A New Indian Nuclear Plant

A few hours ago, a new Indian nuclear reactor went online. No this isn't going to lead to a situation where we have no power cuts at all. But, still it's significant news. The second of two Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor units went critical at 9:53pm on Saturday night at Kota, Rajasthan. Designated RAPP-6, this last unit adds 220MW of power. Construction of RAPP-5 and RAPP-6 started way back in 2002-2003.

There are 2 more reactors RAPP-7 and RAPP-8 that will be under construction soon. Each will provide 700MW.


A typical PHW Reactor design, from which the most recent reactors were derived:



Here's the PTI report.

"

Kota, Jan 23 (PTI) Indias 19th nuclear power reactor went into operation tonight at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Plant near Kota, giving a boost to availability of electricity in North India. The indigenous reactor of Rajasthan Atomic Power Project (RAPP-6) at Rawat Bhata, near Kota, attained its first criticality at 21:53 hrs today, posting a major milestone in the project completion process.

Rajasthan Atomic Power Project 5 and 6 comprises of two Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) of 220MW each. The first unit, RAPP-5 achieved first syinchronisation on December 22, 2009 and RAPP- 6, the second unit, an indigenous nuclear power reactor has now joined the fleet of 18 nuclear power reactors in operation.

With the operation of RAPP 5 and 6, the installed capacity has risen to 1180MW. The power will be shared by the beneficiaries of Northern Electricity Grid.

"

Who Wants to be a Celeb?

The word "celebrity" used to mean something in the past. Today, pretty much everyone and their uncle is a celebrity. Actors, politicians, sportsmen ..... that's just the beginning of the list. They have atleast earned (in a small way, if not completely by their own effort) the privilege (if you can call it that) of being a celeb.

The majority of today's celebs though are of a different breed. Every spoiled brat with too much money, and with rich dads who let them loose with expensive cars but forget to buy them clothes of the proper size or teach them good sense, tries hard to land up in the trendiest of clubs and discos around town, get spotted by silly tabloid journos and end up on Page 3. Ask them what they've achieved and the answer can only be "having been born with a silver spoon in their mouths". The vast number of photos that populate page 3 don't deserve even a glance these days (unless you wanna ogle at a few of them ;) ) . Sadly the media cultivates the image (especially among youngsters) that it's "cool" to be part of this idiocy. Where did the desire to do something worthwhile in this world go? Is partying all that matters to people these days?

Anyway, here's a piece from an article I read several days back titled "The 10 Things I will remember about '00s". It puts things in perspective as well as I ever could.

Source: http://www.bullz-eye.com/entertainment/features/2009/ten_things_from_00.htm

"

Faux celebrities

Now, before I begin an Andy Rooney-esque rant on how there is an entire class of alleged celebrities that didn't exist a few years ago, the truth is that the origins of the fake celebrity go back decades. Tiny Tim, fake celebrity. Morganna the Kissing Bandit, fake celebrity. Kato Kaelin, fake celebrity. Today, however, it isn't just that one weirdo over there that Leno cracks lazy jokes about – it's a multimillion-dollar industry…and for what, exactly? I still don't quite understand why they matter.

Perhaps the most galling thing about this new wave of fake celebritydom is that a sex tape actually serves as a legitimate résumé in some cases. Call it the Tommy Lee Effect, (with a nod to Chuck Klosterman); no one thought of Lee as a celebrity until his video with Pamela Anderson made the rounds. He was just the drummer for Motley Crue. That tape, however, made him a household name, and would you look at that, suddenly Poison's Bret Michaels had a tape on the market soon after. Now that fake celebrity has gone supernova, both have their own reality shows, long after their bands held any chart significance.

But here's the difference between Lee and Michaels and people like, say, Kim Kardashian (And if the writer of The Superficial is telling the truth, her sex tape shows her getting peed on, ewwww): Lee and Michaels had actually done something with their lives long before their tapes surfaced. Kardashian was just a privileged party girl who hung out with fellow privileged party girl Paris Hilton. Neither Kardashian nor Hilton possesses any discernible talent; they just come from money. Which is a pretty sweet gig if you're lucky enough to be born into it, but it doesn't merit them their own show, lingerie lines, or fragrances. And it sure as hell doesn't make them role models.

And yet, people look up to them. People care about their love lives, despite the fact that a good chunk of what people read about these people in the gossip magazines is storyboarded in advance. Supermodels have blue collar work ethics in comparison to the vapidity that is the lives of Tila Tequila or Spencer Pratt. But as we continue to chase that intangible American Dream – which seems to have something to do with owning a bunch of expensive stuff – people like Tila and Spencer are pioneers of sorts. In order to be famous; you merely need to have the kind of personality that makes for good television. (And by 'good television,' we mean awful, awful television.) The more self-absorbed, emotionally unstable and immature, the better.

Take a look at that again. These people are spoiled, immature, empty shells…and they're famous because of it. Man, does that send a horrible message to the youth of America, and worse, if the comments I've read on our blogs are any indication, this message is gaining more traction than I would like. Fame appears to be the only thing that matters, and if you aren't famous, you're nobody.

Wrong. Fame does not make someone significant, and lack of fame does not make someone irrelevant. What do you want on your headstone, "Beloved husband, father and brother," or "Once famous for doing nothing"? If Spencer Pratt dies tomorrow, he's getting the latter. That is no way to live your life, people. And while we're discussing blog comments…

"

Staying on this issue, there's a very funny site called HotChicksWithDoucheBags.com whose the author DB1 has made it his mission to capture images of douchebags (a.k.a guys with nothing to do but look like fools and hit on women at clubs) and make fun of them with some awesome commentary. If you lack a sense of humour or you're the conservative kind (or if your mum is looking over your shoulder), I beseech you to avoid the site. Else, do give it a go.

To Telos arhizi

That means "The End Begins" in Greek. Now with 2012 and other "disaster" movies out and doing their rounds, y'all might think this is about the impending end of the world.

Worry not, these words just give the beginning lines from the game "God Of War 2"'s soundtrack.
They actually go (till 2:00) :



Why am I going to all the trouble of posting this you ask? Well, fact is someone took it upon themselves to put up "misheard" lyrics for the same. Extremely funny. They're in the next video with appropriately nutty visuals too.




This is one of those parody videos where you the misheard lyrics sound pretty real unless you've actually read the original lyrics.

Chocolate Crazy in Chennai!

Made it to the new branch of a little (but very pricey, upmarket) chocolate dessert cafe called Sandy's last weekend. Wrote a review about it on burrp.com. Here it is:

"
First off, finding this place is not difficult if you know where to look. Just opposite Taj Coromandel there's a road going in. Follow the road and you'll find Sandy's on the left side opposite "Timber".

Small place, would probably seat around 10 people. But well kept and neat. The main course items (of course, not important) are written on a board and you can order them.

We had Bassa Fish with Pistachio, Carribean Chicken with Salad and Waffle Cake Toast. All 3 tasted very good, though the last one was a bit lacking when it came to quantity.

Moved on to the real deal, the actual main course. Was unable to order the "Ultimate Sin" , cos they didn't have it today. Gave the "Pick me up" dish a try. You may or may not like it depending on your taste for alcohol. But it was alright. Sampled the "Everything But" and "Funky Monkey". Both concoctions of chocolate that will satisfy anyone with a sweet tooth ten times over, and give you a heart attack with all the whipped cream on it. It is pretty much the next taste of heaven I'm having after my time visiting every Swensen's parlour I could find in Thailand. Both came with a shot of chocolate sauce and a choco-chip cookie.



I sincerely ask that you give "Everything But" a shot. Whipped cream, dark truffle, fresh chocolate cake, vanilla bean icecream.... my god the list of stuff in it is endless.

Overall the food's really good. Quantity might be a bit on the lower side for certain items under the "Feel Good Potions" part of the menu considering the price, but the high pricing is expected considering the locality.


I actually went to Sandy's since I heard about this branch opening on Burrp. Will definitely return another day.

The only reason I'm giving this 4 stars on 5 is because they should have one staff member always in the dining area. We felt there was no one to take orders the minute we wanted to order sometimes. And no one was there to hold the door open or say thank you when we got up to leave.




I've uploaded a picture of the seating and "Everything But". Do take a look and stare in awe at this marvellous mug of chocolate goodness.

As for parking, I suppose you could put 2 cars inside the building's parking area comfortably.

"

You can read the review at it's source here - Burrp Chennai

Back to musical madness..... The latest performance

College reopened last week and I'm back on the keyboards again with our college's orchestra. Pulled together a show for a national workshop organized at college within a week (with practice sessions till 8pm each day). Followed, of course, by long drives in hellish traffic that would have my left foot numb by the time I got home.

Here follow a few videos of some songs we performed on stage at the event. One of the videos has a chunk missing because the person using the camera switched it off at the wrong moment, and the remaining songs can be found on youtube if you check under the "More from grajasekar" section on the right side of the video on youtube itself.

And I'm the main keyboardist in the maroon silk shirt by the way.



























And a professor of ours decided all of a sudden, at the end of the show, to sing a song on-stage. Had to provide some on-the-spot chords for the song he sang.

Here goes:





Gotta work on something much better for MITAFEST.

Singers are welcome to leave their names in the comments section of this article or on the comments section of the respective Youtube pages.

Madras Bashai a.k.a Local Tamil

For too long have I endured the pure form of Tamil that pervades all local news channels here in TamilNadu. Sanga Tamil has its own beauty but over the long years, the language, as spoken in the state capital of Tamilnadu - Chennai, has taken on a distinct flavour.

Madras Tamil borrows liberally (and horrendously modifies) words from other languages - English, Hindi, Malayalam etc.



Below you'll find a decent little example that illustrates the difference between Tamil as such and Madras Bashai.

English	Tamil	Madras bashai
Go fast!	Viraivāga Sel!	feeda-ā pō!
Go straight!	Nerāga Sel! (Adverb Verb)	Staita po! (Adverb Verb) (also Steittaa po!)

I hit upon the wikipedia article on Madras Tamil a few days back.

It has a detailed explanation of several terms I'm used to hearing from auto-drivers, my college mates and my friends from school. Quite hilarious, give it a read if you understand Tamil.
Look out below for a few gems from said page:

"

Gaandu

to irritate a person

Usage gaanda kelappathe. Gaand refers to butttocks in Hindi. See Also: Kaduppu

Sister - Often used to address figures where attempt was unsuccessful

Cutting - Small Peg

Kattai

Referring to a hot female.

Tamil,Kattai (literally log of wood) - the sturdier higher quality wood can easily be distinguished by their distinctive curvy grain pattern.

Mama or Mamey

refers to either a policeman or pimp depending on the context.

Tamil mama = uncle. Not to be confused with maams.

Bucketu

refers to the female who engages in 'kadalai'(flirting/random talk with opposite sex)

refers to the bucket used by vendors to sell the ground nuts in beaches to couples.

Saami padam

Also known as Matter padam, refers to a risque movie

To escape detection, the first few minutes of these movies usually depict devotional scenes.

Otha - F**K - used as an adjective, and most times as punctuation.

Tube light

Person absent minded or not that shrewd. Refers to one who is not picking up things easily, or someone, who takes a bit of time to understand (like a tube light that flickers for a few seconds before lighting up).

English Tube light .

"

There's also a very funny section on usage which explains common lines from Madras Bashai (most of them used in a fit of rage or anger). Examples follow:
"
Naina! Vootle solltiya? Saavugraaki! By calling the other person naina and asking him whether he has taken leave of his loved ones, the speaker indicates that his interlocutor is driving in a very unsafe manner. The speaker uses saavugraaki to emphasise the point, thus asserting his superior driving skills in the situation.

Figura paathu frienda cut panradhu Used to refer to a friend who chooses his girlfriend as a higher priority than his friend (platonic friend).

Laadu labbaku dhas or Laadu langotta , Used to refer some who thinks that they are always right.here Laadu refers to 'Lord'.

Yaru theaterla yaru padam ootra...keenjidum screenu....bemani! It is used to indicate that other person is trying to show off at a place he does not belong to.
"

Follow the link to satisfy your fill of Madras Bashai -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madras_Tamil

Whoever wrote the page was an absolute genius. Hats off to you sir! Great job done there, though I'm sure it'll irk connoisseurs of classical Tamil no end.

The little kid in me

Apt title for what came in the mail a few days ago. I've always been a fan of the Transformers. So much so that I didn't mind sitting through Michael Bay's 2 movies about biiiiiiiig explosions and Megan Fox running in slow motion that also had the Transformers moniker pinned on them as an afterthought.



Well, this here is a toy ( Transformers: Voyager First Strike - Optimus prime ) I got as a prize for a contest on the forums at indianvideogamer.com. 'Twas a small contest where a member gave this one away.



Though its called a toy, the transformation sequence isn't exactly child's play. Takes more than 10 minutes unless you make it your mission to give it a try once a day. Though Prime finds a place on my desk, I don't play with him or anything. He just stands there until I get the urge to "transform" something and then I grab him :D .



Confused by the multitude of pictures? The truck and the robot are both the same model. You can transform between either mode. That's the basic idea behind a Transformers toy.


Check out this cool video someone's made with the toy. Stop motion animation showing how the piece transforms step by step. Of course actually doing it in real time will take you PLENTY of time.

Chennai's Dog Show

Took a little drive down to Chennai's Dog Show today. I believe this is a bi-annual affair in the city. Being pet lovers, it was just natural that we turned up there. Not as big a variety as we saw last year but there were a few dog breeds like the Husky and Newfoundland that we don't generally see in the city. We watched a few rounds of Dobermanns, Great Danes, Labs and Golden Retrievers being judged. Frankly, some of the handlers were a bit too concerned about the prize rather than the dog's health whereas the owners were pretty caring. The pug was everywhere. Hutch's ad sure has lined the pockets of pug breeders around India.

Didn't take Cactus along cos we were going to lunch at Sandy's at Rutland Gate (near Taj Coromandel) after giving the dog show a look. Didn't want him to gulp down our desserts in the meanwhile, did we?

Anyway, here are a few pictures that I snapped there.



Created with flickr slideshow.




Though they may appear cute, I sincerely believe the poor puppies shouldn't be sold on a grassy patch next to the entrance of the dog show, with all of them put in a small cage like this. Breeders shouldn't treat puppies like this and hope for a sale. These are living animals sold as companions, not poultry.

Weekend Rant : Outrage Edition

A few days ago someone asked me why most people who wish to pursue higher education try and go to the US or the UK. "Why not Australia?", he questioned. Apart from the usual "The US pays better" answer, we Indians have another reason to pour forth now.


Over the past few months, we've had plenty of Indians getting beaten up down under (no double meanings there ;) ). With the new year, things turned even worse when a 21 year old permanent resident of Indian origin, Nitin Garg, was stabbed and bled to death in Melbourne. The police said : "I think to jump to any conclusion like that is presumptuous and may well interfere with the investigations" when posed the question "Was it racially motivated?". Later the partially burnt body of an India man, 25-year-old Ranjodh Singh, was found on the roadside at Willbriggie.



Most recently, another Indian in Melbourne was set alight by four men after he had gotten out of his car. He's now in a hospital with serious burn injuries. And what did the police say? You guessed it: "There is no reason at this stage to consider this in any way racially motivated". What does it take to make the police rid themselves of their air of feigned ignorance?? Should someone wear a Ku Klux Klan robe, shout "Down ye of dark skin!!" and then attack for the assault to be an act of racial hatred??

Sometimes makes me think that Australia's second largest city has residents who still think it's a penal colony.

But we ourselves need not look far if disregard for human life is what we seek. Read this excerpt from an NDTV news report.

"
Policeman attacked on road, ministers stare from cars, don't help

A policeman, R Vetrivel, in Tamil Nadu lies on the road begging for help. The 44-year-old's legs have been chopped off by gangsters.

A government convoy passes by this part of Tirunelvelli. It includes two ministers - for Sports and Health - in the Tamil Nadu government. The convoy stops. Neither of the ministers step out of their cars. With them are bureaucrats - a Collector and a Health Secretary.

The Collector, M Jayaraman, finally gets out of his car after dithering for eight minutes. But nobody offers to take the wounded inspector to hospital. Finally, the Collector phones for an ambulance. It doesn't arrive.

Twenty minutes later, the cop is placed in one of the cars (the ministers still don't offer theirs). The policeman dies en route to the hospital.

After the ambulance drives away, the Health Minister finally gets out of his car. When contacted later for a comment, he angrily asks the NDTV correspondent to leave him alone.

Tamil Nadu's Health Minister is M. R. K. Panneerselvam. The Minister for Environment and Sports is Thiru T. P. M. Mohideen Khan.

The senior bureaucrat, VK Sunburaj, who was in the convoy, says there's nothing wrong with what transpired. "We did our best possible in that situation. It takes twenty minutes for ambulance to come...Police did a good job," he said to NDTV in a phone interview.

"

Good job? So letting a person (nay, not just any person, a police officer) die on the road while you look on in apathy afraid of your car's seat needing replacement if a bit of blood gets on it is a "good job" these days? What has India come to?



The health secretary in the below video uses the word "body" repeatedly. SI Vetrivel wouldn't be a "body" now if it weren't for people like him. And what were the policemen standing there doing? Where did concern for human life go? Even a dog hit by a car dying on the side of the road would evoke a "maybe we could help somehow" response from people in my family, and these vermin just stood there watching a man bleed to death in agony?

See how well ministers treat you, my dear policemen. You guard them night and day, bow down to their every wish. But help you when you're dying you say? "Oh please. We're too busy to help you with that, sorry" comes the reply. The ministers (M. R. K. Panneerselvam and Thiru T. P. M. Mohideen Khan) didn't even bother attending the funeral of SI Vetrivel.

If this is the state of a police officer in need, the common Indian citizen needs just a revolver with a single bullet in it, so that he may atleast end his own misery rather than depend on his leaders for succor.

Here's the video. Yes, it's a bit disturbing, but watch it and be ashamed to call yourself an Indian when there are such specimens in our country who care the least bit about human life and we inflict them upon society, giving them posts of power.

College Chronicles: Part 5

Happy New Year Everyone! (Yes, I delude myself that my readers comprise the greater part of the college demographic)

Here I am once again with my ramblings and musings about the semester in college just past. After the mad rush to finish portions in the 4th semester, the 5th was relatively tame.

As the sem began, there were whispers all over campus, hushed voices speaking as if the matter at hand if heard would end in them being hanged for treason. Soon the voices grew louder, until I finally found out about this one word that had spread like wild fire. Docomo. The ad for the same, though initially catchy, has ceased to amuse me of late. You can only get so much mileage from an ad that goes Tu-too-do Tu-too-do. With college goers the phone has a permanent place right next to the container that holds the person's brain. Though the contents of said vessel might not be present, this accessory always is. It stays near the ear as if a bottle of Fevi Kwik had stuck it there. Hence it was that Tata's 1 paise per second promise with DOCOMO struck a chord with everyone on campus.




Talking about Docomo, some people I knew (or thought I knew well) made it clear, all of a sudden, that they would rather avoid me like the plague. Their reasons all the same were pretty LOL-worthy (me being me, me having not lent a record to them one fine day 2 years back). The things some people make note of... tsk tsk. Fine by me if schoolkids in college couldn't cope. Well that's a story for another day.



Sir Centum Sundaram was up to his usual part-time job of bulletin board updates, aided this sem by Vigneshwaran "Project boy" ;) Shanmugam. Most people have gone CAT crazy. No, not the feline kind, the kind that gets you an MBA if you're lucky enough to make it through. T.I.M.E sure is minting money this season with the economic recession getting everyone worried and driving people to CAT Coaching classes in droves. I think I'm one of the few left in class who aren't attending any coaching (or are too lazy to do the same :D ).



Vague hints like these which would perplex us mere mortals exist in a certain brilliant man's notebook. This man is Jayaram alias "Baja" (don't worry, sounds like a rowdy but he isn't). For his brain, problem solving comes as easy as cutting butter with a heated knife. Whatever he says is seasoned with practicality, I salute you sir for that!



This monkey has one leg missing. Apparently, he/she frequents the girls' hostel. Perhaps the like-minded monkeys in that building provide good companionship. Observe the specimens (a.k.a Aishwarya and Abhinaya) below as they devour a packet full of sweets and savouries. Enna oru paasam, adengappa..







The above article and several like it were a source of untold misery and suffering. What are they you ask, ye who are technically less inclined? These are microprocessor trainer kits, ones where you enter code and it displays a result. For one thing, they didn't work half the time. Second, there were too few of them left after many successive generations of engineers in training / monkeys :P had had their way with them. Third, learning assembly code is a pain in the posterior. Aspiring engineers please note, thou shalt not be given an i7 or Core 2 duo microprocessor and be told "Ye shall go forth and program". You'll get a crappy 8051 chip at most if you're lucky to try your hand at coding for microprocessors. Opening these kits was the equivalent of prying open Pandora's Box. Don't get it? Read on.

Besides all this, we had to submit a project as part of the above described lab course. The way people split into factions, talked in hushed tones, trademarked their ideas etc was all so funny. It was the cold war all over again. There wasn't even a research grant up for grabs and folks here were acting as if this was Intel's Innovation Challenge.

Below you see two souls weary of the day's battle rest their tired selves.


A little snap I took, watch how these naughty boys ;) boldly raided the seniors' snacks during a lab session. Cheers brothers!




Took a great deal of effort to put up a good show as part of the IEEE's 125th anniversary celebrations which were held in our college. Several days of practice with some friends, combined with our HOD's zeal and relentless vigour made it all a grand success.






Had more work at hand (quite literally, cos I'm a keyboardist for my college orchestra lol) when Sivaranjani, our intra-college culturals, came along. The displays of dance, comedy and music on stage all went well.



What you see above is part of my class participating in the "Pongal making" Contest. Wood was burnt, smoke was made, eyes began to water, people screamed into the microphone. But whether pongal was made, I cannot say. For I was fortunate enough to avoid tasting any department's cooking. God is Great!!

There was one Industrial Visit (a camouflaged class picnic :P ) to Bangalore.... ooops Bengaluru this time around. It was the peak season for Swine flu and I opted out of it. The majority of the class took the trip despite the professors having their reservations. Most everyone who went came back with a severe cough. Our class topper got herself admitted, and the continuous coughing and sneezing got so bad that even the faculty dreaded coming to our rooms. Several of us (including yours truly) sat the entire day with surgical masks on to atleast prevent getting a cold, though masks offered little protection from H1N1. Anyway, my friends got me this little trinket when they returned from Bengaluru. Thank you very much!!



Sadly a certain department in the college embarrassed itself (in Tamil, we'd say "Bulb vaangitaanga") by setting off some crackers right in front of our department thinking our IV had been canceled, only for us to have our trip confirmed at that very moment. Thanks for providing the fireworks for our celebrations, kids (read: douches). :)

Celebrated our friend, Aishwarya's birthday:

right before we burnt a hole in her wallet in the name of a treat.

Seven wonders of the world? Bah, humbug. We have the Seven Wonders in our own class:




Some of us, meanwhile, took the USE HELMET signboards around Chennai too seriously. Colour-matched helmets and raincoats, all this safe road user needed to complete her air-tight attire was a pair of maroon gloves. I shall leave you to speculate upon the individual's identity.



My mode of transport to college - my good ol' car - had served me well many a day. This month, however, it's time had come. This was it's final meter reading right before it was sold:



It was still in excellent condition, but I was sad to see it go and get replaced by a newer vehicle :'( .

And thus went another semester filled with fun, frolic and foolishness. In another few hours the sixth shall take over. A new year, a new dawn and a new semester. Let the madness begin!

Ramanan, my friend :)

Growing up, I went to school like everyone else. Whenever it rained, I was always hoping for a holiday. Sometimes there would be a test coming next week for which I could study in the event of a holiday, sometimes I'd just want to sit in my room, look out the window at my long driveway and enjoy the rain. I love rain!



So it was that every rainy season, I was glued to the local news channels for my fill of the weather report. The news that a depression or cyclone had formed in the Bay of Bengal would thrill me no end. This news of course was (and still is) delivered by a great man, Dr. Ramanan.

S.R. Ramanan (first from left in the below photo), director of Area Cyclone Warning Centre, Regional Meteorological Centre. He would tell how the day went, weather-wise, and finish it off with the news I was waiting for - "In light of the weather, a holiday has been declared tomorrow for all schools and colleges in Chennai".

Sometimes the last line would never come, but that was the Pièce de résistance. The final dish of the meal that we would savour the most, that would make or break the entire show, the part that we would sorely miss if absent.

Predicting weather is serious business no doubt, but as youngsters the part of it that had us hooked was obviously the possibility of a holiday.

His appearance on Sun News or Kalaignar TV's News brought new hope each time it rained cats and dogs, every time the wind blew hard, every time the sky darkened. He was and is a hero to a number of my school and college mates, saving them when there is almost no hope to be had - granting them that one day of reprieve. But for all this, he's an unsung saviour, one that works in the background, whose efforts we scarcely appreciate. This man single-handedly saved my entire class at college from disaster in an Electronic Circuits end semester exam :D . Most days when it got really cloudy and poured, we'd just say "Inikki Ramanan solradhu paakkalaam da" (We'll see what Ramanan says today). That's the extent of appreciation he got from our part.



He's the hero we needed, but not the one we deserved. So I salute this not-so-average scientist, for he commands my respect, for I've listened to his words far more than I've listened to my own parents ;) . I look forward to more miracles, more rain and more holidays thanks to him. He's the superman we never see. I know him well, but I'm sad to say that he does not know me .