... that difficult people are very important, - they teach you tolerance and acceptance. If all was going your way all the time, you would become a spoiled child, wouldn't everyone? Difficult people are just one of the ways God teaches us to expand beyond our egos and accept other perspectives on life.
Sisters
Another forward which touched a chord!
A young wife sat on a sofa on a hot humid day, drinking iced tea and visiting with her Mother. As they talked about life, about marriage, about the responsibilities of life and the obligations of adulthood, the mother clinked the ice cubes in her glass thoughtfully and turned a clear, sober glance upon her daughter.
'Don't forget your Sisters,' she advised, swirling the tea leaves to the bottom of her glass. 'They'll be more important as you get older. No matter how much you love your husband, no matter how much you love the children you may have, you are still going to need Sisters. Remember to go places with them now and then; do things with them.'
'Remember that 'Sisters' means ALL the women... your girlfriends, your daughters, and all your other women relatives too. 'You'll need other women. Women always do.'
What a funny piece of advice!' the young woman thought. Haven't I just gotten married? Haven't I just joined the couple-world? I'm now a married woman, for goodness sake! A grown up! Surely my husband and the family we may start will be all I need to make my life worthwhile!'
But she listened to her Mother. She kept contact with her Sisters and made more women friends each year. As the years tumbled by, one after another, she gradually came to understand that her Mom really knew what she was talking about. As time and nature work their changes and their mysteries upon a woman, Sisters are the mainstays of her life.
After more than 50 years of living in this world, here is what I've learned:
THIS SAYS IT ALL:
Time passes.
Life happens.
Distance separates.
Children grow up.
Jobs come and go.
Love waxes and wanes.
Men don't do what they're supposed to do.
Hearts break.
Parents die.
Colleagues forget favors.
Careers end.
BUT.........
Sisters are there, no matter how much time and how many miles are between you. A girl friend is never farther away than needing her can reach.
When you have to walk that lonesome valley and you have to walk it by yourself, the women in your life will be on the valley's rim, cheering you on, praying for you, pulling for you, intervening on your behalf, and waiting with open arms at the valley's end.
Sometimes, they will even break the rules and walk beside you...Or come in and carry you out.
Girlfriends, daughters, granddaughters, daughters-in-law, sisters, sisters-in-law, Mothers, Grandmothers, aunties, nieces, cousins, and extended family, all bless our life!
The world wouldn't be the same without women, and neither would I. When we began this adventure called womanhood, we had no idea of the incredible joys or sorrows that lay ahead. Nor did we know how much we would need each other.
Every day, we need each other still. Pass this on to all the women who help make your life meaningful.
I just did. Short and very sweet.
A young wife sat on a sofa on a hot humid day, drinking iced tea and visiting with her Mother. As they talked about life, about marriage, about the responsibilities of life and the obligations of adulthood, the mother clinked the ice cubes in her glass thoughtfully and turned a clear, sober glance upon her daughter.
'Don't forget your Sisters,' she advised, swirling the tea leaves to the bottom of her glass. 'They'll be more important as you get older. No matter how much you love your husband, no matter how much you love the children you may have, you are still going to need Sisters. Remember to go places with them now and then; do things with them.'
'Remember that 'Sisters' means ALL the women... your girlfriends, your daughters, and all your other women relatives too. 'You'll need other women. Women always do.'
What a funny piece of advice!' the young woman thought. Haven't I just gotten married? Haven't I just joined the couple-world? I'm now a married woman, for goodness sake! A grown up! Surely my husband and the family we may start will be all I need to make my life worthwhile!'
But she listened to her Mother. She kept contact with her Sisters and made more women friends each year. As the years tumbled by, one after another, she gradually came to understand that her Mom really knew what she was talking about. As time and nature work their changes and their mysteries upon a woman, Sisters are the mainstays of her life.
After more than 50 years of living in this world, here is what I've learned:
THIS SAYS IT ALL:
Time passes.
Life happens.
Distance separates.
Children grow up.
Jobs come and go.
Love waxes and wanes.
Men don't do what they're supposed to do.
Hearts break.
Parents die.
Colleagues forget favors.
Careers end.
BUT.........
Sisters are there, no matter how much time and how many miles are between you. A girl friend is never farther away than needing her can reach.
When you have to walk that lonesome valley and you have to walk it by yourself, the women in your life will be on the valley's rim, cheering you on, praying for you, pulling for you, intervening on your behalf, and waiting with open arms at the valley's end.
Sometimes, they will even break the rules and walk beside you...Or come in and carry you out.
Girlfriends, daughters, granddaughters, daughters-in-law, sisters, sisters-in-law, Mothers, Grandmothers, aunties, nieces, cousins, and extended family, all bless our life!
The world wouldn't be the same without women, and neither would I. When we began this adventure called womanhood, we had no idea of the incredible joys or sorrows that lay ahead. Nor did we know how much we would need each other.
Every day, we need each other still. Pass this on to all the women who help make your life meaningful.
I just did. Short and very sweet.
I am still 'Jhooming'
Ok so this post is anger and frustration borne. Why is everyone so anti-Jhoom? Why the condolences start pouring in, as soon as you tell you tell a Mr/Ms.Know-it-all that you just saw it? Instead of rave reviews its getting just rants. A 1.5 from TOI, which gave a 4 something to that intolerable saga about relationships called KANK! Everyone just can’t stop saying how horrible the movie is.
And this makes me sad, very very sad. So I decided I owe at least this much to a movie, which for two and a half hours made me forget all the chaos outside. Just sit back, spill pop corn, sip on my Pepsi, thump my feet, and laugh my heart out :-)
So here is my two penny worth.
I think it’s fantabulous, awesome, superb, amazing, thrilling, entertaining….! For a change there are no underlying messages, no depressing toughts, no tears, no Reshamiyas(!!), no boring fights, no serial kisser…wow! Any movie minus all that is a welcome relief for me. Add to that non-stop naach gana, AB junior, a cute-looking Bobby, ceaseless PJ’s, actors who seemed to be having as much fun as I was, watching them. A golden moto with an Aiye handsome ringtone calling out to the larger than life hidesously dressed jat from Bhatinda, with the classic UP touch to him settled in Southhall. Some interesting role-plays played very well by the rest of the cast….
So then what went wrong?
It didn’t convey a message? So every movie isn’t meant to be an RDB.
It wasn’t dark enough? Well I am quite sick of the depressing stuff Bhandarkar and party keep dishing out for us. It might be true, but we are living with the truth so you don’t need to keep the drill on always.
Not your kind of humour? Well below the belt comedy doesn’t always tick either.
Too much nach gaana? Damn! I thought that was the USP! Jhoom remember?
Sick of AB senior promoting his baby? Well even I am, he doesn’t need it…so thank heavens his role was cut-short.
I liked Jhoom, Metro was good too. But you don’t need to exchange notes on both. They belonged to separate genres, you can enjoy both! So chill maadi.
Keep jhooming, and give this lone enthusiast a thought when you curse the movie next! :-)
And this makes me sad, very very sad. So I decided I owe at least this much to a movie, which for two and a half hours made me forget all the chaos outside. Just sit back, spill pop corn, sip on my Pepsi, thump my feet, and laugh my heart out :-)
So here is my two penny worth.
I think it’s fantabulous, awesome, superb, amazing, thrilling, entertaining….! For a change there are no underlying messages, no depressing toughts, no tears, no Reshamiyas(!!), no boring fights, no serial kisser…wow! Any movie minus all that is a welcome relief for me. Add to that non-stop naach gana, AB junior, a cute-looking Bobby, ceaseless PJ’s, actors who seemed to be having as much fun as I was, watching them. A golden moto with an Aiye handsome ringtone calling out to the larger than life hidesously dressed jat from Bhatinda, with the classic UP touch to him settled in Southhall. Some interesting role-plays played very well by the rest of the cast….
So then what went wrong?
It didn’t convey a message? So every movie isn’t meant to be an RDB.
It wasn’t dark enough? Well I am quite sick of the depressing stuff Bhandarkar and party keep dishing out for us. It might be true, but we are living with the truth so you don’t need to keep the drill on always.
Not your kind of humour? Well below the belt comedy doesn’t always tick either.
Too much nach gaana? Damn! I thought that was the USP! Jhoom remember?
Sick of AB senior promoting his baby? Well even I am, he doesn’t need it…so thank heavens his role was cut-short.
I liked Jhoom, Metro was good too. But you don’t need to exchange notes on both. They belonged to separate genres, you can enjoy both! So chill maadi.
Keep jhooming, and give this lone enthusiast a thought when you curse the movie next! :-)
The Legacy of MuTulls...
My roomie for four years Ms.MuTulls delivered another of her classics a few days back. And so it is obviously my duty to pen it down.
The discussion was something around arranged marriages. Roleplays by MuTulls, and Sabu.
Between the gibber I hear Sabu asking Ms.MuTulls how she would react when the suitable boys come browsing at her door.
To which her prompt reply was, "Why would they come, pay toh hum karte hain...choose karne bhi hum hi jaayenge" :)
Watch this space for more on the the queen, the Kayamat...we know as Mu ;)
Coming soon Mu Diaries!
The discussion was something around arranged marriages. Roleplays by MuTulls, and Sabu.
Between the gibber I hear Sabu asking Ms.MuTulls how she would react when the suitable boys come browsing at her door.
To which her prompt reply was, "Why would they come, pay toh hum karte hain...choose karne bhi hum hi jaayenge" :)
Watch this space for more on the the queen, the Kayamat...we know as Mu ;)
Coming soon Mu Diaries!
As a smart bear once said...
"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you." - Winnie the Pooh :)
B2k3
This one's for the four wonderful years together, cheers to B2k3! :)
One name, many hues. 110 odd students, each with a different story to tell. This is the story of B2k3, where bhasad was a religion duly practiced; its spirit and unity unmatched...when challenged they fought as one.
The year was 2003, when we first met...newbies fresh out of school, slightly rattled , rearing to go, wary of each other...starting out on a new journey together.
On our way there were the add-ons and the plug-ins: the sutta and the daaru, the trips to Trips, H 'n' D and Samrat, the early mornings in the village, the Hasty Tasty rituals, the disappointing finals, the AOC and CS nightouts, the 9-12 shows, the thefts from the canteen by our master con artists, the “special” hindi lessons to the southies, the “one-night stands” before the exams, the YM and Orkut cult, the birthday “bashes”, the strife between PAM entertainments and ALAN productions, the MBA vs BTech war, S Ray’s obsession with attendance and punctuality, AV’s fudged-up “sumanis”, Rahul Mishra ki “yaar”i, the Jogesh Korkodam episodes, the CMB-Babulal-Siddiqui first year trio….
And a glimpse at a few of the main leads who made our under-grad time all the more interesting! Sid's special philosophy lessons for anyone and everyone (un)willing to lend a ear; the preaching’s of Pag Floyd; Pandey's antics; our dear Sir John; Shilpi’s walk; Bhavish's Maggie; Parai’s padhai; Venkat and TC’s exceptional wit; Shah's infinite PJ capacity; N Sid's expert view on anything and everything; Rajani's guts; Pal's drama; Appy's emotional speeches once drunk; VKMeena’s sincerity; AshuNan’s logic bombs; CK's Pawan Kalyan fixation; Manaj the mimic; Suchi’s Frooti; Rocket’s ceaseless laughs; Lashkar's mysterious source of enthu; Nag Baba's trademark red jacket and black trackpants; Ramya’s split personality; the Don’s majestic presence; Nahata’s naivety; Robo’s ever-extending deadlines; Bhaiya’s awesome rote prowess; Body’s football fan-following; the tall-taller-tallest cricket team; Baya’s on-court meditation ... that and many more, all special in their own way.
We gave the college its first open Tech fest, the Trinetra Webcasting Service, a couple of national and international prizes, a few patents, an excellent bakar culture...and well that’s it!
Four years down the line some are achievers, some wastrels; there were the go-getters and there were the back-benchers; the prof's pets and the rogues; the hard workers and the lazy-lumps; the bakar crowd and the zealous junta; the movers and the shakers....but we go out of our alma mater together, our heads held high... to conquer the world, to carve out a niche of our own!
This is the culmination of our years of togetherness, co-existence, rivalry, intimacy, communion, merriment, hard work…it all finally comes to an end.
Its time for the adios and the ciaos! But we say good-bye till we meet again in another world; in another place...but the B2k3 spirit will always remain!
[This has been written for our yearbook and contains inputs from CK, Phodu and Vikram. Thanks guys! :) ]
One name, many hues. 110 odd students, each with a different story to tell. This is the story of B2k3, where bhasad was a religion duly practiced; its spirit and unity unmatched...when challenged they fought as one.
The year was 2003, when we first met...newbies fresh out of school, slightly rattled , rearing to go, wary of each other...starting out on a new journey together.
On our way there were the add-ons and the plug-ins: the sutta and the daaru, the trips to Trips, H 'n' D and Samrat, the early mornings in the village, the Hasty Tasty rituals, the disappointing finals, the AOC and CS nightouts, the 9-12 shows, the thefts from the canteen by our master con artists, the “special” hindi lessons to the southies, the “one-night stands” before the exams, the YM and Orkut cult, the birthday “bashes”, the strife between PAM entertainments and ALAN productions, the MBA vs BTech war, S Ray’s obsession with attendance and punctuality, AV’s fudged-up “sumanis”, Rahul Mishra ki “yaar”i, the Jogesh Korkodam episodes, the CMB-Babulal-Siddiqui first year trio….
And a glimpse at a few of the main leads who made our under-grad time all the more interesting! Sid's special philosophy lessons for anyone and everyone (un)willing to lend a ear; the preaching’s of Pag Floyd; Pandey's antics; our dear Sir John; Shilpi’s walk; Bhavish's Maggie; Parai’s padhai; Venkat and TC’s exceptional wit; Shah's infinite PJ capacity; N Sid's expert view on anything and everything; Rajani's guts; Pal's drama; Appy's emotional speeches once drunk; VKMeena’s sincerity; AshuNan’s logic bombs; CK's Pawan Kalyan fixation; Manaj the mimic; Suchi’s Frooti; Rocket’s ceaseless laughs; Lashkar's mysterious source of enthu; Nag Baba's trademark red jacket and black trackpants; Ramya’s split personality; the Don’s majestic presence; Nahata’s naivety; Robo’s ever-extending deadlines; Bhaiya’s awesome rote prowess; Body’s football fan-following; the tall-taller-tallest cricket team; Baya’s on-court meditation ... that and many more, all special in their own way.
We gave the college its first open Tech fest, the Trinetra Webcasting Service, a couple of national and international prizes, a few patents, an excellent bakar culture...and well that’s it!
Four years down the line some are achievers, some wastrels; there were the go-getters and there were the back-benchers; the prof's pets and the rogues; the hard workers and the lazy-lumps; the bakar crowd and the zealous junta; the movers and the shakers....but we go out of our alma mater together, our heads held high... to conquer the world, to carve out a niche of our own!
This is the culmination of our years of togetherness, co-existence, rivalry, intimacy, communion, merriment, hard work…it all finally comes to an end.
Its time for the adios and the ciaos! But we say good-bye till we meet again in another world; in another place...but the B2k3 spirit will always remain!
[This has been written for our yearbook and contains inputs from CK, Phodu and Vikram. Thanks guys! :) ]
Bangalore diaries!
Everyone's into photo-blogging these days, so in the traditional 'hum kissi se kam nahii' style, here I go!
But first an insight into my many predicaments, which make the story ever the more thrilling (!!)
The protagonist is a poor lil soul who has been tossed and turned and thrown into the big bad world by a series of unfortunate incidents. Scared, with a dark cloud of uncertainty looming over her, she lands in Bangalore one lonely night...
And so begins her adventure, a tryst with adulthood.... which is never to end! The grueling work schedule, the terrible transport woes, a hectic lifestyle add to her worries. But she is not to be stopped, in the true never say die-spirit she was taught as a kid, she fights. She's here to stay! She waits with bated for her mentor, here Guru... who will teach her the way of life, Ms.Ramya Priya Mudduluri. For the newbies, this is the lady in question.
Ms.Mudduluri finally makes an appearance in Bangalore, cursing it from day one, very 'considerately' telling anyone whose willing to play audience how Bangalore is no match to the great Hyderabad. To quote her, "Bangalore sucks!!".
Anyways, with a heavy heart the two set out to Ansal Forte, Hosur Road. For a preview of what our humble abode looks like, visit: Our PG
.jpg)
Day one, they venture out like professionals to the kitchen arena...where two other flatmates are busy preparing a multi-course meal for themselves. Our heroine is a little unsteady, but reassured by Ms.Mudduluri's presence, with rejuvenated energy she asks her mentor what wonderful delights are on tonight's menu! To which Ms.Mudduluri's prompt reply is "Mereko zyaada nahii aata, dosa aata hai par uskeliye rice bheegona padta pehle, aaj raat maggie khaate". The world comes crashing down on her, to think that she had waited all this while, for her ray of hope which turned out to be a damn squib!
She lay awake all night, contemplating her bleak future...weighing the possible options they had. Eating out, was ruled out...Ansal Forte is one place in Bangalore, with no eateries close by. Tiffins were an option, but they needed way too much effort and the food was totally not worth it! Ready-to-eats were too expensive... so it seemed like a message from above. It was time to shift gears... We needed to learn, and so was born... "Exepriments in the kitchen!" (The title is courtesy Ms.Gupti, who has had her own share of experimentation owing to her ill-luck which has landed her in the wild wild west! )
This ladies an gentleman, is Maggie's Pasta Treat customized to our taste buds!
.jpg)
Aloo ki tikki, with a pinch of salt missing :P
.jpg)
Ms.Mudduluri's original, Ala' Ladyfinger Tamrind (whatever that is suppose to mean, it was tasty!)
.jpg)
Revel in the Taste 'n' Spice of Ms.Mudduluri's Tomato chutney!
.jpg)
Da Vinci once said, a true artist is one who can make perfect circles, aint I close?? :D
.jpg)
...and for the finale, we bring to you Butter Chicken (courtesy Parampara Masala) and Chicken Biryani (By our very own Ms.Mudduluri)!
.jpg)
.jpg)
Yours truly...!
.jpg)
So the story wraps up to a happy ending:)
And for the record, the past few months in Bangalore have done me a world of good, I can cook simple meals, wash utensils, and live on my own ...considering my very limited culinary skillset...this is quite an achievement!
The big bad world isn't that bad anymore! :)
But first an insight into my many predicaments, which make the story ever the more thrilling (!!)
The protagonist is a poor lil soul who has been tossed and turned and thrown into the big bad world by a series of unfortunate incidents. Scared, with a dark cloud of uncertainty looming over her, she lands in Bangalore one lonely night...
And so begins her adventure, a tryst with adulthood.... which is never to end! The grueling work schedule, the terrible transport woes, a hectic lifestyle add to her worries. But she is not to be stopped, in the true never say die-spirit she was taught as a kid, she fights. She's here to stay! She waits with bated for her mentor, here Guru... who will teach her the way of life, Ms.Ramya Priya Mudduluri. For the newbies, this is the lady in question.
Ms.Mudduluri finally makes an appearance in Bangalore, cursing it from day one, very 'considerately' telling anyone whose willing to play audience how Bangalore is no match to the great Hyderabad. To quote her, "Bangalore sucks!!".
Anyways, with a heavy heart the two set out to Ansal Forte, Hosur Road. For a preview of what our humble abode looks like, visit: Our PG
.jpg)
Day one, they venture out like professionals to the kitchen arena...where two other flatmates are busy preparing a multi-course meal for themselves. Our heroine is a little unsteady, but reassured by Ms.Mudduluri's presence, with rejuvenated energy she asks her mentor what wonderful delights are on tonight's menu! To which Ms.Mudduluri's prompt reply is "Mereko zyaada nahii aata, dosa aata hai par uskeliye rice bheegona padta pehle, aaj raat maggie khaate". The world comes crashing down on her, to think that she had waited all this while, for her ray of hope which turned out to be a damn squib!
She lay awake all night, contemplating her bleak future...weighing the possible options they had. Eating out, was ruled out...Ansal Forte is one place in Bangalore, with no eateries close by. Tiffins were an option, but they needed way too much effort and the food was totally not worth it! Ready-to-eats were too expensive... so it seemed like a message from above. It was time to shift gears... We needed to learn, and so was born... "Exepriments in the kitchen!" (The title is courtesy Ms.Gupti, who has had her own share of experimentation owing to her ill-luck which has landed her in the wild wild west! )
This ladies an gentleman, is Maggie's Pasta Treat customized to our taste buds!
.jpg)
Aloo ki tikki, with a pinch of salt missing :P
.jpg)
Ms.Mudduluri's original, Ala' Ladyfinger Tamrind (whatever that is suppose to mean, it was tasty!)
.jpg)
Revel in the Taste 'n' Spice of Ms.Mudduluri's Tomato chutney!
.jpg)
Da Vinci once said, a true artist is one who can make perfect circles, aint I close?? :D
.jpg)
...and for the finale, we bring to you Butter Chicken (courtesy Parampara Masala) and Chicken Biryani (By our very own Ms.Mudduluri)!
.jpg)
.jpg)
Yours truly...!
.jpg)
So the story wraps up to a happy ending:)
And for the record, the past few months in Bangalore have done me a world of good, I can cook simple meals, wash utensils, and live on my own ...considering my very limited culinary skillset...this is quite an achievement!
The big bad world isn't that bad anymore! :)
...like you're there for me!
I have never liked a forward so much! This is to all my friends! :)
Missing you..
*Portrait of a Friend*
I can't give you solutions to all of life's problems, doubts, or fears.
But I can listen to you, and together we will search for answers.
I can't change your past with all it's heartache and pain, nor the future
with its untold stories.
But I can be there now when you need me to care.
I can't keep your feet from stumbling.
I can only offer my hand that you may grasp it and not fall.
Your joys, triumphs, successes, and happiness are not mine;
Yet I can share in your laughter.
Your decisions in life are not mine to make, nor to judge;
I can only support you, encourage you, and help you when you ask.
I can't prevent you from falling away from friendship, from your values,
from me.
I can only pray for you, talk to you and wait for you.
I can't give you boundaries which I have determined for you,
But I can give you the room to change, room to grow, room to be yourself.
I can't keep your heart from breaking and hurting,
But I can cry with you and help you pick up the pieces and put them back in
place.
I can't tell you who you are.
I can only love you and be your friend.
Missing you..
*Portrait of a Friend*
I can't give you solutions to all of life's problems, doubts, or fears.
But I can listen to you, and together we will search for answers.
I can't change your past with all it's heartache and pain, nor the future
with its untold stories.
But I can be there now when you need me to care.
I can't keep your feet from stumbling.
I can only offer my hand that you may grasp it and not fall.
Your joys, triumphs, successes, and happiness are not mine;
Yet I can share in your laughter.
Your decisions in life are not mine to make, nor to judge;
I can only support you, encourage you, and help you when you ask.
I can't prevent you from falling away from friendship, from your values,
from me.
I can only pray for you, talk to you and wait for you.
I can't give you boundaries which I have determined for you,
But I can give you the room to change, room to grow, room to be yourself.
I can't keep your heart from breaking and hurting,
But I can cry with you and help you pick up the pieces and put them back in
place.
I can't tell you who you are.
I can only love you and be your friend.
A lil Wild(e)
I came across this Oscar Wilde quote while reading some OOP tute...
"but enough about me, tell me what you think of me?"
Thought it was kinda cute, so wanted to put it somewhere for safekeeping. So what better place than myInstance! :)
"but enough about me, tell me what you think of me?"
Thought it was kinda cute, so wanted to put it somewhere for safekeeping. So what better place than myInstance! :)
Here I am...its a beautiful world!
It all started when I lost a mobile (like everyone does in Bangalore!). When I told my mother, she was adamant that I lodge an FIR…to be on the safer side in case someone misuses my sim. So obviously I had to oblige, that was the least I could do after losing her phone! :(
I took a detour to office via the police station yesterday morning. When we were starting out, my friend advised me to keep some money in case the police officer demands more than just gratitude. I started off with my usual blabber, we have the RTI…I’ll insist on an explanation, I will not bribe blablabla. He’s saner than me so he just shrugged and said ok!
Once we reached the Madivala police station, I went straight to the sub-inspector in-charge. He looked quite all right, I said a small quiet prayer…wishing the Bangalore police would be different from their colleagues up north! That my friend would be proven wrong…alas! Of course he was different! He was subtle, an art which thanewaalah’s of UP haved always refused to master.
First thing he enquired was my address, Kormangla, I said. Turned out Kormangla was not under the jurisdiction of the Madivala police station, so he showed me the door. To add to my worries, he also told me that I’d need to get an affidavit and all! My heart sunk there and then! It seemed it would take more than just a few minutes to get an FIR done. And time is one of the things I am pressed for these days! So I pleaded my case, gave him a typical damsel-in-distress look...could Sir *please* help me, I asked! Well sir did have some good news for me after all. He said it would cost me hundred bucks, and all the frills would be taken care off. My blood boiled, but overtly I was all honey ‘n’ sugar. I told ‘sir’ how grateful I was and immediately gave him a hundred rupee note. Once the money was safely kept away in his desk drawer, this cop sang a different tune all together. He offered us tea, told us to relax and then (very patiently) dictated to me the letter I had to address to him. The problem of jurisdiction was easily resolved. Incidentally Kormangla (where I lost my phone) was rechristened Madivala main road, which was under sir’s jurisdiction of course, so no issues!
The letter done, he showed my friend the photocopy shop across the road and asked him to get a Xerox. While my friend was away my new-found advisor and mentor (!) even apprised me of the dangers of keeping expensive handsets and counseled me to go in for a cheap substitute in future. He then quickly finished the rest of the paperwork and gave me the receipt, the stamped copy of the letter and voila I had just successfully lodged my first FIR (Though I hope there are not many more to come!)
I look back in quiet contemplation. Since my foray into the big bad world, it has been one bumpy ride. One compromise after another. God where am I headed?? What happened to the romantic ideas and ideologies I ask myself?
The answer comes that from within…Shut up! It’s all about the survival of the fittest baby!
Lucky me, I got more than my money’s worth. Advice, tea and yes my work done in only a couple of minutes! And yes I almost forgot, ‘Sir’ even promised to inform me in case my phone is recovered :)
I took a detour to office via the police station yesterday morning. When we were starting out, my friend advised me to keep some money in case the police officer demands more than just gratitude. I started off with my usual blabber, we have the RTI…I’ll insist on an explanation, I will not bribe blablabla. He’s saner than me so he just shrugged and said ok!
Once we reached the Madivala police station, I went straight to the sub-inspector in-charge. He looked quite all right, I said a small quiet prayer…wishing the Bangalore police would be different from their colleagues up north! That my friend would be proven wrong…alas! Of course he was different! He was subtle, an art which thanewaalah’s of UP haved always refused to master.
First thing he enquired was my address, Kormangla, I said. Turned out Kormangla was not under the jurisdiction of the Madivala police station, so he showed me the door. To add to my worries, he also told me that I’d need to get an affidavit and all! My heart sunk there and then! It seemed it would take more than just a few minutes to get an FIR done. And time is one of the things I am pressed for these days! So I pleaded my case, gave him a typical damsel-in-distress look...could Sir *please* help me, I asked! Well sir did have some good news for me after all. He said it would cost me hundred bucks, and all the frills would be taken care off. My blood boiled, but overtly I was all honey ‘n’ sugar. I told ‘sir’ how grateful I was and immediately gave him a hundred rupee note. Once the money was safely kept away in his desk drawer, this cop sang a different tune all together. He offered us tea, told us to relax and then (very patiently) dictated to me the letter I had to address to him. The problem of jurisdiction was easily resolved. Incidentally Kormangla (where I lost my phone) was rechristened Madivala main road, which was under sir’s jurisdiction of course, so no issues!
The letter done, he showed my friend the photocopy shop across the road and asked him to get a Xerox. While my friend was away my new-found advisor and mentor (!) even apprised me of the dangers of keeping expensive handsets and counseled me to go in for a cheap substitute in future. He then quickly finished the rest of the paperwork and gave me the receipt, the stamped copy of the letter and voila I had just successfully lodged my first FIR (Though I hope there are not many more to come!)
I look back in quiet contemplation. Since my foray into the big bad world, it has been one bumpy ride. One compromise after another. God where am I headed?? What happened to the romantic ideas and ideologies I ask myself?
The answer comes that from within…Shut up! It’s all about the survival of the fittest baby!
Lucky me, I got more than my money’s worth. Advice, tea and yes my work done in only a couple of minutes! And yes I almost forgot, ‘Sir’ even promised to inform me in case my phone is recovered :)
Just to fill the void...
Its been such a huge gap, I am half afraid that if Blogger's would start with its own "Blogger is deleting blogs" forwards I'd top their list! So here is a little something I wrote for my cousin's school debate on the topic "Relevance of Gandhism today". She was speaking against the motion.
A word of caution: Its "slightly" longish, so read at your own risk! Don't blame me for being too verbose later:p
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever”-M.K. Gandhi.
The Mahatma dedicated his life to the quest for knowledge, to the wider purpose of discovering truth, the complicated ‘Satya’, about life itself, these experiments with truth evolved into what has become the popular jargon of today – ‘Gandhism’. The father of our nation, the man who lead us to freedom, the apostle of non-violence, the architect of Satyagrah and Non-cooperation movements… he has endless credits to his name. But the question now is his relevance in today’s day and age. Can his lofty ideals be abided by? Is Gandhigiri the solution to all our troubles and woes? Will the new found euphoria created by Munnabhai last? Could the Mahatma heal the wounds inflicted, using just his simplistic principles? Is the common man strong enough to stand by the commandments of Gandhiji in thick and thin? Can a nation afford to follow his footsteps, become the Utopia he dreamed of during his lifetime?
Well I think not. I don’t doubt his teachings and principles. Nor do I denounce his apotheoses. Just I don’t agree with my friends advocating the model of Gandhism for present times. Let us be pragmatic here. Honestly, have any of you adhered to the percepts laid down by him for a better existence, even for just a day? Forgive me for being a little presumptuous here, but I guess not. This doesn’t make us bad people. No. Not at all. It is just indicative of the fact that times have changed. We cannot afford to stagnate ourselves, our country. Stop all progress, become the model nation he wished us to be. To set an example for others? If that is what we choose, we won’t even be around to see whether it works or not because we’d be wiped out of existence by the greedier, aggressive and more powerful nations.
To drive my point home, I now take up each of his principles one at a time.
Satya or Truth in Gandhi's philosophy is "God". Yes, most of us present strive for an honest living. But the strictures laid down by the Mahatma are sometimes considered too rigid. Can we afford to always speak the truth? Imagine a situation when a harmless lie might save someone from hurt. Would you rather break his/her heart or tell the obscure truth?
Gandhi said: The Truth is far more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction. Really is it? So that implies we release all our nuclear secrets and top-secret documents for general public viewing, our enemies and radicals included. A spy when caught should be taught to speak the truth and only the truth. Or wait, why the espionage activities. Let us all live blissfully, we’ll embark on the Satyagrah again.
The consequences of the aforementioned can be catastrophic.
Ahimsa - refusal to inflict injury upon others. Gandhi was a great advocator of the theory of non-violence. Whether it worked during the freedom struggle or not, was it instrumental in delaying independence from the British Raj are questions that are still widely contemplated.
But then if we opt to be a pacifist nation. Bid a farewell to arms, will we feel safe? Are we willing to even give it a try? To relinquish all our military efforts? The Sino-Indian war of 1962, noted as the biggest failing of Nehru, is a glaring example of how terribly astray we’d go if we do. Gandhi is criticized for inspiring in his protégé the pacifism that led to the defeat of the Indian Army against a surprise Chinese invasion. Nehru neglected the defense budget and disallowed the army to prepare, which caught the soldiers in the North-eastern frontier woefully off-guard with lack of supplies and reinforcements. Result being, even till this date Indian territory in under the Chinese rule. So are we willing to take another chance, give Ahimsa another shot?
Civil-disobedience or the non-cooperation movement. The essence of this technique is that it seeks to liquidate antagonisms but not the antagonists themselves. Will this work on our corrupt politicians is for you to decide. But let me cite the reservation row as an example here. Silent protests by college students scared the authorities so much so that they needed the BSF to intervene. Innocent youth were victimized. Shelling with tear gas and lathi assaults became a norm in Delhi campuses this summer. But even then the government is all set to implement its reservation policy beginning with the new academic year. It is disheartening indeed for the youngsters who followed the Mahatma’s philosophy.
Gandhi extolled the virtues of a Buddhist economy, living in peaceful and tranquil harmony in rural surroundings as a self sufficient community, with self-regulation and a reduction of materialistic ‘wants’. Doctors, lawyers, teachers and other professionals would use their educational talents for the common good while still irrigating the land with the sweat of their brow. Sounds nice and rosy, right? Speaking for myself, I don’t think I’d ever agree to a way of life in which equal opportunity has been redefined. Equal pay for equal work, it has always been, and it should always be.
Gandhi also prophesied the doctrines of vegetarianism and celibacy. To each his own I say. These are personal choices, which no third person has a right to interfere with. May be for the Mahatma curbing his desires and longings as means of going close to God and as a primary foundation for self realization, but those were HIS experiments with truth, his perspective… imposing these on the modern man would lead to reproach and rebuke. For example many Indians who move to the west prefer non-vegetarian food over the expensive vegetarian nutrients. Though beef is a taboo for the Hindu, many who settle abroad don’t mind this cheap substitute for chicken.
A living example of the failure of Gandhi’s principles is the ‘Iron lady’ of Manipal, Irom Sharmila. It has been nearly six years that she would be on her hunger strike. She has remained without solid food since then, demanding the withdrawal from her state, of one of the most draconian laws in the statute books called Armed Forces Powers Act (AFSPA). She has endured successive one-year sentences for trying to commit suicide. Yet she remains intent, unbending, unwilling to give up. She is a legend in her own right for the Manipuri people who are fighting their present day suffering at the hands of the policy makers. But how has this helped her cause? The government of the nation of he Mahatma is still unyielding. After six years of silent protest by this martyr AFSPA remains unaltered. The government tight lipped on this issue.
Irom Sharmila is cogent evidence of the ineffectualness of the Mahatma’s principles. Estranged and alienated from her family, she continues to fight for the cause she had dedicated herself too.
I can go on and on giving millions of reasons, examples and illustrations reproaching Gandhisim, and I am sure my friends here can quote numerous instances commending it. It boils down to what is the more prudent and appropriate solution for the common man. He doesn’t have any lofty ideals; neither does he wish to be a Mahatma. The pedestal most of us can’t reach nor do we wish too. We don’t want to turn the other cheek when someone hits us, we want to hit back. We don’t want to renounce the materialistic pleasures; we work hard for the luxuries of life not to forgo them for an ascetic’s life.
Do we want to remain isolated in this ever-shrinking global village? In this era of fast paced technology does India wish remain entrapped in the meshes of old archaic beliefs which are no longer relevant. Change is the only thing permanent; can we give up on it?
Gandhiji’s most beloved disciple, the socialist Nehru couldn’t abide by all the strictures laid down by his Guru, so how can we expect the world to take a complete turnaround of ideas overnight? Human nature can be portrayed most appropriately by the shades of grey. The whites of the Mahatma have faded away. Its time to move on; to take the next step. We cannot be saddled by the yesteryears. We need to take the best from the past, combine it with the present to strive for a better future!
A word of caution: Its "slightly" longish, so read at your own risk! Don't blame me for being too verbose later:p
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever”-M.K. Gandhi.
The Mahatma dedicated his life to the quest for knowledge, to the wider purpose of discovering truth, the complicated ‘Satya’, about life itself, these experiments with truth evolved into what has become the popular jargon of today – ‘Gandhism’. The father of our nation, the man who lead us to freedom, the apostle of non-violence, the architect of Satyagrah and Non-cooperation movements… he has endless credits to his name. But the question now is his relevance in today’s day and age. Can his lofty ideals be abided by? Is Gandhigiri the solution to all our troubles and woes? Will the new found euphoria created by Munnabhai last? Could the Mahatma heal the wounds inflicted, using just his simplistic principles? Is the common man strong enough to stand by the commandments of Gandhiji in thick and thin? Can a nation afford to follow his footsteps, become the Utopia he dreamed of during his lifetime?
Well I think not. I don’t doubt his teachings and principles. Nor do I denounce his apotheoses. Just I don’t agree with my friends advocating the model of Gandhism for present times. Let us be pragmatic here. Honestly, have any of you adhered to the percepts laid down by him for a better existence, even for just a day? Forgive me for being a little presumptuous here, but I guess not. This doesn’t make us bad people. No. Not at all. It is just indicative of the fact that times have changed. We cannot afford to stagnate ourselves, our country. Stop all progress, become the model nation he wished us to be. To set an example for others? If that is what we choose, we won’t even be around to see whether it works or not because we’d be wiped out of existence by the greedier, aggressive and more powerful nations.
To drive my point home, I now take up each of his principles one at a time.
Satya or Truth in Gandhi's philosophy is "God". Yes, most of us present strive for an honest living. But the strictures laid down by the Mahatma are sometimes considered too rigid. Can we afford to always speak the truth? Imagine a situation when a harmless lie might save someone from hurt. Would you rather break his/her heart or tell the obscure truth?
Gandhi said: The Truth is far more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction. Really is it? So that implies we release all our nuclear secrets and top-secret documents for general public viewing, our enemies and radicals included. A spy when caught should be taught to speak the truth and only the truth. Or wait, why the espionage activities. Let us all live blissfully, we’ll embark on the Satyagrah again.
The consequences of the aforementioned can be catastrophic.
Ahimsa - refusal to inflict injury upon others. Gandhi was a great advocator of the theory of non-violence. Whether it worked during the freedom struggle or not, was it instrumental in delaying independence from the British Raj are questions that are still widely contemplated.
But then if we opt to be a pacifist nation. Bid a farewell to arms, will we feel safe? Are we willing to even give it a try? To relinquish all our military efforts? The Sino-Indian war of 1962, noted as the biggest failing of Nehru, is a glaring example of how terribly astray we’d go if we do. Gandhi is criticized for inspiring in his protégé the pacifism that led to the defeat of the Indian Army against a surprise Chinese invasion. Nehru neglected the defense budget and disallowed the army to prepare, which caught the soldiers in the North-eastern frontier woefully off-guard with lack of supplies and reinforcements. Result being, even till this date Indian territory in under the Chinese rule. So are we willing to take another chance, give Ahimsa another shot?
Civil-disobedience or the non-cooperation movement. The essence of this technique is that it seeks to liquidate antagonisms but not the antagonists themselves. Will this work on our corrupt politicians is for you to decide. But let me cite the reservation row as an example here. Silent protests by college students scared the authorities so much so that they needed the BSF to intervene. Innocent youth were victimized. Shelling with tear gas and lathi assaults became a norm in Delhi campuses this summer. But even then the government is all set to implement its reservation policy beginning with the new academic year. It is disheartening indeed for the youngsters who followed the Mahatma’s philosophy.
Gandhi extolled the virtues of a Buddhist economy, living in peaceful and tranquil harmony in rural surroundings as a self sufficient community, with self-regulation and a reduction of materialistic ‘wants’. Doctors, lawyers, teachers and other professionals would use their educational talents for the common good while still irrigating the land with the sweat of their brow. Sounds nice and rosy, right? Speaking for myself, I don’t think I’d ever agree to a way of life in which equal opportunity has been redefined. Equal pay for equal work, it has always been, and it should always be.
Gandhi also prophesied the doctrines of vegetarianism and celibacy. To each his own I say. These are personal choices, which no third person has a right to interfere with. May be for the Mahatma curbing his desires and longings as means of going close to God and as a primary foundation for self realization, but those were HIS experiments with truth, his perspective… imposing these on the modern man would lead to reproach and rebuke. For example many Indians who move to the west prefer non-vegetarian food over the expensive vegetarian nutrients. Though beef is a taboo for the Hindu, many who settle abroad don’t mind this cheap substitute for chicken.
A living example of the failure of Gandhi’s principles is the ‘Iron lady’ of Manipal, Irom Sharmila. It has been nearly six years that she would be on her hunger strike. She has remained without solid food since then, demanding the withdrawal from her state, of one of the most draconian laws in the statute books called Armed Forces Powers Act (AFSPA). She has endured successive one-year sentences for trying to commit suicide. Yet she remains intent, unbending, unwilling to give up. She is a legend in her own right for the Manipuri people who are fighting their present day suffering at the hands of the policy makers. But how has this helped her cause? The government of the nation of he Mahatma is still unyielding. After six years of silent protest by this martyr AFSPA remains unaltered. The government tight lipped on this issue.
Irom Sharmila is cogent evidence of the ineffectualness of the Mahatma’s principles. Estranged and alienated from her family, she continues to fight for the cause she had dedicated herself too.
I can go on and on giving millions of reasons, examples and illustrations reproaching Gandhisim, and I am sure my friends here can quote numerous instances commending it. It boils down to what is the more prudent and appropriate solution for the common man. He doesn’t have any lofty ideals; neither does he wish to be a Mahatma. The pedestal most of us can’t reach nor do we wish too. We don’t want to turn the other cheek when someone hits us, we want to hit back. We don’t want to renounce the materialistic pleasures; we work hard for the luxuries of life not to forgo them for an ascetic’s life.
Do we want to remain isolated in this ever-shrinking global village? In this era of fast paced technology does India wish remain entrapped in the meshes of old archaic beliefs which are no longer relevant. Change is the only thing permanent; can we give up on it?
Gandhiji’s most beloved disciple, the socialist Nehru couldn’t abide by all the strictures laid down by his Guru, so how can we expect the world to take a complete turnaround of ideas overnight? Human nature can be portrayed most appropriately by the shades of grey. The whites of the Mahatma have faded away. Its time to move on; to take the next step. We cannot be saddled by the yesteryears. We need to take the best from the past, combine it with the present to strive for a better future!
Now this is what I call 'Creative Writing'
This post is dedicated to Muds who suggested I blog my 'creative writing' experience, and I will not dare to take away the necessary credit she deserves ;)
I am sure I have some hideous pieces of literature to my name, and my school teachers would readily testify this. But the essay I wrote as a dummy for a company visiting my campus has to be crowned the worst of the worsts! The topic given to us was “My last three years in college”. College life for me has been strewn with incidents which could have been woven into a beautiful narrative. Unfortunately for me I didn’t have to play a dumb dummy and get selected, so after a considerable pause I started to write this nightmarish piece.
“When I was in school I wish to be college. Now I am college. College good. Life cool. We do many various thing to keep busy. Like for eg. we do class, sport, movie, music to. We also have LAN. This is local area network. It also very very good. Much much fun. It has movie, music, software, games etc. You name and it is there. Very nice this is……….”
This blabber went on for some more time about my good mess, and the good food and sometime not so good food… blablabla. I think the five minute time constraint was a respite in disguise for the poor reader of my unintelligible writing.
What makes my heart ache is that this company’s HR would actually take this to be the standard of an average IIITian! Not that we have very high literary standards here, but this was pathetic. I guess same was the case with all the dummies sitting for the exam. I sincerely hope that they haven’t been too put off and would continue to visit our campus in spite of the serious discrepancies which must be apparent to them while reviewing our written test performances.
I am sure I have some hideous pieces of literature to my name, and my school teachers would readily testify this. But the essay I wrote as a dummy for a company visiting my campus has to be crowned the worst of the worsts! The topic given to us was “My last three years in college”. College life for me has been strewn with incidents which could have been woven into a beautiful narrative. Unfortunately for me I didn’t have to play a dumb dummy and get selected, so after a considerable pause I started to write this nightmarish piece.
“When I was in school I wish to be college. Now I am college. College good. Life cool. We do many various thing to keep busy. Like for eg. we do class, sport, movie, music to. We also have LAN. This is local area network. It also very very good. Much much fun. It has movie, music, software, games etc. You name and it is there. Very nice this is……….”
This blabber went on for some more time about my good mess, and the good food and sometime not so good food… blablabla. I think the five minute time constraint was a respite in disguise for the poor reader of my unintelligible writing.
What makes my heart ache is that this company’s HR would actually take this to be the standard of an average IIITian! Not that we have very high literary standards here, but this was pathetic. I guess same was the case with all the dummies sitting for the exam. I sincerely hope that they haven’t been too put off and would continue to visit our campus in spite of the serious discrepancies which must be apparent to them while reviewing our written test performances.
Heights of Male Vanity??
A few days back, on my way home, I came across something strikingly funny! Plastered across the billboard was Mr. Upen Patel (and that explains why it caught my attention). No I don’t think Upen Patel is blog worthy, what was more eye-catching was the ad of the broadcast he is currently endorsing. Show name: Mr.Candy. Funny? It surely is, but what beats it is the even more hilarious tag line associated with it. It read, ‘Get intimate with your eye candy only on…’
Apart from total lack of ingeniousness by the creative and the marketing squads, what hit me was the realization that this stuff actually sells! That’s the nature of the supply-demand curve we had learnt, isn’t it? Initially the very idea of programs so lewd in nature, targeting the female audience, was repelling to me. But then why blame the crew and the hapless Upen Patel (who by the way can’t even dish out a proper sentence in his heavily accented drawling voice!). Poor guy is just catering to the “needs” of the whacko female populace.
Anyways so may be ‘Female Insanity’ would more befitting a title!
Apart from total lack of ingeniousness by the creative and the marketing squads, what hit me was the realization that this stuff actually sells! That’s the nature of the supply-demand curve we had learnt, isn’t it? Initially the very idea of programs so lewd in nature, targeting the female audience, was repelling to me. But then why blame the crew and the hapless Upen Patel (who by the way can’t even dish out a proper sentence in his heavily accented drawling voice!). Poor guy is just catering to the “needs” of the whacko female populace.
Anyways so may be ‘Female Insanity’ would more befitting a title!
Delving back 'n' forth in time
I am at the crossroads again. Another crucial year of my life, the last one was miserably disappointing, disheartening and what not! It was the year 2002-03, the “IIT-prep” year. Anyways that’s not the subject of this post. What I want to share is the feeling of nostalgia that hits me hard at this point of time. Looking at my seniors move on, cherishing their final moments together, their last night-outs of IIIT-A life, the get-togethers, the farewell party…the culmination of four years of togetherness, co-existence, rivalry, intimacy, communion, merriment, hard work…it all finally comes to an end.
Next semester will be a whirlwind romance, a tryst with destiny for most of us. Oh I didn’t mean cupid would be at play or anything just that our careers would be at stake…so wherever our luck would land us is still to see. Although I have two long months ahead strewn with hectic preparations (hopefully!!) for the placement season and the CAT this November, I still want to sit back and give a thought to the times gone by. My favorite yahoo SM now-a-days is the famous Casablanca OST, “As time goes by”. Very befitting, given my current state of mind.
Well it’s been three eventful years for me. Hopefully I will be in my final year after the results are out this June. My college years have been anything but a bed of roses, but when I contemplate the times gone by… they just bring a smile to my face. May be that’s the magic of these BTech years. No matter how much you hate them, but you’re sure to miss them once they are gone. I remember vividly my first trip to Jhalwa, the road that lead to my alma mater. The bumps, the potholes, the “amiable” Jhalwa crowd… but then our destination made it all up. One look at my IIIT-A, and mum was rest assured that I hadn’t landed in some far off Timbaktoo college. We were all jam-packed in a Santro, and mum forced me to get off the car and go into the building (which I later came to know was the Mecca-Medina of college: CC-1,2) and ask all the (silly) relevant questions to my seniors, the consequences of which I suffered during my ragging …oops… PDP time. Paro later told me that incident gave me the name of Santro girl. I don’t remember too much of my batchmates from my earlier days of first sem, reason being we were too much in awe of our seniors. Our first interaction was for the performances we had to put up for our fresher’s. We had a whale of a time preparing the event. It was then that those disgusting cheap creatures for us transformed overnight into perfect gentlemen (I agree girls are whimsical!). After that there was no looking back. We routed for our batchies everywhere, whether it was in front of our seniors or juniors or on the playground!
One of the most memorable experiences of my college life has been the 2nd semester cricket tourney. Our batch team was the underdogs. We had no expectations whatsoever. The girls had promised a treat to the whole team if they defeated the Matkas(!!) in the opening match. Much to our surprise, the team did win! Every match that our team played, we were by their side, pampering the players to the max. Our excitement and enthusiasm was second to none. The team skyrocketed to the finals. The finals were dismal to say the least, with a lopsided victory by B2K1. But B2K3 had left its mark! A sore point in our stay at IIIT-A has been the inability to win a tourney. Every event, we are this close to winning it and just then some other team ends up winning the cup.
Now delving back in time, I can safely say that the most memorable period in college has been the freshmen year. We all were dying to shift to Jhalwa then, but come the sophomore year and we realized that the golden period had gone by. Everyone became recluse, caught up in their own virtual world. Even birthday wishes were through yahoo and Orkut(!). But that is the tradeoff I guess. Back in NSC we led a wild life, whiling away time. Our real education… or may be the pretence of it started from Jhalwa :p. Not that we got serious about studies or anything, just the realization dawned in that we were not on a holiday but pursuing our graduation! May be little more focused you can say.
This doesn’t sum up even half of our first year experiences which are scattered with small unforgettable incidences which are may be too trivial to state here. But college life would seem incomplete without them. Also excuse my inept literary skills which fail to summarize appropriately the wonderful times IIIT-A has given us.
Before I am blamed again for droning on too long I think I’ll wind up now. About 2nd and 3rd year may be in my next post. Till then… adios!
Next semester will be a whirlwind romance, a tryst with destiny for most of us. Oh I didn’t mean cupid would be at play or anything just that our careers would be at stake…so wherever our luck would land us is still to see. Although I have two long months ahead strewn with hectic preparations (hopefully!!) for the placement season and the CAT this November, I still want to sit back and give a thought to the times gone by. My favorite yahoo SM now-a-days is the famous Casablanca OST, “As time goes by”. Very befitting, given my current state of mind.
Well it’s been three eventful years for me. Hopefully I will be in my final year after the results are out this June. My college years have been anything but a bed of roses, but when I contemplate the times gone by… they just bring a smile to my face. May be that’s the magic of these BTech years. No matter how much you hate them, but you’re sure to miss them once they are gone. I remember vividly my first trip to Jhalwa, the road that lead to my alma mater. The bumps, the potholes, the “amiable” Jhalwa crowd… but then our destination made it all up. One look at my IIIT-A, and mum was rest assured that I hadn’t landed in some far off Timbaktoo college. We were all jam-packed in a Santro, and mum forced me to get off the car and go into the building (which I later came to know was the Mecca-Medina of college: CC-1,2) and ask all the (silly) relevant questions to my seniors, the consequences of which I suffered during my ragging …oops… PDP time. Paro later told me that incident gave me the name of Santro girl. I don’t remember too much of my batchmates from my earlier days of first sem, reason being we were too much in awe of our seniors. Our first interaction was for the performances we had to put up for our fresher’s. We had a whale of a time preparing the event. It was then that those disgusting cheap creatures for us transformed overnight into perfect gentlemen (I agree girls are whimsical!). After that there was no looking back. We routed for our batchies everywhere, whether it was in front of our seniors or juniors or on the playground!
One of the most memorable experiences of my college life has been the 2nd semester cricket tourney. Our batch team was the underdogs. We had no expectations whatsoever. The girls had promised a treat to the whole team if they defeated the Matkas(!!) in the opening match. Much to our surprise, the team did win! Every match that our team played, we were by their side, pampering the players to the max. Our excitement and enthusiasm was second to none. The team skyrocketed to the finals. The finals were dismal to say the least, with a lopsided victory by B2K1. But B2K3 had left its mark! A sore point in our stay at IIIT-A has been the inability to win a tourney. Every event, we are this close to winning it and just then some other team ends up winning the cup.
Now delving back in time, I can safely say that the most memorable period in college has been the freshmen year. We all were dying to shift to Jhalwa then, but come the sophomore year and we realized that the golden period had gone by. Everyone became recluse, caught up in their own virtual world. Even birthday wishes were through yahoo and Orkut(!). But that is the tradeoff I guess. Back in NSC we led a wild life, whiling away time. Our real education… or may be the pretence of it started from Jhalwa :p. Not that we got serious about studies or anything, just the realization dawned in that we were not on a holiday but pursuing our graduation! May be little more focused you can say.
This doesn’t sum up even half of our first year experiences which are scattered with small unforgettable incidences which are may be too trivial to state here. But college life would seem incomplete without them. Also excuse my inept literary skills which fail to summarize appropriately the wonderful times IIIT-A has given us.
Before I am blamed again for droning on too long I think I’ll wind up now. About 2nd and 3rd year may be in my next post. Till then… adios!
Shattered Expectations
My roomie told me of the latest entrant in the English movies folder of 31.2.40, the lifeline of IIIT-A, if I may say so. An adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic, the Great Expectation, released in 1998 had finally arrived! Well I am no fan of the book; in fact I found each one of its characters disgustingly irritating, except that of Joe may be. We were made to go through each one of its 300 odd pages, memorizing extracts from the everyday life of the motley group of confused souls, where most of them didn’t have a clue to what they were up to! On top of that, and I still don’t know how we were supposed to manage understanding the “depth”, the quintessence of human nature and its “beautiful” portrayal in the play. Aahh! Pip’s incessant declarations of love, and the ridicule he was subjecting his own self and those who cared, to get a teensy weensy more of her attention, to be just a wee bit more worth of the “Goddess”! Sometimes you felt bad for the poor chap. But then this was an age old story, the naïve plot was pretty believable, with unforgettable characters who made you feel like there could exist a loony like Ms.Havisham, and Dickens did a great job in weaving the story together. Few of the scenes like the showdown between Ms.Havisham and Estella; the one where Pip tells Ms.Havisham that he has a broken heart are my all time favorites. The narrative has been so interestingly written, the characters so well-etched out that you actually start believing in those whackos-each one of them! Hatred for the book was more out of the contempt for it being part of the school curriculum rather than the book itself. Imagine the plight of students being made to go through those nerve-wrecking, endless chapters describing Pip’s love for Estella.
Anyways the point here I am trying to make is not about the book but about the sad adaptations of classics the celluloid churns out now-a-days. I watched the movie today afternoon after the prolonged mid-semester examinations of college were finally officially over! It started out well, with a brilliant revamp of the swamps scene between Robert diNero (need I say more??) and the child actor. Joe and the revised character of Mrs. Joe(they gave her a damned name!!) were disappointing to say the least, your heart doesn’t wring for Joe when he come visiting Pip in the city cause there hasn’t been shown enough or rather any bonding between them. They have conveniently removed such fine and memorable characters like Pumblechook and Wemmick, reduced Jaggers to a “spider-man”, totally killed Estella’s character, converted the uptight Mrs. Joe to a mere adulteress who runs away from home and unlike the original where the ending where Pip’s character finally seems to have matured and leaves the reader thinking, the movie actually has a happy ending! Relationships which are the major focal point of the novel have taken a backseat in this “modern”, chic version of the classic, taken over by sexuality, and ohh not to forget the green colour(for those who’ve been sane enough not to watch the movie, for some strange reason, unrevealed through out the narrative, Ms Havisham and Estella have some mystic fascination with green!). No attempt has been made to etch out well Pip’s childhood, his suffering, the reassurance he got from Joe. No all this isn’t important, what actually the director thought was worth the precious 90 minutes, was Hank Azaria as Estella’s beau, who should have been rightfully kept away from the plot. What more…the meteoric rise to success, and the “smooth” transition to a snob is rather too abrupt, and obviously the revelation of the benefactor( and the waste of an actor of the stature of Robert DiNero) was two penny worth for the scriptwriters. To top it all, unarguably the best scene of the novel, when Estella tells Ms. Havisham “I am what you made me”, has been omitted. Unfortunately confrontations in the play were something the director seems to be totally oblivious too. One thing they’ve spent lavishly on is the re-construction of the great ruin of a mansion, Havisham house, the visualization of which had pretty frequent in times when I read the book, so that was a treat! But then I fail to understand why they stuck to the all-still theory when Ms. Havisham herself had been given a face-lift, occasionally stepped out, loved to wear makeup (!), had a whole range of (green) designer wear and was dancing on salsa tunes, instead of being the actual scary, grumpy ol’ hag who was only a nocturnal feature in the original novel.
A thorough disappointment, a frustratingly poor adaptation of a classic was what the new Great Expectations was all about. Rather than capitalizing on the forte of the novel- the characterizations and the narrative, the makers have chosen just to give a cheesy renovation to the long-drawn love of Pip for Estella (the haughtiness totally missing in Gwyneth Paltrow throughout), which though instrumental in shaping the character of the protagonist wasn’t the only thing that warrants attention.
My advice is, stay away from this mediocre make.
Anyways the point here I am trying to make is not about the book but about the sad adaptations of classics the celluloid churns out now-a-days. I watched the movie today afternoon after the prolonged mid-semester examinations of college were finally officially over! It started out well, with a brilliant revamp of the swamps scene between Robert diNero (need I say more??) and the child actor. Joe and the revised character of Mrs. Joe(they gave her a damned name!!) were disappointing to say the least, your heart doesn’t wring for Joe when he come visiting Pip in the city cause there hasn’t been shown enough or rather any bonding between them. They have conveniently removed such fine and memorable characters like Pumblechook and Wemmick, reduced Jaggers to a “spider-man”, totally killed Estella’s character, converted the uptight Mrs. Joe to a mere adulteress who runs away from home and unlike the original where the ending where Pip’s character finally seems to have matured and leaves the reader thinking, the movie actually has a happy ending! Relationships which are the major focal point of the novel have taken a backseat in this “modern”, chic version of the classic, taken over by sexuality, and ohh not to forget the green colour(for those who’ve been sane enough not to watch the movie, for some strange reason, unrevealed through out the narrative, Ms Havisham and Estella have some mystic fascination with green!). No attempt has been made to etch out well Pip’s childhood, his suffering, the reassurance he got from Joe. No all this isn’t important, what actually the director thought was worth the precious 90 minutes, was Hank Azaria as Estella’s beau, who should have been rightfully kept away from the plot. What more…the meteoric rise to success, and the “smooth” transition to a snob is rather too abrupt, and obviously the revelation of the benefactor( and the waste of an actor of the stature of Robert DiNero) was two penny worth for the scriptwriters. To top it all, unarguably the best scene of the novel, when Estella tells Ms. Havisham “I am what you made me”, has been omitted. Unfortunately confrontations in the play were something the director seems to be totally oblivious too. One thing they’ve spent lavishly on is the re-construction of the great ruin of a mansion, Havisham house, the visualization of which had pretty frequent in times when I read the book, so that was a treat! But then I fail to understand why they stuck to the all-still theory when Ms. Havisham herself had been given a face-lift, occasionally stepped out, loved to wear makeup (!), had a whole range of (green) designer wear and was dancing on salsa tunes, instead of being the actual scary, grumpy ol’ hag who was only a nocturnal feature in the original novel.
A thorough disappointment, a frustratingly poor adaptation of a classic was what the new Great Expectations was all about. Rather than capitalizing on the forte of the novel- the characterizations and the narrative, the makers have chosen just to give a cheesy renovation to the long-drawn love of Pip for Estella (the haughtiness totally missing in Gwyneth Paltrow throughout), which though instrumental in shaping the character of the protagonist wasn’t the only thing that warrants attention.
My advice is, stay away from this mediocre make.
Cosmopolitan 114
Some honesty first….the blog title and the idea itself is plagiarization of my friend Rajani’s work…an inspiration (to say in true Bollywood style), from her blog. The usage of cosmopolitan as an adjective for my room... it ticked me then, why hadn’t I, the self proclaimed blogmaniac who had been too busy with silly trivial stuff to read up blogs leave alone writing one, written something about my very interesting, capricious little… hmm….not so little actually, but yes a very crowded room. Also, this post is borne of my boredom, the few rarities of my college life include an empty 114, and alas it is what I face now! My roomies are coming tomorrow and it is one of those days when all alone in my room (well almost, if I don’t count a sleeping Gupti). So the long pending post, a tribute to my roomies finally sees the light of day today!
Cosmopolitan in some sense is pretty correct, Muddu Baby (yes! I am grinning) and Suchi represent the telugu community, Rajani our air-force girl has been all over India (I guess she’s the most cosmopolitan), our pseudo roomie Gupti is a US citizen, and me, well I proud to be Upite, I say. Surely that is a mighty interesting concoction, but wait those were just the credits of the cast and crew of 114.
For starters, to be one of room 114 is no mean feat, a threshold has been set, the alpha-cut as Muddu would say for you to belong to the cluster called 114. The recipe to gaining that threshold has been a long kept hostel secret, but today I reveal it… not because we are in a dire need of a roommate but coz it overflowing already and there’s no scope for one more. So let the world know today that ‘We are such stuff, as dreams are made on…’:p. Well, my usual melodrama apart, time for some serious business. The formula is simple, take an average sane person; remove all the zeal to study; throw in some bonkers on her; add in irresponsibility, carelessness and a tinge of zing for life; hone an extraordinary skill till she reaches a definite level of insanity, and voila you have a probable room 114 occupant. Just that now there’s no room for any, sorry, but then I can give you the next best thing… a quick insight into room 114.
The Characters
To begin with, the kiddo of the room the loveable doll we call Muddu baby, as already seen, Sambha has devoted a whole post to her which gives one an understanding to the many facets of Ms.Mudduluri’s personality. I’d just like to make a few more add-ons there - remarkable use of Hindi slang (a language she could barely converse in at the beginning of 1st semester); an ability to sleep irrespective of the jobs, study material piled up; to die for Hindi accent, and a penchant for cheapo masala numbers, the ones Suchi hates and we love to play just as to bug her that much! A special mention is required for Muddu’s strikingly good memory. You can’t even begin to imagine the extent to which she remembers things. The minutest of details of years gone by are still absolutely clear and vivid in her mind, but problem being she’s so engrossed into fine points that she generally forgets the bigger picture (need I mention the Hasibguda fiasco my dear little tourist guide?).
Sambha, she’s an open book for everyone around her. Not once does she reserve her opinion. With her it’s – she thinks it, you got it. Around her are a bevy of tortured souls who are struggling living with her but can’t live without her either! On an examination day when for a change all of us are toiling with our books she has around four windows on her monitor – a chat window, a movie, browser, and ofcourse if space permits a teeny meeny ppt window! Sometimes you want to call her unpredictable, erratic, irrational, foolish but then you realize may be not. A more apt description would be – a free soul, a helluva girl with a never say die spirit, a firm believer in Darwinism’s ‘Survival of the fittest’, an unstoppable force (so the dean realized in the mid sems ;) )! But apart from this what most haven’t seen is her helpful self, when it matters most, come what may you’ll find her by your side. A friend in need is a friend indeed, an old saying but befitting as it is for Rajani, I use it here yet again.
Suchi on the other hand is quite an unlikely resident of room 114. Overtly a quiet, innocent, simple looking girl with an angelic voice…but then looks are deceptive. The uniqueness of being a 114ite has to be there! A very famous Suchi trait is that you’ll find her perpetually with a book in her hand, on the bed, but alas those pretty eyes always need sleep! One can’t blame her totally, given the fact that she’s generally the first to get up (and wake up us all) and the last to sleep. The time-table (TT) as she is known as, never fails! Not to forget are her wondrous monosyllables, she’s capable of carrying out perfect (strictly according to her) conversation using just them. Teasing her is a favorite past time for all of us, and the great spirit in which she takes all our weird comments is what makes her so special and also a soft target ;)
When I mention the tenants of room 114, I can’t even dream of not introducing our junglee pseudo roomie Gupti. Forgetting an integral part like her is committing blasphemy. The reason she’s still called pseudo is because she doesn’t fit the profile well. She’s crazy alright but the hard worker in her just refuses to go away. But then our room is a second home for her after UDL lab, and without Chef Gupti our midnight meals won’t be the same again.
Four down; one more to go and that’s me. But because I am authoring this unintelligible piece of literature I rather skip this part. Though there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind (and I am sure there’s none :D) that I have the most qualified persona to be a 114ite!
The Narrative
The characters finally done away with, now the plot. On most days we follow the same routine – sleeping, whiling away time, sleeping, leg pulling, sleeping, cooking, sleeping, velagiri, sleeping. Special appearances by Neha, whenever she gets time out of her busy schedule of shuttling between CC-2 and the hostel, gives much needed oomph to the plot. Unwanted Matkis scolding us for no rhyme or reason play the villains. With special effects of cookery, spanking and pillow fights thrown in we have for you a complete family entertainer!
All said and done, and I am sure by now I have completely enraged all my inmates by presenting to you our wacko details, I’d like to wrap this up.
But before that a small reminiscent down the memory lane…our 1st year birthday parties, all seven of us sitting in huddled up in one blanket almost invariably discussing rather dissecting some poor senior or class guy, the water fights, our all girl treats where hogging was our sole purpose, stealing from the mess at night, cooking, the wicked names we gave everybody initially, the naughty songs we loved to dance too, Ramneet and Neha mimicking each and everyone we know so amazingly well, Shilpi’s freaky accidents….there’s no end to it. Ups and downs I have seen them both in college life but through thick and thin we have been together. Now I realize, when it’s almost over, why people say school days and college days are memories you cherish lifelong………..
Cosmopolitan in some sense is pretty correct, Muddu Baby (yes! I am grinning) and Suchi represent the telugu community, Rajani our air-force girl has been all over India (I guess she’s the most cosmopolitan), our pseudo roomie Gupti is a US citizen, and me, well I proud to be Upite, I say. Surely that is a mighty interesting concoction, but wait those were just the credits of the cast and crew of 114.
For starters, to be one of room 114 is no mean feat, a threshold has been set, the alpha-cut as Muddu would say for you to belong to the cluster called 114. The recipe to gaining that threshold has been a long kept hostel secret, but today I reveal it… not because we are in a dire need of a roommate but coz it overflowing already and there’s no scope for one more. So let the world know today that ‘We are such stuff, as dreams are made on…’:p. Well, my usual melodrama apart, time for some serious business. The formula is simple, take an average sane person; remove all the zeal to study; throw in some bonkers on her; add in irresponsibility, carelessness and a tinge of zing for life; hone an extraordinary skill till she reaches a definite level of insanity, and voila you have a probable room 114 occupant. Just that now there’s no room for any, sorry, but then I can give you the next best thing… a quick insight into room 114.
The Characters
To begin with, the kiddo of the room the loveable doll we call Muddu baby, as already seen, Sambha has devoted a whole post to her which gives one an understanding to the many facets of Ms.Mudduluri’s personality. I’d just like to make a few more add-ons there - remarkable use of Hindi slang (a language she could barely converse in at the beginning of 1st semester); an ability to sleep irrespective of the jobs, study material piled up; to die for Hindi accent, and a penchant for cheapo masala numbers, the ones Suchi hates and we love to play just as to bug her that much! A special mention is required for Muddu’s strikingly good memory. You can’t even begin to imagine the extent to which she remembers things. The minutest of details of years gone by are still absolutely clear and vivid in her mind, but problem being she’s so engrossed into fine points that she generally forgets the bigger picture (need I mention the Hasibguda fiasco my dear little tourist guide?).
Sambha, she’s an open book for everyone around her. Not once does she reserve her opinion. With her it’s – she thinks it, you got it. Around her are a bevy of tortured souls who are struggling living with her but can’t live without her either! On an examination day when for a change all of us are toiling with our books she has around four windows on her monitor – a chat window, a movie, browser, and ofcourse if space permits a teeny meeny ppt window! Sometimes you want to call her unpredictable, erratic, irrational, foolish but then you realize may be not. A more apt description would be – a free soul, a helluva girl with a never say die spirit, a firm believer in Darwinism’s ‘Survival of the fittest’, an unstoppable force (so the dean realized in the mid sems ;) )! But apart from this what most haven’t seen is her helpful self, when it matters most, come what may you’ll find her by your side. A friend in need is a friend indeed, an old saying but befitting as it is for Rajani, I use it here yet again.
Suchi on the other hand is quite an unlikely resident of room 114. Overtly a quiet, innocent, simple looking girl with an angelic voice…but then looks are deceptive. The uniqueness of being a 114ite has to be there! A very famous Suchi trait is that you’ll find her perpetually with a book in her hand, on the bed, but alas those pretty eyes always need sleep! One can’t blame her totally, given the fact that she’s generally the first to get up (and wake up us all) and the last to sleep. The time-table (TT) as she is known as, never fails! Not to forget are her wondrous monosyllables, she’s capable of carrying out perfect (strictly according to her) conversation using just them. Teasing her is a favorite past time for all of us, and the great spirit in which she takes all our weird comments is what makes her so special and also a soft target ;)
When I mention the tenants of room 114, I can’t even dream of not introducing our junglee pseudo roomie Gupti. Forgetting an integral part like her is committing blasphemy. The reason she’s still called pseudo is because she doesn’t fit the profile well. She’s crazy alright but the hard worker in her just refuses to go away. But then our room is a second home for her after UDL lab, and without Chef Gupti our midnight meals won’t be the same again.
Four down; one more to go and that’s me. But because I am authoring this unintelligible piece of literature I rather skip this part. Though there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind (and I am sure there’s none :D) that I have the most qualified persona to be a 114ite!
The Narrative
The characters finally done away with, now the plot. On most days we follow the same routine – sleeping, whiling away time, sleeping, leg pulling, sleeping, cooking, sleeping, velagiri, sleeping. Special appearances by Neha, whenever she gets time out of her busy schedule of shuttling between CC-2 and the hostel, gives much needed oomph to the plot. Unwanted Matkis scolding us for no rhyme or reason play the villains. With special effects of cookery, spanking and pillow fights thrown in we have for you a complete family entertainer!
All said and done, and I am sure by now I have completely enraged all my inmates by presenting to you our wacko details, I’d like to wrap this up.
But before that a small reminiscent down the memory lane…our 1st year birthday parties, all seven of us sitting in huddled up in one blanket almost invariably discussing rather dissecting some poor senior or class guy, the water fights, our all girl treats where hogging was our sole purpose, stealing from the mess at night, cooking, the wicked names we gave everybody initially, the naughty songs we loved to dance too, Ramneet and Neha mimicking each and everyone we know so amazingly well, Shilpi’s freaky accidents….there’s no end to it. Ups and downs I have seen them both in college life but through thick and thin we have been together. Now I realize, when it’s almost over, why people say school days and college days are memories you cherish lifelong………..
Lit Club woes
….aahhh how happy I was with my backdoor entry into the ‘erstwhile’ prestigious (and now the most mocked!) club of my college, almost a year ago. Elated, excited, in seventh heaven, on cloud nine! OK, so a bit of exaggeration…but you get my point? I was happy, but now one year down the line, and I am a depressed, overworked soul, doing thankless work of writing speeches for other people, being an anonymous HT correspondent (or even worse someone plagiarizing my work, printing it in their name!). And if this is not enough, a few cheeky mates have the audacity to say that the Lit club is the laziest, most dormant club of the college. Well, actually not their fault, overtly it seems we are hardly working rather than hard working ( ;) ).
The college magazine, the first ‘momentous issue’, a cogent evidence of the Lit club’s work, a fruit of our labour (:p)-has been ready for publication since a year, but damn the admin (and a certain queen!). After writing several mails to the student community, informing them that ImHO’s ready – we still have nothing (sob!). Needless to say we have lost our credibility totally, and I fear eventually all IIIT-A mailbox owners would mark the Lit club mails as spam (sigh). But on the brighter side, we are still pleading AV, so any of my batchies reading this, (I hope) there’s still hope.
Oh yes, by the way did I mention the very popular joke going around in my friend circle? Those soulless, savage brutes say Saumya has an alternative profession in journalism if her IT career doesn’t workout (and most probably it won’t considering the amount of time I devote to studies, compared to my exhaustive ‘stint’ with journalism).
Anyways adieus, till next time…
The college magazine, the first ‘momentous issue’, a cogent evidence of the Lit club’s work, a fruit of our labour (:p)-has been ready for publication since a year, but damn the admin (and a certain queen!). After writing several mails to the student community, informing them that ImHO’s ready – we still have nothing (sob!). Needless to say we have lost our credibility totally, and I fear eventually all IIIT-A mailbox owners would mark the Lit club mails as spam (sigh). But on the brighter side, we are still pleading AV, so any of my batchies reading this, (I hope) there’s still hope.
Oh yes, by the way did I mention the very popular joke going around in my friend circle? Those soulless, savage brutes say Saumya has an alternative profession in journalism if her IT career doesn’t workout (and most probably it won’t considering the amount of time I devote to studies, compared to my exhaustive ‘stint’ with journalism).
Anyways adieus, till next time…
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