If you take a look at the "ABOUT ME" part of this blog, I'd have described myself as a weird species. Yes, I am! "What's your dream?" This is the most common question one would face in a socially effective community. Each and everyone in this planet has their own dreams. It differs from one another. Some people dream about doing weird and insane things while some people dream about the most common things. I have a basket full of dreams. But unlike many others, all my dreams revolve around travelling. Recently I added an other dream in my basket and I bet this is a strong one! Spending my last days around an unknown lake in Iceland. I know, that it sounds too weird. But, I can't help it.
There are many reasons that I got obsessed with Iceland. It's a virgin land. The nature of the country is merciless. Beautiful barren green lands, purest rivers, clear sky, harsh volcanoes, silent lakes and forests. It's untouched by man and offers complete wilderness. One of the most important thing is that being in Iceland one would get to see the NORTHERN LIGHTS. A Northern light is a natural light display in the sky, particularly in the polar regions, caused by the collision of charged particles directed by the Earth's magnetic field. The pictures I've posted below shows the northern light in a clear sky. These pictures are not edited.
These are some of the reasons which strengthens the desire to spend a considerable amount of my life time in Iceland. I'm sure that I enjoy my life am living at present, a perfect artificial urban lifestyle. Roaming out in the bright streets with friends, watching movies in giant multiplexes, taking long walks in the traffic filled roads, big artificial malls, college life, exams, projects, presentations, career, future, jobs, money, car, wife, kids ... and the pattern goes on till death.
'Is there anything outside this pattern?' ... 'Yes, there sure is!'
There are lots of beautiful things out there which we fail to see or refuse to admire. There are lots of things to wonder about. I always wondered about a never never land which is far far away. Let me tell about it! Usually am the last one to go to bed in my family. It takes time for me to sleep. I'd be lying in the bed staring at the silent sky outside the window. That's the starting point for all of my dreams. At times I'd think of some strange far far away land where everything's so pure and untouched. A land very sparsely populated. A life so related with the true colors of nature. Most of the nights I'd dream about that magical land in my dreams. Sometimes I'd be so disappointed to find that everything's just a dream.
But a few days before I had the chance of reading about Iceland. Before that I had no clue about that country. I knew that it's a small island in Europe. But I never knew that Iceland is the far far away land I've been dreaming of. I read a lot about that country, I saw a bunch of videos and made friends with few of the Iceland people through Facebook, and now I feel so related to it. I know that it is the recession capital of the world. The recession has attacked it's capital Reykjavik worser that any other countries in the world. The country is slowly relieving from the clutches of the evil recession. But nothing bothered me. It's the only land I could at least closely relate to my dream. As I mentioned earlier, my one of the weirdest dream is to spend my last days around an unknown lake in Iceland. I only have a picture of it. I've no idea about the whereabouts of that place. But am sure that one day my dream would come true. I'd be living far away from the artificial society, far away from the sounds of machines and traffic, far away from the fights and quarrels, far away from everything and I'd be the quiet sailor who is sailing in this unknown lake.
I never expected that there would be a farewell for final year students. But yeah ... There was one. A great one! All the final year students of mechanical got an invite for the farewell party from third year students. After I saw the invitation in my cell, I thought, apparently we're gonna get beaten up by them. Yeah, we got off on the wrong foot. So, It was decided that the venue was ABIRAMI MEGA MALL, one of the ... uh, let's say ... a decent malls in Chennai. My invite message said that the function is gonna be held at 6PM. I reached the mall around 5.50PM. I was said that the function is going on at the terrace, roof top! I cautiously climbed the stairs. I didn't know what was waiting for me. I said to my leg ... 'Even the slightest sign of danger ... Runaway my boy' I was so hesitant to open the door of the terrace. Everyone of us would have experienced the 'ahhh ... what the hell' moment. I experienced it and I opened the door. But 'what was I thinking?' ... It was unbelievable. The decoration, the stage, the speakers, even the chairs looked great! It was an actual grand farewell! Third year students forgot the friction between us and came up with a mind blowing party. I'm sorry guys and I thank all of my juniors who made such a great effort for a great party.
All of my classmates were present. There were shouts, claps and joy. I felt so terrible to even think about what I thought. Our juniors asked everyone of us to speak something about these four years. So did we. After the grand speech, I realized that it's not just me! Just me to think that 'To love a girl is an absurd think to do' Almost everyone warned the third years to watch out for girls, and by this, I mean "no offense" for all the girls out there. You know what I mean. Then started the music. Music of the south! The fast beats and the environment made everyone to dance. 'Sounds gay right? :P' But I swear it was 'friggin' awesome!!!
The roof top offered a splendid view of the city. Then dinner! I must say, it was filled with variety. It was amazingly delicious !!!
But another important thing ... this farewell party proved to be a great opportunity to meet a lost friend who's now in 'Balumahendra Film School'. The best film school in the city. He discontinued the engineering in his second year to pursue film making, something which I tried to do, but couldn't. It was great to meet him and we discussed about films, film making and his film school. Finally the fun came to an end as the clock struck 9PM.
But that's the last time, I guess. Everyone's gotta plan. Next year, the same time, I bet many would be studying or working there ass out in some other part of the world. Very few would be here and am sure they'll be so busy looking after their life. No more messages, no more 10 rs ticket in Devi theater and no more night out at the beach. After many goodbyes and take cares the place finally became empty. Empty stage, unoccupied chairs and silent speakers ...
I guess it's been a long time since I wrote something in this blog. That's because am now in the process of learning a very valuable art which is the most essential thing for every human to learn. THE ART OF DOING NOTHING ...
Still one more month to go. The most important phase in my life is coming to an end. As I already stated, the phase which brought out the MAN in me. College life's coming to an end. In a month am gonna be a complete engineer. Actually am very happy that college life's gonna end but at the same time I'm gonna miss those crazy days with my friends and all those night stays and horror movies we watched, Especially the rainy as well as the scary night of REC!
Here are some of memorable moments of college life :)
That's me alright :P
Ram showing ****
With Bus mates
Sai Shyam's exam paper
Toy Story 3D
Anyhow, back to the topic of NOTHING, you gotta ask the engineering students ... "What's the most toughest job in this whole damn earth?" They'd say "Spending the final days of engineering"
Watching TV - Sucks ...
Downloading Movies - Can't watch more than 3 films per day ...
Talking to strangers in Omegle - Can't do it for more than a hour ...
Riding along the streets of different countries in Google maps - 2 hours tops ...
Facebook - Once in 5 minutes :P
Nothing else to do ... But I'm guessing this is the only chance that's given to me to learn this beautiful art. Everyone's real life starts after they finish their college. I remember someone saying this to me
"Enjoy your college life, after that, you're on your own son, May God not be so hard on you"
Definitely these words are the voice of the man who faced some harsh experiences in his life. Everyone's stating the same quote again and again
"Life's not full of roses" or "Life's not the same after your college" or "You're gonna face the true color of life after your college"
I don't know what's with these different quotes, but I have a small hunch that am gonna enjoy all the above stated experiences. For all the final year students out there, 'We know that something big is waiting for us, maybe big enough even to swallow us, but let's be prepared, and not give a damn about that thing ... Till then we could simply enjoy the blissful 'ART OF DOING NOTHING.'
It's been 22 years since I first saw this world. Out of those twenty two, I could surely say that the last four years were the best part. This chapter is dedicated to my best buddies in Mech'B' who contributed more than anyone for that 'Best' part. We are totally sixty in number. Out of those sixty, here I'd like to introduce you to some of them, who have a unique and interesting set of characters. Let me start with the person whose word-press inspired me to write this blog. Vinodh Venkatesan (aka) Balli.
BALLI (aka) VINODH VENKATESAN
When I first saw him in my class, I misjudged his looks. I thought that he's like those super rich boys who never mingle with other students. He is a perfect high class city guy. I hesitate to say this now, but I had an inferiority feeling back in my first year. I was so hesitant to speak to my fellow mates. 'Who knows?' Maybe that inferiority feeling made me to think like that. But I came to know about the true 'BALLI' once when I sat next to him from second year. He's noway near to those super rich boys I mentioned. He is an easy-goer and the most friendly person. But the problem with him is, he's not emotionally communicative. If you hit him in the balls, he would say "Ahh" in a low tone. The next moment he'd be back in his business. The thing I admire in him is his command in his written English. He has an awesome word-press work where he writes about something from his daily life. It has a splendid narration. Our gang is called BRUDERMEER gang. BRUDERMEER has a very nice story behind it :-P. BRUDERMEER consists of four members. Myself, Balli, Thiruvikrama Srinivasan and Pavan Kumar. Four of us shared a common dream and goal. Travelling and enjoying this life to its craziest and fullest extent before marriage.
THIRUVIKRAM
But Thiruvikram shared even more specific dream like me. A dream called "EUROPE". We both love Europe to the core. Thiruvikram has another secret goal in his life. He's working on it now. Do you guys want to know his little secret goal?. "To drink a full-barrel beer in OKTOBERFEST which is an yearly grand beer festival in Germany". It's not a coincidence that he applied for three German universities. I sincerely hope that he should achieve his little goal :D
Mr.PAVAN KUMAR (aka) BABAJI
You guys should know about Mr.Pavan Kumar (aka) Babaji. He has a great command over his spoken English language. Many doesn't know that he's a great poet. Pavan's special quality is his nervousness and curiosity. He once called me continuously from 2AM to 4AM to talk about the match which was not until 7AM. He's a great friend ho helps you at the right time.
'REACTION' RA.VINODH
Now I should tell about Mr.Ra.Vinodh (aka) ***** *** ****. Ra.Vinodh is one of the most interesting character in our class. Entertainment is guaranteed when he's around. I still can't forget the reaction he gave when Vijaykarthik (another unique character) hit him in an unexpected manner. That was one hilarious incident. We were laughing our ass out.
'PIRATE' VIJAYKARTHIK
Vijaykarthik is another unique and weird character. He would help anyone at anytime. That's his character. But the uniqueness and weirdness? Well, he wants to become a pirate! The rest is for your judgement!
'CURIOUS' SWAMI
There's a character called Swaminadhan Sundaramoorthy (aka) Swamiji. It's not usual to get acquainted with a guy like Swami. He's not like other nerds. He knows everything about everything. Or at-least he'll try to learn if he doesn't know. Curiosity has an other name called Swami. He's my only friend who talks about Einstein's relativity and the possibility of parallel universe which I'd love to discuss. He writes some well crafted Tamil poems which I'd enjoy reading. Here I'd write down a doubt, once he asked me, then you might know about him, a bit.
"I hav one doubt machi. Consider a number of trains such that one is running inside the other train, so that their relative speed gets added up (i.e) speed of the running train plus speed of the train on which it is running. Extend it to 'n' trains, So that u will attain the speed of light. Still the mass will be a stable one with respect to other train, so in this case it seems relativity is practical... Is that right? just a thought!!"
SAI BEATING SRIVATSAN
It's a punishable crime if I didn't write anything about our great Mr.Srivatsan (aka) Bachu. Srivatsan has the most peculiar and weird character. Entertainment quotient of our class. Except his mom and dad nobody has ever escaped from his mouth. That's what makes him interesting. Irrespective of the designations, every staff would get their ******* chance to fall as prey in his mouth. Not only staffs, every student, every actor, every cricketer, every politician, everyone gets their chance.
PAPAKUMAR,SIDDARTH,RAMS,PAVAN
Papakumar (aka) Ramkumar. He's so helpful to all his friends. But don't ever try to tell a secret to him. The word secret would die at that instance. His life is pretty smooth, with no twist or turns. Often I would envy his smooth life. One person, who shares a common interest with me in movies and books is Rama Subramani (aka) Rams. Most of them find my interest as a weird one. But usually it's the same for me and Rams.
ANAZ, NIDHI WITH HELPING HANDS
Anaz, Nidhi Karthik, Suresh and Sai shyam. These four guys really needs our encouragement and support in their great work. These guys started an organization called HELPING HANDS. They're helping the poor, downtrodden people and they make it possible for poor children to study. This is a noble work guys, and you guys would have all our support always.
'THALA' PRADEEP
Pradeep (aka) Thala is another great friend of mine. Srivatsan and Pradeep resides in the same area and they always act like as if they're the worst enemies. They're like ITCHY AND SCRATCHY or any two weird cartoon characters. But the truth is they're the best friends. There're lots of them like Praveen (aka) Kuzandhai, Siddarth, Sai Prasad and Raj Anush .Infact Raj and Sai were so curious about my enrollment in NZ film institute.
RAJ ANUSH
Raj would constantly ask me about the improvement in the application process every week. These are my best friends who contributed for the BEST part in the "BEST four years of my life". I'm sure that each and everyone will have their own contributions to make in my life for a long time :)
A most important thing to consider for becoming a traveler is to have friends around the world. I consider myself as a budding traveler. Even though I've visited only a few places in India and my journey to New Zealand would be my first foreign trip, I'd like to consider myself as traveler. One day, am sure that I'd finish the globe and I'm planning to write a book about it. I'm now in my first step for achieving that, 'Developing my circle of friends around the globe'. I could now say that I'm doing an 'okay' job as I have some handful of trustworthy friends around the globe. This chapter is dedicated to such friends who're in the various parts of this planet.
First, let me start from the point where it all began. 'New York Film Academy'. I found N.Y.F.A community page in Facebook which helped me to find two great friends. 'AMRITA' and ALAIN SINGAYE'. Alain Singaye is an aspiring and talented actor who lives in Los Angeles. He studied his acting course in N.Y.F.A. I found his profile in the community page and gave him friend request explaining about my situation and query about N.Y.F.A. He was so a nice man that he explained to me about the current situation in L.A and about the life in N.Y.F.A. From then on, I've been in constant touch with him through frequent chats and messages. He really helped me to make a decision about N.Y.F.A. I've seen his 'acting show reel' once, and it was awesome. I'm sure that he'd make it big.
ALAIN SINGAYE
I could say that 'Amrita' is one of my best friend and more like a sister. She gave me a friend request after seeing my profile in N.Y.F.A community page thinking that am going to join N.Y.F.A. She had the same plan. Amrita is an Indian who's living in Florida. I guess we all know about what it takes for an Indian woman to live alone in the mighty U.S. It takes a lot of courage and determination. Amrita has it all. She have lots of dreams and loads of talents and extraordinary gift of being so nice and facing the problem with a cool mind state. This is Amrita as far as I know. We used to chat every day, discussing our problems and experiences. It was so easy to get along with her as both of us shared similar tastes. I must really thank N.Y.F.A community page to help me finding someone so important in my life. I just have one thing to say to her "I'm sure, you'd go places with your talents, sis"
'CUTE' HAE IN
Another important person in my life is my cute friend 'Hae In' from Korea. We became friends through the 'OMEGLE' website. We shared our Facebook profiles. From that time she's been my good and trust worthy friend with whom I could share any secret. She had a good accent of English unlike many Koreans. Everyday we'd have long conversations about our day to day life which created a bond. She's a close friend to my sister too. I can't forget the cute little gift she sent to my home on my birthday. She was so happy to receive my flowers in turn. Now we find very little time to chat as she moved to Hostel. But that didn't affect the bond between us.
When I was searching for some film institutions in New Zealand, I found SUSAN BUTLER's profile in 'SOUTH SEAS FILM AND TELEVISION SCHOOL' community page. Susan Butler is one of the nicest friends I have. Susan and I shared a common goal of joining a well reputed film institute in New Zealand. Susan is from Australia and she is going to move to New Zealand by the end of this year. I'm so eager to meet her as she was my first and best NZ mate.
TALENTED 'RAJNEEL SINGH'
At first, I didn't know that my friendship with 'RAJNEEL SINGH' is so valuable. I found his profile in 'NZ film commission's community page. I gave him request to get cleared on some doubts about NZ film industry. I must say that Rajneel is the most tolerant man in this planet. He answered each and every question of mine without leaving a tiniest detail. Usually my questions would be of two lines in size. His answers would be like in 'twenty lines'. Rajneel is an Indo-New zealander ho's currently living in Auckland. I'm sure that I'd meet him in Auckland. One day, I clicked the link of a short film in Rajneel's profile. 'BLANK SPACES' is it's name. I'm not exaggerating here. But it is one of the best short film I've seen. I mean, really THE BEST. Only a true passionate traveler could enjoy the happiness of that film's protagonist. To my shock, the film ended with a credit 'A FILM BY RAJNEEL SINGH'. I didn't know how to react. I realized that for the past full month I've been talking to him by using the words like 'Dude, Man etc.' without knowing that he's a highly talented film maker. That film won him, a second prize in 'NATIONAL SHORT FILM COMPETITION'.
Now, to add another diamond to his crown, his another short film 'BIG BAD WOLVES' is going to be screened in 'INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL' which is going to be held in France. He's now in his trip to France to present his short film. Now he's working on his first feature called 'SEIZURE'. It would probably be released by the month of June '2012'. I'm sure that it would be a grand success. One thing I've been meaning to say to him "Without your guidance and patient answers I would be still searching for universities in a different part of the world. Thanks a lot man, I owe you big time"
These are some of my important, nice and trust worthy friends who're living in various places around this planet. There are lot more unmentioned. Namely 'Ferrie Lin from Taiwan', 'Lea Schimt' from Germany, 'Idibun' from Nigeria, 'Maria' from Iceland, 'Hamina' from Romania. I just wanna tell one thing to you guys "We're doing great as friends irrespective of our race, places of origin and natives. Thanks for being my friends"
I heard the same voice inside me "WHAT'S YOUR NEXT DESTINATION?"
At that time, I didn't know that I was going to spend the rest of my semester by searching an answer for that question. I realized that my dream of travelling around the globe is finally getting a starting point. Many Indian students have U.S dream in them. But not me! U.S is just an other destination in my 'wanna go' list. Nothing's special in it. My dream is to live in a country which has a strong historical and cultural background.
A SCOTTISH BAGPIPE CULTURE
When I say about this dream to others, I was constantly facing this remark 'You're not a true Indian, Why are you giving up on our country? Your cultural and historical background is right there in our country' But usually my thought for that remark would go on like this ...
'Wow wow ... Hold on!!! Who said anything about giving up India or patriotism. A man, helping some orphans in India by providing them money by living in some other country is also a TRUE INDIAN, A man, living in India who doesn't follow any rules and regulations is also NOT A TRUE INDIAN. There's no rule that a true Indian must only be in India. God created this beautiful world and I wish to see each and every beauty he created. Travel makes me feel closer to him. Wherever I go, whatever rule I follow, I'd be an Indian by my heart and I'd do nothing except good for my country. I love my country but don't you care about where I'm living.'
That may have sounded a little harsh. But I believe that's the truth. Then I started my search for that magical destination. At first like everyone else I fell for the mighty 'Hollywood'. Even though I didn't like to study in U.S, I searched for the film institutes in America. I found lots and lots but only New York Film Academy (N.Y.F.A) had a magical effect on me. I decided that N.Y.F.A is my next destination. The next day I called Mr.Koo, public relations for N.Y.F.A to en-quire about the One year film making course in the UNIVERSAL STUDIOS campus. I was so excited to see the names of the visiting lecturers as all of them were renowned technicians and film makers. I dreamed of shooting my short movies inside universal studios.
But again, time made me realize that nothing's so simple in this world. I came to know about the huge fees which I'm supposed to pay for just a year. Huge ... I mean, real huge (Rs.28,00,000) per year including all living and eating expenses. L.A is not the place for Indian middle class people. I then came to know that I can't do any part time jobs while studying. I made many contacts and friends who studied there through Facebook. I feel like I must worship internet for the immense help it offered. Then I found that America is not the right destination. From then on, I searched for many film making institutions around the globe. Each and everything had its own limitations. For example, EICAR institute in France offer a high quality training, but once I finish the course I must've known enough French to write a script in that language. Atlast I shortlisted the institutions which are in the english speaking countries except U.S. The list showed CANADA,U.K,NEW ZEALAND,AUSTRALIA,IRELAND.
It is so exhausting to even think about the process I went through. Australia was rejected by my mom as she was concerned about my safety. Canada was equally costly when compared to U.S. Ireland had no proper film institutes. Atlast I shortlisted U.K and New Zealand.I attended numerous spot interviews for various universities in New Zealand and U.K. and applied for ten universities and two institutions totally. I sent some of my videos, scripts and story boards along with the application requirements. I can surely say, that those three months,I spent in searching and applying for universities, attending spot admissions, waiting for their e-mails - Man!!! Those were the toughest months, and it took all my hard work and left me with an ample amount of stress. But I felt those tedious three months was worth the effort when I got conditional offer letters from six universities and from both institutions I applied. I dreamed about living in U.K as it's in Europe even though it's not in the E.U association. As you know Europe is my dream. But again I was proved that 'Dream is not real'. The reaction of my cousin and lot others after I said that 'I'm coming to U.K. for studies' made me to think twice. Their reply goes like this ...
"Don't ever try to come to U.K. It's so dry here, no part time jobs, no 'Permanent Residence', it's not like in your dreams. Listen 1 pound is Rs.85. You could think either way. If you get a part time job, you could clear the dept. If you don't get a part time job then your father would be doomed!!!"
But again, my luck worked out. Long ago, I applied for an institution in New Zealand called Eastern Institute of Technology and attended an interview session for nearly two hours where they asked questions about various aspects of film making. It has an exclusive two years course for film making. It costs around Rs.9,00,000 for 2 years. The living cost in New Zealand is so cheap. One fine morning when I was in a dilemma about my destination the 'Conditional offer letter post came to clear my mind. I checked about the institute in the trust worthy internet to find that it's one of the government funded university. I had a long chat with the FILM AND VIDEO PRODUCTIONS's dean to find that I'm the only Indian student among the 18 selected students around the globe. I was so amazed and I don't have an exact word to explain my happiness.
EIT CAMPUS
Obviously like every fellow human, I didn't try to risk my father's financial situation. I submitted my IELTS mark sheet to Eastern Institute of Technology and got an unconditional offer letter. It feels like it all happened so soon. One weird thing is that only after signing my offer of acceptance I researched about New Zealand. I would say I wouldn't be more happier even if I went to U.K. New Zealand had got everything. I'm not saying this because it's my magical destination. It's because I was so mesmerized by its natural beauty and its cultural values. It consists of two small islands called 'North Island' and 'South Island'.
AUCKLAND
I'm going to a village called 'Taradale', near the well known 'Auckland' in Northern Island. I don't know about others but I was really impressed by NZ and its nature. It's economically stable unlike other big countries. But I know one thing for sure 'NO COUNTRY IS A PARADISE' Every place has its own advantages and limitations. I'm sure NZ has its limitations. But that makes it more interesting. Now, I'm eagerly waiting for this December to arrive to face some new people, new cultures, new adventures and a whole new land called 'NEW ZEALAND' ...
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