Life at Madras University

Our university campus is a splendor when watched from the marina road side. Its ancient architecture which stands majestically even after so many years is a treat to watch. The main conference hall which stands right at the entrance catches my attention daily as I pass by it. The huge pillars are so adorable that I wonder daily as to how they would have built it.

But as I walk down from the main gate to my department (which is at the end) I find a clear cut difference between the buildings which were built by the British and us. Those built by the British have a manly look on them whereas ours lack those adorable looks. I find that trees in and around the campus is not sufficient. I find the campus so small that its borders can be covered by a mere 20 minute walk around it.

As usual and not to my surprise as all the other government offices are, this campus is so very dirty and the restrooms stinks as I have to walk pass two bathrooms every day to reach the department. After passing through all these things, I find it so difficult to even enter my class room as it in the size of my bedroom in which we have a music system, a computer, tables and chairs which are used by the thesis books submitted by former students, and the rest of my classmates standing like guards for those lifeless things.

The instruction for us on day 1 was:

1. You have to be present in class exactly at 10

2. Classes will be conducted daily between 10 and 5 O' clock

3. If u come even a minute late, attendance will not be given

4. One of our professors says: even if we ask you to die, you should say ok and go. Then u can come later on and ask WHY? (It means we should be so obedient and willing to do anything they say) (Government illa…. Adha than….)

5. Every week you should do a presentation on some book. Everybody should take a book from the library and read ..... and so on......

So I thought to myself that these people will do accordingly and I started coming to classes regularly at 10 sharp everyday. But there were no signs of anybody taking any class for a few days. Suddenly a professor comes to our class one day in the afternoon and asks us to arrange the thesis done by the previous year students and jolt it down category wise. He wanted us to write a summary for each book and make a data base on the system. He said that it was our assignment. Suddenly as we were doing that work, another professor comes in after a few days and tells: Why do you have to do these things? It’s not necessary and most of these thesis don’t carry any good. So confused again, we stopped doing anything.

The one who gave us this assignment came to our class only twice n spoke nothing but only about assignments. The other class is (I think film studies) its not in our syllabus and we are forced to watch movies which I have watched it over and over again both in my UG days as well as in my PG days which was then a part of my curriculum.

I miss heaven, my MCC days. Never will those golden days come back in my life.

Now after all these things we squeeze back into our tinny little room (our class room) and breathe some fresh air, a student or some Professor comes in and tell us: why are you all making so much noise? Can’t you keep quite? (“finger on your lips” treatment would be better).

But still life goes on and should go on for a year more.

East of West “MCC” is the best always…..

Petrathan Pillaiya ??? (World AIDS day)

December 1, World AIDS day, as we remember today, many are travelling the unknown path with this killer disease called AIDS. A sudden fear of death gripped the hearts of mankind when this deadly disease was first detected in Haiti USA in 1981. Since then, over a 2 million deaths have been reported due to this disease and many more unaccounted deaths too.

Our land is also one of the most effected places due to this killer disease. HIV has spread among the general population in India because the epidemic has followed the 'type 4' pattern. This is where new infections occur first among the most vulnerable populations (such as injecting drug users and female sex workers), then spread to 'bridge' populations (clients of sex workers and sexual partners of drug users) and then finally enter the general population. Most of the people becoming infected are in the sexually active and economically productive 15 to 44 age group. This means that most people living with HIV are in the prime of their working lives. Many are supporting families.

Statistics say that there are more than 2500 children in Chennai who are affected with AIDS. There are much more in fact even double the amount of children who are actually affected and are unaccounted for and do not fall under any category which means they are not eligible for any benefits provided by the government or any other NGO’s. These children do not even get the basic attention which other HIV effected children get.

The biggest concern is that our country has one of the lowest treatment coverage rates; with only 7 out of a hundred people infected with the disease get access to life-saving antiretroviral drugs. India has the highest number of people living with HIV/AIDS and 70% of HIV infections in Asia. But only 7% of people infected with the virus have access to treatment. The only bit of good news is that HIV prevalence among young men and women in southern India appears to have dropped in recent years.

However our government has hopes to diagnose and treat hundreds of very young HIV-positive children under the National Paediatric HIV/AIDS Initiative. It will also free paediatric dosages of anti-retroviral medicines to children living with this disease. Finally our government has launched a specific programme to treat children living with HIV/AIDS that will for the first time in the country allow children under the age of 18 months to be diagnosed. According to an official estimates, 202,000 Indian children are currently infected with HIV and about 56,700 HIV-infected children are born every year.

What are we going to do to save this set of people from destruction? We are all the children of this earth and it is our responsibility to save others and many AIDS effected children. There are many schemes launched by our government and other NGO’s to protect these people. We could also lend a helping hand along with our fellow strong men towards this noble cause. You can adopt a child, or help a family, or take care of an elderly person.

“ Petrathan Pillaiya” is a campaign which was launched this year which grabbed my attention towards it. May be the name of the campaign or the way in which they launched it because kamal Hassan donated Rs. 750000 which will be used as premium to be paid through which 1000 HIV affected children will come under a pension scheme. But nothing of that matters if you and I start fighting against this killer and save the lost and the redeem them back to the light. Petrathan Pillaiya? Even other wise adopt a child as yours and lend out a helping hand for them.

Jokes from the Internet

Beer cans

Scientists in the United States revealed that beer contains small traces of female hormones.
To prove their theory, they fed one hundred men twelve pints of beer and observed that 100% of them started talking nonsense and couldn't drive.

A very depressed man

There's a man sitting at a bar just looking at his drink. He stays like that for half an hour. Then, a big trouble-making truck driver steps next to him, takes the drink from the guy, and just drinks it all down.

The poor man starts crying. The truck driver says, "Come on man, I was just joking. Here, I'll buy you another drink. I just can't stand seeing a man crying."

"No, it's not that. This day is the worst of my life. First, I fall asleep, and I'm late to my office. My boss, in an outrage, fires me. When I leave the building to my car, I found out it was stolen. The police say they can do nothing. I get a cab to return home and when I leave it, I remember I left my wallet and credit cards there. The cab driver just drives away. I go home and when I get there, I find my wife sleeping with the gardener. I leave home and come to this bar. And when I was thinking about putting an end to my life, you show up and drink my poison."

Where is this bus going?

A drunken man gets on the bus late one night, staggers up the aisle, and sits next to an elderly woman.
She looks the man up and down and says, "I've got news for you. You're going straight to hell!"
The man jumps up out of his seat and shouts, "Man, I'm on the wrong bus!"

Does your dog bite?

A man walks into a pub and sits down next to a man with a dog at his feet. "Does your dog bite?"
"No."
A few minutes later the dog takes a huge chunk out of his leg.
"I thought you said your dog didn't bite!" the man says indignantly.
"That's not my dog."

The wife is not speaking to me

One night, this guy come into a bar and asks the bartender for a drink. Then he asks for another. After a couple more drinks, the bartender gets worried.
"What's the matter?" the bartender asks.
"My wife and I got into a fight," explained the guy "and now she isn't talking to me for a whole 31 days."
The bartender thought about this for a while. "But, isn't it a good thing that she isn't talking to you?" asked the bartender.
"Yeah, except today is the last night."

I get so drunk that I imagine things

The drunk was floundering down the alley carrying a box with holes on the side. He bumped into a friend who asked, "What do you have in there, pal?"
"A mongoose."
"What for?"
"Well, you know how drunk I can get. When I get drunk I see snakes, and I'm scared to death of snakes. That's why I got this mongoose, for protection."
"But," the friend said, "you idiot! Those are imaginary snakes."
"That's okay," said the drunk, showing his friend the interior of the box, "So is the mongoose."

Someone really stinks

A young couple were on their honeymoon. The husband was sitting in the bathroom on the edge of the bathtub saying to himself, "Now how can I tell my wife that I've got really smelly feet and that my socks absolutely stink? I've managed to keep it from her while we were dating, but she's bound to find out sooner or later that my feet stink. Now how do I tell her?"

Meanwhile, the wife was sitting in the bed saying to herself, "Now how do I tell my husband that I've got really bad breath? I've been very lucky to keep it from him while we were courting, but as soon as he's lived with me for a week, he's bound to find out. Now how do I tell him gently?"

The husband finally plucks up enough courage to tell his wife and so he walks into the bedroom. He walks over to the bed, climbs over to his wife, puts his arm around her neck, moves his face very close to hers and says, "Darling, I've a confession to make."

And she says, "So have I, love."

To which he replies, "Don't tell me, you've eaten my socks."

Someone stole things from me

A drunk phoned police to report that thieves had been in his car. "They've stolen the dashboard, the steering wheel, the brake pedal, the radio, and even the accelerator," he cried out.

However, before the police investigation could start, the phone rang a second time and the same voice came over the line. "Never mind," he said with a hiccup, "I got in the back seat by mistake."

I Want to Buy That

A blonde goes into a nearby store and asks a clerk if she can buy the TV in the corner.
The clerk looks at her and says that he doesn't serve blondes, so she goes back home and dyes her hair black.
The next day she returns to the store and asks the same thing, and again, the clerk said he doesn't serve blondes.
Frustrated, the blonde goes home and dyes her hair yet again, to a shade of red.
Sure that a clerk would sell her the TV this time, she returns and asks a different clerk this time.
To her astonishment, this clerk also says that she doesn't serve blondes.
The blonde asks the clerk, "How in the world do you know I am a blonde?"
The clerk looks at her disgustedly and says,"That's not a TV -- it's a microwave!"

Blonde Car Accident

One day, while a blonde was out driving her car, she ran into a truck.
The truck's driver made her pull over into a parking lot and get out of the car.
He took a piece of chalk and drew a circle on the pavement. He told her to stand in the middle and not leave the circle.
Furious, he went over to her car and slashed the tires.
The blonde started laughing.
This made the man angrier so he smashed her windshield.

This time the blonde laughed even harder.
Livid, the man broke all her windows and keyed her car.
The blonde is now laughing hysterically, so the truck driver asks her what's so funny.
The blonde giggles and replies, "When you weren't looking, I stepped out of the circle three times!"

I'm going ice fishing!

A blonde who got a fishing rod for her birthday decided to go ice fishing to make good use of her gift. Early the next morning, she got all her gear together and headed out to the ice.

When she reached her final destination, she cut a large hole in the ice and dipped the rod in. Then suddenly she heard a voice that said: "There are no fish in there".

So she moves to another spot and cuts another hole, but then the same voice spoke again and told her there were no fish in there.

So she moves again, and the voice tells her there are no fish in there. So she looks up and sees an irritated man staring down at her.

"How do you know there are no fish there?" asks the blonde.

So the man cooly says "Well first of all, this is a hockey rink, and second of all, you're going to have to pay for those holes."

Blondes change a lightbulb

Three blondes are attempting to change a light bulb. One of them decides to call 911:
Blonde: We need help. We're three blondes changing a light bulb.
Operator: Hmmmmm. You put in a fresh bulb?
Blonde: Yes.
Operator: The power in the house in on?
Blonde: Of course.
Operator: And the switch is on?
Blonde: Yes, yes.

Operator: And the bulb still won't light up?
Blonde: No, it's working fine.
Operator: Then what's the problem?
Blonde: We got dizzy spinning the ladder around, and we all fell and hurt ourselves.

How many sheep do I have?

There once was a blonde who was very tired of blonde jokes and insults directed at her intelligence.
So, she cut and dyed her hair, got a make-over, got in her car, and began driving around in the country.
Suddenly, she came to a herd of sheep in the road. She stopped her car and went over to the shepherd who was tending to them.
"If I can guess the exact number of sheep here, will you let me have one?" she asked.
The shepherd, thinking this was a pretty safe bet, agreed.
"You have 171 sheep," said the blonde in triumph.
Surprised, the shepherd told her to pick out a sheep of her choice.
She looked around for a while and finally found one that she really liked.
She picked it up and was petting it when the shepherd walked over to her and asked, "if I can guess your real hair color, will you give me my sheep back?"
The blonde thought it was only fair to let him try. "You're a blonde! Now give me back my dog."

There was a man who said, "I never knew what happiness was until I got married...and then it was too late!

The tradition at weddings

A little boy, at a wedding looks at his mom and says, "Mommy, why does the girl wear white?"
His mom replies, "The bride is in white because she's happy and this is the happiest day of her life."
The boy thinks about this, and then says, "Well then, why is the boy wearing black?"

Why can't you be like that?

Jill tells her husband, "Jack, that young couple that just moved in next door seem such a loving twosome. Every morning, when he leaves the house, he kisses her goodbye, and every evening when he comes homes, he brings her a dozen roses.
Now, why can't you do that?"

"Gosh," Jack says, "why I hardly know the girl."

India record 100th test win in style

India today recorded its 100^th test win in style defeating Srilanka by an innings and 144 runs. This was one of India’s biggest wins in recent times. The boys played with confidence and with an positive approach unlike the 1^st game. With today’s win, India became only the sixth test playing nation to record 100 wins in test matches. The countries to reach this feat are Australia (332), England (310), West Indies (152), South Africa (120) and Pakistan (103). This was India’s 1935^th match. Resuming day four at 57/4, Sri Lanka were dismissed for 269 before tea to complete the sixth victory for India in nine Tests under Dhoni's captaincy in which three had no results. Paceman Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, making his Test comeback, was named man of the match for his 5-75 in the first innings. The crushing win puts India 1-0 ahead in the series, with the third and final Test taking place in Mumbai next week.

The pacer from Kerala made a triumphant return to international cricket, with a devastating display of seam bowling to put India on the threshold of a comprehensive victory in the second Test against Sri Lanka in Kanpur. Playing his first Test since April last year, Sreesanth claimed five first innings wickets as Sri Lanka were skittled for a mere 229. The spinners Pragyan Ojha (2-37) and Harbhajan Singh (2-54) wiped off the tail to wrap up the Sri Lankan innings shortly after tea.

The Indian openers Gautam Gambhir (167) and Virender Sehwag (131) contributed heavily to the mammoth score which India had pilled up. They added 233 runs in 41.2 overs against Sri Lanka. This was their highest ever opening partnership scoring close to six runs per over to help India reach its highest score (417/2) in a day in test cricket.

The ugly scene remembered after a year

It was on this dreadful day 26/11/08 when the city of Mumbai was attacked by ten terrorists from Pakistan (which is denied by the Pakistan government) in which 166 people were killed. The Indian Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh who is currently in Washington, led tributes for those who were killed in that gruesome attack.

"The Government will not rest till we have brought the perpetrators of this crime to justice. This is our solemn duty," he said.

Those who threatened India "should have no doubt that they will fail in their attempts", he said in remarks directed at Pakistan.

Candles were lit outside the luxury Taj Mahal Palace and the Tower and Trident-Oberoi hotel, after faith leaders and foreign diplomats called for unity to fight and defeat extremism worldwide.

Mr Singh said that improving homeland security was his Government's top priority and vowed to "leave no stone unturned to safeguard and protect the lives of our citizens".

Prayers are being offered at Nariman House, where six people including a Rabbi and his wife were held hostage in a 45-hour siege and then killed by terrorists. Nariman House will be thrown open to the public soon today and people will even be given guided tours.

Just opposite Nariman House, a small memorial has been built at a bakery that still bears marks of the terrorists' bullets. Residents here too say they can never forget - for good reason. They were perhaps the closest witnesses to the attack on the Jewish religious centre and many of them had to be evacuated from their homes as the NSG tried to flush out terrorists.

In Kanpur, the Indian cricket team observed a two-minute silence in memory of those who lost their lives a year ago, before play began on the third day of the Test match against Sri Lanka.

Joining the rest of India in remembering the victims of 26/11, were the politicians. If the Liberhan report kicked up a storm in Parliament, the first anniversary of 26/11 brought a welcome break from the noise and din of the past few days as MPs observed a two-minute silence. Not for long though. Very soon they were bickering over 26/11.

So let us join hands with our fellow brothers and sisters by throwing aside the differences between us and work united in every path we take. United we stand but divided we fall. Unity is the only way by which we can eliminate terrorist activities from the face of this world.

The Promise Of A Prpphet In The Last Days

The Lord told us in the book of Malachi, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.”

The great and dreadful day of the Lord has yet to come, so we should sincerely look for this prophet. If the Bible is true, then this prophet will not come to the mainstream religious organizations. He will come to a select, predestinated few. Imagine if this prophet came, and he was missed. What if he is like the prophets of old, and only a handful of people recognize him? If this prophet is to return in the last day, how will we know him? The answer is plainly seen in the Scriptures. He will have the nature of a prophet. He will know the secrets of the heart. He will perform miracles. The main-stream religious organizations will attempt to discredit him. But there will be a chosen few that recognize him as the promised messenger for the day.

How will we know when Elijah returns? What characteristics will he display, so we can recognize him?

Elijah was a man of the wilderness. Great signs and wonders followed his ministry. He preached against the evils of his day. He especially preached against the immorality of Queen Jezebel. When Elijah was taken up to Heaven in a chariot of fire, his spirit fell upon Elisha. His ministry was then marked by great signs and wonders, and Elisha also preached against the sins of the world. Both prophets stood alone against the religious organizations of that day (I Kings 18:21). Hundreds of years later, the same spirit returned to the earth in John the Baptist. The prophet Malachi predicted that Elijah would return to introduce the Lord: Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me... (Malachi 3:1). John the Baptist was true to form as he called for repentance among the children of God. Like Elijah, he preached against the king and the modern religious organizations. The Lord Jesus confirmed that John the Baptist was the prophet of Malachi 3 in the book of Matthew: “For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.” Matt 11:10

This is the Seventh Church Angel - The true prophet of God

Two thousand years after John the Baptist, it is again time for the spirit of Elijah to return to earth.

That day has come. In this age, we have seen the spirit of Elijah return to earth. He defied the modern denominational system. He stood against the sins of the world. He showed innumerable signs and wonders. He preached the Bible word-for-word from Genesis to Revelation. And by reading this article, you are responsible for knowing that God sent a prophet. The prophet of Malachi 4 has been among us, and he brought a Message from the Throne of the Almighty God. That prophet’s name is William Marrion Branham.

Not since the Lord Jesus Christ walked the earth has a man affected the world in such a profound way. From a humble beginning in a one-room cabin in the hills of Kentucky, to Amarillo Texas where the Lord took him home, his life was continuously marked by supernatural events. At the direction of the Angel of the Lord in 1946, Brother Branham’s Ministry produced a spark that ignited a period of great healing revivals that swept across America and around the world. To this day, he is acknowledged by Christian historians as the “father” and “pacesetter” of the 1950s healing revival that transformed the Pentecostal Church and ultimately gave rise to the Charismatic movement, which today influences nearly every Protestant denomination. However, true to form, the denominations discount his teachings and deny his commission.

Wherever he went, God proved that Brother Branham is the prophet to this generation. Like Job, the Lord talked to him in a whirlwind. Like Moses, the Pillar of Fire was seen leading him. Like Micaiah, he was reviled by the clergy. Like Elijah, he was a man of the wilderness. Like Jeremiah, he was commissioned by an Angel. Like Daniel, he saw visions of the future. Like the Lord Jesus, he knew the secrets of the heart. And like Paul, he healed the sick.

The Lord has again visited His people through a prophet. In the darkest time in history, where morality has sunk to depths never before seen and weapons of mass destruction loom on the horizon, a humble man was sent from the presence of God to call a dying race to repentance. His legacy is not simply in books and tapes. His legacy is in the salvation of millions of souls that accepted Christ because of his Gospel.

57th anniversary of Bar Codes

It was on this day on October 7, 1952, Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver first invented the bar code. They were granted the first patent for their invention. The only difference between the bar code we know today and the one Woodland and Silver invented was that it was comprised of a series of concentric circles and not the 59 black-and-white vertical lines synonymous with the current design. This is the 57th anniversary of the first bar code patent.

In 1974, a scanner in a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, met the simple black-and-white striped bar code design tacked onto a 10-piece pack of Juicy fruit gum. Now, more than 10 billion bar codes are scanned in 25 industries and in places including airports, hospitals, and shipping centers.

A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data. Originally, barcodes represented data in the widths (lines) and the spacing’s of parallel lines, and was referred to as linear or 1 dimensional barcodes or symbologies. They also come in patterns of squares, dots, hexagons and other geometric patterns within images termed 2 dimensional matrix codes or symbologies. Although 2D systems use symbols other than bars, they are generally referred to as barcodes as well.

The first use of barcodes was to label railroad cars, but they were not commercially successful until they were used to automate supermarket checkout systems, a task in which they have become almost universal. Their use has spread too many other roles as well, tasks that are generically referred to as Auto ID Data Capture . Other systems are attempting to make inroads in the AIDC market, but the simplicity, universality and low cost of barcodes has limited the role of these other systems. It costs about half a United States cent (US$0.005) to implement a barcode while passive RFID still costs about $0.07 to $0.30 per tag.

Barcodes can be read by optical scanners called barcode readers, or scanned from an image by special software. Scanning software for 2D codes is built-in to or available for many mobile phones, and is especially popular in Japan, India, and Europe.

Some wonderful definitions

I realized suddenly one day when I checked my blog that I had not written for over a long time. This article caught my attention as soon as I read it. It has some beautiful definitions of what we call as life and the things we do there. You might have read this a million times, but yet I have posted this to keep us reminded of certain things which even I am reminded off when I see them.

School
A place where Parents pay and children play

Life Insurance
A contract that keeps you poor all your life so that you can die Rich.

Nurse:
A person who wakes u up to give you sleeping pills.

Marriage
It's an agreement in which a man loses his bachelor degree and a woman gains her masters..

Tears
The hydraulic force by which masculine willpower is defeated by feminine waterpower.

Lecture
An art of transferring information from the notes of the Lecturer to the notes of the students without passing through "the minds of either"

Conference
The confusion of one man multiplied by the number present.

Compromise
The art of dividing a cake in such a way that everybody believes he got the biggest piece

Dictionary
A place where death comes before life, divorce comes before marriage and success comes before work

Conference Room
A place where everybody talks, nobody listens and everybody disagrees later on

Father
A banker provided by nature

Criminal
A person no different from the rest....except that he/she got caught

Boss
Someone who is early when you are late and late when you are early

Politician
One who shakes your hand before elections and your Confidence after

DOCTOR
A person who holds your ills by pills, and kills you by bills.

Classic
Books, which people praise, but do not read.

Smile
A curve that can set a lot of things straight.

Office
A place where you can relax after your strenuous home life.

Yawn
The only time some married men ever get to open their mouth.

Etc.
A sign to make others believe that you know more than you actually do.

Committee
Individuals who can do nothing individually and sit to decide that nothing can be done together.

Experience
The name men give to their mistakes.

Atom Bomb
An invention to end all inventions.

Philosopher
A fool who torments himself during life, to be wiser in death