Jana-gana-mana

I have been singing/hearing the Indian National Anthem for the past 25 years, but never understood a word of it. I should say, I never bothered to learn what the hymn meant.

To all those who have been as ignorant as me:

Jana-gaṇa-mana adhināyaka jaya he
Bhārata bhāgya vidhātā
Pañjāba Sindh Gujarāṭa Marāṭhā
Drāviḍa Utkala Baṅga
Vindhya Himāchala Yamunā Gaṅgā
Ucchala jaladhi taraṅga
Tava śubha nāme jāge
Tava śubha āśiṣa māge
Gāhe tava jaya gāthā
Jana gaṇa maṅgala dāyaka jaya he
Bhārata bhāgya vidhāta
Jaya he, jaya he, jaya he
Jaya jaya jaya, jaya he


English Translation:

Oh! the ruler of the minds of people, Victory be to You,
Dispenser of the destiny of India!
Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Dravid (South India), Orissa, and Bengal,
The Vindhya, the Himalayas, the Yamuna, the Ganges,
and the oceans with foaming waves all around,
Wake up listening to Your auspicious name, Ask for Your auspicious blessings,
And sing to Your glorious victory.
Oh! You who impart well being to the people!
Victory be to You, dispenser of the destiny of India!
Victory to You!

The New Beiginning...The Change...The Journey...The Frustration...The Freedom...The Pain...The Nostalgia

Well finally I was lucky enough to secure an engineering seat (having to pay higher fees than many others) in a college known to none at that moment at a place as remote as i could ever imagine and far far away from home and family. Hold on...Did I have a choice?? hehe... I did not coz i had excelled in my studies and the entrance examinations with numbers easier counted from the back. I was releaved on not having to repeat the entrance for a year (more coz of the laziness) and did not think on having to be away from family and home...

I remember my first visit to college right after the councelling. The approach road to the college was not completed. There was only one building that too half constructed painted all white... well a sense of insecurity crept into me having in mind the concept of engineering college having huge campuses vast buildings...busy roads... But my dad was convinced speaking to the people there...going through the brochures...and i would say he was SPOT ON as i can rightly say now...
The second visit was for the admission. Now that was a busy day and the roads and building had changed a lot in a few weeks time...That quick change brought some sort of a confidence in me...The first person i met that day was Ignatius sir and wow a true gentleman who knew my grandfather and that was pleasing to hear...The admission procedure was smooth...except for the lunch...i still remember the SANJOS school bus taking us to pala town to a hopeless hotel....yeack...after we were back Principal gave a speech...Met Binoy sir...Met Varun MP and his mom and came to know that he was from Kannur My native place. Uday's mom had come with his brother since the Mr GYM had gone for the NDA session. I did notice one thing that day...The 'B' of the "J3BARKTDONNN...whatever" gang which was later formed was chatting with an "extremely fair" blue eyed" girl...now that was catchy to me and it turned out to be an episode in our college life...That evening i had to book the admission for the temporarily set up hostel at the wonderful place the near the lake in the town...The warden introduced himself and yea he was a priest and very very jovial...
The third visit was on the first day in college with all my stuff including the quilt and suitcases...
The function went on fine...My parents left and to be honest i really felt bad and was feeling sad...We just had the formal function and I got to the hostel in the evening "home away from home" and that was when i realised that this really was "The New Beginning".
Mind you all Ajith Chandran was my room mate (the funniest guy in our college) for the initial days...and it was tough to cope up with his jokes and bullying :) you can never win an argument against him...

That was The New Beginning...And luckily it was for the good...

Guest blogger: Rahul Gopinath

Cast-in-situ

Cast-in-situ

In architecture, in situ refers to construction which is carried out at the building site using raw materials. In situ techniques are often more labour-intensive, and take longer, but the materials are cheaper, and the work is versatile and adaptable.

The in situ technique was used to construct the utility pool in the picture. It was my mother’s idea to give the ducks some space to swim around. For them it is a major upgrade from the small basin (on the bottom left of the pic.) they are used to play in.

We are eagerly waiting to get this finished to see how the ducks cope with the change.

Office desk can be your canvas...!!!

Donald Duck

Fairy

The Simpsons

Spongebob

Woody the Woodpecker

Appachan - Portrait

D Duck...:)

The Open Market

"I am gonna stop working by 40, buy some land, start farming and spend the rest of my life in my own farmhouse; with my spouse and children, herds of cows and goats, flock of hen, vagera vagera...."
At least one in five among us software professionals dream of such a life after retirement. But how many realize this quite improbable dream remains to be seen. Being honest, I myself have lost count on the number of times I have had a chat about this with my peers.

Thanks to my father, who is a retired teacher currently pursuing his experiments in farming, I have hands-on experience in this field. I was given the chance to visit and sell the yield in the Open Market, or, the Sunday market as the farming community say.



The day started quite early in the morning; early only by my standards. The harvest was to be collected and taken to the market in time for the auction. Until reaching the market place, I had no idea of what was in store. Being a novice in this area, I was accompanied by a seasoned farmer who is a close acquaintance. Taking the yield to the market and selling it was not an easy task as I thought.



On reaching the center, the crop need to be segregated by quality. A member of the society will then come around and tag a price on each lot. From there it is the agent's/wholesale dealer's world. They decide the price of the product and the one who pays the max amount takes home the stuff. For the farmer, his product will be sold for sure and a certain percentage goes to the society. A win-win situation...!!!

Not sure when I'll get a chance to go back, but I would love to be one among the phalanx of farmers who get together and make merry at the market.