Being Dheeraj

The Monsoon Diaries

2010-08-01T01:00:00.009+05:30

The sky is cloudy again, sun is hiding behind the grey clouds, humidity levels are high and the cool monsoon breeze is flowing at its peak. The fragrance of flowers mixed with scent of wet soil, chirping of insects, murmuring of squeaking frogs and the thunderstorm and lightening mark the arrival of monsoons.

At times, it seems as if sun has gone on a vacation handing over the charge to the dark grey clouds. Mother earth looks daisy fresh like an angel (her experience can be related to that of ours, the way we feel after the first monsoon shower). It appears as if your surroundings are repainted, as all the dust is drowned, clouds are grey and grass is colored in various shades of lush green. Greenery around adds to the appeal of monsoon when all you want to do is let loose and get drenched in rain. It is a time to relax over moong ke bhajiye , admiring the sudden sprout of Gaajar Ghaas ( I-don’t-know-it’s-scientific-name) around you. It is also the time when sensual pleasures run high.

Rain has always been my way of natural escape from the hot dreary summer which is getting worse every passing year. One of the most rejoicing memories I have of my childhood is going out on picnics with my family to nearby dams and waterfalls. It was a time when all of us sat together and chatted over hot pakodas, roasted corns and steaming cups of tea. Monsoon also marked the beginning of our new session at school; we used to hop from one standard to the next. Another thing that excited me about rainy season was that, I used to get a chance to take out my colorful raincoat from the closet whereas some other times when I got wet in rain I used to smell like a drenched stinking dog. Ambling on the terrace all alone on the foggy nights, when those silver heavenly drops fall directly on face, I feel as if my spirit and soul is christened. The miles ahead are empty and loneliness and wetness of the nature can be felt all around.

Monsoons are the best times for planning outings in this part of the world. So, what are you waiting for? Just plan something with your near and dear ones or else pick a nice bike, get it full tank and give yourself a ride to a nearby waterfall. The sight of torrents and cascading streams gushing through the cliffs and gorges is waiting for you. The clock’s striking midnight; it’s raining outside, moon singing beautiful soft rhymes, rain adding the music, stars watching over me and roads barely visible, it surely is a trip around heaven.. Happy Monsoons. :)

P.S. :- BTW, Scientific name of Gaajar ghaas is Parthenium hysterophorus(courtesy - Google). huh.. Never mind.

Quarter life crisis

2010-06-14T00:12:00.001+05:30

I am 24 and thus very much surrounded by folks who are in between late twenties and early thirties, who questions about every aspect of their life. Most of which are not sure about the direction they are heading and their fat pay cheques are not enough to buy them a sound sleep. I had observed quite a fast burnout among teenagers and some of them are really super wasted.

The mess/ Psycho path

These really are pathetic mess and are not supposed to be touched. These are real bullshitters and their major expenses involve cigarettes and other low potency narcotics. Others are Dev-D types or Mr. wimpy who recently got a line "I like you .. but..". These dive hard into the porn stash and longer sessions on PS3. Booze, booze and lot more booze till death. Some of these looks like terrorist with Elton John goggles.

Brats

Normally found outside five star restaurants getting off their chauffer driven SUVs with sunglasses that cover 3/4th of the face. Normally wears tight jeans and sleeveless shirts and is 63% fairer than their "Handsome devil" counterpart. Give-aways include a fake accent that arises every time a drink is ordered. Also likely to have croc (which he bought after seeing all the hot young studs wearing them with tight jeans). They go to malls and pay a 887.11% mark-up for the same bucket of popcorn that they can buy from the 8-year-old stray dog bitten orphan in your local market. They are known to only to sleep in silk stalkings and are wingman to each other. These are absolute fashion bombs and Iphone is the only mobile they use. The only thing they care about is "Where is da party tonight" and have at least one third of their cousins in London School of Economics. Some of these dudes/hunks are products of Indore, whose land has been acquired by the "Sahara" group for a princely sum which has allowed them to buy the “latest” Pajero and Prado.

Handsome devils

Some good looking chap(courtesy-to-talwalkars/barbarian) who wears awkward accessories and don’t care if it messes with the chain hanging across the left side of their parachute pants. Thinks Eminem is the coolest person to have ever been born but know nothing about the history and purpose of the genre he sings. Celebrates St. Patrick’s Day thinking of themselves as second cousin of St. Patrick and plays all sorts of pranks for hooking up with a rich daddy’s girl. Some of these live in posh "Kalonies" and showcase their happy lives/events through their Flickr photo stream, normally have more female friends than men and likes it that way. Some of these are seen as arrogant by other men and commonly referred to as a playboy/slut by other women/men. They spend 35.7 minutes to get ready even if they have to go to the local market and buy a couple of vegetables.

khadoos Assholes

These are the ugliest thing produced by human kind since Bobby Darling who mistakes noise for music. Had asked out at least half the class in high school and keeps a very selected bunch of friends.

Mr know it all / Geeks

They only quote people like the CEO of General Motors and other crazy right-wingers. They do not care whether you are listening or not and still continue their babblings on the future of Iraqi oil while you play solitaire on your computer screen without an internet connection. The one who thinks he knows you. Most of them are average middle class youths who have sold their slave soul to a corporation whose products you don’t care for and who treats you like a statistic.

Desi Bhaiya

These still wears boot cut jeans with embroidery on the back and the bottom. They think they know hinglish and occasionally drop some grammatical gems like "May I hebb ur attention pliss". A "klass" apart who can easily dance to lame sunny deol numbers like "Kammo". "China mobile" and "Kapi" are their favorites and they don’t care if they're wearing Rupa or Jockey. They can destroy anything and everything they touch if given right tools and opportunities. Most of the monuments I have visited are littered with Rahul Mahajan's queue crap, "montu loves puspa", "bhayakar thandi beer yahan milti hai" etc . Can also be seen wearing dark glasses no matter what the time of day. Pants worn are also straight fits with a big wallet bulging in the back.

Unriped Ones

They wear Che Guevera Tees, as the only thing they know is “he was the dude from Motorcycle Diaries”.They are in high school as new younglings who started exploring their sexuality with the best-looking meat pie within their immediate surroundings. Chances that you bump into at least 4 idiots who are getting their picture taken in front of an expensive car or another hotspot at a mall are very high when you go to a mall. They can go to Meghdoot Garden for extensive public displays of affection, only to realize they have become local celebrities in Indore.

Dextrous/Artists

Wears a lot of Fabindia and ethnic Indian clothing and owns a large collection of junk jewellery, normally found with pseudo feminist women in long flowing skirts and a bit too much kajal in the eyes. If he is a serious photographer, he will not be seen with anything less than a 50K DSLR coupled with the latest MAC and storage. These are perfect candidate for being a corporate slave in the future.

Good for Nothing

Fair to wheatish complexioned man who feels comfortable in both - traditional and regular western clothes , but has been shielded by his family and thus knows very little about the world. Some of these are die hard Couch potatoes and usually Mr Ha-Ha. These are used by anyone and everyone (use-and-throw-types).

Before you sue: These are for the super wasted ones, so just chill if you don't fall into any of these.

Dialogue-Roll

2010-06-04T00:45:00.070+05:30

Some of my favourites....

Spider-Man

Uncle Ben : This guy, Flash Thompson, he probably deserved what happened. But just because you can beat him up doesn't give you the right to. Remember, with great power, comes great responsibility.

27 Dresses

Jane : I feel like I just found out my favorite love song was written about a sandwich.

Serendipity

Sara: You don't have to understand. You just have to have faith.

Jonathan: Faith in what?

Sara: Destiny

If-Only

Ian Wryndham: I adore you.

Samantha Andrews: [with tears in her eyes] I don't wanna be adored! I wanna be loved.

Notting Hills

Anna Scott: I adore you. After all... I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.

Twilight

Rosalie Hale: Why should I? What is she to me?

Dr. Carlisle Cullen: Bella is with Edward. She's a part of this family, and we protect our family.

Isabella Swan: [to Edward] I'd rather die than to stay away from you.

Edward Cullen: [to Bella] You are my life now.

La vita è bella(Life is Beautiful)

Guido: I forgot to tell you.

Dora: Go ahead.

Guido: You can't imagine how much I feel like making love to you. But I'll never tell anyone, especially not you. They'd have to torture me to make me say it.

Dora: Say what?

Guido: That I want to make love to you - not just once, but over and over again! But I'll never tell you that. I'd have to be crazy to tell you. I'd even make love to you now... right here for the rest of my life.

The Notebook

I love you. I am who I am because of you. You are every reason, every hope, and every dream I've ever had, and no matter what happens to us in the future, everyday we are together is the greatest day of my life. I will always be yours.

Poets often describe love as an emotion that we can't control, one that overwhelms logic and common sense. Thats what it's like for me. I didn't plan on falling in love with you, and I doubt that you planned on falling in love with me. But once we met, it was clear that neither of us could control what was happening to us. We fell in love, despite our differences, and once we did, something rare and beautiful was created. For me love like that has happened only once, and thats why every minute we spent together has been seared in my memory. I'll never forget a single moment of it.

Harry Potter

It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends.

A walk to remember

Jamie: You don't know the first thing about being someone's friend.

Landon: I don't want to just be your friend.

Jamie: You don't know what you want.
Landon: Neither do you. Maybe you're just too scared that someone might actually want to be with you.

Jamie: And why would that scare me?

Landon: Because then you wouldn't be able to hide behind your books, or your frickin' telescope, or your faith. No, no, you know the real reason why you're scared? It's cause maybe you wanna be with me too.

Mr and Mrs smith

I guess that's what happens at the end, you start thinking about the beginning.

P.S.- I love you

And we are going to last, and you want to know how I know? Because I still wake up every morning and the first thing I want to do, is see your face.

Sweet November

Sara: You know, he asked me to marry him.

Chaz: He's not the first...

Sara: No, but it was the first time I wanted to say "Yes".

Sara: You got the job, didn't you?

Nelson Moss: Best offer anyone ever made me,

Sara: So when do you start?

Nelson Moss: We had a little problem agreeing on that. He suggested immediately, I suggested... never.

Sara: Never?

Nelson Moss: Never.

Batman Begins

Rachel Dawes: Wait! You could die. At least tell me your name.

Bruce Wayne: It's not who I am underneath, but what I *do* that defines me.

Rachel Dawes: [realizing] Bruce?

Little Manhattan

Gabe: Suddenly, I knew what I had to do. Love isn't about ridiculous little words. Love is about grand gestures. Love is about airplanes pulling banners over stadiums, proposals on jumbo-trons, giant words in sky writing. Love is about going that extra mile even if it hurts, letting it all hang out there. Love is about finding courage inside of you that you didn't even know was there.

Gabe: There are very few things more painful than watching the woman you love grapple with another man. Actually, I take that back. There are no things more painful.

The Persuit of Happiness

Christopher Gardner: Hey. Don't ever let somebody tell you... You can't do something. Not even me. All right?

Christopher: All right.

Christopher Gardner: You got a dream... You gotta protect it. People can't do somethin' themselves, they wanna tell you can't do it. If you want somethin', go get it. Period.

Gandhi

Nahari: I'm going to Hell! I killed a child! I smashed his head against a wall.

Gandhi: Why?

Nahari: Because they killed my son! The Muslims killed my son!

[indicates boy's height]

Gandhi: I know a way out of Hell. Find a child, a child whose mother and father have been killed and raise him as your own.

[indicates same height]

Gandhi: Only be sure that he is a Muslim and that you raise him as one.

Little Miss Sunshine

Richard: There's two kinds of people in this world, there's winners and there's losers. Okay, you know what the difference is? Winners don't give up.

Love Story

Love means never having to say you're sorry

As Good as it Gets

You make me want to be a better man.

Memento

Some memories are best forgotten

Harry Potter

There are some things you can't share without ending being friends.

The Great Debater

James Farmer Jr.: In Texas they lynch Negroes. My teammates and I saw a man strung up by his neck and set on fire. We drove through a lynch mob, pressed our faces against the floorboard. I looked at my teammates. I saw the fear in their eyes and, worse, the shame. What was this Negro's crime that he should be hung without trial in a dark forest filled with fog. Was he a thief? Was he a killer? Or just a Negro? Was he a sharecropper? A preacher? Were his children waiting up for him? And who are we to just lie there and do nothing. No matter what he did, the mob was the criminal. But the law did nothing. Just left us wondering, "Why?" My opponent says nothing that erodes the rule of law can be moral. But there is no rule of law in the Jim Crow south. Not when Negroes are denied housing. Turned away from schools, hospitals. And not when we are lynched. St Augustine said, "An unjust law in no law at all.' Which means I have a right, even a duty to resist. With violence or civil disobedience. You should pray I choose the latter.

Gracias,

Dheeraj Bansal

http://flickr.com/photos/beingdheeraj

The art of swimming

2010-05-19T21:37:00.002+05:30

The alarm went off. It was 25 degrees outside and I headed out with sleep still in my eyes, as I was expected to reach a nearby pool in 15 minutes on my very first day. Anyways after all the years of mattress-worshiping and Pain-in-the-ass planning I finally hit a pool. Borrowed swimming cap from tapan I started the fellowship. One of thing I discovered after years of intensive research is it cannot be learnt online and one has to dive into the pool. I had gone through "swimming-for-newbie's" etc to know about niches of swimming and to avoid some silly costume malfunctions. I think some simple rules of thumb help otherwise first experience could be daunting.

Day 1

The moment I stepped into the pool, weather suddenly started appearing cold. After 10 minutes I felt a little burning sensation in my lungs which were still trying to adjust with the cold weather. After sometime I realized that people there who drove in their sedans with their mouths agape were looking at me like I am totally insane. I gave them a smile back and a wave to the lucky ones. I think they wanted to say "At ease soldier, why would you do that to yourself?” As I was struggling to survive on the shallow side of the pool which was just 5 feets deep. My trainer came and demoed me some basic steps to start with. I drank as much as half a bucket of chlorinated water on my very first day which is in a way more than my total consumption on drinking water in a day.

Day 3

I purchased swimming gears as other children were wearing it too and I knew that I can fool myself to go to swimming pool as I had purchased those new accessories. By this time I was gaining confidence and asked my trainer to train me in 12 feet. I wasn't sure that I will resurface, but by the time I would have given this decision a second thought, I was already thrown into 12 feet. Gosh that 1 minute was a perfect marijuana minute and life had started flashing back. But I decided to swim with my all strength and resurfaced. Finally at the end of this drama, my trainer said that I learnt it and somehow I knew I did.(*smile*)

Day 10

Now I love early morning and more number of kids at pool calls me uncle than bhaiya. I'm friends with the guy whose pool I once (Day 1) peed in. Chlorine is my perfume and I feel soggy and damp for at least 2 hours of the day. I met this Jain sahab who seems suffering from restless lip syndrome having nephews with names swadesh, swadhin, bharat, swatantra (A-real-patriot). Someone asked him “how is water"- and he replied "solid" and my whole belief system shook as I use to think it to be in liquid state (faints).

Day 25

Trainer there as expected is an instrument of torture for small kids as he threw small kids in the middle of water where they have no option but to swim and I wanted to say him "please leave these small kids for the love of god, but I think that's the only way(the-cruel-one)". A fellow swimmer who is an aunty by nature has bathing robe which is enough to cover whole Indore if someday it will rain heavily. It is big. No it is huge. No it is like really really... all right what's bigger than huge? (Duhhhh). A child appeared out of blue and then I realized that this thing is called as underwater swimming.

I am not a triathelete or fitness swimmer neither I am a rehearsed enigma like Michael Phelps or perfectly manicured like Natalie Coughlin but I think I am doing good and learning fast. Now I have learnt breast-stroke, butterfly-stroke, back-stroke and underwater. I realize that we don't have to fight with the water, just share the spirit of water and it will accept you without resistance. It is one of the best exercise and another advantage is I don't had to shower again when I am home, all I have to do is change clothes and I am good to go office, although I still take pirate bath on monday's as it is off at the pool. There have been deaths and injuries in swimming, but none of them serious. I love swimming (muah swimming). I think I will join swimming every summer so I could grow better, faster and stronger every year (Ahem).

The way girls are - A handy guide which is good for nothing

2010-04-26T10:06:00.031+05:30

Disclaimer : This is part of my perception about girls which doesn't have any relation, intended or coinicidental, with any particular member of the "fairer and lovelier" sex, so please read it for leisure. If you are here to learn about girls, I suggest you somehow move the pointer on to the top right corner and click there.

Hmm. Writing something which applies to 350 billion souls wandering on this part of the Milky Way is a bit tricky job very very very difficult... on second thoughts, please append one more "very" there. Since every person is different from another and this difference increases exponentially with girls, there will be a lot many exceptions to this rule book of mine. As they say, "With girls, even exceptions run into troubles."

Although even the Almighty God is not qualified to write a blog post on this topic, and no living being from the time when cockroaches were the only ones around to the time when nanotechnology robots become as popular as a fake Windows OS CD, can put forward the claim that he understands girls very well. (I am not counting psychologists here for obvious reasons. (What? You say you understand these obvious reasons? Good. Please email them to me too. #KThxBai))**. It is a known fact that the writer of this blog is great but in this case, it has been a month or so since the day he started writing this blog post and today even he states humbly that he is completely, totally, absolutely, dumbstruck. This one is really the toughest of 'em all.

So when you manage to reach the end of this definitive guide, you might have a lot more questions than what you had at the beginning. Well let me tell you upfront that this blog post is written keeping the Indian subcontinent in my mind because the situation of girls in Iraq cannot be compared to what it is in India. If you are thinking about reading the previous sentence again, please don't. I know my geography sucks. The teacher was an attractive female in her early 20s. And no, I have never been to Iraq - one of the very few places on earth where I would refuse to go outrightly even if you (points towards south of north west), you (points toward some other direction, told you my geography sucks) or you arrogant, son of a filthy rich businessman reading this blog post on your new Apple TouchPad while sifting through that huge wallet. But if you are a daughter of the same category, pleas send me your email id. We will chat about nice, cute things.

So here I begin with my sermon.

Types of girls

1. Cold, heartless women.
1. Women who repel men.
1. Girls which kill by look and smile.
1. Walking case studies.
1. Talking, walking, eating complain books (I don't like this, I don't like that)
1. "Lecture yourself and others whether they like it or not" type of girls.(Mom Types)
1. Sweet, innocent girls (Behenji types)
1. Street-smart
1. Cool, calm and composite girls (Rarely found)
1. Jealous (Common to all)
1. Hardworking (Workhorses, umm... make it work mares)
1. Incredibly dumbo girls
1. Low and high maintenance girls
1. Smart and intelligent girls (The two attributes comprise of mutually exclusive sets)
1. Mystery books (What we see is just the tip of the iceberg)
1. Geeky girls who see everything in 16 colors like default Windows OS settings.(She will rather date an iPad)
1. Girls who are in a pathetic mess at all times (Touch Me Not)
Inference - 81% Angels, 99% Bitches, Don't push it! (OK. My math sucks too. I order you to stop focusing on my abilities at basic school studies and read the blog post carefully!

Characteristics of girls
1. They don't like when you correct their grammar.
1. You cannot tell her the truth even if she looks like a truck or refrigerator.
1. They can take you to places which you think don't exist.
1. Crying is blackmail.
1. Someone who means the words "I Love you" more than anything else in the world.
1. She can carelessly cut you and enjoy while you are bleeding.
1. She will reveal only the things which she wants.
1. She can teach you love and can take you or drop you.
1. All your smartness just don't work with their psychological immune system.
1. She might not want to get into a relationship because in the year 1999 her sister's in laws told her so.
1. They don't understand that men are not mind readers and shopping is not a sport.
1. They have better hand writing than boys.
1. Girls are funny when they try to think.
1. Beautifying thyself is of utmost importance.
1. When worst comes to worst, girls comes first.
1. They are not complicated, they are just good at complicating things.
1. They understand emotions very well.
1. Anything you ever said is admissible to be an argument.
1. You have enough shoes, clothes and watches.
1. Ask a question you don't want an answer to, expect an answer you don't want to hear.
1. They don't know anything about shotgun formation, battle tanks or Swiss army knives.
1. Even your grand mom will tell you that "hansi to phasi" is no more applicable.
1. There are chances that a girl gets turned off if you are too serious.
1. Any half intelligent ape can figure out that we are not supposed to tell them how useless they are at almost everything (some-of-them).
1. Wedding plans needs to be revised and re-revised and re-re-revised. And then the plans need to made afresh.
1. All of 'em are in shape as round is a shape too.

Do's and Don'ts
1. Handle with care.
1. Girls are like parking spots, all the good ones are taken as soon as available.
1. They are like butterflies, hard to catch but good to see.
1. Store them in a cool and dry place, and keep them away from direct light or heat.
1. Better ask a girl about her feelings rather than guessing it.

Girls really justify their age and sometimes they are way ahead of their times and are really well behaved. One must be very careful while talking to girls as most of them have no sense of humor and they generally don't do anything for free (what-do-I-get-philosophy), but luckily there are chances to negotiate. Girls are beautiful, get used to it. When dealing with girls, subtle hints don't work, obvious hints don't work obviously, even strong hints don't work, you have to say it. Girls are better listeners and at 15 they wear smart dresses and start behaving like adults unlike boys who behave like idiots and enjoy doing silly things. Girls are very receptive to feelings; they will do a lot if you show a little vulnerability. Your mom takes 20 years to make you smart and 2 minutes are sufficient for a girl to wipe out all the smartness out of you. To get boys to do what you want, all they need to do is smile and dress smartly. A woman loves a man with a plan. Guys, she'll know you're really interested if you take some time to plan the date and take her somewhere creative.

Girls want to remain friends with their ex. but maybe don't know how to do it. In fact, one of my research studies reflect that an adult woman is likely to break gently if she doesn't like the guy. A girl's love will always be in her heart and all her crushes will be there in her memory. A girl's reaction to a compliment entirely depends on the person who is giving it. I would agree that certain societal biases might skew some results but 95% of girls cannot listen anything against the guy they love and if a girl loves you she will call you back when you hang up, hold you when you are falling apart.

To most of us, feminism is the softness of mind and body; it is about perfumes, body lotions and spas but femininity to a woman comes from within - happiness, a confidence that spreads warmth to her heart and smile to her lips, brings a sparkle to her eyes. Girls know everything, boys just don't know it yet and they are the nicest thing in the whole world. Getting into a relationship is the biggest decision of one's life. I had read somewhere that 80% of one's life or sorrows depend upon your partner. Life only comes around once, so make sure you spend it with the right person and I guess that's the reason why I am single. I think if I had been married then after this post I might have had to sleep on the couch for a while. Thank you all the females for making the lives of the members of the other sex really worth living. I do understand that declaring one sex to be superior to the other is childish and naive. Lastly, never try to understand a girl, accept her as she is.

P.S. : All points are marked as 1 because they are equally important.

** I know brackets inside brackets suck, but what to do! I see everything in its nested form.

My College, My Life

2010-03-30T15:04:00.002+05:30

Dedicated to all Gecuites...

I did my graduation from "Ujjain Engineering college" previously called as "Government engineering college, Ujjain" or गेसु which was established in the year 1966 by government of M.P. & inaugrated by Indira Gandhi in the holy city of ujjain. The presiding deity of time, Shiva, in all his splendour, reigns eternal in Ujjain whose glory has been vividly described in various puranas. In my college every student was a real piece of work, students who know how to modulate their voices and make proxies in 5 different voices, students having peripheral vision to check out the girl sitting diagonally opposite to them, students bitching about each other, students deriving cheap thrills from spreading rumors about girls hostel etc. On the very first day I realized that GECU had the potential to transform my life, making my concerns about money and status things of distant past. B.E. is one endearing and important part of your life which sort of transforms you from an ugly duckling to a beautiful swan. Securing a seat in a government college makes you feel the heat of academic inflation. B.E. is a four year time pass which sometimes fills you with some superficial guilt for not learning much in terms of engineering but it's all worth it. My ultimate safari of four years is as follows :-

First Year
I was shivering with the nervousness as the seniors were seeing me like predators see their preys. Boarded on a local bus(This-time-it-was-not-inside, but-on-the-top) from a nearby bus stand and thinking that my parents had paid a lot to screw my life. I was, I must admit overly generous in my initial assumptions about the standard of the organization as most of my classmates were toppers of their school times and college was one of the only seven government colleges, but I felt like a jackass after seeing a coffin size "Computer Science and Engineering Department" which ended as soon as it started. The unofficial dress code for girls was salwar kurta which exposes the flesh of only neck and face and the lower three quarters of the arm(this-is-just-a-male-point-of-view). We had some highly qualified profs who talks in someone else's sleep and sometimes refers headphones as ear speakers. I was ragged handsomely by many seniors some of which looked like retarded midgets, and generally by the end of the day my clothes becomes wrinkled and hairs turns greasy. Started writing assignments of seniors of all branches and all years so started knowing pretty much about other disciplines of engineering along with mine. I lived in a private hostel where brotherhood was the only rule and believe me these are the real learnings of a college life where you learn to work in unity for the greater good, starts looking things objectively and learn to fight the hardships of life. Another hard thing were exams and I was in no way prepared for this but as shit happens, so do exams and holy crap, they went so smooth and seems like hannibals has crossed the alps.

Second Year

This is the time when I re-invented myself as I had became the almighty senior of freshers(became-mild-mannered) and was called upon sir without having a knighthood. I met shivani and life had changed since then, most of my friends liked her and I cannot imagine my life without her, she became an integral part of my life, a friend in need and I fell in love with her. I opened an account on orkut which looked like orkut profile page of a 13 year old boy suffering from dyslexia, joined 3 different kinds of coaching, started showing humanity by giving others the chances to top, started improving presentation skills by writing the same thing at 5 different places in an answer by changing the language, started enjoying annual functions and birthdays more as we were seniors with lots of privileges. Sometimes I think that knowledge gets accumulated in college as freshers bring it from their schools and passouts does not take it away.

Third Year

My roommate purchased a new computer and alas life changed. We clocked in and we clocked out, our lives started revolving around those bunch of silicon chips. We saw trillions of movies in an years time period, countless games were finished and all the literary activities were stopped effective immediately as we got a way to escape dull textbooks and boring teachers. We practically can contest for any dumb ass laureate of the year award. Anyways this was the time when our college use to raise her skirt for the corporate recruiters and as they say in america, showed them some skin. Somehow I got selected in one of the companies which was not my finest hour, not even close but all of a sudden my friends started realizing that I am cool. That year I got enlightened with the fact that 50% of the questions in the exam come from the unit you left.

Final Year

I smoked a lot in my college passively as my friends had this new obsession of playing cards and watching cricket world cup. College remained the place to hang out and chill for a change of mood. Studies were more restricted to certain corners of shivani. No Girl friend, no obligations , no f**king society bullshit I was carefree, spontaneous and irresponsible. 3 patti along with jhaam sessions were long and intensified. Started hanging out more then ever in the name of final year and rushing from coaching to coaching came to a halt. My roommate made the major project under my supervision and we were kicked out of the institution by giving a farewell from our money.

I think I am romancing with nostalgia again but once life was there, even by spending little money and I was contended. I do not remember the time I spent inside some non-sense classes which I pretty much slept through, but the time I spent hanging out with friends here and there. Last time when I stepped in the lonely classroom, only memories were their for company and I can see myself on every bench laughing and murmering with friends. I did lots of mischief but never compromised with fundamental values. Life was my college. I graduated summa cum laude, and earned honors.

P.S. : shivani refers to a question bank which was my only expenditure on books.

Kanha - The lost world on a lonely planet

2010-03-08T01:24:00.000+05:30

Since I last wrote, things got crazier in my life and I had traveled a lot. The day was 27 Feb 2010, although I had never missed a bus/train, I was hurrying as I was very much excited to go on the very first adventure tour of my life. My excitement about the adventure of my new life held for me have never been more profound. I was on my way to Kanha National Park which is one of the India’s finest tiger reserves. It is spread more than 940 sq km in a horse shoe shaped valley bound by the spurs of the Mekal range, the park presents a varies topography. A google search will give you a lot of other websites to learn more about the place as I do a lot of googling before going to a place and kanha was no exception. I had maps of the jungle and the details of flora and fauna which are abundant in the jungle. I did my homework very well. The forest is mixed and given the high rainfall precipitation one finds extensive stretches of Sal (Shorea robusta), a tree of moist deciduous forest in central and north India. It was a crisp, clear afternoon and after making a call or two I was told that it is S7 which will be our temporary accommodation till jabalpur. There was a Mr.-know-it-all who was going kanha 4th time and was telling us the stories of various adventures he had. Then we had tiffin party followed by playing judgment with cards. We started enjoying, laughing and since laughter is the shortest distance between humans we started knowing each other.

It was a three day marathon away from juiciest Indore gossips about who's faking exam scores, who is getting married into the lap of the nature. There were 24 of them in addition to myself, which were members of Outdoor adventures and environment group and will be acquaintances in the fellowship of this adventure. We reached jabalpur at around 0600 hrs and got ready in the waiting room. Then-after we boarded in pink colored bus and believe me It was pink colored, a Bus. I was amazed that they make the buses of this color even. Anyways, we halted at a samosa and tea serving establishment where we had our breakfast and some of us started clicking images of stray dogs and some other non-sense things around. I was accompanied by humans who must be members of prestigious elite eating clubs and were travelling, courtesy of gifts from their parents or dividends from their trust funds, which they were now of an age to access. The profile of the group was very diversified and thus made it more lively. Bus driver played a song to which I danced the most in one of my cousin's wedding.

We reached kanha at 1300 hrs and were told to get ready in an hour. The place was a decent one, at least until you are a bachelor. Everyone was rushing from toilets to toilets and bathrooms to bathrooms to find an empty one and finally we got up and running by 1430 hrs. Then we had our lunch at a canteen nearby, which is a small house exhaling smoke from its chimney. I, with my finite and depleting reserve of cash and my traditional sense of deference purchased a water bottle at twice the price of its MRP. We reserved 4 gypsies for the 24 adults and were alloted baidyanath bhaiya who was a seasoned forest guide. His eyes were cold, pale brown and judgemental, like the eyes of a jeweler inspecting a diamond he intends neither to buy nor to sell. We were allotted kanha zone which supposedly is natural habitat for more number of tigers than any other zone in the park. The sky was a brilliant blue, so different from the orange, dusty sky above us today in a countryside which is home to many animals primarily bengal tigers and Langurs (primates), Chitals (spotted deer), Barking Deer, Peacocks, Indian Buffalo, Wild Boar(Jungli-suar), Sambar (Indian Deer) and plenty of incredibly beautiful birds(both-resident-and-migratory).

I told driver that I will buy him a beer if he will show us a tiger to which he agreed happily. Within 30 minutes we were in the heart of the jungle, and I was witnessing a new breed of wildlife photographers emerging from ourselves. I was overwhelmed with my foreigner's sense of being watched. Their were large stretch of grasslands, meadows and the world seems fresh, as if seen the first time and we started sighting birds and animals. I sat mainly in silence and quietly observing the animals and in that moment I was outwardly calm, but inside I was panicking. And then we'd had our moment viewing the herds of beautiful Barasingha or Swamp Deer, a specie that is only thriving in this one location in the world. Next we sighted white eagle and I was making foolish noises to train her red eyes upon me followed by lots and lots of other species. There were some 60 other gypsies in the same zone where we were and the only thing which mattered to us in the whole world at that time was the sight of a tiger. Then we sighted Indian Wild Ox or Gaur (Bos gaurus) mistakenly called as Indian Bison which is the largest herbivore found in kanha. One of my jeep mate was so dying for the bladder check that we had to stop at a checkpoint in the middle of the forest and again we did some photography. We still hadn't loosed hope and that's why I think god had introduced a factor of probability. This was our only chance to sight a tiger as the following day, park will be closed due to holi. I was observing shadows being lengthening and my skin color was shifting more towards the middle of the color spectrum. but as they say na ki Kehte hain ki agar kisi chiz ko dil se chaho to puri kaynath usko tumse milane ki koshish main lag jaati hai...lolz, so finally when we were coming back to home we sighted a tigress strong, sleek and invariably surrounded by pride and I was happy.

Then we went straight to the canteen where we exchanged our experiences and did a formal introduction section followed by dinner. After which rohit arrested a firefly - a tiny greenish glow was visible up close but overwhelmed by the forest's luminance when viewed from even a modest distance. We saw some moving silhouettes in the distance which in all likelihood, were workers returning to their homes. Then after getting fresh we headed to amphitheater which they call as orientation center to see a movie by discovery channel made at kanha in which the lead actress was a tigress named lakshmi. We saw some models highlighting various animals and some information about them. We came back to the place we were staying which was adjacent to core area, now FYI, forest has a core area where proximity of spotting an animal is higher which is surrounded by buffer area. As the night grew older, voices from the forest started growing too. Some of us were chatting in a group of 4-5, some were roaming here and there looking for something to do and I was sleepless in Kanha and enjoying the power of view from lobby. As some of you might know that I have the tendency to make things complicated which otherwise would have been simple, so I along with Mathur sahab and no. 22 decided to go in the forest, which I find particularly pleasant at night, unlit and empty, bounded by those narrow passageways, into which one could imagine being dragged against one's will. My heart was pounding, my imagination running and believe me it was not a place to explain, it was a place to experience. We sat on a culvert and herds of deer’s were meters away from us. I was spell bounded and something of me is now outside and something of outside is now within me. My self was disappeared, and I was free, free of doubts and limits, free to focus on nothing but forest, sufi mystics and zen masters would, I suspect, understand this feeling. Certainly, much of my early excitement about kanha was wrapped up in my excitement for safari but those twenty minutes were godly.

We came back and slept and my maxim of maximum return to which I return, time and again and that's why I slept for 4 hours only and waked up ridiculously too early this morning when everyone else was sleeping. I went out and saw a baby cat which brought to my mind the behavior of an animal that has ventured too far from its lair and is now, in unfamiliar surroundings, uncertain whether it is predator or prey. I have never, to the best of my knowledge, had any fear of solitude but this was a time when I was a little horrified with the advent of some uncertain things still I sat their for an hour or so and then waked up mathur sahab to come for a morning walk to which he agreed. We went to a small hilltop nearby and again brushed our teeth's right in the middle of deer’s. On our way back to the dormitory, we found one of the horns of a barahsingha, it was a pure Ivory and was very beautiful. We brought it with us to show it to everyone else and later threw it away as it is a punishable offence to bring anything back from a forest reserve. Then we headed to 7 kms long trekking on the nature's trail, where I almost ate mind of our guide. He gave us some details of Ant hills and how structurally superior they are, about various birds and concept of fire-line which is used to control the fire.

We came back, took our lunch, packed and started moving to jabalpur. By the end of the safari, I was in the notion that I had seen all 22000 deers of kanha which reflects back on the peace and calm of this beautiful and natural corner of this crowded and dirty subcontinent. In any case, I felt as though a world has ended and we made our way to jabalpur on bus. The aroma of dust on that warm breeze when we were coming back from kanha made me fall asleep. And as I had told you that it was holi so most of the market and tourist spots were closed. It is odd how the character of a public place changes when it is empty, like the markets of jabalpur. We then went to a place called Dhuan-dhaar, which was a wonderful waterfall and a beautiful place to commit suicide. Their I purchased something for which I was cursed, with the help of a Tier-1 friend named Aney. After having dinner and a brief love affair with the kanha national park, I reluctantly hopped a train headed towards Indore. We played dumb-charades and antakshari, which we enjoyed thoroughly. Then I slept like a child and woke up late in the morning, cursed Indian railway and honorable railway minister and joined ongoing antakshari session. Ah, we are about to arrive the gates of Indore railway station, It is here that I shall at last part company to a jungle made of concrete.

It was a memorable trip and I know that time cannot diminish the eagerness with which I look these places. I think of myself as a student of life and believe life is all about the feelings and experiences you had felt, experiences are which make the person you are and I drew sorrow and hope in equal measures from each of such experiences. I enjoy my life of a knowledge worker, it's fun being me. Chao.

The weekend that changed the world

2010-01-26T13:06:00.000+05:30

The Meltdown

This story is about a tragic mistake for the United States and the rest of the world, about a bank which busted the world. The day was September 13, 2008 and Lehman brothers was hemorrhaging money. CEO of various banks like Merrill Lynch and Barclays were told to be at Fed and everyone had a feeling that this is gonna be Armageddon which might shake the American economic might. Prices are dropping since May but in the last 10 days before the collapse, it has been a free fall as shareholders were dumping stocks. This marked the beginning of Sub-prime mortgage crisis and two rivals – Bank of America and Barclays were eager to sue. Because of the Lehman's massive property investment and expanding into lucrative new products, less regulated market and highly complex products led to an unforgettable event in the history of credit crunch. Richard severin a.k.a "Dick fuld" the then CEO of Lehman was admired and feared in equal measures was held responsible for this catastrophe. Investing in the commercial property seems to be the tipping point for Lehman brothers, risk was the name of the game.

American real state prices sky rocketed after 9/11 because government was supporting home ownership since it is good for families, economy. Loan was imparted to risky clients which were also called NINZA loans – No income jobs or assets loans. Banks traded these with each other calling them high quality, low risks assets. Lehman Brothers was borrowing, which we call leverage, which he used to play the property market and it multiplies profit/loss when prices of properties rises/fall but that oasis was a mirage. Dick fuld looked forwarded to Bank of America and Merrill Lynch to rescue, but unfortunately Bank of America bought Merrill lynch and all the hope rested on Barclays. There was a lot of Lead weight on the balance sheets. Lehman is so big to be allowed to fail or pass away and If the Lehman couldn’t be rescued before the markets open, it will be too late but deal cannot be closed with Barclays even. After Merrill Lynch and Barclays walked away, it was time for plan C, but there was no plan C. 158 year old firm which survived the great depression and two world war passed away. The share prices which were at 4 $ in 1994 raised to 85$ and finally plummeted to 3 cents. This was an end of an institution which was one of the originators of Wall Street and it sent shock waves across the world. This was single largest bankruptcy in the history of mankind, 10 times larger than what I remember the case of Enron was when I was in school. Lehman’s transactions worldwide are really complicated and few really understood them. Housing market damaged financial system which ultimately damaged the economy and this led the shutdown of day to day funding of the businesses which gets their basic funding from these financial institutions.This was an extraordinarily loss of confidence. No one anticipated that they were in the midst of more severe world wide economic crisis. Finally Barclays purchased European operations of Lehman at much lower prices than what it would have taken if bank would have been sold. The biggest reason for this was they thought they were invincible and everyone knew that the world will never be same again.

Summer of ‘08 - Mistakes which worsen the crisis - The good times

This was the time when you can have investment tips from the road side paanwaala as everyone thinks of himself as being enlightened with all the worldly knowledge of share market. People were making lots and lots of money and spending as if there is no tomorrow. London and NY which were known as Jewel centers of the world. On both sides of Atlantic more people are buying their homes since banks had started lending this “free money” practically to almost everyone. A new generation of lending companies cropped up targeting common public who could be land owners having bad credit rating and to the banks the borrowers are known as “Sub Prime”. It all started when I was an year old, i.e. in the year 1987 when Alan Greenspan was elected the chairman of Federal reserve, a person who thinks that market can take care of itself. After the 9/11 interest rates gone down and With the low interest rates, investors had started searching for new lucrative investment options and here comes the option of investing in Real state. Investment banks like Ameriquest mortgage were paying agents heavy bonuses to give away the loans to sub-prime borrowers which made them less interested in doing the background checks and thus risky lending practices became the commonplace in the mortgage industry. The banks repackaged and resold the products among themselves and the risks attached to the financial products were hugely under estimated but they forgot that we are operating in an integrated world economy and they all went down with the fall of real state prices and this is the time they realized that deficit do matter. Fall of Berlin wall was obviously one of the most critical geo-political events and the reasons for this crisis were geo-political, triggered by sub-prime crisis as markets were deregulated more than ever leading to losing the quarter of their value overnight and brought global economy to its knees. This was the first when NYSE closed for the first time after our own great depression.This was one serious loss of confidence and banks stopped lending to each other and interest rates for the business houses also raised, this was an emotional drain in a panic driven market.

Fall of 2008 - Back from the brink

The financial engine bringing down the country and leaders sitting in the national capitals thought we really are at the verge of great depression. Stock market was in a nosedive, it was definitely a financial tsunami. Banks lost confidence in banks and charged each other double for short term loans overnight as 20 year global boom was over. There was no credit in the world and stable flow of US dollars froze and not just in US of A. The self-regulating market is finished and banks capital was spiraling down and the simplest solution was to pump in the money i.e. "Re-capitalizing the banks" as the stakes for the whole world were huge. US treasury had to come up with a plan to buy these toxic assets and spent 85 billion dollars to save AIG but there is no white solution and it has been 10 days since the bill was stuck in the political corridors for the amount to be finalized. The motion was not adopted after voting in the senate, 11 days wasted and still no solution was reached and stock market crashed once again, the lending rates between the banks sky-rocketed. It took almost 4 more days to pass the bill and by then damage was done. All over the europe governments were bailing out banks after banks to avoid the complete shutdown of the banking machinery as banks like RBS, Barclays were running out of US dollars. It was a bold move with far reaching consequences. This first line of defence was led by Britain and US followed. Treasury will purchase the equities in wide varities of banks and diverted the money from buying the toxic assets to buying the shares. Loan guarantees and money injection finally stablized the economy. Had we not have that British announcement, we would have been in a very different place and by the end of the year, policy makers were assured that cash machines will stay open. Governments of various nations had pledged or spent 6 million dollars to get out of this chaos and now every single government profess the need for a strong regulation.

You didn’t have to have a fancy financial degree to know that rates cannot grow always(I-am-saying-so-because-I-don't-have-one) and anticipating that something is terribly wrong. I think there should be more regulations along with liberalization and any Crisis is because of human nature and no one can escape a situation like this unless we find a way to change the human nature. I think US Treasury should have stepped in the turmoil as the destruction followed is many fold as problems need to be fixed before they get out of proportions. No two crisis has anything in common, except for humiliation and reckless love for the money(again-love-is-injurious-to-health). My father says that the ecnomies and most of the trade runs on trust which we held in each other and this is one single thing which was shaken to the very core and the final cost will not be known for years.

Software Engineer 2.1 at 24

2010-01-15T02:33:00.000+05:30

Recently I turned 24, in a part of the world where life expectancy of humans is around 75 years. And just so you know, I am a software engineer (And-that-my-friend-is-what-boredom-is-all-about), so you don't have to employ a large number of your grey cells figuring out what I have been doing all these years. Yes I rush from one meeting to another, attend the free seminars sitting on the second last row and sleeping like a crocodile. I did a training which is of no relevance to me, and now it seems just a formality and then after I was discharged in some forbidden project where I don't get complete information from one person and need to gather it in bits and pieces from many people. Doing a job in IT is like having an 8 a.m. class and a late afternoon lab and an extra class with some homework every day for the rest of your life.

Some people consider me a Nutcase as I work with a small organisation named (Impetus-something) which I have to repeat at least twice as they know Info*** and TCS only. There are some morons out there who think you can fix any age-old computer, calculator or some forbidden watch. I feel incredibly dumb when someone asks me, "What exactly do you make, Beta?" and my vocabulary seems helpless to answer this question if the other person does not know anything about the miracle called computer. I work in a building which looks more like a lime disease research facility and a canteen where they serve some sort of kryptonian mustard (although-I-can-have-minimum-of-three-servings-of-it), which otherwise only Superman can eat. And the icing on the cake is, if your workstation is beneath the A.C. at 16 degrees Celsius, welcome to the frozen hell.

The height of frustration is when an old loser friend earns as much as 5 times you. Half of your senses should be kept in reserve for chat and the other half for your manager; one is not supposed to worry about the deadline which your Team Leader gives you as it is a dummy date which was given to him by the Project Manager so that the project gets released before the actual deadline given by the client. People here work for five days doing something which they do not care about so that they can have fun on the weekend. If the company gives you a Blackberry or a Laptop, it is a moment when your personal life vanishes in thin air and your happiness gets screwed. You can imagine your supervisor saying "I am going to finalize the requirements, in the meantime, you all start coding". You think a relationship is ready for a permanent commitment because you calculated it all through a complex geometric progression and almost all of your sentences start with "statistically speaking" or "technically speaking". You and your partner think it is time to have children when you've agreed on the requirements, design, have come up with a good naming convention and you clearly understand the pros and cons of multiple inheritance.

I was born intelligent, but IT ruined me and look how wasted I am, as my life is more of a To-Do list and people groan at me if I pick out a musical number, as I sound like a cat being run over by a lawn mover. I remember half a dozen passwords and my 4 octet IP address, but I have to call my cousin's children "kiddo" as I don't remember their real name. The fun center of my brain has deteriorated from lack of use. I have a habit of destroying things in order to see how they work as I launched a DOS attack on my own Wi-Fi network to check its vulnerability. I actually use 31 different products of Google and willing to pay someone as much as 10K for returning my hacked account. The sales persons at IT festivals cannot answer half of my questions. I like junk food and caffeine, I am nocturnal and try to fix every hardware problem with software.

This is one age which see a lots of turmoil in all walks of life and when responsibilities grow exponentially, one is pressurized to switch the company to rise up on the corporate ladder or go for a post graduation otherwise the family starts searching for a bride for you. It is like a do or die situation. Now I am less of a human being and more of a resource. There is a piece of dialogue in Spiderman which is one of my favorites. When Peter's uncle Ben says to him, "Peter, these are the years when a man changes into the man he's going to be for the rest of his life. Just be careful who you change into. This guy, Flash Thompson, he probably deserved what happened. But just because you can beat him up, doesn't give you the right to. Remember: with great power comes great responsibility." I firmly believe that this period is the continuation of my formative years where a person develops some principles and continues to live by them throughout his life. So here I am, polishing the routine of my life until it reaches perfection (which-I-know-cannot-be-reached). Whatever it is, this is the chronicle of my life and sometimes I feel terrible about it. Anyways its time for a weekly roommate meeting. See you all next week and for a software engineer, they say he never dies, he just logs out. But for now I am logging out of blogspot.com. Good night! :)

High's and Low's, Adios 2009

2010-01-04T13:21:00.000+05:30

Well, to be honest, I thought a lot to find something to start this post but could not get anything newsworthy. Nothing splendid took me by surprise in personal, social or professional life in 2009 but it has been a significant year in the life of our nation as Indian National Congress has emerged on the horizon, with a clear majority whereas NDA continued to face behavioral issues, Slumdog millionaire turned more than enough i.e. fetched us a good number of academy awards, Indian cricket team emerged on the horizon and became the #1 Test cricket team, under the able captaincy of "Mahi", global economic crisis remained a big pain in the ass for almost the entire world, Nandan seems to have a family recipe for providing a Unique Identification number, else it is impossible to provide it within the promised time frame and countless other things occurred in this part of the planet but the environment has really gone for a toss, guys.

New year comes every year, so what's the big deal about it. Most of us have seen quite a good number of new years in our life, so what's big about this one or for that matter, any of the new years. This could be just a change of calendar at your place or just a month after December, but to some it's a paradigm shift or it's just like the words said by Neil Armstrong "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind" after setting foot on moon. But I fall in the first category, so its just that I will get another version of Windows operating system to crack, will send SMS to most on the phone book, will reply to the scraps on Orkut, will call the ones more closer to my heart and exchange pleasantries, follow our president who will continue to inaugurate many projects which will not see the light of the day, will witness my fish turning lazy and crazy, will continue to miss late night show of Doordarshan and a lot more. By the way, I wanted to take a moment to thank all my readers who have shared their experiences and opinions to help me improve and turn me into a blogging freak of bloggerville and have started sharing my secrets on this space.

In hindsight, pink is a pretty color but life has a whole lot of other shades too, most of us are grey shades, and that is what I think makes us human. So cheers to other shades of life and cheers to life as life should be like a occasion and we should try to live to the fullest. 2009 has seen loads of highs and lows, a lot of blue days but some were really bright too. You know that's why they call it life and it's like that only. Anyways I wish you all a clean bill of health from your dentist, may your mortgage interest rates do not rise, may your mid year salary reviews be significant, may you find a "fota-fortcut" to travel from anywhere to anywhere in the rush hour and get sufficient parking space, may God impart you the courage to say "I Love you" once in a while to your friends, family and everyone who cares for you and not to your boss and may what you see in mirror delights you and others and you can say to yourself "You do not have any right to look this smart".

I have not buttoned up my final list of my New Year Resolutions although it has been 72 hours past 2009. I am in the middle of nowhere, don't know the purpose of my life, don't know the reason for the things I am doing and still I want to sing "Aal Izz Welll...." . Anyways, after an enjoyable new year night which was like a marathon to me, and a long day or three of senseless time killing, I am making promises to myself which I know I won't keep. It about 3ish in the morning and I am crazily tired and I’d like nothing more than being snuggled into bed right now. Mmmm, bed. This is me waiting for a better tomorrow, and hoping that the things will take better shape in the new year.

Happy New EAR ;)

Jingle's on the way

2009-12-25T13:35:00.000+05:30

I was born in a Hindu family, which makes me a Hindu by lineage, but as I grew became a bit of Christian, Muslim; not by practising other religions, but by thoughts. I started going to mosques and churches (both-catholic-and-protestant) just like I went to temples and it was equally soothing. Thank God, my parents do not read my blog posts otherwise this post is sufficient for them to kick my ass; it will also lead to the discontinuation of my google account and the world will be deprived of all the literary work I am going to do (LOL). Anyways, I have never been to Vatican or read any of those Hebrew scriptures. So most of my gyaan related to Christianity is derived from the digital media I have licked in the college years like Ben-Hur, novels of Dan Brown and stuff like that. Christians in India joyously observe Christmas, a festival that has acquired a mass appeal in this land of over one billion souls, with people from other religions like me too joining in the festivities as I believe that one doesn't need to belong to a particular religion to enjoy a festival.

Christmas in School

I did my schooling from Carmel Convent Senior Secondary School, which is a missionary school and thus Christmas was very special there whereas for me it was just a long holiday which marked the end of one more calendar year. But one thing I particularly remember about Christmas in school is the chocolate pie we use to get at the end after of a repeat telecast of same old nativity play, with the only change being the participating students and some occasional hymns by some of the local bands of various churches. Christmas tree was always made of some tamarind tree from the backyard of the school rather than pine tree. Santa use to come on bike (Authorities-tried-to-arrange-a-red-one) instead of sleigh and threw only 10 to 20 toffees to the herd of few hundreds of students. This was followed by the exchange of gifts and a sharing party where everyone was supposed to bring the snacks and share with everyone else.

Christmas in College

In college, Christmas wasn't really a big occasion as I studied in a government engineering college and Christmas fell right between the exams. Obviously we did not have any longing for holidays. In Ujjain, the faithful flocked to churches in large numbers despite icy winds sweeping the city whereas we went there for the free cake and some of us for the wine (the rumour mills were rife with the rumour that the church authorities give both of these for free if you attend the service at midnight). One thing I remember to date is I learnt the "Jingle bell" carol by heart in the 3rd year and it remains one of my favourite symphonies till date.

Christmas as on 25 Dec 2009

Nowadays my idea of Christmas is to go to a church, light candles and pray to Holy Jesus/Virgin Mary for making my wishes come true and I feel the same heavenly peace of a temple. Now time flies more than ever so I just play some Christmas carols on my laptop, change the wallpaper but this reminds me of my childhood when I used to hope that some Santa (not-to-mention-imaginary) will turn up from nowhere to stuff my stockings with an endless list of gifts. If you are someone like me who don't really fall into any sort of faith, do not despair. There's enough holiday spirit left for you as you can give thyself a cake treat and cookies and maybe leave some for the old man ;). Obviously the myth of Santa Claus is one such ritual which is connected to all of us, irrespective of belief, color, sex, creed or religion. Yep, he's that jolly old guy who wears a red suit and flies from house to house on a toy-laden sleigh powered by flying reindeers. And with each gift we share with loved ones, friends and family, we also share peace and good vibes. So take a lesson from the big guy who's always watching you, do a good deed this holiday season as it imparts you inner peace. You'll be amply rewarded for it. The effervescent mood of Christmas gets an added zest with the launch of a highly admirable range of apparels and lifestyle products by all the major style houses, which I realized on a visit to a mall nearby.

In the final count, this is one festival which seems to penetrate through the religious and cultural barriers and reach everyone. So there is no harm in having a good time or digging into rich plum cakes or least of all, just wishing your near and dear ones as festivals are a quintessential part of our lifestyle and give us the necessary fuel to keep going. Christmas like other festivals is not just a date, its a state of mind, and we should remember it as a season of joy, peace, foregiveness and sharing. May peace be your gift and your blessing all through the year. There is a significant change in people's dietary habits (hint: Christmas parties) and percieved intelligence levels at Christmas time as even the grown-ups start behaving like kids and my friends, this is the beauty of celebrating the Christmas spirit. From the commercial point of view, if Christmas would not have been there, we would have to create one because it's the time when people spend lavishly and thus boost the health of the world economy. And yes, I am going to practice Hinduism throughout my life but I am someone who is truly secular, even if our country and its citizens are not. Now I have started toying with the idea of my New Year resolution and I think I have found one, although I am looking for other options as well. So please suggest some New Year resolutions in the comments section as I am leaving for attending the service at Red Church. Ho-Ho-Ho Merry christmas to all my readers.

PS : Santa here refers to "Santa Claus" and not "Santa Singh".

Small dream is a crime

2009-12-20T01:23:00.000+05:30

Moshi Moshi,

Lately I have been writing some empty-headed blogs, but this one will be a serious affair. So all those of you who are here for some funny stuff, please close the window and do something else, because this page will look more like an extension of Dr. Kalam's website - "India at 2020" as I have tried to write this on a serious note. To my surprise, this missile man is a human just like you and me, which made me think how come this man is India's Missile Man and I am Mr. Nobody. Dr. Kalam is the undisputed father of India's Missile Program. He has breathed life into the ballistic missiles of the nation. The concept and the doctrines for the welfare of a nation can be generated only by a few thinkers and visionaries. I was accompanied to this function by my sister and cameraman Mitesh Soni (LOL!). Actually Mitesh is a colleague, but most of the time he was either taking pictures or sleeping with his eyes open (the-second-attribute-is-a-must-to-work-in-IT).

I was about to curse myself for not carrying a camera for a public lecture by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at IIM Indore on "Sustained Economic growth for the nation", but Mitesh saved me from myself, and thus pictures in this blog belong to Mitesh's camera and I promised him that he will be rewarded properly and will have significant space in this blog. So you will have to bear with him along with me and Dr. Kalam. Most of things which Dr. Kalam said, I knew beforehand, but its good to listen to your own thoughts beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognizably wiser than yourself. The only statement which my acquaintances, my sister and Mitesh remembered after his speech was "Small dream is a crime.", which forced me to think, what is so different in this sentence out of several hundred pearls of wisdom we had just received. It maybe so because we have a moral responsibility to serve our society and nation and it all start with dreaming (some-of-you-must-be-laughing-at-this-one). I believe that all of us are here for a purpose and we just cannot waste our lives by sitting in front of a machine. We are bound to change lives and make this a better place to live in. Sentences likes these are in abundance in several hundred thousand pages of literature on the world wide web, but its up to us - how we take it. I will keep it concise, otherwise this blog post will hatch 5 more pages.

So let's get the ball rolling and talk business. Dr. Kalam always emphasizes upon having a vision because without it, one's efforts will bear no fruits and it is applicable to both Individuals and nations. He spoke about how emergence of resonance in thinking brought us on the same page and led to emergence of the new world order where everyone has almost equal chance to compete and grow - our own world is now flat. Only innovation can save our souls from the nosedive of growth rate from 9.8% to 6.75% caused by the economic turmoil across the Atlantic. The three factors which saved us from this economic crisis are liberalization policy, Indian banking system and savings oriented nature of Indians. He emphasized on the need of a robust banking system, revival of IT, pharmacy and infrastructural services, a pro-active regulatory system and best of healthcare services for common public on time which will lead to a vibrant democracy. An India where there is a thin line between rural and urban life, adequate supply of water, symphony between agriculture and science, equal opportunities for all, reduced crimes against women and children and devoid of terrorism should come about soon. The five areas where urgent attention is needed are women education and empowerment, better infrastructure, self reliance in critical technologies and food and energy crisis but there are others as well such as Desalination technologies, Efficient drug delivery, Better food processing, Competent Aircraft systems, efficacious ship building etc.

Then he narrated his visit to Africa in 2007, where he presided over a council attended by 53 heads of state from all of Africa. He proposed to lay a Pan-African seamless fiber network which will connect all the 53 nations through state-of-the-art internet backbone. It will connect their major universities, tele-medicine centers, research laboratories which will boost tele-education , e-commerce and help mapping the resources in that part of the world. And the good news is - by far 30 countries are already connected. We did a commendable job there because this was led by someone who doesn't talk in thin air. In India, we only read about death, sickness, terrorism and crime. Why are we so negative? I guess the reason is that we grow up hearing a maxim that good news is no news. But now its time to start believing in ourselves once again. We have a responsibility towards our nation and to accept its problems as our own and we should not blame our society, ecology, employer or president for them. We have to understand that change will not come if we will wait for some other person or some other time, we are the change we seek.

Wrapping up, nations should have a vision for the 21st century and work hand in hand after forgetting their bitter past so as to harness each other's expertise and address problems by developing a solution which can be applied to more than one geography. Realization of a world class product can be done only be harnessing the core competencies of the various nations and establishing knowledge sharing enterprises. Only by collaborative and innovative co-operation, we can make globally competitive, cost-effective solutions to cater the needs of global citizens. Its time to integrate world economies, to create technologically superior and highly efficient breakthrough technology. We should try to become a knowledge system powerhouse instead of a software powerhouse for accelerated societal co-ordination. Now its an era to share our resources with the world and synergize with like minded people.

The session ended with National Anthem played by a band which filled me with patriotrism. Last but not the least, special thanks to my manager who allowed me to attend the program and Mitesh Soni for the pictures, a record to make notes and a pen, all of which I returned at the end of the seminar (usually-I-don't-return-pens). So ladies and gentleman, girls and boys , thanks a ton for making upto this line of the blog, I bet there aren't many. Keep watching this space for my next blog post is "Jingle is on the way" on the same URL, same port.

S.H.I.T. - Sunny Heyday in Tafreeh

2009-12-12T10:26:00.000+05:30

Dear Blog,

It has been two weeks since the last time I fed you. But as you started knowing me, oops I did it again. I am not able to recollect the last time, when I was on time for any gathering or outing, so this time as well I suckered away from the very start of an all day event. One point here worth noticing is that I was the only one who was not allocated anything to bring and yet I was the one who was late. Never mind! So somehow it all started at around 1300 hrs. from Chhavi's hostel was our first rally point, then we headed for Preeti's home where we waited for the most inefficient girl in kitchen to stir some curd. I was speaking unnecessarily on some god-damn topic.

It was a bright and sunny day with clear blue sky on the top of our heads and sunlight bombarding us without interruption. We reached Tafreeh at around 1300 hrs, the place as they claim is somewhat picturesque, has a good number of hurdles - Spider's web, tyre swing, obstacle watch, Rope machan and monkey bridge to name a few. Places like this have always been my cup of tea. We laid our hands on a charpai and took charge of a hut, kept our belongings in there (most of which are eateries). So the show began with some loose kicks on the football by the alpha males. This was immediately nipped in the bud by the administrative authorities under the pretext that this place is not right for this kind of game. In the meantime, girls did some warm up by climbing over the "Rope Machan". So I guess everyone was in action right from the moment we entered the premises. Tug O' war is what we tried our hands at after this, and we let the other team win. This is one game in which every participant thinks himself as the only load bearer in his team (at-least-I-felt-so). Our next destination was tyre swing, It was an okayish hurdle.

I wasn't very much interested in eating "Dahi Papdi" initially, but the way we did preparations prior to it and the way it was presented before our desperate eyes and taste buds ... only a fool would have said no to it. And thus we all gorged on the two plates like anything and they were finished in 3.6725 % of the time they were prepared in. Then we went to another testing site called Monkey Bridge. Aparajita was a little reluctant in trying any seemingly tough task and she made her first and only attempt to cross the bridge only after Anirudh told her that I will write this in my world famous blog and that nothing goes undocumented here (so here it is, mates - see the amount of terror that my blog strikes in the heart of innocent people). Then I tried to cross the bridge, which I believe, was the most difficult task among all. I made it to almost 80% of the course, adrenaline was rushing through every single vein in me, but eventually I lost hold and fell on the net, deployed over the stream. I managed to get most part of my jeans wet, which remained that way for another couple of hours.

Next we played permutation combination games with sandwiches where we picked breads and stuffed some jam, cheese and tomato ketchup in any proportion and combination. This session was immediately followed by some photo shoots from Tapan, keeping the trail of a recently passed jet plane central to the pics. Then we went to Spider's web and some of us tried to stuff themselves in some abandoned tyres. Alas! Renu came out of somewhere and without wasting a minute, got herself a place in one of the swings made of tyres. Then we came to know about a challenge to cross a floating bridge kind of thing without laying one's hand on the bamboo. Tapan tried it, did a commendable job. But he stole my thunder by crossing the hurdle when everyone else was there, whereas when I did it the only witness was Anirudh. I was envious of Tappu and I guess, have some unfinished business with him (yeh-saala-to-pitega-kisi-din).

Once again we came back to our cottage and guess what? We ate (again!) some left over sandwiches and gossiped on something. I spilled or rather wasted some Fanta on Preeti after she purposefully dropped some H2O on me, when I was pretending to sleep. By this time, all of us were well fed and were being continuously buzzed by Aparajita to march to the boating club. But I guess the show was not over for Tapan, so he played 3 to 4 Hindi numbers on his mouth organ and once again impressed his fan base, including me. Aparajita got up the moment, Tapan finished and we headed towards the boating club. Preeti and me were in one paddle boat and despite the seemingly tall odds of me getting out of it alive, as people believed that one will throw other in the pond after witnessing our war with fluid, I made it to the end and Preeti was by my side too. So nothing big happened during boating except that we saw few idiots dancing on "Aawarapan Banjarapan", a mesmerising sunset and some 1 zillion pictures captured us boating.

As the evening unfolded and we were battered after a whole day of incomprehensible yet meaningful madness, we decided to play Dumb Charades. There was no dearth of me winning in me, so it all went very lightly for me. Sunsets have always amazed me and now I wish I would have done some photography instead. There was another game which we played prior to Dumb Charades - Dodge ball which was again curbed with an iron hand, although I saw it comin' but dil hai ki maanta nahi. We bade goodbye to Tafreeh and headed towards Top-n-Town(our-second-home). When we thought that everything had went well, all hell broke loose when I saw the water can which belong to Preeti Jain. My Goodness!! I had just committed the mistake which could be fatal in nature and as lethal as carrying a live bomb. Everyone was thinking this to be the last stoppage in the whole parade, but all of a sudden "Pooji" announced that she was hungry which provoked our hunger too.

Surprisingly "Pizza world" processed our order very fast and we ate it faster. Tapan joined us a little late (he-left-after-top-n-town-saying-ki-usse-kisi-ko-kahin-patakna-hai). We chatted again on some goddamn topic, as there were hardly any topics left under the sun which we had not discussed. I don't remember who experienced sudden craving for coffee but it was intoxicating again. Altogether it was a kind of food festival and the fillers were some of the activities which we did. It was a day of fun, frolic and laughter and everything went well. I personally enjoyed every moment.

Indore : The taste of India

2009-11-23T09:33:00.000+05:30

Every true Indori is a food connoisseur. In a way, the city of Indore represents the taste of India as it hosts a variety of cuisines representing every corner of the country. Indore is famous for its culinary rang and wide variety of ‘namkeens’ and has a multitude of restaurants and outlets. People of every age group are equally enthusiastic about gobbling up the delicacies on offer.

The city of Indore sits in the region between bank of Narmada and the borders of Rajputana in the state of Madhya Pradesh. I came here around 2 years, 4 months, 19 days and some hours back to work in the then-emerging software factory and felt that every corner of the city is filled with joy and a distinct taste of its own. This wonderful city which some 3 million people call home is the largest city and the commercial capital of (M.P.). Indore has been a city with lots of local industries, formerly a major trading hub because of satellite townships of Pithampur, Dewas and Mhow.

Climate in Indore is transitional and very easy to predict (as-it-is-exact-opposite-of-what-weather-department-says). Most of the rain that falls comes down as misty drizzles. Winters are dark and summers are really hot. Indore has turned into a major educational hub in central India. Sometimes I feel Indore is going to set a benchmark for worst ever traffic.

Trivia: -

1. People speak “Inglish” (Indori English) or “Hinglish” (one-of-these-two-or-both-togather).

2. “Bhai log” is a term referred to your gang which does absolutely nothing (just-like-you).

3. “Jugaad” is what gets things done for you, by hook or crook.

4. “Phaphund” is what “bhiya log” call each other when one tries to creep up or become the tail of another one in a desperate manner.

5. “Lukkhe”, “bakar”, “meethe”, “panoti” are highly important words in the vocabulary for the teenagers.

6. “Radio Mirchi” (they-call-it-hot-because-maybe-they-don't-have-ACs-at-their-office) is the first private radio channel.

7. “Dhinchaak”, “maal”, “pataka” are the adjectives used for girls who seem to cover their faces with sort of left over cloth from some curtain.

8. “Janta” eats food as if every day is the last day on the planet and one ought to eat as much as he can.

9. You know the fact that IPS girls are considered hottest in the town. (I-have-not-got-a-chance-to-confirm-this).

10. Rasgulla at Geeta bhawan is nerve tickling.

11. “Prahlad Bhaiya” is called as “Pehlad Bhiyo”.

12. City bus drivers consider those diesel-guzzling beasts as racing bikes and the narrow roads as racing tracks.

13. "Chalo 50-50 giram khasak jao to" is what a city van driver will say to his hapless passengers in order to make some space in his already over crowded van/tempo.

14. ‘Bapda’ is what the innocent and docile people are lovingly called.

15. "Gelchode" is a word which many people use without having any idea of its meaning.

16. It is the only city which boasts of the best of both worlds, IIM and IIT.

17. One gets to savour super-tasty food at Sarafa at midnight. You can go out and have ultimate poha, crispy jalebi and smokin’ hot cutting chaai with a smoke or two at Rajbada in the middle of the night.

18. Rs 50 is the standard rate if a “Thola” a.k.a. “Paandu” (traffic policeman) catches you breaking a signal or with two pillion riders on a bike.

20. "My-Big-Red-Mirchi FM" or "Meri-Badi-Laal-Mirchi FM" is what every Indori tunes to in their free time.

I personally like a place called Hinkargiri on the outskirts of the city which offers you the perfect blend of a pilgrimage amidst natural beauty, particularly at around sunset. Also there are some very good waterfalls near Indore and some of them are really fascinating. It is heartening to see that Indore, which was known for the legacy of Holkars is transforming into technology and style hub with the advent of mall culture. It is a long road to travel for Indore to become a world class city but things are right on track (although-need-to-speed-up) and with the level of energy and potential I see in the eyes of people around, it will continue to remain a prominent city in the country forever.

Mercury's falling, Winter's here

2009-11-15T12:06:00.000+05:30

It's a cloudy day outside after a sudden downpour of rains for the last couple of days, which I think are "western disturbances", because that's the only term I know and allot to every shower which shows up apart from monsoons. It has been three days since the climate really turned pleasant due to surge of rains particularly in the wee hours of the day and one fine night I realized that winter had come down to my home and I started feeling like a child again in the lap of mother nature.

I have been on this planet for the last 23 years and still every time when winter sets in, I am thrilled again as it is accompanied by rains which makes it really cold, almost chilly and the only place I can think of is my bed with hot steamy brew by my side. Only recently, did I realize that of all the seasons I personally like winters more than any other time of the year with the temperatures hovering near 284 F and lots of mist and fog outside.

It’s that time of the year which one would like to spend in the favorite warm blanket. It is the time of the year during which one can remain closer to the nature, study nature and love it for its grandness for it will never fail him. Days are shorter and nights are longer (seems-like-nature knows-it’s-the-best-time-to-sleep). Sometimes I feel that winter gives you some sort of privacy which no other season can, it has some sort of dead feeling in it, still it is so lively. So simple and yet so sophisticated!!

Winter at home meant the whole family sitting and chatting together, it meant my mom serving hot and delicious food and beverages, it meant badam-ka-halwa and ladoo which will always be peerless, it meant a place full of love and smiles, it meant a tightly packed home like a fortified building with no place for the cool breeze to come in and I in hibernation mode, it meant going school with blazers on, at a time of the day when it was still dark and too early for anything… it all meant so much to me, but its all long gone. Perhaps I am feeling nostalgic about the warm home I have left in search of greener pastures. Now its just winter without the warmth of near and dear ones, winter must be cold for those with no warm memories.

“Blow, blow thou winter wind, thou art not so unkind as man’s ingratitude” - William Shakespeare

Sometimes I feel lonely and think that the best remedy is to go outside, somewhere where it is quiet and spend some time alone with nature. Because only then do I feel that all is as it should be, amidst the simple beauty of nature. I am writing this post in the balcony at 2:00 AM and a harsh blast of air has just caught me unawares. And believe me with fog and mist all around you, and a bit of drizzle and I think I have some idea of how heaven would look like, this place at this hour is just like God’s own country.

Old wine in new bottle - Ajab Prem ki Gajab Kahani

2009-11-09T00:00:00.001+05:30

Rating : - 3.5 /5

Rajkumar santoshi's new blockbuster "Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani" is truly a hilarious comedy movie which will keep you spellbound for its entire length and may be breadth(if-there-is-any). Both Ranbeer and Katrina were real good as far as comic timing is concerned. Movie is really nice if you keep your if's and but's by the side and put off your scientific lenses. Don't expect any take aways, just accept it as it comes to you.

It is a typical hindi movie which has a hero, heroine and some complexities (complexities-are-complimentary-with-good-looking-girls), and a happy ending. It can be called as very delightful and light movie, which does not add value to you, but is at par with the best in the class, as far as entertainment quotient is concerned . This movie is full of comedy and provides wholesome entertainment.

Ranbeer Kapoor played the role of a school drop out who does absolutely nothing, except serving the happy club in the capacity of "President". He is a nice fella and helps everyone, so in real life, he is "good for nothing". Katrina Kaif who is not expected to do some real acting, continued her legacy and just fulfilled her role of roaming here and there around trees and bushes. Out of 3.5 stars, 1 star is awarded to show Jenny a.k.a. Katrina for 2.5 long hours.

Jenny and Prem becomes FRIENDS and here starts the drama, some action sequences which even rajnikant would try to escape from. Jenny, who is an orphan, is forced to marry an obnoxious boy, just because he is rich, but the happy club helps her in his mighty endeavor to marry someone else (Jenny's lover), other than Ranbeer. Story takes some more twists and turns and finally she kicks her ex-lover on the altar after self realization of her love (blah-blah-blah). Ranbeer was present in almost every frame and justified his presence for 90% of them.

Santoshi never seems to claim any connection of the movie with the real world. It is picturised in a picturesque world - Don with no bullets and an MLA with no brains - everything set to go for a crackling comedy. Atif Aslam once again did a phenomenal job in the two songs "Tu Jaane na" and "Tera hone laga hoon".

The movie is real engaging and a combo pack of love-laughter-emotions which can be viewed by the entire family together, a complete tem-pass, go for it.

My Recent visit to "Safari Activity Park"

2009-11-02T21:12:00.001+05:30

We were supposed to leave by 5:00 PM and prakash informed me about the timings at 6:00 PM, so guess we are already late by an hour even before it all started(looks-like-things-are-going-great)and there is no sign of prakash. I called him and he didn't picked up, then after sometime he called and I didn't picked up either and finally he called and told me that it will take another whole hour before he can come up, So now I started packing the stuff to carry along with us to the trip which includes a jacket to be wore and a blanket not to be wore(obviously-u-know-what-a-blanket-is-used-for), my 4 year old sports shoes wagerah wagerah. As we were supposed to be served dinner at the camping site, so I was kind of empty bellied and when I stepped into prakash's room, look what, he is eating is dinner in his nighties, so without-any-efforts, 3-4 foul words came out of my mouth, which did not at all made any impact on the course of his dinner and then when I realized that it is not going to help, I started helping him to finish, so that I can kill my hunger and we can leave little less late. It took him another half an hour to get ready which he although did not looked like.

We left on my bike(One unnecessary detail here is my bike is LML Freedom 125cc) and the only thing on the top and back and guess on every part of my mind was to get it refuelled so that we do not have to shed some more calories in dragging that beast(my-lovely-bike). It was a cold winter night and the breeze at 7:00 PM IST is spine chilling on the outskirts of the town, so I was shivering a bit while driving. One thing I would like to mention is none of us knew the exact location of the camping site and we were moving without giving further thoughts. Then somehow after a few calls and few directions by the locals, we made to the place: "Safari Activity Park".

The place is a new of its kind for me, as it has setups established for various physical activities like Joomaring, acid river, rope climbing many of whose names I didn't bother to ask and remember. But I was excited about the whole idea of camping in the night and doing activities which I had seen in the movies. So it all started with a series of tasks like walking on ropes, shifting from one platform to another, hanged through ropes. There were almost 15 souls roaming here and there doing things, supposed to do and not supposed to do. We joined them in those things(whatever-their-names-be). There were some mom's who were not doing much, other than their age-old job of gossiping, some of theirs and else's husband joined them to discuss the prices of every single commodities at general store.

Slowly people started showing up (suhani shaam se dhalti raat tak waala invitation mila tha unhe), they were shaking hands and exchanging greetings at each others arrival. We continued our fellowship to complete all the tasks, which anyways can be done later. Cool breeze started flowing and we started playing badminton and 5 minute later I realized that the net of the racket I was holding was no longer in its proper place and fortunately no one noticed so I kept it right there and flew away. Now we were looking here and there to find something to kill our time with. The activities were not started formally as people were still popping-up. Meanwhile I started buzzing some of the childrens when their parents were not around and enjoyed their reaction which was no where near good. Anyways now we were served some snacks, namely pakodas and soups, which were really delicious. Seriously average taste of eatables in indore is far higher than the national standards. I had three soups back-to-back and two plate of pakodas. No matter what is the main objective of the event, we indori always find reasons to wash our mouths with some delicious beverages and snacks.

Now what, was the question again, still unanswered, so we decided to repeat the rope and net based activities which we believed will transform us into some sort of black cat commandos overnight. We played a couple of more games like volley ball, hand ball and some others which I cannot remember even. Our batch was quite diversified in profiles which we came to know after a session to introduce ourselves, which revealed that, there were some two doctors, one model(which-we-realized-only-after-he-told-us-so), One entrepreneur, two students from the most tech savy institute on the face of the nation(IIT-Mumbai), One pilot from Kingfisher airlines, and rest all were everyday man just like me. Most dynamic, versatile and gentlement of all was the group leader(Rakesh Jain). We all gathered to gaze at stars and were fed with tons of information, whose retention is not more than 5%, anyways, the pilot and the group leader exchanged their turns for the lecture which lasted for another half an hour.

Next comes the another good part of the session, hot-delicious-yummy food with a variety of cuisines, again I ate upto the brim, and was wondering whether I want to sleep or would continue with the lively night. I chosed the later and really thankful to myself for the decision. We played "rumal-jhapatta" where my contribution was just neutral(not-good-not-bad), then we played dodge-ball and that can be called as another chapter of my mediocre life, I was just ok there as well, but the game was good and I played it for the first time and enjoyed it thoroughly. Then comes the most awaited event which was lighting a camp fire and gossiping till the end of the Time, but-but-but it lasted untill 4:00 AM in the morning or night whatever you call it, but we sung some good songs, chatted on variety of topics and shared some views on some other mind bogling issues. Meeting strangers is most of the time a pleasant experience. One more thing which I learnt that night was tent pitching and believe me it is damn easy.

Morning cannot be more pleasant, ok this is a exaggeration, but it surely was a different and exciting one, they served us with hot steaming tea, and then we sat for some time and then decided to play cricket, and that was one thing where I kicked my horoscope in the ass and excelled. So the day had started pretty good, lots of runs against my name on the scoreboard. Next on the line of action was archery, which, my friend, is hell of a difficult task then what it appears from a distance. I got three chances and none of which landed, anywhere near the target(again-no-regrets). By the time it all ends up, the clock ticked 10:00 AM IST and guess its high time for the breakfast which was not so delicious as was the last night's dinner but still I managed to grab two plates of our own staple breakfast "poha" with some other south indian dish by the side.

Joomaring setup was waiting us to clean up our plates of breakfast and it was a real calorie-intensive activity. Every ounce of your body weight can be felt individually when you are doing a task like that, and finally will curse the just-had breakfast. Then we sat and chatted on a would-be tree house for a while followed by long awaited commondo training. You can see the pics for this Joomaring and the apparatus for the commando training in the attached photographs. Finally I was so tired that only thing I can fantasize about at that time was a bed, but it all went away, the moment I stepped in the pool whose temperature was none less than "absoolute zero". Finally we said our good byes to the rest of the group and left the place with the wet clothes on our structures, again on my bike.

I enjoyed the trip end-to-end and would love to be a part of another such event in the future.

Please put in ur valuable comments kyonki ab pad to liya hi hai, gali to bak hi sakte ho, it will help.

Dheeraj Bansal