The Farewell That Wasn't - SOS

Sothapals Of A Somberi


Epilogue : The Farewell That Wasn't.


Having watched a lot of movies/tv series I always imagined how a farewell would go. But what happened was actually a little different.


Expectation.
Sitting in the last class of my college life and thinking "This is the last time I will be sitting in a class with my best friends. Maybe I should try taking notes one last time. Am gonna miss attending class though. How much fun I have had.."
---
Reality.
I overslept and missed the last day. Actually I didn't even know that was the last day of classes. I realized that only after seeing the message "Why didn't you come on the last day of classes?" at 1 pm.


On the last day looking at people and thinking "That dude's English made us laugh so much.. That guy singing without any care was epic.. The guy who walked like a girl.. There goes the "choreographer ".
---
When I saw all the people hugging each other and bidding goodbye, I couldn't help thinking "Ada pavi this fellow is in my department only huh.. Four years and I never knew that girl was studying in the other section"..


Talking to my favorite people in class and unwillingly saying goodbye to them. Becoming sad that the chances of seeing them again are very small. (All while a sad song is running in the back of my mind).
---
Okay, this kinda did happen to a certain extent.


Going up to the two (maybe three) girls whom I secretly had a crush on and talking to them at least once.
---
Too shy.


Writing pages and pages on people's slam book re counting all the memories that we shared over the four years.
---
Writing "We have never talked much in the four years but hope you have a bright future" in almost all the slam books.


Giving people my slam book and later reading them and remembering a few nice things.
---
Too lazy to buy a slam book and giving it to people. Ended up reading this.


Looking at the few "couples" in my class and being glad at least they have made it through four years and working on continuing it beyond the college life.
---
High five-ing with your best friend that the oddly matched couple are finally showing signs of breaking up. Good for her!


Receiving messages saying "Goodbye friends! If I have done any wrong to you, it was fully unintentional so pls forgive me" and forgiving them for those mistakes.
---
Receiving messages saying "Goodbye friends! If I have done any wrong to you, it was fully unintentional so pls forgive me" and thinking "Unintentional my arse. I didn't like you in the four years. That is not going to change because you sent an apology to everyone in your contact list thanks to your free message booster".


Walking around college and looking at places and seeing myself and my friends appear suddeny, laughing at something silly that we once did and then suddenly disappearing again.
---
Yet to do that. Am considering going to college and doing this by walking around with my headphones playing a few slow songs :D


Anyway at the end of the day, I loved most of my classmates and will miss them terribly. And for people whose path I have crossed, if I did anything wrong, it was completely unintentional (seriously :D ) and hope you will forgive me( am still serious :) )

What Assessments Do To You

Having written my last Internals/Assessment exam today, a reflection on how these little tests changed our lives.

IT MAKES YOU SAY THE SAME THING. AGAIN AND AGAIN.

Ever had your friend tell you, "You've already told us the story a thousand times before"? It comes from the habit of writing the same thing in different formats for a single question. Like "It is very simple to implement i.e. the complexity of the implementation is rather low".

IT MAKES YOU COMPLICATE EVEN SIMPLE THINGS.

Most of us hate to write answers that are very clear and to the point. Especially when you have no idea what that point. So you end up writing stuff like "A line, a straight one at that, without any argument will furnish you with the shortest possible distance between two points provided that it is possible to draw a line between the fore mentioned points in the first place" (aka a line gives the shortest distance between two points). This habit continues even when you speak normally to anyone.

IT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN LEARN ANYTHING.

With almost negligible preparation for the tests, we still end up passing the exam. Most of the time at least. This only makes us to think that we somehow have the ability to learn almost anything. It makes us believe we can learn everything there is to learn about rockets in a night's study!

IT MAKES YOU BELIEVE IN TRUE INSPIRATION.

Ever thought on seeing a particularly nasty question "Wtf is that question about?". And after twenty minutes you realized you just got through five pages of answers out of nowhere. Five pages easy on a topic you had no idea about. That, my friends is called true inspiration.

IT MAKES YOU REALIZE SOMETHINGS ARE SIMPLY NOT WORTH DOING.

We have written a total of 49*3 internals so far. Now there is a certain someone in my class who just grinds through every material for every internal exams. The grinder spends atleast six hours for each of those internals. That is a total of 882 hours spent studying for these tests. A friend of mine spends at the maximum 30 minutes for these tests meaning he has spent a total of 74 hours for his study. So the grinder has spent nearly 34 FULL DAYS more on only studying.
Both of them will leave college dual placed in Aricent and TCS.

R.I.P internal exams :)

Rest In Peace, B.E.

This being the 67th post, is written in fond remembrance of college memories both good and bad.

Just a few things I might miss from B.E.

The troubles to find the correct bus that goes to college..
The "I will not encourage terrorism in my class" speech..
The long night fifa gamings thanks to Hamachi...
All the big matches watched at Vishnu's place..
The last minute goal by Iniesta to sink Chelsea, Ronaldo free kicks, United victories..
Eating chicken at 1 am, maggi at 2 am..
The egg puffs at Outside Canteen..
The extra hour of sleep by bunking first hour of class..
Bunking first hour after arriving five min late..
Bunking second hour as friend is fast asleep in pump house by the end of first hour..
Roaming around the town with a friend..
All the birthday celebrations..
The "I know the level of torture you girls go through in this class" speech during second sem..
The "enquiry" sessions attended by friends..
The irony of going to Chennai for industrial visit during March..
The getting to roam around with your best friends in Ooty during the second IV..
Trying two/three sets of dresses before wearing the wrong combination..
The race against time to catch the bus..
Sleeping in class..
The one-full-day preparation for internals during first semester..
The twenty minute preparation for internals during other semesters..
Archana Gayatri's chappati thanks to Vishnu..
The long long phone calls..
Looking at that single women thrice every minute(ya we actually counted :D )..
The coming and going of words like "SS", "NRS", "Bayangaro"..
The train journeys back and forth to Chennai hoping in vain for a decent figure to sit in the same coach..
The dinners at bismi when low on cash..
The dinners at the mall when financially strong..
People constanly otifying others..
My friends constantly otifying me..
Going blank for a few months..
The dance culturals where only one girl always seems to be dancing, even if it is a group event..
The "off-stage" performance in Glitzia..
Watching lame ass movies because your friends suggested it..
The unbelievableness of 2010..
Ergonoxis..
The more eventful trip to Sasthra college..
The long polambifications..
Seeing numbers like 67,78,110 as just not numbers..
Trying to convert many numbers to one specific number in network security period..
The Airtel 10 paise scheme..
Having mobile for the sole purpose of your friend putting kadalai in that..
Going to bed at 4am..
Getting up at 2pm :D

And cheers to the people here and others for making it fun.

Surya, for giving news when things were dry,

Viswa, for his constant jibber jabber,

Nemo, for few fond memories,

Aniruth, for hanging out with me,

Rufus, for hearing me out in dire times,

Sowmy, for being a close friend,

Sarvesh, for being almost like a brother

and

Vishnu Gowthem, for always being there.

Rest in peace, B.E.

The Good Days

It is 8 30 in the morning and my alarm messed up. And waking up, I realize there is no real use going to college anymore. Lets face it, I can't make it to the 9 o clock attendance and my project work is still incomplete which means I won't be getting the 4 o clock attendance either. So I decide to make the best out of the day.

Ate breakfast for the first time in months. Got back into reading books during the two hour power shut down. But the most productive use of the day was probably watching Scrubs fifth season in full. Twenty 20 minute episodes, time well spent :)

Everyone in college has so many good days like these. Thats the thing about college life. You get to bunk the whole day simply because you don't "feel" like going. And this will probably be one of the things I ll miss the most. Not doing anything when you got work to do.

Trick Or Treat - SOS 3.x

Sothapals Of A Somberi

Semester 3

Chapter 1 : Trick Or Treat

Its June 21,2008 and the birthday of Vishnu Gowthem.

After cutting a huge cake at his house, we went to this place called Tornado for his treat. There must have been at least twenty five people already there waiting for him. I found a few familiar faces here and there, but for the most part it was full of his school friends most of whom I didn't know. What followed next was one the few wtf moments of my college life.

Now when I was told "treat", I imagined people sitting around in a table, eating food and having conversations. Nothing of that sort happened. And for ordering food, I expected people tell separately what they would have. That didn't happen either. At the least I thought we would be sitting and eating. Nope, that didn't happen either :)

Vishnu went to the manager and said "We will have.. Six of this, six of that, four of those blah blah". And as soon as those orders starting coming out, everybody dove straight into the plate. And within seconds, the chicken fried rice disappeared. Every dish lasted only for seconds. And none of them made their way beyond a few feet from the kitchen. I never thought it was possible for six guys to eat a single small pizza at the same time.

There were a few guys like me who had second thoughts on jumping in too. That didn't mean we didn't get anything to eat. The others made sure a few plates were "reserved" for us. So in the end, everyone had their fill. But I guess their way of eating was a lot more fun.

One of the other interesting incident was, one of the guys was making the "badass phone call" to someone. You know, the one where they call someone up, use every swear word they can come up with to make their point. I guess some of you can see the irony behind this.

And oh ya, it was this day that Viswa bought a new slide phone and rued it for nearly an year. All because the shopkeeper gave him wrong information about the cell he actually wanted to buy :D

Synopsis Of SOS

Sothapals Of A Somberi


My college life summed up in three lines.


I had no idea what happened.
I have no idea what is happening.
And I have no idea what will happen.


True Story.

"Chicken? Ewww" - SOS 2.1

Sothapals Of A Somberi

Semester 2

Chapter 2 : Chicken? Ewww

First a kutty flashback. We go to 2006 when am doing my 12th.

(Just roaming around my house)

Me : What's for dinner? 

Mom : Today Sunday na. So chicken.

Me : Chicken a? Chi. Am skipping lunch today then.

Mom : You can eat Maggi. Like you do every Sunday.

Me : But I can't even stand the smell. Its disgusting.

Mom : Adjust one day.

Okay next we go back to 2008 when am in my 2nd semester. 

Me and my friend Vishnu go out to eat.

(looking at the menu)

Vishnu : What you want?

Me : I donno. Anything is ok man.

Vishnu : Seri. We ll take the chicken fried rice and the chicken biriyani.

Me : Add chicken manjurian too.

Vishnu : Vokay.

Well this conversion from being a pure vegetarian to a eating-chicken-everytime-I-go-out is solely thanks to hanging out with a group of friends who I guess have never eaten veg anytime they went out. 

Also to Bismi and the local mall where we go to eat at least once a week.

How I Met My Friends - SOS 2 to 8

Sothapals Of A Somberi

Semester 2-8

Everyone in college has their own "gang" (unless you are like Surya who keeps jumping from one group to another never truly fitting in anywhere or like Viswa who is simply present in all gangs). If am gonna write about my college life, I should be writing about the people with whom I have spent a lot of time with. So here goes.

Vishnu Gowthem

A Man United fan, a gifted poet, one of the few to watch English TV serials and vague movies like the Machinist (which is a true master piece), loads of online FIFA via Hamachi meant we had plenty to talk during the long lecture hours. 

Impulsively sarcastic and a true somberi, the dude shows an uncanny ability in keeping his spirits high. This post probably describes him best. Apart from being one of my closest friends, he has done a spectacular job as my shrink :D

Oh ya, the dude has a real life story that would put most tamil movies to shame.

Sarvesh Ghautham

 
A cousin of sorts, Sarvesh is a stand up guy and best described by the word 'decent'. Despite coming from a seriously loaded family (He once said, in full earnest, "Pocket money la bike vaangirla. Aana my family won't let me drive it"), he wants to start a company fully on his own. Baffling, you know. Co-founder of TOSS. He has given me plenty of advice on a specific area of interest which I have mostly never followed. 
And ya, a famous tamil movie is more or less based on his real life story :P
 
Sowmy Narayan aka Ironman :D
 
The geek of the group, Sowmy (ya some boys also have that name :P ) is a rare specimen indeed. This lanky dude is clever, witty and amusive. A true connoisseur of sarcasm, his ability to grasp even the most subtle meanings of a conversation is unbelievable. The dude reads novels, watches movies/tv serials, bunks classes yet still somehow ends up with a CGPA above 9. Also the co-founder of TOSS.
One of the best writers I know in real life (to know what I mean, read this), he wants to be a writer, lawyer and/or an entrepreneur :D
 
Viswanath aka Viswa (not Vichu)
             
Initially hung out with him mostly because he hung out with Vishnu. Talks a lot and comes with tons and tons of mokkais, a small percentage of which are actually funny. Best used to break the ice in awkward situations, he is comparable to a head ache. Despite your best efforts, you are never sure why you got it and how to get rid of it.

Surya

His inclusion in this list would surprise a lot of people and for good reason. He has somehow stuck to my gang for so long, getting rid of him has become too much effort for a somberi. Guaranteed to do something silly-looking at least once every five minutes, he has got a recent passion for cartoons and the spartans (this is an inside joke.. for now) which thankfully no one else seems to share.
 
Nalini aka Nemo

Childish and studious to almost a fault, she is a happy-go-lucky kinda girl. Its almost funny how every time I talk to her I seem to upset someone or the other. She is quite a good dancer and has been the inspiration for quite a few posts in this blog. And thanks to her, I have had many interesting phone calls(again, this is another inside joke). Also she is probably one of the few women who knows a lot about me and someone I know a lot about.

Well I could write about a few more people but feeling too lazy to complete.

A Boring Post - SOS 1.2

Sothapals Of A Somberi

Semester 1

Chapter 3 : Nothing More

This is a boring post. There is nothing terribly interesting here. Nothing funny. Nothing drastically sad. Nothing worth reading twice, in case you go on to read it once.

Exactly like my first semester in TCE. It was one of those days when things don't happen much.

Then why bother post this at all? Because this was part of my college life. Because am too lazy to remember the tiny details in a semester whose most memorable moment was when a staff got pissed off at me. Because a boring semester turned out to be better than some "worstu" parts of my future college life. 

Anyway there I was, at the end of first semester . Still as a geeky nerd and a vegetarian :)

Blankness Is Bliss - SOS 6.x

Sothapals Of A Somberi

Semester 6
Chapter (Not Yet Decided)

Too many thoughts crowd in my head,
It is so bad I cannot even go to bed.
All these memories are making me mad,
For my life has become so so sad.

Then comes the blankness to come save me,
And out of this crappy life it sets me free;
Something I have tried has gone wildly amiss,
It is true, this blankness is bliss.

What was it that I tried? Why the blankness?
To know all this, keep reading, the Sothapals Of A Somberi :D

At The Wrong Place - SOS 1.1

Sothapals Of A Somberi

Semester 1

Chapter 2 : First Day Of College

Well it is the first day of my college and I had to go by bus. Now everyone knows am not very good at going from one place to another on my own. So I got into the most direct bus from my house to college. That would be the 31 numbered bus. Now, remember this is the first day of my college and I had no idea where to get down. All I knew was it takes approximately thrity minutes to get there. And sure, after 25 min, I did reach the place. I asked the conductor if that stop is the college. Just to be sure. After getting an affirmative, I got down. And as soon as the bus left, I knew something was wrong.
   
What I had not known was that the stop right before my college stop is called "Mannar College". Why? Because there is a freaking college there. Right before my college stop is another college. I had gotten down at the wrong stop. Shyte.
   
It was a good thing I had started early that day. So I decided to walk my way from there to my college. What I didn't know was that it was a 20 min walk. I got there in 30 minutes.
  
I reached the class in time. The first period was Chemistry. He started teaching immediately. Thus five minutes into the first hour of my college class hours I was fast asleep.

Orientation - SOS 1.0

Sothapals Of A Somberi

Semester 1

Chapter 1 : Orientation


Orientation is the start of college life. They take you around the college showing you around. Generally dull stuff. But my first sothapal starts there :)

I wore what could be the worst choice for a shirt. A black shirt with orangish collar and sleeve. Yes, orange. Reasonably bright orange at that. That seemed to upset a few staff. I get shouted at on my first day of college. For wearing a bright shirt.

Unfortunately I wore that day only once again I think. And that day was when they took photograph for my college ID card. So no surprise I look like a moron in my college ID card. Which I have to use for four years.

But it was not all bad that day. The first conversation I had with a college mate was with someone who would be my classmate for all four years. He was disgusted with hostel food. Being at my grandparent's place I felt reasonably better. That person is the one whom we all now affectionately call Biscuit :D

An Autobiography

Well I wanted to write a decent post for Diwali. No ideas so far. So thought I d ready my Autobiography.

So, people, I give you..

Outview.

Sai Santhosh joins the college on August 2007. Read how he goes through his four years in college. How he comes out of his geekiness. How he is shown the fun side of life by his friends. How he missed the accused list. How his laziness takes control. How he sothapifies a perfectly good relationship. How he makes enemies in unlikely departments. How his friends handle his moodiness. How his classmates never understood what he said. How he got through placements.

An account of all his sothapals in four years at TCE.

Reviews(Probable)

"Absolutely LOL" says Vishnu Gowthem.

"A good read. Difficult to keep track at places" says Sarvesh Ghautham.

"A decent read" says Sowmy Narayan.

"Well acutally this is first book I read. I think it was ok but blah blah (125 words later) good" says Viswa.

"Nice da." says Surya.

Ms.Nalini was unavailabe/unreachable for comments.


Read the unedited Prologue here :)