The Warrior, Consortium of Witches

My Second Love....

2008-11-18T23:14:00.005+05:30

.... For they say, Scooty Pep is the first love :P ....

The Abode -

The Almighty ^:)^ -

A 'train' of thoughts......

2008-11-08T00:22:00.001+05:30

Oct 24th, KR Puram Railway Station : Happy faces all around, and why not! Not every weekend of the year is the DIWALI weekend. And then I saw them - a haggard looking couple with a kid, approaching everyone in the station. Soon they came to me and as anyone would have guessed, it was for money.

The lady seemed over the moon with happiness when she found I knew Hindi. Apparently not many at the station could understand what she had to say. She told me their suitcase with all money had been stolen the previous night. In trying to catch the thief, they had missed their train and they had spent more than 20 hours on this station without money to feed the kid or to buy tickets to go back home for diwali. And I found myself wondering if I should trust her. After all, the world is not full of good honest people and I didn’t want to be cheated. But then, I couldn’t ignore the possibility that she was being honest. This was not the first time in life that I had this choice to make – either trust the person and MAYBE let myself be cheated or turn my back on them when they might be genuinely in need of help.

What I ultimately chose to do is of lesser significance in comparison to the chain of thoughts she triggered in me. How often do we, people of the so-called present day "egoist" world, ask for help to total strangers? The answer is, very rarely. Don’t we fear exposing our inefficiency or inability to handle our own problems? When that is the case, why don't we trust someone when they break these shackles of ego or fear and ask out for help? Why have we become so cynical about the world and its inmates? Whether ultimately we help them or not is secondary, but why do we doubt their integrity? Why do we doubt the fact that they wouldn’t be asking us for help if they could manage the situation themselves? Is it because we don’t place ourselves in their shoes and think from their position? Or is it because we do? Like a wise person once said – “you doubt that a person is lying only when you know you may have lied in his position”…………….. In that sense, isn’t this world simply a reflection of what we are?

As I pondered more and more, my mind jumped to other related issues. All of us have our own notion of good and bad. I myself look down upon people without civic sense, small things that are sooo common in our country anger me - someone spitting on the road, a well-built beggar, people not using dustbins, women bickering over a good for nothing issue in a crowded bus etc. Then again, it’s easy for me to expect these things, given what I am, and what God has given me in life. But how does spitting in public places matter to someone struggling to make ends meet everyday?

And thus wandered my thoughts, as I waited for my train for nearly 4 hours in piercing cold and rain. I had thought I would have to somehow kill time when I entered the railway station but now I wouldn’t say I had ‘killed’ time, for I realized, somewhere during those 4 hours, I had unknowingly made a resolution to be a bit more considerate, trusting and understanding before jumping to conclusions about the people around me.

baaaaaaack!!!!!! :D

2008-10-21T19:54:00.004+05:30

So here I am! After a much loooooonger gap than intended... What do I say?! Where to start! What to/not to put in the post!!!

The past 4-5 months have been toooooooo kind on me, to say the least! Have had the bessst fun in life till now....................... :D And 90%, if not more, of all this due to Yahoo! God! Am I not in the right place!!

But more details about Life @ Yahoo! in a separate post :D For now, just announcing my arrival back to the blogging world :P :P

......

2008-06-17T19:53:00.002+05:30

SUMMER MADNESS!

2008-05-20T17:45:00.005+05:30

Statutory Warning : Anyone wishing to read about ONE thing/topic in particular can stop here n get back to work(if you have any, unlike me). The author is not responsible for totally unrelated sentences or sequences! Call this 'heat caused insanity' or 'boredom induced madness' or 'ravings of a genius' (:P).. Whatever..

I ll start with details of the damages I have caused single handedly this last 6 months or so.. To start with, lost a 2-week old transcend 4GB pen drive. Followed it up with losing my Principles of Prgramming Languages book (Left it in college n started home, felt lazy to go back to class n get it.. Thought could get it the next day as I assumed a BOOK would be the last on any thief's priority list! Was proved wrong! Nerds these days go to ANY extent! #:-s :-P)

Made a dent on the left rear door of my car, thanks to a street name board that was where it should be - almost at the center of the road :-| And obviously what resulted was a "PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE" lecture from dad.. Kudos to my relentless dad who kept up the intensity of his talk for the second time too, this time a vehicle from behind had hit me :-|

Hmmm then.... Lost my 1GB pen drive too, while returning from a friend's house! Almost lost my purse today, fortunately found it after a looooooooooooooooooooong search! However, in the process, i unknowingly tidied up my permanently messy room. And the sudden order n cleanliness meant others at home couldnt find things when they needed :-P It then took the combined efforts of my mom n sis to get back the house to its chaotically ordered self!

Amidst this hectic "damaging" schedule, I had the MOST PACKED few days of my life! #:-s

Never been busy for such a looong period before! :-P Friends treated me for lunch on a day that just kept getting longer n longer towards the end! Went to beach for a couple of hours of amazing fun after the treat, and from there to Island Grounds Snowball for yet another treat!! Pushed some French Fries into my already FULL stomach n hurried back home! Booked tickets for a family tour scheduled for this month end and finally boarded a bus to Trichy at 11pm! #:-s But my day dint end there! Some crap movie of Vijay gave me company in the bus till 2am! :-| (Now i know 'crap' is redundant in this context, still.. ) Here I dare you to ask me why I went to Trichy! Cos answering that would mean atleast two more posts! :-P

And ya! I cant not mention the get together at Sathya's and Nishant's places! :) :) Thanks to Nishant, i got a chance to showcase my carrom skills :D The pista ice cream was FAAAABULOUS by the way.. And Rashmi's "surprise" birthday cake was wonderful too, minus the BULB factor ofcorse!

My shot at cooking proved futile n all that i achieved was a "blood potato" that ultimately ended in the dustbin :-P (I cut a finger badly while attempting to cut potatoes :D) On the positive side, that extends the expected lifetime of my guinea pig (my sis) to a few more days.

Finally, the S-Day(Sad Day) now seems much closer than it did a few weeks ago! The day I leave Chennai (hopefully only for a short period!), in pursuit of what i hope is a GOOD beginning to my professional career! Torn between spending my last days in Chennai at home in bliss n outings with friends! For I hate Bangalore as much as I love Chennai, the reasons being the same - for what each place IS, n also for what each place ISNT..

Life is always a bag of surprises, so lets see what this place full of wretched people (who consider anything INDIAN as demeaning) has in store for me! A place that is geographically a few hundred kilometres from Chennai n yet, alteast a few hundred light years away, culturally.. A place that just HAS to be NON INDIAN in every damn thing - from road names to school names to school uniforms to WHAT NOT! A place where 'bucks' is in USD, not INR. "Saw the new laptop from Dell? Costs just a thousand bucks!"

Hmmm enough of serious talk! I will move onto something more entertaining - KURUVI!! A movie that made me think ATM is worth an OSCAR.. But then, thats the LOSER's(a.k.a Vijay's) talent - every movie released makes his previous movie look great n logical n educational n .............. Everytime you think he cant get worse or the story(if there is ever anything like that, in his movies) cant get worse, and BANG! Out he comes with one that smashes his previous film records! The movie was breathtaking, literally!

Hmmm cant think of anything else to talk about, so will close my babbling session here! #:-s If any of you got upto this point in the post, you deserve the honor of leaving a comment in my prestigious blog! :-P Dont worry, that wont motivate me to write another such post! :-P

We go Veega :P

2008-04-24T17:27:00.007+05:30

This post is about my class tour last month.. :D:D the MOST fabulous one i have been to, in all my life :) :) :) thaaaaaaaaaaanx to KABA and SHARAN :D Five fun-filled days flew away in what seemed to be just seconds! Days that I would never forget in a hurry! :)

Day 1, the 10th of April, was the MOST PACKED one! Had to stay up till 330am for thesis work, up again by 530 to do last minute packing and then left for college! Had to START doing a project in college that was due for submission the very same day :-| Phew! Somehow finished everything n reached station JUST in time! #:-s but the train journey was worth all the troubles of the day :D n what a FUN dinner we had that night!! Along with Rashmi's saathukudi juice without ice :P :P

Reached Munnar by bus the next day.. Never ever has a bus ride been more joyful! :) Rashmi was back again with her entertainment, this time by banging onto the seat in the front.. Reached resort n ate food worse than hostel mess food! :( :( But who cared! We were getting ready for a TREKKING session that was to follow :) What exotic views! Picture perfect mountains n valleys!! Deafening silence, broken only by our "ooooh"s n "aaaah"s.. Woooooow!! Munnar roooooocks!!

The third day saw us go on a sight seeing tour around Munnar. I gotta say this here!! You dont need to go to tourist spots in Munnar to take beautiful pics! Every damn spot there is just .... Exquisite! Or perhaps it was the joy the tour in general generated, that made everything look more beautiful :D Anyway, the highlight of the day was the speed boating in Maadupatti dam! :) Cooooooold fresh air and water splashing on the face!! Surrounded by majestic mountains! I felt on top of the world!! :)

We left to Cochin the following day, where once again, we took a cute little ferry to go around visiting places in and around the back waters of Arabian Sea. The mild rain during the ferry ride could not have come at a better time! :) It was like the heavens had opened n God had Himself decided to make this trip WHOLESOMELY enjoyable! Everything happened right n at the right time! :)

Every day of the tour had proved better than the previous n the last day was no exception!! VEEGA LAND!! 8-> According to me, THE theme park to be visited!! It turned out to be the icing on the cake! :) To conclude, the tour had been soooo captivating that even the 2 hour wait in the railway station that night, to catch a midnight train back to Chennai, was FUN..

Hmmm.. Having described all these places we visited n things we did, I move on now to the most important factor that really MADE the trip - all my classmates n friends! The fun n galatta we all had in our rooms - playing n dancing n posing for pics n what not!! Its the small things that matter most in life, that touch our heart n make us miss someone, that make us FEEL about something! Not big mountains n lakes n boat rides but the small comedies n bulbs that each one of us was a part of.. Jokes that we shared.. These are the things to be cherished, things that bring us together, though we may be miles apart.. My heartfelt thanks to EVERY PERSON who came on the tour n made it soooo good for me!

One final word.. Thanks to the guide who came with us! Sugar n Spice n Everything Nice doesnt always add SPICE.. You need controversies n small fights to achieve that.. N thats precisely what the guide gave us :P

Who are the Witches!?!

2008-03-28T18:00:00.004+05:30

Witches are the honorary inhabitants of WitchWorld, the wicked world the writer belongs to :P, where anything/anyone benign is prosecuted! Headed by the able Supreme Warlock, the Witches are here to rid the world of external AND internal forces acting against the laws of the WitchWorld (aka NERDS), assisted by The Warrior, Macho Engineer and the Royal Object of Beauty. Though Greenie The Traitor, Molly The Vermin Infested and Wo-man Agent 007 act against the Consortium of Witches from inside, the WitchWorld shall never give in, as long as there are such loyal members as the Royal Healers of the DoxoWitch Labs.

Well if that intro did not serve the purpose, then visit The Consortium itself :P Proceedings of one of the meetings of the heads of The Witches can also be found here

P.S : The meeting marked the 'preparation' for the last PPL assessment.
The next meeting is scheduled before the next PPL assessment to assess the performance of the honorary members of The Witches in the previous assessment and reassign 'Traitor' titles accordingly, apart from 'preparing' for the next assessment :P

Black Wednesday

2008-03-22T22:31:00.008+05:30

spot the seven people contest!!

Finally a plan that didnt remain just that.. For a change, IMPLEMENTED :P After soo many short and long outings planned and subsequenly dropped..

The day(March 19th, 2008) started with its own share of hinderances - 'YOU KNOW WHO' mam substituting 'YOU KNOW WHO' sir for a Compre class.. Thankfully she left us early and that gave us(8 gals including myself), the first hope of making it to KISHKINTA. Next was the money acquisition phase (a.k.a begging phase :P) as none of us had come prepared for the trip.

Anyway, all was in readiness by 1030 am and we reached Tambaram by 11 am. Then began what was supposed to be a 10-minute wait for the kishkinta bus that would take us to Kishkintha form there.. We ended up taking an auto at 1145 am!! :-| Note: AN auto for the 8 of us!! :P The route was enticingly smooth and comfortable. Equally friendly and honest was the driver.. :-| Two people sitting on me was helpful too!

Undeterred, we finally got onto the Arabian Nights, our first ride for the day :) and the rest of the day was drenched in complete FUN n FROLIC! :) :) Drenched, in the true sense, as we spent most of the time splashing in water - Chennai Kutralam, wave pool and the various 'curvy' slides! :) Finally at around 530pm, after the guards requested us to try out other rides too :P, we got outta water, tried two other rides and pulled our tired bodies outside just in time to get onto the bus to Tambaram.

Unfortunately, the return drive was VURSHT :-| cos we had for company the MOKKA badshahs
from some insane college :-| The highlight of the day, though, was Suva's photographic skills - even an helplessly inebriated drunkard would have been more steady with the camera :P

All said, a WONDERFUL day :) :) would be etched in memory for loooooooooong :) Wondering why I call it 'Black Wednesday' then? Cos, thanks to the 200% chlorinated water, we all returned atleast five shades darker :-| As a friend put it, we looked like KAKA KUTTIES :-|

Bheema

2008-03-18T21:44:00.005+05:30

In the theatre, seeing the wonderful movie Bheema...

Scene 1 - Prakash Raj asked to name a new born kid.. Names it "Padma"..........

Scene 2 - Vikram taking the mickey outta a "blushing" Prakash Raj, "Enaku appove theriyum!! You like Padma akka rite?! I know!! ;)"

Friend to me: Hey he is fallen in love with that KID??????????????!!!!!!!!!!
Me (dumbstruck) : I think he named the kid after his lover! :-| 8-}

But poor soul!!!! The movie was such!! Would not have been surprised at all if what my friend thought had actually happened in the movie! An insult to Taare Zameen Par, the fact that I saw it in the same theatre as this sucking movie with just 2 days separating the 2...

Tech Comedies

2008-03-18T19:16:00.004+05:30

"The time u enjoy wasting is not wasted time"
- Bertrand Russel, British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970)

So go ahead n read! :P Wont be exactly a waste of time..

Excerpts from some of the PAPERS I had the FORTUNE of seeing.

My paper deals with transmitting microwaves to mobile devices over radio waves inorder to enable them reacharge their batteries automatically.

At this point, we make a bold statement - No one in this planet can use this idea other than us. (poor guy he meant "no one would have used" I think, alteast HOPE)

The critic can search in Google however he wants, he will not find a python implementation of this idea! (Someone tell him originality should be in the IDEA itself, not the language!!)

Visually blind people cant see. (Wah! What a discovery!)

Physically handicapped people get frustrated because they cant go around doing what they want and this causes depression. Our system prevents all this. (sniff sniff)

My system uses GPS - General Positioning System- for providing location information...........

Will add more as and when I recollect!

A PROMISE TO KEEP.....

2008-03-18T17:31:00.004+05:30

One of the first things I would do this July - (Whats special about July you wonder?? I start WORKING! :) :) and that means money :P)
My first return gift to this world!

Having seen from very near proximity, the difference EDUCATION can make to someone's life, this is something I would NEVER cease doing! Everyone deserves an opportunity to LIVE, not just survive, and I hope I give that to as many as possible in the forthcoming years!

About The Warrior

2008-03-18T17:13:00.003+05:30

Hi friends! This is Vidya Valmikinathan here! A final year student of Department of Computer Science, College Of Engineering, Guindy, Anna University.

Onto more worthwhile stuff [:P].. I love making new friends! Already have a lot of FANTABULOUS ones!! Spend time listening to music and seeing movies, mostly worthless ones but at times few good ones too.. My passions range from playing Violin to watching (with awe) Sachin, playing shuttle, VETTY CHATTING on yahoo messenger (as a to-be-Yahoo-employee, am against Gtalk :P) and most important of all - troubling my sister! Voracious EATER (thats a not typo for “reader” :P)
My mom is my FIRST n BEEEST friend ever.. The most patient one too [:P], listens to every silly thing I have to say about the day’s happenings..

Am very attached to my family! Would never even dream of leaving India!! :) I trust in God and in myself! Driving Forces in life - Fun Friends Family n Food :)

Hmmm.. Will add more later