Nethi Adi

Life cycle of an Engineer: "At the Lab"

2005-08-19T16:00:00.000-07:00

This is a very interesting(not informative) part in the life cycle of an Engineer. Lab work or 'practicals' as we call it is meant to offer the student, hands on practical training. I am just going to describe some very common situations which we would have come across in our labs.

First year(At the phyiscs lab): This is the final semester lab exam.

Prof: You all can start picking your ticket from the lots here to decide what experiment you need to perform today.

This is the most crucial part as most of us would have definitely not done all experiments during the regular lab hours, and over that some of us would not have even gone through the procedure to perform certain experiments.

B1(koncham orupadara paiyan): Dei machi, enakku rendu experiment panna theriyadhu da.. adhu vandha sangu dhan..

B2(suthama orupadatha paiyan): Koncham amaidhi maintain pannu, ennaku rendu kooda seriya panna theriydadhu.

B1: Theva dhanda, semester fulla onnoda batchla irukara rendu ponnugaloda kadala pottta illa, dei kadavula pathu kudutha aapu da.

B2: Nee vera, nanay tensionla irukkaen, anga paaru da andha ponnugalan ennama mug adhichitu revise pannaraganu

They pick their tickets, B2 gets the simple pendulam experiment(one of 2 he knows) and unfortunately B1 gets the viscosity experiment(one of the 2 he does not know). B2's very happy and know he will def get through this exam.

B2 smiles and waves at B1... kadavula pathu kodutha varam da :)

B2 starts working on the experiment, sets things up and starts taking readings. B1 tries to gather as much information about what he needs to from people arnd him and is desperately trying to make up some stuff.

LA(lab attender) , now here is a guy who can play major havoc in your lives. In most cases, he will be a man. This guy will most likely tend to be a whacko with loads of attitude. The probability of you being in good terms with him is almost zero. He can literally wreak havoc with your experiments even if you know how to do them. You want to know how.. lets say by giving you instruments with wrong caliberations. You see a 5mm reading but hey all that you see is not true, it will actually be 8mm. Thanks to the evil genius, you are now screwed. Oh..I forgot to mention, they are so nice to girls and always lend a helping hand even if not asked for(dont ask me why).

B1 tries to signal for the LA and he comes to B1's table.

B1: Anna, kapathingu.. nenga dhan deivam mari enna help pannanum.

LA: Ennadhu, oh ippo nan deivama, dei pona varam yennoda vandiyila kaathu yerakki vetta gumballa neeyum oru aal dhane da.

B1: Anna, illa anna, neenga yedho thappa purinjukittu yirukaenga.. onga sidela support panni andha asanga kaiya pesinadhu na dhanga..

LA: Nalla kadha solra... onnum konja neram thadavu, appa dhan ennoda arumai theriyum.

To be continued........

Life cycle of an Engineer: Phase I

2005-08-11T14:18:00.000-07:00

I will briefly go through the cycle in the life of a typical Engineering college student (if this below cycle does not apply to you, I am sorry to say this, but you are not a complete Engineer).

Semester Begins: You are highly pumped up after the vacation and are eagerly waiting for classes to begin. You decide that you are going to learn something and prove yourself to your parents(who periodically keep reminding that you are fit for nothing). You get to classes on time, even try to take notes occasionally and hey, you even try to take a shower daily in the hostel. You stick to all the rules, stop passing comments at teachers and fellow students. You control all your instincts with extreme difficulty. This phase lasts for about 48 hours. The lecturers are so skillful that by now, they usually are successful in convincing you that nothing has changed. They give you a mocking smile in class as if to say " Hey Moron, what did you think, just because it is a new semester now I should start teaching you real engineering ".

So, all the adrenalin that had been over pumped for the wrong reasons come back to their normal levels now. But, we should not be blamed for end of phase I, as we did not burst the bubble.

Cable Karan Koothu ! a.k.a. Cable Guy Fiasco ! (Engliphish)

2005-08-03T15:25:00.000-07:00

This is one amazing incident that happened during my college days. The hostel in my engineering college could be best described as a concenration camp. The facilities were so crappy that Hitler himself would have approved this shit-hole. Some of the stduents could not survive the camp conditions and they would slowly move out and stay in nearby residential areas. I accepted defeat during my second year and me along with Thatha and SuKu moved out into a small house nearby. By this time, the foolish notions that we would learn quality courses and become "real" engineers was also quickly dispelled. After giving up on academics and by moving out of camp, we suddenly had so much time in hand and the freedom to do what we wanted.

The engineering brains in me and Thatha started to work and we came up with this brilliant idea of buying a TV and to put cable. This might sound really trivial now, but in those days(making me sound old) this was shunned by society and out of the question as students were only supposed to study. Getting caught by our parents meant, BACK TO CAMP, as we had promised that the very point of moving out was to concenrate and study better as we were getting distracted in the hostel ;).We put some major fight and after saving up, we got ourselves a small 19' color TV. We could afford even this because of the major discount we got on the TV as it had a nice dent like the scar on Harry Potter's forehead. Hey, but who cares, we now had a color TV and thats all that mattered.

The third guy with us Suku, was not exactly receptive to the idea of the TV and put a major scene. So, just me and thatha decided to share the Tv cost and the monthly cable bill. Suku ended up watching more TV than us after intially giving us a lot of gyan. The problem really came when Suku's father was going to visit us for a few days. We tried real hard to foil his visit, but all in vain. We then disconnected the TV and cable wire and locked it up in the loft(these lofts are a life saver). So, for the first day of uncle's visit, everything went to plan. It was the second day evening now and uncle was leaving the next morning. We were playing cricket in the mottai madi and suddenly we heard a lot of noise comming from downstairs.

The cable karan had come to collect his monthly dues and was having a heated argument with Suku's father. Everything around me just froze for second and there were just about a zillion imgaes flashing across my mind.....

Uncle thrashing Suku right in front of us...

Me standing before my parents and my father going nuts at me after hearing abt this and declaring for the "Nth" time that I will never achieve anything in life and Orupadavaemataenu ...........blah blah...

and worst of all I am back in CAMP...that was brutal

and that is when I came back to reality and listened to what was going down below.

Uncle: Intha vetla cable kidayathu pa, thappana addressku vandhurka

Cable guy: Illa saar, masa masam inga than vasool panraen saar.

Uncle: Idhu padikara college pasanga irrukara vedu pa, inga cable illa pa (felt like someone just slapped us)

Cable guy(just lost his cool): Nan enna kaenaya, adhan solraen illa indha vootla cable irukku nu.

Uncle (getting pissed too): Olla vaya, nan vena katraen pathuko, inga TV yae kidayathunu evalvu tharava solradhu onakku.

The situation looked totally lost and I could feel the end nearing. Me and Thatha luckily made eye contact from the mottai-madi with the cable guy and he recognized us. The next words from his mouth would have been "Call those boys and ask them itself" before which we made one final move which came so naturally(thanks to our politicians).

We folded both our hands together with an apology written all over our faces. And then I sliightly waved my hand(in a gesture asking him to leave). The cable guy got the cue and was very gracious and helped us out. He apologized to Uncle saying, maybe he did get the wrong house and he just left. We just could not believe how close we had come to getting caught.

All thanks to the magnanimous Cable Guy, I still owe you one.

DeSo Suck Syndrome

2005-07-31T19:51:00.000-07:00

I am so tired of this mind block in the "Desi" community that people from their own community are inferior. You live here and you try to ape whatever the "westerners" do, feel you are superior and act snobish when you bump into someone from back home in a public place. I am not accusing every NRI but I am so tired of these "Desi Peter's(DP)" (who form 50% of the total NRI community) and their irritating attitude.

A simple example would be this...

We were a bunch of guys who went to see a local screening of Thalaivar's Chandramukhi. We had a group of "DP" sitting behind us, which included a few girls(this means more trouble). There came the titles and as soon as Rajni's name flashed there was obviously a lot of cheering and whistling from us. We heard a few arrogant mocking sighs from behind which basically meant 'what the hell is wrong with you unsophisticated country fellows' as if they have never ever seen a movie back home. Some of my friends were pretty pissed right then, but we decided to just let it pass. The movie started and the next incident happened during Rajni's intro scene. This is what we heard from behind...

Peter 1: These people are so cheap, dont know how they got here(US)....

Peter 2: Ya, I am ashamed ..blah blah blah...

In fact, we had not made any noise randomly when the movie was in progress as a result of which they could not hear the dialagoue or follow the progress of the movie.

We were so pissed that we decided to give them hell for the next 2 hours. Believe me, they would never have gone through more humiliation in their lives before. We made them sick and we were enjoying every bit of it (in fact, more than the movie).
Then post-interval we found that our DP could no longer take hell from us and were found missing from their seats.

My question to these people is why do they even want to come to a gathering where they know what to expect and then bitch about it and make a big scene. If they dont want to have any noise while watching a movie, why do even want to come to the theatre for a Rajni movie. If we were really disturbing in the sense that they could not follow the movie(which we were not), they could just request us to keep it down a little. This is just one such incident, you bump across such specimens everyday here. My request to you is, when you come across these Peters- GIVE THEM HELL !

Lets take a bow

2005-07-31T19:46:00.000-07:00

I saw American History X this weekend and Edward Norton just blew me away. It was one the best performances I have seen in a while. He just held the whole movie together (tacky screenplay) and you just pray for him to be on screen every frame. This guy is pure MAGIC!

The Diner Connection

2005-07-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

I got to watch Natural Born Killers yesterday. I have heard a lot about this movie but I never really knew who were the people behind it. After I saw the first 10 minutes of the movie which involves the scene at the DINER, I could just feel Tarantino's touch all over it. And I later found that he had indeed penned the story for the movie and also about the creative differences he had with the director. But having said all that I still feel that one can see the Tarantino stamp on the diner scene. If you notice Tarantino's movies, almost all of them will have a DINER scene and they would have a unique flavor to them.

To make a movie that is violent and fascinating needs skill but to make an ultra violent movie with style needs a genious like Tarantino.

Holding Reservations!

2005-07-25T12:42:00.000-07:00

It was a very hectic day at work and the thing that kept me going was the fact that it was a Friday and I was getting away for the weekend. I had a car-rental reservation with so-called enterprising guys who promised to also pick me up and drop me off as a part of their new promotion to attract more customers.

On the phone:

Me: Hi, I have a car-resrvation for the weekend and I would liked to be picked up from my place now.

E1: Sure, just give me a moment (speaks to someone on the side). Ofcourse we will love to give you a ride but you might have to wait for an hour before we come and get you.

Me: What!!!!, I need to get to some place by tonight and need to beat the traffic. I was never told that I had to wait for an hour to be picked or else I would have made alternate arrangements.

E1: I know Sir, I am very sorry about the inconvenience caused.

Me: I dont think your sorry is really going to change anything here, I would rather appreciate a solution that helps me.

E1: I know, I just wish I could do something but I am afriad I have nothing mor to offer.

Me(thinking in rage): I just wish I could do something to you guys for doing this to me..

I just hang up in frustration.

I make a few calls and finally manage to get hold of one of my friends. He curses me a few times as I disrupt his peaceful evening of doing nothing and he feels so pissed off about the fact that now he has to do something.I guess a drive with a serial killer would have had a few more pleasantaries exchanged as neither of us were in any mood to have any conversation.

I get off at the car rental office and just hope the traffic in the interstate is not bad now. But little did I know that I had bigger things to worry about.

Me(Slightly irritated tone): I have a resrvation for a compact car for the weekend.

E1: Please be seated and I will get everything ready in a few minutes.

I sat down and relaxed for the first time that evening and started thinking about the fun weekend ahead. I started flipping through some magazines in the coffee table and slowly started losing my patience after 15 mins. After another five minutes, I could not bear it any longer when I went up to the person. I made no effort to hide the impatient frown on my face as I asked if everything is OK.

E1: Absolutely, I have asked them to get your car out and it should be out any time and then we can go over the paperwork.

Another 15 minutes went by finally I was called.

E1: I have some really good news, we are giving you a free upgrade for the inconvenience caused due to the pick-up and the delay here now.

Me: What kind of a upgrade is this ?

E1: You will be getting a 8 seater Mini Van for just the same price, not a penny more. This is one helluva deal.. blah blah..

Me: Thanks for the offer, I am not interested in an upgrade, I just need the compact car I reserved.

E1: I am afraid that wont be possible as we are out of compact cars and in fact any other cars other than 2 of these mini-vans.

Now this was it, I could no longer take this crap.

Me: I really dont get it, first you guys make me run around and then keep me waiting for 45 mins and then finally tell you dont have the car that I reserved.

The rest of the converstaion went something like this...

JERRY: I don't understand, I made a reservation, do you have my reservation?
RENTAL CAR AGENT: Yes, we do, unfortunately we ran out of cars.
JERRY: But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation.
RENTAL CAR AGENT: I know why we have reservations.
JERRY: I don't think you do. If you did, I'd have a car. See, you know how to take the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation and that's really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them.
The only difference now was that it was not funny this time with me being in the hot seat.

Me: I am not taking the mini-van for just one person and go through the pain of driving the monster in weekend traffic, not to mention the atrocious gas prices just because you guys were incompetant and messed up my reservation.

She went and spoke to her manager and he came forward and gave a much more acceptable solution. He called up their nearest branch and had a mid-size car delivered to me.

I started my drive 2.5 hrs behind schedule and yes there was no traffic now thanks to these morons.

Comedy that turned into a tragedy!

2005-07-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

Last night, I was listening to a S.Ve. Sekar drama when some old memories came flooding back to my mind. During high school days, there were two incidents which I still vividly remember when it comes to S.Ve. Sekar dramas. In this post I am going to talk about the first one.

This happened in Std-XI, this was the year when the maximum fooling around was done as we had no board exams or any other entrance exams in which we had to score 99.999999% to survive(Not that it would have made a difference). We were a group of around 6-8 guys, and took great pride in being the 'last benchers'. I can write numerous posts just about the mis-adventures we had. Basically, all we did was not to do what we were told to. We took immense pride in flouting every small rule that was imposed on us (not that these rules made any sense) and tried to have fun in class.

Any chance to legally cut classes was immediately grabbed with both hands and going to culturals was one of those. Our criminal and vetti minds were always looking out for these oppurtunities and now we had a chance to break free for a whole day. We decided to perform a funny skit and the first thing that came to our minds was to use something out of a lesser known drama of S.Ve.Sekar and improvise on it. After a huge fight, we narrrowed down on the 6 people who were going to be the LUCKY few to escape the boring classes for the day. After a lot of discussion, we finalized the script and practised a few times to get the jokes and the timing right. We were now ready for the event and more importantly having a great kick out of the fact that we were out of class.

It was a full house in a pretty decent sized auditorium for this event. While we were waiting for our turn, we were watching other contestants perform. There were some good performances and most of them were dances by a group of 'Hot' girls. The crowd was going crazy and honestly so were we..

Vj: Machi, nelama seri illa daa
Rag: Escape aidalama..
Bali: Dei, athalam onnum illa.. ne vena paru namba skita pathu crowd bejarrr aiydum
Vj: Adhanda ennaku bayama irrukku, crowd siza pathiya, indha crowd thappa bejarr achunu vechiko SANGU dhan

We heard the announcer calling our school on stage next..
Myself and Bali were playing two main characters and Rag was the narrator for the skit. We were all very nervous as even if the timing is a little off in comedy, things would become a disaster. The skit began and for the first few minutes everybody in the crowd was silent. This is a very bad sign for a play where we were trying to make people laugh. All of us were expecting the worst as such silence was usually followed by loud booing. Then, a few punch dialogues came (Thanks to S.Ve. sekar) and things started rolling. The crowd relaxed a little and there a few laughs dispersed here and there. The atmosphere slowly changed and we were starting to gain confidance and it started showing. We now had the audience in splits and they were responding in the just way we had expected.

We were now nearing the end of our skit and looking at the way the audience reacted all this while, we were confidant of winning it. Looked like none of them really found out the fact that we had borrowed(decent way of putting it) our idea from S.Ve.Sekar's play.

Last scene of the play:

Rag as the narrator had to explain the scene and whats going on before we started enacting it. This is what rag did, instead of describing that me(Vj) was standing in the street, by mistake he blurted out that S.Ve.Sekar is standing on the street. For a moment, there was pin drop silence all around the auditorium. I was the guy standing in the middle of the stage. I just did not know what to say and those few moments were really scary with the entire audience staring at me in total silence. We then pulled ourselves together and finished the play. But we knew that we blew it and as expected we did not win.

But we had so much fun recollecting this incident innumerous times and we would laugh at it. I dont think that this memory would have been recollected now after so many years even if we had won the other day without goofing up.

Jumping into the Blogwagon!

2005-07-21T10:39:00.000-07:00

I have been fascinated by blogs for quite a while now. I have been reading more blogs than any other websites for the last few months. Now, that's when I thought it was high time for me get started with one of my own. I am looking forward to this whole new experience.

I am hardly into my first post and I am feeling stuck. As I think how to get rolling, Kramer's genious quote from Seinfeld comes across my mind.

"Say you got a big job interview, and you're a little nervous. Well throw back a couple shots of Hennigans and you'll be as loose as a goose and ready to roll in no time. And because it's odorless, why, it will be our little secret."

Guess, thats what I got to do before I start writing my next post ;)