Kenna n Me

I would very much like to say "on popular demand I'm planning to blog more frequently and this is just the beginning of it". But, the honest truth would be its not popular demand but something much better. So, I go on.. on something that i really wanted to write about.. my internship in Kennametal.

Kennametal, a company not many know of. Neither did I a year back. The first mention of it was when one of my then seniors told us that that was how he spent one of his hols. God knows I dint realize then that I was going to get so related to the place. In due course, it got to a point where I was (actually we were) lamenting that there was not a call for interns yet. More than the company, was important, the people who had inhabited it. And at last it was there and after a lot of waiting and hustle and bustle I got it.

Now, I don't really want to discuss the company. Its going to be my life with people there, just my counterparts actually. The very first day. Not all that lonely and not at all scary for I had some of my fellow classmates with me. The first person I meet in the company, is just that someone who was going to be my best friend the next 2 months and now more. The only other girl intern. That let to a good bonding instantaneously. A nice, sweet, amicable girl, not to forget intelligent and hardworking too.

We were directed to some hall to meet company people and there I met the rest of my would-be friends. I should mention that two of my previous projects were without anyone share the work with. I was all to myself. So, here was anew experience. There were 8 more people with me and the very first of talks I knew it was going to be fun. That very day, I was forced to be with one of them when the others proceeded on. Though it felt bad to be left out, it was good not to be alone.Chatting to all glory the day went on.

The best of times would be what we spend in the canteen. It has a very nice look about it. Not this boring monotonous you-are-inside-a-manufacturing-company look. This is very pleasant and cheerful and we just added to it. Breakfasts and lunch tables were always filled with joy and laughter. There was never a day when we had something serious and could not enjoy. No matter what problems you were into at work, canteen was always the place to forget everything and feel good. People made sure you did. All the impersonally personal care you get makes you so much at ease that you want eat again just to have it all.

Another of the places which was full of enjoyment was the library. That became more of a hangout, specially after lunch when all of us had time to spare. The merry mood continues there too. Believe me, it is so much fun to solve crosswords and scrambles and sudoku and so many other silly things if you have people like them around you. All the words they make up and the ideas they come up with, it is always a thing of laughter.

Not to forget are the vending machines, the best of all. Never have I drunk so much coffee and ate all those biscuits (Hey, when did mom every buy a i-don't-the-name-of-the-brand version of ParleyG and biscuits hot with spices visible) Yes I did, not coz they are good or anything, but for all the gaiety that comes with it. We always took breaks together. At the least 2 or 3 of us. That gave us some more time together, for all the mirth.

These are just the few of the many nice things that are to follow, of course apart from specific instances and what happened outside the company,soon........

Just Updates

Yet another of my breaks from blogs.. Been nearly a month. And, a lot of things have changed, almost in every sphere of my life.

First things first, as I had mentioned earlier.. my grades!! I'm yet to see them myself, but got to know what it is. Trust me, it was way beyond all my expectations. It was actually good. Though the grades were very different from what I had thought I would get, this was anyway good. So, now.. may be I would get back to those same old habits and be happy too.

Next.. I'm no longer in Bangalore. My internship is over and with a very good note at that, making my life supposedly pretty secure. Something that I can fall back on . I really wanted to write about the company and the people and the best of all my fellow interns. My whole stay in Bangalore would not have been even half as good as it was if not for them. Starting from our first weekend when we went out though we had know each other for hardly 4 days to the lunch on our last day, everything was so very pleasant. Something that would remember for a really long time if not for ever. I sure will write about all of them, some other day.

Now that I'm off Bangalore, I'm stuck in one of those cities which I've never really liked. Yes, the same old Chennai and the same old project too. IITM is such a nice place to be in , a world in itself. But never have I been able to avoid things outside it. So, again I'm crying, yearning, waiting to go back home. But I should accept I did have nice times in Chennai this holidays. I did go out and it was a great experience. No, not that the city has become better, no, not at all. But it still was one of the best experiences for so many different reasons. Coming to the project. Just like the last time nothing worthwhile is happening. No results, no satisfactory amount of work, nothing substantial. All the more reason to be sad and to hate Chennai.

Moreover, I'm in my final year of Engineering. There is so much of activity around me. I'm really feeling bad because I have very little a part in it. Is it for the good or bad, really hard to say. And tangentially.. I've grown up!! I am taking things with a positive note. And that is a real lot of a change!! Also loads is happening on the personal front too. Again I don't really know if its for my good. But I am very much of a happier person than I was. I am sure time will come when I will post everything here. So for now I'm ending this with nothing said. Well.. So be it!! And.. On a very personal note I really want to thank You for what You have done for Me, all that You are doing for Me and everything that I know You will do for Me.

Peanut

I came across this peanut comic strip in the Times of India. Just felt I should post here..

He: I think there is something that you should know.
She:Whats that??
He:The world does not revolve around you..
She:................................
She:You are kidding!!!!

If you are someone who is now rolling on the floor laughing.. be assured.. you belong to my world.

Is this what is called love??

Its been so long since I tried blogging. Been in Bangalore for nearly a month now. It is very much better than the last time, leaving out the fact that I spend nearly 4 hrs everyday commuting. Initially it was really horrible. Waking up at 5 in the morning,bus at 6 and reach only by 7.30.Evenings are worse. It takes nearly 3 hrs!! But now, I've come to terms with it. Generally I try to listen to some music. But then how long can I go with it!! So now.. its observing the world around me.

Four hours in bus everyday, you are bound to see loads of interesting scenes. You just enjoy the spectacle for the moment and forget it the very day. Yet, there are a few which stayed with me. One of them is this.

I had just boarded the bus for the second part of my journey. A man came running to the bus. Entered in and went near the driver and asked him if it goes to some particular place. The driver nods in agreement. The man got down from the bus and ran again. I was wondering what was happening when I saw at a distance, him bringing a lady. She was finding it too difficult to walk and this man was helping her and almost carrying her, though she looked pretty heavy for him. To make her board the bus was another task which he did happily. He even managed to get a seat for her. You should have seen the smile on their faces after they sat down!!!! She was challenged physically, could not walk properly nor climb stairs, but, he was always there, doing all that she had wanted to, all that she could not. This might be something very trivial. May be my way of describing it had made it lose its flavor. But, this gave me just one thought.. That bond which those two shared. That feeling of being together. That assurance of having someone. Those unspoken words. That heartfelt thoughts. That genuine affection. That caring smile. That I-don't-know-what-to-call-it feeling.......
May be this is what is called love!!

Yet another sem.. No.. Not really..

I just got off with my exams yesterday. Sixth semester is over. Three years of Engineering done. Three fourths of an Engineer, my friends call it. Just one more year and I should be ready for the world. I need to get a job. Start earning my living. But forgetting all that.. This has been, I can say, one of the best of all my six semesters.

Yes, this was. My friends and classmates who are in hostel tell me loads of stories about how they have come to enjoy this life best. There was always fun and frolic in the hostels. People enjoyed being there. All this feeling of oneness, a special bonding, their home away from home. They talk of birthday celebrations, late night chat sessions, songs, movies and so much more. But being a day scholar I never had the chance to enjoy any of it. May be it would not have been my kind of enjoyment even if I had been there.But still, I never got to experience it.

This semester was different. I had good times.. though a lot of bad ones too. But I lived with it all. I realized, college can be fun too. Being a day scholar is not bad at all, even considering the fun part of college life. It all depends all how you make it. My idea of fun is anyway so different that it took so long to make it happen. And so, instead of dragging me out of bed and pulling myself into classes I really took some interest in it. It was never this " Why did this class get canceled!! I could as well finish it and go home for good." Everything was fine. Classes postponed, its cool. Next class is 3 hours away, it still was cool.

Moreover this has been one of the most casual of the exams I have had. I don't really think I was this cool about my exams since, say, my standard 11. Starting from my cycle tests to my final exams I was so very casual. This was the way I had always wanted it to be. But somehow, in the mean time, things got changed. But again its normal now. I was not badly tensed. I could afford to spend a lot of time with people even during exams. I stopped worrying and was comfortably chatting with friends 2 hours before the exam. I came out of the exam hall half of an hour earlier than the duration. I was sending sms right after I got out of the hall which went on for an hour. I slept all afternoon. I was online in the evening. I go to bed at the most by 11. On the whole, it was so much like my good old days. But my grades....... God save my soul. I will post it after I get them. Hope it wont be pathetic. I just expect it to be bad.

Now, leaving out all that, this semester was too good which i really enjoyed. It was very different in so many ways.I am so happy to have had it. I really want to make the last two left with me as good as this, if not better.

The Wedding Bells

After all the radical ideas I come up with to post in this blog, you would really wonder what have I got up my sleeve now. Wedding bells?? Of all the things!! Sounds like its going to be too out of the way right. No. This time I am not in for anything like that. This is going to be a nice sweet post.

So.. Coming to it.. Y about wedding?? Two of my very good friends are engaged and are going to get married before the end of this year. One is going to be the proper Indian arranged marriage where mom and dad saw the guy, decided he would suit the family and then went on to inform the girl about it, the girl gets to know the guy, happens to talk once in a while over the phone and waits for the wedding day and more to know what life has in store for her. The other.. what is called with subtlety a self-arranged marriage. But i am sure both(all the four i mean) of them are going to have a nice life. I wish them all happiness.. forever.

Talking of weddings, one other thing that comes to my mind is the movie i watched lately. That movie which mom thought was very good and my grandmother badly wanted to see from the very day she came to my place. All of it just because they were showing the type of wedding that takes place in my clan. So, i was pestered much till i got the movie for them. But i was really happy. My grandmother seemed so happy about it and it looked like she was enjoying the movie, at least the beginning of it. They started commenting on every bit of it. From the house the movie was pictured in to the way people walked, talked, addressed their relatives. There were lot of rewinds and fast forwards and quite much of criticism. But the great disappointment came when that supposedly most hyped about wedding scene, that they wanted to watch the most, the very reason why the decided to watch the movie, ended in a sequence of a song.(Well.. did they think the movie was documentary on the wedding!!) Still, it was okay. The got to terms with it soon and then the fun started. Can you think of what would have happened!! No, they dint forget the sequence and continue with the movie, neither did they discontinue watching the movie then. They started looking for details in the song. Once, not enough. Twice, hey we missed out something. Thrice.. I was bugged and walked out. When i finally returned the movie was over and my brother told me the song sequence alone was played 11 times!!!! That one song. The movie could as well have lasted only that long.

Well.. Hearing all this the first things that i thought of.. How enthusiastic!! The way she got herself involved in it. It was just a movie, so be it. If she can be so interested to all those minute details even in a movie how good she must be at other areas. Not just her. But a lot of people of the past generation. They are always curious, very interested, always wanting to know things. They work on computers and Internet, they are so much at ease using mobile phones and above all they are so much fun to be with. Given the right opportunities my grandmother would as well have been 10 times better than my brother.

My goodness!! I am just too full of multifarious ideas now. So many unrelated thoughts which I guess only i can put together. No.. Not now.. I am saving it for yet another post.

Cast Away....

Cast Away.... The starting is pretty abrupt,for that matter the whole write up is going to be that, please do put up with it. Guess I just cant stop speaking things out or be very unscrupulous even for the sake of a public blog. But I sure will try my best to be as subtle as possible. For those of you who thought this might be along the lines of escaping from a ship or being stranded in an island, I am sorry but this is going to be a disappointment. I wanted the title to be "outcast" but then it was... it was not as subtle you see :) So it became this ethereal cast away. Now you must get some kind of idea of what this is going to be and for many of you who don't believe in the same things as I do, the demeanor might as well seem outrageous.So, I would suggest you rather stop here than continue and get to unsolicited opinions.

Thinking of the good old days, when i was in school, there was always this distinction between people. Distinction based on their distinction. Anyone who could muster up a 95+ in exam was very good. Anyone who tops the class is the best. He is the guy who is most sought after by everyone, be it the teachers or seniors or his fellow classmates. He would have this elite gang of friends. No one in the gang would score anything less than a 90. And, if by any chance they do, they are looked down upon and loose the status to be a part of the coterie. These guys would be the best in so many other things too be it books or sports or dramatics or oratory. Every other guy would be trying to get into that better part of the class. Of course, who did not want their names uttered by teachers every third minute of class or pampered by seniors or be the one looked up to by the peers. Many of us would have noticed that these guys would never want to be associated with this supposedly lower strata of the class. They don't have to even care to be nice to others, anyway people are all over them. You see, they are the cherished people.

You grow up, come out of school, get into some reputed college or start to work and go on. Actually, you grow up, become more matured, get to see a lot of life, gain worldly knowledge, get seasoned and then you realize.. realize all that you had been led to believe when you were a kid was actually kiddish if not beguile. Yes, it is exactly the antithetical that happens. You are so used to being the Prince, for you always deserved to be that. You want to continue with it and you just sweat and slog your guts out to be it. But the response that you receive, would be nothing near appreciation or support, and so many times not even acknowledgment. Yes, you got it right. It would be pretty sass. That would be the same from so many people, be it your peer or higher. You get treated the very way you just don't deserve to be.Hardly does anyone recognize the magnanimity of what you did. You wont be able to find a rhyme or reason to why. You struggle again but it just does not work out. Then, after lot a dejection you come to terms with reality. You realize.... You are an outcast.

So, why does it happen? Why should it be the exact opposite of how it happened to you when you were a kid? Not because thats not what is expected of you any longer, nor because you went wrong, not because you did not toil enough, not because you did not get it right, not because you were bad to people. You did it right. You have been good to everyone. You got an outcome better than expected. Conquered something that has been a chimera to everyone.You have proved your might. You were wonderful, scintillating and much more. You got what you deserved when you were a kid because people around you were pure(come on.. notice the subtlety). Now.. the hostility is not because you were wrong, people are surly not because you missed something genial out on your way to success, people are inimical not because you made a mistake. All of it is because..
You just made them realize....What they can not be.......