back after a long long exile

u know i started writing in a hope that i would do so on a regular basis and this would not be one of those blogs where i jus post once or twice for the fun of blogging and then vanish away... unfortunately thats what happened...my own laziness coupled with intense work of the ece dept of nit,trichy(ok ok...more due to my laziness), i somehow lost the vigor and enthu for writing till recently(my facebook buddies wil vouch for that:P) but i say lost cos i am back after a long long self imposed exile.....back when i strted blogging, i said i was doing it cos i had nuthin better to do...well i actually did have lotsa important stuff to do but i jus did not want to do it...but now things are different...now i reallly really dont have anything to do..seriously!!!

why u ask?? well to answer that i strt from the beginning...my name is natesh...natesh ganesh(i know...not the right kinda name to do the whole bond,james bond thing but moving on...) i jus finished my b.tech in the national institute of tech,trichy which right now i wil claim is the best college in the world EVER cos i just came back y'day night (OMG!! i know..back y'day and i am already blogging cos i am that damn borrreddd!! somebody get me outta my house) and i am a bit senti.... which is a bit weird as i really expected myself to be crying like a middle aged woman in a house full onions watching afternoon soaps but i am only teeny tiny bit senti....hmmm somethin is seriously wrong with me...and and i have months and months of vetti time ahead of me...

anyway now that we all have been reacquainted, its time to roll up my sleeves and get down to some blogging!!! 

gnut

ps: i tend to use a lot of ps's...

pps:this post will soon be followed by one which is absolutely nonsensical...

20 minutes later....

ahhh 20 minutes of bliss and then as raaaaaaa wakes me up, i am back to the harsh reality of this cruel world.....but no i wil not give in, i want to sleep plzzz let me sleep....however he gives me another tug and i am forced to get up....i guess he wants his 20 mins now:)....

i get up with a renewed sense of duty to study....but its only for a 10 mins max as sleep begins to draw me in again....i go to pandi's room and get a spoonful of glucose(yes he brought especially for the exam) but increasin my blood sugar dint seem to help....i look at my watch....it said 1115, since i already had my 20 i guess i wil take my 15 now....i go into raaaaa's room and tell him to wake me up at 1130....he does not say anything....he jus raises his 2 fingers in that salute again....i assumed it was a yes....with that i head to my room, as i am about to enter i see dkey (aka sriram) walking towards me.....obviuously going to pandi's room(he is ICE ofcourse)... as i lie down in my bed i can hear his voice in a distance....he is saying something bout how he is just gonna start now....hmmm i wonder what he was doing all this while?? perhaps an important call with someone (name disclosed ....sry dkey could not help myself)....and then i enter blissful sleep again....

it seems only 5 mins had past when raaaaaa came marching into my room and woke me up....but he claims 18 are already up....thats not possible i jus laid down a couple of mins ago....i do not believe him so i look at my mobile and he is right....my precious 15 mins were up....i thank him and get up to start studying....only a min must have passed b4 i contemplate whether to sleep for another 15 mins or not....30 seconds to decide i should and only 10 to execute....

i plan to get up at 12 and i even set my alarm.....unfortunately i am a heavy sleeper(maybe i am related to kumbhakarna lol) ......anyway the alarm obviously fails to wae me up at 12, hmph....these mobile comopanies really should design better alarms...u know like the ones in cartoons that pour hot water or hit u with a hammer if u dont get up....so wat i am trying to say is i continue to sleep until some good soul wakes me up at around 1 to 0115 to ask me if i wanted to go to bru.... now i do get up and seeing as it is 115+, i lose any sleep that is still left in me cos i gotta a lotta work to do....i have a wash...the cold water stings my skin(it is that cold at aroud 1 to 2 in the night) but atleast it wil make sure i am awake....

i go to bru with the rest of the guys for some snacks and a nice cup of tea (note:coffee makes u sleepy), the night air is very very cold but refreshing nonetheless....i return back to hostel with all cylinders pumping....finally i am ready to study....i walk down the corridor and i see most lights are off.....guess they are all done with their work....but a few lonely souls are always there for company....most of the comp sci guys studying,deepak the only guy revising(as usual...) and few others, depending upon wats the paper the next day....

i look a my watch...its 2 and i roll up my sleeves to get to work(i guess i must already told u that a couple of times now in the last few lines).... nightout has officially begun...

nutty

ps: i continue reading till 4 or 5 with ocassional timepass in the middle with juju and then head to bed to catch a couple of hours of sleep....i wake up at 7 and i start again....and so do 100's of other students....

the night b4 an exam

well this is the second time i am giving this a shot...i started writing about this last night but somehow i could not write wat i wanted to and it was back to the drawing board for me.....

and now i am having another go at this....all my previous posts should have formed this mental image that most if not all nittians are the most vettiest,biggest timepasses of the world.....and the future of this country is safe in the hands of the iit's...lol.....but there is more to us than jus octa gaming and mindless timepass and wat not....

we do study and before an exam, we study really hard...as i already said this is the first time i am living away from home and i have had many firsts....and night out to study was another one of them....back home i never stayed upto study partly cos my parents were always on my back making sure i start early for my exams(and they stil are) but here there is no way to really make me.....a lot more freedom.....

and hence it all boils down to studying a lotta stuff on the day b4 the exam.....its not jus me, its true for a lotta people...infact the schedule kinda makes it that way(...saddd)....anyway the night b4 the exam in pearl hostel(actually not only pearl) is one of the busiest ever....the whole hostel is full of young minds hard at work trying to study all the useless formulas that they mite never use ever.....and if i was not forced to drown in my work i would term this whole night out phenomenon as very interesting....fun in fact....

i live in pearl room no:6 on the ground floor and our wing has to be the most studious wing by far(sans a few timepasses....)....from room no:1 to 22 or something most of us do get really serious and study a lot....and i do turn into a really big ass in that time.....i cant help it but i get tensed and i can act like jerk(but i am not very bad and all)....

getting back to the night out....to get in the full swing of things lets say 2 papers are up and it is the night b4 the third one....i come back at around 530 -6....timepass til 730 with karadi and brady(yess...i am talking bout his highness the dota emperor brady)....shower,have my dinner and then it starts.....

it must be around 830....i pick up my book and i go outta my room...i turn the hall light on..... and i start....yes i start walkin up and down the corridor as i study(and no i cant study sitting still.... i have to keep moving)....but i am not the only one....i look up and to my right i see raaaa"john smith"madan....he notices me and raises his two fingers in a weird salute of sorts....i never know wat it meant but i dint care....i replied with the same salute....

i turn left and i see deepak,a little down the corridor....with a book tightly held in his hands he continues to read and revise(ahhh revise....a term i have forgotten bout long long ago).....he keeps on reading as the comp sci guys turn up now and then with doubts.....but wait where is juju?? i always remember him walkin between me and deepak....so i stride past his room and look thru the window....lying down with the book beside him,juju aka greatest timepass king is seriously sleeping....i wonder if he has finished so i go to range's(aka arun) room....he is there with rammy(aka ramesh....the only guy who loves our mess pongal and samber more than me) and he tells me juju has to be woken up at around 10(deepak casually joins us....) i look at my watch...the time is jus 915....guess i wont be seeing juju for a while....and i continue to walk....i look at my watch again....930 already!!! and omg so much stil left:(.....

and i again stare at my books but nuthin seems to be getting in....i look up and i see a giant figure comin towards me....i know that walk...its ram"karadi"prasad of night out fame....he asks me how much i have done....and i look at him with dismay,he jus smiles back....tells me in his usual fashion that he has got lots(...ivallllooooo irrukku to quote him) but i know he does not....and he informs me that he is going to hit the sack...wat??so early b4 an exam...its hardly 10?? but he does not care...but thats karadi....hearing our voices vatsan and suppy(aka prapanch) come outta room no:7....as usual we do some timepass on how our teachers suck and how there is too much portions and how come ram.p is going to bed soooo early lol...then thay head back into vatsan's room(bak to studying for them)....

after karadi leaves i start again....i read for a while b4 i see a whole dept headin towards me....not suprised...its the ice guys and the pack is led by pandi(aka kaushik)....they walk past me and into room no:4....and then it starts for them....the whole dept seems to have a lotta bonding.... almost evry1 is there as pandi teaches them.....i look at my watch...its 10 and i see range walk into room no:8 to wake up juju....juju walks out with about 100 sweaters on....lookin at him reminds me how cold it really is....brrrrr....its cold and its making me very hungry....is it time already for bru?? no not yet its jus past 10....guess i have to scavenge for food from someone....

luckily diwali jus got over which means evry1 still has a lotta goodies with them from back home.... i get somethin to eat and take my position in the corridor....raaaaaa aint there anymore.... guess he is inside reading....i start walking again....i read for bout 15-20 min....then i look at my watch....1030....damn i got lots left and i am already begginning to feel sleepy.....but i cant,i shouldnt....it would be the end of me if i did....sooooo i walk into raaaaaaaaaaaaa's room.....
he does have a real soft bed....i walk and sit on it and continue reading....he does not notice me.....he jus carries on with his work....30 seconds later, i find myself lying on his bed( lol hmmm wonder how that happend)....and 10 seconds later, i am already telling him to wake me up in 20 mins:)....

the time is 1040....20 mins thats all...no more.....i wil wake up at 11 and start again....

nutty

saturday mornings.....a tradition

football is truly the beautiful game....its like a shakesparean play with its own share of joy and tragedy....it has its heroes and villains...like a mythical story there are warriors and wizards....ahh the game is so simple yet so complex....it is one thing that binds ppl from all walks of life together....all u need is a ball and an imaginary goal.....

unfortunately for long, cricket was the main sport in our country and it still is....the same is true in my school as well....but things did change when i was in my 8th or 9th and number of ppl playin futball increased.....i still remember playin with about 20 a side in our small school ground....it used to be very crowded and v hardly got the ball but v dint care,we had a lot of fun whenever we got a chance to send the ball long and high....

and then it started.....saturday morning football....i aint sure whether it was there all along but to my knowledge it started only then....every saturday morn all us football enthus used to turn up very early at the ground....ever since then never has a footballer in vm got up late on a saturday....the word would be spread.....7 sharp was the msg and so many of us would turn up to play.....

we were in our 8th or 9th and not the best around....i rmbr lookin upto my seniors and they were a lot of them....all of them so good in there own way.....the ever smiling prithvi who was a monster of a defender but deceptively fast, the tenacious striker shyam, dhadi(srini) with his never say die attitude,fleet footed spang,skilful uday(always with a shaven head), raam, laddoo and so many more...ahh theirs was a talented batch but it was not the only one....

each batch had their own heroes....i did start writing on them but the list went on and on so i decided not to.....instead i wanted to talk bout one thing common to all the batches b4 and after me....that is saturday morning football....well it was not jus saturday morning....we played in the evenings as well and on sunday but u get the idea....we come,have our usual petty squabbles bout the clubs we support and then it starts.....teams are put and it begins....hours of non stop fun.....there are a few serious moments and their always will be those, but it is over shadowed by the joy of playing the beautiful game...it might not be the premier league nor the players that talented.....but the love and committment is unparalled....so much so we alumni always return for a game on a weekend....but it is not only us,there are and always wil be students from evry year who wil get up on a saturday morning, ball on one hand, studs on the other and head to the ground...our own theatre of dreams....

the game is not just about the fun....its a chance to meet old friends and start new ones....to sit down and have a drink and to jus timepass....ahh those were the good times....even today i went there....so many good menories...
so many legendary goals and comedies (one being adi's goalkeeping catastrophe today:D boy i know u like dudek, adi, but come onnnn)....that is jus one of many and there are so many many more...ask any VMite and they will tell u....

yes,saturday morning football has truly become a tradition....

nutty

joga bonito

room no:63

well i have gone on and on bout octa so much that i have become a little bit sick of it....but as i promised hedwig i would write one blog on the famous stories and comedies of octa as well as the gaming seniors of ours(i kinda feel like asimov asked by readers to finish the foundation series but a million times less than that).....but later...

u know there is one more thing that makes living away frm home in a coll bout 1hr from the city in the middle of almost nowhere so great.....the hostel life.....its so good u can advertise it as one of the reasons why u should the join the coll....

i rmbr the first time when i walked into agate....it wasnt just the first time i was living in a hostel,it was the first i was living and studyin away from home...ahh home....i had jus walked in and i was already homesick and i began to hate agate hostel immediately....and well it was jus not the hostel itself....true the rooms sucked,the toilets worse,etc,etc but that wasnt it....the fact that i was there in agate,nit,trichy away from the comfort of my own bed and my grandma's cooking saddened me....

i found out i was allotted room number 63...well does not add upto 7...that sucks....i aint supersitious and all but i was finding all the reasons to say why my life was gonna suck for the next 4 yrs...boy was i wrong....i walk in with my dad(who had come to make sure i settle in) and i see a familiar face....inside was gulG(later to become basa and then tsubasa and tsuba.....his exploits on the football field especially his fireshot would soon become legendary and inspire the famous cartoon captain tsubasa on animax.....oh wait i think it was the other way around)....

so i walk in and say hi...we had already met in iit class...hmmm maybe this aint that bad....atleast i have a roomie i know....ok atleast one roomie i know....but tsuba's tenure as my roomie was only for an hour or so....he and adi decided to exchange and he moved in....well lot better.... same school,classmates for yrs....a familiar face is always good....other than that they were 3 more guys in our room(yes we were 5 in a room!!!) and we dint know any of them....i rmbr one was from kerala,the other from MP and the last from rajasthan.....

well thats all i am gonna say bout them cos they were not really my roommates....my school guys decided to get them other rooms so that we VMites can stay in one.....and after a lotta hassle and petty fighting we did manage to get them out and us in....and this was great....all my roomies were guys i have been friends for yrs....hostel now was pretty ok(but the toilets stil sucked and mess food even more).....

well time for roll call...room no:63....
raghunath"mola"kaushik aka kv: ok (continues to stare at wall)
dkey aka dkey(nobody really calls him sriram): duud (continues to talk on the phone with u know who)
adi aka anything that rhymes with di: ya(continues to put kadalai to some poor gal lol)
a.s.ganesh aka gun: here da (jus continues with wat he was doing)
and me nut: affirmative(continues to fantasize bout maria sharapova)
(ya kaushik aka pant pandi was our unofficial room mate during second sem so i guess he is in as well....he continues to sleep but evry1 knows he is jus acting....he never sleeps EVER)

it was the beginning of a wonderful and fun filled journey with laughs and more laughs....each one of us were different in our own way but still had the common bond of being from the greatest school ever,VM.....i end now but i aint done yet...there are many unforgettable memories there that wil never die....

room no:63....ithu enga area ullae varadhe....

nutty

night out in octa part 3-a new hope

it seemed viktor would stay forever and we would own octa.....

but.....

it was after the summer of 2006....we came back from our semester hols as seniors....only second yrs but seniors nonetheless and the one thing all of us look forward to most was playin in octa....atleast now we dint have the time constraints the little juniors did....anyway we are back and there is sunshine everywhere but little did v know that a storm was approaching...

our scouts(pulti,matter and some1 else) had arrived days b4 us and had some very bad news.....the computers had firewalls now....each and evry one of them and we could not play....servers could not be hosted.... this was disastrous....no octa and playin meant sure death for us....ok ok enof build up...u get the point....

so we go in mass and chk out all the comps in lab2...no luck all comps lost....we then proceed to chk out the comps in the other labs and find one or two in the other labs....but wats the use if those comps had no firewall....we cant play anywhere else without being disturbed...and v cant bring those cpu's from there..................or can we??hmmmm.....

its really amazing how the human brain functions when the need arises....it can lay dormant for ages only to wake to produce that moment of brilliance when it is required....i am not sure when or who suggested the brilliant idea(think it was adi....but til some1 comes forward and takes the accolades i wil do it....after all it is my blog and i can write wat i want to)....well its like this...other than our octa the gals had their very own small comp lab in opal called "elle"...ya they do...so that they can play cs and dota in the night like we do(...yeah right)....so since octa and elle were connected and it was highly unlikely that the elle comps were upgraded with firewalls we decided to try running our games from there.....

so started operation new hope....ofcourse we dint call it that then but since i am building and hypin evrything way outta proportion i mite as well do it for this as well.....anyways so we gave the game to x and y(names classified....our eyes only) who both have to be gals obviously and asked them to start the server evry night in promise of eternal friendship,gratitiude,etc,etc and when that dint work....we promised them a lotta treats in juicy and icy:)(.....sheeeeshhhh)....so they agreed and they did start our server up in elle and for that we are forever grateful to u sindhu(and jp i think)...ooopss....but it wasnt as easy as it sounds....all the calls we had to make to get the server on properly but in the end it was worth it.....

happy as we were this was not a permanent solution....the server was really slow and kinda got interrupted when some1 tried using that comp in elle.....long term answers had to be found and found fast(...boy i really should write a novel after this)....so we consulted with the one and only,the great,the lazy,the timepass king....ram"karadi"prasad.....i wil explain who he is later but for now assume he like wat Q is to bond...the gadget guy....so ram.p(for short) who had no real interest in games did us a huge favour by breaking the firewall on one of the comps....dont ask me how he did it but he did....and he let us suffer for bout a month with very little cs b4 he mentioned it to us that he had done it for fun(....somebody has got to get him another hobby).....so we found out which comp he did it in and tried running the server from there....unfortunately he kinda screwed up the system when he broke the firewall and the it was not even booting properly which he conveniently forgot to mention.....

well he was not wrong he did break the firewall ofcourse(wise guy).....well finally we thought enof was enof.... its time for some serious action so we decided to bring the hard drive from one of the unprotected comps in one of the other labs and replace it with one of the hard drives in lab2....this was extreme but desperate times called for desperate measures.....we called our supremo guide....we do not speak of his real name....he is the oldest of us all...he was there when it all started and maybe he would be there when it will all end....he shall be the last for he was the first(love that line in lotr)....he is seen as wandering happy go lucky spirit...he went by many names but in our age he was called mein!.....yes mein!....

so we called mein!....and our captain pulti and vice captain achu(machi had not reached his pinnacle yet....he was stil samurai with the bullpup...but his time wil come).....and yes i was there alongside such great names(sry i really am in lotr mode now)....and i listened as they decided to switch the hard-drives but we also had to worry bout the always sleeping guard and the camera which never works....yes it was really difficult....after hours of discussion(er...minutes rather) we decided not to try anything risky and be content with the elle server....

weeks passed and it seems we were doomed to play using the elle server for the rest of our
lives...but as god closes one door he opens another one.....we heard of rumours of a server in lab2.... when all hope seems have to been lost,news of grandeur reached us....we immediately rushed to lab2 and started searching for this elusive comp....and then one guy shouted in joy,he had found it....

no wait that is not possible said another....he had found one as well....this was amazing.....we had not found one but 3 servers....we had been rewarded....god had tested us and we passed it(come on ppl those were really dark dark times....we were forced to sit in hostel and watch tv and stuff.... the horror the horror)...

we stil dunno how it happened....how did the servers get there??we dint know and dint care.... after all as they say never question a miracle.....but i am guessing the csg put some trial version firewall for a couple of months and it ran out but wat do i know.....so happy times were back....lab2 was back to its usual splendour and things were lookin good....everything was back to its usual self.... the only difference was we got the juniors invading the lab(pesky little things.....they really should be ragged...lol:D)....some idiot in our batch let them know that servers were back on....damn him......but atleast we get some free frags and kills heh guys??:):)

and there our story ends(for now) as we all ride into the sunset....

nutty

in honour of viktor....we really did miss u in those months when the firewall was up....

ps:we seriously are trying to find a galfriend for karadi....atleast i am so if u are like a gal and single and get ur kicks in timepassing and pulling costly electronic stuff apart contact me and i wil hook u up with him...lol:):)

night out in octa part 2

hmmm 3 posts in quick succession...either i am over enthu or i am jus super bored...wel with me u wil never know,it could be either....anyways continuing my spree....

i dint do justice to a night out in the first part....i jus kept sayin it was great,it was legen-wait for it-dary but thats it....nuthin other than that....here lemme be a little more elaborate....

the continuous epic that is our story of octa can be divided into essentially 2 parts-pre and post viktor eras.....the first spanning from god knows when to the end of our first yr and the next from then onwards till present day....

and who was viktor u mite wonder??wel if octa was the kingdom of heaven then viktor would have to be its king,protector,well wisher,best friend,etc,etc....he was the part of the csg(computer support grp) i think....but to most of us he was the guy who caught ppl playing games in octa....and well given the little build up he was a bit feared(as i said give us all a break....v were first yrs in a new place)....so part of the fun playing in octa was bout not getting caught by viktor and co...and ya we had to keep our eyes open all the time....

u should see how coordinated we were and are even now....the guy closest to the door had to be alert and be ready to spot viktor or the guard(who used to catch us now and then) and warn the rest of the gang....the moment the guard walks in the whole place is drowned in silence as though there was global silence(dota fundoo...ignore it if u dont understand)....and in matter of seconds all the screens are minimised and ppl start acting as though they dint even notice the ppl walkin in....some act as though they are working on somethin,others in spider,some jus listening to music.... but all this coordination dint come overnight....we did have casualties and lots of them as well..... but over a period of time i guess we got pretty good at lookin innocent and oblivious.....

but as time did go on,ppl realised that lord and protector viktor was not really the bad guy that every1 thought he was (in fact we did missed him a lot after he left...but more on that later).....he never used to worry if v played in the night when nobody else was around....ppl were caught only if it affected some1 else when they had some real work to do...and we were cool with that....life seemed great....it seemed viktor would stay forever and we would own octa.....

but.....

nutty

in remembrance of mein....our guiding light and the ogre magi look alike....