Priceless....

Last few days were hectic. Gave two exams and many more yet to come.
P.S: Don't you dare ask me how I did in exams....

Saw this pic and MasterCard ad somewhere which I would like to share with everyone.



My condition is somewhat like this. Have nothing new to write.

And the MasterCard advertisement which goes like this-

GMAT - 250$
Manhattan GMAT classes - 1400$
Application to each school - 200$
Travel cost for interview - 350$

One admit from the dream school - PRICELESS!!

After this,

Tuition fees - 80000$...


But...
After MBA, dreams you convert into reality.....PRICELESS!!

(I am sure many of my friends would relate to it.)

This year it's different....

1/12- This day comes every year....
But this year it's different; this year it's special, very special.

1st anniversary....

During my college days I didn’t like the concept of blogging at all. I use to feel that it is a waste of time and laugh out at my friends who were bloggers. I couldn’t understand the logic of putting down your views, writing stories on some website and also reading out some crap written by others.

My views changed completely after I joined office. Thanks to few of my friends who inspired me to read blogs and then one fine day I actually made one of my own and not just that, I also wrote a post. Still that time I was not at all sure if I would be able to maintain my blog and post regularly. But here I am writing and updating my blog regularly and celebrating the 1st anniversary of my blog. It’s a big deal for me that after 1 year I am still alive here.

I would like to thank all my friends and fellow bloggers who have tolerated me and my writing so far. I don’t think I can write but my friends say I sometimes write well. That time I know I have made some really good friends who actually don’t want to tell me about my atrocious writing. Thank you guys.

I refuse to grow up....

We all are actors wearing masks and pretending to be someone we are not. This might be hard to accept for us but yes, this is the truth. We are someone else when we are with our parents/relatives pretending to be all decent, we jump into some other character when we are with our gf/bf pretending to be loyal and faithful, when with elders/teachers/colleagues we are the one who is trying to present himself as mature and intelligent. I am not saying that one is not decent, loyal, mature or intelligent that he needs to pretend all the time but we cant disregard the fact that we have done this at some point of our life or still do or will do in future. One thing I understand that may be we pretend because we try to create a good impression on others.

But not with friends. We can be ourselves in front of our friends(I mean really good friends). With friends we need not to fear about creating any impression because they know us well. If we are 30 but still a kid by heart, we can show our true side to our freinds which cannot be the case with others who will consider us immature if we do so but our friends won't because they know us and understand us well. Afterall this is what friends are for- you can be as stupid as you want to be, as childish as you want to be, do whatever you feel like. There is a child in all of us but yes we would be considered immature if we show our childish behaviour to others and here is when friends come to our rescue. We won't be considered immature if we behave like that in front of our friends. Ofcourse we should know how to present ourself when we are with other people. We cannot afford to be called immature by others. What matters is how we put our views to others. One can argue that you are 30 and a kid by heart so how can you present yourself as a mature person in front of others so here I would like to say that being 30 and a kid by heart is different from being 30 and a kid by mind. Altough you are a kid by heart, your mind which is mature enough will eventually stop you from acting as a kid in front of others and the same mind will set you free to be what you are when you are with your friends.

Many a times we deprive ourselves with small-small things which we love to do and which gives us happiness like blowing in a glass full of juice through straw and creating bubbles, dancing in the rain, playing a silly prank which can make others laugh, hop on a swing and sway till we have forgotten all our worries, licking a cone icecream, hog on to chocolates. We deprive ourselves of hapiness because we know that we are mature and we are not supposed to act in such a way in front of others but there is no need to deprive ourselves with such happiness in front of our friends. I ask in this fast-forward life when we have no time for anything, when emotions and happiness have no place in life, when the life is just limited to home-office-home, if we find little happiness by being a kid or doing what you feel like in front of your close friends, what is wrong in it? I act in front of others but don't want to do the same when I am with friends.I don't know about others but I don't want to grow up at the cost of happiness. I value happiness more than anything else and thus in front of my pals I refuse to grow up.

I Love You Jaanu....

No, no people please don’t get me wrong. I am perfectly normal, have not fallen in love or anything worthless like that. It’s just that these days I am seeing certain things which I feel are very awkward/farcical/nonsensical and which prompted me to write about it.

I happened to waste my time on a certain book which was full of such nonsensical stuffs.
In that book two people were deeply and madly in love with each other and they call each other lovingly by names- not the normal ones but the absurd ones like “jaanu”, “coochie-pie”, “sweetie-pie” and lots of other pies along with “darling”, “baby”. Also, they never happen to talk in a normal way. They used things like “Is my baby awake”, “My coochie-pie; have you finished your lunch/dinner?”, “Mera baby kya kar raha hai”, “I miss you jaanu” followed by “I love you jaanu” in their normal conversations. Now who the hell in the world talk like this????

Its ok you are in love but I can’t understand the fun of calling him/her “my baby, coochie-pie” etc. Can’t they just talk in a normal way?? I then thought it’s just that psycho writer who wrote all this crap until I came across those couples who actually talk in this fashion. It so happened that one of my friends was very happy one day. I asked him the reason- he said “today my gf had called me shona”. I asked him what it means to which he replied that it’s just a fun way of calling your beloved. It’s not that I don’t like love stories-I am a big movie buff, but still I just can’t digest the idea behind “sweetie-pie and coochie-pie”.

I was discussing this with one of my friends and he said it is pretty normal for people to do such stuffs when they are in love and he backed his statement with the messages in his Inbox. Those were from his gf. (Hope you all understand what types of messages were those)
He went on to the extent by saying that one day I will also do all such things when I will be actually in love or when I will get engaged. (How dare he!!)
I can never imaging myself getting indulged in such things. Yuck,yuck,yuck!!!!

An idle mind is devils workshop!

This week I had no work in office; the code is being pushed into production so it’s kind of cool this week. (This means I will have to slog next week when I will get production issues :(:( )
So since I had nothing to do in office I was simply spending my time browsing, watching movies and thinking weird things. I have a few questions whose answers I don’t know.

1) Why do PETA volunteers generally have to pose nude to save animals?
I have seen in newspapers, various ad campaigns that they strip down for the cause. I just can’t understand the need to do so.

2) Why Dracula always craves for the blood of young and pretty girls?
All the movies I have seen, all the novels I have read about Dracula, this one thing is common in all. Everywhere Dracula was craving for the blood of young and pretty girls. I just can’t understand what is wrong in the blood of guys that he is not at all fond of it.

3) Why is money everything in this world?
Why do we begin our day with an urge to earn money and end our day with an urge to earn more money? Why is it above all relations, above everything?


Look what happens when imagination goes wild. It gives birth to such weird questions which finally takes the form of a post. That's why it is said "An idle mind is devils workshop"

BTW I will be glad if anyone answers to my questions.

Disclaimer: The author has nothing against PETA. It's just a weird thought that popped up in my mind.

Why can’t it be the other way around??

“Why can’t it be the other way around??”
I just hate this line! I don’t know why, but I hate it. May be it is because I hear this line too often. I have friends who keep saying it, writing about it and till yesterday I had never imagined that I would write a post on it.

It’s actually funny to see people getting high and talking shit after that. But its when they start getting senti, that it gets horrible. Under such conditions, I just want to run.
Last night, one of my friends was high and got senti. I tried escaping but all my efforts went in vain. So I was stuck with him, and had to listen to him the whole night!!! In exchange, I took his permission to openly make fun of him in my blog.

So this friend of mine K is a family guy. He is very attached to his family, especially his sister. So the topic of discussion last night was K’s sister. He kept talking about his elder sister. He recalled incidents since his childhood such as the way his sister took all the blame on herself for all the wrong done by him and saved him from punishments, how she finished his homework when he used to fool around, how she taught him during exams, how she gave him-her chocolates, played with him and later gave him money from her salary when he joined college.

He became emotional because he wouldn’t meet her this time during Raksha Bandhan. He then started giving me gyan about this festival. He told me the history behind this festival (I will ask him later how he knew all those mythological stories) and said that on this festival the sister ties a rakhi on her brother’s hands and the brother takes a vow to protect his sister throughout his life (as if I am from some outer space that I didn’t know this.) Then to my surprise he changed the whole concept of this festival (as I said, he was high) and said that the custom should be that the brother should tie a rakhi on sister’s hand because it’s actually the sister who protectes/helpes/takes care of the brother.
The whole night he kept on saying just one line:
“Why can’t it be the other way around??”
(This is just one reason why I hate this line)

Yahoo!!!!

There are moments in life when you just want to scream Yahoo!!!! from the top of your lungs, when you are very happy, want to do things you haven’t done from a long-long time. Yesterday was one such moment for me, when I wanted to scream Yahoo!! And yes I did something which I haven’t done since years.

I went home with that Yahoo!! Mood. Suddenly I realized that my cook owns a bicycle and I haven’t had a ride on bicycle since 6-7 years at least. I have very fond memories of bicycle; I had explored my entire city on my bicycle and I also used to go to school on bicycle. Few of my friends live near my home and we all used to come back home together after school gets over in a group riding our bicycles. The first time I had chased any PYT (Pretty Young Thing) was also on my bicycle. I stopped riding bicycle when I came in 11th standard; it was when I got a scooter. After that I got so busy in life that I almost forgot the joy of riding a bicycle. I went to nasha’s home a few days, saw her bicycle back but couldn’t ride it as it was punctured. But yesterday I borrowed my cook’s bicycle and went out on a ride.

The area near my place was very crowded-the usual Bangalore traffic; but still I somehow I managed to ride it; I also did a few stunts that I used to do with my bicycle. One thing I realized; Bangalore is not for cycle riders; they are the most vulnerable, more than pedestrians, more than bike riders, more than anyone else. I don’t remember getting scared on road ever but yesterday on bicycle was something different. Still I enjoyed my half hour ride on bike, came back home had dinner and then had chocolate. (Those who don’t know me- my friends say I don’t need booze to get high, any chocolate would suffice) One of my friends (CB) had given me a big bar of dark chocolate which I had kept only to eat on some special occasion, so yesterday I enjoyed that chocolate. As if all this wasn’t enough, I also got a lunch invitation from one of my friends. And today I am going to corner house (another thing which gets me high) with my hogging partner and my module lead. Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers to all of us....

Yippee!!!! Today I have completed one year in office….I still very well remember the day I joined office. (My past experiences can be read here and here) It’s hard to believe that I had survived 1 year in this company. There had been incidences when I felt that I wouldn’t be staying here any more; but here I am, sitting in my cubicle, typing this post.

I was talking to Infinitics the other day and asked him what he did on completing his one year at office. He told me that all the people who had joined with him sat together and cried. Cried because it had been a year and they are still stuck with the same company and same job. Well it’s not that I am very much happy and satisfied with my company, my job; but as of now there are no regrets either. I am happy that my condition in my office is not like that of Dory. He is ultra bored in office, know very few people. This is just because his company is small and took only 3 freshers. He is confined only to his team, his motions have been circumscribed. I am glad it’s nothing like that in my office. (I apologize for mentioning about you Dory without your consent.)

Well if I look back, I must say things have turned up pretty well for me. Got very good friends (I mean really very-very good), very good teammates, very good boss!!!! (OK let’s not get into that.) All I can say is that my office is a fun place to be at. So till now things have been fine. Let’s see how it turns up in future. As of now, it’s celebration time….We have some plans for the day. We will be going out for lunch to mark the first anniversary of our job.

Laddu can't code saala....

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs,
and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.........
*********************************************************************************

This month end I will be completing one year in office. It has been a nice experience working in this company, had lots of fun and above that made many good friends.

With the experience that I have gained in this 1 year I can say that this s/w engg. is one of the easiest profession; you just need to master the use of Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V; but its not for me.

The other day I was sitting in office, breaking my head into some dumb code, listening to some song when I came up with my own. It goes on something like this.

hai muscular,
hai popular.
spectacular, he's a bachelor
laddu ki gaadi tez hai, laddu kudiyon mein craze hai,
laddu ki aankhen dark black, laddu dikhta gol-matol hai,
fastrack ki ghadi haaton mein hai, perfume lomani waala,
but laddu can’t code saala........

papa kehte hai bada naam karega, mera laddu aisa kaam karega....
laddu ke paas hai BE, karta hai hills pe holiday,
hey hey ye hey,
laddu tabla bajata hai,
jaha jaata hai cha jaata hai
par laddu can’t code saala.......
laddu code nahi kar sakta.......

A trip that was....

The rock was huge and was steep. Dory, Infinitics and Arv had somehow climbed that rock. (I still wonder how they had managed to do that) JJ, AJ and I were stuck behind. It was difficult for us to climb from the middle, the way the other 3 did so we were climbing from the edge taking support of the bushes and trying to find some foothold and handhold. The edge was covered with the slippery mud and the bushes were thorny. Behind me were JJ and AJ. Suddenly I reached a point where there was nothing to hold, no foothold and handhold, no support at all, just the slippery mud and it was then I lost balance and began to fall from that rock.

Last 2 months have been very tiring for me. Almost everyday I had been spending 12 hours in office and even wasting my weekends in office. I was tired and I badly needed a break. So finally we (Infinitics, Dory, AJ, JJ, Arv and I) planned a short trip to Skandagiri. We all assembled at Infinitics place and finally started at around 2.30AM. None of us knew the way and we got lost. We used all the resources possible like stopping truck drivers, waking up people asleep and asking for directions, calling one of our friends at 4 in morning, using GPS and Google. The wind was blowing so fast that our bikes wobbled. I had never experienced such thing in my life- a bike wobbling because of fast blowing wind. Finally we reached Skandagiri. A guide stopped us and said that its 8kms trek and demanded 250 bucks to show us the directions. We said 100, the deal couldn’t be settled and we went ahead on our own. Actually none of us liked the idea of guide, we had never taken any guides help in any of our trips and didn't want in this one also.

We parked our bikes and started climbing up the hill. We thought we had chosen the correct path but we were wrong. We had to walk around the hill, go to the other side to get on the track. (We figured this out later) It was still dark and the visibility was poor. Initially it was very easy to climb, but later it became very difficult for us to climb. We had to cross through bushes and thorns, and still we were not sure if we were on the correct track. We started having a feeling that we had taken the wrong track but still we decided to go on with that. We just kept on climbing up, crossing the thorns and the bushes, finding the footholds and handholds on the rocks. Then we reached to this spot. It was that huge rock where I lost control and began to fall. My whole life flashed in front of my eyes.

I was aware that JJ and AJ were behind me. While sliding down, I tried reducing my speed a bit by my right foot and hand. I twisted my ankle while doing so. Suddenly I felt a jerk and realized that I had stopped sliding down. I saw JJ holding my hand which had prevented me from falling down. I looked at JJ and then at AJ who was standing below and the first thing I said to AJ was “I don’t think I would have died if I would have fallen down” to which he replied “No you wouldn’t and also I was standing here.”

Well after that it became impossible for us to go ahead that way because there was no support. We tried searching for some other way up. Infinitics came down to help us. At the extreme end we saw a bunch of thorns and bushes covering the entire area, it was dark. We had no other option so we had to go through that thorny bushes.

There were two other incidences where the climbing was almost vertical and going back was not an option since it was not at all possible to climb down the way we had climbed up and our only hope to go down was to go up and find some proper way down. So we had to climb up. Infinitics, Dory and Arv had to pull us (JJ, AJ and I) up; somehow we managed to climb up. We kept on climbing up with the hope to find some proper and safe way down the hill.

After climbing a little more we found that there were less thorny bushes and steep rocks and thus the climbing became a little simpler. I was feeling very brave that none other than us would have ever dared to cross this way. We started making fun of guides and thought of giving them double the amount they demanded and asking them to show us the way we came from. After climbing a little more I faintly heard girls giggling, climbing a little more I could hear them screaming and shouting. A sudden disappointment ran into my nerves; I thought we were not the only brave hearts to cross this; there were others also (girls!!!!) who had crossed this. But it lasted only for a while when we reached the spot and saw a proper way which can lead us back. We had finally figured out a proper way to go down. All the pain vanished in a second and we got fresh energy and we climbed the rest of the hill on that path only.

Reached the peak; it’s difficult to write in words the feeling you get when you are actually standing in between clouds and the wind is blowing so hard that you are scared to stand without any support, fearing that the wind might blow you away. Finally staying there for an hour or so we decided to return. We stopped in a CCD on the way back home, reached home around 3pm and went to sleep only to get up the next day around 6 morning.

It was one hell of a trip, the best one I could recall so far. After this trip and from the experiences I have gained from the previous ones, I reached a conclusion that if there is a hill that is open for tourists, there has to a proper way to climb up.

So now let’s look at our status:
Shivgange: Conquered
Nandi Hills: Conquered
Skandagiri: Conquered
Next on our check list is DD hills.

Enclosed below are some some pics of Nandi Hills and Skandagiri.

the view from nandi hills.





































there was an airtel tower. Infinitics, Dory and Arv climbed that tower and AJ, Abhinav and I satyed behind. This pic was taken by Arv from the top of that tower.
















the roads are so smooth. driving here in itself is a wonderful experience.


















that's me driving with Arv as pillion. i hate him for not letting me ride on the way down the hill.
















our sweethearts.
















the view from skandagiri.









































on our way back.


















we came down from there.

















the averege size of the thorns that which we had to pass through in order to conquer this hill.















Aj's photographic skill + his 8MP cellphone = an awesome pic.
















while coming back Aj's cell fell on road. this pic was taken to test if the camera of his cell was still in working condition.

Forwarded E-Mails..........

One of my friends asked me about my biggest stress buster in office. I told him its reading blogs and then I asked him his. To my surprise he said its forwarded e-mails. I gave him a dirty look and called him a nut-case. He went on to justify his statement.
He said that how many times in a day it happens that you have been working continuously for hours and you need a break but can’t afford to go out because of work. You are frustrated and then all of a sudden you see a pop up of a new mail on your screen and you open your outlook and read that mail which proves out to be a forwarded e-mail. It puts a momentarily smile on your face and helps you in getting overcome your frustration.

Well I have never thought about those forwards the way he did. I mean sometimes the forwards are fine but I can’t call them stress busters. Well whatever the case may be, he made me think about the forwarded e-mails. Chances are high that you have already seen that forward earlier. I also do send forwards and once I got the same mail that I had forwarded to someone else. In these mails you can see the deadliest of the pj’s, the pics of yummy cakes, pics of the pretty girls (yup I agree that this is a stress buster ;) ), mails asking you to forward it to 10 people to get good luck, mails saying you have won a laptop and many more. You can see all the stupidest of things possible in such mails. I have realized that sometimes it’s frustrating but sometimes its fun also. Many a times instead of laughing at the content of such mails we laugh at the sender thinking that how can one send such mails. I wonder how many of my friends who had become the victim of my forwards would have laughed at me!!!!

Anyways whatever the case may be, I don’t mind getting forwards and sending them back to others. One such forward I got recently. It’s about someone who has been getting forwards since ages and is now frustrated with them. It goes on like this….

Hilarious Mail from a frustrated victim of chain mails

I wanted to thank all my friends and family who have forwarded chain letters to me in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 and continuing it in 2009 also.

Because of your kindness:

* I stopped drinking Coca Cola after I found out that it's good for removing toilet stains.

* I stopped going to the movies for fear of sitting on a needle infected with AIDS.

* I smell like a wet dog since I stopped using deodorants because they cause cancer...

* I don't leave my car in the parking lot or any other place and sometimes I even have to walk about 7 blocks for fear that someone will drug me with a perfume sample and try to rob me.

* I also stopped answering the phone for fear that they may ask me to dial a stupid number and then I get a phone bill with calls to Uganda, Pakistan, Singapore and Tokyo.

* I also stopped drinking anything out of a can for fear that I will get sick from the rat faeces and urine.

* When I go to parties, I don't look at any girl, no matter how hot she is, for fear that she will take me to a hotel, drug me, then take my kidneys and leave me taking a nap in a bathtub full of ice.

* I also donated all my savings to the Amy Bruce account. A sick girl that was about to die in the hospital about 7,000 times.. (Poor girl! she's been 7 since 1993...)

* Still open to help somebody from Bulgaria who wants to use my account to transfer his uncle's property of $ 100 million. So much trustworthy.

* Made some Hundred wishes before forwarding those Ganesh , Tirupathi Balaji pics etc.
Now most of those 'Wishes' are already married (to someone else)

IMPORTANT NOTE:
If you do not send this e-mail to at least 11,246 people in the next 10 seconds, a bird will **** on your head today at 6:30pm.

Nothing has happened till now......................but who knows. So please forward.

A Weird Dream....

That night I had a weird dream (I am not sure if I should call it weird). GODji came to my dream and chatted with me for quite sometime.

Me - Namaste GODji.
GODji – Bless you son. So how are you?
Me - I am fine.
GODji – Really!! You don’t look fine. You don’t seem to be happy these days. You have stopped smiling also.
Me - Yes GODji. Kuch tension chal rahi hai aaj-kal. You toh know everything naa??
GODji – You are not the first person to have some problems. Problems are an integral part of life. You know it very well. It doesn’t mean that you will stop smiling, stop being happy.
Me - But with all this how can I smile and be happy?
GODji – Just remember one simple thing. Peaceful surroundings cannot create happiness in you. But your happiness can create peaceful surroundings for you and others around you. So live happily, start smiling no matter whatever the situation is. You can never know how much good a simple smile can do.
Me - Ya I understand but……..
GODji – There is no place for if’s and but’s in this. If you will be sad, seeing you the people around you, your loved ones, your friends will feel bad, they will be sad. One should even have the capability to laugh at himself. Those who cannot laugh at themselves leaves the job to be done by others.
Me - (Puzzled)
GODji - The world’s happiest person never gets all the best things around him. He just makes the best of what he gets. And there is no reason for you to be sad. You have always got the best- best family, best education, best buddies.
Me - GODji you know what?? You are right. I have always got the best.
GODji – Ya I know, I am always right. Son, smile and the world smiles with you, laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and the world laughs at you louder.
If you have decided to be happy, no one can stop you and if you have decided to be sad, no one can help you. It’s all in the mind. Time never remains the same. You have got just one life son. You cannot afford to waste it by being sad and unhappy.

THE CHOICE IS YOURS……………….


GODji signs off with this leaving me wondering about it.......

Love Marriage!!!!

Going back home after months is always great. I cannot describe the feeling in words. I enjoyed a lot, ate a lot more :) . But this time my trip home proved to be a bit different, something that I could have never imagined. One of my cousins was getting married; it’s a love marriage (the first one in my family). The guy is from some other caste, and so, as expected, initially everyone was against the marriage (yes, people are still narrow minded and bother about castes). But my cousin was firm at her decision and everyone had to agree. I last met K (my cousin) when she was in Bangalore. She said “I have now opened the doors for the younger ones in the family like you. Life will be easy for you all now (wink-wink). “
I said “thanks but I don’t need this” and wished her for her new life.

So it was the first day at home and I was having dinner with my parents:
Dad: So how is work going?
Me: It’s going good.
Mom: How are the people in your office?
Me: They are quite cool. Have made a few very good friends in office. I am lucky to find such friends.
Dad: What is the effect of recession in your company?
Me: Not much in India, though people are losing jobs in US office.
Mom: So did you hear about K?
Me: She is getting married naa?
Mom: Love marriage.
Me: Oh yes, I know that. I met her in Bangalore.
Mom: And the guy is from some other caste.
Me: Yes I know. So?
Mom: No, nothing.
(After a long pause)
Dad: So what are your plans?
Me: I haven’t thought about it yet. I have just joined office. I will think about higher studies later.
Mom: Dad is asking about something else.
Me: (gave a confused look).
Mom: So what do you think about marriage.
Me: It’s good that K is getting married. Even if the guy is from other caste, it should not bother anyone now. We should act like mature people.
Dad: Mom is talking about your marriage.
Me: WHAT?? (wdf!!)
Mom: Yes, we were thinking ……..
Me: (interrupting her) I don’t want to get married for another 4-5 years.
Dad: Of course, we are not asking you to marry now.
Me: So what were you both thinking?
Mom: We were just wondering if you have a girlfriend!!
Me: And what made you both think so??
Mom: You are in Bangalore from the past 4-5 years. So…..
Me: So??
Mom: So we were just thinking that you might be having a…..
Me: (in a bit harsh way) No I don’t have any gf.
Dad: So you don’t have any gf?
Me: NO.
Mom: Why??
(Now this is too much. They were driving me crazy)
Me: What do you mean by why??
Dad: (he saw me losing my temper so tried to change the topic) Actually we were just trying to tell you that we will accept any girl you want to marry, we have no problem with her caste. You are free to choose any girl you like. We have no problem if you want to do a love marriage.
Me: Thanks, but now can we change the topic please?
Mom: So rude!!
Me: Duh!!

After dinner I came back to my room and was thinking about what had just happened, I wondered what went wrong with them. Next day I went to meet my aunt. (I have countless relatives. I spend more than half of my vacation time meeting them )

Aunt: So how is office going?
Me: It’s going good.
Aunt: Did you hear about K?
Me: Yes, she is getting married.
Aunt: It’s a love marriage and the guy is from some other caste.
Me: Yeah I know.
Aunt: So what about you?
Me: What-What about me?
Aunt: What have you thought?
Me: About what?
Aunt: About marriage.
(By this time it was obvious what she was up to but I tried to pretend as if I didn’t get her point)
Me: (I repeated the same thing that I had earlier said to my parents) Yes, I feel it’s great. It’s good for her.
Aunt: No I am talking about your marriage. (I knew this was coming)
Me: I don’t want to marry now.
Aunt: I just want to ask if you have any girlfriend?
Me: No aunty; I don’t have any gf. (Something is definitely wrong in my hometown. All of them are acting insane)
Aunt: Its ok, you can tell me.
Me: Tell you what? I have nothing to tell.
(Now I was getting really pissed off)
Aunt: Ok if you don’t want to tell me now then fine. Just remember that you can tell me about your gf anytime. I will talk to your parents and will convince them. Anyways this generation of yours believes in love marriage more than arrange marriage.
Me: Thank you very much, but I have no such intentions, I haven’t even thought anything about it now.
It was then that my little cousin came back from school and my aunt changed the topic. When I was leaving she asked me again: “Do you really have no gf? I am sure you are hiding something from me.”
I decided not to see her again in my life till I get married or get a gf.


Then I met R (one of my cousins). She is the one who tells me all the inside stories of our families and everything that is happening behind my back. But as they say - nothing comes for free. I have to bribe her all the time for the info.

Me: Tell me what’s going on?
R: (gave me a confused look)
Then I told her everything that had happened to me in the past two days.
R: Oh yes, you don’t know. Now everyone has changed. All thanks to K didi.
Me: What has changed? Who have changed? Tell me in detail, will you?
R: After her case, all are saying that it’s ok if children chose their better-halves on their own. Then they were talking about you. They were saying that you must be having a girlfriend. You are away from home from such a long time so they all are under the impression that you have a gf. And the best part is that they all are ready to accept any girl you want to marry with, they have no problem with your love marriage. Cool naa?
Bhaiya aapki toh nikal padi. (wink-wink)
Me: I feel people have gone crazy. They have nothing to do so they started discussing all this crap for time-pass. They should better utilize their time and do something useful rather than discussing about me-my life.
R: So rude you are. Ok tell me do you love anyone?
Me: Naah I don’t. I believe this love is a time waste. There are other better things in life to do. I have hardly seen any people in love getting married. Usually they end up in marrying someone else. Why to waste your time for all this? Love sucks and so does the love marriage.
R: Bhaiya you know what?
Me: What?
R: You suck big time.
Me: Get lost.
R: You get lost.
Me: #$^$*^#^!@#!
R: @!$@#&%^%@#%^#$&$%^@$%^@#$^#$%^!@#$!@$%@#%@#%^#@%#&@
(Believe me people it’s very difficult to win from your younger ones)

I came back home, was tired, went to my room, consoled myself by imagining that this place is infected with some kind of contagious disease which is attacking people’s brain and making them crazy. I need to be very careful.
Few more days passed and to my relief everyone behaved normally. I thought all this is over and now I can live peacefully at home until the other day when my uncle came to meet me.

Uncle: So how is office going?
Me: It’s going good.
Uncle: Did you hear about K?
Me: Yes, she is getting married.
Uncle: So what are your plans?
Me: (On no!! not again!!!!)

Now I have decided that next time when I go home, if anyone behaves insanely I am going to tell them that I have married secretly in Bangalore and you people need not to bother about me any more.

I just remembered this forward. It goes something like this:

At wedding parties the uncles and aunts pull me by my cheeks and say “you are next”
They stopped when I started doing the same at the funerals.


All you people out there who are interested in love marriage but don't have anyone to fall in love with. Check this out.
(NO he didn't pay me for this.)

Speed thrills, but Kills!

Speed thrills, but Kills! How many times have we read this at the traffic signals and how many times have we ignored it? Have we ever given it a thought? Well I haven’t and I am sure there are many more like me who have never given a shit to it.

I love speed. Whenever I am on bike I feel like a superhero who can do whatever he feels like and I ride fast-very fast. I believe that bikes and cars are meant to be driven fast. I love to drive in a zigzag manner. I just can’t explain how much I enjoy speeding just before the humps and the feeling when bike jumps over them is thoroughly ecstatic. It is a mixture of thrill, excitement and pride that I have done something which generally people cannot do or don’t want to do or don’t have the balls to do. But not any more. Now I am forced to think that what have I gained by riding fast, jumping over the humps?? Confucius says- we don’t understand things when told to us and learn only either from our mistakes or from others; like I did.

It was a fine Tuesday morning. My friend’s cousin took out his dad’s car at 4’o clock in the morning (without his parent’s consent since they were out of town and we guys consider it against our pride to take advice from our sisters) and went out for a stroll. Just like any other adolescent lad he was driving fast. He was with one of his friends. Suddenly a bicycle came in front of him; he tried to evade but couldn’t and hit the bicycle from behind and ran over the man who was riding it. Then while trying to run he hit the car into an electric pole and smashed the wall next to it. His friend suffered major injuries in the head and he had minor bruise. The man on the bicycle died on the spot. He was some 23 years old or so. A life so precious was snuffed in seconds!

Till now I had just read in papers about the hit and run cases but the first time I realized its seriousness was when the same had happened to someone I know. This made me think about the consequences of driving fast. While driving we feel that our pa owes the road and we can drive in whichever manner we feel like. After being aware of this accident I asked myself a few questions which I couldn’t answer. Why do we do all this?? Do we consider driving fast, jumping over the humps or wheeling as our style statement?? Do we drive fast because we love speed, or we do it just to impress girls or is there some other reason behind it?? Do we drive fast to save our time?? Well, I don’t think it could be the reason because anyways we will get stuck at the traffic signals. Ok even if we save some time by driving fast, it doesn’t makes any sense to me because we are taking a huge risk by driving fast which is not at all worth doing. I don’t think driving fast is an act of chivalry anymore; neither will I be getting any award for the valor. I prefer driving slow rather than regretting the follies later in my life.

All I have to say is that I have learned a very big lesson from this and I promise myself to drive slowly, stop jumping the bike over humps and stop ridding in a zigzag way. And just a piece of advice to all. We all have heard this 1000 times and also have ignored it 1000 times - people please drive slowly, follow the traffic rules and don’t drink and drive. You will not gain anything by doing so. Life is short, don’t make it shorter.

Speed is 5 letter word and so is Death.
Slow is 4 letter word and so is Life.
Better late than never.

A true Indian....

DISCLAMAIR: This post has been written without any intention of dishonoring anyone living or dead. The author has nothing personal against any individual.

In 2003, as a ‘proud Kannadiga’, he bought back to Karnataka Tipu Sultan’s sword from England for Rs 1.5 crore. Two years later, he put down a million pounds at a Sotheby’s auction in London to purchase some more Tipu’s items. In 2009, as a ‘true Indian’, he bought metal-rimmed glasses, sandals, pocket watch, bowl and plate for $1.8 million in a controversial New York auction.

I am a little confused. I am confused about who a true Indian is? Is it a soldier who gives away his life while fighting for us? Is it a pilot who crashes in the mountains, evading it from crashing into the city, without caring about his own life? Is it a honest taxi driver who returns a bag back to his passengers who had forgotten in his taxi and does not accept any favors in return or is it a poor-hungry man who gives his food to the people who are starving, in spite of the fact that he does not have sufficient food to feed himself and his family. Is it a young girl who along with her friends, goes every month to an orphanage and sponsors a days meal? Or someone who spends crores of rupees to bring back to India, the possessions of someone, who is no more alive ????

The World Bank has estimated that a third of the global poor now reside in India. The planning commission of India has estimated that 27.5% of the population is living below the poverty line. Literacy rate is 61%. There are lakhs of people who have no proper home,living in slums and footpaths. I just can’t understand one thing. When there are so many needy and poor people then why not to help the destitute instead of spending so much money to bring back the belongings of someone; even though that someone is the one because of who we are free today. I am sure that if he had been alive, he would have cried at the situation. And what are we going to do with this stuff?? We will put them in a museum for people to look at it. Spending so much money just for this doesn’t make any sense to me.

I was discussing this with one of my friends. He said it’s his money, his wish. I am no one to say things like this.Yeah right! Who the hell am I to comment on this. But as I said; I am a little confused. I am confused that I have an objection of people calling him a true Indian or his spending his own money in such a way. Is it correct to waste so much money on this when the same can be used for making the country a better place?? May be it is correct because its his own money, may be it is more important to waste crores like this when the same can be doled out to help the needy, may be its just my narrow mindness which is not letting me see the bigger picture, may be its just my mind which doesn't know the meaning of a 'true indian' or may be I should mind my own business as it's his own money. So many may be's.. Aahhhh....I am confused....

P.S: This post has been written in a hurry without any RnD. I have no clue if that ‘true Indian’ is actually involved in any kind of charitable activities. I apologize if I hurt anyones feelings or emotions.

What’s in a name?

DISCLAMAIR: Censor Board has been very cruel to me and has asked me to edit a few lines in this post in exchange for a ‘U’ certificate. So friends, I have to edit a few things, which will be seen enclosed in “*”. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Long ago there was a guy called William Shakespeare who gave the world this famous dialogue “What’s in a name?” Well my answer to this is ‘everything’. We cannot imagine life without names. I am here to discuss about the names but not the regular or official ones.

Since childhood we have been giving Nicknames to our teachers, principals and friends. Some of us even have nicknames given to us by our parents and the family members call us by that name only instead of our official names but those nicknames are the pretty decent ones. The names that we give our friends, teachers are far from any sort of decency and are super hilarious.

Here I would like to mention about a few such names that I came across in my school and college days. To start with the school days, our principal was lovingly called as dinku, vice-principal as raka, our biology sir was luka, physics sir was lallan, mathematics sir was munshi (in his spectacular spectacles he looks like a munshi jii). Hindi and history ma’am were always together and we call them indu-bindu, music sir was raju tabalchi. Can’t write about this particular Hindi sir because the censor board was cruel enough to make me edit his name, two more mathematics sir were called gucchu and khujli, hindi one was bhaya, nagin was our English ma’am, carpenter sir was nanu, another geography fellow was charsi.

I remember only a few of my school mates like gheesa, dibiya, chahu, kauya, sanju-manju, sharp shooter, kaliya, angu, sheela (a guy bearing the characteristics of a girl, thus the name), udho dho dho, jhansi ki raani, chakka, labour, murda,hilla, hateli, tin-tin, dollar bahu (another guy), master jain. Sadly I haven’t met most of them since I left school. Where are you guys??????? I miss you people.

Now let’s come to the most important, memorable, exciting, thrilling and adventurous part of my life - the college life. Although it’s not at all fair to compare the college life with the school life which was an equally exciting and memorable one; I could have never imagined the same level of freedom that I had in college days to be there in school days. Till the time I was in school, I had to listen to stuffs like - come back home on time, don’t ride bike above 40kmph (40!! I can ride a bicycle faster than this), sleep on time, eat on time, don’t watch movies, study on time and hell lot of other things but in college-approx. 2300 kms from home, there was no one to say all this. I could do whatever I feel like. Also during the school days, at the time of examinations I used to get very nervous but in college during the exams I could see everyone equally nervous and that helped me reducing my nervousness to a great extent. Ok so without comparing the school-college life let’s get back to the topic which is about the nicknames.

The first day we met each other in hostel, we introduced ourselves with our original names and within two months (I wonder what took it so long) we all had given some nicknames to each other. These nicknames were based on our character, attitude and habits. Here I would like to mention about a few such names.

To start with I would like to mention about my roomy jhadu- his hairs were like a broom-stick so he got that name. Then there was tinka- he was a very lean guy, ravi ra**I - daily after dinner you can spot him at pmc (piya milan chowk), ganiya - as his favourite dialogue was ga**ya phad denge, paddhu- due to his farting habits, mutthu- censor board had asked me to edit this one so I can’t tell the exact reason for his name, taap - now there are many stories behind this; some say he copies a lot in exams thus the name, some say he flicks stuffs, some say he is a stalker. I don’t know the exact reason. There was Prabhu dada - because of his physique, palenda - because of his trademark dialogue “arre palenda ho re”, chucha nepali - as he was from India -Nepal border, joda - he was from some place which has this name, chowde - again censor board is to be blamed for me not telling the reason, pagal - he used to behave like that, atthe - again because of his peculiar speaking style, bbc - bi**y ba****d, chotu - he was a short statured guy.

There were other people also with the names like khan, boxer, chacha, mak, rathodi, main- la**a, up-maharaj, down-maharaj, chillar, bhai, la**ekant, gajju, chota gajju, keshu, dalla, monu, golu and DD bahi- his room was the hottest (wink wink) room in the whole hostel; thanks to the seniors who left the room without taking out all those posters and pics (wink wink) and also a few classmates like dhannu, mangu, miss jkr, patte, hero anna, dosti, fool, lambu, simha, chuha. And yes who can forget pande ji in our hostel because of who we got this famous dialogue “arre padhai-likhai to sab pande ** *** ** **** hoti hai”

I have never seen such characters in my life. I have done my schooling from my native place where everyone was from the same town so I never got a chance to interact with people from other places and ethnicity. It was only when I came to college I realized that there are such diverse characters in this world. But I feel that if such characters wouldn't have been there with me for all these four years, my life wouldn’t have been so rocking. I feel that those who haven't stayed in hostel during their engineering days are not true/real engineers.

Oh yes how can I forget to mention about this character? This guy will never share the sweets bought by him from his home but will hog like anything at the sweets bought by his friends, always ready to grab the sweets and ice-creams of his friends in the hostel mess during lunch/dinner, have done some setting with the mess staff of his hostel for some extra food items, used to eat chocolates at least 4-5 times a day, other people in hostel used to get sutta (cigarettes) to stay awake at night during exams and this guy will get chocolates for the night out which he will never share with any of his friends, didn’t even spared his classmates and used to eat their lunch during the boring lectures. Maybe his friends have predicted this, that’s why in the 1st semester itself they gave him the name “laddu”.

Enclosed below is the pic of this guy. You can see him hogging in the hostel mess.

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Addiction.....

Addiction to anything is bad. I have seen people getting addicted to lots of things and wasting their lives. When I came to this place I promised myself that I will not get addicted to anything. I was always scared because I have no self control over myself and I get addicted to things very easily and quickly. I somehow managed to survive without any addiction (my addiction to chocolates can be excluded) till now, but now it seems I am addicted to something. I am addicted to blogging.

Though it seems weird but it’s the truth. I don’t write much but these days I have been thinking about it a lot. While coming to office, working in office or even while going back home from office and even in my dreams I just think about blogs and posts. There was a time when I used to hate blogs. For me it was a waste of time. But now things have changed a lot. Now I am addicted to it and I blame two of my friends for my condition.

First one is nasha. Whenever I go to her desk I find her reading some or the other blogs. During breaks she tells us about the blogs she had read which seems interesting to me. I started taking some interest in the blogs and asked her to send me the links. I read the blogs referred by her and got amused. Once I started reading, I also read the posts written by Patchez-another friend of mine. Finally I got inspired and decided to write something on my own and thus came my first post in November. Then I thought of not writing anything more (I am not capable of doing so) but they motivated me to write by appreciating me posts. Not just that, Patchez also suggested me to change the name of my blog. Earlier I was having some crappy name and it was she who gave it such a cool name.

Thus I started writing. I write in office. That day I was supposed to work on my project but I was writing something and my TL caught me. Luckily my TL is cool enough so he just ignored it and asked me to work. These days I am thinking about the blogs all the time. Yesterday I realized that what the hell I am doing!!!! This is not the real me who is getting addicted to something and wasting time in blogging rather then doing other useful stuffs like orkut, gmail, youtube, movies (yes these are useful stuffs for me).
I have no self control over myself. I should get a little serious now and stop thinking about it. Addiction to anything is bad and I get addicted to things very easily.

The Hostel........

This post is the continuation of the post by dory.


We promised each other that night that this wouldn’t be the last of our tales. After a month or so, we again went to the hospital only to discover that the gates to the terrace had been locked and the windows were sealed. So there was no way we could go to the terrace now. We were disappointed that the terrace was closed to us forever. Now we were in search of a new place but we weren’t able find anything exciting enough. Life was boring. Only college-hostel-food-movies were left in our lives. We sometimes go to pmc (originally called pre medical college but had been renamed to piya milan chowk by the majnu’s of our institution) but there was no fun, no adventure. We want something different, something exciting.

One evening dory and I were in infinitiks hostel and I was telling them about a building that I accidentally came across (thanks to jhadu-another friend of mine). This was the old building near the college. This building was a very old one, and its 2nd floor was totally devastated and there was no light in that floor at all. Only level 0 and level 1 were in use. We were in search of something new so we just decided to go there one night. So after dinner dory and I went to infinitiks’s hostel. He joined us and we all went to that building. We reached the 2nd floor of that building and there was no one on that floor; it was dark. We purposely decided to go there at night because it’s easier to escape unidentified at night. There were many rooms in several rows. After observing keenly we found out that these rooms were actually ex-classrooms. Then we reached the end of a row and took a left turn. There was complete darkness; the visibility was zero. We couldn’t see anything, not even the floor. We weren’t even sure that there was a floor beyond. We started wondering if the floor was broken and if we fell down?? Finally we decided to go in and check out for ourselves whether the floor was broken. When we reached, there was absolute silence. We could even hear each other breathing. I was a little scared and was holding infinitiks’s hands. Dory was coming behind us. No one uttered even a word. We were all quiet and a little scared. We were walking very slowly and all sorts of random bad thoughts were coming to our minds. Finally after walking in there for a few minutes or so we reached the end and we saw a light to our left and we went in that direction. It was after going there we realized that the place where we had just walked in was actually a huge hall just behind those class rooms. We were so much thrilled by the experience of walking in the dark with zero visibility that we decided to go there once again. But this time it was a bit different as we knew that what was there in that place and we didn’t enjoy that much. So we moved on ahead.

On moving ahead we saw a staircase. We went up the stairs saw a gate to the terrace that was locked. We came down and began to look for other ways to go up to the terrace
(instinctively we’ve ended up at the terraces of a lot of buildings). The floor was incredibly vast and there were several staircases to the terrace, but all of them were locked and we were checking all the possible ways to go up in the dark. Luckily we found one that wasn’t locked (a major security breach which was good for us) and finally we found ourselves on the terrace. This terrace was even huger. So huge that it can easily accommodate 3-4 football fields. It was because there were at least 5-6 buildings sharing a common terrace. We were at one end of the terrace. Infinitiks and dory insisted on going ahead and exploring the whole of the terrace. I said “no”. Now this was the time when the semester was about to get over and exams were coming. As usual, I hadn’t studied anything and above all this it was cloudy and it could have rained anytime and was not in a mood of getting drenched or falling sick and losing some precious study time. So I protested but I guess my efforts were in vain. And I decided to go with them. There were a couple of small rooms on the terrace. As we were walking towards the other end of the terrace, we were recognizing the buildings in that area. By that time our eyes were adjusted to the darkness.

Finally we reached to the other end of terrace. We looked down and saw several rooms in each of the 3 floors. Then we saw a lady guard walking in one of the corridors and some clothes hanging on the ropes in the corridors and few girls busy with their cell phones. It took us some time to understand the situation. We were thrilled and couldn’t speak anything. We were just looking at each other and were feeling proud of the great discovery that we had just done, we were actually standing on the terrace of a girl’s hostel. It took us some time to realize this and a little longer time to become normal after this discovery. We could clearly see the rooms and the girls- busy studying, chatting on cell phones, watching something on laptops. We were wondering what to do next, it was then we heard a voice from behind. We turned back and saw someone coming towards us.

Our reaction to this was very obvious- we started running for our lives. (Later dory told us that while running he turned back and looked at that guy and saw him lifting a brick lying on the floor to scare us away). We thought of escaping from the same way by which we came up the terrace but we got confused and went down the wrong way. The gate was locked so we had to come back and look for some other way to escape. Luckily that man had stopped chasing us and we found the right way and came down from the terrace and then finally out of the building. By the time we were out of the building it had started raining heavily. We waited for it to get over. We kept wondering if the man who chased us was a guard and if he followed us to catch us?? It had started to rain more heavily by then. We decided to move on in the rain because it was of no use in wasting time there, waiting for the rain to get over. We took a polythene bag from a coffee shop nearby and put our wallets, watches, cell phones inside it and that went inside my jeans pocket. It was cold and we were completely drenched. It was around 1am and there was no one on the road. Something came to our mind and we took off our shirts and vests. If someone would have seen us that time, he would have mistaken us as drunkards who were walking bare-chested in rain, at 1am. Infinitiks went to his hostel and dory and I came to ours. We were so excited with that day’s events. This was probably the craziest thing anyone of us had ever done.

Then we got busy in our studies and had stopped everything but only for that one semester. Next semester we decided to go there again. So we reached that same old building, and we started to figure out several other ways to reach the terrace. We were also trying to guess from which way the man who chased us before would have come to the terrace the last time. This time around, we even found out a way to go INSIDE the girl’s hostel from the terrace (another major security breach). Infinitiks and I went down to the hostel and dory followed us closely. We had a mixed feeling of thrill and excitement when we actually touched the floor of the girl’s hostel. We were on the 3rd floor of the girl’s hostel and were just few steps away from the nearest room. We were so close that we can easily read the posters and the crappy slogans on the doors of the rooms. Infinitiks was on my right side and was blocking my view towards the right. I could only look towards the left where I saw a long corridor. Suddenly infinitiks ran back to the terrace and so did dory, and asked me to run. I turned to my right and saw 2-3 girls staring at us from a distance. Now it was my turn to run. Shit!! So we had been noticed. We thought we should have been more careful. From a safe distance, out of their sight we saw the girls had gathered on that very floor and were discussing something; obviously about our sudden appearance. Then we saw some girls going to the opposite direction. We felt that they are probably going to call the guards so the terrace wasn’t safe for us anymore. We decided to call it off for the day and left the place; came back to our respective hostels.

Next time when we went there we found that a lock had been put up at the gate through which we had entered the girl’s hostel from the terrace. Dory wanted to pee very badly and since we had just arrived at the terrace, there was no chance of going back, so he went on the terrace only. We saw a water tank at some distance. Then infinitiks and dory climbed on the water tank that was huge (not as huge as the hospital one though). I stayed back and was looking at the corridors and the rooms. It was around 2pm and I saw many girls busy on their cell phones, some walking in the corridors, some sitting in the corner. For a moment I wondered that whom were they talking to at this time of night but then I realized that if in my hostel the guys are busy whole night on their phones then obviously here the girls should be busy. I also noticed that their rooms were as messy and as dirty as ours. I felt very happy in seeing this because till now I used to think that only we guys kept our rooms dirty but that instant I came to know that girls too don’t clean their rooms. I went a little ahead to peep inside their rooms.

By that time dory and infinitiks had come down and were on the other side of the terrace. While trying to peep inside one room I unfortunately revealed myself and got noticed by one girl who shouted “hello!! Who is that??” I really couldn’t oblige her with the answer and started to turn away. By then she called few other girls and started screaming nonsense which none of us tried listening to. We had decided to return by that time. I was walking towards the exit and dory and infinitiks went back to have a last glance of the happenings. I turned back to call them and saw them running towards me. Then I noticed a guard coming for us at a distance. I started wondering from where the hell he emerged from because we had analyzed all the possible ways to the terrace and there was no chance of him coming from any of those directions. But then I realized that it was the time to run rather then analyzing the ways a guard could come out from. By this time we had become pros in running and escaping from the guards. See we loved breaking rules so we had to master in the skill of running from the guards. We escaped fairly easily and came back to our hostels. We did go there after a month, and saw a very narrow path form the hostel to the terrace through which the guard came running behind us. That day was a little boring for us. We realized that we had actually started enjoying the guard running-our escaping from him thing.

We have also done few more crazy things in the last two years of our college life like climbing the college gate and going to the college at night , stealing ice-cream from the college canteen and then sitting in the middle of the canteen and eating the ice-creams just stolen, going to an under construction building at night and then throwing stuffs from its terrace at the guard of the adjacent building and actually scaring him and making him run inside the building (it was dark and the guard couldn’t see us as we were on the terrace) but among the list of all the crazy things we’d been doing including the hospital one, the hostel really had to be at the top…………

Convocation.............

If you will check in the English dictionary, the word convocation means a calling together, an assembly of clergy or members of a university. But in reality it has a much deeper meaning. It means getting a chance to go back to the college, meeting old friends, going to all the popular hangouts where countless evenings had been spend and lots more and ya of course getting the degree for which we had spend 4 years of our lives.

From the past 2 months, my friends in office have been bugging me like anything. They always keep on talking about their convocation which is scheduled this Saturday. Whenever we meet whether on lunch, on coffee, or while going home they have just one thing to talk about-convocation. They all are so excited to go to their convo, got their invitation card by e-mail. They are going in a group by train. They have done shopping for convo, taken a day’s leave from office and had made endless plans. They are gonna stay in the same hostel once again where they had spend 4 years, play basketball, meet all the friends, go to all the regular hangouts and addas, watch movies at the same multiplex where they used to watch during college days and lots more.

I am bugged with all this because there is no convo in my college. The university with which my college is affiliated to simply call the gold medalists from all the colleges that comes under it and gives them the degree and for the rest, the degree is send to their home by post. This is the convo in my university. I mean wdf yaar. OK we are not gold medalists; we are simply so-called-engineers. So does this mean that we don’t deserve convocation???? We deserve every bit of it. Even we have slogged (applicable only to a few though, obviously excluding those morons- the gold medalists) for 4 years just like other college people who are getting convocation. I am angry, very angry. Now I am feeling like joining the politics and passing a bill according to which all such colleges that do not have convo would be banned.

Warning (to all those who are going to their convocation) - talking about convocation in front of an angry young man like me could be injurious to your health.
I am giving you people this warning because I am sure that after coming back from the convo, you people will be discussing it for at least two more months.

The Journey Continues…………

28th July-2008 - The day we joined office. Today we have completed 6 months. I have already written about the training period in previous post. Now in this post, I am trying to recall and cherish the incidences that have occurred in the past few months.

So, we were done with our training and had been assigned projects. We were then introduced to our respective teams. We also had few KT (Knowledge Transfer) sessions in which we were told about our projects. My team people were supportive. They still treat me like a kid. I was the only fresher and all the others had some 3+ years experience. I should say that I was lucky to find such a team. I had been fooling around in training and hadn’t studied properly, so I basically knew nothing. I had absolutely no clue about java, html etc (though I still have no clue about it). My team people gave me enough time to learn.

I had done my training in Hallmark. The project I was put into was being handled from Touchstone, so I had to move from hallmark to touchstone. I was very excited about it. Around 45 freshers had joined the company together, out of which around 20 were in Hallmark and some 25 were in Touchstone. I got a chance to meet new people. Now as far as friends are concerned, I have always been lucky (touchwood) and this time again, I was lucky. We have lunch together, sitting on our regular table and sharing lunch. We talk all sorts of nonsense during lunch. (Well... people say I talk a lot. ummm…..may be….who the hell cares yaar) Then, after lunch, we go down to the juice center. Then we return to our respective cubicles and try and work. Then after some 2 hours, we take a coffee break and sometimes even go down for mirchi-bhajji.

We order cakes at barista and celebrate b’days there itself. We also bid farewell to two of our friends who had joined with us. They left the company since they had got some better offers. One of the best time pass is mails that we keep on forwarding, though most of the times they are nothing more then killer pj’s. We even went out for lunch. How can anyone forget the ecospace fiasco, when we finally landed up having lunch at chinai’s. The workplace is also cool; we can access orkut, gmail, youtube and can even watch movies in office. We can come whenever we want, wear whatever we want. We have also been out for team lunch and team outings, where I hogged like anything with my hogging partner. And after all this, we still manage to find out time to work. Yes we complete all our assignments before deadline.

So this was our past 6 months in office, which I feel were super cool. People please feel free to add whatever you think is missing.

This post is dedicated to all those who had contributed in making my workplace super cool….

Bole To Jhakaas..........

Eating the unhygienic food at the railway station when you are almost starved to death, train getting late due to fog n den reaching home after 44 hrs journey, spending time with parents, finding temperature around 12 degrees, meeting friends and going out with them, taking rounds of arya nagar every evening, having lunch at the dhaba on the highway, going to school and eating bread-pakoda at school canteen, seeing the girl on whom you once had a major crush in school at rave3 with her husband and their baby ( this may not be considered as jhakaas thou), sitting next to the heater in my room under d blanket and watching movie at night while eating peanuts, having sweet-sweet jalebi and hot-hot kachowdi for breakfast, pastry at little chef, kulfi and laddu at thaggu ke laddu whose tag line is “asia koi saga nahi jisko humne thaga nahi”, dinner with parents, patties at adarsh bakery, butter rice and butter pav bhaji at a local thela, ice-cream at temptations and riding on vip road at the 90-100kmph without wearing helmet with the attitude that my father-in-law owes the road….