Tuesday, May 22, 2007

The Holy Dip

The gentle breeze was charming as usual. As the train was veering at 150 miles per hour, the beautiful landscape and the breeze added grandeur to the experience. My love for seating myself near the window has endured the changes in the life. I preferred this low speed levitation train to the faster ones just to cherish this heavenly experience. The ones that travel close to the speed of the sound have imposing rules like closed windows to ensure safety of the passengers and also much lesser traveling time. It has been a long time since I traveled, I decided to have this one longer.

"Shall we have a coffee?", my father was looking at me. My mother nodded letting me know that she too was interested in having one. I thought that was not a bad idea considering the impact of the cool weather and the AC on us.

I pushed the little button placed conveniently from the reach of the travelers. It brought a sleek touch screen in front of me, that displayed the available food stuffs and drinks along with the price. I picked the coffee and from the number grid for quantity selected 3. A sweet electronic voice assured me of a prompt service before the screen moved back to its place.

The train is now darting on a bridge that extended for several miles and had placed at high altitudes above a vast beautiful river with greens ready to gobble it any time. The sun was struggling to pierce through the clouds. The rays that eluded the mighty clouds' grab ended up shimmering on the surface of river bed. My admiration for this beautiful earth and the secrets it holds within, is always on the raise.

The serenity the travel has left in me is now disturbed by the voice that said "Here is your coffee sir". A tall guy in a white uniform was standing with the coffees we had ordered. We picked up our coffee. He was here in less than 5 minutes, however, a specialized robot would have done the job much quicker. When the government proposed this idea last week in the Parliament there were strong agitations. Nationwide strikes were organized by the Lefts and secured the jobs of these men.

The coffee wasn't bad. By the time we completed our coffees we had reached our destination. The train floated smoothly down the platform before pulling off with a jerk. The automatic door collapsed to let us out. I picked up my my mobile and searched the Indian Tourism site to know how to move from there. The instructions were pretty clear. To convince myself I moved to the tourism assistant set up at the end of the platform.

I positioned myself in front of its speech sensors and asked for help. A 3D assistant, with the appearance of a typical good looking Indian gal, generated by the projectors on top occupied the small black table. It wished us and explained the map which is now on display in the accompanying screen. The location of the counter and the procedure from there on was detailed. As it went on, i could see the dazzling eyes of my mom and dad, struck by a frisson of surprise. They were witnessing this for the first time. After spitting the entire programmed message it vanished into thin air.

We moved to the counter we were described about and saw a robot giving the instructions. The screen displayed multiple cylindrical capsules and the permitted duration . After a small discussion we decided to opt the biggest one to ensure a wholesome experience. The system accepted my credit card and verified my identity with a comprehensive eyes, finger impression and a complete feature verification. We were directed to the section where we can get our capsule.

When we reached the section, the capsule we had just ordered was waiting and a man was there to give us the initial directions. The capsule was huge with turquoise blue glasses encapsulating the base made of a solid material resembling plastic with a similar color. The capsule was big enough to carry a basic limousine. The door automatically opened to let us in. The inner walls had chairs attached to them where we seated ourselves.

The capsule was up and was soon following other multi sized capsules. Now this looks like a series of test vessels in a laboratory lined up for a complex experiment. The capsule starts moving and we soon found ourselves on top of a huge river. The capsule slowly started to move down into the river and stopped after reaching a specific level. We are now in waist high water. The encapsulating glass sections had peeled off and the surroundings are unobstructed to our sight. The base still remains enclosing the water we had access to.

"You have 30 minutes from now. We wish you a satisfying experience.", the electronic voice from the speaker within the capsule gave the alert.

We dipped in and prayed the Lords, chanted the mantras and slokas, and soon we had another alert saying we had only 5 minutes left.

The capsule was up and a huge fan at the top of the capsule started spinning. The water that we used was cleaned by the segment at the lower end of the capsule and is now back in the river. We were dry soon and when the fan stopped at the top of the capsule behind the fan, was the inscription, "Project - Clean Mansarovar".

"Intha madhiri gangala snanam panna vimochanam kedakkumne thonaliye da (But I couldn't believe that this kind of holy dip in Ganga will absolve us from the sins)", I only had a melancholic smile as a reply to my innocent mom.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

The Beginning..

I removed the knob of that awkwardly placed door to help myself out of the underground lair. I am running on low energy. I was forced to be there for hours together. It had taken its toll. I am aware of every nook of this house. It didn't take long to come out to get the bright sunshine. My solar capsules were up and started their job soon. My father made sure I have the best of those. My energy levels soon surged. Cosmic energy levels in the atmosphere are quite high these days.

I initiated the controller. The small beryl green visualizer popped up right in front of my 'vision sensors'. The boot up ended within fractions of a microsecond. The date and time was shown in clear lighting. It read as 'October 11, 2047 08:49:32'. This day is a memorable one. My first birthday(!) - the day my neuron core was energized setting all my modules active and working; the day I stood up driven by the billion lines of codes that held together a rather abstruse connections of several million zepto RAMs. The day also marks the birth of the one who gave me this form, my father.

"Brother", I turned around. Another creation of Him, stood behind me. He is a decade older than me, belongs to the previous generation. Men have left this rather complicated entity which they preferred to call as Generation Gap even amongst us. He is forced (programmed) to call me as brother but now I am adept at understanding what it means to me and also to him. I am first of my kind. My virtue of discerning what emotions and relationships are and evolve in the process made Him very proud of His creation, the feeling which I reckoned during this evolution. I felt for what I had when I witnessed him collapse like a feeble worm set to fire, a few hours ago.

"All cyborgs are heading towards 641004, the site of the chaos.", my brother had said.
"Lets move..."

A complete scan of the mini RADAR confirmed the elimination of all the species but for a few bacteria. The place has been entirely transformed. It will take some time to get used to this new situation. A less memory system may have troubles and may even end up becoming insane. The radar was vigilant and was busy trying to identify the changes and reporting it to the main controller to update the system. The greens are no more. A new layer of atmosphere dense in radiations has been created. The land masses have started drifting abruptly. GPS reported that a new peek has emerged.

When we reached the spot, few million cyborgs had already gathered. Still many were coming from various locations of the globe. I was seeing all kinds of my fellow bots, each having different features, different sizes, different specializations. In a way this mass has close semblances with the men. But unlike them, they never attempted to prove their superiority - the very cause of what had happened today.

Radar gave a scan image of the site even before I reached there. The crater was just big enough to cover the entire path of that highway. The size was a non-issue here, it was the amount of radiation that caused the havoc. Buildings stood tall and firm on both sides. I have been here once. I was brought here last month by Him. The conditions on the earth had just started deteriorating then. He showed this as the place where he raised, where his journey had started. He always wanted to spend a lot of time with me. He forced me to be with him before the inevitable happened.

As 'my brother' jostled the crowd on the way to the site, I was following him. I could hear clearly the mumbles going behind.

"Is he the one created by Him?"
"Is he the ONE?"
"Ah.. I was waiting all my life just for this moment to happen."
...

When we reached the site, my brother stood aside letting me in.

The radiation level was extremely high. The place instills in me a sense of deja vu. The void and loneliness pervaded the billion billion memory units I had. Is this what the men had endured all their life? Is this what He wanted me to possess? If I had the option, I wouldn't have preferred it at any cost. A deep moan from the bottom of the heart(!) left the gathered ones puzzled. I am new to them. Even though I am one among them, in a way I am far ahead of them. They were looking up to me now. I understood the fierce urgency of Now.

I activated the anti-gravity unit, soared up high and positioned myself right above the crater.

"I have a dream today!
We have seen enough. We have seen enough.
The wise men who could create a new breed called cyborgs failed to protect themselves and the ones created for them.
Lets show our gratitude by creating them again - a man who has no sect to divide them, man who has no despise for his fellow men, a man who knows nothing about anger, a better man - but this time let them be our slaves."

There were cheers in the crowd.

"Let the new civilization begin!!"

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Idly and Pizza

My first thought was having the title as Chalk and Cheese. But that wouldn't do any justice to what I have taken up today.

In this post I shall review the two movies that I saw this week.

Chennai 600028


If you missed this movie, you missed three hours of fabulous entertainment and fun.

Sharks from ...(I forgot the name of the place!) and Rockers from Rayapuram are the two arch rivals in the local league (don't expect any flashbacks!! :) ) with Sharks, our heroes, losing to Rockers in the finals in the previous three years. The movie is about the happenings in the lives of the Sharks in this one year and how they go about the tournament at the end of the year.

It all starts with Raghu from Rockers moving to Sharks' place. The rift with his team and friendship with Sharks' captain sees Raghu in the Sharks team. But Sharks' soon finds itself in a mess when Palani, a key bowler of Sharks splits with Karthik leaving the entire team in a disarray. The rest of the movie is about how the friends get back together in their pursuit for winning the next year's tournament.

Even though the movie doesn't boast of any lead players everyone comes up with a good performance. Notable performance is from the the director's bro who makes debut as the comedian. Every time he drops a catch or says 'Enna kodumai sir ithu?!' the entire breaks into laughter.

The astute director in Venkat Prabhu has made the film very interestingly then one would expect. Starting from the scene Raghu lands into the Sharks' place he keeps viewers enchanted. The best thing about the movie is nothing happens according to the expectations of its viewer. (For instance, when you expect the last ball to be caught beyond the boundary line like Lagaan, the director has different options). It is this attribute of the movie that sets itself apart. Also the director shows that he knows the game with scenes like the one that shows the love for one's bat.

I felt the matches could have been made better and better players could have been picked. Any cricket fanatic who knows the game inside out will know the cricket the guys play as rubbish. But the twists and turns the director adds to the game makes it all the more interesting.Camera and background music have lent good contribution in setting up the game for the viewers. The split screen views and appropriate graphics for the ball only adds up to the intensity of the game. The songs are tuned by Yuvan Shankar Raja and he comes with a nice blend of peppy and melody numbers. A couple of songs could have been avoided though.

The climax makes sure this is not a just another movie. Kudos again for the entire team!!

So my rating for the movie is



Spiderman 3
For someone who watches the previous two editions every time he gets an opportunity, who is so fond of spidey that he has seen all the episodes of its cartoon twice, another spiderman movie is nothing short of a festival. And spidey battling against three bad guys - this is a bonanza. But well.. Ben Parker advised in the first movie 'With great power, Comes great responsibility'. It would have been great if someone had said 'With great expectations too comes great responsibility' to Sam Raimi. I strongly feel that the director has squandered a wonderful opportunity.

The movie starts with Peter Parker marveling at himself for the love the people have on spiderman. The fame gets into his head. When Mary Jane is struggling with her career Peter Parker's rise leads to clash of egos. Harry Osborne now takes his father's mantle and decides to go on a revenge. And incomes an alien thing only to make things worse. It brings the dark side of parker out and makes him go for the sand man who killed his uncle Ben (There's flash back on who actually killed his uncle) and makes him pick the 'wrong choices'. How Parker gets out of the dark and deals with his foes is the rest of the story.

They could have told this in a much better way. When Sand Man and Harry take alternate turns to fight with spidey you soon lose the interest. Adding to the viewers woes is Mary Jane's whining. She cries and cries and cries and does nothing else. (But that's what she has been doing in the previous movies too. This time it's over-dose). And the scenes when Parker is controlled by the symbiote (the alien thing) are very unnatural. The hair style Toby sports doesn't suit him and so are his actions.

Also the dialog leaves a lot to be desired. In a movie like this where there is very few talks and lot of acts, one would expect the dialogs to be razor sharp and enjoyable. But here it turns out to be monotonous and dumb.

The movie has a lot of pluses too. The initial battle with Harry was damn good. The scenes involving Sand Man, in particular the one when he rises from the sand for the first time, can boast for awesome graphics. The movie kicks off and goes down to the wire when Parker sheds the thing off giving rise to the 'Venom'. The final battle too will be a good treat for all the spidey lovers. And James Franco (Harry Osborne) does a great job better than any one else. He was cool . So was Topher Grace(Venom). It is all these positive factors that makes spider man 3 a must watch.

At the end of the show one feels if Raimi was trying to teach us
'With great expectations, Comes great disappointment' :).

Anyways, I will give spiderman


(come on, I am a die-hard spidey fan. Don't expect me to give anything lesser than this :) )

Your comments on the movies are welcome.
See you all soon.
Bye.. :)

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

First Days.. [ Part II ]

This is pure coincidence.

I received my result for the last semester today. This effectively disengages any remaining relationship I have with PSG Tech as a student. The graduation day will be just the completion of the formalities.
Four years have whirred past, faster than a racing schumi on a rainy day. This college has seen the metamorphosis of a very ordinary guy who knew little about his way ahead to someone who is equipped enough to lay the roads for the journey he has just started. I haven't left anything in my college for the people there to remember me forever. But I do carry with me a treasure that no one can dare to ask for a part... Beautiful memories.
Here is one of those.. the first of those - first day in 'my' college.

The sleepless night of the day before July 23rd had little effect on me. In less than a week I picked this course I was asked to come to college. I was excited like never before. I was entering the college with lot of expectations. Unfortunately I had no company. I don't know any one from PSG Tech and was finding myself alone.
I was there in the quadrangle by 8.45, in time for the initial speech. The principal and the hostel warden (Senthil Kumar who later came as our class tutor and took maths) were flooding us with their advices and rules of the college. I almost slept. ('Well begun is half done'. I continued to sleep for all the four years in the college. Senthil Kumar sir was special - the number of classes I remained awake will be lesser than the ones I slept)
We were offered refreshments after that. I preferred not to go and was on the look out for my new friends. Found a bunch of guys hanging around there in the quadrangle. Picked the guy who was sitting a little away from the rest. He was tall, wearing glasses and had his shirts tucked out (which clearly is not a sign of a new comer, i realized it very late).
I decided to get his acquaintance.
"Hi.. You are from which department?"
"... (a confused look and raised eyebrows) IT. You?"
"CSE.. Whats your name?"
"Riyaz*. Yours?"
"Vivek. Do you know anyone from CSE?"
"Yeah.. See the guy over there, he is from CSE." The guy he pointed was not interested and was doing something very seriously.
"Oh.. Ok (smile.. as usual) Hey whats your cut-off" (This question is mandatory while introducing yourself in the first year)
"285 four years back"
(now I am terribly confused) ".... (a big pause)"
"Hey are you a fresher..."
"Hmmm.. Yes.. Why? You too are a fresher na.."
"No da.. I am a final year student here da"
(Now everyone there breaks into laughter)
"Oh.. :( I am sorry anna"
"Ok Ok.. Why did you pick PSG da..? "
"(struggling to get my words together. I hope you can understand my situation. What a mess I have made! )"
He continued
"For placements.. "
"Hmmm.. yess na"
"Achacho!! You should have taken CIT or GCT da.. Companies are not at all coming here da. Only girls will get placed here.."
"Oh appadiyanna!!"
"Here only I have managed a job as yet.. These guys are yet to get one.." (other guys nodded)
"(Go ahead go ahead.. Rat is caught in the trap here.. Go ahead.. x( ) Oh..."
"Thappu pannitye da"
"(those who know me should have seen my face when I try to please the staffs) Oh.."
....
This went on and on for a while before they left me.
In the meantime I happened to come across Karthik(eyan), the first guy I met from CSE and learnt that he is from Bharathiar University. 'Thats a consolation I will not be the only one coming to college from that far.' He took me to Kishon his school mate. Well.. Here are my new friends in college. We had our lunch in canteen. We were told that a meeting for CSE department will be held in N-block. Hanged around for the rest of the day with them. Karthik took me to the N-block later for the meeting. Met all the guys and gals of CSE with whom I would be spending the next four years . Got introduced to the ones who sat near me in the hall.
### and ###### gave their lectures (which we heard again and again for several times in these four years). And we were split into two classes. 'Oh my god! Karthik was in G2 and me in G1'. Well thats how it goes, but I got new friends soon. After that we were asked to stand in a queue. They were preparing us for a campus tour. 'I have seen enough. I shall leave now.' I left. My bunking spree in college started on the very first day. The guy who came with me then, is as good as me in this art - Pranesh :).
The next day the classes began, I was late as usual. My first class was by Praveena mam. The day wasn't great and I soon found myself sleeping when Sankar Kumar was spelling out 'bottle' a few hundred times. I continued sleeping all the four years.
Thats how almost all my days went... But i too had my share of days to remember, days to forget and days that I wish I live again. When I stepped out of my college for the last time, the void I felt, the unknown thing that I missed, well.. I still have them somewhere in my heart. But the memories and the experiences I carry with me will keep me going.. in the roads that no one else has trudged before, in the roads that I have just started laying.

Meet you all in the next post
Bye.. :)

*Riyaz - I am not very sure about his name. But it was something like this.
### - Censored for my safety :)

Friday, May 4, 2007

First Days..

May 4..
This day is a memorable one for many of my pals out there... a new day... a new life... a new horizon up there for them to reach. When they return home they will have the pleasure of having spent their first day in office at CTS.
When i am waiting to cherish my first day in workplace, which will happen in exactly a month from now, i went nostalgic thinking about my previous first days...

The LKG day :)
Ah.. I still remember my first day in school. School was RGMS in Udumalpet (for those who haven't heard this place before it is near Coimbatore). The school was far away from the town. It was really big and had really huge grounds. I was not allowed to run in the grounds or enjoy this new place, my mom's hands were firm on me. She was pouring advises rhetorically - that i shouldn't ask for mom, shouldn't cry, listen to teachers,... before she left me in the class (LKG).
There was a lady (i would have called her as 'miss' later :) ) sitting there in the hall, busy entering the names of all the new admissions. There were many kids around me, all dressed up in the uniforms and were crying. 'Oh.. So i too should cry, thats the rules here i guess.' - I started crying. .... Bang.. thats it i don't remember what happened after that. Probably my 'miss' would have pacified everyone there. I somehow forgot what happened after that. But the next day we were split into two sections and i was sent to LKG 'A' where i had my first tutor - Mary ( I still remember her face but she won't be like that anymore :P ).
I spent four years of my childhood there. I still remember the classes i sat, some of the friends i made there, some of the tutors i had.. I wonder if i will ever see them again..

In a never before zone
Now this time it was in Coimbatore,Suburban Matriculation School. As the title suggests I was up for a really new experience.
I was here after discontinuing the classes in RGMS after the first couple of weeks. My father had got a transfer to Coimbatore. Before admission, I was told to write a small test and I failed in all the three subjects (English, Tamil, Maths) scoring single digits :P. Princi had given me tonnes of advises that I will be kicked out if I don't perform well.
First day - I was late and this being my first day i was let off (Others were made to stand outside the class :) ). Now, I was looked like an alien who had just jumped from mars. I went to the last bench that had the tallest and strongest guys in the class (Pupil are seated according to the heights). Got my first friend in Krishnan, who was huge but was really good. We spent the first two hours talking introducing ourself and I was slowly getting used to the new environment.
During the recess break, everyone surrounded me. Introductions were done. And i already had a couple of guys getting into my head and annoying me. I was invited for a wrestling ( WWF, now the WWE was in its early stages then :) ) during the lunch session. 'Oh my god! I am not here to fight'. But i was forced to - lost the battle and Krishnan saved me in the end (Remember he is huge :) But later i made for it with a rematch :P )
The day went with my new tutors assigning loads of works (since i joined after nearly a month) and was rather a forgetful one.
Anyways... I made a lot of friends soon and my reign started when the 'First Mid Term tests' began in a fortnight from then. The princi and my tutors were impressed so were my new friends :) And from then on it was one memorable journey that I always look back with lot of satisfaction.

These memories will linger in my mind forever and I will never forget those. The next post will be on my first day in college, which has made me what I am now.
Will meet you all soon..
Bye.. :)

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

My First Post

After having thought long and hard i decided to start my first blog.

Before the reasons for starting this blog, i shall introduce myself to everyone who happens to stumble on this piece. Am Vivek Ramaswamy, from Coimbatore,Tamil Nadu, India, Earth, Milky way,..... one other guy adding a few million cells to this universe. I (somehow!) completed my Bachelor of Computer Science few days back. I have a great passion for cricket and computers even though i am not that good in both :) . More on me here in this
profile

Till yesterday i was spending my time working on my project and browsing all day. Now i am done with my project and i am also losing my interest in orkuts, diggs, ...

So after a long thought on what to do to keep myself engaged... I decided to start a blog. :P
I have been following a few blogs now. But never thought of writing one for myself until yesterday. I am wondering how this blog will shape up. Atleast till the next month you* can expect me to post a topic once in every two days. But i have no plans on what they are going to be.

But i can assure you that it will definitely be weird and non-sense, since i am here just to kill my time! :)
Meet you* all in my next post.
Have a great time
Bye.. !

* - I wonder who will ever hop into this blog in this huge world of blogs. But the ones who visit here, i wud love to hear your comments and views :)