KUVEMPU EXPERIENCE-1

Words can speak loud but action louder,and some acts can bring out the best experiences of one's life. One experience which i and 15 fellow mates share is the Kuvempu one.I still have the vivid experience of that visit.It was March 2008, when we were asked by our estimable lecturers to go and put up a poster presentation.It was a three day programme and there was going to be series of talks covering major areas of ecology,biotechnology and what not! For us, at that point of time it was the most deserving break from strenuous projects (least we thought that way).

So on the destined day 12th March,our journey towards Shimoga began...we wait for our friends in the bus stop and suddenly from nowhere this conductor guy comes out,holds on to our bags and puts them in the crowded moving bus and we are left with no option but to climb the bus.Appu and Dillu manage to get the front row ladies seat while i and Jos get stuck to the seats opposite to the driver and people please take my advice on this one-that on long journey(more than 1 hr)never ever sit there due to the following reasons:

1) After two hours,the engine of the bus gets all heated up and if you decide to wear fancy shoes(rather than the Bata! ones),your legs start to burn in that terrible heat!!! I am not making this up its really true..
2) When you are damn tired of the summer heat and decide to give rest to your spinal chord,you find yourself leaning towards the three horizontal bars rather than comfort of the backrest.
3)The drunkards and chain smokers decide that they need a view of nature at its best and so they land up next to the drivers seat.(and to that point Jos said that she will pray that the man gets out of the bus soon,coz at that time i was acting like the dog who puts up its face out of window to get fresh air)
4)The cleaner doesn't hesitate to make a pass at you.

So after 5-6 hrs of dreadful journey,we are totally exhausted and decide to grab a bite until our friends catch up.(Since they were in the next bus) and we order something from menu and wash our faces to find out that the water there actually had more oil than all our faces combined.
After our brain gets sufficiently pumped with glucose,we reach the main bus stop and find our long lost friends arriving and after asking how their journey was and other stories we realised that we have to catch a bus to go to university which is one hour journey.We do get to see the beautiful Shimogan donkeys and pigs..we finally board into a bus and this by far i describe it as the" best bus journey of my life!!"

From the place we come from Mangalore,the capacity of the bus is normally say 50..but this ultra strong buses of Shimoga can accommodate 150..not exaggerating! we get into the bus and it moves little say like 100 m and people swarm in like bees and there is the compressions and rarefractions(Newton's third law is very true in this case) and then we see this man getting inside from the drivers window coz he cant enter the normal way and to our astonishment he turned out to be the conductor!!!The bumpy ride gives us a full hand experience of life in Indian Village!!! In this whole scenario Ujju loses her purse(later finds it)..and finally we reach our destination : KUVEMPU UNIVERSITY
to be continued...

SEETHANNA

Most of the students from my college have spent their time at this place than they actually did in their classroom. Well, technically, for those who aren't aware of Seethanna's place (more like a shop on wheels), its the joint outside our college where people enjoy the Chaats with chats. Although in the beginning of my academic year, the idea of eating at that place used to scare me..not that i have some phobia..its just that i know the limitation of my immune system and usually eating at such joints make me visit the 'holy place' like 4-5 times at night and that can lead to lot of ATP loss!! So may be i did try avoiding it as much as i could..but my friends were persistent, so i was left with no other option but to eat at that place..i guess the first two times were the hardest coz of the visits, but then i guess my stomach got used to it .

There are many incidents i wish to share about the place but will hang to this particular one. This occurred in the second semester, after a tiresome practical, as we literally dragged our legs
to the class, i asked Jos if we could grab a bite(seriously folks standing long hours in lab can really make u hungry!!!) and Jos on top of her voice just screamed that all are invited to join us at Seethannas (provided its self pay- though she didn't mention that it was understood ) and to our surprise 24 of them showed up..(cum'on for a bunch of exhausted people who just thing of reaching home at the earliest ,24 was not a bad number, I do consider this as one of Jos's accomplishment).

At times Seethanna turned to be a place of memory boost ups..like you see your friends holding a book/apron and suddenly realize you had to go to library to pick up a book which was applied in the morning or take the apron for wash on weekend and it was a place to share ideas, food-though in the rotation of your passing if it crossed Ravi,Saran u may not have anything left! (and i know they wont even deny it). Sometimes it was the place where we sat till the sunset and had long chats till the moon rised, just sat and waved to a walking friend or Smitha Ma'am going home in her car.

The guy who served us, Melvin (used to call him uncle when he didn't respond to his name) even gave us his wedding card at one visit, though unfortunately we couldn't go. Then there was this other stall just next to it and one day i just asked my friends when we could actually go and try food over the other place.To that Saran replied quite casually that it would never be possible until Melvin's alive!! and i guess that was partly true coz we were this guys regulars and he would have never let us go..

UNUSUAL NICKNAMES

Names! its a way for people to identify you..so whats so special about names? People do have different opinions but i would rather say names are just names there is nothing unusual about them (though it might have sentimental value). But nicknames, well there are several stories behind nicknames. As I was going through my mobile contacts yesterday, an idea to explore into some of the popular and unusual nicknames of my class of '08 occurred to me.

This is from my point of view..so in case i miss out any of the nicknames..folks you are free to share that valuable information with me! My class had 30 wonderful people.Some names were quite obvious like Aparna was Appu,Chandini was Chandu,Dilna was Dillu..so there by giving a lineage of names such as Hari, Deepu, Lavi, Jos, Jenny, Suppi, Sush, Rin, Ujju and Swats. Some people were better known by their surname than their actual name; like Malli, Baliga, Kamath, Huller and others whose second name were given more importance like Judy, Kokilla(not many used it though). Some had their names modified like Seemanna, Krish(named after Indian Superhero!!!) while some names were surprising like Navya (cum'on that's true!! Kaveri till one and a half years we never knew your name was Navya!!). Some had melodious name like Niiiisssshhhhaaa.

Some had their names derived from the place they belonged like Dharwad Yemmeh(Ravi), others their favourite colour like Pinkie (Saran) , from Micro practicals Mestri (ya tats me..see i am making fun of all), some from animal bt like Adopted son(sorry Asaf), names like Kaka(Rahul) have originated by some stories created by boys(though i thought it was named after football player),then there is Jaz..She even had a junior named after her junior jasmine!! and finally one name whose origin is from cinemas all time villain cum hero Don(praj)..but one thing i never understood why people called him that cum'on folks he is scared of heights, waves,blood, cockroaches and i dunno what else!!!So ultimately my conclusion names
might be important but nicknames last for a lifetime!!!

MY FIRST BLOG-AN ODE TO MY PALS

On a recent trip to Chennai,i was asked by an aunt of mine,what my hobbies were..i kept wondering on what i should say..this really made me think on what i really love to do(my friends would definitely say its talking but folks its not categorized as a hobby).Well,it then struck me, why not do something which i value the most...Memories..Yes..that's it, i start my own blog (coz writing diary can be pretty boring!!). So my first blog is dedicated to my MSc pals for making my two years the most wonderful experience and people you are free to comment on anything(i needn't mention that though)

I guess all of you will agree that MSc years have influenced a lot on who we have turned out to be..and part of this i attribute to my friends.To begin with, Jos my best friend,a soul friend,who can understand what i want to say without me actually saying it!!(i am not joking its true!) We share similar ideas and get along so well that many of our seniors actually though that we were related to each other...Appu,a genuine sweet person,who always believes in potential of her friends..sometimes i actually feel that she has more confidence in me than i do in myself!...Adopted Son..he's more on the innocent side..people always think that he is a very quiet person..but his close friends know its not at all like that..once he starts talking he wont stop!!..Pinki..is a prankster with brain..in other words, he has got a great sense of humour, and is able to make you laugh when you are trying hard to be serious..Dillu, loses temper at almost anything..but cools down at the same rate..quite determined and isnt bothered about about petty things..and lastly Kutti..though much much younger than us,he has always made sure that he successfully irritates us!!!

If it weren't for these people i wouldn't have enjoyed my life to this extent!!!