Adieu

I used to weep every time a batch of my friends joined for their jobs and i sat @ home waiting for the date to move and finally get a mail from campus.manager@wipro.com. But when it was more than 3 months i was hurt. Especially when friends started getting salaries and started sending money home. Here i was sitting online, reading posts on communities and spending more and more money from my parents when i should be supporting them after these many years of education.

I still have the respect for Wipro since it was the 1st company that gave me a job. I have had days when i just wanted to call up the helpdesk and shout abuses. But then thanks to the eternal queue, i never used to get a person on the line.

Finally i had enough and started applying for jobs wherever i saw. I wasn't that keen to join a software job with a mechanical background. Finally i cleared one of the tests and got to the interview and now i got the job. Wipro was a nice romance that i have now moved on from. It was great to know so many people and be friends with people whom you might never see again in life and share with them the mental trauma of having to wait @ home and say that "I'm placed in Wipro, but they haven't called me yet". People used to look at me with a sense of doubt, as if i had told a lie that i got a job.

But now things have changed. Finally i've a date when i'll be stepping into an environment completely alien to me. I'll be 1000's of kilometers away from my comfort zone. Hope i'll be able to fulfill my expectations and be able to rise upto the standards of my employer.

I feel sad coz i'll be leaving the college where i was for more than 4 years now(studying and teaching)! I feel sad to leave a city where i spent the last 13 years, moreover its heartening to leave your loved one's, friends, teachers and all those people you're so used to seeing.

I leave on 24th November to join IFFCO @ Paradeep, Orissa. That means 30 more days of fun, laughter and enjoyment. I hope i would still be ther in the hearts and minds of all here..........

My First Job

Some people get an education that prepares them to be a captain of industry, or that sends them out to do important scientific work to cure world hunger or horrible disease. But my education hadn’t done any of these. I graduated from Govt Engg College, Bartonhill(GECB) in 2007 and am proud to say that I spent four years of my life here. I still remember the day I joined my B.Tech. It was 27th of August 2003. I can still remember the words “Enter @ your own risk” scrawled across the door as we stepped into what was going to be our home away from home for four years. Four years of one’s life, a period where one becomes a man, where one earns his 1st job.

First job, it has got a sweet sound, doesn’t it? My 1st job interview was for Wipro. My luck favoured me when I cleared that and technically it is my 1st job. But the 1st time I’ve been working was when I stepped into GECB again on 18th September, 2007. It was something that I’d never planned for, something that I’d never expected myself to put up with. But there I was, waiting outside the HOD’s room to join the elite list of enlightened people whom we call Teachers. It’s a great feeling when you walk into a classroom and have a set of 120 eyes staring at you with anticipation. I had never thought that I’ll be teaching, and even when a friend called me to join up, I had refused saying that I’m unsure of myself, how will I teach a bunch of students who’ve set their expectations on me?

But then something's are beyond one’s control and so I joined up and found myself sharing desk space with some of MY teachers! Till that day I could come to college anytime and sit on the steps leading to the EC labs or the drawing hall. But now I’m a teacher, someone who’s respected. I do miss those days when I could roam around the college, when I used to cut classes and share a laugh with my pals or jostle for space in the chairs at the canteen.

All those are sweet memories and are etched in my mind. Thinking now, being a teacher is an opportunity that I didn’t want to miss, especially when it’s in an institution that made you what you are. Now when I see guys and gals talking or doing things that I did with my friends I feel so jealous! I wish I could do it again, wish I could turn back time and be a student again! For those who’re cursing their days at college, you don’t know what you’re going to miss once you are out of this compound.

I’m someone who wanted to join the corporate world. Where I wanted to set a distinct mark, and I had thought that teaching is one job which doesn’t give you the challenging environment where one can find the excitement and the adventure of a corporate job. I’ve had many friends who’ve joined software majors and most of them, except a lucky few, have got numerous bad experiences to tell. There’s even a guy who quit his job and told that it’s a dog-eat-dog world and all we’ll ever achieve is the hatred and evil stares of our peers due to the rat-races going on to gain a upper hand in evaluations and projects. It’s a blank life for some, with no entertainment and no enthusiasm. All we’ve to do is code a programme that someone might use in some other corner of the world and we don’t know who actually benefits from what we do.

All one is bothered about are the looming deadlines and bad bosses! For another friend it’s an aimless world where they say we’ll end up earning this number at the end of the month, but don’t know what to do with the money that’s cashed into the account each month. For the companies it’s a cheap labour force which they use and abuse to their best of abilities. One guy went on to say how sweet the grass looked on the other side when the HR people came with their presentations and now the world looks worse than the Sahara desert. People are yelled at, made to clear high cut-off’s in training tests and finally they say the effort isn’t just paying enough!

These words aren’t supposed to be demoralising to my juniors who’re looking forward to work under the Premji’s and Narayanamoorthy’s who’ve brought prosperity to our poor nation. But it is just a word of caution for those who really don’t know why they took up a software job. For them it’ll be the most boring job in the entire world. Teaching too has its share of boring moments. It is really plain boring to sit in a class with 20-30 students writing page after page of exam questions. I had suffered that boredom for three straight days and frankly that was the only time I thought this is a boring job. Other times I’ve had chances to learn things afresh, sometimes entire new concepts which I had skipped when I had learnt the same subject a few years back.

Now having said all this, I’ll soon be joining the rat-race myself. Not because am a daring person who would want to taste the dangers out there in spite of the warnings, but because I believe in the line from Forrest Gump "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." But in my heart of hearts if I ever get a chance to come back to these classes again as a teacher, I would give up anything for that offer. As Don Corleone says in Godfather “It is an offer that no man can refuse”. But then it is upon time to tell, because once again in Don’s words “Each man has his own destiny.”

Some things are better left unsaid…………

Bourne Ultimatum

Long time since i had a movie review! Was waiting for a movie which really made me sit up all night and then write its review with the enthusiasm still in me. I hadn't had the pleasure to watch The Bourne Ultimatum in a theatre thanks to on-time Kerala theatre's that have english movies always months after they are released. The ONLY movie i've seen in Trivandrum on the day the world saw it 1st was Matrix Revolutions and that wasn't worth the money.

Like many of my pals, i too downloaded the movie. Fake cam prints were available online even before the official release and i was waiting to get my hands on a DVD rip, which is how i like watching movies(even while watching them pirated, watch them in style). Now lets come to the FILM:

The first word to come too mind as I sat in my seat & watched this was "AWESOME". The movie took me away from my comfy couch and made me sit on the edge of the seat. Ultimatum is the last of the Bourne trilogy films. Here Jason is back on the search for his past that began in the depths of the ocean five years back. I had seen the 1st two movies and was totally surprised the way the movie was made. It had relatively no gadgets that are usually present in a spy movie. But what set Bourne apart are the story, direction and of course Matt Damon. He's the perfect guy to play the silent, swift assassin that Jason Bourne is.


Ultimatum starts from where Supremacy left off. Bourne is being chased and he's totally out of his mind trying to recollect his past. He's being chased by none other than CIA Deputy Director Noah Vosen, which is skilfully enacted by David Strathairn. Vosen is after Bourne with more resources and people that Pamela Tandy(Joan Allen) ever had. It all begins when a journalist traces the path of Jason Bourne and the scene where Bourne meets the journalist @ the crowded Waterloo Station at London is too good. The precision, the way Bourne takes over and lets nothing be left to chance is too good to watch. From then on each and every moment Bourne is being chased all over Europe by Vosen and his boys.

Ultimatum may be the best serious action movie I've ever seen. From the moment that the opening title appeared, I knew i was in for a ride. Paul Greengrass has done it again. Everything i loved from the previous Bourne films is here once again: the action, the dialogue, and of course the shaky camera. However for me, that last one was never a problem. I think it adds to the suspense. The camera shakes, but remains steady enough for you to see everything and feel like you're there with Bourne as he tries to elude his pursuers, and the performances are so good that these guys seem as though they are the characters they're portraying, instead of just being actors performing well-written roles.

It doesn't ruin the story line and doesn't take the audience on break-neck action sequences, rather it has the naturalistic docu-drama style which is inspired from Director Paul Greengrass. He's used camera's which zoom in and out of the situation as if its been played real-time, like in a news channel or some live show. That's the beauty of the camera work, it takes you right INTO the action. You feel you're being pursued by Vosen and his vast network. The movie makes us feel that Matt Damon has the conviction and swelling desire of the troubled assassin. Kudos to Damon and Greengrass for getting the real essence of the identity that is Jason Bourne.

If you are a fan of the first two Bourne movies, you will not be disappointed by the third instalment. It sticks to what worked in the previous films and adds a little more. I was very pleased to see how well all the information we obtain in 'Identity' and 'Supremacy' all mesh in 'Ultimatum' to finally paint the full picture of Jason Bourne's troubled past.

The action scenes are so brutally fast-paced and well choreographed that they seem instinctive instead of planned to the minutest movement; the stunt-work is nothing short of amazing. The Bourne Ultimatum does not rely on gimmicks, CG effects, or razzle dazzle. Even its chase scenes seem mostly tame compared to the one near the beginning of 'Casino Royale', for example. This is because you are watching a psychological drama--- Jason Bourne is searching for his true identity, by trying to remember his past. Matt Damon plays his part to the hilt and deserves a nomination for best actor for his cumulative performances in these three films. We sense his anguish, his anger, his animosity, his angst, his ambivalence.

Ultimatum is, without doubt, the best of Bourne ever. Highly Recommended.