10 Songs in my favour this season

10. System of a Down –Toxicity ( This song was released in 2001 in the bands most successful album. I love the song for its great lyrics and brilliant music which has a lot of variety and creativity.
“…the toxicity of our city…”

9. The Ramones- 53rd and 3rd ( A song from Ramones self titled album from 1970. This song has not been featured in their best of collection ‘Loud, Fast Ramones’. But this song somehow is compelling for me. Just pure Punk Rock with the vocals being on the edge of, what you say, childish.
“53rd and 3rd….”

8. Nirvana- Smells like teen spirit ( The definitive grunge song by the legendary Kurt Cobain from the greatest Grunge album ‘Nevermind’. The song defines the grunge culture. Rocking bad ass song with fabulous lyrics and brilliant music!
“…yeah, whatever, nevermind…”

7. Paul McCartney- Fine Line ( The song from his latest album “Chaos and Creation in the Backyard”. The legend has played all the instruments in the album. The song is sweet, simple and short. Great lyrics and a catchy rhythm to boot.
“There is a fine line between recklessness and courage…”

6. Elvis Priestly- Can’t help Falling in Love ( I just downloaded Best of Elvis in two volumes and I couldn’t help falling love with his music. This is one of the songs I’ve been listening over and over. The lyrics are sublime, so is the King’s voice. Really a classic!
“…some things are meant to be. Take my hand; take my whole life too…”

5. The Monkees – I’m a believer ( I doubt whether the new generation has heard of this band. This is the first ever readymade, pop boy band. Though I hate the pretentious songs of Boy bands, these guys had character. Check wikipedia for more… Well, this song is a terrific one. Most of you must have heard its cover version in Shrek(1) . The finale song sung by Donkey. Catchy Music and great lyrics. I love this song!
“ I thought love was only true in fairy tales…”

4. Deep Purple- Smoke on the water ( The most famous rhythm guitar riff of all time. Richie Blackmore at his best. I learned to play the riff in Fruityloops! Instant Classic!
“Smoke on the water; Fire in the Sky!...”

3. Coldplay- Fix You ( The song from their latest album X&Y. I love this band. Terrific Songs. ( Not Hard Rock or Metal but good rock songs) This song has got a mellow start and classic finale. Fabulous lyrics and the dreamy voice of Chris Martin.
“When you try your best but you don’t succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need”

2. Green Day - Boulevard of Broken Dreams ( This song is really a modern classic for me. I am not getting tired of it. Touching lyrics and a great composition. Very different from Green Days typical Punk Rock( though, very good mind you) fare.
“I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goesBut it's home to me and I walk alone
I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleepsand I'm the only one and I walk alone”

1. Cream- Sunshine of your Love ( The legendary band Cream comprising of Greats like Eric Clapton (guitar) , Jack Bruce (vocals and bass) and Ginger Baker(drums). Though the band was alive for just 2 years, they left and indelible mark on the music scene. They were inductees in the Rock n Roll hall of fame for the same. I cant get enough of this song. Simply Sublime! A great opening guitar and bass. Catchy Tune. The dreamy and breathy vocals of Bruce and good lyrics.. And brilliant Guitar work. This is a classic that has stood the test of time.
“It’s getting near dawn,
When lights close their tired eyes.
I’ll soon be with you my love,
To give you my dawn surprise.
I’ll be with you darling soon,
I’ll be with you when the stars start falling.
I’ve been waiting so long
To be where I’m going
In the sunshine of your love.”

(Some) Spirits of Delhi! 

Happy B'Day Pattu! Naveen given a gift after the 'Kani'. 

Paru, Jyothi and Archana!  

Tour Report-IV (Camels ride to Delhi)

By the way I forgot to mention a very tense moment. We got down at Gandhinagar (or was it Ahmedabad?) and someone told us train stopped for a while here. Well, "while" turned out to be 30 seconds and all of us were stranded and frantically jumped into the moving train! Really scary. We hadot take a count to make sure everyone was in.
We reached Rajasthan by next morning. While brushing my teeth I glimpsed a Camel in the Desert which looked very un-desert like. Heavy unprecedented rains. Guess we took rain all the way from Trivandrum to all places we went.
Then we saw many houses which were coloured very brightly and was really annoying to look at. Some houses were Blue and others were yellow.
Nitin told that the blue ones belonged to Brahmins and they practiced segregation from others. Racial Superiority! Fucking Bull Shit! Even the wells were painted blue. Though Iam not very liberal in caste religion stuff (Throw Reservation out of the window!) I was appalled by the prospect of people being denied of water due to their social status in this 21st century. Reminds of stories of Premchand.
Anyway the journey was taxing a lot. No bath since stepping on to the train. Though we boys enjoyed playing the "World Cup", I suspect it was not the same for the ladies.
THE World cup was really a demanding tournament. One "cup" and many guys. Fight to the finish! If you get the cup probably you find the ground has been occupied by some asshole from the next compartment. I personally had good world cups mostly one sided.
Enough of sleaze! Lets get on!
Uneventfully we entered Haryana. My mom had her training in Haryana (Nilokiri and Karnal) and is always very vocal about her experiences. So it was a wish fulfillment for me.
We reached UP and on the way we got down at many stations to set foot "here" and "there".
You must be wondering how we know the exact borders. Well the cell phome companies (no exception here sends a message "Welcome to ------!"
We were ready for Delhi and we were really rearing to go as Delhi came. At Nizamuddin we saw some really cute girls. hmmm... A prelude?
To cut it short we reached Delhi Platform-12.
P.S: we had an amazing experience at Gujarat. It demands its own post.
Later Days...

Tour Report-III (Decaying society)

Later that night we reached some stations and a couple of boys got in. Very dirty and we were afraid of them being thiefs. Then one of them got into the bathroom and locked up.
Second Boy: Woh beedi pee raha he!
The boy came out of the toilet after a while and we continued our vigilant watch. Then they took off their shirts and started sucking on it with some thing balled up.
Then Nitin came along, our Hindi Bhai, and queried the boys with his characteristic charm.
Nitin: Kya bhoonk raha he?
Boys: Nashaaa!
Nitin: Kya Nasha?
After a while the boys opened up and spoke about them.
They were Bhuvan and Nagraj. They were 10 years old and sweepers in Baroda Station and was hitching a ride. First we thoughtthey were taking some drugs. But they showed the bottle. It was a whitener cleaner! Very poisonous stuff. They poured it into their shirts and started to suck it up. They had got some curd from some passenger and was eating it in a nauseating manner. Curd relieves kick and the boys lost the kick and they doped themselves again. They told they would get off at baroda station. We held our watch though and after a while both fell asleep in a high and had to kick them awake when Baroda came. They were barely able to stand by then. I entered the bathroom to check and found the smell was not of tobacco but some other shit. The kids were into dope so early in their life!
Shame on the pushers who give them drugs, the shops sell them the remover perfectly knowing how these guys are going to use it. The kids will probably die when they are in to their late teens or turn into hooligans who will do anything for a shot of dope. May be rioter/victim in the next Gujarat riots?
Really this tour has shown us the life beyond our sandboxes and the decomposing state of our nation.

Tour Report -II

Let me continue with the tour report.
We boarded the Samparkranti Express and was on our way to Delhi. After an initial chaos while settling down everything did, well... settle down. The compartment was a new one and void of any "artistic impressions" except for one pornograffiti in the toilet. We decided to set aside two end coupes (we had 5) to the guys and sandwich the girls in the other 3. Also some of the sideberths would be taken by the guys. These arrangements would be for the night and all of us hung around wherever we wished throughout the journey.
First of all some of us changed into our halfpants (well I guess only me and Nitin at first) and had our breakfast. it involved a lot of skillful manipulations to get the appropriate nutrition. In other words Kaiyittu Vaaral from others. After finishing their food we got ours and ate it peacefully.
Nothing much happened for some time. The Familiar landscape of Kerala was really feeding me the nostalgic feelings I would be getting in the next fortnight. In Kannoor Station, Vineeth brought Biriyanis for us to eat. He was really godsend as the catering in this train was awful as these guys were Delhi based and the items were really bland.
The days were spent playing cards (Ass and sometimes Rummy) and absolutely no reading, though I had carried several paperbacks, interleaved with some antakshari and generally hooliganising the train.
The Train passed through Konkan route but it was in the night so nothing was really visible. We would be returning through this route in daylight though. Near the city of Bombay we got to ate Vada Paav which was really good.
Then on about the night we reached Gujarat and saw the amazing infrastructure of Reliance Petrochemicals. Hats off to you Ambani!
( I have been holding this draft for some 3 weeks now! Sorry for the delay.)

Favourite time pass! Eating and Playing Cards! 

Hafeez, Anu and Sulu 

Me, Jackie and Dhanya 

Photos from the Tour-II

These pics are from Manali. Though we reached Delhi first, we actually stayed there for only one day. The Delhi visit was in two phases. So I decided to club them together and post later. Also these are pics from Sree's digi, I'll post the other photos as I get them. Believe there are stunning pics! A sample is there in our blog http://csfellowship.blogspot.com go visit that too.

Also some of our tour pics and other pics are there in Sree's multiply site http://babusreenath.multiply.com/. It contains the pics from the trekking to Agasthyarkoodam and the treat we gave the girls earlier this year.

ciao

Whoz dat absolut Keedam??? More on that later :) 

At HPMC. Arun Raj, Nibin, Kiran and Divaku 

Dont remember where it was taken. (Help me out guys!!!) The protogonists from L to R: Divakar, Jackie, Sreenath, Anu,Rajeev, Suleena, Parvathy, Preethy, Maneesha,Jyothi, Dhanya 

At the Hidimba Temple. The white thing Thakkudu (Rakesh) holding is a rabbit we paid 5 Rs to take photos with. 

Sreenath,Panackal,Naveen,Me,Pappu,Anand & Divakar We tried to get a stunning background in vain :( 

Scenic Manali! 

Series Sam!

Serious Sam is one of my favourite games. The game has a non pretentious and goofy storyline just to set the tempo of the game. The game is nothing but pure mayhem with brainless and bizarre creatures coming to kill you in bizzillions. My series tests are also on a similar vein.

6 subjects, its teachers, the invigilators etc are enough to drive one crazy. Situation similar to the firefights in Serious Sam.I would really like to pick up a chain gun and massacre them all.

Just before this series our s5 supplementary results had come. Didnt get 2 papers: Microprocessor and Computer Hardware Design. I have absolutely no excuse for flunking in MP. Gopakumar Sir, the best teacher inour college taught the subject and I know the shit pretty well as well. Then I wonder how the hell did I flunk?

CHD is another matter altogether. It was taught by a certain Dujala (its her real name!) who was ne of the worst (if not THE worst) teacher. She had no subject knowledge and we used to quarrel all the time. Had a pretty rough time with her. So it was no surprise that I flunked the first time and the second time too I expected the same.

So my mom said we have to visit the three navarathri pooja temples as only God can help me now ! (like god doesnt have anything else to do!)

First we went to the Saraswathy Mandapam near Padmanabha Swami Kshetram. Thankfully, I wore a dhothi as it is compulsory there. But regret fully I didnt take any Neiruthu( Shawl). I had to walk around the entire place half nude. Though I didnt have any problem with that, mom said we would buy a thorthu. It cost a 15 bucks for a small piece of cloth!

Inside the mandapam some cute girls were dancing! (Devi! Please forgive me!)
I think I was the only male in the 18-30 demographic. It was a queer feeling. On top of it people were rushing for absolutely no neccessity.
While getting out of there I realised I havent visited Kuthiramaalika in my life! It is said to be a must see in our city. And its been a while since I visited Padmabha Swamy as well.

After that we decided to walk through the Chalai Market to the temple in Aryasala. I think the corporation should ban the vehicular traffic in the market area. It would certainly reduce the rush there.

We entered the temple. There was a big silver horse there.
Mom said to me "Look its the silver bull in which Kumara Swamy sees the city."
Me: "It looks like a horse to me!"
Mom: "yes it is!"
I placed a rose and some camphor at its foot and stroked its mane, 'Nice horsey!'

The last temple on our list was Chenthitta Temple. The rush was more inside that temple.
We went to my Aunts house after that. I still havent got the time to give them the stuff I bought during the tour. Its been two weeks!

All these happened the day before the tour. And my series test? Much "better" than I ever wrote! Ill flunk for the first two and probably for the rest too!!!

Licking my would be wounds!
ciao

Photos from the Tour-I

The photos below are from our journey to Delhi by the Samparkranti Express.
Check out our blog for more photos http://csfellowship.blogspot.com
The tour report will be updated soon!
But expect full blown action after our series test is over :(
It begins tomorrow and will finish by 13th.
Needs to good marks. Unlike other colleges we have to WORK to get the sessionals. The 'excellent' tempo that I share with our teachers compound the problem further.
ciao

A boy that we met in the train along with Anand, Divakar, Me and Panackal 

TTE(Arun Kumar), Pappu(Rajeev) and Naveen 

Prabodh!!! 

Nitin, Nibin and Dinkan (Rahul) 

Booohooo!!!! 

Rakesh Chettan: The leader of Da Gang!!! 

Towards Kochuveli!

Iam finally relieved of the burden of my seminar. So I can start blogging more freely now! Seminar went quite decently. Stammered my way through to the end and no questions from Anju Miss and Manoj. They were confused, stupefied and dazed by my topic. Google File System. Ill write more about that later. Now Lets get into the tour report.

The night before the tour was mostly spent with deciding who will pick up whom etc. Lot of passing the doll and by 11pm it was finalised that Sreenath would pick me up from my home. He would pick up Jackie and Divakar too. So he said he would come around 7:45 am the next day.
The train was scheduled at 8:45.

So I was ready and waiting by 7:30. But he was a little late and I had to bear the ire of my mom and she was worried he must have forgotten about me!!!
Finally by 8:10 he came and I waved good bye to my folks. I felt a pang seeing their sad faces. My dad was on the verge of tears I guess.
So we embarked to Kochuveli. It was a little far off than I had thought. Sree sped through the highway and we actually reahed the goods terminal instead of the passenger terminal and had to go some more distance.

We arrived at the station and almost all were there. Divya and Nisha had come to see us off and so did Gopakumar Sir.
Some interesting stuff happened in the Railway Station. With Thakkudu in full form its always fun. Bonny had been ribbed by Kozhi, Colonel and Thakkudu, they had decided to wear shorts to the railway station and poor Bonny kept his word and others didnt. The parents were surely eyeing him suspiciously.

I actually thought of getting a shot at Bonny by saying Gopu was taking attendance and I almost took him to Gopu, butdidnt have the heart to get him in front of sir.

The train had not yet reached the platform and Jackies Dad went to investigate (he is in the railways). And we made a declaration and that we will "take care" of railway employees and their children if the train didnt come soon.

Train had a maintenance trouble so we started only at 10 am. Prasanth, Baadi and other kidilams were there. They had an alternate tour plan. Fuck them! As we started Prabodh became senti and cried along with kidilams. On the show off of consoling one of us actually caressed Gopu's head!

So we started of the journey. The compartment was pretty empty. Jackie's Dad was going to Kollam and was on the same compartment.
He said his characteristic ma**re in an usual tussle and his dad mustve heard it too.
SO the train rolled off.

Next: Chalo Dehi!