42 days spent struggling on a quest whose summit is still miles away. 6 days of vacation and bliss as a sweet reward for 6 months of a harsh, back-breaking effort...it feels like heaven...of course in a few days I leave for the roasting of my life...all the news of record highs and power shortages in Delhi is draining my courage as I head back for more classes.
The Exam...
Among the casualties in tvm's vial flu epidemic, I was one of the unfortunate victims, down for almost 20 days...thankfully i had enuf reserves of perseverance to sweat thru it with my books for company. The day of the exam was brutal...4 hours, 2 exams and 270 questions to answer...i think i may come out with my reputation intact...but it will be 2 months more b4 the results come out!!! Will give you all a more concrete update on where I stand in a week's time when the solutions/key come out!!!
A Dying Lake...
Pappanabhan and I decided to laze away the next day at one of my fave haunts in Tvm...Akulam Lake. But the site of what was once a lone paradise in a concrete jungle saddened me. In a year or two the Akulam we once knew may not be there...its water polluted and the stench reminding me of Delhi's canals, the lake filling up with silt and plants taking root in the silt...i uttered a fervent prayer for its survival.
Its Getting Hot In Here...
Atleast 3 showers a day has become a norm for me! From the skies no place in the world is greener than kerala. There are trees everywhere, but the max temperatures in kerala have reached 35degs and worse still the humidity has reached records highs. Still remember how until 3-4 years back it was surprising to even see the mercury hit 32degs.
Widened Roads...
The corollary to Tvm becoming an old-age city, i discovered to my joy was that the newly widened roads didnt have enuf occupants to clog it up...for the first time in my 8 year career as a driver i have been able to zip all thru the city in 5th gear!!! Though the city roads are a source of pride the NH47 continues to be a sure-shot way to get into a coffin quickly...my dad and i together clocked almost 15 close shaves driving to our native place. I have decided only to take the train henceforth...unless they make the NH47 4-lane and split up the oncoming lanes!!!
Sharja Shakes...
Little did we realize that the favorite drink of our schooldays would become a rallying point for our reunions in later days. The Sharja continues to find acceptability among both drunkards and teetoallers of our batch of Loyolites as a drink to unwind, nostalgize and catch up. The terrace of the shop up the road from Bakery Junction to Vazhuthacaud has become our haunt every Sunday evening...the roar that rises there has been an integral part of my life for so long...i hope it never subsides in the pressures of adulthood.
An Industry Fades Away...
Not a single critically appreciated, aesthetically appealing or sensible malayalam film released this summer. I got the first jolt in tvm when the Pattom Kalpana theatre which served as a lighthouse to my home disappeared, making way for a shopping complex. I enquired abt the other theatre screening first change films, Petta Sreekarthika and it had shut down too! I landed in tvm hoping to watch Prithviraj's classy film Vargam but instead was greeted with theatres here screening tamil films like pattiyal, mercury pookal, brahma and a horde of other tam movies!!! Balram Vs Tharadas was a big letdown and so was Rasathanthram, Dileep's nasty remake of Rain-Man was deservedly rejected by the audience while Suresh Gopi salvaged some pride thru a good performance in an otherwise pitiable Chinthamani Kola Case.
The Ghosts of Dot Net...
This trip to Trivandrum...I was met with an old request again...Shan and Anoop wanted me to take a class on Dot Net technology for their employees...its been 7 months since i have even seen a line of code...but i just need to shake my idleness off and contribute in some way to their growing company.
Policy of Ringed Fence...
The way Pinarayi has encircled VS with all his close accolytes reminds me of the old trick the British played on our native rulers of the same name above. Will the old revolutionary break the shackles which his younger opponents within his party has thrown and keep the promises he made to the underpriviledged of kerala who voted him in??? I stood witness to the huge red flag gathering on the Secretariat lawns on the night of the swearing-in and wondered how soon the euphoria surrounding the mandate had disappeared and how easily the people's will dissolved amidst political bickering.
Who's Scared of The Code???
The book has come and gone...Dan Brown may have resurrected Mary Magdalene succesfully in Christianity in one of the highest selling works of fiction...everyone expected it to shake the foundations of Christianity...but everyone underestimated the power of Faith...why does the Catholic Church fear the movie version now...and what is this so-called Catholic Secular Forum's right to represent the whole of Xianity in demanding a ban...Xianity today is beyond all the symbolism that Da Vinci Code strives to decipher, today the church is a mix of harcore believers in all the church espouses and a growing populace of "upstarts" who likes to set their own parameters and boundaries to Xianity and find God through their own ways/means/ends.
Last Pal Met...
I have finally met all of my closest friends from school and college...kevin the last one standing reached tvm with a bottle of tequila and our depleted gang of Savages from college got together, finding ourselves still on our feet after 8 shots of tequila the scotch meant for kevin's other set of friends in quilon was also drowned in our hunt for the kick!!! Tomorrow we head to kollam to visit anoops new house, where i guess a sumptuous lunch will be waiting for us and on the way we pick up Kevin from his home at Tangasseri Beach where the fish tastes the best in the world!!!
To Orkut or not...
I am one of the few pessimists who think Orkut has a short shelf-life. But everyone else seems to disagree. Since Orkut has caught the public fancy, the mails in our egroups have noticeably subsided. Most of the people who scrap me are close friends who i have stayed in touch thru irregular emails or who read my blog or who i email thru school, college and univ yahoogroups but suddenly orkut seems convenient to say a hi and bye...a few people whom I had almost given up to oblivion have suddenly come back but i wonder if i'll ever see them again...I scrap back and the interaction just doesnt flag from there on...i guess it works!!! I grew a beard in between and uploaded a pic...and suddenly there were doszens of queries of depression, new look, exam tension and even failed love coming from everyone...though not physically the world just keeps coming closer!!!
Aideu to Tvm...
There is no place like home and no city like your hometown. The last 50 days here were memorable...dunno when I can return. Dunno in what condition i will return...will it be a victorious one to write the main examination or will i come back cloaked in failure, shrink away from my friends and pack my bags to again hesitantly head away to some distant land...i guess time will tell.
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12 comments:
take a well deserved break...
Catch up on all the sleep u missed.
I heard abt that pattom theater being closed too
all the best aliya
the bakery's name-Team Bakery
Regards
I've got similar feelings on TVM. But, my parents are shifting to EKM. That's the end of any chance I had left of hanging out with the guys, going to Shanghumugam beach for the sunset, meeting some Loyolite on the road or at the cinema, sitting at the mandapam at the mueseum, riding the double-decker, and...
I also think it's stupid to be scared of the Da Vinci Code or any such things that might come up! But the church always was a human organization, which believed the heretics ought to be burned! Not that they could find out any effective way to kill the idea behind the heresy! Banning... not an ounce more effective!
bro, where are you headed? i have mixed feelings about tvm..some really horrible and some worthwhile. and as much as i love a lot of things there, i hate as much too..peoples attitude is number one on that list.
anyway dont want to spoil your bful post..you are such a genuine guy..and i am sure only the best of life will happen for you.
Let me once again cackle with demonic glee.... you are off to the hellfires of a (power-out) Delhi summer! Have a nice time.... I need to come only on June end, so I will miss the high noon. :P
The results, well, Kay Sera Sera... parkalaam. I used to get so jittery those first days, but now I've come to terms with the situation. Leaving everything to Kismet now...results veratte!
BTW, we hold on to Sharjah Shakes prolly becoz utter echis like us won't settle for anything more pricey than sharjahs! Still, the ambience is lovely, eh? And the memories of college days when it used to be our watering hole...
Finally, about possiblity of coming back defeated: Heh, heh.... have you forgotten old Pangappaara Lodge, prospects of going underground as a toddy tapper and all that jazz? ;)
Its by pure chance that I hit your blog. Besides your good writing style, I found something else that appealed to me; tons of life experiences. Dude, expereince are lifes best teachers. So no matter what life offers keep looking up and keep smiling, sooner or later you will achieve you DREAMS !
thanu, thanks and its real surprising the news of pattom kalpana being demolished travelled all the way to california!!!
nikhil, thanks a lot...i have heard pappanabhan and some other guys in school talk abt u...have me met...i am not sure.
neil, welcome back here brother. its gonna be tough becoming a cochinite...hope ur loyalty still stays with tvm. like u said for every tvm guy shanghumugham beach and the museum are so laden with memories...infact i remember i once saw a shooting star at shanghumugham and made my wish....but it never worked out...hehe. and i saw so many loyolites, junior and senior...that is a bond...even between different batches that i find difficult to understand. the lack of support from the christian public is what i believe caused them to back out from ther "Ban Da Vinci" agitation.
mindcurry, if u ask me where i am headed the easiest answer wud be to say "delhi". but i think i am glad i found myself in this position now, rather than 10 years later.thanks a lot cheta, i have forever been wanting to ask u...u should
give me permission to call you by your first name now on.
puppy, will miss u da in delhi...especially now who will i have to take pokes at and go eat a hearty biryani with!!! eda abt us still sticking to sharjas i think it has to do with a sort of simplicity embedded in us from school and thaty we still see each other in the same light of 8-10 years back instead of grown-up adults. i cant even imagine calling later friends by nicknames, goin to a cool-bar instead of a bar and other stuff like we do...coz the interaction switched to a higher gear by then. never thought the ignominy of paangapaara lodge will strike me...well the original anthevaasi of pangapara lodge, mithu returns day-after...hehe!!!
aj, thanks a lot...glad u liked the stuff i've written...i used to be proud too of all i've done but now i wonder if all those experiences where mistakes from which i never learnt my lessons well. maybe some peopl take longer to settle down in life than others.
that was nice.. reading abt a city that is my home now..
I heard Delhi had showers so your hell may infact be cooler :)
I watched Kalyana Raman recently and I don't know what people find funny in the movie. It is the same old storyline so dear to the bum film makers heart. Boy finds rich girl who falls in love with him. This seems to be the recurring theme. In fact the ease with which the girl falls for the guy is unbelievable. Either our mallu men are irresistable or have discovered the Charm Potion :))
The Code cannot rattle an Institution that has seen movies like the one depicting Jesus and his disciples as gay and Our lady as worse. These came and went without a whimper. Which is why I was hoping that Xian organisations would not heed the call of one community that promised us support to ban the film. We have successfully ignored many an ember that hoped we would stoke it to a raging fire.
man, whattay post it was!! u told things which i wanted to hear.. even i experienced the development of roads in tvm (the 4 lane inner ring road). tvm will change completely in a year or so, i feel. sharja is something which i miss a lot. in bangalore too u get sharja bt it doesnt have a far resemblance to the one which we get at tvm. pinne orkut, yes its kicking in. and thats where i saw u :-)
appo all the very best for the exams. really like to read that happy news from u, which we all want to hear. best wishes!
hope and love, glad u liked it. i always wonder if i wud have found tvm so agreeable if i had to live here day in and day out.
silverine, oh thats the best news i have heard in a long time...i think the showers were meant for those poor doctors!!! u know what...kalyanaraman was a film ppl here really loved...i personally find dileep repetitive in his comedy after meesha madhavan except for chanthupotte but other mallus obviously dont think like us. you said it abt Da Vinci Code better than i cud...ppl calling for bans are real senseless.
jithu, thanks man...i hope i can give all of u some good news but chances are very dim. heard that they have given the contract for all the tvm main roads to a company called punj loyd...and in 3 years they have promised to change the face of the city!! i still think orkut will pass-by...but thats coz i think i wont be online regularly from now on!!!
Hey Guys
I was there in TVM for 3 months. I really enjoyed. Pd temaple.. bech.. its greenary... alll its really good place to visit not to stay.
Raj
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