i rock

WHY

2010-09-05T22:01:00.000+05:30

"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how"

- Friedrich Nietsche

It's a perfect day, a beautiful one at that. The sun has just risen, there is freshness in the air, the one you associate with early mornings. The road is long, clear for the day, surrounded on both the sides by fields with the crop ready to be cut swaying with the mild breeze. The settings are perfect!.

But, there is noise, a cacaphony. Everybody around is getting ready. Putting on the gear, training hard, stretching themselves. It's a race, a marathon. You have a fit body, the conditions are perfect, everybody around is running and then you become the part of the plume. Running hard, trying to be at the front, trying to win this race. STOP! - stay there, think for a moment - Why are you running this race?

Do you have an answer?One really never has an answer to it. We avoid this question because it makes us uncomfortable, shakes something inside us. But in reality everybody around is in a race. A race which we don't know, why we are running. We hope that the road leads us to our destination. That by being in the plume and staying constantly at the at the forefront we will achieve what we want. It's a cozy feeling, to be doing as others have done and will do in the future. It gives us a false sense of security, of being accepted by others, of following the right path.

But is the right path, right for us? Does the destination it leads to matches where we want to end? Does it justify the dreams and ambitions which we saw when somebody had innocuously asked us many moons back - What do you want to do in life? Does it make us go to bed feeling content at night and wake up every morning with a sense of purpose? Finally does it bring a smile to our face? - These are some tough questions. If you have answered yes to most of them, you are one of the very lucky few. If however you are lost, as most of us are - Its time to ask Why.

Great leaders always ask Why? They have an answer to why. Take a look at this video and then decide between running the race or achieving greatness.

HOPE

2010-07-17T15:34:00.003+05:30

" Cynicism an easy way to behave like an intellectual. "

Its raining outside, the mild drizzle which makes everything around you come alive, look beautiful, look fresh. I am sitting in the coffee house, staring at the greenery outside, smiling at the little game the puppies are playing. Its one of those lazy afternoons when you have nothing to do except stare at the beauty around you, think about life while the coffee grows cold and the book begs to be read. Its these small, simple things in life which make it so beautiful. Perhaps because underlying all these things is an inane feeling of hope, of something good, something better, something beautiful. It is this reason why I love the monsoons so much.

Looking at today's paper and around at the people, however there is something which unsettles me. There seems to be an epidemic of cynicism around. Right from the doomsday predictions to the bickering about the broken system. Somehow it has become "cool" to appear disillusioned. To complain about the system, criticize the progress and make damning statements. The neo intellectual today is not the one with the vision about a better tomorrow. He/ She is the one with the eye for the faults today and predictions about doomsday tomorrow. I don't know when or how this change came about or what triggered it or acted as catalyst for its growth. But it probably has affected everything around me ... probably even me.

Last few weeks however made me realize that the power of hope does triumph over the might of cynicism. Sport has always been both a great teacher and a great leveler. The triumph of La Roja and Rafael Nadal showed me what hope can do. A team which lost its first match and was promptly written off by critics won the world cup. A player which battled a career threatening knee injury came from behind a dismal last season to lift both the Rolland Garros and Wimbledon. Somewhere they had hope. The hope which kept them going when everything around seemed lost. The hope which gave them the power to struggle, compete and finally conquer the arena.

While my coffee nears its finish and the skies open up, I think this what is needed - HOPE. Because the there is a tomorrow which is better, good and extremely beautiful.

I guess the monsoon does bring a lot more than just rain :).

Picture courtesy: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2159/3754531510_c80e46eaeb.jpg

The end of innocence

2010-07-01T14:27:00.004+05:30

" Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up"
- Pablo Picasso

I saw Toy Story 3 today. I was 8 years old when Toy Story was first released. I had loved it. To me it was my story. The world full of toys, the world which I used to create, the world where everything was possible. There was no limit to my imagination. My stories which I made for my toys were as weird and as thrilling as they could be. There were fast car chases, GI Joes dropping from the helicopter to lay siege on Lego toy boxes trying to free Bret heart hit man imprisoned by skeleton. They were fun. But the most important thing about them was that they always had a happy ending.

Today, while watching the movie I thought how much change was there ( no I am not talking just about the movie being 3D :P). I had grown up and the toys were kept somewhere in the attic. But the bigger thing was somewhere in all of this, I had stopped imagining. I had become what one may call a realist ( a euphemism for cynic ). The happy endings had stopped somewhere.

Today, I felt that child in me is still there somewhere. I rooted for the toys to get back ( Ok no more spoilers :P). I came back, went to my attic and had a look at all the toys which were kept there. The one's who were the actors in my story :P. I don't play with them anymore and am too shy or say too grown up to play with them now. But I had a smile on my face while looking at them and remembering the old times.

And I suppose that is what is important. That we never let the child inside us die. The innocence, the thought that everything in this world is possible. That there are happy endings and that it is important to dream. For only once believe that, would we believe that there are opportunities out there for us to conquer the world. And for GI Joes to defeat skeleton yet again to free The Hitman :P.

picture courtesy: http://www.neurosoftware.ro/programming-blog

Reflections

2010-06-18T21:57:00.002+05:30

( This post was written while I was travelling from Ahemdabad to Mumbai on Shadabti express. )

It's funny how a thing happens, when you don't care about its happening anymore or it just does not matter. Today I travel by a train after a very long time. For 3 years, someone used to tease me about me not traveling by train and about me being delicate. And now that I finally do, it just does not matter.

I have had a crazy crazy last six months. It feels like a blur now, the kind you have just after alighting from a roller coaster ride. It had everything exams, results, interviews, acceptances, rejection , relationships, joys and agonies. So much happened that I still cannot believe all these things happened in six months. There were moments when I thought I had everything and then there was time when I had nothing and just an exam staring at my face.

It's strange but the phrase that things look calm when you are in the eye of the storm is actually very true. Sometimes one surprises himself the way one reacts to situations. The way one acts. One either lets himself go, sits down and sulks and blames the world or one just discounts everything that happened and tries to take a seemingly impossible task to forget what all happened. I don't know why I chose the later. Perhaps I needed to escape from everything, from everyone. Perhaps I needed to redeem myself. For whom, for what - I don't know. But for last 2 months, the only constant thing in my life was the exam. And yes it did help me ( sorta) not think or feel about what all happened previously.

But the thing about discounting everything is that sooner or later everything comes back to haunt you. Its like storing your baggage in a closet, but the baggage remains there always. And one day you will have to take it out. A funny thing happened, when I finished the exam. I still had one more hour left for submitting the papers. And I don't know why, but I reflected upon the last six months. It was like a film which played in my head and again I don't know why but I smiled, for no reason.I just smiled :). It is said that when you laugh without any inhibitions, it is then that you have made your peace with everything. I smiled :).

Its a start, A start.

PS: By the way, train journeys are awesome fun! :P

( This is a personal post, so the comments have been blocked for this one. )

Bhopal's Betrayal

2010-06-11T23:31:00.005+05:30

" $500 is plenty good for an Indian "
- Kathy Hunt, Chief Public relations officer, Dow Chemicals 2002

It is said that life is cheap. Specially when you are an Indian. More so when you are poor, powerless and living around a chemical factory which does not follow safety norms. 1984, the year etched in the Indian memory as the year of operation bluestar, Indira Gandhi's assassination and Sikh pogo gram ended on a somber note in December when Methyl Isocyanide was leaked from the pesticide plant of Union Carbide factory in Bhopal. 2000 people died immediately. Hundreds were to die in the next few days and thousands were to have respiratory problems for life. Not only them but their coming generations too. 26 years was what it took for the trail to bring the perpetrators of the biggest industrial disaster to justice and it ended in a betrayal.

The people of Bhopal were betrayed repeatedly at each and every step. By the company, who did not follow proper safety procedures in its India plant but followed them at a similar plant in the US. By its management which was more interested in cost cutting and than protecting a few Indian lives. By its police who declared at 7 Am the next day that everything was normal. By its medical staff who did not know what to do and kept giving people cough syrup and eye drops till probably it was very late. By its government who let the chairman of the company who passed the laws for these negligence to escape. By the same government which hired second grade lawyers in US to represent its case and settled for a partly $470 mn. By its courts which took 26 years to arrive at a judgement handing out 2 years sentences to 7 Indians and asking the company to pay $11000. A partly 50 cent per person who was affected by the tragedy.

But to me that's not where the betrayal ends. In this dirty spectre of collusion of US corporates, netas, bureaucrats and Ngos all of whom are in it to further some self interest, it the man on the street who was unlucky enough not to be in those 2000 who died that day, but survived to live through the horror and pain of these 26 years suffers. The debates surrounding me today are not about how to compensate the victims or about how to make sure that correct medical care is given to the victims. They are not even about detoxifying the ground water of Bhopal and the area around the factory. Nobody is even forceful in implementing laws to make sure such a thing never happens again. What our politicians and media are however interested in, is to find " the culprits". Getting Warren Anderson back might be the correct thing to do. But doing it at the cost of forgetting the victims. Is to me the biggest betrayal of all. Finding who let Anderson fly is important. But what if, we do actually find out who did. How would it matter now? How would it matter to the boy who died a premature death. To the man who became a vegetable because of consuming that gas. He may rejoice that he has been given justice. But what kind of justice would be got by bringing one man back when it was hundreds who colluded. I am not supporting Anderson. To me he always was and will remain a mass murderer. But what unsettles me is that nobody talks of action or what to do now!. Everybody talks of revenge. Do the people of Bhopal actually need revenge? Or they need something more than that.

What they need is not the culprits. They need medical care. They need compensation. They need laws which promise them that such a thing will never happen again. But nobody cares about that. All people care about is hanging the culprit, finding who did what. And why should they not. After all an Indian life is cheap. Darn cheap!

The betrayal continues! and will continue.
Till the next disaster!

Finishing strong!

2010-03-03T21:53:00.005+05:30

" The first moment you're disappointed, you're shocked, you're sad, you know, then all of a sudden it overwhelms you,The problem is you can't go in the locker room and just take it easy and take a cold shower. You can't. You know, you're stuck out there. It's the worst feeling. It’s rough"

Failure, its tough, its devastating, it kills you inside. You want to scream, you want to shout, you want to blame the whole world. The only thing you want to do is smash everything in your sight. The sympathies, the concerned words and the efforts made by others to understand your plight seem artificial. You try to smile, try to make dark jokes, say " it doesn't matter", you just simply play along. But inside there is a recurrent question which probes you -" Why, Why, Why me" . And that is not a good feeling to have.

One always goes through the 5 stages whenever such a thing happens - Denial,Anger, Bargaining, Depression and finally Acceptance. The full cycle and time period of how one goes through it varies from person to person but all of us go through it. Finally its only when you reach the last stage do you realize what power you have. The power to bear . The power to fall down and still not give up. The power to rise again. The power to challenge your biggest nemesis. And it is this power which amazes me always.

"I don't know what frightens me more,the power that crushes us or our endless ability to endure it. "
- Karla, Shantaram.

CAT 2009 hurt, it still does. But when I think about it, I feel its still better than that. By that I talk about my 4-2. The period of no job, endless despair. I got through that. Made a job ( on the last day of college is a different matter :P). But if I can endure that, I can very well take this. If there was 1 thing which that experience taught me it was - What matters is how you finish.
Do you go out down, defeated, dejected and a sorry figure or you take on the world fight your way out, reclaim what was lost.

The world remembers the end and everybody loves a good comeback story.

So go out fight, struggle, work hard, toil, burn the midnight oil <> and prove to everybody you are worth it and you finished strong.!

For more take a look this video!

PS: The quote at the starting of this blog was by Roger Federer after losing Australian Open 2009 to Rafael Nadal. If there is one person who finished strong it is him. The player to win a career grand slam after that defeat and become the player to win highest number of Grand Slams.

Finish Strong, Give the world that comeback!

Video courtesy : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4jVIEeEePo&feature=related

The difficulty of being good

2010-02-28T09:33:00.002+05:30

I am currently reading " The Difficulty of being Good" by Gurucharan Das. Nice read, haven't yet finished it , would post a review after finishing it, but the book does asks a lot of questions. It makes you retrospect a lot. The recurrent question in the book as the title suggests is " Why does a person decide to be good?" Why is the act of Yudishtra in Mahabharta different from that of Duryodhna. What is a man's duty? What is karma?

In its endeavor to answer these questions, the book brings out various arguments. It talks about dharma. Man's duty to his society, family and self. That the duty of a student is to study, that's his dharma . The duty of a Warrior is to fight when he is called upon to, not to question the justness of war or to show remorse to the enemy ( Arjuna's delimma before the epic battle). Why does a Yudishtra decide to spend 13 years in exile as a result of the game which he knew was won by his opponents through deceit. Why does a Karna not go with his blood brothers in the fight? Why does Duryodhna act the way he is?

And while reading the book I asked myself does a person ask himself all these questions before he acts the way he does? In that moment, when one is faced with 2 choices- either to be good or to act as a complete buffon , one doesnot ask these questions. One acts like a pre programmed robot. That moment is always like a flash, the fastest seconds. You don't think that time, something else takes over you and it guides you. That decision which you make without thinking, in that nano second is the one which decides how your life proceed. I have answered this question about what happens in that one moment, but the bigger question to which I always seek answer to is - But what guides the power which takes over to help us take that decision in that Nanosecond?

What?

Aman ki Asha

2010-02-05T18:59:00.005+05:30

Today after one year of maintaining a stance of no engagement with Pakistan, India offered to hold talks. A lot of recent developments happened in the environment concerning the two countries. The case of not a single Pakistani player being auctioned. Personally I feel, IPL is a business preposition and whatever the franchises do with the money they have is their prerogative and nobody's else. Having said that, it was simply poor business for not taking a single player from the side winning the 2009 T20 world cup. If there was any form of pressure from anybody ( Outlook alleges it was IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi ) it is downright shameful. If anything, it robbed Indian fans of some quality cricket. There was however another initiative which marked the new change in the mindset of Indo - Pak relations. It was Aman ki Asha- a peace initiative taken by two largest media houses - The Times of India and Jang on the either side of the border.

Today I was going through the Aman ki Asha section in the Times of India. I had a smile on my face while reading the articles. It somehow felt like, sitting in the drawing room of my grandparents house. Listening to stories of Lahore and phrases like " Jineh Lahore nahi vikheya, ao jamiya nahi " (The person who hasn't seen Lahore hasn't been born yet!). The food, the culture, the language, the festivals. The talk about how women's fashion originates in Lahore, travels to London and then comes to Delhi and Amritsar. And then amongst all this my eyes fell on a picture of Mumbai 26/11. And the thought which came to my mind was - Till when?

We neighbors suffer from a love- hate relationship with each other. We leave no oppurtunity to humiliate the other. And in competition of hospitality, we leave no stone unturned. The dosti series of 2004, the bonhomie surrounding corresponding 2005 PAK tour of India. But as has always been, we are always 1 attack away from war. I dread to think, that while the initiatives are going on somebody is planning the next Kargil, next parliament attack, the next Mumbai.

I had always been hopeful, everytime a peace initiative was taken by the two countries. The iconic Lahore Bus ride ended in Kargil. The 2001 agra summit ended in Parliament attack and operation Pakraman which bought two largest armies in the world eye ball to eye ball. Therewas dosti series of 2004 which changed things, but well one Mumbai finished all that. Its not that I blame the population of the certain country for all that happened. I believe in "non state actors " argument. We had our own for Samjautha express blasts. But considering that these non state actors were ( probably still are) in illicit relationship with ISI. That Jihadi's are meeting openly in POK after all this. That even after facing an increased threat on its western borders, an army general still defines his army as India centric. That here in India, right wing extremists are doubting credibility of one of our finest actors for making statements which were in no way wrong. That we still scoff and feel pride at " teaching Paki's a lesson" after IPL auction. That history books in both the countries paint each other as the enemy.

So I guess, this is what will happen. There will be summits, people to people contacts, editorials written on how this is the best time in the history for the two countries, we will play bilateral series with each other, trade agreements will be signed, there would be a high level delegation where leader of one country will visit another and then, and then there will be one attack. One attack and everything will roll back. The bonhomie, The praises, the love it will evaporate. There will be comparisons of back stabbing by one country to another in both the countries. References will be made about 1971 and 1965 and 1947. The Hippocratic mask which everybody wore for the " Aman Ki Asha " period will be washed away in seconds and in no time we will again have our armies standing eye ball to eye ball. Not saying that everybody does it, thinking about the moment to get even. But as my case, I supported 2004 series and consequent steps. But on 26/11 I wanted to do something, we all wanted to do something and the progress made over the years was held hostage to 1 attack.

So this time, I want to be a cynic who is proved wrong. I won't be too optimistic about this initiative. I would like to be a cautious optimist, because one more attack will take my faith out of the system ( probably its already gone). I really do want to be proved wrong. I really do want someday in the future a person who is reading the blog right now to come to me and say - " I told you so". I really do want a shot at peace. I really do want to visit the land which my ancestors left.

Till then let me view all this through a prism of cynisism and suspicion.

picture courtesy: http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_pics/blog/12-31-2009_424_l.gif

Letting go

2010-01-25T16:02:00.003+05:30

The other day one of my bosses retired from service in the company. He had served the company for 40 years. 40 years of effort, of hard work, of building the company and seeing it grow - coming to end in 1 day. He had a smile on his face, but it was smile as if he was hiding something. He tried to look at everything. Every place in the office, in the plant, in the township had some memory associated with it. Every place had a story associated with it. I was with him for only 3 months. But in those 3 months he made every effort to pass on his knowledge to us new recruits, so that we carry on the legacy. He really cared about the company. And that is the thing that hurt him the most. One day it all ends. You work for something, giving all your life and effort for it and then one day you get a nice party and a thank you for your services.

It is the norm, the way world operates. But then I thought about it. What would I feel or what does anybody feel about letting go? About working for something and one day leaving it all and going? At first I thought it must be heart wrenching. It must crush you. You would be devastated. Looking up at everything and feeling cheated of not getting you due. But then after sometime I thought about it. Its always important to move on. To a new thing, to a new project, a new idea. Working on the same thing makes you obsessed with it and at some point you come to think of it as the owner. Your view and thoughts become stifled and that's what leads to the death of the project. The leader who did not know when to move on. Leaving what you did at its high point is what matters the most.

Even in life, it is important to move on. To move to a new place, a new project meet new people and well leave your circle of comfort behind. It important not to get too close or too attached to people because then like the project the expectation match never happens. Go to a new place, meet new people, have fun with them and move on and then repeat.

Finally as I wrote before it is important to leave at the right moment. Before the disintegration begins. Before you rip everything which you loved apart. Finally it is the memories which you cherish. The stories that you tell and the pride which you take in the thing with which you were once associated with. Today I saw "Quark 2010" advertisement in Business standard. It was a half page ad in one of the highest circulating and most reputed dailies in the country. And I felt a sense of pride while looking at that page. I sense of jubilation. Something which even I personally could not have achieved. I wanted to go out and tell people - I was associated with this once ( I did not, they won't understand :) ).

And that's when I realized why it is important to let go and to move on.

Best of Luck Quark Team - Make me proud !!!

Telangana trouble

2010-01-20T16:28:00.003+05:30

Today Hyderabad again came to a grinding halt because of the call for bandh by the students of Joint action committee (JAC) for separate statehood for Telangana. Most of us, who have followed the news even remotely have our own opinions about the news. And most of the time the opinion for most of the people who do not belong to this region is - Why do they want a separate state suddenly? Even I had this opinion, but well there is no smoke without fire. So I decide to research the topic a bit. Living in the city and interacting with the rank and file in the company also gave me a lot of views. I would first present certain facts:

What is Telangana?

Telangana is a region comprising 10 of Andhra Pradesh’s 23 districts. Originally, it was a part of the erstwhile Nizam’s princely state of Hyderabad. The region accounts for 119 seats of 294 in the assembly. In 1948, India put an end to the rule of the Nizams and a Hyderabad state was formed. In 1956, the Telangana part of Hyderabad was merged with then Andhra state (carved out of Madras Presidency in October, 1953). The remaining parts of the Nizam’s empire merged with Karnataka and Maharashtra. Andhra Pradesh became the first linguistically carved state in the country after Gandhian revolutionary Potti Sreeramulu, on a hunger strike over the issue, died on December 16, 1952.

Reasons for creation of Telangana

1.Telangana was not always a part of Hyderabad. Indian army entered the erstwhile Nizam's territory in 1948 and the region was a part of the Indian Union. It even had it first elections in 1953 before formation of Andhra in 1956.

2.Telangana was made a part of Andhra saying Telugu unites both regions. But people of this region were educated in Urdu under Nizam while people of Andhra were educated in English and Telugu under Britishers, this gave them preference in jobs. This led to heavy influx of people from Andhra into Telangana thereby giving less opportunities to people of the region ( a plank being used by regionalists even today in other states).

3.To prevent large scale protests in Telangana many "gentleman promises" were made to people of Telangana. Incidentally under Nizam there was such a system called "mulki" under which jobs in certain regions were reserved for people of that region.Unfortunately all of these gentleman agreements were flouted and no reservation was given to people of Telangana.

4. GO 36 of 1969 that promised to position Telangana people in 25,000 that were illegally occupied by Andhra people remains unfulfilled even today. During 1973 and 1985 nearly 60,000 illegal positions were awarded to Andhra people in Telangana region. To rectify this, a new GO 610 was introduced in 1985 with a promise to enforce it within a year, but continues to be unimplemented in spite of repeated demands.

7. Nagarjuna sagar dam lies in Telangana region. While initially it was envisioned to have 2 lines one to dry and arid telangana and other to fertile Andhra, only one was constructed towards Andhra. Due to the construction of the dam several hectares of Lime stone mines vanished as part of the dam back waters. Everyone know that lime stone is used for producing cement. Coal mines and Power plant of Srilengi region lie in Telangana but backward parts of the same region Telangana get no power.

8. Of 10 Government medical colleges in AP. 1 Lies in Telangana, other 7 lie in Andhra - Rayalseema region.

9.Congress government had in its 2004 manifesto promised people of Telangana about a separate state. The promise remains unfulfilled even though the central government is in power for second time.

10. 45% of the state income comes from Telangana region. When it comes to utilization of funds, the share of Telangana is only 28%.

11. Two major rivers Krishna and Tungabhadra enter the state of AP in the district of Mahaboobnagar(the biggest district in Telangana) but the district always remains the worst draught hit areas along with Anantapur because there is no project and process with which the water can be utilized. The plans for utilization has been pending for decades.

12. Potti Sriramulu didnot fight for Telangana to be included in Andhra. He fasted In madras so that Madras becomes a part of new state of Andhra. His agitation of the differences in opportunities for telugu speaking people and Tamil in Madras.

Reasons against the creation of Telangana:

1. Most of the Indian states were formed on linguistic bases. telangana and Andhra would be two states with same language.

2. Hyderabad , which would mostly become the capital of Telangana was made by not just people from Telangana. It has investments from Andhra and other regions. People worry that these projects might be stopped as a sign of revenge.

3. Creation of smaller states, doesnot mean problems of people of Telangana will be solved. Try solving water problem between 2 states. Ask TN and Karnatka, they have been trying for decades.

4. Creation of two states would provide the Naxals of the region a safe place to play hide and seek with 2 forces.

5. If 2009 Lok Sabha elections are any indicator, there is not much demand for Telangana. TRS won only 1 seat in Telangana region on the promise for a new state.

6. In 1500's the whole Andhra region was under 1 ruler [Link].

Considering the above arguments. The points are definitely in favour of new state of Telangana. Even the 3 new states which were created namely Uttranchal, Jharkhand and chattisgargh had better growth rates than the states from which they were carved out of. Smaller states can be governed better. But what is not right the ways people have adopted to demand the new state. Calling for a bandh at the drop of a hat. Vandalizing public property. Making life of an ordinary citizen difficult. This would only lead alienation of more people for the cause than winning them sympathy.

The Test

2010-01-16T00:07:00.004+05:30

Isn't there a rush every time you see an oppurtunity to pull someone's leg. The thrill of spotting the moment and striking at the particular moment with that one line is nothing short of pure bliss. So well I am known for being sarcastic ( guilty as charged). Yesterday while I was waiting to load the washing machine- there walks in Jatin and presents the perfect opportunity to strike. Soon he was joined by others and well it was nothing less than a massacre :P. It is then, in that moment while I was on a killing spree ( metaphorical ) I was presented with a challenge - TO SPEND 24 HOURS WITHOUT PASSING A SINGLE SARCASTIC COMMENT!!!

And I accepted it. Why is it, whenever you take an oath, the world conspires against you to break it. As soon as I took the oath, Jayant invited us to view his pics of Chennai- Tirupathi trip. Well he, Pushpendra and Dhiraj had gone to see monuments and temples ( common you are 22, I didnot even go to these places on school trips). The places were surely Nice!. But well the 3 matched the statues on the monuments with their poses. Some looked directly out the great Indian epic ( Nope not Ramayana, not Mahabharata .... yeah you perverts thats right!), in some pics they looked as if being asked to pose on the gun point. But thats not it, with so many people standing, not a single one commented. Nope not one comment, no jeers, no smirks. I had to shout while looking at one especially artisitc pic - " Somebody... Somebody ... Anybody !!!common ". Yes there were smiles on their faces. Not because of the pic, but because of the situation they had put me into.

There was Jatin with his snide comments and provocations to which I couldnot respond. Rohit with his humour about our office , Harshal with his talks on mobile with his boyfriends, DU with his fundas and I couldnot utter a single word. Just had to stand there and smile.It was not over yet.

I got to office and after a meeting people ( ET's) ran after free food and I could not pass a single comment. People came early to the mess for all sorts of weird reasons. And well.

So somehow I got through all this. To make matters easier I came back and slept till I completed my 24 hours. And well they were finally up. SO :-

Jatin: Kam kha mote, dharti ka bhoj kam hoga, phat jayega kisi din kha kha ke ( eat less you ______, there will be less weight for earth to bear, one day you will burst eating.)

Jayant: The person who may even swipe for entry into the plant at 5:45 am so that he becomes CMD one day ( good good). But his love and affection for Pushpa is questionable. One only has to look at Dhiraj for what envy of this " relationship" does to him. Perfect case of Mia Biwi and Woh!

Guru: If he has his way, he would even make chicken run on a treadmill before consuming him. The guy who has a penchant for Tennis, fitness, nutrition and well touching other men ( ghar mein baap bhai nahi hai kya)

Rohit : Well can't write much about him, he has my sympathies for what he goes through everyday and I once every week. Hang in tight ..... just hope one day you don't get a nasal tone and for god sake stop glorifying staring blankly at the screen and making horizontal and vertical lines as designing.

Harshal : DOCOMO gets money for their TV ads through the phone bill this guy foots. EK din boyfriends bhi bhaag jayenge, itna mat chaat unko ( one day even your friends will run, stop stalking them.)

Pushpa ( Pushpendra) : There will be one day when you won't be ragged by colleagues, bosses and Jayant ( normally all 3 happen at once). And for god sake smile in the pics, looks like Jayant took advantage of you in the night and forcibly told you to pose in the pics!.

Vishal: Stop starting the line outside the mess after punching in. It would open only at 11:30. And eat fast! eat fast!

Sravan : One day you will get rid of the over used mop which you pass off as your hair.

and for the rest of the people from the esteemed 37th ET Batch ... G**********************nd M***********************rao!

Disclaimer: all the people mentioned in the above post are fictional, any resembelance to any person living or soon to be dead ( ala yours truly) is purely intentional.

PS: Ok Jatin .... I cheated ... Invariably made 2 comments one to Jayant and one to Harshal ... DAMN! Look at you, all smug!

Demistifying Copenhagen

2010-01-09T20:41:00.004+05:30

Disclaimer: This post and a few future posts will be drab boring factual posts, basically posted so that I understand somethings which I have wanted to understand for a long time but well get confused. Anyways My Blog! My Keyboard :P

So well last month while I was battling a cold and an extremely high temperature ( Yeah I have lived in places like Delhi and Ludhiana and still it was in Hyderabad that I caught cold ... I get that smirk!) there was some climate conference in Copenhagen. It generated so much chatter that I wanted to know " Bhai funda ke hai " ( Whats the deal).

So from I have gathered I will post here, so that next time I don't have to scrounge the net for info.
What is Copenhagen Summit?

The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as the Copenhagen Summit. It was held at Bella convention center ( a hall powered by a wind mill) from December 7-18th. Connie Haggard was the president of the summit and handed over the presidency to Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen in the final days of summit.

What was it about?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has predicted an average global rise in temperature of 1.4°C (2.5°F) to 5.8°C (10.4°F) between 1990 and 2100. This would lead to changes in the rain patterns, lead to melting of polar Ice caps and rise in sea level. A 2°C rise in temperature of earth ( average temperature) would be catstrophic and would be irreversible. The summit if it has to be said in 1 line was aimed at to keep the average rise in temperature below 2 °C. Although a 1.5 °C rise in temperature would lead to the drowning of island nations of Tavalu and Maldives. The Copenhagen summit was important because Kyoto Protocol was to tell Annexe 1 ( 37 developd countries) to reduce emiisions below 1990 level from 2008-2012. A framwork is needed for after 2012.

What was Kyoto protocol?

The Kyoto protocol was adopted on December 1997 and entered into force on February 2006. Under it Annexe1 countries ( 37 developed countries) commit to reduce their green house gases ( Carbon di oxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur Hexafluoride ) and 2 Hydro carbon gases 5.2% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012. The Non Annexe 1 countries have to give general commitments. Main Points:

United states of America has not ratified the treaty till date.
It has no numerical commitments on India and China, the 2 top 5 producers of green house gases today.

The Annexe 1 countries can reduce their effective green house contributions by Trading or buying Carbon credits - EU trading schemes.

What are commitments from various countries?

US: to cut green house gases emission by 17% below 2005 level by 2020 and 83% by 2050.
China : To cut emission intensity by 40 - 45% below 2005 levels by 2020.
India: To cut emission intensity by 20-25% below 2005 levels by 2020.
European Union : To cut emission by 20% below 1990 levels unconditionally.

What were the roadblocks?

Danish Text: On 8th December 2008, Gaudian Newspaper of UK leaked out what was known as the Danish text. It was a secret draft agreement worked on by a group of individuals known as the circle of encirclement, but in reality included a handful of countries - US, UK and Denmark. The draft disregarded the Kyoto Protocol ( only legally binding climate change protocol in the world) which said that rich countries responsible for most of CO2 emissions in the world should lead the climate change initiative. Some main points of Danish Text.

-Force developing countries to agree to specific emission cuts and measures that were not part of the original UN agreement;
-Divide poor countries further by creating a new category of developing countries called "the most vulnerable";
-Weaken the UN's role in handling climate finance.
-Not allow poor countries to emit more than 1.44 tonnes of carbon per person by 2050, while allowing rich countries to emit 2.67 tonnes

The Developing countries were furious and shot down the draft. G77 ( amisnomer consists of 130 countries) rejected it.

2. Major emerging markets like India and China who had voluntarily agreed to cut emissions were asked to have international monitoring for the same. This was not agreed by the developing countries.

3. While emerging economies ( BRIC) were not a part of original annexe1 countries of kyoto protocol and hence had no legally binding commitment to reduce their carbon emissions, they were now one of the highest polluters. The Developed countries wanted more assurances from these economies to reduce their carbon emissions. The Developing economies saw it as a plot to stop their growth.

4. Peaking year - The year by which the carbon emmisions should reach it peak and then reduce was not agreed upon by developing economies. They believed in the concept of Common but differentiated responsibility.

So finally what Happened?

On December 18th Barack Obama ( who couldnot walk away from a conference without having any form of agreement) had a meeting with Heads of Brasil, South Africa, India and China ( BASIC) and they came out with what is being referred to as the Copenhagen Accord. The document recognised that climate change is one of the greatest challenges of the present and that actions should be taken to keep any temperature increases to below 2°C. The document is not legally binding and does not contain any legally binding commitments for reducing Co2 emissions.

The Draft was refused by majority of the developing countries and was not agreed by consensus.

So finally what we have now is a half baked document, showing how the powerful and mighty can be shortsighted. In the anarchy of greed and power the real loser will be earth ( with islands like Tavalu coming first). The combined might of Obama, Hu, Singh, Zuma and Lula could not save the earth. We await Rio with mockery of a document, though after this even from Rio I won't have much hopes. The developed countries saw this as an approach to hold the growth juggernaut of Developing countries at ransom and the developing countries on their part were so paranoid and presented a picture of being victimized that they refused to listen to any suggestion.

We in India are celebrating that Prime Minister Singh was one of the Dignitaries who drafted the Copenhagen accord, but here is my question - FOR HOW LONG?

image courtesy: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01536/copenlogo_1536334c.jpg

The Oh Oh's

2009-12-30T19:08:00.001+05:30

Every year since the inception of this blog I write a year end post about what happened in the past year and what I expect from the coming year. This year too I was about to write about one, that's when I noticed that with this year a decade would end. A decade which is being referred to as Oh Oh's ( yeah the pervert in me did laugh at that :P). Looking back the decade did change me. A lot happened in my life from the raging hormones of teens to the maturity of being an officer in a company. From the challenges of a school child to the four fun filled years of college to the discipline of a job. This decade did transform me from a boy to a man. It had dreams some of which were fulfilled and some remained to be thought about thinking what could have happened. It had me becoming a Mechanical Engineer while attending one of the finest schools in the country. It had 2 crushes and one well... It had defeat, dejection, sadness, hurt and it had glory, redemption, truimph, Joy, Happiness and victory!( more of the latter :P) SO here is a look back at what the Oh Oh's have been like for me ( It may be long, but well my blog, my life, my keyboard :P)

It started with the Y2K scare. The 3 words which had everybody thinking what would happen to all the data, will we go back to the stone age. I still remember how at the turn of the millennium I had gone with my DAD to the BANK at night to see if everything changed over perfectly. The millennium and the decade had started with a pitch dark fog in one the coldest nights I had ever seen. There was zero visibility and I do remember we were once trailing a cow for about 30 minutes thinking it was a car!

Ludhiana! Ah! that paradise. KVM the school where I learned what friendship is. The place where I started with my teenage and also with all the teenage " issues" . Made some awesome friends, had great food ( yeah If you are a foodie do go to LDH) and learnt what aristocracy actually means. The year 2000 the year of Gujarat earth quake, the year of groups with the girls with whom a year back we were having those Boy - Girl fights. It was Nice, life was good, everything was great and then one day Dad came and declared " Nimit, Pack your Bags we are moving to Bangalore ( it was called that then)!) That was the last time I felt remorse about leaving the place. After it, it became routine... move to new place, meet new people, laugh with them, work with them and then repeat the cycle.

Bangalore the year 2001, the cosmopolitan city, the city with the IT crowd. When I first reached the place, I liked it a lot. But well the honeymoon lasted for a short time. after a month I was sick of 5 PM rains, the near non existence of sun and children with tokris rather than normal tiffins. 2001 the year WTC was attacked on my parents anniversary was also the year where I learned a lot of things the hard way. How to adjust with different people, why not to lie ever, Why it is important to follow the rules. I left the city on a sour note. For the first time in my life I had doubts about myself. About what I could or could not do. The only thing which I enjoyed in Bangalore was TENNIS. Yes I am still a lousy player, but whatever little I know, I know because of those 6- 7 AM lessons.

MUMBAI - year 2002- STD 10th. People don't change schools in 10th std. I did. I came to MUMBAI, the city I had visited just once before. The city about which I had only heard or seen in pictures.The city I fell in love with. The best city in the whole wide world. Aamchi Mumbai. That year was one of the best year of my life. Met an amazing bunch of people. Who taught me how to live life. How to party, how to abuse, what to look for in girls :P, how to be loyal, how to face challenges, how to stand up to them. Those parties after every unit test, the birthday which was a surprise to me, those rugby matches... it was all fun. And then in mid January, I was diagnosed with acute form of chicken pox. A month to board exams ( yeah the over Hyped tamasha) and everybody wrote me off. The exams went well ... I was one of the toppers , but that's not what matters. What I do remember is all my friends turning on the day of farewell at my house. Getting me ready ( I had recovered but decided not to go for obvious reasons) and that one line which I would never forget " Tere Bina Party nahi hogi " . It was the year I redeemed myself from the sins of Bangalore. Today I am not even in contact with a single one of those amazing people. But guys if you ever read this - I owe you a lot!

2003- 2005 The years of JEE preperation. The most stressful years of my life. The years where I learned how manage forces, moments, vectors and emotions. The years of stupid geeky jokes. The years of Mini tests. The years of those phone calls where you used to break your head over HC verma. The years when we determined at which rate a chemical reaction would proceed over sharing a McDonald's burger. In those 2 years I learned to survive with pressure. Made some friends who I know would be there always. And then in the Mid of 2005 came the battle for which we had been preparing for 2 years. I missed JEE. Cleared every other exam which I took. and soon would be away for 4 thrilling years of my life. But one thing I still remember distinctly. The Day I took the exam for National Defence Academy. In the evening while playing squash, I twisted my foot and broke all the ligaments. I knew it then that my dream of being
Flt Lt. Nimit Mehra , the name I loved and wrote for 17 years of my life was finished. I was All India Rank 7 and it was of no use. You always don't get what you desire.

But what you do get is sometimes Great. Like the case with me. This was the time, I left home for my new home- BITS Pilani,Goa. The 4 years of my life, which changed me. The place where I learned my first lessons in management. The place where I met more diverse and interesting people than the preceding 17 years of my life. The place which added a dimension to me. In all of this the place which also made me a Mechanical Engineer. There have been so many experiences that I wont be able to justice to them all. But the debates which went till 4 in the morning, the dances of the rejected dancers club in DJ nights, the assignments which were done at the last moment, the strategies which were made before the elections, the posts which were acquired, The clubs which were opened,Waves 2007 and the most memorable of all Quark 2008, the marketing team, Feeding the Fish. There were also loses, defeats, dejections and that 1 incident on the beach which changed me forever. I made my peace with it last year but somewhere it still haunts ....... The 4 years passed quickly and soon it was 2009

2009 - The year of the worst recession to hit world. The same year we were to graduate and sit for campus placements. Those 4 months when a single interview call was a big thing in the whole Batch. When everywhere you looked helpless not knowing about the future for no fault of theirs. The semester when I started running to take care of the pressure. And then came the one moment. The one chance before I had to graduate and I made it. There were much better people than me, who probably deserved it more. Probably I was lucky, probably it was my day... but I was one of the lucky few to graduate from the institute which gave me so much with a job.

And so the innings started in Hyderabad. The place where I started my first job. The place where I knew what working in an office means. The place where I applied whatever I learned in 4 years. The place where I came to know how organizations work. how you command men, how you respect men, how you follow and execute orders and I am still learning.

The decade was great! I did change a lot, learned a lot, redeemed my self many times and tried to fight every battle which came my way having fun all along the way.

Before the decade ended I also confessed what I should have a long time ago and yes it felt nice! It felt great!

SO As the title of this blog says I did everything which I could in oh oh's - I rocked ( pun not intended)

Hope 10's turn out to be even greater and this time I do achieve all my dreams.

IF you have reached till here, Thank you! Happy New year and God Bless!

It has been an year

2009-11-26T19:11:00.007+05:30

It has been an year since my city was raped in front of my eyes while its protectors the swiny politicians and babus kept bickering among themselves about whom to blame. It has been an year since I watched helplessly while somebody destroyed, mauled and played havoc with my childhood memories. It has been an year since we lost our bravest officers for want of better equipment.It has been an year since the media houses feeded on the grief of relatives like blood thirsty vultures waiting get their next sound bite. It has been an year since a bunch of gunmen from an alien country played the dance of death on the very streets where I had spent some of the best moments of my teenage. It has been an year since our necessity and compulsion ws termed our ' resilience' , since we were told that Mumbai will rise, since we were told about the cliched line " The spirit of Mumbai". I was afraid. I am afraid.

What has changed in the past year? The lone terrorist who was caught is still lying in the jail awaiting sentence. Our Prime Minister is having a state banquet in a foreign country. The " masterminds" of the carnage are enjoying state hospitality in the foreign country. The Jacket of one of the bravest officers is lost while his Wife cries for justice. The current police chief takes pride in telling us that his force fought with " every available weapon" and his head doesnot stoop down in telling that, that everything included a chair thrown at an AK-47 wielding terrorist. The Home minister who made the statement " Bade Bade shehron mein aisi choti choti baatein hoti rehti hai " ( such small things happen in Big cities ) is back at his position. The then chief minister who treated an attack site as family picnic is back as a cabinet minister. We have exchanged innumerable dossiers back and forth with Pakistan while no concrete action has been taken.

But apart from these a lot has changed. The lives of those 173 people who were killed that day ended forever. The thousands of lives connected to them changed forever. The rage which was there after the attack subsided. As expected Mumbai learned to mind its own business. As expected Mumbai learned to live its own life knowing very well that very few care.

It has been an year since the night I knew what it felt like to be murdered.

"Do not go gentle into that night
Rage rage against the dying light"

- Dylan Thomas

PS: I was not sure whether I should write this post or not. But well it was something I had to write. Mumbai deserved better. It still does.

image courtesy: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1024/632530852_56ffb00935.jpg

Childrens Day!

2009-11-14T18:35:00.003+05:30

Ok the main motivation for this post is that Sagarika Ghose replied to one of my tweets. But apart from the ego boosting reason for this post, there is a bigger issue staring at us. According to a UNICEF report 46% of the children in our country below the age of 6 months are malnourished. We aim to be a superpower, there are constant reports in the media about the rise of new India, the power of the new redefined Indian. Not debating all of it, but can we achieve total development without making sure that the benefits of the 9% GDP growth for which we are aiming percolate down to the weakest and poorest sections of our society.

We don't have any concrete form of food security in our country. The ration cards are misused, there is mass hoarding and the corruption at different levels. Rajiv Gandhi Once remarked that for every 1 rupee spent only 10 paisa reaches to the those for whom it is spent. We have schemes like Public distribution system, Mid day meals etc but they are either in name sake or if implemented they leave a lot to be desired. What lacks is the nutrition we provide to our children. The sanitation is at prehistoric levels in the interior parts of the country and the drinking water in most parts of the country is not fit for drinking.

Coming to the issue of education in our country. 71% males and 46% are literate ( there is a clear different in opportunities for different sexes, will come to it later). Even 99% literacy, once a pride of Kerela is no longer there. Our government is more interested in opening new IIT's and IIM's or increasing the quota for reserved candidates but nothing about primary education. It is even failing badly in his endeavors for higher education. We don't have adequate infrastructure or quality education in our primary schools. According to a world bank report 25% of school teachers in India skip work. Only 50% who are present actually work. Due to lack of a proper infrastructure most children don't continue their education and thus it indirectly feeds into the child labor problem.

Finally the issue about different opportunities given to the 2 sexes in our country. I am not sure what percent of the 46% of malnourished children are females but I am very sure that majority of them will be girls. Traditionally in Indian homes a girl is always told that she is equal to everybody but in face of constraints they are most of the times treated as second grade to their male counterparts. There is widespread infanticide in India. There are 93 girls for every 100 males in India. Even thought things like ultra sound are banned, dingy clinics in interior parts of the country are still conducting tests and committing these ghastly murders. In places like Punjab and Haryana there are hardly any brides for eligible bachelors. The girl child is India is less nourished, less educated and provided less opportunity than her male counterparts. Even those who make to schools of excellence have to compete in a highly male dominated chauvinistic environment. I have never said it, but I have always admired the girls in the Engineering colleges for the way they conduct themselves in such chauvinistic environments ( requires a separate post.)

So today we celebrate Childrens day. the same way we have celebrated for many years and the same way we would celebrate it for many years to come. But now is the time to move from functions and long speeches to actually take care of that child who tomorrow would be the future of this country. No child should be denied an opportunity. Who knows you might not be feeding the next Abdul Kalam, killing the next Kiran Bedi, not educating the next Indira Nooyi. As the tag line from a famous movie:

Every child is special.

Thoughts of a worked up mind

2009-11-06T18:56:00.007+05:30

Its been been an insanely long time since I posted anything here. This post is part a guilt ridden for not writing for so long, part longing to connect back, part trying to deceive the unexplainable feeling I am having right now and part trying to escape from the daily motions of my life.

When you start with the job your world changes. Suddenly everybody is your colleague. There are no pats on the backs after some nonsense joke ( there are no nonsense jokes). There are no loose talks, no late night chats, no sitting around the mess table not caring about the time and putting all your energies trying to pull the leg of one poor soul. There is no Dc and definitely no main chat. There are no the days when you ask a person waking up and moving towards the bathroom " kitno dino se nahaya nahi " ( How many days has it been since you last had a bath!). There is no thinking about bunking a boring lecture. There is no planning about those last days of the month when suddenly cash seems to dry up. No infinite loans to give and no people to pester about treats.

These days life moves like a flash. Working like a robot from 5 in the morning to 12 in the night. Everything has a schedule and you stick to it. You think before you speak evaluating the possible outcome of the words that leave your mouth and how they might be perceived. You try to please your bosses and not feel awkward when a man thrice your age calls you sahab. You complete the assignments given to you in time. Try to remain busy. You wake up and look prim and proper before proceeding for office. You eat your meals thinking and discussing how a particular force or moment might apply to the member you are designing ( To be fair the lunches are still fun with those 15 minutes afterward where everybody sits and discusses his/ her "job experience" ) You suddenly have so much money that you don't know what to do with it, suddenly that constrained account with debts to paid and 200 rupees accounts to be settled look good.

Yesterday while Sachin ( God) was scripting another masterpiece in what would turn out to be a match of so near yet so far, I was in the common room. It felt like to be back some 6 months back. The shouts, the jeers, the adrenaline , the euphoria at every six and the collective sigh at every wicket .... It felt nice. I felt like 2005A4360G back in BH4 cheering at the top of my voice. Instead I was now a different number, at a different place and at a different designation.

I probably have never worked so hard in my life ever. I probably have never felt so contend in my life. I probably have never run faster or lifted more weights, I probably have never been in better shape. I probably have never read so much in my life. Probably for the first time I have felt what it is like to have a goal and try to achieve it. What it is like to make a comeback.

I miss the things which I have written above, but I would trade them any day for what I am feeling now.

ps: I will make that comeback goddammit.

Diwali

2009-10-17T22:07:00.005+05:30

There is kheer on the table and chocolates around me. The moonless night is bright with more lights than you can imagine. There is mom's home cooked food and there are treats in the Marriott. There are drives to marine drive and there is my cozy bed. I am home, I am in Mumbai. My favorite city in the whole world. It feels good to be back. It feels great to be home. It feels awesome to wake up at 11 in the morning without having the tension of rushing to office. But what feels the greatest of all is to be back amongst the family.
So there are friends whom you havent seen in months to come and visit you, there are more sweets than you can imagine to eat, there are kids downstairs bursting crackers, there are people in traditional attire and there I am smiling - Its Diwali!!!

Happy Diwali to All! May this Diwali fill your lives with Lights and may you have a fruitful and prosperous year ahead!!!

The change

2009-10-15T18:30:00.006+05:30

So here am I at Hyderabad airport. My flight is after 3 hours. I don't know what made me come to the airport so early. But well the airport is awesome.
This is the first time I am flying after I started spending my " khoon pasine ki kamiye" . It feels nice. A lot has changed in the past 2 months and well a lot is the same.

Things which have changed:

1. I am now officially referred to as Oil Rigs technology Engineer. ( Yeah sounds awesome doesn't it?)
2. For starters I have started earning.
3. Getting up at the 5 in the morning so that you can swipe inside the plant at 6:45.
4. People refer to me as Sir. ( The first time that happened I actually looked around me and then realized the girl was referring to me. It is embarrassing!!! all I could do to make up was give a smile)
5. Started drinking Tea ( hate it but it is the only beverage available here.)
6. Started reading about what I should have read in last 4 years. ( yeah I have read about more technical stuff than I had ever imagined.Itna college mein pada hota to aaj kahin aur hota)
7. I party every saturday night ( and by that i don't mean our "parties" in anathashram ( Goa people would understand.) They are proper parties thanks to chillu, Mia, prasun, deepak and (saurabh)^2)
8. I have my own fridge \m/.
9. For the first time I am living totally independently with no restriction whatsoever ( no 11:30 rule, no relatives to answer to :P)
10. I wear a grey coloured company dress.
11. I wear a helmet and like ( actually love) going to the shop floor and well see the things in action.

Things which have not changed

So well there are a lots of things which have not changed in past 2 months.
1. My mom still thinks I am incapable of doing absolutely anything. ( yes she asks me every time whether I had my food or well how do I wash the clothes or ......)
2. Dad still gets me chocolates whenever he comes visiting ( and yeah I still love choclates :P)
3. My fridge as always ( here always refers to home ) will always be full of - Ice cream, chocolates, pepsi and orange juice :P. ( i actually finished a 500 ml carton of baskin robins strwberry before coming here so that it shouldn't go waste :P)
4. I still take time to get used to having so many girls around me. Seriously for first few minutes at the airport my head was just moving in all directions thinking so many girls at one place ( BITS then job ......its like progressive drying up of my prospect of finding a girl.... BHAGWAN MERI KYUN MAAR RAHE HO !!!)
5. I still go to sleep in a mess and then get up at 2 am feeling guilty and then go about cleaning the room before i go back to sleep again.
6. I still end up getting atrocious haricuts.
7. I still have my wierd sleeping patterns.
8. I still end up using Dad'd credit card whenever I find myself having to pay a bill and suddenly short of cash.
9. I still put chocolate sauce in my cereal otherwise I don't like it.
10. 75% of my luggage still consists of dirty laundry.

So thats it. There are a lot more points but the battery is low. And well the airport + people here are awesome. Let me give my eyes some exercise.

Till Then
Adios!

History

2009-09-06T18:46:00.007+05:30

What happens to a society when it starts imagining its history? What happens to a civilization when it has a blatant disregard for horrors perpetrated by it in the past? What happens when we prop up villians and imagine card board heroes? How long can we live in this decadent state where we blatantly refuse to come to terms with what actually happened in the past?

I am referring to the recent controversy about the biography of a leader of freedom struggle ( yes I would refer to him as that in spite of everything, he played an important part in the freedom struggle.) by a eminent politician of a right wing party in India. The uproar was expected. Even a bit of controversy. But what I didnot expect was the jingoism and the insolent disregard shown to the man who served his party for 30 years.

Personally I feel history is victor's story. No king was as benevolent and as peace loving as shown by history and no villain was pure evil. It was just how one side perceived the other and finally the story was narrated by those who survived. Over a period of time rumors become legends and legends become truths. Coming to the topic at hand. I refuse to believe that the person whose biography was written was a pure evil. Neither do I believe that the leaders on this part of the border did not commit any mistakes or were always on the right side of their conscious.

We have this habit of forgetting about all the mistakes a person committed after his death or well in this case all the supposidely right steps he took. But it has been 60 years. Not going into eulogizing the person I want to know what really happened. My family has been a victim of partition. One fine day because of power struggle of a few individuals my forefathers were left penniless sent to an alien land, made refugees in their own country. My grand parents perhaps would never forgive the man. They may also never even agree to hear anything less than pure evil about him. But I do not carry the baggage of history with me. Perhaps I do not understand the pain they went through. Probably never will.

But I think all that is good in some way. I want to know what circumstances led to the fateful event. I want to know who all were responsible. An account stripped of any eulogizing, any jingoism, any reverence to anybody of any kind. I want bare facts. I want to know the real history. Not Somebody's story.

Perhaps If someday we have that account, which I believe the passage of time would give us, if we are mature enough not to get caught in petty politics. One day both our countries may stop baying for each others blood and may finally realize the dream of peaceful coexistence.

Picture courtesy: http://blog.taragana.com/n/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/india-pak-flaggif.jpeg

Things People DO!

2009-09-01T19:07:00.008+05:30

Well long time since I posted anything here. I have signed a document in my company which bars me from writing anything about it, about the country, about my opinion on certian issues ( this one is still not clear ) so well pretty much about everything. So while I was thinking what to write ( you see I love my blog and also tormenting you with all the blabber ), I saw at the vast expanse of people around me ( We have the second largest population in the world, the one thing we are not short of is well men ( and women ... Damn you feminists ) ).

Have you ever noticed, wherever you are you can always categories people on the nature of their behavior. There are well the perfectionists, the confused souls, the " cool dudes ", the losers, The not so sure class and well the list is unending.

So it got me thinking people in a particular category always display same kind of behavior like in a class:

The front Benchers: The no nonsense group. Normally the shirt tucked in kind. Who try to imbibe each and every of the teacher's words. Look upto him as if the next moment he is going to give them the formula of becoming a " chick magnet". To the people on the later benches, the " cool dudes" these are the "losers" but well after the class graduates the equation changes rapidly and the tables turn. Anyhow these people are teachers pets and well 70% of the time teacher only teaches them.

The apparent front Benchers: This group normally consists of individuals who want to study but also have a life!. They normally use the front benchers as cover for hiding their marvel comics, mobile phones, Novels and well anything and everything. Sometimes when they are bored just for kicks they also ask a question to waste time. Most of the time of this group is spent by either pulling someone's leg from their own group or dividing their attention between the procrastination device, the teacher and looking at the people from other sex.

The middle Benches: The people are the most confused of the lot. They don't really know whether they want to study or just procrastinate. In this confusion most of the time is spent making weird theories. Giving stupid ratings to anything and everything under the sun. Doodling on the desk, playing games like book cricket. The the activity mostly pursued by them is well - sleep. Most of the time they would be found in the dreamland conquering new kingdoms and exploring new vistas. The are never in teachers line of sight. Not too front so that teacher teaches them, neither too back so that teacher keeps a cautious eye on them. They are sometimes the unsuspecting target of an enthusiastic teacher who asks them a question. The answer to which is delight to the whole class.

The apparent back benchers: These are the " cool dudes" of the class ( mark the euphemism in the tone ). They would try to act differently. Look at others with condensation especially the front benchers. Passing snide comments is their birth right. They are keen on making plans to get to know that new girl in the class. During school this place was the abode of the bullies- the same one's who stole your lunch boxes and deflated your cycle tires. Their desks have some of the best comments which you can imagine. Some so naughty that they may make you go red. The teacher is always - Budha, sadoo, ganja, khadoos to them and their notebooks would have more games played than the formula's taught.

The Back Benchers : These poor souls are at the back because most of the time they are late to the class ( nearly always) for no fault of their own ( again nearly always). The most common thing about this group is their dress. Sometime they would have two different coloured socks, the shirt being out,a sandwitch which is still being muched in their mouth, the bag half open threatening to spill its contents. They would be scavenging for that one extra pen or a spare sheet of paper. The moment they enter the class they would give the teacher the look of a deer caught in front of headlights. These people at first really do try to come early but well the alarm, the cycle, that person who occupies the bathroom for 1 hour before them always betrays them. At first they feel bad about coming late. Later it becomes a ritual.

So well apart from class. There is another area where you can easily categorize people. That one place the Men's washroom ( No No not that, stop your thoughts you perverts). As opposed to women, talking in men's washroom is an absolute taboo. And so well you don't even acknowledge the person standing next to you. Well every person has a different way of handling his own pee schedule. Here are some instances:

The Racers , people in fast life, people who have to meet the deadline : For them everything is an F1 race. They barge in, go the nearest cubicle, have a race against time to empty their load as fast as they can. Go to the basin wash their hands and then check the time. For them pee break is nothing but a pit stop. The come in have their stratergy decided and leave as soon as they came.

The confused souls: These are the people who don't really know how and why they ended in the washroom. They are baffled when they enter, look around and then go to the basin still not sure why they are here. Look at themselves in the mirror. Then remember why they are here and finally do the job and well go out the same way -> basin -> mirror -> looking around. They even conduct their job in a confused way.

The perfectionists : These are the category of people who have to have perfection at everything they do. Aiming at the correct spot. Aiming and striving to hit the target. Even at the basin their activities are coordinated as if guided by an algorithm. Going to basin opening the tap to have just the correct pressure ... taking right amount of soap and closing the tap well in tap to conserve resources.

The Benched crowd : These are the people who have time on their side. Washroom is like the second home to them. Every time you go, you would see them. They do everything leisurely - From start to the end.

The Why me crowd: This is a set of people who always have something going wrong their lives. When they enter their face is an object of pity. They look around desperately for a place to relieve themselves. Walking awkwardly as if everything that can go wrong is about to go wrong. These people can be a subject of case study for people studying what happens to people when they achieve something they desire. The change in reaction of their face pre and post job has marked difference. What was an object of pity a few moments back keeps giving to the contagious smile of a winner saying - " yes I have done it "

Well there are many more categories of people but these are the most common. There are also many more places where people show their inner characteristics. But this post has gone too long. So I won't torment you any further. Till then let me find more topics I can blog about and well observe more behaviors :P.

image coutesy:
1. http://images.inmagine.com/img/imagezoo/iz130/iz130003.jpg
2. Calvin and Hobbes.

Nimit Hyderabadi!

2009-08-14T18:25:00.005+05:30

God has always wanted me to move, explore the world, conquer new civilizations, meet new people, learn a new language and of course for a foodie like me eat great food. So well after seeing Bhavnagar, Delhi, Ludhiana, Bangalore, Mumbai and Goa, the next stop in this journey is Hyderabad.

Well the ancient city of the Nizams, famous for its biryani, pearls, Golconda fort and in BITS well for not so illustrious reasons :P. Now before you start yawning and think I would be just copy pasting from wikipedia from rest of my post, let me tell you I would not ( though that thought did cross my mind for reviving my blog.) I would try to write about my experiences in the city.

So well roughly 3 weeks here. Have eaten Biryani's, bumped into bitsians while crossing roads, have had awesome chicken and homemade food made by a close friend, been to Hussain sagar lake, have caught the last train back to BHEL, been swindled by an autovalla, have had a sleep over at friends place, eaten so much at a buffet that didnot talk for the next 2 hours for the fear that I might puke, found the Bitsian presumption of hyderabadi "assets" totally wrong, became a "Sarkari Naukar", have had numerous orientation sessions, have watched 2 movies since coming here and the list continues.

Each of these experiences requires a separate blog post and it would be unfair to them to put all of them in one. So well in the coming days, would write about one incident at a time. Till then a lot has changed. A new chapter and new beginning in life in a new city. The city of the Nizam's ..... I think I will like it :P

Mera Bharat Baiman

2009-07-10T13:39:00.004+05:30

The most melancholy thing about human nature, is,
that a man may guide others into the path of salvation,
without walking in it himself;
that he may be a pilot, and yet a castaway.
~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827

What is it about us that makes us always seem so morally right? It seems as if this ubiquitous feeling of self righteousness is ingrained in the the DNA of every Indian. We always want to show the world the ideal way. Thinking of ourselves as the most pious saints preaching the ideals of integrity, faith and democracy to the world. But in reality do we really believe in all these judgments?

Most of the time we come across as self righteous bigots who only want to speak without actually following what we are saying. Take the case of democracy. We call our self the biggest democracy in the world. But traditionally we have always been close the autocratic regimes. The Communist Russia and the socialist block till the 80's to name a few. We have traditionally always preferred military dictator in Pakistan than a democratic government ( here I do agree this is a plain generalization with many reasons for this feeling of mistrust). Or not supporting the struggle for democracy in Burma. We have always been mum and in a lot of way encouraged the Junta government there instead of supporting Aung San Suu Kyi ( An activist who incidentally studied in our very own Lady Shri Ram College ) . We have apparently never made any noises about the dictators in Africa or the recent political unrest in Iran.

Moving away from democracy, there is finally an issue which has united the fore bearers of our culture finally. The infamous section 377 of the IPC. To me personally whatever a person does in the confines of his or her own bedroom is his/her own prerogative until and unless he/she forces somebody against their will. But not so with the octogenarians guarding the "piousness and the purity" of the Indian culture. Never before can I remember this sought of consensus being their in the powerful elite of the country. While prevention of crime against women and children,subjugation of women to the point where are no more than articles in the house by the misinterpretation of their religion does not illicit any reaction from them, this does. They claim it would corrupt the society and spread HIV like an endemic , I fail to understand how?Everyday there is a story of rape, dowry death and polygamy. Incidentally everybody seems mum on it. Somehow letting the perpetrators of these crimes go scott free does not corrupt the society.

We have had terrorist attacks which have killed hundreds. Shattered the belief in our secutiry setup and ruling elite. Yet till now not a single person has ever been convicted of his crimes. There are people who have been given death sentence by the highest court in the country and no step has been taken. Yet recently the government indeed took a step regarding national security of the country. It banned the erotic voyuer site Savita Bhabi. The sites moral issues aside. I fail to understand how it affected the national security of the country. Even considering for the sake of argument it does? Why was it the only one such site of its kind banned. Is it not like the dictatorships in banana republics which impose their own ideology on people?

It is indeed sad that the so called upholders of moral principles are at times ( as we have seen from the innumerable sting operations ) the worse offenders of their own code. This self righteousness kept us alienated from the world of most part of our free existence. If we don't take steps to accept the follies now..... It make go on for an equally long time.

PS: Having written so much negative about us on top, I have to add that this is one of the few countries in the world which allows this sort of criticism and still gives me full rights. And this is the reason why I love this country.

Paths of Glory

2009-05-30T14:47:00.008+05:30

I just finished reading Paths of Glory by Lord Jeffery Archer.Nice book. But, this post is not a review of the book. It about the dreams which many of us have had and which probably have been lost in the sands of time. The book's main punch line is:

" Some people have dreams that are so outrageous that if they were to achieve them, their place in the history would be guaranteed. Francis Drake, Robert Scott, Percy Fawcett, Charles Lindbergh, Amy Johnson, Endmund Hillary and Neil Armstrong are among such individuals. "

After reading the book I thought about the "outrageous dreams" which I had. Since nursery I wanted to be everything -fighter pilot, astronaut, F1 driver, mountaineer, cricketer even for a brief period of time flirted with a idea of being a Cow boy!. Later once even Hugh Hefner's vocation did interest me a lot. But somehow somewhere those dreams started appearing distant, dreams which one sees in his sleep. And then while I was busy minding my equations of motion and balancing two sides of a chemical reaction, they faded in the oblivion.

Sometime last semester I was having a chat with Bala and he said " Do you realise, there are things out there that we can never do now?" I mean thinking about it, I and most of the people reading this blog would never ever perhaps go on the moon, break the sound barier, fly a supersonic aircraft or even ride in the Wild West ( hail hollywood!).

Think about it 10 years ago if somebody asked us a question " What do you want to do in life?", the answer would have been a proper proffession and mostly something like : Scientist , Miss India , Pilot..... . Ask somebody around you that question now and mostly you will hear something like: " I want to the research analyst in the commodities department analysing Crude ". I mean at 10 years how many of us thought that the greatest point in a day in our professional life would be to accurately find when a steel boiler would fail.

Have we forgotten what it was to dream? Or have we made peace the mediocrity? Perhaps we have taken the easy secure way out.Perhaps .......

So there might be dreams which may have remained unfulfilled, there might be vocations which we can never do now. But today before going to sleep think about those dreams, which as a child you once carried in those twinkling eyes. Perhaps you may relive the adrenaline rush you once had just thinking about them.

PS: As for me Hugh Hefner is still out there :P

picture courtesy: http://g.astrology.com/course/dreams/dreams_default.jpg

When Lite was taken

2009-04-30T11:37:00.009+05:30

Well recently the "phrase" in the college is " Lite can be taken". Which is mostly used by 10 pointers to act cool and say " I don't study" ahh " Lite macha " ( I know after reading the above lines how many of you want to beat me up). But well this post is not a 10 pointer bashing post. This post is a story. Its a story of a team , of a group which took lite. A story which spans 3 years and has a confused soul, a desperate entity and yours truly.

Year 2007, Semester 4, Measurement techniques II

So, for the first time Mechanical Engineering came together as a group. The lab was called MTII and I was assigned confused soul (prasun) as my lab partner. The moment I saw him, I thought .... chalo acha hai, sincere boy, will do all the work. Here let me elaborate, when we started we were very sincere. So sincere that the first experiment which was the meaurement of current through a resistor was finished in 2.5 hours. The rest of the groups finished it in 30 minutes. That's when we decided work smart, not hard.

Well I always had an inherent fear of heavy electrical machinery and confused soul with all his topsy turvy funda always used to create fireworks in the lab. One the teacher himself got startled.Soon however that was finished and we moved the electronics lab. Nothing much here except the desperate entity (adi) was more interested in getting help from lab assistant ( so much so that he used to tamper with cro) than doing the experiment.

Then came the most important lab- Civil. Here the funda of reports started. It so used to happen that we somehow invariably always used to get values wrong. So once me and confused soul made a report taking values from some other group. The desperate entity made report from correct values. When the final check was being conducted the teacher himself was confused ( yoyo prasun) how can same group have 2 different values? Will never forget the expression on his face and then on prasun's face.

Year 2008,semester 5 Transport Phenomena II

So somehow we scraped through MT II. Then came TPII. The normal scene in the lab in TPII. Confused soul, standing with the manual looking dumbfounded, staring at the machine on which we have to perform the experiment. Adi chatting away to glory with other groups telling about his MR. Zephyr feats ( well mostly other groups pulling his leg). And me trying to change some knobs hoping that the machine performs the experiment itself. Obviously the values always used to be wrong( Once we had the efficiency of the machine greater than 1). So me and Adi got proefficient at a new art - Random number generation. We used to generate numbers such as 38.62, 54.98, 23.76 and carry out calculation. The graphs were another matter though. Were taken care of by some other values ( galat values pe sahi graph kaise aayega!).

Ohh btw all through this exercise the confused soul would be " Abe phirse experiment karte hain", " Humari phad dega", " Itni efficiency kabhi dekhi hai ", " Yeh graph kaise aa gaya" , " I am confused , samjha mujhe ".

Year 2008, Semester 5, Production Techniques

Well this was mostly an uneventful lab as most of the times we were to not touch the machines. However some incidents did take place.
Once we had to create the mould for casting. For doing this most of the groups normally, sit in 30 degree + heat next to a furnance, dig a lot of mud, then patiently squat and crush it to fine pieces keeping in mind that proper amount of moisture is in the mud and then patiently make the mould. NOT US.

We waited till proefficient people ( have to mention KAKA here) crush their mud into fine pieces. Then we sent the desperate soul to one member of the group. While he would engage the person in his desperate talk about career. Me and confused soul would go and replace the fine mud with ..... well whatever we had. No matter our mould was made first \m/.

Year 2008, Semester 6, Prime movers and fluid Mechanics

This was another time we all were stuck together. Trouble finds trouble, we all had the knack of finding ourselves. So here we were. The expression were the same here, me fiddling with the machine, confused soul looking at the machines as if Angelina jolie lying in all her glory and desperate soul chatting about .... well angelina jolie with everybody else.

The Viva's were memorable though. The first question used to poised to confused soul. I state this and I mean it, I always, I mean always knew the answer to that question. But poor me or well poor prasun, he always got confused, got the teacher confused and well me confused with his answer. So much so that the follow up question asked to me was never really understood by anybody else. By that time, when even I couldnot answer the question, the teacher used to think..... "Poor Dumb Kids" and the next question to Adi always used to be easy. Though I may add there were times when his answers were the most innovative.

Ohh yeah once Adi got so agitated at a proff that he walked out of the lab shouting( yes you read me correctly) " I don't care I am not given marks in one subject. It won't affect my grade." Me and Prasun just stood there watching him trying to cover our asses.

Year 2009,Semester 8, Production planning and Control

Well so the desperate entity left us for ever ( Mara nahi yaar, PS gaya). This time I was the only one stuck with the confused soul. So the classes end and we had to submit a case study.

24 hours before the case:
Me telling everybody else in the group " Yaar kal case karna hai "
Everybody : Lite

18 hours before the case :
BITSAA Farewell, The group is having a pic which would be titled : PPC case study group
Mind you till this time none of us know what the case is, but pic lena to banta hai after all.

16 hours before the case:
We settle in shivam's room to discuss the case. He leaves saying " thoda lite hoke aata hu". When he comes back he is tight. We have read the case and decide " Yaar iske liye to chapter padna padega, lets meet after 2 hours."

The meeting never took place. That day Yusuf pathan hit sixes in super over to make Rajasthan Royals win the match. While that was going on Confused soul was in his room editing and sharing farewell pics, I was having my beauty sleep, shivam and Akshay were taking lite.

2 hours before the case:
Me, shivam and confused soul in the library cracking our brains over what to do? So we divided the case into 5 segments with prasun opening me continuing, Akshay from me and finally shivram and shivam answering the asked questions. We tried to prepare our parts and hope we are saved. For once even prasun wasn't saying " Humari phat jayegi " ( I think he had made peace with that fact.

1 hour before the case:
We are still discussing how to answer the questions, there were 3 options and in last 15 minutes we had actually said this one is the best option about all 3. Till this time 2 members of our group have not come.

45 minutes before the presentation:

Shivram comes, looks at the case, goes out without saying anything.

20 minutes before the case:
He comes back declaring " Ok what do I have to do "

15 minutes before the case:

Akshay comes in " Mujhe kya karna hai".

Somehow we drudge towards the classroom.
and here is the scene. Another group has come with OHP slides prepared.

So the other group finished. They couldnot handle the questions well but an impressive presentation.

Our turn:
Prasun starts goes on for 10 minutes so much so that teacher says " I feel you have explained the case thoroughly, can we have the next person."
My turn:
I come in explain the problems fully and am back at my seat. The people around me ask " Ho gaya"
Akshay:
Does something comes back

Now when Shivram is finishing he is posed with a question. Before even he can answer ( which we knew wouldnt have been possible). Akshay stands up saying.... let me take it. I felt " Ho gaya ab" He says something. Then I come in I blabber for 10 minutes. Then best of all confused soul starts. So much so that the whole class is confused that they cannot remember what the question was.

Shivam finishes and the questions start again. This time we come as a group. Me blabbering for 10 minutes. Akshay adding his own fundas. Shivram giving benevolent smile , Prasun coming towards the end to confuse the questioner and making him forget the question and finally shivam ending every answer with. The book quotes "......", "this is what the book writes."

We finish, happy that we saved the fort.

Yesterday the marks came up and guess what - Our group scored the highest \m/.

And so ended the lite regime. We didnot know what the case was till 2hours before the case. Didnot have ohp slides. 2 group members didnot know what to say and we blabbered, confused and scared everybody to get the max \m/.

This is how we ended the Lite regime.

PS: The post still requires many other instances. Will be added later when others remember.

Das Ende

2009-04-27T07:57:00.005+05:30

So here we are, at the end. The last few days of my Bitsian life. There are farewells all around. You name an organisation and there is a farewell for them. Hell yesterday even the dota players in the campus had something.

I had always envisioned myself that I would be senti, would feel sad and leave this place with a heavy heart. But frankly speaking I am not feeling anything. Absolutely Zilch. Its all like a big blur to me. Going to the farewells mechanically, putting on fake smiles, hooting at the graduation speeches and clicking lots of pictures. Frankly speaking the only remaining motivation for going to the farewells is the food ( The ice cream with hershey's choclate sauce was amazing , thank you BITSAA) and clicking pictures to upload them on various places on the net.

I guess this sem was never the same. Unlike all the other semesters I had in BITS. Nearly half of the people I knew were not on campus. With so less courses, there was hardly the element of pressure ( even when it was there previously I hardly took it :D). Even the euphoria of reuniting with DC died down after a month I suppose ( though I am sure it would be the thing I would miss the most after graduating). There were no activities to keep me busy. What was there were the awesome trips which I took. But that too finished about a month ago. I guess I had, had my farewell already. This was just another reunion for me.

So right now, sitting at the crossroads, hedging my bets.
Eating farewell dinners and writing crap on the net.
Clicking Pictures and saying goodbyes, till BITS lets.!

So before I am elligible for this:

Let me :

PS: I know the poem was bad, but what the hell, my blog my poem.

Image courtesy:1. http://www.bristolsca.org.uk
2. http://www.theonion.com
3.http://www.theauthenticperishers.co.uk

Redemption

2009-03-15T23:15:00.006+05:30

All of us have fears we are afraid to face. The ghosts in the closet about whom you don't want to talk, don't want anybody to know. You try to hide from it, run away from it.... but it haunts you. Like a shadow follows you everywhere, your worst nightmare. You can't do anything, either you run away from it for ever or face it.

Today I visited Agonda beach. For two years the events of October 2, 2006 haunted me. I lost 3 people I knew in front of my eyes and could do nothing about it.I would never forgive myself for that ever in my life. I still remember my last meetings with the 3 of them. The sight of Punit waving his arms. The confusion that ensued, the frantic attempts, the helplessness and finally the decision to return.A part of me died that day , another part was born. The days that followed were probably the worst I had been through in life. One had to appear strong, keep people who were there with you strong, give them a shoulder, not let the people around you feel too broken but inside it was 100 degrees. The feeling that you didnot do anything. The helplessness, the guilt and the nightmares.

Today on the way I got flashes of that day. A part of me wanted to go back while another part of me wanted to face it. I tried to make small talk with my friends but it did not help. As the place got closer the day kept on becoming more clear. And then we arrived there. While walking towards the beach a kind of reel was playing in front of my eyes of that day. Then I saw the beach. Today it was calm, the sun was setting, children were playing on its sand. I looked around and it had changed, there were shacks around enough people around. I sat down and just looked at the setting sun, thinking about everything. Looking around I could still visualise that day but somehow being there was different. I don't know how but it was different. And finally I did something which I never thought I would do. I stood up, took of my sandals and walked towards the sea and let my feet get wet in it.

While leaving I looked back once again. The sun was setting, the day was ending and I thought the nightmares may continue, the guilt may remain always but today I have faced the one of the biggest fears of my life and probably with that setting sun much more may have ended than the day. I thought I had redeemed myself.

Before I end this deeply emotional posts of mine I think some thankyou's should be in order. I would always be indebted to Vishrut, angad, vishal,boxer, Mohammed,Puneet and Purnoor for being with me throughout the next 3 days. To Rao for talking to me and keeping me together as soon as a got back. To Gurveen for making me talk about the incident. To Sethi, Gaurav, Abhinav and Rajat for driving me there today. And finally to the people who were with me on the fateful day for keeping each other strong.

And finally to Punit, Praveen and Hari ..... I am sorry.

Womens Day

2009-03-08T23:31:00.002+05:30

Yesterday was Women's Day. Every Lady in my building went out for an "Women's outing". while watching Tv and various campaigns promoting Women on it, I saw my domestic help and I wondered what does this day mean to her. It is same as any other day for her. Come early, do the domestic work for various houses she takes care of, go home, tend to her wifely and motherly duties and repeat the process again each and every day.

And then it struck me. What is to this day other than a big corporate gimmick to make you shell out more money? Think about our neighbouring country Pakistan. Half of it under the fundamentalists who have bombed more than 100 girls schools. Restricted their movement, imposed sharia law which demeans them to the status worse than that of animals

Or think about the case of hundreds of women in Africa suffering from Aids. Living with no medicine, no way of tending to their kids or saving them from the gruesome disease. Hundreds of women in Darfur have become victims of the raging civil war. Rape a weapon being used constantly in the civil war to humiliate the enemy.

Closer home pick up today's newspaper and you will read the story of two dalit women hacked to death for marrying in the upper cast. Everyday hundreds of women are subjected to domestic violence. Our cities are one of the most unsafe in the world for women. The Lonely Planet guide on India itself asks foreign women not to heed to Indian men or wear "revealing" clothes for they may get into trouble. thousands of women in our country don't have a voice to raise their concerns. No adequate health care, education, violence in every sphere of life. Does this day mean anything to them?

I think Not. But what the hell to all women reading this post ... HAPPY WOMEN'S DAY!

Decisions

2009-03-07T22:48:00.003+05:30

Well Waves started yesterday. 4th and the last waves of my Bitsian life. I don't know whether its seeing the same thing again and again or something else but his time I didnot have any feelings for it. So today I am back home. Anyways yesterday night while sitting in the lawn during the sea rock performance I started thinking about my life and decisions. Well it becomes easier to be philosophical when you are alone, good music is being played at ultra high speakers, you sitting in a lawn which for once is not stinking and the moon is looking beautiful.
There are times in everybody'sife when one hs to make decision. As Kerry Russel Famously put it
"Sometimes it is the smallest decisions that can change your life forever "

Sitting there in the lawn I thought about :

1. Whether leaving NIT and coming to BITS was the right decision?
2. Whether leaving ECE was such a good choice?
3. Was not taking Stephens good choice?
4. Would I have been good at arts ?
5. Should I have gone for NDA?
6. Was putting so much energy into Quark even worth it?
7. Was taking PS in sem 1 a decent choice?
8. Why did i extend going home by 2 days?
9. Why do I decide against letting people get closer?
11. Why am I eating center fresh after dairy milk ? ( Common it is a decision)
12. Why am I sitting here?

Well I don't know the answers to the above questions? The only thing I know that I made my own decisions and therefore am still in control of my life. Depending on how things turn out will answer my questions. Till then I would take refuge in the words of Thorton Wilder

" The more decisions you are forced to make alone, the more are you aware of your freedom to choose "

PS: For those of you who are wondering where the memoirs posts went, I shifted them to my wordpress blog.

The Pinkness of it all!

2009-02-18T19:12:00.003+05:30

Pink! That's the colour colour everyone is embracing these days. You can see everyone talking about it from the out of work investment banker at Nariman point to hello ji blonde in sector 17 Chandigargh to Dud from Cannaught place Delhi to the techie from Brigade Road Bangalore. It is cool to take off a pink colour underwear and post it to the oppressor of the free world, the progressive thinking and forward thinking, pub going loose women ( the last one is a facebook group, i kinda like the name ( now my chances look nice !) ). Mr. Muthalik and his goons of Sri Ram Sena ( Heck why do the goons always try to malign the name of God) would probably not need to buy an underwear for next 3-4 generations. I mean thinking about it they will have use and throw underwear, no need to wash ( some of my neighbour's ultimate fantasy).

But on a serious note what has this sending of chaddi's achieved? It is gandhigiri at its best, but I do have my doubts about gandhi ji approving sending of videshi jockeys and victoria secrets ..... swadeshi langots would have a better option.But apart from giving underwear and lingerie manufacturers unusual profits in recession and Mr. Muthalik unlimited supply of chaddi's what has it done? Well for one it has made Mr. Muthalik a person who till yesterday was able get only 4 journalists ( most of them out of work ) to his press conference is now giving speeches on prime time national television. It has worked the same way as he wanted it to work. Beat up upper middle class women while they are at the pub. The elite sensationalising Indian media would pick up the story ( well they dont care about torture and exploitation of hundred's of downtrodden women .... they just don't make good stories). Instead of focusing on the issue at hand and damning the accused to the police, they would run SMS campaign's titled " Kya humari Sanskriti ko valentine's Day Banana shobha deta hai ? haan ke liye 1 na ke liye 2 ". They would get the villain to give his inflamatory speeches and make a celebrity out of him. A few well meaning individuals would try to go against his tyrannical acts and start some sort of a movement. The youth will catch on and in a few days time it would become cool thing to do same way as probably a decade back celebrating valentine's day did.

I am not against the movement, but frankly speaking I don't see the point in it. The next I see is Mr. Muthalik and his Ram Sena using the Hindu sanskriti concept and winning seats in elections ( remember they are in Karnatka and playing the Hindu card would buy them votes...... Communal violence anyone?). He would go on national television and claim that the wayward youth of today have no morals and are taking off their underwear and sending them to an unknown individual. The still conservative Indian masses would listen to him and voila! he has a vote bank. In a few years he would realise the next big step is youth. This time he would forget his grudges against the pubs or drinks or partying or valentines day. The target would be somebody else. MNS did the same. Two years before their formation they tore up archies gallery on V day and now they say V day is a youth festival.

On top of it how does sending an underwear signify anything to do with V day ( not that silly V day children's joke again. ) These goons or political entrepreneurs trying to create their vote Banks should be handed over to police, not made celebrities of and certainly not being sent underwear's ( which last long long really long) For now i see Muthalik as have taken full advantage of his moment, The pink chaddi guys going back to their lives.... you reading this mundane blog and me giving my point of view after 3 months. the only person who benifitted from this is Mr. Muthalik think about it national television, a new political party, a ready vote bank and unlimited supply of underwear ( even if his party doesnot perform his lingerie shop definitely would from left over chaddi's) and to me the pink chaddi campaign is :

picture coutesy : photobucket.com

Need for a democracy with action

2008-12-03T20:11:00.008+05:30

It has been exactly one week since the first shorts were fired in Mumbai. An attack which was to become the most devastating terrorist strike to have ever been unleashed on India. After the attack I too like most Indians was enraged and angry at what had happened. I too demanded action. Today i see in show of solidarity, thousands of Indians gathered at various landmarks in their respective cities asking for the same thing. Throughout the week i was thinking what action can we take. Today hearing the people I heard they demanded two actions.

1. Attack Pakistan.

2. Get in the army to rule the country and clean the system.

I hold reservations to both the above views. I would be lying if i wrote however that the two views did not cross my mind.Attacking Pakistan would be disastrous for both the countries and about which much has been written. The cry for the second demand somewhat scares me. But I am a firm believer in Democracy. Here are the reasons which i feel democracy is important to us.

1. The world has seen many military governments. There hasn't been a single military government which has suceded in fully heeding to needs of the people. In many countries which had military governments, the people initially welcomed the military. But later the militarise grew autocratic. Most of the time they left the country in much more dilapidated condition than before.

2. The reason perceived by Indians as the major source of trouble Pakistan, has always had filmsy democracy including today. We have always prided ourselves that in spite of being so much different in terms of race, religion , language and creed from fellow Indians we have governed ourselves and have placed trust in our democracy. Our political class ( no matter how low they have fallen) don't have the fear being assassinated by our military because their ideologies don't fir in the larger plan. We don't have a intelligence unit in our military for monitoring the " political class" and rigging elections in the way in which military masters desire.

3. I have the highest regard for the Indian Army who have always kept the honour of the country above everything else and have respected each word in the phrase Secular Democratic Republic of India. Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw once famously remarked to the then Prime Minister of India Mrs. Indira Gandhi " Don't you think I would be a worthy replacement for you, Madam Prime Minister? You have a long nose. So have I. But I don't poke my nose into other people's affairs." when asked by the latter if he was planning a coup on her.

4. The last thing which we want is power in the hands of a few individuals who are not answerable to the people. We have a great respect for our Armed forces but we don't want to corrupt them with power.

5. We have been describes as the fastest growing free market democracy. US president elect Barack Obama said " India's democracy will truimph over terrorism. " Democracy is the biggest weapon which we can yirld in the global diplomacy. It gives us a moral high ground. Of course we don't want to lose the biggest moral weapon we have.

The problem is not Democracy, it is the people who get elected through it. But finally what is democracy, it is - " A government of the people, by the people and for the people. " and the people here are the people of India. We all say that politicians have let us down. But who selects these same politicians to the highest office? How many people reading this blog have voted in the last election or have registered themselves to vote?

When I asked the above question, a lot of friends replied " what is the use". " Remove one politicians and some other equally bad takes over". Well how do you expect a person to take " action" when you haven't yourself taken the action which you should have. And by the second action i mean register yourself for voting. Take the first step and believe me the system will improve. Recently I was reading " The elephant, the tiger and the cellphone" by Sashi Tharoor. In this book he makes an observation that while in other democracies it is the uneducated and the poor which do not take part in election process, in India it is the opposite. Here we celebrate the election day as a holiday. How can you then expect the people who didnot even consider you as a vote bank to do work for you? Exercise your right and then go after the people who you put to the office.

Well this was all about democracy. But I did think of a few actions which we could take.

1. Increase the number of people in intelligence agencies. We have just 3500 people gathering intelligence for protection of 1.1 Billion people as compared to the FBI which has 12000 for 300 million people. link

2. Make the gathering and most importantly the sharing of information between various Intelligence and armed organisations of the country seamless. There were reports that intelligence inputs were recieved. All the leads should be verified and acted upon.

3. Make the Army and intelligence agencies a more attractive career option. The National Defence Academy is not able to fill up is required quota of seats. There is still a controversy about the pay given to the armed forces in 6th pay commission. We have to give our soldiers their due. Praising them without giving them anything else is all but Hippocratic on our part.

4. Try to get minorities in the main stream and assure them that the pogo grams of 1993, 2002 and the killings in various states in 2008 will not be allowed to repeat. We have to get them into confidence and prevent the foreign rogue elements from claiming to represent them and exploiting their youth.

5. Modernise our police force and usher in police reforms. Our police is still following police act of 1861. We have to reform it in order to get our police force be able to tackle the global threats which 21st century poses.

6. Upgrade the technology used by our armed forces. We lost 3 of our brave officers because the jackets they wore were faulty. Our police fought terrorists for 9 hours with vintage 303 rifles. We have to better equip police forces so that they may be able to tackle the challenges of today.

7. Reduce the number of elite gaurd gaurding the politicians just seeking status. Realistically review the threat and then assign the gaurds. Ask is their a need for assigning the elitist force in the country to that individual?

8. Make special department like SWAT and in our police forces and equip them properly. I personally am not of the view of having NSG in various cities as it may dilute the training needed.

9. Provide NSG with a airstip at Manesar itself with a plane devoted only to them. We have to train our commandoes in Urban Combat which has emerged as the new front on war on terror.

10. Coming back to intelligence we have to increase the allowances such as khabri allowance given to our police officials. The sum given is a paltry figure ( i am at a loss here to find a citation) but it is said to be so low that even the info for one khabri cannot be paid through it. Increase the partnership of local citizens in gathering information and take them into confidence.

Now the points will be a bit radical.

11. Form a joint intelligence platform with countries affected by terror originating from Pakistan like US, Isreal and UK. With the help of these agencies strike just the targets in the Neighbouring country. Pakistan anyways denies the presence of those people on their soil, they would have to deny even after their death. Covertly strike training camps across the border.

12. Get more proactively involved in lobying our case with the world. Get more pro active with the western media. It is said that even after being one of the most educated communities, Indians have not been known for lobying about their own cause. We have to get the sympathy of the world in help us in pointing out how their funds are being used against us.

These are just the steps which i have mentioned. I am sure many reports lying in the south block also must have suggested them in some way or the other. The point is we have to implement the steps fast. We have to see changes being taking place ( resignation is a start but hardly a change which should be needed.)

These our tough times and call for tough measures. The last time such a situation happened we had a Gandhi to lead us and not waver, a Nehru to keep his ideals intact and a Patel with his iron will to unify us and answer the world confidently. Where are our Gandhi, Nehru and Patel of today?

I will remember

2008-12-02T11:27:00.006+05:30

A poem by Sanjay Trehan, This time we will remember.

This time I will remember
A mother caressing her dead son's forehead
Preparing him pre-maturely for his final destination

This time I will remember
Innocent diners lined up and shot at point blank
Caught in somebody else's war

This time I will remember
Blood splattered walls with grotesque imagery
Freshly burnt flesh shattered mirrors and broken lives

This time I will remember
A mother and her two young kids charred beyond recognition
While the Dad put public good ahead of the personal

This time I will remember
Gun totting terrorists creating mayhem on the streets
Target practicing at a railway station

This time I will remember
Backpackers at a cafe or receptionists at a hotel
Reduced to pieces for no reason

This time I will remember
How like vultures our politicians encircle dead bodies
And feed on the rotting flesh

This time I will remember
How netas usurp Z class security at our expense
And let us be killed like flies

This time I will remember
How our oily babus clamour for promotions
While a plane for commandos is buried in files

This time I will not forget
I will let my wounds fester
I will continue to rage against these parasites
I will demand accountability
I will not allow countless lives to be broken
I will not allow politicians to divide us

This time I will remember
And I will prevail.

- Sanjay Trehan

A Nation needs to awaken

2008-11-29T21:25:00.014+05:30

How many attacks does it take for a nation to wake up? How many lives of innocent people and brave soldiers need to be sacrificed before we say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH? It has been 72 hours since i have been witness to the mostly ghastly act of terror i have ever seen being unleashed on my country. My CITY burned for 60 hours before the last terrorist was neutralized. 10 terrorists yielding AK-47's and hand grenades stomped and pounded on the very heart heart of India. They attacked the Taj Mahal Hotel among other targets, a hotel which was built about a 100 years ago to assert our dignity when JRD TATA was refused entry into the Watson Hotel as it was " whites only". They walked into CST, Oberoi, TAJ, Chabad House and left the very foundations of this country shaking. As a citizen of this country I am forced to ask myself a question now which i never thought i would have to " Am I safe living in this country".

I salute the brave soldiers of our defense forces, who laid down their lives in the line of duty. Their sacrifice is a debt this nation can never repay. The 14 police personnel who laid down their lives trying to fight an enemy much more superior to them in terms of weaponry and ammunition. For 9 hours the policemen were fighting terrorists yielding Ak 47's and semi automatic weapons using a vintage WWII time 303 rifles. The police force didnot have enough bullet proof jackets to engage the enemy. The brave fire fighters who doused the flames had only 2 bullet proof jackets for the whole force. Even the one's which were there were vintage and according to people who have worn them were so heavy that it is difficult to move in them. But who is to blame for all of this? The government yes, definitely. But at some level also us. We are the same people who cry foul when we see increase in the defense spending. How many times we have groaned on being frisked a little extra. We need to immediately have police reforms, give better weapons and Armour to our armed forces. Give them autonomy and not wait for a state order to save the situation. We cannot fight a first world war with third world armory.

Finally our spineless politicians, who just have one objective- to hog enough limelight so that finally they can warm seats in the parliament. Every time something happens our politicians are there to spread their divide and rule agenda. The home minister is more worried about the clothes he wears. Our President goes to Indonesia at the time of national crises. The politicians couldn't even come together in this hour of need. Their hate politics. The same politicians who were accusing the brave police officers of leading a communal probe were announcing 1 crore compensations for their families yesterday. What right did the politicians have to visit the scene of action and actually divert attention from the encounter to their own security? Why did it take 5 hours for the government to call in the NSG? Why were the services of the MARCOS secured so late when they were stationed in Mumbai? Why every time a terrorist attack takes place in the country we hear a sleepy politician declare " We will learn from it ". When the hell will you stop learning and start acting. The operation has hardly gotten under control and we see our politicians politicizing the issue. It was THE SOVEREIGN REPUBLIC OF INDIA that was attacked and not a particular community. Any Indian whether a Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian or any other religion suffered in the same way and shared the grief of Mumbai in the same way and ANY Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian who attacked India, helped in attacking India, dividing India on any basis and trying to cause disruption in any way, is an enemy of INDIA and must be dealt in the same way.

I as a Mumbaikar and more importantly as an INDIAN am shocked, angered and not able to comprehend what has happened to this city in 72 hours. We need action and we need it now. The time for hearing soothing words has gone long back. We need to be assured that this was the last terrorist strike on the soil of this country and something like this wont happen again. We need a central intelligence agency which is effective and efficient in gathering and sharing of information. We need politicians who for once transcend the ideological and political boundaries and assure us that in this hour we stand united against the enemy and will in all power fight it and defeat it. We need our security forces to be given their due. We need them to have the weapons which they need to fight the terrorist and just not gallantly put themselves in the line of fire trying to save innocent lives. We need all of these BUT WE NEED ACTION, stupid committees and long reports from which no outcome comes won't satisfy us. If our neighbour still asks for more " hard " evidence even after the obvious evidence of a citizen of its country affiliated to an organization based there is arrested and is confessing freely, then there is no point in expecting them to act. If necessary we need to eliminate the target ourselves as some leading intelligence agencies in the world do.

At this hour, we all need to come together and express our solidarity with Mumbai. We will fight, We will help Mumbai stand on its feet and We will win the War on Terror.

Mumbai 26/11

2008-11-28T09:36:00.002+05:30

Hope and pray that hostages in Mumbai come out alive and the the people responsible for this ghastly act burn in hell. Shocked, amazed, disbelieved.

Outsider or Native?

2008-11-01T15:15:00.000+05:30

Well the past few days we have seen the ugly face of regionalism being played out in front of us in our drawing rooms. A person who was not given his "due" (as according to him) broke away from the place in which he honed his criminal ( i could have said political but i think criminal fits better. ) skills and in his desire to fit into his uncle's shoes repeated what the greying man had done 40 years back. The result for him has been, i feel even better than he expected. Leave apart local media he is seen on national telivision terrorising innocent people giving speeches which violate numerous of Indian laws ( alas only the police of the concerned state cannot find the clauses.)

In all of this it makes me wonder who am i? An outsider or a native? I am domiciled in Mumbai, so you would say i am a Mumbaikar. Well truly speaking even i consider myself so, but here lies the catch i don't know marathi. The only miniscule marathi i know is credited to travelling in BEST bus. Well so what does it make me according to you? Thats not all though my driving licence says i am from mumbai, my passport has a Bangalore ( Bengaluru ) address. My mother's passport has Ludhiana address while my Dad's has Delhi's. My birth certificate says is from Delhi, my Dad's Birth certificate is from Nainital. I am a Punjabi ( that's what my family told me ) but nobody from the family lives in Punjab. I have changed 7 schools and 4 different states. Currently i am interning in Delhi, after studying in goa for 3 years ( would head back there for another 6 months). My ancestors trace their roots to Lahore.

Makes me wonder what would happen to me if our government in its usual schiziophrenia passes a rule saying Maharashtra for Marathi's, Bihar for Bihari's , Bengal for Bengali's ...... and so on ? About Mumbai well the city the politician claims to produce sons of the soil actually didn't have any soil till about four centuries back. Bombay was a collection of 7 islands. It's wealth has been accounted for by Gujarati and Parsee traders. Before 1960 there was no Maharashtra, the state of Bombay constituted of present day Gujarat and Maharashtra. So Bombay was in itself cosmopolitan right from the start. Even today the "outsiders" greatly outnumer the " son's of the soil" in the city. Finally about the politician himself. He says " whosoever doesnot speak Marathi has no right to live in Maharashtra and should be thrown out." Well I have never seen you speaking in Hindi, the national language of the republic of India, going by your argument and drawing parallels...... shouldn't you be thrown out of INDIA?

Ps: Here is one thing you cannot change:

I have an election card which says i am entitled to vote in Mumbai, so be assured there is this 1 vote against you.

A lot of bleh

2008-10-14T12:11:00.000+05:30

Well its been an insanely long time since i posted something on my blog. Part of the reason was that I did not feel like blogging and another part of the reason was that there were too many things happening around, so all the time on the computer was spent reading blogs written by others.

Well so a lot has been happened since i wrote my last post. The global financial crisis due to which there are no surviving stand alone I- banks. The US presidential election and all the focus on what a particular nominee said 20 years ago. The signing of the nuclear deal. The communal violence , Delhi bomb lasts ... catching of the " master mind" and the following week another bomb blast. So what will i write about?

Well a little about everything.

So September 15, Lehman Brothers filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, Merill lynch got taken over by BOA and in a few days AIG was " nationalized" , Washington mutual was taken over by JP Morgan, A 700 billion bailout plan was declaring for " nationalizing " US... 2.3 trillion by EU for itself..... Well the list is endless, But in all this people in India were always saying " We are insulated" from the global crises.

I for one beg to differ.

1.Firstly the reason that they give is that we were insulated during the Asian financial crisis of the 90's.

Now first of all. We only opened up our economy removing it of restrictions in 1991 ( in July our fiscal deficit had reached $69 billion a third of our GDP). At the time of financial crisis, we were still in the process of opening up. Our growth rate was still at 5 % . So technically we were not coupled with the world as such.

Secondly the reason for the Asian economic bubble was that in late 1980s as according to wikipedia was

" The economies of Southeast Asia in particular maintained high interest rates attractive to foreigninvestors looking for a high rate of return. As a result the region's economies received a large inflow of money and experienced a dramatic run-up in asset prices. At the same time, the regional economies of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and South Korea experienced high growth rates, 8-12% GDP, in the late 1980s and early 1990s "

Now as opposed to this foreign investment in India was not encouraged as it is now. So the prime reason which led to the economic bubble of the Asian economies was not even a factor in India and hence India could not be affected.

2. The second reason why i feel that we are not insulated from financial crisis is that one of the main reason for 2003- 2007 bull run in our markets was the huge FII and FDI inflowls. Now these same institutions were facing liquidity crisis back in their home countries ( primarily US) and had to maintain margins. So where do they look for money? Obviously the emerging markets and that's us ( looking at 50 % fall in our indices how can anyone say that we are insulated.)

3. Our great performance for the past few years was basically because we were a knowledge powerhouse rather than a manufacturing powerhouse as China. Our companies provided the offshore facilities to many giants in US and Europe and made huge profits on the conversion rate. Due to this economic crisis, these very companies will be the first affected. Many of them are seeing their major customers being acquired or going bankrupt. This will lead to loss in revenue ( thought the dollar has appreciated a lot in last few weeks.)

4. Finally the great truth about money is that money travels. The world is facing a Major liquidity crisis. People don't want to lend and others don't have money to repay. There is shortage of loans, leading to a halt in growth of the companies. The companies who invested here are withdrawing the money at a rapid pace , leading to the weakening of rupee.

Though I agree that the fundamentals of our companies are strong. There books are not in bad shape. I also believe that we will weather this storm better than others and will come out bleeding much less than many others. But i don't think that we are insulated from global crises.

Well recently another thing which has been occupying the sound bytes has been the Presidential election of the United States. I must confess, this is the first time i am following the American democratic process. What amazes me is the way people judge a candidate more on his stand about various issues than from where he comes. Just thinking about it, I cannot help but wonder , do we actually see how the particular MP representing Us voted on a particular Bill. What are his views on reservation in colleges, smoking ban, communal violence or even how does he plan to tackle the problem of pot holed roads in his constituency? No we don't. How many of us even know who is the MP from our constituency.

This is the primary reason that all the politicians have been taking us for a ride ( here i am not saying the politicians in US don't do the same for their people) . And so we see parties not supporting each other on a development project because if it happens ... it will steal their mojo. The chief minister of a state canceling a rail factory in her state because it happens to be in the constituency of the leader of another party. A world class project is forced to shift because of short sightedness of the leader of opposition of that state.

What amazes me more is the way Obama has come up inspite of his back ground. Here we may say that we have had a woman president, a Muslim president, a lady prime minister. But we all know they were either the holders of a family legacy or were put up to shout about the " secular " Tag. It was much akin to how Palin was chosen as the Vice presidential nominee. But here is a person who truly rose battling all odds.

Well yesterday was the meeting of the national Integration commision. As usual nothing came out of it. The only thing that we can say for concrete which happened was the wasting of tax payers money. We have a peaceful community being threatened, burnt coaxed by the facist groups belonging to the majority community. The party close to the facists refuses to hear anything against them. The ruling government is terrified because banning the outfit ... they fear would mean alienating the majority vote. Everybody else keeps quiet because it doesnot affect them. I don't want to sound cynical .... but this is how taliban started in afghanistan in 1990s, the Nazi party started in germany ..... and it finally affected the very people who kept quiet.

I want to quote some lines by Pastor Martin Niemöller

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

There are a lot more topics i want to write on but i am burnt out now.... rest for the next time.

A nation in denial

2008-09-07T17:45:00.000+05:30

" It's not denial... I am just selective about the reality I expect "

- Bill Watterson ( author Calvin and hobbes)

Well things couldn't be any great for India currently the nuclear isolation has ended, we will have a nuclear deal which will take care of our power needs soon, the jammu Kashmir deadlock has been resolved , Nano will most likely stay in Singur ..... and whats more crude has come down and today itself the stock market bounced 527 points. Things are finally happening our way.

Thinking about the paragraph i just wrote above and Bill Watterson's quote i cannot help but think how true his words are. We are a country which is selective in the reality we wish to know. A major river changed its course after 400 years uprooting 12 districts , snatching livelihood and resources of 30 lakh people and the country wishes to keep quiet. A woman is burned alive in an orphanage she runs because of community clashes between two groups and nobody even cares to run the story at prime time. Every few weeks a farmer commits a suicide because of the loans he has taken and we play advertisements saying " Record paidavar ".

Have we become so insensitive to the issues that we don't even care what happens to our own country men ...... rather we are interested in what Palin said at republican convention? Is the allegation that India cares only about the rich and the poor don't have any say or any rights in the world's largest democracy true?

Currently as i write half of northern Bihar is reeling under the wrath of Kosi. There are people still trapped ( this is after 2 weeks of rescue operation ). Thousands of people have died , Lakhs are missing. Villages and towns are marooned . The Prime minister has declared it a national calamity. Is this how a nation responds to a national calamity? The prime ministers relief fund has just 30 crores. The chief ministers relief fund has 10 crores. This money wont even support a village leave apart the affected area. Nearly all the flooded land is feared to become barren where nothing can be grown for 20 years. Still most of the news channels don't find this interesting enough to bring to the people. They run statistics as if it was mental calculation contest and move to the next " More interesting news" . The food packets are not reaching properly, The able bodied keep on getting it again and again while the weak and the old are left to fend for themselves..... looking with sad dried eyes at the last morsel of food left for them to survive.

The last time I checked we were a Democratic secular Republic. Still there are live burnings of a Nun working in an orphanage. For what ? To avenge the death of a spiritual leader by her community. The two communities are currently baying for each others blood. Talks about anti conversion laws to be passed are on. It is alleged that the government knew about the "actions" which the "majority" would be taking but still decided not to increase security. The news channels themselves decided to give it a passing mention. The tribals in Orrissa are allegedly "forced " to convert to christianity by missionary and some people have become their self styled defenders. The government has kept mum about all the violence.

It is said that if the above things had happened in some rich states like Punjab , TN .... etc.. the reactions would have been very different. But because it happened in poor states like Bihar and Orrissa ...... nobody cared. "Let the poor die ..... who cares ? " "We are a country of a billion a few thousand less wont harm. " "They must have done something that's why this happened ". Though not said ,.... it appears this is what how the country thinks.

Well enough of media bashing. But who are the real culprits? US ... yes it is we who get hold of the remote and switch the channel at the first sign of people crushing one another. It is we who don't care about what happens thousands of kilometers away. And finally it is our perception what forced the media to show what they do.

Finally it is time to retrospect and ask " Is the really the country I feel proud about?" Is Mera Bharat truly mahaan.

Thousand of people are marooned in Bihar asking for your help contribute

Help in any way by contributing to the :

Indian Red cross

Prime minister's relief Fund

Chief minister's relief fund.

Are we coming of age?

2008-08-21T14:28:00.000+05:30

A Recent survey pointed out that one of the differences between the developed and developing economies is the way they view group dynamics. The developed economies view individual successes while the developing economies view the group behaviour as a whole. The survey was conducted by asking americans and asians to look at behaviour of fish in water. While americans described how the biggest fish in the pond looked, its coulor and other features. The asians described how the fishes moved together as whole in the pond.

So how does this survey connect with medals shown in the start of this pic. Well yesterday India won a bronze medal atr wrestling and got assured of a medal in boxing. This took our total medal tally to 3. Something never heard of before. But this olympics has been unlike any other previously. Leaving apart the total number of medals, it is different in many other ways. All the 3 medals which we have got have come in individual events. Ironically for hockey India's bastion in which we won gold medals ..... we didnot qualify for this year's olympics. Is the the way we think changing? Are we moving away from viewing our achievements as group to actually giving weight to individuals?

I believe yes. There is a paradigm shift in the way we are talking about success. For the first time i hear our national TV channels talking about London 2012, this too when 2008 olympics have not even ended. Our sportsmen eyeing the London games. We know the names of Saina Nehwal , Akhil Kumar , Jitendar Kumar .... who were this close to a medal. We are exuberating confidence. Yes, there is definately a change. Cricket has taken a back seat .... atleast for a while. Yesterday India won over Sri Lanka, but it was not the main news in the sports segment. It was given a passing mention , like used to happen to countless other sports previously. The story of the day were medals.

Another intersting phenomenon. This displayed what we as a country are. A country of dreams. A country where boys from Bhiwani can dream about a medal and fight it out , even fighting all odds ( sadly one of them .... the poor state of infrastructure ). 2 out of the 3 medals we have got have come from people with modest backrounds. " Dream are not what you see while you sleep but those that don't let you sleep" - A quote by Akhil Kumar. How many of us would have expected such a quote from a boxer? But here it is, the man who defeated the world champion himself .... riding among other things one his self determination and belief.

Finally not to forget about the crown itself - The Gold. 112 years and we finally broke the Jinx. I still get goosebumps whenever i see the video of flag going up and national anthem playing on youtube. A person who came back from an injury to secure a gold. The reply " Its not a big deal, I am just amazed why has it taken us 112 years to get 1 " .... probably shows the spirit of new India.

Have we arrived? No , We still have a long way to go. 3 is a start ..... Micheal Phelps himselfs got more medals than us :D . But yes we are coming of Age. The story of new India has just started.

PS: On a lighter note ..... Probably our own Haryanvi Jaats considered Bhiwani , Bejing ka Akhada. Who knows one day you may find a jaat with a smoking beedi , chewing a datun , draped ina shawl moving his bufaalo through streets of bejing. " HURRRRRR HUK HUK ...... oye haka noodles ( to some chinese ) side mein hole ..... road thare baap ki hai ke "

all it does is reminds me of my tryst with Haryana ..... those 2 weeks at NIT Kurukshetra.

R.I.P

2008-08-14T15:43:00.000+05:30

Well in everybody's life there comes a time when one has to let someone go. Some one who was always close to you. Who was with you when you needed somebody the most. Some one who shared all your joys and sorrows. Some one with whom you celebrated every valentine's day. I also had some one like that in my life - my Laptop.

It was the winter of 2005, I had come home for Diwali vacations, it was then that i first laid my eyes on it.... and it was love at first sight. From then started the journey together.

For 3 years it never let me feel the shortage of girls in BITS. Took full care of entertairnment - movies, Tv series ..... etc. Even this blog was started on it. Showed the slides of the luctures. ftp : 10.1.1.223 . DC was first logged on it. And for you BH4 and BH3 guys.... it was this laptop which configured your LAN for the first time.

Those were its glory days. But then it started showing problems. It started with its voice... speakers. Firstly left one went and then the right one. then started with battery ...it went down to 1/2 an hour and then before leaving Bits 2 minutes. In delhi it refused to operate without ac power. And a few days back .... it refused to open with the power itself. Operated for 5 minutes after trying to connect it in various poses and then went off.......

That was it ..... i had to bid it goodbye ......
Rest in peace .................

Ps : btw i ordered a new dell studio 15.

First Pay

2008-08-09T16:36:00.000+05:30

I got my first Pay today ..... just wanted it record it somewhere.

Opposition party ......opposition mob?

2008-08-05T11:25:00.000+05:30

Well on a talk show a few days back BJP's Prime ministerial candidate had said " In a democracy the opposition should be treated as an adversary and not an enemy" , however the developments of past few days have made me wonder ..... whether the leader of opposition practices what he preaches.
When the UPA governement had come to power, i remember Barkha Dutt had written an editorial asking " Do we have an opposition?". It was a time when Left was at it usual " Stop reforms or we will pull you down" .... at that time BJP used to support reform bills and hence we used to see the party working towards development.
Then one fine day it all changed, perhaps it was because of Prime ministerial ambitions, or pure schizophrenia. The opposition party had a single aim , to bring down the government,citing any reasons. I won't like to dwell in the past but just to name a few ... the Ram Sethu issue and the most recent .... the Nuclear Deal.
But what definately was the nail in the Coffin were the remarks of a prominent party member alleging that was the governement itself who planned for the recent bomb blasts in the country to take focus away from .... of all things CASH FOR VOTES.
Then came the agitations following the Amarnath land transfer row. Peaceful agitation, rallies and protest are one thing, but having a militant stand is another. Their stand that talks are no solutions and nothing less than heeding to their demands would do .... is childish, to put it in words. The recent ban on Kashmiri truck drivers from leaving Jammu is doing more harm than good. The next thing we know is the goods from Kashmir valley will move to muzzafarabad and one link which kept Kashmir a solid part of india ( if one has the liberty to say that ) - Trade will collapse. Srinagar is already facing a shortage of medicines. Won't this all be an embarresment for the country in the international stage which has already being snubbed recently for its human rights violation?
Considering even if The main opposition Party comes to power ( which looks unlikely , looking at the power of third front which just emerged ) , it would waste 2 initial years of its tenure just trying to sought the problems created by itself previously.
In the end all these things have made me wonder ..... " Do we really have an opposition party or an opposition mob?"

I have always been a rightist and a self confessed capatalist ..... and hence my support has always been for rightists. But with the recent developments, I now wonder whom to support. Currently I feel that if the only Prime ministerial candidate declared so far has any hopes of getting to that all powerful office , then the best thing he can do is lie low and let the problems of inflation , anti incumbancy factor and economic deficit reign in. Otherwise whatever he seems to do ..... do more harm than good ..... both for him as well as for the country.

I certainly feel ... if he leader of opposition has any serious hopes of becoming Prime minister then the best thing he can do is to keep low.

Hate Saturday's

2008-08-02T15:54:00.000+05:30

Well Garfield is one of my favorite characters. He is the epitome of the life a lot of people wish to live. Eat, sleep, watch Tv, Bully your boss , bully your subordinate ... and love lasagna. He also happens to hate Mondays. Just as i hate SATURDAYS.
There was a time when Saturdays used to be fun. The first holiday of the weekend. The feeling that the next day is a holiday to homework can still be kept at bay. When Saturday was the day when trips and excursions were planned, when cricket was played was hours at stretch. When the Saturday noon show was usual hangout place.

But then one fine day i started with the PS program and the things chnged for 6 months. Saturdays are the days when you work for 9 hours knowing that most of your friends are sleeping for most part of the day. When the gtalk is half its usual strength because people are -not up yet, not in companies or both. The feeling starts creeping from Friday evening .... when Gtalk announces- XYZ movie tonight, Club tonight, Hard Rock cafe tonight or any damn thing tonight.

Actually i never quiet understood why Garfield hated Mondays .... for him everyday was the same ..... just as it was for me for past 3 years.Well probably it is the punishment for treating everyday as Sunday for last 3 years of my life. Going to college for few lectures or labs ( BITS has no compulsory attendance ). Watching series after series, considering even the 250m walk from hostel to B-dome as tiring and using it as an excuse " kon jayega itna door ". Ab to roz 17km travel karna padta hai !!!.

Truly said - What goes around comes around

Ps: on Saturdays Bake's " I am not satisfied with my life ..uh-huh " ... is the highest..
His latest statement .... " I am a connoisseur of beauty..... if P*mp would have been a respectable proffesion ....i would have probably taken it .".......... ( after 2 minutes ) ..... " Barbaad ho gaye yaar !!! "

pps: This post was inspired by prateek's post

Hidden Desires

2008-07-26T16:56:00.000+05:30

Well all of us love a few things in this world. Some of us love our girlfriends, some love sports , some love their marks ( damn you 10p geeks) , Some people love to talk , some people love give advice and some ...... well love food. Well since probably a girl will have to be completely out of her senses before she accepts me ( That Friends LA episode ... still my fantasy ... aayega aayega mera number aayega ) and marks leaving me high and dry after school, in sports India's dismal performance ( At the time of writing India just lost to SL in inings defeat)..... my true love remains .. well Ice Cream.

So with the recent 103 fever and 2 subsequent holidays from work ..... i ws separated from my true love. Day in and day out passing through streets of delhi .... seeing mother diary , kwality walls, Baskin Robins and my Childhood love .... Nirula's Manhatan mania ..... made me feel like a 3 year old child looking at the neighbours new bicycle. Delhi after the initial culture shock looked pretty good. I mean the city is known for food and for a foodie like me ... it was turning out to be a paradise. The weather improved, it rained a bit ..... DU colleges opened ... so DTC buses had new flock of you know what .... it was turning out well. But imagine no Ice cream after that great meal, No ice cream in rain ...... it was like something was not complete. The fever was down .... but cough was still there.
So this weekend Dad came.... After dinner when we came out of the restraunt ..... there it was my first love Nirula's Manhattan mania ..... but on one side was Grandmom with her stern warning no ice cream and on other side .... that creamy concert of nuts and fruits. I looked at Dad .... pleaded .... i am fine can have one ....he didnot relent in front of grandmom ... but while coming back we took a detourand there i was at Nirulas counter.
before buying my Dad asked " You are fine pucca na " and i replied "ya". But this is where equation changes ... just as the guy was putting ice cream in cone ... i felt that huge urge to cough .... but there it was .... the food of the gods and if i coughed it would be snatched away. Slowed my urge and took the ice cream. Ate it as fast as i could. enjoyed the feeling ...... Aaaah what a taste. ANd then ....
And then as if flood gates open ..... coughed like i never did before..... came home quietly took a syrup and went to sleep ......
In the morning ..... was afraid to face dad .... but he was laughing and asked " SO how was ice cream "

DAD rocks....
and so does Ice cream!

Because somethings change and some never do

2008-07-14T10:54:00.000+05:30

Well i saw " Jaane tu ya jaane na" yesterday. Loved the movie . However there was a part where Jai ( imran khan ) reminds Aditi ( genila ) that college has ended and then she starts crying. And at that moment i realised what change is taking place in my life. The carefree days of waking up at 8, moving around pulling somebody's leg , patting on a friend's back are over. Now i work till late evening , catch an over crowded bus and fight my way back home. I never thought that i would be writing this but i miss the sight of B - dome drenched in rain. I miss taking out my cell and calling Varun to accompany me to cafe whenever i dont like the food. I miss coming back and finding subodh in his angry mode, kak, holu and dhruv with warcraft . I miss those trips to anathashram with kalsi varun and all. I miss anuvesh's and bala's antics.I hate to say it but i miss people coming out in hostel courtyard and shouting nimmo on top of their voice. I miss going to VGH with Angad and a bottle of appy in hand. I miss shouting at Kaka for not telling if an assignment was due. I miss saying " kahaan reh gayi thi tu " to Akshay, giving my two hand greeting to gaurav , prateek and sethi. Sometimes while walking out of door i miss Anirudh roaming in corridor with a book in hand. I would give anything to hear Purnoor's baritone of songs ( which i hated ) or Puneet's singing " Tu hi ........ meri ..... shabh hai .............................. subah hai " in the bathroom, to go and band on Mohammed's door whenever i feel frustrate, to go and frustrate Alok ..... to pull Anirudh's legg with Himanshu.I missandrews walking in the corridor like a rapper. I miss Lita coming out of nowhere and saying " Hi Nimit " and her b -rant. I miss Pranshu's punches , tillu's sarcasm and Sanskriti's " Nimit Bhaiya" . I miss chickan's sarcasm , boxers funda's ... adi's desperation , vishruts bihariness....... vishal's computer links. I miss choos on dc( hell i miss Dc) and having those double fry with him and gaurav at jhopdi. I miss punter's " what the hell" his various conspiracy theories. I miss being buullied by chaitanya... sabne's anger.... sreesan's Elephants I miss a lot of things ..... but most i miss the feeling of being together..... sometimes going alone to vgh and watching the sun set.

Like the claasic line from Matrix
"Because some things change and some never do "
I know i have 6 more months back in colege...... but it wont be the same without half the people i mentioned above. I just lived the most beautiful part of my life for 3 years.

On lighter side the only thing i dont miss is Mayank putting his hands on his head and shouting " Barbaaad ho gaye yaaar " whenever he gets stuck on something.

I truly miss BITS!.

ps: btw movie mein ghoda kya tha ...... saala colaba se santacruz non stop bhaaga .

The delhi dossier

2008-07-12T17:16:00.000+05:30

Well its 5:16 pm on saturday , last half an hour in office. I dont have much to do , alone getting bored in India's national capital. Well so here i am in delhi , dilli or dehli whatever you call it. The city with wide roads and lush green pavements. The city with long flyovers and a metro construction going on in every place you turn your head to. And yes the city of beautiful girls. These are some of the welcome changes from Bombay the bustling city ..... which now i call my hometown without even thinking ( though iwas born in delhi). But the up points end there. The transport system needs a major overhauling, buses are crowded , conductors are rude .... the city lacks civility. The is an inherent dryness in the dusty weather of this place. looking out of the window of my bus one constant thing which i notice is whereever you look you will find an eatery from a small chaat walla to the biggest of 5 stars. The mornings are bright and parks are a great place for a jog. But while doing the same jog in bombay you find people discussing styocks and shares .... in delhi the only constant noises you here are " ma ******* Behen ****** uski ***** " .
About eating places a thing which i noticed . In Bombay if ever you find a crowd gathered around a spot you can be sure some fight has taken place...... but in delhi i can bet my money on there must be an eating joint around. The city loves to eat and loves to boast. For a bombay boy like me with his bombay sensibilities still entact all this things apear a bit strange to me. About the girls..... yeah i have to concede Delhi girls are more beautiful but bombay girls are smarter ... hence more desirable. Another thing about delhi is the power you feel when you roam through its heart.... pssing supreme court , upsc , parliament ...... you do come to know where power lies.
Anyways i have to spend 6 months in this place with its overcrowded buses, insanely long red lights, rude conductors, great foods, beautiful girls green parks with choicest of things to hear .... i hope i will survive ... do you.

I still miss Bombay

ps: in all of this i have mayanl "bake" singh to keep me company and make me laugh with his antics ..... the eroors we make and the jokes we share ...... it is always great to have a bihari by your side.

The promised Land

2008-06-14T11:10:00.000+05:30

Why is it that we are drawn to our home country with such a fervour? Why even when we think there is nothing left in there , we still want to get back to it? Why do people leave their comfort , security , pleasure and peace to go back to their own country?
I recently finished reading A thousand splendid suns by Khaled Hosseni ( read it fully at Lanmark :D) . Great book , showed the turmoil which Afghanistan went through through the years of wars ad its impact on the lives of women in the country. In the book the female protagonist - Laila returns back to Afghanistan after the war is war. I wondered what pulls her back to the country which denied her freedom ,took away her family , where she was tortured and where she was made a mere puppet in the hands of gun yielding mullahs.
Then it struck me No matter how comfortable you are , no matter how peaceful you might feel , you will always be an OUTSIDER. An outsider who will always try to fit in . An outsider who will always be looked at with suspicion. Your own country will always accept you with open arms. The place where you will feel a sense of belonging.
Nobody wants to become a refugee. Nobody wants to leave its own country. And worst of all nobody wants to be uninvited when you are thrown out of your land. When your land is snatched away from you due to some mindless politics of some war mongers. My ancestors belong to Lahore and Peshawar. I can never associate with these two places because i have never been there and those places are not home for me. My home is Delhi , Bombay and plethora of other Indian cities i have lived in . But after reading the book i cannot help but think the plight of my grandparents , who will never be able to visit the place of their birth because of some lines on paper drawn by people sitting in conference rooms.
Sometimes i wonder what might have been if the partition wouldn't have taken place. But then that is what would have been ..... Coming back to the topic and thinking about the refugees. I cannot help but feel sorry for the Tibetans in India. While our left communists are happy being a bed side mistress to the Chinese government - forcing our government to make policies more pro China than pro India, the Tibetans are holding silent protests to demand for what is rightfully theirs- their homeland.
This post is dedicated to thousand of young Tibetans who have never seen the land described to them through tell tales of their parents. May one day they room the beautiful plateaus of Tibet.

Every man kills the thing he loves

2008-06-08T22:25:00.000+05:30

" Yet Each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard
Some do it with a bitter look
Some with a flattering word
The coward does it with a kiss
The brave man does it with a sword! "
-The ballad of Reading Gaol

This is a strange thing which most of us have experienced at some point or the other in our lives. Why do we destroy the things we love the most? The desire to be the last person to be the owner or the person to experience the thing last. We hear of honour killings ... dictators destroying their palaces, destroying their countries before leaving. Even not so grave examples their would be times when we would have become so possessive about something in our life that we wold not want anybody else to be a part of it , even though in reality the thing would be of no purpose to us now.
Probably we destroy the thing we love because we want to end at a high. To remember the good times and not the downward curve.The above lines to me point to the latest Arushi controversy. Though it is still not known who killed her. But according to the media speculation that a father could have killed a daughter as an honor killing , i wonder what honour is greater than a person's life. In this case that of your own daughter. About the case , i feel their is a Pandora box which is still to be opened. I think i cannot bring myself to think the father as the accused ... but as somebody said ... if we dwell into the depths of the human mind some chilling dark truths may come out.
Thinking about the bigger issue at hand. Even after writing so much . I cannot find answer to the question by which i began this post. This trait of human beings. About me personally , yes i have been self destructive sometimes about the things which i have loved. Sometimes unknowingly ..... sometimes with my full conscience. Moving away from people i loved. Moving away from projects which were close to me. But one pattern i have noticed with all of this is that all this comes when something is at its peak. Peak of friendship , peak of closeness to someone, peak of accomplishing something great in the project. Perhaps we want to sign off at a high.
It is funny how a quote or a couplet can ring back so many memories and emotions which were hiding in some corner of your mind back in firm perspective. Something like that had happened when i read the above mentioned lines.

Why

2008-05-23T22:27:00.000+05:30

Well for the most part of last week i was enjoying at home. So as it is i did not have any intellectual thought about which i can blog about.So here are a few things which i wondered about lately!

1. Why do you get to meet the hottest girls in the most boring places- like the bank token waiting line.
2. Why do the latest thumbs up Ads show Akshay kumar performing dare devil stunts to steal one thumbs up- Do they want us all to steal our bottle of Thumbs Up.
3.Why does Facebook ask me whether i would like to date myself?
4. Why do you think about people and miss them only when you know you are not going to meet them again ?
5. Why does a person like me , Living withou a fan for virtualy one whole semester finds it hard to sleep without a/c at night ?
6. Why do they show crowds but not the cheer leaders in ipl - common the franchises spent money on the cheer leaders not on the crowds- everbody comes only to watch them .
7.Why do people support teams and not players - I mean finally when you come to think of it , you are just supporting a pair of t shirts running accross the ground. The same player when he wears the t - shirt of your team is a god, but the moment his t shirt changes - you boo him.
8.Why are you still reading this blog?

well that was all. This post is primarily being put up so that i don't feel guilty of not blogging in the vacations. ...... Why do i feel guilty ?

Met Jefferey Archer

2008-05-20T23:34:00.000+05:30

Well he was busy signing books that time. Got my copy of "Prisoner of Birth " signed... took a pic and was off. Well i got lucky had gone to landmark in one of my usual ... Landmark ko looto bina paise kay ( read books without paying for it) and then saw a board declaring Jefferey Archer book signing .... so finally bought one. Apart from it ... enjoyed his speech ... his experiences about -Not a penny more , Not a penny less. His thoughts on Cricket and Indian roads. All in all nice experience on meeting one of the most admired authors in the world

Prisoners of Birth

2008-05-18T23:03:00.000+05:30

Have you ever wondered , what would have happened if you were not born in the same family in which you are now ? What would have happened if you were born in a millionaire or a billionaire family? and what if.... you were born to a beggar ?

Today i traveled by local. The journey was usual local types.... cramped spaces, smeely fellow commuters, wind hitting your face, getting all the vibes and feeling the Bombay buzz. Then suddenly at one station 2 girls the older one not more than 8-9 years and the younger one not more than 4-5 got into the train. The older girl was holding two marble pieces. Soon she started singing " Shirdi vaale sai Baba " and beating the two marble pieces in a monotonic rhythm. I wondered then .... most of the girls of her age which i know were probably enjoying a summer camp somewhere- attending drawing, dance , music classes all over the place. There most grave worry might probably be that they didnot complete the drawing or couldnot get a dance step right. While here the biggest worry of the girl was - SURVIVAL. Her biggest fear was not getting enough money at the end of the day to feed her and her sister's stomach.

What was her mistake? That she was born in an improveshid family. That her parents couldnot afford to provide her even 2 meals a day - forget about education and health care. A choice which she definately didnot make. How much can a person's life change by the circumstances that surround him/her. This girl might beg on local trains till she is 13-14. Then get married and work as domestic help in various houses in the city.... that too if she is lucky. Otherwise the lanes which she treads on are dark. And on the other hand a girl who is currently attending various classes has little to worry about and mostly has her future secure.

Soon the girl's song ended ... a station was approaching. The 2 girls divided the compartment going on the either side asking for money. I normally don't pay the beggars but today this time i gave a rupee ( Don't know why...felt like it). Some people took out the money, some ignored them ...some glared angrily at them. They took the money in their tiny hands. As the station approached the older girl held the younger one's hand and alighted the train. Probably to carry the same affair in some other train on the same track.

We talk about justice for all. Equal opportunities for everyone.... every child is special. But what about the injustice which happens at the very start? The girls will never study ... will beg in heat, rain , sun over and over again everyday... Will never get a chance to go to school or college. Who is to blame? There are 13.6 million child workers in India. Think about it ... everyday we might be losing a Kiran Bedi , Indira nooyi and Kalpana chawla to the dusty tracks of local trains.

I want to do something for the children ... but have no idea what to . That time the only thing which struck me was to give the liitle girl a coin.The only thing which i feel now i can do is ... blog about it.
Strange are the ways of the world!

An Era ENDS!

2008-05-16T06:35:00.001+05:30

The last post from Ah4 364. Will miss this place - the place which changed me forever. An era ends today 16 may 2008.

The Room called AH4 -364

2008-05-03T21:40:00.000+05:30

Well it has been an insanely long time since i blogged. Sorry for it .... but the last few days have been hectic add to that my vow of not writing any senti post. Well i have a feeling this one is gonna be a short one ( wait re .... lemme get into the groove before i bore you with long posts!) .

Anyways this post is about a 8 feet by 8 feet by dont know (is too high) space in hostel AH4. My association with it started on the drizzly morning of 8 August 2005. I came to this place .... thinking i would get GH3 (B) ( later in the post ...more abt it!) ... and lo behold ... during the registration i became the Last person to get AH4.
Well to me this place looked nothing short of a resort ( consider that i had spent 2 weeks in NIT where hostels resembled cellar jail .... and bathrooms had lines in the morning ). And the room well looked great with everything. The place had interesting neighbours .....Purnoor Goofy surd living opposite , Anirudh geeky 10 pointer living next door, cool DUD Mohammed living a few doors down, the nigga andrew throw some more downs and on other side ..... humari pyari aalok rani with churu.All in all it looked good.

Then came the second semester ..... and we the mighty crusaders faced the biggest water crisis in the history of this college ( yes .... you all other hostel vaalas ..... it was worse than this year ) . Think abt 180 guys with buckets in hand trooping down to the next neighbour hostel to rob them of water ( there is a reason why we support AH3 in zephyr ... pet aur pani ka sawaal hai aakhir! )

Well Cut to a year after and this time i was in goa in my ps1 ( aah those were the days!) . any how this time i was given some obscure room in GH3 (b) . It is said you only realize the true value of a thing when it is taken away from you. Same thing with me ... the place sucked. A girls hostel and boys living in it .... lacked essential commodities ..boring, lifeless monotonous place.Thanked god didnot get it on the first day . Ohh by the way ...... the last second allotment proved the blessing in disguise .... the boys of our hostel were so busy searching for water .... that they didnot realise whom they were voting for in 2 year ... and elected me as hostel rep ..... aakhri banda .

Cut to a year later and thats when the fun begins! . Semester 6 - till this time the story has been about AH4 , by this time we have faced ...ummm lets see water crisis, power crisis , LAN crisis , Warden crisis ( first year mat bhoolo bhaiyon ) etc etc . Now comes the hero in the picture! AH4 - 364. Well it happened one fine day ... Quark had just ended .... and soon
1.one night my fan stops rotating ... i thought again one of those powercuts. But wait next day my neighbour puts Metallica on full blast ( while he is not in the room .... and this usually wakes me up ) ... but made me realize my fan had died. A few complaints and a bit of nagging later .... the repair guys turn up after a month and repair my fan. I thought this was it .
2.Cut to one month after that ... just before waves ... i come back to my room put on the switch and bugger refuses to rotate. Again the following procedure and this time they turn up after 3 weeks. i thought ab chalga!
3.cut to 5 days after that .... i come back from panjim ... switch on the fan and .... BLAST!. It sparked blasted .. took out some fumes and died again ( this was the most dramatic of all ). It took them 2 weeks this time to come. In between i sometimes used to switch ... just to see the fireworks i.e light and sound show.
4. And this time finally 3 days before the sem ended it started slowing down . With each passing day its speed reduced. I could feel the pain he was going through ( or i was to go through ). Dying a slow painful death ...wishing someone could put an end to his misery. And that Saviour was a powercut ... one fine day it stopped rotating ... and never rotated again!. Th repair guys came in 1 week this time.

Now i think i get frequent flier miles with the fan repair guys. Their call times have reduced by a week everytime the fan died. According to the pattern he should be there the 5 time my fan dies. Which he has promised .... says as soon as new fans come ... they will be in this room . Although when i asked the conversation took in following way :
Me: Bhaiya ye kitne din chalega
Rm ( repair man ) : Aap kab tak ho yahan par
Me : 12 din aur
Rm : tab tak to chal jana chahiye ... 10 din chalne ki main gaurantee deta hu .

well thats it .... the sem is ending and i will be pushed out of this room ( yay! ) and someone will come share the story from now on. Though however adventures i had with this room and hostel .... it will always be special ( because it is a boys hostel ) . No power, No fan , NO LAN, NO water .... still we rock!. I am hoping i get last 2 non guarantee days with this fan!
" Rock solid to the core ... Here comes AH4 "

ps : This is for the guy who gets this room after me ..... Apparently fan is not your only problem. As of now the back of the chair on which i am sitting is broken. one of the curtain hooks went missing in 1st year ... doing temporary arrangemnt....spilled some liquid some time in 3 years ... stains still on the floor .... the table is not all that clean .... the plug switch .. i think one may stop working soon ... probably has some voltage problem ..... baki sab abhi tak theek hai! if there is anything else .... my sympathies will always be with you. R.I.P

if you are still reading ... this was not all that short also!

The mute spectators

2008-03-17T22:22:00.000+05:30

Edward Luce in his book In spite of the Gods described India as country trying to find its footing. A country progressing on the path of development, but still dealing with problems unique only to itself.
We Indians fancy ourself as being the next super power. The country of the 21st century. But still whenever anything goes wrong we are the first to turn our head away. A girl - a tourist - a guest is raped and murdered in our country and we keep quiet. We give refuge to people fighting for their freedom but when the same people are slaughtered for fighting for their cause, we turn our heads away. We choose to maintain our high moral ground but in reality we act like cowards who are afraid to stand up to a bully. Sitting on our high pedestal we pass judgments and comments, not caring about others!
Scarlett Johnson a 15 year old teenager was raped and murdered in Goa last week. She was drugged, assaulted and then left to die on the beach. At first we brushed aside the case as another Phirangi spoiling our culture and getting what she deserved by drowning. Nobody even cared to investigate. Finally when the mother of the victim ran from pillar to post did we wake up. Even then the blame went to GOA - the rave parties , the drug temple etc etc. Nobody cared to go in depth and find the criminal or actually solve the case. Just take out the editorials of any newspaper and you will find it goes from everything abut foreigners spoiling goa to its land mafia but wont speak about the case. I have been studying in BITS goa for 3 years and nobody i know in college is a druggy or has gone out and become one. It is not the state , not the place but the criminal sociology which is the culprit here. Do you think such a crime wouldn't have happened anywhere else in the country? No but we want to play the blame game..

Coming to the second issue. We have granted political asylum to Tibetians. But today when there are riots in lhasa , when there is oppression, manslaughter, we have kept mum. Not saying anything to anger the bigg brother China.More than 80 people have been killed and several hundred injured, and protests are spreading to other parts of Tibet.Schools and monasteries are sealed off, and there are heavy restrictions on people's movements with security forces stepping up their hunt for rioters in house-to-house searches.Around 400-500 people who received gunshot wounds are without medical assistance and are scared of being arrested if they go to hospital.

How long will we hide behind this veil of hippocracy? How long can we afford to keep mum? Our neighbour country is worn torn, martial law imposed, no democracy and we couldn't care less. If we truly want to become a super power we should take a stand. Punish the culprit . Own to our own follies. Raise our voice against the opression.
Our neighbours view us as the big bully. Nepal has maoist who are against India. God what happens to pakistan. Bangladesh is falling to hardlined mullahs and sri lanka is grappling with LTTE. WE are making castles in thin air. How can we progress with such an unstabilty in region? How can we progress when we dont know how to protect the foreigners in our country, worse still bring culprits to justice?

Its time we act , raise our voice make ourself heard. Or we would forever remain a country trying to come to terms with its own destiny, trying to find its footing.

Protests have started in Tibet for autonomy and chinese government is crushing it with all its might. Nobody knows the full extent of damage. Now the ball is in your court either remain quiet or raise your voice for a cause!!!

The centurion

2008-03-15T20:21:00.000+05:30

This is my 100 post on blogspot. YAY!!! i have finally made a century somewhere :D. Congratulate me ( nice way to increase comments ). Ok since now the euphoria of my 100th post has died down, i don't know what to write. The sole purpose of this post was to celebrate the century.
Well thinking about my life, a lot has been going on lately. But don't want to write about it here. This post is about celebration and happiness. Well the past week was full of exams .... and the story is the usual on that front. Going to panjim tomorrow and coming to Bombay on the weekend, so you Bombay guys if you need anything from here buzz me. So do the goa guys if you need anything from Bombay.

Among other things reaching the end of BITSian life and getting senti on small things (never expected such a thing would happen to me !!!). Comp is screwed and dying a slow painful death . Some damn virus has wrecked it and kills applications everyday. Currently Mozilla, gtalk and itunes are surviving. That means no Dc, no vlc and hence implies no movies. I am kinda liking it this way discovering other things !!!. Btw it is so screwed that i cannot even open a notepad file. And to top it all my cd rom drive is not working so cannot format it even. In short vaat lageli hai!.

What i want to do right now- I want to break free!. Long time since i had a good laugh or indulged myself. So hopefully tomorrow should be fun. Btw if any of you want to accompany me tomoroow buzz me.

Thats it!

ps: can't still believe i wrote 100 pieces of crap!

Confessions of a frustrated soul

2008-03-10T19:36:00.000+05:30

How many times has it happened to you the your plans change last moment? The party to which you wanted to go for so long , getting canceled at the last moment. The exam for which you had studied everything except the last chapter and every question in the exam from that chapter. Why does it always screw up when everything looks perfect?
Last few days have been the most tiring, tormenting and frustrating days of my life. Everything fell apart and the worst part of all i couldn't do anything to change it all. What fell apart, well it will come out in a few days ..... and writing about it here will only elevate the problem. What bothers me the most is how egoistic, naive, foolish and selfish can some people be? How politics can shred even the best of efforts? How somebody's personal vendetta can screw the future of the rest for years to come?
There have times in the past when i have not agreed with the "system" . When i have gone against the "system". But in all of those times there had always been a window, there had always been a ray of light. But now i feel the whole bloody SYSTEM is farce. It is just a way of politicians to abuse in every way possible.
Sometimes you give up something which is close to you because you don't want to be a party of its destruction. Quark was one such thing to me. The thing which cost me everything - cg , friends, relationships, social life , life in general only for making those 3 days possible. And now after i have screwed up nearly everything for it and have no chance of changing it. I don't want to be a part of its destruction. And hence I GIVE UP for the more " worthy and experienced" people to take care of it.

There are people to whom i want to apologize, there are people with whom i want to make up , there are people whom i want to say " F*ck off" and there are others to whom i don't even know what i want to do.

Still dont understand how somethings can get screwed up so drastically..............
Never ever have i been so frustrated, angry , alone , confused in this college......... DAMN!

The ride

2008-03-09T14:36:00.000+05:30

There is a feeling which everybody gets when they get on a roller coaster. There is this initial apprehension , a mix of fear , anxiety , excitement , thrill and a hope to have some fun. Then when the ride is on its peak , there is only 1 feeling .... "why the hell did i take this ride ?" . This is the point where you are shouting your guts off. And then there is this part when the ride slows down , you see the end approaching and the only thing you wish is .... " god , i want to do this again. "

Yesterday Waves 2008 ended. Sitting on the lawn listening to Evergreen, it hit me for the first time that this roller coaster ride of my BITSian experience is coming to an end. There was this slow realisation which dawned on me. The only thing i did was to lie back and look at the stars, thinking about this ride and listening to the live rock performance ( there is nothing better than a live performance .... and personally i dont see any point in moshing or forcing myslef to head bang .... my head bangs himslef when it feels like :D ) .

Thinking about it , with Waves ending .... i felt a chapter of my life was ending ... it would probably be my last Waves. BITS did change me lot , transformed me from this nerd to sort of a confident person. I have odne everything here- been a part of part Waves ( culfest) , organised a Quark ( techfest ) , opened a club , held a position , been the president of RDC (:D) . Gave bumps at 12 in the night to the poor soul whose crime was to be born that day, howled at every six which India hit in the common room, got jitters before every exam...... Made some great friends ..... lost some friends . Probably the only thing i didn't do was the thing for which i had come here - To study :D ( so shows my CG ) . Like the roller coater ... yes i would like to be on this ride again .... and probably change some things.

Well i know this post has come a bit too early. But from yesterday ... i was dying to put these thoughts somewhere. Thinking about it now ... in 1.5 months i would be out of here ... in a new place , with new people , a new story and a new ride.

ps:this was a too small post to write about what BITS has given me ... just to write my thoughts.... i big post ( it would be bigger than my quark post ) would come out after some time.

Why is the journey more important than the end ?

2008-03-02T19:04:00.000+05:30

Just take a look around, see what everybody is doing. What do you see? People are involved in mundane activities, squirming thorough drudgeries of life like moths around fire. Ask anybody just for a moment what they want, and most of the time you will find souls confused, in self doubt about what they want. Everybody swims with the flow. People do what the next person is doing or what the world is doing. Somehow nowadays the journey has become more important than the end. Why?

Well why i wanted to write this blog was not because of the questions which i have asked above. But because of the recent controversy about the battle of Longewala of 1971 Indo- Pak war. How are the two things related? Well to me they are. The way i look at it, both the forces are giving more importance to the journey than the end. The bottom line is that WE WON THE WAR. The airforce played a pivotal role in the operation. But i do believe nobody could have held a battalion for 3 hours straight without the help of ground forces. What the truth is we will never know. I tried to do some secondary research in the internet ( ya i get that yawn!!! ) to see some account from the other side ( pakistani ) side of the story. Most of the accounts were by Indians and those by pakistani's didnot answer the question satisfactorily. But whats the point of coming out with the story after 37 years ?

Thinking about the topic now and looking at my life ... i feel i have somehow given more importance to the journey than the end. Like asking myself whether i could clear engineering entrance exams ? rather than what is engineering ? or asking myself how can i perform well in this area .... rather than what will happen if a perform well in this XYZ area? The end , the pinnacle is always overshadowed behind the tumultuous journey. Looking at my friends and descisions which they are making .... i feel someof them are still going ahead with the journey not knowing what will be the end.

Why do we do it? The answer to this i will never know, because consciously or subconsciously even i have a lot of times given more importance to journey. What i can only do is speculate. What i feel is people are afraid. Yes they are afraid of making decisions. Decisions which they might make looking at the end which they want, for which the journey might be different from the path traveled by and by doing so they might be alone. So people take on the journey as hundreds before have taken. They go and fight each battle on the way, even though some might not be their own only believing that one day on the journey they would find their destination and leave the path. The destination which maynot be the end which they would have desired. Why? Only because from the very beginning we have been taught to make sacrifices, compromises and even with our goals and aspirations we sometimes do it.

I dont know why i wrote this post, what i intended to do ... but right now the only ending remarks i can think off is - WAKE UP before the journey ends.

ps: this post reminds me of one of my earlier posts though not the same.

Those 5 months - Quark 08

2008-02-26T18:56:00.000+05:30

Well i have been putting this post off for a while now. For two reasons, firstly i don't know where to start, what to write and where to end. The second one ...i better keep it with myself!. So right now even before i start i feel this is gonna be a long one.

The Genesis
It all started with a notice .... a simple A4 sheet with a few lines asking for people to come and interview for the "Quark Organising committee". That eventful Sunday, i was jobless as i am now ... went for the interview, spoke and came back and watched a movie.

The surprise

Well fastforward two weeks and another notice comes out ... another A4 sheet with 12 names - 11 of them self confessed geeks and a heading on top which said " Organising committee Quark '08" . There was a 12th name - Nimit Mehra. This was one thing which surprised me, not only me but nearly half of people in the college. The remarks ... still cant forget some of them . Anyway there is an interesting incident related to this day. The notice was not the source through which i got the surprise. It was my phone , haan yaar vohi MOTO jo aadhe baar tootta rehta hai. I got a call and the caller said " Congratulations you have been selected in Organising committee Quark 2008 " . As usual i was watching a movie and my reaction was " mat le yaar ".

The first meeting

The very same day ... was the first ever meeting about Quark 08 ( thats what i think punter , any meetings before the org co was formed ... dont count!). The President of the executive commitee of CSA ( thats what they call themselves....now i know why ...feels good to write :D ) told us about our responsibilities. I was to take care of MARKETING ... didnt know what this word will mean to me then ( now i miss being a part of it and people associated with it ). By the bye ... for a meeting of 12 people ... they booked a full f*cking LT ... aukaad thi shuru se i tell you.

The next few meetings and Specials

Well the next big thing in the campus after the first meeting the big power cut . So our next meetings were in a small constrained room. Initially there was awkwardness , mostly because the only person i knew very closely from before was Angad and the rest were alien to me. I used to find the geeks a bit uncomfortable from the start. Well truthfully the most important thing was deciding of events , and the talks were mostly " no that event cannot happen because the electrons dont go that way " .... or " i have made 10 bots and trust me ... a bot like this is impossible " ..... " the is just plain stupid " ...... " this has to be there ... its cool " ..... and for everything else which had to be done the ever famous " ho jayega na baba". In all this there were shocks in store for us. Nahi yaar vo tranformer valle nahi ..... 2 of the initial 12 people left us ... for unknown reasons... and before i knew it .. i was now handling MARKETING + SPECIALS. Well since i dont get wet dreams about electrons and since the only bot which i have ever made is the one for which they made us tighten the screw in TRI workshop ... i gave my suggestions otherwise. While others were deciding what events were there ... I ( along with others ...haha) made the mighty hierarchy - Event managers , Deputy event managers , Assistant event managers. Apart from these meetings there were sessions with DOSM " We want more money " ... DEPP " website website website ...." and CSA " We want more money ".

The Hoolingans ( Akhil Mehtas A.k.A committee memers )

So now events done and the responsibility of carrying out most important part of quark now with the Assocs , the next thing was to expand the committees. Since i was handling 2 portfolios ..my committee was supposidely the biggest ( no comments abt chait's committee ...but mine was a committee ... his was a crowd ). There was a test and then interviews ( i still have those papers with me ) and before i knew it , I had handpicked "sample pieces " from each nook and corner of BITS . They were from every category ... high decibels , to cheap cosmetic loving at canteen .. to the guy who doesnot give a fuck ... to the guy who just goes by the book and knows goa in and out , to mr right ... you name it and we had it. Thus was born the mighty MARKETING committee ... some who had worked with me before , some whom i never knew existed before this.... some people who hated each other ... some friends ..... BUT ALL HOOLIGANS. These tambola crazy, treat hungry , Shouting, wrong hindi speaking, nursury rhyme singing, cheap cosmetic product loving Hooligans ... made Quark possible.

End of Sem1

Well slowly we were appraoching the end of sem1 . Till this time first set of posters had been dispatched, website was up , events decided , committees decided. Some special event performers contacted. In all this, till now we didnot know ho much money we have. How many colleges will turn up , how will people react. By this time we had got used to taunts, slurs , jiggers from people who wanted to take potshots and anything and everything which we did. Yes we were the underdogs!.

Gmail

So sem1 was over .... and as usual i had screwed it!. The only way by which we could hold meetings was through the mighty gmail. There were those marathon mails where now, when i think of it major issues were discussed and decided (:d hahahaha ) . There was voting , arguing , legpulling,negotition all on it .

and then just before Christmas ... i open my gmail account and there is that sweet mail from DOSM declaring ... Quark has 10 lacs ... those sweet words ..my reaction ..our reaction .... our actions ... their final effect ..... can't still forget them . That was the first time i felt .... this was going to be something big.

9 pm monginis, nescafe , chaitanya's room

Come january ... the first week ... we get THE NEWS and then the first few meetings were at the pole end of the campus. This was probably the time when we started bonding as an organising committee. That day at nescafe where chait got those key chains .... i feel that was it. It is true friends are made in the times of adversity. Those 9 pm meetings where there was everything that i mentioned in gmail plus the food. There were high profile meetings and the ones where we checked whether the id cards were made of metals, we had all of them. There were threats there were descisions .... there were marketing trips and there were picnics . And thus ended january.

The countdown

Well it was February and now the things were on. NO classes ... No food ...marathon meetings ... geeting on nerves of people ... going to vasco and panjim and bargaining or seeing how others bargain running around ... that was it.

Finally its here - The day 1

And thus came 9th february ... the day for which 600 people of this campus had prepared. The previous night was sleepless for me ... not because of anxiety but because of the EPC. And lo behold kicked of Quark with a contraption.The cheer was enough for me. Next 3 hours were spent in the control room while my dedicated hooligans roamed with their bhonpus ( pun intended) and got Quark " the feel " . Then there were reporters whom i took and showed every nook and corner and stuffed them in planetorium just to buy time for the article to come. Yes there were goof ups ... big ones ... there was shouting ... but looking at it that way ..... Quark was on and was bigger than what anybody had ever thought of .... People were now quiet .... no taunts... no jeers this day.

The day i wont forget ever in my Life - Day 2

And i was on the second day without sleep. The kurta day , the second day .... was decent ... started well . Events had enthu people had enthu .... foodstalls had tambola ... Natasha was up and running .. Natalie was being prepared ...India was winning and people were seeing it on TV. Then came the evening and so came the mighty RC controlled planes. They flew mighty and high and so soared the Bitsian spirit. Quark was up ... people were spell bound ... this was what they never thought would happen in Quark.

But wait .... this was not what made the second the day i will never forget in my life. It was Feeding the Fish .... there is a history with this ... which i sadly cannot write here. But they are a juggling troup from UK who have performed at 2004 olympic games and they performed here. They just didnot perform ... they made Quark the best event ever to happen in this college ....that day we knew Quark 08 was a success .... some of us cried ( not me ... i dont ... but some did .... out of happiness ) for the first time the BITS audi was overflowing. What they did i cannot describe in words ... cuz seriously i am not able to choose what to write ...... I think that's why it is special.

The finale - Day 3

And so came the final day ... most of the day was busy in the control room .... wont write much abt it cuz was saddest this day ... quark was ending . Quark was finishing and so was my work of 5 months... didnot want to speak with anybody ... plastered a plastic smile for photos .... listned to the songs and felt good about the fireworks and so Quark ended.

The End

Well now quark is over ..... over 30 events successfully conducted .... 3 great aurora nights ..... 5 months of hardwork of 600 people all culminating to the best event i have ever seen in this college ( may be biased there :D) .

It ended the same way it started .... with a notice .... an A4 sheet .... saying thanks to everybody ... yes we had done it .... we had proved ... the underdog wins the race. We were underdogs no more ....

There were somethings i will never forget these are some of them

Abhishek's " what the hell"

CHaitanya's "Papad"

Angad's " HATS"

Sreesan's " Elephant Logic "

Amit's " wait people i have something to say "

Ankit's " Bulaya nahi yaar "

Onkar's " Ho jayega na baba "

Eeshan's " pj's"

Santosh's " wassup"

Tillu's " machli jal ki rani hai , humare pass bhonpu hai ,bhaiya kheer nahi mangvayi, hello maam

Lita's " Batameez , bevakoof, utha ke phenk na tumhe us khidki ke bahar , I HATE YOU, SHUT UP "

pranshu's " cheap canteen product's, uncle isse sasta aur kuch nahi hai "

Pratik " vo acha nahi hota , uska bhi profit hone de na "

Puneet " those bumps on the way to GEC "

Purnoor " the mock goan marketing session "

Prachi " the tambola with the president on the second day "

* me not getting a single call from outside during quark and the one which i actually, got asked me for amit's number.

* Sreesan throwing the id card down and exclaiming "ohh it is made of metal "

* me calling 250 people " dumbasses " at once

* Feeding the fish and scuba

* Goan marketing trips

* That night in chaitanya's room with the mail.

* The evening at nescafe.

* The hooligans.

* a lot of other things but this post has gone too long ....

thanks for bearing with me

and so the 5 best months of my life ended ... yes i do miss them ... but its time to move on and hence this post ........ god if he ever gives me a chance .... i will go back and do everything again ... once more.

QUARK 08 - Engineered to Perfection!

Quarter life crisis

2008-02-14T17:28:00.000+05:30

Half of the engineering students out there get through engineering thinking whether they will ever get married or whether they would ever be with a girl. With a skewed sex ratio the prospect of being with a girl look like the prospect of martian rover discovering a disco party on mars both of which ain't gonna happen. To top all of that the engineering colleges have something called Dc where piracy rocks!. Any tv series , any movie , any damn thing which is up there on any damn server connected by a lan port anywhere in the world can be found ... if one wishes to. And many of these series , movies are teen series and movies... ya ya the same ones which you cannot watch with your little kid brother. But the point is in all of these, the colleges are swarming with girls ... not just girls ... but chicks .. and every other soul in the frame has some hotty in his arms.Then you step out of your room and look around and what do you see ... zilch zero ... nothing! Damn the american television ... will sue them someday!

Anyways today is valentines day and like last year .... or the year before that ... or the one before that ... or all the years before that .... i am again without a valentine. 20 years and not a single girl. People go through mid life crisis - at 40 they think they have not achieved anything in life. At 20 i think .... i still don't have a girl ..... this is bloody a mid life crisis !!!

When a person is kid ... he thinks " bade hoke girl friend banyege" ... when he becomes a bada bacha he thinks "college mein jaake ladki patayenge" .... when he comes to college .. specially an indian college he realises " ladkian kahan hai " ...... Damn All the bollywood movies ... Damn all the american television ....

So right now quark is over ( will blog abt it after test 1) i am jobless with tonnes of free time . Here i am sitting in front of my laptop like many previous valentines day and thinking about my life . Happy valentines day to all!

btw agar koi sundar susheel nari aaj free ho aur yeh pad rahi ho ... to the writer doesnot suscribe to any of the views above .... he is as close to your dream man as the limit can go .... and if you are free do drop a comment.!

btw " oye DC pe nayi teen movie konsi aayi "

Akhil Mehtas marketing trip

2008-01-26T22:17:00.001+05:30

Well this is story about a marketing trip , a zen , a honda activa ..... wait a kinetic honda ... 6 Akhil Mehta's one tall hyperactive bhonpu. Before i start the story lets rewind 4.5 months back .
One fine day a notice comes and tells me i am a part of organising committee for our technical festival. The announcement was as such surprise for me . The next one was that i was to head marketing. Now we had to select our own committee's and before the date came , we lost some organisers and i soon got to head specials too. So now i had to select the big marketing + specials team . It took me 2 days to go through the applications to select a hand picked team , a competent , hardworking , perfectionist team .................................. which rags me at every available oppurtunity.

So back to the present. Quark (http://www.bits-quark.org) is due on February 9-11. I have selected 2 teams to cover the goan colleges . The thursday team has done a great job of marketing quark and so it is now Friday team's responsibility to take quark to goa.

so now the friday team .... sometimes all the hooligans of the world come together and the ground shakes.
Friday team was one such group of hooligans hand picked assembeled to rock goa.

1. Akhil Mehta ( Pralav desai ) ..... the obedient driver bhaiya who tried a lot to cross 80 but was stopped by a Akashvani.
2. Akhil Mehta ( Me)
3. Akhil Mehta ( pranshu sharma) The hooligan who is devil in meeting asking you to tell the names of the people you addressing and whose names you don't know . The mischevious matchmaker who made everybody date everybody.
4. Akhil Mehta ( the real one ... aka Tyler Durden ) The acha bacha .... obedient guy who will never ever forget his name in this lifetime atleast ... might remember it the next also .
5. Akhil Mehta ( Puneet Gupta ) The quiet guy , intellectual and the one who had his own chemistry with the next Akhil Mehta.
6. Akhil Mehta ( Pratik Mandrekar ) The goan boy , the guy responsible for this trip the kinetic honda ( honda activa ) rider , by the rules kind of guy.
7. Miss. Lita Das The 6 feet tall loudspeaker who addresses more people than the ones who actually come to listen to her . whos tape recorder gets stuck at words like " batameez", "bevakoof", " shut up " and the name which we all got by the end of the trip " Akhil Mehta ".

So the day started at 6 by calling up people to wake up or to wake others up . Even in this 2 people had their phones on silent. Everybody was told to assemble at 7:15 . At 7:30 this was the scene outside pralav's car : Eeshan ( shivering in his half pants ) holding posters outside pralav's car and i giving him motivational talk. Bechara tillu aka the real akhil Mehta standing at main gate thinking about the poem he recited on hindi diwas. Puneet coming out from far away handling his jacket and no clue about the others.

At 7:45 all of us were at the main gate and then there was no Kinetic Honda ( Activa ) , when it did eventually turn up ... Pratik had to go and drop the guy off to vasco . So 6 of us started in the car . Lita and Pranshu in the front , sharing the seat and me , Puneet and tillu in the rear.
15 minutes into the trip ... this was the scene. Pranshu looking out of the window like a faithful terrier does when you take her out in the car, Puneet giving his one liners, Pralav getting worried about how to change the gear and keeping his ear from bursting and Lita shouting " yeh kahan le aaye ho ..... Akhil Mehta ..... bevakoof ...... shut up ..... main tumhe maar daalungi ..... gaane lagao ...... Akhil Mehta ..... khada hai ...... yeh gandi jagah hai ...... Akhil Mehta ..... kahan ja rahe ho " ....
After sometime we headed back to campus deciding that it was better to drop puneet at the campus , let pratik pick him up and save pralav from some suing Quark for hearing problems.

And so we started our journey to GEC ( Goa engineering college ) .... mean while at the back tillu was praying to his favorite god because our official Bhonpu went like " Akhil Mehta .... main tumhe maar daalungi.... gadi dheere chalao ..... aage dekho ..... mujhe neend aa rahi hai ..... Akhil Mehta.... hum GEC nahi pahunchege..... Nimit shut up ..... Pranshu Bevakoof ..... Pralav Batameez "....finally after probably nth number of time when Akhil Mehta was uttered ... this is what tillu had to say " Ha mera naam Akhil Mehta hai ... mere parents ne bahut doond ke mera naam Akhil Mehta rakha tha ... main hi Epc video mein tha ... aur ab mujhe apna naam kabhi nahi bhoolega " And then to lighten our mood he played the song which will become the anthem for marketing team Quark 08 " Bhande kali karalo ..... Bhande " Bhande in punjabi means utensils.

Well while anarchy was going on in car ..... two hearts were jumping on the way to GEC ..." Puneet and Pratik were enjoying moments of solitude ... holding each other tightly on every bump on the way.

Finally we reached GEC ...met the students ...gave the presentation ...told about quark ... got hold of every individual in sight ...barged into a class with a teacher ...gave presentation to both .... met people ...made quark the best thing on this earth and then we started towards RIT.

This journey the sound in the car was " Akhil Mehta ....mujhe neend aa rahi hai .....Akhil Mehta.... mujhe bhook lagi hai ...mujhe chips do .... Akhil Mehta .... gadi dheere chalao ... pralav main tumhe maar daalongi ...... shut up Nimit .... bevakoof Akhil Mehta ..... Pranshu isse chup karao ..... gane chalao .... Akhil Mehta ".... some folders were thrown around in the car ( at me ) there were sounds of bhande kali karalo and in all of this we reached on top of the hill on which RIT was there. Tillu recounted his prize winning days here about movie spoof ... which started another round of ............... you know what !

In all of this my team was very enthusiastic .... apart from shouting at me and ragging me they are a generous lot .... they just distributed pamphlets worth a lot as if they for free!!!!!!
After getting some chips for Lita aunty ... there was demand for water for which my wallet went into the enemy territory .... there were exchange of seats .... occupation to be more precise ... some shouting ... some match making ... some ... again you know what ! and Lita's phone and my wallet were exchanged in neutral territory of tillus hands. In all of this i was the prime target of leg pulling, jokes, sneers, folder throwing and many other things..... finally making me say " yaar main tumhara boss hu .... please respect me "

after visiting some more colleges ... in which once pralav gave presentation to a bunch of kids only to realise after the presentation that they were from high school ... we proceeded for lunch . Here tillu told us about his glory days ... on how he just missed a prize in hindi diwas (later we came to know .... he recited machli jal ki rani hai " ...on what is happening in tushar kapoors life post shoot out at lokhandwala , on how the inspiration for EPC video came .... there were explanations regarding the same ..... lot of Akhil mehta and batameez chanting and some food .

Finally i had had enough of ragging in car and proceeded in activa ..... while tillu was left stuck in the car with his name chanting going on . NEXT stop Carmel girls college where tillu gave the sweet ( literally ) presentation to the sister and here was the final comment " All girls college and a fat dog " ( comment will be understood only by people who attended zephyr )

finally after finishing some colleges we headed back to BITS . Here Lita got her joy ride of kinetic honda ( activa ) for two laps of the college while poor pratik was always trying to stop her .

All in all it was a fun trip .... one of the best i had in BITS .... i was ragged , joked about and everybody was made to date everybody by my hooligan team ...all of us were called akhil mehta ....bhande kali karalo was the new anthem .... and there was little doubt that this trip couldvehave landed some members in mental asylum.... but this is the best team one can hope for ... and i couldn't do without them .

ps: Pranshu has blogged about the same at pranshus blog

pics in my picasa web album akhil mehtas marketing trip ..... link on the side

The good old wine.....

2007-12-19T22:06:00.000+05:30

Well if you think this post is about any spirit , then i am really sorry to disappoint you .... and you may stop reading from here on . So you are still reading .... good! .
Well today i again went to land mark for killing some time .... and this time i actually ought a book ( but only after i finished one while sitting there ). So one thing which i noticed was that most of the songs being played there were from the 80's ( yeah the disco decade!). I took a look around and saw people sporting some hairdo's of 70's ... flashy sunglasses .....and some things ... which i don't know how to name ( one problem after coming from goa ..... you feel you are completely out of place .... but feels good ... i look at it as making a style statement .... eshtyle ).

And so it stuck me .... people are actually doing things their fathers or grandfathers did 20-0 years ago . Coming a full circle ( maybe !) .... good marketing by movies like OSO (hated it !) ...... or may be herd mentality .

Well i feel that half of the people out there dont care a damn about fashion . What they do care about is .... what their neighbour is doing . And so a few people ... try to market their product .... start to publicize the product which they want to sell in the name of fashion . A lot of wanna bees take that bluff and follow it ( may be too much money ..... or too little brain ).... and a domino effect follows and soon you end up in a place ..... listening to the diving disco ..... surrounded by elvis prototypes .... and looking strictly futuristic.

Well so here is my take ...... old wine looks good in the old bottle .....( though it is fun to see the fancy dress ) ..... the classics should be treated as classics .......

as for me ..... i am enjoying my back to the future look and now it is time to go back to my books ( bahut paise karach kiye hai yaar ..... buying a book for reading .... what is happening to me ?)

yeh aakhri alvida na ho !

2007-12-16T22:06:00.000+05:30

Well now the third semester has ended and every Bitsian is headed back home. Leaving campus .... on their home bound journeys . But this time it was different. Previously ...because of our campus being a new campus , everybody used to come back. But this time .... there would be 198 people who would be leaving this place..... not to return on 7 jan.

The first batch to pass out of BITS , PILANI-GOA campus..... and boy what a batch it was . inspiring leaders, hard negotiators , caring elders ( if you call them !!!) ..... they had everything. The people who saw the genesis of this great story called bpgc. We had our share of fights and laughs ....but this time ... it is different .... difficult saying goodbye

You guys will surely be missed .....

This post is dedicated to 2004 batch ......hope this is not the last goodbye.

ps: my topics are having a lot of hindi overtones .... next post apni vilayati topic ishtyle.

kadva sach

2007-12-15T21:51:00.000+05:30

Well i am back in bomabay ! yay!!!. Looking at my blog it appears i only blog when i am home .... but this time cdc's got me.... now i know what the hue and cry was about. Well as for now ... half my cdc's are over ... free now and then going back to the grind on 7 ...but as for now ..... i want to sing " utda rahu firta rahu mast gagan mein ..... aj main azaad hu ....." and something more (can't remember.

Well so Bombay ... this time when i came ... it was usual with the buzz , a bit cold but one thing which stuck me was pollution. it was like breathing smoke directly in your nostrils. One thing which is bad about doing college in goa is that you become very sensitive to pollution. For one day (yesterday ) i was just coming to terms with rise in these pollution levels.

And then Al-gore and his inconvinient truth became clear to me . Till now i used to think about global warming , green house effect , pollution levels and all related terms as something which were there in our science textbooks, looked good on discovery and ntional geographic , topics on which people who wanted to hog limelight gave their two cents or topics which page 3 starlets spoke in star studded parties whicle themselves driving back in their fuel guzzling suv's and wasting half the natural resources.

But this time it hit me, why were these pollution levels high? Why was delhi coller than normal ? Why the test matches were closed early everyday ...because of bad light ( damid the result would have been 3-0)? and so the answer was clear to me. The more we think .." What can i as an individual do " ......." Everybody else is also doing this ".The more we lynch the environment. The more we keep the extra lights on, the more we keep the taps running, the more we rev up our cars just to listen to that masculine noice....... the more WE HARM OURSELVES.

Today Bombay had "batti band" campaign ... where people were requested to shut off power in their homes, offices for 1 hour from 7:30 - 8:30 pm . The idea was from similar campaign in sydney which generated improvemnt in their environment. I was out at 7:30 ..... and while walking back i saw some people actually following the rule, but the markets were alight and shining, some people had their houses lit up as if it was diwali...... and while walking back the final straw was my own building .... probably the only house which actually took part in this voluntary campaign in the building was mine.

and so tomorrow when the summers will be too hot or wintrs too cold..... or when walking down the street would be difficult because every other cm of space would be like a smoking chimney..... or when india loses because of the bad light ...... the same people would blame pollution. But when it comes to them ... they would be last one to take pains to rectify it .

SO people take charge !!!! not for your children ... cause they are too far ... take charge for your own life, your own health, your own future ..... what you do today .... shouldn't haunt you in future.

LOL !!!

2007-11-08T00:22:00.000+05:30

Well google analytics just compiled the list of keywords which people seach on google and hence to my blog...... some of the are hilarious.

"akash raman
"charles shobraj" the serial killer
"cross on 2 rupee coin"
"i rock india"
1 rupee coin with cross
bharkha dutt
bits pilani, goa waves 2007, miss waves, fashion show
gillu by mahadevi varma
goan colleges
good english poem for kids india
gurveen bedi
hazaaron kwaishen aisi
iit shahrukh khan
illad
mr.lee mingwei
ravemzdin
ravemzsdin book
the first keralite who conquered everest
watch "salaam mumbai" online free
west indianbabes

Well its nice ... people expecting babes, serial killers , books landing on my blog and finding nothing even remotely associated with their search .

All i can say is LOL

2007-11-07T22:27:00.000+05:30

Closed ... am I

2007-11-07T00:39:00.000+05:30

Well all of us have a personality, a kind of person which people percieve us to be , a kind of image in the society. Well recently while talking to some friends ... with whom i talk normally when we work together ..... i have been accused of being shy , closed and related terms.
Three years in college and now i come to know some people think i am shy. So here is the story from my side. I am not shy. I am reserved.
i am not closed, i am professional. Come ...meet , work , interact , leave. Nice short ...no loops attached ...proper work. That is the best.
Apart from other things Life is going fine normally. A wiki search on introvert gives "Introversion is "the state of or tendency toward being wholly or predominantly concerned with and interested in one's own mental life". Introverts tend to be quiet, low-key, deliberate, and relatively non-engaged in social situations. They take pleasure in solitary activities such as reading, writing, drawing, watching movies, listening to music, inventing, and designing. An introverted person is likely to enjoy time spent alone and find less reward in time spent with large groups of people (although they may enjoy one-to-one or one-to-few interactions with close friends). They prefer to concentrate on a single activity at a time and like to observe situations before they participate.

Now clearly i am not this , i mean come on i am involved in every other activity in college. Due to my schedule i highly find time alone and am mostly with large groups. I handle 2-3 things at a time.

another term which comes to my view is ambiversion .....now this is "Ambiversion is a term used to describe people who fall more or less directly in the middle and exhibit tendencies of both groups An ambivert is normally comfortable with groups and enjoys social interaction, but also relishes time alone and away from the crowd"

now this is me . I am reserved ... because i want to be that way . i don't like foolish talk ... talk what is important and thats me .

i know this was not interesting ... but what the hell .... it was about me , for me ...by me ..... and learned about myself.

ambivert ...yeah ... thats nice!

Home

2007-11-07T00:24:00.000+05:30

Well i am back in bombay , after 2 months. Always feels great to be back to this wierd mad house - Bombay. This time came back 3 hours after my exams finished. CDC's are killing us. Chapters finishing in the class before you can even get a hold of what is happening. Any anamoly ...it happens like this ... you will get this by experience.In short " Lagi padi hai"

Life on other front is also busy . Quark has gone into overdrive. Ohh btw ... Quark is our annual technical festival .... www.bits-quark.org . Meetings go on till 10:30 every night ... missing dinner most of the days ... which actually led to my going down with viral ...during exams.

Otherwise life revolves around these two things. First day in bombay was great .... saw a movie ... went to landmark ... sat there for 3 hours ... read a book and again didnot buy. Gorging on food as if i am gonna die tomorrow. Sleeping like a log. shooting mails ... discussing with people our stratergy.

Thats pretty much it .... i know i am blogging after a long time .... so have gone out of my mode . Wait for a few posts before i am back .

The Blackout

2007-10-15T21:09:00.000+05:30

Well i am back online nearly after a week . The reason ... the main transformer of the campus got burnt ... so BITS had a blackout. The institute had a back up .... without a/c . Now here is the thing about our institute ..... it is centrally air conditioned . So there are no fans .... and each class has only 2 windows ... which have hardly been opened . So now when there was a crunch ... the mighty authorities decided to go on with the classes ( "In Pilani... there are classes in 50degrees" ...... damid they have fans and winds ... this is hot and humid goa .. with classes like furnace ") .

Anyways the first day we did not have electricity and the central lawn was filled with people . Everybody was out . there were long discussions, weird games played , rumours and gossip was everywhere , disturbing people in salsa workshops, getting hold of nearly anybody and giving him bumps. The night was live .... it was fun ... people were interacting with each other face to face ... rater than through gtalk.

The next day due to humidity nobody in my hostel went for classes . Gully cricket was the order of the day . New rules , new style .... the only thing common with cricket in its current form was that it had a bat and a ball.
One full week , we passed our days like that..... playing cricket in the corridors during the day , attending some off meeting in evening and sitting on the b-dome lawn at night till 11.
Everybody always had some story to tell , some matter to discuss , some game to play ...... it was probably one of those few times when i thought ... people actually existed in this place .

And now power has been restored ( temp ... hostels have light but classes still w/o a/c) .... ad now everybody has gone back to their rooms .. to their comps , dc,movies , gtalk ..... nobody is out in he corridors plaing cricket , nobody in the lawn discussing something .........

I am happy that power has come ... but the last week did teach me one thing . With all the technology to make world a smaller place ... it has made it actually more cold and unconcerned ... people sitting next to each other .... use a gtalk server kept in us to interact with each other ... take pleasure in cs, wow , dota ... and what not ......

Half the status messages in my gtalk say ..... life is back to normal ... the bitsian way ..... but i miss those moments of the past week .

Take a look around

2007-10-08T19:12:00.000+05:30

This year , we are celebrating our 60th year of independence. We are one of the most progressive economies, deemed to be the next super power.We are the world's biggest democracy. The next big thing. Everything is good . But still something doesn't look right. Nearly a century ago, Gandhi ji had said through his 3 monkeys "बुरा मत देखो , बुरा मत सुनो, बुरा मत कहो । " Literally " donot see bad , donot hear bad , donot speak bad ." But i think we have applied this to not to speak against anything. Even if it means keeping our mouth shut against injustice and oppression

Take a look around, our neighbors on all sides are facing problems. Nepal and Pakistan with their democracy problem , LTTE in Sri Lanka, Military dictatorship in Myanmar, Growth of radical islam in Bangladesh. We are happy that we have arrived, everything is going good, But for how long. If this radical nature of religion grows in Pakistan and Bangladesh, How much time will it take to spill here? How much time will it be before maoist rebellion in nepal affects uttar pradesh and Bihar? How much time will it take before the civil war will break in Myanmar?

We may turn a deaf ear to all these questions. But the truth is how can we think of ourselves as a super power when we ourselves cannot control the situation in our neighboring areas. When we ourselves wait for situation to get out of hand and affect us. Prevention is always better than cure. India is always vary of helping neighbors after debacles in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. But we have to raise our voice if not for them , for us .

Writing this, it made me think, how many times we don't care what happens around us in our life. We have become too mean ... too self centred... too busy to drop in and say a simple "HI". We are ignorant of the problems faced by the people around us. We always wait until something like that affects us. Its time we take a look around and see for ourselves .... if somebody needs us.

Everyday people are dying in Mynamar because they are protesting against military government there. Bloggers like you and me are running from one place to another because of no freedom of expression and the government . Still they are bringing the true picture out ... so that somebody like you and me take notice and support them .... even though it may cost them their life. Innocent monks are shot upon . A journalist dies while filming the protest ..........

How long will we keep quiet?

This post is dedicated to the courages people of Myanmar

There is always a first time .

2007-09-25T22:30:00.000+05:30

Well recently when i had gone home , my mom had found a my class pic from kinder garden. Looking at the pic , i was actually surprised i remembered most of the names ( esp. if you see some faces after 16-17 years ) . I remembered my life then ...... reading colourful books with big bright colours , playing stupid games ( half of whose names i don't even remember ) , when we were made to sleep in the class " legally " , when our plans and strategies included how to defeat that tiffin bully, getting beaten by girls ( ohh come on at that age girls are bigger and more powerful ) .

One more thing which i remembered was one frequent question which was asked to all of us a lot during that time " what do you want to become when you grow big ?". You got very different varied answers - astronaut , scientist , fighter pilot , cricketer , footballer , ice cream vendor ......... and the list goes on . For the 30 odd people in the class there were 30 different answers.

But now when i see that pic and actually see what some people ( these are the people with whom i still have contact , great even after changing 7 schools ) .... most of them are either becoming an engineer , a doctor , an architect, A lawyer ..........

There is no astronaut , no fighter pilot , no cricketer ...... somehow all of us took the road walked by and became what society expected from us . We took up a road with moderate competition , less hardship , high returns , high profit ...... And now if somebody ask's us what would you do if you were given a chance to do that again . The answer most of us would give would be " We are past that stage ", " it cannot happen now " ," no chance ".

And then i realised , these are the same excuses which we give when we want "ourselves " willingly don't want to do something . There is nothing which is too late .... cuz there is always a first time . I am not talking about a complete carrier change ... but striving to learn something new . Taking up what you wanted to become as a hobby , as your passion , as your drive ....

And believe me if you truly ask yourself ... somewhere inside that astronaut , that miss india , that fighter pilot would still be there .... waiting to come out ....

This post is dedicated to Flight lieutenant. Nimit Mehra ( the name i used to write sometimes when i was small )... hope he would have flown ..... ( All India NDA rank 7 air force cadre )

God dammit ! i will learn how to fly .....

The world that is ...

2007-09-06T21:42:00.000+05:30

Well this week is one week which history probably chose as the week to remember the important people who were born on earth . This week saw the death of 3 very important people who had shaped the history of the world . The three people were very diverse in their ideologies , their way of tackling a problem and also the problem they faced . But one thing was common between all 3 of them . All 3 of them were loved by the people ... they were loved by the masses .

CHE Guevara

This is the face which all of u have seen somewhere ... either on T-shirts , or on rock concerts , or on hippie parties ( too many in Goa ) . He is the face of rebellion against oppression all around the world . The saviour of the havenots .... . He is the one which is given most coverage newspapers and blogs all around the world . The socialist guerrilla , the guy who tho stood for the people but his ways were bloody . He wanted an eye for an eye , wanted to take everything in his own hands . He was the guy who even 30 years after his death is worthy of hogging columns in newspapers.

Lady Diana

The "people's princess " . She was the darling of everybody , right from the charitable work she did to the way she handled the media . Even today we remember her . Even today we remember that fateful night in Paris when she died .

Mother Teresa

The lady who lived for the poor , who cared for the poor , " the saint of the gutter " . Mother Teresa lived her life for the others . She never hurt anybody , never did bad to anybody .... but still the newspapers gave her the least coverage . For them it was just another person who died sometime . The work which she did was not important to give into their writing because it was not sensational . it did not involve killing people. It did not involve he rock concerts . It did not involve naxal ideology , it did not involve drugs .

Even lady Diana was in news because Camella Parker refused to attend her funeral . Their was reports that at the time of death lady Diana was pregnant which were later proved wrong .

What is the world coming to ? Are we only interested in gossip , paparazzi , conspiracy , scandals , violence , drugs . Have the old beliefs which were taught to us as a child lost their importance . Have we become so indifferent that we do not stop talking ill about some person who has died .

Seriously it is time to introspect . Look into ourselves , think what we have become . What our media has become .... what we want to hear . All these 3 people changed history , all 3 of them were important but the way in which they were remembered was not good .

May their souls rest in peace !!!

The Basic Instinct

2007-09-03T18:57:00.000+05:30

Was looking up the newspaper for past few days to find some inspiration for writing . The only thing which was there in the newspaper was Left's tough unrelenting stand against the nuclear deal . It was just everywhere front page , page 3 , editorial , international news .... even some indications in the sports column . I wondered what has left got against the government that it opposes the government so vehemently . Why is it against the nuclear deal . The reason which i got as answer was probably left's pre cold war era anti capitalism and hence anti US stand . But then even the staunch rightist in the parliament were against the deal .

Why this ? two groups hardly having anything in common agreeing on the issue . And then .... just then it hit me . It was not the so called socialism , or defence of the country or even the selling our souls part, it was all farce . The truth is was and will remain .... EVERYTHING WHICH HAPPENS HERE HAPPENS FOR SOME SELFISH REASON . The left wants to stress on its importance and therefore tries to be the hurdle in everything . But it doesnot want to let go of the government because then it will lose the twetny pence importance which it has . The right on the other hand wants to get back the power .

It got me thinking . The basic instincts .... the basic feelings ... the basic principles which all of us have right from our birth ... selfishness , anger , meanness . Nobody teaches anybody these things , nobody teaches a child to cry , get angry , be possessive ... but he/ she still knows about them . Look around you everybody is busy in something or the other .... something selfish ... sometimes even at the cost of many things . This world is run on the whims and fancies of 10 % people with power and rest 90% people are dictated either directly or indirectly .

With time ... all you become is more selfish , mean , more practical .... more self centered ... and then one day you hate yourself . Hate yourself for what you have become .... but then you look around and remember the Darwinian rule .... survival of the fittest .

BITS has taught me a lot of things .. for which i am grateful to it . Transformed me from a boring hated bloke to a self confident guy . But one thing it has also taught me is to be self centred , making your path ... even at the cost of sacrificing somebody . And yes sometimes i do hate myself for that ... for what i have done .... but then ..... the basic instincts prevail ... change prevails .

Power , prestige , position ...... the things which govern this world .

i don't know what i have written .... but this is my grossest post ever .

goa with hooligans

2007-08-18T13:51:00.000+05:30

well was checking out my mobile and came across some pics which i thought would be nice for my recollection and for you to laugh at ........

GOA
well living in goa ... moving around .... you see a riot of colours .... here is something about the architecture of goa ..... which is different .... for a start ... colourful and vibrant .
the postal office of goa
A government building in Panjim
the church which is invariably shown in every movie .......
Another government building in panjim

Wierd antics
well ..... my group of friends .... are not normal .... we do a lot of hooligan stuff .... some of which is not known to public .... so here is an insight into some of the wierd stuff that happened in the past few days .

Duniya gol hai .... aur uske liye hum bhi gol gol ghoomenge .... puneet , maddy and purnoor .before chak de india ...... passing time .

Nahi nahi mujhe aur bhi khelna hai same people .....

Well couldnot think of a caption ..... but look closely there is only 1 guy (gill) in the line meant for girls ..... sometimes being street smart can be a one way icket to a horror show . gill in the mess ..(literally )

ek din main bhi himesh banoonga .... vishrut ..... trying to fool around with a guitar ... lok at the expression ...... bhojuri rap to come soon .

WEll there are a lot of pics of me doing such antics ...... but this is my blog !!!

60 things i love about being an Indian

2007-08-15T14:39:00.000+05:30

Well today is India's 60th independence day ... the day we got our right from the British colonial rule . To many people this freedom is taken for granted and for many people we are still not free .... considering the exploitation which is going in the country ... so i thought what should i write about his day and the only thing i could think was 60 things i love about being an indian .

1. To be able to wake up in the morning not thinking abour how to dodge bullets as in many war ravaged countries

2. To be able to blog , debate and express my views without having the treath to go to jail ..... assert my freedom of expression

3. To experience all 4 seasons in one year

4. To have a choice to learn about 18 languages and still say we are learning a language from our country

5. To be a nuclear power and have the second largest Army , 3 largest Airforce and still take pride in the fact that we have not attacked any country in the past .

6. Butter Chicken .

7. To go to the Taj Mahal without paying exorbitant amounts .

8. To have about 15000 species of plants and have about 3000 species of animals .

9.Singing national Anthem at the top of my voice ( trying doing it ..... it is a different experience altogether )

10 . Bollywood

11. The invention of zero ( got i learned the value of this number after coming to BITS)

12. Maruti 800 ( the easiest car to drive anywhere in the world )

13 . Being able to walk anywhere .... middle of road , side of road , under the road ..... on road at all !!!

14 . Being able to call every stranger Uncle/ aunty / Bhaiya / didi / beta / beti ..... the last 2 after 20 - 25 years .

15 . To have a vada pav in one hand .... umbrella in the other and walking (jumping ) all around the road ... trying to protect yourself from potholes ..... this one would only be understood by mumbaikars ( i miss the city .... but goa rocks!!!)

16 . Chacha choudry ..... lovd the comics

17 . Nimbu pani ..... best drink ever ....

18 . bombay local train ..... experience in itself .

19 . Indian weddings ..... complete chaos .... complete anarchy ....... no coordination ... but still you will love it .

20 . Goa ...... mix of past , present and the hint of future .

21 . Where being a virgin till 30 is no big deal ( okk we all don't like this part )

22. Sari ...... the best dress a women can wear ... mix of sensuality , grace, sophistication and honour ....

23. music .... .. punjabi in north , gujrati in west , carnatic in south ... bengali in east ....

24 . gulab jamun , ras malai ... kheer .......

25. where drinking water is free .....

26. feeling of being one ... inspite of all the differences .

27 . Where living with parents is no shame ....." we don't take appointments to meet our parents " loved this quote by aishwarya rai .

28 . To support our cricket team inspite of whatever they play ( thanks for defeating england again after 60 years ).

29 . Tipu sultan , bhagat singh , Ashoka , akhbar , chandrashekar azad ........ grew up reading about them .... and their stories are better than any roman fables .

30 . To have a holiday on diwali, eid , gurupurab and christmas ....

31 . To tell the foreigners that 10 years back we were bankrupt ..... considering today we are one of the powerful economies .

32. To have a impartial judiciary ...... no distinction between a king and a popper .

33 . To eat butter chicken pizza ,gobi manchurian , american chopsuye dosa ........ we are best at improvising ... and ya these dishes are indian ... find me any of these things anywhere else in the world .

34. To play pkadam pakdai ...... patang udana , lattu chalana .... i kno i have passed that stage but loved doing these things .

35. To have the cpability to dream big and one day become a superpower ....( trust me one day i would write a post when i would write abt us being a superpower )

36. To be called a generation of young and have future in front of us ....

37 . To listen to pantera ...metallica..... learn salsa ... tango .. but still press the dj to play kajra re or beedi jalaike ... when we want to loose it .

38. To tell riksha vaala " bhaiya jaldi chalao "( drive faster ) ... but still waste 10 minutes to get him to reduce 2 rupees .

39. To get your whole family (extended ) to see you off when ONLY YOU are going for a week .... away .

40. To blame everything from hih prices to high temperature ... to why your dog didnot eat on the government .

41 . To go for walk in the garden ... walk for 10 rounds ..... become tired ... take an auto ride ..... and then go to the nearest restraunt and order cheese pav bhaji ( with extraaaa cheese ) ... cuz you are too tired .

42 . TO make your children eat badam every morning ..... dimaag ke liye acha hai ... eat curd before an exam ... shubh hota hai .

43. To go on a family trip with mummy papa chunnu munnu and tommy on one scooter .

44. To eat lint... toublerone .... mars and still say ... Dairy milk rocks!!!

45. To not to use a new phone too much ...... kyunki abhi to naya hai .... and then say ... out of fashion ho gaya .

46. To go to neighbours house to get 2 chamach cheeni ...

47. To play cricket in the gulli .... and run when you break a window .

48. Aishwarya rai , bipasha basu , katrina kaif and her ...

49. Param super computer

50. Indian railways ....... the whole country in a compartment .

51. To remeber god .... whenever we start something .

52. To touch the elders feet for their blessings .

53. TO tell the world about peace .

54. To help others .... when we ourselves might need one ( remember tsunami )

55 . To find a connection with somebody as my fathers cousins sister- inlaws sons wife's second cousin's son 's friend

56 . To laugh at santa banta jokes ...

57 . To eat laddu at every independence day

58 . To wear a kurta pajama ... wake up at 6 ...only for seeing tri colour flutter .

59 . To be proud to be an INDIAN

60 . TO be born in this great country and live here

i know some of these were follish but still these small things give me pleasures and

" A great life is nothing but a series of well lived days with small pleasures strung together like necklace of pearls "
- robin sharma

Chak de India

2007-08-12T22:06:00.000+05:30

Well after a long time i saw a Hindi mainstream "masala" movie which i enjoyed so much . Well firstly the movie is inspired from the story of Mir Ranjan Negi the goalkeeper of the Indian National men's hockey team of 1982 Asian cup ..... in which India lost in the final to pakistan with a score of 7-1 . Negi was made the scape goat and was labelled a traitor which led to premature ending of his career . He finally redeemed his honour after 16 years by coaching the Indian Men Hockey team and making them win gold in Asian games in 1998 in Bangkok and then coaching the Indian womens hockey team and making them win the commonwealth games in Manchester in 2002 .

I wont spoil your movie by teling the story . But what i realy liked about the movie was that there was a certain spirit of doing well . Certain feeling to achieve something ..... which was beautifully portrayed beautifully . The team spirit ... which i think is losing some sort of relevance in today's cut throat competition. The spirit to achieve your goal ...... the feeling that nothing is impossible .... the spirit of setting your LIMIT to the sky ....... I don't know but i just love movies about India!!!

After this movie i feel our cinema has finally come of age . Finally there was a movie with no love shov ..... no silly dancing ..... only thing which was there was the plot . You might say that you have heard such stories a lot ... but still even when we would all know the result ..... it still kept me on the edge of my seat .... waiting for what was next to happen . The acting of the actors was nice .......... the movie surely did chak de !!! worth a watch .

Marking your LIMIT

2007-08-11T15:00:00.000+05:30

well on july 8 , 2007 the big apple ... New York had a deluge ....much like what aamchi mumbai has now every year . It was sad with a loss of lot of property and death of some people . But what surprised me was the headlines in the newspapers . Instead of reporting what happened in New York they actually compared Mumbai to Ney york and took a saddistic pleasure in saying .... " We are like New York " . There were comparisons with New York times ......

But what are we trying to project .... we are as bad as some other city in the world to tackle our problems ? or are we saying that we are inferior to somebody and establishing the other's supremacy ? or do we consider the problem so grave that we can't find a solution to it ... do we feel that it is impossible ? ...... have we set our LIMITs?????????

" I'd rather confess that i am wrong and be right than claim i am right and be wrong "
-Maria Fontaine
excuses ...... thats what we had been doing for 40 years after our Independence and what was the result ..... an empty treasury .... foreign sanctions ...... crumbling market .... and when we accepted our faults and changed the course of action what happened ...... we became one of the fastest rising economy..... second largest growth rate ..... being compared into the league ....... We became right by accepting that we were wrong . Everyday ... we try to hide from our mistakes ... everyday we make excuses .... everyday we run ........ from what ???? eventually from success.

" Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better "
- Pat Riley
" You may be disappointed if you fail .... but you will be doomed if you don't try "
- Beverly sills
most of us have set a LIMIT for ourself .... which we have set sometimes on the basis of our failures in the past , sometimes because people tell us we cannot do a certain thing but most of the times it is because we are worried what happens if we fail .... we set our limits and try to perform in those set of preconceived goals .... we never strife for bigger things because this may lead to losing what we have ..... we are afraid to burn our boats .....

" I think therefore I am "
- Descrates

we can be what we perceive to be ... if we perceive to be the best , the fastest , the brightest damn right we can be ....... the only thing is where do you set your limits and how much do you believe in yourself .

If we think we match a city in its failure then dammit we will compare ourself to every failure .... but if we compare ourself to the strengths of that same city and strife to be better ...... then i see no reason why one day there won't be an article in New York times comparing New York with Mumbai .

We have had our setbacks and we have all screwed up ... but there are only a few who rise ... while others just make a deal with fate, destiny ... or whatever excuse they wanna give .

" Everybody screws up , its what you do next matters "

whipping the cream

2007-08-07T22:08:00.000+05:30

well i picked up my paper today .... and the first news i see is " Chief Minister to Samovar's rescue " ...... with a photo of some celebrities and quotes by shobha De . Now what is samovar ..... and why is it so important .... looking at the headline i figured out that it must be some monument or some area where some less fortunate people were living which needed help .

But looking inside i figured out that it is a cafe at kala ghoda ( one of the most expensive area in the city ) ..... and the article starts like " Superstar Amitabh Bachan and his wife Jaya will be happy. Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Monday promised to help save Cafe Samovar in Kala Ghoda from shutting down. The actors had their first date in the early '70s in this bustling verandah cafe at jehangir Art gallery "

Well first of all does this news deserve to be on the front page of a reputed national daily ? why do i care if two actors met here , dated ... kissed whatsoever .. specially when there are more important topics concerning the country and the world which are pushed inside ? why is the media so much frenzied about even the sneeze of a celebrity while the constant suffering of the common man is ignored , taken for granted ..... not worthy of reporting ?

The cafe might be important for the art lovers .... but it certainly does not deserve the front page . I had written a post about how waylaid our media has become .....something which came out on the recent Ramnath goenka memorial debate .

Another ... point which i want to make is why the celebrities think they deserve special treatment . The Sanjay Dutt conviction ...... i for once am ok with it . why? because he might be munnabhai on screen , his father might have taken out peace marches .... a champion of the poor , he might be a superstar ...... but all said and done , he had broken a law . He had made mistakes and should be punished , like any other ordinary man . What would have happened if you or me would have kept an AK-56 ? we would probably have been kept in lock up without even a reason , might have died in a fake encounter ....... and nobody would have batted an eyelid . The same media which now runs story after story on the conviction ... wouldn't have found it worthy to make it to their pages esp. when there should be advertisements ..... which are important . The Salman Khan blackbuck case ..... The Fardeen khan drug abuse ...... The shakti kapoor casting couch ...... The Rahul Mahajan drug abuse case ..... why do we forget the crime in light of something which is actually a dream ( cinema ) .

The society calls these people the cream . They are doing well professionally , making us laugh and cry with them ...... but this does not give them a license to do whatever they please . It is time the cream needs to be whipped .

Happy friendship day

2007-08-05T00:03:00.000+05:30

well right now i am sitting in gillu's room ... blogging from the temporary wifi we set up from his router .... night out after nearly a year .... will watch 2- 3 movies starting right now with cheeni- kum ..... feels nice . Well somebody declared on DC that today is friendship day and so started the AH3 tour in which we went to all our friends room in AH3 and wished them friendship day (friendship day to bas bahana hai .... sabke ghar se aaya hua khana jo khana hai ) ( Don't worry mere pyaare hostel vaalo kal main aaonga ) . Well thinking about it .... it the first time i have wished anybody friendship day , sadly for many of my friends it would be the last time i would be wishing them ...... the last year .... seems what we did for past two years ??? In one of my earlier posts i had written about how we never tell people how much they mean to us and how we repent it when they are no longer with us ..... and so now thinking about it .... well guys ... i love you ( not that you peverts ) .... and damn will miss you after we disperse in the big bad world .....

seeing one of boxer's post ..... i remebered my friends from school ..... sadly ( ashamdly ) i have lost all photo proofs of all my school friends ... except one kg class photograph which mom found in my mess in the room and revived it .... will put it up sometime ..... but till then ....... HAPPY FRIENDSHIP DAY to you all and ya .... wish the people around you .... cuz sometimes after 10 years you would repent that you didn't .........

Cheers!!! to all my friends

the road ahead

2007-08-03T19:46:00.000+05:30

well i have been away from blogging for a few days cuz the lan in my hostel is not working ( and all those of you for whom it is working ... don't rub it in ... AH4 rules )

So now another sem has started . Looking around i saw it as another first sem . Fresh look , new resolutions, clean rooms , trying to live life in a more civilized way , first years having a mix of fear and excitment in their eyes, fourth yearites getting goosebumps about placements , second yearites feeling good on finally being a senior and not letting any oppurtunity go for assering their new found status , third yearites preparing for ...ohh no not speeak abt it (CDC's)......

It somehow got me thinking ....... why everytime we try to begin in a new way .... why all of us aim for a 10 when we start ( now don't groan about it ..... even a 5 pointer aims for a 10 inside .... no matter how much we try to label 10p as padaku but it is grapes are sour feeling ) and still only a handful manage it ? Why we pledge to attend all classes and finally one day after a surprise test through which half of us slept we ponder why what has happened after those 2 years of slog to get here ?

Frankly speaking i don't know . The 5 sem has started ... this time with cdc's ..... and like always i too have my set of resolution ... which i wanna stick to ..... lets see how far i go ....
but anyways

BEST OF LUCK to you and me

ps: the thing about sleeping has been taken care of by my time table atleast .... on monday , tuesday and thurday .... my first class is at 10 A.M and on friday my first class is at 12 noon ....

फिर भी दिल है हिंदुस्तानी

2007-07-29T22:22:00.000+05:30

बहुत समय के पश्चात भार्तिये क्रिकेट टीम ने हमारे देश के बहार कुछ अच प्रदर्शन किया है । इसी विषय में कल हमारी क्रिकेट तें ने पत्रकारो कि एक सभा बुलाई थी .... जिसे अन्ग्रेसी बाशा में प्रेस कोन्फेरेंस कहते हैं । इस सभा में भारिये एवं हमारे ऊपर पूर्व राज करने वाले देश इंग्लैंड के पत्रकार आये थे । इस अवसर पर हमारे सलामी बल्लेबाज़ वे हिंदी कोस्मभोदिथ लक्ष्मण ने इन पत्रकारो को स्म्भोदिथ किया ।

वे हिंदी में पत्रक्रो को सम्भोदिथ कर रहे थे । इस पर कई विदेशी पत्रकार उनकी इस बाशा के प्रयोग से कुश नही हुए और इससे पहले की वे अपना उत्तर समाप्त करे वे उनकी मेज़ से अपने यन्त्र उठा कर चलते बने ।
मैंने सोचा ऐसा क्यों हुआ । क्या यह इसलिये हुआ कि एक भार्तिये ने अपनी मत्रबषा का प्रयोग किया । तो फिर जब यह फिरंगी आकर अपनी भाषा हमारे ऊपर थोपते हैं तो हम उनकी वाह वाह करते हैं । हममे बचपन से सिखाया जता है अतिथि देवोभावा ..... जिसके मतलब है कि एक अतिथि भगवन समान होता है । परुन्तु इसका अर्थ यह तो नही कि हम चुप बिठेंगे जब कोई हमारी मातृभाषा कि इस प्रकार से बेअज़ात्ती करेगा । हिंदी एक वैज्ञानिक भाषा है ..... जिसमें जिस प्रकार बोलते हैं उससी प्रकार लिखते हैं । यह एक भार्तिये होने कि पहचान है और मुझे इस बात पर गर्व है कि हमारी भाषा विश्व कि सबसे पुराणी भाषाओं में से एक है । आप लोगो ने कभी किसी रूसी या फ़्रांस के नाग्रिग को अंग्रेजी में वार्तालाप करते हुए सुना है ........ नही । वे उसी प्रकार अपनी मातृभाषा में वार्तालाप करते हैं जिस प्रकार अम्रेकन या अँगरेज़ अंग्रेजी में बात करते हैं । तो फिर हममे किस बात से शर्म है । हम उन लोगो से ज़्यादा आमिर हैं अब । हमारी फोजें उनसे ज़्यादा शक्तिमान हैं । हमारें इंजीनियर , वैज्ञानिक , डाक्टर उन सब देशो से उच् स्तर के हैं । हम किसी प्रकार से उनसे पीछे नही । तो फिर हम उन गोरी चमडी के गुमान को क्यों बढ़ाते हैं । हम लोग क्यों उनके जैसा बन्न्ना चाहते हैं ?

मैं एक भातिये हु । हिंदी मेरी राष्ट्रभाषा है । जन गन मन मेरा राष्ट्रीय गीत है । शेर मेरा राष्ट्रिये पशु है । मेरा देश विश्व का सात्व सबसे बड़ा देश है । मेरे देश ने आजतक किसी और देश पे आक्रमंद नही किया । मैं उस देश का वासी हु जहाँ सबसे पहले मानव ने सभ्यता का मतलब सीखा था । जहाँ पर बुध और नानक ने शांति का पाठ पढाया था । जहाँ रिग वेध के रुप में सबसे पहला ग्रंथ लिखा गया था । जहाँ सों करोड लोग जो कि एक दुसरे से ब्भिं भीं प्रकार से अलग है सुख एवं सम्रिधि से रहते है । मुझे इन बातों का गर्व है और हिंदी मेरी मातृभाषा है जिसका मुझे गुमान है ।

जय हिंद

Main peeke talli ho gaya

2007-07-28T22:51:00.000+05:30

Well the recent news doing the rounds is that of Kiran Bedi ( India's first woman IPS officer ) being super seeded and the post of Delhi's Police commissioner being given to her junior . She alleged that it was because she was not a part of the " Social Drinking Circle " ( apart from the gender bias and bureaucrats not wanting to deal with a woman ..... but i already wrote about the issue in one of my previous posts ...) . So now about the drinking . I don't drink ... and so do many of my friends from my group ( leaving apart our very dear choos and punter ) . But yes some of my friends who are social drinkers also ( Puneet , Mohammed , Aneesh ) ..... we have never been pressurized to drink ( which i like ) . I don't know what pushes people to drink ( i am not discussing pros or cons of drinking ) But just out of curiosity ..... is it .....

1. to look cool (maybe )
2. to fit in ( probably but considering our group to fit in you should be an appy drinker not a vodka drinker)
3. to cope up with stress ( as a friend doing mbbs said thats why they drink )
4. Because it tastes good ( a frank reply given by gogo)
5.

well these are all what i could think of ... left the 5 one blank cuz i know that this is not the full list and there will be additions . But seriously what would i do if ever i am faced with such a condition . I mean yes i want to rise in the corporate ladder fast ..... i want to be " in the club " .... but still i want to regard the two promises i made to my parents before leaving home one of which was never to smoke or drink . Would i give in to the temptation/pressure ? or would i let go off my career ?
Right now what i feel is that i will not drink . I mean my father is a teetotaller and i don't think it has affected his career in any way . But who knows ???
Thinking about this there was an article in DNA about sexual exploitation which happens in the corporate offices these days and there were some anonymous experiences about people of how it happened . What happened when the tried to resist .... But sadly no experience about how to resist . I mean this problem ( according to normal notion ) is faced by women ...but according to recent reports people believe in gender equality . For people us ( considering most of the people who read my blog are college students ) who will be entering the corporate world soon .... how do you tackle such problems ??? especially when you are at the bottom of the ladder .....

Drinking , exploitation .......... it sure looks a dark world out there ...... i wanna enjoy this year with my friends fully .... 5 sem beckons .....

Vela = ME

2007-07-27T22:28:00.000+05:30

well looking at the past few posts on my blog ... they have been very serious and make me look like a social activist ...But in reality i am a college kid with a net connection and some thoughts . So i thought why not write a Lite post . Thinking about it ..... why not write about what i do ... well so here is the list of some things i do ....

In College

1. I sleep for 6-8 hours
2. I watch movies, sitcoms , funny videos , music videos .......
3. i attend meetings ..... clubs , departments etc....
4. sometimes i get bouts of seriousness when i feel like studying...
5. I party with friends
6. I blog
7. I have vela night outs with friends
8. I have serious discussions with friends
9. i go to beaches , trek on weekends
10 . we have appy sessions where we remember our incomplete stories ...

At Home ( apart from meeting my parents and staying with them )

1. I sleep for 16 -18 hours
2. I Eat
3. i watch tv
4 . I Eat
5 . i go to landmark and read a book without buying it
6. I Eat
7. I Sleep
8. I Eat
9. I Sleep
10. I Eat

well thats pretty much it ..... it is not an interesting post ... don't bother ... but what the hell it is for me ....

Putravati Bhav

2007-07-23T21:36:00.000+05:30

Every year about ONE MILLION girls die in India ....... due to female infanticide. Most cannot even see the world from their eyes because they die when they are in their mother's protective care and some who do ....... die because they did not fulfill the family wishes . We are the second largest population the world , the seventh largest country in the world , on the verge of becoming a super power ....... but still we have a skewed sex ratio of 1000 boys to 927 girls .

In our history we have given importance to women . We pray to durga Mata , Saraswati Mata is goddess of knowledge , Laxmi Mata is the goddess of wealth ....... but still we kill small girl child as if she is a disgrace...... still people bless with putravati bhav . People go to cocktail parties.... give speeches about empowerment of women , how women are equal to men and then the same people drive their cars to the hospitals to abort the girl child .....

India has banned ultrasonic sex determination in 2002 and so people could not determine the sex of the child before it was born , but this did not stop people .... they invented ways in which they could plant the embryo of their own choice .... and thus technically didnot kill the child . But how right is this ? Why should one meddle with the basic reproductive process which was made to ensure equality of both the sexes ?

In ancient times women and men were equal in stature . But then due to wars of the tribes , physically strong man gained prominence and since he wrote all the scriptures ..... he established his so called superiority .... but now in the age of information ....... women are equal to men . We find practices like purdah are cruel , but then why do we feel that women are weaker ?

The society has to get this change in thinking .... we should change our mindset .... we should accept the girl as a boy . For the uneducated masses of the country .... government should organise programs telling them how a child is born and how its sex is chosen in biological process . Incentives should be given by the government for the people who have girl child . For the educated , rich ... well all i have to say that their conscience should be awakened .

we call women the fairer sex . We call our country matrabhoomi , we call our language matrabhasha ..... we place the girl so high in our culture ...... let this girl have a chance to live ......

This post was inspired by two factors firstly a conversation i had with my school friend Gurveen a few days back and secondly due to a talk show i saw on TV today.

The confused Desi

2007-07-18T23:00:00.000+05:30

Well today since i was alone for most of the earlier part of the day ... i decided to go and check out Landmark ( a book store near my house ).As expected it was abuzz with the most awaited book - Harry Potter and the deathly hallows . There were people booking books , children buying franchise ..... the store looked like a miny Hoghwarts - it was nice !!!.

So while strolling i happened to pass by a section in which Amar Chitra Katha comics were kept . I remembered my early childhood days and the fun i had reading them . Stories about kings , mythology, freedom movement etc etc .... surprisingly there were no kids in this section .... ( only some people like me who wanted to kill time ).

And i thought why even after having 5000 years of rich ancient history , mythology our kids have chosen a phirangi wizard as their icon . If you see closely even the indian mythology has magic , sorcerers etc .... we have our own LOTR's and our Own harry potter's but still we want to go out and read that westernized concept .

I still remember i was in 9th and had forced my mom to take me to the LOTR movie . After the movie she had come out .... while i was in awe she remarked " what is so special abt it ... it is after all like the chandamama which we used to read " . I had laughed the comment off that time , but thinking now it perfectly makes sence - Devta (elfs ), Manus ( humans ) , Bhagvan (Wizard ) ..... we had it all but we wanted a book to be written about it with the "cool " things which would be a "style statement " to read .

In one of my earlier posts me and Akash bhaiya are having a discussion (in comments ) about why we are not proud of what we have ? Why do we want to plagarize the west ? Why can't Hanuman be Aragon ? Why can't Arjun be legolas ? Why do we have to be confused desi's ?

right now i don't know . what i do know is after 3 days when hp releases i would be one of the first in the line to pick it up .......... but why would the same be not possible for a Ramayan or a Mahabharat