I'm proud to say that finally I got a job. Finally everything is shaping up in a good and unexpected way. By everything, I meant my study-abroad plans, financial conditions, getting all my degree certificates and stuffs from my college etc etc. Out of all this, I want to mention few things about the study-abroad plans. Studying abroad can be an easy and exciting thing to plan, but to execute ???!!! It is the most toughest thing to do. I'm going to dedicate a separate post for all that confusions, dilemmas and decisions. It totally deserves that. Now, coming back to the job part, again, am proud to say that I finally got a job with a good pay but without a single bond and time restrictions.
To be precise, my job hunt started and ended in Taramani Railway Station. For those who don't know about Taramani, it is an industrial suburb of Chennai city. Unlike other city railway stations, Taramani has a unique one. Unique in everything! It is a place which scares me. Yeah! You heard me right! It SCARES me. The station is deserted all the time. If you're lucky enough, you'll find some two or three passengers on a sunny afternoon. The place has some never ending dark tunnels, leaking pipes, squeaking mouse, bats and what else ??? To be exact, picture a haunted mansion in your mind. That's Taramani Railway Station for you. Some may think that this description is a bit over-exaggerated. But it's not!
Coming back to the story, me and my friend Ravi reached the legendary Taramani Station on a fine sunny afternoon following an interview call from a person unknown. I think this incident, happened before a month's time. I couldn't recall the date. He called from a consultancy and left us with an address. He told something about an interview for graduates. It was the time when we were desperately searching for a job. We found our way out of the station (took us more than ten minutes!!!) We started walking and after twenty minutes of walk, we managed to find a small two storey building which matched the address. We then waited for about fifteen minutes to be received by a man who called us. Another ten minutes in that building and we finally figured out the nature of that job. To sell 'caller tunes.' The script goes like this ...
"Hello, I'm calling from XXX cellphone company. Are you interested in activating a caller tune which is new in stores?" Later that hour a woman, who is an employee of that company inquired about us and she said few things in return. The context of what she said was 'There are two types of customers for this company. First type of customers would disconnect the call at 'XXX cellphone company' part. Rest would disconnect after hearing all of it. The fact is that no body would buy! But the target is fifty buyers per day. If not, the management wouldn't let us go home. The salary is below Rs.5000/month. (Doesn't even cover my conveyance charges !!!) We gently smiled at the person who interviewed us and said "We'll get back to you tomorrow. We have to give it a thought!"
As I said, I gave it a thought and from then on, I never attended any interview until last week. I got a call from a consultancy (again!!!).
"I'm calling from XXX consultancy. I saw your resume in naukri.com (job site) I assume that you are a writer" (I do a lot of writing, but writer??? Nooo !!!).
She went on saying "I have a job which matches your profile. An article and profile writing job. Rs. 15,000 basic pay with no time restrictions or bond." I was so excited. That's the exact job profile I was looking for. I thought 'I couldn't ask more'. I asked in an overwhelming tone "Where's the company located?"
She replied
"Twenty minutes walk from TARAMANI RAILWAY STATION ... "
- TO BE CONTINUED -
Unbelievable !!!
It's been 4 years since I came to this mighty metropolitan CHENNAI. Small town of Guduvanchery showered motherly love towards me. It showed me the happiest and soft side of life. Lakes, Mountains, Friends and lots of Cricket. But Chennai taught me the meaning of merciless life. It robbed my innocence and forced the maturity which I badly needed that time. But there were lots of happy, fun filled and life changing moments too. Most of them, happened only in ABINAYA APATMENTS. My place and my house for almost four years. My dad rented a house in that apartment before four years. I joined my college, my sister joined a new school for her 12th grade. That house witnessed each and everything I narrated in this blog. I remember starting the first post of this blog sitting and holding the laptop on the wide terrace of that house. Lots of experiences and happiness. ABINAYA APARTMENT provided my two good friends of all time. Kishore and Shamini. Kishore finished celebrated his 8th birthday last month and Shamini is his classmate. My two good friends. I can't forget the days of cricket and throw ball, I used to play with them. Two months before, our house owner requested us to vacate the house as he decided to give this house to his daughter. That's when the search for an other house started. The search lead to a newly built apartment near a suburb called RAMAVARAM.
Out of all the other houses this house seemed more comfortable and the area seemed to be so quiet and decent. One fine Sunday morning we moved to a tiny beautiful house in the RAMYAM APARTMENT. It's always interesting to move to a new place because of its people and feel. New people means new characters. There's a great chance of finding some great untold stories in new places. I took a long night stroll on my first day in that place. The area was so quiet and peaceful. It was filled with lot of bungalows, new trend houses. It's a sophisticated area. I couldn't find anybody walking or riding in that road except a stray dog which kept following me right from the start of my stroll. I heard some distant television voices inside a bungalow. I guessed that almost everyone in the area goes for great payable jobs and after a long hard day they lock themselves in their bungalows and wait for that day to come to an end. Almost every rich or upper middle class families prefer these areas and they're so proud about moving there.
My new area doesn't have a gang of playing children yelling and running through the street, It has no mobile ice cream cycles where children scream for their share, It doesn't have a gang of kids playing cricket in the street, it doesn't have life. Everyone's minding their own business. It's sophisticated and am not proud of it ...
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"
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