The landing... And grounding..!!

As I made my way into the tambaram sanatorium railway station for purchasing a few tickets, I  realized I was in possession of a season ticket. I looked at the date on it. It read 12/07/2012 as the expiry date. Oh, who cares that they are to be interpreted differently in different parts of the world! Since I just returned after spending five months in the US, I almost got lost on the fact that it had to be interpreted as 12th July 2012 and not 7th December 2012. 

I pushed the ticket and requested for a renewal (to avoid the hassle of pulling out IDs again, of course!). The question from the counter was, "Renewal?? Post five months of time on a quarterly season ticket?" Talk of some grounding post landing..! Oh, but dates are meant for confusion, aren't they? ;) 

Married = Settled??

I had probably been wanting to write on this for quite some time. Especially when notions of women being more "tied-up" when it comes to affairs of matrimony as against men.!

"அடுத்த function உந்து தானே?"

"எப்போ கல்யாண சாப்பாடு போடறதா உத்தேசம்?"

"இப்போ பார்க்க ஆரம்பிச்சா ஒரு வருஷத்துக்குள்ள ஏதாச்சும் நடக்கும்"

"How are uncle and aunty letting you off the hook?"

"What exactly are your 'plans'?"

"So, what's 'new' in life?"

Oh my God... being out anywhere wasn't getting any easy. I would rather prefer excusing myself out of social functions and gatherings than keep answering every other soul whom I see with these staple set of questions. Looks like it would be nice to jump from being twenty five to being thirty five without crossing any intermediary time..! Where is my time machine, Mr.Potter??

According to my dad, talks about marriage have to be something that would create an atmosphere of happiness and shouldn't be ending up with acrimonious debates - nay, emails as it happened with my case. But that STILL doesn't seem to stop him give up his advice every now and then in some context or the other as to why marriage is supposed to be important..! Needless to add, my mom would consider me "settled" only if I am married. Meaningful and intellectually challenging work that I currently do (and thankfully in possession of it despite tough economic times) is not going to be of much consequence to anyone except myself I guess..!

I was just leaving for the USA and some of my junior colleagues (and a senior one who is already probably the age of my grandfather and still single!!) came over and offered generous doses of advice as to how I could probably try to get married in the USA if I don't like to do so in India!! As if that were not enough, some of them vowed not to receive me back unless I have a record of more than one active marriage from the USA..! Purely on a lighter note, with friends like them, do I even need enemies..!

So, at least in the Indian context (not sure if this pesky notion exists elsewhere too!), I keep wondering why is a "settled life" more often than not, equated with a "married life". I am sure they are both different and can be treated that way as well.

Oh oh... there I see some pickup truck parking in with a Harley Davidson on its load. Time to continue later. All rants and raves can wait their turn while I enjoy a glimpse of the motor cycle.!!

I, me, myself..!

Being born on 24th doesn't make for a good news.  If anything, I am sure my parents must have been dealing with their dwindling finances towards the end of the month. Being a breezy July, there would be no mercy until the 31st either. Whatever the case, I had to be in the world by then. I would like to think I was named 'Ravindran' only because it happened to be a 'Sun'day.

Nobody can recall the first few years in any great detail. All that I recall is - at the end of the fifth year, which was sometime around 1988 (Oh, did I give a clue to my age??!!) I was put up in a place along with 30 other people to spend the rest of my 11 years of time. Yes, it was at IDA SCUDDER School in Vellore, the only one at those times following the ICSE stream of affiliation in our small town. I would seriously thank my parents for that. Not sure I have too many memories that I cherish as closely as the time spent in my school.

Vacation time is slow time, if you are moving into your higher secondary. The Hindu came in handy to fill in my slot. Editorial analysis, leader page articles, letters to the editor - never mind I had to keep underlining and looking up the dictionary for every third sentence that was printed. But it was all worth the effort, when I saw some of my letters and articles getting published out there in the same columns I read through meticulously. 

Shifting into a completely government school from what was rather an elitist school earlier meant more challenges. Nevertheless, every moment at the government Muslim Higher Secondary school in Vellore was enjoyable for me. Tons of new experience. Loads of new friends, especially from a stratum that was not as privileged as what I was. The news reading practice that I pursued with other junior folks in the school remain fresh in my mind even to date.

I had always been an average scorer. That would mean any seats into medical colleges are going to be getting ruled out directly. My principle was always to enjoy the subjects as much as possible. Marks and grades have to necessarily be a by-product of enjoying the subject. Thankfully, I managed to enjoy my subjects to the extent that I could get decent grades on all of them. My parents had the wisdom to see through my principle and let me stick with it. Tamil and English languages continue to be my favourite to date.

Computer Science is something I have never learned formally in any classroom. It was just something waiting to happen to me at Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore. Voila..! I enjoyed my stint with computers pretty thoroughly - especially, the part around systems programming in UNIX and LINUX and look for an opportunity to write a script or two whenever one comes by!

The Traveling Salesman Problem is my favourite in Computer Science. No, not because I am into the core research - more because I face it every time. I love traveling "on-the-go" without much prior planning. So, its always heuristics..! I would pull up mental maps of places and trying to see the best route to take to somewhere (or more often, to nowhere!!)

Oh no!! All through, I never realized that I just completed an assignment for writing something about myself in roughly a page or so..!

Thank You Series - II

I know it has been quite a lot of time since the first one came out. But as I did tell in the first part, it is an attempt to recall the incidents and post them out. Yes, 2009 to 2011 is quite a gap - and will admit that. Here is one such a recall.

On a nice and sunny afternoon, during the lunch hour, taking a stroll in our rather green and enchanting office campus at Coimbatore, I suddenly decide on the "plan" for the next day, a saturday. "I will visit the Thirumittacode temple near Pattambi, in God's own country (Kerala)", I think to myself.

Alright - what's the big deal about it? Well, here is the deal - first thing, I need to know how to get there by some available train. Next, I have to figure out how to be back in Coimbatore on the same day before afternoon as I "planned" to leave to my native place from there by afternoon. Talk of the wonderfully crunched timelines for travel, surely "Family folks envy, bachelor's pride..!"

I call in the cab for a pickup at around 2:45 AM since the train to Pattambi was at 03:45 AM. Still not having got up fully, I manage to answer the call on my mobile phone from the taxi driver in a sober tone. Quick brush up. Quick bath in the rather freezing cold water. I dress up and rush out of my room, taking my wallet and phone. It was a quick and hurried drive to the Podanur railway station. Lo behold, the train was running late..! 

Never the one with a patience to wait for things, I decide to board the upcoming train which doesn't stop at Pattambi but nevertheless stops at the Shoranur junction - one junction before Pattambi. "Anyways, I can change to the train that stops over at Pattambi whenever it does come to Shoranur... Or, I can always take a bus/auto to the temple from Shoranur itself..." went my thought.

The travel through the Palghat pass takes me around 2 hours or so and I stepped out in Shoranur junction. After waiting for twenty odd minutes, I also manage to get onto the train that would stop at my actual destination, Pattambi.

And here came the highlight of the whole trip. I actually landed up in the temple. It was a very serene and nice place. The Bharatapuzha river was flowing beside the temple without making any noise even as it was rubbing past a rocky bed. It certainly felt as if the clouds have descended from above - such was the level of fog in the morning - with everything looking towards the grace of the Sun to descend on it.

Temples in Kerala are pretty strict in sticking to the tradition. And I have definitely heard that. But what I didn't know was this - you can enter the temple's sanctum sanctorum if and only if you are either wearing a dhoti or towel. No trousers allowed. And there came the hit for me - I never took any towel or dhoti with me. Nevertheless, I did go in and boldly asked for an archana ticket. I was handed one by the person at the counter.

Next came the ultimate thing. Obviously, I was blocked from entering the sanctum sanctorum of the temple premises. There was definitely nothing much I could really do. Purchasing a towel or dhoti anywhere nearby was totally out of question. There was hardly anything around the place which bore a resemblance of  even a tea shop, let alone a clothes store that would sell a dhoti or towel.

Anyways, being at the place itself was very satiating experience. With this thought in mind, I returned to the counter to request the person at the counter to perform the pooja on my behalf whenever he could and I explained to him I need to leave without seeing the inner sanctum sanctorum because I really didn't bring anything other than my wallet and phone with me.

Much to my surprise, he decided to help me, unconditionally and without being requested for it at that..! He quickly guided me to his rather small dwelling and instructed me to pick up a dhoti from there, which I would later wear and enter the temple premises..!

I could ultimately make it in. The only thing is - while I was spending time SEEING the inner precincts of the temple and the presiding deities, I was THINKING totally about this person who could help so unconditionally to a total stranger..!!