One fine day, I had a wonderful meeting with a great academician and researcher. Douglas Comer – known to Anna University Computer Science students as author of TCP/IP books. We computer science students used to cram those books during our under-grad days. He is a distinguished faculty member at Purdue University and VP of research at Cisco. Most importantly he is known for his work in development of internet for the past 30 years.

He came to the University to give a guest lecture on “Lessons learned from developing Internet”. His lecture lasted for 50 minutes. It was darn funny and witty. For example, he used to don the academician hat and talk about how ISPs take consumers for a ride by claiming to give blazing fast internet connection. Did you know that ISPs do not use the shortest path to route packets? Routing is dictated by economics. The consumer who pays a lot gets top priority. Then, he wears an imaginary employee hat, “Use XYZ routers, the best routers in the world”.

Some excerpts from his talk -
Comer: There was a student who proposed an aggressive way of tackling congestion in the internet. “Just mow your way through the congestion. Keep resending out packet until it comes out of the congestion”. I told him that if everyone starts doing it, the entire internet is going to collapse. I was curious to know from where the student got the idea. Incidentally, the student happened to be from a place called India. Once I was in Delhi. If you are driving on a heavily congested road and you see an opening, all the vehicles gun for that spot. Chaos ensues, however one of the vehicle makes it past the congestion.

When Comer told how the student got the idea I was laughing the loudest in the room.

Comer: Did you know TCP was sidelined by the government’s policy? It mandated that every government organization shouldn’t use TCP. There was a jolly good fellow at NASA who wanted to use TCP. He found a catch in the policy document (It’s known as GOSIP) – “USE TCP IN CASE OF EMERGENCIES”. So, NASA declared that there was an ‘emergency’ and began to use TCP in their networks. Soon enough, as history failed to record it, all organizations began to claim it was having an emergency and started using TCP. The government had to overrule its policy of not using TCP because it’s not healthy to have emergencies every day. It’s astounding that this incident was not much noted in history.

For the folks from non-CS background who are reading this- TCP is an important mechanism used in internet. Just imagine the internet as a road. TCP is kind of similar to the traffic lights. Without TCP, you will probably get your emails garbled. When the lecture ended, I wished my professors would teach like him. Nonetheless, my professors have their own style. But, there was something about Comer’s way of teaching.

Note: I circulated this anecdote through email an year ago. Technically, its not a retro-post.  ^_^

I published this story in Shalini’s blog six months ago. This blog has been declared self-defunct, hence no links are being put. She writes well and speaks out her mind.  A good debater as well. Its difficult to beat her in debates. Now let the story begin…..

Eight year old Valli was walking with her kid brother Muthu to home. They pass a lungi-clad gentleman smoking on the side walk.

Muthu to Valli: Why don’t we try a puff? Eh!

Valli: We shouldn’t. Mother will skin us alive!!! Besides, we can’t buy them.

Muthu: Why not?

Valli: It’s illegal for Mani, the shop keeper to sell cigarettes to children.

Muthu (Sour-faced): That is not fair.

The children reach home. Muthu throws away his school bag and settles infront of the TV set.

Valli to Mother: Why is it illegal to sell cigarettes to children?

Mother looks at Valli and smiles: You and Muthu are growing. So are other children. Smoking a cigarette will impair your growth. That’s why the government has imposed a ban.

Valli: Oh!

Valli joins her brother in watching the evening cartoons. The father overheard the conversation from the front yard.

Father: Why didn’t you tell Valli that kids cannot make informed decision? That’s why its illegal to sell a cigarette to a minor. The same reasoning applies to voting. Isn’t it?

Mother (Looking at her kids): I didn’t want our children to know their father is ruining himself and others despite making an informed decision.

Hearing the retort, father coughs up in his own inhaled smoke. He flicks the ash of the cigarette.

Father: Hmmmm!

*********************************************THE END************************************************

Its been six years since I started playing the guitar. I must say playing it gives the satisfaction of doing something worthwhile. There was an acoustic guitar lying around the house from 1997. It was bought by bro who had a fleeting desire to be a mariachi. He soon lost interest in it. I tried learning the guitar with a book. It was boring to try the chords. A few minutes later, I lost the zest to play it. The passion was present but didn’t have proper guidance.

In 2002, a good pal Susy showed me an easy way to tune the guitar with a software. He also made me aware of Power Tab Player. The first song he taught me was smoke on the water. I think I kept playing the main riff for a week on a single string. *eyes rolling*

A few months later, another good pal of my name who went by the nickname Tony Iommi (He disowned the name now) introduced me to guitar tab pro and mysongbook.com. I played only the lead part of the songs until last year. I started learning chords which was more fun for sing-a-long moments. I will post some songs once I figure out a way to embed mp3 in Word press without paying a penny.

Tuning the Guitar: AP Guitar Tuner

Hind & English chords:  guitaragaga

Tamil chords:  IGT,  Strummer, keyless and 2Sol.

To get  the chord positions for the songs:  All Guitar Chords

If you don’t want to play chords and wanna play the lead, install Guitar Tab Pro. The next step is to download the tab note for your favorite song in Google as “songname gtp”. To know the advantage of using Guitar Tab Pro, do check out this video

If one uses the resources posted above (including youTube) and practices passionately ignoring the pain, frustration,  and bad cacophony for the first few weeks, playing the guitar will become a regular hobby.

I published this story as a guest columnist here, a few weeks ago.  The owner of that blog being a nice guy, would permit me to use his space. His blog delves on relationships and music. Now onto the story!

Déjà Vu

Ma and papa were fighting again. I was a mute spectator all the time watching them throw accusations which I never comprehended. The fight finally ended and ma leaves home in a fit of rage. Papa shows his anger by smashing the photo frame to smithereens. The photo had ma, papa and me huddled together near a cozy fireplace. Papa walks furiously back and forth for a couple of minutes. He then approaches me and holds my hands.

“Listen, Revathi. The things I am going to tell you might shock you.” said papa. “I never wanted you to know this. There is a man called Srikrishnan. He has done very bad things to us….How do I tell this?….That guy has bewitched your mother. I think he gives some kind of freak drug which makes yours mother swoon.” said papa. I was flabbergasted. Papa rants on, “He is a Biotech scientist…..cooks up drugs in the lab…his next plan is to brainwash you…”

Papa continues to tell an unbelievable story for 10 minutes and sobs. Every teeny weenie thing he talked about seemed ridiculous to me – a 10 year old kid. Despite the story appearing seemingly way out of the world, my eyes were slowly welling with tears.

Papa also leaves the house for the day. He said he has some business to take care off. I didn’t see him for the rest of the day. The next day after coming from school, ma says we are going to the hospital.

Revathi: Is papa coming with us?

Ma: That is exactly why we are going. Papa is in the hospital.

Revathi: Why? What happened?

She never replied. At the hospital, I saw papa on the bed wearing a patient’s gown. His hair is disheveled. He appears very groggy due to sedation. He beckons me to approach him. Ma pushes me forward knowing that I was reluctant. But, I felt the scene was too overwhelming and I make my way out of the room. Ma follows me out.

Revathi: Ma! What happened to him?
Ma: Dear, I don’t want you to get scared. Pa will be ok. He is just unwell. The doctors will cure him

I was scared. I didn’t know who to trust after the crazy story pa narrated. Do I confront ma? Ma seemed to read my mind. She hugs me.

Ma: Pa is very very sick, sweetie. He has schizophrenia.

Revathi: Schizo….?

Ma: It’s a psychiatric disease and it makes him hallucinate. He imagines incidents that would have never happened, but he will believe that it did happen in reality.

Revathi: (Sniffing) Ma….

Ma: Papa was not his usual self during the past few weeks. I observed him doing queer things when he was alone. He used to talk alone. Sometime he just stares at the blank wall. After yesterday’s fight, I approached our family doctor……..Oh, Revathi..I know it’s hard on you.

I must say that I was badly traumatized. It had been an emotional roller coaster ride for the past few days. I visited papa a lot in the hospital. His lips were swollen. The tongue was blistered. One of the side effects of taking lot of pills, I presume. I overheard the doctors telling ma something about the shock treatment giving good response.

After 2 weeks, papa came back home. He never talked about the bio tech scientist ever again. It was difficult, but slowly our lives returned back to normal.

2 years later

Revathi: But ma, I don’t want to come.
Ma: Will you stop fussing! Mythili’s family will be hurt if you don’t come. They are all eager to see you.
Revathi: *mutter*
Ma: Let’s have a deal, shall we? If you come with me, I promise that I will buy that dress which you wanted a lot.
Revathi: Mmmmm. Ok.

So, I tag along with ma. Sigh! Life did come become back to normal after pa’s treatment. There were fights between ma and pa, but it was never like the one they had 2 years ago. These days the fights usually revolve around relatives. But, why did I have a weird feeling about this. I am pretty sure I heard the name Mythili before. When ma and I reached the house we were supposed to visit, I saw the owner’s name etched in front of the house. “G.B. Srikrishnan. B.Tech (Biotech) Illam”

It was the eve of TCP/IP exam, the time was 8:00 PM. It was just like any other sunday night.
I receive an sms which says tomorrow is the last day we would all be seeing each other.
I was simply crushed when I thought about it
I didn’t care about the college. Its about the people with whom I have shared the classroom for the past 4 years.

I remember the days I used to spend in college.
I would spend a few mins in each “round table conference” that would be found in different parts of the class room
I know I haven’t been much vocal in the class. Most of the times I was just a listener.
It didn’t matter whether I was the speaker or listener. I was happy to be there with the people

All these memories interrupted me from studying.
Hours passed. I could feel sasi bellowing “Pryojanemeilla!!!”
Thunder and lighting strikes. It starts to rain.
The curtains flutter ..the cool air blowing onto my face just added more drama to the situation
How right he was…I just couldn’t study. I wasn’t able to see the words in the book
I saw only you people.

It was 3:30 AM when I forced myself to sleep as it was futile to study.

Woke up at 7 AM.
I was in a disillusioned state. I didn’t complete studying what I had planned to do in previous night.
7:30 AM… I boarded the college bus. I was pretty much like a zombie looking at the book.
Saravanan boards the bus. He is surprised at my posture.
He waves his hand before my face. I was happy to see him. But I didn’t show it.

8:30 AM.. I arrive in college
I went to the canteen and saw sawai and prashanth. I felt happy to see them.
I told prashanth to enjoy his last meal in college. That dude said “Yeah…last meal before we fail”
I passed along the cse and new building block. All the cse folks were buried in the big yellow book
I was expecting them to look up. Well.. that didn’t happen. But I felt happy to see them.

Of all the persons in the college, the last person to feel nostalgic would be one of my dear ol’ friend the humbug Sudharshan Ranga.
He would usually say “bah! vethu scene”
He came up with something you won’t expect..he said “Sai I won’t be able to punch your paunch ever again”.
Aaaah! Everyone chuckled… It didn’t matter what kind of person each one was.I was just happy to be with the people.

Ramp says “We are far from leaving the college. We have Wipro training in college.na?”
Yes.. I will be back in college in 15 days. But it just won’t feel the same.

I am not asking you people to feel the same way as I feel….
Just wanted to let you know that you are all special to me.
All of you… each and everyone in cse..the ones I have spoken the most…the ones I have spoken less…the ones I haven’t spoken
It was just good too see everyone together
Whenever I was with the class I was in bliss. I wouldn’t have shown it on my face. was just plain H-A-P-P-Y.
My happiest days in college were during CAT. I was able to see not only the b batchers but also the a batchers.
My only regret is that i haven’t spoken to all the people.
How I wish i could go back in time and start to speak to people whom i got to know only this semester

Time 1:30 PM….I board the bus
Last minute chit chat, ” Shall meet you again”, “Will keep in touch”
One by one, the students got off the bus waving their hands.
When my bus stop was about to come, I was the only person on the bus
I turned back and waved to imaginary passengers.

I got off the bus. I was down on my knees.And …. And I felt all alone again.
But it wasn’t the same heart crushing feeling I had yesterday night.
I felt alone alright…but had strength to accept what is happening. Change is inevitable.
We all will walk away from each other…just like the final scenes in Ocean’s 11 where the crew departs at the frontside of a casino
In my heart, i will always cherish the memories of the days i spent with all of you wonderful people
For i am indebted to you folks for making my life worth it for the past four years
I believe deep inside that I will see you all 120+ people once again.
It could be in 1 year or 5 years or 10 years. That day will come and I will be waiting for you folks.
Will you people wait for me too??? Please…….

(I couldn’t take it anymore..i just broke down. For the first time in 6 years i felt like crying.*choke*.)

I searched the net to get the chords for an old tamil song “Adho andha paravai pola”. Not much luck. So, by trial and error I got the chords for the 1st stanza figured out.

adhO andha paravai pOla vaazhavaendum
C                              Am

idhO indha alaigaL poala aadavaendum
Am                           F

orae vaanilae orae mannilae
F            G

orae vaanilae orae mannilae
F            G

orae geedham urimai geedham paaduvoam
F            G              C