Back after a long Hiatus....

This one is dedicated to my blog... :-)

Hey Blog.... I am really sorry for leaving you alone for the past 2 years.. I've been basically very lazy to update this though so many things have been happening around me in life...

I've moved out of Infosys.. Moved into a new country.. Halfway through my Masters.. Getting a new lease of life here.. I really don't know whether this is a right decision , but to be really true to myself, this was an impulsive decision , to leave the God's Own Country and come to The Windy City..

More blogs coming up... Keep reading..

Kids.. They are so sweet..

One of my dreams which had remained unfulfilled for long was to join a Social Service Group and do some service to the downtrodden and the needy public of the country. This was kind of fulfilled on Thursday, as I joined Sanjeevani, the Social Service group in Trinfy!! I had Nanditha for company!

On Thursday afternoon, Su said that we will have an initiative in which we were to teach communicative English to 3^rd and 4^th standard students of Government L.P School Pongummodu. The class was on the 28^th of June 2008 Saturday. Reaching office back at 01:00 am on Saturday morning, reaching the School at 09:30 was a distant dream. But I had the resolve to get up at 07:45, and freshened up and reached the school by 09:45.. And the reason for being late being the torrid weather. On reaching school, we were told that the students were lesser than the number that we had asked for, the reason being the hartal on the previous day! (God save Kerala from these hartals!!!). We were a group of 7 (Indu, Suja, Reena, Nanditha, Suhana, Jayakrishnan and myself). By 10:00 the kids started pouring in, and we had 28 kids in the range of 1^st to the 6^th standards and we started the sessions.

It was so heartening to hear the kids say “Good Morning Teacher” in unison and in tune which even A.R.R cannot orchestrate. This was the first of this kind I was doing, and I basically had some fear in doing this kind of stuff. On seeing their joyful faces, I quickly settled in and we had a quick round of intro of ourselves and the kid who first came and introduced himself was promised a chocolate. And we had Akhilesh jumping from his seat and saying “My name is Akhilesh”. It was so good to hear that, and we happily gifted him a chocolate. We then asked the kids to say their name and spell it out, and all of them were able to spell their names. We grouped them into groups of 5 and 6, ad we started the fun games. The kids were a happy bunch, and they were bubbling with energy. We found it pretty difficult containing the kids and we understood that coding was much easier! I had a group of six kids to handle; and I realized how difficult it must have been for my mother to bring me up.

We first had an activity in which we had a set of flash cards containing two letters like “AN”,”AT”,”AR”, and the kids had to form meaningful 3 letter words with the set of alphabets that they were shown with and they were asked to familiarize with the meanings of these simple words. The kids were able to form the words with ease, and they were able to relate to these words to their life. We were happy to see the kids responding in a positive frame of mind, and willing to speak out. There were a whole lot of kids who were having inhibitions to speak out during the ice breaking and the intro rhymes that we had, but those kids were starting to at least say a word of two in English. More than the lack of knowledge, these inhibitions peg back people.

The second set of activity that we had is that we had a chart paper and we had stuck some pictures of things that we see daily like bug, boat, wood, cat etc. and below that we had written the English of those pictures and stuck a paper over it... I asked the kids whether they knew these words, and they said, “Chetta, njangalku aa paperinte thaazhennu vaayikaam!!” I was like… “Oh God!!”, and we had fun time asking the kids to tell those words, and except the word “Saw” they were able to say all the simple words. In between, this activity we had the kids singing the famous rhyme, “Are you sleeping?” in their loudest voices, louder than the people just sitting behind their bench! Competition at its peak!!!!

The next activity was making them familiar to day to day questions, like “What is your name?” and the answer to those questions like “My name is ------"and so on. This is when we realized that the kids were not up to our expectations; the main reason for this being that we had expected too much from these kids and that was a mistake on our part. A few questions and their answers that we could help them with were,

• How old are you?
• Did you have breakfast, lunch, dinner?
• Nanditha went to the extent that she taught the kids to ask “Will you come next week also?”
• What is your age?
• What is your name?

We took the kids to their headmistress’s room to ask the questions and the kids were shy to ask them, but on prompting we could bring it out from them.

In the end, we had another session of our rhymes and we had Syam coming up with a story. A good story that brought out the moral that “Greediness spells your end!!” Finally we parted saying that we will be back the next week also…

Seeing their happy faces, we were pretty satisfied that more than our intentions being met, we could see some smiling faces. We left with heavy hearts and satisfied minds. A quick introspection left us thinking that the syllabus that we planned to do for these kids needs a quick rethink…

The best thing that I found about these kids is that they are very simple at heart, innocent (Nishkalankam!), and don’t know how to think in a round about manner and they are very happy at heart! This makes me come back to these kids and do more sessions for them. They are our nation’s Treasure.

“We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today!!” Very Right!!!

Life's lessons..

Long time since I updated my blog. The thought of getting the photos @ Mysore Infosys so that I could write a detailed blog and the hectic deadlines at office kept me off from the writing. And here I am now trying to conjure up a post from nowhere. This post is highly inspired from KP’s blog, which made me do a self introspection, on what life has given me and what I have learnt from life.

• Many people come into your life, cast their charm for the time they stay and leave u just like that, it’ll just be another one for them, but they fail to realize that they leave a void in the other person’s life which takes a hell of time filling up.

• Never even drop a tear for someone, for whom you don’t mean anything. This one was highly inspired from a sms I got sometime back. “Never make someone a priority in your life when you are only an option in theirs.” This one struck me like a lightning. Isn’t it true readers?

• Life teaches many of the best lessons in the harsh way, if at any stage of your life you feel that life is being harsh to you, try to see everywhere around, there might be something good in that situation. When god closes all the doors, just look around, there might be a window open.

• Never let your disappointments and failures deter you. I know it is very easy telling this and very difficult in putting it to practice, but I guess that would be the best way to face them. Throw them away from your mind, keep your mind free and clean, and start with a fresh mind.

I guess I m getting a bit too philosophical and sentimental too. That is enough for now, rest in the next post. J Sorry if I bored you readers with my small pieces of lessons which has been taught in the harsh way. :P

Back Home..

This one is dedicated to my blog... :-)

Hey Blog.... I am really sorry for leaving you alone for the past 6 months.. The hectic training and the tight schedules at Mysore made me quit writing.. I realy dont know whether this is for the good or for bad but the truth is that I am posted back to my Home location ==> the God's Own Country.. Joined Trivandrum Infosys affectionately called Trinfy, on the 14th of March 2008. So... The best part of joining here is that i am re united with my blog, Parents.. and the friends that i left 4 months back.. And the saddest part being missing the new friends at the Mysore Training Centre.. The Multiplex there, The 2 movies every weekend, the hangout with friends, the roaming around the campus, The list goes on and on... Mysore was so goooood!! Lots about Mysore and the things about the training and the various interesting characters that i met there in the upcoming blogs...

Keep Reading..

Entha kazhikkathe...

The day b4 today.. Rahul,the Executive Engineer from Tata Tele Services had come for the weekend from Ernakulam.. The Sheikh Don.V.Samji who landed from Saudi Arabia the week back(He is still living in teh dream world of Saudi Arabia!), The Do not Disturb Engineer from Tata Elxsi..Oops.. The Design and Development Engineer Shyam.. ,Scientist/Gazetted Officer whom people know by the name Robin. and the people who are waiting to become top draw Software Engineers @ Infosys ( Provided they Dont kick us out.. ) ie Me and Kurien all met together for the evening!
All of us except Shyam spent some time @ the Idyllic Atmosphere of Trivandrum museum.. Sharing Don's Saudi Experiences, Robin too sharing his first week experience at ISRO.. And eating the sweets brought by Don.. Then the next halt being the Railways station to see off two of our friends leaving Trivandrum to make their careers @ HCL.. Nishad and Sajith.. The last outing for the dayw as eat out!! and at 845 in the night neither did Zam Zam have any space for us nor NoorMahal!! Boohoo.. Had to have food @ a hotel called Sapphire.. Post food all of us parted to our own ways.. And Me having to Drop Kurien at his house.. had to spend the night there cos it was too late!
Now comes the most funny part.. Me and Kurien in the Activa.. Cometh Museum.. and A police shows his hand and asks us to othukkuka the vandii..

Police: Evidenna Varunne????
Me(Innocently): Kazhichiitu varuva!
Police ( With a Oho Look on his face!): Kazhichitto? Ahaa.. Enthaa kazhiche??? ;)
Me:(With a sheepish Grin!!) : Dinner kazhikkan poyatha.. food kazhikkan..
Police: Dinnero?? Appozh vere onnum kazhichiille..
Me: Illa Kazhichilla..
PolicE: Appol... Entha KAzhikkathe????????????????
Me(With a Surprised look..): Kazhikkarilla.. Sheelamilla!! ;)
Police to his Fellow Policemen.. : Nalla Kuttikalanu thonunnu!! and asks us to go...

A Day in the life of an Engineer waiting for his D.O.J

8:00 am - Wake up.. (May go upto 11:00 am..)

8:30 - Coffee... Breakfast.. (Mostly this never happens.. Coz when i wake up.. No
one is left at home to give me coffee or Breakfast!!)

9:00 to 1:00 .. Browsing.. TV.. Sudokuing.. Lazing around the house.. Browsing thru
the sports page of The HINDU(Jus tht.. )And the last page Tidbits..

1:00 - Lunch.. (Preferably a heavy one.. To compensate fr the Missed Breakfast!!)

And i guess i dont need to write what follows next... Zzzzz....

5:00.. Opens one eye with a hell lot of Difficulty.. Sees the clock.. Says tht.. ITs
just 5:00pm.. Then.. Goes back to sleep..

5:30 - Wakes up finally.. 6:00 - Welcomes dad home.. Says hi.. Chats up with him.. His usual array of Questions.. Result vanno.. DOJ vanno.. Ninakku mathramaano varaathe.. Ninte ella
friendsinu vanno.. [:D]

7:00 to Dinner - Chatting.. Browsing.. Tv.. Same as the Schedule in the morning..

9:30- Dinner..

Then.. Reading Books till i doze off..

[PS:- Another Big pasttime is to get Chelavu from those of us who have Joined.. and
have drawn their first salary!! [:d] Nothing gives more pleasure than that!! ]

People with different ways of spending the time more worthwhile than this.. Suggestions are always welcome!!

A relation That i wud love to Forget!

Long since i Blogged... One of the many reasons for this long layback.. The Dream Titled Convergence.. Univ exams.. Project and blah.. Blah...

Met during the Sixth Semester... Took as a friend.. Became Tight Friends.. Talked for long hours on the phone.. Smses.. Chats... Silly Fights.. Lots of Fun! Hoped that the relation that Wud go on for ever!

But... A few words that were not supposed to be uttered were spoken... Then... Crash.. Bang.... Everything is [:(] Wud love those good days to be back! But.... I guess it wll never be like those sweeet days!

Signing off this Blog with a heavy heart... Wishing that those Good ol days wud be back!