An accident on the highway

self constructed accidents? :P

Open the newspaper and you find tiny paragraphs reporting tonnes of accidents. So many of them that , they would give these matrimonial ads a run for their money.While the latter's content clearly shows how dumb people can still be :- "Wanted. Fair , tall -5'6 ft , good looking high caste bhramin girl. Sub caste no bar with good family values. For mechanical engineer boy earning high salary. Divorced once. Kids with ex wife." Surely gross stereotyping wouldn't get you a bride -_- and seriously yeah when would men get some REAL qualities. Ahem coming right back to the topic at hand - the latter reports show the dumber in fact, the dumbest side of human nature.
I am gonna tell you 3 stories , tell me if you can find the correlation.

15 Aug 2010
In the dawn of  an another independence day for India and the opposite for me ( my brother was born on the same day =P ) Mr.Vembu and his wife were travelling in their ancient yet still regal white ambassador. They were returning from a truly wonderful trip to back home. The word wonderful found a place in that sentence because Mr.Vembu aged close to fifty had finally finished building his dream 'mansion' or 'palace'.- for that was the magnanimity of his dream and its successful implementation. Everything about that man was big scale i remember - right from his frame , voice to dreams and his sheer generosity. His life was settled in pretty much every way , both his 'kids' were already married and he could anytime expect grandchildren to toddle with. He was stupid enough to travel on a highway.

2nd January 2011

Mr.Malayappan and his wife were making their first and last trip to their son's place in Bangalore over car. First time because his son had compelled them to make the trip with his children and wife. And last time because yay! the son was planning to shift back to chennai and re build their ancestral house , settle here and well be with them!! They were much happier than they would care to admit and their grand kids ankitha and drithi were angels from heaven gifted to them =)  Both uncle and aunty always kept their house 'spick and span' clean and were so disciplined and kind that they would suit the 'nice headmaster' role in a movie if they acted :P
They were foolish enough to travel through the highway.

4th June 2012
Mr.Raman was pleased with himself more than ever. After years of  temporary employment , he had finally started an enterprise of his own , He had gone to coimbatore to recruit some staff and gained 3 lakhs there. Life couldn't be better than this he thought. He called his wife Indra , to inform her that he would be there by lunch and asked her to make some for him. Always a staunch believer of kabalishwarar , he gave out a small prayer for go to keep him as content as this always.
He was dumb enough to drive on a highway.

If you geniuses haven' read the title or the last line of the paras already ,here it is - all the people happened to be riding on a car through the highway and either lost their life or miraculously escaped death by a few inches. Vembu uncle's driver was sleepy enough to launch his ambassador into a stationary bus. While uncle immediately lost his life in a painful way , aunt had to survive multiple fractures , neck surgeries and a bout of coma and come out alive. To this day , her memories of the accident are nil as she was sleeping when the car hit and lost conscious shortly after that. We had to inform her about her husband's death only months later as we were scared that she wouldn't survive the shock.
In the second case , when my uncle was driving in the 'middle' of the highway a drunken driven car coming at a pace of 130 kph lost control and flew in the air like superman and landed on his car. Both his parents lost their lives and he lost their parents.

Something like that

More recently , just about a week back my cousin Anish studying in 7th standard lost his father because the driver of the opposing car decided he was too thirsty for whiskey and some risk and  decided to overtake a lorry in his drunken stupor , only to crash into a poor man's car. Both the driver's family of four , Anish's dad and his friend 27 year old died in this horrific incident.
All this may mean nothing to you , just another news report or worse. But how long or how much will it cost before we realize that reckless and drunken driving will lead to nothing more than tragedy and destruction? Every time you are having a shot and driving on the road you are putting yourself and more importantly a lot of other INNOCENT people at risk.
Not to sound like a life insurance agent , but just for a second imagine your mom/dad or your loved ones being killed out there? Is it worth it?

You worry about your health ; we worry about others!

If dying out of tuberculosis or child birth is sad in this century , dying of accidents is like the saddest of this millennium. From now on when you read the news let 'an accident on the highway' be regarded as 'the accident on the highway' as life cannot be sucked out for the sheer amount of statistics.
Engaeyum Eppothum was a very moving tale trying to cover the story of lives behind an accident.  Does anyone know any other movie like that ( of the same genre? ) If so please share in the comments column.
Sorry for those readers who were looking for humor as usual from me - mocking the dead is not cool.

P.S - My uncle's friend just lost his life after being in coma for 12 days. Cause of death : He slipped and fell from a bus.

P.S.S - it may look as if it is me alone who is losing people due to accidents. But if you inquire in your family/friend's circle , you will be sure to find at least 1 death in the past  2 years. I am not even joking ,the death count is increasing by the minute.  So spread the A.W.A.R.E.N.E.S.S and most of all follow it yourself. 

Whatsup this summer?

Ok , lets get down to the business. I have been trying to write one line for the past 3 hours and now only realized that opening a tab doesn't finish the job. Well it usually almost does , but no work can be done when there is a FACEBOOK tab also opened. Now I could ramble on about how it spoils our lives and a) lose some readers
b) not get the work done.
For even mocking Facebook is a waste of time.  ( don't mistake me I  use facebook daily on an average of 9.6 hours #respect) 

So whatsup with me? 

Summer holidays are ending in a couple of days , although the summer will remain for a month more at least. It is so hot here that the second you stop pouring water on yourself , you start sweating. Then why would a person with a sound mind stay here? Simple , the heat made me mad. However, madder are those who travel all the way to chennai for their summer. Yeah, sue me tourism board of Chennai! (if there is one) 

I simply cannot continue talking about this heat 

a) it makes the room feel hotter

b) I may really be sued? 

P.S  - Even the cold water taps offer hot water because of the irritatingly powerful solar energy :/  

To make matters worse we have the price hikes. Now travelling in buses makes you spend twice the amount of money (still beats auto though) , switching on an AC makes your electricity bill infinitely worse - One more thing your grandmom can blame you for. And of course Rs.7.5 per litre increase in petrol. I thank all the status updates and troll pages for coming up with this :- Now a litre of petrol costs as much as a bottle of beer. So Don't drink and Don't drive. Talk about peaceful co existence!  

You are all wrong. Ipl is about the FANS!!! :D 

Talking about peaceful co existence , amidst all the scrutinies and controversies the Indian Premier League came to an end. And in the process , killing the evenings of just too many people. The finals between kolkata knight riders and chennai super kings saw the latter dominate almost 60% of the game and the former walking with cup after a brilliant knock from the previously almost unknown Manvinder Bisla. Sadly for the kkr players , their over jubilant owner upstaged them with his remarkably monkey like tantrums. Again I can't be commenting on this as I am one of the 'sore losers' of csk. 2 time winners , two time finalists and one time semi finalists - loser's indeed xD 

To brighten matters - I just had a very happy realization! There must be more music on earth than all the petty problems put together - at least if you aren't Indian lower caste woman working as a toilet keeper in the 18th century  you must be in too - and I am in the process of finding very hilarious tamil ones which aren't actually in tamil after all ! you check out too xD  (bless the youtube :O) )- 

                      

Also I happened to read some very offbeat books which can stop your heart's beat :D  

First among them is the no.1 ladies detective agency  which is about this lady detective called Mma Ramotswe , who uses her heart more than her brains to solve cases and whose love for Africa leaves you wanting to know more about the colorful country and its own distinct culture. 

Talking about cultures I read my first proper 'history book' these holidays in a not so bad 4 days. It is called Tibet: A political history  and surprisingly not boring at all. I happened to pick this up in the Tibetan monastery hidden in coorg  and don't know if it is in circulation much. But OMG! you get to pick up so much knowledge about the distinct territory , which is a part of china now. By the end of the  book , you will know your famous dalai lamas and panchen lamas and even fall in love with the valiant mongols and powerful chinese :D not to mention the peace loving tibetans! 

I was given the 'Last lecture by Randy Pausch ' by mom as a surprise with the promise that it would change the way I would view life. While it wasn't exactly that radical to do that , it certainly will makes us question how we live life. This is a true story and literally a lecture given by a professor who was battling cancer. I happened to see the video of the lecture too and it was truly heart touching. 

I got many one liners and awesome pieces of wisdom from that book. Eg. 

 “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”

“Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.”  

“The key question to keep asking is, Are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have. ”  

“No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse.” 

“A good apology is like antibiotic, a bad apology is like rubbing salt in the wound.”  

P.S - R.I.P Randy Pausch.

Randy pausch =') 

I could keep mentioning MORE. But then you would get overloaded with information and not decide to read any. Trust me , these books are worth your time. 

While the 'king khan' is busy trying to make a fool of himself and basking in his team's victory the 'aamir khan' has been dealing with real issues and making the television media more useful and informative. Yes , I am talking about Satyameva Jayate. It is on similar lines with the tamil show 'kadai alla nijam' by star vijay done a while back. However , this show is on a much bigger scale and is seeking to  reform in real time. It can be a good thing only. The first four shows have already dealt with some major issues in amicable ways : 

• Female Foeticide shocking many with its hard hitting facts 
• Child sexual abuse being covered in a very mature way and even hosting a very informative workshop for children.
• Dowry being covered with a positive outlook
• The most shocking one being on generic medicines. The pharmaceutical crisis of india.  

For more info : 

http://satyamevjayate.in/

*yawn* Boring you already? -_-

"Happy summer!" to the ones with enviable no. of holidays left.

and BATTLE ON! To the satyamev jayate team and

my fellow twelfth standards who are beginning their final year of schooling soon!

editing - siddharth dinesh

writing - Semi 

Stupid Superstitions

That's what they should be.

Forgive that more than obvious alliteration of a title :P If the title is NOT obvious to you , well this particular post will try help you understand - hopefully. Well , every one of us has some sort of stupid superstition or the other to keep us going on during our bad days. However, a problem arises when they endanger others , when they are too irrational or tough to achieve and when they finally move away from their cause - to complete an activity and instead hinder the goal itself.
Some of the curious ones:

• 
  
• Wearing the right pad before the left  - Sachin Tendulkar and almost every player after him ( because of him of course B) ) 

voldy with a nose and a smile :P

• Holding paper clips in your palm while delivering a speech - 'the senator guy' aka Ralph Fiennes ( Mr.voldy for the HP fans) in the film maid in manahattan 

• 'Lucky bat' to score runs in . In fact , the 'magic bat' as if the bat contains the talent and not the player. It was the story of chain kulii ki main kulii

• The most hilarious one I have heard in my life. In this Indian authored book called 'where girls dare' a young women cadet feels worthless and doomed without her red undies and alas! all of the red ones have gone for wash. Her quirky friend asks her to wear purple ones over peach as it would give red :D ( idk if these are the exact colors although my genius brother swears that these are the exact ones. However when i googled it -'red' is a primary color and cannot be formed by other combinations. So either the girl was fooled or I am in the process of being trolled by my brother.) 

• I have an infuriating belief that I can study only if I highlight every word I read  AND I can study only if the ancient radio in my room is turned on . And one day the last highlighter I had for the day (the psychology book had usurped all  four :/ ) fell into the loo and I was left in a state of irrational panic that I was gonna fail this one. My genius friend chandy made me see sense and I ended up using my brother's permanent marker. And YES I love studying when I pee . 

All the above beliefs are cute at some levels if you ignore the weirdness aspects in the fourth and fifth points. At least they do not torture another person. That being said , we need to keep them in check. What sort of player would Tendulkar be if he progressed from point 1 to point 3 ? Getting riddled in self doubt is the last thing you need , the hindu crossword puzzles are easier in comparison. 

Having a lucky ring or a pen with you surely gives some sort of energy to perform. However the LACK of a 35 rs trimax pen or a 10,000 rs diamond ring shouldn't deter you from performing upto your potential. However reporting the loss of the latter to your mom asap is very important - i.e if you want to really live to perform , that too when the ring was HER anniversary gift :P 

Lets move on to darker waters. 

Everyone gets very passionate when they watch their favorite sport on TV. This could be a liverpool team desperately searching for a goal , a dhoni trying to accelerate his team's scoring rate or even a Randy orton trying to do a RKO. Here is where you draw a line between a fan and a fanatic. A fan accepts his team's loss and attributes it to their own performance while most often a fanatic would try to shift the blame on anything but the obvious - it could be the weather , the umpire/referee or worse the person sitting next to him . 

It is not very strange in my house to see people sitting in very particular postures for many hours as the team scores well when they do it :O I do accept that I am one of the persons who change their playlist and try to DJ their team to a victory but we aren't pinpointing anyone here. Recently , due to csk's dangerous position in the points table , my dad an I have become over reliant on luck. So , the 'bad omen' is my brother now :P 

It is our prediction that the team suffers when my brother is in the room. When we all went swimming yesterday chennai batted very well. Sadly in the last 2 overs when we entered they didn't hit runs. Again when 'he' was in the room sachin and rohit were milking runs of us. We getting desperate for SOME action , begged him to move outta the room. and blimey me!du plessis pulled a catch out of thin air!. My brother was thoroughly depressed by now and went into his twitter world. What a turn around wickets kept falling. When he came back , we begged him to go out as we couldn't bear to lose now. He obviously didn't share our feelings and so my dad ended up switching off the TV. 

Wouldn't you call this a bit extreme? Shunning away loved ones in the name of 'luck' . The above example was a light one , what if we start practicing this in life's more serious problems. Like marriage? (horoscopes are handy examples) 

So do believe in what you feel will help develop your confidence

 and not dwindle other people's confidence. 

P.S - Dwayne smith led mumbai to victory in the last over by smashing 6 4 4 in the last 3 balls. 

        And my brother was sitting next to me watching in the other TV . Can't blame anyone though. 

      After all you can never tell in cricket. 

written by
Semi

editing credits - Siddharth Dinesh

Too weird to live too rare to die! B)

Co conceived by sunanda srinivas <3 :*

Yes it is happening! Right in front of our eyes , Semisharings or semi's stories and sharings ( however/whatever you want to call it) has transformed from being this helplessly cute infant to this slow but steady toddler. This lil blog has turned 2 years old!! =) and kudos and hi5 's to all the overly generous and insightful  readers who have helped both of us grow step by step ..inch by inch. 

Obviously some negatives have cropped up - the writer is getting overly lazy. And even two posts a month seems a strain =/ 'Quality is always better than quantity' seems to be the phrase to use now , at least to console some souls. However , I promise to write more ; even though 'yours awesomely' is in twelfth now :O yeah cry happy tears over her dedication. 

This is NOT going to be a blog post about the blog itself or some running credits. Due to the lack of posts  nowadays , it may end up looking as though the only thing the writer is concerned about is herself and the processes underlying in the formation of the end product ( which is true in some levels) . As the next step is to move on from myself and how this blog is being run and as their must be some substance to abuse , I have decided (very solemnly) to write stuff that makes SENSE. ( some may say 'finally' :P ) 

So what are we gonna actually talk about kiddos? 

Something 'educational' to satisfy the adults ; ok don't run away already. Something which is known but not shown off that much. Something so dynamic that it could and most probably would change the educational and occupational system of India if not Tamil Nadu. Something that is beyond understanding for some humans with 'middle class' mentality  and that dares us to dream beyond the conventional 'doctors' and 'engineers' . Yes , I am talking about the hidden or invisible group of our educational system the 'humanities' group. 

So for all those out there who still  don't know what I am talking about : 

India , at least the southern part of it has high school or plus one and plus two for 16 - 18 year olds. And sadly a majority of it is filled with people who believe that their sons and daughters can only succeed in life if they become engineers or doctors. Yeah given that professionals bring in FDI and more earnings from service sector , but COME ON  - how many engineers does a nation need? 

Surely not more than the amount of lawyers , social workers , FARMERS , TEACHERS , politicians (educated ones!) psychologists , scholars , sociologists , journalists , artists and a billion of other professions for which there is unmet high demand. And which hasn't been tapped yet because we all want to be IT engineers and fly to USA. 

Not that flying off faraway is wrong , but then please don't blame India for being inefficient and not good enough. The point of the para was - Humanities has more scope than commerce and science put together. 

What are the different kinds of discrimination we humanities people face?

 Being unique is viewed strangely by other humans who call those poor beings 'weird' . Being the only one in Southern India to take this particular group and one of the few in the whole of INDIA to do something is more daunting than it sounds. It takes a LOT of guts to pick this line. I can't help wonder why it has to be this way. Why can't a humanities student be given as much freedom and respect as a science or commerce one? 

To quote some examples from my friend's' lives -

The fat bald uncle of a relative O.o

random relative : What group having you taken ma? 

she: Humanities , uncle. 

rr:  what did you say ma?

she : HUMANITIES

rr:  You mean commerce?

She: No uncle. It is a different group consisting off history , psychology , sociology , english , political science and economics. 

rr: Ohh ( as if he understands)  what marks did u get ma? Padipu varalaya? ( you don't study well? ) 

She : (obviously offended) My CGPA was 10 'uncle'. 

rr: really? Why are you trying to waste your life? You will end up becoming a housewife. 

she : O.o

no offense to housewives. it requires a lot of skill and patience to run a family. But seriously people like  that uncle (1000's of them) cannot be shown the truth because they are too busy trying to close their eyes or looking the other way. 

Another accusation on us is that what we study is too easy. 

1. What is wrong with that? Jealous much that we immediately understand what we study?
2. What i study TODAY can be used by me to enrich my life TODAY itself. 
3. We do not mug. We use much more brains and self thought than you when we discuss an Oedipus complex or if a particular historical fact is reliable and accurate or not =)  

I am ending this blog shortly as I do not want to spoil the festive mood of my blog darling's birthday and also because the pent up anger is too much to broadcast in one post. So love you all and have a great summer!! <3

P.S - Yes a second part is coming up :D :* 

Yours awesomely

Semi =) 

Lets TALK cricket

I deeply apologize for the lack of posts this month. The zero performance can be attributed to the soaring Chennai heat , even more dramatically increasing electricity costs and cuts and last but never the least my own negligence , boredom and depressed state of mind. Sure many moody people do blog in spite of bad moods - which may lead to a depressing read. So thank me for trying to satisfy you all! :P

So turning to what IS bright this season : 

1. YELLOW MANGOES
2. YELLOW SUN
3. YELLOW of CSK! 

Smiling assasin

While mangoes are more promising and juicy for eating , the sun is just a fail topic to suck delight out of. So let us land on the most happening thing in an 'average' Indian teenager's life - 'IPL' or the Indian premier league. While the matches are mercilessly boring nowadays , the fans still don't seem to mind. Lack of interesting movies and basic life activities has led us into this pit of unexciting fun called ipl. 

People may call this only the 'opening' jitters still ,as the matches continue to be one sided and  the only interesting aspect being the points table. Every team seem to be exceptionally good or bad on  a given night. And this directly leads to the game being one sided where a team fail to attain previously meager scores like 180 or where the teams keep losing wickets like bowling pins. Not a cricket expert - but like every other person in India who seems to have this game in their blood - my frank opinion is that teams should stop trying to SLOG and carve their innings through timing and placement like an owais shah or use both timing and power like Du plessis or show class like Rahane. not everyone can be a Christopher Gayle or pollard and losing wickets in the current fashion is just ugly. 

Whilst i am typing this , Rajastan just won this thriller against deccan chargers. Their success can be mainly due to excellent batting by rahane and dravid upfront.Followed by awesome performance by brad hodge and owais shah. Deccan had only themselves to blame when they followed a brilliant batting performance with a bowling and fielding display which at best could be called miserable. They are the only team to have put up no scores so far. However , we cannot rule out any team off , as the key factor this time around is unpredictability and quality line ups almost every where.

As I type , my job of being this temporary cricket analyst more appealing and so i have decided to write a brief summary of all the teams and their performances so far! So here we go , the line up of the various teams , on the order of preference and their relative significance and basically on how fast they come to my mind: 

1. CSK - Well , being born here and living all my life are surely not the only factors.Even if their performances aren't exactly defined as consistent nowadays , the records speak for themselves. In the big picture we are the defending champions , looking for an incredible third consecutive win. This time around we don't have Hussey for the first half of the matches  , however his role has been performed well by francois du plessis xD one of the stronger batting line ups we have the likes of raina , badrinath ( who hasn't even got a game to play properly yet!) , Vijay ( who is in a BAD form) , Bravo , morkel , jadeja etc and as seen we have the fire power to chase down a 206 :O The bowling however hasn't been up to the mark and is infact lackluster with Ashwin not in form , bollinger conceding too many and generally no one is taking the all important wickets. Because of this the fielding is looking ineffective >.< buck up champions!

1. RR - The first time champions are looking to win again.They have always been the underdogs , even when having quality players and the thin celeb shilpa shetty supporting them. This has been due to their shrewd investments in players who have the potential but are not exactly the 'stars' . molded initially by the spinning legend shane warne , they have the legendary dravid as their captain and mentor now. Improvements are already seen with stunning batting displays and  disciplined bowling. Pankaj singh showed heart in previous matches , Ajinkya rahane has emerged to grab the orange cap - he is bleeding class! xD Owais shah has to be the find of the season with his apt timing and placement!! Also they have the awesome hodge who is one of the most experienced t20 players. Rajastan royals seem to be a force to reckon with in this competition B) 

1. DD - They started of well in the beginning but ended up having a terrible season last time around. Will they redeem themselves this time around? With almost half their previous squad in the rcb team now they seem to have risen up from the ashes like a phoenix . They have a batting line up that would make any bowler shiver - The daredevil sehwag who if gets going can dent any attack. They have foreigners like jayawardane , Pietersen  AND ross taylor who can time and hit the ball long! In yadav and morne morkel they have quality pace men who bowl fast and short. Only the spin department seems to be the weakness. Can they overcome and win the cup for the first ever time?

1. DC - They have had a very disappointing start to this year by not winning any games so far. However ,in sangakkara they have a very capable captain and all their matches have been close so far. While their batting usually doesn't fire , they have the right combinations of power and strokeplay in the captain , shikar dhawan , duminy , christian. However their bowling which looks good on paper is falling flat. However , having the best pace man dale steyn is always lethal. And if they can pick up their bowling and fielding mainly they can still make an impact before it gets too late. 

1. RCB - They have been coming to the finals but somehow manage to choke it in the end. They have the BEST spin attack consisting of the sublime muralidharan and the suave vettori. However their batting which has been running with gayle power for so long , is not working in normal circumstances. Also the pacers are conceding too many runs for the batsmen to even dream about. Yet , we all know how they start scratchily and end up creating scars for the opponents. Go RCB! and kohli and gayle - please convert your anger into something positive please!

1. MI - They have everything money can buy except some fitness. Without tendulkar the side looks different , as it is the case with any team. The openers need to fire and rohit sharma should be more responsible with his shots and also Pollard can't come to the rescue all the time. Given enough runs , they have the bowling to defend themselves. It is the batting that must click. 

1. PW - Why worry when dada is there? He has the ability ton bring out the best and the players seem aptly energetic and their bowling with dinda and Rahul sharma has looked good. The batting which is a concern seems to be moving on the right track with ryder and uthappa seeming to have found their forms finally. They have marlon samuels and steve smith who demolish the ball when they want to. 

1. K xi P - They have looked flat through. Gilchrist can weave his magic with any team and only he , valthathy , shaun marsh and preiy zinta with her dimple filled grins can save them!

1. KKR - They are not a bad team ; they have the potential . But they have largely never functioned as a team. Hope they can form some sort of cohesion . If kallis , gambhir , yusuf fire with the bat and balaji and lee with the ball with some contributions from domestic players like shukla and bhatia ( not to forget tiwary) they have a chance. 

P.S - forgive my grammar this time around , I am just exhausted by the heat lol