total duration of the semester slashed to 3 months.Even amidst all this we were supposed to do a project which was specified as "mandatory" according to the university syllabus that's as screwed up as Harris Jayaraj's background music.

Overnight stays in the hostel ruled the roost and this meant compromising on sleep.As true engineering students,we never had the habit of completing work ahead of schedule.If the review's scheduled for the next day,start composing the report that night itself.Thus one could witness groups of four to five people cuddled up in a room meant for only one person.Sometimes hunger would strike at the stroke of midnight and we had to satisfy it by going out to the tea shop near IIT and drinking hot tea in the middle of the night.

The next ordeal was taking printouts of the report.This would happen an hour before the review starts.Star Xerox at saidapet was the ideal alternative to the always-crowded xerox centres inside the campus,where customer service is a mere myth.

One group had been so complacent till the day of the review that they were at their wits end to finish the report.With some help from other guys,they managed to successfully clear the review.This group tackled the orals in a different meaning.One question put forward was "Why did you choose Lean manufacturing as your project title?and why did you do it at ICF??"Pat came a "creative" response from one guy,"Sir,Lalu Prasad yadav has planned to increase the production capacity of ICF.He quoted that in the recent budget.By doing this project we will be indirectly helping Lalu Yadav achieve this goal."Such response can be considered provocative to a lecturer who expects no-nonsense stuff and in the end the group found itself struggling to find it feet after it was awarded a mere 70%.This was during the first review.

The above group went through an ordeal in preparing the final report.At the DTP centre,one of the guys in the group was so desperate to take the prints that he did not bother to include page numbers,which were supposed to be necessary.He coolly said "That's not a problem.We'll write them with pen" for which he got a drubbing from his fellow projectmate who then added page numbers.Just when they thought everything was fine,they realised they had forgotten to include the Abstract in Tamil.The same guy suggested "It's OK.We'll get some other group's tamil abstract and photocopy it.The lecturer is a golti and he wont find out."Again he received the same drubbing.Then the certificate from the company.They had to spend about a week before they could finally get the certificate signed by their co-ordinator in ICF.In the meantime they made frequent trips to the lecturer's room to ask for permission to extend the due date of submission.After a lot of coaxing,the request was acceded to.

Overall it was an exciting endeavour and the project work was a fascinating thing.One gets to learn life's most important lessons when one procrastinates till the due date and finally sits overnight to complete the work,sacrificing sleep,food,drinks etc.
Property of Sheks @ 9:54 pm   0 comments
COOL BLUE
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
That's the name of a bland drink that I tasted two years ago in Fruit Shop,that is more of ice cubes than liquid.But I had no option other than like it for name's sake as it was a special friend who was buying me that drink.

I've got tired of that old template and so gone in for a template change.Regular visitors might term this as a sudden desperate move,but it's only the content that matters and not the appearance.Kindly bear with me till I come up with a good post.

This firefox template is only to show that I'm a man of fire as how other people(read college friends) put it(though I have other opinions).My attempts at trying to be modest to the lowest extreme possible dont seem to be working.

In this attempt,I'm forced to compromise on the comments for the previous posts.This happened because I just didnt know where to fit the comment block of the template code.Blame it on poor programming skills.
Property of Sheks @ 11:34 pm   0 comments
PLAYING WITH NAMES
Monday, May 15, 2006
Year 1996.DMK makes a clean sweep in the Tamilnadu assembly elections.Karunanithi becomes chief minister.Removes the name Jayalalitha from everywhere.Jayalalitha Film City renamed MGR Film city.J J Nagar near Anna Nagar renamed Mogappair(whose roads were,for long, under repair). J Jayalalitha Transport Corporation(a partner to the then existing Tiruvalluvar Transport corporation) renamed Rajiv Gandhi Transport corporation.

Year 2001.The ADMK triumphs the assembly elections.Mogappair(the roads were still under repair) becomes J J Nagar again.RGTC's name stands changed as State Express Transport Corporation famously known to many as Waste Express Transport Corporation.Kalaignar Karunanithi Nagar,which is better known as K K Nagar,is renamed as K K Nagar,with no expansions for the K's.

Year 2006.K K Nagar renamed Kalaignar Nagar(noticed on a 12G bus).

Even before the election results were announced one particular bus carried the name Mogappair.This might be because the mechanics who serviced the bus belong to the DMK union.Observations and inferences apart,it remains to be seen whether the people of TamilNadu would be put to stressful activities such as modifying a part of their addresses because of these name changing exercises.
Property of Sheks @ 10:08 pm   0 comments
PRODUCTIVE
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Manufacturing industries strive to improve productivity by reducing the amount of scrap generated,as too much of scrap lowers productivity.

The above principle applies to Orkut too.
Property of Sheks @ 12:54 pm   0 comments
GYAN IN A TRAIN
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
The "gyan" in the title,in other words,refers to height of irritation.I was caught in a predicament in which I couldnt figure out,till the end,whether to voice my view or not.

I was travelling to tambaram,sitting in an electric train.A middle aged man boarded the train at st.thomas mount and sat near me.The next moment he opened his mouth and didnt shut it till Tambaram,talking nonsense nonstop.He started with Karunanithi and Jayalalitha, suffixing each name with a famous word in tamil that starts with 'O'.Karunanithi Jayalalitha ---ivanga rendu perum ozhinjaa thaan indha tamizhnaadu uruppadum (TN can prosper only if Jaya and karunanithi exit the scene).

This fellow asked the question "What good have you done in your life?" to his co-passengers including me.As expected most of us were speechless.It was not because we havent done anything useful but because we were in no mood to answer his question.I was put off by the smell of beer coming from his mouth.

While that fellow kept mouthing DMK ,ADMK ,Vaiko etc,we remained mum.It is dangerous to use such terms in public but that fellow didnt seem to care.I was hoping that he would stop but all of a sudden Tambaram station never seemed to show up.

What I'm trying to emphasise here is that never discuss serious politics, in public,to the extent that others are all ears to it.It might me dangerous.

Property of Sheks @ 9:28 pm   0 comments
SUPERMARKET LAW
Monday, May 08, 2006
While shopping for perfumes in a supermarket,pick the can that is at the far end in the rack,for the ones in the front are tampered,in the sense,they are always short of the specified quantity.These are used as odour-testing bottles .
Property of Sheks @ 9:10 pm   0 comments
CONSERVATISM
Sunday, May 07, 2006
I was watching the special discussion programme "Battle for TamilNadu" in CNN IBN.The issue discussed was "What hampers tamilnadu from becoming India's no.1 state?"One sub-topic that was discussed was "Is Chennai conservative?"

Now this question has bothered many a Chennaiite who really cares for the city,who really loves the city.Now how exactly would you define the term "conservative".The Oxford lexcion says "not averse to rapid changes".If this definition is anything to go by,then the term "changes" has to be analysed.What changes has Chennai faced?

As far as I know during the period from 1995 to 1998,when I first set foot in this city,there was not a single day when the mercury crossed 40 degrees.But now the sun's blazing away at 44 degrees.This is one change that the city has witnessed but it is up to the people to acclimatize.

The population has been constantly increasing.More industries have mushroomed.To keep pace with the changes,flyovers have been built,roads widened,national highways through the city improved and grade separators are coming up.

The above are only a few cases to illustrate the progress that chennai has made.I'd be grateful if you readers quote many more instances in the comment box.

From a personal viewpoint I have come across many people quoting weird reasons why the city is conservative.One cousin of mine in Bengaluru says "The heat's terrible in Chennai".So what?Your immune system is equipped to resist temperatures upto 50 degrees.Why can't you endure 43 degrees.70 lakh people in the city endure the heat.They havent died of it.

Another guy whom I met about a year ago on a return trip from the "garden city" of Bengaluru remarked,"There are no good shopping malls in Chennai".From his accent I could easily make out that he was a north Indian who was accustomed to shopping in the malls of the Northern Capital Region.

A girl,whom I met online,quoted a news article she had read which threw light of the hostility of south Indians towards north Indians.It quoted an instance of how a Marwari family searched for a house in north Chennai only to be driven out by a group of youngsters who sang "Enga area ulla varaathey...."The linguistic bias is the root cause of this.

Other claims for conservatism that I witnessed in newspapers and by word of mouth include bad roads,non-cosmopolitan nature,absence of famous people etc.

Contrary to all this,I feel that Chennai's making steady progress in its bid to establish itself a top city in India.And I have this to say to those who still feel,the city is conservative:If we are conservative,it means you are blind.
Property of Sheks @ 12:19 am   0 comments
FATE OF THE YATRA
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Any superstitious fellow would agree with me if I say that when L.K.Advani took off on his Bharat Suraksha Yatra,the sensex touched 11000 points,Dr.Rajkumar passed away after which infosys recorded 38% rise in profits and then Pramod Mahajan got shot after which Satyam and Ashok Leyland registered profits and finally Pramod Mahajan passed away.He may not have been a bigshot in the BJP like Advani or Vengaaya Naidu or Watchboy but still he made his presence felt when he was the Information & Broadcasting minister.May his soul rest in peace.
Property of Sheks @ 11:14 pm   0 comments

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Name: Sheks
Home: Madras, TamilNadu, India
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