Sunday, September 30, 2007

Time has come for you to help out a fellow student

A student of Eastern Illinois university met with a life threatening accident and is in hospital from last one month. He was on vacation during the summer and so did not pay his insurance in the University due to which the whole burden of the bill is now on his parents. The hospital management informed his parents to take him back to India and also no other hospitals are willing to admit him as he has no insurance. The only option left is to take him back to India. But for that there is a need of special ambulance equipment that needs to be arranged in the flight and all this is costing around $150,000. Please look into the following website to make contributions and help my friend in going back to India safely.. Already to many corporations and universities this email chain is flowing..Very importantly pass on this message to all that you know so that everyone can help in contributing. He is in coma fighting for his life and needs your help.

http://www.help-suresh.org/index.html

Friday, September 28, 2007

I passed my roadtest yesterday.


What a silly thing to put on the blog. Who cares if I pass the test? Of course I care. You know why? I guess I have never achieved any great things in my life. I never felt happy when I got my engineering degree. But I felt extremely happy when I learnt typing. I mean when I was able to type properly. Oh my God I still remember how I used to feel right after I learnt typing. Even now I feel really really happy when ever I think that I am able to type really fast. Actually I never cared about learning typing. But one day I was sitting in a net center in my city Hyderabad, India and typing an email to university. One of my friend was sitting next to me. Suddenly he said "you idiot stop typing with that one finger. Have you got leprosy to type like that". I was literally shocked at his coments and asked him what made him to pass remarks like that suddenly. I wasn not angry but kind of embarrassed. Then he said there were two girls watching us from behind and started laughing looking at the way I was typing. Before I learnt typing, I used to use only one finger to type. I could never bend other fingers. So it looked like I had leprosy. Then next day day it self I went and joined typing inistitute. I went for four weeks. I wanted to go for another 4 weeks. Actually I paid for another month too. But I wanted to learn in my way. The teacher at that inistitute didn't allow me to learn on my own. She wanted me to follow the proper way. I told her I was no going to take any certification test, but it was just for my satisfaction. But she insisted on learning in their style. So I had to stop. But anyway by that time I was able to type really good. So now in a way I type fast, I guess pretty good. For me I always felt it was a big achievement. I think I always feel like that because it gave me immense satisfaction. I felt I learnt one practical thing.

Now I come to the title of my blog today. I took learning permit in the month of September (28th), 2006. After that I was practising driving now and then. Finally I went for the test on 13th of this month (september, 2007). Actually I was very confident, in fact I guess I was overconfident. I failed the test. Some how I felt bad to think that I failed. But I was not at all embarrassed. Lot of my friends told me that there is one fat guy who doesn't like dark skinned people. I am not sure whether that is ture or false. But at one point of time I felt the same way. He asked me to do turn around. As I was not clear what he wanted, I asked specifically whether I should do 3 point turn. Then he started explaining how to do 3 point turn. Then I said I know how to do it and I could do it now it self. Then he said we are not going to do it today. So I thought it was ok. But at the end he gave me 7 points for that. The funny thing is I got 20 points at the end of test. If I get more than 21, I fail in the test. Then he counted those points and added another 4 points at the end giving some stupid reasons. I guess he just wanted to fail me. I did one big mistake in hill side parking. I got 9 points for that. But that's fine because I did mistake. But the 7 points for the turn around was really bad. I guess if he had failed me just because of my skin color, then he would definitely get his punishment.

Anyway I went to the test second time on 27th, September, 2007 i.e. yesterday. This time I passed the test. I guess I was lucky to have different tester this time. This tester was good and strict. But definitely not racist. He talked to me nicely and asked me whether I had any doubts. Then I asked him about turn around and he said I need to do 3 point turn. But the funny thing was even though I passed the test, I knew that I was not that good this time. I was definitely fluent on the road on first time. Second time I was really tense. I was so tense I forgot certain important points like turning the wheels towards traffic after parking on the uphill. First time I had very good control on speed. But the second time my speed control was totally bad. I got 4 points for that. Even steering was bad when I was doing turn around (3 point turn). Anyway I narrowly escaped. This time I got 20 points.

But the thing is I have a great confidence in my driving abilities. You might laugh now reading this sentence. But I know why? Because I might feel nervous to take test. I mean if some one is observing you all the time, its natural to feel nervous. More over it was my birthday. So it is kind of feels bad if I fail on my birthday. So it made me feel more pressure. Generally I don't lose my cool in very tough situations. So I feel I can handle tough situations on the road in a composed manner. I feel like this because of one reason. When ever I sat on the front seat while my friend driving the car, I never felt scared or never made my frined to feel tense or never scream even in the worst situations. So I know for sure that I can handle the pressure on the road. More over I will definitely try to follow rules 100 percent. Following rules always avoids accidents not only to us, but also to others on the road.

I think this is my second biggest achievement after typing. I am sure it might sound weird to you. Right? For me not. This is the second practical thing I learnt after typing. I mean I could use driving in my everyday life. I am not sure about other things like engineering degree, etc. I mean I might get job because of that. But I might have to take some practical training for that job. That means it just helps you get job. That's it. It makes you reach that place. After that again we have to learn really stuff, I mean practical stuff. I guess for me that gives satisfaction.

This week I scheduled a date for my motorcycle learner permit test. This is on 13th of this month. In India I always wanted to ride motorbike. But I could never do that because I could never afford bike. I mean bikes are expensive looking at what we make. I am sure you might have got this doubt that there is no need to have a bike for learning. That's true. But I always felt shy to ask my friends. I know that's my weakness. But not bad quality. Right? I mean it doesn't harm other people. Of course it didn't harm me too. But it definitely made me stop learning lot of things. Finally now I am trying to learn riding motorbike here in USA. My friend's sister has a bike. I am trying to learn using that. Anyway I will take the learner's permit first. In the mean time if I feel confident about rding motorbike, then I will go for road test too. I hope I will pass the motorbike road test first time it self. Let's see what happens.

One day I will try to learn things like flying helicapter, aircraft and driving motor boats, ships, etc. List looks like too much. Right? May be I am too ambitious. Who knows? I might achieve all my aspirations and goals. I never expected my self to come this far. In a way I always felt I could do everything and everything works out for me. I guess that is ture. So considering all these things I am sure I will fulfil all my dreams. Finally I wish good luck to my self. Chalo Sreedhar, put the full stop now. Otherwise it never ends. Be a good guy and do some thing else for now.

cheers,
Sreedhar.

Capturing India in Darjeeling Limited

Today I have read this interview on www.rediff.com. It is about a hollywood movie Darjeeling Limited. I don't kow for some reason I liked it very much. I could feel the honesty in the director's opinion on India. This moive was shot entirely in Rajasthan (North India). Even though I am from south India, I always had special feeling for Northi India. I never visited North India in my life till now. I have big plans of spending 3 months in a stretch to visit important places in India in my future. May be with some one who is close to my heart. Otherwise I guess it doesn't feel special even though we are visiting special places. Anyway I am pasting the link here for the interview. I am sure you will like this just like me.

http://www.rediff.com/movies/2007/sep/28dar.htm

The paragraph that caught my attention is
"India gets under your skin in no time," Anderson, who fell in love with India when he watched Jean Renoir's The River and practically every film of Satyajit Ray. "I have travelled widely and can't think of any other place that is filled with colours like India. Another amazing thing I found when I visited India by myself four years ago was how people look at you as if you are from another planet. This happens in smaller towns and villages. I feel I am an alien. But soon, I realise I can never be alone in India. Friendships are made in no time."

What he said in the above paragraph is 100 percent true. First thing I want to say here is about Satyajit Ray films. I watched his Apu trilogy (Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956), Apur Sansar (1959)) almost one year back. I watched these movies with my German friend Stephanie. Both of us almost wept after watching this movie. I think I controlled my self where as she couldn't. They are amzing movies about a boy. It shows a life of a boy named Apu. You might think that what is there if it is about a life of one boy. Believe me. You will just be overwhelmed by these 3 movies. First movie shows the conditions of a poor family in the early years of 19th century. Apu is born in that poor family. They migrate to Calcutta for living. It's heart touching the way Ray showed this movie about the condtions of poor Brahmins in the early days of the 19th century. Second edition shows the college days of Apu. In the second edition we feel really sorry for his mother as she always wanted to spend time with her son, but her son is driven in to other worldly things like studies,etc in the city. The most and befitting end to this trilogy is the final episode. The third editions is simply amazing movie. I still remember when I was watching these movies I felt really sad. But by the end of the third edition I was really happy. Apu is a guy who was tormented with ill luck all his life. It just starts in the same mode in the third edition too. He gets married to a beautiful girl. But when he thinks that life is finally happy, his wife dies giving birth to his child. Apu thinks that the child is the reason for his wife's death and strats hating him instead of taking him in to his arms. He leaves his family keeping the responsibility of the child in the hands his wife's parents. He goes to far away place and starts living not knowing how to get out of hard realities of life. After a while his friend comes to him and begs him to come back at least for his kid sake. Finally he returns to his family to take care of his child. But by that time the child's spirits are dampened by the remarks neighbours how he was relegated by his own father. He is no mood to see his father as he is deeply hurt thinking that his father left him. Bye the way I forgot to mention one thing here. You will simply fall in love with this kid right away. He is such a nice cute looking kid. Anyway in the end father realizes he never lost his wife, but always had in the form of his kid. Slowly relation starts developing between father and son. In the end father wants to leave as he is not able to get close ot his son as he wanted. The final scene is heart touching and deserves a brief noting here. Father starts walking out of home to leave the place. Then after a while he looks back and sees his kid standing some where watching him. Then kid starts running towards him and father takes him in to his arms with great happiness. You see this kind of scenes in lot of movies. But I am saying it again you will be in tears watching this scene. These 3 movies are so powerful in emotions. I guess every where in this world you see the emotions between people in different ways. But I still feel some thing is special when it comes to Indians. The most beuatiful thing is people sacrifising so many things for the sake of their beloved ones. I don't see things like this in the western world. Sad but true.

Anyway I want to say few words about the last lines in that paragraph. That's true. In small towns and villages people are not exposed to western people. They don't know much of this world. What they know is just leading simple life. They feel strange when they look at western people because of their skin color. Don't get confused here with my words. For them it is a kind of strange to see a color like that. But the best thing is they are not racists, but very good hearted people. I am sure as he said every one would feel the same way as he felt if people look at you as though you are from another planet. In a way westerners are from another planet for them. Once you start talking to him, you realize that how innocent people are. You realize how friendly people are. This way you make friends in no time. Another great thing about Indian villages is you are not a stranger to them. They simply start talking to you as though they know you for long time. I am sure westerners might feel strange and surprised to this. But believe me. They believe in people so much they just invite you to their home to have food with in 5 minutes after conversation. That's the greatness of the people living in villages in India. They are not scared of other people like here in western countries. One time my friend warned me not to walk close to another guys home, especially backyard. You know why? Here people are scared of other people. They think that anything could happen. The most funny thing is they right away call 911 if they have any suspicion. For me it is kind of strange and shocking as I came from a very small village in Inida where people treat you in a very good manner with great smile even when they don't know you at all. I never had any problems of hunger when I had to go through differnet villages. I didn't know anyone in those villages. But still I felt like I was in my village. People simply talk to you the way they do with their kids. They take you their home and offer food. I always felt really happy to be born in a small village. I always felt happy to be a part of village community in India. That is the greatness of villages in India. I guess the culture coming from the villages brought great name to India in the present worlf for the culture. I always cherish my childhood days in my village. I am proud think that I am from small village in India where there is no scarcity for love.

I have started to write something about the interveiw published in one web portal. Finally I eneded up expaling about Satyajit Ray movies and villages in India. But I feel happy to write things like this. Anyway got to go. I want to write some more tonight. Wait and see...

cheers,
Sreedhar.

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About Me

LA, CA, United States
Here I write about the battles that have been going on in my mind. It's pretty much a scribble.

Sreedhar Manchu

Sreedhar Manchu
Higher Education: Not a simple life anymore