Prologue
Thank you first of all, if you have reached
here. This thing coming below is way too long, you might want to bring some
snacks before you start. I will not be able to guarantee a quality read, but
will guarantee that I have put in everything I have got to write this on paper.
Thursday, 13 Jan 2011,
Bhopal
After having the late dinner, I sat down in front
of my computer. The clock down the bottom right screen flashed 11.00 PM. I
wondered that January was never as cold as it was this season, it was a chilly
night, and I'd not be exaggerating if I say that Bhopal could have been
confused for a hill station during these days. The mercury recently dropped to
as low as 2 degrees. As the night grew, the streets went abandoned, covered
with a strange silence. The night silence was only pampered by the disgusting
sound coming out from motorcycles- minus-silencers revolving endlessly in the 'maut ka kuan',
not to forget the voice of the foolish announcer who barks at ridiculously high
rate with trademark redundancy of the content and in a typical tone of his. To
give him stiff competition is another guy “Aiyye dekhiye teen aankh wali aurat,
6 taang wala kutta ”. I wonder anybody could be at his wits end if
he is made to listen to such an ear sore continuously. Bhopal Utsav Mela is annually
in the month of January near my place, all these sounds originate from the same source. Ever since my
childhood, I've been hearing this stuff and may be now I'm somewhat accustomed
to it, but still sometimes it can distract the hell out of you. It was one such
day.
C'mon, I said as I switched on the router.
Damn, I exhaled, when the browser flashed
'Connection Error, Try Again Later'.
Sh*t, I shouted, when two of the four LEDs on
router refused to glow.
Once again, I toggled the switch.
C'mon, I said as I switched on the router.
Damn, I exhaled when the browser flashed
'Connection Error, Try Again Later'.
Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t, I shouted when two of the four
LEDs on router refused to glow.
So here was the Moral Science Lesson no. 1,
When you are desperately in need of something,
the thing is anything but available.
It was already near midnight and I was
unable to log in to gtalk. TCS was scheduled to conduct Campus Drive on 15th
of the month, and the reason I was so desperate was the fact that I had no CV
till then. I was looking for someone to mail me the format. Well that's what I
would have asked from him, inside I was looking for the complete
CV....analogically the fact that when you go in someone's home, you agree for
tea while still weighing the idea of something more. But all that when the
router was shining with all its possible lights. I tried again and again,
finally the net got connected.
After quickly scrolling the list, I was relieved
to find him online. Wondering who ‘him’ is, well let me reintroduce Mr. Ravi,
rather Intel is the name for him here. Intel, the quintessential product
of an engineer with professionalism and uncanny attitude. I tell you, his
is a rare breed. Another typical property of the guy is his ability to remain
online on chat servers! Amazingly, you can find him online at any time. You
ping him and back is the reply.
With shivering fingers thanks to both cold and
anxiety, I typed this message on gtalk "bhai jaldi resume forward kar
na plzzz". Reply came within microseconds "bhaad mein ja",
Hindi phrase for “Go to hell”. That
was anything but unexpected. I insisted that I shall change all the content and
it will surely look different from his resume, but he was not amused. I pleaded
him again and again. Eventually he succumbed to my emotional attyachaar. He gave me the format of the resume. Getting
the format was as satisfactory as having ‘sabudana khichdi’ with ‘rajgirey ki
chikki’ on a long fasting day. Now half the
job was done but one half of the tedious task was waiting for my effort. After
thanking him numerously, I logged off. Sure he would have been cursing me, but
I guess these are little things without which your engineering is incomplete;
this was the philosophical angle to it. The practical angle would suggest that
whatever is your friends’ is equally yours. This should very well be the motto
of B.E.
What is my career objective?
Logically speaking, to earn money, loads of it.
Hmm that’s probably it.
A unanimous answer, I guess for anybody. But
that’s anything but suitable to write there. Basically you start your CV with a
big lie. And the irony is the better you lie, better are your chances to
achieve your logical career objective. Google was the rescuer here; I assume I
was not the only one who was searching for his career objective on Google. I
found the cheesiest lines and pasted them. Up next was the technical skill
column, after pondering for minutes, I decided to include Java along with
C/C++.I was reasonably okay in C/C++. Speaking of Java, I had as much idea
about this language, as Java the island. Still I wrote it, A because my friends
were writing it and B, because my friends were writing it.
Lesson No. 2 : What you
end up writing in a CV, is what your friend(s) end up in theirs.
I tried to convince myself by thinking I had a
full course of core java, so I wasn’t as naive as I would look. Speaking of the
coaching, it reminds me of the terrific tutor I had their. This man was
arguably one of the weariest men I saw till then. He was typically
disinterested in the class, often after giving some class assignment he used to
glide along the floor with his upper body completely still, like a haunted
spirit depicted in the epic Alif-Laila. Only
respite, he didn’t use to laugh like them. You can now understand how I’m
blaming my scarcity of knowledge on Java to the indifferent nature of my tutor.
Still like a responsible student, I do take half of the blame on myself.
Next I started with the trainings and projects.
After specifying each one of them, I wrote in other fields fairly quickly.
Still it took me 3 hours. Finally I was finished with 80% of the job till 3 AM.
Friday, 14th Jan 2011
I was committing spelling errors at high rates,
I knew it was time. I guess it’s a great reminder for one to realize that you
need a long sleep!
The next morning after doing basic bio-chemical
acts, I started with the CV again. And around till noon I was done with it. I
took the soft copy to get it printed. Nearest place was the Jawahar Chowk
Market officially known as the Indira Market, hardly anyone knows the official
name. I wonder how many of the bhopalis
know the Dushyant Kumar Tyagi Marg unless they are told the road connecting
Roshanpura to New Market and then to the Jawahar Chowk is officially called by
that name. I recall an incident, once my family went to Bangalore and there we
were traveling to a place called or I should say officially called as Gurudev
Rabindra Nath Tagore Nagar. While in the bus we asked the conductor whether he
would go to the Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore Nagar. He bluntly said in a
bantering tone that such a place didn’t exist in whole of the city. With flat
face my dad looked at me, I suggested that we should call uncle; on STD the
uncle replied that we should look for RT Nagar and you’ll be ok. The next bus
conductor happily confirmed the route and we were quickly on that bus. Well
that was the story; it’s quite strange such situation arises everywhere. In
Bhopal too, you might be facing a similar answer while looking for Tatya Tope
Nagar or Sant Hirdaram Nagar.
Huh, back! So I went to the Jawahar Chowk to get
the CV printed. Again my luck was fabulous to say the least, reason there was
no power there. Moreover, there was crowd already lined up for the service.
Considering the FCFS queuing discipline, I knew I should leave. Next I went to
Malviya Nagar, I was happily surprised to see so little people there
considering the fact that the place is close to the State Govt. offices.
Usually the babus perfectly dressed
in white are present in numbers to get Xerox or print outs of documents.
Quickly I got my 10 copies of print outs.
“Sh*t”, I shouted. Spelling mistake on the first
line itself, "Career Objective" was typed as "Carrer Objective "! Damn, whole thing
was spoiled. I called Intel immediately to report the incident. He too was
having the same copy so I thought I should save him from such incident. Intel
first laughed, “aur karo teepa taapi”
I felt disgusted, here was I telling him of the correction, and this idiot
instead of thanking was bantering. I disconnected. He must have already corrected it.
After correcting the error and once again
re-checking, I asked the boy to print it again.
Back home, I thought to re-practice the
questions asked in the written test.
Present Day, 13th July 2014,
Hyderabad
As time has passed, 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.
What a
change over mama…!! Yes things have changed,
they sure have drastically. But for good or worse? Well I’ll come on that a bit later.
Almost four years have passed since I wrote that
piece of above excerpt. This was posted on 25th July 2010. The
writer in me was dead all this while.
 |
| Workplace - WS 50 |
My Laptop buzzed with a notification sound, I
made a quick glance on my inbox. It was an email saying,
Event: SR 1-5503493091 assigned to Shashank
Keshore
I was assigned with the Service Request, and my job was to resolve it. But I’m in no mood to work today.Yes here I am today sitting alone in the office on this Sunday at my Workstation No 50. Life has sure changed a lot.
With the thought of how to start this all over
again, I’m back here to tie loose ends. Well I must say, I may be terribly out
of sorts, so readers’ (if there are any left) your discretion is sought very
badly here; give me benefit of the doubt.
I will try to start from where I left. It will
be tough but I’m counting on my memory and those amazing friends who helped in
creating them and making them worth remembering.
There is a saying “everyone who got where he is had to begin from where he was”. I knew where I am today,
but where was I on that 14th day of January two years back.
Let me dwell in the past again, let me be a
reckless kid again.
Back to 14th Jan 2011,
It was told to us that Final project carries
good weightage during interviews. Our group for the major project comprised of
3 members, as always it was the three of us again Intel Umi and myself. Let me have divine pleasure to introduce the
professor in charge of our project. Presenting the inevitable ‘dassu’. The guy with the world record of number of profile
pictures, and untitled albums on Facebook.
His daily work meant to squeeze and kill every
living cell in you. As far as the poisonous nature goes, he was second only to
Black Mamba. Some say, he has snatched the top spot from that poor little
snake. Ah, I pity the snake.
This guy was part of all our 4 years in college,
as he was next to the HOD. I for one was not enjoying good terms with him. He
caught me cheating from my mobile phone during internal exams for 2nd
year. From then onwards, he kept on reminding me every single day of college
that I’m one of the ‘Gadha bachcha’ who
cheated. Not that I was complaining, but
everyday? Dassu would speak such that the decibel values would move like a sinusoidal wave. He will shout and then the very next sentence he will be like whispering. And then he used to ask questions on it, which hardly anybody answered as nobody did understood the question. We were all donkeys for him. We never really even tried to change his perception.
Too much of Dassu, he probably will still be referring me as a gadha, so no wasting of words for him. Haphazardly I turned pages of the sample papers, mugged the answers I couldn’t find out myself. I was told by folks that the written screening paper would have most of these questions, and as it turned out 24 hours later this was indeed correct. I was ready with the properly organized certificates some of which dated back to my school time. I remember one of them was a 3rd Prize in Drawing Competition which I won in 4th grade and one was a title of ‘Prof Maths’ in grade 8. It takes no genius to value the relevance of such certificates in an Interview for TCS. I later figured out that there were many ‘Prof Maths’ roaming around.
Well actually the mindset during the days was
pretty simple, manage a thicker folder and for that you shall be deemed highly
qualified. I did not have that thickness even after I included the
aforementioned useless certificates.
Ironed clothes, polished shoes, trimmed hair and
nervous head beneath; there I was waiting for the first interview of my life.
15th Jan 2011,
Everybody remembers Lord when the time comes, I was no exception. After lighting few incense sticks and seeking blessings from elders I left. Cool early mornings always have that panicky and nervous vibes, be it the school exams or the wee hours trains to catch. The silence is anything but calming. 20 minutes later the silence changed to chaos, in other words I reached UIT-RGPV.
Everybody remembers Lord when the time comes, I was no exception. After lighting few incense sticks and seeking blessings from elders I left. Cool early mornings always have that panicky and nervous vibes, be it the school exams or the wee hours trains to catch. The silence is anything but calming. 20 minutes later the silence changed to chaos, in other words I reached UIT-RGPV.
 |
| Intel with Umi |
“Dekho ye deadlock tab hota hai jab har koi kisiki lene ka intzar kar raha aur, aur kisi
ko kuch dena bhi nahi chahta…………baaki yar tum padh lena aur thoda ache se likh lena….aisa karo numerical
bata deta hun, theory to tum padh loge na ..”
Intel always frowned on his explanations but I
found them sometimes useful. I can guarantee that with that explanation one
could not forget what a deadlock actually means.
So here was Umi standing beside me asking “Show
me your resume”
“Here it is, hardly anything worthy in there”, I
said.
“Stop it, it is still better than mine” Umi
replied.
Voices started breaking in the background noise
“Are uska interview ho gaya”.
We crowded him “Hey, what did he ask”. Loving
the attention this guy was getting probably for first time in his life, he
confidently said “Don’t write anything fake in there, be yourself”
“Roadies ki audition chal rhi hai kya” I said in
my mind. Our resume wouldn’t even make a page if everything is so genuine. Umi got around me, “Bhai, have you mentioned
Java”
“Haan Bhai, I have written Java- Basic”
Umi said “I have written Java but not basic, I
think I should remove it, it might land me in hot water”
Try and understand the gravitas of the word ‘Basic’.
I replied “You are right, we should remove it, we ain’t know nothing about it, we should remove it all altogether”
I replied “You are right, we should remove it, we ain’t know nothing about it, we should remove it all altogether”
“But Now ?, no way, there’s no time left. We can be called in anytime” I said.
“We have to do this, you go to Royal, and print
few copies for both you and me” Umi shouted.
Royal – Xerox shop was 10 minutes away. I made
my mind, we will remove it. I rushed towards my car.
Somehow I was back in time with the altered
copies of the CV. Umi said we have 10 minutes time, we should change now. “Ok let’s find a room and change quickly”.
“Damn these channel gates are locked, what do we
do?” I shouted, now getting anxious and nervous.
That’s when we decided to something which I had
never imagined I would do. Umi told hesitantly
“we can change here itself, nobody is watching”. I turned around and saw few folks
nearby. Started unzipping my pants “who
cares even if somebody watches”. So
there we were, getting half naked in broad daylight in front of the CS
department. It was certainly not turning
out the way we had hoped. To those still
doubting it did happen for real.
 |
| Matching shirts, matching psyche ! Umi n me. |
Ties were tied, and there we were, dressed in
formals and running towards the interview rooms.
Finally we were there, just in time. Intel was sitting two blocks away, waiting
for his name to be called. So were other folks waiting, browsing through their
programming language notes. I did the
same.
Umi was called in first, shortly after, I was
called in the adjacent room.
I saw Umi’s cold face staring at the blue screen
of the computer, he was asked to make some program there itself, and the way he
was looking he was not looking very confident. I just had a mini heart attack
watching this, thinking that I will make a factorial program if he asks
anything.
“So Shashank, you have completed CCNA”
“Sir I have completed HCL certified course for
CCNA”
“What is that, is it not CCNA, why have you
written CCNA there in the first place”
“Sir, this was a CCNA like course and at the end
there was an exam, which I passed”
He was not looking amused, I was worried.
“Shashank, I’m referring you to other panelists,
they will ask you more on it”
I was happy, I got rid of him. Later I learned
he was being highly unfair with others as well, not willing to listen to them.
The other panelist was a gentle bloke, he looked satisfied with my knowledge
and I was pretty confident.
As it turned out all three of us were
shortlisted for the next round. We made the HR round easily. Finally the dream was looking to be just in
reach, but you know it is never over until it is over.
 |
| At the college after the selection. |
Next day I had a phone call in the evening, and
soon the news was conveyed that we all had made it. In fact, my elder sister
also made it through. I was so happy for both of us. Things were finally
falling in place, we had come a long way from those barely 60% grades to now
being selected in our very first shot. Though people would have argued, that it
is not that big a task these days- getting selected in TCS, but still I was in
no mood to be sedate. The same night we marched into our institute and cut a
cake to blast of celebration that would take some time to settle in.
 | ||
| Umi, Mr Cool & some Gatecrasher |
Back home when I saw my Mom and Dad, I felt
happier for them more than for myself. There is nothing better for parents to see
their own sons and daughters standing on their feet, ready to move on to turn
the page towards a new chapter. You can
never thank them enough for their care and blessings.
We arranged a group party for all the selected students. We danced the hell out of ourselves.
Few days Later…
Everybody roamed like headless chicken for few
days after the placements. After all we had earned it, somehow. Last semester
in college also started, we offered sweets to the faculty members as a gesture
after being placed, Faculty - who were now looking less innocuous day by day.
We don’t know what happens, as we move towards the end, all the personal
grudges and problems seem to lose its importance. Same happened to us, we who
were so bitter about the college professors became more and more content and
happy. Focus slowly turned to leave it on positive note, it was all going to
get over sooner rather than later. Same applied to the class mates, everybody
was looking to make amends and end it. Somehow everybody grew up.
“Wo
afsana jise anjaam tak lana na ho mumkin use ek khubsurat mod dekar chhodna
achchaa……..”
There was one another incident that happened
during the tail end of those amazing college days. It always brings a smile
upon my face whenever I remember it.
One fine day, it was decided that we all friends
would go to DB Mall to spend some good time. Nobody knew it would turn out to
be a day we will never forget. I will try to narrate the story of that hour.
 |
| On our way to DB Mall I guess ! (L2R, Umi, Sandy, Mr Cool, Sid, me and Jibz) |
SO here it goes, we must have ordered something
from the Mac D, and while the order was being prepared, Mr cool and Anu thought
of this 'already so mainstream' game - Truth and Dare. I was hardly interested,
given the fact that the 'truths' of my life were mostly boring and I hardly
'dared'. But no, everybody was getting itchy to play that over abused college
game. So there it started, I have completely forgotten how it started, but
cannot forget how it ended. I do remember that everybody was choosing ‘dare’
and were easily completing that activity assigned. Umi also resisted in doing
those dares with me, like always Umi was there with me just like all those 4 years,
I have always maintained that this guys' way of thinking was always similar to
mine. Given my confidence in him I made the commitment in front of all of them
-
"I will do the dare if Umi does a dare
before me". Playing safe I was, I knew Umi would never attempt any. But that was where I was wrong, Umi yielded,
saying that he is ready and is now playing the game so that I could be the next
victim.
"Kamine saale Umesh, oye sab sunlo I won't
be doing it" I immediately resisted. Nobody was listening as if I had
signed any contract and couldn't turn my back.
So everybody started shouting announcing their
custom ‘Dares’ for Umi. Don't know whose suggestion it was but a 'Dare' was
given to Umi.
There was girl 15-16 year old may be, sitting
few feet away from our table. Umi was
supposed to go and sit on the opposite chair quietly for five minutes. No
gesture, no signal, nothing, he had to sit
there and just smile. Sid and Jibz were particularly very excited, Mr Cool
was hardly cool- he was also jumping up and down. Umi was confident like never before.
I was.....like maroge saaley !, and was thinking about if they ever made me do
something what would it be.
 |
| That Smile from Umi ! |
Sid could not hide his excitement, and that's
when he took out his sleek ass cybershot. "I will make a video, I will
make a video".
Jibz who
hardly disagreed with Sid "Haan na, go ahead".
The girl was getting a little uncomfortable,
looking around for someone. Umi was performing a harmonic motion with his neck,
smiling at her first then turning back and smiling at us. You call that a tough
dare - think again.
Sid was now near their table, like a
professional camera man, now covering the table and couple itself from every
angle. Umi was now smiling even at the cameraman, still not saying any word, to
us or to that girl.
That's when hell broke loose. An alpha male ran
shouting besides our table to the table where Umi was sitting and Sid was
hovering. Accompanying that man were two
more people, another man and a lady.
"Ayee, who are you" Shouted the father
probably. Behind him was her mom, "Shut it off, hold that chap"
"Gone Forever, Umi run, run..." I said
in my mind. Our faces turned pale, "No ,No " Anu exhaled.
They saw Sid recording the video; they must have
thought that something weird is happening.
"Who are you, you prick" "Tell
me" , the man shouted.
We now thought it's time to rush to the spot.
Sid thankfully shut the camera off.
To our shock, Umi was still smiling, now at her
dad as well. For God's sake Umi Say sorry, get out of that dare, it's over. Umi
got turned into a smiling rock. We all rushed to the scene of crime.
Varun and Mr Cool quickly understood the gravity
of the situation. "It's a prank sir, It's a joke, We are sorry,
ple..please, please don't mind." For the very first time in my life, I saw
Varun on the back foot. But Umi was still out of his crease, soon gonna be
bowled, hit wicket, stumped and what not.
Thankfully, Umi stopped smiling for a moment,
and the first time in probable 5 minutes he spoke. "Sorry uncle, wo kya
hai na, it's a joke ..it is a prank, karte hain hum log aisa " and then he
smiled again.
"Arghhhhh Abe mere baap has to mat kam se
kam, aur karte hain aisa hum log se kya matlab”, “we are gone forever" I
thought. That's when I realized Umi might just be coolest of us all, still
relaxed. It was only when the child's parents and uncle threatened, he finally
grew normal. "Sorry, she is a kid,
like our sister. It was just for
fun"
The crowd multiplied, as if there was Dainik
Bhaskar's yearly never before offer providing free frosty buckets to the
readers, on the fourth floor.
"Where is that guy who was filming, don't
let him go" her mom shouted. Sid replied "Yahin hain aunty, kahin
nahi jaa rahe"
"Catch him, break his camera" her dad
said. "I'll report this guy to the police pointing at Umi"
Sid did not like that, not that Umi may be taken
to police but now his camera was under threat.
I jumped " Are we are very sorry Sir, it
was just a joke, and it was our last day in college...and...we thought to have
fun....."
"This is how you have fun? Idiot" Her
father shouted.
"Bad try" I thought.
"No, no, we are from good family..nothing
like that" I tried to calm him down.
Umi was now constantly apologizing, mind you
without smiling.
Looking at the crowd, We realized the situation
could get very bad. Security head of the Mall came in to the spot.
We tried to speak to him, he kind of looked a
cool guy, he took all of us to the Security room downstairs. Thank God, you
never know with crowd, venting frustration out on innocent victims is their
forte.
"Break this camera" - Girl's mother
was constantly shouting. Sid was not amused. For about 20th time he said,
"you can always format the card".
Finally they let Umi off the hook, may be they
realized we weren't that bad. But her mom was in no mood to hand the camera
back. And Sid understandably was doing all the negotiations now.
"They will upload the video to sites, break
the camera", her mom was not completely in that mom mode.
"Are nobody will upload that video, we will
delete it, how can it be uploaded if it’s deleted" Sid replied.
Girl's Einstein uncle who was mostly staring had
his word - "Now a days, deleted videos can be retrieved using recovery software"
They were not willing to give back the card,
breaking it - yes pretty much on cards. Sid felt relieved, from breaking a
camera to breaking the card, that's an achievement.
Finally they broke the SD Card. Everybody was so
fed up, that we didn’t moan about that. But yeah, all the photos were lost and
that video also. Sometimes I wonder if we had somehow managed to protect it,
but then I realize, we were not even able to protect our own self then...so it
was fine.
So there were we, exhausted and clueless as if
somebody has poked us with an anesthesia. But we were relieved. We all got
together with "what now?" expression.
"Still weighing me to try a Dare?" I
said.
A long stare from each of them was enough as an
answer.
It was not the day we had hoped for, but nonetheless
it was a memorable one.
"Aur khelo, aur khelo" I was
constantly saying that every 2-5 minutes. But, I was secretly enjoying the fact
that we did play that game.
As it turned out it was certainly the last night
we were together in numbers, and I have still not managed to meet all of them
together till now.
 |
| L2R : Umi, Varun, Mr Cool, Jib, Sandy, Me and Intel |
May be we don’t express it often, but I'm sure there
will always be a wide smile that will surface on each of our face when we
recall those moments.
“doston
se bichad ke jana Ghalib, the to kamine par ronak bhi unhi se thi“
There was still one thing left in our college lives to
see, India winning World Cup 2011. The pandemonium which began on 19th
Feb, ended on 3rd April. What forty days it were, the highlight
reels of final still raise every last hair on the body. Semifinal and Finals are etched in the memory
forever, all thanks to Intel who arranged a big Projector to make viewing more
memorable. We couldn’t have enjoyed more, remember the Krishidhan Ad targeted
for Jibz and the Fevicol one for Rahul.
Later that month, we heard the news that another
MNC called Avaya is going to visit Oriental for another Campus Drive. We learnt
that they are offering 50% more than our current employer, many of us started
to jump ships. After 10 rounds scattered during 4 days, I somehow got selected.
So was Intel, Umi missed out in the last round. We still curse him for that.
May be it was destined that way….
 |
| Scribbling Day |
 |
| Some of the scribbles. Thank you all !! |
We were given the joining date as 3rd
June 2011 for Avaya, which was just 2 days after our 8th Sem exams finished.
There was literally no time to enjoy after college finished. As always we had plans
and as always they failed miserably.
So in few days, I was about to leave
Bhopal. It did not strike me until the
day had come. Suddenly, I experienced the change, it was different. I was about
to leave everything I grew up with, the New Markets, the Dus Numbers ….the hot
summers, the cold Utsav Mela nights…and worst, the banters with my sis, the
long chats with Dad and the silent conversation with Mom.
Moms always have that Godly sense with them; Moms
can understand everything even without you saying a single word. Dads can make
you understand everything without them saying a single word.
Everything was taking a toll, I just knew it, and
I’m going to miss them all.
As Meredith Grey said, “We all want to grow up.
We're desperate to get out there, to grab all the opportunities we can...to
live. We're so busy trying to get out of that nest, we don't think about the
fact that it's going to be cold out there...really freakin' cold. Because growing
up sometimes means leaving people behind. And by the time we stand our own two
feet...we're standing there alone”.
The day of goodbye finally came, my friends did make me look utterly foolish by garlanding me in public, never allowing me to remove that.
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| Mummy managed a smile here ! |
So what’s the hardest part?
Guess it is to look in the eyes of your mother
when you are about to leave for long. But you got to still look into her eyes, and
this time, you yourselves have to show that mettle and make her realize that it
really won’t be that long as she is thinking. It will never be easy for her,
but you know she will bear it, just like she had born her child’s every bit of
nonsense through the years.
Everybody must have felt that feeling of the
final good bye; you tell yourself it will be the same again knowing it won’t be
ever. And when you do that, slowly and steadily you had just grown up.
Present Day, 13th July 2014
When I look back, everything seems to be a blur.
The doubting kid is managing on its own, same as his parents 500 miles away.
That carelessness is going away, and rational attitude is overpowering the
recklessness. You are questioning everything, analyzing every stage of life as
it goes. You so wanted to be at this
stage of your life, but when you are there you think to turn back time and be
in that old frame of mind. Given the
human tendency, it will always be like that, the only way you deal with it is
that, you try to live the present to the best of your abilities, so that when
you look back after some time you have more good memories and less of ‘if only’
moments.
Manzil
par pahunchne ki khushi tab hi hoti hai jab humsafar saath ho, humsafar nhi to
yaadein hi sahi.
As always I’m ending this post, with these lines
from Coldplay. They are always apt. I would urge you to give the song a listen.
So fly on,
ride through
Maybe one
day I'll fly next to you
Fly on,
ride through
Maybe one
day I can fly with you
Fly on
Fly on
Thanks for reading through,
Yours,
Sha2nk
Epilogue
There it was probably my last post on the amazing college life, coming after 3 years I have passed it. It can only be love, that can still urge me to write again. It has been very tough for me to write all these
past experiences into words, even more so when I realize it has been such a
long time in between. I would like to thank my each and every friend
for lending their own self to play any part in my life. Very special thanks to those few friends who
have encouraged me pen these memories, when I myself had doubts to start all
over again. They know their names. I sincerely hope I have not disappointed any
of you.
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| Long live the friendship, long may live the place that saw it grow. The one and only GEC Bhopal. |
Love to all.
