Friends

by 1 comment on "Staying in touch"

rsz_handsWhen I was on Facebook, I was getting to know what was happening in the lives of a lot of friends and acquaintances. I wouldn’t say I was in touch with all of them as they were just sharing updates with me and posting comments only because I was on Facebook. It wasn’t like most of them really cared about staying in touch with me and I would have been hell-banned like I am now as I am out of Facebook.

A lot of my friends whom I try to be in touch with, still share their updates only on Facebook and often I end up having to ask them offline to share stuff with me like the pictures of their wedding, trip photos and etc. But this doesn’t bother me at all as I still know how to get hold of them.

These days I am asked often, “Are you on WhatsApp? Why not? It’s cool and the happening thing right now. You’re missing out on a lot of fun. So and so is on WhatsApp and we all had a fun group chat”. Really? Do I really have to bother myself into signing up for yet another messaging/communication platform just to stay in touch with most people who don’t care? Do you people keep talking with everyone on your contact list on the next happening messenger app? I guess not. With Facebook now acquiring WhatsApp, I wouldn’t think of going anywhere near it. I am content to be using just my Gmail account to communicate via chat and email with people and it suits me just fine. I am sure that if you really care about me, you won’t mind taking that extra bit of effort to get in touch with me and I will be glad about that.

These days, the rate at which the “happening things” happen is getting ridiculous to say the least. I don’t want to bother about getting myself into each of those glorified silos that lock-in and keep out people not inside it. A popular saying on the internet goes “When something is given to you for free, you are the product being sold” but nowadays it has become “Even when you pay and buy something, you are the product being sold”. Why should I sell myself just to keep getting spam from people whom I don’t care about? Those whom I care about and vice-versa, I am already in touch. Wanna get in touch with me, contact me wherever I am on the internet – my blog, Gmail, Twitter, Identi.ca, Diaspora and so on. Even a quick Google search on my name will be of help in finding ways to contact me.

Looking forward to getting in touch with a lot more people who care. 🙂

Update (17 Nov 2014) – I have succumbed to the pressure from friends and relatives and agreed to try out WhatsApp for a few months since it is the only way to reach most of them easily.

by 0 comments on "Memorable trip to அழகர் கோவில் and பழமுதிர்சோலை"

I’ve been here at Madurai for the past 4 years for my education and I hadn’t visited அழகர் கோவில் and பழமுதிர்சோலை even once in this time. I vaguely remember visiting பழமுதிர்சோலை when I was a little kid. So I had it up there on my wishlist for quite a long time and yesterday Senthil had told me about his plan to go to the temple. I wasn’t ready for the German class and the test today and had decided to bunk the class to escape the test and a boring, long session. I didn’t have any plan to go to the temple though I had told Senthil that I’d try to come if I woke up on time. So when I got SMS from Senthil and when Prabhu came to my room to remind me, I suddenly thought for a moment and decided to go. We all had our breakfast and started for the temple at 9.30. About an hour and half later we were at the temple.

அழகர் கோவில்
அழகர் கோவில்

We visited the deities at the அழகர் கோவில் and then started our trekking towards the பழமுதிர்சோலை முருகன் கோவில், it was a long exhausting walk up the hill along rocky terrain and steep slope. My calf muscles were resisting my every step forward, but still with company and enthusiasm in my mind, we reached the temple after 45 minutes of trekking. The shrine was very small, too small to tell the truth, and we had a peaceful dharshan. When we were about to leave the temple, Senthil saw the அன்னதானம் மண்டபம் and suggested that we could have lunch there and we were lucky enough to be taking up the last few places available. The food was minimal and good and definitely more delicious and palatable than what is offered at hostel ( 😉 ). Then Senthil suggested going to the நூபுர கங்கை shrine that was a bit higher up the terrain from the temple. Once we started walking up, we realized how drastically steep the way up was and we had to use all the energy from the lunch to make our limbs labour ahead. Once we reached there we decided to take bath in the water and did so. It was so soothingly pleasant in the hot weather. We thoroughly enjoyed getting soaked in the water and started our trek down after drying ourselves a bit. The trek downwards was exerting in a different way due to the inverted slope. On the way down, we stopped near a tree which a had a board that read – ‘ஔவைக்கு சுட்ட பழம் வேண்டுமா, சுடாத பழம் வேண்டுமா என்று கேட்டு காட்சி தந்த இடம்’! We took photographs of ourselves standing beside the tree and then the tree itself and continued the trek downwards listening to the music playing on Prabhu’s mobile.

ஔவையிடம் சுட்ட பழம் வேண்டுமா சுடாத பழம் வேண்டுமா என்று முருகன் கேட்ட மரம்
ஔவையிடம் சுட்ட பழம் வேண்டுமா சுடாத பழம் வேண்டுமா என்று முருகன் கேட்ட நாவல் மரம்
Myself and Prabhu
Myself and Prabhu

We reached அழகர் கோவில் in about 40 minutes and returned to hostel by a long and tiresome bus journey. The entire trip, though tremendously exhausting, was worthy and memorable. For the rest of the snaps taken during the trip, click here

by 0 comments on "The joy of helping friends"

A mass-recruiting top services company visited our campus for recruitment in the first week of December. There were about 500-600 students hoping to make it to the list of selected candidates and there were many friends of mine among them. Of course, since myself alongwith 10 other fellow students had already got a dream job, we weren’t allowed to attend the recruitment drive and we were to help organizing things during the 2 days of the recruitment drive. On the first day, multiple sessions of Aptitude test were scheduled and I volunteered as an invigilator in one of the halls. With so many nervous fellow students around, the tension was starting to get to me. Once the written test was over, the students were starting to be called for interview in groups in our Men’s Hostel where I reside. So I was there helping when my classmate friends were preparing and writing the tests. We, the volunteers had a hectic time with a lot of running to do and at the same time we had to assess the nature of each of the 18 interview panels and send students accordingly as it was a make or break situation for all of them. I had a lot of students requesting me to send them to ‘technical’,’non-technical’,’HR’,’puzzle’ panels and the interviews were getting completed too fast and we couldn’t do much choosing. I sent a lot of students to panels they would’ve wanted to avoid, hoping that they’d make it through and get selected. My legs were aching so much out of non-stop running and at one point the pain became so unbearable that it didn’t make any difference if I was standing, sitting or lying down. I learnt valuable things in handling such situations so new to me and I have to admit that it was the excitement that kept me going despite the physical pain.

I had to don other roles as well, helping students with their preparation and giving them confidence. There was one of my friend, who incidentally happened to be the placement representative and one of the better performers in the college, who was in some dazed unprepared state before the interview that I had to stay with her, give her confidence, help her in filling the employment application form and all the stuff when she was literally shivering. Once she was done with her interview, she was sporting an attractive smile that conveyed to all that she had done very well. She conveyed her happiness and gratitude to me, but I politely reminded her that she deserved it and I just helped her get her focus. I was so happy that I contributed invaluably to someone’s life. Moments like these make me feel happy and proud throughout my life. One other good thing that happened was that I, a normally quiet person who likes to keep a low profile, got to interact with a lot of wonderful guys who were my fellow volunteers. These were sufficient for me to cherish those couple of days. 2 days went in a whiff and when the results were announced at the K.S. Auditorium on the second day at about 8 PM, I drowned in a feeling of extreme happiness arising out of happiness for my friends and my peers who had secured their jobs. I even doubt if I had felt even some percentage of the same happiness when I got selected for a job in a dream company. Anyways congratulations and my best wishes for all those who performed well, got selected and made my day!