Its all about what happened in the year 2008, so called year of RAT...!!! The year began & ended with university exam.
2008 saw the stock markets crash like anything, price rise, recession, terrorist attack, Obama won the elections, our own government had a trust vote, India won its 1st individual gold medal in Olympics & much more, lets keep these things aside for now.

The 2008 was really an unforgettable year in my life. Break up of my 1st love[ Infact she dumped me], which really shattered me like anything. Turned me into a DEVDAS [Dont think that i touched alcohol] , growing beard & roaming gloomy. This incident helped me realize that my friends really cared for me. I learned what friendship is. It was my friends who helped to pull me back to normal, then there is no looking back, life became a celebration.

Another person who came into my life in 2008 is Enrique Iglesias, yeah dont scratch your head its the Madrid-born, Miami-raised singer. I became a great fan of him. Its pilgrim who gave me his albums during the time I was so called DEVDAS. My favourite is "SOMEBODY'S ME..."

Well the year began with 3rd semester university exams, which were supposed to be get postponed, but that didnt happen. The whole of January was immersed in exams. New FM stations were launched during Jan-feb, was really addicted to FMs for a few days. Was a frequent caller to BIG FM. Had no regular classes in college cos of Strike on ARJUN issue. March was full of college fests Niravaana, El- Feugo, Aganeya,Tejasvi, Tech fest in lbs, Ragam 08 etc... i didnt miss any of those . Then came 1st series in the mid of march.

Ragam 08 was really a great experience, participated in almost all kinds of events, even though i didnt get any prizes. Pro-show was awesome, Karthik's performance. Had a superb night dancing & having fun. Most memorable thing in ragam was going in search of a girl as a partner for the DJ nite[ Dj nite, only couples were allowed], was really lucky cos i didnt get any partner & finally they allowed singles also. But i got a Dance partner once i got into Dance floor, its none other than Ajuna chechi[ Archana's senior. I realized the fact that she was older than me only after 3 months...!!!]. Those 3 days spent at NITC will be teasured among the golden days of my college life.

Then came April, i joined gym with a dream to develop a six pack abs. Got selected as s4 representative of Mechanical engineers association [MEA]. Had many events in college like electronite, mexx nite, LH day, MH day etc didnt miss any of those events also.

Our semester break started in may. May month brought a turning point into my life, i happened to join Yes Plus[ A course in Art of living(AOL)]. This course really taught me what life is & how to live a happy life. Had a great experience in doing such a course. Successfully organized school reunion(Science batch), over coming many obstacles. Many were meeting after 1 year gap, everyone were happy & parted to meet again next year.

College reopened after sem break in June. I was running as if my tail was on fire cos of labs, submissions, drawing sheets, series & everything. In july, had a nice birthday. Then came my 3rd sem results & i flunked. But i never gave up, worked hard for the exams. Again july & august was amidst exams. 5th sem classes started by aug end. The fight between MHites[ Mens hostelers] & Day scholars ended up in 2 weeks onam vacation.A Thought came of entering into blogging world, got nice response from blogging. So turned into a Blogger. In october came Geared 08, the auto expo from Mechanical Branch of CET.

Then came november, after all the strikes, fests & all kinds of stuff it was time for regular classes. I happened to fall into magazine committee, so rest of the month i was glued to magazine work. December, the month of cakes & christmas turned out to be month of exams.

Year 2008 gave lots of friends, happened to get in touch with long lost friends, enemies became friends, discovered the writer & photographer in me. Finally 2008 bid farewell, giving lots of happiness, sadness, memories, inspiration & dreams to be full filled in the coming years...

I miss you 2008

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Here comes the first independent poem from Think factory of H@pPy NuTs. Right from the heart. So kindly bear the mistakes of this NEW BORN POET...








Tears Flowed from the
brownish eyes,
Rolled over the
bearded cheeks,
Slowly fell on the paper
and blurred the letters...

Never have i seen
a warrior crying....
Shattered was his heart...
The heart made of stone.
The hands were trembling,
never was the sword shaken
chopping the enemies...

Never have i seen
a warrior crying...
The man had lost his love...
She had gone forever
Never shall she return...

Never have i seen
a warrior crying...
Conquered in life,
not by war,
but by the eternal love...

Never shall the man be WARRIOR again...

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It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer.
You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things.
But in photography everything is so ordinary,
it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary.

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Nobody’s life is entirely free of pain and sorrow. Isn’t it a question of learning to live with them rather than trying to avoid them?The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life.The pain that you create now is always some form of nonacceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is. On the level of thought, the resistance is some form of judgment. On the emotional level, it is some form of negativity. The intensity of the pain depends on the degree of resistance to the present moment, and this in turn depends on how strongly you are identified with your mind.

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I love everything about lighthouses
their daymark, their coastal locations

the style of tower, the keepers dwelling

the way they endure the powers of nature.

Most of all, I love their light, bright, seen from far sight

a sense of safety no matter how dark the night.

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Mobile sings… the song Gujarish{From Ghajini}. Lazily I move my head out of the blanket, jus like a tortoise popping his head from his shell ;). I sit up & pray that atleast 2day I can breathe normal, had running nose for the last two days. I think my nose has lengthened by 1 inch…!!! Wet handkerchiefs & tissues all around my room…!!!

Thank god…I m breathing normal, but… I got a sore throat… Oh no…!!! I cant sing today… { Jus joking, lol…) Oh forgot 2 check my mob, its morning wish from my FRIEND & when I checked the time its 8. Today I m very late, let me get down before dad comes back from yoga. While coming down, dad is already back from yoga & is reading the newspaper. He turned towards me, locked his eyes & said I think you are not doing your yoga & meditations regularly that’s why you are falling ill. I replied fast I don’t get time [ The most silliest excuse in the whole world…!!!] No reaction from him, he continued reading the newspaper, must have thought its wasting time arguing with me…!!!

I went to kitchen mom was busy cooking something. She said take the milk from fridge, I will boil it for you. I said I don’t want milk today, let me have a coffee today & I went to do my routine, when I came back after 20 mins, my coffee is ready. I went to my room & opened the balcony.

I switched on my play list, the song Annul maele paani thulli [from vaarnam aayiram] was playing. Wow what a song…slow, melodious, romantic song. The meaning of the lyrics is like this snow flakes over the fire, wandering bird, rain drops searching for the tree & goes on. Does that make any sense??? Anyway it’s a nice song, who is bothered to find its meaning…!!! Its raining very heavily & looks very beautiful to watch nature having a hot cup of coffee. Raindrops falling from the trees, leaves & newly bud flowers, naughty boys playing in the pool of water, school children going to school wearing raincoats, birds singing in praise of RAIN GOD watching these as the gulp of hot coffee moves down your sore throat, what a feeling!!! Its hard to express…

I took my mobile & messaged my FRIEND. You feel very good when you share your happiness.

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Time was 15 minutes past 2 in the afternoon, double hour of THERMAL ENGINEERING was going on. The temperature inside the classroom was well above 306 Kelvin & lot of murmuring was going on the class. The desk was filled with steam tables, calculators, books & all. I was sitting in between THE PILGRIM & THE RocK StaR [Read till last to know their real names ;)]. Everyone were involved in finding the solution to the problem sir gave.

The problem was related to what will happen to the steam when the pressure drops, isotropic reaction reaction takes place blah blah...

I was busy figuring out how to answer the question & finding values from the steam table. Suddenly The Pilgrim teared a paper from his book & started to write something. I didnt see what he was writing, i thought he might have understood how to find the solutions. After a few seconds i just glanced what he was doing, i saw him writing something else other than the TE problem. I thought "Oh... may be he is writing some letter to the HOD". After a few minutes he just passed the paper to me...

I read what he has written. After reading i felt like hugging him & standing up to congratulate this guy for doing such a great work. He has written a beautiful poem in the middle of TE class!!!

The poem goes on like this:

A lovely little cloud once fell in love

with the bright full moon.

Try as he might,

could the cloud not reach the moon.

The moon amused by the cloud,

winked at him in mock.

For the moon had seen

many such little clouds.

Hurt the cloud cried itself

into rain & fell upon barren land...

And where upon he fell, LIFE was born...

I showed the poem to The Rockstar, he too was excited to read the great creation. All of a sudden he started to argue that we cant imagine 'The Moon' to be a female & all. Pilgrim started to give the explanations, before their volumnes started to increase i just alerted the guys that we are sitting in TE class. The double hour was over within no time & we came out of class typing the poem to forward it everyone. [especially to the girls who love poems ;)]

NB: People with Broken hearts become great poets...

The Pilgrim: Seriene Mohammed

The Rockstar: Visakh.K [ please note its Visakh not Vaisak ;)]

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Oh god!!! I really really hate this subject called CHEMISTRY!!!

I think you also do, right?

I think its till 10th that i loved this subject, may be its cos we were dealing with simple & fundamental things like preparation of soaps, hydrocarbons, acid rain, ddt etc... Its in 11th & 12th that i started hating this subject like HELL. Its these chemistry periods that i hated the most, i would just sit and look at my watch trying to fly away the 40 long long mins. My chemistry class note really looks like a ROUGH BOOK, all scribblings mostly done not by me but by EBIN, we used 2 play BINGO, draw our Chemistry Dracula's pics, anything & everything that will eat away our chemistry period. Luckily i had a good chemistry tuition sir, its cos of him that i had lil bit of love for this subject & get away with somewhat good marks.

Chemistry lab periods were time to have total fun. Yeah of course there were some bad times also, but these things are complementary. Its the place where i dreamed of discovering great chemicals & all lol... Wearing the knee length lab coat was the thing i hated the most in lab! later i cropped it to my own design ;). The cat-ion & an-ion tests on different salts was something that i hated the most. Always repeating the same experiments again & again, this was something boring. Then i found a solution, i discovered that me, Indu & Archana used to get the same salts. So my job became easy, confirm whether my salt & their salts are same. But sometimes, very rarely, they also find it to hard to confirm the salt. Then i have to sit & do all the experiment!!! This free time i create in lab is dedicated to experiments i do on different chemicals, once i just mixed all the remaining contents of confirmation test into one beaker & poured some conc. h2so4. The whole room got filled with the smoke which came from beaker, thank god! Deepa mam was not there else " Sankaran would have climbed the coconut tree". Once, while doing the experiment a stupid idea stuck my mind. What if the world ends tomorrow? I have to do something for the new world so that they dont havta burn their brains in discovering the salts. So i wrote the whole salt tests in a bunch of paper, wrote my name, year etc... & placed it deep inside the wooden box where acids are kept. Thinking that it will be discovered by the new human beings who will inhibit the earth, after the end of ours!!! But soon after we passed out of school, whole lab got modernised. :( There are many more incidents like this, but i bet you i have not broken a single test tube in chemistry lab, ofcourse i have broken some in bio lab!!!

But guys, chemistry is not so bad as u think. Its the way we deal & look at the subject. Once we change our attitude towards the subject, it becomes a piece of cake. I realised this fact now only. Now i really really love this subject. Above all i apologize to my chemistry teacher MS. Deepa for hating her, playing pranks on her & for coming out with new new nick names for her. I am really sorry mam...

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Suddenly my mobile rang...

I ran to my room, thinking that it will be the call from Arjun or its from HIndu's office to congratulate me. Took my mobile, it was Achu, i greeted her GOOD MORNING. She was screaming Shanky your photo is in paper, i said WHAT??? No... no... photo taken by you has been published in paper.I said yeah just now saw it! So what ya gone do with gift voucher[ then only it strike my mind, i got a prize!!! But its a gift voucher worth 1500 from czarina, {czarina is a ladies botique shop}] Achu i'll give the voucher to u, u go & shop & give me the 1500 bugs, so howz my idea??? Sounds so stupid, ok da when are u throwing your treat, you already owe me a lota treat{ ofcourse for the stupid things i do} well i'll give you soon. She ended the call wishing me good luck.

I waited for Arjun's call for about 10 mins. I kept looking at my mob for a call, as a innocent boy looks at a jar full of cookies kept at a height. Ok enough, let me call him. His phone kept on ringing for some time, just as i was going to hang d call, he took it. He really sounded scary, i was very happy that i have disturbed his sleep & woke him up. Da... get up & go get the Hindu & turn to last page of Metroplus weekend. He said whats the big deal, i m still on bed, is it anything important? I thought ok let me break the surprise & explained everything. No reaction to his sound. {Listen guys he is a total freak, no emotion comes to his face when you expect, thats ARJUN} Da dont sleep after my call ok?

After that there was shower of sms to my mob & phone calls from near & dear ones. After about one hour Arjun called cool man... you have done it again & stuffs like that. So i asked treat vendhe? How about going for lunch, what do ya say? Game...he replied.

So let me call theppan{Visakh, we call him like that}, just a few minutes back only he called. So after a few minutes of talk with Visakh & Arjun we planned to celebrate this big day.

I picked up Arjun & we went to Hindu's office to collect the prize. While returning, we just thought of some way to beat the heat, how about ice-cream at Baskin-robbin's i said. Hmmm...ok not so satisfying 'OK' from Arjun { As usual}. We were really confused in taking our pick, everything had a creepy name{ that only girls can keep in their minds} i just stick to something which sounded mango flavour. We just searched for some place to park our bumps, i said da... that seat near entrance. He said good idea{ i know he guessed what was going in my mind}. We occupied our seats & started licking our ice-creams repenting over our bad choice of selection{should have gone with chocolate}. Time flew like anything...& i was getting hungry, so i asked Arjun lets head to Arul-jyothi for lunch. When i entered the car, i got a feeling that i missed something!!!
Then Arjun said lets call theppan & tell him that we will reach hotel in 15 mins.

Oh shit!!! yeah...its my mobile... i forgot to take it from table, while leaving baskin robbins...
Then i ran to baskin robbins

Reached hotel & selected a great place to sit. The hotel was almost empty & its 12:30. Then only i realised that we forgot to call theppan. We got 30 mins till theppan comes, so lets browse the menu & order something by then or ... hmmm... we spotted the smile in each other's face as if agreeing to the later plan.

Theppan came in next 20 mins or so & we ordered gobi 65. So that by the time we get it, we can decide what to order for lunch. Me & Arjun sticked to have North-Indian thaali but theppan wanted to try out something different. But finally he also decided to have the same as ours.
While our food was getting prepared in the kitchen we were discussing things ranging from our exams to the beautiful girl in green salwar sitting somewhere away from out table.

After lunch there came the menu for the deserts, me & arjun thought of not having any deserts. [may be cos of that stupid mango flavoured ice-cream]. But theppan ordered fruit salaad with ice-cream. Me & Arjun were looking at each other & giving mocking smile :)

When i glanced my watch it was almost 3, i thought we are sitting here & having fun for the last 2 & half hours, no wonder why the people are staring at us, then i happened to see a long queue of people waiting outside for seat. I said guys lets leave, enough masti ho gaya!

Then we slowly walked to parking lot, 3 guys with pumkin shaped belly lol..., putting each step with difficulty. We stood there confused about our next destination, lets go to veli, suggested someone, how about mueseum[ dont remember who came up with this place]. After 5 mins of thinking & blinking we decided lets head to museum after that we fly to our homes...

3 guys lying in the green grass of museum garden, enjoying the beautiful blue sky above them...what a beautiful scene...

I said, i think the lunch was pretty heavy, i feel like sleepy. Both of them nodded a yes. Then we moved on to discuss about out project on engine that works on ginger extract!!!
[hello guys just joking...]
Then we had small photo sessions,cracked jokes at each other, kept pulling someone's leg & so on... later we refreshed our selves with coffee & ice-cream from the KTDC restaurant & by then it was 5'o clock in the watch, each of us was really tired after having a total masti & decided its time to head to our houses.

Slowly everyone moved towards their direction saying a bye, black clouds were slowly shadowing the beautiful blue sky just like a curtain coming down in a stage after a play. Just reminding us about the climax to one of our beautiful day in life.

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Ever since the song Kangal irendal, from the film Subramaniapuram was aired on TV, it has become the favorite of the listeners. From babies to grannies, from singles to lovers,{ oh its too much of exaggeration na!} a pleasant smile comes to their face while hearing this song.

What is the element that attracted you to the song?
hmmm... its very difficult to answer na?

Its a melody composed in ragam " Karakarapriya".

The song captures innocence of love between the hero & heroine. The song commences soon after the heroine speaks for the first time to hero. oooooohhhh!!! what a great feeling it is, one of the greatest feel in life to make a dumbo a poet lol...[its a true fact]. As the song proceed you can she our Hero chasing the hero-in, trying all stuffs to impress her & all.
The director, Mr. Sasi Kumar has not damaged the feel of the song & done a great job in preserving it while picturing. Hats off to the debut ant Music director Mr. James Vasanth for presenting the surprise hit of the year. I think the song topped all the music charts this year.

Moving on to the movie...
All are newcomers, Director, Music-director, Actors, Actresses...
The movie starts in the year 2008 & flies back to 80's, where the remaining part of the movie revolves till 10 mins before the climax. Story is about five unemployed youth, their friendship, love between one of the friend & girl from their village & betrayal of trust. Nothing much is shown about the 5th friend, may be he is not much of importance.

Azaghar, Paraman, Kaasi & Kosi{ the handicapped guy} are the friends. These guys are very short tempered & reacts very fast to silly things. As a result they are always involved in brawl & end up in jail. These guys always hang aroung a light & sound shop opposite ex-councillor's, Somu's, house. Councillor's has a younger brother, Kanugu a politician. kanugu is the Saviour of these friends, he is the one who bails Azaghar & Paraman from jail. That is why these guys are so loyal to Somu & kanugu.

Azaghar is in love with Somu's daughter Tulasi, but paraman is not all happy with this relation & always advices Azaghar not to believe these girls. But he is blindly in love with her. These guys have no job so they hangout at their favourite places spend the day smoking, drinking & ofcourse fighting for no reason. Among them kosi, the handicapped guy is little bit serious about life & does small-small jobs & earns money. Joker among their group is Kaasi, everyone teases him & end their anger by beating him, poor chap! The movie goes on smoothly until Kanugu asks Azaghar & Paraman's favour to get rid of his political foe. They agree, as they get an opportunity to show their loyalty. But their life takes a U-Turn after this decision. Thats forms the rest of the story.

Touching line in the movie is when Paraman says to Azaghar " We were happy when we were doing nothing, now look what happened to our lives".

One of the must watch movie of the season. Its happy to see a very good movie after a long gap. Totally different from normal tamil stuffs like removing a tumor by firing a bullet lol..., masala stuffs & all.

I bet if you have a heart then your eyes will surely get wet after the movie...!!!

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The ambience around me was really at high energy level, people around me too...
The dancing lights to lasers, it seemed like all were synchronized with the DJ's musiq.
Now the DJ changed the track to the HIT number of the season Pappu cant dance... suddenly number of people on the dance floor started adding, may be its because the song itself says only Pappu cant dance sala. I was just jumping around & trying out the dance steps invented by me, lol... In the next spilt second the song changed & new song started playing, it was not a party song to be played. It seemed like a romantic number a slow song. Oh yeah... this is the song Anbae en Anbae from film Dham Dhoom... i can very well make out that superb work of Harris Jayaraj from any distance...
Coming back to party, i was thinking "why the hell did DJ put this song???"
The answer came in just nano seconds... suddenly the party lights went off & people started disappearing & here i lie on my bed lying in "S" shape & song was my mobile alarm!!!

Its Saturday, august 23rd, 2008 everything seemed perfect for having a very beautiful day FOR DOING NOTHING. Yeah, true i got nothing in my plan for the day. Yesterday only exams got over & i have planned many thing to do after exams [even though you know that its not gonna materialise]. But i called Arjun to go out some where & freak out but he seemed very lazy to get outta home, Visakh was ready but was confused about where to go!!!

I never knew that this day was gone be one of my memorable day in my life!

Leave all the thinking part for the day, let me start my day... i came down from my room & went to the kitchen to have my hot cup of milk. Went to gate to look out for the newspaper, came inside & sat on my easy chair & placed d cup of milk on one side. I slowly opened the roll of papers, first malayalam manorama na... this one is not for me... next business line... na... this one is also not for me... finally i got my paper THE HINDU. Ok let me start with the supplementary paper, oh its saturday na! The 2nd edition of METROPLUS WEEKEND, the 1st edition was really impressive. Let me see what stuffs they have this week... i slowly turned to last page. My eyes slowly moved to the column caught snapping, the picture in the column seemed so familiar. Suddenly i started feeling that my fingers were going stiff & my eyes popped up... my eyes slowly moved to the caption.

The caption: SIGN OF TIMES Vehicles parked right below a 'No parking' sign. This photograph was sent by Sankar.S.Kumar, Sowparnika T.C 7/615-1, MRA t-6, MAruthenkuzhy. He can collect his prize from the office of THE HINDU, Airport Road, Vallakdavu.

After reading the above mentioned part i was in cloud nine...shouting amma... amma...
Amma came telling stop shouting in the morning itself, i just handed out the paper & put a few dance step infront of her. After reading the paper she hugged me tight & kissed me on my cheeks... Oh!!! What a fine start for the day...

Suddenly my mobile rang...

To be continued...

PS: In the continuation of this part i will be telling the chain of events that followed on the day

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"5th September is the birthday of a great teacher Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, who was a staunch believer of education, and was the well-known diplomat, scholar, president of India and above all a teacher.In India 5th September is celebrated as Teachers' day as a mark of tribute to the contribution made by teachers to the society."

I am starting my blog as a tribute to all my teachers in 17 years of life from pre-school to college.

I thank the Almighty God, My parents, My mentors & my dear dearest friends for giving a very happy & peaceful life on this planet earth.

I will be blogging things that i think are worth sharing with the whole world.
Like what i experienced in life { Ranging from my stupidity to my achievements}, about my friends, movie reviews, how i freak out at weekends etc...

PS:- I was waiting for a big day to start my blog...
So here i go... On the Teacher's day

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