Life in Chennai

Chennai Central Railway Station

I got selected for Amazon and my way to Chennai became very clear.10th July 2011 is the day when I came to Chennai. Like others I was also afraid about climate of Chennai. But Chennai is not so hot in this time of the year nor it was in july.

Night life in Chennai is not as wild as in other Metro’s. They have a valid reason for it. Chennaites don't want to make Chennai a  place where people will drink eat and enjoy in night and sleep in day.

Google Search is required to find good pub/bars in Chennai ( if you really enjoy in these places ). But to find huge peaceful temples are very easy. In-fact you can find at-least one temple in every one km radius. Truly a holy place it is.

I forget to take my key one day. Called my roomy and he told he will come around 10pm. I sat on stairs started my laptop. Suddenly from second floor a man with white hair came and asked me why you are sitting on stairs. If you forget key come to our house. I told its ok uncle. No-no come , and he opened his door for me (This was my first meet with him). I can bet you in Delhi or Bangalore no one will invite strangers to their house. Chennai is so cultured and homely place. People will welcome you with full of their heart The only things which you need  is to understand and accept their culture.

Tamil still has its importance in Chennai as in rest of Tamilnadu but if you learn at least few common words like saptingla (had food ) , theriyam ( know ), theriyad ( don't know ), you will feel comfortable here. Even  cab drivers are fluent in English here. We can find here many Hindi speaking people also.

When you say "Vanakkam" (Greetings in Tamil ) they will become so happy and glad,. I realized it when I used this vanakkam magic wand with elders I met in the garden. Chennai is not a garden city like Bangalore. You can hardly find any garden in Chennai. But I had one near my home ( I am lucky :-p )

Jeans , t shirts are common dress for youngsters in Chennai as in other parts of India these days but still lungi/dhoti and other traditional dress has its own importance here. :-p.

Murgan idly amazed me. What a traditional way of serving food with 4 types of different tasty coconut chuttnies. They served everything on banana leaf. No spoons. But the taste is so good that I forget all so called eating etiquette and started with the most hygienic tool of eating (of-course hand)

Public transport in Chennai is much better than other metro's. Can you believe bus charged me Rs 4.50 for 9km distance.Yes 50paise per km. I am sure you cannot find cheaper transport in any metro. Although road jams are common in chennai also but in comparison to other metros it is surely less here. Electricity is  also very cheap here and not much power cuts.

I have shown draft version of this blog to my roomie ( Dheeraj ) and his reaction is -" your blog is looking one sided everything is good about chennai ". It should show the other side also.

I was thinking if my experience is not bad in chennai why should I write the other side. But the God fullfill everyone wishes. Same happened with Dheeraj wish. I got the chance. 4/9/11 wednesday was the rainy day in Chennai. I have already opted out my pickup cab option. I started from my home in Besant Nagar towards Tiruvanmiyur Depo to catch an auto for my office. All roads were full of waters. Its like Ganga , Yamuna all together flowing into Chennai Roads. Even main roads like OMR (Old Mahabalipuram Road) were full  of water. Then i realized that opting out from office pickup was a big mistake



Yes one thing I found bad in Chennai is climatic conditions with worst drainage system.

I am going to complete my 4th month in chennai on 10th Nov and I can say Chennai is not a bad place to live.
I still want to go to bangalore, but now not because I don't like Chennai , my some close/dear friends are in bangalore with whom I want to spent lot of time.

Dedicating this post to them. Come to Chennai at-least to visit if don't want to settle here.. Its a nice cultural place.

Sub-Juniors are always Great !!

I am happy because finally after thinking for past 1 year I have started blogging. And again it is because of NITK (National Institute of Technology). Thanks NITK for everything you give me.

Yes almost after one year and couple of month we had convocation for 2010 pass-outs , popularly called “Golden Jubilee Batch” of NITK. I was excited from the day when I got the information that convocation is scheduled for 25^th September. Anyone will be , when he know its not only convocation but the opportunity to meet 4 batches together ( Mybatch, sub-juniors, their juniors and their juniors). Booked tickets on the same day. It is easy to take off from Amazon Chennai rather then from Sapient Noida. 

Journey towards NITK for convocation started on 23^rd evening. I was thinking in the train (Mangalore express) when you go home you should bring some gifts for the members but I am not taking anything for NITK,  and started making ppt  “Success Guaranteed” (I can say my first ppt after final year major project) for my sub-juniors. It contain 5 steps cycle ( Gain Knowledge->Take Help-> Grow Yourself->,Help Others->Make network->Gain Knowledge)

Finally after 16 hours journey reached in Mangalore.  Wao! excited to reached NITK. Again heard the same sound of VEGA-VEGA from bus drivers.Got a call from Gaurav, Hrishi , Saurabh cosecutively. They were waiting near NITK Cooperative Society, to go for snacks and abusing me for let them wait in hot humid climate of Surathkal.  Finally entered in to NITK. I was feeling glad to come back. 

One of my sub-junior took my bag (sub-juniors are always great) and I directly went to pande shop for snacks with my friends. Samosha and lassi there were really mouthwatering. 

We stayed with our sub-juniors in 8th block. I could see a clear division of two groups from my batch. Or rather it would be more better to say one group and rest all became group 2 automatically.

I was thinking even after rigorous industrial training of diplomacy and friendly behavior with everyone for almost more than a year, how whole mentality is converted again to college mentality as soon as you entered inside the hostel gate. This is the beauty of NITK. You will always feel collegiate there.

I was moving into the corridor and suddenly heard a voice “Finally got an opportunity to meet you sir”. The voice was none other than Natraj ( PC from my sub-junior batch ).  Although we have lot of chat on Gmail, FB and phone calls but still I was unable to recognize him. I asked his name and he told Natraj sir.I told him you are looking so different from the pic you uploaded on gmail. Believe me his writing skills can amazed anyone.

I had a small chat with Sushanto, Himanshu, and Ramamurti (shortlisted guys from Natraj batch for Amazon intern ). I told them about Amazon culture, type of work which as per me is the best till now in comparison to my four employer (Oracle, Yahoo, Sapient and Amazon)

Well so we had lunch in Suraj International (A only good hotel nearby Surathkal atleast for those who want to enjoy north Food). Although few like Gaurav really want it to be Bittu ka Dhawa but the climate and time did not permit us to go there. And from Suraj we went to Manipal. Believe me it was my first visit to Manipal.We were total 13 (10 boys and 3 girls ) and Shilpi & Swati joined us later. But Island for which we went was closed till November so we enjoyed the beach there. I personally want to visit Udupi Krishna temple also but when you are in group you have to settled down with other's wishes sometime.

And at night we came back to NITK, this time not from hostel gate but from main gate. All NITK is full of lights and welcoming us. This time the whole treatment is for Alumni and not for students. Feeling of proud will automatically come there. 

After entering in the 8^th block I asked one of my sub-junior ( forget who ? ) to inform everyone and gather in other wing if they want to ask something from me ( yes related to placement , career and all ). We had conversation started around 10:30pm. Hrishi also visited twice in the room.  I showed my ppt to them and they had lot of interesting questions on ppt content which even surprised me.  I got lot of material to upgrade my ppt from them. I was thinking it should not be boring for them ( Gyan batana will sometime become boring as you know ) but the complement which I got and still getting from some of their batch is really motivating me to make more ppt’s.  Believe it or not this conversation was continue upto 4:00 am in the morning and finally we stopped. My bed was ready in Himanshu’s room. Actually Sushanto gave his bed to me and adjust himself in other room with his batch-mates ( I told na… Sub-juniors are always great)

I haven’t seen but heard that there was one more gathering handling by Ujwalendu ( topper of my batch ) running on the other side of wing where he was enjoying smokes with immediate fresher’s batch. They also had fun till morning 5:00.

Slept at 4:00 am and woke up 7:15 am and was still feeling energetic. May be the excitement was giving me energy.  We had convocation scheduled at 12 on Sunday and already got the shawl’s on Saturday when we registered our presence for convocation before going to Suraj. I was ready around 9 but was waiting for others before changing dress for convocation.  Finally after few photo’s in white shirt ,black pant and convo shawls we reached for HIGHTEA. Don’t ask me what is HIGH in this HIGHTEA. The HIGHTEA was actually snacks with badam milk ( Kachori, my all time favorite banana chips and a cake piece ). Glass of badam milk dropped from Mehendi’s hand and his white shirt had a spot now.  He did some unsuccessful try to remove that spot and finally we all told him it was not visible so don’t worry.

Entered inside SJA ( Silver Jubilee Auditorium ) around 11am. Wao!! Great decoration. Could hear Sanskrit mantra’s . They have made whole vibration. All chairs have sticker stacked with the name of student. Everything is so well planned. Small water bottle with two news bulletins of NITK was there in every seat.  Whole batch who were present is together now. Settled according to roll numbers as stickers on seats are as per roll no.  So all group are merged now.

Exactly at 12:00pm sound of band started. It was looking like filmy. All profs entered  half of them are going to stage from left half from right and at last 3 ( Director , Chairman and Chief-guest ) from the mid of the hall. 

Convocation started in a very well planned manner . Our batch got the degree from Chairman of NITK.  Happiest movement of life. We took oath at last and finally ceremony finished with National Anthem.

We had lunch in Mega hostel block mess.  Lunch this time is not like ring ceremony ( A special occasion unique to NITK ). All is very well managed .  Icecreams wao!! and we are alumni now so no coupon system as in college days. You can take as many as you want. 

Back to 8^th block. I changed my dress. I told to Himashu ( sub-junior ) called your juniors , I have few hours left so will meet them also. They gathered in Himanshu’s room.  We had little chat ( thoda gyan baata ) but time constraint, had train in evening.  Himanshu told me to show that ppt to his juniors also and I showed but this time we finished in ½ hour. Took their snaps. Forget to take snaps with my sub-juniors.

So we were all set to go back to our destinations. Around 6 we left NITK. Few sub-juniors came with us to drop us outside NITK gate. This time Prasun asked for my bag ( Sub juniors are great :-p ).  Reached  Mangalore center station popularly known as “HAMPANKATTA”.  Bangalore train was already on platform.  Hrishi, Guarav and I had some chat on platform. And finally Bangalore guys left. I was alone on station waiting for my train for Chennai , West Coast Express scheduled at 9:45.  Had a vada and tea .

Feeling that I was missing something.  That night I got a good sleep in train (B1-31 side lower birth).  But from morning was feeling so bored. Still was in the memory of NITK.  Himanshu called me because they have not get any call from Amazon for their scheduled interviews My train was near Chennai central station that time. Their interviews was rescheduled to some other date.

And the life is again same……………

Things which I want to do but could not :

1. Snaps with sub-juniors 
2. Spend sometime on NITK private beach and temple there
3. Visit NITK Library  (I still remember CS stacks if it was not changed)
4. Visit MACS department and 4^th block( Room no.19 my room in NITK)
5. Meet with immediate fresher’s batch

Hope will again get the opportunity to come back to NITK