The day I chose not to go to the Alumni

There have been lots of changes in people around me.

College ended an year ago, and now, we are at different places, among different cultures, and are with differently evolving idealogies. So for me to remember and keep track, (I dont wanna lose anything on my history), I shall write about certain things here.

It was August 11th 2007 I got placed at ThoughtWorks. And attending the interview was indeed a difficult choice for me. I had decided not to try it cos of my personal obedience to my inner feelings! But as always, there should be villain and at that time it was Deepak who changed my mind! Lol.

So more than an year later, 1st Oct 2008, I joined ThoughtWorks. ThoughtWorks was a great experience. Indeed it comes in the list of most "amazing experiences" in my life. I recommend anyone to try joining it. But be it known, you gotta be fit if wanna enter it ;) The people there, was the most impressing aspect of TW. Right from the founder of the company to the security guy, they were a people with an heart. I really liked it to be there. And at this point I wanna say an heartfelt thanks to the villain. Lol!

In my life, I have found a thing. "I am not what I am right now". So where did it lead me to? Right to the point of quitting the job. I left TW. I had an heavy heart the last two days. I felt so connected to the Twist team. It was tough leaving it. But things had to be let go of. And certainly I did. So I quit TW on May 15 2009. I had worked there for 7 and a half months. In my life, I never visioned that I will ever work for a salary. But it did happen. Anyways, in the positive side, I felt I could tick one in my lists - Salaried Person - Check!

And there are so many other things that happened in this period. Not to mention, I fell in love with Bangalore. It was so awesome and much much better than chennai. To remember a few little adventures - I have had some crazy experience of booking tickets in some wierd travels and coming to chennai. (but still I dont like abbrevated travels!). Also, the new years eve of 2009 at "Romali With a View" (we went there hoping we'll get a surprise gift, but nah!), the night train travels (i loveeee trains and the yellow light!), the unexpected/accidental meetups, ck's trip, FUGA, the Diamond District, the Methodist Church, the failed flyover meetups, board games at siva's place, fashion movie, etc etc... (I am writing all this for me to remember. So you can skip :P) The best of all is "TGIF"! Nothing can beat it! So now what do I say from being in chennai?? "I will be back" ;)

Atlast, coming to the title... Now its almost three months I quit TW. Wat am I doing? Ahh, who cares.

The alumni happened a week back. Had I been the regular geethan, I would have gone there. But I chose not to go. Why? I am deciding to forget certain things. And one among them is college. Not because I hold something against those times, but because I have to let go of it. And I choose to let go of it. What else am I choosing to let go of? There are certain other things. But it can wait for some more time before I write about them. Life goes on. And I do with it. Not with the wind, but in a direction opposite to it. And I believe, its where my destiny lies.

4-40-400

The journey has begun. (2+3,4+1). Soon the mountains are gonna melt. And it'll be plain awesome!!

Back in town!!!

Pangaligalla,

After 10 months, am coming back to Chennai for the summer!!! Starting tomorrow and will be there by thursday... Just wanted to let you guys know... Looking forward to meeting you all again...

Au revoir,
Nikhil

The "All the Best" tantra!

Guys, some really funny events happen to us during our college lives. Some we forget and some we cherish. But there are the others, which you would have forgotten until in a phone conversation you hit upon that suddenly and you have a great laugh over that. And the following is one of them!

So I was talking to agent Spiky over the phone about some stuff which we really like to chat over (which includes being-crazy, wats with mani's philosophies, how to abolish all sisters, and even world domination!) And suddenly we were talking about how he got arrears in the final sems and wat really happened after that. The funny thing is that the papers in which he awesomely (or awfully?) failed were the most easy ones. One was Internet Programming and the other was one of the last sem management papers, SQM i guess! And believe me, we applied for revals for these two papers and even that was a screw up! And as we were analysing big-time why such a stupid thing happened, we finally found a pattern. It was just the title of the post!

Yea, everytime, for all the exams we all study together and make our final move to the exam halls. While studying, Ck would be our boss to regulate all the process of studying and will teach everyone else the important parts of the subject - the headings! And this part of our college life was the most fun and the most crucial! And our agent Spiky wouldn't bother to care about wats all these commotion is all about. Once he actually was admiring the nature by resting himself on a manal-medu while we were all busily studying. (He being that casual, incidently he passed all the toughest exams with ease). So that said, I would wish him "All the Best" deeply from my heart before the exams! Alas he failed! (I am reminded of all those maths papers he flunked MAY be because of me. After all friends are for fun!) lol. And to prove this, someother related things happened too. I was the one who applied for the reval and nah, nothing good happened. And the next time, when he wrote the two exams during december, I was in blore happily roaming around. I didn't wish him (my bad, his good) for those exams, and he passed them easily :D May be that was the trick?!

Very similarly, there is this friend of mine called Navin, from the ECE dept. (I hope he takes up the following light heartedly) So, he had got placed in a company called EDS and he was all set for joining the same at Mangalore (He was one of the first few to be called for). During the day of leaving chennai, he messaged and bid an adieu. Me being vetti, called him up and wished him with all luck and that he might have the greatest career start, have a blessed life and great stuffs like that! And I also said those words "All the Best". He was very happy that he has got such a nice friend who cared about his life so much (hehe). And days went by. His bad luck or my charm, i don't know, made his life miserable. He was sent back soon and was asked to join the company later in an another batch. Later, after some couple of months, he was called back to join the training. And this time he did the good thing. He didn't inform me before leaving :D And he's now happily working there!

An amazing thing happened again, this time with a serious note (ah, all for fun!). There was this particular junior girl in college, whom I was trying to woo (no, no, this is different from the balcony girl!). And me trying to be the greatest well-wisher and trying to impress her by my niceties, sent her a message on her maths semseter exam saying "All the Best"! Lolz. Thats it. She flunked! :D Even she applied for a reval, but nah! Then I didn't even bother to check it up!

Friends, this is how it all started and ended on its own! lolz!

year back......

Hey buddies….

Too many posts in de recent times…dumpin ur pains in words..i accept, initially I struggled a lot without u ppl,…but started survivin wit the sweet memories…may be this pain is de main reason for ma first post..........
jus rewind a year,…

Jan 21st, 10:00 PM…..

Intro’s to de elders where goin on de side….
checkin out de fee collection on the otherside..time went..
at exact 10PM, train moved..even our enjoyment started……
we had bakrid briyani tat too at 12….think am rite..
30 hrs of train journey..
then agra, ma goodie foodie bag,
day travel on christmas eve,
dinner at kullu,
goda ride,
niky’s punch durin de ride,
again day travel in bus,
in manali at -3C temp,
madras café ,
snow man by proffi, marun and myself,
grp stills,
back to delhi,
day for shoppin..
nite chat..
last day roamin in de city,
finally into de train wit little disappointment tat its jus 30 hrs to depart,
jus 30 hrs to give up de perfect enjoyment,
give up tat its our time our guys…
hrs were droopin..felt very bad..
din allow few to sleep….
we reached central....
from 50+ it came down to 10+ in de college bus,
again it came to 2,
myself and TJ..in front of de hostel at 8AM..
hard soul…
went to ma room..called few friends..
pulled out ma emotions..i couldn control..then cried out..
at 4PM TJ came to ma room, tears dropped…
very next day..
guy known onli for few hrs but was pretty close, invited me on de brand new day of 2008,
we had lunch and spent time wit few other friends..
there onwards ma full attention was to enjoy each moment wit the ppl I loved…
it happened…
thanks to those sweet souls who made me comfortable..

moments I remember well,
Witout knowin 5 cards, proffi played it..at times he won….later maself & deepthi exchanged de cards to give a wrong dick whenever proffi bids. “ponnunga enga ponnalum pozhachippanga..evlo kevalaman sappattayum kattu kattu katralunga” niky’s dialogue.
“bingo, bongo….rendu karandi sambar”..from Mani...
Ma foodie bag runnin across de last seat….
I remember that there were nearly 40 packets of biscuits..i din have even one from tat…think guys at de last seat enjoyed…anyways its fine..
Fresh morning walk on christmas…thru de tunnel..wit a best fellow..
Arvi always stickin to the seat..
”dai durga thambi…poi thoongu da”..from congo..
His thumps up pet bottle…
am sure congo ll not accept the return day’s bedspread grabbin issue..
DIESEL T-Shirt,..
Marun not supporting kushna…
”asinga pattaargal organizers”…
Deepak..”Extra large baby”title..
His expressions at de restaurant…esp de spoon issue..
Marun’s perfect actin durin de chat at delhi…
Kumkum powder,..i don remember de fellow..he looted it at manali…
Ordered for 8 glasses of milk…urula mixed a hell quantity of de powder..
Kushna and me, were detective for bout 15 mins…in kullu..got a call from arasi’s room sayin tat somebody is der in the balcony..(Kushna, got a doubt ra, why were u so interested to come to 303 da, is tat coz of balcony)
Egg – which hari had….

Wooh....lots and lots happened…many issues went but onli few is said..
Hope I did justice to ma soul….

de exciting 10 days…wont it come back?....wont we be together?...
anyways..hopin that someday we ll ve a reunion…

Bout ma life haan…
I have not changed much..but for de sake of professionality I adapted myself….like kinda responsible,.managin ppl around me…balancing ma family,job..nd myself…
110 days at home..passed away jus like a sec..
Then 3 months of trainin…not a big deal..i enjoyed witin de hall but I couldn make it out wit our fellas..
This month,…jus thinkin of the trip…
Think ppl are busy wit their new life….plz be in touch….convocation is headin…hope we ll meet before that……

Be smiling…:)…..enjoy de days…stay wit memories……
Love u all…
Hey…Happy new year……:)


….Miss u……:(

Looking back!!!

Following Nik in the suit i would like to share my bag of experience with u guys. Reading Nik's post made me look back my past 4.5 months in this land of Lincoln. The main thing I could feel s tht i hav missed ma set of friends. I felt oddly out of place and beleive US was not even close to what I had expected except for babes :) I had to collect all the shattered pieces of courage in me to face the challenges put before me. First one is to avoid being home sick. As u all guys know how fond i am with ma home, it was really very difficult for me. Then came the food. Guys just think of eating the food that we made it really was VERY AWFUL ( i think Nik was lucky in this matter). Next, came the money. Ma mind made quick calculations of every single dollar i spend here to the Indian rupees though i didnt want to. And then came the biggest challenge of all. THE EXAMS!!! As Nik stated MS is really not as easy as our UG. Every single day at class will count for you. U ll find urself reeling under pressure if u missed out a single day n everything needs to be done regularly. Ma close friends do know tht i hav never been awake after 11 at night but in US i hav never slept before 1. this shows wat s in store here. Finally the weather. t s really really bad here. the temp has even reached as low as -1 F n s expected to go down (OOPS!!!) dont think tht i hav been stating all the bad things here of course there r lot of great things happening here. I dont know huv the guys here come up with so many functions n celebrations here. Especially the city s always gearing for some festival r the other. People r always friendly, clean n educated (mostly). But, looking back on what has happened i really give t a second thought on Is t the right decision i made? But, I go on hoping it to b rite. The orkut community, albums of you guys n the blog s wat keeps u all fresh in ma mind plz do keep them active..

Thank u.

4.5

Hey people,
4 and a half months I've been here now... Filled with a myraid of emotions from feeling downright happy for silly stuff like after watching SlumDog Millionaire(Awesome movie!!!) to feeling down in the dumps at the mere though of family and friends at a tough time... Longest I've been away from home...

So many firsts in these 4 and half months... Where shall i start?! Right from the second i entered the airport, i knew i had stepped into a world where i had to take up responsibility for making my life... No more people sticking up for me... No more expecting people to get things done for me... Its both exciting and frightening... Mind you, i've had a much easier time abroad than our other friends in the sense that am in a house that is as close to being home as possible...

Well Masters isnt like no other thing i've done before academically... U lose track of stuff for one week and you'll fall behind for the whole of the semester... From every little home-work right until the final 3 hour greulling exam, EVERYTHING counts for your final grade... My first sem is succesfully over and i did a reasonable job according to my own assesssment...

There are a few moments in life when something you totally anticipate happens... Navarathri here was one such thing... I never did any work for the festivities at home other than maybe physical labour... But to see people here celebrate it was the first big reminder that i had left everyone back home and was out here... That stung... Of course,it did not help that it came on the back of a horrible horrible Operating Systems assignment... But the first "celebration" away from home hurt... Diwali was worse... Those were the times when I questioned myself if it really was worth coming all these miles to make money... I'll be the first one to admit that I came here for money... Im not gonna crap around that i came looking for "better education"!!! Hell no, i decided 3 years back that the first salary i get must be a 6 digit monthly salary(in Rs of course) and thats why im here working my bacside off... But these few moments were the ones that tested my resolve...Birthdy was the worst!!! But then "Life has to go on"...

I have a few friends here... 2 very cute Indian girls included(jus for combined studies guys!!! :D)... But friendship here is more out of necessity... I guess the age where you make friends for just the people is past us(or atleast me)... SSNCE was one of the best things that happened to me in terms of making me who i am and in terms of giving me my very best of friends... Hats off to you guys... Life is never the same without you ppl... But then again "Life has to go on"...

The one thing that has not changed though is me watching cricket... I have the Dish Network at home here and i have watched all matches when i can in the India-Australia and the India-England series... Staying up at night to watch these games is fun... But when you're in class, sleep deprived the next day, you feel like a prick... Also Baseball and American Football are freaking awesome... The basketball and football season is on in full flow here and its great fun... Its amazing to see the football players go at each other even in snowfall and sub zero temperatures... Temperature-ah ah... Here in Boston you have what is called the New England weather... its 66F one day and 33F the next!!! Snow season has started though and its snowing outside right now even as i type and we the forcast is that we'll have a foot of snow on friday!!! Freaking freezing cold!!!

Which brings me to the end of my first blog post... Im not a big fan of writing... Unless its a note to impress a chick... :D Lol

The next time I come to India, i know not where people will be, if we'll be able to meet... But if we have a chance to meet even for a couple of hours, id grab it with both hands... Like i said, coming to SSNCE was one of the best things that happened to me and i owe it all to you guys...