NITTHILog

Bale pandiya - Devan Ekambaram [I think he is the singer from ARR troop]

2010-04-21T05:34:00.000-07:00

Aaratha kovam illai: Flute and the strings beautifully arranged initially raise the expectation. Eventhough Raman Mahadevan and Maha lakshmi Iyer have a paused pronounciation initially the songs hits you just for the freshness. Seems very light on your ears.

Happy: Haricharan, Devan Ekambaram, Naresh Iyer, Naveen Madhav, Paravai Munniamma, Malaysia Vasudevan, Ranjith, Aalaap Raju, Raqueeb Alam, Anuradha Sriram, Srinivas, Velumurugan, Manikkavinayagam, Mukesh, Malagudi Shuba, Divya Vijay, Anitha, Suchithra Karthik, Vijay Yesudas, Rahul Nambiar - Well this is the number of sigers who have sung this song. It is a blues numbers. Beautifully arranged and very light and pleasant. It would be a real puzzle to identify all the singers. A must hear.

Ivan thedal vettai thodangutha: Dr. Burn spitting out the pronouniation of Achamillai achamillai is little irritationg but a typical hip hop number except for some techno sounds from Arun Ramamurthi and good veenai bgm accompanying it

Devans humming followed by mrinalini and unnikrishnan pleasant voice but with some what not fitting lyrics Kangale kamalalayam. The classical interludes and the song follwing it make is better. [Somewhat ok stuff - Deleted]. I stand corrected after the second hearing.

Mike onla thane irruku : Velmurugan starting a local numbers with Ranjith picking up the tempo and Naresh Iyer joining hands, with all kinds of instruments from Nathaswaram, mrithamgam, tabla, tharai thapatai, sax all thrown into for a total cachotic mix. Just listen to the lyrics to enjoy the song. Funny.

Sirikiren sirikiren: Mano, Naresh Iyer and Shiv Chidambaram enjoy singing this song. It resonates with the old Vetri Vizha song. However, Devan makes a mark by using varied instruements even for such a song. Finally, it tries to go to the famous Bale pandiya song between M.R.Radha and Shivaji ... Mama ...Mapllai..Mama Mapplai ...

The melodies score cent percent making this album a must hear. Hear it to feel the difference.

Sunday

2009-11-08T09:38:00.000-08:00

I usually put three dots after every title thinking I am trying to say something more than what I actually meant, you know like the etc. we put after every question put to us trying to say something more than what we actually know :)

Well not for this. This is what exactly happened today. Yesterday, I slept. Yes, it may seem odd, but after a long time I just slept. I was sitting trying to help my uncle and sister in repairing a Grinder and the next minute, my back was on the bed while my legs where still in the folded position. I fell and I slept. Why am I talking about yesterday when this is about today. Nothing. Since I slept so early (around 8:15pm) unlike my usual of 2:00am, I woke up very early by around 5:00 I guess. But by the rules of Sunday, nobody gets up before 10:00 and being a stickler of rules I did not want to get out of bed. I just rolled over back and forth till around 8:00 when my sister woke up and asked whether I wanted a BB (Bed Boost). Trying to boost me out of bed but unfortunately could not. I ordered a boost and went back to sleep for another 15 minutes.

Then my sisters experiments with cooking started. I just remembered, I visited my sister's on saturday and I was at my sister's today. Since I complained about the tasteless Dal preparation on Saturday, she wanted to impress me by making something special today. She started to make Sweet Pongal. Well the experiment lasted around 2 hours and after a long fight with vessels out came the Pongal. TO say the truth, the pongal turned out very well. I could not have more since it became too sweet after sometime. Well all cannot be good and there should always be something to worry about else life becomes stale. Well this time, the vadai turned out little bad.

Well after the breakfast, another little nap. The worst thing about Sunday it the Sun never rises. It look like the entire world is meant to sleep on a sunday. What a irony.

After the short nap we decided that no experiments for lunch and we better go out. The plan was to go for Aadhavan a Tamil movie and so we went to swagath just to find out that there is no Aadhavan today and so had our lunch at the food court below. Followed by sometime in landmark where we just browse for books but not buy any :)

Anyway there are good offers at landmark. There were some two books in one for sale and this deal was so attractive that I too was tempted to buy one. Then decided against it and standing by my rules. Paying Rs20 for parking we left Swagath. Plan KFC.

Well, since it was too early for dinner (well we just had lunch), we thought we would park our car walk around the place sometime and then go to KFC. We parked our car near KFC took to the road by foot. Well, our first destination was Coffee Day Chocolate Fantasy for my sister. Then we walked around to the shopping area of Jaya Nagar 3rd block to get Lungi for our uncle. These a Ganesh Bhavan near the place which was rated as the bangalore's best place for coffee day. As the irony goes, Coffee day's Cake and Ice reams are famous and not coffee. Then I had been long time planning to buy a Footwear or more precisely a pair of slippers. We went to Khadims which has a good collection at nominal price. After seeing some varieties my uncle threw up an idea of going to Woodlands. Well I was really tempted and so went hunting for Woodlands and then finally ended up buying a slipper for Rs2300. It is costly than my costliest shoe. Hope it lives up to its price.

Then atlast went to KFC bought the necessary dinner package dropped my sister at home and then back to my home.

Thus went my sinday, or sunday .....

Bye

The Week That Was ...

2009-08-16T08:52:00.000-07:00

.. I did not understand this phrase until now when i thought of writing a blog every week. It makes sense.

Well, I thought I would try to write a short write up of things that went on the week that was.

After a long (about three months) I thought I should start thinking about something other than work. I had a hectic three months due to various reasons like unplanned execution, unexpected delays, improper estimation ... Well that had taught many things. I am yet to sort that out :)

Going forward, I decided I should be more organised and spend or distribute the time available about the various tasks at hand rather than only work. I had totally ignored my family. I could not spend time with my mother who stayed with me for a week and now am yearning for her to return back, could not sort out my bank loan issues and had random timings of late night sleeps and late morning timing to office. It is really painful to be unpredictable. However, i think the effort has not gone for waste and sure would yield the fruit

I cleaned my house after a long time. got tips from my sister on the things that are to be used for cleaning and she helped me out in choosing. She had a simple formula, harpic for the toilets and Domex for the floor and a simple broom stick. Well all I could do was use the broom and harpic for the toilets. I was tired and lazy to mop the floor.

Then on monday, going to office I had two more issues to resolve and that took away the time in office for the entire week.

Other than that I wanted to spend sometime on processing the photos I had taken over the last two week. Well, during the last two weeks I had time on sundays during which I went to Anekal once and a small hill temple in hosur. I had taken some panorama shots i.e. instead of covering a wide angle by buying some costly lens, you try to take many small pictures and sttitch them using software. The results are pretty good and you can see them on my flick account (flick.com/nitthilan)

Further, I had made a decision to workout daily (like this blogging i do not know how long it would last :) I had completed say around 5 successful days eventhough they were not regular and spread across the seven days.

Also, I had decided to not bite my nails some habit which really do not know when I started.

And yesterday, I was invited to a suprise birthday party of one of my friend's. I could not make it on time. As the host guessed, I had a thought that this is going to be a real formal party with many people invited and so thought that going a little (well it a hour and half) late would not matter. Well I was wrong. It was a small discrete party and very few people were invited. To the host's dismay he had expected everybody to be there before by 5:30 but only three were there. It was really suprise. I reached at around 7:00 and handed over the gift immeditely. Then we had a dumb-chareds, we split ourselves into two groups.Since the party had a equl number of ladies and gentlemen we had two groups of four each. As usual trying to make it funny and having the ego of a male we tried to boo down them saying we are going to win, which we know we would not. I did not know hindi and well most of us did not know many movies (we seem to watch too many movies but never have the thought back about them. I could figure that out after yesterday) The first round we lost. we were given a movie which had only three entries in googole of which one said they too had played with the same name and did know that one such movie existed. After a small tirade on cheating we gave them another movie which they were able to break it down syllabyl by syllabyl and find it out. Well that requires some innovation.

So we imposed a rule saying that breaking a word does not count and so another round went by only to be trapped by our own web, we got a movie name which was impossible without breaking the words. Well the game went on with we shouting at our empty victory until it was time for dinner waiting for the last guest to arrive who also had the key to dinner. He had ordered it and was to bring it down when he joins us. While waiting on it, one of the guest had to leave since she had to travel a long distance. She had requested the host to play the piano. The host is real good at piano. We had a enchanting session of music, first the piano and then the guitar. Well, the guitar had a twist (not only in the strings but also the way in which they were stiked) There a cacophonic adaptation of the hotel california or to say the The hotel keralaphonia. It had some really interesting lyrics which would make you stand and clap at the way one could have thought about to bring out such a adaptation of a cult classic.(google or youtube it for more)

After the girl left and the food arrived we were served dinner and before that another short interlude of music trying to create the original hotel california. Following which we had dinner. A sumptutous meal from Copper Chimney. Try out the Biriyani at Copper Chimney it is of a different flavour.

Then we had the cake cutting session with the birthday song going to talk about the birth place in the zoo. We had the cake served (ordered from coffeday blackforest chocolate) and was fantastic.

Then we waited till around 11:30 discussing about world politics, education system and what not and what all. Departing I got dropped near my place. Had a real good time and would remember it for a long time

See you next week bye

Carpe Diem - "O Captain, my Captain"

2009-03-05T10:44:00.000-08:00

The pipers blowing, the violin stings ringing, the marching begins ..this is the start and not the end. Well that was the beautiful climax of the "The Dead Poet Society".

I have been a great fan of Robin Williams and I usually love the characters he choose and the themes which does in his movies.

"To be or not to be. That is the question Gentlemen" Shakespeare must have thought this phrase for what context I do not know but here in this movie, whether the theme of free spirit hits the chord or not. Should one "Live Life", "Seize the day" or always "live in ones dreams" and go to death feeling that you could have done better.

Well it may seem ripe, revolutionary, enthusiastic in many a sense to read these phrases but as in the story "A wacky professor" in his unorthodox ways tries to kindle the human spirit which otherwise would have been idle and leads to a death when faced with odds.

So here comes the question "To be or not to be" that is the question. Well unanswered.

Jeyakanthan - Inspired to start me writing this post

2009-02-13T23:01:00.000-08:00

Well I was also ignorant of this name or may be knew but was ignorant about how he influences people by his writing...yes if you have not guessed (or known) he is a famous writer in Tamil. Actually I have always been skeptical about Tamil books (well considering them as not the in thing to do) until I first read some works by the famous (known as a lyricist) Kannadasan. I read a historical novel by him.

Actually, the time I read his novel was also a interesting write. A slight detour. It was a time when I was fully depressed (well I have been through this mood many a times and these are times things fall into place like the sky becoming clear after a storm) that my (so called) employer have not called me up to work for him and I have been idle for say months (this is a problem with placements in college, you enjoy the day you get placed the most and all that happiness changes to headstrong behavior that you are in a better position than the so called unfortunates and say if you are do not get what you are promissed then you are in for a suprise. Further, even if you are taken in, I think you would not feel as happy as the day you got placed. May be the thrill goes down with time) Coming back to the detour, I had a chance to spend a long time with my grandmother alone in our ancient (when I say ancient it means ancient. It is a 150 year old) house. It was only the two of us and to say the most relaxed days of my life. Every day I get up early (getting up late is not always good. even the feel) have a chat and help my grandmother (or rather disturb) her cooking, have a good breakfast, well after that I pretty much did not do anything till the noon lunch (or after that till the evening "aamai vadai" snack or after till dinner). As I mentioned this house was ancient, you would have guessed that it should have a (secret chamber, well not really. Then may be a creepy) store room. My grandmother in her days was a avid reader of Tamil weeklies and in those (good "old") days the weeklies carried good stories. She used to make books out of those weekly magazines, collecting it for years. These old books were stored in this room and whenever, I find such a long boring time I used to investigate the room for the old collections. Thats when I got hold of this book by Kannadasan.
This book proved me entirely wrong. First, it was simple to read (not those complex Tamil words). Two, it was so poetic filled with imaginations and fantasy that you savor for a long time. Three, I completed the book without getting bored. From that day on I had always wanted to read a good Tamil book which satisfies the above basic criteria but never have I found one. Most of the time it would be hard for me to read it.

Well after a long time I got hold of this collection of short stories by Jeyakanthan. It was really good. Since this post has gone long I would cut it out here and continue with his story in my next post.

nittech

2007-07-12T23:06:00.001-07:00

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nitthilog

2007-07-12T23:05:00.001-07:00

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Cutting a Cake After a Long Time

2007-07-12T00:44:00.000-07:00

I do not remember the last time I cut a cake celebrating my birthday but today morning at 12:00am I was thrashed and kicked by five crazy room-mates followed by the cake cutting ceremony. I really enjoyed it. Thanks Guys.
Also, today is the penultimate day in my current company and today was the first time in the three years I have worked here that people here know that 12th July is my birthday :) . Anyhow many wished me and shook hands.
Whenever a birthday comes across, I remember the incident when I was reminded of my own birthday through the morning TV show. Anyway just put in a note

Education (II)

2007-07-11T03:31:00.000-07:00

This basically is going to talk about my college life. To be frank, at least I believed that I did not enjoy as much I wanted at college and to say the truth literally hugging books all the time. The first year in to college, entering with all kinds of dreams, aspirations after the high scores in school, was really good. Actually, I loved it since I felt being back to what I do the best, learn by understanding rather than mugging up things which, I have been doing for the past two years in school. In college is when I started reflecting what I understand rather than forcing myself to mug up i.e. if I understand a subject I score really well in it else I flunk and flunk badly.
First Semester, I loved all the subject (basically because they were not engg. subjects at all) - physics, chemistry, math, english, mechanics, engg. drawing. The teaching here was really good. People taught the methods and let the others do the exercises and exams had problems which required to be solved during the exams and not to be reproduced (as done in school). This the method that best works for me at least.
Second Semester, yes, this is the most dreaded semester in all my four years in college. A guy who knew some math and had some knowledge on mechanical physics (or Newtonian Physics or physics of things which can be visualized like trajectory of a ball, acceleration of a car etc ) was thrown into understanding concepts like electron, neutron and proton (what heck. till that point I have not thought how they could possibly exist). When I could visualize how a boy standing near a cliff would fall when pushed, I could not imagine what they meant by energy levels or hills and electrons falling from one state to another blah ..blah blah... I was literally flabbergasted and to top it all, the semester duration was short and the books we followed were one of the worst for a new comer to cope with (may be a pro can decipher the symbols). I could see all the 26 alphabets put in between paragraphs (obviously they too were filled with the same) as symbols or formulas and to crown the situation, had them differentiated as Capitals and Lower Cases. Wow .. anyone at first glance would understand it very easily, that too with a font which would be size 8 in MS Doc. It did not leave it there, each section has references not only to the past but also to things in the futures. Man .. anybody reading this (at least me) would go mad. Anybody from Electronics background would have found out the book by now for others it is the great "Electronic Devices And Circuits" (However, later during my fourth year, I realized that this was the best book for understanding and helped me great in preparing for GATE).
One other thing about this subject was this required lot of imagination. You need to visualize many scenarios, experiments relations etc. This I would say would be better done if it had good visual presentations like Video, Flash or Demonstrations of the various setups (not only this subject but many other) would have given it a different perspective altogether and it would be better if professors give this as semester projects for individuals. Things like this once done would really help the future students very much.
The other subject which I felt difficult was the Material Sciences were I felt I am not the one for it. There were subjects like Circuit Theory and Maths which had initial problems but later proved to be really good.
My Third Semester, again showed some signs of good times with subjects like Signals and System, Network Analysis being the prominent ones I remember. Signals and systems was more understandable since I could see or figure out how signals are constructed and how operations on them worked. It was more like math. A mention about the book of reference "Signals and Systems by Oppenheimer" is a worthy book unlike the above, it had simple english explanation, good font and eligible formulas. I had a very wonderful tool called the Matlab which aided me in understanding the various things explained in the text. Other than this I must say that I had a natural inclination to this subject :) .
Network Analysis I say I loved this subject just because of the way it was taken. Unlike signals and systems which I liked it because of subject as such, I liked this one due to the teacher. Dr. Srivatasava. He had a queer and funny way make people understand his subject. His classes would involve good interaction from students and he always had jokes and funny comments in his lectures which made the subject more interesting to hear. His approach to teaching was simple. He covers all the concepts with clear examples and explanations. Here you are made to understand every sum and problem. Also he tests whatever he teaches. Thus the entire process is simple. If his job is done well the person learns what he/she requires the basics. Anything other that this, if one wants to pursue, can do so with these basics.

Orbox B

2007-07-11T03:16:00.000-07:00

Another simple but engaging puzzle solving game. A shiny square, dormant when it stands but initiate a movement it stops not till it collides with a brick blockade. So being so it is to make the shiny block slip into a warp hole leading to another level. But the warp hole is not straight ahead to just go and fall in but is placed in a maze of blockades. So the gamer maneuvers the shiny block through the maze into the warp hole and this is not for a single level but 30 ... Wow. why wait and lets play the ORBOX B ...... :)
My current password: ydk629

Starshine and Bloxorz

2007-06-27T22:43:00.000-07:00

Two more games which are good.
Starshine - Resembles nuclear fission, where we bombard one star with another and it splits into two (or more). The aim is to bombard all stars using the split stars.
Bloxorz - Push a Brick Block into a hole. Seems easy is it not. But no. You need to move the block (rectangular cuboid) into a square hole (equal to the smallest area on the surface of the block). Play it to find it.

BowMaster

2007-06-14T00:21:00.000-07:00

http://www.kongregate.com/games/lostvector/bowmaster-prelude

A good game where u protect your fort with your bow and arrow.

Blue Print

2007-06-05T23:58:00.000-07:00

A game involving mechanical physics principles. With a given set of pipes corners and pumps the aim is to move a ball from its source to a target destination in 12 tries.
http://www.mousebreaker.com/games/blueprint/play.php

Bus Conductor's Conduct

2007-06-04T23:22:00.000-07:00

"Ok I do not know whether I would see you next week. So good bye", saying this to my cousin I got of the car. It was a sultry night in CMBT Bus terminus (Chennai). Usually I am pretty early to the Bus Stand and would board the bus (to Bangalore) just before it starts. However, today I arrived about half an hour before departure and so bought a fanta and got into the bus.
"Tickets please",said the conductor "Yes. Your seat is 24". Reaching my seat I was puzzled. My seat was already occupied. Placing my bags on the overhead luggage compartment I asked the conductor "The seat seems to be already occupied." "Yes. The same seat has been booked twice. However, your ticket is valid and so please sit.",came the reply.So I innocently moved away the bags in my place and sat in the seat. "Is there any empty seats" "No. Can't you see the bus is full. When the bus start you could travel standing. But there are no seats at present. Please get down and board when the bus starts", the conductor was replying to some passengers. This is the state of any bus on a Sunday evening.
As usual, I opened the window, settled in my seat, staring blankly at the bus entrance. A passenger entered the bus and walked towards me, carrying a big luggage, pushing people to get past and reached for the seat before me. He (Lets name him Kumar) then produced his ticket to the conductor. "Sorry sir the ticket u have booked is not valid. I have given away the quota of six tickets to these gentlemen here", said the conductor."How is this possible? I have booked a ticket online and have the print out of the ticket and the seat number. How can u deny me my seat? I have a meeting to attend tomorrow and u give me a irresponsible answer", said Kumar. "Sir, we are here to only check tickets and not resolve issues. If u have any issues please report it to the higher officials. They would make sure that it is not repeated. I cannot be held responsible for this", replied the conductor. "How can you give me an answer like this? You are also part of the system and you too are responsible"."Yes sir, but anything you want to do you tell it to the officials. I cannot do anything. Report it to them and they would call me." With this Kumar, frustrated, carried his heavy luggage and got off the bus to see the officials. "Sir. Would it be possible to get a seat. I have a interview tomorrow. Please help" came a request which was again rejected "Sir. How many time should I repeat. The bus is full and there is no seat at present. I would know about a empty seat only when people do not turn up. Until then please get down and board the bus when it starts"
Meanwhile, the passenger who had placed his luggage in my seat arrived. I showed him my ticket. He (Lets name him Ram) quietly picked up his luggage and got off following Kumar, to report about this issue to the Higher officials.
When the two were away, a small talk started in the bus discussing the problem. The e-ticket booking introduced by the Transport Corporation was recently updated by modifying the mm/dd/yy system to dd/mm/yy system. Due to this tickets which have been booked on a earlier date were re-opened and were shown as empty and so people were able to book the same ticket twice. Similarly, they have introduced a online booking system were tickets could be booked from different centers in Chennai through Internet. There was a mess up in the quota among centers and so the double issue of ticket for my seat.
Coming back, the conductor, Kumar and the Official boarded the bus verified the tickets from the passengers seated in Kumar's seat and then finally accepted their mistake. The solution they gave was make Kumar and Ram sit near the driver (In all buses there is a small place near the driver, leaving the conductor seat, which is usually sold in the last minute for the unfortunate passengers who brave the feat of not booking a return ticket on a weekend).Without any arguments the two of them settled in the seats.
Even after repeated request from the conductor the crowd standing inside pleading for seats did no get down. The conductor repeating his request moved slowly to one of the standing guy. Nearing him he whispered, "Seat number 3 and 19 is free. Just sit in them and if the guy arrives please empty it" and repeated "How many times should I say the seats are full and no empty seats are available. Please get down" aloud to other passengers. The standing guy and his companion occupied seat number 3 and 19 quietly.
It was time to depart and the conductor asked all the guys who wanted to travel standing to board. Getting into the bus after the standing passengers, the conductor asked them to move into the passenger section. Moving in, he closed the driver compartment, isolating our poor Kumar and Ram. Slowly he moved again from one passenger to other and in the pretext of checking the tickets for the seated and issuing tickets to those who are standing, he issued tickets to the guy seated in seat 3 and 19 (while Kumar and Ram having booked the tickets were made to sit near the driver). For the people who do not know how this system work, when people are allowed to stand or sit in a reserved bus a extra charge of Rs 50 or Rs 100 per ticket is paid (based on the comfort you enjoy by sitting) which is unaccounted and is the price paid for the good will of the conductor to allow you on board.
For some time, there were sly smiles passed between the standing passengers and finally one of the seated members, Mr. Seat No. 18, asked "Is it not unfair that you sell these tickets to these unreserved people while the two reserved people are made to sit outside". "Sir, Just now I have re-solved the issue and do you want to start it all over again. My job is just to check the ticket and I am doing it", came the reply. "If just checking the ticket is your job then I can volunteer to do the same. At least I would have the satisfaction of serving the government. I think you have some self-conscience"."Sir, if there is any it should be re-solved with the higher officials and they would make sure that it does not happen again. I am not here to re-solve these issues. Sorry. and please allow me to do my job." and with this the heroic effort of Mr18 came to a end.
The bus now inched its way outside the bus stand. Near the exit, as usual, the officials were seated to check the bus capacity and tickets issued. Handing over the verification sheet to the official the conductor said "What is this issue regarding the e-ticket and online? This is a problem when things are not done by people". The official replied, "It has something to do with the update we did this month. The chart used by the earlier system got replaced by the new one and so the same tickets were booked twice". "Whatever you say, this is a pain in the a**. Sir, I request you to talk to your highers and make arrangements so that we (the conductors) have the power to issue the last row tickets so that we can prevent this problem", said the conductor, making more ways to improve his funds. "Okay. we will look into it"said the officials.
The bus made the move with the conductor, Kumar and Ram accompanying the driver and Seat no 3 and 19 enjoying the comfort. I pushed my seat back and slept.

Shuffle

2007-06-04T22:52:00.000-07:00

Knock of the opponent balls of the table and when u do it before u get your balls knocked off u win. You need to do it four times to win.
http://www.shockwave.com/content/shuffle/sis/shuffle.swf

Castle Wars

2007-05-31T04:55:00.000-07:00

A small card based flash game.
http://kongregate.com/games/m0rkeulv/castlewars

I get called like this ...

2007-05-31T04:09:00.000-07:00

Nithihalan - One of my prof.
Nithibalan - Librarian in my CBSE school
Nitilin - Hindhi teacher in my 6th grade
Nithyan - My friend Ram's mother
Nithilon - My client

"Education"

2007-05-29T23:23:00.000-07:00

I thought a lot about what to write about education. I am not here to write a Wiki for people to read and get "Educated". So I finally came to a point where I am going to write about my experience in getting educated and my experience in educating people.
My first experience with getting taught was when my father taught me the basic letters in Tamil (my mother tongue). He used to sit beside me and make me repeat every letter. This was basically to make one "remember" whatever he or she reads. Here you get to associate what you say with what you see. A co-ordination between the sound and the visual is done.
Unlike other children, I did not go through LKG (Lower Kinder Garden) and was put directly into the Upper KG. I remember the first mark I scored - ZERO. I think I was taught to write my words here. Here is where one gets the hand - eye - sound co-ordination. You see, you hear the teacher say, you say what you hear, and finally you write what you hear and see. I think the basic mechanism required to express oneself is taught in these sessions. Something like a common medium through which one can interact and express.
Also in these sessions we were taught crafts and art. I remember doing some craft work with the pencil shavings (some kind of flower designs) and a collage work with sand (a horse diagram where you fill the image with glue and put sand over it. The sand sticks in the place where the glue is present and so finally u have a horse shape out of sand). Even though I it was done my my teacher I had the experience of seeing it and understanding it.
Then the next thing I remember is my first standard class. I still remember the class teacher. Her name was Mrs.Kusmalatha (little odd and thats the reason I remember it too). I remember these days as more of interaction with other students. I see three prominent scenes. First, two of my classmates carry me to my teacher complaining about me. Second, I playing in a open ground under trees and I remember collecting seeds of the tree falling from it. Third, in a small ground where we play in the swing, sliding board, merry-go-round etc. Here, we used to play a different game on the sliding board. We used to jump from the top, land somewhere in the middle of the board and then slide down to the ground. It is fun unless you jump too high so that u miss the board and land on the ground ;) .
Then my family had to shift and so my school. It was second standard (Std II Section A). New place, new people. The process of finding friends starts again. The teaching style changes. The process modified. Unfortunately, I was affected by one such change. In my earlier school, for every exam we just go with only our pads. But here for some exams (which they like to call as mid-terms) we need to use a notebook. I (at the time) being a silent and shy guy, did not know this and forgot to bring the notebook and went to the exam with the pad only. (I do not remember what happened after that).
Here, is where I met my first close friend, Arvind. Also, here is where I loved to study. Thinking back I loved the process by which they imparted education.
Being a central board based school, we were taught to think rather than mug-up (a art which I find it difficult to master even now). We had text books which taught us the basics. In these text books, we had introductory material which describe what things are and then follwed by examples of how to use it. Then followed by exercises which are not mere replication of the examples but are more of applications of what we understand.
I remember instances, say, in one of my math class, when were taught Geometry, I remember my teacher bringing in huge Set-Squares and Compasses to explain the concept of circles and bisection. In science classes, we were shown models of the ear (how removing each layer would result and what was inside each), we had experiments to be done at home like growing plants (understanding photosynthesis), we were shown lab experiments like centrifugation used to separate heavier materials from lighter materials. I remember more interaction with teachers (not individual but as a group) rather than the theory classes.
When I was here, it was like you learn at school and play at home. I do not remember any hectic pre-exam preparations since most were done at classes. Further, you need not remember anything since the way one reads is by understanding rather than memorizing. In my later years, I remember one of my teachers saying that the best way to know more is to understand something completely and then forget about it. Since you understand it you can always the recall it at a later date.
Also in this period I had a respect for teacher (not of fear). I used to feel bad even if I was scolded.
When this was at school, at home I was always made to think of what I do. There were no hidden things. I was very much interested in drawing and paintings. When I was in my 4th or 5th Standard I used to fancy about using sketch pencils and water colors. Whenever, I asked for it I was said that for the drawing you do now it is better to use pencils rather than these and I was presented a water color set in my sixth grade.
Also, we in our small family have a habit. We used to have long walks on Sunday evenings (basically my father being a doctor, had this day dedicated to spend with family). During these walks, we had hearty discussions fun and jokes exchanged.
Further, whenever I am with my parents anything I do or say was put up with questions of why? what? how?. Say, once when we were making a trip from triunavelli to chennai and we were in a railway station. When we were waiting for the train, my father used to ask questions regarding the railway station - things he knew things he understood. It would start like say you see a train coming into a railway station. You see a engine in the front. So if the train wants to go in the opposite direction how would it go? Then we used to think and say that may be there is a engine on the other side or the engine is capable of moving forward and backward and for one direction it pulls and for the other it pushes. Then next question would be like how does a engine turn itself (shunt yards were introduced). Then the next question would be what would happen if you throw a bangle in air inside a train and the same bangle with you hand stretched outside the window. In the first case it would land in you lap but in the second it would land somewhere outside while the train moves forward. Then the next question would be why? and the first law of newton comes to light.
Also, education is not only knowledge but behavior also. The adolescent period is when one knows more about the society and a transition happens. I had problems like any others. During my sixth grade, my classmates started to grow their vocabulary with new additions like f**k. I knew that these are bad but when the entire class talks and uses this u feel that as if u are making a mistake. When I took this problem home. My mother after hearing the problem said, "As you say these are bad words. First, it is not bad that u feel odd to use this since it is right. Then when u understand the actual meaning of these words then u would know why one must not use these words. If you still feel that this is hard stay this way, u can talk to me about these word. Say it to me". I told her about the words used by people and from that day I have not used those words (until recently). Also, there were times when one slips the tight rope and get distracted. Whenever I feel I am distracted or going in a wrong path I remember the simple golden words of my mother "Anything you do is for your own good. If you work hard and achieve then you are the one to be benefited from it. It is not me, your father or the other people around you. So whatever you do you are the one who needs to reap th fruit for it." Encouragement is also something that carries you to great heights. Whenever I failed or scored low in a exam my parents used to say "There is always next time" and when ever I scored good and say came first in my class we had a treat a present a get together something to celebrate the occasion.
The next stage, I was in my High School (XI and XII Std.) To be continued later