Reborn From The Ashes

Back in the Game

2011-12-12T05:27:00.000-08:00

First post from office. Finally I went to play the Game. Had to get up at 6 in the morning and go to a Park 15 km from my home. The last game (not counting the cricket we played in our class) was with the class cricket team which we lost in a heart breaking manner. Anyways, back to present, bowling was fun, got regular wickets but in batting got out first ball a number of times. I am a leg side player, making room for myself and blasting over the off side isn't my strength. After coming back, the whole day I felt an upsurge of energy, helped in household tasks, made grilled sandwiches, tea for Mom. It was like the good old days when I used to be a good boy.The family realised the change and encouraged me to go and play every day. I knew what was coming after I would fell asleep. Hangover from Alcohol lasts a night but this one could be there for atleast 3-4 days. Lactic acid buildup, body ache. After all the human body is not like a Combustion Turbine plant (Wholesale Power team lingo) which can shut down and start working instantaneously. Even laughing was accompanied with excessive pain. But then the next day, I had the license to rest for the whole day. At the end of the day all I can say is that it was totally worth it.
Horrible post I know, no synchronisation between the tenses, no humour.

Do What you Love

2011-10-23T09:48:00.000-07:00

I have had no response to questions related to what I did on my weekend. After thinking for 5 minutes, I used to be really elated if I did have an answer for it. Some bit of thinking and a chat with a senior at office got me thinking in the right direction. The solution was the answer to the question, "what do I love to the most?" It was a no-brainer. I love playing the game but haven't made an effort to touch base with it. I really should have made an effort to improve upon it to reach anywhere close to the top instead of playing in fantasies, inventing indoor games and blaming others. Anyways, I promise I will take out time for it once I am done with CAT on 13 november. It is a date much sought for, (the last sunday of the window) the normalization factor was looming large on my head but I chose to play to my strength (more prep time in hand) and bravery instead of fearing the competition. I am not really high on preparation on that front, a stupid dilemma is also tinkering with my motivation but would like to do well in it and then productively use my weekends to get deep into my favourite indulgences. Let us hope for the best. A nice little post once again burying the mountain loads of drafts for blog posts.

22

2011-09-08T11:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Akshay Kumar, you turn twice as old as I am today.

Recently a friend scanned through the posts running with the titles, at that time I realized how unwise it is not to have a title for a post. It is like a book without cover. This post is something in continuation with the previous post 1 year ago, so is the title.
http://sahilkablog.blogspot.com/2010/09/21.html

Since the last 8 months or so, I have been uncomfortable, agitated whenever career talks used to spring up. Yes, mistakes have been made. But there is no going back. Nearly everything would have to be changed if I could go back in time and change them. I observed that this frustration often used to rise up whenever I used to talk to people. Yet again an anomaly as normal people are at peace with others and agitated within. One of the books that was of immense help was 'Stories from here and there' compiled by Sunil Handa. It had 450 short stories to be devoured slowly, so that the morale seeps in, unlike me who gorged about 50 of those at a time, mixing up everything.

This is the edited and pruned version of the post that would have been posted had it not been languishing in the drafts column for so long. It would have been another in the line of morose posts, couldn’t have helped it as nothing good was happening in my life although my love for action packed cinema and sad songs where the guy loses the girl stays as it is.

But yes, things have improved this time around. On dad's birthday, I became a mama too. Had an exciting 1.5 months with Utkarsh (they overrode my suggestions of a Rajasthani royal name). He has been lucky for all of us. I don't plan to switch off my phone today.

I got a better job (let us not take names), although it is still paying the lowest amongst all my friends leaving out Prashant who is studying at home and will soon crack the civil examinations on the sheer dent of his determination. The process was grueling. CV shortlisting, then an impromptu telephonic interview, followed by 3 interviews at a stretch, then the customary HR interview where I made a fool of myself. This wasn’t all, there was more. I was then called up for another telephonic interview with someone in the USA and once again later on for another session with their India MD. The following HR interview was better as they themselves raised the offer. But after the entire struggle I made it and that is what matters. The office is in Delhi (no more 3.5 hours in cab every day), brand name is better, entry more exclusive and hopefully the work is better too. My last firm too was good but I was looking for something better from that day itself when I got hired there. But it seems like those guys are hell bent on making me serve my full notice period although I have gone out of my way to create certain process documentations too so that they don’t get in trouble in case the next guy too looks for greener pastures.
The one thought that has since been ringing inside me is the legendary dialogue from Shawshank Redemption,
“Some birds can’t be caged; their wings are just too bright.”

Won the CL tycoons competition on my parent’s anniversary (had cracked the Deloitte intern too on the same day 2 years back) with the hope of getting a fully funded post graduation but as life is, there was a twist in the tale. They changed the prize money. The grueling presentation making work which I had done at the firm is a nice skill to carry forward and helped me a lot for this competition. Hat ja tau song was once again my lucky charm. Will listen to it every time before any such momentous occasions.

Of late, I have realized that I don’t have a life at all and I am drifting away from people at a fast rate. Although a big reason of shying away from meeting people was the shame I felt when the conversation touched my soon to be ex-job and I hope to make amends. Humanity is based on trust and it has been a double edged sword as I have failed people on this front and so have they, circumstances were such. But I still feel, it is all written.
I know I can do a better job with the flow of this post but I guess it is bearable.

2011-06-25T11:59:00.000-07:00

Long time, no posts. No publicity, hardly any visitors. Will keep myself out of the context to cut this post to size. This post is about one of my class mates, Rahul Mishra. He is one of the nicest guys I have met on this planet, (he never shied away from bringing the inexpensive printouts for us all; can't think of more reasons right now but am sure there will be many), someone for whom I won't mind laying down my life. Due to less marks and wayward english, he couldn't land up a job. A lot of effort was put in to change the status quo but nothing happened. Its a shame on all the firms who couldn't recognize the worth of this gem. Marks is still seen as the sole criteria for ability, none of these idiotic recruiters learnt any lesson from 3 idiots.
Anyways, just a week back he finally got one. It felt as if a huge burden was off my shoulder and i could die in peace (the multiple references to dying in this post are not at all a reference to suicidal tendencies but the fact that his well being is sacrosanct for me). So his was a Rocket Singh kind off sales job. Hard Work but still better than sitting at home.
I called him up yesterday to inquire how his first week at work was.
He had LEFT the job. I was disappointed (This is the maximum intensity of feelings I generate now). His work would have been to lie to extract money on the pretext of NGO's and get a cut out of it. It was too much for him. I don't think I would have been strong enough to leave it. But then this, is why I respect him so much.
This reminds me of a story long back which I read in one of those hindi classes of a young boy who doesn't get his daily pay because the contractor is in a bad mood so he is clueless of how to arrange money for buying dough for the next meal for his paralyzed father. He notices a wallet full of money lying on the road and travels a lot of distance to return it to his original owner. He even refuses the tip offered citing the values inculcated in him by his father. He narrates the whole thing to his father in tears, who also starts crying as he is proud of his son and consoles him by saying that 1 night of hunger is nothing compared to the happiness he has given him.
A lot of parallels can be drawn from this story. In the former, the end needs to be different. Let us see how much time it takes. Its long overdue according to me.
No more titles for posts now.

Its All Written

2011-02-14T11:01:00.000-08:00

Met my school friend Siddharth after a long period of time today. We share the same birthday, same blood group, had our names starting from 'Y' according to the hindu calendar but both got the official ones with S (unofficially I am Yatin, he was supposed to be Yogesh). We both have extremely perverted thoughts. Never had loyal friends, both doing engineering, have spent a large part of our life feeling low for apparently no reason. As for what differentiates us, he is far more fair than i am. Its really sad that he had to face the ignominy of people refusing his friend requests on facebook. Had requested people to be nice to him but to no avail as I am no one to 'choose' friends for them. Primarily I am responsible for him being low on confidence as I used to poke fun at him for trying to be friends with the 'cool' groups whereas they had no space for him. How is it that 2 people having the same stars have a very similar life! Is it that its all written?

My disgust for the reality shows has reached an epitome. These guys stoop to any depth for those TRP's but the reality is that most of the stuff is doctored. Though I must say that I have become a fan of Dolly Bindra, watching her in 'Saali Poori Gharwali'which was full of hilarious double meanings.

Finally got a chance to witness live cricket at West Indies vs Holland after the washout at DD vs KKR at Kotla which I guess is the only IPL match to be completely washed out. I had profesied that gayle will get out at 7999 career runs and he did. Saurabh had said about the over in which Holland will get wrapped up and they did.

As for my own game, we lost again in the inter-class tournament. Lets not go into the nitty gritties of the game as then it would take a similar tone as one of the previous posts. Had given it my all. The worst part was that when I came to bat in the last over a shot which i hit with all my might on a free hit could just make its way to the bowler. In bowling, I bowled within myself, no extravagance hence didn't go for runs. After the game ended, the muscle pain too subsided.

The 1 day mumbai trip to CRISIL for the award was pretty good. First I reached the domestic terminal T1 instead of T3, then i wasted time in getting the printout there as I was just carrying the SMS. After that the Check in official took all the time in the world as according to him I had already checked in (this happened because all the winners from Delhi had the same bill so he would have given all the boarding passes to whoever had come first). Neither was he willing to give me the assurance that I would not miss the flight. After running across the carpeted floor I boarded the flight on the last call and when I got seated, we were informed that because of fog the flight will get delayed by 1.45 hours. In comparison to Deloitte, CRISIL office was pretty huge and aesthetic. The award function was more like an expensive wedding as it was actually their annual day. The fried prawns were too good.

XL interview is on 28 march and inspite of all the confidence/faith/belief that I only will make my destiny kindoff philosophy stuff which I talk about now with complete indifference and disconnect, the fact is that I need this one pretty badly as this would simplify a lot of issues and get me out of the trouble I plan to put myself in the near future. It would also help me get rid off the prophecy I mentioned about in one of the previous posts. But the laziness bug has hit me pretty badly. Even in my dreams, I don't fight off the terrorists now, rather prefer to be hit by bullets so that atleast I can rest in that position.

Woes of 2011

2011-01-29T05:35:00.000-08:00

2011 started off on a disastrous note with friends getting cheated off money, losing family members, life threatening accidents. XAT was on 2 january and it was a very tough exam with varied number of questions and marks too. But at 99.8 percentile that is my only hope left now along with IIFT which I will not join. On 3rd january itself Pavit had told me my CAT result as a result of the leak; 98.75 %ile which expectedly didn't fetch me a single call. As expected english brought me down, 1 question more correct in that and i would have cleared any english sectional cutoff and got above 99 %ile bar but that won't have helped either. IIM-A drastically changed its criteria this year and as a result of it even those having scores greater than 99.8 couldn't make through.
Wasn't shortlisted for FMS too which would have seen the cutoff jump by a 100 marks. I had come out of the examination centre fearing that i might just be one of the toppers (based on last year cutoffs) but what a twist it was. I wish I had a couple of more days to prepare for it as I could barely finish with the past year RC questions ( I still didn't want them to come as I wasn't satisfied with their answer keys) but this time the Verbal questions got repeated.
My approach should have been fearless and not conservative. I need to get back to using unconventional yet time saving methods of solving which I employed during JEE days. Some 'friends' expressed caustic surprise over how I could not get through, some wrote letters aimed at cheering me up though the intention behind it was sinister. But I am unaffected. I wish I had enough emotions left in me to give a shot at crying but nothing came through. I have lost faith in CAT with the type of normalizations techniques involved, in IIM's which had strange selection criterias. Defeat doesn't scare me now.
I just have a constant foolish grin on my face which arises form the situation in which life has put me in. Thinking of going back to coding books for a better paying job.

My efforts till 2:30 AM on the day of Microprocessors exam bore fruit.
http://www.crisil.com/crisil-young-thought-leader-2010/index.html

As the years progressed, I have become more obstinate with my particular exam preparation schedule being
1 Masti till 10 PM of the previous day.
2 10-4 Study + maggi
3 4-6 Sleep which gets extended to 7-8 with multiple alarms which are of no use as finally mom has to intervene.
4 After 8, extreme anxiety leading to the urge of vomiting.
5 The promise to myself on the way to college that I will be regular for the next one.
6 Trying to understand the most important stuff which I have left from Saurabh
7 During exam: Trying to save my skin from darkening due to Sunlight
8 After exam: Abusing anyone who dares to discuss the paper
9 After reaching home, back to point 1.

Nothing is cooking

2010-11-18T21:18:00.000-08:00

So CAT went decently well. But now its all on the luck factor which can swing it either way. Someone's CAT was clashing with end sems so he ended up making an effort to get them shifted and they actually were shifted. We are still wasting time due to it. Day before yesterday, had a 1629 line chat with a friend which ended after 4.25 hours at 6 in the morning and broke all records in terms of length. Not surprisingly, we were discussing girls but it wasn't for me but for him. I won't reveal his identity as it would really make many of you fall out of your seats. I thought of acting as the bridge between the two, but backed off as the guy in question is mentally incapable of handling a relationship. But what flummoxes me is the fact that all though there is actually nothing cooking as of now, a serious effort was made towards concealing it from me. Maybe that is because of my facebook reputation of finding fishy stuff and then opening it up for the world to see. But gradually laziness is taking over my machaupanti and i have increasingly drawn the line closer to myself as people do what they want so it is of no use tiringly preaching them. I really should turn to buddhism for the benefit of world peace.

Salaam Mediocricity

2010-11-03T10:10:00.001-07:00

Many things happened after the last post and even before that which are rotting somewhere in the archives as all my posts are spontaneous, leaving aside the drafts. Seems like I have settled now, not running after money, success; feel no vengeance/attachment towards anything/anyone; have got used to the idea that I may not be destined for the stars. My list of missed opportunities has become so long now that I can either keep thinking over it or move on, i chose the latter. This ending could have matched that of 'good will hunting' had I been that gifted. Now the sadistic/sarcastic laughter rings my eardrums, silently whispering, 'I told you so'. Have made this blog a sad place, will post some nice 'feel good' fiction now. I may sound little sad but that is totally not the case, its plain indifference to everything. I found a word to describe my ideology, NIHILISM.
I am finding some peace in reading up war history as it is the closest one can get to extreme reality and also to see how people reacted to the trying circumstances, some chickened out others blasted through fortresses and silenced the enemy's canons by inserting their heads into them (ok, this was a translation from movie Border which was my favourite movie for a long time.) I couldn't even spell this world properly then, didn't know its meaning but staged a Non Cooperation movement at home till i got to see this movie. You can imagine the torture I would have undergone when my family took me to 'hum aapke hai kaun' and i had my revenge in the form of taking out the foam from the seats there.
It can easily be inferred that someone not taken up on his ego/ambition or not tried to take its advantage for some other purpose, all wars could easily have been avoided. Nothing can be solved through it, if 1 falls 10 will rise. But yes, a Nihilist can find reason in it-> population control.

That is all for now, to rhyme with the song playing at some distant location
Hum Kalre hain to kya hua dilwale hain.

21

2010-09-09T05:26:00.001-07:00

I turn 21 today, Akshay Kumar turns 43. As usual I have no excitement of the birthday yet again. It is pleasant for rather distant entities to wish you like 160by2.com, Career Launcher no matter its automated. My vow of keeping the phone switched off lasted exactly 1 hour. Nothing against anyone but I didn’t want to talk to anyone this time, also my inability of never being able to end the call in time lets them stretch to eternity.

Well, a lot has happened this time around. Metaphorically speaking, a kid was thrown into a war but not allowed to fight. All he could see was his side getting barraged down by a ruthless, heartless opposition. Just when the time for offensive arrived, when his blood boiled to the limit, he got a shot of reality. Some one under the veil of being a victim was calling the shots, using everyone around for their advantage. All one could do was smile as how easily he lost the faith that he was fighting for the truth. He thought he was the Krishna of this Mahabharata, guiding Arjuna to do the right thing by picking up weapons against his own but here both Krishna and Arjuna were nothing but puppet soldiers. He lost his faith in humanity, righteousness forever.

Coming back to reality, my forgetful memory will once again help me get over it. The lack of concentration which has troubled me since childhood (a completely different story enfolds in my mind all the time no matter what I am doing) is my biggest weakness, also contributing to the fact that I only remember those things which I recall again and again (normally consisting of bad memories only). But I think this can be my biggest strength as once again while driving I got another idea which can really change the world. But it needs a lot of time, which is not what I have right now, though I will try my best to work on this one.

My dream company didn’t even shortlist me based on resume and cover letter. So all those rumours about marks being an important criteria were indeed true. People put in fake points on their CV, girls with boy friends there got shortlisted, the fashion parade team got in. The process ahead was a sham with the same repeated case studies and guess estimates asked, as if they were sure whom to take. Seems like these companies don’t want to test the candidates as they think that anyone and everyone is good enough to work for them. I am not looking for excuses, I spent 2 years moulding myself into what could have been a better suited candidate to that work but they took the easy way out. Anyways the selected candidates are pretty good though all I wanted was a chance to prove myself.

To forget this disappointment, I watched 3 movies in the night and appeared for the next company sleepless with a similar kind of work profile which I hate less. Somehow after a long day I got selected into it, though lack of sleep and food had impaired by vision, hearing and thinking capacity pretty badly. So now everybody is getting highly paying jobs and I am at the lower end of the A++ job category spectrum just because I did not want to code and the placement policy ensures that I am not allowed to sit again for a long time.

What lesson can one learn from life when you don’t get the things you work hardest for, be it this job (spent days and nights on the CV and cover letter), the 2000 word for a competition of IHC. With all doors closed now, CAT is the only option left.

In earlier times renunciation meant going to the Himalayas but now its going off Facebook. Well, it’s a temporary decision for me, got tired of pulling each and every one’s leg. It isn’t such a big occasion to use terminator’s legendary ‘I will be back’ dialog.

As for CWG, after not assigning me any duty, they realized their mistake and have put me in Protocol at the airport. Got the uniform today as birthday gift from their side. One point that I completely missed and was made to realize by Mayank was that at the airport there would be AIR HOSTESSES. A month ago I would have jumped at this, but not now when my interest in girls is at an all time low, so is my self confidence.

Faisle ki Ghadi

2010-08-16T12:45:00.000-07:00

I thought I was lucky for people but it seems I was wrong. Worked hard on helping Mishra, Gaur, Richa ace through Deloitte but 2 weren’t allowed cause of the 60% criteria and 1 didn’t clear the written. As far as I am concerned, the most important company for me, Bain Capability Centre is coming on 18th. I have put myself in a mess and if I get through this, a lot of that could get clear. Stories of them short listing only above 75% sounds foolish and also scary. I still believe that no single entity will control my destiny but if I miss this, will fall deeper into the cauldron. Refused to sit for the PPO at Deloitte, money is too less and the work is all coding and the worst thing is that it has been kept in A++ category so can’t aim for Bain if I take this. Though neither their package, nor their stiff attitude of not allowing people with low percentage warrants it. Time for the reckoning has arrived. No more running away, just hope I get a fair chance at it. Next post after the bain process is over.

Naukri Ki Talaash

2010-08-06T15:29:00.001-07:00

Today is the first anniversary of my darling bike. Getting on top of it, I forget everything apart form the presence of traffic policemen on the hi speed roads. 1 lucky girl (not family) did get the chance to sit on it for a fleeting moment. Before you get excited, there is nothing cooking guys. I thought there would be lightening, thunder but it did not happen. Again none of the archived writings are included in this. I returned from Mumbai without getting ill and that was my target. Reaching back home I was not in a position to go out but that is cool, as long as I achieved my target. Saurabh got a whooping job first up at Adobe and it has been 6 companies and I have not even been able to sit for any. Didn’t arrive in time, missed percentage criteria, didn’t register in time. 3 reasons, 6 misses. I was one of the first in class to have a resume ready but with this new format, I was the last one. Though I know that inspite of high packages, I won’t enjoy these tech jobs and also am in no way ready to face the companies, this is a minor reason though. Saurabh was successful inspite of not even preparing for it while he was screwing up things at Microsoft because he is genuinely interested in coding and not just after it for money. Deloitte might offer me a PPO but contrary to perception it’s a coding job which I don’t enjoy. Choosing a safe branch here was for job guarantee and now when I have it, i don't want it. So right now I have decided not to touch Let us C but focus on preparing for the job I want to do and MBA prep, where verbal section is taking me down every time. There are less companies, less jobs and the whole college for these but I want to back myself for this. I might get doomed but atleast will be satisfied that I followed by heart this time and won’t blame anyone else. Also going against the crowd, complicating things, living off the edge has its own charm which you normal people can’t understand. Apart form Ma, no one has understood my point leaving aside those who went through a similar stage.

I have been losing friends on a sharp scale. Sometimes it’s the circumstances but usually its my own antics and lack of regard of their importance and to a bit, ego problem. But deep down I know the constraints which are making me act strange. I myself don’t know what I talk so can’t expect you to understand this yet another cryptic code.

All I can say is that if you want someone to stay attached with you forever, never ever force them to change themselves no matter how pathetic they are. If they think there is a need for it, they will adapt themselves to it but when forced too, they will leave, no matter how good you are and no matter how much they are attached to you. All I can do is say such quotations, yet another valid accusation. Wow, have faced a lot of slack in the past few days. I don't think people deserve an answer. I don’t know how I want to be although I think spreading smiles and laughter is as important as getting good marks. For this, I use a number of tools but sometimes make fun of people but I start with laughing at myself and that is just for the moment, no hard feelings. I also have exceeded my limit a number of times in quest of testing the patience of the other person. But then, are the people around good enough for me to waste my energy and act like a joker to make them happy? Ponder while I figure out where I reach out in my life. With the emotions running high am sure I have gone overboard in this post. Anyways till the next post,
Stay Hungry Stay Foolish.

More Mumbai

2010-07-20T02:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, so enough of the good part. It is time for some reality check. At Deloitte, there is this culture that whoever goes home should bring one of the local delicacies from there. To makhanmaro the manager, I bought a separate box for him too. He showed me the attitude as if I am shoving some stale slurry up his you know what where as the whole team had appreciated it. I had got the same response when I emptied my coffers of candies which mom had packed along as, ‘koi mazak thodi na hai, bacha bahar ja raha hai (its not a joke, the kid is going out). I had criticized Vijit for being too frank on his blog whereas I am doing the same now. Differences had to come up now. I hate the place I have shifted into now. The other option was in Andheri, near the lake, opposite a park and on the main road in a locality which had full occupancy. This one is in a standalone 14 storey monolith in the industrial area and the road to it would soon make me eligible for long jump trials as that is what we have to do as the flood waters form the swamp in front goes into the drain through the road. I was in a depression as I had not seen a single decent girl for 3 days.

I didn’t want there to be any difference so took DCE’s (Akshay) cue as all 3 of us (including Pavit) in different locations won’t have been good. I had made a special request for the Andheri place through my cousin and even convinced them to take in both of us. DCE thinks he is an oversmart guy. I would surely invite him to read this. He thinks that attending enterpreneurship , leadership seminars would make him one and the sad part is that no matter how useless it is, it would look wonderful on the CV.

My fury had to be unleashed on him as one day I troubled him by telling that a big rat had entered his almirah. For an hour and a half, I moulded the story quite nicely, how his suit got damaged, how one of the rats got into the AC and how suddenly from nowhere, there came another one. I Have also posted rather funny sleeping pics of him on facebook, tagged his friends on it and grabbed his admit card which has a B/W picture of his with his beloved moustache which too would make its way to facebook. Then on the next day, he boasted that his 6th sense would let him know if anyone takes his keys which were dangling outside his bag. Pavit took it and he went back to office to look for it and was furious when after an hour we returned it as by the time he had visited a couple of shops too, to inquire for it. We have also made a video of his losing 21-2 to me in table tennis. I have been brutally honest with everybody and he is getting mails sent from some relative in US office to the members here to increase his networking. I also hate him as he has no response to the wonderful pics of girls I show to him on facebook which are a result of hours and hours of search (bad addiction). I am sick of seeing no people around at a stage when I am obviously missing my family.

I sleep in the common room as my partner has the habit of sleeping diagonally, making the bed vibrate through his snoring which eventually helped me get up a couple of days back . The maid here is too much fun as she pours all resources in what she makes for Ashish, who takes care of the expenses initially as we are way too lazy to take the pain before sharing the expenses through a wonderful site by the name expensure. She washes clothes, this is a fact but they are cleansed is a myth. She adds as much garlic to the food as there should be onion. Well, that too seems a luxury as now no food is cooked as the groceries are out of stock and none of us is willing to take the initiative of getting it from the market. Had this been at home, it would have made its way straight to the dustbin.

I am making wrong decisions as have stopped planning and using instincts so the decision made seems wrong after some time. The best thing is to procrastinate till I am left with straightforward choices. Here I am wasting time on this post and just yesterday got the news that all MBA exams are being prescheduled. So I have this intern, Commonwealth training, the games itself, midsems, placements before it. Due to special request, this post has been trimmed so rest of the stuff in next part.

Home and Back

2010-07-02T05:54:00.000-07:00

Its early morning for me, 7:45 by the watch and this flight journey is so boring, no leg room, and smaller windows so the view is inaccessible from the middle seat, and neither is the airhostess worth looking at though the flight attendant seems to far more impeccably dressed ( No homo rants please). Train journeys are far more enjoyable and interactive; here everybody is sleeping whereas I too am sleepy but don’t want to snooze. The only thing worth talking about is that the legendary comedian, Surinder Sharma is 7 rows ahead.
Don’t know how to put it but whatever, this is just a plain description of my visit to delhi for a couple of days for the semifinals of Sports ka Superstar. Wasn’t really expecting a call for it so preparation was not on. With Prateek’s episode being a really high scoring one, lost all hope so on the day of the expected call up, if it indeed was supposed to come, I planned a ‘Mumbai Darshan’ starting from Sidhivinayak Temple (I know I am a very selfish fellow to remember God in the time of need). There were some security checks going on there, so no one was allowed to enter. After a second visit, and an extended stay just before leaving it for good, they finally let people through. I was expecting queues as long as those at Shirdi/Vaishno Devi but thankfully that wasn’t the case. So after paying my obeisance there, we went up to Mahalaxmi temple. But on the way as expected, I did get my call. After that I pitched in for a visit to Haji Ali but those around me warned about the grotesque scene of the handicapped beggars there which would be unbearable but I think I have hardened myself enough so we went ahead with the plan but there weren’t many signs of it. This was my first mosque visit, adding to the far more numerous ones to gurudwaras and churches. Then we went to Girgaum Chowpatty beach, Marine Drive, Nariman point, Gateway of India. The site of the long row of people along the curved Marine Drive way was the one to cherish and I too was a part of it. It ended at CST from where I boarded the local to strike off all modes of transport on this trip. Being a Saturday, the crowd was just 10% of what it is usually. Also met up a boy of my age only whose Dad is sitting paralysed at home. I won’t let my own views out on this as its quite funny and hurting but I did agree partly with his view that all you need to woo a girl is money. Must have walked a lot on the trip and that was evident with the uneasiness in legs and also a nearly complete loss of voice due to the cold/cough which would stay for around 2 months atleast as I won’t take any medicines, precautions for it and also due to my habit of speaking mindlessly like a chatterbox all day. I have also started teaching a Class 12 boy in the office basement who is being taught under the CSR initiative of Deloitte along with many others. Initially I didn’t think I would do justice to him but thankfully the hours I put in teaching Prateek (shame on him, still got just 49 in mathematics in boards but will now call himself an IITIAN after taking humanities) helped me a lot this time. This is the moment I wait for throughout the day although end up at home quite late. Their books are horrible, just formulae, no derivation so without guidance it would be really tough for anyone to pass. I also passed on my cold to him, sorry for that mate. After the class, I am always left with no strength to speak. My 1 week at the wonderful reliance guesthouse courtesy Pavit is over and now it’s time to go to chandivilli with other Deloitte employees and Akshay. That building was for the super rich with 2 separate lifts for the servants and to our last count the number of super expensive cars (above 30 lakh) were around 35. The Beetle and Hummer parked side by side was synonymous to a hairy bulky villain on top of a petite heroine. Getting an apartment in this 30 floor building seems a distant possibility so let’s see what the future has in store for me.
My shoot was for Tuesday but Sunday too went by without preparation. CL mock was a disaster with me and Pavit swapping scores and both of us missing the Quant cutoff. Coming back to Delhi too was a boring experience with the only adrenaline rush I felt was during the takeoff. Delhi was a complete change. I felt like a scorpion coming back to its Dry Desert Sand (Delhi) form the marshy swampy land (Mumbai). The poetic devices used in the above sentence are alliteration and rhyming scheme. Being back at home was wonderful, all my calls for freedom have subsided as I didn’t really use it anywhere and I would be cherishing home more from now on. Throughout the day felt groggy, slept off accidently at night so ended up without preparation. Vella admi Prateek also came to attend the shoot and was obviously disappointed when the technical glitch led to the shoot starting at 8 PM whereas I was there since 9 AM. Coming to the episode, I being at number 2 was the first challenger to Khaas Khiladi but couldn’t beat him as I said Vitaly Klitskov instead of Vladimir Klitskov and then was slightly slower on the buzzer. After 12 questions, he was at 100 and five remaining including me at 80. I was 2nd on timing so some other guy went for the challenge this time (whoever would have won this would have made it to the final) and it would have been exciting had he lost but tables turned and he won. So now within 4 questions, I had to overtake the other guy who was far better than me. I ended at 100 along with Soumyadipta but had better timing, the previous khas khiladi at 130 and the current one who won the previous shootout at 90 (below us but in the finals). So I was the best loser in the Lucky Loser round but this time there is no coming back. To get rid of the heaviness before the final 4 questions I reminded myself a previous statement that no one will decide my future and life isn’t over if I don’t make it. This did help a lot as I have slightly drifted from treating every competition as the last battle. But this isn’t a good format that a low scoring guy makes it and I couldn’t.
At office, I missed by W2D again along with the opportunity to dine with the senior brass here and Pavit and Akshay are going gaga over how they knew about the project they are doing which I think is only to make them not feel bad about the uselessness of it. After a week in testing which was fun as I derived sadistic pleasure in finding new defects, reopening the previous ones if needed to increase the work of the developers. But to get some coding work (for the report to be given at college), had requested my Project Manager to put me into application development and he happily agreed. So the real hard time will start now. Next weekend it should be Shirdi most probably. Let’s hope I can concentrate back, this time on placements but the idea of working for the next 12 hours after another sleepless night as we reached home at 12, isn’t a pleasant one. Last semester result came and the bad ones were as expected but the good ones also disappointed. In the 1 credit programming lab where we never do anything, somehow I ended up helping the Mtech girl taking it in her own research work and she ended up giving me the lowest marks in the group. Even the boy who didn’t submit the file got more than me. I can’t find any reason behind this, but she does owe me an explanation for this.

Late Edit: Looking back, the 2 people who had beaten me at the prelims made it to the final and the 2 who beat me in the lucky loser's round won the finals. I am no match to the bongs and bangalore walas but with slightly easy questions and more focus on time and luck i might have had a chance. The guy who went to the final with 90 points had lady luck smiling on him as he is getting married in a week. Couldn't beat him on that factor but just 1 question could have changed the whole thing. The closer margin by which you loose, the harder it is to forget.Have lost 2 semis, 2 finals. The only reason I don't act arrogant on these shows is cause I am never sure what might happen next and I end up losing shamelessly. How long do I have to wait for things to turn my way?

Mumbai

2010-06-20T04:35:00.000-07:00

Finally I went on board for my internship. After a tumultuous week I don’t really want to write this but let’s do it for Prateek and Rangoli, 2 very vella followers of my blog. So, Saturday morning was my train and for the first time ever I needed the tatkal system to be successful but you know it, things can never be so predictable for me and it wasn’t in spite of using solid jugaad which had never ever failed. Then the jugaad person promised a ticket in the night train, so hopefully I got the previous one cancelled and was glad that I got an extra 12 hours at home but it backfired. The fact that I am going away from home for the first time for a long duration did not occur to me previously when I was busy with the packing and all stuff but during this time I had nothing to do so all those negative thoughts came into mind and I called up the near and dear ones for one last chat before going, a sign of weakness. I had company for the ride in the form of Gul (my first cousin’s daughter)’s dad. We made sure that she was sent somewhere else before we left along with dad who was there to see us off because I doubt whether she would have let us go that easily. Deep down, I felt sad for my 3 year old niece, it was like cheating her. Predictably ma cried, in spite of all my talks.

There at the station, when I came out of this scenario and saw the challenges I have to face, suddenly my motivation was back. Bribe was paid to secure the seat and dad comforted me by saying that these are honest people (convincing me that they won’t run away with my money and give me a seat in spite of there being no proof of my claim). The ride is the only part I can’t fully describe here, will later come in my autobiography when the one big partial lie will be revealed. Didn’t really get much sleep and the fellow passengers were adamant that the lights be switched off so I couldn’t read anything so instead I chatted along with Chirag and realized that he has treaded the same path of struggle on which I am walking now and I didn’t feel that bad about all the mistakes I have committed, keeping in mind the greater good. Many wonderful insights were gained, and totally not conforming to ma’s instructions I blurted all what I justifiably think I should have and made him realize how this machau disguise of mine is a wonderful recourse to all this tension around. Tasted 10 different types of mineral water on the way and was so happy that sis was on time at Surat to take the extra baggage which ma had bundled me with, containing the local delicacies which I feel are useless as in this globalization time when everything is available everywhere. Narmada river underneath the bridge was huge and it reaffirmed my belief in the concept of creation of the early human civilizations near rivers. Land near Mumbai was scary, all submerged.

I agree that I am here to grow and growth is through learning and learning is hard but why were there eunuchs in my story that too just when I was about to reach, that too really obstinate ones( again non reveal able part here). Destiny tried to scare me off by making it rain again but I was ready for it and the clouds ran away, making sure not to make me angry. The way to my guest house went through the boundary of the airport, Dharavi and I doubt whether it should be called a slum as the shops looked pretty decent there. The guest house was great and initially the first reaction of seeing a high rise building was to count the number of floors and right now the highest I have counted is 35 (under construction). The first day in spite of being very tired, Pavit and Akshay (fellow interns) took me to the office on foot but returned from 20 metres before the building with the excuse,’kal to ana hi hai, tab dekh lenge’ (will see it tomorrow when we would report to work).

Now comes the first day, with all 3 of us rather sound sleepers, the morning light from the window and not the sound form the alarms saved us from getting late. Akshay without his moustache ( got trimmed off that very day like it happened with Ajay Devgan (Devgn) in the movie ‘Pyar to hona hi tha’) looked a shadow of the person whom I thought would be an easy target for me and turned up to be a pretty decent person. From some rather funny notion portraying us to be ‘Delegates from New York’ office and have to be suited perfectly, he convinced us all to wear ties and and we were the only 3 people with ties till lunch time after when I decided that enough was enough. We missed the first day of W2D (welcome to deloitte), the famed introduction session of Deloitte and the very reason for us not getting a joining date immediately after our exams so that we could have it with the whole batch of people joining due to some miscommunication from the HR. We have been given really good lappies for our duration, (it is for the whole staff as desktops are used only for the big workloads) I was put into a live project team on day 1 and fell onto the mercy of a workaholic DCE (DTU) passout employee who I think is wasting his life by not having any kind of fun. His eyes enlightened on finding a prey in the form of a NSIT student, especially since the last time, the DCE interns under him had not done anything significant so he made it clear that I would be pushed hard. I was told to line up all these softwares for installation and ring up the call centre for the validation tickets. It got pretty late and also rained so the other 2 who have been having a pretty easy time, left and got an auto but still got very wet whereas there was none available by the time I packed up so had to walk back all the way to home, hence the previous night recee proved worthy. At night we did various activities like showcasing our brand of cinema, mine the Deshdrohi, Gunda kind, Pavit with some Victorian classics and Akshay with his Japanese, Korean kind and none of us liked what the other had on display.

The second day was legendary, one of the softwares, IBM RAD costing 2184$ (cheaper for the firm as they take licenses in bulk) came with a 160 page installation book which had to be followed word to word was taking a lot of time and I was instructed not to leave before completing it and I returned home at 11 PM, after a 14 hour day. This time we had a bigger goof up, we went to the assigned apartment for our dinner and Pavit left the only key to the main door inside. So we got LOCKED OUT. Vikas (the laundry boy) tried all tricks but couldn’t open it. With nothing but a couple of cell phones outside and everything inside, the idea of sleeping just outside the door seemed acceptable until we got a confirmation that a locksmith was on the way braving the rain. When he arrived, he jacked up the price to 1000 from an acceptable 600 but we stood our ground as we had another one on the way who was twice told not to come in spite of leaving for our place. All this was too much for me and I started laughing hysterically while rolling on the floor. Finally it opened and I was happy that his workload increased as the key he had used to open it broke down inside the lock and he had to take out its pieces. But it is a scary thing to know that these guys can open anything and everything.
The next day after work we spent looking for a place to live and it drew a blank. Pavit got his stay arranged and I felt betrayed as it felt like someone who knew swimming jumped off a sinking boat leaving just 2 of us and I had told all my contacts to look for a place for all 3. But I accept that it was really foolish on my side, he had tried all he could and arranged for my stay at the very place for 1 week. Anyways, this lead to frantic calls by both me and Akshay to our respective families for arrangements. As I was later wisely told by Chirag, this too was a sign of weakness. Irrespective of all, the night was spent the boy’s way and they were thankful to me for introducing them to someone whose sirname is ‘Heart’. Also came the news that Akshay had to rush back for a week for his midsems which were twice cancelled previously.
I always wondered what next and did not get disappointed as the next day started with spilled coffee for me and also a weird dress combination which was immediately shot down by all around me for not being, ‘formal’ and also led to my PM saying, ‘you seem to be having a tough time boy’ and it had happened as my trousers were misplaced by the laundry wala. Next night, we used the FIFO algorithm to take turns at showing the pics of nice looking girls in our facebook friends list and also ripped apart the famed and shamelessly expensive alphonso mangoes (well documented in facebook pics) like a villain does away with the heroine’s clothes. I again fell down laughing on seeing the look on Pavit’s face after his first one turned out to be rotten and mind you this one was specially chosen by him.

Friday was the ‘casual’ dress code day and I was shocked to see how cool and happy everyone around seemed. There was one really hot IIM-A girl who seems to have vanished along with other management recruits. Anyways, I doubt my chances of getting female company here as the fear of being labelled a flirt is stopping me from venturing out from my close group of friends.

Coming back to work, my team comprises of kind hearted people who don’t compromise at all on work as our project manager is very strict on deadlines and I was feeling goosebumps when someone else was being given the treatment for keeping his work pending. We have a meeting every day, and even if I am not meant to be in it, I gatecrash no matter how boring it is to learn from all these hotshots. Another game for us is to brag about how senior our respective manager is. The other 2 have got relatively easy work whereas I would be having a challenging time, I guess it serves me right to get into some serious coding as I have not touched upon it since a long time. The simple yes to an innocuous question, ‘bhaiya non veg khaoge?’ (will you eat non-veg? )lead to some bad blood at our guest house when we checked out. Right now I am at the place where Pavit would be staying for the whole duration and would move to our arranged accommodation along with other Deloitte employees when Akshay returns. This place is awesome, apart from all the necessary utilities, a breathtaking view, 2 gyms, a pool table and I have seen just 3-4 other guests here for the 19 available rooms so have all these resources in the available category (only those who have studied operating system can get this joke but am sure you would still not laugh). But in spite of all this I am getting bored as Pavit has gone to his relatives and Akshay back in Delhi for exams. Let’s hope the matter gets ever more complicated if I get called up for the lucky loser round at the sports quiz by synergy.

Well, my relatives too could have got me this place if they wanted to but they didn’t, thankfully maintain my fire to do better than them in life. All I want from this time is experiences and memories as the responsibility of taking snaps has been handed over to Pavit as he is pretty good at it. The plan to go to Essel World has been shot down with the statement, ‘wahaan to bache jaate hain’ (kids go there) by both and they are pretty keen to see some film shooting. Will try my jugaad for it though I myself am least interested in it. Someone please suggest me a better word to replace the repeated use of ‘in spite’ which has been used 6 times in this post. Don't know when will the placement preparations start, a bagful of books is waiting to be opened. Have exhausted my Sunday for this post so better value it.

Usual Ramblings

2010-06-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

I am seriously fed up of myself pulling other people’s legs. It comes naturally to me and inspite of trying my best to keep it within limits and warning everybody before hand, people take offense. Feels like I am incapable or surviving in this alien world of emotional people where I am the only one fooling around. The lucky loser round recall is on hold as synergy people have done the right thing by waiting for rest of the prelims to get over but hope I do get there, and the reason for this has nothing to with the prize/fame, something more personal. But it’s ok, am pretty resolute on the conclusion that my future will not depend on the mercy/pity of 1 entity. Whereas on the other side yet another of an idea of mine will most probably go into the drain as a person leaving the keys to his dreams in someone else’s hands is bound to sink. Won’t loose heart, will wait for the time when I am capable of doing something myself and then get on with it and that time has not yet arrived.

I am ecstatic on regaining the art of leg spin which had vanished but not much playing time left before I leave for Mumbai. Ma will be all emotional (what a waste of tears on my departure) whereas half of Delhi will be ecstatic that they can breathe easy now. I Am trying to convince her through the laws of the jungle where a tiger cub has to be left alone to fend for himself even though his mother doesn’t want to let him go.
Havoc time for the preys now.

Second Life

2010-05-29T11:26:00.000-07:00

Mid exams and as usual i just can't concentrate. Every exam is a tragic tale which if unfolded, will cause a lot of heartburn. I have been busy kicking Pankaj's ass on facebook. People ask me whether i am obsessed with him as I even went to the extent of googling his name, have composed some jokes, plan to request a friend to make a cartoon on him but its the junta who enjoys his bashing and secretly sends me snapshots of his conversation. But i have made it clear than am doing all this just for fun, not at all to be taken seriously.

After loosing at the sports quiz, didn't really expect a call for the lucky loser round. A second chance at redemption. In last post i said that a happier me would have been better for the exams but now that i became happy i still couldn't focus.

I am damn sure that ma's blessings are the only thing which can lead me to success as all the good day's of my life are someway linked to her (the latest news came on her birthday). Though its kind of scary now that i have made her realize this power as i won't have the option of saying no if some years later she encounters me by saying "Beta naukri choot jayegi agar is ladki se shaadi ni karega".

Have a lot of time to prepare for the quiz, if i do get rid of the laze as last few days were tormenting with me wishing that had i not made 1 error there, things would have been different, but complications as usual. Lets see what happens. Time to raise the battle cry.
AKRAMAAAAN

Game Over

2010-05-18T05:35:00.001-07:00

Don’t remember who said it but its totally right. Nothing can be more stranger than reality. Didn’t give in the one night for the quiz. It started well with me being the fastest and highest scorer for stage 1. Went up the dais reserved for the khas khiladi tag. But 1 question’s points weren’t allocated so instead of doing the question again they did the whole round again and I was called back. It was a difference game now. After getting the first one wrong I fiddled with my second question and in a hurry marked the wrong option. Suddenly the dream run came crashing down. Tried my best to recover from it but couldn’t as made another such mistake later on which also couldn’t have made much of a difference. Had that change not taken place, it would have been a different story. The only thing I can relate to this the time when Gatting got out reverse sweeping in 1987 and England came crumbling back or Sachin miscuing Saqlain when he got that 136 in Chennai and within 4 runs of his wicket, 4 wickets went down and we lost by 12 runs.
It is not the loss of prize money but the loss of winner’s tag which hurts. Once again I lost to myself. Won’t have to plan my return from Mumbai now for the future stages. This 1 hour was equivalent to my first month’s intern salary and the cost of couple of minutes at Bright minds competition were equivalent to first year’s salary, that too only if I get a great job. A happier Sahil would have been a better choice for the exams.

What???

2010-05-17T09:07:00.000-07:00

Since being born the Ulta way (legs first) I haven’t ever made an effort to act contrary to the normal way, it just happens. Be it the book I open, the dress, the meaning i want to convey or the veggie I don’t want to eat. So after promising a break I am back posting and now also realize what always made me write what I didn’t want to. Expectations of readers, to make them have a better experience made me drift away from the crux and introduce unnecessary humour, satire. Every blog has it birth/death/rebirth. Mine is dead now in the public domain. Will just write to get those thoughts out of my mind and don’t want anyone else to read it.
Went for CentumU Bright Minds 2010 competition whose first round will be aired on CNN IBN on 23rd may. Did decently well (won’t reveal the result on a public forum so as not to violate any confidentiality agreements which don’t even exist though). Got some good goodies, enough to exceed my lifetime earnings but still there is no excitement. What I missed was on a far grand scale, strangely not much disappointment either. Dscription later after it is aired. Tommorow my Khiladi sports quiz shoot at our very own Eagle studio where I first went as a class 9/10 guy and cried hell a lot after the last question loss (6th different TV show, 15th episode excluding the one as audience in NDTV talk show). Haven’t prepared for it even though the 16-60 age group will offer big challenges, although was very excited initially to get some lost pride back. ‘No motivation/enthusiasm’ has been the flavour of the season. Will do a 1 night stand for it tonight though I am more scared by ACA paper which i haven't even touched (as if have finished everything else).
Lets see if this blog is Reborn From The Ashes which would only happen if I do something of which I am really proud of and would like to tell the world about.

Had an interesting conversation with my newly found sister who advised me to find a girl before all the good ones are taken (as if fruits from a basket). Its a scary trend with only those left who are with a chastisity belt vow or those who have their Dads following them everywhere. But I think i would rather wait as being those mushy types against is against my ethos and whatever i do, i overdo it so better off alone as i am pretty good or actually bad at hurting people.

End of a Dream

2010-04-22T13:18:00.000-07:00

This one will be blunt, no mood for verbose eloquence. Since the advent of 2010, I have graduated from 'thinking but not doing anything' state to 'neither thinking nor doing' state. This is supposed to be my make or break year yet I have been idling around. I don’t know what I want to do as I always have more interest in taking out time for what is considered irrelevant and start hating it when it gains relevance but this time, it has been a complete blank on all fronts. This lack of effort is no way due to complacency but simply idiocracy. Its about not practicing what I am preaching.

The legendary idea I had been talking about since December is in the dump now as I just kept talking and didn’t make the effort to proceed on implementation, not even once and this February, people form Harvard seemed to have done something very similar. Now that it is gone, I am realizing how much it mattered to me. The excuse i gave for not scoring well was that it was irrelevant, but this wasn't, yet i goofed up. It will be futile to hope for a second chance from the one who never forgives and forgets. The repercussions of this ‘no-show’ go way beyond and might just be the biggest mistake of my life and lead to catastrophic damage, the quantum of which will be known in a month’s time when doomsday strikes.

Thank you Saurabh for playing the second biggest part after me in screwing this dream project, had you not been here, then I might just have learnt something, apart from copying your files. I am tired of using jugaad. Now when I ask for my share of work in a joint submission, I am welcomed with a banter saying,” tu rehne de”. This is not cause it is not in my capacity to finish it but they know that all I will be giving is an assurance not backed by any effort.

Before the impending doom it is better to get away from all those close around (no matter how low I have to stoop for it) who might feel bad about the promise I showed and what might actually happen as not putting up a fight is far worse and more pathetic than losing while competing and the rollback policy started way back in January or maybe way before that.
.
What I am supposed to do is clear enough, as I am not brave enough to follow my dreams and I seriously doubt what exactly they are. The quest for redemption over the shady past is also not the guiding light. It is like knowing the illness, its damaging effects, having the medication in front of you and still not eating it, BTW this was how I screwed my midsems last September with a magnified version of viral as I thought I was strong enough to get well without them. I am running short on motivation, blocking all sensitive stimulus is also not helping. All the low moments of life which are well documented in front of my study table in my ever so pathetic handwriting which used to ignite a fire in me at one stage don’t even generate a spark now. No publicity for this post, no comments approval, no deshdrohi reference. Then what is the purpose of this post when the only one who could have done anything is me only. It is high time for me to lie low. Time for a sabbatical from the blog.

Wrong Number

2010-04-10T01:03:00.001-07:00

Unknown number : Hello
Me: Hello
UN: Sahil bol raha hai?
Me: yes, aap kaun
UN: Pehchana ni?
Me: No
UN: Ghar ake jute (sheos) marungi
ME: Aap kaun?
UN: Tu ankita ka bhai hai na?
ME: NO
Call disconnected
………………………….
Same number again, but this time a male's voice
UN: Aap Kaun?
ME: Main Sahil. Aap Kaun?
UN: Main Dharmendra bol raha hun. Tum kahan se bol rahe ho?
ME: Ghar se.
UN: Ghar kahan hai?
ME: Hari Nagar
Call disconnected
……………………………….
What a strange coincidence that they got the name write but the wrong guy.
Life has become a big joke, more on it later on. But it is not much of a problem when you expect the worst, the most unexpected and learn to laugh at yourself before making fun of everything around you.
Right now, I am scared. My blog is getting stalked by some Airtel broadband user from New Delhi using Mac OS and Safari Browser who accounts for nearly half of the blog visits! Seems like I need to hire CID for this.

Shaadi ki Taiyaari

2010-03-30T12:36:00.000-07:00

I am tired of saying this but this is yet another post from the archives as I just can’t gather myself to post what has been on my mind since a long time. This post is dedicated to the whole phenomenon of weddings (and not marriage which is a lifelong phenomenon according to our teacher) in our country, particularly focusing on hindus cause I have not yet attended any wedding in other religions.

But first I have to say that all characters, situations in this story are fictitious and any resemblance to any person/place living or dead will be just a coincidence.
It all starts with the ‘girl’ turning of age which is not any form of biological clock but the number of neighbourhood aunties pestering her mom to get her married. Earlier the reasons provided by the ‘girl’ to avoid the inevitable was that she doesn’t want to leave her parents home with which she is in too much love. Not a bad way to bargain for some more time to set her career right or ward of those aunties again who come up with proposals of some mausi ka beta of theirs who inspite of scraping through his studies is now earning handsomely.

Some suggest childhood friends, others suggest far off relatives (leading to cries of incest form those who don’t understand the tree of blood relations) and if none is successful the last resort is the Matrimonial Ad as the story of faked up dulhas are always doing the rounds. After the Ad is placed, next stage is the phone calls. Someone with a lot of patience is designated to receive them and creates a well organized data base of the prospective grooms (lazy people like me with horrible handwriting don’t even need an excuse to bail out of this job).

Most of the calls are indeed funny and a proof of the fact that change has skipped India uptil now. An ill timed quote I can think of is –“ Shakal se languur khane chala Angoor”. Then the short listing begins, computer experts armed with Kundli softwares are sought for. Any hints of the M word (Manglik ) are treated as outcasts. Further help is sought from those who can analyze those weird statistics of grahas and nakshatras. Profiles are scanned and prioritized. Someone in the family is impressed by looks, some by bank balance but then the adults use their discretionary power to vote for something as boring as education.

Then the reverse calls are made with care and precision of a bomb diffuser. Any mistake and the whole story could be over. After much more deliberation, a meeting is fixed at some upmarket restaurant near the boy’s home so as to cause the least discomfort to the his parents who as of now are more important to the girl’s family than anything else in the world. Till now, the boy is just kept in the loop and the girl has no idea of what is cooking. A night before the meeting the news is disclosed to the girl who somehow always has some important work lined up for the scheduled time but has to give in when the mother starts to shed those characteristic tears.

On the morning of the meeting, the whole house is woken up by the holy bells and chants even before its dawn. Chauffer driven car is provided to the girl for the visit to the beauty parlour so that she can hide those wrinkles and dark circles which are a result of her strenuous work schedule. The whole family is a bundle of nerves. No ‘abhshagun’ should take place. They arrive at the venue 20 minutes prior to the fixed time as the ‘father’ is least interested in getting stuck in the traffic jam and reach late to cast a bad impression.

Being on the groom’s side is like serving in a tennis match at 6-0, 6-0,5-0 (40-0). The boy’s parents are accorded a welcome befitting only to kings returning from a conquest. Frantic looks here and there confirm that the boy is not present as somehow an urgent meeting at office came up and he couldn’t miss it as it is post recession time and he doesn’t want to loose his job (take into account what happened when the same situation was for the girl). The fake smiles, ‘pairi-painas’ are circulated everywhere. Delicacies are ordered as if the ‘World’s Best Recipe’ competition is going on. Then begins the enquiry with the boy’s parents bombarding the girl with a 1000 questions, not waiting for the answer before blurting out the next one; more of like a stress interview for B schools, the only difference is that here it is her LIFE at stake and there is the added pressure created by the presence of her parents. Food is left untouched as hardly anyone is interested in eating. After the ordeal’s over, the boy’s father makes an attempt to pay the bill but that is against the basic tenets, so from this starts the vicious money circle for the girl’s family. The waiters who were on their toes throughout the time are paid a handsome tip and then the guests are seen off after they ask for some time to update the boy of the minutes of the meeting which is utilized in discussions with some good for nothing oldies as the boy is still busy saving his job from recession.
Wait for the next post to know what happens next. Is this really a fictitious story or ‘Kahaani Ghar Ghar ki’! I will leave this question for you to ask yourself.

Life Update: I kind of did have this premonition that something will go against the plans so all those Hyderabadi biryani plans I had been cooking since the last 6 months are futile as our team of Deloitte interns which usually goes to Hyderabad was split and me along with another friend have been allotted Mumbai. The story doesn’t end here as my friend from DCE who was supposed to go to Mumbai would now go to Hyderabad. The dreamy eyed boy in the City of Dreams, where is the need for reality?

Gangs of Pochanpur

2010-03-08T10:44:00.000-08:00

Midsems from next week and I just can’t put myself to study and have finally decided to end writing just for myself and posting things on the blog.

I should go down in record books as the youngest Gang leader on the planet. With age, people get more mischievous but the most fun I had was way back at the Pochanpur branch. It was a stupidity of my school, New Era to send many kids like me who lived near the main Mayapuri branch but were packed off to that place which was all barren at the time, though now is known by the name of Dwarka. But every journey was as if you were going through a safari with so many peacocks, birds along the way.

We had all these gang fights way back in class 1, much before Fight Club (1999). As always trying to dominate others, we all must be around 5-6 years old then, I was the leader of one of the gang equipped with good soldiers. The other gang leader was a tiny but dangerous fellow Prateek who had some pretty lethal kicks. He was not the most domineering fighter but had to be contained and not attacked as he had undergone an operation as one of the other boy’s Tushar had poked a finger nail in his eye; another blow might have raised the lid over our little game. I didn’t know why we fought, must be for fun only I guess, but we used to have them every day, no holds barred.

Sachneen was an ideal senapati (general) and took out the biggest blokes single handedly, but once upon a time, I saw him leaving the battle field. Expecting all fighters to show courage and ferocity, I dragged him back and after a few blows he was off again. The third time I got him back, he finally confessed that he was going for a washroom break, fair enough.

There was these weird rules that you couldn’t get more than 2 toffees to school, using erasers were banned so instead we tore up our bags and used the inner rubber layer beneath the cloth for this purpose, had to compulsorily eat our lunch, a big spoon being hit on a copper plate used to be the signal for the end of the break and any one who didn’t freeze as soon as that happened was supposedly stripped and sent into the lion infested open fields behind the walls.

After a lot of lobbying we finally ended up at the mayapuri branch in class 2. On my first day, with Sachu giving company I felt pride in walking upto the building but SPLASH. We didn’t know our classes; so we started crying. Our saviour came in the form of our Founder principal who did prove to be of some worth this time. Here, my killer instincts were gone. Fear of scoldings from the teachers held me back after 2 consecutive hard fought wins in class 4.

My last fight in class 9 was a big disaster when I stood up for Nirmal who inspite of being much stronger saw me getting boxed pretty badly. I did get my revenge as a week later, my able senapati Sachu squared it off with him as it was now my turn to watch. Considering the current status of my muscles, I won’t even be able to match apna chotu, Manik singh in an arm wrestling game. All this inspite of a gym 10 metres away from my house where I haven’t been since class 3 when we were subjected to a sumptuous treat of MC, BC abuses by the lancer totting dudh wale bhaiya cum owner of the gym for playing hide and seek there.

The frustration is building up and I don’t know when I might just hit the circuit again though thankfully my friends are accommodating enough to take my blows when I am angry or just in the mood and have made like 6 videos of me bashing them up nicely.

The other day in the RTV on a bright day I heard the following songs,

Tu so ke rat ro ke rat guzar leyi,
Main roke raat guzar leyi…

Teri bewafai ko bhula na sakenge,
Chahe bhi kabhi to muskurana sakenge…
And ended up with a 1000 repetitions of ‘Ishq na karna’

I decided against going up and talking to the driver who must have had a terrible breakup. May god bring peace to his soul.

A Gift

2010-02-28T20:23:00.000-08:00

If I died tomorrow, I would know I was loved,
For a relationship so pure, you were sent from above.
I'd still feel you with me, and still call your name,
But would you hear me? Would you still feel the same?
Searching and finding, what I thought I had missed,
But I never imagined, anything could ever top this.
You believed in me, and gave me your all,
Be it courage or strength, when I started to fall.
For what your love did to me, I gave you myself,
I let go off my fears, and trusted no one else.
Even if I died tomorrow, I'd still foresee,
That you and I, were ALWAYS meant to be!

Before you faint, read on. Obviously, the poem above is not written by me. I can’t reach this level even in 100 lives. But it was written by my sweet friend and gifted to me on my 20th bday (09/09/09) and means more to me than the Ferrari gifted by Schumi which is still lying at the customs as none of us want to pay the 125% import duty on it.

Anywayz today is my friend’s birthday and all I have to gift her back is this poem. There is no use of keeping this to myself as I am way too retarded to value it. I have decided not to get a copyright on this and pass it on to all of you to pass it on to other friend’s of yours on their birthdays as a self composed stuff, but dare you not forget the poetess behind this beautiful work. I hope all of you who still have the telepathic connection with the Almighty going on (i have just myself to talk to on the other end) pray for my friend's life to be full of happiness and success.

Being the birthday girl won’t spare her from my antics. Using my uber cool analytical techniques, I deduced that the only reason for her parents to get a birth certificate claiming the date as 18 june could be an extended maternity leave. Its way too good a coincidence for her birthday to clash with HOLI considering her nicknames like Gubara, Pichkari etc.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RANGOLI.

You knew I won’t accede to your request of not mentioning your name so why ask for it in the first place.

CCS Experience

2010-02-01T10:02:00.000-08:00

There are some analogies between girls and boys. Girls keep thinking about their dream man (‘Sapnon ka Rajkumar’ in the tackiest terms) and boys about their dream job. Sadly none of these exist.

The following post is on special request. For the birthday girl.

CCS (centre for Civil Society) is a non profit NGO which is working to make this country a better place to live. Through their ‘I, Society and Public Policy’ seminars, they try to enlighten the youth of the country to work for its betterment. But sadly, this time they had a participant who was way too stubborn for anything. It was a big shock for me not to be selected for the previously organized Hindi version of the seminar as all my friends got through it but thankfully, was spared the double embarrassment as I made it for the English one.

It was a truncated 3 day non residential seminar for the NCR participants and residential for the outstation ones. One of the sessions was a documentary depicting the sorry state of the autowallahs and how they get stuck in the vicious circle of financers, just because of the government restricting their licenses, with no such curbs on other vehicles which out number the autos 100:1.

The successful deregulation of Telecom sector (I have sympathy for the telecos though as this tariff war has wounded them pretty badly) was used as an example and parallel conclusions were drawn for the autorickshaw operators in delhi.

Tales of the Night fairies, a humorous documentary based on sex workers in Calcutta was shown which did lead to some awareness for me on this topic as previously I was of the thought that Prostitution should be banned but the fact is that man’s lust will never end, nor will there be enough opportunities for alternate livelihood for the women and there are some who are into this not because of compulsion alone. Legalisation would help in improving their conditions though the conclusion I derived was that not doing so would further encourage rapes, molestations etc.

People found Parth’s public seminars sleepy but those were the most engrossing for me and I really had to control myself not to argue, question the facts mentioned as then the objectives of the seminar won’t have been achieved, atleast for the greater audience as I had an enormous number of questions in my mind coming out form the notes I made.

The biggest eye opener was just one small statement by Parth.
“By giving Capital Punishment for a rape, you are giving an incentive to the convict to kill the victim” (murdering the victim would become a necessity then so that he leaves no evidence behind which can be traced back to him).

I always thought that it’s justified to do away with some lives of some in the interest of the people but there I did realize that it isn’t possible that we might not get any alternative solution to the problem if we intend to find one.

I really wanted this to get me out of my slumber, make me realize my responsibilities but sadly it didn’t. I missed CL classes, college too for this. After MSF, RYLA it was the third place I went to but this one instead made me feel that I am an engineering student and should focus on it only. This doesn’t mean though that I have started studying. On the way to the seminar to become a more responsible citizen, I broke half the rules in the book as I did overspeeding, lost my way, drove through traffic jams on foot paths, without helmet (got stolen), jumped red lights but ultimately got challaned only for taking a U turn that wasn’t allowed.

Reading all this you must have realized that it was surely worth attending but it got me totally confused between the conventional wisdom that is the principles laid down by the Indian society and pragmatism of the current scenario. As I had a fair amount of knowledge on all these previously, my opinion changed but not completely. Right now, my brain feels like a hardisk which underwent a file conversion from NTFS to FAT and midway the power got disrupted. Hence the only conclusion I can draw is to accept this confusion as an inherent part of my life and don’t do anything to change it and take whatever comes in my stride. All my IAS aiming friends, this seminar is a must for you as you only would be making these policies later which matter the most, though just 2 years before retiring.

_________________________________________________________

I just know 2 ways of living, either to tease people and make fun of whatever they stand for (I am sure I do stop before the other person wants to kill himself/herself after giving up the idea of killing me) or to stay shut. People who think I can get them into trouble have no idea what potential I have. I have videos of Rangoli singing ‘Tum to thehre pardesi’, someone sneaking out with his gf at a mall (she literally ran away at the stroke of seeing the camera), Mayank carrying a tray of lassi glasses for us at Red Fort, him and Mr. Pefrect sharing the plate and licking fingers at our recent sojourn to the over hyped ‘paranthe wali gali’ in the hope that we will accept their logic that ‘isse pyar badega’. Also my photograph collections too aren’t behind in damage potential and it’s beyond my control not to let this all out in the open and create chaos. So, folks the bombshell could explode any moment.

Chotu Singh

2009-12-31T00:36:00.000-08:00

My knack of hurting myself foolishly goes on and on. Recently, while running backwards to take a catch, reminding myself of keeping eyes on the ball, I didn’t care of the fact that there was an iron bench behind me and blasted into it with full force which blew the air out of my lungs. Meanwhile I was no where close to the ball which sailed over the ropes.

Not long ago, on the last day of this semester we were engaged in our usual dose of class cricket (read previous posts to know what the hell this is). While fielding at silly point, in the pursuit of running out the batsmen though he was in the crease, I tried a Matrix movie stunt but what I didn’t realize was that in front of me was the window glass and by that time it was too late. With a bang my right shoulder drove into the glass and broke it to shreds. It took me some time to realize what had happened. Mind you beyond that glass was a 3 floor long descent to ground zero. But thankfully my college has provisions for a small balcony beyond the windows.

Does this person in the photograph look ugly? Never mind, cause I have spent considerable time preparing this post on this person so will have to publish it anyway. Starting from the start, his name is Manik Singh Khurana according to him but the whole world knows him as ‘Chotu’. All future references to him will be by this tag only. He doesn’t measure much though, but prefers to call himself 5’5 tall. I am damn sure he is actually 5’2. Now you will think what made me write a post on a useless character like Chotu; so here it begins.

During school time, he was just not considered to be a part of human race. He was the butt of all jokes, the raw material of all experiments mainly meant for rats. He was the only person I knew who got spanked by any teacher who came within 5 feet of him. He had the courage of checking teachers diaries and all such stuff in their absence, shouting “moti aa gayi” when our Maths HOD was right at the door. His scuffles with the legendary Mr. Vikrant (who was later sacked for not being able to maintain discipline) are now part of the folklore. But let me tell you that none of this went noticed and he was suitably punished for that (much to our delight).

I have the knack of missing the most spectacular events to happen in class and during one such incident when I was absent, our Maths H.O.D a kind hearted yet stern person had an upper body internal wardrobe malfunction (can't help if you don't make sense of what exactly happened)which was visible to all and chotu sitting right there on the first seat shamelessly started laughing and tried his level best to break the news to everyone seated around him though none of them were foolish enough to miss it. The only thing he was good was the stunts on his LML scooter. Due to his tiny size, he could never make it to the biker gangs, so instead of studying, he used to follow them everywhere to take tips on how to improve his skills on it.

Most of the pranks he thought of using the tiny brain of his ended up on him only, like the one placing a shoe on top of the door so that the it falls on the one who opens it and guess what he was the only one ever to be hit by one. Our experiments on him were very dangerous like the one in which Sandy took him into the wall at breathtaking speed which left him unconscious for half an hour. The trigger was that he had abused Sandy, who was filling some obscure application form in the newspaper on chotu’s behalf and had added 19 names to the father’s column.

Initially we thought that he was faking it and continued laughing uncontrollably but when he repeatedly fell off the desk on which we made him sit we had our hearts in our mouths as the impact was directly on his spinal cord. There isn’t one body part of his which we hadn’t damaged beyond repair.

But later he regained consciousness at the medical room in typical filmy style with water sprinkled on his face. The icing on the cake was his mother’s visit cause she scolded chotu only for his bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Yet another funny moment was in his car when some of the guys were betting whether or not he will respond to a XXX CD being played in his DVD player ( I missed this one too).

He takes pride in silly things like appearing offline while chatting and the fact that his mp3 player can also play English songs. My chats with him were full of MC-BC type rants, so much that some who once had access to my account couldn’t go beyond a couple of lines.
Now he is in some college in Dehradun where they still have to wear uniforms.

But things changed. Recently on a ride with a friend on a bullet bike, he met with an accident. The driver somehow emerged unscathed but Chotu was seriously injured. It’s a complete irony that he never really got hurt doing those silly stunts of his in delhi whereas there was no fault of his in this case. He has been bed ridden for 3 months, a rod inserted in his thigh and used a stretcher to walk for god knows how many months.

The time I wrote this post, the motive was to generate some prayers for our chotu, but now that he has recovered well, I have no option but to have fun at his expense. The other planned , half baked blog posts can wait as it is time to smile and have some fun.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

After 12 Years

2009-12-10T13:41:00.000-08:00

Here comes yet another post which wasn’t what I wanted to write when I started. As for the murder mystery of the previous post, it would remain unsolved as even with whatever little knowledge they had, no one from my neighbourhood was willing to testify before the police though it was a funny scene seeing all those aunties heading off to the police station for the first time when summoned by the SHO in scope of clues. The victim maintained a low profile which came to the rescue of the killers as no one bothered about who came to visit her. I had a healthy interaction with the 'post graduate' Head Constable Sita Ram who surprisingly knew what NSIT stood for and discussed with me the various leads which unfortunately weren't leading anywhere. I was naive enough to think of giving a police statement though it couldn't have been of any value addition to the case but the untimely entrance of my father and his stories of how X, Y, Z got entrapped in such cases and were turned into suspects by the police made me change my mind. Personally, I feel that we should have more faith in the Police because they can't prove anything without our help and its our responsibility also to get people justice.

Taking the clock back 2 years, with college starting, came the idea of dabbling into all those things which were avoided in school time. Dramatics was one of them. At the intra college fest Resonanz 2007, I volunteered to be a part of the COE team for Rangmanch, the drama competition (not too sure of the name). My horrendously written saas bahu script which was full of double meaning jokes was rejected and we were given a new one. Thankfully enough people turned up for it, including 2 girls otherwise some one amongst us would have had to undergo the metamorphism into a girl using the techniques shown in movies like Style, Aunty No.1 etc.

All this started just the day before the play. The last time I had been a part of a play was in class 1, with the role of a wood cutter who is stopped from cutting a tree by an angel (my first crush). So this next opportunity which came after 12 years promised something special. Neither of us knew any one by then and we also let that day go by with none apart from me having the complete script (as if that mattered as I too read it completely for the first time the next day in the metro only). So the next day, we started practicing and I soon realized that not me only, but all of us were rookies. The seniors were nowhere to be seen until the time the competition started and they realized what a mess we would make so the only help we got from them was that our slot was shifted so as to give us more time but that too flew by very quickly.

We knew that the hooting from the crowd would be incessant and unsurprisingly, it started from someone in the first row even before the play started.

Things started off on a decent note but it all got mixed up at the time of the scene change. My role was of someone who is unperturbed by what goes around him and the play was to revolve around the servant played by my friend Manish Malik who had to show more emotions ( he must have called me Malik (Boss) atleast a dozen times in the play). His costume was a baniyan (calling it a vest would take away the fun) and shorts. I would rather kill myself than commit to such a role. My anger over him is over the sky right now as today he gave me 4 horrible movies which in total I couldn’t tolerate for 1 hour. Coming back to the play, at one juncture, he had to usher in the next character and as the hooting reached its optimum level of ‘ek do teen char band karo ye atyaachar’, I frantically searched for him on the stage and was horrified on seeing him read the script in one corner of the stage. In panic mode we drifted way off the script never to come back. Thankfully everyone on the stage realized this and didn’t come upto me to tell me that this wasn’t a part of the script. To make things better I bought a more aggressive tone to my character but to no avail. The last blunder I did was to cry more than the person who came to me with the news of his grandfather’s death. So this is how we wrapped up a 15 min script in 5 minutes.

Thanks to inflation, no one can afford to hurl down tomatoes/eggs these days otherwise we would have collected enough for a month’s ration. The audience loved to hate it. Even students from our branch were against us and I feel they were fully justified in doing so. A couple of them came up to me later to tell me that thanks to us, none of them could now say with pride that they are from COE branch. But, we still stood 4^th out of 6 teams. Imagine the performance of those behind us. When we reached backstage, the blame game started with everybody blaming everybody else for the fiasco. The performance was so bad that even KRK would have felt proud of us. But still we had tried and made up with whatever time we had to make this possible though we always had the option of backing out. It didn’t really hurt much cause there were other factors to blame (no help from seniors, less time, weak script; always finding someone to blame for their own fault is an essential part of the Indian genome).

Inspite of all this, it is a happy memory for me though I would rather watch Rakhi/Rahul/Chunnu/Pappu ka Swayamwaar than do this again.

PJ:
Give me some sunshine, give me some rain…. I wanna grow up once again.

This song from 3 idiots is pretty good but it seems as if the lyricist’s growth hormones are stimulated through Photosynthesis. He forgot to add carbon dioxide though it is not his fault as it is available in plenty these days and the Copenhagen summit doesn’t seem to hold much promise for the future with the developed nations hiding under the veil of the now over recession to avoid making emission cuts.

Murder in the Town

2009-11-06T21:26:00.000-08:00

This is not what this post was meant to be. The early morning call from my bro in Punjab was totally expected. My neighbourhood was all over in news. Reason, MURDER. The distraction I never wanted to have a week before exams. All I knew about the victim was the fact that she lived a floor below the charming air hostesses who weren’t destined to stay long once the ire of the conservative aunties fell on them. The place never has been the same. These aunties have troubled me enough to have a very special post dedicated to them and their ever increasing waist sizes.

Last evening as soon as the news spread, people with nothing to do congregated here as if some procession was going on. The kind of rumours that were going around won’t be mentioned here as it would inflict more shame on the deceased. People all around were calling others to inform them about this, as if it was a moment of pride. Everybody was laughing around and found this a good time to gossip. I was feeling ashamed, for what reason I don’t know.

The media people were lamenting the fact that they couldn’t get a byte (statement in front of camera) from any of the neighbours. No one cared about the family members of the deceased. The media people were shamelessly panning their cameras on them, not giving a damn to the solitude they expect at such moments. 4 of them even requested for access to our balcony for a last shot of the house. The fun doesn’t stop here. After a good 2 hours after everybody had gone at around 12 midnight, more media persons came for their moment of glory in complete darkness. There was this hot reporter from TV 18 who took 5 retakes before getting it right, 1 from India TV who for a change gave accurate information and a very frightening looking person from P7 news who didn’t even know that this was West Delhi and ended up with a funny statement, “Cameraman Mandeep Khan ke saath Jeetinder Stephen”.Cheers to religious diversity. (video attached). Next stop for all of them was the other murder location at Tagore Garden, the address of which was passed on by the beat constable.

We always question whether this world is good enough for us to live in! But it would be more appropriate to rephrase it in such a way, are we good enough to have a world for us to live in?

Innovation

2009-09-28T03:32:00.000-07:00

I know the whole world is using Innovation to describe something which they presently they cannot do right now but I think it stands for ‘Jugaad’. Here are some examples.

Cricket
The transition form Test cricket to T20 was a necessary transition as people now no longer have the patience to situp for a game for 5 long days and want a complete package i.e. game, food, celebrities, music and not to forget, the cheer girls.

Religion
From the time I gained senses, there used to be something called Mata Ka Jagrata. A night long function composing of songs in praise of the mother deity. Slowly they made way for ‘Mata ki Chowki’ which too was on the same lines but ended up by 12 AM. But now ‘Sai Sandhyas’ are on the rise. They start in the evening and end up by 9. Good enough for every one to get back home in time for their dose of reality shows. Was this transition directed from heavens? No. It was initiated by the comforts of the public which got impatient and demanded convenience, literally snatching it away from the Almighty.

Business
Chawri Bazar for Copper/wedding cards. Nai Sarak for books, chandni chowk for merchandise/food, Nehru place for computer items, Jwalahedi for electronic items (not sure about this one).
All these were specific markets for specific products. These still exist on a big enough scale but now all of these are under one window called a MALL. Nice idea of providing air conditioned comfort to the consumer who can roam around there for free and might just accidently like something and empty his pockets on it cause now its not just that product but a wholesome package.

Strategising
Recession has ensured that people have lost their arrogance. Now client is the only god. One of the strategies I loved is the one being adopted by consulting majors being that of doing a part of the intended deal for free to gain the trust of the client as something is surely better than nothing.

Whatever you do, the element of surprise will always be there, accompanied with a change in trends. All branches like Civil/Mech/EC have had their time in the Sun. Hope the time for COE stays on for a bit longer.

I really might not be surprised if there comes a time when Biotech engineering might be people’s first choice, inspite of an awful placement scene for them before post graduation. So don’t worry, if its in your destiny, you will get it, not every successful person in this world needs a degree to prove his mettle though having one surely helps.

Went along with friends to be the audience of the ‘Big Fight’ on NDTV. The topic was ‘Naxal menace’ and as usual Prashant had done his research well and had come up with pretty relevant questions. I had no intention of asking any but still it was good fun teasing him about stealing his questions. The in studio panel composed of Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP), Ved Marwah (Ex Delhi police commissioner), someone from CPI(M) and a political magazine editor. The stance of Bara Bara Rao and Madhu Goud (who were a part of the debate through teleconferencing) supporting the naxals was so funny that Saurabh had to pitch in with a warning that they will surely get the TV (on which their feed was coming) damaged due to someone amongst the crowd getting mad at them. With peppy comments coming from him, it was very hard not to laugh. My cable walah doesn’t show NDTV inspite of it being free to air so I missed it but the rest were disappointed as most of the audience section was edited off. Anyways a good learning experience it was, also came the realization that we have miles to go before we could match up with these politicians in shrewdness as its so hard to notice how quickly they switch on to offensive from defending their positions when some attack on their stance is made. Next up is Parliament Visitor’s Gallery.

What's your rashee is a 3 hour 45 minute torture. So go for it only if you have good company around to talk to while Harman proves that he belongs to Deshdrohi hero kind off category.

Deloitte

2009-09-04T01:35:00.001-07:00

Some good news at last for me. Got selected for internship at Deloitte. It was the first company coming for internship this year and indeed a big one with the 20k per month stipend on offer. Couldn't have given a better anniversary gift to mom-dad. The eligible branches were COE and IT, 180 in total. The percentage criteria was repeatedly decreased to allow nearly everyone to sit for it, so only those aiming for Microsoft intern/ IAS did not sit for it. The written exam was a tough nut to crack but without Luck none can get forward in life. 16 got selected, (announced at 11:30 PM) for the case study round which was to be held the next morning.

Our case study went well enough, but the biggest factor in favour for us was the 30 minute time which we got after it to refine our thoughts before the presentation as the other 2 groups were up first for their presentation. The presentation started on a dull note from my side but the real fun began when we took questions from the panel. We stood by our view and indeed the moment of the day was the look on the otherwise expressionless faces of the panel when at the last moment, I mentioned about the issue of layoffs related to relocation of the industries, which was the POINT they were looking for. One of our group members wasn’t selected for the interview stage.

It did seem that the list announced for the interviews was based on ranking as my group members were in the top names, with me at number 1 J. The interview went of decently, though my answers needed more refining. Had there been any tech stuff in the process, it would have been curtains down for me as right now I don’t even remember the syntax of printf/scanf. The final selected list had 5 people, 4 from my case study group made it to the list. So next summers, most probably I will be in Hyderabad and am praying for friends of mine to make it to Microsoft (they too send their interns to Hyderabad) so that we can all have some fun there. Throughout the process I was confident at every stage, because creating a mindset for such days is what I have been doing all these years instead of roting books to enhance my DR. Others might be browsing the net for case studies during the night, but I was watching govinda’s ‘Meri Marzi’ song repeatedly to feel jovial.

It will be fun now, to see everybody around slog around for internships or get certificates from their parent’s office. I really hope that now people around mature a little and relinquish that blanket of insecurity that sharing knowledge will hurt their chances cause no one will get more/less than what they deserve. Actions speak larger than words, so all those of you basking in glory after giving those spoof IQ tests on net, grow up and proof yourself.

This blogger shares his bday with akshay Kumar. this time my bday date will be 09/09/09. Its kind of disappointing to let this unique date get out of my life so soon. Will have to live till 120 to celebrate my bday on such a cool date.

Apologies for my previous post as it was prepared in deep slumber, so had a lot of grammatical errors and no flow in it.

Edit: Prayer has worked again as a friend of mine, 2 acquaintences too made it to Deloitte from DCE.

A Change of Heart

2009-08-24T14:11:00.000-07:00

Love at first site it is for me. HONDA STUNNER CBF bike. Mean machine.

Time to mention about my association with the NSIT Rotaract Club. Initially, people around didn’t take it seriously; the other social service club didn’t want to be any way close to us but things changed. After the gloom of uncertainty, we are up at the top. Membership has crossed 100 members easily. My early involvement with it got me the ‘organizer’ post and because of my influence, Prateek and Saurabh got the same posts. So its us who is responsible for implementing whatever we are supposed to do.

After meeting one of the Special kids, Aniket (suffering from down’s syndrome) it took me a year to gather the courage to enter the premises of the NGO masoom duniya. I instantly knew I wanted to be a part of it from the word go and we started off with reconfiguring the PC there but it ended up in Saurabh machaoing beyond point and no result in the end. We have been trying to make a new website for them since ages (You know who is supposed to work on it amongst me and Saurabh).

We helped them in organizing the annual day which was a cultural program presented by their students. We really couldn’t end up being the most resourceful people when it came down to this event but surely made up for it on the big day. Good publicity by the 2^nd year publicity team and fine management by yours truly got us around 45 volunteers to help out carrying the task that day. Things were late but turned out well with the banner painted in time, membership cards in stock which helped the volunteers feel united and also for others to recognize us. Being the guy with the camera, not many pics of mine are there. Prateek got his archaic handy cam to record the event but has ended up parodying me in the video ( impressively titled ‘not so masoom duniya’) for raising objection to his using MBA type English for the ending speech by us to a predominantly hindi speaking audience.

I was really impressed to see every one work with zeal and conviction. No one shied away from lifting someone to the stage, helping them change clothes, taking them to the washroom (I went the extra mile of handing over my paper soap to my visually impaired friend). There were smiles all around. I have to repeat, ‘There is still some goodness left in the world, you just need to put up some posters around’.The chief guest Mr. Mahabal Mishra (MP form west delhi) made a quick entry and exit but am indebted to the 3 faculty members who stayed on till the show got over.

Thanks to the friend of mine and the friend of hers too for taking out time from their busy lives to make it to the event (there have been many more who aren’t generous enough) and boy o boy; there was the instant reward for her. Topping her class with half thoughts diverted to her medical treatment revolving around tumours. Turned out to be acidity J. Kudos to her strength and roting power.

Saurabh too got his 300 per class payment that very day. His probability of being a home tutor are nearing 1 with his family uncomfortable in sending him out of sight even for a night even if it leads to MICROSOFT. You see, good acts will fetch you good rewards only if your name is not Sahil Kalra. Off late I have been this Alchemist who has been wishing good to all and good is indeed happening to them and me, I am sinking by the day. But still there is the confidence that things will end up well inspite of there being new troughs being created in how bad things can go.

My dream of that 3.5 crore Aradhana apartment is still intact but I still want to something for some good causes. There also is a problem. With this ‘conscience’ thing weighing heavily on me. I haven’t been having fun. What ever my mischievous mind thinks is supposed to do to get somebody in trouble hence the plan gets shelved.

Unlike one of the toppers of my class, I can’t study something which is of no use to me so I do need to keep myself busy with the thoughts of any ‘entity’, be it a girl of some ambitious event.

Question: What is your fault if you were born with a rowing eye and a perverted mind? If certain things get to you in a speck of time whereas others take a whole lifetime to figure it out, then you are not to be blamed for it.

Don’t know about you all but a friend of mine Pratik Gaur just got his head shaved off because his sister jokingly told him to do so. Nothing better a time pass for us, than to run our hand on his shining skull.

NSIT is indeed a sea of sharks. Everyone around is willing to eat others around although some do hunt in groups. People are willing to do anything from stealthily taking underpreparation research papers to modify and get them published under their own names, read up word power books, join MBA prep classes. I can visualize what will happen at placement time which due to this recession thing is already a sacrosanct issue for the college. Who stops you all but get rid of this insecurity that the person in front of you could use this knowledge against you.

Anyways, any one in need of suitable advice join the MBA classes in December. Too early has more disadvantages.

I also swear my allegiance to a specific brand of cinema called Z grade films which are so bad that they are considered good. Gunda is indeed at the top, with Deshdrohi at number 2. Hope ‘Shadow’ movie provides a tough competition to these.

Moral Preaching: If some one around you is falling, then let him. Cause your plans to save them from is impending doom will lead to bitterness amongst you and him. Sometimes it is essential for you to let go of people no matter how important they are to you.

Honeymoon Is Over

2009-06-28T04:09:00.000-07:00

People around me seem to be repeating that all good times come to an end. I ask, why does it have to be so. For me, the best phase of my life got over yesterday. I was doing an internship with Mathematical Sciences Foundation [www.mathscifound.org] over the past 1 month which was held at DPS, RKP. It all started with a ‘special friend’ of mine suggesting me to apply for it, which I did right at the deadline. The recommendations also reached 1 day late. But still I got selected for it. There was more trouble as the first and the third day clashed with my pracs which were postponed due to the general elections, so had to ask for partial leave on those days.

Number of girls in the initial list was enough to send a rush of adrenalin through me. Then when I got to know that in the group of 6, I was the only boy it was balle balle time. But as it happens with me all the time, sab shareef nikli.

With eyes on the ISRO trip, I thought taking the ‘Chandrayaan Orbit Simulation’ project would be a masterstroke but what a big mistake it was. How can 6 college going students of diverse backgrounds do anything in comparison to something which took hundreds of scientists to achieve.

Now let me introduce you to my group members (alphabetical order) who truly represented India’s diversity.

Lubna Wali Shah (Kashmir ki kali): Hailing from Srinagar she had a great time in Delhi. Made friends take pledges that they would go to Sarojini Nagar with her and what a day they chose, 21 june, the hottest day of the year. Her shopping spree ended with a suitcase which she had to buy to fit in all that she had bought.
Neha Gupta: One of the two baniyas. Very much introvert. Initially was shying away from responsibility of work citing lack of confidence and in the end complained that she didn’t have enough of it.
Rangoli Goyal: The other baniya girl. Iske kya kehne. Never ragged my junior at college so badnly but she inspite of being a first year from a far flung college in Rajasthan had to face the brunt of my ire. This weird name of her is because of her birthdate coinciding with Holi that year. I have 1 question for her, Why wasn’t she named Gubara Or Pichkari then? Have recorded videos of her singing ‘Tum to thehre Pardesi’ in the mess due to my oppression. Can blackmail her throughout her life with threats of uploading it on the web. All you can find around her are people with more weird names. Still don't remember whether her friend's name is Kopla orKolpa.

My decription of her is that of a girl whose husband has gone off and she is waiting for him to come back.

Soraisam Monika Devi: She was from Manipur. Reserved kind off, maintained proximity to a boy who doesn’t seem to be straight. Can’t pardon her for life for telling me that the crap I speak is indeed crap.
Sweety Thomas: True to her name. She hails from Kerala. Her name’s google translation comes out to be ‘Mashooka’ and ‘Chota Kalakand’. Shared a great rapport with her too. Even made her cry once for being too ‘dedicated’. Best of luck for civils. Troubled her a lot by linking her with the worst kind of people I could find there and sending anon messages by their names.

My decription of her is that of a girl who is getting married and her husband is on his way but caught up in a traffic jam.

Also there is me, who created hell on earth for these five, especially Rangoli and Sweety as they were the closest friends I had in the group. At last I found people who could laugh at my jokes. Rangoli being the youngest was made the group leader by MSF, but sadly she never was in control and had the tendency to freak out with deadlines approaching. But those were the perfect times for me to take charge as all my work gets completed just in the nick of time.

Hence we were a group composing of some one from North, East, South, 2 baniyas and me, Punjabi munda who knows only expletives in that language.

Sunaina: She belonged to the other ‘Chandrayaan’ college group which apart from her was composed of a bunch of losers. She had to face the brunt of my cunning maneuvers as her group members used to leave all work on her shoulders to match up with our group for which she had to endure many sleepless nights. She is the only person till now who I have met and have certified her to be ‘weirder’ than me. Composes poem at the drop of the hat and goes off to teachers showing her composition which was done during his lecture. We would have created a supernova had she been part of our group. She must have written around 15 poems within this 1 month. Once I asked her to write a poem for me, as in for my group’s project and she ended up writing a poem on Me. My description of her is a girl in ghagra-choli who is worrying how to arrange for the next meal for her kids.

These are friends I would love to take to hell along with me, but I am sure they are not that good that they would accompany me there as my ticket is confirmed. Hats off to them for tolerating me for so long. We had our moments, some embarrassing ones, when I said ‘dum lagaun kya’ when I wanted to say ‘dum laga’ song lagaun kya (hope you know what dum lagana means in that song). When with a finger pointing to her neck, I told to Sweety to remove her ‘this’ (referring to her I card) as a red ant had crawled up on it but others around took this in a totally different tone.

MSF is an association of big people who are noble minded to create a better India. Prof Dinesh Singh, Dr. Sanjeev Aggarwal, Dr. Amber Habib (his father/grandparents were big time historians associated with Gandhi and have their wiki entries too. His wife is a cosmologist and brother Salman habib has done infinite number of researches); all brilliant minds and names worth googling.

Also there was the staff and mentors who were genuinely nice people. Zia sir (getting married on 1 july) helped us join our slides for the flash presentation. Nitish sir propped up occasionally shooting people while eating and showing them on the projector. He was there with his camera when we were infuriated on being wrongfully accused of tampering with DPS’s monitor screens and managed to bring a smile on our faces, forgetting all that anger. The twin bros Ayaz/ Riyaz too were very helpful.

Also tried my hand at tennis there and after the initial hiccups, ended up pretty well, serving a couple of aces. Also bowled a rib high beamer to Jitin sir who soon had to go off due to a headache. Snapped up a member of the mess staff there, Mr. Ram Prasad for his Nathu Lal style moustache. Basically there, I did everything apart from entering the girl’s hostel rooms. On the day of the final presentation, me, Sweety and Rangoli skipped other’s presentations and breakfast, lunch, rasna time too prepare for it and ended up with a decent job. A timely edit by me at the very end enabled Sweety showcase her work on Gauss method of orbit determination which unlike the other group was done by her and was also a bone of contention between us as I too wanted her to copy it to save her from those sleepless nights in someone else’s rooms on borrowed lappys as her dabba Celeron couldn’t even install Matlab.

The worst part of the program was the traffic jams I had to endure. Everyday something new used to happen to get me late, though the conductor with his baritone and acts of giving ‘vidya kasam’ to commuters to tell their true destinations, asking for the non existent fans to be switched on in his dilapidated bus made up for it.

Our schedule there until the last week was 1 hour lecture, then breakfast, then again lecture, then lunch, a little longer lecture then Rasna time and after that 2 lectures. In the last week it was only work and deadly deadlines. Would never forget this experience, though I might not get into tech field inspite of this (appreciation of Mathematics and some respect for Bsc/ Hons. walas has surely been an effect) but would surely like to sponsor such a noble cause of touching lives if I do become rich enough. Not uploading any pics ( In my orkut album) here cause people around already have been victims of morphing and I don’t want to add to their troubles.

Have to say it once again,

THESE WERE THE BEST DAYS OF MY LIFE.

Sahil ban gaya TV Star

2009-06-28T04:03:00.000-07:00

Now comes the other thing which kept me busy. I Was there on a show called ‘STUMPED’ by Endemol India on Star Cricket during the T-20 WC.

1^st episode: Beat kunal who had beaten another hotshot Kunal Malhotra the previous day and who had won 25k the previous day. I got a googly question first up in the last round, Madhav rao Scindia stadium is in which city? The whole world would say Gwalior, I too did the same but it is Rajkot.

2^nd episode: Beat the opponent convincingly inspite the video shown for me not corresponding to the questions being asked. In final round, riding my luck went for the question for 25k but was timed out milliseconds before giving the right answer which was considered invalid.(can’t tell what all went behind the scenes which led to this incident) The winner going to the next episode rule was supposed to be scrapped after this, but was continued on compassionate grounds.

3^rd episode: My opponent ended up on -25 and me on +50. I went uptil 15 k and quit after that.

4^th episode: Had to face another person whom ended on 15 k to face the guy who I had beaten in my very first episode. Won this convincingly and ended up on 15 k in this. The last question I answered correct was pure luck as the anchor Shonali gave me another chance to answer and dunno how but I got the answer right. Had I gone further, 50k would have been in my lap as the end questions were the easiest ( a varying strategy used by the content setter).

5^th episode: Labelled as the finale. There was to be no elimination as in this episode, we both played the last round separately with each helping the other on only 1 question. The rounds before this (merely for academic interest) ended with both of us on equal points. In the last round, we both used up each other as the lifeline correctly on the first question itself. He ended up quitting on 12.5k. I went on strongly till 15k. Had I quit I would have been the winner. But I wanted to play further, to challenge destiny, reach where no one had reached because I did not want to remember this moment as the one when I QUIT. But the producer, inspite of being a gem of a person wasn’t willing to part with his company’s money even on the last episode inspite of raking in lakhs from the show through those Rs.7 per min calls which the people made to answer silly questions and which didn’t end before the third pulse began.

So, the question I was asked was, How many runs did Sri Lanka score against India in some test (don’t quite remember) in the series in 2008? How in hell would any one remember this answer. I bowed out at this.

Kunal’s grin was wide enough by now, though it wasn’t he who had won, I had lost. The story could have been different had I QUIT. Those exclusive snaps with Shonali and the crew could have been mine had I QUIT.

I Had to suffer big hardships for the show. The studio at Gurgaon was far enough to convince me to go back home each day I went there. Had to learn all those stats from Cricinfo including numerical values. Had to endure So many sleepless nights with me on lappy or vice versa. Was very close to quitting the internship for this when Wng Cmdr Sharad sir (project manager) refused leave but timely intervention by Dr. Aggarwal saved me. In total, I made 33k ( I deserved to have 83k). Will loose 33% of it to gift tax.

All I have to add is that I am no quitter, will fight on forever and challenge the limits of human endurance. That is what I aim to prove right now by simultaneously posting 2 big posts after a period of abstinence from doing so for approximately 2 months.

Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai?

2009-05-03T01:14:00.000-07:00

Exams are starting most probably in a week but still the official date sheet is not out. Elections have screwed us up big time, affecting both IPL and exams. You really have to doubt the educational status of Bachchan family as after voting, all in unison gave a middle finger salute showing off their ink marks. Others were careful and showed more than the middle finger to make things look a little decent. It does happen a lot that the horse I bet on falls midway. Same has happened with Knight riders. Totally down to the mat. Pre independence times were screwed due to over belief on the britishers. Now it’s the chance of Australians to make merry at our expense. Earlier it was Greg Chappal (not Chapell) and now John Bhookhanaan (Buchchanan) who carries more support staff than players. SRK has proved that acting (films) is different from acting (taking actions). Remember the ‘Sirf 70 minute’ dialogue from Chak De India! Must have tried that before every match but has failed big time. Add to it the Fake ipl player saga. Indeed Pen or rather keyboard is more powerful than a gun. The stories there are indeed true. These cricketers are not noble souls, who would be, with whatever life has to over, in their feet. Maze kar rahe hain. All I can say to them , is LAGE RAHO.

Have Just come back from the place where our honorable PM Dr. Manmohan Singh is scheduled to address a rally. The address is still hours away but the security arrangements have been in place since long back, so went to review them. Never have i seen so many policemen with their eyes open. Media vans, quick reaction teams, bomb squads, dog squads, black cat commandos, metal detectors are all in place. The lady officers are carrying nothing less than an AK-47. Every possible corner is covered. How could they lift it! leave alone carrying it in this sweltering heat. The suspicious looking papad wala boy too was told to change his course. The way beautification of our area has taken place, we don't need an MP. Just send one V.V.I.P every alternate week. Everything will be taken care of.

** The last time Dr. Singh came to our area around 12 years ago, ( leaving aside the visit to my school), he was fighting the elections from here against V.K. Malhotra. Don't want to say this here, but he lost pretty badly and since then hasn't fought another election.

4*9=36

2009-02-22T09:40:00.000-08:00

This post dates back to class 3. I was kind off a below average boy in studies with a penchant for bad hand writing (I still do). I was made to sit with ‘brighter’ students so that some kind off inductive effect would lead to improvement in my grades; though I deliberately made mistakes so that I could finish off the eraser of the ‘bright’ student. But there was one thing that I liked and that was mathematic calculations. I did get full marks once in class 2 but was straightaway warned by the teacher that my handwriting was pathetic.

But one day, life took a strange turn. Our regular teacher Mrs. Poonam was absent and Mrs. Ashu came to our class. She started asking maths tables just for time pass and strangely not many could answer what was 4*9. I found this really strange cause me, inpite of being not so good according to the Report Card could do that in milli seconds. I did answer this one and later when the review was provided to our regular teacher, she was surprised on getting to know this.

So the next few days were spent in tables and you bet I loved those days with mental maths where there was no writing boring statements just pure unadulterated thinking process.

Add 2 to the predecessor of 800 and subtract 2 from it.

Might sound strange to you at this stage but 11 years ago I argued with my teacher and the whole class (they never really thought independently and followed the teacher blindly unlike me who likes to wander on the path never taken) that the answer was not 800.

This love for maths translated to me being in the super 10 for those Aryabhatta classes. There we were trained like Gladiators for the ultimate battle. It was strange being No. 1 there cause I never realized it. One of the best years it was of my academic life, as I could conjure up questions of class 7 like anything in class 5 itself. We all had fun doing questions with full competitive spirit, never letting the guard down. Those 5 consecutive answers of averages topic to end Kunal’s hat trick chance was one of my life’s foremost victories. Never in life did I come face to face with such competition.

Soon those days got over, never to come back. With all the warriors groomed for future life, what hurts is that not one of them lived up to the expectations.

Ending on a lighter note, now I belong to the ever growing population of people who have seen Deshdrohi. I had started making notes for preparing a post on it but soon realized that it won’t be such a good idea cause I won’t be able to do justice to the movie and its fans by just mentioning snippets of the hilarious acts as there is so much to write about. So its better to abandon that post which might have got me a PhD degree due to its sheer length and rich content and wait for Deshdrohi-2 to get released. The inside news is at there might be a special screening for that at NSIT with none other than its hero KRK as chief guest.

Life at College

2009-01-31T11:05:00.000-08:00

Now the time has come when I should tell you what I should have told you long ago. Considering that these videos are the 'most constructive' thing I have done at NSIT, you should understand why I still haven’t got the Bharat Ratna.

In brief, one breaktime during a boring day, I got hold of a metal piece which caused considerable pain when hit at the right spot (after watching you should know what I am talking about). So I went mad hitting anyone and everyone with it. Prateek (Darinda) decided to shoot this episode so I went about my hittings in a planned way.

In Video 1 ‘Sahil ka pagalpan’ I am running after Spandan (Looks like a FOOL but has read up topics upto 6^th sem and has the whole hostel fraternity fearing him as they quote about him, “lene mein sabka baap hai”. Also has no mercy on our lunch boxes). Here I am trying to throw his Adidas cap over the fan but miss it, only for him to rejoice at retrieving it and me running after him with the metal piece. The one who looks like our deshdrohi hero KRK is Saurabh (He will commit suicide on getting to know that I have made such a comparison for him) is making remarks from the bottom of the screen.

In video 2 ‘Sahil ghar se chuth gaya vol 2’, (for the sake of originality I have kept these names as it is though it is foolish to have the above one as Vol 2 where as there was no Vol 1.) both Spandan and Saurabh are getting their respective asses kicked. Add to these the heavy Bachaneseque baritone of the cameraman Prateek who questions in the end, “Kya main yahi karne baitha hun”, ‘bekar acting hai’ comments from all the spot boys around who had no respect for our talent and had gathered to see ‘muft ki shooting’. Dunno about your response on seeing these, but we had fun shooting them. Such bouts of childishness do help in carrying the fight on in this cruel world. Well, Enough viewings might send it to some Best Amateur Video competitions .

PJ of the day: Store as many kidneys as you can because of recession, there will be no placements and you might have to sell these only to finance your foreign MBA. Other entrepreneurial ways of earning are like opening a motor/garage shop, panwari, chole bhature, chai stall. I guess a cycle puncture fixing shop will be fine for me.

Those Golden Days

2008-12-25T12:12:00.000-08:00

In tough days, the best thing to do is to remember those good old days. I always felt that college will be more fun than school but it wasn’t. My best year at school was class 8 inspite of it being not too great on professional front. One could discuss everything with friends without the danger of them using to to their advantage which often happens now.

It was before the advent of special ability sections in class 9 which was nothing but a system of leaving 54 hungry lions/lionesses in a cage without food to see who survives. Class 9 also marked the transtition into adulthood with all those silly girl-boy affairs doing the rounds and professional competitiveness taking a backseat.

At that time, the only proof of masculinity one could give was to stand in the first row of the field without any fear for those Maram- Pitti games with those hard flash ball which had a knack of hitting people where it hurts the most (you surely have got my point).

The best part was nicknames for all, the students, teachers, principal, sweepers etc.

I was Kallu/kallu mama.
Saurabh –Chai [Damn good at enacting how to make a pan to make Parandeep cry]
Vikramjeet- Pyaaj [The biggest maverick of all]
Gaurav- Gadhu
Ashish- Mallu
Anshul- Poori [Used to make 3D tea packets with nothing but a sheet of paper
to tease Saurabh]
Parandeep- Paanwala
Aditya- Sheru
Manik- Guru ghantal
Sidharth- Gori/gaon ki chori/chakki (still considers me responsible and curses me for this)
Hema –cycle
Jyoti- Thomson TV
Japneet- JP aunty
Megha Adalakha- 50 Hazar
Karan- Laali
Rahul – Anandi bai (named after Premchand’s mother)
Usha Chawla maam : Usha Rani (13 slaps to Sachneen on first day in school, 15 to Anik)

I apologise to any friends whose nicknames I might not have mentioned here. Having considerable influence on the teachers and some smart planning, I tried my best not to let this fun end inspite of protests from the Moral Brigade just because some stud boys were brought to the advent of crying because of this.
Its strange that I don’t know what I did yesterday but remember these as if written at the back of my hand.

To end it here is a conversation between 2 of my good friends hell bent at keeping their head high in this verbal fight

Deepak Sethi to Siddharth: Siddharth gori (none apart from his family can pronounce it correctly as Gawri) behen ki l**hi.

Siddharth: Deepak Sethi;

Teri barah beti [12 daughters];

Mang le katora mang le roti.

Indian Cinema on Upswing

2008-12-09T04:26:00.000-08:00

Like fast bowlers hunt in pairs, I watch movies in pairs. Last time it was Forrest Gump and 300 in 1 night and this time not exactly together but two very good movies in close interval which I guess haven’t got their recognition. Indian cinema has surely changed for good from the days of Mithun beating 20 people at a time (I guess he still does this in some obscure movies and Sunny Deol doesn’t mind doing this in mainstream ones).

The first was ‘Oye lucky lucky oye’. Full of fun and laughter, my compilation of its dialogues has crossed a page. It starts with the hero Abhay Deol coming from a poor background but with big dreams in his eyes. He grows from a petty thief and does all his thefts with finesse. The confidence, technique and the skill he shows is simply awesome. Best thing was that not many jokes were repeats from other movies. No doubt script is king. Even in adversity, he doesn’t let go of his humour. There is a scene in which he is going out of the hotel he has invested in but not credited for; he still bothers to tell another customer, “Khana bekar hai, kofte hard hain”.

Paresh Rawal has three roles in the movie but sadly none with any sort of comic timing as in the movie too he is credited with narrating jokes jo ki zyaada hasne wale nahin the. A must watch for all. Some good dialogues are listed below.

Itne ande pad rahe hain, omlette tera baap banayega?
Tenti pakad ke uthalenge.
Aaja button daba jaa. Kabuchi Kabuchi. (Only the scene can describe what this means)/
Kya main ladki ke ghar kuttiya leke jaunga? (To tackle the dog at the entrance)
Tante chill ho gaye, aaj to kutte ne darling bana lena tha.
Mere bache ki poonch ke neeche fode hain.
Aaj to 200 jaat mil ke marenge.

Now comes “Dasvidaniya”. I say who needs SRK when people like Vinay Pathak can do a marvelous job. But still many may say that SRK is SRK so movies like OSO which had no content does better and feels that RNBJ too will; the actress there too is around 24 years younger to SRK. (Deepika was 21). Dasvidaniya is kind off inspired by The Bucket List starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Vinay is more off a loser who isn’t much happy with his life as he couldn’t achieve any of his dreams. Then he gets to know of his imminent death through cancer in 3 months (Indian Cinema waits for a better incurable disease to be used in scripts). His alter ego prods him to take matter in his own hands and to fulfill his dreams. So he buys a car, goes for a foreign trip, confesses love to hischildhood crush Neha Dhupia (now married), meets his childhood best friend Rajat Kapoor whose wife feels that he has come just to avail free treatment as he is a doc. Vinay hears this, leaves the place and then tries to jump off a bridge but then a Russian girl stops him from jumping with 2 tight slaps, with Vinay saying, “Kya zindagi hai, chain se marne bhi nahin dete”. He falls in love with her (another of his objective in the list) soon comes back to India and reconciles with his estranged bro and requests him to take care of their mom. He soon dies completing his list of wishes with prearranged obituary on front page of the newspaper and gives gifts to all those around him cause he never got any in his life. Never have I got so emotional in a movie without any such senti dialogue, but just with the thought of being in his place with those sort of things going around him made me feel so. Watching such movies those take a toll and also teaches us to enjoy life. But I guess I am not in a mood to learn.

Anyways, coming back to my ways, next movie will be Bhojpuri blockbuster Deshdrohi whose actor cum producer Kamaal R. Khan (jaise SRK waise KRK) boasts that he lost 10 crores from Maharashtra territory as the movie was banned there.

That Holi Night

2008-11-15T13:02:00.000-08:00

Agree that this is exam time but this post goes on a special request on a night's notice so hope it isn't as boring as i think it is.
Updating the blog is not a big problem cause I have enough life incidents in my life to fill this place. The only thing is that i need to be prodded on to do so.
This incident goes way back to the night before Holi the year I was in class 11. Mom was out of town so there was that extra amount of liberty to try some new things, though never knew that things could have gone so unplanned.
Me and Sachneen (langotia yaar since pre nursery days) just met after dinner, God knows why and started walking at 11 without any reason/direction. One logical reason was looking for some soni-soni kudis but it was futile at that time as their number started dwindling exponentially (I still remember the loss of charge funda for capacitors) cause that only helped us guess whether to take right or left. Then on our way came some friendly water baloons from the ex mayor's house which we grabbed with aplomb. It was tough to catch those coming from third floor with those kiddos having awful aims but we managed a couple of them and lobbed them back but sadly no strikes.
When those kiddos were out of stock we decided it was time to go home. So the max distance we could make was to my place's entrance and sat there chatting gleefully at midnight giving a damn to all those neighbours having a sound sleep.
Soon we heard a door open, expecting some scolding from some samaj sudharak uncle, there came a friend of urs who joined the party along with his elder bro.
Then came the idea of doing some thing worthwhile. So we started playing badminton with some broken shutlecocks cause that was all i could find. So we started playing with sachu in blistering form wrecking havoc on those innocent feathers not letting anyone of those survive more than 10 shots. So the last one left was smashed by him and it got stuck somewhere above the door of a neighbour i wasn't very friendly with. Knowing that not retrieving this one would end the fun we dared to get it back from the jaws of hell.
Me being the tallest one went atop the shaky bench and as soon as i laid my hands upon it the owner of that house came from nowhere. I know this sounds a lot like Chetan Bhagat novels but the only difference is that this is reality where he writes fiction.
Coming back to the situation, I was speechless, motionless. So to divert things i started rambling off some grade C abuses on sachu daring him not to repeat such a heinous act while the bench was being moved so that the concerned person could enter his house. Thankfully he didn't make a big issue of it cause with the type of backing he had, we could have been in jail with a case related to house breaking/theft against us. After he was gone, what followed was a couple of grade A abuses from my side cause of the embarrasing situation sachu had put me in.
Soon play resumed with me having a bad day or rather night at the game but my woes weren't for too long as this last shuttle too was destroyed convincingly. Now we couldn't have chased cockroaches all around. So around 3:30 we called it quits and i hit the sack to finish rest of the harry potter book. By the time things got over it was 6. I wished happy holi to myself once again and slept. When i woke up at 2 in the afternoon the conventional Holi was over.

Bindra-Kalra Bhai Bhai

2008-10-24T06:19:00.000-07:00

To start with, something very unusual happened on my way to college today. A person accommodated by me on the seat in the bus suddenly changed gears and said that my looks match those of Abhinav Bindra. First of all I thought that he was kind of expressing his gratitude towards me for having him spared from the tough task of travelling while standing in buses but later I realized that it was far more beyond that. Then a friend of mine joined in and I thought he might act as a respite as now I could start a conversation with him, but for that person, this friend of mine, Mukund (No.11 type batsmen in class cricket, poor fielder, bowls with a bharatnatyam type action; gets selected only when no one else is left [ Dil pe mat le Yaar]) matched the looks of the other meddalist Vijender. He was not only saying this but also confirming this with fellow co-passengers who God knows why nodded in agreement. Worsening my case was the extra presence of some non teaching NSIT staff, other college mates and 3 classmates who preffered to watch the action from the boundary line. Any act of disinterest shown by my friend met with a pinch on the trousers meant for drawing attention. The initial exclamation soon turned into embarrassment as the topic jumped towards studies (bhagwan bachaye); B.A, M.A, PhD and later towards Gandhi/Lalu/Vajpayee/Mayawati/Sonia/ Jayalalitha/Sushma. I have just snippets of what he said cause I too was busy nodding mindlessly without showing a hint of disinterest. But soon the journey ended with us promising to work hard and he praying to God for our success. Jokes apart he did add fuel to the fire in me to be successful one day but it got doused soon as I entered the class with maths sums flying right across me like Shoaib's bouncers.

Those Golden Days

2008-09-19T09:52:00.000-07:00

At last the yucky mid sems are over. The last one today was the saving grace. The following post is a feel good story. I know I am not good at this stuff but this one is surely a genuine effort.

As usual me being the very me that I am, Bina Botal ka Devdas. But off late, for a change I have started to feel the happiness and joy of others as my own. However small that may be. So a sight of slum kids running with a tyre and a stick or trying to jump on a moving rickshaw much to the displeasure of its driver surely move that lost child in me. So do those images of young children complaining to their mom/dad to carry them when they get tired walking or the best part when they refuse to move from that very Grocery Shop until and unless they get their favourite candy make me remember of those golden days which we call CHILDHOOD. At that time i didn't quite do all such things as i wanted to be known as a 'Grown up' and used to foolishly doubt anybody who said that this was the best age.
So now I have started to apply reverse gear and am starting to drift back into the golden age. For a start, I have increased my separation for veggies and am aiming to be as troublesome as I can get cause that scolding which comes from those who care about you surely makes one feel genuinely 'Wanted'.
Here is a narration of a video i watched on Nat Geo, a very very special ending I must say.
There was this mother Rhino and her baby (lets call him Pappu) who where moving in the night. Then the focus shifted to a group of vicious Hyaenas who neared up to eat up our Pappu. Hyaenas mainly are scavengers who go after left over carcasses and leave them devoid of any flesh but apna chota Pappu was like fresh meal for them. So they started attacking him from all sides and focussed on his neck to kill him by suffocating him. The mother rhino tried her best to protect apna Pappu but was unable to do so cause those Hyaenas were very swift in their movements and also benifited from night vision capability. So it seemed like Pappu's fate had been decided.
But as usual, there was a twist in the tale. There came the king of the jungle (Sher Singh) in his usual swagger. Then what, all Hyaenas scattered like a pack of cards, forgetting even the slightest idea of feasting on Pappu who was indeed looking very critical from the attacks.
At that juncture, I felt happy for Pappu cause now he was to be eaten by the king which was a fair deal, just as one gets a sense of feeling when you loose to the eventual champions cause then you can say that had he not been there, then I could have won. So apna Pappu too might have felt the same.
But life as it is, totally unexpected, so there was another twist. The Lion came up to feed on some other dead animal whose carcass was lieing nearby (I know lions kill their prey but this is what happened there). So with the Hyaenas gone, Lion busy, Pappu got a new lease of life and walked away being the unsung protagonist along with his mom. I still can't deduce what I learnt from this but it surely put a smile on my face after a long long time.

Life: A Textbook of Tragedies

2008-09-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

Hi all. Life is kind of going so-so, exams coming near, no prep as such.

Coming to something more important, here is a true incident which happened in my neighbourhood. Surely not for the ones with weak heart, children or pregnant women.

There is this particular lady in my neighbourhood who is around 75 I guess and is enjoying life inspite of arthritis and some minor problems like losing a teenage child in the 70's to some acute heart problem, her son in law getting blind due to consumption of industrial liquor hence leading to poor/ tough times for one of her numerous daughters who had to start working at a middle age to support her family.

Another of her daughter (youngest) got married around 13 years ago. Her drunkard husband abused her physically/ mentally/ emotionally. So as fate had it, she had a child around 8 months back but this hardly changed her husband who didn't give a damn to the financial situation of the house. So one fateful night as he was asking for money to buy liquor, he hit his wife on the frontal lobe of her brain which resulted in a brain haemmorhage. God knows what happened then (he didn't take her to a hospital); and she DIED in the morning. Next what the guy did was call her home to lie to them that she had fallen off the stairs. So at this juncture, leaving his 8 month old kid in some neighbour's hands and his wife's dead body at home, he ran away.

This was an earth shattering experience for the deceased's family. What was more enraging was the reluctance of the guy's family to accept the kid. Finally the accused is behind the bars after days and days of hide and seek and won't face i guess more than 10 years in prison cause this was not a deliberate murder.

All that the family can remember of the woman is those pleasant childhood memories, that promise to do a special prayer for the blessing she got in the form of this child, and her promise to wear that special suit given to her by her bhabhi on Raksha Bandhan but as fate had it, she died 1 day before it.

Next, Imagine the plight of that 8 month old boy whose alcoholic father killed his mom.

My Dear GOD, can you justify this twist in fate from your side. I believe in you but just can't understand the purpose of exposing that child who still hasn't gained his senses properly to such a big tragedy whereas those Bastard politicians are making merry destroying thousands and thousands of lives. Was his previous birth's acts so bad? I don't believe in this theory of a person getting punishment for his sins/ reward for good work in his/her next birth as its narrated by those known as 'enlightened' people.

So coming back to the rality of this forgetful world, with not much enthusiasm from the deceased's side too, now the boy will be put up for adoption. Hope he never gets to know about this and his future parents may give him all the love in this world.

My mother tells me that one couldn't find a more innocent/cute child in this world apart from him, hearing this i have lost the courage to see/even get close to him.
You like me or not, but for the boy's sake do utter a silent prayer for his well being if you do read this post.

My next post too will be something very depressing, but comparing that to this one won't be fair at all, so guys/gals I end here.........

Life Updates

2008-08-08T13:55:00.000-07:00

People are driven by the love for something. But this is not the case with me. I am motivated by revenge. I don’t believe in fair play but it is sad that I have never got the chance to be unfair, mean, and selfish. For me each game is the last one, a matter of life-death where the winner takes it all. I may not have celebrated my wins with aplomb but have spent each moment of a loss ruminating about it and how things could have been better.

So at last college has started. Strange mix of teachers I have got. One is Dr. Parthasarthy who is as told to me the youngest person in the world to hold 3 PhD’s at the age of 36. No doubt he is going for the fourth one. He has taught at IIT-K, IIT-B but dunno what he is doing here. His favourite topics of research are the scariest ones like Quants, relativity, galaxy simulation. He looks more like a nervous first year straight out of school but at his speed, our course will be over by next week. One is Dr. Jena who is known from ages for his Mohammad Yusuf type beard, hair style (not at all stylish). Another is Piyush Saxena maam (yes its maam), and facing her from the first seat was scary due to her lipstick stained teeth, Khali type figure, also she was sweating as if kept in an incinerator.

At last saw Awarapan at last. Thanks Prateek Mohan (Darinda) for downloading it over a period of 4 months I guess. It had all what I wanted, bloodshed, massacre and the most important thing, tragic ending for the hero which I always epitomize and foolishly strive for in my life.

If I worked hard for anything apart from IIT, it was the ESPN School Quiz (attended it 1 day before VMC entrance exam) and off late, The ‘Champions of the World’ Cricket quiz which goes on air soon. I did all I could to take redemption from that last question loss at the school quiz but somehow fell short. Here, we qualified for the next round by coming second in our first episode but came third in the next one to two very good teams in the quiz, one was previous school quiz champs, and other was the finalists. But it hurt less this time cause it wasn’t that close this time and also there is a next time. The chain smoking duo (with dreams of finding a good Punjabi girl) who won the most nail-biting final one can imagine are going to Pakistan for the champions trophy (bad luck the venue wasn’t shifted).

This experience surely taught me one thing that is never to ignore your intuition even if the chips are down. What went against me was my lack of interest in cricket since Ganguly was thrown out, the over commercialization of the sport, my preferences of watching WWE over the school quiz before my own episodes, not watching a single live ball at the 2007 WC, nor the first season of this quiz. But with renewed vigour and zeal for redemption, I say

I WILL BE BACK

Dream activated

2008-06-29T02:56:00.000-07:00

Just a random post this might be. Of late I have spent a lot of time thinking who i am, why i am here, what is my purpose and all such stuff. This surely took a lot of time and brain power from me but yielded the solution. The solution is to forget all this. Do what you want, trust your instincts because thinking about right or wrong at the crossroads might leave you stranded there forever. Pursue your dreams without the fear of failure. All are not meant to be engineers or doctors. Inspite of being at NSIT, I am not happy cause I know that this is not my calling. I think being at IIT too couldn't have given me any happiness. Because this is not what i chose for me. Its as if i never objected to what happened around and flowed with the tide.
But rays of hopes do always find you, like those 2 kingfisher airhostesses who have come right across my place. One is the supermodel type but already hooked up, and the other is 'tandoori legs' type. I prefer the latter. One comes at 12 at night and the other goes at 4 and there I am always in the balcony to see them off.
I recently went to an NGO with just the odd thought of doing some good. But i didn't knew what awaited me there. The challenge which I have taken up is to set up a computer centre at my college for the underprivileged. I know that if this thing happens, it will be like a dream come true. But there is more possibility of things going horribly wrong.
Whatever happens, I say
Dream On Guys

Siyonara

2008-06-15T07:55:00.001-07:00

OK, the final nail in the coffin has been set in. The past year was turbulent, i lost whatever i laid my hands upon, didn't make new friends, lost old and the most 'trustable' ones, couldn't match up with enemies, lost the 'someone special' due to utter stupidity, messed up the examinations, due to the recent memory blackouts, have lost all confidence in myself. So its time to shut this blog. Only one thing, which is the most important can save this blog, if I don't get that reply which is due in another 24 hours then this was the last post from me. But let me tell you one thing, someone will bleed from this and that will not be me.

UPA Report Card

2008-05-30T11:22:00.000-07:00

This was the post I promised at end of the one related to our Prime Minister. There is no doubt Dr. Manmohan Singh is exceptionally brilliant and gifted. He is even appreciated by his opponents for his honesty and diligence. But how come all this changed since he became the prime minister. I am not too impressed by his work. Politics has changed him. I feel too bad for him. I prefer the previous government by NDA even though none thought for the country because they had less brains, so they used it less. These UPA people have too much brains so they are using it all for their own gains.

These guys ensure that they 'KILL YOU WITH A SMILE'. So that you may feel that you died for a good cause. Since these guys have come to power, everything has hit rock bottom. You may feel good about our economy, booming stock market but the realities are different my friend. There are many hidden factors and indicators which have come to my notice due to my excessive inquisitiveness.

These prices just don’t go up like this. What happens is that these companies place their buyers in foreign markets. They increase the demand of the shares by buying them at even higher rates and thus increase the prices of these shares which appears to us as driven by the good performance of the market and the company.

Now we come back to the government and its acts. There have been numerous attempts to silence down the opposition and get vote by wrong acts.

Recent attempts to keep file notings by review officers (important in checking corruption) out of the RTI act.
Attempts to give amnesty to politicians and civil servants amnesty from the RTI act.
Since UPA has come, politics has stooped to a very low level. MPs swearing at each other in parliament in front of cameras, personal accusations at opposition leaders, where never heard before. The congress got a good punishment for that ‘Maut Ka Saudagar’ remark towards Modi.
I am not a fan of Narendra Modi but know that although he had a hand in allowing the Massacre of 2002 due to religious fervour, but he has worked exceptionally well for the people of Gujarat and there is no doubt about that development in Gujarat is taking place at a healthy rate. The Gujarat elections were a mean of choosing the “LESSER EVIL”.
One heart thundering story which I recently read was that during the riots, an 8 month foetus of a pregnant muslim lady was taken out using a knife and burnt. How disgusting. Shame on all those who sheltered these perpetrators of crime. Recently I had to just lift the dead body of a pigeon from my terrace and put it in a polybag to be carried away but believe me it took all my strength to do this task. I could do this only by avoiding to look at its face, but still I can’t get that image out of my mind.
Now when we see the national scene and the acts of congress government, they are unwilling to give death sentence to Afzal Guru who was the mastermind behind the Parliament attack in 2001. Maybe they fear the backlash from the states.
More shame to come, compensation has not been provided to the families of policemen who died saving the parliament or the bus driver Kuldeep Singh who was disabled for life when he saved the lives of around 60 people during the time of the diwali serial blasts in delhi when he dared to take the bomb to an isolated place but it exploded before he disposed off it.
The Left parties are of no use. What happened at Nandigram is very shameful. The real realities are so terrifying that I don’t want to mention it here. I don’t know how can these guys get away with these acts. There are elaborate reports of who all were involved in the plan, how the weapons were procured, who financed the operation, who prevented the CRPF from going to the troubled sites, and the fact that the goons were free to take whatever came their way, read it WHATEVER AND WHOEVER. Full marks to the reporters who braved the odds to report all this.
The ruling party’s allies are no different. In J&K the PDP is forcing for troop cuts and removal of troops from Siachen glacier which will have disastrous consequences with unstable Pakistan waiting for such an opportunity. Mufti Mohammed Sayeed during his tenure as a cabinet minister had got his daughter Rubaiyya who was ‘allegedly’ kidnapped by terrorists exchanged in return of 4 hardcore terrorists. Some facts could be wrong here as I am surely not in a mood to verify this from wikipedia.
Down south, the DMK won the elections because it promised free television to all. I am surprised at their win, propaganda because there are enough people in our country who don’t get two meals a day and they are talking of televisions for them.
The voting procedures in our country are not clean. My mother doesn’t vote because she feels that all the names on the ballot paper are of those who just want that seat for themselves and not for the people. Agreeing with her would be disheartening and I don’t as that will end the hopes of me seeing country right at the top.

Enough for 1 post cause I know that long posts surely do not serve the purpose as everyone including me consider them a sign of insanity cause they give the impression that the blogger considers his blog to be well read and appreciated. The next post will cover certain acts of Lalit Modi, Pratibha Patil, Anbumani Ramadoss and many others who I feel do not deserve to be where they are.

Cupid Strikes

2008-04-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

Ok now what I am going to mention is something really special, something very close to my heart, something which will remain embedded in there forever. I was just waiting for the right moment and the right way to tell the world, and now that time has come.

DUNIYAAN WALOON
I AM IN LOVE
Yes, sheepishly I have to accept that I also have been bitten by the same Love Bug which I used to detest for my whole life. I still can’t believe that it has happened to me. But I can surely say that this is love and not lust. All those in love who used to do crazy things were always under heavy criticism from my side, but now I realized it wasn’t their fault.
“Yeh Pyar Cheez Hi Aisi Hai”
Now a good part of my day goes in trading missed calls (our notation of showing to the other person that,” hey I am missing you badly”), humming those romantic songs which earlier used to make me feel like yuck. I feel I am now more comfortable with my surroundings, more confident in my approach towards life and the most important thing, happy at heart.

Now those who don’t know and are caring enough to ask who is she (yes guys, I am normal, it’s a she) are in for a big disappointment as I am under strict instructions from her that this development should not reach her family although I have told about all this to my mom and sis. Those who are lucky enough to know her please keep the info classified.

All I can tell about her is that she is very tender, kind hearted and perfectly made for a jerk like me, although I feel that she is too sweet for me and deserves someone better than me who could keep her happier. The last time I said the above statement to her because of my foul mood, she cried and didn’t talk to me for 2 days.

As far as meetings are concerned I am very unlucky as somehow our respective colleges and timetables are poles apart. So the last time I met her was around 18 months ago, that too when we were just good friends and I was there at her school to present my school’s project in the science exhibition. This was our only meeting of the past 3 years. The destiny always comes in my way of even chatting with her online as sometimes her bro makes an entry, or some urgent work comes up on my side, or our respective hardwares show complex problems.

So this was the first half of the movie. Catch a cola (Not Pepsi) during the interval and wait for the second half which might be very intriguing.

HOWZATTTTTT.......

2008-03-25T07:43:00.000-07:00

Cool pics indeed. Being a celebrity is damn tough. Bichare cricketers would not have thought even in their slighest dreams that such a moment could be captured. How tough it is when each and every moment of your life is documented. It seems like Gautum Gambhir is also hot property now as the other day he was thronged by media persons after his hair cut; his full page snap on Delhi Times in a chef's outfit. If these pics make their way to Dinesh Karthik's house, he is in for serious trouble as apart from Sachin, he is the only other married guy in the pic. Can you believe it that this guy married at a tender age of 21 and i have to say that i am not too appreciative of his choice.

Budget ya Bakwass

2008-02-29T09:24:00.000-08:00

R K Shanmukham Shetty presented independent India's first budget.

The budget papers are printed in the Finance Ministry's press. A week before the budget is presented, the employees of the press stay in the ministry and have no means of communicating with the outside world.

The 1991-92 final and interim Budgets were presented by finance ministers of two different political parties. While Yashwant Sinha presented the interim budget, the final budget was presented by Manmohan Singh.

The 1965-66 budget contained the first disclosure scheme for black money.

Jawahar Lal Nehru was the first prime minister to present the budget when he held the finance portfolio in 1958-59.

Morarji Desai holds the unique distinction of presenting the budget - not once but twice - on his birthday. In 1964 and 1968 - both leap years - Desai presented the budget on February 29, his birthday.

R Venkataraman was the only finance minister who later became the President of India.

Three interim budgets were presented in the 1990s. While Yashwant Sinha presented the interim Budgets for 1991-92 and 1998-99, Manmohan Singh presented the 1996-97 interim Budget.

The precedent for the convention of the budget speech beginning at 5:00 pm was set by Sir Basil Blackett in 1924. According to him, this was done to give some relief to officials who worked all night to present a financial statement. He also felt that this would give traders an opportunity to study the announcements overnight instead of in the middle of a busy day.

Now comes my stuff.

I too feel that this budget has been prepared, with the elections in mind. Although the changes in the tax slabs are surely helpful, but i still feel that something has to be done to minimize our ever growing fiscal deficit which will surely grow in leaps and bounds after this budget comes into play. The preparations to take credit for all this started way before all these sops were even thought off. Regular influx of farmers at Sonia Gandhi's house, grand announcements at those political rallies were nothing uncommon.

Over the other side, the Left front too acepts that this budget is just for the elections and when asked whether it will support it, they sheepishly tried to shy away by saying that they will not oppose it. I just don't understand their stand, all these stupid decisions of theirs will have a huge impact on a country called INDIA. But it seems they don't give a damn to all this and are happy aboard a sinking ship just because they have their life jackets on cause they might be eligible for the insurance cover if the ship indeed sinks. These Left Front guys surely leave a bad taste in the mouth.

Dreams Unlimited

2008-02-20T04:36:00.000-08:00

Just a little crap before I come to the point. In the start of 2008 I wasn’t too interested in blogging as something else was keeping me deeply engrossed. This too will come on the blog. The other topics will be based on politics, character sketch of my teachers.

So this one is based on my cricketing career which expectedly sunk before it took off. Coming to the point, our second round match was against EC 2nd yr students on Tuesday, 5 feb but as we reached the venue 5 minutes late (although we started missing classes 3 hours prior to the match using this excuse) our matched was postponed to Wednesday, 6 feb. One of the bowlers (previous match ‘captain’) was unwell and not playing so the balance of the team went haywire, although I would have played no matter what ever problem I was facing, and I indeed did so. Tons and tons of volini gel went waste as that back pain was there as it is.

We were distraught to lose the toss and bat first cause most teams batting 2nd won and we too were planning that way. Our openers started nicely but soon lost track. Both of them went cheaply and then came Mandal, our rahul dravid, who was adjudged LBW even though the ball hit him high on the knee roll and he was 15 inches outside the crease as there was a sort of crater near the popping crease. After that came Piyush who was a lefty. The rival captain placed more men on the off side for him although he is a very strong leg side player and that is what happened as the first ball to him (a full toss) was hit for six over mid wicket. But soon he was also wrongly adjudged LBW and like this we continuously lost wickets.

Shantanu (sutta boy) told the 4th year umpire –“Abe out nahin hai yaar”, but to no avail as calling a 4th year ‘yaar’ is a serious enough offence to be punished for. Then came Rahul Mishra (misra jee) who got run out without facing a ball. When asked why he wasn’t seeing the other batsmen, he simply answered that he couldn’t see him as he was wearing a helmet. The straightness of his answer ended our anger on his dismissal and we all broke out in a huge laughter although the situation demanded some tears. Wickets continued to fall and I started preparing for my innings as if I was destined to make it big. I was shocked to over hear a couple of players saying that they were thinking of drafting the unfit ex-captain in my place even when I was the next and the last person to go to bat. But I got saved as they didn’t think that replacing a bowler with another one will make that much of a difference.

Soon came my chance of batting, but this got delayed as the gloves given to me had lose straps. I was at the non strikers end and the first bowl went in the outfield for a single but my partner was thinking of holding the strike, so he was a bit resistant to run but in the end managed to run. The throw came at my end and I was safe but the fielders appealed and without taking notice of the square leg umpire went off the field celebrating. At last after some arbitration, they came back and I was ready to face my first ball. It was a fast full toss straight onto the stumps and I hit it decently well over the bowler’s head for a couple of runs. For the next ball, the bowler came round the wicket and the fielders started shouting that the batsman is in fear, so get his wicket. This enraged me and I once again came in two minds, whether to play or not and got bowled in the same way as in the first innings.

Once again that disappointment, that faltering at expectations. The worst thing is that if we could have played sensibly, we could have surely added around 25 runs in those 5 remaining overs out of 20, but this wasn’t acceptable to God. So we came up on the field all charged up determined to save our meager target of 98 in 20 overs. Our bowlers slogged hard but to no avail. I was sent to mid on and when the first shot came towards me, the batsmen tried to pressurize me by running but I remained calm and cleanly collected and threw the ball on the stumps. It hit the helmet kept in contact with the stumps and it was obviously understood that in its absence, the bowl would have gone onto hit the stumps. But the seniors being seniors revolted and instead asked for 5 runs for hitting the helmet, being given out totally out of the question. We revolted by saying that the helmet wasn’t kept by us but they were in no mood to lesson and literally gave themselves not out. Our team thought of staging a walk-out but preferred to wait for another such decision.

But from then on, the seniors played sensibly and reached the half way mark. I was introduced as the first change bowler but due to that terrible pain, made no impact and bowled a dolly which was hoisted for six over extra cover. We managed to get some wickets although the so called best fielders repeatedly made mistakes, dropping catches, not collecting the ball cleanly which resulted in more disappointment. The only freshness was that of Piyush who was intending to bowl 2 more overs after his stipulated quota of 4 overs but that wasn’t to be as the match ended exactly after his stipulated spell got complete. The seniors had made easy meat of us by chasing this total in 10 overs flat. Our only consolation is that none of the first years apart from IT which has one of the strongest teams in the league are into the third round. This wasn’t it as I also forgot to collect my rough copy which was being used to keep the scores and had some very good questions of quizzing. Now the point to see is whether this time I will be able to get my share of refreshment which wasn’t given last time.

There was more disappointment for me in store as I also lost my table tennis match against the decent 2nd year player although luck favoured me as I got around 6-7 net points, 3 of these consecutive. All this was bringing my opponent to tears but he somehow clinched the match through tie-breaker in the third and final set.

Inspite of all this I see light at the end of the tunnel. I have found a new sport, a new challenge, a game where I am the king. Where the opposition detests seeing me coming into the arena and celebrates as if it is party time when I fail. And the game is …

CLASSROOM CRICKET
This may sound funny to you but this is something in which I am the best, the Champion of the Champions. Here I take spectacular catches, effect breathtaking runouts, bowl teasing spin with all my armoury of the straighter ones, doosras, flippers and make some match winning bowling and fielding changes. Here I am the master of sledging who knows how to get on the nerve of the opposition although I hardly have to do this as my batting is enough to make them feel like jackasses. Although I am a righty, but here I prefer to bat left handed so that it is easier to just shut my eyes and blast with all my might towards the leg side whereas the right handers have to make room for themselves to play freely which is not possible when I target their body, and if the batsmen is capable of doing it, I use my ‘BRAHMASTRA’; a ball which is bowled to an attacking batsman and that goes straight into the nearest pillar and comes back without getting near to the batsman who then readies to kill me if I don’t bowl the next ball legitimately which obviously I don’t.
So fans bend down and salute the 'Master Of The Game’. If you have the audacity of entering a Lion’s den, then come up and have a game, you will soon realize your mistake.

MY Dreams

2008-02-05T07:28:00.000-08:00

18.01.2008
Sorry for the delay in posting these days. This happened as something else is occupying my thoughts these days. Although right now I am in terrible pain. There is tons and tons of lactic acid flowing through my body. This pain is banging each and every part of my body. Even when I laugh, it pains in my heart and I feel that somebody is choking me. Now I will tell you what resulted in this pain. The annual sports day of my college is coming up so many of us are gearing up for it. I too am very keen about it because sports was, is and will remain by first love. Due to studies at school, I wasted my dream of sports but am not in a mood to do so right now. Each and every day during the 20-20 world cup, I blurted out at my family for not making me a cricketer although I am satisfied with their reasoning reminding me of my responsibilities. Although I followed my love through sports quizzing in which I faired pretty well. So coming back to the college scene, not surprisingly, I was left out of the cricket team of my class although I can play better than them on any given day. So they asked me to give a trial. I was a little hurt cause those asking me to do this had no distinction or achievement to prove that they are better than me. I felt like Sourav Ganguly (I know you would laugh at the comparison) when he was out of the team and that is what inspired me to fight. What resulted was a match at one of those awkwardly bouncing pitches. When I came into bat, the ball was reversing. They all laughed at it by giving me the logic of it and saying that it doesn’t happen with a cosco ball. I waited till my bowling to give my answer. Although I am a fast bowler, I batted superbly and was the highest scorer of my team hitting 2 sixes and a four apart from numerous singles and doubles. Unfortunately I was caught at the boundary although I still feel that at that the fielder had crossed the ropes. My bad luck was that he was the only one in that team who could have caught it cause the rest were dropping bloopers. So when we came to bowl, I was already losing steam as it isn’t easy coming out of the blue and giving it all I can. Still I bowled at a good speed initially and my ball was swinging miles in the air. Now I explained to them that I called this ‘reverse swing’ cause the tendency of a right handed bowler is to swing the ball away from a right handed batsmen but these balls were viciously coming into the batsmen. Also what helped was my strategy to have half side of the ball wet which literally made the ball move like a Frisbee. Half the innings gone, I was finished although I still wanted to give my 100% out there. Due to some very poor fielding by my team mates (although I effected a good runout, I was lucky enough not to have many balls coming my way) and sensible batting by the opposition we lost. But I was satisfied as now I am in the team and ready to show the world that “hey, you have just now seen the cricketer of the century”.

But the worries don’t end here. I knew what would happen the next time I would wake up and I wasn’t disappointed as I felt like I had been struck by a 1000 thunderbolts when I tried to practice my bowling action.

22.01.2008
This was what happened earlier which couldn’t be posted. Now the part two of my cricketing career begins. It was my 6th sense which took me to the grounds at the time of our “official” match. One of the hostellers who was the self designated ‘captain’ (no ill feelings attached) handpicked the probables and I was one of them. Our match was scheduled with some 4th year guys but their team didn’t turn up so we played against the 1st year EC students. We lost the toss and were told to field first. Initially I was praying to god not to send the ball in my direction as it was the first time ever I was playing with the leather ball. But gradually I grew into confidence and started enjoying the game as fear took a backseat.

I was brought on as the second change bowler and bowled quite well. In my 2nd over I bowled the star batsmen of their team for 0 with a good Yorker. That was my only wicket but surely the most prized one. In my third over, a catch was missed and four runs also were conceded by the fielder on that delivery. There was more heartburn as one of the deliveries deceived the batsmen and took the edge only to go for a four. If this wasn’t enough, I tried to equal terms on my next delivery by going for that extra yard of pace and this resulted in a muscle tear in the left side of my lower back. I somehow completed my over but couldn’t complete my quota of 4 overs. Inspite of the ever increasing pain, I gave my heart out in the field and surely was the best fielder from my side. When all this ended the opposition managed to score 125 runs in 20 overs.

Then came our turn to chase a total that was not supposed to be challenging. For me, the moment of the day was the sight of our opener going to pee behind the tree with all his protection gear including the helmet on. On blackmailing, he would have paid a fortune to avoid a video of that from circulating in the class but none of us had the intention of doing something of that sort. Our openers started off nicely until the LBW shout from over the wicket by the opposition team which was surprisingly given out inspite of a thick edge from the bat. But our player showed the spirit of the game by arguing with the 4th year umpire and by using some of the choicest abuses available at that time. After that our scoring rate remained good but we were losing wickets at regular intervals. I was sent lower down the order and while preparing my self, the first question came to my mind was that whether the L guard (most important part of the protection gear) is placed inside or outside the undy. I soon realized my fault and went into bat with 7 wickets down and another 20 runs to get. I had to request for a runner due to my sore back. In front of me was the opposition’s best and fastest bowler but he seemed mediocre to me and I middled the ball decently. Now with 12 runs to win, I hit a ball behind square leg which resulted in 2 runs. So for the next ball some field adjustments were made there. This adjustment and the square leg umpire’s chat with the gardener distracted me and I was bowled on the next bowl. The feeling was disgusting as I had disappointed my team and also cause it was an ordinary ball which didn’t deserve a wicket on any track. I made a contribution of 8 runs. Next came our “captain” who started off by hitting in the air which wasn’t needed and I surely have to thank the fielder who dropped that plump catch. This partnership somehow managed to get the required runs and we won the match. My weird mind drew comparisons between our run to the pitch, the uprooting of the stumps with the T20 world cup win celebrations of the Indian cricket team.

But somehow problems don’t leave me so easily. As during the match, a programming test was scheduled to be held in our class which we missed and the teacher marked the team absent for the class and those who had the programming lab 1 hour after the class, were marked absent in advance. If this wasn’t enough, she deducted 5 marks from each of the absentees and when contacted lately, she is asking for the signatures of the dean of student welfare department to confirm that we were indeed playing during that time.

But as usual, the story doesn’t end here. My back ache has increased so much that it is impossible to work normally without using a back belt and applying loads of awfully smelling pain killing gel. I hope I get fit for our next match, cause playing the game was always my passion and I am happy in fulfilling a dream which was about to be shut in a grave.

05.02.2008
The match was scheduled for today but due to our team reaching late for the match (although we bunked classes 2 hours prior to the scheduled time and spent the time playing table tennis). So the match is scheduled for tomorrow and I have a grudge from the team cause they have gobbled up Rs.350 meant for the whole team for refreshments.
The stuff promised in the previous post will soon be posted.

Balle Balle

2008-01-11T21:11:00.000-08:00

RESUME

EDUCATION /Qualification:

1950: Stood first in BA (Hons), Economics, Punjab University,Chandigarh,

1952; Stood first in MA (Economics), Punjab University, Chandigarh,

1954; Wright's Prize for distinguished performance at St John's College,Cambridge,

1955 and 1957; Wrenbury scholar, University of Cambridge,

1957; DPhil (Oxford), DLitt (Honoris Causa);

PhD thesis on India's export competitiveness

OCCUPATION /Teaching Experience:

Professor (Senior lecturer, Economics, 1957-59;

Reader, Economics, 1959-63;Professor, Economics, Punjab University, Chandigarh, 1963-65; Professor, International Trade, Delhi School of Economics,University of Delhi, 1969-71;

Honorary professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University,New Delhi, 1976

DelhiSchool of Economics, University of Delhi,1996

Civil Servant Working Experience

POSITIONS:

1971-72: Economic advisor, ministry of foreign trade

1972-76: Chief economic advisor, ministry of finance

1976-80: Director, Reserve Bank of India;

Director, Industrial DevelopmentBank of India;

Alternate governor for India, Board of governors, Asian Development Bank;

Alternate governor for India, Board of governors, IBRD

November 1976 - April 1980: Secretary, ministry of finance (Department ofeconomic affairs);

Member, finance, Atomic Energy Commission;

Member,finance, Space Commission

April 1980 - September 15, 1982: Member-secretary, Planning Commission

1980-83: Chairman, India Committee of the Indo-Japan joint study committee

September 16, 1982 - January 14, 1985: Governor, Reserve Bank of India.

1982-85: Alternate Governor for India, Board of governors,InternationalMonetary Fund

1983-84: Member, economic advisory council to the Prime Minister

1985: President, Indian Economic Association
January 15, 1985 - July 31, 1987: Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission

August 1, 1987 - November 10, 1990: Secretary-general and commissioner,south commission, Geneva

December 10, 1990 - March 14, 1991: Advisor to the Prime Minister oneconomic affairs

March 15, 1991 - June 20, 1991: Chairman, UGC

June 21, 1991 - May 15, 1996: Union finance minister

October 1991: Elected to Rajya Sabha from Assam on Congress ticket

June 1995: Re-elected to Rajya Sabha

1996 onwards: Member, Consultative Committee for the ministry of finance

August 1, 1996 - December 4, 1997: Chairman, Parliamentary standingcommittee on commerce

March 21, 1998 onwards: Leader of the Opposition, Rajya Sabha

June 5, 1998 onwards: Member, committee on finance

August 13, 1998 onwards: Member, committee on rulesAug

1998-2001: Member, committee of privileges

2000 onwards: Member,executive committee, Indian parliamentary group

June 2001: Re-elected to Rajya SabhaAug

2001 onwards: Member, general purposes committee

BOOKS:

India's Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth-ClarendonPress, Oxford University, 1964; also published a large number of articles in various economic journals.

OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

Adam Smith Prize, University of Cambridge, 1956

Padma Vibhushan, 1987

Euro money Award, Finance Minister of the Year, 1993;

Asia money Award, Finance Minister of the Year for Asia, 1993 and 1994

INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS:

1966: Economic Affairs Officer

1966-69: Chief, financing for trade section, UNCTAD

1972-74: Deputy for India in IMF Committee of Twenty on International Monetary Reform

1977-79: Indian delegation to Aid-India Consortium Meetings

1980-82: Indo-Soviet joint planning group meeting

1982: Indo-Soviet monitoring group meeting

1993: Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting Cyprus

1993: Human RightsWorld Conference, Vienna

RECREATION:

Gymkhana Club, New Delhi; Life Member, India International Centre, NewDelhi

Name: Dr Manmohan Singh

DOB: September 26, 1932

Place of Birth: Gah (West Punjab)

Father: S. Gurmukh Singh

Mother: Mrs Amrit Kaur

Married on: September 14, 1958

Wife: Mrs Gursharan Kaur

Children: Three daughters

Our Prime Minister is possibly the most qualified PM all over the world.

Happy to read all this, I too was. My next post will be very disturbing and not for those who are sensitive or heart patients. So those concerned please stay away.

Realities of Television

2008-01-04T21:56:00.000-08:00

Good morning to all. It is very disappointing to see myself awake so early (its 9:30 A.M). I feel empty. As if there is no purpose in my life, nothing to work on late in the night which could give me an excuse of waking up late.

Now I tell u who is responsible for this. It is non other than MTNL. With a lot of expectations, I had subscribed to their IPTV plan. My mathematics calculations proved that with their 6 month introductory plan, I could save some bucks but it turned out the other way. I failed to take into account the tax that they would incorporate in the bill and also surprise set top box rentals, which weren’t in the introductory scheme. Also are the charges for extra wire across the house. The person who had come to install the set top box assured me that he was ready to receive our grievance calls any time but what I saw was nothing surprising as during his visit, all the calls he received ended in him saying,” main abhi delhi ke bahar hun, roaming lag rahi hai meri, thodi der bad phone karna”.

What I saw shocked me. There were my dad’s hindi news channels, mom’s bhakti channels, sis’s music and soap opera channels, kid’s cartoon channels but no reference of suitable English news channels and ESPN network. At that moment the agent assured me that it would be put up soon as they are not inclined to shutting up their businesses but it looks as they are intending to do so cause now this grave issue is on my blog and with its ever so increasing viewership, they are doomed to ‘bend or end’. Nice phrase wasn’t it. Frankly speaking it was mine.

My only life saver for the past few days was the previous cable connection of the local cable operator which got disconnected yesterday and with it went those Saturday and Sunday nights full of newly released films which were shown through pirated discs by the operator. I know this is a crime but I am not a fool to leave out such free entertainment and complain to the police instead. What is more worrying is the future with one day, T20 matches coming up and the fact that there is no one matching ESPN network in their presentation.

With no matches and decent English news channels like Times Now, NDTV, CNN-IBN, Headlines Today, what is left for me are those aaj tak, star news, India tv types. These may be bragging about their viewership because they give so called ‘chatpati’ news which has no substance and I am surprised that they get viewers for this crap.

So with nothing to do, I was glued in front of star news and they didn’t disappoint. During prime time, they were airing news about Yuvraj-Deepika. Come on, is this of any importance in our lives, as if they were inviting us for a free dinner on their wedding. This was not all; they showed the history, geography, civics of their relationship including references to SRK and Dhoni. They also mentioned that Deepika was the first to sit with Yuvraj in his Audi car gifted to him for his 6 sixes by BCCI VP Lalit Modi. Phrases like ’dhoni ke aankhon ke neeche se yuvraj deepika ko chura ke le gaye’ made me feel like ….yuck. They also showed a powerpoint presentation with Yuvraj and Deepika in some sort of a Pushpak viman and flying off, with a disheartened Dhoni watching them.

Another thing is that they show such things so many times that any one will go insane. Take for example Sreesanth’s belly dancing after taking a wicket, or the new look of Dhoni after his hair cut, or even 37 year old Rakhi Sawant’s melodrama after losing ‘Nach Baliye’ title. I hate Rakhi for all this and am smart enough to know that she does all this just to get some extra votes and to put her in good books of all those watching. Latest in this list was Amrita Rao’s admission that she has no problem in wearing short clothes which was shown a record 6 times. Come on, who the hell cares about that. Had they played this in front of her so many times, I am sure she would have retracted her statement. The prime times of these channels are occupied with news like ‘X can lift Y with his Z’, ‘A ditches B for C’, ‘P’ can eat so much of ‘Q’ in one go.

Ok even if we accept that what I am telling now is totally the limit. The other day these channels were showing a special telecast on ‘The Great Khali’. I know that you don’t know who the hell is he, so let me update you. He is an Indian wrestler in the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) which used to WWF during earlier times. This telecast was based on him as he had a Title match to be telecasted the next day. They went on and on with this, showing his so called ‘supporters’ cheering and singing for him (these were just those maniacs who could do anything to be on television). They didn’t even spare the housewives of his native place who were praying for their ‘Khali Bhaiya”. The India Tv people broke all boundaries as they called in Jasbeer Jassi (Kudi Kudi fame) to sing a song to motivate Khali. How the hell will a song by Jassi encourage Khali to win his match as I am sure he is not insane enough to see that show!!!.

Now come the real facts courtesy my knowledge. His real name is Dilip Singh Rana which was unknown to these channels. I don’t know how he got the name ‘Khali’ which means empty, although he is around 7’3 tall and weighs 440 pounds. And he has even killed one wrestler during his initial days of wrestling. Don’t worry about any court cases cause these wrestlers are made to sign an agreement which takes the blame off the organizers in case someone dies during a fight. Also, these so called ‘fights’ are fake. The results are predetermined to maintain the crowd interest. Otherwise it is not possible for a 200 pounder Rey Misterio to defeat a 500 pounder Big Show. Also why does it happen that when ever a wrestler falls due to some blows, he lies in a position in which his opponent can hit him with his special move. Another fact is that these fights take place around 2 weeks before being telecasted in India and the results also are declared on the net. But considering all this is out of the frequency area of these hindi new channels who pray till the last moment to make Khali win and show people crying like those in ‘saas bahu’ operas after his loss.

I wish these channel could change and show something ‘substantial’.

This article doesn’t mean that I am an avid follower of all this. It is just that unwillingly, I had to see some of that stuff to present it in front of you all.

Operation Doomsday

2007-12-30T06:53:00.000-08:00

This is the title of yet another masterpiece by Sidney Sheldon. For those who don’t know him, Sidney Sheldon is a world renowned author of fiction whose novels are a homogenous mixture of suspense, thrill, drama, betrayal and the dreaded three letter word ‘$^#’.

This one revolves around Commander Robert Bellamy who is an ex-war hero and is now with the Naval intelligence department. He gets a call to meet the general of the intelligence operations of NSA and is given a mission to trace the witnesses of a weather balloon crash in Switzerland because it had contained some sensitive scientific devices. With just the knowledge of the date, time and location of the event, he embarks on his journey with strict instructions not to take anyone else’s help. With sheer hard work and intelligence he traces the witnesses one by one and is shocked to know that it was actually an alien spaceship which had crashed with two dead alien bodies and one missing, which was reported as a weather balloon crash to avoid panic among the public until suitable defense systems had been installed to save the earth from the aliens. Robert reports about each and every witness to them as he is told that they will be sworn to secrecy not to mention this to anyone, but in reality, they eliminate each and every witness who they get to know about in unique ways to avoid any suspicion.

At last when he has reported all of them, he gets to know that all of them have been killed and he is next. He then tries all he can to escape from them as a number of countries are involved in this bid to thwart the aliens. What helps him to avoid getting captured is the fact that those after him were the ones who trained him how to escape from such situations. His journey of escape is filled with friends turning traitors in the name of ‘duty’ and people who can do any thing for money, even double cross him. At last he gets to know that people behind this are some very rich industrialists with strong connections in the corridors of power of various countries. Their motive is to buy time before the outbreak of war with the aliens by suppressing the witnesses of the crash.

Now comes the question why this operation is carried out by these businessmen. This is because the reason why the aliens want to fight is that we, the people have left no stone unturned in the destruction of this planet. They want the people to stop fighting, shut the pollution making industries and the usage of conventional sources of energy like petroleum. This could lead to these guys going bankrupt, so they decide to fight it out. Robert tries the last attempt to save his life by telling them that there is another witness to the incident. They fall for it and decide to meet him at that very place where the spaceship crashed and eliminate him and the witness there only.

But Robert pulls out a masterstroke and shows them his witness, the missing Alien. This appears to be the laughing point for the villains (which include the person he considered to be his mentor) as they underestimate the alien power which is capable of changing forms, reading minds and creating hallucinations. The end is very positive as the alien takes away the culprits with her and promises to send them as soon as they mend ways. From Robert, for whom this was the last mission, the alien takes a vow that he will try all he can to save the Earth and he happily makes it the mission of his life.

All I can say is that like all Sheldon novels, this book is a must read for all, but don’t expect me to lend it because I have myself borrowed it from someone. Ha Ha Ha….Sorry again for my awkward sense of humour.
My next goal is to read ‘Morning, noon and night’ by the same author which appears to be as exciting as this one.
To all of you who have taken the pains to read this post,
HAPPY NEW YEAR

Godfather

2007-12-26T07:11:00.000-08:00

When I rule the world, it will be fun to decide who lives. Based on what I’ve seen from you – not many will.
Anonymous

Since no one wants to take the claim to this wonderful quote, so you can put the blame on me.

Back to business, this past week I finally watched the epic GODFATHER movie. Pure class and bloodshed, nothing else. Both these words don’t go hand in hand but this is what this movie is all about. It is about a Don (played by Marlon Brando) who knows how to get things straight in any possible way, like we guys say ‘by hook or crook’. Then there comes a turk who proposes to deal in drugs with the Don. Refusing this leads to the Don being shot but he survives due to the presence of mind of his son Michael (who is a war-time hero), who saves him while his stay at the hospital. Then the turk is killed by Michael in yet another thrilling scene. Michael is told to leave by his associates until things cool down and during that time, while the Don is recuperating, his brother Santiano (I may be wrong with the spelling) takes charge who is as hot-headed as me and takes impulsive decisions which eventually leads to his assassination. The Don soon dies to an unimpressive death but only after doing his bit to ensure that Michael and his family is safe. The onus comes back to Michael who doesn’t disappoint and finishes off the so called ‘business’ by killing all his enemies including his brother in law on the day he becomes the Godfather of his nephew (son of the deceased brother in law) . For this role of a Don, Marlon Brando had been designated with the tag of the ‘Best acting ever done’. But I was a little disappointed cause for a major part of the film he was on the hospital bed vulnerable as ever, and also he died pretty early in the movie. What I expected was a role like our Gabbar Singh. But it was like Amitabh Bachchan’s role in Sarkar where the Don also has a family, emotions, where he gets hurt and makes a comeback. It would be rather better to say that Sarkar was copied from it with Michael’s role potrayed by Baby Bachchan (Abhishek). But the best thing about this film was its one-liners which could put even Javed Akhtar to shame. The film even though it was of a duration of 3 hours, went on at such a fast pace that I had to often reverse it to catch up with the missed part and take time to digest the scene. I say that is a must watch for all, especially for ‘violence loving people’ like me. The statement above refers to my expectations from cinema only and not real life. Part 2 and 3 of this series are next in queue to be viewed.
When will the day come when we see an Indian movie not copied from some other source and making it big on its own.

Perseverence Pays

2007-12-18T10:18:00.000-08:00

I dont know who but someone must have said,
" If there is something for you in your destiny, even god can't take it from you"
if no one has said this, then "You can put the claim on me"….this is what I feel when I win…I don’t know how and why has it happened that whenever I shave, I do gets some wins in my kitty…but this hasn’t made me shave the next day also…So lets narrate my Monday…I went to hansraj for the quiz by their chemistry society…most of the quizzers from my college where already there…as usual, my partner was late and received a barrage of abuses from me for picking up my call when he was just at the entryof the college which resulted in a hefty loss of Rs.2….i feel sad that my network is airtel..the call rates are quite high but all say that its compensated by its good connectivity…I say Damn them…this “good connectivity” is another big disadvantage...whenever in my college someone loses connectivity..he straightaway comes to me and says..” yaar tera to airtel hai naa; zara phone dikhaio mera network nahin aa raha”….there goes my balance for the week..ok ok ‘airtel murdabad’ ends and I get back to business ..…

we gave the prelims at hasraj and scored 6….the qualifying score needed was 7….and the questions missed by us….i hope my maths teacher doesn’t read this…
Q. Human body temperature in Kelvin scale…
Our answer--> 273 +37=300…although it is 310, and this was done by me and overlooked by my partner…..
Q. Where did the 1857 mutiny start?..
Our answer--> we went for barrackpore although meerut was ringing the bells in my brain…once again because of my partner, we made the mistake of overestimating the quizmaster…so our next stop was S.R.C.C…the level of a college is signified by the fests organized there…till now this was the most happening place I visited in DU…shampoo sachets at entry…free bingo ‘mad angles’ for all (I managed only 2 packets of Rs.5 )…but bad news awaited us…the prelims of the ‘sports quiz’ which was once my forte were over…
Our next stop was Ramjas…..Ramjas stands out in DU as the only college which requires visitors to write their biographies in the entry register…there free lunch was on offer and the invitation was sent to us also but I refused due to my tendency of staying away from the crowds and mob mentality which was dominating the minds of the students there in search of an extra gulab jamun…
I think like polio vaccines, every one should be taught how to use a projector as no one knows what to do with it when it is supposed to be used…so at this quiz at ramjas, my performance was below expectations (no surprise in that I suppose) but what made me glad was that my partner had indeed answered some questions right….but as usual, we missed out here too…
Our next stop was khalsa for another quiz…when we reached there, we realized that no event was going to take place there and that the intelligence report provided by some of my ‘so called friends’…turned out to be a fake…but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me….as I persuaded my partner ankit to give a final try to S.R.C.C …he was foolish enough to accept my promise of paying for his rickshaw and food..at S.R.C.C we registered ourselves for a competition wrongly named as ‘mixed bag’ although it was a quiz..(thank god for that cause it kept all the good quizzers far from that)….the refreshments for the participants was a can of 'Red Bull' drink..just guess its price…can’t guess it…Ok I tell…each can costs Rs.75…I am keen on preserving it till its expiry date in 2009…So when the results were announced, I made it at the borderline and my partner missed out by 1 point..( there were single participations in that competition)…the next 2 rounds were literally cakewalks cause I had luck and destiny on my side…this made me richer by Rs.1500 which will be paid by cheque….hey all those expecting a treat stay away….but there is a problem…I don’t have a bank account…please don’t laugh although it isn’t tough for me to get one cause my father is in a bank….
All those who have been refused a treat read it that I am not such a bad boy cause I have pledged 1/10 of the sum i.e. Rs.150 of this to charity….what made me succeed was my determination of making it big inspite of knowing that I am not the best….In the end, all i can say is that perseverence pays..I hope i have got the spelling right...

Tragedy

2007-12-14T06:40:00.001-08:00

they say never overestimate someone...i say always underestimate others...especially when it comes to quizzes in DU....at last i struck gold in the quizzing circuit...the last one from NSIT quizzers to do so...i am considered a shady quizzer..( champ of low level quizzes)..but this quiz was much below that level...we missed the business quiz at venky which had better cash prizes cause then we couldnt hav attended the 2 quizzes at north campus, miranda and hansraj...and also cause we knew that we had no chance to qualify there among the bigwigs at venky ...so we reached miranda at 11:40 where as the quiz was at 12:30..the guard literaaly took my biodata as it wasn't usual for him to see boys in the girls college...we roamed about till 12:30 ( quiz time) but were'nt surprised when the quiz was delayed by an hour cause only 3 teams had registered...so we went on roaming and saw the various departments of DU which looked fascinating in their Lutyens type architecture...they had a nice resemblace to the hogwarts school (Harry Potter World)...our next stop was hansraj..we registered ourselves for the quiz (this one also had been delayed by an hour) ...then i recieved an sms from a miranda girl which said " the science quiz is going to be start" ....see the sentence once again..yes, no type error here...i dont want to name that girl from miranda cause i dpnt want to give anyone unwanted publicity from my blog....familiar faces awaited us at miranda...a team of our seniors who were the defending champs had arrived...with a bleak chance of quiz starting...bleaker of winning, we decided to dump miranda for hansraj...so there we were at hasraj again...

what i am going to tell you know may shock you...the quiz organisers stated the rules...15 questions in 90 seconds...yes, you have read it right..6 seconds per question...the quizmaster also mentioned that the time for writing our names on this sheet was also included...which was later revoked on my insistence...but 90 seconds flat...so these were the preliminaries...we were tied with 2 other teams for the 3rd and 4th places on stage..so there was a tie breaker...the quizmaster told me to whisper the answer in his ear...another absurbidity which was ended by me by suggesting the idea of writing on sheets...so we did well in tie-breaker and were selected...while annoucing the answers a mockery was made of the quizmaster due to his english... you can imagine the noise made by the crowd when he mentioned one answer refering to article 673 as 'rape'...the noise was not due to the meaning of this word but his pronunciation which sounded like 'raaaaap'....

On stage were 2 teams from hasraj, us from NSIT , one from hindu...we started normally but one of the teams of hasraj itself was going great guns...

our first question>> in which country were dogs worshipped as gods?..(even its an anagram)..another one followed " which country has the lowest GDP"..how the hell am i suppsoed to know that...

I literally had a fight with the quizmaster over this question....

Q. A body moving in a circular motion has ________ accelaration.

Our answer>>> centripetal.

their answer >> >variable.

after that what followed was lines like ' decision of the quizmaster is final'....'please don't create a fuss'...

then came my favourite 'sports round'... i knew most of the questions of the other teams also...even shady ones like for example " what is the cash prize given to a khel ratna awardee" answer is Rs. 5,00,000...none of the teams scored points in the round...a laptop belonging to one of the teams had to be fixed for the visual rounds...(proof that the team was surely involved in the preparation of the quiz)...but it couldnt be done... so Round Cancelled...before the last round at my request the scores were announced and not surprisingly we had been alloted 10 points less...i again fought for this again the same replies from their side but at last they agreed...so at the end we were 2nd at 80 points...adrift from the bugged team of hasraj by 10 points..(the same which weren't given to us for the accelaration one....another surpirse was awaiting us ...the cash (although not much but still significant) would be given to us on tuesday..sure the ceremony will clash with some other quizzes...

at the end the quiz master still had the guts to invite me for the quiz next year too...i was seriously thinking of taking his number and pasting it in one of the DTC buses under the tagline..." khujli, khansi, petdard ke liye sampark karein"...

And now i am revealing the names of the culprits..they are from the 'Zoological and Botany Society ' of hasraj...slap them where ever you see them...they are a menace to the society who organise events pathetically...

** The best thing about the quiz was the refreshments of Mc aloo burger..

RESUME

2007-12-12T06:15:00.000-08:00

With a pile of 300 résumés on his desk and a need to pick someone quickly, my boss told me to make calls on the bottom 50 and toss the rest. "Throw away 250 résumés?" I asked, shocked. "What if the best candidates are in there?" "You have a point," he said. " But then again, I don't need people with bad luck here

Ek ladki thi deewani si.....Mobile lekar chalti thi.....Nazrain jhuka ke......Sharma ke......Mobile mein jaane kya dekha karti thi!.....Kuchh karna tha shaayad usko.....Par jaane kis se darti thi.....Jab bhi milti thi mujhse.....Yehi poochha karti thi.....Yeh ON kaise hota hai,Yeh ON kaise hota hai.....aur main sirf yehi kah pata thaye mobile nahi TV ka remote hai....
i didn't get a good pic of a girl on a mobile phone so using this mice...error regretted....a personalised post coming soon...

Cool Quotes

2007-12-09T08:12:00.000-08:00

Whenever I find the key to success, someone changes the lock.

To Err is human, to forgive is not a COMPANY policy.

The road to success??.. Is always under construction.

Alcohol doesn't solve any problems, but if you think again, neither does Milk.

In order to get a Loan, you first need to prove that you don't need it.

All the desirable things in life are either illegal, expensive or fattening.

Since Light travels faster than Sound, people appear brighter before you hear them speak. Everyone has a scheme of getting rich.. Which never works. ( Oh God! Save my blog.)

If at first you don't succeed.. Destroy all evidence that you ever tried.

You can never determine which side of the bread to butter. If it falls down, it will always land on the buttered side.

Anything dropped on the floor will roll over to the most inaccessible corner.

42.7% of all statistics are made on the spot.

If you have paper, you don't have a pen??. If you have a pen, you don't have paper?? If you have both, no one calls.

If you have bunked the class, the professor has taken attendance.

You will pick up maximum wrong numbers when on roaming.

After a long wait for bus no.764, two 764 number buses will always pull in together and the bus which you get in will be crowded than the other.

The last person to be fired or quit is responsible for all the errors until another person is fired or quits.

Irrespective of the direction of the wind, the smoke from the cigarette will always tend to go to the non-smoker.

Bite

2007-12-07T05:48:00.000-08:00

here are some more interesting incidents of my oooh so boring life...

when i was very small around 30 inches tall...me and my cousin brother lalit ( i call him lalita pawar) (although 3 years my senior he wud have been around 31 inches) when to a temple for some type of langar...suddenly a girl came with a tiny bicycle and i cant remember why but we had an altercation.. that time i was too young to think about etiquettes and all that stuff...so me my bro geared up to fight...that was also up in arms...but there was a twist in tale..me and my bro started arguing to go first ..this led to a fight between ourselves....it was like you come to watch a india-pakistan match but instead get to see india-bermuda...a bout of madness meant for the girl took over me and i bit my brother on his stomach...the real drama unfolded when we reached home...his mom and my mom scolded me so badly that i was crying louder than him....but to his bad luck he still carries that bite mark...

Moral of the story: Don't mess with me...i can bite anywhere anytime...

2007-12-07T05:33:00.000-08:00

it is indeed strange...when i am offline i am brimming with ideas for writing on this blog but when i come down to writing , it all goes WOOOOSH.....same as it happens in your exam or can i say my exam atleast......
ab hum seedhe seedhe apni aukat pe aata hun....aur ek sher sunata hun..
mohabbat karne walo ko inkar acha nahin lagta..
dunia walo ko ikrar acha nahin lagta...
jab tak ladka ladki bhag naa jaye..
in saalo ko pyar sacha nahin lagta..

acha acha ek aur..

wo aayi hum dekhte rahe...
wo muskarai hum chup rahe...
wo bolti rahi humne suna nahin..
jab wo chali gayi...
hum chillaye... "Maam Attendance"...

Me and my Chetak

2007-12-04T05:14:00.000-08:00

what's the score???...this question was asked by my chem prac teacher who was taking my viva....cant believe it???...even i can't cause this happened in my dream...........

since the time i have mentioned about my blog and future earnings from it (which are too distant to dream about), all my class mates are interested in doing something like this for themeselves....this reminds me of a dialogue by akshay kumar in hera pheri...

" shahar basa nahi ki lutere pehle aa gaye"....

ok back to business now...this incident happened with me in class 12 vacations....i was learning how to drive a scooter after i had mastered the technique of driving a cycle, car, chopper..........my scooter is the bajaj chetak which i considered as too old and incapable of responding to a stimuli....how badly was i proved wrong....what made me nervous was the fact that i just couldn't kickstart it in less than 5 tries or the fact that i have still not mastered the technique of locking or unlocking it...another reason leading to anxiety was my habit of braking with my chappals on the ground while cycling (my concepts of friction were solid at that time also) or repeated trin-trin of the horn even when there was the need of an emergency brake...so the ground for the practice was a mud one although it had lots and lots of kankar-pathars.....during the fast trial my father was sitting besides me..it ended with an abrupt stop as i had left the clutch early...so the next time i told my father to get off and promised that i will not leave the clutch early as i had done for the previous 5 times and which had made me an object of interest for the gulli-danda players playing dere....so in this trial i pressed the clutch as hard as i could...put the vehicle in first gear...and then a terrible thing happened....my wrist turned and before i could realise that i had given full accelaration(stimuli)...the vehicle stood on one tyre , making an angle of 60 degree with the ground (response)...you could compare this with the legendary pic of maharan pratap on his horse chetak...i somehow brought it down ..but then suddenly i did the same mistake once again...and this time the angle was roughly around 75 degrees..the scene looked like maharana pratap on his horse chetak...the difference was that my inclination was higher...but as luck would have it i escaped unhurt from an incident which could have ruined me for life...i still laugh at myself at the memoriesof the gulli-danda players laughing at me after that incident...i imagine what would have gone through my father's mind when i was scooter-borne...

each and everything in this blog is true..apart from the fact that i fly choppers...

child psychology and Lalu

2007-12-02T11:00:00.000-08:00

this topic is as far from my curent condition as timbuktu is from chandni chowk.....tommorow is my engineering drawing practical and i am not studying..you know why ??....cause i am a firm believer in god....so dawa se zyada dua mein vishwaas hai...

ok lets get to the topic....the other day i saw a child fall down from the stairs...his first reaction was to look at his mother....when he saw no reaction coming from her side..guess what ..he dusted his clothes and began doing what he was doing earlier...

had this incident taken place due to someone else's fault, he would have created such a defeaning noise that would have put even sopranos to shame...the child gets extra enjoyment in getting someone else scolded and gaining that ego boasting amount of sympathy.....well i have always felt that i was the shareefest child in the town..........bt now things have changed .......as i have grown, my mother has stopped using the TAKIAKALAM that ' tere jaisa bachha to lalten leke dhundne se bhi nahin milega'..... u know my cause its not my fault....there is a dearth of laltens around since lalu has lost power in bihar......

i end on a good quote by LALU JEE--------------- jab tak rahega samose mein aaloo.....tab tak rahega bihar mein laluu.....

another important pledge...i have recieved 2 comments and both have told me not to use PJs...so main geeta aur seeta pe haath rakh ke kasam khata hun ki main PJs nahin marunga...

DON

2007-11-30T05:34:00.000-08:00

here is a good joke and not a PJ...
DON ke Phone ka intezaar 11 mulkoon ke doston ko hai, leki don ka phone aana mushkil he nahi namumkin hai, kyun ki DON ke sirf message free hai...calling nahin...
please laugh cause it will relieve you of the stress i will give you by regularly posting some nonsense..

Shree Ganeshay Namah

2007-11-29T23:10:00.000-08:00

Guys this is my first post. This is a new beginning for the world after the rebirth of Jesus. lets start with who else???......Me of course....OK..I speak if you insist so much....Main hun DON...

NO NO NO....no more silly joking....i vow will never show disrespect to such legendary dialogues by wasting them on me....I am SAHIL KALRA....you must have heard it somewhere.....Acha nahin suna to dont worry...it is not my fault...it is just your ear amplifier that is malfunctioning....so better visit an ENT specialist...if u want i can give you the contacts of some good doctors....dont worry no commision for me.....this blog will document alll what is happening in my life..u r life and life'life...sorry another PJ..{Poor Joke}....you will soon realise that i have a penchant for cracking jokes which are incapable of tickling a funny bone even in Sharks....Reason??.....cause-> they dont have any....yet another PJ...Fact->that huge body of theirs is entirely made of cartilages....inspite of being an engineering student i have sufficiently good knowledge in other fields and aspects of life which you wil soon come to know...this blog is a place for to keep yourself in touch with the most controversial topics...most debatable issues...and the most important thing...the most Bakwaas PJs...For more classified info....please leave in some comments...all Boquests and Brickbats will be recieved with open arms....