Ithu namma Ooru, maamu.. (Its our city, dude..)

Its five years now. Five long years since I have taken the internship with the Nomadic Society of India. And the internship is still going on, on and on and on. I was just a small little fellow in a big city. The city that is known for Idly, Marina, Super Kings and me. The city renamed after the Chennappa Nayaka who ruled it as the history would say it. But, I liked the old name, the ethnic heart-beat name as we are called, all over the world - Madrasi. Madras refers to the illicit yet camouflaged mix of MAD RAScals called by the British for their violent revolt down south. What is there in a name, but, we all love it. The new name is not that bad, but, people still love calling Kolkata as Calcutta; Mumbai as Bombay and Bengalluru as Bangalore. It is stylish, vibrant and pronounceable by all ethnic cultures.

This is a crazy capital. Just like the others, but, a little different in its own way. The city with the second longest beach in the world (Marina), the largest bus terminus in Asia (CMBT), the biggest eatables trading centre in India (Koyambedu Kothalchavadi), the most crowded place in anywhere in the world (T.Nagar), the most organized traffic police (CCTP), and the least affected city in terms of terrorism. Potentials untapped, yet, magnanimously giving space to every other person from the world to share his joy. Life seems so easy here. Might also be because it is my hometown. People say it is difficult to survive as people do not understand Hindi. The only counter-argument is when our language is one of the most primitive ones, even older than Sanskrit, why would we adopt a second fiddle? Yeah, we are international. The common people understand and will help you in English next to Tamil. All direction boards contain English to make it easy for everyone. It just inculcates the habit of going international to any illiterate who steps into.

I miss living in the city. The Marina, Elliot's beach, Chepauk, Mount road, Ritchie street, T.nagar, Anna flyover, Meenambakkam, 100 feet road, ECR, MRTS, Wandalur Zoo, Egmore Museum, Snake park, Satyam Cinemas, Ega theatre, Spencer Plaza, Koyambedu market, Ambattur Estate, PH Road, Aminjikarai, Vyasarpadi, Murugan Idili Shop, CMBT, Pallavan, Anna Tower, Crescent ground, my home in Razack Garden, everything. The best place in the universe just remains a part of my memory.

I write this now as a part of my internship of knowing the world better, sitting in my balcony watching the tall chimneys smoke and assimilating the bitter fact that I would not lead a normal life in the place, closest to my heart. Whenever I am there, I will be what I am, because I know for a fact that I don't need to wear a mask there. CHENNAI ROXXXXXX..

The Good, Bad and You..

Being good is good. But, being too good is very bad. Straight trees are cut first whereas the crooked ones go unnoticed. There are two kinds of people. One is straight, hard-working and unsuccessful while the other being crooked, smart-working and successful. Yeah, look back at history and you will only find crooked people at top. No honest guy can ever come to the top. If a renowned person claims to be honest, it is very simple; he is not honest enough to accept that he was dishonest. If he accepts his dishonesty to prove that he is being honest, it is back to square one that he was not honest in the first place. None can be blamed for this as this is the law of nature. Even while climbing a ladder, you stamp on the same place where you once held your hand for support. Logically, dishonesty grows with us.

All is fair in love and war. But, there are no things in the world that we do, which are not categorized in either of them. We either do for love or for war. What we fail to realize is that, we do only good or bad things. The distinction is between good and bad. If we change our perspective a bit and view as a difference between good and better, there is a paradigm shift. Decision making becomes a lot easier when it is viewed through such a lens as the sadistic decision of yours would lead to do a good thing. Everyone is unique, just like everyone else. Decisions differ, after all life is a business and we all are businessmen. Some become entrepreneurs while others work for them. Now, the decision is yours on whom you want to become - Crooked, smart-working entrepreneurs or straight, hard-working labors?

G-2

All I could see when I opened my eyes were shaded with brown. I was sleeping and all that I knew was that I was sleeping for long. I was sleeping at the bottom-most berth of the tube which was travelling at the speed of sound as I went deaf for long. Through the windows of the tube, I could again see the brown colored mud-mountains with patches of greenery on it. Time and again the tube passed through tunnels and I was searching for the light at the end of the tunnel. Once the light came, everything was back to brown. I went to the washroom, washed my eyes and checked if I was wearing any colored lens and found that I was not. I did not know where this journey was taking, but, the fact remains that I am a fugitive on the run. I know I will be caught sooner or later, but, I prefer to happy on the run knowing the fact that sadness is all I can have when it is all over. I remembered someone saying, "A fugitive on the run enjoys every moment of his freedom, because every moment ends on a happy note".

A co-passenger in the tube asked me what am I upto? For which I had no answer. All I came to know from the conversation was that I am alive and I am in the real-time world fighting inorder to survive. Time passed by looking out of the window at the browned-greenery, the villages that sped past until it became dark. I was still in the retrospective mood thinking about what led me to break the prison, what led me to this journey and I could not reason much with the unreasonable. As my only reason was freedom. As love is the root cause of every happening in this world, it must be my love for someone or something. With no hopes in heart and unknown miles to travel, I reached a tube-well next day afternoon. It was a bigger tube-well than the ones I have been to. It welcomed me with a warm, sunny reception with guards standing all over to check the logistics movement. With terrorism all around, humans are nowadays considered in the category of goods as the intrinsic value of a human life is degrading day by day. None identified me, as this part of the world had more serious issues to deal with than snooping behind a fugitive.

Wagging my way through, I reached a defunct chariot station. All luck taking over, I boarded some chariot with a huge capacity and the co-charioteers said that this chariot takes us to a place where heaven and hell meets. Who cares I thought. I am coming from hell and anyplace would definitely be better. After a rickety ride for an hour I got down at the tall-building side of this heaven-hell. There were flyovers of the modern world; there were buildings of ancient world too. There were palaces; there were other chariots of all shapes and sizes, of all designs and comforts. This place took my breath away and suddenly I received a call from a number.

I answered with a hello and the other side was a sweet voice, "Nautilus, walk straight down the road and take the black chariot. We are waiting inside".

I was shell-shocked. Who on earth would know that I am here? And who is this "We"? Picking up my back-pack with all my courage I made my way through to the black chariot that was waiting for me. I knocked on the door and yes my co-charioteers were right. I was in heaven. Angels live in heaven. God had sent the twin angels to take care of me, to hide me from the unscrupulous world.

They said, "Oh Nautilus brother! Get in. It is getting late. Now that you are here, we all will have a nice time".

With no second thoughts I got in. Zoom it went.

After some 15 minutes, I reached a palace. They took me in and introduced me to the mother of the angels and the formalities continued. They asked me, how am I doing and how is my health? I did answer it like an 8th standard schoolboy, but, I was confused if they knew the truth. I did not know if I had to tell them or not. Then it struck me. They are the sons and daughters of God and definitely they would know about me. I was taken to the special room of the palace, where they worship him. I was overwhelmed at their gesture. Offering his room to me was like telling, "Son, I trust you, no matter how bad you are".

Three days I was with them. It was a dream. The time that we spent together; the conversations that we had; the food that we ate; the time when we roamed; the dosa that we had; everything is still fresh in my mind. When the time was over and my nomadic destination changed, I had tears in my eyes when I was travelling back in another chariot to the tube-well. The next destination is not far away, but, nothing would be as great as that, with them in it.

No matter how much ever you run, you are caught in the last.

Recession

One fine day, the banking corporations of America as a bolt from the blue, started flaunting one by one about their ease of lending housing loans. The scheme was loans to all the Americans who cannot own an apartment, even with their lifetime earnings. So, the birds of same feather flocked together to buy their piece of land which would stand against their name on the face of the earth. But, the amount of enthusiasm that one has in getting something is diametrically opposite to the amount that s/he shows in returning. As expected, the defaulters' percentage climbed in multiples of ten of Grameen Bank's. Then, the banks started losing their money. People started fearing and started withdrawing their savings. Credit crunch is created by a freaking concept of owning land on American soil. The ripple effect affects the rest of the world. Every corporation in the world starts to hear the dreaded word "recession".

"Global economic slowdown yaar"

"Cost reduction is on"

"Global recession"

"Economic slump"

"If the conditions carry on, The Great Depression isn't that far"

But, during all these times a chaiwala from Mumbai can win two million dollars and eight Oscars. What a pity?

The rich is as safe as he was, but a little tension about how to maintain the earning tempo going. The poor is as safe as he ever would be, because more would be joining him. He can shoulder them and listen to their poor stories and be grateful that he was not what they are. Who are the affected ones?

The common man a.k.a aam aadmi.

Why should he be affected just because someone wanted to own a piece of land which they own even now happily? Next step the GOI takes is to pump in hypothetical cash - 100 crores into RBI, 500 crores into services industry, etc. crap. Because, aam aadmi still remains a fool thinking that somewhere that 100 odd crores that is being pumped in will reach him in some form. He still does not understand the psychological game of recession. There is nothing as recession. It is an illusion created by banks to get their money back that they poorly planned with the sub-primal Americans. A house for every American robbed the house of every other common man. Why should we suffer for their intelligence failure in planning? Optimists say no reward without risks. But, why should Raja bore the brunt for Andrew's risk? That is because Raja et al. are meticulously webbed in this net of globalization, without their knowledge. One kills a person and is called an assassin, one kills hundreds and is called a terrorist, but, one kills millions and is called a conqueror. That is the basic difference. We all need to realize that we need to start spending to combat the global recession. We are the ones who need to pump the cash in and not the imbecile GOI. One last suggestion, if you are not able to spend properly or maintain the cash inflow, kindly transfer the money to my bank account. I will do the needful :).

And as the textbook says, friends do not judge each other. So, save the world from recession, after all Americans are the friendliest people on earth.

Open mind for a different view

How many of you have dared to say this to your boss? "I don't give a fuck". Just how many of you? Everyone has said it, without the lips moving, but, how many to the ones to whom it was meant to be? We do not say it, not because we lack courage, but, because we do not want to sour things up. We then pretend to be what we are not, do and say things that our heart dislikes. I don't give a fuck is almost as same as I love you. Here too we lack the gut factor, which might sour things up. Why? It is a simple reason. Rationally, for every action, there are three outcomes. Our point of view, the other's point of view and the truth. We are just open to our point of view that we tend to forget the truth. In the process of assessing the other’s point of view we again forget the truth. The truth is just ask this question to yourself "What will you do, if you weren't afraid?" You get an answer that is your heart's point of view. Ask this question "What is the stake?" Answer to this question will be your head's point of view. Strike a balance and you get your point of view. Oh! If you are a thinker, then think about yourself in the other's shoe. Ask the same pair of questions and you just get a hint of what his/her point of view because you are just wearing his/her shoes and mind you not the entire attire. After all this comes the truth. How? Get along and discuss it with each other and you arrive at it, because, my perspective is not yours and yours' is not his'. Open your mind and let it seep in and then say it loud and clear "I don't give a fuck" because if you really meant it, you would not have put the thinking cap on. You just would have said "I don't give a fuck".

Fools all around

There is enough time to do everything that we want to, but, no time to do the thing we don't want to. We get up early in the morning and apart from the atheists, agnostics, et al. everyone bow to the supreme power above us and start a beautiful day, with some already starting to speculate how beautiful it is going to be, while the rest anticipating an ugly one as usual. We become what we think and we think what we know and we know what we learn and we learn what we are taught and we are taught by what we endure to what we become. This is a recursive function inside an infinite loop that each time the loop ends, our core value gets either incremented by a step forward, if we are determined of what we become or decremented by a step if we are still unaware of what is happening around us. Most of us tremble, buckle and get shattered when we meet the end of the loop, while considering the shift is rather easier than to go through the difficult times. But, one thing is for sure, one cannot learn cycling without falling down and one cannot learn swimming without drowning. The earlier it is the better it would be. The better we become the best we are.

It is all in the way that we perceive ourselves. When you think yourself to be a White tiger, you are one and when perceive yourself to be an ass, you become one. That is the difference between a white tiger and an ass. You can be a white tiger, but, need to become an ass. Once I told a friend, there are three stages to earn the tag "great". She didn't believe. But, it is so simple because we all, already made the first step. That is "we all are gifted". The next step is to learn the way the system works and perform optimizing the system and the self. Maximizing our work as pleasure and minimizing the efforts that make us work. Play the game and fool the world. Fool it in such a way that you remain a fool to their eyes. That is when you graduate the second stage. Do this on a consistent basis and that is when you win for the first time. Keep winning, after all success is a journey not a destination. Let them still believe that you are a fool, because the day they would come to know that you have been fooling them, that is the day you lose your wizardry. That is the day you retire from the pleasure that you have been serving and make an attempt to pass your wisdom to the next conqueror. This goes on and on only until the earth ceases to exist because there will always be "the great" who will run the world as long as he exists as a fool among the fools.

It is all just inside us - the enormous power to rule the world with the motion of our index finger. This enormous power is derived from the eternal quantity that we all have in equal amounts - TIME. Physics says Work/Time is Power. When time is constant for all of us, work is the only factor. When all power is inside us, time is with us; all we have to do is work and make a fool of

ourselves by reading such an article. Am I a fool in your eyes now?

Magic

All characters, incidents in this story are imaginary. Any resemblance to reality or persons living or dead is purely intentional.

FOREWORD

Everyone has had a magical day in their life. But, there are eternal optimists who believe that every single day is a magical one. But, I am a true realist who believes that there is a magical day in everyone’s life and seldom does it happens again. It does not mean that I am not an optimist, but, I just prefer to be a realist here because that day was special and if everyday would be like that, then it will certainly lose its importance.

CHAPTER 1

Time is 0830 hrs. I am the flood-filled MKB Nagar road talking. A girl let us call her Ms. Yin, fair, as beautiful as Katrina Kaif (although I like Preity Zinta more), aged not more than 18, nice sharp eyes with threaded eyebrows and too many ear-piercings. She had an eternal gracious figure (I am not those burly boys remembering her vital stats) and with a flashing attitude opened the rusted gate and came out of her house and started walking carefully by lifting her Alif Laila type pyjamas in order not to get them wet. I am all flooded partly because of the rains and also because of these beautiful girls living on either side of my trunk. I meant that I do ogle at them and nothing else. Evil minds think badly. She reached the main road in the same manner and I lost her over to the Yellow-Yellow dirty fellow auto.

Time is 0845 hrs. I am the Auto talking. This girl wanted to go to Nungambakkam and her Tamil was “Oh!! My!! God!! (Janice style), awwwwful” A 100-watt bulb glowed in the driver’s face as this was his chance for a loot-woot. They finally settled on a bargain which was way above the norms and there we went to Nungambakkam. This girl like the rest of the girls in the city started non-stop messaging. It was none of my business who it was. But, her face was tensed and questions ran in a rapid fire manner that she was unable to comprehend it. We reached at 0925 hrs.

I am the Share-Auto narrating you this part of the story. Time is 0915 hrs. A boy, let us call him Mr. Yang, tall, handsome with a big head, nice build, sharp nose, with little stubble, aged may be 20, stopped me at Anna Arch to board me on my way to the Gemini flyover. He got on and as usual these boys, with a college one-sided bag, do not know what they have in it started to tuk-tuk his mobile phone. Oh, yeah, he was wearing a white-tee with some abstract design on it and a blue torn jean. His shoes looked rich, but, God, why does he need to wear a torn jean when he can afford such costly shoes. “Must be crazy” I thought and boys of these ages are of course crazy, trying to act like the stupid cine-stars. Thank God, No six packs because I am getting sick of it. This is a long forgotten mystery, who was it that he was tuk-tuking to?? The sound irritated me, but, I have no other work than to observe my passengers. We would have neared Choolaimedu when the messaging stopped. She or He (things have changed after Dostana, my dear friend), has not replied. Other possibility is that the network would have been jammed and his messages would not have got delivered. Never mind. He got down at Nungambakkam High Road and ran across the road to the ICICI Bank. It was definitely someone special. Ok, I got to go now since; I am irrelevant to the story from now on.

This is the nearby breeze taking over. Now, you must have definitely guessed what is happening. Yang was searching for Yin as he could not find the place where she was waiting. Searching here and there, finally his eyes fell on one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen. In vain, that girl just went past him, not even to look back at him. He checked her out and “Cool”, he thought. There across the road, Yin was standing, finding it difficult to cross the road. Yang, genuinely crossed the road met her and said a simple “Am I late?”

“Hey, no probs. Just that we gotta transfer the cash soon” came the readymade reply.

“Chalo, lets get to the bank soon”

Then they crossed the road and it was very evident from here that they were not a couple for sure because I did turn on the romantic wave around them, but, still they were walking together with a gap that could fill ten cigarettes attached end to end between them. But, I do not seem to understand this concept of friendship between a boy and a girl. Maybe that I am here since Day One and I have seen so many changes that the earth undergoes each day, that it is becoming difficult for me to understand these complex species-humans. And yeah, they went into the ICICI Bank.

I saw them cross the road and approach me. What kind of customers do I have? They ping me at early morning 0930 hrs (early morning, at least for some of them), that too on a Saturday. What happened to all the lazy people on earth? Have they ceased to exist? Oops!! I forgot to tell you who I am. I am the ICICI Bank, Nungambakkam branch. Yin and Yang were searching for the entrance and with great difficulty found one and entered. I think that was the first time each of them had come to bank alone. There was complete mess in both of their body language. Finally, they caught hold of our bespectacled teller and asked him how to deposit cash in any ICICI bank account. They presumed it to be a very complex procedure, so, they both were completely over the place unable to comprehend what our teller was saying. He finally took them to a machine as big as an ATM and asked them to deposit the cash by entering the account no., etc.

“Is the process sooooo simple?” thought both Yin and Yang.

Yes, indeed my dear people, was my telepathic answer. One more thing that I observed was that Yin and Yang were switching languages between Hindi and English. Who on Chennai would be conversing with each other in Hindi of all the languages? These people are crazy. No doubt about that. They found the process of money transfer pretty simple and that left them contended and I honestly do not know for what reason they were transferring the money. Yang did look like one of those handsome terrorist associated with all these blasts going around and Yin was wearing a dupatta around her head. One can never trust by the looks and to top it all, they were talking in Hindi too. But, not every Muslim is a terrorist. It is just the extremists, no matter which faith they follow, who plant the evil ideas in young minds and try dividing the country which was speculated to be a failure, while the other a success after the partition, but, alas, things happened the other way around. Anyways, they went to the ATM and cross-checked if the cash has been deposited and I must admit the speeds with which our transactions take place are mind-blowing. Hope you join us in providing you a hassle-free banking. Now, coming back to the story, they left the bank soon and now I introduce you to Nungambakkam High Road who will narrate the story.

The sun has come out spreading its vibgyor through the sparsely filled clouds in the sky. It is been three long days that people of Chennai felt the soothing sun on their backs. It is not those scorching heat that the Chennaiites missed, but, just that they loved when the weather is like this. Yin and Yang joined me discussing what their next plan is. From the point they joined me; the Gemini flyover is at least two km far. So, they finally settled on the issue to search for an internet café. This whole episode was all about making some online transactions to either of their studies. So, they first barged into Yin’s favorite internet café at the Eldorado’s. It was 1000 hrs and the place was still closed. So, they have to search for another one in this part of the city. Myself, considered a very important landmark, they were confident that they would find one on me. They started walking and in the meanwhile were having a normal conversation when Yang asked, “Did you have breakfast?”

“Hmmm. Yeah!!”

“Corflakes is it?”

“Any doubt in that? How about you?”

“Ya, I had.” lied Yang.

They were busily walking when they came across the ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) when Yin actually explained him the importance that the CAs receive over the CWAs (Cost and Works Accountant). Yang was very interested in the discussion and forgot about searching for an internet cafe, as all he knew was Engineering and Mathematics. And Yin forgets the world around her when she starts talking and Yang when he starts listening. Dostana for you. They were on and on and on when the topic changed from “Why India is better than any other country?” to “How people hang out in malls?” to the final “Where is the stupid internet café?” They reached Gemini flyover and still they didn’t find one. Now, I am handing it over to Mount Road to continue.

Hey buds, I am Mount Road a.k.a Anna Salai in some parts and the demarcation confuses me as much as George.W.Bush holding diplomatic ties. Yin and Yang walked opposite the American Consulate along the reclining end of the flyover when suddenly the traffic was stopped and some 20-25 cars comprising Innova, Ambassador, Ikon with their loud sirens were passing through. Every police officer in the road stood like a statue saluting the array of cars. The traffic came to a standstill for some 10 long minutes.

“See, this is what your India is all about. When any politician has to pass-by, the whole traffic or maybe the whole city comes to a standstill.” exclaimed Yin.

“Excuse me! This is not only my India; it is your India too. Moreover, if the Chief Minister who has his house nearby has to pass through this road to his office, the traffic has to be stopped for safety reasons although Chennai is the safest place in India” replied Yang.

“Achcha! Then what about this?” showing her watch to him, where the two needles were denoting that it is 1015 hrs indeed.

“What about that?”

“According to office timings, he is already late by 15 minutes and he will get there by 10:30, relax and start working by 11:00 and how do you expect him to solve the issues all around him? By that time, more new issues would have cropped up”.

He straight away knew that she had caught him on a wrong footing.

“Ehhhh, may be that is not the CM, some other politician”.

“Whatever” and she use the phrase as often as Yuvraj hits a six.

They were still searching for the Internet café and had to cross lots of pools of water clogged due to the incessant rains in the previous days and finally found one and entered.

Quotes by me..

1. To be simple is the most complex part of life.

2. Take, neither praise to your head, nor criticism to your heart.

3. What one sees as an island, another sees it as an underwater mountain peak.

4. Life won't be a tragedy, if you follow a strategy.

5. One can give hundred excuses for not doing a work, but, only one excuse for doing it. That is interest.

6. Either the world is perfect or you are. So, anyways cheat.

7. Love is in the air, but, just that its toxic.

8. Interest does change inevitably, because of that change does interest me.

9. The only impossible thing in the world to do or happen - "Nothing".

10. Life follows barter system, but, to get anything, the only commodity that you can spend is TIME.

Its for you..

The alarm rings at 7.15 a.m. Confusion arises whether Mr. Confused (from now onwards called Mr. C), capable enough to snooze it without opening his eyes. What a challenge? Mr. C pats himself on his shoulder (without opening the eyes) for achieving the feat quite comfortably. True are the words of Mr. Anonymous (though not a part of our anecdote, but, I have read in many books that Mr. Anonymous wants to be anonymous to everyone) "Practice makes perfect". Mr. C has been doing this for some three years now and he is a pioneer in his own way. Mr. C is an expert in sleeping. His room is immaculately clean with no roommates, not even cockroaches and lizards. Every day before sleeping, he checks out whether his windows' curtains are proper, all peepholes in his door closed with bits of newspapers and his 1.5GB trance music started to play in his desktop. Once the checks are over, he says "good night" to the whole world through his Gtalk and reduces the volume to minimum and covers himself with a black blanket from head to toe.

Back to present now. Time is 7.45 a.m.

"Sir, Breakfast", announces Mr. Bakra-the junior.

Mr. C shouts back his refusal with an imaginary slap, with the door being closed and shoos Mr. Bakra-the junior away with all the words one cannot imagine to hear. Innocently, Mr. Bakra-the junior hurries to the 8.15 am class. One good thing about Mr. C is that he does not keep his door locked. Anyone needing anything, be it toothpaste, pen, pencil, A4 sheets, calculator, novels, tea cup, et al. can just barge in and take without disturbing Mr. C's dream sequence with the latest supermodels of his erstwhile institute. Oops, I forgot to tell you. Mr. C is pursuing his engineering in some God-damn course, as even God does not know why he took it in some hell-I-love-u place in Waste Bangal. He knows for a fact that at 8.15 am his' HOD's class is there in which he has the max attendance of 20%. It is a proud moment that he can afford to miss that class to match with the other classes' single digit attendance.

Time is 10.15 a.m. Mr. Pathi-Parmeshwar-of-Kanchipuram (let us call him Mr. PPK) and Mr. Radio-Jockey-Madan (Mr. RJ) comes into the wing. Mr. RJ was Mr. C's roommate since first year and he knows exactly what Mr. C must be doing. Mr. PPK would have definitely known about Mr. C's itinerary had he not fallen a victim to Amnesia. He kicks Mr. C's door wildly and starts pulling his blanket off him and tries telling his usual unsuccessful-unhappy ending stints with the class. Irritated Mr. C yells at him in such a way that Mr. PPK takes his bicycle and goes to the nearby temple to pray to the Lord to forgive him for committing such a sin.

Mr. Dhadhi (Mr. D) now comes into the picture after his cynical classes which taught him nothing, but, how to message continuously in the class to his Ms. Poo. Mr. RJ and Mr. C are sick of making Mr. D understand the importance of final year and the amount of time he must spend on a cell-phone.

All Mr. D had to say was "Bro, its just an incoming call, I gotta attend. Its my friend yaar."

Mr. C and Mr. RJ thought "Don’t know where this friendship is going".

They would not have known that Mr. D has fallen in love with Ms. Poo, unless he was not their first year roommate. Mr. Gambit (Mr. G), the consigliori of this whole group of friends comes dejected to the wing after being chucked out of the class and his roll no. noted for the reason that he could not walk as straight as his HOD in the campus corridor. Mr. G's mate (still do not know what mate, sources say that they broke-up, but, never spread rumors), Mr. Bladekanth (Mr. B) after fighting with Mr. Alitya (Mr. A), the other night over a small issue (I will narrate the issue too), got drunk. His drink consisted of 5 parts of water with 1 part of Rasna Nimbu paani. He got high and walked exactly like his HOD in the Mahatma Gandhi Road. Known for his antics, Mr. B caught the attention of his HOD who was walking down the same road. The HOD feeling sympathized by the drunk-driven-deformity, advised Mr. B to take off from the classes and watch the JFUC (Japanese F**ked Up Cartoons), to improve his walking abilities as the characters in those cartoons use mantra-tantra to fly. But, on the other hand his soul-mate, Mr. G got chucked out of the class for inability to walk like his HOD.

Few days ago, Mr. Liver (Mr. L), a champion AOE-player and an awesome footballer was playing a one-on-one FIFA'07 with Mr. B over the LAN and as usual Mr. B's D-button was not working. He lost the match 7-0 which was the worst loss of his career. As usual, in the dinner table, Mr. A pulled Mr. B's legs for his tragic loss. I personally feel that, that incident did not trigger the fight. Mr. A must have complained and cursed the mess food badly. Mr. B being a loyal member of the We-eat-the-mess-food-society (Mr. G was also a member of that society - may be that brought them together) was enraged and left the place with plates flying, for a drink to calm himself down.

Back to 10.15 a.m.

Mr. Placement-Rags (Mr. R) enters the wing shouting, "Hey, DOTA, DOTA, DOTA, anyone for DOTA????"

Honestly, I do not know DOTA's full-form. His face filled with questions of who all will join the game, but, not about the recent zero that he scored in the class test. There comes running from one corner of the wing to another, Mr. NIT-ian (Mr. N) and wakes up Mr. C and asks him, "Hey, Have you got DOTA installed onto your comp".

Mr. C growlingly dismisses it.

Mr. N replying in his Cypriot accent, "Hey, You are a big waste. All you know is Gtalk and girls. There is life beyond that too."

Mr. C shows him the tallest of his fingers of his hand to Mr. N. But, he is not bothered and resumes his begging for a DOTA-installed-computer. Finally, settled with Mr. RJ's comp and in the process Mr. N kicks out Mr. PPK and Mr. PPK is again anxious about completing his presentation for a seminar next month. Room-less, Computer-less, Mr.PPK slowly creeps into Mr. C's room and without disturbing his sleep sits on his computer and resumes his work. Finally, Mr. C wakes up with a letter from Mr. Stick-Message-Service (Mr.SMS), about him being treated badly the other day by Mr. C. Mr. D comes into the room and reads the letter loudly, "I just wanna say HI." Rest was undecipherable. Even, Mr. D, who has the horrible handwriting, did not have a clue. So, Mr. C woke up the man with the worst handwriting on earth, Mr. A. To his surprise even Mr. A could not decipher it. Mr. L enters into the scene. Do not know what Allahabadic-bonds he had with Mr. SMS that he read out the letter fully, giving importance to minute details as if it was a love-letter written by the newly appointed Biotech mam.

Putting an end to the issue and waving a "HI" to Mr. SMS, Mr. C and Mr. A left for their appointment to have breakfast at the Jhoops. On the way, discussing about the recent T20 champion team of India, they met the star of all these friends' hearts - Mr. Kuzhandhai. Busy with an electrifying project and some important work with recommendations for his higher studies, he signaled thumbs-up for his success in wooing the Director of the college to give him a recommendation letter. Mr. A had planned already – It is a party tonight.

Studious among these 12 attended the classes, which perfectly equated to the number that cannot be expressed in Roman numerals. In the evening, Mr. D cried for the first time after they all made fun of him. Then, Mr. PPK almost tried proving a point of postponing the treat due to some sentimental issues. Things followed and they all went for Mr. Kuzhandhai's treat and came back to their rooms singing old songs all the way from CR. A day to remember, humanly impossible to forget the others too. And they never had a group photo together because they believed in human memory which cannot be erased. That is college life and we all say "Love you ABI, you are our Hero".

Currently in

Mr. N - Amdocs, Cyprus (Lap dance Baby!!).

Mr. SMS - Noble teacher, CADD (Tamizh girls, beware of him).

Mr. A - North Carolina State University, USA (God knows what he is doing there).

Mr. G - Reliance Energy Ltd., Krishnapattinam (No work, paid well).

Mr. B - Wipro, Cochin (Bladekanth to Rajnikanth, Phew, Finally) .

Mr. PPK - Sesa Goa, Goa. (again unsatisfied).

Mr. C - Vedanta Aluminium Ltd. (as always confused).

Mr. D - Buffalo State University, USA (Still on phone).

Mr. R - DRDO, Pune (Deshdrohi Scientist).

Mr. RJ - Wipro, Bengalluru (Cochin ain't that far dude, Neel is there to take care).

Mr. L - CSC, Indore (But, lives in Liverpool).

Mr. Kuzhandhai - In our hearts forever..

Protect it to protect yourselves..

In this span of very short interaction with this outside world, few things that are more prevalent everywhere and you can find it in everyone. The summation of these few things exceeds in magnitude the combination of air, water, fire, earth and sky. Imagine few things that are a part of each and every one of us overpowering the nature. Is this what, that is leading to the so called destruction of life? Before answering this question, let me introduce those few things to you again, although they being inherent in you - ego, anger, agony, self centeredness, stress, cruelty, hatred and et al. Long long ago, so long ago, this family (I dunno if they are homosexual or heterosexual, but by following the code of nature, let us consider them heterosexual), were very scarce in this world. They were nowhere to be seen, but for a few places. The air was fresh, the water was clean, the fire was pure, and the earth was soft and the sky crystal clear. That negative family was suppressed by the beautiful qualities that men /women possessed then which were a gift by the sacredness of the nature. But, as time passed by we, the greatest of all species, the humans ventured into the balance and disturbed it. The nature was in its own mood, but, the imbalanced caused it to retaliate. Just like what happens in most Rajnikanth movies, where he gets poked by the villains, disturbing his normal life style, finally making him retaliate and subdue the villains and emerge victorious. This is what precisely happened. The don of everything, the nature was bullied by man and it is taking revenge on us by bestowing the family of negative qualities, the humans ever knew. Scientifically speaking, when we caused a disturbance in their balance, it reflected on us as the symbiosis was affected. As an engineer you can describe it as, the heat balance, mass balance, blah, blah, blah... were out of place and led to the release of harmful chemicals as a by-product of the failure models of the blah, blah, blah... The harmful chemicals, be it whatever it may be, reacted with the carbon filled-best mechanical device ever to step in the universe to change the way they think. His thought process changed and that’s how the emotions which are a part of that family were ingrained into us. My point is, don't get exposed to pollution, although its inevitable. It alters the way you think and tends towards the negative side. All is said about protecting the nature, but, less is done. We don't need to protect, but, let us not disturb it atleast. A pole vaulter doesn't win unless s/he fails. Here, nature is the pole vaulter. To succeed, it won't mind to fail. If it fails, we are into the dumps and that’s the end of everything. Save environment!! Save Mother Earth!!