Types of illakannam...

It was a pin-drop silence, in the whole class, when Geetha entered with the exam papers...

Well, it is little exaggeration to say the whole class with the strength being 7. Yes 5 boys and 2 girls, in 4th standard A section (:-)) . This is the school where I did my primary.My Roll# is "1", yes iam the first student of the small-convent in my place.

Now Geetha (maam's name) is getting ready to distribute the papers. As expected, not much of surprises in the papers. Its always tamil which will be the deciding factor of topper. As Iam always good in spelling mistakes. I remember once I made a blunder for the question "what are the types of Tamil ilakkanam" (Ilakkanam in tamil means grammer...) which made me 'famous' across the staffs

My Progress-report consistentnly have comments "correct your spelling mistakes".It will cause malways loose 5 marks, in my overall score just for the spelling mistake.

This time my Mum broke my hand with enough dictation (from a month before this exam) in tamil to ensure no-spelling-mistake. And even I had spend around 10 mts of my exam time just to make sure spellings are intact.

"Babu .." Maam is calling me, Iam walking confidently, thinking, no minus-5-mark-this time. Maam was suprised,stared at the paper for a second, and handed over to me, with a meaningfull smile. I could understand her good-work-keep-it-up-smile at me.

After a pause she said, "This time your spelling mistae costed 10 marks ...".
Whaaat....10 marks..Noo.. cannot be possible, there must be something wrong ... I wanna to shout !!! By now Iam so tensed and was turning the pages, to check for the red-ink markings in the paper.

To my surpise I didn't find any.Then why 10 minus.."Is this my paper..??". I rushsed to the paper head , in the first page to check ..Yes Roll# is correct...name too..
But wait a minute..why red marking next to my name...oopss...


Half-Yearly-Exam

Roll No:1
Name: Babu.T
Subject: Tamilee (red maked...!!!)


There is a spelling mistake in the subject name - Tamil. I wrote it as Tamilee...(instead of la..I used lee..).

She addded "Nobody had ever made a spelling mistake in the subject name...".

Hmm..a perfect sample of "Operation success, but patient ??? "

Epilog :
1.Without any exaggeartion, this is one of The best school, now, in my place.

2.Correct answer for the question "types of ilakanam in Tamil"
eyar tamil, isai thamil, Nadagath Tamil & Pechuth tamil . I made a spelling-mistake in the last one...Yes you got it right..

Taking a Break !!!!!

A loud alarm sound hammered in the middle of my sleep. It was 3:30 AM in the mornning and I was supposed to catch a flight to SFO (Napa), early in the morning. Being not completely out of jet-lag, my eyes look blood in the showcase mirror.

Some how manged to get ready and pack things (good that I didn't unwind much of my packages from India). My cab arrived 5:15 , 15 mts before the scheduled time, and now Iam on my way to Logan Intl. Aiport. I hate a calm and silent environment when Iam moody. I wanted to talk any bloddy thing in that chill mornining. Luckily the driver is a talkative person (thank god) !!!

We were talking generally, about the weather, not-so-snowy-winter , global warming, various attraction in Napa, SFO..a lot.
Then our discussion slowly turned to business. I asked him (Mark is what his name is)...

Me : Wher do u live and how long are you with the CLI (chlemsfor limo service).
Mark : Iam in New Hampshire (a state close to Boston) and around an year with CLI.
Me: What do u do before this..
Mark: (After a pause.). I was a program manager with a telecom company for 8 years which latter acquired by Ciso.
Me : Excuse me....what did u say..
Mark: As a Program manager in a startup , (by now I am almost speechless )Then I stick with Cisco for 3 years, to get all the benifits.

Then mark continnued saying "We made telecom product for....^(^*%&^%()(Q&W%EWQ*_)WE (I couldn't any of the technical jargon or the business terms he used.)

I was totoally puzzled ..Why the hell a Program mnager would quit the job and become a cab-driver !!!I still couldn't digest what he said. !!! Finding it difficult to control my curiosity, I asked him the same question.

Me : But YYYYY !!!! You were a prog-manager, then for what under the sun, did you quit and join as a driver !!!
Mark: I wanted to take a break !!!! Well I have been manging clients, controlling projects,travelling for 20 years. I made enough money for me and my family is settled (His eldeest son in a s/w engg and his daughter is a student!!!).

I MAY go back to IT an year from now, if I got bored. Life as a cab-driver is cool. I just have to attend 3 or 4 clients a day, and that even if I wish !! I dont need to travel to any place , I can stay with my family all the time. I can play golf (!!!) with my son on weekends and can watch base-ball when ever I wanted.

I almost went UNCONSIOUS on hearing this !!!!

Mark also said that he is married for last 27 years and his wife is working in a retail company (donno the designation) He also said it is his wife's work-benifit which allow him to take a break for a while !!!

I usally tip the cab driver with 3 or 4 $ (though it is not needed since it part of the bill). I decided not for this time !!!

I have come across the term CONTENTED many times in books. But this is the first time I'm meeting such a person !!!