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Someone landed on my blog looking for “SRM timings”. in case (s)he – or someone else – tries again, here they are for the current academic year.
SRM-Kattankalathur works a five-day week - Monday through Friday.
Class timings are 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Lunch break: 12 noon to 1:30 p.m. (though sonny says it’s actually 12:45 to 1:30!)
Arjun is pretty bushed by the time he gets back on weekdays – is home by 6 pm, hogs an early dinner (his current record is nine phulkas!), potters around in his room, goes to a nearby gym most days for about an hour and is in bed by 10:30. He’s up the next morning at 5:30 am to catch the bus at 7:00 a.m. ….
He sleeps late on Saturdays and catches up on assignments the rest of the day, but revives enough on Sundays to go out with some friends for about half-a-day…
Preparatory course in every way for an entry into the work force…?!
© Sosha Srinivasan
It’s not what you’re thinking – I can promise you that!
Here goes – it’s the second-hand bookshop outside the Nungambakkam suburban railway station (at #5 Nelson Manickam Road, Choolaimedu) – a regular haunt of mine called Indira Book Centre.
The owner, Mr. Manimaran (mobile # 9444249899), has a unique collection going for a song and gets fresh stocks quite frequently – either library surpluses or discards from North America or old (but often untouched) stock from book stores in the UK and USA. How do I know? The evidence speaks – library pockets and cards and price stickers…
Last month I picked up about a dozen paperbacks for IRs 350 (approx. USD 7.20). These included
Anna Quindlen’s Black and Blue
Martin Cruz Smith’s Gorky Park
and pristine copies of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers and
Tamarind Mem by Anita Rau Badami
- the latter of which I thought utterly delightful – really well written, capturing the essence of the Indian ethos and an absolute hoot in parts!
I’d already read Paretsky (Fire Sale) and Qundlen’s Blessings and One True Thing, but all the others were new to me, though I’d read about them…
© Sosha Srinivasan
Eleven years ago we had looked at a ready-to occupy apartment in one of Chennai’s relatively new suburbs, Porur – and had bought it without any modifications
Soon after we moved in, I realized that every time I did the dishes at the kitchen sink I’d wind up with my arms and shoulders feeling like they’d been put through a wringer! So the next time my hands went through a sinkful of dirty dishes, my mind analyzed and dissected – and my heart sank – a strange sinking feeling – as I thunk, “I’m sunk… my sink is sunken!”
It was way too low and the faucet too far back for comfort. I wondered why – and the realization sank in: The building contractor had designed the sink with his dream woman in mind, a lovely young thing, no doubt – but she just had to be real tiny – under 4 feet 10 inches tall – with peculiarly long arms! There couldn’t be any other explanation!
All this talk of love and doing the dishes reminds me of that feminist slogan:
“It starts when you sink into his arms and ends with your arms in his sink!”
Be warned!
© Sosha Srinivasan
My son’s 12th board exams went by in a flash but the accompanying tension didn’t let up – because we had to wait for the results!
To cut a long story short, he did better than expected (!) and now has got into the BSc Visual Communication stream at one of the top private universities in the country – SRM University.
Of course it costs almost three times what it would at a local college but I am really over the moon about it because the infrastructure is world class!
Sonny had decided he wanted to do VisCom about a year-and-a-half ago… we did a lot of research on the net, talked to seniors doing the course and people from the field. Set our sights on SRM and lo, presto – managed to wangle it!
© Sosha Srinivasan
We were flooded out – ankle deep water in our ground floor flat which is 2 feet above road level, after Cyclone Nisha hit the city on November 27. We got in one day rain we usually get over a three-month period! Two reservoirs breached and parts of the storm water drain system collapsed. To tell the truth we got off pretty lightly – just one sleepless night – some areas in the city, including some real posh ones, were inundated for up to a week.
I’ve changed over the last few years – learned to look at the bright side of things – to count my blessings, I guess.
© Sosha Srinivasan
On one of our evening outings in late 1995, I suddenly clutched my husband’s arm.
“Oh! The poor, poor man!” I exclaimed, indicating an individual who stood on the curb, half turned away from us, talking to himself and gesticulating wildly with his left arm.
Obviously a schizophrenic, abandoned on the streets by his family. The same thought seemed to have crossed hubby’s mind, judging from the sympathetic expression on his face. But wait… he seemed too well dressed and well groomed to be a candidate for the lunatic asylum! Oh well! Perhaps the condition was in the initial stage…
I burst out laughing and hubby couldn’t help but join in because just then the man had turned and we both saw what he held to his right ear… Sure, it was the size and shape of a brick… but the cellular phone had arrived in India!
~~~~~~~~~~
Fast forward to the present. I can hardly believe I actually went and bought one of those “things” – a Nokia 6233! Not after my rant against them in a previous post: Whatever it is, don’t call…! Several reasons why I did though:
1. I’d accompanied my son and hubby on a pilgrimage to a hill temple 100 km from Chennai last December and really felt the lack of a camera to capture some truly scenic shots.
2. I thought it was time I upgraded my mobile telephony skills – I don’t know how to make or receive calls on one – no kidding!
3. I finally allowed sonny boy to talk me into it – he should consider becoming a lawyer/negotiator! One of his most convincing arguments was that I could change the ringtone from the traditional, irritating one to a softer, more pleasing one of my choice!
The verdict? I’m quite amazed at the services and features.
I didn’t take the mobile to work the first week as I still operate it with a great deal of trepidation. If it had rung, I’d probably have handled it like a live grenade and chucked it out of the nearest window….! It is now on silent mode at work.
I find Generation Y so much more tech savvy – I read through the instruction manual several times and got totally lost… my son doesn’t touch the manual but seems to intuitively absorb how the phone works and then transfers the knowledge to me by a process I call “reverse osmosis!”
© Sosha Srinivasan
Last Sunday instead of sleeping in until 7, I was up as usual at 5 am. So was my son, without a murmur of protest for a change! Why? Because we had registered with Nizhal (Shade) for a “Tree Walk” as part of the Madras Week celebrating the founding of the city of Chennai in 1639. This was held at Guindy National Park, one of the handful of parks around the world that is situated within a city. It was an absolute treat. Resource person, Mr Kamaraj, who has worked at the park for long years, led us, stopping at intervals to explain the salient features of a variety of trees. I learned, for instance, that the tree I (and many others) believed to be the Flame of the Forest is in fact the flame tree (Delonix regia or Royal Poinciana). The real Flame of the Forest is Butea monosperma (also called the parrot tree due to the shape of its flowers. As it resembles the teak, it as also known as the bastard teak. Unfortunately we missed it in full bloom as flowering gets over in June.
The shrub that stood out was mother-in-law’s tongue,
ostensibly because the edges of its leaves are razor sharp! Though it is widely grown as an ornamental, purists call it a weed!
Then there was the Prosopis juliflora (belonging to the same genus as the North American mesquite) , a very hardy, drought resistant tree, which does not, however, allow other trees and shrubs to take root nearby. Another variant the Prosopis cineraria is very common to Rajasthan.
Lovely “extras” were the fauna we spotted – macaques (Rhesus monkeys), squirrels, kites, butterflies, and bugs…
We also saw a small group of deer, one at a distance of 2 feet! What gorgeous animals they are! Why anyone in their right minds would want to hunt the gentle creatures is beyond me.
So why did I go? Have you read the 2-page (not kidding!) short story, The Distinguished Stranger by R. L. Stevenson? I, too, love “the people with the green heads”!
Also I saw it as a chance to pass on some of my passion for the environment to my son. He already has caught the reading bug from me. It is really amazing – and sometimes disquieting – to consider how often we influence our children’s likes/dislikes. Other benefits – we spent time together but his attention was elsewhere and he didn’t get in my hair! It also clubbed exercise with learning. As we left the cicadas were just getting their act together – a farewell in their humming crescendo.
Then on Monday morning we climbed up and down St Thomas Mount (a hillock) twice by two different routes. It took about 2 hours but didn’t seem like it. I thought i’d pay for it the next day with sundry aching muscles but my fears were unfounded. I must be in better shape than I imagined! Hmmmm….
© Sosha Srinivasan
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