The Hardest Part

Will I be monotonous when I say "It's been a long time since my last post and I'm extremely sorry for such a delay”? Will I be repetitive when I say “I was busy and couldn’t find time”? Will I be stupid when I say “There hasn’t been much to share with you guys”?

The answer to all these questions would be a big yes.

Well, first thing first, I am not a professional blogger neither it’s a part of my job, heck I don’t even have a job right now. I blog coz I feel so. So please spare me for having taken six month hibernation from here. I promise that this won’t happen again, but hey promises are meant to be broken huh? Well jokes apart, I love you guys and that’s why I’m back here to share my life with you.

It seems last few month have gone in a jiffy, excluding the exam days coz they always pass with 1/8 x speed. As time has past, things are getting even more complicated; seldom have you met uncles and aunts who don’t talk about your job and future prospects. Suddenly it seems you are at the epicenter and everybody has nothing to do except to focus on your steps. It’s normal I guess, coz now is the time when the reel life ends and real life kicks. I called it a reel life, coz it is so. Consider the things we’ve been doing, first our parents got us in schools, we somehow managed to get the hell out of there and then there were colleges waiting to welcome out butts. Don’t you think it was part of a reel? We were actors in the script that had already been written, what best we could do was may be to edit a little bit but then, most of things were already set up. Now it’s all going to change in a year or so. But the boy inside me tells that all is not lost, and we still have one year of the reel life left and I should live every damn moment of it.

Mr. Payne’s thought have always preoccupied my head whenever I’ve sat to blog, “The past is a gaping hole. You try to run from it, but the more you run, the deeper it grows behind you, its edges yawning at your heels. Your only chance is to turn around and face it.” This guy’s cerebrum always seems to have a strange resemblance with that of mine. Only difference being, I’m less cynical than him. But then too, it tells me that the one year I’m talking about, is important like anything. It’s better to prevent and prepare then to repent and repair.

Wait a minute, what am I talking here? Things have gone very serious huh? And I assume writing such stuff is not at all my forte. I think my head is starting to get more concerned and worried. I shall try not to get into it again.

So let’s get back to business. The results of the fifth edition caused panic attack in most, like us. We were left in the position of nowhere to hide. It was a disgrace, surely. Reason being the fact three idiots (me Umi n Intel) got almost same numbers, each in the vicinity of 63%. That reflected the fact that we prepared together. That result couldn’t have pleased anybody except our seniors who always emphasized unity, I remember during the early days of first year we were given daily doses of “Unity Funda” by our seniors. The rule said juniors should be united in whatever they do and that was ‘academic performance inclusive’. In simple terms, if one of your batch mate failed and the rest passed this implies => batch will end up being ragged. Nevertheless there was slight difference, which was that we were now in third year and the result was purely “unintentional”, rather let me put in this way at this time there’s nothing like unity funda and every boy wants to kick out the other, what they forget is that we all are one legged freaks, when we pursue Bachelors in Engineering. The only respite we could have managed was through the fact that we scored good in the theory exams.“Humein to sessionals ne mara theory mein kaha itna dam tha”. We CS students have faced many atrocities by the hands of our own faculty; most of us were disgusted and irritated with things in previous semester. So things were bound to change and glad they did eventually in the next sem. “Change” was also applied to our ways. The sixth semester started with a pact between us, three (Umi, Intel and me) of us to be precise. We agreed that we will attend more classes and be more regular in college, given the fact that last sem’s poor performance was in a way related to our poor attendance.

We did manage to hold on the promise we made, and now hoping not to re-witness past results. Last semester went pretty well; the changes we resorted too gave some fruitful results. Most satisfying was our mid-semester scores, which got greatly improved.

In the meantime, MBA coaching also went okay. I understood the very basics of management, no not in coaching but in college itself. Allow me to put more light on matter; well on 14th of May we organized a farewell party for our seniors. And my o my, I could not ever have dealt more problems than I dealt while organizing this thing.

It was all Intel’s idea. One day he came up to me and said “Our seniors will be gone, coming this month”, I flatly said “hmm, toh”. “Toh what, don’t you think we should arrange some farewell party?” I said in mind “Thinking is what we’ve been doing ever since we got here”. I said “It’s going to be massive ask, considering many of our classmates would not be interested in such a thing”. I added logically “Moreover, exams are barely a month away and we know, we mess this time and we are messed like forever”. Intel then dropped the psychological bomb on me “Abe soch, what we give is what we take.....huh?” I couldn’t control grinning. The last line seem to have changed the psyche of mine, I got interested, it’s irony once your mind justifies a thing you just discount all the negative aspects, the “thing” can result in…in a way you are blind.

So there it started, quickly two more friends joined hands, Siddharth and Jibran. Both of these men are faculty favorites, we were particularly happy to have them in the team coz you know these are know less than “farishtey with a broker kind of mind”, they could talk with diplomatic intelligence which is exactly what is needed to convince the faculty. Siddharth “Sid” is 6 feet tall 80 kilo frame, 80 kilos remind me of an incident, once we went to IIT Delhi in 08 and on one morning, “Kambal Kutayi” was on, everybody had their share of beating but even 5 of us were unable to make this frame fall on ground, finally he himself got laid and we did business. Sid is one of the most knowledgeable guys in our class, no wonders he tops in the boys department but there’s more to him than meets the eye, he is one trustworthy friend. Jibran bhai aka “Jibz” is equally knowledgeable but frame wise he is more like us. Jibz is the guy to share your thoughts, very nice guy to speak to, you always feel comfortable with him. He gels up pretty easily with guys around him.

(pic: Farewell Invite , prepared by Geetanjali)

So it was set, Intel and I were the planners, Sid and Jib were the ones who got the plan authentic after faculty consent. Finally when it came to execution, it was shared by all keeping in mind individual expertise.

First thing we had to do was to fix the amount that was to be collected among ourselves, after heavy discussion we fixed it to be Rs 500. Considering collecting part, fixing was as easy as it gets, collecting was one heck of a tedious task, it is as easy as pricking a Doberman and as irritating as asking a change for Rs 1000 in a village. Jibs somehow collected the sum given his expertise in tackling and convincing crowd. For having an initial estimate, we decided to check hotel for organizing the event. We almost invaded each of the hotel in MP Nagar regions, and slowly but eventually came to terms with the things we ought to have in food or other stuffs. There came a time when we went insane while checking the food menus and DJ rates at the hotels. We were pissed big time, as when budget allowed, the hotel lacked what we wanted and when the hotel felt good, the prices went out of budget. We switched to Bargaining, Bargaining which made even the hotel managers go berserk.

To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is half empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

Well that’s what portrays an Engineer’s mind. I was not surprised to see this type of situation, when engineers observe things they look at things being optimum. And wastage of anything is just not tolerated moreover when the money that was going in was our own, Engineers are misers anyways.

Having searched for whole week, we all decided for Hotel called Pleasure Inn in heart of Bhopal. We then confronted with the faculty, they hardly sounded like what was not expected from them. After hours of discussion and severe questioning, we convinced them. Slowly but steadily we were marching on, after some early hiccups things were now moving. The most important aspect was dealt with, now it was time to decide how the event would be done. Outline was made for the same and it was obvious that we alone would not able to do it all, so we took help our classmates and many happily agreed to help us in the motion.

Firstly comparers were decided, it was decided that Intel n I would start the proceedings followed by others. Then gifts and prizes were also decided. For gifts we made it to new market. We decided watches will be good and a safe option. We decided to check inside the TITAN showroom. The man greeted four of us with typical smile. We were not in mood to return the favor; we just looked at each other. We told about our intentions for invasion there, after a minute another one came, this time lady came to us and smiled. This time we sarcastically smiled at each other. Soon she escorted us to the shelves there. Our budget was limited we had to do it under Rs. 1000, Rs 1100 at max. Now this is one thing I hate, whenever you touch a watch, these guys just take that one out and read their prize loudly. Moreover they just stand like security personnel besides you, you can’t even talk. But that’s all when you are with your family, when you are with your friends that too techies and moreover from GEC, these little things doesn’t bother you. As the lady said “800”, Intel said clearly “1000 mein do leni hai, hain kya?” She took us to a secluded shelve at the corner. People present there were buying high end watches, which was pretty evident from their gestures and talks which they had, not to forget the “you-idiots” looks they passed on us. The place we were taken had watches approx. Rs 600 worth. After half an hour of travelling inside show room, decision was not made so we made out of that shop without buying one. They must have been frustrated but who cares. Eventually we somehow managed to buy two watches from other shop. We bought other required stuff from the market and left.

The next day Jibz and I both went to City to book and order for the trophies rather I should say, mementos. We left directly from college towards Old City. Driving through Old City is an Experience, an Experience you’d love not to have. People in city drive like as if everybody is being chased down by police, they are in such a hurry that you’d conclude people there are the busiest. By God’s grace, both of us had another chance to have the divine experience of driving through 6 feet broad roads of city. The already pea sized roads are further narrowed when our very own oxen and cows form dividers in between. I always believe that once you drive through City, you are certified good driver; in a sense it’s better than a goddamn license. We reached the shop and booked the memento. Jibz didn’t waste any time to have snap of him holding the biggest trophy available there.

The next day, gifts were shown to the high command. To our good, they appreciated our choice. By the way, it wouldn’t have made any difference had they thought out of resonance. Still it felt good, everything was on track. On the night before farewell night, we left college at 6PM after clearing all the issues regarding any doubt and other matters with fellow mates. Intel and I had to prepare for the opening speech, and the position we were in a night before was as pathetic as one could imagine. Fortnight earlier we thought we both would do this and that, now we were left with almost no time. Intel and I decided to meet at his home and we’ll together prepare the opening comparing, and so we did.

“Bhaiyon aur aap sab ki behno” Intel started…I replied with a big naa and face full of grimace, coz really it was too lame. Intel insisted to me “Tu soch, vaise kuch socha hai itne dino mein” I replied with what I said to his previous Qn. We were heading nowhere with this. It’s irony when you are in desperate need of something; you go circling around that thingy. We dreamt we’d emulate SRK and Saif. But considering the condition then, we were no where….Pj’s that inavded our heads were as lame and idiotic, that even India TV would have edited it out. Certainly we too were as lame as the India TV reporters, who don’t know what to speak and when to speak. If we go like this tomorrow on podium, our condition would be as idiotic as it seems when reporter loses its ‘sampark’ with the correspondent on live news show. We searched the internet for some scripts and speeches, found nothing, all went in vain. It was clear we had to work our but off now, Intel then struck with a brilliant idea, he said it to me and it was great I felt. That’s what was missing, the start. Next lines panned out easily and the needed flow was achieved. Soon the script was ready and then I left.

14^th was the day and it had arrived, everybody was busy tying lose ends. On the same day,Self-Study Viva was scheduled for the internals. So we had to report to college as early as possible, after having done with the viva we left.

The Farewell Party started at 5 in the evening, Intel and I kick started the event with our comparing speech, thanks to God that all went well and nobody cracked at anxious moment.

After we were done, Jibz and Sid met us and said it was very good. So finally it was done and done well. The comparing was handled by others once we left the stage. It was satisfying to see the seniors who were very happy with the whole concept and arrangement there, even the faculty was very impressed. The whole event went well. Somehow we did it and by the look of things everything was okay. Everybody was happy and thanked us. Soon at around 11 PM everybody returned home.

(pics :All of us before the start of the night, Intel and I comparing the night.)

The four of us and some other friends went to Lake View to celebrate the success as if we had achieved honors degree. But really it was a big achievement considering nobody thought we would be able to do it and that too at such a scale. We chatted for an hour and then left for home. Intel dropped me home, the respite on both the faces was evident, and it feels good when you end up facing the brighter scheme of things

The Farewell saga was over and in mere 15 days time we were scheduled to date Exams. People went underground with their books. But here was I facing one more problem of event handling. 28^th May was the day of inauguration of our new home. A month back, when Mum asked me will it be okay for me if the date is 28^th, I replied so positively and confirmed that I’d do with studies as early as possible. And now I wish I had said no then. But it was too late, soon relative came pounding in my house, moreover I got severely ill during the last days of the month; I was a refugee in my own home. I still don’t know how I managed to study for the Microprocessor paper which was scheduled on the 1^st of June.

(pic: L2R : Jibz Intel me n sid).

Somehow I passed the torrid time. And now when I look back everything seems to be blur, how I passed the labyrinth? How I managed to walk through the boulevard? It’s crazy I tell you, the intricacy of time I passed is just impossible to convey. I don’t know if things would have been different, had I eschewed the things which I chose to do. The past instances tell me that, outcomes depend upon individual’s mindset. The world is surreal, often you do the right things and stand adrift of success while sometimes luck has its own things to say, and it helps you to win despite your faults. The least one can do is take everything that comes his way and work with them, avoiding things and situations might make you mono-dimensional rather a human being with limited abilities. I recall a coldplay single which ironically had the first line of the verse as “And The hardest part was letting go and not taking part”

The challenges you take and things you do in jeopardy is all that matters, may be you’ll fail but surely you’ll win.

I would like to end the post with a quote from a great Indian….

“Sometimes, People throw stones at you and you convert them into milestones”

For those who don’t know the name of this great Indian, he is someone called Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

Thanks for reading through,

Sha2nK

Life in Technicolor

Wednesday, 20 Jan 2010

It was cold January night, I rushed towards the pc in anxiety, switched on the pc, double clicked on Mozilla Firefox Icon, for once I didn't typed orkut in the address bar, instead I opened "sarkari" website train enquiry(dot)com. 2138 was the train number, I hastily typed it in the required field, waited for response, the feeling in my head could match those feelings which arise when I type roll no to witness by result, after few seconds, the result was out, my eyes grew wider, It displayed Network Connectivity Failure Try Again ,"Damn" I exhaled, pressed F5, the server was ready to show the inevitable...

2138 Punjab Mail delayed by 11 hrs.

"Disgusting", I shouted. Mom came from the adjacent room as if an intruder has broken through in my room, she asked what happened, I futilely tried to joke, "Fog there above us and havoc below on us ". Trains had been further delayed due to the fog prevailing in northern part; Punjab Mail was scheduled to report at 4PM.
I loved fog till that night, I recalled when I was child how I used to breathe heavily in air to see the 'dhuan', now the same condition got me pissed off big time.
Mum replied in a bantering tone, "Now, still weighing the idea to take Tiffin?" I kept silent. She was right what was the point in that? when I would be catching train two past midnight and that too can be stretched if the Punjab Mail had her own say.

I had the "breadpakodas" at the right time but not at right place, I was still in my home. I called Intel and told him about the news, he wasn't amused, guess he was prepared for the latest developments, he told he'd be coming at midnight and then we'll leave together for the station. I agreed.


Thursday, 21 Jan 2010

Bidding adios to everybody, I left towards station with Intel and one another friend, Manish. Let me have the divine pleasure to introduce this guy, he is quintessentially moron and effortlessly intelligent, yes that's it, He can bark of Pj's at ridiculous rates and amidst most clumsy circumstances, you cannot imagine the capacity of this guy to speak, I'd say he can utter endlessly in his own coffin, full "bakar babua" hmm.. BB. BB is strangely similar to character played by Paresh Rawal in that Anil Kapoor Movie Judaai which featured nonsense of epic proportions. But whatever said and done, he is undoubtedly one heckuva mate. I'd keep more of him coming further.

We reached Habibganj, the typical voice of a lady greeting day in day out at the station greeted us happy journey, I was particularly happy the journey had begun, though there were share of minor misapprehension about tour itinerary.
The biggest concern was the accommodation problem there in IIT Bombay. Intel had some courage restored in us when he said he might resolve the problems thanks to his brother who is at IIT KGP. It was still 1 hour for the train to arrive, BB knew it, we knew it that it was time BB starts his business, and so he did.

We met some of our other friends at the station itself, there were some other students also who were heading towards the same destination, they had their luggage plus a robot or gadget or whatever with them, insincere one's like us were minus the gadgets coz, we hadn't prepared any, rather we didn't had time to make one. Thankfully the train arrived at 2AM, we sighed, one citizen was still in a condition to to make philosophy out of the situation there, "Now-a-days people are faster than trains, see how our fast life has been made to standstill by a slow train, though the faster ones try to impress but slower one always has the last laugh and world has to wait for them", all hail the Indian 'Aristotle', There are two types of men in this world one who choose to bow down in front of such 'aristotles' and other who beat them down, I was in latter category, but a little Gandhian too so beating down was out of question.


Suddenly the crowds seem to grew, as it always seems when a train arrives. We boarded the train. After some early chaos, we were able to place our bums and then our back. Early Morning, a sound got me awake, SMS in the mobile read Welcome to Maharashtra/Goa. So we were out of our state, Intel and BB, both were asleep, I didn't had any option so, I too got laid again. It must be around 11 AM when I got up again. God, I couldn't believe I was sweating, people in our compartment were talking about the extreme weather in Vidarbha region, I could realize it as I had seen the practical. I removed the jacket and then the sweater, Intel and BB too got awake for the same reason, they too unloaded their Kevlar. Head dizzy and nose choking, I got off from the upper birth to brush my teeth. After an hour all of us were done with our biochemical acts.
We joked around for an hour while eating the laddoos and stuff Intel had brought, a local of Mumbai told we'd reach the Dadar in about 2 hrs time. The heat was increasing fast, for us Bhopalis it was tough. We passed through sub-urbs into the cities heart. The train reached Dadar at 3PM. Finally we stepped on the city. The station wasn't overcrowded we got out easily without much pain, now it was time to Refer someone local and Proceed to our destination , this RnP(refer and proceed) exercise was a must , coz we didn't had any clue about the city as all were first-timers. RnP specialist Intel came to know it would take Rs. 400, if we take a taxi to IITB, he asked for our thoughts, we said in unison "Local".
It was time, that we were about to board a local, Intel said “wallet in front trouser pocket”, we abided it. One wish was going on for completion, the experience wasn't bad either. We reached the Kanjurmarg station safely, it was nearest to IIT, and from there we hired an Auto. At around 5PM we were in the Campus, Intel was busy in solving the accommodation problem, glad he succeeded in it. The campus was beautiful, far from the typical Mumbai stuff, we were happy that we were staying there itself.(pic:L2R Intel Umi and BB)

Head spinning legs paining we decided to sit on pavement for some time. Soon after, a familiar creature dressed in black, came towards us with his trademark grin, it was Umi. Umi unlike us was looking fresh as always, we on the other hand could very well have been mistaken for coal mine workers that day. We talked a bit and then left for allocated hostel.
Intel BB and I were allocated one room while Umi had his with some other friends.

H2-B6-46 was the name where we had to go, hostel no 2 Building no 6 room no 46. If you forget that, God help you, coz these IIT's are jungles (a little more civilized of course), you can get missing there. Many thanks to the guy who dropped us there via his Sumo, hospitality there were winning hearts of us if not others.
When we reached the room, we met other room mates. Mercifully, they were from Bhopali and to add to that, two were friend of mine. They had occupied the front room and we had kitchen waiting for us. It was nice as we three were separate, and could sleep or talk or do whatever till we like without disturbing others. We parked ourselves there on the mattress to take some rest. One by one everyone was using wash basin to get fresh and unknowingly were planning my fall. I got up to wash my face, just as I was walking towards basin my leg slipped and 'thudd', four familiar faces were staring with concern over me, I too was concerned, initially for my mobile and then my a**. Some relief to see mobile fine, next I checked my status, some bruises in hand but thankfully bone count was the same. Intel and BB opted not to laugh about it. I tried to wear the plastic smile to somehow hide the agony. As a techie myself, I tried to figure out the cause of my downfall, soon realized the fall was due to the soap water on tile, Intel was concerned, he was fast to understand anybody could be next, so he laid some newspapers to avoid further damage to anyone, and as it turned out in the few days, I was the only sufferer.

It was decided that we would go to Hiranandani for dinner, classmates were informed and off we went. Mr. Hiranandani must be freak, the high rise apartment was fabulous, though I'm not a civil engineer still I could imagine the work done behind the beautiful construction. No wonder why Mumbai is city of dreams, it’s just an irony, the city having areas like hiranandani also possess the largest slum of Asia.
Intel shouted "Here it is...", I thought he'd be showing a Porsche or a Mercedes for that matter, instead he shouted "Sanjay Singhania's home", I gazed at the building, "Yeah, it's the same" I exclaimed. Staring for a minute, we moved forward and had dinner there at the Dominos, no water no sauce Dominos sucked when it came to service, though the pizza was good. We ate like prisoners in shawshank state prison, reason being two, one pizza tasted awesome and second, the ever longing wait for dinner. Even if the taste was substandard the second reason wouldn't have compelled us to eat like normal.


Friday, 22 Jan 2010

Tummy filled, we marched back to the campus, though the legs could take no more but we had no other options. We crawled for another 3 Kms where girls had their room, and then came tracing back. While returning, we met Umi baffled, sitting on the pavement holding the Campus map, Intel and I asked reason for his puzzled face, he told he was lost and couldn't find the hostel, we could have laughed till morning had we had the energy, but we were ourselves in miserable condition forget the laughing quotient, we didn't had any idea for his room, he urged us to wait till his room mate arrived there, Intel already going mad was further pissed off, we waited till his mate arrived and then left for our room. Legs forgot to pain, we lost the feeling that we even had them. Talking about my condition, one hip already thrashed in painful incident, it was like a one-legged man in a bum kicking competition.
Somehow our feet took us home, head resembling pendulum in simple harmonic motion, legs resembling thread which can split any second, condition as comfortable as a bum on porcupine, we slept like men deprived of sleep for a month.

"Bhool ja jo hua use, bhool ja hai kasam tujhe, muskura
khud ko na de yun saza un yadon ko tu bhool ja "
Intel's N79 was barking at full volume, I woke up, wondered the song had same thought as in my head, past night was dreadful, I needed to move on so 'bhool ja' was nice. At back of the mind, I wouldn't have betted against the fact that same last night condition was fortuned today too. Still we must HOPE in our heart, like Andy said in Shawshank Redemption "hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies", however my evil mind couldn't resist Mr. Freeman's thought too which ironically said "Hope is a dangerous thing, Hope can drive a man insane...".

"Early Morning today, Umi's trials held, his RC Glider has made through the 1st round", Intel informed...
"Great, certi pakka na?" I replied, Intel added “No idea, but he may have one, seriously he has worked his butt off for this airplane of his”. We finished with bathing and other ‘basic’ acts till 2PM and left for excursion in the city. Umi too joined us today. First, we went again to Mr. Hiranandani's world to have lunch, while walking on the footpath some foreign stuff fell on my hand from above, "Shit", I said, not figuratively but practically, I looked above, some crow had defecated its tummy. Umi was particularly very happy at the scene, laughing heavily to avenge the fun we made of him early morning today. Umi, I guess, do not knew the famous lines which I very well knew till then....(pic L2R: Me,BB Intel and Umi)

Little bird in the sky,
You look up and it Shit's In Your eye,
You don't mind and you don't cry,
Just thank God that cows don't fly...!

That’s the power of positive thinking.
We had lunch and in evening left for Siddhivinayak Temple. The autowalas are very irritating here in this city, they have their own 'tashan' as if they don't give a damn to the ‘sawaris’. BB joked "What the hell, do they love to wander alone..??", may be yes, whenever you speak to them they don't reply they just do two things number one - If they 'like' your told destination, they just twist the meter, that symbolizes - Get In, otherwise, they accelerate their auto at 2x. May be one should see the scenario in Bhopal. Here they choose their prey ever since they are spotted and then follow urging them. As autos were tough to find, we decided BEST Bus as alternative, Intel begun with his RnP and founded which bus will leave to Kanjurmarg, as the bus arrived, the women behind me started shouting "Aee hero, kaii ree, pudhe chala", I could have acted if I knew what was she shouting. We got hurriedly in the bus, my father has twice been to Mumbai, he told me an easy way to get in a BEST or a Local here, He said just be in front of the gate, the rest will be done by people behind you, even if you don't want to get in, you'll end up getting in it. I tried his technique and it worked, "Hell yeah" I shouted, Intel started member count, everybody was in the bus except Umi, Umi was nowhere to be seen, "Where's this dumbo" I said, BB shouted "Umesh…", from somewhere he replied "I'm in..I'm in”. But where is he we thought. After a minute his face splashed between people, always smiling Umi wasn't smiling, reason - a lady was holding him from behind and for Umi's misery, she was the same 50 odd year lady shouting at me earlier. I couldn't have laughed more.
Again the conductor greeted me with "pudhe chala..pudhe chala", I asked Intel what's this Pudhe chala he told it's marathi for move forward. ''Oh'', I exclaimed.

These two words, instantly conjure up an image of a khakhi-dressed, harried conductor in a lurching, crowded BEST bus full of sweaty tired passengers for anyone who's been in Bombay now Mumbai.

I'd say, a conductor is the person who punches out the tickets and collects the correct fare for your journey. That's the job profile. But he is also the person who can alter your mood, make you belligerent by acting stuffy, make you plead (for your life, onlookers might think) when he says "kya hai?....chutta nikalo nahi to uttar jao" in the bus which when running exactly on schedule comes in intervals of 50 minutes.

The bus dropped us at station from where we took a local to Dadar. As we had to move in local, wallets were in front pocket of trouser. From Dadar we again took a BEST to reach the Ganesh Mandir. As 26th Jan was approaching, there was checking everywhere nearby the premises of the Mandir. We were 5 minutes late otherwise could have witnessed the magnificent Ganpatichi Aarti, we stood outside for half an hour and then made inside, it was beautiful temple, even the Atheist could turn into a worshipper, such was the ambiance inside the place.

After having dinner, nearby we got back to Dadar to catch local back to IIT. I took the tickets and everybody followed to the platform, the legs were already pleading for mercy. Once we reached the platform, we witnessed the original flavor of Mumbai Locals, believe me there were hundreds on the platform and hundreds pouring every minute through the foot over bridge from either side. Intel said as always “Keep your wallet and mobile in front pocket of the trouser...”Nobody argued and did as he said. I was particularly troubled as I had my digital camera, goggle along with mobile and wallet. We moved down to the platform, the crowd was growing exponentially and the probability of us getting in the train was nearing Zero, 5 locals passed and no change in the scenario, we decided we'll be dropping this idea and rather go again for BEST though it will take time. We took a BEST and got back till midnight.


Saturday, 23 Jan 2010

There were many students still coming, quite a contingent from south, given Techfest has biggest stature down there.
BB Intel Umi and I strolled back into the campus, suddenly it struck Intel's mind "Mortein", "Oh no, we missed it again" he added, Umi was smiling as his room had a fan, while we were pissed by mosquitoes last night as we didn't had fan in our room.BB got out to bring one hoping some of the shop was still open. He came back smiling; thankfully he had the coil in his hand. Umi accompanied us, to see where we stay. We got home at around 1AM, Soon after Umi left to his room. We slept like a log.
The next day, BB and Intel left early to watch Umi's event, 'Blackbird' was the name. I was busy sleeping so I didn't joined. At 11 Intel called and said "If you want to take part in Astroquiz be here in 15 min". I wanted too, I got ready and left, the quiz was like NASA's would take for recruitment, barely attempted some before finally I left. The rest day we spent in IIT itself, watching various events.(pic:at night inside the campus)

In evening we were out again, we went to the famous place Taj Hotel and Gateway of India, shooting of sa re ga ma pa had been going on there till evening, now it was over, still the stage and lights were on, we were not idiots to miss out on some pics there, so we had a lot of them snapped.


Sunday, 24 Jan 2010

At around midnight, we went to Marine drive, it's the life of the city, I'm not overcooking it, it surely is. Pleasant breeze was flowing across, we all decided to stay there for more time and so we did until ‘thullas’ arrived. We moved from there at about 2.30AM and then moved to CST. It was again turning out to be one heck of a night. At night there wasn’t rush at the station, but still you can easily make out people were gradually increasing. I could see the same place where the attack occurred, until then it was only on a 21" TV screen.

Intel took tickets, no idea about the ‘01.40ki last local’ but we were about to board the '04.00 ki pehli local’. Intel this time exceeded all barriers and for the RnP, he chose the local train driver itself. "Bhaiiya, ye kanjurmarg jayegi naa ?" Intel asked the driver, and then said to us "go n sit in it, not in 1st class...”. Intel had broken all records I mean, how can you ask the driver himself? It was crazy.BB was still having in him to bark Pjs. Umi as always was calm. Intel was feeling sleepy. I was watching them all so that I could have written it now. Back in hostel at 5 in morning, we slept till 2PM rather we had too, to get batteries recharged. Again we spent the day in campus attended some workshops and events, and later at night, we went to Haji Ali dargah. Waves in the Arabian Sea were ferociously striking the dargah foundation, producing soothing sound while the breeze kept flowing through our hearts. The aura was such that any saint wouldn’t take much time to write couplets depicting the sheer exquisiteness of the place. Amidst the time spent there, I kept humming A. R. Rahman’s composition from the movie Fiza.(pic: Haji Ali)


Monday, 25 Jan 2010

The next stop was @ Disc, though I and Umi were not particularly interested but we still made there for the unanimous choice of other friends. We danced and enjoyed a lot till the time we were burnt up. We were nowhere in a condition to take a local waiting till 4AM in morning, so we to took a taxi from there straight to the campus, and then slept like we’ve been sleeping for past 3 days. We had to check out today so we left after having breakfast at cafeteria. We left IITB at around noon, It was a great stay there; we enjoyed every bit of it. All four of us booked a room near Dadar. The room was chosen by BB, it was on the 2nd tier, while we were going up for the first time, it didn’t looked good as the staircases seemed that they could dismantle any second. But when we reached the room it was okay. A fan, TV with cable, 2 beds …who could have asked more @ Rs 800 per day.
In the evening, we watched Avatar in 3D. Everybody was awestruck after watching the mesmerizing imaginary planet Pandora created by Cameron. Bandra - Worli Sea link was the next stop. It surely is one of the best engineering wonder of Modern India.
We knew, we had to leave for Bhopal the next day, so we didn’t made delay in getting back and possibly for the first time we entered our room before midnight.(pic:Bandra-Worli Sea Link)


Tuesday, 26 Jan 2010

Today was the day to leave. We planned out schedule carefully as delay could lead to misery. Some wanted to shop, so after lunch we made to Lifestyle Mall and after finishing with shopping went to Bandstand at the evening, Bandstand is popular sea-shore there, mind you ‘scenic’ beauty is in abundance there. We hastily walked along side the shore and captured some idiotic moves on film. We were already getting late, so we were hurrying through the places there. A friend of ours called Intel and informed that Punjab Mail is late by 4 hours and it will arrive at Midnight. Now for the 1st time train being late sounded great, everybody had more time now so we relaxed and patiently moved out from there. We hired an auto from there to nearest Local Station from where we can reach Dadar from where our train was scheduled. Umi and I were in one while Intel and BB were in the other auto. The autowala we had was totally freak, he was driving like crazy and was making mockery of traffic rules. For the first time in my life, I panicked in a 3 wheeler. Our autowala reminded me of the person who drove James Bond in an Auto in a VISA commercial aired in yesteryears.(pic: Bandstand)
After a stay of 5 days here, I’ve got four facts about this crazy city…

1. Mumbai is all about Mind and Matter, I don’t mind and you don’t matter.
2. Mumbai, a strange city where Pizza Guy will reach your home faster than an ambulance.
3. Elsewhere in India people drive on the left, here in Mumbai people drive on what is left.
4. In Mumbai you find Porsches, Mercedes, BMWs blazing away in meters distance from a vendor selling shirts at Rs 20 or Lime/Orange Juice at Rs 3 or a girl begging for single coin.

Intel decided to meet some of his friends so he left for the same, while Umi, BB and I got a local to churchgate to do some shopping at Fashion Street ( chor bazaar ), which we did and came back to Dadar at 10.30 PM, when we came back another shock awaited us, our beloved Punjab Mail was late again by 4 more hrs.


Wednesday, 27 Jan 2010

The never ending saga of the train and us continued. We decided to wait in the waiting room, to pass the time we started ‘dehla-pakad’ with our cards, uncle seating nearby too joined us, by the looks of that guy, one can imagine he was a self-obsessed man, but he really played well and was nice guy. We played cards till 3 in the morning and then got ready to leave and ten minute later we were on the platform waiting for the train. After sometime the train arrived, we got safely inside and after 2 minutes the journey back from the land of dreams to the land of reality commenced. We slept peacefully, Intel was going till Khandwa, his station arrived at 2PM, BB was still caught in sleep. Umi and I got down from the train to bid adios. It was a strange feeling, we’ve all been together from the start and now one was leaving. Intel left.
We came back and slept again. In the evening we were in Bhopal, some of us chose HBJ to step down, while some went till main station. As train arrived Habibganj, some of us stepped out of the train, while BB and Umi chose to step down at Bhopal Station. Waving goodbye to each other we left. I called my friend to drop me home. He said he’d be coming in 15 min. So I waited, there as it turned out it was exactly the same spot where Intel, BB and I were standing at night of 20th chatting and joking. The lady greeted passengers in her monotonous voice, a group of guys (three to be precise) were standing beside me, one was joking other two were laughing, just like us few days back at the same place. Nothing changed except may be time.

The journey was over, head was feeling dizzy as was when I landed at Dadar, but the reason differed wildly. I was not tired like I was 5 days back when I stepped in Mumbai, instead there were strange feeling hovering over my head, I couldn’t figure out them, may be my mind was being too stubborn to realize the authenticity of the moment. Hence the dizziness and may be hence the hangover. May be my mind was still wandering near the ghatkopar or dadar or mahim or kanjurmarg or IITb itself.
The strange interactions inside of me were put to rest by Baba(one of best friend) who came to drop me home. I said “sorry bro, couldn’t meet you there” Baba replied “its okay yaar, roz to milte hain” and winked at me. I said so coz, he also went to Mumbai for the same, but timings didn’t allow us to meet at least for once.


Present Day, 2 Hrs back.

Life has invaded various corners in past month, sometime challenging, sometime easy, sometime stiff, sometime fragile, sometime happiness, sometime sorrow. If each factor in life is a color then I’d say it’s been in Technicolor.
Mum called from adjacent room, “Shashank, do you have change of 100?” I replied “Yeah, wait I’m giving”. “Where’s the wallet”, I said in my mind while searching rear pocket of my jeans, stood up and checked study table and TV set. It wasn’t there. I checked the college bag, search was in vain. Then suddenly, Intel’s voice broke in my head “Keep your wallet and mobile in front pocket of the trouser...” I gave the change to her. Mum asked “Found it?” I gestured smiling yes, said in my mind “yeah, Intel helped me”.

Let me rewind a bit.....

Hey Guys,
I'm back for those who thought that I was gone and all those who missed my posts. And those who thought otherwise and didn't miss my posts are lying coz, they wouldn't be reading this then.

Gone where?
Boss, I too need to study, and moreover joining MBA coaching is last semester had made life more complicated or does it..? well I'll decide it later.

First Lemme wish y'all a very happy Twenty 10.

So apologies for such a delay after last post, it is not that I didn't tried, it is that I always felt short of ideas, when I was with the Idea, I felt short of words and when I was with idea and words I was short of time. So in short, I was short of something or the other.

This future Engineer has done with 5/8 th of his engineering or simple speaking I've done with my 5th sem and now hoping that results don't drag me into trouble. Papers went okay, this time I dated books along with my two other friends Umi and Ravi , the only similarity between these two idiots is evident here itself which is both names Umi and Ravi rhyme well, apart from this they are like Electrostatic charges "OPPOSITE" but there's a difference here too i.e. they don't attract ......or ideally they should not attract ..........but do they ? well that's out of the scope of this post :P. Ravi is an intelligent guy, makes sharp comments and remarks..I'd say he is Mr. Intel while Umi is like a Intel motherboard works well until undisturbed once disturbed can get difficult to manage, umi is short tempered but one helluva mate always good to share thoughts with him.

Let me tell you how my life turned, in these last 2-3 months .

The past two months have been pretty hectic to say the least, Let me rewind the clock to 15 Nov 2009. If I'm not horribly wrong 15th Nov was the date when our second midsems commenced (I already told earlier that we have best of 3 midsems as if a CB series Final in Australia ).
As the dates came out Mr Cool particularly went livid, the reason was also rigid which was, 17th was the day of his elder brothers marriage. To say that Mr Cool was the only one who went nuts would be understatement, we also went mad coz the faculty rescheduled the exam dates to mid november, earlier it was in 1st week, the situation was out of our hand and everybody came terms with the schedule, though some like us and Mr Cool himself were unhappy.

But Frankly speaking it didn't make helluva difference coz, we still made to the sangeet and Reception without iota of tensions of midsems the next day. Glad we did made to the reception that day..Speaking of 17th ..Mr Cool image flashes in my mind...the image of him meeting us on the eve ....he was surely looking like a groom but thankfully wasn't acting like one. He welcomed us and dragged into the "Baarat"..we got into the crowd and wasted no time to begin with our idiotic moves , don't know whether the camera guy got us on the tape or not, but surely we must have been looking jerks condidering the way we were doinmg our move . The night was great, everybody enjoyed, as the time clocked 2AM in morning we hesitantly decided to leave..we didn't had any options either.Wishing Good Luck to bhaiya and Adios to Mr Cool we left from there, exhausted and burnt.
(Picture)All of us on eve of 17th


The next day (18 nov )was an ordinary day ...what was special was our eyes..in one night it went from Aamir Khan's to Salman Khan's....it was CGM paper today....There were few mistakes in the Question paper, Intel found it and reported it to concerned only to get scolded ...he was furious and more importantly he was right...but authority didn't thought in resonance , Intel thought it was better to leave and so he did. Sometime later I also left the room.
Umi Intel and I met after the paper.Sandeep "Sandy" too joined the conference, Sandy is one guy which gives me hope , he is not like us as he is very sincere when it comes to study. Umi and I knew it was Now or Never scenario for us coz next was Theory of Computation (TOC) and we were in such a condition that even acquiring a minimum positive integer as our marks was a tough job , given our sir pass out of an IIT were setting the paper . Sandy also had his feet in water in TOC so he along with Umi and I urged Intel to teach something about TOC, Intel agreed , it was decided that we will switch to group study and go for a night stay at Umi's den.

It was tough, real tough ...for those like us who hadn't even held a Shivani forget the book in hand till then. Intel did a coaching for the subject and we are glad that he did, otherwise things would've been different. Intel started with the Finite State Automata and explained basics, as always Umi Sandy and I kept saying typically "Are ye to easy hai yaar, main to ise har kitta tough samjhta tha" , this made me realize the fact that problem is not within the problem, it lies within the one who solves it. Every now and then Intel made a point to remind us how happy he was that he joined the coaching and the 1000 bucks were fully meaningful.I also everytime happily reminded my mind that knowledge worth of Rs 1000 is getting free to us . But who can deny our pathetic condition, we were in a hole and the Max Payne thoughts were bingo " The genius of the hole: no matter how much time you spend climbing out, you can still fall back down in an instant. "
We studied till 4 AM, rather we had to, and then when our head could take no more we put an end to it, we completed a good part of 2 units and that
was very pleasing. Sleep can never be more satisfying as it is one which is achieved after such exhaustive study.I dreamt that I topped the TOC paper but dreams have a nasty habit of going bad when you're not looking.
Intel as always, stood up first in the morning and made us awake.
(picture)TOC Study (L2R Sandy,Umi,Intel and I)

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After one day , When the teacher was about to give the Qn paper , my head struck again with a Max Payne quote "Einstein was right. Time is relative to the observer. When you're looking down the question paper, time slows down. Your whole life flashes by, heartbreak and scars. Stay with it, and you could live a lifetime in those few seconds " of course it's a bit moulded but it seemed Max's thought were spot on for an Engineer, TOC paper went okay...at least for us who were nowhere in a position to fill 2 pages a day earlier and now we filled a sheet. All thanks to Intel.

Next few days went unnoticed as it was time of externals and vivas.I love vivas solely due to reason that you everyday see valuable expressions on your classmates faces which otherwise seem to be too monotonous, expressions mind you are in close proximity of names of two Bond movies, some have "Die Another Day" expressions and some have "The world is not enough " expressions, we certainly belong to second category and are never unnerved by these viva stuff....while some belonging to former category always feel more nerves here than in End Sem Exams . Externals too passed us.

Time passed and we were again waiting for out encounters with RGPV papers for 5th time...they were scheduled from 22nd December 09, the exam date came as huge shock as people were expecting to be in January. Rumours regarding change of dates of exam flooded the net, many students were in a fix regarding dates. Rumours are one thing which are a necessity in RGPV , there are rumours of every kind ..just choose yours and propagate, one won't be surprised to know that they propagate fast then most wild fires.I recall my friends from Private Insti's calling me day n night to ask are these dates fixed and permanent ?, they usually go in with the feeling that I being a GEC student will be more trusted source.But the truth is very much evident from the fact that we ourselves are in dilemma let alone clearing doubts of others.Though I very much enjoy doing 'netagiri' when it comes to such a case.

The dates were not changed and we had exams from 22nd.

Again Umi Intel and I decided it was time when we'll have to meet, dates were fixed and we met , this time more seriously as we knew any mistake now, can easily lead to hazardous consequences most dreadful would be the case in which we are going to give exams with our juniors, the thought itself is very intusive let alone the reality of it. Sandy this time decided to study alone as most sincere lads resort to. We divided each subject course in three parts , each did his bit and explained to others, who says school knowledge doesn't help, Divide and Rule British Policy which we studied in Grade 8 in school found implementation in Engineering, not only implementation, we understood the policy much better in Engineering than when we did in 8th grade. This was how we did it rather this was the only way we had to do it. For the 1st time in my life I studied on 31st eve... Intel made it memorable as he bought some Swiss Chocolates which we ate at 12.00am, we took a break and danced a bit or rather moved a bit coz, dance would be too graceful word.Umi's moves were something I can't forget for rest of my life. We celebrated New Year with books and chocolates inside umi's home.
(picture: New year celebrations)

Days of Death, 22nd to 5 Jan passed in a jiffy, on 5th it was all over,the 3 idiots did it, how well we did it hmm ...Time will tell.We decided that we'll have a day's rest and on 6th we'll have a day's trip to Indore and so we did.All went well and we enjoyed the trip certainly the journey in general compartment is well remembered.
(picture: on way to Indore)



Time is passing very quickly, as if God has enhanced the angular speed of our earth, the past months have been a great experience for me, I'd say I will thank exams as they have made me understand friendship better.....and most certainly I've understood my friends better, learned to help each other and most importantly I've spent some valuable moments with my friends which I'll surely cherish, later on in my life and hopefully they'll too.

I'd like to end this post with these lines from Thomas Jefferson

"But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life; and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine."




Thanks for reading through.....
sha2nk