Today was a big day for us - The students performing for the open house.We exhibited some of our IDEA's as Project or putting it much clear as MODELS. And many of the visitors asked me if they could take this model after am done with exhibiting. And I had to say NO! Because i was too sentimental about it. It was a Hit project being my first try ever on a circuit of my own. It took 2 nights & the night before the project was spent sleepless to do all the MODELS. We were all first put in different labs . All our class mates stayed in one lab with our very sweet class incharge. This sir is very sweet,down to earth,bubbly and what not..he is a mini ARAVINDH SWAMY (Am not flirting ,am just describing one of the sweetest soul.He is just too sweet that sometimes even his colleagues take him for granted .)He was so glad that we had all done very wonderfull realtime application projects other than just some components connected with wires.We our class mates had real fun- pulling our leg, teasing or defining in a traditional collegian lang ( Kalaaikradhu, Kalavarradhu ).

Although we had already been sitting & working in that lab during our lab hours on REGULAR working days, it was totally different today. No attestations, and no rules, no staff checking your experiment, no NOTHING. Then after some real fun time......we got this news that we should all be shuffled up and put in different labs .Initially it kind of made us sad. But then our sir put it this way " Go to different labs ya........See what others are doing too. Make new friends ...explore......!" Then we were all put in different labs. Fortunately in the LAB (allotted for me) there were no Juniors, so there was no need for me to (be)act different from the usual way, what I always am. But, there were also students from other sections whom i have never personally met before. Although the faces were familiar (Corridor walks, Culturals,...) , we had not personally met or conversed. After some shytime...they started the conversation with ' Can u lend me your Scissors, what time can we leave, Do you know how many schools are going to visit, Would you mind taking care of my project by the time I go see my friends.........'

I tell you now-a-days boys have grown SHY than us girls. We spoke out and got ourselves introduced .Then we all had some real CHAT. But there was this very curiously quiet guy whom I tried to pull into our conversation. He kept giving a standard smile, occasionally an Yes!. We all had a very nice chat and there was this very witty guy(A). He kept pulling some one's leg and most of the time his target was B. B too didn't keep mum, he kept teasing A. All with lot of Fun and laughter involved. No one was Offended by the jokes played . While all of us were making this memorable day with laughs,jokes,chat as the COMEDY TRACKS of a movie, we had the main TRACKS - the students visiting and us explaining. All of us were conversing in English because we hardly knew the others knew to speak ANUDHA THAMIZH (Tamil). All of us were sitting near our desk after explaining each of our projects to one another. About half the day went on this way with lot of school children walking around and exploring our TINY INVENTIONS.

For those who made it too technical(TECHI) ...Boo!!... as far as the school children's are concerned THEY MADE NO SENSE. But still they tried to savvy. Then coming to the main issue.. There were also students from some of the local schools. The teachers and children were too simple, and could hardly understand what this FUSS is all about. On first thought I felt that the college authorities have done a good job by inviting the students from the locality (Most were Govt schools). But then on seeing some of the students from our college show off and ignore them, i did not quiet appreciate what the authorities have done. Then there was a bunch of kids from one of the Govt. boys school. We could see that these kids after all those long walks through the corridors hardly understood what many (of others) had spoken. They looked kind of pissed off with our un-understandable talks. So once all these analysis were made from the looks on their faces...

**The following lines have nothing to do with language problems or politics between those. It is my mere concern about our mother tongue, its state.....It could be applicable to all/any the languages -Tamil, Hindhi,Kannada,Telugu,Marathi,Bengali,Oria,.........(have i missed yours? Kindly add it too and read),may be English...Na i dont think english is in a state to be in this list.(No OFFENCE).You could replace tamil/Thamizh/Thamizh-- with your mother tongue and then proceed to think about this.And this event happening in your STATE - Tamilnadu here**

I put this question and saw all the faces GLOW at the same fraction of second. "Thamizh theriyuma??"And the prompt answer in chorus was "O! Nalla Theriyumey..Thamizhlaye sollungaKa. illana onnum puriyaadhu!" And so did the teachers face glow too. And i took pride in explaining the circuit , its operations and applications -all in tamil. And these kids were real smart they started asking some reasonable questions " Y not this?""Y not that?". Then did I understand how hard it would become for the teachers if THAMIZHVAZHIKKALVI is made compulsory . And may be that is the reason why there is still a lot of confusion about this.... I tried my level best in convincing them with my answer. And the teachers were so happy and amused that I could tell an engineering circuit to the kids in Tamil and make them understand. One of the teacher complimented for speaking a very good thamizh , she also mentioned that it was really surprising for her to see an engineering student speak good THAMIL..oops THAMIZH.

After I sat down with our friends for the SIDE TRACK, these guys were all so shocked to know I could speak thamizh. Especially Mr.A, he asked if I was a tamizhponnu (TAMIL girl.). And the counter was "How about you?" And Mr.A said "Yeah! am a tamizhpayyan too." He was not shy or feeling bad to say that. But that there are girls who dont speak thamizh even if they knew to , and made a fuss speaking in TANGLISH. And I asked him why he had to say that in english when he is a tamizhpayyan. And A's answer goes like this " enku kunjam kunjam dhaan thamiZH varum......' And believe it he really did not know to speak a single sentence in proper tamizh. And another andhra friend C spoke "Avan wastu! Avan thamizha enalaye thaanga mudiyala" Now, isn't that thamizh??? !!! Great C! That is it all our rifles turned and faced A. We all started teasing 'A' that he doesnt know to speak properly in his mother tongue...!Blah blah! (LAUGHS!!). After all these jokes , we were into some other topic's discussion. All of a sudden A came up with this strange question someone has ever asked , "Being a tamizhponnu how come you speak good english? ".( I still am not sure if he really meant that!! :P )

Adapavee... what are you asking? Whats wrong with thamizhponnu?? And what does that have to do with ,speaking in a foreign language? We had a very long argument & 'A' finally gaveup! Though he actually complimented me , his former part of the sentence made me go furious. And that too it was from a THAMIZHAN! Too bad!!!!!! Leave all that aside. Then we had some peacefull, memorable conversation...and finally (remember the Quiet guy with a sweet smile and few YES!!) this very shy boy opened his mouth. And I did not leave him.. he had to keep talking something before we all leave, so did he. Atlast!!! He spoke, joked,.... and guess what he even got into this teasing game where A was the joked about not speaking his mother tongue !!!!!!! Why do some boys be very shy even when some one (SOME OF many of US) were very badly trying to make him converse /talk. The whole session was great. We all found it very interesting, did not know we could learn so much from the experience, kids, ourselves, Friends,..............I sure have a very memorable day recorded in/for my college days!!!!!!! And dont forget to speak your mother tongue as and when possible. But don't get into the politics... After all ,there is nothing to feel shy or bad about speaking in mother tongue!!! And that is why the title of previous post. And A (B or C or...any1 I met today)had nothing to do with that, but the other silly people out there whom you meet , I meet ...we all meet in the walks of life!!!

NOTE: I think this must be the longest post i have ever posted. Thank you for your patience. And hope i did not bore you!?