Diwali Redemption ???

I was walking up a lane going to the main road and it was a sunny day. I could see from a distance a girl was running down the lane. After sometime I could make out her face. It was that beautiful girl that I used to see in my dreams regularly. Before I go further let me give a background on what I am saying here.

There is this girl, beautiful girl that comes in my dream, its been happening for about 5 to 6 years now. And I like this girl very much but the fact is in every dream I had I am always hesitant to tell her that I like her. Another thing is most of the time something good happens in a few days of having the dream,Hmm...must be a conincidence.There were a lot of dreams about her but here are two most memorable dreams about her before this one.

In the first one, I was riding a bicycle and came to a halt in a junction and saw the girl I stopped and asked her where she was going and she told me she was going to collect her brother from tution, I said O.K and rode off, only after about 30 seconds or so I realized that I should have told her that I liked her, I rode back to that junction and she was no where to be seen.

In the second one, the setting is entirely different, I am in a class room reading some book and then she comes in, and sits in the bench next to mine. I just dont have the courage to look up to her and tell her that I like her and then time passes by and I am still forcing myself to read that bloody book. Then after some time she gets up and walks away never to bee seen again.

Coming back to the situation. I stop the girl and ask her

Me: "Whats wrong ?".

She says: "Someone is chasing me down".

Me: "O.K, follow me I got an Idea"

I took the shortcut to the left of me, which cut into the main road. And right there was an auto parked. I asked whether the auto would go and she told him the place to go, I dint hear clearly which place was it. Then she got in the auto and I got in after. Suddenly I could see some guys who came from that junction and was seaching for the girl. The place where this incident was taking place was pretty confusing, the place looked like Trivandrum but the traffic and the auto etc looked like Chennai. And I was thinking after missing all the previous opportunities to tell her, I thought why not use this opportunity to tell her, ofcourse this is not the best time, but I decided to go ahead.

She was still busy looking behind to see if she was being followed. I took her hand into mine and I said that I like her. I dont know if she heard it but I kept on saying "Seeing you always brought me good luck so dont worry everything will be all right", on saying this she turned around and looked at me, We both stared at each others eyes, her eyes were so beautiful, I have no words to describe it. Then I noticed that the auto driver was also staring at us, then it crossed my mind if we are having a "Mexican Standoff" staring, then who is driving the moving auto, and I asked him "Who is driving the auto ?". He suddenly turned back and took control of the auto. After that I left her hand and we dint speak till her destination arrived. We got off I paid the auto guy (dont remember how much) and then I told her I will walk her to her house. The place somehow looked very familiar to me but I dint know where it was. After walking her to her house, she said a very cheerful "Good Bye".

It was getting dark and I started to walk back to my lane, and then I was thinking about her, that she dint have any response to my words. She dint say whether she like me or dint like me. And Just when I thought this dream was going to have a happy ending, I was chased down by a gang (it think it was same people chasing her) and was kidnapped. I had no idea where they were taking me, finally they brought me to a torture room, I rather not describe that room (I rather see the movie "Saw" again as it was better) and put me in some sort of torture device and started asking me questions. I couldnt make out what they were saying, but I did see the guy next me was being tortured in the most sadistic manner possible. And just when they were about to do the same thing on me....I woke up and saw that I was in my room in my hostel in Chennai, I frantically took my mobile lying on the ground and checked the time it was around 5.50 A.M, Saturday which was Diwali and I went back to sleep peacefully.

I still have no idea what the dream meant, but will I even see her again in my dreams, I dont know, in all my dreams about her I was hesitant to tell her my feelings, but this time I did and does that mean I will no longer see her. Does this mean I have gained redemption from the reccuring dreams about that girl ? Only time will tell...

Chennai Blues - Episode 5

The next day, got up as usual had the medicines and caught an auto to go to Thoraipakkam TCO Office, they said that for the next 3 days we have to find our own transportation from the place we stay to TCO. TCO is around 15 Km from the place I stay. An auto ride would cost around Rs 80 to Rs 100 depending on how well you argue with the guy. In my case it was more like Rs 90.

Anyway I caught an Auto by about 7.30 A.M and I had to reach there before 8.15 A.M (that is when the last bus from TCO to Siruseri leaves) and at 7.40 A.M the auto guy just stopped abruptly and said thathe cant go any further due to some auto problem. I was stranded by about 100m away from "Madhya Kailas" and I it was pretty hard to catch an an auto from the place I was standing. So I had to walk till the "Madhya Kailas" junction and waited there waving to most of the empty autos passing by and most of them just refused to go to Thoraipakkam. I was thinking "First day of my training and I am going to mess it up by being late". Finally by 7.50 A.M one of the auto guys stopped there and agreed to take me there for Rs. 100, No choice but to give in, finally after a bumpy ride I reached there by 8.10 A.M and caught the second last bus to Siruseri. The ride to Siruseri is pretty long from TCO its about another 10 K.M from there and the road is horrible, but the Buses were Semi-Sleepers so we dint feel that bumpy all the way. After about a 45 minute ride we finally reached our Training Grounds.

The place's name is SIPCOT IT park and the first looks gave the impression that its a god forsaken wasteland. No proper road exists from the entrance to the Cognizant Academy and its very bumpy. Only a handful of companies exist there now.

Aspire Systems
Xansa
Chenna Mathematical Institute
A Business School
Cognizant Academy (Parts of it are still under construction)
TCS Campus (Under Construction)

We reached the entrance and we entered the academy, the first thing to notice was Free Coffee and Hot Drinks. After placing my bag in the ground floor hall which is a 120 Seater, I soon went to have a coffee, my friends went to have breakfast which was given at a subsidised rate of Rs 10. By 9.30 A.M our session started it was the "Hi Touch" sessions termed as "Quality Time" to improve our Communication Skills and Introduce us to Etiquettes. To me it was like they were trying to train barbarians that were recruited into a new society. Our 1st session was on "Email Etiquettes", the guy was explaning on "How to write emails ?" etc and the code of conduct etc. He was opposed to Pink Colour and spotted out a guy who was wearing light Pink Shirt saying that its "not a man's colour" to me it sounded like a sexist statement.

After the session all Teams in our batch were given a Chart and asked to draw about technology in 2020. It was supposedly an exercise to improve interaction in team. I personally dislike such activities but you cant avoid everything. The good side is got to know my Team of 20. I will list out my batch members and their short description in the order they introduced themselves.

Jayakrishnan Puthiya Veetil

Mallu guy who completed his M.Sc in Software Engg from CUSAT. Sports fanatic I guess.

Dinesh Kumar Krishnan

Tamilian completed his B.E in EC

Nataraj Elayaperumal

Tamilian completed his B.E in IT collegemate of Dinesh

Arun Kumar Ponnu Shankaran

Tamilian completed his B.E in Tamil Nadu (dont remember the branch)

Arun Ramamurthy

Mallu guy from Palakad, but settled in Chennai, completed his B.Tech from CUSAT, proclaims himself to be a very quiet guy but is a big mouth when taking things practically.

Venkata Siva Rao Mamidala

Very quiet guy from A.P completed his M.C.A from A.P.

Gopi Krishna Muvvala

A very sensitive (said so himself) guy from A.P who did his B.E from the same college as Siva.

Jerry Jacob

Mallu who studied in Trishur Engg college and completed his B.Tech in Computer Science. Very friendly guy

Myself

Well you have the blog to judge me :-D

Roy Pottukalam

Yet another "cool" Mallu from Changanasheri, who compelted his Engg from College of Engneering, Chenganur. Actually I met this guy when Duttan and I went to an UT2004 tourney conducted by CoE, Chenganur. He was the organizer of the tourney. I still remember the final match between Duttan and Fantix in which Dutta lost but got the Rs. 1500 cash prize.

Subbulakshmi Kumaraguru

Tamilian who completed her degree in EC from MEBCO Engg college.

Lakshmi Elango

Tamilian, Dont remember her college but I think it was a degree in EC

Shalini Priya Veluchami

Tamilian who completed her degree in EC from MEBCO Engg college.

Amala Veerasamy

Tamilian, Dont remember her college but I think it was a degree in CS

Sowmya Ramakumar

Tamilian, she completed her B.E in EC. A very big mouth and given a topic she can keep on blabbering about it.

Haja Nawaz Mohamed Ibrahim

Tamilian who completed his degree in EC from MEBCO Engg college. Very Cool guy

Muthu Ramya Periasamy

Tamilian, Dont remember her college but I think it was a degree in EC

Prasath Shivakumaran

Well this guy is our self proclaimed leader, he has got an M.Tech and in that way is kind of more experienced than us. Very jolly guy.

Anoop Suryanarayanan

My classmate back in College of Engineering, Trivandrum

After the introductions, it was more or less thinking process on how to draw on Technology in 2020, Well dont ask me about the rest of the day as I wasnt paying much attention to what was being done. By 5.45 P.M we wound up the things and it was all about sitting in the bus and going back home.

The rest of the 2 days passed by in a similar manner, with "Hi Touch" sessions in morning and then the Technology 2020 thing after that most of them were pretty much uneventful and the final day ended with the presentation of the chart and a skit on the theme "Technology @ 2020". And then the weekends arrived and it was a great relief from the hectic week that passed by.

(Concluded)

Chennai Blues - Episode 4

I got up the next morning with a slight neck pain due to the position I was in, but the good news was that the status my chest congestion was better and I felt far better than the previous day. I went into my room which felt like it was freezer, I took a bath and took extra special care not to wet my hair, had my medicines and very reluctantly dressed up to go to the next 10 hours induction program in Tidel Park.

Reached the place like previous day and this time took extra special care not get hit by auto or any vehicle for that matter of any sort. As usual entered Tidel, but this time I had a Temporary ID from CTS so no problems of getting a visitors pass. Went to the auditorium and got seated and after about half-an-hour the session got started and the first session was taken by Col: Jason Peter who was the head of the Cognizant Academy at Siruseri. He said about the Academy and the strict nature of the Academy i.e. No email forwarding, No Internet to Trainees, No Mobile phones in Class the list goes on. After listening to most of them I was thinking "Did I make the mistake of joining a military institution called CTS: Academy?" Anyway then we had some boring sessions on HR, Financial and then there was a lunch break after which we had a session on "Hi Touch Personality Development Course" which was supposed to be one hour course on "Essential Skills Required In Corporate" and will be conducted for about 3 weeks once we enter Cognizant Academy and then our batch coordinator spoke to us and repeated the things of the discipline that Col: Jason Peter said to us that morning. They also informed as that for the rest of the 3 days we had to arrange transporatations for ourselves till the Thoraipakkam TCO of CTS from there we will get tranportation till Siruseri and in the evening they would drop us off at "Madhya Kailas". They also adviced us that not to take our personal transport to Siruseri as it is a pretty dangerous path especially at night. After this we had the most awaited moment - The batch allotment process and I was happy to know that I was placed in "Advanced Java" Batch.

Then came the moment register ourselves with a bank to make a bank account and after that to register with a mobile company to get a corporate mobile connection. The procedure was pretty long but it was easy involved filling up a lot of forms and putting and equivalent amount of signs. Mobile connection procedure was pretty easy just signing up a form but unfortunately they ran out of SIM cards so had to get it the next day from Siruseri. After the procedure I got myself out and caught an auto back home had to pay Rs 60 for the auto. After reaching home I had my dinner, had my medicines and went straight to bed.

To Be Continued...