This morning I happened to listen to this song Aanenna Pennena Neeyenna Naanenna...... from Darmadurai. While I have alwaysadmired the quality of that song, What stuck me today was the lyrics and specifically the phrase "PATHU MAASAM", this phrasereally took me to my school days. Not because I was becoming sentimental about the song, it is just that "PATHU MASAM" reminded me of one of my classmate in school who we used to call as "PATHU MASAM". I don't know why we called him so, but somehow he had this name.
So what? Why such a round about? Get into the matter man, well sometime back I had read a posting in wikedpedia that gave the list of terminologies that we use in street cricket right from Attetail to Over Gajji. After hearing this song and inspired by the wikepedia posting, thought I would list some of those nicknames of my friends that can tickle someones nerve. Now let us get going...
NILA PALLAN : The same guy who was called as pathu masam used to be addressed by this name, because his front two teeth use to be in the shape of valar pirai.
MATTU PALLAN : No prices for guessing, he had some big teeth
ELI : Don't know why but he actually used to look like a ELI, in fact nowadays when I meet him I fin it difficult to call him with his actual name.
KAEKKU : This guy's name is K.Suresh and it was shortened.
TUSSU : Don't know why though...
THOCHAI : God knows what this means, but this is a famous name
GANDHI : Because he used to wear a Gandhi Kannadi
BENDU : His forearm used to be slightly bent
KEESI : Apparently a short form of Krishna Kumar.
GARIBALDI : Inspired by one of the kings we read in History and the color of the person (Friends no racism involved here u see :-)).
PULIYODHARAI : Inspired by the fart that this guy released after having puli saadham
TOM CRUISE : This guy is one of my close friend and he used to ride his cycle like tom cruise, nothing inspired by the looks. Please do no get misled.
PUTCHUTTING : This name was the best of all, actually coined by THOCHAI, the reason behind this is highly scietific. Our friend who carries this name had once caught his fart in hand and release it near the nose of THOCHAI. What a sickening act? hence this name PUDICHU UTTING combined as PUTCHUTTING. Nevertheless I take a bow to Thochai for coining this name :-)
I was able to recall only this much, anyone reading this post can probably leave the nicknames of their friends in the comments...
Friday, February 16, 2007
Monday, February 12, 2007
IITians Are Big Fools
I got this as a forward from my friend and this was an article captured in The Outlook as well. It is an eye opener, being an alumnus of IIT Bombay, to learn that this speech was delivered in IITB makes me feel great as well. Check out... good one.
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'IITians Are Big Fools'
No, it wasn't a frustrated or failed aspirant but a former IITian who said this last week at a lecture, while addressing a crowd of nearly a thousand IITians.
No, it wasn't a frustrated or failed aspirant but a former IITian who said this last week at a lecture while addressing a crowd of nearly a thousand IITians and other college students during the annual Techfest at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IITB). But coming from Dunu Roy, who, unlike his colleagues and peers, decided to pursue grassroot integration of technology with local and practical requirements, it shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone who has followed this IITian's career.
But for a first-timer, the 90-minute talk and the subsequent Q&A could well have been an eye-opener. Provoking his audience by calling them "big fools" who know nothing about India and its village life, Roy said the IITians are victims of the politics of education and science. He added that the first lesson he learnt was that technologists and engineers are under an illusion that they get to take the decisions. That was not all. He went on to say that environmental dynamics aren’t understood by engineers who seem to specialise in solving one problem to create another one, thereby creating a "sustainability for the engineering profession—and not for the people".
"How many of you will end up working for the Haliburtons and Microsofts of the world?" he asked. And then proceeded to answer by pointing out that many of the students would do so because "Indian technical education is geared to meet global demands". The collapse of the US education system has led to a shortage of scientists and technologists, he said, which is why the courses they [the IITians] are learning are required for the US". Since Indian engineers are also cheaper than the American counterparts, "it made good sense for the Indian government to promote technical education so that you can provide cheap service to the US." Therefore, he suggested, the curriculum has changed. Earlier, he pointed out, IITs had a more integrated approach and also taught humanities, ethics and logic. But these subjects were removed in order to hasten the production of ‘unreal’ technologists.
The original vision to set up IITs stemmed from the independence movement. The Indian leaders at that time realised "the need to have trained scientists and technologists" who could provide equal rights to food, shelter, education and work to the people. The idea was to take the "best from universal education, invest in pockets like IITs (so that) they would return their expertise to the common pool of the country." Which is why the money to fund the IITs comes from the exchequer, he pointed out.
And then came perhaps the most thought-provoking part of the lecture. Referring to the hyped-up success stories of IITians —he cited the example of Kanwal Rekhi, a Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist— who have earned millions of dollars, Roy posited that while the ostensible aim of education is to teach us about success, most of our learnings comes from analysing and understanding failures. For every one IITian who makes money, there are 10 others who don't. And no one talks about the thousands of IITians who stay back and work for the country despite encountering victimisation by domestic politics of science and technology. Urging the young students to ask questions, and not just be receivers of "wisdom", Roy asked them to "learn the laws of motion of society and not just the laws of motion of science."
And coming from him, it did not sound phoney. For after his post-graduation from IITB, Roy moved to Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh and started the Vidushak Karkhana as part of the Shahdol Group carrying out focussed work on building a development model for the district and its implementation, in conjunction with local people.He was involved in this for 17 years during which he earned his income primarily out of repairing bicycles in the village district. He then shifted to Delhi for a four-year stint with the World Wide Fund for Nature, and later set up the Hazards Centre, a multi-disciplinary consultancy group. It’s rare for IITians to be the recipients of such blunt talk. And it should be noted that the student organisers of Techfest invited Dunu Roy to give this talk after accepting his condition that there would be no restriction on the content of his lecture. So perhaps the IITians are not such big fools after all.
............................................................................................................................................................................
'IITians Are Big Fools'
No, it wasn't a frustrated or failed aspirant but a former IITian who said this last week at a lecture, while addressing a crowd of nearly a thousand IITians.
No, it wasn't a frustrated or failed aspirant but a former IITian who said this last week at a lecture while addressing a crowd of nearly a thousand IITians and other college students during the annual Techfest at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IITB). But coming from Dunu Roy, who, unlike his colleagues and peers, decided to pursue grassroot integration of technology with local and practical requirements, it shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone who has followed this IITian's career.
But for a first-timer, the 90-minute talk and the subsequent Q&A could well have been an eye-opener. Provoking his audience by calling them "big fools" who know nothing about India and its village life, Roy said the IITians are victims of the politics of education and science. He added that the first lesson he learnt was that technologists and engineers are under an illusion that they get to take the decisions. That was not all. He went on to say that environmental dynamics aren’t understood by engineers who seem to specialise in solving one problem to create another one, thereby creating a "sustainability for the engineering profession—and not for the people".
"How many of you will end up working for the Haliburtons and Microsofts of the world?" he asked. And then proceeded to answer by pointing out that many of the students would do so because "Indian technical education is geared to meet global demands". The collapse of the US education system has led to a shortage of scientists and technologists, he said, which is why the courses they [the IITians] are learning are required for the US". Since Indian engineers are also cheaper than the American counterparts, "it made good sense for the Indian government to promote technical education so that you can provide cheap service to the US." Therefore, he suggested, the curriculum has changed. Earlier, he pointed out, IITs had a more integrated approach and also taught humanities, ethics and logic. But these subjects were removed in order to hasten the production of ‘unreal’ technologists.
The original vision to set up IITs stemmed from the independence movement. The Indian leaders at that time realised "the need to have trained scientists and technologists" who could provide equal rights to food, shelter, education and work to the people. The idea was to take the "best from universal education, invest in pockets like IITs (so that) they would return their expertise to the common pool of the country." Which is why the money to fund the IITs comes from the exchequer, he pointed out.
And then came perhaps the most thought-provoking part of the lecture. Referring to the hyped-up success stories of IITians —he cited the example of Kanwal Rekhi, a Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist— who have earned millions of dollars, Roy posited that while the ostensible aim of education is to teach us about success, most of our learnings comes from analysing and understanding failures. For every one IITian who makes money, there are 10 others who don't. And no one talks about the thousands of IITians who stay back and work for the country despite encountering victimisation by domestic politics of science and technology. Urging the young students to ask questions, and not just be receivers of "wisdom", Roy asked them to "learn the laws of motion of society and not just the laws of motion of science."
And coming from him, it did not sound phoney. For after his post-graduation from IITB, Roy moved to Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh and started the Vidushak Karkhana as part of the Shahdol Group carrying out focussed work on building a development model for the district and its implementation, in conjunction with local people.He was involved in this for 17 years during which he earned his income primarily out of repairing bicycles in the village district. He then shifted to Delhi for a four-year stint with the World Wide Fund for Nature, and later set up the Hazards Centre, a multi-disciplinary consultancy group. It’s rare for IITians to be the recipients of such blunt talk. And it should be noted that the student organisers of Techfest invited Dunu Roy to give this talk after accepting his condition that there would be no restriction on the content of his lecture. So perhaps the IITians are not such big fools after all.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Ultimate Maama - Part II
As we said bye and see you on 1st August, I instantly switched to the mode of enjoying the remaining 3 weeks before the college. With no one at home accepting my decision to do Civil Engineering, enjoying the remaining holidays was a challenge. Till date I have not regretted for the decision to do Civil Engineering at Anna University, however the reason for which I took up Civil Engineering was a disappointment. It is always easy to do a post mortem, and would be unreasonable to make any comment on how life would have been on a path untaken. Nevertheless what followed was 4 years of fun filled and highly rewarding college life.
July 31st, 1995
Traditionally Anna University always opens up the academic year on every August 1st; I think the rules have changed a lot now. On July 31st, everyone assembles at Vivekananda auditorium to pay the semester fees and register for the subsequent semester courses, 1st year students also had the same rule. I stepped into the Vivekananda auditorium proudly thinking that I am a student. Not sure how many of us would have observed, we always address school going pupil as SCHOOL CHILDREN irrespective of the standard, not many times we call them as school students. This is one of my favorite observations that my class teacher in 12th standard made a point to re-iterate. As a proud student of Anna University I sat inside the auditorium to wait for my turn to pay the fees. I was wearing one of my brothers blue striped shirt and as a perfect Chennaiite had left the shirt outside my trouser and was wearing a bata leather slipper. I was also holding a folder with all my certificates and most significantly a malaimadhi Tamil novel.
As I was waiting for my turn, was thinking to myself about Mohan Raj and wondered how it will be to attend classes along with him. Truly living to the cliché of “Will Live For 100 Years” I heard the hero of the posting’s voice uttering “Excuse me what is the time now”. As I turned to say the time, my brain somehow instructed my lips to pull of a smile from nowhere. By now the readers must be wondering what is so significant about Malaimadhi. If the shear look of Mohan Raj created an impression about him, it is the Malaimadhi novel name that made Mohan Raj set his initial impression on me. With all due credit to him if anyone see’s a guy carrying a novel named MANJU + 5, will come to the immediate conclusion to which Mohan Raj also came. To put it in Chennai slang, he thought I am a matter boy carrying a sex novel during college admission. That was a damaging impression to have first up. With our initial impressions set on each other, what we both went on to prove was that “initial impression need not always be the best impression”.
Kick Start...
First 3 weeks or so in our college was not significant however just towards the end of the first month we had that famous Ganesha drinking milk episode. This posting will not get into any details on the milk episode, however what is important is, the way we used the episode to win first prize in the intra college variety entertainment competition. This was one of the headiest moments in our college life, we got our first prize by beating the most fancied veterans from the third year mechanical engineering group. This significantly marked the first time that MohanRaj and I got to work together and started to appreciate each other. During this time I observed certain wonderful qualities of MohanRaj, the one that I admire the most is his patience. I am exactly polar opposite to him when it comes to patience. I have always dreamt to be as patient as him and to date have not managed to achieve it.
The next significant moment in out interaction came during the freshers party organized by Anna University in the Vivekananda Auditorium. I do remember the senior who ragged us, without physical or mental abuse from the senior; the whole incident was really funny. Both Mohan Raj and myself were asked to play Tikkilona in the main pathway of the auditorium, without a modicum of hesitation we both played that with great enthusiasm. When I imagine my dicky vis-à-vis Maams’s, there is no comparison at all. There were other incidents during the freshers party, for want of maintaining decency those are all censored. That pretty much covers the initial interactions with Maams, during the subsequent posts; we will get into some more incidents…
July 31st, 1995
Traditionally Anna University always opens up the academic year on every August 1st; I think the rules have changed a lot now. On July 31st, everyone assembles at Vivekananda auditorium to pay the semester fees and register for the subsequent semester courses, 1st year students also had the same rule. I stepped into the Vivekananda auditorium proudly thinking that I am a student. Not sure how many of us would have observed, we always address school going pupil as SCHOOL CHILDREN irrespective of the standard, not many times we call them as school students. This is one of my favorite observations that my class teacher in 12th standard made a point to re-iterate. As a proud student of Anna University I sat inside the auditorium to wait for my turn to pay the fees. I was wearing one of my brothers blue striped shirt and as a perfect Chennaiite had left the shirt outside my trouser and was wearing a bata leather slipper. I was also holding a folder with all my certificates and most significantly a malaimadhi Tamil novel.
As I was waiting for my turn, was thinking to myself about Mohan Raj and wondered how it will be to attend classes along with him. Truly living to the cliché of “Will Live For 100 Years” I heard the hero of the posting’s voice uttering “Excuse me what is the time now”. As I turned to say the time, my brain somehow instructed my lips to pull of a smile from nowhere. By now the readers must be wondering what is so significant about Malaimadhi. If the shear look of Mohan Raj created an impression about him, it is the Malaimadhi novel name that made Mohan Raj set his initial impression on me. With all due credit to him if anyone see’s a guy carrying a novel named MANJU + 5, will come to the immediate conclusion to which Mohan Raj also came. To put it in Chennai slang, he thought I am a matter boy carrying a sex novel during college admission. That was a damaging impression to have first up. With our initial impressions set on each other, what we both went on to prove was that “initial impression need not always be the best impression”.
Kick Start...
First 3 weeks or so in our college was not significant however just towards the end of the first month we had that famous Ganesha drinking milk episode. This posting will not get into any details on the milk episode, however what is important is, the way we used the episode to win first prize in the intra college variety entertainment competition. This was one of the headiest moments in our college life, we got our first prize by beating the most fancied veterans from the third year mechanical engineering group. This significantly marked the first time that MohanRaj and I got to work together and started to appreciate each other. During this time I observed certain wonderful qualities of MohanRaj, the one that I admire the most is his patience. I am exactly polar opposite to him when it comes to patience. I have always dreamt to be as patient as him and to date have not managed to achieve it.
The next significant moment in out interaction came during the freshers party organized by Anna University in the Vivekananda Auditorium. I do remember the senior who ragged us, without physical or mental abuse from the senior; the whole incident was really funny. Both Mohan Raj and myself were asked to play Tikkilona in the main pathway of the auditorium, without a modicum of hesitation we both played that with great enthusiasm. When I imagine my dicky vis-à-vis Maams’s, there is no comparison at all. There were other incidents during the freshers party, for want of maintaining decency those are all censored. That pretty much covers the initial interactions with Maams, during the subsequent posts; we will get into some more incidents…
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