Full Circle in LIFE

Could be useful if you don’t know? Bogie = Train kaa Dabba (This is the terminology i have used)

Time flies, yes it does. When time of end of semester comes, most people count the number of days to the last exam.

‘X’ days left of freedom, then this sem will end.

But I count the days till the start of exams only. My reason is that during the exams you never get the time to count hence “end the count till you do actually count”

A twisted funda but the jest is that when you are really busy, time is the last of the things that bother at least very much true for me.

So my end semester examinations ended on 25^th. But my fundaes about end of anything are also not very simple.

Since the JEE preparation days end of things hasn’t be able to please me. The probable reason is that after 10^th comes 12. After 12^th comes JEE. After JEE come mid sem and after them come end sems. And one sem follows another one like the bogies of train. And finally after all the end sems come the JOB. I have reached till here only, more experienced people could tell me more about this illusive end that we never reach.

So an end in effect is a beginning too. But there are cool off periods in between also. For example I have 2 months at my disposal before I join my job. But these cool offs are like the stinky toilet areas between the bogies of train because you have nothing much to do, lots of time to waste while doing nothing. This is something I hate the most. And this smell of toilet starts to bother you even when you are nearing the corner of the bogie. I am in the same state right now.

After my final BTP presentation on 2^nd I will be unemployed for 2 months, with nothing great to do till 1^st of July. The best parts of my days would be eating, and if by chance a good movie comes on HBO or Star movies. That’s it. People relish living with their families but I don’t like it when I don’t do anything productive. It’s alright for 3-4 days but 2 months is like a bogie of toilets.

Last few thoughts don’t present a very samajik and parivarik picture of mine but WHO cares? I have been like this since my first year and most of my friends know about this.

Last few days have been eventful also. My brother took his JEE, VITEEE. And he is going to take AIEEE on the 30^th. For those who don’t know what these capitalized words mean? These are the names of various engineering entrance exams that children in India at a very tender age of 17-18 are required to pass in order to become respectable engineers after putting in atleast 2 years of hard work that kills a part of their creativity and exhausts them partly.

But in turn it gives them access to the best of the jobs, and higher education in the country as well as abroad. (I know a lot of my friends in IIT would differ on this, but this is my line of thinking)

But in a country like India where its very difficult to nurture your sporting, musical or any other non academic talent what other options a middle class father has, except to squeeze all his resources, put his child into a good coaching institute and hope that his son is also one of those blessed 10,000 graduating engineers or medicos who will end up getting the best of white collar jobs in the country in all probabilities.

I have said that ‘in all probabilities’ because not all people graduating from good colleges are success and similar argument applies from the other side too, which means “many people who don’t graduate from such colleges are great successes too”. But out of these ten thousand, atleast six thousand could be successful on the other hand out of remaining ten lakh there would be six thousand.

So it’s a game of probabilities. You hope that you don’t get sick during your preparation days, you don’t sleep much, and you study a lot, and ultimately reach the examination centre without any accident and take the paper in a room where the invigilator is not talking to his assistant in a loud voice. And finally you sincerely hope that JEE doesn’t make any mistake while checking your paper and gives you the rank deserved. But there are atleast 10,000 people eyeing the 3000 odd seats. But these are the grim realities of middle class Indian life.

And if all that happens then you become the more probable one for success.

So life has come full circle for me. I was in same situation 4 years ago. Today its my brother.

But Harsh realities of life don’t give a damn to relationships (Bhai Bhatijaawaad). Every one has to fight his own battles, get wounded, bear the pain, get up again, reach the goals and start again afresh for another battle

ak

The teachings continue...

Something seriously great !!!
Many people at one or other point of time in life curse luck for there failures. But it is a firm belief of mine that.
Success = 90% Hard Work + 10% Luck
Try try and try ....success will finally have to come to us yaaaar

This teaching session doesnt stop here:D
A few more some really great quotes by some real great people

Humor from Great Minds
"A true friend is one who overlooks your failures and tolerates your success!”
Doug Larson
"A harmful truth is always better then...a useful lie! "
Eric Bolton

We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to sit down and shut up. "
Phyllis Diller

"As you get older three things happen. The first is your memory goes, and I can't remember the other two... "
Sir Norman Wisdom
" One of the most difficult things in the world is to convince a woman that even a bargain costs money."
Edgar Watson Howe

"Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else."
Will Rogers

Seriously the above one is worth a thought....We must try and learn something from this one.

" In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out."
Joey Adams

One more cracker!!!

One more i read at my uncles place
"If we start doing things the way we teach our children, This world would be a great place"

So enjoy life and try to live it with a little bit more honesty and we have done our bit to make this would a better place.
ak

A story supposed to inspire the others!!!

Tomorrow I have an end semester exam of a course called Philosophy of religion. I took this course because I didn’t want to go to classes. But as the course unfolded I had to attend classes
Because of a strict instructor and my own fear of not wanting to take risk in the last semester of my B.Tech degree, sadly I went to almost 90% of the classes. Which made me think, if I should have taken a course in marketing and added some value to myself?

After all how does it matter to Britannia if I have done a course on philosophy of religion or intellectual property rights? But I would have been good had I known something about how to sell biscuits in at bottom of pyramid.

Everything that you do, if seen in right perspective adds value, to sensible human beings. I am someone who can criticize, tell others what to do but when it comes to me, I normally take paths which are not for greater good but for my own good. I will continue to do the same, because I AM BAD. But people who work for greater good need dosage of inspiration when they feel living like me.

So here is my bit for greater good of others, obviously it doesn’t apply to me!!!

From the Writings of Loren Eisele (Loren Eiseley (1907 – 1977) was a philosopher; scientist and humanist greatly alarmed at the accelerating destruction of our planet in the last century, and would, I am sure, have been horrified at the setbacks at the start of the 21st century. Eiseley wrote several books on natural philosophy and anthropology. He taught at the University of Kansas and at Oberlin College, then returned in 1949 to the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania where he worked until his death.)

The Star Thrower

Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean. He came closer still and called out "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?"

The young man paused, looked up, and replied "Throwing starfish into the ocean."

"I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?" To this, the young man replied, "The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they'll die."

Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, "But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can't possibly make a difference!"

At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, "It made a difference for that one."

Moral of the story is “Do what you think is correct, and do it with all your heart and soul. Don’t worry about the world.

As GEETA says,

“Karmanye Wadhikaraste, maafaleshu kadachinum”

Which in essence means, “Karma karte jaao aur phal kee chinta maat karo”.
ak

Doosron kee kahani mein meri taang!!!

I normally type my blog in MS- Word and then cut copy paste to the website. Today I and MS-word both have different sentiments while typing this blog. Firstly I have a lot of ideas bubbling in my mind since its been long since I typed one. Secondly I am bored of watching this white typing area with green surroundings (This is my customization of MS word). In last 72 hours at least 50 of those have been spend in typing my BTP report on this platform. Ab main koi sati savitri to hoon nahin jo apne pati se kabhi bore nahin hoti, aur sada uske agya kaa palan kartee hai. Yeh to fast zamana hai. I am bored of this software ambience and this MS word would also be praying, “Bhai ab to thoda rest karne de mujhe”.

This hectic academic schedule has been responsible for me not being to write blogs in last few days. That is a twisted perspective actually. If you enjoy three and a half months and then do everything in last 15 days which were supposed to be done in (3.5 +.5 =) 4 months then anything would become hectic, and that’s what has happened. The end sems are coming up and today was or still is the BTP submission day. The whole semester squeezed into last 15 days for most of us.

But naukri lagne ke baad who cares.

After I submitted my report today, while coming back to the hostel the only thing going through my mind was, the topic I would blog about. But to do a reality check none of my classmates would even think about something other than BTP report at this point of time. Time for submission of report is 5 p.m. and I have already done that poore 4.5 ghante pehle, I hope this gives glimpse of my pre preparedness for the work to the company walas. People who started writing their reports 24 hrs ago would tell me “abhi to 8 ghante bache hain yaar chinta kee koi baat nahin hai”. I finished it early thanks to GOD (Bhagwan, wahe guru, Allah, Kaami Sama( in Japanese)). Actually this BTP forced me to do things like designing a distillation column which I didn’t do even in all 4 years of my B.Tech degree. Galati sabse hoti hai, mujhse bhi hui. Lekin Bhagwan ne Google aur internet bana ke mujhe esp. mujhe bacha liya. There are a lot of secrets attached to this Google, which I will divulge after the evaluation of my report is over, because I am still hopeful of getting a good grade. “Ab ummed karne mein kya burai hai”.

So, on the way I was thinking about what to blog about. Recently I have only been reading blogs. I frequent to blogs of Sunshine, Ankit, and ‘my dayz with myself’. All these people seem to be writing about their future plans.

Ankit got admission in IIM Cal and hence he has started thinking about his dream girl. I think he should prepare himself for 2 more years of despo IITian kind of life. At least that’s what the perspective I get by reading blogs of IIM Cal junta. Phir bhi door ke dhol to suhavane hote hee hain. Why should I spoil his mood and bring him to the realities by breaking the illusion. Ab kisi kee khushi mein kyun taang adana. Kadva sach jitni der se maloom pade utna accha.

Bechara Abhinav, got a job in ITC (my dream company) and is staying with his parents for some time, which I will also be doing at the end of this semester for two very long months. Unki dukh bhari kahani mein bhi Bijli devi, aur ramdulari kaa aagmaan ho chuka hai. The more you try and run away from realities the faster they catch you. The same is happening with him. And this is a proven fact for traditional Indian family.

Arey yaar Abhinav ko chhodo, jab se meri job Britannia mein lagi hai tabse saare rishtedar phone par meri heigh poochne laage hain. Ab lambai to se hee shaadiyaan hone laage to baat he kyat thi.

Aur Bechari Sunshine, She is also trying to men. Uski dard bhari threading wali dastan padh kar to kisi bhi shareef aadmi kee aakhen geeli ho jayengi. Lekin kar bhi kya sakte hain. Bechari gayi thi pehli baar threading karwane ek beauty parlour mein. Aur hua kya, uski chilla paun se pareshan hokar beauty parlour mein usey 3 logon ne pakad liya, aur tab jaakar uski threading ho paayi.

Yeh sab padhkar maine to decide kar liya. Apni hone wali ko kabhi threading ke liye to nahin bhejoonga. Ab yaar kuch baal kaam yaa jyada kya farak padta hai.

It becomes difficult to keep up with the pace of life when change is order of day. Same is true for me. Ab main IIT mein sirf 20 din kaa mehmaan hoon. In between there will be endsems, BTP presentations and what not.

But ultimately what would be left of this place would be memories and memories only.

ak

Some striking images from some one elses blog

This bloody image is not taken from the scene of a terrorist attack. Its a muslim event (i wont call that a festival because, as far as i know moaning the death of prophet is the reason for all this blood). But i have never been able to understand why so much of pain and torture to this human body so many thousands of years after the prophet died. And what do we gain out of it. Life and death are realities, lets face it rather than running away from them














I I Picked these images from the blogs of some advertizing industry professional.Some advertizing agency wala banda!! A good blogger actually.
These posters are being used to discourge people to give money to small childrent who come and beg for money everywhere in the country.
This innovative campaign is being run is some south indian state.
But the more important things is the problem of children being used or forced to beg for money. If courts can allow bar girls because its there is a right for everyone to earn money, whatever may be the means, kyunki pet kee aag to sabko bujhani hai. And anyways who is taking care of these children???
These are tough questions that this country faces!!!



Regarding the top bloody pic, my suggestion is to remember teachings of prophet rather than wasting blood and energy on moaning his death.
ak

Koi bhi desh perfect nahin hota, usey perfect banana padta hai

There is a joke,

A person was trying to pull out a mirror in the train boggie by removing the screws. When asked, “Bhaiya aisa kyun kar rahe ho”.

He answered, “Yahan par likha hai, bhartiya rail aapki sampatti hai, kripaya iski raksha sawayam karein, isse pehle ke koi aur isey le jaaye, main isey apne ghar le jaakar iski raksha karoonga”.

Slightly away from the topic but the issue is that the way we are brought up in this country, we don’t care for the rules esp. when it comes to the public life.

• For most of us Helmet is a burden and there could be endless opposition fuelled controversies when the government tries and make helmet compulsory. People keep a factory helmet in place of a usual vehicle hanging on there two wheeler and use it as soon as they see a pandu hawaldaar. Don’t we understand that it’s not pandu who will die if there is an accident that happens? People can make all sorts of excuses for not wearing helments, “Yaar, sar par thoda bhari bhari lagta hai”, “Yaar ajeeb saa lagta hai”, “Yaar, ladkiyaan chehra hee nahin dekh paati hain”. Abey sale maar jayega tab kitna halka ho jayega, udta rehna phir.
• Similarly in smaller cities people don’t even care for breaking traffic signals. They are pretty sure of getting a clean chit by bribing our dear pandu. But don’t they understand it’s again its not pandu whose life they are putting in danger. Its there own.

[Problem is we tend to argue over everything and don’t even believe the Government of India. Rules are for breaking]

• Keeping our surroundings clean is something which we don’t seem to give a damn. We only care for our home. The sense of community belonging to our area is lagging somewhere. We don’t seem to understand that germs born outside our chamakte damakte ghar can also make us ill. Most of us wouldn’t have forgotten the example of Surat plague. But things can change drastically and dramatically if able leadership with proper freedom to operate comes to take charge of the things. The way surat has changed itself, has been recognized even by UN. Surat actually came to its senses because the amount of loss to its diamond trade because of that incidence was too heavy to forget.[ It’s a more tradition related problem, needs deeper changes into our mindset]

• If you are in Singapore and forget to flush a public toilet, you are going to loose enough money to remember that incidence for all your life. But here, public mein halka hone mein kisi ko sharam tak nahin aati hai. It has never been a part of our social code of conduct to stop someone from spitting in public. [Problem could be lack of public toilets + lack of civic sense]

So where is the problem? And what is the solution?

To be very frank, I don’t intend to do anything about changing this society and solving the problems that the country and its people face. I am just reminded of the dialogues from the movie Rang De Basanti. The dialogues in the dhaba of DJ’s mom.

1^st guy: Arey yaar choodo yeh desh bhakti kee baatein, bhaut boring lagti hai.

Su Mckinley: Boring !! in logon ne tumhare desh kee azaadi ke liye jaan dee thi (While aamir khan is intently watching her, still not able to digest her fulent hindi)

Karan : Kaise azaadi Su

Madhavan: ek min karan, main manta hoon is deshbhakti ko, azzadi ko. Mujhe vishwas hai is desh par, deshbhakti par etc.

Blah ..blah…..mujhe naaz hai is desh par.

Karan: Naaz hai, kis cheez par, population par?

1^st guy: nahin berozgari par

Karan: corruption par etc.

Madhavan: Come on guys, koi bhi desh perfect nahin hota, usey perfect banana padta hai.

Karan: Chal yaar tay hua (=its decided), tu desh ko perfect banata raha, main jis din degree mili kat loonga America. Mera kuch nahin hone wala is koodedaan mein.

Yups!! This is me. And I don’t find my peers different although they may be posing so. Most of us are so saddened by the current socio political environment and if there was some deshbhakti or rashtraprem left in few, that has also died a miserable death.

Yaar why should I waste my energies to rectify the problems those persist even after so many have tried for so long. Some people may blame me to be an escapist, coward who runs away from the responsibility.

Kya farak padta hai yaar. I don’t give a damn !!. What matters to me are my surroundings. What maaters to me is what I am, How my family is, What my future is, How would I be and what would I be 15 years from now. If some people say that this country has done a lot for you by providing quality education to you for so long and spend a lot on you during your IIT stay. I have a very simple answer, “Sorry Boss, Wrong Choice now it can’t be helped”.

I don’t like people who try and pose to be hero’s. A few days ago a friend of mine told me that if we look at 1987 batch of IIT Bombay, its really very difficult to find people living in India. Most of them have settled in Canada or USA. Why should I be any different. So those heros who reciting the song of desh bhakti will also end up like me in the west. Most of the actually, not all. They may be singing different tunes, but I don’t like to pose, truth is brutal but accepting that is the best way to live life.

Hence I don’t have any solution to the problems this country suffers with, especially the mindset problems mentioned earlier.

I may arouse a few passionate souls. I respect there deshbhakti, passion for the country, endurance, zeal and zest to work for the country, but I know there are only a few of those around and I am not one of them.

Not a lot of people do great things, and passion is vehicle to greatness. As yet I seem not to that vehicle. So best of luck to those choosing the difficult path.

I sincerely hope that the generations to come don’t suffer from the same pessimism that I do, would love this country with all there hearts and work to make this a better place to be in. I also hope that my thinking changes and i change things around.

ak

Friends

A great picture for some of the best friends, I have had in my life.

Senti of my profile

After I started blogging it was my longest break, probably a week or so. But a lot happened during this time. My hostel has formally said to me, “kat lo bhai”. Still I will be staying here for at least a month. And this hostel will be staying in mind for whole my life.

There is a tradition of saying a few words “how you wont forget this place and how thankful you are to friends” after the profile reading, and doubt clearing session. Similar to what Oscar winners do after receiving the award or the Miss India universe does after being crowned.

It’s really difficult to summarize your 4 long years in IIT in a few words. Some people come the fashionable way with a few lines of poem or ghazals. Some other ignorant souls don’t really care. But when you are in the hot seat, it really becomes a difficult job, if you go really unprepared like me.

With at least 20 people staring at you, and some expecting there names to be taken as a token of thanks, your mind too overcrowded with emotions to actually think and say. That’s what happened to me.

After a rather uneventful profile with nothing new to surprise me, no cooked stories gave a rather clean image of my 4 years stay. This may not be the entire truth though. But I was kind of disheartened to not to have tough questions to answer in my profile.

It’s a habit of mine to actually write things down, if they are really important. It could be a quality or a show of my incompetence to do things impromptu. This time I chose to remain unprepared. I try and run away from emotions, but they seem to catch up faster than I expect. I also got a bit emotional when I was being interrogated for all my doings in IIT.

When people have had enough, they say, “Chal ab senti maar le yaar”. I think this is the way this tradition developed. It’s very difficult to find an end to this process of interrogation, when so many people are interested. So those people waiting for their own turn to come, and bored with things + it gets really late in the night. So, Senti is the answer, to this search of formal “The end”.

My senti was also different. Since I was unprepared and I got emotional, the first thing I did was to accept that I was emotional because I was leaving a place. I have left so many places that getting emotional about places would be the last thing coming to my mind. Hence IIT has something special in itself.

People used to say, “Some people breakdown, at the time of convocation”. I used to think, “Ho sakta hai yaar, some people are too emotional to control”. It never came to my mind that I could be one of them. But it seems that EQ has increased in me too. If I cry on the day of my convo, it would be one of the first surprises in my uneventful life up till now.

I am still waiting for my profile video, to see how I faired while senti marrofying. I am trying to remember if I said thanks to all the wonderful people around myself. I actually wanted this iit stay to continue. The reasons for that may not be IIT only. The harsh realities of life are going to come out sooner or later and I want to delay them for as long as possible. I think I said that.

But if you didn’t like my senti and wanted your name to be there, I am sorry. If I take names than it becomes a really difficult and longer route. So I chose the safer route and said thanks to all, at least I planned to do so.

But one thing is really bugging me. No one said thanks to me. Am I that bad, useless, worthless, selfish kind of guy? Or all are as smart as me:D

Ak
Who cares!! And whatever i cant change things now