Shamelessness is not the word!

Converstation with Nassh

Where : On call

Time : 10 PM, today

Me: Where is my HRD Book?
Nassh : You will get it tomorrow night at 8.45 PM.
Me : Does that mean that we are going out for dinner?
Nassh: hmmm.. We can. Lets go!
Me : Does that mean you are going to pay the bill?
Nassh: haan?
Me : Penalty for keeping my book for 4 months and not reading a single page from it?
Nassh : Ok OK. I will. I dont mind taking you out for Dinner.
Me : Good Boy. BTW, Benjie might also join us for dinner.
Nassh : Oh My God. Anything more?
Me : Are you not bringing me a bunch of roses?
Nassh : So far I ve not bought them for anyone other than...... But now that you ve asked for it, I will.
Me : Okay. Good!
Nassh : Is that all? Anything more?
Me : That will do for the moment!

The Balancing Act!

Proud of being a Libran, I must talk about this - The Balancing Act!

We all know and acknowledge the fact that the Librans are naturally good at the balncing act. This story is also about a Libran and also about the balancing act - Benjie learning to ride a bike. And who is the instructor? Me, the great - another Libran!

One fine day, I and Benjie were going on our usual rounds around the Historic campus of Anna University and suddenly Benjie got soemthing like that of a pregnancy craving - She wanted to ride my Scooty!

Being a good pal, I thought I should fulfil this desire of hers. Trust me, I let her do so only after She convincing me that she actually knows how to balance - she knows to ride a cycle. Initially Benju baby underwent a short briefing about the nuances of riding a bike. Then comes the real test. I let her drive it, me sitting behind.

Benjie picked it quite well. I was very happy at someone following my instructions so meticulously. She was driving quite well on the straight road. Now I teach her how to turn. In the turnings, you must slow down the vehicle; you decelarate by appying brakes. Once you turn, you accelarate. She picked that up also quite well. Now, she becomes proud of her balancing act. She wants to show off and we turn the bike towards SAP - School of Architecture and Planning, our very own Benjie 's Dept. Now as soon as she takes the turn there, right in front of SAP, and lo, she went straight to hit onto the pavement.

This definitely drew the attention of all the people there, which was apparently her aim, but not this way! Benjie fell - Thud. I jumped out, luckily escape without any injuries! All of Benjie's juniors who were hanging around there came running to pick the bike up (Yes, yes, to pick up Benjie also!)

She and I gave oily grins to them saying thanks! I start the bike and silently drove it. Thus ended up the great balancing act of two librans - one performing and one directing!

The Generation Next!

It is really an interesting fact - The current generation of kids : The Generation Next!

Sometimes I really look at them with awe! Mutiple factors - The acumen, Smartness, Glib talking, shrewdness and the rationale they provide at times, the farsightedness that belies their age! But at times you also feel like bashing them up for all the big talk they do!

Sometimes it is also dreadful to imagine getting into an arguement, or, for that matter, even to strike a casual conversation with these wizards! The statements they throw at you, simply make you shut up and blink! Read on, and you will know why I say so..

I have a little cousin who was 5 years old when this happened:

I casually asked her "Who are your friends?"
She gave me a long list of names - Sushmitha, Neetha, Priya, Anamika, and the list went on and on with a long list of names of girls of her class.
"Oh, you dont have any boyfriends?" I causually threw this question thinking I was pulling her leg.
In turn it only made me realise that I was making a bulb of myself. "Ah! Boys are so boring" was her reply.

I really dint know what was in her head when she said this. What made her "feel" that boys are boring! I really dont know how many boys did she know and understand which made her categorize them as "boring"! Absolutely No comments!

Another incident which Benjie narrated:

She had been to her cousin's home for Vishu. It is general practice on Vishu, for elders in the family to give small sums of money to the children in the household, which is termed as "Vishukaineetam"! Being a responsible adult, she gives Vishukaineetam to her naughty niece.
Question to her "You have lots of money?" when she saw the Bill, which, obviously, appeared big to her, was extended to her to as a gift! Now Benjie is Dumbstruck - Should she say YES? Should she say NO? she pretty much understands, quite clearly, the complications behind giving either of the answers! It would only result in yet another bulb. As a result, her gaping mouth - zip sealed!

Our little sweetheart was then asked to touch Benjie's feet by her mother. Keeping up the tradition alive through times was the idea!

Reaction - She touched Benjie's feet with her feet. Smartness! Ah! Then the instructions were given to her with some more clarity - "Touch her feet with your hand". She puts her hand up in the air and instantaneously instructs Benjie - "You touch my hand with your feet" Oh my Gawd! These Kids have a way out of anything and everything I say.

I am sure each of you would have, definitely, come across similar encounters with the smart next Gen which would have made to wonder: Where the world is heading to? This generation is too fast to catch up with! Seriously!

Namma IIT Madras!

I visited the IIT Madras today. I really prefer to call namma ooru as Madras than Chennai. That is probably one of the reasons as to why I really like our IIT Madras. The pressure from different sources did not seem to matter and it is still called IIT Madras. :)

I paid a visit to this scenic campus today for some reason. It is an humungous campus touching three different areas in Chennai. Yes, it has a Main gate which touches Adyar, two side gates - one at Velachery and one at Taramani. I drove until the Taramani gate and I spotted a Blackbuck, which is tagged as endangered! Apparently, I learnt, that this happens to be the area where the Blackbuck seem to have inhabited themselves.

The Picture you find here is a picture of a Blackbuck on campus. Overall, there are only around 15 Blackbuck in the IITM campus. I found 5 of them at one shot. Perhaps, the male Blackbuck is one of the most elegant antelope I have seen.


Besides, Blackbuck I also found an Owl and sad that I could not click a pic of it!
There are huge number of Spotted deer which are common to all the Science institutes in and around Guindy - IITM, Anna Univ, Birla Planetarium, Guindy national Park and also the Raj Bhavan! If you go back to history, this is one of the non-native species which was introduced to these establishements int he 1940s.

When I got back home, I discovered that IITM houses a huge number of Fauna. There is a huge variety - Bats, Jackal, Anteater, Satrred Tortoise, varitey of snakes, Open billed storks, Water hen, Pond heron, kite, Teal, Egret, a variety of butterflies etc., Wow! Such rich Bio-diversity!

There is a foundation called Prakiti, a wild life club at IITM and you can find more information about the wide-variety of plants and animals found here.
http://hsb.iitm.ac.in/~prakriti/florafauna.html

P.S. I had read this book sometime ago - "Catch Me a Colobus" where the author Durrel speaks of his experiences of maintaining the zoo and allso about his expeditions to the forests of Africa to gather some species to add in his zoo.

http://www.durrellwildlife.org/