F.R.I.E.N.D.S...

I recently read a blog(Params Blog-Link in the "just stop by" section) describing a scene in PSG College of Technology Hostel life. That really brought back some fond memories for me. Thise three years spent in PSG Tech were 3 of the best years of my life so far. I made some of my closest friends during this period. So what am i going to write in this post? Well... as the name implies its about friends.The first meetings with some of the folks who turned out to be my best friends. The list is in kind of chronological order when the chord of frienship was formed. (Need not be time of first meeting)

First Day in PSG TECH. Just finished admissions. Realized I was the only mallu guy. I thought 'Oh man this may be difficult... i knew only broken Tamil....' Reached Additional Hostel. Alloted Room H66. Supervisor told-Your room mate is Satheesh Kumarr. Went to the room. Found it very tiny. Anyway dumped my suitcase and stood outside not knowing what to do... A huge guy came along(Head completely shaved). I thought 'Wow hes a big guy' and suddenly he came upto me and said 'I am Satheesh Kumarr. You are Rajeev??'. That was a start of a great friendship that continues to this day.. we were roommates for all 3 years in hostel. And because of his Motta Thalai when he joined, he came to be known as 'Thalai'... The Thalai of 01MX. And his tagline was.. 'Known is an Ocean, Unknown is a drop... '

Couple of weeks into the first semester. Seniors hounding for Login Collections. Threatening us with all sorts of dire consequences if we dont make money. One day I was asked to get myself hitched to a day scholar who knew Coimbatore and make sure we went and collected money. Then this really tall guy came up to me (I knew his name was Sriram) and told I can join with him. I had noticed Sriram on the first day because he came to college wearing a round neck tshirt that said "Crazy L'll Devil" (Or something like that :) ). There seemed to be some sort of bond between us. We had a great day. I went to his house, had some food, watched TV and came back to hostel. Of course we did not make any attempt to collect money. That was the start of another wonderful friendship.Sri and I were different in a lot of ways... I suppose the phrase 'Opposites Attract' makes sense. It certainly did for us. We still try to chat daily and seak regularly.

Couple of months had passed. I was never a guy who talked too much to girls. (I know half my classmates will say dei rajeev!!! Poi Sollathe... :) ). But that was the truth (atleast in that first sem). I had spoken little to few girls casually thats all. One day Sriram came and said: 'Dei these girls are having some problem with the PASCAL Spreadsheet. They came and asked me to help.. ha ha ha... '. (Typical Sriram). 'Anyway I said you are the best person to help.'. It turned out the girl who wanted the help was Padmalaya alias Padma alias Padhu. Got talking with her and slowly another great friendship started developing. That bond of friendship got created a few months after that when I chatted with her over IM... This was another awsome friendship and unlike all others we were lucky to go through college and then internship and then get job also in the same company... So this was one friendship that did not need the help of the virtual world to continue... Padma has always been a very important person to me. Of course, the friendship still stands...

So Sriram Padma and i became close friends... Satheesh and I were close and so slowly a group was formed...

Padma had formed a group of her own with Keerthy and Vidya. Popularly known as Keets and Vid. We three guys got to know them well. Keerthy was an awsome eater and would pride herself on managing to have half an idli for breakfast. Vid was a natually friendly person and I always used to say: ' You just need to say Hi Vidya... and thats it. rest non stop talking would be taken care by Vidya... '. I ended up becoming her "brother". A tradition that continues to this day.. Vidya never forgets to send a Rakhi Gift...

First sem exams were aproaching. I got talking with Arun more often. We decided to do combined study. Now, this combined study consisted of sitting in his room, listening to 'Citizen' songs on Hems (Hems coming up later) and talking about everything other than the subject we set out to study. Later we expanded our activities to plying NFS instead of studying. :). Anyways the bond of friendship with Arun was established. And through Arun we all got to know Amar, the ever helpful padam potifying guy... :)

College life got over... and life moved in different directions... Vidya and Keerthy are married and in US now. Padma is engaged and so is Arun. Satheesh, Sri, Amar and me as still single as of today!! :) (You never know what tomorrow brings... :) ). But the bond of friendship we all share is still strong. We still meet up as much as possible. And around 5-6 years have passed since we all first met. Most of us have not changed at all. We are all the same as we were 5 years ago. Hope we can continue to be like that...

F.R.I.E.N.D.S cannot be complete without mentioning Hems(We used to call each other Dobaakoor) and Pisth Yuvraj. We were the food lovers in hostel and none of us had a great opinion of the Hostel mess. So we were the partners in the regular trips to Shahi Grill, Tarot, Chandni etc... Food brought us together and still remains a major topic of discussion among us. Pisth Yuvraj is in Chennai. Hems is married and is now in Bangalore and the friendship continues...

Someone once said... Friendship is not a big thing... its a million little things.... That is something that is really true...

More on the Golden Quadrilateral...

You may think that the above is a picture of some highway in the US or maybe an Autobahn in Germany. Well you are mistaken. it is a picture of the Express Highway between Bangalore and Chennai(Picture Courtsey: Another blog, since i could not take my own pictures) . Last time I had stopped with a promise of providing more details on the Golden Quadrilateral. Now this is the biggest highway project in India. Aimed to connect the 4 Metro's. The good news is that this is almost complete. Recently I drove down to Chennai from Bangalore in my faithful Maruti 800 along with a couple of friends. I had heard that it is a great 4 lane highway, that was why I decided to drive down. Well to be frank the road was beyond my wildest expectations. it was an absolutely awesome road all the way to Chennai. Great quality and not even a tiny pothole. The best thing is that there are flyovers and byepasses across most of the major towns on the route, so you do not need to slow down as you cross towns. The road has good signage and even has proper exits which will take you into the towns on the way.

Well, how do you go? Take the Hosur Road from Bangalore and keep going till you reach Krishnagiri, from there take a left and keep going on and on and you reach Chennai. Very Simple :).

So is there any disadvantage? Sure, its not a perfect world :). The major problem is that it is not a barricaded highway. And as we all know is a highly populated country. So there is no dearth of people anywhere. So as you are speeding down this highway you may suddenly seen someone casually crossing the road, or even trying to be daring by jumping across just as you reach close. Most people dont seem to understand the velocity the modern vehicles are capable of. So be ready to stamp on the brakes at a moments notice. And remember, you are always to blame whose ever fault it is. Second major problem: people have the impression that they live in America, lots of trucks bikes tractors, prefer to come down the wrong lane to avoid going and taking a U turn further down. So dont be surprised if you are suddenly confronted with a truck or tractor looming large in front of you. Be prepared. And ofcourse this is India, so you always need to be wary of the cows, dogs and other asssorted animals who have no idea on what an express highway is.

All said and done, it is still by far the best roads in India and if you enjoy driving and have a decent car (I enjoyed it with a Maruti 800, the worst car on the road according to experts-But i beg to differ) but if you have a Ford or a Honda, then it is pure bliss. And if you are really adventurous you can try it on a Pulsar or a karizma...