Chennai Trip

So, I went to Chennai for 2 day. Yeah, go on. I can hear your laughing. But they ain't shifting the campus anytime soon so if I gotta meet college friends, I gotta go to Chennai, unless they come to Bangalore. Things have changed in the campus, for the worse.

The weather till sucks and due to the extension work going on, the mess-terrace is gone from 3 storeyed hostels and those poor chaps can't sleep during the day, thanks to the incessant hammering and drilling noise. Forget about sleeping, they can't even watch a movie in that much noise. Things are even worse in my hostel. Why? Because Bhaand still hasn't left and he has managed to grow the hair on his non-bald island on head long enough to tie 'it up in a pony. Good luck, Narmadites.

The good part, of course, was meeting friends and congratulating them on their placements. But this happiness was short-lived as I discovered on my way back. See, they will become bankers, analysts, consultants etc. but none of these positions have any real power. I mean, they will be able to acuire anything money can buy but nothing that money can't. And even master card agrees that money cannot buy everything.

You know what money can't buy but power can? The right to pull a 23 years old's cheek and get away it in a crowded train. The right to still refuse him a seat even after the ordeal. The poor boy's only fault was to have hoped for the elusive mistress called luck to provide him a seat in a reserved compartment, with th help of Mr. money. But she refused to show up. And it was then that my life changed.

See, I had enough money to buy out the man himself but I still couldn't buy myself out of the heinous act. That was a moment of clarity. I realised what I were to become. A TTE in a day train. Those guys have real power man. They can throw you outta the train, they can make you stand for hours and they can damn well pull your cheek. Imagine sashaying in an overcrowded compartment, wearing a coat in 45 degrees, throwing the first one out, making the second guy stand and pulling every 3rd guy's cheek. Heck, you might become a TTE on the arc shown in 2012, if a catastrophe is on its way.

Now since I've decided to become one and have no clue where to begin, please send me any details you might possess/come across. If it turns out to be helpful, I assure you, your cheeks will be stamped 'safe.'

The 3 idiotic things

Long time since I wrote because it's hard to write long essays on miniscule topics, given my attention span, and as a man not given to hard work, I give it a miss..

What do Americans have against their own culture? My guess is Inferiority complex. So many times have I seen movies where some less educated community is threatened by americans/english and they hit back bravely (except,of course, Bond against the Russians). There was Lawrence of Arabia, The Last Samurai, Dances with the Wolves, some movie on Vietnam, Letters to eo Jhima and now there's the 3D wonder Avatar. Frankly this movie was nothing without the effects. For plot, it had a sad story about how Americans attack Pandora and the native nomads defend their land, referring to earth as a 'dying planet'. I mean, c'mon guys, how much can you hate your own country? I don't think we Indians can stand a movie which portrays us in a bad light. Can we? May be we could tolerate a movie against Indians, but certainly nothing against our caste or community.

Mr. Bhagat, please stop polluting the world. You are a terrible excuse for a writer, you cry like a little girl for credit in a bad movie and you do not look or sound good on TV. As if this all wasn't enough, you are wasting precious newsprint space in TOI every Sunday. But I am not all criticism and can see the silver lining here. It's people like you who give me hope. If you could make a career out of writing, I figure I could become a Test-match batsman or even a Biotech scientist, in spite of the aforementioned span of attention.

That's right, the 3rd point is about that stupid movie. All sorts of thing, good and bad, have been said about the movie and hence all I want to say is, I have seen suicides in my college life but never due to a professor. The reason s always something else. Even in the movie, the Dean didn't anticipate the suicide/attempt and hence it's hardly logical to blame him. And yeah, in real life, the courses or projects aren't so difficult that they push you to such actions. I am a 'living' example, passing with a decent CGPA and a BTP which I finished in under 5 days (although I didn't have a job by the time I left but that blame lies on others and not at all on the prof).