Monday, October 19, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
This post is called ‘The Drop’.
Internal exam was a cakewalk for me. I had time to study from 8:30 to 10:45. I would study and then write exam from 10:45 to 12:45. Then after noon exam would be 2:00 to 4:00. I didn’t even go to my class during the internal exam. I studied with Raj Kamal in Mechatronics. I performed really well. Only a girl named Gauthami performed better than me. I was quite happy. I also noted that Johnson, Arun, Vimal Kumar were the other guys in the top ten. I took notice of them. Karthikeyan did reasonably well too; think he got the eleventh rank.
And then the classes went on for a month. Here I should mention about three staffs, Vijayanandhi Ma’am (Electrical Engineering), Sengodan Sir (Engineering Physics) and Velmurugan Sir (Engineering Drawing), next to my school teachers, these were rocking. They were giving their very best. I did exceptionally well in the second internal exam where none performed better than me. Till that, I did not make any serious friendship with any of my classmates. Johnson and Vanavan still were the only people I spoke with. Other than this I used to speak with Karthika, Kalyani and Jinju mostly to get the notebooks and observation works from them. He he. What else to speak? :-P.
Karthikeyan used to call me up once in a while. We discussed nothing but the subjects. Life was monotonous.
After the second internals, there was an announcement about a National Conference called Confluence and students could present paper in that. I did not know what a paper was not had idea of presenting a paper. Karthikeyan asked me whether I was interested in presenting paper. He informed me that Arun was already in the team. I thought for a while on the possibilities and replied positively. Karthikeyan became Karthi after sometime and I noticed that Arun was Arun Kumaar. The double a in his name was to be noted. Karthi suggested Solar Cell as the topic for our paper. We discussed with Sengodan sir on this. On a Sunday noon, Arun and Karthi came to my home. Arun was using computer at a rapid speed. Infact I noticed that during an English lab when, he changed the Show Hidden files from the folder option. But his speed was very much evident.
That day was like a training period with Arun and Karthi. Those guys taught me the shortcuts and I had never used Google images before that. That was also taught by those guys. Arun was using MS-Paint and Print Screen like magic. I had never seen such stuff before that. We used to get OD (On Duty attendance) for works on this paper. We later changed the topic as Solar Photo Voltaics. Prabu later joined our team.
Preparation went smooth. Meanwhile I joined Orkut and was introduced to chatting. Well, it was a kind of distraction to me. To be honest, I spent lot of time on this. But it helped me to get new friends. Especially, Deepa. I used to write my fan fiction work of Harry Potter in J K Rowling community. Deepa liked my work and sent me her friend request in Orkut. We used to spend lot of time chatting in Yahoo messenger. From being unknown strangers, we became very close friends. And due to excessive Internet usage (initially I had bandwidth restricted to 250 MB). I got a pretty fat bill! So I switched unlimited bandwidth. So I started downloading lot of movies.
I didn’t spend enough time on studies. In the third internal exam, from 1st rank I dropped alarmingly to the 11th rank. But the convincing part was that my performance was the same except for Maths. I still remember my mark. I scored 58. Karthi and Arun flunked but requested for marks from Sivasakthi Ma’am and cleared. So I wasn’t very much worried about my drop.
It was confluence day
We presented the paper. I don’t remember presenting it with flying colors. But we did a good job. Arun and I presented the paper. Karthi and Prabu took care of the slideshow.
Surge-2007 was an event organised by my seniors and the placement cell. I attended the Mock Press prelims. I had some ten GK questions and dialogue writing between Bill Gates and Lalu Prasad Yadav. I tried to be funny, by making all replies of Lalu in Hindi (I managed with the few words I know in Hindi). So I was able to clear the initial hurdle. And reach the finals. In the finals, I did pretty bad because I got the role as James Bond and I was against Vadivelu. So obviously I didn’t win the event. But, my schoolmate Gopalakrishnan who was studying IT in my college made it to the debate finals. Along with him he brought his friend, Gokul. He was into debate finals as well. They did really well in the finals. But there was one IT senior called Priyanka who stole the show. It was a wonderful evening. It was so late in the evening. I was waiting for my dad to come and pick me up.
Devaki Ma’am finally taught Linked Lists, Queue and Stack. I feel that it was an important phase in my programming career. Learning this stuff was very important.
It was the last week of the semester.
Semester was to be over.
I was not absent even for a single day in that year.
It was a Monday. I had to submit my mechanical lab records. So I took three hours leave. (3, 4, 5)- 6th and 7th hour was Mechanical lab, went to Vanavan’s room in hostel and finished the record. In the same week I had taken another couple of hours leave on Friday to finish Electronics lab record.
Those were the 5 hours; I was totally absent in that semester.
Top ten students from each class were given a scholarship of Rs. 10,000 by my college. Having performed well, I was an instant choice to that list. Unluckily, Johnson missed out. Arun and Karthi got it too.
I feel that, it should have been based on merit. But it had reservations.
1. OC-3
2. BC-3
3. MBC-2
4. SC/ST-2
If OC was 3 then BC, MBC, SC/ST all had rights to compete in OC and their reservation. But it was not the case.
Even when it was based on reservation, the reservation was not well-organised.
In my opinion, Arun was the only OC category guy to deserve it. In my class, there are only 3 OC students who joined through merit:
1. Arun
2. Karthikeyan
3. Kalyani
So naturally what happens is that, every year they would get it.
If it was similar to counseling, only Arun had the chance. But it was not the case. I do not know whose mistake it was. But it was a mistake.
Then the semester exams started. I did well in all the papers, except Engineering Drawing where I made 2 big blunders and knew that I would lose 30 marks in that paper for sure.
Overall I was happy with my performance in the semester examinations. In came holidays. I was glad that I would be entering my department the next semester!
The drop in academic performance was not hurting me because, I always believe, “Form is temporary and Class is Permanent”. I knew I could always bounce back, if I wanted to.
Journey will continue…
Yes, fear because I was afraid of the persons who had taken up the same course as me. I picked up when there were 5 seats remaining. Which means that there were nearly 30 people who had far superior cut-off to me and they should be more intelligent than me. So I should work really hard to compete with them.
I had never been industrious in my life except for my eleventh standard and brief period in twelfth standard.
Till tenth, I had never understood the Chemistry equations. What the principle was? Thanks to Chemistry teachers - Suresh Sir, Sekar Sir and Chandra Sekar Sir (It might be odd for you to refer so many persons as sir, but this is how I call them. Habits are hard to die!). I clearly understood the fundamentals of Chemistry in my eleventh and twelfth! Only when the fundamentals are strong, it serves the purpose of being industrious!
Well, there was a bit of selfishness from my side too. I learnt chemistry well because it could come handy for bio-chemistry in first-year if I pick medicine. But learning Chemistry was off no use except that it helped me fetch a seat in Computer Science and Engineering in Kumaraguru College of Technology.
Ok coming back to fear, I enquired to my family members and relatives on what College was about. They said that, I had to learn everything in advance and during lecture hours should get the essence of what the professor or lecturer teaches and get clarity by posing queries.
So, I planned to study the subjects in advance. I studied few chapters from a subject called Electronic Devices and Circuits because I already had that book borrowed from my uncle. My best friend Raj Kamal had joined Kumaraguru College too. He took up Mechatronics course. Since he joined under Management quota he had 3 weeks of bridge course. I enquired him what was taught and how the college was. He was giving positive reviews about the college. I was happy on picking the college.
My First day in College
It was August 31 2006, a Thursday. In the morning there was a meeting for the parents which I attended with my mother and grandfather. A person named Kavidasan gave a wonderful speech.
He told that, days when the proverb applied “Slow and steady wins the race” were bygone and gave a new proverb “Fast and perfect wins the race!” My mother and grandfather left the college after the lunch which was provided by college.
A new life was about to begin.
I was surprised by the fact that, all First years will be in a separate block called Science and Humanities and I Shall enter computer science department only in my second year. I entered the science and humanities block. I quickly skimmed through the notice board. I saw that my Physics teacher was my Class Advisor and his name was Sengodan. I had never heard that name in my life before. There was a teacher in my school called Senram, which was the closest name I could remember.
When I entered the class, the first person I met was a guy called Suresh.
In our lives we don’t like few persons from the first sight. This guy Suresh was one such person. I didn’t like him from the moment I saw him. He introduced to me another guy called Johnson. You know what? I had never been a first bencher in my entire school life, probably due to my height and my talkative nature. Staffs would not prefer to have me in the first bench during school. I was a standing a example to what people call “Chatter Box”. But I planned to take the first bench in College.
And there was a guy called Vanavan who came to the first bench because all other benches were pre-occupied. One major question which all staffs asked during the first class of theirs was, “how many of you are from biology major and how many of you are from computer science major?” My heart would start beating a little faster whenever I see the huge crowd of computer science students (they had computer science as their major in twelfth). I was afraid of them. I feared that they knew the programming languages like C, Java, Visual Basic, HTML etc., which I had seen my school mates studying. I knew nothing!
My dad arranged a person named Kamalakannan he was the nephew of my dad’s colleague.
He taught me looping, arrays and pointers. More than what he taught, I must thank him for introducing me to Yashwant Kanetkar’s book titled ‘LET US C’. I already had a book called ‘Projects Using C’ written by PVN. Varalakshmi. I read ‘LET US C’ like a story book. Tried out few programs and compared my logic with the one in Varalakshmi book. This was how I spent my first two weeks in College. Computer Programming was a paper for me in the first year. It was taught by Prof. Devaki. She was initially teaching the basic computer terms, generation of computers and such theories. Other staffs had entered into the syllabus as well.
I had eight theory subjects:
1. Computer Programming
2. Engineering Physics
3. Engineering Chemistry
4. Engineering Maths
5. Engineering Drawing
6. Electronic Devices and Circuits
7. Electrical Engineering
8. Technical English
Couple of practical subjects
1. Basic Engineering Lab
2. Physics & Chemistry Lab
I had two more labs viz., Electronic Devices and Circuits Lab and Computer Programming lab. But there were no exams for that lab!
Couple of weeks passed. As I hated Suresh at the first look, I liked Shiva Guru at the first look. Since, I was travelling to College by bus, I made few friends in the bus. Shiva Guru, Sriram Ayyapan, Arshad and Prahadeesh.
I used to go to Mechatronics class for lunch with Raj Kamal. So I was not maintaining a great rapport with the day scholars of my class. In fact, my term with both day scholars and hostellers was very bad mainly because of Electronic Devices and Circuits class. Since I had already prepared for that class, I would be able to follow what Sasikala Ma’am teaches. But none in the class except me and Johnson would follow that class completely. Johnson and Vanavan were my only pals in the class. In my Electronic Devices and Circuits Lab, my batchmates were Dinesh and Divya. Though they were not as close as calling pals, atleast they did not stare at me as the other classmates. Raj Kamal introduced to me a guy called Arun who was Raj Kamal’s entrance classmate. When that introduction took place, a guy passed a scorning look at me. I acknowledged it with another scornful look. I later learnt that his name was Karthikeyan.
So far I had spoken to only 5 to 6 odd persons in class. By now, I had known every person in the class by name mainly because of the attendance that is taken once every hour in college. In my school it was one-time attendance in morning and one-time in noon. Every hour attendance was pretty strange for me and it took some time to get used to it.
One day, there was an ellipse drawing exercise in engineering drawing class. I had completed that drawing. During break couple of girls, introduced themselves as Priyadarshini and Ramapriya and asked few doubts on drawing the ellipse. I had been wondering, whenever any person spoke to me, either Johnson or Suresh, it was for asking doubts to me. There was no discussion on movies or Harry Potter or any other book to which I was used to in school.
During bus travel, I used to read some book. So my bus mates that thought I was a nerd :-(. A misconception, most people tend to get when they see me.
The same day, after lunch there was a computer programming class. Devaki Ma’am asked a question on a simple assembly language program. My brain was working slowly; listening to a computer programming class after lunch was daunting task. Arun answered it, before I could get hold of what the question was. I was surprised, but fear factor was more than the surprise factor. There were people in the class who had better knowledge in computer than me.
And a week passed. Devaki Ma’am sent us an alternate in the form of Mr. Sivan Arul Selvan (he looked a perfect person to be cast as Uncle Vernon Dursley in Harry Potter), who did not teach us anything but questioned us on the computer configuration. Karthikeyan was called on to the stage and questioned on that. He said, he had a computer at home but did not know about configuration since he was a biology student.
There is a scene in Tamil film Vaali where the younger brother Shiva explains that his brother Deva is a deaf and mute person. But he hides that he is a dumb person by chewing a bubble gum. And since he can lip-read, nobody would detect that he his disabled.
Same applies to me as well. I was never proud of calling myself as a biology student in my class. Now that I have picked computer science, I like to address myself as a computer science student. I felt bad whenever biology was used as an escape route just as few Tamil medium students take that as an escape route in English classes.
I admired Sivan sir for the lively way in which he took the class. And two more weeks passed away, Internal exams were about to begin. Now I was feared of performing well in the exams.
Fear of losing makes you win. Fear of winning makes you lose! This was the lesson I learnt during this phase of college life!
Journey will continue...
An interesting fact
When you consume food, whatever might be the posture in which you are, even if you are hanging upside down, the food would reach the stomach.
This gentleman called 'Peristaltic Wave' is responsible for this. In much of the gastrointestinal tract, smooth muscles contract in sequence to produce a peristaltic wave which forces a ball of food along the gastrointestinal tract. This wave helps to carry the food in a direction that is expected!
From the above paragraph it might me evident for you that I had been studying Zoology with a purpose (or even biology for that matter) and I was very passionate about it too. I wanted to be a Doctor.
It was March-2006 and I had my twelfth board examinations. The only exam for which I prepared giving my 100 percent was my biology exam. Though I gave my 100 percent I missed out on few one mark questions and couple of three mark questions. I was sure of getting 190 in the paper. So as I always calculate I calculated this too.
When I was studying twelfth, the medical cut-off was calculated in this pattern
Biology theory-100 marks (200/2)
Physics theory-50 marks (200/4)
Chemistry theory-50 marks (200/4)
Biology Entrance Exam Score-50 (90/90*50)
Physics+Chemistry Entrance Exam Score-50 (90/90*50)
Total: 300
My calculation was that I lose 5 marks in biology.
I had already calculated that I will be losing 16 marks in physics and 4 Marks in chemistry.
So it was losing 10 marks in total.
190/200 was my expectation.
Then came entrance examination.
I performed pretty well in biology and pretty bad in the physics-chemistry entrance examination. Mainly because, I was focussing on biology exam in the morning (I had both the entrance examinations on the same day). It was taxing my brain. My poor preparation resulted in poor performance. I made mistakes even in the easiest of the questions.
Results were announced
I got 189 in biology
185 in physics
193 in chemistry
It was 5.5+5.5. I had lost 11 marks. One more than what I expected.
Biology Entrance Exam Score-44.12
and 38.66 inPhysics+Chemistry Entrance Exam
Total cut-off was 271.78. I thought I will not get the medical seat which such a poor cut-off. In the previous years, it was around 285. I did not apply for the medical counselling itself. My friend Santhosh, who got couple of marks less than me applied with courage and belief that he would get a seat. I was shocked to know that he got a seat while I didn't bother to apply at the fear of not getting the seat.
Though I reconciled myself that I would not have got a seat in Madras Medical College nor Coimbatore Medical College I was quite worried. Infact I still worry!
I had not been telling about my performance in Maths. I scored 199 in Maths and made a blunder in the entrance examination by marking 14 questions wrongly. I usually solve the questions in working sheet and then fill in omr sheet. It was the last minute. In a hurry instead of marking from 77 to 90th question I marked from 78 to 100! So naturally I lost about 4 to 5 crucial marks in that. My maths entrance score was 36.93. Overall cut off was 269.59.
I had to apply for engineering counselling because I did not apply for the medical counselling. I had no other option left. I got the counselling rank. Mine was 2404 overall and I had a community ranking of 1248. I got a call for counselling on the third day. I knew I cannot make it to PSG but I was confident of making it to GCT. On the second day, GCT seats were filled. I was very upset. Infact even Kumaraguru seats were getting filled. On that day evening, I made a stern decision, whatever the college might be, I have to pick only Electronics & Communication or Computer Science or Information Technology. And shortlisted Kumaraguru, Krishna College. The next day, once Kumaraguru Open Category seats were filled, people shifted to other Chennai Colleges. When I was about to enter counselling, there were seven seats in Kumaraguru Computer Science. I was almost certain of getting it. When I entered counselling hall, they verified my certificates and took me to a Computer lab, where seat allocation was done. I was informed that, my session rank in Coimbatore was 1 and Session rank over all in Tamil Nadu was 3. And there were 5 seats in Kumaraguru Computer Science. So I would definitely get a seat.
At that moment, I felt that I was totally relieved. Life was appearing brighter to me. I was very happy.
I had expected something from life and life had given something else to me. The peristaltic wave called life had been taking me in a path which has been pre-determined. Whether I hang upside down or not, my journey through it will be on course! Life is all about making fortunate discoveries by accident. I discovered it on that day.
Journey will continue...
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
A fictitious Story about an Open Source Program that I attended (Encounter With Pukka Ram!)
0 comments Posted by Deepak at 12:11 PM
Last week, there was a program conducted in my department on Open Source technologies. A person named Pukka Ram from LGISL was the one who was to speak on it. Couple of minutes into the meeting, I found that it was not about Open Source but about selling Projects to final year students! What difference does LGISL have compared to the other Student Project Centers? It actually infuriated me. Mainly because, I did not make a single page of word document ready leave alone the print out of it for my CASE tools lab record(I had my semester exams in three days). I planned to do that during the last hour of that day. This meeting took over it. Initially before the meeting started, I thought maybe open source would be of some help. But when this was about selling project I was upset and angry.
He connected his reliance data card to the system available at our seminar hall. And showed us his PACS software. He said that, normally PACS costs around 1.2 crores and he had finished it for 6.5 Lacs. His PACS was very poor. In terms of user interface and in terms of functionality. Poor chap; he didn’t know that I had witnessed far superior PACS software developed by a German Company for 20 Lacs. It was 100 times better than the PACS software he showed us. He was speaking so high of LG Group. Ok, he is their employee, can’t blame him.
His reliance data card often lost signal. He brought a very intelligent assistant who did not know to work with Mozilla Firefox, it switched to ‘work offline mode’, and he did not have a clue of what happened to the browser! I wondered how that person could demonstrate the software which Mr. Pukka Ram had brought us. Anyway, atleast Mr. Pukka Ram knew how to operate Mozilla Firefox, so he changed the mode!
He teasingly said, "This is the problem with Windows you see."
I was holding my anger but at that point I couldn’t control it. I loudly shouted, “No!”
At that instant I remembered the part in The order of the Phoenix, where Harry Potter loses his temper and shouts that ‘Voldemort has returned’. Atleast he got Detentions, Sivan Sir who was attending the meeting was the only staff who was present there. I had no worries what so ever?
I could see anger peeping out of Mr. Pukka Ram’s face, on a person shouting ‘No’. I continued, “I have Ubuntu in my home. It is highly difficult to configure internet to Linux based OS unless you have internet! I could not listen to songs at the instant I install Ubuntu!”
His answer was, “Nowadays, companies like DELL are providing Linux based laptops with easy access to internet and other plugins!”
From his answer I could conclude that, he did not clearly understand my question and that he was so obsessed with the ‘Open Source tag’.
Mr. Pukka Ram forgot that the problem was with Mozilla which was the same browser in Linux too.
He continued his speech. Now he was showing us the room management module in his hospital management software.
As he was explaining reliance data card had completely stopped providing signal! Think artificial intelligence had reached its highest level at that point; the data card could read my mind, detect my anger and disconnect. He he:-P.
Mr. Pukka Ram changed the topic, surprisingly, he did not find fault with Reliance data card for not being open source.
He asked ‘How many of you had decided your final year projects? Please raise your hand’
None raised the hand.
He was quite shocked. He changed the question asked ‘How many of you had not decided your final year projects? Please raise your hand’
None raised the hand again.
I have always lamented about this hyper-responsiveness of my class. But on that day, it made me happy.
He said, “It’s very difficult if you people are like this!” And he spoke about recession. Goodness me. These days it has become a common trend to all speakers. After Ladies and Gentleman, recession has become the most sought word in a speech. Mr. Pukka Ram was no exception. Probably he did not know Java, if he had, he would have caught this exception and handled it. He he :-P (Sorry for this mokkai(poor joke), couldn’t help it. Kindly forgive me and continue your read :-|)
He said, “It’s very difficult to get a job in this period of recession”
This was the only point in his speech which I agreed with!
And this man provided a superb solution which was icing on the cake. He said, “Come to LGISL. We provide you quality training in Open Source technologies like PHP, LAMP, Ruby on Rails, Linux etc., And we give you your final year project for Rs.10,000!” That was the pinnacle of that program.
I thought, ‘You sell projects for 10,000 Rs. You ----- (fill in the blank with whatever word that comes to your mind:-P, I can’t write it here because my blog censor board has prevented me from writing it here), what respect do you expect from me’
I lost my temper once again and once again shouted, “Open Source Technology itself is free.” Why the hell I thought, but didn’t say that, I polished the statement and said “Why should I pay you money?”
His reply was, “Open Source technology is free. But you will earn money through it. The skills won’t go waste. It will help you fetch jobs. So the skills you learn will be useful”
I finally concluded, he will speak high of Open Source Technology and the so called final year project which LGISL is providing for the students at a shoe string budget of Rs. 10,000 for the welfare of student community. So there was no point in talking to him. My friend Arun had taken that decision very early. That’s why he always holds an advantage over me!
Then finally when everyone thought that the meeting was over, my friend Karthikeyan came up with a question.
“I already know these open source technologies. Then what does LGISL provide me?”
Mr. Pukka Ram said that such students will get a discount and they can do their own projects by paying Rs. 4,000.
That statement was the master-piece in that program! I had to pay 4,000 to LGISL to do a project of my own.
Couple of week’s back I went to meet my friend Kalyani who was admitted in LG hospital for a surgery. When I left, I was shocked seeing a board, at the hospital exit.
Trauma Care
Heart Attack
Brain Attack
We are available 24 hours a day!
‘Brain Attack’, I was shocked by this term. Ok, they may be referring to the Stroke I thought. But laughed my heart out on seeing that term. Only later, when I attended this program, I understood the meaning of that term!
Was it like some kind of a tax? If he is demanding such stuff from our college students what would be the case in their own engineering and arts and science colleges. I feel pity for those students.
Now after the program, I learnt one thing, don’t ever attend a meeting from a LGISL person.
But one question was lingering in my mind for a long time after this program, “What is Open Source?”
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Only Vivek and Sathish from third year did some justice to the program!
#include<stdio.h>
void main()
{
int x;
char c,h;
clrscr();
printf("\n Enter a character:");
scanf("%c", &c);
printf(" The first character entered was:%c",c);
printf("\n Enter another character:");
scanf("%c",&h);
printf("\n The second character entered was:%c",h);
getch();
}
Solution:
#include<stdio.h>
void main()
{
int x;
char c,h;
clrscr();
printf("\n Enter a character:");
scanf("%c", &c);
fflush(stdin);
printf(" The first character entered was:%c",c);
printf("\n Enter another character:");
scanf("%c",&h);
printf("\n The second character entered was:%c",h);
getch();
}
Explanation:
stdin, gets the character and the enter as another character and it is set to h.
So h is not input at all!
fflush is an interesting function which flushes the unwanted content from the stream!
In java too we face this problem, I will get back to that in my tutorial!
Monday, September 21, 2009
The driver, a man dressed in an Armani suit, Cerutti shoes, Ray-Ban sunglasses, TAG-Heuer wrist-watch, and a Pierre Cardin tie, gets out and asks the Shepherd: If I can tell you how many sheep you have, will you give me one of them?"
The shepherd looks at the young man, and then looks at the large flock of
grazing sheep and replies: "Okay."
The young man parks the car, connects his laptop to the mobile-fax, enters a NASA Webster, scans the ground using his GPS, opens a database and 60 Excel tables filled with logarithms and pivot tables, then prints out a 150 page report on his high-tech mini-printer.
He turns to the shepherd and says, "You have exactly 1,586 sheep here."
The shepherd cheers,"that's correct, you can have your sheep."
The young man makes his pick and puts it in the back of his Porsche.
The shepherd looks at him and asks: "If I guess your profession, will you return my animal to me?"
The young man answers, "Yes, why not".
The shepherd says, "You are an IT consultant ".
"How did you know?" asks the young man.
"Very simple," answers the shepherd. "First, you came here without being called. Second, you charged me a fee to tell me something I already knew, and third, you don't understand anything about my business...
Now can I have my DOG back?"
I got this story as a forwarded mail, few days back. It was like damaging myself because I aspire to become an IT consultant! Anyway, its how the customer always thinks of us! So it was pretty cool to read. Hope you like it too!
Friday, September 4, 2009
A lady in a faded gray dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun suit walked in timidly without an appointment into the Harvard University President's outer office. The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in Harvard.
"We want to see the President "the man said softly.
"He'll be busy all day "the secretary snapped.
"We'll wait" the lady replied.
For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away. They didn't and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president.
"Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave" she said to him. The President, stern faced and with dignity, strutted toward the couple.
The lady told him "We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus."
The president wasn't touched....He was shocked. "Madam" he said, gruffly, “We can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery."
"Oh, no" the lady explained quickly "We don't want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard."
The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, and then exclaimed, "A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard."
For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. Maybe he could get rid of them now. The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it costs to start a university? Why don't we just start our own?"
Her husband nodded. The president's face wilted in confusion and bewilderment. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established the University that bears their name. Stanford University, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.
Most of the time we judge people by their outer appearance, which can be misleading. And in this impression, we tend to treat people badly by thinking they can do nothing for us. Thus we tend to lose our potential good friends, employees or customers.
Remember
In our Life, we seldom get people with whom we want to share & grow our thought process. But because of our inner EGO we miss them forever.
It is you who have to decide with whom you are getting associated in your life.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Well I had started a fan-fiction of HP 7 way back in 2007 and written few chapters.
Thought my blog readers shall have a read of this incomplete story.CHAPTER 1
VOLDEMORT VS.HARRY POTTER
With all the horcruxes destroyed and only the last bit of soul to be conquered Harry would soon meet voldermort in their final match.Who would win it?It's been a long journey for Harry right from the day he had seen Hagrid for the first time!
Harry had been in greatest despair when dumbledore died.And wanted to kill snape.But found that Snape was innocent too.Now snape too had died to save Harry.
And Ron and Hermione were in St,Mungo's,injured while destroying the sorting hat.So he was alone and had to kill Voldermort on his own.
when all these thoughts were crossing Harry's mind.
Harry heard someone calling "Potter",voldermort has entered the room.
"Voldermort",screamed harry and lifted his wand like a gladiator would lift his sword.
"what are you doing in this department of mysteries?Potter how do you want to die,as your Godfather black died?or as Ginny died,or as the traitor snape died?,or as Dumbledore died?".
As voldermort was speaking Dumbledore appeared out from nowhere but air!He was standing in between Harry and Voldermort!
"Good evening Tom, Hello Harry ",he said with his usual warmth.
Voldermort was stunned "how could this be possible?"
"I could not believe my eyes",he said.
Harry was shocked surprised,happy,and many other emotions filled him all together.
"Tom,the power of love which you constantly ignore saved me, and would now kill you"
Suddenly a cry of "AVADA KEDAVRA" was heard.Voldermort fell down,the person who killed voldermort is............................................................................................CHAPTER 2
“Harry, Harry”, harry was pinched hard by Hermione.
Harry woke up from his sleep.
“It’s getting late for the marriage.Get ready soon Harry you should not be late.”
“Hermione. I had a strange dream , voldermort being killed by someone and Dumbledore coming alive.”
He explained his dream in the best possible way,he remembered it.
Hermione was surprised to hear such a dream from Harry.
But for a second she thought ’what a happy day that might be,if the dream comes true ’
She sighed and said ”Harry we would all be happy if that becomes true but it is too early to predict.”
“We’ll discuss it later Harry.Bill would be very happy to see you, I’ll move on.”, cheered Hermione and left.
Harry was giving the dream a thought.‘I had been standing in the department of mysteries and I should have destroyed all the horcruxes for someone to kill Voldemort.Who is that person for I could see only his shadow when he was about to see who he was? Hermione woke me up.Only if I had seen who it was thought Harry.
He had planned to go to the godric hallow after bill’s marriage, which was going to happen today.
Harry who was picked up by uncle Vernon at the end of 6th term
had escaped himself from Surrey to Grimmaud palace after a brief stint of one week there.
“Potter sir, Harry Potter sir”, squeaked a voice which was from none other than Harry’s favorite elf Dobby. “Potter sir, shall I make the breakfast ready”
“Yeah, Dobby. You make it ready while I make myself ready.”
*********************************************************************************
The marriage hall was filled with lot of people who Harry recognized just by seeing once.Harry raised his eyebrows seeing Percy .
Hagrid smiled at Harry.
But Harry was surprised not to find the man who was obvious to be present.Lupin was nowhere to be seen.Harry wanted to discuss about his strange dream to Lupin.Harry was disappointed.
A sudden thought crossed Harry’s mind if he was not here then he should be with Grayback’s werewolf team and Lupin had promised to.......
To be contd.,
Lupin had promised to locate the Godric hallow for Harry and Harry’s travel to the Godric hallow will depend a lot on Lupin’s presence.
Harry didn’t know how 2 hours passed as Bill had exchanged the rings with Fleur Delacour.
Gabrielle (Fleur’s sister)was present too.
She gave a pleasing look towards Harry,seeing him,which he hardly noticed.
Just after the rings were exchanged, Lupin entered the palace , grievously injured,
With blood covering his robes.
Lupin came straight towards Harry.
“Harry, come with me, we have to leave now to you know where”.
Harry started ”why are you so badly injured? ”
Lupin cut him “Later Harry.we have to leave now .”
“come with me immediately ”,said Lupin.
Ron and Hermione started protesting.
“We would like to come with Harry wherever he goes.”, they pleaded.
“You don’t understand. We have to go alone” ,said Lupin.
Tonks started to say something…
“We would soon return, we should go”, Tonks was cut in by Lupin.
“Listen here all off you. It’s my decision that really matters. I decide to go with Lupin. Don’t try to stop us please ”,Harry said.
Many wizards and witches present in the marriage were left as silent spectators of what was happening.
They didn’t have any clue of what was happening.
(NOTE: THE MARRIAGE IS TAKING PLACE IN GRIMMAUD PALACE)
Harry left with Lupin.
All were discussing about what further surprise they might
in this marriage?
Ron and Hermione were hugely disappointed by the way Harry dealt with them
They were angry with Harry as he didn’t explain the reason for leaving them.
One hour passed………………
Lupin came back alone.Harry was nowhere to be seen.
His robes were drenched in blood.
He came straight to Hermione (the closest person)
He asked “Hermione Where is Harry?”
To be contd.,
What’s this?”, shouted at least twenty persons.
“Harry had gone with you”, Hermione said.
“No”, cried Lupin.
“I was attacked by some person, I don’t know who it was, right outside this building,
He bound me with Incarcerous , and hit me with few more spells and I started bleeding heavily I went unconscious and I don’t know how long I had been unconscious”
As Lupin was talking,
Tonks pointed her wand towards Lupin and said “Episkey”. The nose which was bleeding, very badly, Stopped bleeding.
“Well, someone who had come in your disguise had taken Harry with him , and the last thing we wanted is losing Harry”, said Hermione.
“Even if he attacked me how was he able to plot the Palace?, unless he was in the order of the Phoenix.”, questioned Lupin.
“Why did you send Harry alone. Is this the way you protect him?”,said an angry Lupin, seeing Lupin angry was a very rare sight, and this is the first time people had seen him angry.
“But whoever the person was he has hoodwinked all the witches and wizards here and had taken Harry” , said Bill.
“So. We had lost Harry….”, declared Hermione.
“No you haven’t”, said a voice which everyone there,knew.
It was the voice of Harry Potter himself.CHAPTER 3
“Harry, where were you”, asked Lupin , Bill, Ron ,Hermione, Hagrid and many others.
“Well it’s a long story”, said Harry.
“I guessed something was wrong with Lupin. I wanted to sort it out. Further,
I wanted to discuss with him a matter.So I left with him.”
“We left. Lupin asked me to hold his hand as we had to apparate to the Godric hallow.
After we had apparated I found that the person was no longer Lupin.
He had transformed into some other person. Guessed he was not Lupin.
He should have taken the polyjuice potion. That place was too creepy.
That man didn’t talk too much. I had never seen him before.
I thought that it was unsafe to be with him.
So I had apparated back, in a flash.” Harry finished.
Well this is what Harry said them. But he lied, at least partially
The actual story is…………
Harry left with Lupin. They had apparated to the creepy place, which Harry mentioned.
But the person spoke lot.
The person started to speak as his figure transformed into a tall, slim, fair guy, with a pinch of sadness in his eyes but with sharp nose and blonde hair.
“Harry, I am not Lupin”,he said.
“I very well see that”, replied Harry.
“I knew you were not Lupin even before traveling with you ,for Lupin would always show a lot of patience which was missing in you, but I wanted to find who you were, so I came with you, so Who are you?, are you a death eater” demanded Harry.
“Well I was one, you may not believe me, but I am Regulus Black”, said that person.
Harry could not believe his ears.
“How could I believe you?”, asked Harry.
“I have two proofs, first read his”, he handed a parchment to Harry.
It read
To the Dark Lord
I know I will be dead long before you read this
But I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret.
I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match,
You will be mortal once more.
R.A.B
It was the replica of the parchment which Harry earlier gained.
“How is it possible? You are R.A.B?”, Harry was shocked, surprised, and he went dumb.
Regulus continued,“The second proof is…………” he showed Harry a locket.
Harry asked ,“Is this the locket still a horcrux, haven’t you destroyed it yet.”
“Certain questions are difficult to answer Harry. But the Dark Lord is a very clever person. I think he had developed the potion in such a way that that the person who drinks it would never be able to destroy his horcrux.”, Regulus said.
“Where were you so far and Sirius said to me that you were killed by Voldemort in person.So how did you escape death?”
“Harry,I was trying to find the remaining horcruxes of Lord Voldemort,after many years of hard work I found one”
“What is that horcrux?”Harry grew anxious.
“Well,it might be hard to digest but you have to, it’s YOU”,said Regulus.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”,yelled Harry.
To be contd……..
“Harry, Harry don’t get upset I had been observing you for the past four years Harry,knew that you could not take it, but I had to tell you , the time’s come for you to know”
Harry who had by the time gone restless started to shoot a series of questions towards Regulus ,“How do you know I am a horcrux, How did you escape Voldemort, Sirius said that you were directly killed by Voldemort?,Where were you all these years? Why did you disguise yourself as Lupin,? How had you been observing me for four years?Why did you bring me hear and what do you want me to do?”
“Well Harry not too many questions together! Ask one by one.”,replied Regulus.
“How do you know I am a horcrux?” said Harry.
“I got this theory only after seeing you Harry.You possess some of the rare qualities of the Dark Lord , further the curse ‘AVADA KEDAVRA’ never leaves any mark, u have a scar Harry, which is an indicator that he never used the killing curse on you instead he should have made you a Horcrux. Making a wizard as a Horcrux should have deprived him of his power” explained Regulus.
“Well it’s only your guess right? How could you be so sure that I’m a horcrux.And is Voldemort so foolish to destroy his own horcrux.”, said Harry.
“Harry, you don’t know much about the Dark Lord, he would always have a reason beyond every action of his which I’m now not sure of ” , you being a horcrux is not only my say but Dumbledore too has the same feeling.
Harry could not believe his ears.This day has been one in which Harry has heard too many bizarre stories and now he hears that Dumbledore feels something.
“How do you know what Dumbledore feels or rather felt? He’s dead don’t you know that?”,said Harry.
“Harry sometimes truth is stranger than the fiction but believe me Harry Dumbledore’s portrait has become active.I don’t know how. I went to Hogwarts to check whether an object of the Dark Lord was still there.While searching, I entered the Headmistress’ room.There I was surprised to see Dumbledore arguing with Phineas, my grandfather. Dumbledore too was surprised to see me alive,like you.He asked me many questions which outnumbered you.After answering them all,he believed me.He took me to his confidence.He gave me a lot of instructions one was to take persuade you to go to Hogwarts and meet him.”,said Regulus.
Harry’s brain was jammed with too many thoughts.
“I’ll answer all your other questions later, we are running out of time, except for one question.How was I able to observe you for the past four years?.........though this is not your question”, paused Regulus
And continued “Harry like my brother I’m an unregistered animagus too and I’m the cat who was named as crookshanks by Hermione,your friend” finished Regulus.
Harry’s excitement was going up.
Regulus took out a teacup from his pocket. He raised a wand and murmured “PORTUS”. For a moment the teacup vibrated, glowing with an odd blue light; then it quivered to rest, as solidly black as ever.
“Harry you take this ”, he said handed the teacup to Harry.
“This is a portkey to Hogwarts, Dumbledore would be waiting there for you”he said and added “Not Dumbledore himself but his Portrait”.
“But I would not like to leave to Hogwarts without informing Ron and Hermione”,said Harry.
“You need not Harry ,for according to them you are not going to leave.”
“What?”,said Harry.
“I said according to them you are not going to leave”,saying so Regulus took a large bottle full of potion,Which was present in a shelf in that creepy place,Which Harry recognized in his first sight. It was the polyjuice potion.CHAPTER 4
What’s happened since that is quite understandable?
Regulus had taken the polyjuice potion and transformed into Harry and had returned to the Grimmauld Palace and Harry’s left to Hogwarts……………
Harry held the portkey tightly into his hand on the count of three he said to himself
One………..two………..three………….
He was swirling fast.He reached the Headmistress room.The portkey had taken him there.
He had a voice “WELCOME BACK TO HOGWARTS,HARRY”, the voice very familiar to Harry, he could never forget the voice of that person, it was the voice of Albus Dumbledore the late Headmaster of Hogwarts, from his portrait.
“Sir…Sir…..How are you?”, Harry could not form any other sentence with his brain jammed with too many thoughts for a 16 year old(Harry’s yet to celebrate his 17th birthday).
“Harry, rather than the question how are you it might be more prompt to ask what are you?, My senses are no more active. But my sense is very active, last week I had a great fight with Phineas on the issue of being a portrait”, said Dumbledore who looked like a person filled with over whelming joy.
“Sir I’m glad that you are back”, said Harry.
“I’m as happy as you are”, replied Dumbledore.
“Sir, I said about Snape to you. Finally he turned out to be a villain and had……..had………….k……………”, Harry could not finish.
Dumbledore finished “And he had killed me Harry”.
“Harry.The episode you witnessed of snape killing me has many reasons lying behind it.But that is to be explained later.As for now I can only tell you that we have to continue our lessons.Harry go near the pensieve placed on the table…..”
To be contd.,
Three days passed.
At the Grimmaud palace, Harry was sitting aloof from all the persons in the house.
Lupin saw Harry, he came near Harry and said,”Harry,you asked me to take you to the Godric Hallow.Shall we go there now?”
“Yes definitely”,laughed Harry,well Regulus in Harry’s disguise.
“We would accompany Harry this time.Last time Harry was sent alone and the consequences were not exemplary”,declared Ron and Hermionein unison.
“So let it be”,said Lupin.
Lupin continued
“I have a portkey for Godric hallow.Hold it.On the count of three.Three……..two……….one…….”
This feeling of traveling using a potkey was not new for them,being wizards they all have had the experience of using a portkey.They landed in a place.
“It is similar to Hogwarts grounds”,said Ron.
“It is not similar to Hogwarts Ron,It is Hogwarts”,said Hermione pointing towards the castle.
“Where have you brought us”, before they finished the question to Lupin he had vanished.
**I am using Harry (Regulus) to indicate Regulus is in the form of Harry Potter
To be contd.,
They started to move around the castle grounds in search of Lupin.
Harry (Regulus) said, “What is the point in uselessly roaming? Let us go and meet McGonagall and explain her, what happened.”
Though Ron initially hesitated he agreed after Hermione showed little of her persuasive skill and imperative skill mixed together.
They went to a spot in the seventh floor corridor where a single gargoyle stood against the wall.
Ron asked, “Now how to enter the office without knowing the password?”
“FELIX FELICIS”, said Harry (Regulus).
“What a vague guess”, said Ron.
For a moment nothing happened then suddenly, the gargoyle leapt aside; the wall behind it slid apart, and a moving spiral stone staircase was revealed, on to which all the three stepped, so that they were carried in smooth circles upto the door with the brass knocker that led to Mcgonagall’s office.
“How did you know this password Harry”, questioned Hermione with lot of suspicion that was visible in her way of questioning itself.
“Oh! come on Hermione. It was after all a good guess from Harry”, said Ron.
Harry (Regulus) said, “No Ron. Hermione is right. I am not Harry Potter. I am Crookshanks”, saying so Harry (Regulus) transformed into Crookshanks.
Both Hermione and Ron wondered what other surprise they had to face.
Well, they are in for lot more surprises.
To be contd.,
And it was never continued. I started my research work for Mystic Murder(my first novel), so I left this story incomplete! (Before I could resume, the original book released :-))
Hope you had a good time reading it.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Whenever I feel bogged down, I get such morale boosters! This is one such story, which drives me to work to travel beyond the boundary.
This is a story of an elderly carpenter who had been working for a contractor for the past 53 years. He had built many beautiful houses but now as he was getting old, he wanted to retire and lead a leisurely life with his family. So, he goes to the contractor and tells him about his plan of retiring. The contractor feels sad at the prospect of losing a good worker but agrees to the plan because the carpenter had indeed become too fragile for the tough building work. But as a last request, he asks the old carpenter to construct just one last house.
The old man agrees and starts working but his heart was not in his work anymore. He had lost the motivation towards work. So, he resorted to shoddy workmanship and constructed the house half-heartedly. After the house was built, the contractor came to visit his employee's last piece of work. After inspecting the house, he handed over the front door keys to the carpenter and said, "This is your new house. My gift to you." The carpenter was shocked and upset. Had he known that he was building his own house, he would have done a better job!”.
Think of ourselves as the carpenter. Though we work hard every day, we put our least to some work, which we don't like and get shocked at a situation we have created for ourselves and try to figure out why we didn't do it differently.
Learn to enjoy your responsibilities with pleasure and not with pain. "Life is a do-it-yourself project". Do your job enthusiastically and with devotion, a positive output and a pleasing life will certainly be on your way.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
I have titled it, "Time To Live". Hopefully, I would finish it before next April.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
He met her on a party. She was so outstanding, many guys chasing after her, while he so normal, nobody paid attention to him. At the end of the party, he invited her to have coffee with him, she was surprised, but due to being polite, she promised. They sat in a nice coffee shop, he was too nervous to say anything, she felt uncomfortable, she thought, please, let me go home.... suddenly he asked the waiter. "would you please give me some salt? I'd like to put it in my coffee."
Everybody stared at him, so strange! His face turned red, but still, he put the salt in his coffee and drank it. She asked him curiously; why you have this hobby? He replied: "when I was a little boy, I was living near the sea, I like playing in the sea, I could feel the taste of the sea, just like the taste of the salty coffee. Now every time I have the salty coffee, I always think of my childhood, think of my hometown, I miss my hometown so much, I miss my parents who are still living there". While saying that tears filled his eyes. She was deeply touched.
That's his true feeling, from the bottom of his heart. A man who can tell out his homesickness, he must be a man who loves home, cares about home, has responsibility of home. Then she also started to speak, spoke about her faraway hometown, her childhood, her family. That was a really nice talk, also a beautiful beginning of their story.
They continued to date. She found that actually he was a man who meets all her demands; he had tolerance, was kind hearted, warm, careful. He was such a good person but she almost missed him! Thanks to his salty coffee!
Then the story was just like every beautiful love story , the princess married to the prince, then they were living the happy life... And, every time she made coffee for him, she put some salt in the coffee , as she knew that's the way he liked it.
After 40 years, he passed away, left her a letter which said:
"My dearest,
Please forgive me, forgive my whole life lie. This was the only lie I said to you---the salty coffee. Remember the first time we dated? I was so nervous at that time, actually I wanted some sugar, but I said salt.
It was hard for me to change so I just went ahead.I never thought that could be the start of our communication! I tried to tell you the truth many times in my life, but I was too afraid to do that, as I have promised not to lie to you for anything.
Now I'm dying, I afraid of nothing so I tell you the truth: I don't like the salty coffee, what a strange bad taste. But I have had the salty coffee for my whole life! Since I knew you, I never feel sorry for anything I do for you. Having you with me is my biggest happiness for my whole life. If I can live for the second time, still want to know you and have you for my whole life,even though I have to drink the salty coffee again".
Her tears made the letter totally wet.Someday, someone asked her: what's the taste of salty coffee?
It's sweet. She replied.
This story was a forwarded mail from my friend Kalyani... I was deeply impressed by this story and wanted to share it with you people!
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
For the past six months I had been held up with the IBM - TGMC(The great mind challenge) project. It was a combined effort of the zillion trio(Me,Arun and Karthi). Especially from 16th to 20th December it involved continuous work. We hardly ever slept last week. This was one of the main reasons that my blog post frequency had come down. I was in a kind of mental trauma with this project, which didn't turn up as well as I wanted it to be. But now that I had submitted the project, I am back to business(blogging ;-)).
Do continue your support.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
I tried an anagram poem for my story mystic murder.
My poem
Brave cow, serene lake.
Over analysed new fancy.
Invite queer,the hassle!
This poem is full of contradictions (could be called as oxymorons too)! There is never a brave cow, it is a calm cow always. The other terms are contradictions too!
This is an anagram of the haiku from the film fight club
Original poem
Worker bees can leave,
Even the drones can fly away,
The queen is their slave.
Friday, November 28, 2008
I have finished Mystic murder at last! I had chased my dream and quite lived it. But the response of mystic murder has been mixed from my friends circle. And so, I had planned to rewrite the entire story. Change the style too! It might take another five to six months to finish the story. And meanwhile I have started working on my next story too. It has been tentatively titled as "Final Fiasco"
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
This is indeed a very happy moment. It's been one year since I started this blog (I started it on October 19 2007) I had been receiving stupendous response for my blog from all my readers with the alexa ranking of my blog reaching 7 lakh and odd at one stage. Thank you readers. You gave me all the inspiration to work with my blog. The success of my blog doesn't lie with me alone. It lies with all my readers. Once again thanks for supporting me. I hope that your support continues forever and we celebrate many more anniversaries like today.
An interesting anagram to mark this occasion.
Try to identify this person: He admires talk,pen,UK!
Clue: Those who know me can solve this easily.
Are you still trying???
That's my name Deepak Senthilkumar!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Millions left for their promised new homeland with smiles on their faces as trains left both India and Pakistan.
The massive exchange of population that took place in the summer of 1947 was unprecedented.
This is a train to Pakistan being given a warm send-off.
In 1947, the border between India and its new neighbour Pakistan became a river of blood, as the exodus erupted into rioting.
These pictures are by Margaret Bourke-White from Khushwant Singh's book Train to Pakistan, Roli Books.Over 10 million people were uprooted from their homeland and travelled on foot, bullock carts and trains to their promised new home.
An aged and abandoned Muslim couple and their grand children sitting by the the roadside on this arduous journey. "The old man is dying of exhaustion. The caravan has gone on," wrote Bourke-White.
It left behind a trail of death and destruction. The Indian map was slashed to make way for a new country - Pakistan.
In a couple of months in the summer of 1947, a million people were slaughtered on both sides in the religious rioting.
The street was short and narrow. Lying like the garbage across the street and in its open gutters were bodies of the dead. Here, bodies of the victims of rioting are picked up from a city street.
With the tragic legacy of an uncertain future, a young refugee sits on the walls of Purana Qila, transformed into a vast refugee camp in Delhi.
Men, women and children who died in the rioting were cremated on a mass scale.
Villagers even used oil and kerosene when wood was scarce.
The migration
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Lightning Rod
Tower of the Srirangam Temple
Being born in an orthodox hindu family, I sound a rebel whenever I query about the
scientific point of the religious rituals. One day a strange uncle (he resembled my real
uncle) gave a great explanation on the tall towers (gopurams) in the temples and the
scientific aspect of temples. I want to share it with you! Have a read.
Me: Hello uncle.
Strange Uncle: Hello Deepu. How are you?
Me: I am fine uncle. How are you?
Strange Uncle: I am fine Deepu. I heard that you are posing lot of questions
regarding the rituals in our religion.
Me: Yes uncle.
Strange Uncle: What's your doubt?
Me: I have many doubts uncle.
Strange Uncle: Ask your primary doubt.
Me: What's the point in going to the temples to worship God?
Strange Uncle: That's a good question Deepak. You should first understand that
temples are not just a place of worship. Before explaining the need of temples, I
must ask you a simple question. Do you know what a 'lightning conductor is?'
Me: Yes Uncle.
Strange Uncle: Can you explain how it works?
Me: Ya sure. It was in my class 12. I still rememeber it. It is a simple device used
to protect tall buildings from lightning.
It consists of long thick copper rod passing through the building to the ground. The
lower end of the rod is connected to a copper plate burried deeply into the ground.
You know, it has a metal plate with number of spikes to the top end of the copper
rod and kept at the top of the building to be protected.
Strange Unlce: Deepak. This is the construction part, I asked how it works!
Me: Ya, ya, I am coming to that part. Wait uncle. When a negatively charged cloud
passes over the building, you know, positive charge will be induced on the pointed
conductor.
Strange Uncle: That's enough Deepu.
Me: I didn't finish uncle.
Strange Uncle: That's enough Deepu. Now explain me how a Gopuram or tower of the
temple looks.
Me: It is in pyramid shape with a kalasam made of some metal placed on the top of
it.
Strange Uncle: Exactly, you yourself had told me the concept involved in temples.
Me: I don't get you uncle.
Strange Uncle: The kalasam in the tower is filled with cereals (the dhaniyangal in
tamil) which are insulators. And in olden days, the height of the temple tower would
be taller than all other buildings in a village. So that the whole village is
protected from lightning.
Me: So you mean that temple is just a lightning arrestor.
Strange Uncle: No, not just that. It is much more. The kalasam is full of positive
energy due to the induction. So when you visit a temple, the positive charge is
passed on to you. You become fresh. The positive charge is also passed to the other
metal statues in the temple and during car festival it is transmitted through out
the locality. Also, the reason to go and pray the God is that, positive energy is
maximum at that place!
Me: Whoa! This is totally amazing. Where did you learn all this?
Strange Uncle: Deepak! Deepak! Wake up Deepak!
Me: What?
Strange Uncle: Deepak it's late for college.
I opened my eyes to see my dad trying to wake me up (shouting at me that it's late
for college). What a weird dream? Is the scientific aspect of temples told by the
strange uncle uncle true? I couldn't think much beyond that because it was very late
for my college. I will ask this to the strange uncle when I meet him (again) :-)
