Happy New year ! ? !

It is end of another year and here I am, like a clockwork mouse to publish my ‘end of the year post’. Only that, there won’t be a retrospective ‘2014’ post this time. My life is not so nicely structured anymore – college does that to you and seeing the year through my eyes will be too jumbled to be comprehensible for you.

But it IS the end of the year and old habits die hard. So I am going to write about ‘happy new year’ albeit a different one from what you’re thinking about. At least the one I think you’re thinking about :P ( and yes! I finally used albeit , maybe used it wrongly but love that word too much *nerd face* )

We are going to talk about HAPPY NEW YEAR , the Bollywood movie starring Sharukh Khan , Deepika Padukone and Abhishek Bachchan among many others. We are not going to do a detailed analysis of the plot , script etcetera because let’s face it – there isn't any. It is just a mishmash of English and Hindi gangster heist films which happens to be enacted by the most popular stars in India right now.

My problem with the film was that … it was so much fun! Does it really matter if a film is funny -intentionally or unintentionally? The fact is that, it is very hard to make a movie and make people laugh. The fact that it was ready to laugh at itself and offer entertainment is enough for most people out there. How else would you explain the 300 crore phenomena happening after every big star’s movie?

Silk knows best ,"ENTERTAINMENT,ENTERTAINMENT ENTERTAINMENT"

There are 2 types of films out there today – films that expect to boggle your brain and films which expect you to leave your brain at home. Most star backed films in India belong to the latter category. Why should I put effort to confuse the audience , when doing the same movie with slightly different dialogues and costumes earns me 300+ crores ?(100 crores is so 2011),ask the great Khans of today. Aamir Khan is the only one trying to challenge himself but after Dhoom 3, I’m not so sure anymore.

The problem with 

Only hope?

'star movies’ nowadays (not to be confused with the channel of the same name xP) is that there is only glitter and stardust . Matter doesn't matter! Packaging has become more important than the content. It is like most chip packets nowadays – selling 60% air should NOT be a trend or a thing. We as consumers should have a say, we should demand more.

I’m not asking for Nolan like movies. I know if we ask for that, an unofficial vernacular remake will be made , leaving the moviegoers and original creators in tears. Just put in some more effort – try to make the scripts more believable , stunts must be awe inspiring but believable to make your hair go up. The climax scene in HNY where they fill in water instead of oxygen into the locker to help them escape is laughably bad.

Still SOO Stylish. Legend __/\__ just look at him :') 

 Even a Rajinikanth movie needs to be believable – I heard the climax of his recent Lingaa and cried in horror- The modern need for mindless extravagance has not spared the great man too.

I know this movie rant is not going to change anything. We’ll still have regressive romantic scenes , cardboard characters , men kicking bombs of hot air balloons and playing out badly written scenes and I know that I’ll be cheering and whistling in the theater because I love my Indian cinema no matter what.

I know it is crap but if it is enjoyable crap nobody is complaining - too much.

But if it is something like this

Or

This

God Save Us!

Geography tests

I haven’t written in over a month and I sincerely apologize for that. To make up for this often committed mistake of not writing in SSS , I am going to confess to some of the (small) crimes I have committed in the past.

< Disclaimer: Personal Post coming up >

I know I should be writing about the increasing terrorist activity or the omnipresent rape fear, but I choose to overlook these topics (mostly because better writers have written awesome articles about them already) and am going to choose GEOGRAPHY TESTS instead.

Very Random Right? Well, expecting a sane topic from an insane person is well … insane.

Everyone has an Achilles heel , a special subject that they hate so much that they would rather burn in hell than study it for the test next day. Most people hate math , I also hate(d) math . But coming to think of it, I hated GEOGRAPHY the most. History was awesome;, math dumbfounding ; Biology insanely difficult ; BUT nothing was so irrationally hateable like innocuous looking geography.

I mean who wants to study about the rocks, climate , pressure, river delta estuaries or even longitude latitudes? I learnt so much, but hated every bit. I used to read the most amount of story books during geography. The teachers were actually pretty good but boy! I hated that subject.

(Don’t) worry. I am (not) going to ramble about my hatred and be done with it. Nahi saar, I am going to give two awe some/ful anecdotes about 2 amazing geography exams I wrote in school time.

THIS IS THE STORY OF WHY I DON’T CARRY WATER TO EXAMINATION HALLS ANYMORE.

1.    1   Water on the desk

Sounds innocent enough. But nothing is ever innocent  in semiland, my children J . I was in 8^th standard I think, the class representative – apostIneverdeservedbutdidnoworkanywayssochill- and had this geography test. Our teacher was Nirmala miss, an old but smart teacher who would sit at the back of the class so that copying was out of the picture entirely.

The fundamental duty of the class rep is to develop class rapport and I found that working towards an underlying common cause would incite us towards that direction. Henceforth, I decided to help my classmates copy. Out of 34 people , at least 30 hadn’t studied , I had studied enough to fill the pages but many were planning unsafe methods to copy.

Our class 8A , we were a pack. We made teachers cry in packs , we chewed gum in packs and we decided to commit this crime as a pack. Cheating in tests is a crime which I have later come to despise but as a 13 year old class student who hated geography , I had no qualms about what I was just about to do.

So how can the entire class copy without getting caught? We can’t all whisper – 30 whispers cause a scream , we can’t all keep the notebook underneath , even if we had a plan – we can’t all ever agree in unison .

I tried dividing the class into 4 zones – the quiet zone , nerd zone and the last 2 were the mad cheater’s zone. Whatever elaborate plan I made up , it all boiled down to the problem that the teacher sat in the back bench and could see the papers we kept below in the desk. Creating bits was logistically impossible and if everyone wasn’t satisfied , somebody would rat us out.

So , I poured water on the backbench and added a dirty paper and banana peel to it.

That was the most popular thing I did as a class rep and it had to go undocumented L :P

1. 2.       Water on the paper
2. 
   

This was when I was around the same age: 12-13 . Although , I showed criminal tendencies as mentioned above , I was pretty dumb. To prove the case in point , I am going to bring back to memory this painful incident which ruined my entire exams - almost.

We have established my particular dislike for geography already , so it isn’t entirely unsurprising that I didn’t have much knowledge of it on the exam day. However , I forgot to mention this – I am a nerd. On the exam days at the least :P

I hate leaving blank spaces in my answer, probably because I know I’ll never come back to fill it , as I never have the time for it. The exact same thing happened . For the first question on the first page of the first fricking examination! Even though, I answered other answers properly , it irked me that the first page was half blank and first impression matters.

So , I poured water on my first page.

I still haven’t figured out why I DID THAT. A blonde moment , you could call it -_- My thought process was this : If I pour a small amount of water on the page , it would be a legit reason to have omitted that space.

I forgot that

• 1)      I was a MESSY KLUTZ ,
• 2)      That water has absorbing qualities
• 3)      My bottle had a very big mouth
• 4)      I used gel pen.

So the water leaked on to all the pages I wrote afterwards and my mainsheet was a wet nightmare. I had to rewrite the entire paper in 20 minutes and the invigilator wasn’t ready to give me even 2 extra minutes.

So ladies and gentlemen, please don’t pour water on your paper . Maybe it was the karma of pouring water on my desk which led me into that disaster of a decision.

And that is why I don’t carry water to an examination.

yours thirstily ,

Semi

Hold on.

(A poem ,a song? I don't know , what I just wrote down. But , I wrote it with all my heart - at least the tiny broken pieces left of it )

P.s - all pics taken from google only. 

HOLD ON

Hey you!

This moment ain’t permanent.

Embrace it.

I know it ain’t a new gospel

Or something.

But it is true.

There will come an international relations paper

Which gives you the feeling

That you aced it.

Embrace it.

Because it ain’t permanent bro.

This moment when you

Open your contracts question paper

Well prepared with all the

Expected questions of the

Last 5 years.

And life/god/nature/paper setter

Decides to ask that 20 mark question

Which has never been asked in the past

12 years.

Remember!

This also ain’t permanent bro.

Don’t embrace this godforsaken moment

Try shrinking it away by

Not giving it enough importance

Don’t repress it though ,

You might get cancer.

But that is because

Everything causes cancer nowadays.

Please hold on to that moment

When your lady love

Walks down the aisle

Clothed head to toe in white

And love , full of life.

Because

You might lose your best friend in a

Helicopter crash

And your lady love loses her left leg

And blames you

And you end up having to leave her

Since you forget when you laughed last .

Thank you Shonda Rhimes

You have taught me

That this moment ain’t permanent.

Damn you T.V shows.

If that isn't enough,

You are one moment in the 6^th grade

Declaring you’ll all be besties for life

And the next moment

You are walking down the same streets

5 years later ,

With not even 1 bestie in sight

Separated by change in schools , colleges,cities

Not

Your dramatic fights , jealousy or treachery

Just

Life simply moving on

With or without you.

Time makes us forget , not care any more

Just move on to

Another set of unrelated events

to be embroiled in &

Which we strive to find meaning in.

We will never learn

To cope with all the broken hearts

And badly meandered relationships

The least we could try

Is to

Hold on to this moment

This beautiful one which you

Hope to recall

When a lorry is coming out of nowhere

To take your life

That safe moment

When your dad holds your hands in his

So casually yet so reassuringly.

That crazy moment when

You jumped off the seat

Watching a very funny movie with your friends.

Or quite simply

The ones after a very good meal.

Because brace yourself babies,

Life is just behind that curb

Waiting to bulldoze this

One moment

With a million messy ones

Hold on.

An electrifying experience

I’m sharing my first internship experience for the #MyInternTheory activity at BlogAdda in association with Intern Theory.

It has been a long time since I wrote anything of substance in this space and I have myself to blame for not updating you’ll about the progress in my law life. Even when I do write , I hardly write on the central things of my life. So I’m dedicating this post to this barely mentioned aspect of my life.

MY FIRST INTERNSHIP 

Sometimes , it is very easy for some people to get disillusioned very easily. When you are studying a weirdly structured 5 year law course , it is very very easy to forget that you are indeed ‘studying’ to become a ‘lawyer’.  

In my college , the semester in itself is a chilling carnival of laziness ( at least to ones like me) – what with only 3 hours of actual lectures a day and stuff-  Hence , it is the internship / holiday time when we make hay in sunshine. After blowing off the first semester holidays on grounds of ignorance and lethargy , I was forced to do some productive activity in the summer of 2014. Even for me, 8 weeks was too long a time to do nothing.

Ok. Since, there is a small chance that some future law aspirants might read this  I’m gonna go stepwise and elucidate briefly on the details of the wonderful journey that was my summer internship.

Where did I apply?

Citizen Consumer and Civic action Group ( CAG) , Chennai. It is a NGO working on consumer , environmental and other civic issues like electricity which impacts all the citizens.

How did I apply?

I came to know of the NGO through my mother’s acquaintance and decided to give it a shot by sending my resume to recruiting head. She is a very friendly person, who immediately gave me guidance.

How long did it last?

This great learning curve lasted for a period of 6 weeks. I compensated for the holidays I took with another week :P

Working hours – 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM

What did I exactly do in a consumer & civic action forum?

This content is very exciting and varied. So I’m gonna make this the body of my post!

I was of the notion that CAG will involve consumer cases only and I didn’t even know what that meant exactly.

Clad in Formal white linen shirt and black pants , sweating due to the normal Chennai heat and not a very normal sense of apprehension , I approached the office. My ‘boss’ saroja ma’am immediately put me at ease with her friendliness and professional approach.

My 1st day of internship.

My very first task was to read the entire Consumer protection act , which is a pretty heavy law book. I think the purpose of the activity is to get an understanding of what consumer law is and moreover learning to be or at least acting unfazed in the face of gigantic books.

My very first Consumer complaint was on medical negligence suit charged on a doctor and I had to draft the formal complaint letter requesting the opposing part to co operate with us on settling the dispute. I drafted responses for few more such cases making ma’am note that my luck favored medical negligence. All the exposure to grey’s anatomy and house did come in handy :P

According to me, the most crucial thing I learnt in my CAG internship was about electricity. Tamil Nadu being very vulnerable in this sector and eccentric in its supply and distribution has made every consumer worried and somewhat conversant with its issues.

For starters I feel every resident of Tamil Nadu must know that the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board or the TNEB like we like to call it is actually divided into the TANTRANSCO and the TANGEDCO ,former for transmission and the latter for generation and distribution. The TNERC – electricity regulatory commission is the law making body though.

When tara ma'am first found me :P

All this sounded like pig latin to me until tara ma’am walked in. She is the head of the place and visits us weekly. I was a bit sluggish after the lunch break on my first week and I was scared stiff when she actually invited me to sit in on the TNERC meeting. This was the first meeting I ever attended and I was quite happy to just observe it. However, they wanted my views on the topic and even asked me to make a draft on the regulations to be amended or something like that. I was simply awestruck at the jargon in the beginning.

It took me a week to realize that I was working on the Tamil Nadu Electricity act and that the TNERC was proposing some amendments to the existing distribution code and that every consumer and interested party could send in their reservations and comments after notice of the intention to amend and the actual draft amendments are announced.

We talk about transparency but do we really pay interest when something is being shown and is asked to be done by us? I think not.

The amendments were on the power provided to water supply or motor pumpsets for agricultural consumers and being a city bred girl who has never visited a village properly , it was quite difficult for me to envisage the impacts the amendment could actually create on the farmers.

I learnt to compare distribution codes of Karnataka and Andhra which are quite elaborate on this topic and also ones of Gujarat and Punjab.

This entirely different task assigned to me, which seemed tougher than mandarin Chinese in the beginning, made me believe that I could learn things which I thought I was most incapable to learn.

I also got the chance to edit a bit of EmpowerTN , a journal on electricity and take minutes of TEGI – the Tamil Nadu Electricity Governance Initiative , a wonderful conference discussing all aspects of electricity problems in India today by several experts and organizations.

After TEGI/ with my co intern / last day :( 

While the consumer complaints I drafted was expected and the Ecommerce research I undertook on 20 Indian e-commerce companies ( Flipkart ,amazon , snapdeal included) using 58 criterions of consumer policy was more exhaustive but easier to comprehend and relate for me ;

 Electricity really brought me to life – it involved a lot of technical looking codes , scared me to death , I even failed to put proper work on some occasions! I’ve read many quotes which say stuff like do what scare you the most and didn’t think much of it. But once you are forced to do the unexpected , step outside that comfort zone – win or lose , you gain experience. Experience which makes you bold enough to try again and not make the same mistake twice.

And that is what I thank CAG for.

 For letting me play with electricity.

Thank you

Samyuktha Semi Jayaprakash

My Mojojojo

A post to renew my mojo. 
A catchy song to capture the Indian youth :P 
Enjoy. 

A semi song production. 

Mojojojo Mojojojo

You want jalebi kya?

You’re the bun to my jam

Meredith to my yang

Sherlock to my Watson

Mojojo mojojo

You watch powerpuff girls kya?

Mojojojo Mojojojo

Teach me Hindi na

House to my Wilson

Sirius to my son

Brooke to my Peyton

Gilchrist to the great Mathew Hayden

Teach me Please dudeee.

Mojojojo Mojojojo

There is gravy on your shirt

Your eyes are red

Mojojojooooo

You’re my bestie da

So

Arre please don’t do weed yaar

But Mojo jojo

Let’s first take a selfie :P