come on...be another one to bite the dust- Join AMAMAEC

So I was reading the papers and came across the feature which spoke about all the toppers.

The state topper was a quintessial iyengar with a namam that looked like he had drawn it with a drafter which he had bought in advance for his engineering drawing classes. He wanted to become an engineer and then do his management degree from an IIM. I went on to the next rank holder's statement.

He wanted to become.....Just then I went back to the earlier line what????????

An engineering degree then a management degree???! what has happened to the world???

He had just shattered the quintessial tam brahm dream of being an engineering and pursuing an MS or maybe he was reshaping the to be tam brahm dream!!!! He wanted to take up ECE...phew there was hope still....

When i suggested to my parents that I wanted to do Literature after school I got a response which sounded like " Oh Lord forgive her for saying that". I think currently the business to be in is the education business. Pretty easy I should say.

I am planning to start my own college.

ARUL MIGU AAL MARATHADI ARUNACHALA ENGINEERING COLLEGE( AMAMAEC)

Get a building, get some out of job engineers and ADVERTISE!!

100% PLACEMENT IN TOP MNC'S LIKE QUIPRO, GEETEEYESS, PINGOSYS.

WE OFFER COURSES IN COMP.SC, ECE, IT, EEE, MECHANICAL.

FIRST COME FIRST SERVE BASIS .

95% SEATS RESERVED FOR MGMT QUOTA

3% RESERVED FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

REST SEATS WILL BE ALLOTTED ON MERIT BASIS(SEE FOLLOWING PAGE OR OUR ADMISSION TEST FORMS)

INTERNATIONAL QUALITY IN TEACHING.

EXTRA COACHING FOR STUDENTS FOR PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT BY THOUGHT LEADER EKAMBARAM(rS.1500/HOUR)

FREE LAPTOPS FOR ALL STUDENTS IN ORDER TO AID THEM WATCH EDUCATIONAL MOVIES.

I am sure there will be takers for this college. I am also planning to start engineering coaching right from eleventh standard. Like they teach 10th std syllabus in 9th std and 12th portion in 11th std. Anyways we are going to reach the hallowed portals of an engineering college. Might as well not waste time. This will facilitate enough time for students to study for TOEFL in first year and GRE in second year.

For the lesser mortals who have taken up civil engg and textile engg. I plan to schedule extra classes after college timing for training in C and C++ so that they can pursue a software job after graduation.

I also aim to provide a safe and sound atmosphere for students to study. Boys are not allowed to talk to girls both within and outside the campus premises. The phone lines will be tapped. I will also provide separate buses for boys and girls, separate canteen for boys and girls. Hostels will be far apart from each other. Girls can wear any dress to college as long as it is a salwar kurta and has a dupatta which is pinned on both shoulders. They are also requested to walk with one hand at the back and a finger on the lip for their well being.

My college will aim at a rigourous academic curriculum which any mani pani shani can pass by studying the previous years question papers. Since the first batch will not have this privilege the final exam question paper will be given as one of the revision exam papers. Students will not be told which revision exam paper is likely to come as the final paper.

Students who dont get placed in the final year or who have 2 or more arrears will be given an opportunity to teach the junior batches. My college will accept no donation.

Our fee structure is very realistic.
tuition fee: 30000
development fees :6000
internet fee: 1000
placement fees: 5000
breakage charges of hostels when students get irate with mgmt fee: 1000
hostel fees: 4000

Alla marathadi arunachala co-operative bank will help all students realise their great Indian engineering dream by disbursing educational loans.

I also have plans on the anvil to start a dental college, MBA college, two other engineering colleges- one in the name of my son aal marathadi pithambaram and one in the name of my daughter aal marath adi rajinieshwari.

COME JOIN US.... BECOME AN ENGINEER AND LIVE UP TO THE DREAM OF A QUINTESSENTIAL AVERAGE INDIAN. BE ANOTHER ONE TO BITE THE DUST

soul patrol!

I have always hated the time difference between regions. It asks of me to stop thinking for a sec, calculate what time it would be for my brother before i Decide to wake him up for a silly request!

But this is one reason why I love the time zone thing!!!!I got to know who won American idol without having to watch a 2 hr special interspersed with more ads than the actual programme!!!

Taylor Hicks won American Idol 6!!!!!!!!

I havent heard much of his own music and I was rooting for Chris Daughtry. It is definitely a well deserved break from PYT KAT Mcphee!!!!!!

Herez to soul patrol....Kind of like the word....SOUL PATROL!!!

oops....!!!

My cousin from Nagercoil was at home for a couple of days. She was here to get admission into one of the engineering colleges(which claims to be a deemed university).

The 12th std results were out only a couple of days back and there has been a ruling already saying that tamil would be compulsory from the next batch onwards. I immediatley thanked my stars for having been born earlier than the current batch. Phew.....

I learnt tamil on my own because my friends would make fun of me saying I cant read and write tamil. I learnt from "LEARN TAMIL IN 30 DAYS". My dad refused to let me travel by the town bus after that because I was apparently reading gandhipark as gandhipuram and getting into wrong buses!

And this one time ( at band camp;)) okie thatz not funny...sorry) we were travelling by our car and i was testing my tamil reading skills by reading every billboard I could see. In front of us was a lorry which had a message written on it at the back. This was weird. I read it aloud. I didnt understand it. My dad kept saying shut up but i wouldnt stop. Turned out it was an ad advicing men to wear condoms!!!!!

yet another arbit day!

After two days of marathon movie sessions, just before I could proclaim on my blog that I was self confessed tv junkie, my folks made me run errands the whole day so that I dont laze around at home.

The last two days I watched

* salaam namaste, ddlj, aasai,nandanam(already seen movies)

** gramophone, stolen summer(new movies)

*** desp housewives, lost, sex and the city , charmed( sit coms/serials)

**** and lots of other stuff which I cant seem to remember.

all in one crazy pace. As though I was running out of time.


Just as we returned back from a place where for the first time I saw a thing that is called odyanaum in tamil weighing 1 kilo, fully studded with diamonds. (Supposedly just the making charges is about 6 lakhs!!!what a joke!)okie useless piece of info!

I saw a parcel on our doorstep. It had a coke wrapper on it. I grew suspicious....

It was addressed to my parents name(curioser)!

Dad jumped at it and opened it. The wrapper gave way to a case (nice one at that) that said COCA-COLA- first few sips.

Ah, I had heard that somewhere!!! It was the concept of the induction programme for my summer induction!!!!! damn they are using the same for the mgmt trainee programme too!!!

The case contained 6 cans of diet coke with a letter which welcomed my MUM AND DAD into the folds of the coke family.

But I was happy. Some trace of acknowledgement of me as an employee!!!

My dad promptly took out the cans and appropriated the case saying he was going to use it for the car. I thought until that moment only my mum was obssessed with bags. turns out even my dad was. MY mum collects everything from zip lock bags to jute bags. Everytime we go out , she feels the need for a new handbag!!!!

My neighbour uncle who also happens to be my relative was very curious-why would they spend so much money and send 6 cans of coke to you by courier he asked. Thank God he is not the HR manager at coke I thought to myself!!!

Have started packing my bags for my trip to Gurgaon. Just as I was whizzing past the lanes of Coimbatore today I swore to myself I would never get attached to any place because i was hating the lump that was fast rising in my throat then. I told this to myself even when i left Mumbai.

I guess it's an end of a phase for me.

Now I have got to be all nice and mature...!

Damn!!!!!

random thoughts

Another couple of weeks and I have to leave home. I know, painful ain't it?
Well, Of course it is the start of a new phase in my life. The one high point is I would be earning.
Was thinking the other maybe even I should give up my career right away and start a book store like i always wanted to!! Seems to be the in thing these days. Maybe I will make create some noise because am sure I will be the first of a kind-one who gave up a career even before it began!!! or maybe not. Am sure someone has done it already!!!
Nothing much to write about today. Was reading the news on the net and reading some famous blogs. These guys sure do get their daily dose of fan mail.
This guy writes like a small paragraph and he gets 42 comments(but of course the guy was talking about the completion of his book) and I write a billion words and I get 3
1) giving me the telephone no. of the local bsnl helpline-WAS BRUTAL. OUCH!
2) someone who really liked my blog but took a printout of it and read it in the loo!!
3) a good friend fromTISS- ah someone still reads my blog.
and ya then there a lot of these cheapskates. The kinds who read my blog and go without a comment, The kinds like Sushant who msg me/call me/text me and have a full length conversation about my thoughts. Thanks Sushant.
There are also the kinds who read my blog and who msg me on yahoo/orkut. Nice blog, keep writing, howlarious. Kichna was generous with his compliments this time around.
I think the most painful moment is when you think you have a point or that you are funny and when the reader actually takes it literally.
I had written a post about how I have never met interesting men ever while on travel unlike what bollywood movies portray. I get this comment from a person
" Dont worry. Try and be yourself. Socializing is not the best method to meet "someone"."
GEE THANKS PAL. I needed that advice! That post promplty disappeared from my blog the following day.
But the killer was this one. I had answered a set of questions which i had been tagged for. Someone wrote"nice questions and ya answers too"
A friend told me I was overanalyzing!! I hope I was!
The worst this time was when someone mailed me with advice about how I should never speak to Govt.officials!!!
Ah the travails of a budding(read vella) blogger.

arrrrrrgggggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been down with fever and a very nasty throat infection. The kind when you are put on an overdose of anti biotics- from the ent doc and the gen.physician. So much so I havent spoken much in the past two days-understatement. I havent done much in the past two days. I hadnt slept the whole of last night and was trying to hoard all of my day's sleep for tonight ButI couldnt help but nod off for a few minutes when I was woken up by my mother saying there was a person on the line regarding the broadband connection problem.

I have been facing a broadband connection probelm. Within few minutes of connection, the line would disconnect. To my dismay I noticed my dad had a monster for a connection-DATAONE!!! It was Government service and I had to reach out to them for my problem. If my friend Arpita would would hear me talking like this she would kill me. She was always in support for the govt. Not that the private players were any good. Nevertheless.

So i got up all groggy, to attend this phone call.

The whole conversation is in tamil...

akila: hello?

##$$:(in a very tamil accent...and high pitch) hallo.... There has been a complaint from you regarding your broadband connection.

akila: yes..(am sorry i made a complaint....will you forgive me??)

##$$: Is it a USB or an ethernet card?

akila: Ethernet

##$$: Okie now switch on the computer.

akila: excuse me...but i have picked up the extension from downstairs and I cant transfer it back, so can i call you?

##$$: what??? how many phones do you have?how come you cant transfer back and....a slurry of other useless questions.

akila:what???! is that like important??

##$$: of course it is, you live in that house and you dont know how many phones you have??
do you atleast know to operate the computer?I am the JE talking here.

akila:(i think to myself...jay...what a nice name for a horrible sounding guy!!)

and answer" i think i do, but just a little bit. "

##$$: okie i will call you back....

so I dutifully go upstairs and wait for his call. 5 mins, 10 mins.No call.

I looked at the watch and realised, it was 5:30. Of course he was not going to call back!!!

So I called dad and got this ##$$'s details and called him back and told him it was the same old me. and He continued the conversation right from where left it.

##$$" so have u atleast switched on your computer?
Akila:yes your highness I have

##$$: What is the modem that you have- the white one or the black one?

Akila: ha...the white one.

##$$: the white one? then it has a maroon bottom
Akila: how techno savvy...yes...the white one with a maroon bottom.

##$$:hmmmm that means it is a MT841?
Akila: yes it is Grandmaster.

##$$: Now right click the icon that connects to broadband.

Usually when some one says right click, i generally presume it is to check the properties but the grandmaster had other plans

##$$: what does it say?
Akila: it says connect, status, cut copy,.......

##$$: okie okie...now connect.
Akila: okie....

##$$: Now after it has connected, open a website- anything, yahoo google, anything

Akila: Thank You kind master for giving me the liberty to open any site.

##$$: see, it works doesnt it?? Thats it. It is very simple.

Akila: Okie, but i have a problem

##$$: you still have a problem???

Akila: crouching in fear...yes i do. The connection gets disconnected after 10- 15 mins.

##$$: on it's own?

Akila: ya rite....i disconnect it on my own and go through this pleasurable conversation with you....

##$$: okie, here is a number. Call up these guys and ask them to find out if there is a problem locally.

Akila: so there is no problem from your side then?
##$$: of course not. It has connected hasnt it? Thats my territory until then. I will not move my freaking butt beyond that.

Akila: Okie.Thanks for being so kind and patient with me. Bye.

So I call up this new number and a lady answers a phone.

Men are okie but ladies in government service are scary. The other day i called up the telephone office for some reason(why do i have to do all the calling i wonder at times) and this lady picks up and i tell her my sms-es are not going to a particular number(selective ignorance;)) and she says ,"oh, is it? okie maybe you should come and meet the Grandmaster personally. Only he can solve your problem"
Akila: oh is there no customer service number i can and they would look into or something?
Lady ##$$" OH i just picked up the phone because it rang. You have to meet the grandmaster personally and find out what is the number"


anyways back to our l'il conversation with the new lady. I repeat all my problems to her and what the grandmaster had told me and goes

" We have customers from tiruppur, ooty, udumalpet...... they have no problems. How come you have?"

Akila: oh damn. I didnt realise it was I who was the sinner!!!!

##$$lady2: okie now , you go call the grandmaster and tell him not to blame me and it is actually his problem with the phone line . My territory ends right here"

the line goes blank....Think she went off to claim overtime for the 5 mins she spent talking to me after 5:30 PM.

I was almost in the verge of tears and went downstairs to rant all this to my mum and complain and savage the government employees and get some self pity for getting shouted at for no reason.

MY mum wouldnt even hear me.

She just said "they are like that. You want to get your job done lady then you got to accept it"

I tried calling my dad to explain what happened I even tried to convince him to get a touchtel connection. He wouldnt even hear me out. He just said" They are like that and we need to accept them"

Of course we do......

This morning I was watching the news about the reservation issues and decided I had to take a stand. What was my opinion? Were reservations necessary?

I saw medha patkasr demonstrating and thought to myself what was my stand?

Having lived amidst social orkers for 2 years it was important i took a stand on things. I was either here or there. If not i was not there!!!!!!!!

But I dont have a bloody stand. I dont. I have just become too tolerant and indifferent to have an opinion. Does it really matter what I think. Ya maybe in a 10-15 min GD for a job interview or something but otherwise it doesnt make a difference what I think.

It is one thing for Madhavan to wax eloquent in RDB about how youth have to change the nation and another thing where we are taught to accept things the way they are......

I studied and made my way through a state which has 69% reservation when the national rule says it should not be over 50%. I studied in a state that is the only state to support the reservation issue openly and wants it to be implemented over and above the 69%!!!!

I dont care a damn actually.

I am just plain indifferent.

at last...!!! graduated

While i was planning my trip to Mumbai, a friend of mine adviced me to take my parents along with me. I just brushed aside this idea and said no way!!!!!!!! first of all they would melt in the heat. Secondly, my mum and dad hate Mumbai. So why trouble them i thought. But during this sultry hot day, when i received my degree i missed them the most. And my brother too.

Oh btw I have graduated.... THANKS..THANKS...

I am done with my masters in personnel management and industrial relations.

All traditions were broken this year when the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was invited for the convocation. TISS usually doesnt indulge in such extravagance. When i walked into campus, it resembled deonar police station.

oh i forgot to mention about the dept. lunch we had. Our HOD had hosted a small lunch for us. So i rushed to the hotel directly from the airport. Just before i entered the room i ran through my mind, how my friends would welcome me. I paused for a minute and opened the door...and i was not disappointed. Sangha, Kichu, Ambika, Sandy all hugged me.....missed anu and others...

Went back to campus and by the time i knew it the day was over.

The next day went relatively slow and I was at the height of inactivity when i decided i would kill time by deleting my old mails(ya i was really bored) when sangha(thank god) came and hauled me out to her house. We watched RDB, laughed over insane jokes and took the car and left for the airport to receive her mother.

From the airport aunty was kind enough to drop us at Juhu beach.

I and sangha just sat down and ,.......,yapped......what else we do !!!!!!!!!!

We counted aeroplanes, watched them disappear into the clouds , had behl puri. Felt complete when we walked out of the beach.
WE caught up dinner at a joint nearby and went and sat in MOcha.

Sangs had a four storeyed chocolate cake all by herself and left me awe struck!!!!!!!

We came out and took an auto back tot he airport to pick up anu.
My friend called and told me I sounded very cheerful. I told him that was because i was back in my elements. Back in my favourtite city, Back to doing insane things at insane times!!!!!!!

Picked up and reached sangs place.... and ya we slept at four!!!

Woke up at 6:45 for convo!!!!!!!!!!!! and the usual fun times draping sari....

Left for campus. Campus was polished to the brick(literally)...all the crow shit off crow shit marg had been washed off. Fresh paint and tar greeted us.

We reached the holding area and ya no points for guessing..yapped for a while.

Then we formed the procession queue and waited for The PM to come. We had insane ideas about he would land. The best one was the where sanga said" he would land on top of LH1 and while he walked down, we would scream...man in the hostel. Added to this orange would be his escort.(sorry for the tiss lingo...I am sure tissians are laughing their heads off)

A boring convocation. Highpoint : My friend sangha topped.

While the vote of thanks was being read the most bizarre thing happened. An old student of tiss stood up holding a black flag in protest to PM's decision on Narmada issue and the Bhopal Gas tragedy issue. Some of us were angry. Some irritated. Some indifferent. Some happy- quintessially like TISS!!!!Guess the media got their share of flesh for the day.

On to a nice fare from TAJ, we got back to the convo were the others (apart from the toppers) got their degrees. Yours truly was amongst them. Opened the envelope with trepidation. Our last sem grades were in it. Thankful of what i saw in that sheet, we moved on.

It suddenly struck me- I had graduated. Me, ANANTHALAKSHMI has done her masters too!!!!!

I forgot about my graduation ceremony for my engineering. I think I have a come a long way from there. Wish i could have shared those few moments with appa, amma,anna, rajini vaish,shabeer, sushant, arpita, buddha...the list goes on.....

thank you all......most of all Thank You TISS......

summer time!

I was on my way back home in the afternoon, which by no means is a pleasurable task with the sun burning down on you. As I entered the lane leading to my house, I noticed a Kwality Walls Salesman on his bright red cycle. The contraption seemed very tech savvy. I saw a small girl contemplating whether she wanted to buy a feast or a simple choco bar(which i love) .For a mere five rupee difference(??) she was racking her brains as to whether she wanted a plain jane vanilla coated with chocolate or a more complicated feast bar with almond fudge!!!


As I passed by, I couldnt but help remember the many a summer time I had spent in Coimbatore. Exams invariably got over by march end or april first week and the books werent touched until june first week. Sometimes I feel I got the best education during these two months. I never really played with dolls as a child. I have very vague memories of having followed my brother around as a very young kid. A few years down the line I was bitten by the reading bug, I devoured the tinkles and amar chitra kathas of the world and graduated soon enough to enid blytons. I have dreamed infinitley(like ever l'il gal who reads enid blyton) of having gangs of friends, meeting up in garages for lemonades. Never really thought of solving mysteries. Even managed to start a gal pal gang in fifth std. We met up at vaishnavi's house. It was a day where we spent talking, watching old videos of vaishnavi doing mohiniattam and of course gorging on usha aunty's food!

All that gave way to a summer of cycling when we were taught to balance one. I vividly remember my cycling trips with then pals sangeetha and sunitha. We went over the whole of colony in our bright and shiny bikes. No motives to burn calories. Just talking and riding the cycle.

Summer in variable brought with it......MANGOES. It has been a part of my life for every summer. Bright shiny, succulent mangoes. When my mum used to sit down to cut them, i would sit like a hawk nearby and grab the pieces right off the knife!!!!(i still do). Mango shakes for all at home was a once in a while affair and hence a much cherished one.

I never really had a native place to go to unlike my other school mates who religiously made trips to their ancestral house. So dad used to make it a point to take us on holidays. We discovered attibelle, thekkady thus with Bhajj uncle and his family. The free breakfast buffets, the fooling around with divya, rakesh and my bro.

Such summers gave way to more grown up(read boring) summers where i used just sleep and watch TV and read books.

Then the ugly thing called board exams raised it's monsterous heads and vacations were no longer nice. We spent time studying for the next year, attending tuitions and so on...

Then came the engineering college holidays(which werent as grand as school...but nevertheless when benchamarked with other colleges our college had considerably more holidays than the rest). I really dont remember doing anything particularly useful during those days. I do remembering studying for CAT during the final yrs of college.

The came my summer holidays with TISS. Oh there were really no holidays in fact as we had to do our summer project.....

But after my graduation from TISS I have 2 months to myself..(1 month down... one more to go) before i join my first job. Feels like olden days and with everyone around me telling i will never get back these days I am on a unsaid mission to well... make use of these days. Use them to relive those parts of my life which i enjoyed the most.-those days when i really moulded myself to be what I am today

Those days which were not spent in hurry to run the race.

Those days which were more simple and definitely more enjoyable.

I reached home, borrowed money from mum(even though my wallet was full), listened to her instructions , took my vehicle back to the ice cream vendor and bought two choco bars- one for me and one for my mum.