Euro Trip - Part 1

Ok , Here goes the travel(b)log

Disclaimer : The author takes no responsibilites regarding the length of this and any future entries on the same trip .. It is expected that the contents of this will be long and winding so as to preserve the maximum amount of memories before the author forgets them .. In case of boredom it is reccomended that the readers just look at the pretty pictures :P

Day 0 :
Left home and went to airport to catch flight to rome . met an unusaully rude guy at the airport who was pushing past everyone in the queue to get past emigration . Was sure he was a hijacker or atleast a terrorist. saw him waiting at the gate tho .. was apparently waiting for his friend . so all that the pushing earned him was more time in the waiting area than in the queue .. idiots ..

Day 1 :
Flight was lufthansa, bought a universal adapter/usb charger on board, touched down at frankfurt and mom and dad courtesy of dad's star alliance gold card went off into business lounge and brought back snacks for us :-)
Boarded another plane and reached rome in the afternoon .. had local pizza for lunch .. pretty local taste :-/

After checking into the hotel jolly midas went out for the first look @ rome .. What a city ! steeped in history .. infact one of their slogans is " Rome , where the past is always present " . Loved the cobbled roads that they had in the older parts of the city and the old buildings and ruins that dotted the landscape .

Went to the trevi Fountain that evening



Rumour has it that if u throw one coin into the fountain , you will come back to rome .. Throw two in and you will get married .. Throw three in and you will have bad luck .. all these coins have to be thrown backwards over your shoulder with your back to the fountain though .. Which led my cousin to quip " If by mistake i throw in 2 coins ill immediately throw in another one .. id take bad luck over marriage "
:))

Had Gelato ice cream and then went to the Time Elevator after that for a 4d experience that takes u through the history of rome with some thrills thrown in by means of moving chairs , sprinklers etc . Drove past Some nice buildings too like this one called  " The wedding cake of Rome "  on the way to dinner and back to the hotel to end the day .. Was still bright when we went to bed at around 10 pm




Situational Quote  : " While in Rome do as the Romans do " .

D'oh

After a lot of thinkin i decided to suspend my account of the euro trip and decided to explore the simpsons movie website . Cant wait for the movie to come out and thought ill juz post the trailers here .

Simpsons rock !

There are teaser clips also and u can make ur own simpsons avatar .. Mine looks like this

Oh and one last nugget of information . There was a contest to see which town in Usa wud get to see the premiere showing of The Simpsons Movie ... Towns with the name of springfield from various states were supposed to send in their videos to show that they deserved to be THE springfield and then based on votes the best town would be selected ... Springfield , Vermont won the competition and will thus get to host the premiere

Videos here

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/simpsons-contest.htm

Euro Trip - Part 0

Ok, this was supposed to be part 1 of the euro trip blog but they have 11 mbps net connection here in switzerland and so i just spent the last 2 hours watching streaming friends videos on youtube thanx to Chandler :-/ ... So ill just post some pics for now

Check back soon for the actual account .

'Au'Some

Most of the time it is me who passes the exams, but for once the exams have passed me by . Lol , ok i know that was bad mokkai but can u blame me ? i passed 8 sems of AU exams .

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

There are various factors that have contributed to me acheiving this feat and i'd like to acknowledge them here

First of all, Ara . Without doubt the fellow whom i owe the most to for gettin thro . From teachin me stuff from scratch in the bus durin CAT to telling me the important stuff to study for univ exams to discussing previous years papers on the bus ride to even lending me his text books to study after he sleeps the night b4 the exam , he's been a great teacher . Thx da .

Chandler , who i prolly have bugged the most over the fone tryin to get the important questions and patterns from previous years to ensure i dont have to study an iota more than what is required :-). Also a fellow quite capable of givin me company for all night study and vetti discussions late at night the day b4 the exam .

Hayu , the brainiac. Despite studyin juz the day b4 the exam like us mortals , still gets great marks ... has to do with his handwriting i think :-?? . Great online company on Ym during the nights of studying . Usually on whole night as well meaning i can juz ask him to clarify doubts instead of searchin thro the textbook, i even remember him once teachin me the whole of centralized shared memory @ 4 am the night b4 the exam over the phone :o .

Bala, that rarest of rare breeds, a person who prepares less than me for an exam. The one guy i can actually teach stuff b4 the exam . Teachin him the majority of the syllabus in the 1.5 hour gap before the exam helps me revise as well. And , of course the all important "mapping " we do with 15 mins to spare without which we would not know which set of mugged up words and figures to spew for which question .

Also the guy most likely to lift your spirits the day b4 the exam . After some 'padips' depress you by stating much they ve done and thereby exposing how much u really have left to study , a quick phone call to bala is all thats needed to reassure u that u are not the least prepared ;)
In the first few semesters, many were the plans we would make to finish so n so units by so n so time . Of course none of them were ever followed but that dint stop us from planning .If all that plannning time had been used for stuydin we actually might have gotten somewhere but oh , well . Of course,as the semesters wore on we dint even bother planning.

All my other friends who at some time or other have taught me , provided company ,inspired me ,etc etc ( basically , put up with me ) during exam time .I remember an incident , once Juju asked me @ 12 am to wake him up @ 3am so that he could resume studyin . Dutifully , i called him @ 3 but he dint pick up his fone or respond to messages . So i let fly all the audibles possible in Ym and that woke him up :))

Simba, of course for keeping me company late at night when i was studying . if the a/c was on in the other room tho it wud not think twice to desert me and take the luxurious way out :-

i apologize for the long post ..just think of it as the ravings of a habitual page filler as if it were a AU 16 mark question .

& Finally a thought for everyone whos now an engineer :

"Thermometers are not the only things to be graduated and get degrees despite knowing nothing "

The importance of Being Idle ?

Why is it that i feel vetti enough to blog only when there is something infinitely more important that i should be doing , like studyin for the next day's exam , and never when i got all the time in the world ? ?

Is it that the most enjoyable time to be idle is also when there is the most work to be done ? ?

Absolut Nonsense

No , the post is not about the content of my TQM answer paper today or even about the vodka ads .

Vilok: dude wtf da
u writin serious shit n all in blog

This was the inspiration for this post to show that i still can/will post absolute nonsense stuff here .

So anyway i post this convo Me and Bhavya had while waitin in ritchie street

B : ....... ? ( Some Question )
J : Curiosity killed the cat
B : What was the cat curious about ?
J : Abt how many lives it had
B : Hmm , so it killed itself to find out how many lives it had
J : Yea,Nice Theory
B : But how did curiosity kill the cat then ?
J : It got curious 9 times .

Lost in Translation

No , this is not a review for the movie Mozhi( which btw is brilliant and u shud watch ). Its about what it stands for : Language .

Many a time while chatting with non indians ( or even non - tamilians ) i get the response "huh ? " . Its inevitably because of my usage of "common tamil" words in the convo .

Classic example :

Yank : Sup

Me : Nm, Vetti

Yank : Huh ? Vetti ?

Now i can never find words to adequately express what this simple word means in english .

Similarly " chumma " . I suppose it can be roughly translated as " juz like that " but it doesnt have the same feel to it .

Another word is the ubiquitous " da " basically used as at the end of a sentence to denote an informal , friendly conversation which cannot quite be replicated in english . There are a few alternatives like " dude" , " man " etc but they sound kinda forced and unnatural when i use em .

Of course the reverse is not true . any word in english can be made a tanglish one by addin a " o" or a "u" to it ;) .

a classic example wud be Worst being converted into ........ " Worstu " :-)

But , as the melodious song from the above mentioned Mozhi Goes

iyarkeyin mozhigal purinthu vidu

manitharin mozhigal thevai-illai

ithaiyathin mozhigal purinthu vidu

manitharikku mozhiye thevai-illaiiiiiii

Roughly Translated that means ,

Understand the language of nature

The language of men is not needed

Understand the language of the heart

Men dont need language at all .

So , Basically this post is just crap :-? :-|

Worstu

Oh well i was chumma vetti anywayz