Two things.

I wish I had bought some attachments to my camera. I wish I had a telescopic lens. I spotted at least a dozen bird species in our area. It is impossible to get a good pictures of them with my no-frills Sony Cybershot.

Most people agree India is progressing, very fast, since 1990. When I was a kid, it used to be around couple of dozen beggars a day asking for alms at our door steps. In each one of my 10 trips to India since 1994, I had observed the number of beggars had steadily declined. In this trip, I saw the first one, a week after reaching home! Good for India.

Happy 70th Birthday Amma

A month ago, Veena's family celebrated Amma's 70th Birthday at Huntsville, AL at Vijay's house.
Lucy, Raju, Joy, Veena, Srinidhi, Jose, Amma, Valsa, Christina, Vijay and Alice. Feb 5, 2005.

A much lesser known part of RECT campus. This is at the Central Goverment funded Forestry Project way at the back of campus behind Sapphire. Muthukumar, Gurumurthy and Eswar Butt, early 1991.

RECTians at Kodaikanal, Oct 1990.

Ramkumar, Jeyaraman, Jeyasakthivel, Gurumurthy, Leo, Kulandaivelu, Thirugnanam, Shanmuganathan and Arul.

One more from the Kodai trip.

Project 'Save the Maramkothi'

The rain is continuing. It has brought lot of relief from the heat and happiness to humans, animals, birds, plants and all kinds of insects and reptiles. It also brought some misery, especially for couple of these Maramkothi chicks that fell inside our unused well. We didn't see them on time to save both. We were only able to rescue this one. It was a grown chick, but did not know how to fly. We suspect the nest was in the pipe line we have for rain water harvesting since the birds didn't anticipate this big rain.
The chick did not eat on its own, we had to feed. We kept it through the day until it stopped shivering and dried completely. We took it to the terrace and strategically placed it for the panicked parents to find. It is amazing to watch how they reacted. The bigger parent, apparently the father, first came so close and fast and almost knocked of the chick. It did it few times. We later realized he was trying to make the chick react and fly on instincts. It didn't work. Then the father sat on a perch and lifted its wings and started to wiggle to show the chick how to fly. At the same time, the mother came back with a healthy supply of worms to eat and fed the chick. We got all of this in video.

It was already close to sunset. So the birds are safe from the prying eyes of the eagles that have a nest on the teak tree with their own chicks to feed. We closed the terrace access to the rowdy cats in our neighborhood. Since the birds were not comfortable with us watching them, we left the place for them since we know they were safe.

The next morning we saw all three giggling on the tree top. The chick was still tentative in its flight.

West Wing, the 1990 Version.

Sometime in 1990 at Sapphire ground floor, West Wing. Parthiban, Shanmuganathan, Gurumurthy, Senthilkumar and Sukumar. Ramalingam is the victim arrested inside his own room, 36. Muthukumar was taking the photo.

Sapphire, May 2004.

Agatians just left home after first year in hostel. You see, they 'cleaned' up their rooms. May 2004.

RECTians remember...

From Ravin on 3/29:

Guys,
You are not gonna believe this but I actually walked
into RECT (now f***in' known as NIT) on 26 December
2004. I was on vacation in India and went to Trichy
and couldn't resist going to Thuvakudy.

So me & my friend (a Jamal Mohd. guy who used to visit
us during 87-91) downed a few beers and boarded a
Tanjore bus and the conductor insisted on being
convinced about why the bus had to stop at REC. I was
excited about this as it brought back fond memories.

The journey was fantastic and I could remember every
landmark. Thiruverumbur was bustling with activity,
BHEL still had the handy monument and govt.
polytechnic was still standing rotten. When I got down
from the bus, I was surprised to see the mud-walled
tea stalls changed to proper food joints across the
road.

When I crossed the road, I was invited for some
ginseng tea by Naga's son and after learning our
identity, he was very upset that I would be leaving
soon as they normally served chinese menu in the
evening. I had no words to console him as I was
speechless with these developments.

After the tea, I walked inside the campus, going round
about the Admin block and walking past the EEE/ECE
departments to the Mechanical dept. One class was
going on (don't know what the heck they were doing in
the class at that period) and I stopped by to look at
the students. No one really paid any attention to me
and they were all too f**kin concentrated on what the
lecturer was blabbering and I thought, sh*t, they
bloody deserve to be NIT. Anyway, I ran back the clock
and could visualise myself sitting at the back bench
and doing all kinds of stunts, and that gave me some
satisfaction. I then walked around the dept and
noticed that the block still had the same look and
feel and nothing had changed in all these years.

After which I walked out in the direction of library,
but immediately took a left turn into the long
straight road which ultimately hits Emerald hostel;
the place where the real Rectians lived (no offence to
sapphire guys, but no matter how hard I tried to
suppress this 'fact', somehow it comes out - maybe
some kinda truth-bug mainly focusing on the keyboard).
I never realised it was that far a walk but finally
reached Emerald. So we sat down at the corridor and
had our smoke (BTW, there's a no smoking rule inside
the campus and the present bunch actually follow this.
They bloody fu**kin deserve to be NIT).

So we went inside Emerald and knocked on a few doors
and I almost wanted to rag (whack) those guys, cos' I
felt like a super senior. But since I wasn't keen to
get suspended again, that too after 13 years after
finishing my degree, I restrained myself. Anyway the
guys were friendly and they even allowed us to smoke
in their rooms. So after some nice chit chats, we
realised that the alcohol effect was coming down, and
being a true RECTian (who could never stay inside the
campus sober), we kinda ran out to the main entrance.

And so ended our REC trip, but tell you what, you will
never realise how happy I was during the 2 hours of
this incredible trip. Everything from the Admin block
to the departments and the hostels still stand the
same way as in 91 and except for a couple of new
buildings and one new hostel, nothing has changed.
Agate was still standing proud and at the very sight
of this building I was convinced that out of the 4
years in REC, the 1st year was the best, cos' we never
had no groups, no northie-thambi discrimination, we
shared one mess and our teamspirit was great.

We had been together for 4 years in the amazing place
and the lessons learnt during these years laid the
perfect foundation. I am not sure whether I understood
my subject well there, but REC was the place which
taught me all about relationship, togetherness,
harmony and a lot more without which life would've
been significantly clueless. I know this is coming
about 15 years later, but.... thanks a lot guys!

Cheers!
Ravin
6, Emerald
RECTIAN

From Shan on 4/5:

Ravin, isn't it so great, to be able to go back, relive the 4 years in few hours. I have been lucky enough to go back to RECT many times in the last 14 years. Since my native place is only 80 kms from RECT, I make it a habit to visit RECT every time I go to India; I don't have to explain to my wife anymore, she knows one of our stops in India :)

Mostly the campus is just the way it was, hostels, roads, messes, canteen, juice center, library etc all same shape and condition. There are some newer buildings. The saplings they planted from the departments to hostels when we were there are now big trees.

I interacted with several Agatians and Sapphirites (yes, the REAL hostel, the one that is in the wild), but kept as low a profile as I can generally. I remember when 'super seniors' visited when we were there, I used to have a some respect, but mostly, 'yeah, may be you ruled once upon, but now, we are the King'.

The mess people were thrilled when I was able to identify them individually, more than any 100s we may give. They invited me to have food and even offered mementos, mega size plate and curd cup from our era.

I took several pictures, I am posting a couple I have handy in my blog ( http://srinidhi.net ) Will post the rest when I get back (right now I am in India on my 2005 vacation). Also, check the March archive in the blog for an older picture.

BTW, I have been wanting to ask you guys. What do you think of our juvenile squabbles? What did you really think then, what do you think now? Was it stupid, silly and childish? Or was it part of growing up? Was it immaterial or did it bother you? Do you still foster any grudge? Do you still want to 'get back' to anybody :) Any interesting incidents? I am asking this for sake of history :)

With lot of nostalgia and love,
Shan aka Mandru
Agate 25, Sapphire 32 and 108 (and scores of other rooms where I spent significant time)

Just as we were afraid, the temperature was in upper 90s. Time challenged family of Shan, Veena and Srinidhi were getting up at 3 AM everyday and sleeping for several hours in the afternoon (you see, body takes a while to adjust to a 9.5 hrs time difference).

Luckily for us, the heat only lasted for 2 days. A tropical depression formed in Bay of Bengal resulting in good bit of rain for last 3 days and still continuing, bringing down the temperature to 60s, 70s?? It feels so nice now. We go to our terrace every monring and watch the birds and generally enjoy the sights and sounds of the morning.

Srinidhi took sick couple of days after we reached. Not too bad, but throwing up and tired and not eating/drinking. Doctor suspected he got some stomach virus, but did not prescribe antibiotics immediately, just some mediciene to treat the symptoms. Just as he expected, Srinidhi bounced back himself in 2 days. He lost some weight though.

Our backyard is much greener this time around. Apparently Kannan planned and planted several plants, flowering and yielding. It had beena a productive garden this year. I was so happy to see it.

When I was in school, myself and Amma used to plant all kinds of vegetables in our backyard. Eggplants, Okra, Snake Gourd, Pumkin, Bitter Gourd, Spinach, Plantain, Avarai, Kothavarai, Poosani, Peerkai etc. We used to well water for couple of hours each day, such a good exercise, good for body and soul.

Florae - 1

Florae - 2

Florae - 3

Florae - 4

Florae - 5