Story Spinning Experiences With Kids

                                                                Got half an hour responsible-free  break. Chose to write. Felt it will be refreshing.    This post is about my experience with kids while training them to spin a story.  I feel sometimes changing your routine tasks gives not only happiness but also a gives a lot of relaxation.  That’s what my story spinning experience gave me.

                                              This habit of story spinning started when my kid was one year old. My kid can’t sleep without a song and a story. I had practiced a few set of songs  before her birth and I use to sing them in sequence and continue the sequence if she continues to be awake.  I found that difficult and boring with that fixed set, so started to add on a  story when she was ok to understand. Then one- song and one-story formula worked for a long time. Now  the current protocol is one story on week days and two stories on weekends. In the early days, I use to tell her the fixed set of old stories and when they got dried up, I started spinning my own story. I will usually start with any object, event or any person and then add on scenarios related to it. I use stories as one  of the  modes to  teach her  many things which she won’t listen out of the story-time. Now she has become so addicted to that. Sometimes she would not want a story to end, rather she would want to extend it. Sometimes she will herself give some ideas to extend. Sometimes, no  no every time she would want only comical stories. I also believe in humour a lot and so she is.  Anything minus humour would be boring for both of us. Many times, I  have controlled my laughter listening to  ppl talking so seriously for long  time.

                                              Yeah, coming to the actual topic, I thought like why don’t I train kids to spin a story. Why should them all the time recite the same old stories. I contacted Ms. Priya, head of Crayons, Pre-School, near my home. She was interested in this and organized a story spinning session at her school. I would like to thank her at this moment for believing in me. I was first doubtful if I could gel  well with kids. Teaching teens at college is  totally different from teaching kids. So when I  was waiting in the school on one Sunday for that session, one kid entered much before the session. I wanted to  test my strategy that   I had formulated to spin a story the same way I use to at home on her and  it worked on her. So,  the session went like this. I called on each kid and asked them their interesting stuffs like food, dress, parents and asked few questions related to the previous question and finally combined all the answers as a single story. I was training few grown-up kids to write  story using the same formula in parallel.  Seeing those grown-up kids, the kids who finished spinning story orally also wanted to write though they din know how to write. They were so enthusiastic writing about their mom and dad. 99 % of them wanted to become a teacher 😊 That’s so nice.  One kid said she wants to become  a doctor  and also a  teacher 😊.

                                            Speaking with kids  actually is equivalent to any mind relaxing techniques we may know . That's what I found. You can be sure of getting back only the truth when you speak with kids. I don’t blame the grown-ups. We grown-ups including me will have many constraints reacting or talking everything we have on our mind.  And yeah, the love the kids  give you back is voluminous. I was walking back home after the session. All the kids who were also leaving home with their parents waved hands saying, “bye mam" with that cute  and true smile  which will surely  make u feel so richer .

                                      Hoping to explore such many ways to keep the kid in me stay young. Lets see how it goes 😊               

                           

Thanks for reading :)

                                                        

Early mornings

I have been trying for long time to write on this.  After I took a pledge on not to expose our personal life on web, friends on FB said that we should not restrict our freedom of expression on various facts of our life which may reflect our life slightly. I completely agreed with them.  I had to come up with this sort of pledge coz today, the most worried confusion is to distinguish good from bad.  Most importantly, I thought it is our responsibility to save our kids from falling a prey to our personal life exposures on web :(  Otherwise its fine to expose our thoughts here and so came up with this post!

Early mornings, a very special thing in my life. The silence, the pure and fresh air you get in the mornings, I am addicted to it. As you get aged, there exists a different dimensions, varieties and stories to each and everything we come across. For instance, the food we eat, has stories in it ! The food we had at the age of ten, twenty, thirty and now thirty six. it has changed a lot! May be we still stick to certain things which has only a single dimension and has not changed at all! I still eat that “then  muttai”  (the honey candy), the same way I had in my childhood.  My god, the post is getting  a different dimension and giving a clue for my next post! Thought of writing about early morning’s dimension but writing about food!  Despite my meandering, hope you got my point!.

I just want to bring out the different flavours of my mornings that I had for the past 35 years. I did have the habit of studying in the early morning during examinations when I was in school.  You remember the famous  Tamil Gilli movie  dialogue, “Indian Economy is the best  Economy comedy” ?, the same way I used to study. When the exams are over, the extended sleep continued. During BE and ME, I used to see the early mornings with the blurred vision, as I used to be awake from night till morning during examinations. Today, I feel pity and scold the students who sleep in the examinations and I have to advice to take  good sleep before examinations, with the much  heavy guilty heart ☹. After my ME, I was working as Lecturer in Saveetha Engineering College for nine months. I must catch the college bus at 6.30 AM. My mom and dad used to struggle with me to wake me up! Then the Anna University stories, their the  timings,  I think  it was from 9.30 AM to 6 PM. So, I missed my early mornings, when I worked there.

Yes! After joining SRM, early mornings are must in my life! These early mornings are totally different from the rest of my ealry mornings. The past ones are responsible-free mornings! The current early mornings not only involve struggling to get up but also involves cooking and getting ready! I have to catch college bus at 6.55 The acceptance of  salwar dress code saves time and gives me an extra 15 minutes and plenty of peace of mind! But I would say, I like the current early mornings than the rest as it gives an additional joy to me ie  Preparing food for  the loved ones at home!  Preparing food is like yoga. Of course, you got to be in good mood to undergo that yoga or the sambar will taste like rasam  and  rasam as hot water. Not everyday, you can be perfect. With kid, you can’t skip cooking but I try to simplify on somedays to give me a break.  Ratings have become part of life. Right from OLA cab driver  to my teaching job, either you give or get ratings. On a week day,  If you don’t get a call from husband till evening , then you can rate your cooking as “great, good or ok”. If you get a call, then it is definitely, “ very bad”! Yes,  I have heard, most of the husbands including mine, don’t appreciate and only express the negatives. And yes, appreciations need not be in  the form of words always. It can be measured in terms of  the amount of food gulped too 😊  I always believe in one of my policies, “ No expectations, No disappointments” and this promises me a  plenty of happiness always.  Moreover, I am least believing in words spoken by people these days. I have started  believing more on how ppl act than on what they speak. 

And the last thing ! this habit of getting early regularly also taught me another fresh dimension ie spending time for me 😊 As a woman, most of my  time will go in looking after the family and work. Of course that’s the important thing and gives us happiness but at times doing things for your own happiness will make you feel fresh. Yeah,  over these years, I have learnt that happiness won’t come for free. it costs something. Fore goin things or accepting things as they are, will surely help. So, I thought why don’t I forego my sleep during weekends and spend time for me. I either listen to my favorite songs, write my blog, do research or  read about my friends  on web or go for a walk!  My timings would be from 5 AM to 7 AM ! yeah, the same time, I would be spending to cook and get ready to work on week days!  This habit has been a stress buster and helps me release my stress if at all I had accumulated that week and makes me feel as fresh as my morning filter coffee!

Thanks for reading!

Subalalitha

What my age has taught me ?

            DIsclaimer: You may get bored!    

         The beauty of teaching is in the change of its colours periodically.  First three months, you have to  teach and parallelly learn to teach, the next two months, you have to  conduct examination and evaluate answer papers and then last one month you are set free to take vacation then the cycle repeats. I like the head and tail part of the cycle.  Of course, research has become a perennial activity that keeps flowing throughout the year. Publishing papers in scopus/SCI indexed journals  and sending research proposals to generate funds has become top demanding tasks. I don’t fret for this as I like the research part of the teaching much, as it gives much deeper clarity on what you teach. As usual,  I have meandered. Next Para will be on the topic !

                       Recently, I crossed my  35^th Birthday. I would not have come up with this post if my daughter was with me on that day. She had gone to Vellore to enjoy her vacation with my sis-in-law kids. Had she been there, she would have kept my mind busy by talking. We both talk like anything and I worked hard training her since her birth. Found really hard to have a man of few words as my better half, but he listens to me and admires my mokka jokes and laughs like anything but does not respond.  So, I decided to make my daughter talk like me. Like we train a machine learning model, I trained her since her birth by keep on talking to her even before she started trying to speak. Yes! I passed. Now I need not indulge in a monologue. I can expect the unexpected counters from her! Sorry I again deviated. Back again. On my birthday I was totally idle. Selva wanted to cook breakfast and lunch. So, I was busy thinking back my life.

                   I have noticed many changes in me particularly after I joined SRM. Until I joined here, I never ever judged anyone as I didn’t even know how to. I feel judging is not very necessary but then this component grew up in me as part of my aging process.  Sometimes, it saves you from believing wrong persons.  As a teacher and mentor for many students aged between 16-35 (B.Tech, M.Tech and PhD), I  get to converse with at least 50-70 ppl every day and I work with ppl aged between 25 to 58 . May be this experience built me this quality of judging. But what judging has taken off from me is the happiness to move forward. It is  becoming bit difficult to move with people after we get to know about them  and when in a job, you cant avoid anyone and you have to hold that fake smile! The worst part is that you cant find close and good friends very easily!. May be this is life and I am learning it a bit late!  Of course, I can’t be happy without like-minded fun people around me. I make sure, I have at least a small circle of like-minded friends both at workplace and at my residence but still its bit difficult to widen the network that easily by breaking  that hard shell. 

                  Before I owned this quality i.e before I was 30 years old, life was fully colourful seeing the positive sides of people. I got many good people. Yes! I would have definitely missed Selva!  He is the best! He can understand me even before I speak.  After my mom, he can translate my  mind  perfectly!  Still I remember how he was trying to even make me understand his intentions during our PG days, and give me courage to take up things till marriage!  And yes friends! I had the most enjoyable friends in my UG, PG and Anna University !. They are the best till now. I don’t have the  idea of implementing the judgemental quality  towards them at any cost!   They are ever green! Whenever a UG/PG/TACOLA(anna univ) friend calls, the same old happiness comes out and makes me feel younger every time.  I don’t think a WhatsApp or a facebook can fetch you true people or true happiness! May be they can show the number of people you are living around with

           I know what you are thinking? You are getting confused on what  this post is about? Even I am trying to find out the same, along with you. I think, I am trying to introspect on what increased qualities in me are trying to decrease my happiness. But after all, I think its not about the quantity and it is about the quality. I still find good, sincere  and honest ppl and I admire their qualities and try to imbibe it. May be the ratio has decreased a lot! 

So without confusing you further, I conclude my Introspection by rightly using the components or qualities that comes along with age without spoiling the happiness of life at any cost!.

Thanks for reading!

Subalalitha

The Woman I Love and Inspire

Belated Happy women’s day to all wonderful women on this globe and to all the men who were behind and beside each woman making them wonderful. This post has been delaying for the past three years, as I always plan to post this on Women’s day but for some reason have not been able to. This year too, I missed it though I started writing in Feb  itself. Anyway planned to post it post-women’s day ! This post is about a woman I love and Inspire as the title says. No No. This  post is not about my Mom. Of course, she is also one of the women, I Inspire but  this woman I am talking about is an inspiration to my mom too. I am talking about my Paati (Grandmother, Mom of Mom).  Her name is Aarumuga Velammal. We call her ammai. Her life is  like one such strong seed that fights to push it's stem  above the  soil and feels happy seeing those colourful flowers and fruits  emerging from the stem, with no expectations.  Usually all kids would have had stories from their paatis. My Paati would tell her life as stories to me and that’s how I am able to write this post.

My paati became  a widow when her first daughter was just four and her second daughter was just two (My mom). She also was so young. I guess, she should have been in her  twenties roughly.  All she had was a piece of agricultural land and willingness to work hard. Having meals thrice a day was a dream at that time. In such a scenario, she had that strange desire of sending her two daughters to school, when in that village no single girl child was not meant for education at that time. I am talking about 1950s.  She had three brothers, but she believed in self dignity and she won’t seek or expect help always from her brothers. One of her brother used to come to her home and check the stove if she had cooked food on that day. She would deliberately make it hot to avoid getting food from him. Her claim was not to avoid brothers but if she takes food from them daily, then she won’t be able to find a permanent path to earn food on her own.

My patti did not have any superstitious beliefs and she always had a broad mind. When my mom was about to  give her last  state board exam, she attained puberty. In that village, it is a belief that girls who attain puberty are not allowed to go out for a month. My Paati always think differently. She told my mom  to go and write the exam and bother about the formalities, after the exams are over. May be today this looks very pragmatic and usual but in those times, I think it’s a brave decision taken by paati.

As she dreamt, she educated her two daughters. My periyamma did not go to college and got married to my Pattis last younger brother. My periyamma got a government job in a local school as noon meal organiser. Again these three, My paati, periyamma and periappa together decided to make my mom go to college.  Yeah as they dreamt, they made her the first woman graduate of the village.  My mom then continued with many degrees and later married the first male graduate of the village, who is my dad 😊 who again supported her till her PhD. My mom  is a retired government Tamil professor.

Even my Periyamma’s kids have got graduated and are in good job today. All this would not have been made possible without pattis out-of-box thinking that she had  even in that  unfruitful situation. My paati used to stay with us  in Chennai and also she did   agriculture in parallel, in our village. She used to go to village during the initial and final stages of agriculture.

Till I was in sixth standard, my mom was not working in Chennai and was not staying with us. She was working in Nammakkal and then in Valajapettai government colleges. It was our patti who brought up us with utmost care and love. During my BE days too, when I use to prepare for my exams, she used to be sitting beside me, making coffee whenever I feel tired. My patti used to be very active doing all works at home. Even three days before she died she did everything right from cooking, washing clothes etc.    You are one of the luckiest kids, if you had the opportunity of taking care of your grand parents in their last days. It’s a blessing! Not many days she was in bed. She did not even like, we taking care of her for that little period. She likes to be on her own always. My younger brother Pasumpon used to bath her and clean her. She had a special affection towards him as she brought him up since he was one, as my mom had to leave to Nammakkal when he was at the age of one.  

I still remember, I was getting ready to attend a placement interview for a company called, “Eurotherm ”. That was the last morning, I saw her.  When I was back from college, she was no more. A very painful day that was. All those who came for her death had one common description about her, that is “Vairakkiyam (determination)”. She is such a strong woman who never expected any help from others but still wanted to move ahead thereby retaining the self-dignity.  

Our neighbors who came for her death told us that they sensed that she was ill for the past few days. They have not conversed with her much. We have a street light in front of our house which must be manually operated. My patti used to switch on and switch off exactly at the same time daily. They told us that they knew that she was not well as the light was not switched off for the past few days.  My Patti does not  like delaying jobs!

 I feel she is not gone. I don’t know if it is  just an illusion but have felt her many times . I always  feel she is still around me watching my life. Whenever I feel tired, I just think of her and there is no question of being tired after that.  I have never analysed much on, what percent of her is me, but I would be happy if at least a smaller percentage of  her arteries and neurons are passed on to my daughter!  I used to tell her a lot about her and she has been the theme of our bed time stories many times!  Let’s see how it goes.

Love you Ammai and Miss you so much. Whatever I have today, Its all because of your hard work. I will try my level best to make your efforts fruitful and keep the chain going!

Thanks for reading this long post till the end.

Subalalitha

Skit Experiences !

Back to blogging. A much-awaited little break. Though I love my teaching profession a lot, a little break gives a lot a relief. More than me, Selva is relieved much as he need not get Nila ready for school in the mornings for another ten days. More than Selva two other persons will also feel relieved. They are none other than my  auto driver Senthil and my good friend, neighbour, collegue,  Helen. I make them tense every day, as I always get into the auto at 6.55 Am to catch the College bus that comes at 6.58 A.M.  Its bit difficult to wind up kitchen every day on time. The fact is that, You can’t wind up the kitchen until you leave it!!!. Back to the topic of this post. I just thought of writing about my skit experiences I had two times at my apartment new year celebrations. I thought I should this at least before this new year as we may not be able to make it hereafter as we have planned to cut down the extra costs. So here it goes.

In 2014, we planned to celebrate New Year on December 31^st evening.  Savithri, one of my good friends in the flat asked me if we can put up a skit. I did not have any plans but she insisted on that. Many other ladies had planned   for classical dance, songs . Savithri was interested in the skit. I had written few stories earlier but skit, I have never tried. But Savithri forced me to accept so I said I will write a comical skit for her. She said ok. When I gave the script, she said you take this wife character. I said No as Its impossible and  I am totally not into it. Savithri did not accept and  she also could not find a suitable person for that character. So she made me say yes. Anyways, I had written the script more focussed towards the husband character which was played by Savithri. We also had a son character which was played by Savithris son, Pranav.

The script was about a husband who cares or hears nothing when a World Cup Cricket Match Final is telecasted on the Televsion and it was a comical one.  I have personal experiences with Selva so it was not all a problem turning a real time experience as a skit!. Savithri had experiences of acting in skits during her school and college days. Her parents have named her correctly as she is a wonderful actor and she carried out the skit beautifully. We needed few more characters who needs to speak on phone but Savithri suggested recorded voices and we could successfully fit it into the scenes. The skit was a success, and all loved it.  Savithri had made it realistic by bringing a real TV and other components. Our apartment is a gated community and obviously it will have residents with ages from 1- 80. So we had planned to entertain all. We got a very good feedback almost from all age groups that made me happy. I was very doubtful and thought what if nobody laughs for the dialogues and I was very pessimistic throughout because this was my first shot. It was Savithri who gave me confidence and encouraged to make It a success. The happiness that you get when the audience laughs for the dialogues you had written is huge. Thanks to Selva, the official camera man of the skit, who recorded it and now,  I can watch it when ever I want !Though I was pessimistic about the output I enjoyed the rehearsals every day.  .  I was jobless after my PhD completion in 2014. Those were painful days waiting for the calls  and applying for jobs. I have even cried  sometimes and Selva is the victim to listen my polambals. This skit rehearsals kept me occupied and I totally forgot about my job hunt during those days.  Thanks to Savithri and she is a wonderful home maker and a beautiful mom of two kids.

In 2015, we were not able to celebrate New Year as we were busy with the floods 😊. In 2016, that is, 2017s new year, we did not have a choice and we had to make it. The expectations were so high which made me get tensed even more. This time too we planned to go for a comical skit and as it is done amidst families,  we took the family as the topic again . Ofcourse , we  decided to focus on the husband role. This time the theme was, “What happens when mom leaves the kids with the dad for a day”.  I don’t have personal experience  on this as the home will perfectly be fine without me if and only if  all the households are done 😊 .  I thought what happens when no households are done. This time we had planned to keep two kids to increase the fun component. So Savithris Son Pranav was surely one choice and I was searching for another kid by calling the other friends. Nila who was listening to this, said, “Amma enakku un nadagathula oru karathhar thariya” .  I was surprised to see her  utter the words ,“Character”. She was five then and I felt so guilty of not considering her in the first place. She was giving a dance performance anyways  and  I was doubtful if she will remember the dialogues. Of course I was not doubtful about her acting as we both used to do funny dubsmashes and she does that well. Savithri said why don’t we try. But to my surprise she did so well but here and there she forgot dialogues and pranav prompted her off the mike and that also came out funny. This time too it was loved by all.

I thought of writing this because this is one of the experiences that I tried which is totally not in my  to- do list !  I learnt that we should sometime explore the unusual stuffs in life which might give tons of happiness totally free of cost !

Thanks for reading  😊

My School !

Disclaimer:Dedicated to all my school friends out there on FB and Whatsapp

Early morning 5AM, spending time on one of the joy full hobbies is bliss . The best part is that  everyone at home are sleeping. This early morning silence is one of the beautiful thing that I admire daily. I have been thinking of writing about this since long back but this post is not about that  and this post is about my school, “St.Antonys Girls Higher Secondary School , Mandaveli”. 

One of the best moments in life are to live the memories once again. It can be anything like talking to your school or college friend, or childhood friend or visiting your school or college. Whenever, I talk to my BE college friends, I feel so happy as its clearly an unconditional happening. I strongly believe in unconditional policies.  Nowadays, I feel people have a condition or expectation to even to converse with you!  But Yeah, I am so lucky to have a pure list of unconditional friends since schooldays to SRM.  I think I am deviating as usual. 

I got so lucky to visit my school to write my Teachers Recruitment Board exam . The moment I saw the venue of the hall ticket, I was flying in the  air and the immediately  I rang my parents and brother to tell this and as I expected they also reflected the same happiness. I had studied in that school from 6^th to 10^th. My LKG-5^th standard schooling was done at Bon secours convent which is next to my Antonys school and they both are sister institutions.  My school has a long history as they celebrated its centenary year when I was in my 7^th standard in the year 1995.  I gave my exam on October 22^nd and I could not wait to visit my school since I got the hall ticket. It’s a government aided school and I was thinking It must have got old and I was having similar visualizations in my mind. To my dismay, my school was standing proudly  as a lion with the same old building neatly maintained. We are polluted with the wrong mentalities that private schools provide good infra structure and discipline and I felt so guilty to have missed to provide such a disciplined education to my daughter. We were welcomed by the NSS team of little girls (Hey my juniors !).  I could see the same old disciple from the way they guided us. On a Sunday, they are doing to this duty dutifully and I cant expect this from my kid who is doing her schooling in an international school.

My eyes searched for all my classrooms.  I could see my 10 A class room which was the last class room in that school.  I was searching for my teachers but I could not recognize any of them. But that day was a complete lucky thing. I saw a teacher who was giving instructions to  us. I dint recognize her in the first sight. The moment she walked, It stroked, Yeah she is MS. Vasantha Kumari, my teacher who turned my life up and down. I  went to her and she said,  You should not stand here and should sit there. Oh wow, she is still with that same strict policies. I asked her if her name is Vasantha Kumari. I can’t be wrong. She said yes. I told her that I am her student and obviously she did not recognize me. I told her about me and What I am doing now. She felt so happy. I got her blessings and she was in tears. I felt so guilty to have made a person to cry who was sincerely doing her duty and did not expect that. I quickly went back to my place and she also got into her work . Those few seconds are  priceless, I would say. Meeting a person who is there still in  your roots holding it tightly is surely a blessing. Only a parent and a teacher can be happy to see you grow better than them.  It happens in our college often. When students come and say that they are placed in companies for 17 lakhs per annum, there is no little amount of jealous involved and only tons of pride involved that my student whom I taught has achieved this.  Proud to be a teacher. VAsantha Kumari mam , Ranjani Parthasarthi mam and TV Geetha mam (Anna University professors) are the golden teachers in my life!

Back to the post. Vasantha Kumari miss was my 7^th class teacher and she was the first one who recognized that I could orate.  Many inspections will be there at my school. On  One such day few students were asked to prepare little talks and I was one among them. That day she said you have capabilities of orating clearly. After that,  I was given few opportunities to give speeches in functions. I cant forget my first speech on Teachers day when I was in my 7^th standard. My father writes the content and he had written about an incident about Dr.Radha Krishnan in that speech. While taking about that incident I got blank and stood still. Few seconds later, I continued my speech which I considered as a big failure on that day .The whole day I was crying.  I still remember how my friends were consoling me. I was surprised to  receive a call from the Head Mistress to give a speech on Childrens day on the same  year followed by my failed attempt on teachers day. We should give rehearsals before our HM . She said you are speaking well but you not giving any hand gestures and  taught me how to  give hand gestures while talking. I use to talk in Tamil those days and I was not fluent in English. I picked it up only in BE Easwari college. Thanks to my friends who always spoke in English and corrected me whenever I spoke with grammar mistakes. Back to post! Back to post! I remember my father will include many thirukkurals  and other Tamil  quotes in my speeches. I will mug up them and speak.  I took part in many speech competitions but I don’t know I could not win them but I continuously took part as I like it.   The only price I won was that second price in the school’s centenary year celebration. May be one of the reasons why I like teaching is that I love giving talks. This quality was recognized, taught and  developed in my school  and Ms. Vasantha Kumari miss is main person behind.

One more rule my school had was to make the students sweep their classes after school hours. We had four groups . I am not sure of the name of the groups. Can any antonys school friend who is reading this  remember that? Each group takes in charge of cleaning for a week.  I also remember that students from various economical back grounds studied in that school from Higher to lower level. I remember daughters of the then state ministers and granddaughter of the late Mr. Moopanar studied there ,when I was there.  I doubt the private schools if they can teach such a discipline to students today and I blame the  current generation parents for the same to raise the child without feeding the disciplines, responsibilities and the necessary  requirements to lead a happy life. I am happy that my school taught me. I also have the responsibility of transferring the same to my kid and if I could do it to her, I am done for the life.

Good Luck to me and Good Luck to you too. Thanks for Reading.  

180 Minutes...

I was  worried if I will quit this! No it dint happen. I came back to my place again! At last Caught up with blogging at least on  the last day of my summer vacation! Without meandering further, this post is about my experiences with the semester exam invigilation duties.

180 minutes…. Can you think of standing, starring, watching, roaming or sitting for 180 minutes? We college teachers do that twice a year! Yeah, I am talking about the 3 hrs examination duties assigned every semester! Teaching is so fun but examination duties looked so terrific initially to me.  After completing one year, I have started finding routes to enjoy exam duties too. I know exam duties are meant to  monitor students carefully  and  prevent them from engaging in malpractice. The fact is that only one in thousand will engage in such acts and when you get all right fellows in your hall, the world becomes idle for 180 minutes.

Let’s look at the pessimistic way first!  While the same 180 minutes can be spent joyfully watching a cinema, why can’t an examination duty be  spent joyfully? There are million answers to this question. To speed up completing this post I quote a few here.

1.    It is  so hard to shut mouth for a talkative person like me.
2.     It is so hard to control mind that too when a jokes pops up, it’s very hard to hold the laughter!
3.      It is so hard to be vetti when rest of your hall members are busy writing exam.
4.      It is so hard watching watch every one minute and wondering why its running so slow.
5.      IT IS SO HARD, DOT.

It’s not exactly 180 idle minutes. We will have about half an hour work of signing answer sheets, attendance sheets etc but after that?  Of course we have few optimistic options too.

     1.We can think of useful stuffs like research ideas, household planning etc.
     2. We can  empathize security guards  working at the apartments and restaurants.
      3. Watch students and their strange expressions.
      4. At least will have silent 180 minutes in our life history.

The third point is so interesting! You can see variety of emoticons better than whats app or facebook on students faces! Some will be tensed, mostly first year students.  One chap wanted something from his neighbor and asked my help. He said “round”, “instrument” and many more words.  I asked what for you want that? he said I want to draw a circle. His friend understood and gave him what he wanted. I said  “I think its called compass”. “He said oh yeah and smiled “.  The other day one student came late and asked for his subject question paper. He forgot his subject name. That day I had four different question papers. I asked him, “are you writing Physics ?”. He said yes. His friend said,”Hey you have wavelets and analysis da”. You won’t believe that guy was writing the exam for full 180 minutes.

Some students make us tense. They don’t want to sit idle. They will finish exam before one hour. The next one hour is a penalty for him and me. The rule is that a student is not allowed to exit the hall before completing full 180 minutes. He will keep on asking for time and he will definitely have watch with him. No matter how trendy and matured they are, in their outer appearance, they prove their age and innocence most of the time!

One day, I was assigned a hall where students were writing maths exam. I am sure, this maths has proved to be the toughest subject since stone age. We were told to be extra careful and check for bit materials which may contain formulas.   I was seriously checking one student’s wallet and his accessories. He said “why don’t check you check my paper first mam before checking me. My paper is still blank. If I had something I would have wrote something on it mam.”. I could only smile at him  and asked him to try recollecting and write the exam. Hope he got through that paper.

There are still so many interesting things which when written will lengthen this post and make it even more uninteresting!So, I end here. Hope I learn to enjoy and enjoy to learn many more  facts involved in the many upcoming  180 minutes!. Thanks for reading!

Changing Horizons

This post is about my experiences for the past three months with students at SRM University. “Job Satisfaction”, the most wanted component!  I feel, one achieves , “Job Satisfaction”  when his/her talent and attitude matches with the job. I feel the second factor comes in here because Job involves making money and the way u make money decides ur  attitude. I may be totally stupid but I feel this way.  That way, I think I achieved that Job satisfaction at SRM. I landed here almost after one year of long wait ie after submitting my PhD thesis. Having brought up in a Research and Development environment at CEG, Anna University for about 7  years, I happened to get passionate towards research but my dream was always to become a professor. I was under the impression that I will get into some good college/University easily after I am done with PhD. The scenario was completely opposite and I had to end up in a software start-up company. May be partially my talent supported that job but my attitude din get along. When the job was turning into a  5 AM to 12 AM job, I lost interest and temper as well. After all, you should have some time to spend the money you are earning,atleast! Fortunately, I landed in SRM and I am here to share the nicest experiences here.

As I said earlier, I was looking for job which will support my teaching and research interests. SRM did support and is supporting that. I can’t forget my first class on 30^th June 2015. Teaching Natural Language Processing subject which is my research domain is almost dream come true. I took this subject for third year students. It is an elective and only 20 students had opted that. I was quite nervous as I was resuming to teaching after seven years! It took almost a week to get used to the chalk and talk method.  Regarding the students, there is a complete change in the current generation.  I am just looking back how I did that final year project during my BE and even in ME. According to me, theory papers are to be studied for exams, practicals are meant to remember the procedures and that’s it! One thing was definitely missing. Application of the concepts! Now students do number of projects apart from their final year projects. One student came to me and asked that will I be guiding for at least two projects in his third year! They do projects for their passion!  I feel teaching is a two way process. U teach and also  u learn from the students. I have observed this with first year students. I take C programming lab for them. They sometimes come up with the logic that is smarter than what I teach them and I feel it’s better to accept it and learn from them. They also feel comfortable when we accept what they say!

One day, I was taking class and I noticed that one student was writing his record. I pointed out this and continued taking class. After the class is over he came to me and I was thinking that he is feeling sorry but he was asking me if it is possible to do a project which can generate records in his own handwriting. I thought he was just kidding but he seriously came for a discussion later! Not only the students and I think the teachers also has  changed or have to change accordingly.

Of course, they make you lose temper sometimes but I mostly avoid that! You know why? It doesn’t work and that’s y!!!.  I asked the first year students that,” what is there expectation from a teacher?”. I just asked this question on the first day as they have just come out of their school education. One student said, a teacher should be a humorous person instead of having a strict face! U will definitely have funny moments as well!

So far so good. Hoping to teach, learn, research and of course enjoy for many more years! Let’s see how it goes.

Thanks for reading!

Of Schools and Of inter-linked chaos

I have generally not written about social issues in my blog so far for some reason. Recently, I have become almost a school-phobic person. This just happened when we started looking for schools to admit Nila.  It was initially hard to even believe that schools charge so much fees for an LKG kid. Then I realised that it was very much true, but when we need to face it, it is just really confusing.  My one simple question is, “Are the schools really worth paying such hefty amount?”.  We have admitted our daughter in Little Millennium, which has play group to UKG.  I thought of putting her in a bigger school for LKG but something is really preventing us to pay such hefty amount for just a kindergarten education.

I don’t mean to compare the 80’s and 90’s school education but still I feel we public have somehow  increased the number of XYZ vidhyashrams and XYZ public schools mushrooming every year.  No matter if it is Mylapore, or tambaram or even chegalpet, I find these vidhyashrams  and public schools. And yes, nobody wants to join their kid in Matriculation schools these daysbecause of this samacheer kalvi concept. Few more doubts of mine are, “What is actually happening in matriculation schools? ”, what will happen if I put my kid in a Matriculation school? Will she become totally useless?

Recently in my gym, I came to know of many  good Matric schools and CBSE schools in Tambaram, who get only moderate fees unlike the other schools who get fees around one lakh rupees.  That made me think a lot. What if I put my kid in a very normal school with normal fees. May be she will start conversing in English a bit late. I admit a school is the one which cultivates any talent in most of the kid. I am really thankful to my school, St. Antonys Girls Higher Secondary School, Mandavelli,  Chennai,  for helping me to come out of the stage fear and talk in front of the crowd. I would really like to write on that later in my blog. And yeah my school was a government -aided school where we all had equal opportunities to explore extra- curricular activities.  But the school where I joined for my 11^th and 12^th  was a matriculation school which used to produce many state rank holders and had 0 opportunities for extra -curricular activities. I would rather call it is a tutorial centre than a school. One more point I would like to tell about my Antonys school is that we had the best teachers. I still remember how our Meenakshi miss gave extra coaching to centum aspirants at her home on sundays. Also she took extra care to weak students. Can U imagine, all this happened in a government aided school. If Meenakshi miss is still there, this must still be continuing there.

Also I have this particular doubt. All these fancy vishyashrams and public schools are functioning for almost a decade. Had they given super- duper coaching in terms of education and extra- curricular activities, they must have produced super- duper candidates excelling in many arenas. Has that happened? Or I am just unaware?

My only worry is that are we paying more for a thing for which we actually need to pay less? Are we doing this  just because we are earning more? Already most of us are working in private sectors. Even government sectors have stopped pension scheme. On top of that, we have 'n' number of EMIs to be paid monthly  at attractive low interest rates. If schools grab the money in the name of fees on a monthy basis, we can neither definitely invest in our future nor in our kid’s future. I always have this nightmare of how to save money for their college fees if we spend all our monthly income to their school fees?

I am keeping my fingers crossed. Am I going to opt for a normal school or am I also going to fall as a prey to these fancy vidhyashrams? Let’s see how it goes.  

Thanks for reading :)

Millets-O-Millets

                

             

             Finally reached here….my tiny world. I love scribbling here but then I rarely spend time here. days. Priorities keep changing.  Just thought of  writing about my recent addiction which is none other than millets.  Got so addicted and I am using them in my kitchen almost three days a week.  Kitchen is another tiny world of mine and I love spending time there except on hot sunny days.  I prefer cooking  early in the morning during summer so that  I don’t sweat.  Cooking!  Wonderful way of showing love and care. That moment when u serve food and u see the satisfied expression from the person who eats…wow! U forget the quantity of sweat u gave in for the recipe.  It is also a fact that you can never expect to satisfy people all days but those days count so much in improving your cooking. I have gone wrong some hundred times literally in making a mutton biryani before I could cook it to the expectations of the people at home.   

         Without meandering further, getting straight into the topic, I read about these millets somewhere in anandha vikatan , that millets were supposed to be Tamil people’s traditional food and they had listed so many advantages of these millets. What usually happens after reading such things, is that we will talk about  it with people at home and we also decide to use them the next day, but often end up cooking with the usual stuffs.  One fine day, I came across these millets in the racks of the super market. I dont know why, they always keep millets at the bottom most row of the rack in that super market. I wanted  to bend and take it but u see we  wont bend too much for a thing we actually don’t need. That’s how I was missing these millets for long time. One day while surfing the cookery blogs, I came to know that millets can be used for making idly and dosa. The very next month, millets got included in my grocery list! I am an idly, dosa freak. No week can be spent without idly and dosa. Days were terrible when we in UK, where I could not get the idly /dosa batter, with right quality of fermentation.  Back to millets, while making idly/dosa batter, I started using them in little quantity , replacing rice with millets in the ratio 1:3 and  later I made it as  1:1.  Yeah, it was really incredible that, selva and nila could not make any difference between the usual idlies and the millet based ones.  

                One gentle advice of mine would be, if you want to start making idly/doa with millets, start with varagu (kodo millet) or samai (little millets) because they are white in colour and so they wont change the colour of your idly. I have also tried idly/dosa with thinai (fox tail millet )and kuthiraivali (barn yard millet). There are so many recipes available using millets on the web but I was very much contented with idly/dosa.  I tried making dosa batter with only millets and urad dhal leaving out rice completely but the dosa was not so soft . May be the absence of glutten (which is actually good for health!),make the millets based food so hard. So, I felt adding a little rice will help softening the batter. I have also tried  plain biryani with thinai millets and yes it tasted good but I did not like the pongal made with that.  Opinion differs.

              Only thing is that milltes are quiet costly compared to rice. Half kg of any millets is 55 Rs. But I feel, when we can buy Basmati or seeraga samba rice for that price, millets are worth buying. And yes, when compared to Pizzas and burger, millets are definitely cheaper. I think for those who dislike being on diet eating only chapatis  for dinner, they  can blissfully prefer millets .

               

            http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=53. This is one of the links which states the advantages of the millets. The idly photo shown  in the beginning of this post is the idly cooked by me. I had asked selva to take a photo of the idlies but I never thought he would only focus the idlies leaving the side dishes!!!.

              

              Thanks for reading.

Me, my Education and my Parents #4

Of course, for any person, parents will be the people behind their educational journey. My parents have supported me a  lot. Though I am a mediocre student, my parents always chose the best path for me. Morever, I had a very inconsistent academic performance. In 10^th , I scored 462/500. Since, we shifted our home from Foreshore Estate to Madippakkam, my school also got shifted. That affected me mentally. I like my old school (St.Antony’s Girls Higher Secondary School ) very much. It had a very friendly atmosphere, more extra-curricular activities, and best teachers. Though it was a government aided school, we had the best teachers. I will surely write about my school teachers one day in my blog.  The school I joined in 11^th was more like a prison.  It is apt to call it as a tuition centre rather than a school. My parents admitted me there as it is the best school in Madippakam. While my both younger brothers could manage the change perfectly, I was not matured enough to handle the change, I was struggling a lot. My mom took so many efforts to make me perform better. She was a Tamil Professor in Nandanam Arts and Science College then. Her colleagues took coaching classes for my school students.  Though I had  special attention, I was not able to cope up. I did not like the school ambience itself. That got registered in my mind very well.

My parents were very worried about my performance in 12^th board exams. My parents are very actually strict. They tried scolding me, gave advices, even my brothers started getting worried.. Though my mom’s colleagues took coaching for Engineering/Medical entrance examination at my school itself,  my mom chose me to put in ICE coaching center  for my entrance exams, as they understood that I did not like the school. My dad used to accompany me for coaching classes  daily from Madippakam to T Nagar.  Somehow, in 12^th I managed to score 1000/ 1200. Nobody will believe that I scored exactly 1000 but it is true . In entrance, I think  I got 68.5/100. I don’t remember exactly. I had a very low cut-off.  My parents and my brothers were so worried and bit angry. I actually wanted to pursue my career in Engineering. My parents very well knew this and they gave me another chance. I still remember my dad said, “Engineering collegela sethurren aana olunga padikanum”.  After analysing so much they decided to admit in SRM Easwari  Engineering College in Electronics and Instrumentation stream.

From day one, I focussed on my studies in my BE. Yeah, I liked the college, the stream and the people there too. I passed out with First class with distinction. But then I struggled a lot to get a job. I attended so many campus interviews but cud not get through. I had actually planned to pursue MS in US and went for GRE coaching. My parents did not say no to that. Though they knew that financially it is difficult to support me,they said, “ u go ahead, we will manage”. Again I got a low GRE score . I think I scored 390/800 in Verbal ;690/800 in  aptitude and 4/6 in Essay. Friends and many said it is possible to get an admit with this score, as I had a good academic score. I applied for 5 US universities and 1 Singapore university. My parents spent around 50k for this application process and all went in vain. It is a huge amount for my parents. Still I feel guilty whenever I think about that.  I did not get an admit in any Univ.

While I was busy applying for US universities, I totally forgot to apply for PG in Tamilnadu but my mom had bought an application for doing ME and MBA in TN .  I only singed in that  and she filled it and had applied. I was confident about MS but was totally diffident about ME/MBA. Things totally changed.  I scored well in ME/ MBA exams.  I forgot the scores but got a good ranking. I got a call from Anna University for MBA. Meanwhile, I got an admit in SSN Eng College and my dad chose Computer Science Engg Stream. I did my BE in Electronics and Instrumentation.  I was so scared but my dad thought I can manage as many said Comsci is easy. I was so doubtful and I got fever  that evening. I still remember my second younger pasumpon did not even have his lunch till I reached home from counselling after coming to know that I chose Comsci. He knows that I don’t like it.  I actually wanted to do MBA but my parents wanted me to do ME.  After having messing up in MS plans, I thought it is fine to pursue ME abiding my parents.

In ME, again I liked college, people but not the subject. I was totally diffident about getting through in semester exams. As guessed, I flunked in 3 papers out of 5 papers in my first semester. My parents again got worried. With the help of my friends there, I managed to clear my 3 arrears and 6 papers in second sem  in one shot. I am thankful to my friends, they made me like ComSci by teaching  it.  I think I have written about my BE and ME friends in my blog. They are amazing people. Then finally I passed out with first class, searched again for jobs but managed to get only a teaching job in Saveetha Engineering college. That’s when I came to know, teaching is my career and not software engineer. I really loved the job and actually could very well do it. Every time I take class, I feel satisfied and I think I have written about this also in my blog.

Then, I got Junior Research Fellow (JRF) job in Tamil computing Lab, CEG, Anna university. I decided to join here, as I wanted to do PhD to make teaching career, a permanent one. My parents supported my decision to pursue PhD. At last, I am done with my PhD. Sooner or later, will take up teaching  as my career after checking if my kid  Nila is comfortable or not.

It is a fact that all parents would like to educate their daughters. But at the end of a basic degree most parents take a decision of getting their daughters married if they are not so good at their academics. My parents did think differently.  With all the inconsistencies throughout my academics they could have come to a decision of getting me married after giving me a basic education, as done by most of their friends.  They always wanted me to prepare myself to stand on my own legs before marriage. One more fact was that, both my younger brothers were so consistently good in academics. First one got EEE in GCE, Coimbatore and the second one got Mech in CEG, Anna Univ. My parents were  least worried about their academics and they spent much more less for their education compared to me.

I am not a pampered child at home, my parents are so strict but every time I failed, they gave me a second chance; they supported my decisions when required. Not only in academics, they also supported my decisions in my personal life. Every time they supported my choice, they clearly told the limitations of my choice and they always advised me to be strong with my choice.   After marriage, they understood that it is the turn of Selva to take care of me. Selva is a kind of possessive natured person but my parents have always advised me to abide by  Selva’s decisions. I think parents only wish their kids to be happy, at any point in their lives. I can only make my parents feel proud by being strong in my decisions and achieve a good position in my career. That way, I could make the efforts taken by them meaningful.

Thanks for reading.

My PhD and Selva #3

,

 Family, of course , the main back bone behind my PhD. The main three persons here to be mentioned are, Selva, my Parents and  my kid, Nila.  Selva was the main person behind. Without his support, surely it would never ever been possible. I think not all girls pursue their education after their marriage.  I am blessed that way.  When we got married in 2009, I had only completed one semester i.e six months of PhD. I had written exams soon after I got married.  As he promised, he supported me from day one and yes he kept his promise till the end.  I was mentally so weak in my initial years of marriage. It is actually tough to handle my polambals.

Selva is the main person behind making me mentally strong. The technique he follows is so strange. He will listen to my worries only once. He will advise and give solution. If I still continue to be worried, he will only scold and will not even hear one word of mine.  It actually worked. I used to fret and fume that he is not even consoling me, when I am so depressed.  Consoling too much makes a person actually weak.  Today, I have reached a level where I can face a problem with least stress. Let us see, if I am improving on that even better.  Also, selva will have his limits in supporting me. He wont give too much support, as he knows that will only make me lazy. He will wake me up at 5 AM every day so that I can spend time on my research, he will take care of Nila, whenever,  I need to go to Univ and get her ready to Pre-School, he adjusted his office timings for me, he took care of all formatting related work for all the papers, I have published and that’s it. I know as a husband this is actually too much. At the same time, he will never ever allow me to compromise on taking care of family. I mean in terms of house hold works. I can’t skip cooking or leave the sink uncleansed just because I have to leave to Univ.  He is a very strict officer.  I was so irresponsible and playful towards these household works when I got married. Selva struggled a lot changing me and of course, me too struggled a lot in undergoing that transformation. Today I think I have changed and at least I satisfy 70% of his expectation.

I do things in a damal dumeel way but Selva like things to be done slow and so perfectly and he also  teach me to do so.  I will give you one example of his teachings. While drying the clothes, the tip of the clip should hold the cloth and the rope as well and the clip needs to be straight.  The clothes should be stretched to the max . This way, the clothes get dried soon and it will never get carried by winds. Sapaa!!! ivlo detailsa sollikuduthaa oru payana valakkurathu? Thank god! I got a girl baby , else after two decades, some other poor girl would be cursing me on this.  But I often accept that Selva is right and mostly I will abide by his teachings. That too after Nila is born, I started sticking to his teachings rapidly. I observed that Nila imitates me what I do.  She will hold the Mop, the same way I hold and mop the floor. I thought it is better to be perfect or try to be perfect in doing things.. May be, I would have never decided to change, if had got a boy baby! Being a mom of a girl baby loads additional responsibilities on u. So, poruupaa irukalamnu mudivu panniten.ellam vithi!! Still I have got a big list of things that need to be done perfectly.

On the cooking front,  I chose the safer side.  I was almost new to edible cooking, in my early days of my marriage. I had two choices. I can either learn my mom’s way of cooking or my Mom-in- Law’s way. I thought it is better to choose Mom-in-law’s way of cooking.  The cooking I do even now is almost a carbon copy of her cooking.  No No .. Naan avlo nallava illa. Selva cookingla athu yen apdi irukku ithu yen  ipdi irukkunu question ketta gabalnu unga ammavum ipdithaan seivaanganu solli samaalickalaamla?. Eppudi ! naangalaam sema saarppu! I only realise how I have transformed whenever my relatives or friends come home. Once,  tacola friends visited our new home at Tambaram. Balaji was so surprised to see my cooking and he said, “kudumba isthriyaave marriteenga suba”. I have tested my worst culinary experiments on Tacola friends  and they have given true comments before marriage and I think, even after marriage.  So, I felt happy to get a positive comment from a tacola friend. Etho nalathu nadanthaa sari.

Back to Selva, I cant say thanks to him or even to my parents. I can only truly love them and be responsible towards them. I think being responsible is the best way to show your love especially, to your family members. That’s what I learnt after becoming a mom. Yeah, I have to mention about my kid here who adjusted a lot since her birth.  I had to leave her with Selva, when she was 11 months. Though, It was only for few hours but I know how babies will miss their moms especially, in that age.  May be, Selva made that easy for her.  I am blessed to have both in my life.

Thanks for reading

Of Tacola friends #2

Guru vanakkam is over. Now about my TaCoLa friends. Incredible friends for lifetime. We Tacola team is more like a family than friends. They can’t be missed in important functions in our family.  . Technical or Non technical  stuff. We give space for everything and discuss with ease with each other.   Just now it striked me , the reason why we all could behave as family members is that may be each one of us had siblings, I mean each guy had a female sibling and vice versa. One more common thing is that, we all had good rapport with our siblings.  I think Vinodh sir is an exception as he is a single child and Pon Prakash had only a brother. May be you don’t need a sibling to respect a woman who works with you.  Here, I should appreciate the male lab members because of whom we all felt so comfortable and they made Tacola a better place. They are all so disciplined and nobody talked rubbish even in the name of a joke. That’s why even people like Uma mam who was a very reserved person earlier was able to gel easily with all the lab members and became outspoken later. I doubt the interview process. Something is happening there.  May be they have special scaling factors specially for guys!!!.

We have not called anybody as akka , thambi or anna . It is tacit and Tacola had invisible discipline and rules which we all followed.   I remember balaji was calling me suba akka  when he joined the lab . I told him that , “akka nra mariyatha manasula irukkattum. Suba ne koopdu”.  I am sure he did have the respect and still having it. But this chezhian irritating me still by calling me akka.  He is only six months younger to me. But for the sake of showing himself as a youth, he used to call me akka.  And this akka term has one more story also. Rama priya who joined after me used to call me suba akka . But later only I realised that she is one and half years elder to me. Ada kadavule!. 

The lab has a seven years of history for me and I have met so many people there. Learnt good out of good people and too good out of certain strange people. I don’t want to tag them as bad people. I would say, cheating is not a crime but getting cheated is. I just don’t want to mention the person name. She is just an eye opener in my life. I simply used to believe blindly in people. I don’t analyse them in depth.  I am not able to believe that people can cheat others by spinning huge lies just for the sake of money. Lab friends know whom I am talking about.  After that incident, I have learnt a lesson in life that we are not supposed to blindly believe in people anymore. But it has a disadvantage too. U tend to doubt right persons too. It has shifted my basic character slightly. I think my lab friends will read this with only a big smile on their face as they always make fun of me for having been cheated like that. I deserve that for being so dumb! Its ok as it gave us a reason to laugh whenever we got bored.

Our lab friends can make any tough situations lighter. That has made the complete journey joyful. We had so many tough situs throughout but we crack some jokes and make the situ lighter. Humour sense was one of the common characteristic we all had.  Though I am talking of humour it makes me feel a bit emotional while writing this line as I doubt if I will get such teammates in the rest of my life. Turning to humor, if we talk for twenty minutes we will be laughing for fifteen minutes for sure. I am just missing those days.

  We use to go out for shopping. I was not married then. I think Balaji , Rama priya and raji will have the T nagar shopping memories. Rama and balaji will definitely not forget the shopping experience we had at Pothys. We went there to buy dress for rama as she got an offer letter in DRDO Bangalore. I think I also bought some dresses. At that time a 400 Rupees  price tagged salwar used to look so costly for me . Still I am a stingy person. That’s y before marriage my mom does not take me along with her while buying dresses for me and Selva after marriage.   I make them get tensed by arguing more about the price tag than the quality. Coming to shopping exp with lab mates, they still use to make fun of me of how me and rama chose dresses. Within ten minutes, I chose 3 dresses. One in 200 rs range, one in 300 rs range and the other in 400 rs.  When I showed the dresses to my mom , I remember she saying, “ipdi uripidi illama moonu dress vangarathukku 700 rs ku urupidia oru dress vangi irukalamla?”.  After that I have one simple rule, “ I will wear dresses whatever amma and selva buy for me with ”. I believe in their tastes too.  Coming back to the pothys incident, I don’t want to reveal the way rama chose her dresses. Rama ithukku neenga enakku gift kudukanum. Unga maanatha kaapathiten.

Yeah we use to buy gifts for our lab friends by collecting money. Though we earned less we aim getting a costly gift. Once they gifted me 2000 Rs watch. Balaji will remember the jinguchan jinguchan colour shirt we  bought for him for his b day. That was actually chosen by raji,  I remember he just wore on his b day for the sake of raji. Balaji unmaya sollu antha shirta ena panna?  Un wife Shwethata mattum kaatatha. Namma lab maanam poyidum. Thappi thavari shwetha paathutaanganna kooda  unmaya sollaatha. Adichu kooda kepanga, appa kooda solliraatha …

Helping tendency is just another common thread. We use to help without any condition. U remember my unconditional policy? Not only me, we all had that policy.  During fund issues we use to help each other. I remember Rama priya used to bring lunch from her hostel for balaji so that he need not spend for lunch. I feel money has  least significance to make u smile. With just twenty rupees we use to be so happy in the canteen buying something within the limits. On the technical front too , we use to help each other by explaining concepts, helping to fix the bug in the code . I have heard that usually PhD scholars do not reveal about their research to each other. At Tacola, things are totally different. We set our research goals and we have never hesitated to discuss about the issues in our research with each other. Being not too selfish actually helps to live a better life. That’s what we have learnt.  I had break in my studies twice. The kind of support my friends gave me is incredible. That too during my maternity break, I was writing a journal paper; Selva use to give the print out to Radha Krishnan and he will give to mam; Mam will correct it and send the corrected paper to Radha Krishnan and he will give to Selva. This process was going on for the entire break period for about one year. I should thank Radha Krishnan for the kind of support he gave me during that time and RP Mam for her efforts. Mam used to present my papers in the international conferences as she is also one of the authors. I am sure not all supervisors can do this for their students . She went twice for me once  to IIT Bombay and  then to University of Hyderabad.  Balaji has also presented one of my papers in Bangalore when my baby was two months old.   The PhD Degree I own today is not only because of my efforts but involves the efforts of many people. Thanks so much guys!

Regarding the Chaos and fights, yes we have had. I use to lose my temper very badly only to those whom I know that they will understand me.  I mean to say I get angry to those whom I surely know that they won’t leave me and will bounce back after a short period. I think I have done that only with Chezhian and Balaji.  I would like to list the lab members not in any particular order.  Uma mam, balaji, Chezhian, Rama priya, vinodh sir, karthikeyan, bharath, radha Krishnan and  Karthika. Few members were around for short period like kavitha,  sujin, pon Prakash, janci, senthil sir, shunmuga priya ,  Thilaga, vatsala priya and guna mam and prabhu sir. Recent additions are Premalatha, Ganesh and thenmalar mam. 

Whenever I think of discussing about any issue or seeking any help, a Tacola friend will definitely be in the list. Recently, I was so confused about my post- PhD plans.  One of the persons who came to my mind was vinodh sir and as I predicted he threw some lights over the issue. We have not talked frequently after he quitted lab but I knew he will help if I contact. Ayyayo I forgot Sairamesh, he is not part of Tacola but he is a faculty but he is also part of our friends group.  Actually  I have known Sai Ramesh  since 2004. He was my junior at SSN college. He is also an incredible person. He has also helped me so many times during my break period.

Each Tacola friend is unique and I have learnt so many things from each one of them. I like Uma mam for her guts. She joined back the job when her baby was three months old. She use to go during lunch , feed the baby and return. I only think of her whenever I feel so down while managing nila and my studies. Uma mam is my well-wisher. We both have a very good bond.  She is the first person with whom I always shared any happy news from my side.  One can understand the bond between them and their friend by the way they talk to your kid.  I have observed that from uma mam. She used to feel happy whenever she sees Nila and  compare my gestures with my kid. She was the first person to visit Nila  at our home from Tacola lab with her husband.  For that matter, all Tacola friends have pampered Nila and she also feels so comfortable being with them and likes going outing with them.  It feels so good to hear, when my kid calls my tacola friends as athai and mama.

Ramapriya is so talented. Having come from a normal family in tirunelveli, the success she has reached today is really to be saluted. She is a scientist at DRDO, Bangalore. I really adore u rama.  She does job so quickly.  Whatever she is today is all because of her hard work.  She left the lab in 2008 itself. I am happy that we are still in contact.  Me, Rama and Balaji formed a good combo.  I think Raji also used to join us.  Me and balaji missed her a lot when she left the lab. Balaji must have missed her a lot as Rama used to take care of the stupid balaji as her own brother. She brings lunch for him daily from her hostel.  She taught balaji about java coding. Sometimes he will say, “akka neengale coding adichu kuduthudungaka”. You wont believe rama will do that too for him.  Rama did not find it tough as she is so  agile in finishing her work  so cud  help  balaji with ease. Balaji was Rama’s classmate in their ME.   I only told rama to teach him how to code but not to do it for him, as it will only prevent him from learning. Later, balaji sir became one of the best coders in the Lab and he is now a PhD degree holder and works in a good company in B lore. Balaji, innaiku nee periya aala ayirukkanaa athukku naanum oru karanamaa irunthirukennratha maranthudaatha.

Balaji is a good friend of mine in the lab.  A brother’s view point to any situation of his sister is totally different. I think all the sisters who have brothers will agree on this. Brothers will give  a very neutral and unbiased solution to any problem  to their sisters.  May be the solution may not be favourable to you but u will definitely find justice in it. My second younger brother  pasumpon is good at that.  I have got similar solutions from balaji too sometimes.  Balaji is not an easy person to get along. He is so choosy in finding friends and mostly his views and mine are opposite. Despite that we were friends. He is the one who mostly pulled my leg in the lab. It is so difficult to differentiate if he is telling a lie or truth. He is good at speaking lies. Usually he will play a prank on me and he would have challenged the lab mates that he will make me believe and he always won. I struggled a lot due to this as 80 % of the time he will not be serious, of course when he is not working on his desk.  Now it is totally the head ache of his wife, shwetha to handle his pranks and lies. Yammadi romba kashtam. She will definitely get confused daily due to this. That’s y I told Shwetha on their wedding reception, “Enga Balaji ya kalyanam panni neenga periya thyaagi aayiteenga”.  She and her parents were laughing. I think by now she must have understood that what I said was not a joke rather it is a fact. But he is a very responsible person as far as his family is concerned. Still I remember the way he was searching to buy a  saree for his sister from his first salary. She had asked some specific design. If I am right,  “white saree with pink stones”. He took so many efforts to buy that. I am sure he will take good care of shwetha . Other than his stupid pranks,  Shwetha will surely have a fun -filled life with him. Good luck balaji! . I felt so happy for you both on your wedding day.  

Chezhian…. I know him since my child hood. We are family friends. My dad and his dad worked together for two years in sankaran koil.  My dad actually worked in Secretariat, Chennai but had a change of duty as, revenue inspector there for two years. Me, my two younger brothers and mom used to go there for summer holidays. Me, my bros, chezhian and his sis mathi  will play together at that time. Chezhian and his sis  used to go to karathe classes. I used to think, “cha how talented these two are!”.  Chezhian if u r reading  this, kindly tell me the number of belts u have got. Sorry, I forgot. Unakku Takewondo kooda theriyumla? Kindly message your qualities, I will update this post.  Etho ennala mudinjathu J .After my dad joined back his duty in Chennai at  secretariat, we kids lost contacts but our dads were in touch. After he joined in Tacola, the child hood friendship got renewed. Chezhian is yet another person whom I don’t hesitate to call for any help at any time.  Throughout my pregnancy, selva  used to drop me in the univ in the morning and pick me up in the evenings. Selva was so strict about this rule and I had to wait all alone sometimes as he can come only by 8 PM . Lab gets over by 6PM. Chezhian gave me company most of the time. I missed to attend his wedding event. I felt really bad. It is still hard to believe that me and Chezhian are grown up. I am married and having a kid; He is married. Time flies too fast.

Radhakrishnan is known as thambi in the lab. He is an MS research student in our lab. I don’t know why I see him as a kid always.  May be, because of his external appearance it makes me think like that.  I like him as a person. If you ask me who is your favourite  in the lab, my answer is definitely, Radhakrishnan not because he has helped me so much in my PhD degree but for his attitude towards life.  We both have a very good bond. I am only worried about his laziness. He is such a lazy goose. Hope he overcomes that and reach many more heights in his life. He deserves that. I always tell him that one day you will surely reach heights. You know something? What I say becomes true. I am just joking. But coincidentally this has happened with few persons. I have noticed this especially when I tell someone that they will reach heights. I know it is not because of my words but it is all because they deserve for their hard work. Yes I am just waiting to hear such news from Radhakrishnan  in near future.

Karthi is an enthusiastic guy. He likes exploring things and the kind of height he reached in his career in a short period says it all.  As a person also I like him and he is such a responsible person as he took the onus of getting his two sisters married on him. Vinodh sir is totally a different person. He is so sincere. If u go and discuss of any issue to him, he will patiently listen and give some solution with much authenticity. His receptiveness is the one quality I admire so much. Yet another sincere sigamanis of tacola are kandasamy sir and vijay vani. Bharath and sujin are yet another sincere chaps. 

Karthika is just a bold girl. She was sitting next to me in lab. She is very talented.  She speaks frankly what she thinks. I just admire this quality. Not all can do this. Thenmalar mam is yet another PhD student who is so calm and sincere. She is also one of the persons whom I don’t hesitate to ask any help. Padhma who is also an another Phd student of RP mam who have helped me a lot in my VIVA. Ganesh is my junior doing MS research under RP mam.  He is the valarum kavinjar of our lab. Good luck for your writings ganesh. Premalatha  is a PhD student here and a  good friend of mine.  Nila likes her and her husband too. Tacola people are blessed that way. All wives and husbands of Tacola member also gel easily with our gang. That’s really magical.  Uma mam’s husband, Sai Ramesh’s wife, Karthika’s husband , Prema’s husband and Of course, Selva who is my husband. Selva, is a very calm person but have  always felt comfortable with Tacola friends. Now Shwetha, who is Balaji’s wife joins  the club.  Intha Chezhiyan thaan avan wifea kannulaye kata maatenraan. I have been calling that stupid to home from day one of his marriage i.e from June 30, 2014. Still he is yet to come. Chezhian, if you are reading this just make sure how angry I am on you !

 Apart from lab members few BE,  ME and MCA  students were associated with our lab as they do their academic projects in  Natural Language Processing research arena. Hari, hara sudhan, Manjith, Bala Mithra, mariammal did their ME and did project in our lab. Hari came to my wedding at vellore. Bala and Mariammal are very good friend of mine. Bala is just another person who pops up in my mind whenever I need some advice or help even now.

 Once our lab members and few  students went for chemmozhi manadu which happened at Coimbotore about which I have already written in my blog.  Revathi, Shanthi, Kirupa, sabitha and tamilarasan had a good bonding with our lab mates. Sorry if I have missed any students name or any Tacola member.

I am not able to find a way to end this post.  Tacola has inculcated so much memories in me and this single post is just not enough. Everything in life has an ending;  PhD is over and so is Tacola. I am sure, we tacolians have come out / will come out with flying colours and I wish my fellow mates a very happy and successful life a head. Thanks for reading.