I don’t want that to happen to my hometown. Ten years from now, I don’t want Tuticorin off the map of India.

Every time I come home from college, I happen to read and listen to stories of how Tuticorin is being polluted to unimaginable levels.

There’s clear cut evidence that this is happening. For real. Right now.

We need to do something about it. I started a campaign on Twitter @savetuticorin and Facebook.

Not a big deal, you’re thinking. That’s OK. It might grow bigger and one day, people will come together to take action against them.

There are plenty of people fighting. Their voice isn’t reaching far. Probably, this will bring them together and help them raise issues louder.

Save Tuticorin!

Somebody will come up and talk on why setting goals is the most important thing one can do when in school.

Somehow, you’re supposed to decide what you want to be in life when you complete schooling.

They’ll ask you questions like: “Where do you see yourself ten years from now?”. Yeah, that’s right – ten years.

That’s OK. Kids have to live on their own, a few years after school. All right.

Some will say ”I want to be an engineer”. Some others, doctors. Because those are the examples we’ve been exposed to. Ridiculous.

My argument is that kids set these goals blindly without any forethought. They’ve never been told to explore. They have no choices.

The education system, almost everywhere today, drains children out of their creative capacities, as Sir Ken Robinson says.

Many of these kids don’t know what they’re good at because they haven’t been exposed to a lot of things. Only when they do explore, they’ll know what they love doing.

Schools don’t let children find what they’re good at. But kids are told to set goals when they don’t know what they’ll really love doing all day for the rest of their life.

What an irony!

Apparently, people here think it’s wrong talk to girls. As if it’s a taboo.

So what, I say?

Honestly, at the risk of sounding childish or stupid whatever, I’ve never spoken much with girls when I was in school. In fact, boys and girls rarely talked when I was in school (with a few exceptions, of course). I don’t mean I thought it was wrong. But I didn’t care.

I’m in college now. We were preparing for a role play the other day and while we were at it, I was handing some over notes to another one of my classmates. A girl.

And there goes a comment from a girl who dropped in from another class.

She said: “Unga classla girls boys te laam pesuvaangala?” English: “Do boys speak to girls in your class?”

I didn’t overhear her, but someone told me that such a ‘comment’ was made.

I wonder why they’re so conservative.

Ironically, we were going to enact a play demonstrating how they do this gender segregation (sorry, for the lack of a better word) in colleges. Yeah, I’m talking about those jails.

I’m not bothered about what people think of me. But what makes them actually think it’s wrong to speak to people from the other gender I don’t know.

This is probably the most life related post I’ve ever written.

“[...] There are good deemed universities offering innovative degree programmes, engaging in quality research leading to publications, and providing high-quality teaching. The government’s role must be to identify and encourage such deemed universities and similar institutions by conferring the deemed university status. To eliminate a time-tested policy without diagnosing the reason for its sickness will be counterproductive of the main objective of achieving qualitative growth in higher education.

[...] The proposed bill will only put the system back in a closely regulated and regimental framework with little scope for innovation and academic independence. [...]“

Kapil Sibal has apparently said that the provision of granting deemed university status under Section 3 of the UGC act may be entirely done away with.

I mean, there are deemed universities that are terrible – agreed. There are so many excellent ones, too. Why should you trash an entire system just because some institutions deviated from their purpose of providing quality education?

Having discussed with many of my friends studying in colleges affiliated to government universities, I can vouch that the syllabi of several courses in some deemed universities are of much higher standards than that of the government-controlled ones.

Just government-run universities aren’t enough.

The Chinese are beating(?) us in the field of higher education.

Are you going to have a stranglehold on the University system in India?

Monitor these universities. Don’t regulate them. Let them have (at least a little) freedom to bring innovative courses.

There are a few things that I’m doing to save up money in college. Thought I might write them down here so that people may find it useful. May be cliched and boring to many of you, but I’ll definitely be happy if someone out there takes my advice

Washing clothes on my own: I gave all my clothes away to the dhobi initially. Not any more. I see it this way: I save six bucks for every cloth that I wash myself There are plenty of other advantages in washing clothes on your own. Check them out here.

Using same bank ATM Card: I brought my Kid’s Advantage HDFC ATM card to college but we’ve got an Indian Overseas Bank ATM here. I learnt that transactions done via other bank ATMs will be levied a transaction fee of Rs. 20 after the first five transactions so I’ve started using my IOB card right now to withdraw cash.

Not carrying my wallet around: Not taking my wallet with me, helps. Many a time, I feel like buying something on an impulse so I’ve stopped carrying cash with me often. This directly translates to eating out less in the canteen.

Borrowing books from the library: I’m obviously not going to be reading my lessons every other day in college so I go to the library to borrow some text books that I don’t own, ten days ahead of my exams. I’ve done this for two text books, which means I’ve saved up about Rs. 400 this semester.

Another cliched tip that you must have heard again and again is to buy/rent used books. There’s Chegg for people in the US, but for us in India, we’ve got only local markets and college seniors to rely on

Bus Passes: I don’t go out much, so I haven’t got one yet. But I learnt from my friends that if you’re in Tamil Nadu, you can avail a bus pass for about 50 bucks and can travel free in all government city buses. I haven’t verified this, but if you frequently go out on weekends, take note!

Holding off from buying gadgets: After shelling some real huge money(!) for my laptop recently, I’ve learnt that it’s a mistake because I didn’t really need all those bells and whistles that came with my laptop. I could have rather settled with a low cost laptop/netbook. Seeing collegemates with iPods and portable speakers is tempting, but I’m holding out from buying them. I’ll instead listen to podcasts and music on my laptop.

And don’t forget: Writing down expenses helps too! Here’s another bonus: Don’t switch to Tata Docomo for the advantage of having a per-second billing pulse (hey, I’ve nothing against them). Here’s why: TRAI is probably going to ask all telecom operators to mandatorily offer per-second billing plan as a option.

I’m looking for ways not to spend the money I earned by blogging, but to save and invest it. May be I’ll keep them in my bank account and they would’ve generated some good interest by the time I’m sixty. May be I can invest in stocks. I’m exploring.

The quiet sea shore, the long safari into the sanctuary, the sight of the forests from the highest point (ie, the Ramar Paadham) were all pretty cool experiences.

I didn’t have my camera mobile then, nor my digicam but my classmate Sai took these photos on his mobile:

Nature. Wildlife. Very little population. You’ll get immersed in the calmness of this place. But the fact is it’s not a tourist friendly area and is quite remote – so be very well prepared before you venture in!

Oh, and by the way, happy Diwali to all!

Reliance NetConnect sucks. Both in speed and reliability.

Haven’t used Tata Photon+, but I heard it’s even more terrible.

College Wifi isn’t that good either.

Shit.

Laptop isn’t working for some reason and Dell will send a techinician to repair it.

Height of Boredom.

Buying a radio with SW.

SPS Hostel Terrace.

College started on July 2. Hostel life. Didn’t suck. Things were much better than what I expected.

I love SASTRA. The place is very vibrant and there are lots of events happening. SASTRA Premier League (SPL), Dance and vocal auditions, Tech club meets, GLOSS meets (it’s the FOSS wing at SASTRA). Plenty more.

No restrictions. No study hours. Lots of freedom. I love that. Just love that.

So many new friends. Chit Chats. Talking much. Socializing like never before.

Sleeping only at two early morning and waking up at seven o’ clock. I’ve never slept after ten p.m. when I was at home.

Time just flies when I’m in my hostel room. Rooms are good enough.

But I’m bored of mess food. I really miss my mom’s food than anything else. Having said that, I should also mention the mess is very hygienic.

Teachers are loading us a bit with assignments. Mid semester exam in about ten days. Have learnt only Physics and Math and nothing else.

ATM here is bad. Outages often.

Been spending some bucks. Should learn to manage money better Setup a Buxfer account to track expenditure.

Skype for video chats with Granny, Mom, Dad and Sister at home.

The Wifi is slow practically because lots of people are using at once. Got a Reliance Datacard, which again sucks bad and gets disconnected often.

Didn’t get ragged. Thankfully.

Right now at home for Avani Avittam Holidays. Met schoolmates.

Life is cool. Life sometimes appears like it’s monotonous

Jude told me on Twitter: “Do something you can be proud of in college”. It’s on my head every minute.

I want to do something at SASTRA. May be something like this. Or this. Or this. Or this. Or something else I haven’t thought of yet.

I want to make a six figure income. The day I die, I want to be remembered as someone who contributed something to the world. Someone that changed things and people.

Now is the time to start. I want to extract the best out of the next four years. Out of the place I’m in.