HOTC Ch 6: Of Nothing Much At All..

S6 was as short a semester as semesters could be. I thought there wouldn't be much to write about it, but I'm wrong. Time doesn't define the longevity of college life. It seems to fly fast as a bullet while living it, but we had in fact been part of many events during that short time.

As always, the previous semester dragged on into half of the next leading to s6 starting late into the second month of 2008. The next Ragam was upon us. But this time we decided to hand the reins over to our junior batch. Taken that Ragam's usually our unofficial tour, this time it was more so with half of our class ending up there. Our group made a breakthrough video titled "The Mask Within". The making so much fun with Maadan (in pic) being tied to the chair, tortured at will and left under the spotlight while we discussed the story. Those were the times when my parents had gone to US to visit my sis. Interesting times being the man of da house :-). Though most results didn't go CET's way this time around, we won first in choreography. Had a jolly good time too.

Back in Trivandrum, it was the season of tech fests. Robotics being our forte, we shelled out another robot from the jigsaw pieces. We had and still have a collection of Aluminium kit which would make any aakri kada proud. The competition hosted by SCT had a problem statement in which the bot had to seek and put off a candle. We cracked it! the only team to do so, and won the prize money. It was our first robotics prize and we duly spend it and choreography prize money on great food from Zam Zam.

Pretty much like Dhwani, there are events in college which are held only once every 4 years. No, I'm not talking about college day. We witnesses our first Electronite that semester. The events were of good standard. Our video was displayed to much criticism ;-). We (Mosqui, Malu and me) performed some songs, though majority of the crowd had left for some reason.

College life went along it's usual way. Looking back at the photos, the scores of hours we spent in pancharakkadu were as enjoyable as these 'events'. In fact many of our fruitful ventures had it's root there. I'm getting nostalgic over here.. The final sem trauma. Back to the rest of story then..

Mini tours come along in unexpected ways. Who would've expected us to take half the day off our Industrial Visit to go to aruvikkara. The dam and area is small, but we'd much fun simply walking around. By the way, the IV was to Keltron something' centre near aruvikkara. After that, the semester was getting tighter each day and mini project turning out to be a monster for many.

The CGPU kicked into action towards the latter half of the semesters. It organised orientation programs in Loyola College. Those programs had varying effect on the nature of the class. It was an enriching experience for all who participated. Personally, my biggest gain was getting to know some people in my batch who I never knew existed.

Placements.. hmm you could write a whole story about it, and the first chapter would be Cosmic Circuits. That story's already told in another post. Tensions were high in the first few days and could be felt in pulse of the class. They calmed down as days went on. Maybe the companies had already seen the recession clouds looming close by...the season didn't go as well as expected. For once, the university exams took backstage and we were deep into getting ourselves placed before the rains came down on CET.-JFx
Coming up: Ch 7 - The Rains Went By

Some moments that I can't forget - 2 (Mr. B and Mr. P)

*Story is real, even though it has been slightly exaggerated.

**Sorry for the nasty language in between. Couldn't avoid it.


You could imagine how happy a brother would be when the wedding of his only sister is approaching. So was I during last July, my sister's wedding was to be held on 11th of that month. But all my happiness got pulverized when the internal evaluation of our mini project was fixed on the same day. It was not possible for me to abstain from the function. My sister asked me to bunk the presentation and come straight away. I thought of asking for a special permission to present it later. But I had to meet S B sir for it and his impression of me is too good. He thinks that I am the 'Goonda of MH' or something. So such permission would be so difficult to get from him. Anyways, I decided to try since there was no other option.

When I went there, he was not in his room. P sir was sitting there. Then, I had that idea. He was also in charge of our mini project. So I'll ask him. He obviously didn't have any opinion about me. To have any opinion about the students, he must at least meet them once in a while, right?

I went near, and said, "Good afternoon sir, Em Sudeep from s6 Applied."

He raised his face and looked at me.

"Sir, can you please give me a permission to postpone my mini project viva? My teammates will present it and I can't come on that day. The thing is that...."

He didn't allow me to complete. Before that, he said, "Ok.. I'll conduct it after S8. Will that be ok with you?"

I almost said a thank you and turned back. That was the softness with which he said that.

Damn!! He doesn't want to know even the reason, I thought. I was obviously not in a mood to enjoy the sarcasm in it.

"Sir, My sister's wedding is on the same day. So... "

"Oh... is it so? Such reasons are so simple to create, right? Can you give me any proof for that?"

"Sir, I'll show you the invitation card."

"Ok.. Then show me that"

I didn't have an invitation card with me at that time. So I ran back to the hostel and came back with the card. I thought about the various possibilities for him to deny me the permission, on the way. But what happened was beyond my imagination.

I barged into the room and handed the card over to him. He started to look at it with a grim face. He was examining it so closely as if it was a document regarding national security or something. He looked at the front side of it for some time, and then turned it back. He stared at the back side for a few moments even though nothing was written there. I kept wondering what the hell was he trying to discover.

Suddenly, there arrived a triumphant smile on his face. He looked at me, proudly, as if he had defeated me in some wrestling championship. This time, B sir was also sitting next to him. P sir explained to both of us as if Sherlock Holmes was describing a case which he had proved with his dexterous maneuvers.

"This card looks pretty new. So straight from here, you went to the press and made this fake proof, didn't you?"

I was shocked to know that people, that too college professors would be this much absurd at certain times. He thinks that I could have made such a fake proof from a press within that much time!! If atleast I could think like that, I would definitely have been in a better position in my life.

I recuperated from that quickly, but couldn't easily figure out anything to defend my part.

"Go to hell, you sh*t head" was all what I said in my mind.

"Sir, usually in our place, we keep invitation cards as new. No one invites anybody with an old looking card"

I managed to say that much.

He frowned as if I had defied his great scientific discovery or something. At that moment, B sir came to my rescue. He said that it looked genuine and could be accepted as a reason. Then, P sir also agreed. Wow, what a good man he is, I thought, which was to be corrected later.


"So, what are you gonna bring us after the wedding? Bring us some sarkkara varatti"

Said P sir.

I smiled and nodded. Then, again, B sir interrupted.

"That's something we can have here also. Where is your house?"

"Palakkad, sir"

"So bring us some Palakkad special.. Hmm.. Well... I've heard that Palakkad is well known for Halwa. So bring that"

Now from where did he get all these valuable information?? I've heard about Kozhikkodan Halwa but not Palakkadan. But it was not the right time for an argument. I just wanted to get out of there, as quickly as possible.

So I smiled, and accepted everything, and said "oh.. Sure sir"

Again, he started to give me instructions like bring a piece of size this much, pack it properly and bring it to the staff room for us etc.

I, somehow managed to keep the smile on my face and nodded for all these even though I was saying "F*ck #&%$@ S*ck &&^$ @)**^ @#^& ^*^ ^%$@" in my mind. That's one of my greatest plus points. Seeing me, you will never think that this much is going on inside me.

Finally, it was over and I turned back saying “Thank you”. When I was about to get out of the room, B sir called me back.

"Hey, you.. come back here"

I went back thinking that this must be something really important, most probably regarding when would I have to give my viva. He gestured me to come near and said in a lowered voice as if he was telling me a secret which only he, in this world, knew.

"Do you know what my name is? It's B. So when you bring the Halwa, if I'm not here in my room, give it to someone else and ask them to hand it over to B sir, ok?"

"Definitely, sir"

I came out of the room. My mind reveled because I could go for the function without any worries about mini pro. I pitied B sir for taking it so seriously. But all these turned out to be irrelevant when presentation was postponed for the whole class.

***
I used to have a great bit of respect towards my teachers till I joined this college. I strongly believed that 'Guru' is equal to 'God'. For me, my parents and my teachers are the greatest gods in this world. Even during these days also, when I go home, I meet my teachers or at least call them, and get their blessings.


I do have certain regrets about my college life. I have done certain things which I should not have and I haven't done certain things which I should have. And my greatest regret is that I don't love or respect my teachers in this college the way I used to do till I reached this college. It hurts far more than screwing up my exams and spoiling my future. But such incidents help me a great deal to get rid of that regret..

MY LOVE STORY

I was standing at the bar,

she was passing in her car,

from where did she appear,

boy was she some avatar,

a lovely frock she did wear....

the girl about whom im mad,

for her i dont mind being bad,

the only thing i fear is her dad,

her thoughts make me so glad,

just a fight with her has me sad,

she s the girl i wish i had...

next day i saw her at the bazaar,

she looked at me if i was some stranger,

she dint like me twas clear,

i jus wanted te be her dear,

and be her brave and mighty lear....

the girl about whom im mad,

for her i dont mind being bad,

the only thing i fear is her dad,

her thoughts make me so glad,

just a fight with her has me sad,

she s the girl i wish i had...

she bit me on my ear,

i lost hold of the brakes and gear,

a lorry hit us in the rear,

her eyes were full of fear,

and we died lyin near...

the girl about whom im mad,

for her i dont mind being bad,

the only thing i fear is her dad,

her thoughts make me so glad,

just a fight with her has me sad,

she s the girl i wish i had...

2 B A B

I C A B,

A B from C

A C of CB

CB can C

B Z "B A B"

I Z "O B U C,

me 2 A B"

when U C A B

U B A B or

B will P in I

B C A Q

B Z"R U A C of B? "

Q Z"S V R"

"I C U 2 R B"

2 B A CB

U go 2 C

when U C A C,

look 4 A CB

if  U C A CB

CB will C U 2

U will B A CB.

C U in C

A E I O U!!

For those lower beings thinking that I am crazy:

I C A B,                      I see a bee

A B from C                 A bee from sea

A C of CB                     A sea of sea-bee

CB can C                      Sea-bee can see

B Z "B A B"                Bee said "Be a bee"

I Z "O B U C,              I said "Oh bee you see,

me 2 A B"                   me too a bee"

when U C A B            when you see a bee

U B A B or                 you be a bee or

B will P in I             bee will pee in eye

B C A Q                     Bee see a queue

B Z"R U A C of B? " Bee said "Are you a sea of bee?" 

Q Z"S V R"              Queue said "Yes we are"

"I C U 2 R B"           "I see, you too are bee"

2 B A CB                   To be a sea-bee

U go 2 C                   You go to sea

when U C A C,          when you see a sea

look 4 A CB              look for sea-bee

if  U C A CB               if you see a sea-bee

CB will C U 2             sea-bee will see you too

U will B A CB.          You will be a sea-bee

C U in C                   See you in sea

A E I O U!!              Aye I owe you!!

Pardon me for posting this...

Some moments that I can't forget

** I mean nothing serious.. absolutely nothing.. just enjoy the little jokes **

Sitting in the classes has become so much of a boring thing for me. I never expected that classes would be held on such a regular basis in s7. We used to have more free hours in s6 than this.. didn't we?

Today, we did the presentation regarding our project. KK had taught me something (he's my fellow project mate) and I ended up telling something(else...??) in front of Biji jacob sir. Me and Balu tried our best to deliver whatever we knew, but still, he complained about one-man show(when KK is around, that is unavoidable, isn't it??).

But I was very happy that I knew at least something about my main project. In the case of mini project, things were different. I knew almost nothing about it. (Of course, it was my fault.. to be very honest, I never made any sincere effort). Umesh,Bachi and Surji were my mates then. My contributions were limited to visiting Bach's house(Only to have lunch,tea etc. and to display my counter strike skills while others tried to make that thing work),buying components from thakarapparambu etc. But at last, we had to go to the exam hall with someone else's project since ours didn't work. Bachi somehow managed to get a similar project from one of his friends in some other college. Quite unfortunately, their external examiner happened to be ours also.(Now that's what bad luck is.. can u just imagine the probability of such a thing to happen? Seriously, it's too small ya..). He kept telling us that he had seen exactly the same project somewhere else. What could we do about that huh??

Even though all these happened, I never had any doubt regarding the intellect of my project mates, especially Bach. He even showed me some weird and unique symbols during last microprocessor lab that only one person in this world could do. All those appeared on the screen when Bach wrote a program by himself and we tried to execute it. Symbols, that I haven't seen even among Greek or Roman letters.. That was an unforgettable experience.. not only the symbols, but the face expression of Bach also when all those appeared.. Man.. I didn't have a cam with me to capture that golden moment...!!!

HOTC Ch 4: The Ragam Story

S4 was a short semester, but didn't lack any of the unpredictability that makes college life so much fun. Every semester we start off bunking class (don’t blame us, teachers wouldn't have got the timetable ready by then) to watch a movie and this sem wasn't any different. Thus began another memorable chapter in HOTC.

Let me begin with a correction to HOTC Ch 3. Bhavah actually happened in S4. It was one of the first events in that sem. Shortly after that we'd the accreditation fiasco. Dressed up as terrorists to kill the dust, we cleaned the whole department for the first time in years. The pond in the middle of dept garden (yes we have a dept garden!) could be used by the archaeological dept to study prehistoric organisms. The toil didn't go unrewarded as we were promised the forbidden fruit - sessionals. Accreditation gave birth to many clubs unheard of till then. One of them was the robotics club of which we became the unregistered members. On display were the finest of our creations - Innak and Aruk.

February breezed through and accreditors awarded us an A. That year tech fests by individual depts were discouraged. So ISTE put up their hand to organise Aavishkar '07, a technical fest conducted by the CETians, for the rest of the world (supposedly). On the day of choosing event managers, a band of Applied turned up (thanks to KK again). Our class ended up having half of the main event managers. I was in charge of Physics Paper Presentation of which I remember not. The interesting events for us were AdZap and Industrial Village. Industrial village is the story about AS coming to the rescue of a hapless 'lady' event manager. We had a flawless design but the team with a multiplex in the middle of a huge lake in an industrial village won the event. Another memory worth remembering is the romantic Bach falling in love with R's eyes during the best manager event. Iceman and AS won prize in problem solving event that day.

Even while Aavishkar was going on, preparations had begun for Ragam '07. This year, we were determined to make CET presence felt at Ragam. As 2nd years, our batch took the initiative and intensive preparations for all events started at least a week before the mega event. Our band, which already had its share of break-ups, patched up and prepared for Western Orchestra.

The journey to NITC was so much fun with all of us together in the train enjoying our off-season class tour. I can still remember Appu and me chasing the runaway train in a station we had got down at 2 am to have to have a cup of coffee. The first day was slightly disappointing personally as our band didn't qualify for the finals. That was soon overshadowed by the amazing result in dance. It was only the beginning. By the final day we'd won most prizes by any college other than NIT. The prizes were for Street Play, Mime, Eastern Orchestra and many others. I'm happy to say that again Applied played a hand in most of those events; CET spirit scored above all that. The celebrations in NIT didn't last long because tradition predicted a fight. So we made a hurried escape back to railway station. The Ragam story is a truly remarkable one - one that should be taught to future batches as inspiration for following a dream, striving to achieve it and finding pure ecstasy on reaching the summit.

Even semesters has it's share of other events too like College day, LH day, Nuit 'd Emmaus, and MH day. I remember the College day particularly 'coz I'd one more rock performance. We must not have gained much fan following that day judging by the crowd response :-). But for me every performance has been a great experience and will always be.

Lastly, a few words about the club houses that sprang up in town those days. The first one is the famed PancharaKaadu. For years, the Acacia forest in CET between LH and main entrance had been the abode of lovers seeking privacy amongst the beautiful shades of those trees. We made it our club house #1. Boring teachers didn't worry us anymore, neither did the unfortunate souls who'd cut through PK. Club house #2: Madhavan Sir's tuition class. The previous semester taught us that electronic circuits can be interesting. What made it more fun were the innumerable days when we ended up either chatting away or went our club house #3 after trying our luck at the first circuit. #3: who said Trivandrum lacks a hang out place for youth. You have it right in the middle of town, under the shade of large, sticky-red-fruit bearing tree (dunno its name). Museum sessions on that lawn were the most enjoyable for me. These club houses brought the best brains in town together to discuss world issues, college life and PDs (ParaDooshanam).

Towards the end of semester, it was time for our dear final years to bid goodbye to our campus. The demo week was really funny. When it was over, we were so gloomy that it felt like losing someone close to us forever. We still miss you..

- JFx

Coming up: Ch 5 - Step Back to Ponder

PS: Everyone is encouraged to add all else that you remember in all HOTC (can be done as separate paragraphs in the end), plz add your name tag at the end of wht u add.

HOTC Ch 3: A Cultural Awakening

A new semester and a new classroom. We finally had a place in the electronics department. Though our class had a feeling of being out of place in the silent electronics dept, the new classroom's strategic position allayed our fears. The classroom had windows opening to the archi dept and the paths to Civil and Electrical depts. As you can imagine, there was continuous entertainment around ;-). Above all that, we found a new goddess - 'Sou' as we called her. No other senior have got so many dedicated fans in a single class she does. Her legend lives on in our mobile phone themes.

S3 was a semester of cultural and other events. The first in line was the sophomores' day, codenamed Miraglo. Though many connotations grew out of the name, the event was a success. Gokul, being the convener propelled our class into active participation in Miraglo. Mime, dance, rock show, Pulikali, Compering- you name it- we had applied colour in every event and organising committee. That was also proof that we were indeed a cultural force in college. The other major cultural event in the semester was Dhwani. It still remains the best Dhwani I've seen and the only one. Rivers of colourful birds didn't deter us from the job at hand. Once again we played our hand in organising the mega event.

One of the most memorable event that sem was our class tour. It's undoubtedly the best tour I went on. For once, we set apart the groupisms and celebrated it. Campfires and the bus turned into disco floors were not a single soul dared to sit. Wild adventures into mountain terrain, mischievous antics and interesting controversies - the tour had it all.

It was also the semester when we chartered unknown territories in the field of tech - Robotics. Thanks to Baachi, we were inspired into a field that both interested us all and gave us an 'academic cover'. Our first attempt, the soccer bots Innak and Aruk gave us third place in the competition held at TKM - Bhavah.

One of other things that comes to my mind is the Chicken pox epidemic, that engulfed our class. There were many more events I've missed mentioning. S3 was one of the longest semesters we had with University exams split up before an after Christmas (damn KU). With lots of fun and still lots of free time, it surely is among the top in my semester rating.

Coming up: Ch 4 - The Ragam Story

HOTC Ch1: A Class Apart

I shifted from mech to applied the next day. College classes hadn't been what I expected. After the immeasurable freedom we had in Loyola, college felt like captivity. The mech class whom I expected to be the most alambu were a disciplined lot then. You can undestand my apprehension in moving to AE&I who are expected to be the second most padippist class in CET. But an hour among them/us changed my views.

The first thing I noticed about the classroom was it's size. High ceiling and large spacious walking and playing area at the back and sides gave it the feel of a small hall rather than a huge classroom. The benches were arranged in 3 columns. Two wide-bench columns to the right and small-bench column at the left. My friend Gokul guided me to one of the small-benches and he sat in the row behind me. My benchmates were Krishnakumar 'KK' Ajithkumar (ya that's one name) and Umesh Malayath. KK was busy taking notes the whole period and Umesh wasn't far behind. "OMG", thought I, but as I turned around realisation came over that the rest of the class was a different picture. The students were having fun - talking, playing etc and if noise level went above limits, the blame went to the adjacent S8 Comsci class. Thus began my life among the applied kidillams.

I migrated between the small benches and the last rows of middle benches in those days. Other than my schoolmates Gokul and Sureannan (then known as Vishnu), I sat alongside and became good friends with Gautham (now Gemo), Mahesh, Baachi (formerly Suraj), Jayasankar 'Jayan', Maadan a.k.a Akhil, KK and Mosqui (what was his name again?). Emmaus boys, Rep Rahul and some others sat in front of us in middle. Most of the right benchers remained unknown to me, though AS (Vishnu AS) was a familiar face from some tuition centre. AS, Varun, Hari super-knae, Ajeesh, Jaleel etc sat in the first two right benches with 'sweet talkin' Ajesh most often occupying leftmost position (for obvious reasons). Sadly, many of those old right benchers still remain unknown to me as friends and I know nothing of their stories.The gals occupied the first row of middle and left benches and still reserves the first row to date.

Our group was in it's formative state then. Spending more time together made us know each other pretty well. In other news, Lakshmi N, Jisha, Ajesh and Jaleel were friends then. Lakshmi Thulasidas (LnT) was one of the few gals who talked with us. Vimina was already crowned the online beauty (better of the lot) of the class, but she gathered only few fans 'coz of her reserved and apparently conservative demeanor. Noone knew how Remya or Simi sounded like (few still know). About academics, KK held the reins over assignments, and thankfully still does. Other than being a constant entertainment in Krishnakutty's class I didn't have much academic achievements then. This fun loving class was completely unaware of the interesting times awaiting them in near future.

Coming up next week: Ch2 - 'Dare' Remo Jayan

My life in multicoloured shoes

How many times in life have you lived a double life? Not many for me. I'd always been largely unaware of anything happening outside my sphere of friends. But right now I'm forced to live a multiple life through a learning curve with angle of elevation greater than 45 degrees.

The situation isn't hard to explain but might be hard to understand for someone else. First of all, I've always been this spoilt child type. Might be 'coz I'm the younger one, but I always had responsibilities thrown over to others. Chachan did majority of the outside work and Amma handled everything inside. Things are right on the balance when I'm left back here with apparently nothing to do. The only chore I was reminded to do was paying the phone bill. Rest would go on like clockwork. But into the first week, I'm starting to realize I'm mistaken.

Elders have a full blown social life. We, on the other hand usually contend ourselves with small talk. I, being the supposed information bug for the family, am entrusted the responsibility to gather information from social spheres like church, native place etc. Also, all info that's to be passed on to the respective spheres has to pass through me. More and more I find out that the things I've to do to keep myself alive is much easier than things I'm supposed to do. Among these, I've to split into another frame too - try belonging to hostel, where I know I wont be staying more than 2 months while hanging out with the usual gang outside the hostel.

I'm talkative among friends and pretty silent at other occasions. I'm hoping this experience would teach me something - to talk to people. As of now, it's truly a labyrinth... just some passion missing. ;-) If someone could provide it, the labyrinth of passion would be complete.

The King!

"Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935–August 16, 1977), was an American singer, musician and actor. He is a cultural icon, often known as "The King of Rock 'n' Roll", or simply "The King".
Presley began his career as one of the first performers of rockabilly, an uptempo fusion of country and rhythm and blues with a strong back beat. His novel versions of existing songs, mixing "black" and "white" sounds, made him popular—and controversial—as did his uninhibited stage and television performances. He recorded songs in the rock and roll genre, with tracks like "Hound Dog" and "Jailhouse Rock" later embodying the style. Presley had a versatile voice and had unusually wide success encompassing other genres, including gospel, blues, ballads and pop. To date, he is the only performer to have been inducted into four music halls of fame.......... "

Wiki goes on and on.... Hmm.... well, how come i don't post in the new year yet? Its 7:45 in the morning and i'm sitting in from of ma comp typing out this blog! Hey, you know wat? Today is republic day, yipee!

Eh.... doesn't the fact that today is the republic day cheer you up?? No?? Well, sorry mate,there's nothin i can do about it..

Today i finished downloading some songs of the King! And now you are wondering wat the heck? While browsing through the Arsenal fan site i came to know, his song "The Wonder of You" has been chosen as the official gooner anthem! So i went over to You tube and watched the video!

And to the wonder of me i loved the song! The Elvis mania set in and i queued up some of his songs for downloading.... this morning i finished them and currently i'm listening to one of the songs... I must confess the old bloke with "pseudo-cripples" and a cult following for his unnatural,crazy sideburns has some substance [:D]. He's pretty good.... I'm in love with his songs...Great! No wonder he's The King!

"Its rock and roll time, baby"




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Now playing: Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock
via FoxyTunes