Chasing his dreams..

Performing people have certain hallmarks that make them distinct from the crowd. They hold their values high unwavering in spite of the hardships that life poses and make their way through to fulfill their ambition. It isn't very different with Vijay Kumar. Simple, daring, diligent, ambitious and very adaptive: these words define Vj. His hard work in these two years amidst the loaded corporate life has landed him IIT Delhi for his M.Tech and from here on there will be no turning back for him.

All the best Vijay, you deserve every bit of it...

Shifting my house

4th Floor, Datchinamurthy Apartments has almost become a landmark in Chennai and most of the boys from PEC who started their career in Chennai would have made their first day to work from this place. To the knowledge of the owner of this 'such-a-big-house', we were five of us staying, but in reality the number was twelve at one point of time.

An incident to recount :
An interesting character was this gentleman who is the 'caretaker' of this apartment, 'fondly' referred to by us as 'third floor Meesaikaar'. One day during those crowded times; all of us (around 10?) were ready to leave to office. First a group of four took the lift to ground and then the next four. On the third trip me and another guy took the lift and as we were moving down we saw this man waiting at the third floor. We opened the door for him, but he turned back with irritation and took to the stairs. Stupid, we thought and continued to the ground floor. As we were just crossing the gate I heard his voice calling from back.

Mr.M: Excuse me
Me : Yeah?
Mr.M: How many of you are staying in the fourth floor?
Me : Five
Mr.M: FIVE?
Me : Actually we are six now. One of them is moving out in a couple of days.
Mr.M: But the house owner told me you are only five going to stay here.
Me : Yeah, we are only five staying in this house. (I wouldn't know why he was so irritated until the evening that day)
He said a dry O.K and turned back with a big frown.

I came to know in the evening that He had been waiting for the lift all the while when the group of ten had gone down and on the top of it I tried to convince him that we were just five. Poor man!

when I moved in to this house, there were rumors about this ghost that dwells in there; The incidents of doors locking up themselves and things disappearing from the house, the old watchman and the ambiance that mimicked the 'Booth' story - we even named this ghost: Kalyani! Crazy people we had been...

It's a Very comfortable house but the land is dry underneath and we haven't had regular supply of water for the last 12 months. We did get water for 20-mins a day basis. It did not matter much actually, but when the house owner asked for an increase in rent, we took note of all the problems and decided to look for another house. And now we are shifting to Vadapalani, to a place very near to office. We would miss the 6.5, the routine of filling water in the barrels, the ghost which steals things that went missing and the spacious hall... We would definitely miss the fourth floor of No.19, Datchinamurthy apartments..

Expectation...

I was waiting for my bus at vadapalani signal. A frail old lady comes to me and with choking voice and tear-swelled eyes says she hasn't eaten for two days. She wanted some money. I've heard people say that you must not encourage beggars or you cannot make a difference so why shell out coins for them and so on; but one cannot stand the eyes speaking of hunger. I take out some money and give her and resume chatting with my friend who was coming with me. I casually looked around after sometime and found this old lady in a nearby shop with a coke bottle in her hand. A coke bottle?? I thought she would get a loaf of bread or some bananas with the money I gave her to satiate herself and here she drinks a coke? Coke is still a costly option for someone who struggles for survival... For a fleeting moment I had this thought of disappointment that I was exploited by her pitiful state; maybe she lied to me... Anyway it doesn't matter. Maybe she was hungry... Maybe she was very thirsty... I gave her money and should I expect that she spends it judiciously? Funny! She gulps down the drink, wipes her mouth with her sari and moves on to the crowd waiting for the bus...