Changing Careers...Goodbye infosys!

Today I quit my job as design engineer at Infosys Technologies limited. Its been an association of 3 years and 8 months. I've decided to switch careers and take up journalism....

Here's my last day letter...:)

This might probably rank as the last day mail with the longest planning period. Those close to me know that I been writing this over and over in my mind for the past 3 years. I am one among those lakhs of 'accidental engineers' found all over India. After school, the automatic choice for everyone around was to write the engineering entrance. As a youth with no specific aim, the best option was to do what everyone was doing. Our society's logic seems to be this-If you don't want to become a doctor, then ofcourse you should be an engineer. I waded through engineering even after realising half way that am not made for this. After the four year holiday, there was no need to think 'what next?'. The campus selections make our job easy. I joined in with a bunch of friends at the mammoth Infosys campus in mysore. A four month long vacation called 'training' followed. From watching the Ind-Aus test series(after bunking classes) in the AC hostel rooms to making use of every facility provided, we had the time of our lives.

The day I landed up in Bangalore to start working, I realised I don't belong here. Yes, the friends were there here too. But somehow, the idea of sitting inside a cubicle and taking your anger out on the hapless keyboard was not my idea of 'work'. During those first weeks here, I remember one of my team leaders asking me, "Hey, Did you actually study engineering!?". One of my usual designing blunders forced him to ask that. Around that time, the recession set in and all the companies started using that as an excuse to terrorise employees. New policies were implemented everyday. And, so we had the working hours policy(9.25 hours of your day eaten up!), leave policies and even policies to control your movement through the gates. It was the time of pink slips too and one of my close friends(who is much better off right now) also got one. During that period, I hated this place more than anything. But we did devise ways to get around some policies. Like how some of us even shifted our morning rituals to the office restroom to clock up the requisite 9.25 hours. And then the long rides in the night to swipe out to make up the quarterly average. And the post meal brainstorming sessions near the pool side. Then there was the tea time, which is still the time I look foward to the most on each day(I can see 3-4 knowing smiles now!). Which sums up why the dialogue my superiors used the most was, "You are never found at your seat!"Now, dont get the impression that I was a complete slacker. I've done my share of slogging. But 'IRacial discrimination' meant that I remained a consistent performer with 2 consecutive CRR 3s.

Inspite of all this, inspite of never really fitting in, I was slowly getting used to the place. In that classic movie Shawshank redemption, the character Red played by Morgan Freeman talks of getting institutionalised- "These walls are kind of funny. First you hate them, then you get used to them. Enough time passes, so you depend on them. That's institutionalised. They send you here for life, that's exactly what they take. The part that counts, anyways." Each day that thought killed me. I couldn't imagine myself working here even the next week, forget next year! Each sunday evening, we all went into the great depression, thinking of the bluish monday waiting for us. Its not a coincidence that I wanted a monday to be my last day here. Yeah, I really wanted to smile on a monday morning! And so, to prevent getting institutionalised, I decided to follow my passions-writing and clicking. It was during the second year of engineering that I realised that I wanted to be a journalist. But, then it was too late(rather, too early, thinking from the 'now'). So, I went in with the flow and spent the last 6 years doing something which I really didn't like. Concerts and constant travel kept me sane! And, then I decided to take charge. So, after tests and interviews, I landed up admission at 2 places- Asian College of Journalism, Chennai and Xaviers, Mumbai. I'll be becoming a Chennaiite next week.

It was never easy throwing this away and taking up something which the society didn't approve of. The 'engineering/medicine syndrome' is so deep rooted that I got looks of contempt whenever I mentioned my new career plan to someone. Convincing my parents was the first part. It helps a lot when you've friends who are able to convince your parents, something which yourself failed to do. Then comes the relatives and 'concerned' neighbours. "Journalism??Are you crazy?", "But, you are too old for that now", "This is utter foolishness"- These are some of the reactions that I heard. There was no one around who saw the positives. At those times, I remember what one of my friends constantly used to say, "One life, man!". So, I decided to give it a try rather than cry over not having tried somewhere down the line. I might stumble, but I won't repent not having tried.

What really lighted up my stay in this company was 2 things- Infyblogs and SLRBB. As a regular blogger, when I stumbled upon infyblogs during training, I felt truely happy. And that's where I got some of my best friends here. It was also that platform which helped me hone my writing skills. Its a sad thing that infyblogs is now almost dead with the departure of some of its leading lights. I just hope that some of the new talents on view will take it back to the heights that it achieved 2 years back. Coming to SLRBB, this was THE place where I learned almost everything related to photography. I came to infy armed with an archaic film camera and a mobile camera. Vivek taught me the basics and introduced me to SLRBB. Its the skills acquired at this place which helped me in my freelancing career. Its an irony that infyblogs and SLRBB did play a big part in me charting out a new career path.

Having said all that, the last 3.8 years were truely a roller coaster ride. And, if given a chance to rewrite my history of this period, I would just take a photocopy. I am not mentioning any names because there are too many of them...:) So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish! Meet you at some crossroad...

Diplomacy? come again!

If someone were to talk about me, diplomacy is one word which would never make an appearance. Its one thing I've never believed in life. And its one thing which this blog too is not known for. Saying 'it sucks' when it really does SUCK won't be a big problem if you don't believe in this sham called diplomacy. It can cause some short term problems like backlash in the form of 'you too suck' or 'your wife sucks'. Some other times it can result in a broken nose or a blinded eye. But still you can live with the satisfaction of having said what you wanted to(considering the backlash dont get you killed). Diplomacy is just another form of hypocrisy. Most of the time you might be saying "I want to kick the hell out of you" in your mind while you just blurt out "This warm handshake does solve a lot of problems."

Diplomacy is the buzzword doing the rounds in India these days. That is, giving a rose when Pakis give us gunshots. Its the only way forward, we are told. Now what if the opposite was the only way forward. Talking what we feel is right rather than hiding behind carefully constructed rubbish statements. Some scenarios...

India-Pak dialogue

Zardari-"Lets talk peace"
Manmohan-"Shut up you piece of s**t"
Zardari-"Lets delink the terrorism issue from the dialogues"
Manmohan-"what the bloody hell is there left to talk after that"
Zardari-"Whats happening on the aman ki asha front?"
Manmohan-"Aman and Asha both ran around a tree at the speed of light. And both got f***ed royally.IN THE A**"


Husband-Wife

1.Wife-"Dont I look slim after today's 2 minute workout?Guess I lost 2 KGs"

Diplomatic husband-"I bet you lost more than 2. Infact your tummy looks even flatter than our TV."[In the mind, thinking of the old big bellied TV at the ancestral home)

Undiplomatic Husband-"Hahhaa, what a joke! Thats almost like 8 months pregnancy. Did you work out by eating those rock like idlis you make?"

2. Wife-"Honey, is this dress too sexy for office?"

Diplomatic husband-"Its ok dear. Anything fits you and you can carry it off well"

Undiplomatic Husband-"Am happy. In this hippie like dress where all your ugliness is revealed, no one will dare even look at you twice"




A client call at dildomys corporation

Client-"whats the status?"

Diplomatic PPPM(Paavam Pallu kozhinja Project Manager which means poor toothless PM)-"A case study is being conducted on the many ways the files that you supplied can be analysed. We've 2 resources available here to work on it after the case study. We are thinking of leveraging the advantage that we have in the PAVA platform so as to arrive at an optimal solution of the case study in the given time frame.

Client- Oho...

Undiplomatic SSSSSE(Senior Sexy Supervising Sucked to the core Software engineer)-"In simple words, we still haven't started because the input you send is a load of bulls**t."

Client(guess he's a diplomat too)-"really, what are you talking about? I dont get you"

Diplomatic PPPM-"There's been a confusion regarding the feasibility of using the inputs that you send.
The platorms and the standards of the (blah blah blah blah blah)x 10+(glah clah vlah chlah)x5"

Client-Oh. is that so?so, when can you get it delivered?EOD?

Undiplomatic SSSSSE-"Man, get a life. Correct yourself first. Dont waste time calling...avante oru EOD!!


At the appraisal discussion

Appraiser Mr.Ponnappan- Aaah well, Mr.Sebastein, Yours been a wonderful performance throughout the year.
Appraisee Mr.Sebastein(undiplomatic to the core)-As if I didn't know.
Ponnappan-You are in a real tough peer group.
Sebastein-I know what is coming.
Ponnappan-I am very much impressed with your result oriented approach. It also came in for special mentionm from the client side.
Sebastein-Tell me something that I dont know
Ponnappan-But your TL tells me that you are not interested in your work.
Sebastein-When did that moron learn mind reading?
Ponnappan-And also that you spend a lot of time on blogs and communicator.
Sebastein-Tell that loser to look at my work.
Ponnappan-But see sebastein, the thing is there are only a specific number of people that we can fix at any rating level. So its like a balancing act.
Sebastein-Cut out the jargon and come to the point.
Ponnappan-I wanted to place you in 1. But I had to go for mandanraj because he doesn't blog.
Sebastein-So am at 2?
Ponnappan-I wanted to place you in 2. But I had to give it to kundankumar because he doesn't use office communicator.
Sebastein-Better tell me straigh that am screwed.
Ponnappan-We have lots of free space in 3 and you are best fit there.
Sebastein-Now where should I fit you? All you do is fiddle with those useless excel sheets and roam around barking jargons. Take this you LOSER(gets out showing a raised finger) :)

So speak your mind. Dont hide behind words which you dont mean to say. Show the finger to diplomacy. Get slapped. Get bruised. Be proud!

your crusader Praveen

Stitched shoe & human nature

These days am obsessed with human nature, the way people behave differently to a particular situation. This started after watching the Charlie Kaufman movie 'Human nature', although the subject matter of the movie is entirely different. So, what do you think is the situation or object that I selected for this interesting and confusing study? Yes, its none another than my stitched woodland shoes. People who have met me might have noticed 2 ugly stitches on top of my shoes. How it came there is a story that goes back almost an year, around the time I bought the shoes. One day I woke up to see this shocking hole on top of my shoe, kept in a shoe rack. Obviously, a rat attack. Me not being a crorepati, I didn't throw away the shoes. Instead got it stitched from the cobbler. Some months later the other shoe met with the same fate. Now it started looking like an intentional stitch with both shoes sporting almost the same stitch. Anyway, my unclean shoes with those 2 stitches looks highly repulsive and doesn't like anything like an office goer's shoes.

So, let me get into how this is related with human behaviour. Its how people react when they see this particularly repulsive thing I proudly wear on my legs. When I walk along the street or stand somewhere or sit at the foodcourt, I've caught almost everyone passing me looking at the shoe. I'll classify the various reactions.

1. The slow and secret look- This is my favourite. These people strain their eyes and steal a glance at the shoe out of the corner of their eye. Some try too hard that their eyes almost go inside their ears. Some people end up with a look of contempt. Some just laugh privately at this beggar wearing a tie and listening to an ipod. These are the introvert, sometimes narrow minded people. They keep everything to themselves and form their own opinions without knowing the complete facts.

2. The In the face look- These people are mostly strangers to me. But they don't think twice before staring at the shoe and giving me 'The look'(called 'neglect look' in our local dialect spoken by a maximum of 10 people). They are the people who think themselves as perfect(while themselves wearing a torn socks or u/w) and appoint themselves to judge others.

3. The loudmouths- 'Man, what the hell are you wearing?', 'Is this professional?', 'Can't you buy a new shoe?' are some common reactions from loudmouths, mostly people I know. The trick is just to avoid the questions with a sweet smile. Its the same in everything in life. Just avoid this loudmouthed people. :)

4. The BBCs- If your mother-in-law's auntie's daughter's long lost friend rings you up and asks you about your torn shoe, chances are that your shoes have been noticed 1 minute back by a BBC(Bitching broadcasting corporation). These are the people who will tell whomever they meet about your torn shoe.

5. The straightforwards- They just ask "what happened to your shoe?", hear what you say and leave the matter behind. As simple as that.

6. The blabbermouths- They ask you about the shoe and gives you a history lesson on their own torn shoes. The talk will end with some 'gyaan' on the shoe thrown at George Bush or P Chidambaram.


People who find themselves in a classification they don't like, please forgive me. Its not your fault, its all because of my torn shoe. More studies will be done using more such objects. And now you know the reason why am still wearing that one year after it was torn. Here's a snap of the legendary shoe..

PS- I feel this is a very boring post. I was dying to write something and could come up only with this. Anyway I posted it...

your crusader Praveen

Cleaning up: A Nostalgic Trip

The posters..torn from the walls :(

One of the best ways to relive your old days in school and college is to clean up your old room. Thats what I learned last week. As we were planning to rent the top floor of our home in Trivandrum, we had to do a clean up operation. More precisely, I had to do it because almost the entire floor was filled with my own stuffs. The so called stuffs include things ranging from the LKG alphabet book to the engineering data books. Considering the possibility of classified and 'secret' documents being present in those heaps, I told my mother not to touch any of those. I planned last weekend's trip home just for this cleaning up purpose. And yeah, it was worth it.

a part of the wall..before removing the posters

The minute I opened the big wall shelf, I could sense that dusty old smell. The shelf was full to the brim in 3 compartments. I had to decide what all things to throw and what to keep. Considering the fact that one of my hobbies happens to be 'collection', I was sure the things to throw away won't be much to speak about. The first things I laid my hands on were the notebooks. There were those crazy 4 line english copy books, 2 line malayalam and hindi copy books, homework books, notebooks just to write impositions and rough books. I made it a point to check for hidden pieces of paper. No, I was not looking for any loveletters from my school sweethearts. I was keeping an eye on any crazy notes we used to pass each other in school. I did get some. Also the back pages of notebooks were a treat. Anything from poorly done sketches of the girl in the next bench to nicknames of teachers were seen there. A 7th standard notebook's
backpage was filled with the old 'FLAMES'game, using which you could easily find out whether a particular girl will be your friend, lover, wife, enemy or a partner in bed. And the funniest thing is that most of the girl's name whom I tried out in those pages never even became an acquaintance. Some other notebooks had chocolaty lyrics of boy bands written at the back like "you are my fire(:P)...". The one which takes the cake is a special notebook with pictures from 'titanic' movie pasted in many pages. I was on the point of banging my head on the wall at this 'heights of chocolatiness', when I stumbled on the prize catch- a diary of poems written in school. I started it in 8th standard by writing malayalam poems. There was a poem called 'Ente premam(my love)', reading which made me cry with shame. It was written to impress our
beautiful class magazine editor. All the lines were filled with elaborate descriptions of her beauty, her eyes, her hair, her hands and even her legs(GOD!). Arranging the college notebooks was the easiest part-there were only less than 10 of them for all the 4 years. And most of them filled with heavy metal lyrics, crazy drawings and sometimes the highest of expletives.

Once I got over with notebooks, I proceeded to my precious collection of paper cuttings. It was a hobby which I started way back in school. Amma always told me never to do that because most of the papers couldn't be used for wrapping things once I started my operation. Rifling through those paper cuttings were like reading a mini history text book. There were entire collections of papers during world cups and other important events. Most of Sachin's centuries and Schumi's wins were carefully cut and kept. All the separate categories were kept in separate covers like music, movies, sports, politics. There were crappy cuttings of movie stars which went staright to the dust bin.

All over the wall...

The last part of the cleaning up operation was the painful part-Removing the heavy metal posters in our band's practise room. A collection acquired from years of buying and stealing rock magazines from friends. I carefully cut the cello taped parts so as to use the posters later. At the end of it all, amma was happy. What started with a single poster in the corner of the room, hijacked the whole room and turned it into four black walls of heavy metal Gods in just a few months time. After I removed everything, she was saying, "Ippozhaanu ivide kaattum velichavum vanu thudangiyathu"(Its only now that light and air has started to come into this room). Still, for me, to see that room without the posters, the guitars, the DVDs and that old desktop was a pain. I could easily say that the times spent inside this room were some of the best of my life. Those four walls and that little space in between means a lot to me. Anyway, the whole exercise was an enjoyable one.

your crusader Praveen

Timeline of my life

One of my blogger friends in office Veerasunder have come up with a useful online software which helps us to make a timeline of our life. Here is a 'not so serious' attempt at creating one for my life. Do try this tool out. Its real fun.
PS-Use the scrollbar at the bottom of this timeline.

1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
The nuisance comethAugust 3rd of 1985 will forever be remembered in history as the day which altered the way the world functioned, forever. On this day, the first cries of an eternal noisy nuisance silenced the rest of the world. When he opened his eyes for the first time, the sun dimmed its headlights in reverence. All this happened in a little place called Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala. ( 1985 - 1985 )
	The nuisance walksWhen he first set foot on the land, the globe started spinning in the opposite direction. Because of this, flights which started in Delhi, landed in Delhi itself after a 2 hour journey. This scientific phenomenon happened in Calcutta(now kolkata), where he spent 3 years of his life. ( 1986 - 1989 )
				The nuisance goes to schoolHis dad got transfer to Nilambur in Kerala. And by now, he had already mastered the ABCD book. In LKG, he amazed everyone with his alphabetic knowledge-A for Ass, B for Bitch, C for. He studied there in Good hope school till 1st standard. ( 1989 - 1991 )
							The nuisance discovers RahmanIt was on a rainy day in grainy Doordarshan that he heard the starting tune of \'Chinna Chinna Aasai\'. The next week he made his Rafi addict Dad to buy the cassette of \'Roja\'. A.R.Rahman had made a mark forever in his heart. ( 1992 - 2009 )
							The nuisance in primary schoolHe lands back in his place of birth, Trivandrum. Primary school education in St.Mary\'s school, Pattom. From 1st rank in 1st standard, he makes steady progress with 2nd rank in 2nd standard, 3rd in 3rd and 4th in 4th. ( 1992 - 1995 )
										The nuisance haunts PalakkadHe was more than happy to be admitted in Vijayamatha girl\'s high school, where he passed the junior masters in the \'art of appreciating beauty\'. The first in a long line of one way love affairs happened here. It was a sweet classmate with that heavenly voice who stole his small heart. Later, he came to know that she threw away the stolen heart when she saw that there\'s nothing valuable inside. ( 1995 - 1997 )
												The nuisance comes of ageThose high school years in Christ Nagar school still counts as some of the best of his life. He proved good in all sports that the benches actually caught fire with his warmth. To mask his failure in sports, he tried his hand in music. The classical violin just was too hot for him to handle. ( 1997 - 2001 )
																The model nuisanceIn plus 2, he joined in Model school, Trivandrum, famed for its \'outstanding\' students. He bunked every single day of those 2 years, coming to the class just to give attendance. He joined the chorus asking the film industry to release atleast 14 films a week, for his morning and afternoon pleasure. ( 2001 - 2003 )
																		The nuisance goes to collegeHe crosses the gates of SCT engineering college, TVM, singing the song \'enakkoru girlfriend venameda\'. 4 years later, he wrote and sang the hit song \'where have all the girls gone\'. In between, he had THE best 4 years of his life and there he met many of his closest friends. ( 2003 - 2007 )
																				The Nuisance becomes a bloggerHe started his blog \'crusadertvm\'. He receives bouqets and truck load of brickbats for his no holds barred blog. His promises his friends that he would never use the F word in his blog, after a particular post filled with those angers many. ( 2005 - 2009 )
																					The Nuisance goes to STONEAGEHe picks up the guitar by the end of 2004. And in 2006, he teams up with his juniors to start the band \'STONEAGE\'. This part of his life is called \'rocking,banging and rolling\'. It was pure fun and energy for almost 2 years in college fests, competitions, festive shows etc until a job offer robbed the band from him. ( 2006 - 2009 )
																						The Nuisance goes to office This part of his life is called \'hunting for leaves\'. He enjoys the 4 months training in mysore in the foodcourts, multiplex, the hostel and in the grounds. He sets foot onto infyblogs. He joins the PLES IBU in Bangalore and continues blogging merrily and working in between. He also creates a records for the maximum number of leaves availed in a short time. ( 2007 - 2009 )
1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009

To create a timeline of your life, go to http://veerasundar.com/timelinr/

The Value of money

It was the 20th of this month and I had just 600 rupees in my hand, to spend for the rest of the month. No, It was not a result of some hi-fi spending spree. I had some investment commintments for which I didn't plan out well last month. I was thinking of various possible ways in which I can survive the rest of the month. Thats when, someone send me one of the best forwards I got in recent times. Its a simple video titled "Value of 500 rupees". A select set of people from almost all strata of the soceity is asked one simple question "If I give you 500 bucks, how will you spend it?" You can see the common answers from the Gen-X crowd-Movies, booze, smoke, party. And then there are the downtrodden, the unprivileged class. A lady tells she'll spend it on education for her children and rest she'll save for future. In the next frame you see a man uttering "You can do nothing with 500 rupees". And then a poor kid says "I can take care of our home's expenses, clothes, food etc". See, how perceptions vary. And see, how we take things for granted. We have even someone saying he'll go for a branded underwear. The video ends with a masterclass statement "The price of someone's haircut=The price of someone else's school fees". It says poverty forces 70% of India's children to drop out of school before the secondary level. Aren't we lucky to be among that 30%. Still, why we crib? why we find fault in everything even after life being so kind to us?



This video inspired me no end and gave me the belief that I could safely survive the remaining 10 days of the month with 600 rupees. I realised how much money I wud've wasted if I had more on my hand. Now as I write this on the 27th of Nov, I have 180 rupees left with me, more than enough for me to survive this month. Who said forwards are a waste of time? I just learned a big lesson in life with the help of one.

PS-Wrote this just before the terrorists went on rampage in Mumbai. Was not in a mood to post this for the last 2 days. And yes, as I received my salary yesterday, I still had 40 rupees left with me.

Now tell me friends, what will you do if you get 500 rupees?

The Evolution Tag

Tagged by Mathew and Thomman. Here it goes

The Tag

Two questions from the past, present and future. Answer them and then tag your friends from the blog-o-sphere. Leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been tagged and you are all set.

Yesterday
-Your oldest memories

Me, The biker kid

The life in Kolkata as a kid. I was the terror of the neighbourhood Bengali uncles. Our owner,a Bengali himself, used to stay upstairs. Whenever he had to come down, he would do so with utmost care because he never knew when a big stone or plate would strike him from nowhere. I used to chase him with sticks all around the compound and he was seriously scared. I guess, he was the only owner in the world who was scared of his own tenant. The first thing he asked me was "Keekkochi", which in Bengali means "whats your name"(I think so. Atleast, thats what my dad told me). And I thought he was telling me his name. From that day, I called him "keekkochi maaman"(keekkochi uncle). Another memory of those days was when I buried my grandfather's watch hoping that a tree bearing 1000 watches will spring up.

-What were you doing ten years ago?
I was in 8th standard, going through the worst year in school ever. I found it hard to pass in maths, often bugging sir to give me some grace marks and some how make me pass. Sometimes, I thought this is the end of my education. But, all this didn't stop me from enjoying my life with music(those were the cheesy boy band days), hanging out with friends etc. And yeah, that was the year in which I wrote my first poem, a malayalam one. That was a mushy romantic 16 liner describing a girl's beauty and my love for her, obviously one of my classmates whom I wanted to impress. Needless to say, it didn't find a place even in her dustbin.

Today
Stuck in a 5 day job, where blogs, friends, ipod and chat are the only solace. Though I do enjoy the work with my head banging slightly to the heavy metal from my ipod. The weekends are spend movie watching, hanging out or by playing the guitar. Am now known as the biggest fool in town, a name which I earned with years of hard work. My foolishness had crossed such a level that they had opened an orkut community just for chronicling it all. And, am happy that am blogging a lot more regularly than I used to do.

Tomorrow
Oh no! Monday! Why did you put this question? I just hate Mondays as much as the majority of you. Gonna be a boring day except for the lunch breaks, tea breaks and after hours.


What do you see yourself doing 14 years from now?
Touring the world, with my old college band(then an internationally renowned metal band), a DSLR and a beautiful and loving wife for company. Hopefully some kids too. I would like to play at that small rock fest called 'Rock in Rio', nothing less.

If you build a time capsule what would it contain?
Myself with all the things I have at present, my family, my friends, my guitar, my music collection and a back up of this blog.

Am tagging
Kartoos

Swapna

Chriz
Tara
Akhil
Priya
Rockus
Usha
Archana
Multimenon
Nandana

and whoever who is interested to take it

your crusader Praveen

Train of thoughts

Train set and match spied under the blind
Shiny and contoured the railway winds
And I've heard the sound from my cousin's bed
The hiss of the train at the railway head

Always the summers are slipping away

A 60 ton angel falls to the earth
A pile of old metal, a radiant blur
Scars in the country, the summer and her

-lyrics of "Trains" song by the band 'Porcupine Tree'

After a long time (about 1 year) I travelled in a train last week on my trip from Bangalore to my hometown Trivadrum. I've become fed up of those long journeys in the volvos where you have to sit and sleep in shapes as weird as 'S' and 'Z'. Also, the buses used to take a long time to reach the specified destination. Now, am happy that am back to travelling in trains, although procuring a ticket is a hard task which is a process that you have to initiate atleast 2 months before the journey. So, atlast last wednesday I got back into my love affair with trains. I reached the station 1 hour before the departure and then it was a long wait inside the half empty compartment. Some foreigners clad in saffron(No no, they are not from the ugly saffron brigade) and white were roaming around with books of epics like Ramayana, Bhagavatham, Mahabharatha etc. One of them came to me and started his lecture on Ramayana and Mahabharatha. After some minutes of patient listening, during which I was trying to control my laughter , I told him that I've read these books before. He smiled and said "Thanks. Hare Rama, Hare Krishna" which I found myself repeating back. I pondered over the irony of foreigners selling our own epics to us. After a long wait, my favourite sound of the train's long horn was heard and it started chugging along slowly. As it gained momentum, the faces of the people standing in the platform started to roll along fast. It reminded me of a film being rewinded. The film of my train journeys.

My first memories of train journeys are of the long hauls from Trivandrum to Kolkata(then Calcutta). For 3 years, we used to shuttle back between these places at regular intervals. A single journey meant 2 days of your life spent in a train. The entire flora and fauna of India would be on view as the loco snaked its way through the various Indian states. And taking along a naughty kid like me, who was such a nuisance, meant that my parents never loved these journeys. Same was the case with all the elderly people who by sheer lack of luck happened to occupy the same compartment as me. As I grew up, I always waited for an opportunity to travel in trains. From those days till today, there are some things which I find really special with travelling in trains in India.(For your info, that was just a show off dialogue. I've never crossed Indian borders, except in dreams :D ). I'll list out a few of those.

Bombay VT-India's most beautiful railway station

1. First and foremost, the bystanders- I meant the people, mostly innocent children, who stand and watch the trains with wide open eyes, as the train passes by their village. Particularly, I love those kids who never get tired of waving at trains. Some of them try to run along for some distance. A lot of them are so poor that they would never travel in this wonder vehicle which they see everyday.

2. The 'chaaai, kaaapi' calls- This is irresistible. Although the taste of the coffee and tea served at the railways leave a lot to be desired, the long tuneful calls of 'chaaaai, kaaaappi' is sure to make you drink one. And another amazing thing is, wherever you go in India, they sound the same that I sometimes used to wonder whether it was the same person selling tea in all stations across India.

3. The unknown- The places you see during train journeys are mostly those which are hidden from you when you travel by road. Most of the times, these are uninteresting. But sometimes, I've seen some of the most beautiful sceneries from the train windows.

4. The bridges- When the train travels over long bridges, its an exhilarating feeling. If you look down through the window, you will most probably see only water. You would never feel that the train is travelling on rails. And if it is early morning or late evening, you'll see the sun in all its glory which adds to the 'picture perfect' effect. A lone sailor on his country boat(common sight in Kerala) is an icing on the cake.

5. The people- The ones you meet during the train journeys, the ones that you share the compartment with. I've got some really good friends in these journeys. I've also met some of the most irritating people here. Still, its always a nice mix. Not tobe left out, some really beautiful gals. ;)

6. "aane ki sambhavana"- The famous dialogue that preceeds the arrival of the train. This has gone on to attain a legendary status mainly due to some real horrible PJs.(Keralites would know what am speaking about)

7. the "dhak dhak" beat- The sound of chugging of the train drives me crazy. I can spend long hours on journies just by listening to these rhythmic beats. Sometimes, it breaks into a 'dream theater' like off-beat. Thankfully, I haven't headbanged to it until now.

During the all- India train journey with friends

A small note one of my most special train journeys. A 15 day (almost) half-India trip during engineering with my classmates. Our journey route was Trivandrum-Goa-Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad-Bangalore-Chennai-Trivandrum. We hopped from train to train as we were treated to the richness and diversity of India. Those 15 days will always remain in my memory. Also requiring special mention is the journey me and my friends had from Trivandrum to Guruvayoor on a general compartment filled to the brim. We even didn't have space to sit on the floor. All of us sat together on the floor near the smelly as hell toilet with no space to move. But, still we enjoyed the journey like anything. Same with the train trips with my band. These journeys are priceless when compared to a trip in the executive class of a boeing.

me and friends sleeping on the floor of a general compartment

So, thats my list. Do you have such favourite memories associated with trains? Share with me.

PS-checkout the "trains" song by Porcupine Tree. Its awesome.

Pic 1 courtesy-narsapur.net

MASHIN FALT

'Flexibility' is a word we associate mostly with the english language. There are so many brands of english around the world. Sometimes, even the British guys do have a hard time understanding some of these exotic brands. In the name of flexibility, the language has been subjected to gangrape,gruesome murder and sometimes re-birth.

But even this knowledge of the language's flexibility didn't prepare me to handle the shock of reading one simple sentence some days back. We have this habit of drinking Capuccino every night at 12 30 from the coffee day at FC3. But this special day, we were greeted by a big banner that read

"Hot bewerage not available. MASHIN FALT".
Hope all of u understood what they meant.

your crusader praveen

Devalued

all the world's music is here

It was not long back, about 7-8 years ago. It was a source of great pleasure when I somehow got hold of a song I been looking for. For some rare songs, I had to wait for years to get it into my collection. But it brought me immense satisfaction and a certain genuine happiness in the heart when I got it. I still remember how or where I got some of those songs. Now, that pleasure is not there. In a world filled with torrents and file sharing stuff like Ares, shareaza, limewire etc, you can obtain any obscure song just by typing its name and pressing enter. You can even get complete collections of every artiast on the face of the earth. I, for one, has downloaded tons of discographies of various artists and am having a hard time devoting my time for a particular artist. This kind of easy availability has diminished the value of the music somewhat. The old world satisfaction of securing a much loved and rare song is also missing. Also, its confusing sometimes thinking on what I should listen beacuse I've all the world's music at my disposal. But still...getting a free meal is good...hahhaa...

your crusader Praveen