It has been a long time since I posted. Frankly it has been a time of sleep sleep and more sleep .And the added load of a seminar doesn’t make ones task any easier. However, I can’t complain since my topic for the seminar is one very close to my heart, Audio processing. A lot of my friends say (and have had the experience of) seminars are boring. But mine…hehe...it is as they say…going to be one big demo:D…I have lined up everything that is now current in audio…Dolby digital EX, DTS ES, a whole bunch of surround sound formats as well as a kickass soundcard(mine….who else’s:P) and eight speakers(with TWO SUBWOOFERS) to show them the stuff good sound is made of. I for one don’t think anyone will be asleep during my seminar.

Onto something different… my doing my miniproject seems to be paying off. I got to visit the regional research labs on the invitation of a scientist who is doing research on ceramic semiconductors. I went there along with Johnz who was equally impressed. He wants two guys(no gals) specifically from SCT(no ,no one from CET please :P last time he took some one from CET it was when some guy really high up made him… he feels people from SCT are better for the job) he he maybe taking SCT was not such a bad idea after all:->. But I don’t know if I will get it. The decision has not yet been made who will be going on this. Live projects are hard to get and I hope there are not much problems.

Meanwhile classes are going on like no other branch. The girls having labs means that attendance is sparse. Nevertheless guys do need attendance. So they all show up. But the problem is that if the teacher sees enough people she might actually be inclined to start teaching. So the solution is, just keep 5 people in the class. Then the teacher will just take attendance and not teach. One of the guys excuses himself and leaves, and another guy gets in and gets attendance. Then one more guy leaves and another comes in thus almost everyone gets attendance while maintaining the illusion of an empty class.

Meanwhile, having received attendance for four periods while having attended none. I left college to get my resume couriered to SHREDS. Thanks to the underpass inauguration, roads are closed from ayurveda college:-L.. I start walking from there onto the GPO to get a postcard and then onto BLUE DART which was, a friend had told me, was nearby. The place was impressive; apparently it was a DHL franchisee, with a DHL truck and all. I go inside to find no one at reception. There are a lot of people talking about, but no one to talk to. Finally one of the men hanging around comes up to me and asks what can I do sir? Being a first timer, I reluctantly get my envelope and say that I have to send it to Cochin. HE looks at it like a watchmaker and then quietly, says 170. I beg his pardon and he repeats emphatically, “ONE-AH HUNDRED AND-AH SEVENTY-AH-RUPEES-AH.” Sheepishly, I beat I hasty retreat. One more loyal customer for DHL. Especially since UPS has performed so badly, delivering our sensor module AHEAD of schedule, causing us to lose one more reason to delay our project :P . Anyway, farther away in statue I chance upon a small board which says “professional couriers” pointing to an incredibly small flight of stairs, I decide to go in .Further twists and turns awaited me, with professional -> boards directing me. I wonder how the people there fight the claustrophobia while in the corridors. Eventually I find the place and lighter by a sum of eleven rupees and visibly much happier, venture out. Only to be met by the empty roads which I had only been too pleased with while I had been walking all this time. Confronted with the problem of finding transportation home, there seems to be none of our management’s buses around. Apparently, the ceremony for inaugurating the underpass had caused pretty much all the traffic to be cut off.

Continuing with my walking, I cross the venue of the inauguration which is now filled with kids curious to see the underpass (and the free helium balloons too) and onto the flyover. In the flyover, I get stuck behind four giggling girls who were not altogether bad looking. Unfortunately, I tend to give those types a wide berth and move to the other side of the road. Unfortunately, this litter seems to be all over the road causing me to switch sides of the road countless time. Frustrated, I realize that maybe I too should make the most of the situation. It is not after all everyday that one gets the palayam flyover all to oneself (and four girls ;)) other than at the way of the cross procession at Good Friday. I also start onto the centre of the road and enjoy myself. Any other day, I would have been under traffic long ago. Then one of the group ahead looks back followed by the others in succession. Judging by the looks on their faces, I would say that they had not grasped the concepts of public roads till now.

I get into a superfast bus, the only one around, which I caught at a traffic light (apparently the only places they stop, as I later discovered). Now that I have gone by one, I now know why my friends at T.N colleges leave their pulsars at home when they decide to travel interstate, because KSRTC busses are way faster. I had no idea that the long haul KSRTC bus driver was a breed apart from his brethren who lug the city buses around. Added to the fact that he drove fast, and that the roads were clear already, I was at my destination within the time I might have taken to walk to the next bus stop. Albeit at double the regular rate and infinitely more than what I would have paid (0 rupees btw…coz I have a concession :P) Hats off to them .May they see many happy miles under their wheel, these long haul drivers.

Now that was exhilarating! My kind of adventure, at my pace, taken one at a time