6/30/2005

Kalanjali 05, version 10


Kalanjali 05, version 10, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

As i was driving through Gandhi Nagar adyar,I noticed a flurry of bikes and commotion on the 4th main Road,usually seen only when parents drop their wards at school.It took me a while to realise that the inter-school fest KALANJALI was going on.

All of a sudden ...just as maniratnam attempts a flashback in his movies..i was transported 6 years back in time , when our batch Organized Kalanjali , and how My quiz" Referee's Verdict" was a major success considering the turnout for the event then.

I've managed to do a couple of more editions of My Sports quiz at school after passing out,Which incidentally had the winners ,also going on to win the ESPN school quiz.

old memories


old memories, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

That's our correspondent(Tara satyanarayanan) and Vice principal (sashikala sriram). They have been with this school since it's inception and it was glad to see them still there.Sashikala madam ,initially (class 5 -6) in a way was a terror....as her exterior image would project..but was a very nice teacher and a very friendly person .One of her biggest qualities was that she could even make the weakest students in the class not feel lonely and would give them confidence by personally interacting with them.

She knows each student very well ...primarily beacuse our school was a very small one , like one united family...more so an extension of gurukula...where every one had time for interacting and enjoying the small pleasures of life.Now given the fact that the school has 3 sections per class ...it would be quite an onerous task remembering names. But seriously ,even if a teacher forgets ur name ..she would defintetly remember ur antics ...and the way u were in school and nothing can be more rewarding for them , than seeing their students succesful after they've graduated out of school and meeting up with them.This was one such occaission.

Revathi madam


Revathi madam, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

She was my chemistry teacher till the 10th standard and tried hard to disprove my theory that there seemed to be no 'chemistry' between me and the subject.I initially struggled through the 9th standard chemistry with the concepts of avagaddarro's number,mole and molecule giving me sleepless nights..but slowly managed to get a hang of these concepts.

Revathi ma'm lived very close to my earlier house in adayar(jeevarathnam nagar).I remember an extremely funny incident where once during my summer holidays ...at about 8 30 in the night , I spotted her at a local departmental store (Prestige stores) and those days, for some reason , my paranoia towards Chemistry made me a little scared of her...and the moment I saw her ....My eyes opened really wide..and my adam's apple moved a cycle down ...heart skipped a beat...and in the melee ..i said "GOOD MORNING MA'M " and fled the place without collecting the 3rs change the shop owner had to give me.To this date I cant help laughing ...at that Incident.

She was talking on how sophisticated the school had become and how the facilities have improved,but somehow she felt that the simplicity in students had been eroded in the current generation, unlike our's where ,If i remember we even had classes in the open ground under trees.

I simply echo her feeling's .THOSE WERE THE DAYS .....

Rajendran sir


Rajendran sir, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

Rajendran sir has been by teacher for maths from as early as class 5.He has been assosiated with our school for a very long time. He used to be totally involved in the subject ,when he used to teach us.It was he who taught me that I have a terrible weakness for numbers and he who actually pulled me ot of the rubble of the paranioa of numbers ...by specifically focussing attention on me,so that I worked harder at my math.

I still remember the days when I used to doze of in his class,He would get so angry ...that he used to say ...the only way i can improve is " to have a pot of water above my head ....and make drops of water fall from the pot right on me ...so that I stay awake.

I only wish he had followed that,as the habit of dozing off has been sinceerly implemented from school thru college and now in office(especially the first few minutes after a heavy lunch).

It was so glad and heartening meeting him and some of the other teachers.

Long walk acros the corridor

This was taken in the second floor of our school corridor.It was here that most of our high school life was spent as classes 11 and 12 are housed here.I was just thinking 5 years back, I was here rummaging through the contents of my textbook , doing last minute studies .....

Now they have put grills across the open walls,primarily to prevent any one from bending and falling over.

6/25/2005

BUGging !!!

I had just finished making the code changes to an application and had replaced some eralier existing code with some new code which I thought would make the app run better and show the desired result.I compiled the program ...and checked the spool ...thankfuly no errors ...but when I ran the program ...a loud beep came ...I initially could'nt fathom why that Beep was coming continously ...this wasnt even C programming ..where you get sounds of various kind's by tinkering with some Built in keywords and function...this was on the AS 400,using a language called RPG.I tried hard ,but in vain ....I couldnt figure out why the sound was coming ... every 5 minutes thereafter the monotonous beep kept on ringing ..and I insanely went about checking the monitor !! ,CPU,music system...my cupboard and shelf....searching for a possible BUG to fix.... WAIT WAIT WAIT .....just rewind back........ what ? Music system ...that too in the workplace .....something was wrong ....I just realised I was at home and the time was 1 :15 in the wee hours of saturday.I still had a vague feeling ....thanx to my dreams , that my room and my bed were my office...and like an idiot ...started groping around the room and thinking hard ...what the sound meant .and why the heck was it coming.All that could occur to me was,some where I must have done a wrong code change ...so that's why the erround sound....and after 10 such insane acts of getting up , I realize that It was my mobile alarm below my pillow that caused all the problem.

I felt like banging myself on the wall.This bout of programming and bug fixing at Office...really had a far reaching effect in my dreams to the extent that it has now started to become a regular visitor on my "night show -The dreams" .

So much so ...........When I got up this morningI had a good laugh at myself ...for the crazy antic early this morning.

6/22/2005

Wanna try KARTING

KARTING ....all it means is to drive in a "kart" ...a battery powered vehicle resemblling an F1 vehicle.This was taken at KART ATTACK along ECR.

That is me ..racing along a sharp curve .....so schumi .and alsonso better watch out U JUST GOT COMPETITION kartik's ...coming at u.

DRINK AND DRIVE


DRINK AND DRIVE, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

This is one place where DRINK AND DRIVE is ok ... The small car is called a "KART" ...which is powered by a battery genset and gon to speeds of around 60-80 km's hour. I had a first hand experience about what formula 1 driving and racing is all about.The way the "kart " skids is so much so in sync with reality. It was great fun hitting other cars and racing at 70 km's/ hour speed ....though barring 2 bad crashes...where my vehicle went out of control ,coz the brakes didnt work on a sharp turn and imagine turning at 60km/hour on a u shaped curve....!!!

6/21/2005

can i have some petrol ?


can i have some petrol ?, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

Last Sunday ..a couple of days back..I decided to leave for office to complete some pensing work..and my good intentions were laid to rest ..whe my bike conked off a 100 metrs from my office.I discovered that the Petrol tank had almost gone broke...and was unwilling to part with last drops of petrol it had to set the bike brimming with kinetic energy.

The nearest Petrol bunk was near the digital zone building of TCS ..a couple of kilometres away.Some wayside guy ..told me that the opposite direction had a petrol bunk within the vicinity of a kilometere...(which was actually 2 and a half more ). I follwed his advice and proceeded pushing my bike ...against the scorching morning sun...unmindful of the distance ahead.Then all of a sudden a good samaritan popped up and stopped his TVS 50 moped , to take out some petrol and donated it to my bike...through a make shift slice bottle strewn on the road.

But my bike you see, would like only fresh virgin petrol and not used petrol....it condescended to start on this petrol that the man offered.A few passerby's offered help by blowing into the petrol tank hard....so that the little petrol inside could actually be used to start the bike and just transport me to the nearest petrol bunk.........

That's me getting baked in the chennai sun

This was taken midway through my journey betwen the point where my bike started the "hunger strike" ...and I was left to wade through the monotonous straight stretch of the Old Mahabalipuram road...searching for a goldmine in a desert(oops i meant petrol i sholinghanallur ).

As i walked pushing along a 60 kg bike ,My arms and shoulders ached while the phenomenen of sweat decided to show it's opulence by flooding me all over...

Paradise Found


Paradise Found, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

After dragging along my bike for a good half hour I found "paradise " ...a petrol bunk exactly 3 km's after my bike conked off.The grimace on my face ...was soon ironed off..the moment i sighted this petrol bunk.As if the 25 minute "sojourn" was not enough ..I was made to wait for 15 more minutes before they could proces my card and take payment.

So there stands the "hero" my bike of course...in a stylish slanted fashion waiting for some nourishment in the form of Petrol

Clouds loom large


Clouds loom large, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

The sudden change in the weather in Chennai yesterday,was a welcome one considering the oppressive heat.All of a sudden , there were gushing winds ...leaves falling off trees,the usual powercuts because of the rains and of course short waterlogged streets ...that afflicted Chennai in the aftermath of the showers.This picture is in my office ..at sholinghanallur ,a good 25 km's from the city...where the rain's were not that fierce as was witnessed in the city.

Generally If one were to bike in this weather , it would be bliss...more so in accordance with Bajaj CALIBER'S tagline "W I N D B I K I N G "

6/18/2005

My Modem is busier than me !!!


I realize that the days of free bandwith would be over 288 hours from today .So My modem is being tasked to the max ...as I keep downloading audio's and video's.In quite a short time I have downloasded around 10 Gb of video's and song's and ya a few movies too. I'l have to write all the data soon on to a CD ...as it's slowly crowding my harddrive. When I have to download a movie ..my comp stays on through out the night ..and some times works more than 24 hrs a day ....works harder than me at times...bovinely downloading data.

There are times when my Modem takes a "data break" (equivalent of our cofee breaks !!!) by losing the connections abruptly ...and it takes ages sometimes to get the connection back.BSNL Broadband really does not live up to the expectations ,but atleast it's made me downlaod things that I previously never belive would have happened with a dial up.(like a 700 mb movie....)


My friends and I have got a downloading network amongst us ..where we've got some good english and hindi movies....but am hardly able to find quality DIV x MOVIES in tamil.Any ways ..it's back to downloading again ........287.5 hours to go now ...
College get-to-gether


I am really happy to announce that I am co-organzing a "vel-tech" get2gether next sunday, the 26th of june at Blue Lagoon resort along ECR. So any college mate of mine who comes across this blog and wants to come ,please register by shoting across an email to me (kartik dot kannan at gmail dot com ).It will be time to relive , some old memories get back on gossip ...more so the college days gossip ...and of course just trace back the path to our days of innocence and fun.


Only a few seem to have actively responded by mails , but a larger part of the junta still need to be informed. We initially thought about having it at a hill/resort ..but decided that It wouldnt be possible for every one to come at such a short notice ..that too with so much travel...and given the rush for tickets ,one would never be sure of a reserved ticket to and fro. So we decided that we would throw in a lunch,have some beach cricket,volley ball and of course chat along the coast about our life we have lived....post may 2004 .We have bumped into each other some time or the other....and hope this bumping in is actually major fun.

It feels good to be doing this and seeing others actively come forward to holding such an event. When you have some happiness , there is always the flipside to it..with certain charecters avoiding this totally and mocking at it...who would not come ,even if they happen to be in the same city ...... and its some time hard to belive that they dont seem to treasure memories of college life.But that's life ...managing friends of all kinds and accepting them for what they are..

6/14/2005

MID NIGHT MASALA and the power of 12


The time was 12 minutes past 12 , the 14th of june ...yes ...this very morning ...when the day had just come alive in the form of darkness and my mind seemed to have an air of comfort ....as I emerged from a decrepit theatre(Velan theatre,Nanganallur ) after watching a tamil movie ...a night show ...for which only 30% turnout was there given the fact that I was on seat no 12 in the balcony,last in the balcony .The theatre where I watched the movie....people seemed to have come just to while away the time...and catch a glimpse of one of nature's gifts to mankind on screen.I had come there with 4 of my friends and had decided on this near dilapitated theatre as it was the only theatre in the vicinity (5-6 km's ) of my humble surrounding's that had "that specific" movie running. While I glanced a furtive look at the guy at the entrance who collected the parking coupon's he too looked at me with a certain nonchalance ...so as to say "po da po ...innikku unakku sivarathiri thaan " . Why one may ask ?

I got to know why exactly 12 minutes after 12 minutes past 12 (a.k.a 00: 24 Am IST).As I was recollecting some of the sublime moments of the movie,I was drawing a parallel with my life...and picturing myself in that movie....when all of a sudden my dreams on bike were interrupted with some blazing torchlights ...in the road that joins Nanganallur to Madipakkam...and behind the torclights were some hefty men ...with a paunch line to boast...(pregnant ladies beware ...these guys can beat u hands down when it comes to size of the belly )....

When one stares at such figures ...especially when the belly is in such a rotunda...it takes a second to realize that it is ...our very own singara chennai police...,...but hey without the khaki uniform !! The men were in white's ...as white as Ariel white or Super 501 white....but who's bothered about that ......? These guys , viciously pointed out the light towards my eyes and looked through me as i was a convict trying to find my escape route ....

police : "VANDIYA NIPPATTU"

Me: yen sir , yenna matter ...yethanu prachanai a?

police: yengaenthu varinga , intha UNTIME'la unakku iieenna pa velae(looking at me as if I was returning from a brothel)

me: sir , Padam pathutu varom,night show !!

police: Night show'nnu yenakku theriyadha ? yenna padam

Me: Ullam kekuthe .....

Police: (looking at me with a skeptical eye now as if i was watching a "blue film" ) ticket keetha ?

Me: pointing to my friends....with a blank expression....machan dei...irukka

Thankfully a visibly responsible friend of mine showed him the tickets in a very respectful manner...and the police guy was about to leave us..when another "brainy" police guy ..intervened asking us to show our identity,licence and RC book.My friend gleefully showed his book and was letoff almost immediately ....I , very hesitatingly took out my Id Card(office) and My Licence....and pretended to search for my RC book in my bike.. (I have never seen my RC book for my bike ...as it lies misplaced in some damn corner of the house) and still continued searching ....(the silencer being the only place where I didnt search !!!)

Police: Kaami Pa ...Na wuun RC book'a parkanum

me :(within my mind): yennakkum thaan athaa parkanum aasae.....

As i feigned saying that the book was not there...he asked me to go home ..and get it ..else forgo the bike.....Just to add more "masala" in the midnight,I forgot my Vehicle number ...saying my kinetic honda number instead of my Bike's number and that was a "windfall" of a reason for him to pluck the keys of my bike ......Boy !!!! ...what tension and masala could do to a guy who could say what is 76 x 45 is under 10 seconds....but alas...my memory deserted me in this very crucial moment.

I was waiting ..with my eyes constantly transfixed on the policemen...knowing that ....there would be the "point of return" after which the policman would condescend and get down to business... by asking us to bribe them ...They started the bid at 1500 ....but having known them well over ...so many years...thanks to 4 such previous incidents ....(No RC book ), I lessened it down to what was there in my pocket...30+ 50 bucks....70 rupees too much ....but I just wanted to get back home .......and soon the guy..gleefully accepted my hard earned 80 bucks ..walking into the moonlight..before parting with an important piece of info that there were three such patrol teams lurking in the midnight....across this area of 5-6 kilometres...and I was asked to to avoid the main road ...to lessen the burning of a hole in my purse . As I glanced my watch the time was 12 36 (12 minutes past the 24 past 12)...and this ordeal had lasted exactly 12 minutes.


Now what !!! HOME....I was totally confused ...where I was and somehow braved my way through some mud roads fit for moto cross champoinships , followed a slush all along so that I dont hit the mainroad and catch another "vasool raja" and after an ardous biking @50 km's an hour in pitch darkness through some longish route , I returned home 12 minutes past 1 ...to live another day ...bike another day and finally to catch 12 winks of sleep KYUNKI ....ullam kekuthe more !!!!

PS:

1) If U ARE POLICEMAN READING THIS BLOG....HEY I JUST GOT MY RC BOOK !!!!!

2) ULLAM KEKUTHE : the movie that I watched ....simply rocks...reminded me of my good-ol college days...(more so the day's I wasnt in college :-) )

6/11/2005

Patience ? Do i Have enough ?


I have lived in Chennai for the last 15 years ( + 8 days) ..and seemingly have never really complained about the climate here ,throughout the year.There have been occaissons when the heat has become intolerable ,but living closer to the sea(adyar) or my present home(madipakkam) amidst open surrounding's the breeze has been one heat assuaging factor . But off late I seem to have changed so much in my attitude towards the heat and the sweaty times of Chennai.I cant seem to stand 5-10 minutes in the road's ...sweat starts to trickle down almost immideately and a sense of uneasiness follows with my eyes popping up and me starting to grimace too often ,looking in the direction of the sun ....and wondering ...what the heck is that "alien " doing here ?

Why the change ?

After spending a good 8-9 hours in the cool confines of the AC ...when I come back home , my body's so used to the cool air ...that the 30-35 room temparature now seems unbearable...so one of the things I decided to bravely splurge was in getting a an AC for my room. After that ....I hardly walk in to the hall ...or the other rooms ...as now my body seems to have been drugged to the chill air of my AC and it seems like heaven when I am in my room....but a hot warm hell outside it.

My mother seems to be pretty wary of the fact that if one gets used to AC..then it's hard to adjust to the normal room temparature and stays away from the AC...alternating between the warmer-than-room temperature kitchen and the hall ...getting abosrbed in the so-called- SAAS BAHU...epics being dished out on TV.But every now an then she comes into my room .....not for getting a whiff of cool air , but to monitor the AC usage ...as given a chance I'd love the AC running ....on and on ...just as in Office.....but what to do .... this ain't office and we cant have a huge bill on the AC...given the already growing list of expenditure ....

So even though I may have not changed by heart,the way i think or any of my other habit's over the years...one thing is certain ....the tolerance levels due to the heat , have gone down ....and I certainly dont see this as a cause for worry but really feel ....just move on with times .......... and with the needs.. ..of course within the ambits of my purse.
S H O C K E R !!!!!

The Recent decision by Jayalalitha(the current chief minister of Tamil Nadu) regarding the cancellation of the common entrance test for engineering in tamilnadu (TNPCEE) lacks a sound reason.If You are asking me why read on ...........

1) Agreed the number of seats are more than the number of applicant's and that may prompt the question, why have an exam in such a condition? But let me tell you that She can still have the TNPCEE exams for admissions to A grade colleges (the goverment colleges) and for the rest of the other colleges as one cannot solely decide based on 12th standard marks as there is one huge factor that she has missed out to consider , a gaping hole in her judgement and that was the disparity or the huge difference in average marks scored by a student in the CBSE board and the local state board.

2) Given the fact that even a below average guy ...lets say crams his head the previous night before his state board exams, he could still walk away with 180/190 marks out of 200 as all the questions only test his "mugging"skills and that too the same questions as in the book tend to come, the CBSE student is as a inherent disadvantage as the correction in CBSE is much tougher than State board and so are the portions.The average score by a CBSE student would be around 80-90 percent which roughly translates to 160-180 out of 200 ........and a 15-20 mark difference is all that counts ,when it comes to getting into a good college and a not-so -good college.

3)So I feel that for the premier institutes, only the TNPCEE must be held,while for the other colleges a combination of qualifying exam + the entrancecan be taken , as it atleast puts them on a near-2-level footing ...as even then the CBSE students are not well compensated as the entrance test in TN focusses strictly on the stateboard portions.

4)Coming to the point of pressure being put on students ...as observed by Jayalalitha ,she has probabaly won the hearts of her voting "makkal" for a short while , but it would lead to disastrous circumstances ..especially if the admission procedures to engineering colleges are made on only the qualifying exams as there is no level footing for CBSE students to compete...

5)It is high time the DOTE makes some kind of a scientific formula that puts the CBSE on a level field by implementing some measures that will assuage the pain,anguish and pressure on the minds of the student comminity immaterial of whether he/she is from CBSE or State Board.

6/05/2005

How Ambitious am i ?


How Ambitious am i ?, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

I just happened to come across this in a small quiz on Rediff.com .I was questioning myself over the week whether I really was making any progress in my work and career...and I felt that my focus and concentration needed to intensify further and not suprisingly Rediff show's up the same ..saying that a push is all I need.

Life these days is so bland and boring staring at the monitor 8 hours a day , thinking of code,bugs,defects and client.It has left me no time to actually interact with friends or have a nice time going out with them.Once one tends to go to work,one gets absorbed in that and same is the case with mos of my friends ,who actually work harder than I do. A year back ...no one really imagined that we would be this busy immersing ourselves in the liquid called LIFE...or rather drowning.Each of us cant realy complain as the different companies we work in provide us excellent facilities and a good compensation.

I seem to be getting a complex seing the god old "kishore da " movies and reading "Malgudi days" at home as i long to live in a place like that where time just stands still and people actually have time to see each other and greet each other.

These days it's sad that I have to prioritize things and the simple of joys of life tend to lose out because our priorities tends to ignore the inherent absolute value of activities.
For example ..I havent seen my grandmother, cousin's and my father's brother for quite some time and given the sunday or weekend that I get...I usually prefer to sit under the cool confines of my AC..either strengthening my base in coding or preparing for oppurtunities for higher studies.The mind automatically says .. a visit to the suburb of perambur and pammal in Chennai would actually mean an investment of about 8-9 hours in the searing heat of Chennai commuting in the local public transport.Even though I have my car and bike , It's tiring to maintain concentration for travelling such a long distance in roads that seemed to have been designed for a moto cross championship , and the fact that one has to be really watchful while driving on highways as there is always the lurking danger that some speeding motorist or Lorry would knock u down with rash driving.

This very thought process dissuades my desire to meet people...and given the fact that If i lose out on the time on a sunday I would be terribly jaded at work, struggling to find out a piece of erroneous code that doesnt' actually exist.

So when the mind functions like this in a negative frame of mind,life tends to folow a predictable pattern..where one tries to resist any change that comes my way.That's how it's been for the past few days ...as my attitude seems to have gone really pathetic towards life in general getting used to a schedule

6 0 clock get up
8 0 clock to 1 work
1- 1:30 lunch
2 -7 work..
reach home by 8 ...
8 30 throw my bag and hit the sack once i reach home.
9 30 get up after loads of coaxing by my mother for dinner.
10 30 ..try catching up on the newspaper ...and connecting to the net (BSNL BROADBAND), of which the latter keeps failing to give me a steady connection...and after certain futile attempts at connecting..swear at the comp and shut it off...and try to read the paper...where in a little while heart says "yes" but eyes says "no" and I am driven into the world of my dreams with the paper getting strewn about on my bed all around me...and just when I feel the dream is getting better...it's already morning ...when I find my mother pestering to me to get up.

whooo........SO where do I actually have time to interact with friends and do what interests me. Cant really blame the job...as it's my mental fatigue and body that is like an Indian political party always waiting for a "bandh" (closure as in hindi ) ceasing any interest for activities.

So ....after 3 long pragraphs of "washing my dirty linen on the web" I feel somewhat relieved by the fact that the small quiz on rediff helped me feel better,at least assuaged my misery to an extent...that when Monday comes I wont be cribbing about leaving for work.

Statcounter Tracker