Mysorean

My father had decided to change jobs and places as well. We were moving into this new place called Mysore from Hyderabad.

I liked Mysore the minute I saw it. Those gulmohar trees along the road with their big red flowers created a very serene atmosphere. The searing heat in Hyderabad to the cool gulmohar trees was such a welcome change that I liked the place a lot.

The first thing I remember about my house in Yadavagiri 7th main is the park opposite to the house with gulmohar trees all around them. Children of my age were busy playing cricket with a few elders. It was summer holidays and schools did not reopen till two months later. So, plenty of time to play. I don’t remember doing any holiday homework ever!

My immediate target was to find myself an admission in a school nearby. CFTRI was what everyone in the neighbourhood went to and it was considered to be among the best during that time. My father did all the required form-filling (I don’t think there were many at that time) and I was called to take up a test.

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You give me these three things and I will not trouble anyone for the rest of my life! ;) Anyway, getting on with what I want to put up today cutting out the nonsense.

Picked this one up from here. We (the original author of this write-up and I) are from the same school. The Get-together of which I missed and wrote about that here. Anyway, let’s get to this one now.

I was in 7th standard when I was selected to my high school’s cricket team. Naturally enough, it was the happiest day of my life. A moment of quintessential bombaat to be sure.

The news of my selection was delivered by my school’s PT master—and I know I can’t (shouldn’t, rather) use his real name so I’ll just call him UR.

UR, up to that point, wasn’t exactly my favourite person in the world. He verbally abused us every chance he got especially during Saturday mid-morning drills. To
wit:

* “Lo kothi, ninnanna yaaro yelnay claas-ige paas maadidhu? Leftoo andre yedagaalu kanole, idiot!”

* Or the ever popular rhetorical question: “Nimmappa amma yaak school-ige kalustharo ninna? Sumne manelidhu katte kaayakke laayak neenu.”

This was pretty standard stuff as I’m sure you’ll agree.

Anyway, the first day of cricket practice was a Wednesday. We got done with classes at 3:30 pm. My classmate (who was also selected) and I pedaled over to the cricket ground a short distance away.

The rest of the team, i.e. the chaps from 9th and 10th standards, showed up a half-hour late. We were told to help carry the mat onto the field. In short, we were cricket coolies.

The stumps were pitched. The practice batting and bowling orders were announced. We were not present in either one. So I assumed I was part of the unannounced fielding order and stood at point because no one was standing there. I was asked, sorry, told, to go and do byes keeping.

It dawned on me that the seniors of this team had had no creative input in UR’s decision to select us lowly 7th standard guys. And they didn’t think much of the
idea.

My classmate and I (he was doing byes keeping on the leg side) exchanged looks. The looks said, “I hope no one from our class stops by to watch cricket practice today.”

After all our seniors had batted, bowled and humiliated us it was almost time to wrap up. And that’s when UR showed up. “Yenappa, yellaroo battingoo bowlingoo maadidhraa?” The captain (bastard!) said “Yes sir. Yellardoo practice aaithoo.”

And then UR did something he wasn’t supposed to. He looked at me and my classmate and asked, “Yenraiyaa, yengithu practicoo ivathu?”

I blurted out, “Namige batting siglillaa sir.”

And right there, at that moment, my chances of ever playing for the school team while I was still in 7th standard thudded softly into the grass.

UR took charge. “Neenu pad maadkolaiya. Naan practice kodistheeni. Lo baddimaklaa”—this to the rest of the team—“banro svalpa bowlingoo fieldingoo maadrappa ivribbarge!”

So, having only played tennis ball cricket up to that point, I put on pads for the first time in my life. They were too big for me. When I walked, the top of the pads slammed into my stomach.

The old style belt and buckle pinched my ankes, calves and at the back of the knees. Still in the process of padding up, I picked up this plastic cup that I knew, in theory, to be the (then euphemistically called) abdomen guard. It had no straps
whatsoever. So I did a little bit of 3D mental manipulation to figure out how I
was supposed to rig this contraption so it would protect my, you know,
abdomen.

Out of my own sense of modesty I’ll omit the rest of the details. Suffice it to say however, that after I’d put on the abdomen guard, the only way I could walk was with my legs spread wide – like a Dasara Kesari pailvaan approaching his next victim at the beginning of his kusthi match.

I walked up to the stumps. Legs spread wide (for aforementioned reasons), I took my stance. UR had ambled up to point to get a closer look at his two new junior players.

My other classmate, in the process of padding up behind slips, was holding an
abdomen guard with the same quizzical expression on his face that I had a few minutes ago.

One of my seniors ambled up and bowled one short on the off. All I saw was a whistling flash of red. Mustering all the strength I could—“MADAGOO!” yelled UR from point—I heaved the bat and swung.

Missed completely. Got turned around because of the momentum of the bat. Ended up, facing square leg (and what seemed like) a lifetime of embarrassment.

UR delivered the coup de grace, “Neen hodioyoshtralli, naan canteeng hogi cawpee kudkond bandhbidbodhu kanaiya.”

And that was when, for the rest of my life, I fell in love with cricket. Thumba
thanksoo, UR.

The UR he is talking about is Uncle Ranga, our PE (Physical Education) instructor. And yeah, we used to call our teachers as uncles and aunties then. He used to be our cricket coach and I have played under him both as player and captain of our school team. And he’s the best you can have. And when Mr. Alfred Satish Jones says thanks he echoes the voice of every single student who has passed out of CFTRI school under UR! You are Uncle Ranga, You really are THE BEST!

I missed it. I missed it. I missed it.

:( :( :(

Well, as usual I bunked it. I was notorious for bunking since my schooldays itself! But this time I wasn’t playing TT or volunteering for some event, I was sitting at home! (Since, I might cry if I continue typing this, I shall stop here and allow you people to relish the moment! Maja maadi…)

But there are photos that have been sent to me by my classmate Sutejas. We are from the batch of 1995. And from the photos I gather that my batch is the #2 going by number of people attended! Great going guys! (Jayanth, please don’t correct me if I am wrong! heh heh!)
Jayanth was the main organiser of the get-together. He is from the batch of 1996.

How much I would have liked to be a part of this get-together! But then, there’s always a next time, right? Right Jayanth?! ;) Say yes! You have no other option!

Blame Sutejas for the quality of photos!

Check it out here.

Links:
My School blog
My School yahoogroups homepage
My batch googlegroups homepage
My school-gang yahoogroups homepage

We were friends during school. Close friends. We did a project about a fighter tank for the Open Day at our school. We wrote a story together for our school magazine. A great writer, excellent painter and a revolutionary thinker. We were a good team. We were frank with each other about everything.

Whenever I used to go back to Mysore during my Intermediate days I used to make it a point to visit him.

During my engineering days, we weren’t in touch much. He was doing his engineering from another college in the same city. And we were busy with our lives. We used to catch up on phone.

After that for 5 years, I was out of touch with him. Only recently we got in touch through a certain e-group for our schoolmates.

He hasn’t lost a bit of enthusiasm. He has become a greater writer, I don’t know if he still paints, but the same artist shows in his photos. Photography is a great hobby to have if you are good at it! ;) [PJ!] And if you read his blog you will know the level of his thinking.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Chaitanya Vikas. My good old friend. We haven’t been in touch with each other for long time. It’s now time to renew the old ties buddy!

Gurur Brahma Gurur Vishnu Guru Devo Maheswara;
Gurur Sakshat Para Brahma Thasmai Sri Gurave Namaha

Guru is Brahma, Guru is Vishnu, Guru is Maheswara. Consider Guru as your everything. In this world, everything is a manifestation of Divinity. Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma (verily all this is Brahman). All are the embodiments of Divinity. In fact, all that you see is nothing but the Divine Cosmic Form (Viswa Virat Swarupa). [From divine discourse]

Today is “Teachers’ Day”. Whatever is good in me, is because of my teachers. I have been privileged to have some great teachers teach me.

My teachers were remarkable simply because I was so unremarkable. Teaching me is not an easy job. I can ask so many stupid and arrogant questions that it would put off any self-respecting individual. But my teachers were not ordinary individuals. They had the ability to transform personalities.

Lets start with my school teachers: (We used to call them “aunty” and “uncle” as a mark of respect and intimacy. I consider CFTRI as my school because I remember very less of my earlier school “Srividya”. )

• Aunty Saramma was my first science teacher. If I ever managed to even familiarise myself with Biology it was because of her.
• Aunty Vijaya was my first kannada teacher. She had predicted, at a time when I had just started learning kannada, that I would be very good at it. It was her confidence that today the only language I am most comfortable with is “Kannada”.
• Aunty Rukmini was my Hindi teacher. That she did a splendid job of teaching me the fundamentals is evident in the way I am able to change dialects within our National language.
• Aunty Prabha was my most prominent Social studies teacher. Well, she excellently taught us Geography, History and Civics. But I loved her most for the way in which she treated us like her own kids.
• Aunty Raina was my first mathematics teacher. Today Mathematics is my favourite subject. Need I say more?
• Aunty Sujaya was the headmistress of the School for the entire length of my school-life. She was this exceptionally strong person who had the ability to spot talent in a person. And also, by far, I haven’t seen a better English teacher! [An interesting incident about Aunty Sujaya. When I had applied for admission into CFTRI school for my fourth standard, she had refused on certain grounds that we shall discuss later. And on the day when I went to receive my TC (Transfer Certificate), I clearly remember Aunty Sujaya telling my dad, "Aditya was among our best students. We will be losing a bright student". I never knew she thought so well of me till then.]
• Aunty Rajni Mary Mathew was my Mathematics teacher during my high school. She was an intelligent lady and knew how to get the right things into the student’s head! As a result, my scores in mathematics during high-school was always above 90%.
• Aunty Atmajyoti was my first sanskrit teacher. She was one person who had infinite patience. We tested it to the extent that she had shed tears one day in class. Today, when I feel the need to learn sanskrit from the roots, I miss her a lot!
• Aunty Veena Murthy was my tenth standard class teacher and I liked her a lot. She was very frank and to the point. I have always liked such people. She used to teach us Biology and English.

And last but not the least:

• Uncle Ranga was our Physical Education teacher. He is the “Grand Old Man of CFTRI School”. He could coach you on any game. And is a person of rare character and spirit. He has practically moulded generations of CFTRI students into the good human beings that we are today. He was loved by one and all. And you are sorely missed Sir!

I used to go for tuitons for mathematics and science (to get that state rank!) to one Mr. Pradeep. Great man! He used to teach with so much of patience and focussed so much on hardwork that I picked up the habit of revising mathematics by way of working out the exercises given in the text book over and over again. He had presented me with a “Hero Pen” with which I used to write my engineering exams. I passed my inter exam with the same Hero Pen Sir!

There were so many great teachers during my intermediate stint at Hyderabad. They were just so perfect with their subject that you would at times sit and wonder,”How on earth does he solve these problems in 5 lines of work?”. Physics problems from Irodov, Halliday & Resnick were all solved in a matter of minutes.

There was one Mr. Suryanarayan who was a Don in the World of Calculus. His style of teaching was so simple and clear that I became a fan of Calculus. He used to be called M1 at college. [It was a system to label teachers as M1, M2, so on in SRM Junior college/ Special Coaching Centre]

There are so many teachers who influenced me and my way of being during my engineering and MBA days. Here’s a snapshot of a few of them:

• Dr. T. R. Seetharam [TRS] taught us Thermodynamics for a single semester and I could sense the control he had over the subject. It was complete. [If I passed the subject effortlessly scoring 65, it was all his 'anugraha'] His control over students was much more. He commanded respect naturally. So much that one of my seniors annd close friend, went and fell at his feet before he left for the US to do his MS. That was something even I wanted to do, but never got a chance because TRS retired during my pre-final year.
• Mr. R. Dattakumar is our friend, philosopher and guide. Placement officer of NIE. Extremely cordial with the students. Demands respect when he enters class. A quality guru! Teaches with innovative methods. Doesn’t give grace marks [Like other lecturers, but still ranks among the favourite lecturers at NIE]. His internal tests are the toughest because they are practically oriented. He tests your understanding and not your ability to recall! That’s why I probably never scored well in his tests! ;-)
• Dr. T. V. Subramaniam [TVS] was our professor during MBA days. He was a king of subjects that were related to Supply Chain Management and Production! He was an expert on business strategy and was a consultant to various bigwigs of the corporate world. He once told us a story of how he was invited by Manpreet Brar to deliver a talk during Ranbaxy’s supplier meet. He had apparently introduced himself as a “student” of management in his letter to him. TVS is approx 80 years old and I am yet to meet a more learned man than him in the field of SCM. If he considers himself as a student, then the others can only claim to be teachers by designation!
• Mr. Ramanujam Sridhar was our professor for Advertising and Public Relations. His knowledge of the subject came from his tremendous experience of being in the industry for a long time. He runs a successful agency now. His concepts were clear. And without any doubt the best in the business. He maintains excellent relationships with his students and is still in touch with me! I like him for that!
• Mr. Tarun Kochhar taught me performance management in a way that, though it seems as if I cannot remember most of it, I am confident I can easily design the PMS of an organization based on his inputs. His fundas, as they call it in the B-school, were clear. And he made sure we enjoyed throughout the length of his session. He would sense when we were getting tired and would give us a break. An ability to switch professions is something that’s rarely found, but Tarun (as he prefers to be called) has switched from HR to Sales to Marketing to Brand Consulting with equal ease.

These are some of the teachers of mine who have touched my life in a way that it has changed for the better since then. I am grateful to each of them and also to those who I have not mentioned here for helping me learn. More important is the fact that all of you taught me “how to learn”. This thanksgiving note is long overdue and is written with every word meaning what is said. Thank you!

After lunch together I went back to office. Preethi and Goddi decided to watch a movie. So, I suggested Sathyam complex and helped them into an auto to that place. Without knowledge of tamil, it’s really tough to aviod getting fleeced by these rogues I tell you! We had agreed to meet again (this time for dinner) by around 7.00PM before their train left for Bangarpet (Preethi’s hometown).

How can work allow me to go there on time? Something or the other would come up till the last moment and finally I was able to leave at 7PM. To reach the hotel where they were staying would take me 10 mins in case of zero traffic and now it was still peak hour.

Reached the hotel at 7.45PM and they were ready to proceed for dinner. We walked across to the Saravana Bhavan inside the Shanti theatre complex and seated ourselves for a typical Tamil dinner – idli, vada, dosa. Just then I got a call from a colleague, and we got involved in our conversation. But I was determined to spend some quality time with Goddi and Preethi.

As soon as I returned to the table, we began discussing how their friendship bloomed into love and finally into marriage. They were telling me how Goddi proposed and how scared Preethi was about the whole issue. She didn’t want to get into a relationship knowing that it wouldn’t get the approval of her parents. Caste issues! She initially said no and later agreed. There was a time gap of 1 week in the turnaround and I can imagine what went through Goddi during that period. From there till today, it has been 7 years. And they have been together through thick and thin. Faced their parents with resolve and love. For some strange reason, parents tend to think you are not capable of making the right choice when it comes to choosing your lifepartner. Especially true if you have chosen one from another caste!

It was not so much of the love story that interested me. It was the great chemistry that the two share that made me so happy. They looked so happy together. And happiness is contagious! These guys are not looking outward for happiness. They find their happiness in each other. Togetherness is happiness for them. They are not bothered about conformance from others as much as they are about acceptance from each other. That’s true love. Take a bow Preethi and Goddi! May God bless you with a life of happiness! I will also pray to Him that you come to India and live at a distance where we can meet up whenever we want to!

After meeting them, I went back to office and had to work till late in the night. I never felt the physical strain affect my mind because it had just been infected with so much happiness that it became my state of mind too. It gives me so much happiness that I am close to such people who spread happiness by just being there. Better still, they infect you with it! That’s Preethi and Goddi for you!

Another post today on: Mysore goes Wi-Fi

Sometimes you are having a very busy day. Work is keeping you busy from morning to late nights. You are jetting around the city at a mad pace to get things done. Just then, there’s a call from a friend (Gowtham, and since we are friends since school, we call him Goddi) whose marriage you didn’t attend because of this same work. Feeling good that he actually didn’t take your absence (despite being friends since schooldays to engineering days!) from his marriage to heart, you answer the call. If the first sentence you hear is, “I am in Chennai”, trust me, your joy will know no bounds!

I almost jumped on hearing that. It was 9.30AM in the morning and I was starting my Independence Week with a great surprise. I was supposed to be in Office by 9.30AM, but I was still lazily stuffing myself with breakfast. We agreed to meet for lunch. He was here for a visa interview for his wife. (Preethi, is a fellow batchmate from NIE Mysore. We knew that these two were going around since the time they became friends. Yes! It’s a crime to miss their wedding!)

It was 12.15PM and I was in Higginbothams trying to figure out what books to gift the newly-weds. Finally I chose to give them three books: ‘Ramayana’ and ‘Mahabharata’ by C. Rajagopalachari and ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ by Paramahamsa Yogananda. Goddi isn’t much into reading. Neither was I till a few months back! ;-) So, hope it helps Preethi and later Goddi can learn from her!

We had lunch together at Sangeetha’s on Ethiraj Salai. I don’t remember the last time Goddi and I had lunch together! Not that we cried over lunch! But we were very happy we were able to meet before they left for the US. We first fought over the Linux – Windows topic as both the three of us were into computers either by profession or interest. They are both electronics and communications engineers, so they know their computers bloody well! Goddi is a Linux freak and I have become one after getting into my present job. Ok. I am not digressing into my Linux Love!

The best part about having lunch with a friend is that you can talk and talk and talk to your heart’s content and eat to the same scale! ;-) Nobody is bothered about etiquette. Of course, we are not going to spit food around and laugh with our mouths full! At times, it’s tough to control even that, but we manage to do it! The college jokes are too irresistible to just enjoy by giving a corporate smile (the kinds we give to a supposed joke by bosses!) We were just laughing our way through the lunch. It was one of the most light-hearted lunches I have had in a while!

During schooldays, Goddi and I and six more of us from our gang would have lunch together. We would share whenever possible and have a generally jolly lunch. During college, we used to hang out in the canteen with a by-two tea and a samosa or whatever! All those days come running back to me now, when I recall our lunch together! Probably, the last one for years to come! Some people call me stupidly emotional. Maybe this is the reason! I drag too many things into the present from the past. I like it, I do it! These moist eyes that I have at present give me a recall of those happy and carefree days.

But, (Preethi and) Goddi, you made my day yar! It was such a hectic day on the work-end and I never felt the load even for a minute on my mind. My body slept only for 4 hrs that night and worked for 36 hrs with that 4 hrs sleep (not a nap because it was from 1.30AM to 5.30AM!).

Old friends are better than Gold. If I was asked to choose from a kg of gold or 8 hrs of sleep on that day, I would have chosen sleep. Yeah, now you know I am lazy to what extent? But now I know that God chooses to give you something that you and your brain can’t think of. From the next time, I will choose to have a friend over for a day at Chennai than anything else to rejuvenate me!

Thanks for being such a great friend, Goddi!

Tomorrow:

1. Old friends are better than gold – Part II
2. Mysore goes Wi-Fi