India after Gandhi

India after Gandhi is a book written by Ramachandra Guha. The main focus of the book is the series of events that took place after independence was achieved from British colonial rule. 

I have recommended this book to everyone who is remotely interested in Indian history. History lessons taught in Indian school deals only with what happened in India till it got independence on Aug 15th 1947. I have completed reading four fifth of the book and boy, am I amazed. It is a mixture of pride and squimishness. When one thinks about the diversity in India, one can only be amazed how we have survived and continue to be one single nation. When I learnt the phrase unity in diversity back in middle school, I didn't quite think of the enormity. With my own experience of traveling to many parts of India, mostly in the south, it is so true. 

India changes every 100 kms. There is something unique to every place that I have travelled to. 

In less than two weeks I will complete one year being in the US. It is a totally different world out here. I have met people who didn't seem to know that Pakistan was once part of India. They always seem to be overwhelmed about the things they learn about Indians. 

So life goes on ....

I have cut down on Facebook usage. I login once in a few days and I have deleted the Facebook app on my phone. I have kept the messenger though. I realized that I was spending way too much time on it. Facebook was a fascination that now has turned into an obsession. Before, it was the motivation to get in touch with friends, long lost or otherwise and to get a sense of what's happening with them, but now, it is just mindless scrolling. 

These days, I think I could use less information about what everyone is eating, where everyone is going, what everyone bought and all sorts of information I really don't need. 

I think the effect has been good so far. For example, after so many years I am posting in my blog. I could say, my mind is a lot free from what it used to be. 

Play even in pain

play even i pain
ride even in rain
be in India or in Spain
efforts wont be in vain 
dreams need not go in the drain
know that the dream is main
even if it is plain 
failures are always a gain
dont you get drained


dream is like a grain
which gets sowed in your brain
dream all you want, dont ever refrain
coz remember the dream is main 
success comes after failures, coz they are in a chain
genius is hard to contain
one day you will be acclaimed 
act as if you have been ordained
for your life, you are the chieftain


i know it is a difficult terrain
at time you might be uncertain
there will be a lot of strain
your muscles might get a sprain
you may even have a chilblain
but always remember, ingorance/laziness is your biggest villain 


You will find many who have birdbrain
to pull people down is their domain
they might think you are a crackbrain
they might even look at you in disdain
you dont have to explain
you dont have to restrain
the throne is your's to reattain


when you first try you may not obtain
on your face, let there be no tearstain
dont you complain
you may have to retrain
but you go back and try again


in order to attain
in order to sustain
you'll have to play even in pain!!!!

Bipin(Past and present)

Every depiction of the subject is totally intentional and is not just a mere coincidence. 

Bipin. Our ever so friendly friend. Never knew of anyone who had any problem with him as such. Unarguably one of the most talented muggers of our batch. But mugging is not the only quality one would attribute to him. He managed to score a 92% or something in one of the sems of the first year and due to which he could maintain 80 above aggregate till the end of engineering, the aggregate which lesser mortals like us can only dream of. All in all a good friend. Working and hating his work and NetApp now.

But the intention of this blog is to bring out the ability for a amazing makeover over a period of time. Scroll down and see the metamorphosis.

Bipin(yeLsu) then,

                            

                                            Bipin trying to threaten Manju, the maikan.

Bipin shown his place

Bipin: "Manja sorry le, kshmisbiDo"

Manja, The maikan: "Irli biDo"

Sorry, i lost track. I was talking about the metamorphosis!!!

Bipin

Two years in Bangalore

 biTTi(free) chicken and beer everyday friday

Wait for it 

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Bipin(the hunk)

Bangalorized!!!!

10 reasons* why you should blog.

Are you the kind of person who expects every social interaction to do a value add to your personality and your life? If your answer is "YES" go ahead and read the blog :-) . If the answer is a no, then we both are wasting each other's time, i would urge you to move on. 



10 reasons* why you should blog.

(*you wont find the usual sequenced bullet points but the arguements are in the form of paragraphs. I would not have made justice to the topic if i had put down 10 headings and explained one by one. The reasons that iam giving are interdependent)


Blogging requires burning some brain calories. When you sit in front of the computer to churn out a post you will think,"What shall i write about today?". The choice is endless. You can write about all the topics you like. It can be the latest you saw, the song you heard, an awesome thing that you have done/seen/heard/read and your views about it. You can work your way into into more serious issues like politics, religion, environmental, spritual and metaphysical subjects. This is the very reason why i think blogs came into picture. It is like having your own print media in your backyard which is completely owned by you and free, just that it is online. This is the biggest advantage of it, you dont really have to worry about some investment on buying printers or hiring men to do the job. You are the journalist, you are the editor, you are the proof reader and you are that person who stands next you the printing machine overseeing the printing of the papers. You can serve this copy of your editorial to all the people who can be online. You can make your views count and for that you dont have to be Rupert Murdoch(as i write this, he is busy with the burial ceremony of The News of The World).

When you sit down to write one article you are very unsure if you have enough informantion to write a paricular post. That time you need to discipline your brain. You go ahead with it and click the 'new post' button. At this point in time your brain knows that you are serious. Brain/mind is like the best slave and the worst master you can get. If you dont train it and know how to control it, you life goes for a toss and you will constantly keep finding your self blaming the situation/world/god instead that is the time when you give reprimind your mind and say, "enough is enough, it is time for me to take control now". So when you have made up your mind, your brain automatically and dutifully starts presenting with you the required/useful data. You will be surprised with the alacrity(for the people who are low on vocab, alacrity = cheerful readiness!!!) with which your mind works. You will be amazed by the way the words keep flowing out of your fingertips onto the keyboard and appearing on the monitor(iam able to see the magic as i write this aritcle). What i am trying to tell you here is that blogging is your cup of tea/coffee/cake or what every you call it. You can do it. It involves investment in time. I agree that it is a busy world and most of you may not have enough time to even sleep, but in the hearts, yours and mine, we know that where all do we unnecessarily waste our time. We can always make time if we really want to.

Blogging can be an amazing dumpster/heat sink. There are days when you feel so many emotions/feelings/thoughts, have so many experience about which you want to talk/discuss/debate at length. Blog can be that tool to do it. The two line facebook updates are never enough. Blog paves you a way for dumpig all those thoughts in one place, all of it. This very act can clear a lot of clutter in your mind and help you focus on what is ahead. From the observation that i have done over the past three years i can say that the way we interact with our friends have changed to a very large extent thanks to orkut, facebook, linkedln and what not. We are able to be in touch with many people at the same time. It surely is a great advantage but somewhere in the middle we are losing our personality which should be gaurded with all the might one has. This personality is what makes you unique, it is what makes your life unique ergo an unique experience.

These days, there is a facebook engine that runs parallelly or even above ones mind. You constanly find yourself looking for smart sounding, kick ass status for you to update. This facebook engine i am talking about takes the entire situation you are in as an input and gives out status for updates as output. You want to boast about every small thing that you did like 1st std kids. Everywhere you go you worry about the photolayak pics you can upload for other to see and admire. All said and done, we have to realize that we are unknowingly sending a wrong message-"the i have it and you dont have it". I am saying that these online socail communities are wrong, but there is a limit to use it and it serves us best when we use it limits. It can turn dangerous too.

Bloggin can be serious business, if the style of writing is good it can attract continuous traffic which can turn into a source of income too. Many sensible people out there would definitely subscribe to your style of social interaction. When is say social interaction it is not the shallow hi/bi types. I mean, when you meet that person online/offline he should be fully aware of what you are capable of, the focus you give to one subject. your critical acumen towards one topic. The good depth in your thought process is what makes people admire you or dismiss you. This can be done only by having done something. That something in this context of blogging is, blogging ofcourse. Coming up with regular posts with serious hair raising content. This is the best place to show off that 'depth of thought process' if you really think is deep enough. This wont happen all of a sudden as your mind needs sometime to accustomed to your new way of social networking. But being pursuant will definitely help you. Blog away and find yourself. If not anything, you will end up with good online diary(which most of us promise ourselves of maintaining and never get around to do it)

10 Reasons* to own a Bullet**.

10 Reasons* to own a Bullet**.
(* these are totally and 100% my personal views but iam sure whatever reasons you have to buy/own a bullet, it can be put under one of these 10)
(** when i say bullet it includes all the models of RE till date)

1. For the love of it - Everybody wants to own one
2. It is the best way to make friends - Bullet is the source of energy for almost 8 out of 10 sustaining biking clubs.
3. Teaches you life
4. For the thump/Pleasure of riding/attention it gets
5. You will be a part mechanical engineer
6. You dont want to speed, finding the thrill in riding slow(a certain someone i know might beg to differ)
7. Cut above the rest - It is my way or the wrong way.
8. Cult bike - India's Harley
9. It is 'Made in India
10. Vintage tag/Resale value        
   
            The explanation that i give further to support the 10 reasons above are interleaved.
[you can listen to this while you read :-)]     also  (forgive me for the spelling mistakes and the grammatical errors, the fact that i am getting my procrastinator ass to publish one post is in itself a big deal !!)                   




            Every bullet owner i know has his own story behind him owning a bullet and NOT a single one on them(the ones i have heard and i have heard quite a lot) goes like this,"i wanted to buy some bike to go to my office/college/shop which is light weight, 4 starer on mileage and low maintainence so i bought a bullet!!!". Never!!!
            Simply put, buying a bullet is a calculated risk one takes!!! Practically speaking, the standard 350s are probably the most inefficient bikes when it comes to mileage next only to a Yezdi(i konw it coz i own one). The fuel maintainence is as good as any diesel car's these days. People buy the bullet for the love of it and love doesn't need to be logical as long as there is enought love. Most of the guys i know dreams of owning a bullet once in their lifetime or atleast accept that they would want to ride it once and they are always in secret/open admiration of the owner.
            Making friends when you own a bullet is 100 times easier. Every other bullet owner starts looking a brother/sister(included for that one lady i know who will think i am  male chauvinist) from another mother simply because in your hearts you know what a trouble a bullet can be when it starts throwing tantrums and it does not take metaphysical knowledge that the other person also would have had to go through it. The trouble need not be a huge one like an engine seize due to over heating/speeding (like the one i had during 1A ride of BOM, thanks to all the people who were with me for the moral support they gave), but it can be as simple as a flat tyre.
           The very thought about the bike's weight drives so many people forget pushing it to a some distance to get the typres fixed. So it takes more of mental toughness than physical to own that bike. Every bullet rider is a friend of yours. Just give a smile and ask what model is his bike and there you go, you have struck a conversation and the other person wont let you until he has told the whole story of his bullet sojourns. If your bullet happens to be older than his, then you have the upper hand in the conversation. The intenerary of the talk is endless. The mechanic you go to, the petrol you put, the paint on the bike, chorme that you got done, the desing of the number plate, the club you ride for, the people you ride with, the places you have ridden to, the accidents you have had, all the shit that you have seen happening and so on and so forth which tends to infinity. Then comes the customary exchange of phone numbers. My contacts list swelled by 100 within the first three months of buying my bullet and only because of it.
            A good 50% of my 8th semester of Engg i have spent in the bullet garages/showroom. I have had situation when the mechnics of the bike have asked me politely/rudely to go away and let them do their job peacefullly. Few mechanics get irritated by the volley of questions they have to answer and some of them are nice enough to answer all your doubts. Anybody who owns a STD 350 will know which the carburetor(the heart of any bike), how to remove the tyre and sometimes even fix a puncture, spark plug cleaning, oil, decompression, gear box, air filter, chain maintainence coz not knowing these things might cost him dearly.
            No bike i know commands the time tested/sustained attention a bullet receives. It is a pleasure to the eyes and the ears. It can convert an enclosed space into a beat box. Bullet's thump can reverberate the whole of basement parking lot waking up the whole building, such is the beauty of the thump.
            Old REs in India enjoy the same status as Harley's. We can feel the essence of the cult biking at almost 10 times lower cost.
It is Made in India. The full fledged plant in Chennai, TN manufacture these bikes and is a subsidiary of Delhi based Eicher Motors(surprise surprise!!!). Every part in manufacured in India and assembled here. The desing on the tanks are hand painted!!!


(just to prove my point) + gk for you.

            Past two/three years have witnessed in the enormous increase in the the craze for the bullets. This has led to the exponential increase in the resale values of the bike. After the retirement of the flagship cast iron STD 350s in 2010 the demand has only increased multifolds and in the near future they will attain the vintage tag(although the use of the word vintage is wrong here but for the understanding sakes) buying a bullet is also a sort of an investment. Many mechanic and second dealers of bullet have prospered due to this demand boom.
            I do not really want to get into the topic of bullet rides. It is huge!!! Simply put, they are the best ever. Period.

            This article is in commemoration of completing one year's thumping on the roads of Bangalore.

Golden life

I vividly remember the time, sitting on the red soil ground of my high school during independence day or republic day(wearing white short and shirt) i would listen to the chief guest of the program deliver his speech. Most of the time the chief guest who came to our school were it's alumni. Although i dont remember every thing they said, there was one common thing no one ever missed to tell us kids, "Student life is a golden life". Sometimes the sentence  seemed hackneyed but i thought that there has to be a reason for everyone who comes has this one common thing to say. Its been more than 8 years since i got out of high school, one year since graduation and i fully realize the meaning and the gravity of those words.

The only future we had to worry about was tomorrow, the only headache - the monthly test, the only nightmare - the annual exams, when i woke up hot milk would be ready,by the time i had bath breakfast would be ready, by the time i finished breakfast school would have come to take us,  when we said bi to our friends it was only till the next day when we see them again, horlicks/complan were the only drinks, with a 2 rupee coin we used to look at ourselves as though we owned the world, Weekend meant sunday morning chitrahaar, followed by alif laila. we were happy with three pairs of new clothes a year, vehicles meant bicycle, sitting on dad's bikes and making zooming noise ourselves would give us the pleasure of 250 kmph.

Times have changed beyond expectation, with me atleast. The already nuclear family of mine seem to have been passed in the hadron collider and split into its constituent particles owing to life's speed at which is accelerating all of us. I stay 300km away from my parents. These days, i wake up cursing myself for not having kept the milk coupon last night( there goes the milk...). Read all the sad things happening to the country in the first two pages itself afte that i cant stand it anymore. Now it is time for breakfast i take full 15 mins to decide what to prepare. I choose the one which requires least efforts. Chitranna(color rice) or  mosaranna(curd rice) or puliyogare(i dont know what do they call it in inglis). After having bath i look at my cupboard and look for the least dirty shirt for the day( becasue i niether have the luxury of keeping a maid to wash my clothe nor the will to wash them myself or the means to buy a washing machine - by this you can estimate how much i get paid, you are right, peanuts(kaDle kayi)!!!). Before leaving the house i have to double check if the gas in off, geyser is off, all the switches are off( a job which my dad would do). Go to the office(do i really need to tell - not that it is something bad, but i guess most of us know how one feels, you are right again - like crap!!!!)

I come back to an empty house( now dont tell me to get married- iam better off) which has a big ass TV which i dont use but still paying for. Sit and Brainstorm as to what to eat for supper. Worry about what is happening to life, where is it going, who all went for their higher studies, who all got hikes, who all bought so called cool stuff, lauch a personal tirade against myself asking "what am i doing with my life?". In the mean time I muster enough energy to cook something, eat and sleep.

But there are some good days too. Food prepared tastes 10 times better than what it was the day before. Try out something by the help of recipe administered over phone by mom. Speaking to some chick looking girl from college whom i never spoke to when in college and knowing that she is still searching for a job. Last day of the month is the most satisfying. Paying the bills myselves. Knowing that most of us are in the same boat(full on devilish pleasure). Feeling resposible for my own life. Rides, bike repairs, tyre puncture at middle of the ring road. Friends coming over for the weekend. Drunk calls. Having a long chat with the room mates of pu or engg or someone from high school. Doing a coverage on who got hitched and who got ditched. Finally cocking up to write a blog atlast.

But coming to think of it, this is the phase of life which we all(me and my parents) incessently prepared for, for the last 20 years. Here is the time to put to use all the good things we learnt in the past. To be grateful for the our parents' and teachers'(who have taught how to teach and how not to teach) efforts (remember, we are mostly living their dream). Realizing that life is not a sprint(100m race) but a marathon(the long race where only ethiopians seem to win) but definitely not a morning walk too!!!

May be, this is a golden life too.

1 YEar at EY.

10 in the evening(in sjce hostel there are no nights) of 12th May, 2010 i get a message from from my placement secretary(gulbarga ki kali) that a company called Ernst and Young is coming for placements for tomorrow. The name rang a bell somewhere in the back of my mind. It took me little time to realize that i had read about this company when i was gearing up for Deloitte(a company which i wanted to get in). First question that people of my league will have whenever any company comes for placements is not what is the package but "what is the cut off". To my surprise and relief she texted back saying 60. Phew!!!! After a long time some company came looking for average scorers. Somehow, when i woke up the next day, calm had dawned on me. Everything went on as though it was thoroughly rehearsed. Mine was the first name to be called out. By any measure this was nothing groud shattering or breath taking but personally it answered my doubts i had.

        It is 10 25 in the night(well, it is night) and i sit here with less than 48 hours to complete one year of my arrival to Bangalore.

        I am excercising control over my urge to post about the things that i did last year, but let me keep some ammunition to fire myself up to write one more post some time soon.

        But i will definitely going to tell you tweleve awesome things(according to my own measure) that i did in 2010, one for each month.

        Watch this space for more!!!

(Forgive the spelling mistakes)

Welcome back!!!

I want to stop this series of promising to post on my blog regularly and apologies that i seek after i fail to carry out what i have promised. Lets keep it simple. This is my blog. I will post something when i feel like.

Yeah!!! thats the spirit. I already feel the freedom and the lessening of guilt to get back to my blog.

Sincere thanks to Ashwij Mayya who kept consistently asking me about my blog's status and i promised that i wil mention him in my next post which is this. At this juncture I would also like to congratulate him on his admission into IIT, Chennai for his post graduation studies in mechanical engineering. I am proud of you, boy. But this wont make me forget that you still havent bought me the full bottle of 'you know what'. You have reneged on the promise made!!!

Thanks to Pramod G Hegde who made me recall the basic reason why i had started blogging in the first place, an effort to chronicle my life which i can look back at some later point in life. Not to regret, not to boast. Just to look!!!

happy man.

for the record. i have changed my blog title from I communicate, i blog to thought factory. all these days i thought that the url i have for this blog is too lame. knowsudeep. i still think its too lame. Although there was a url-thoughtfactori.blogspot available maintaining two blogs is too taxing. so i settled half way by changing blog title and i want to thank the guy who made the template iam currently using. its so damn cute. i guess its always better that one blogs without any preparation. when we prepare we tend to hide what we actually want to tell. my blogging in the future looks bright as you can see i already have two posts in under one hour. change always brings special dose of energy to continue something which you had left behind. Change is the only constant.

long time no see

its been a long time that i have not blogged. what the hell its been more than six months. any explanation i give for not having posted is going to be a testimony of my laziness. have written a lot of stuff offline. will try to upload asap.

How would you react?

It is just a regular day in college. Summer heat has taken its toll. The class is going on, the lecturer is talking about something which most of the people in class have no clue about. And suddenly one person walks into the class room unannounced. His face is fully wrinkled, whiskers have grown long indicating that he has not shaved for many days and is wearing soiled clothes. He looks at the lecturer and makes some gestures. Everyone knows what is he there for. Many sitting in the class find his coming in a welcoming change as it made the lecturer stop her perfunctory.

He holds out two photocopies which so that everyone can read. It confirms that his blood relative is suffering from lymph related disorders. It becomes clear, he is expecting us to give him some money which will go a long way in helping him. He just stands there for a minute or so to see any kind of movements at our side. What he sees is a total muted response. He looks straight into everyone’s eyes. It is now when you want to be invisible. Such a stomach wrenching uneasiness sets in your body and it won’t abate until that person is off.

Suddenly you start wondering about the vanity of life and its unpredictability. There starts a debate in your mind. Its now divided, one side says,” who lets these people, what were the security doing? Such people should not be allowed to enter the campus at all”. the other side offers the counter debate saying,”  its the hopelessness that has driven him into doing this. Otherwise why would he come to our college asking for alms. Even he has his loved ones whom he cares about. He is trying to do all what is in his capacity to do as much as he can to his suffering relative”. 

He is so elder to me and I don’t know what to react, whether to give an understanding smile or frown. Because I really cant understand or pretend to know what that person is going through. You don’t want to be indifferent either. The former would indict me to give him money, the latter will portray me as someone incapable of compassion. I wanted to know badly what kind of facial expression I should wear. He walks through the passages in between the setting of benches. I just keep my head down and look sideways.

Thousand thoughts pound in your head just in that one moment when you look the man in the face: of self doubt, meaning of life, the mockery of god, questioning the reality, the dogma prevalent in societies and its inequalities, the scare about what future has in future why him? What if it is someone whom I knew before? 

He goes around the class and leaves. The uneasiness lowers. The class enters into it usual gloom. But the incident stays in your mind.

Please let me know from your comments what would you have done.

Girl friend, she is.

At last I am hooked. Its one thing which every guy wants and very few actually manage. So, here I am making into that league of elite.

Like every guys fantasy even my girl is quiet fair rather you can call her complexion white to be frank. And to your dismay you find that she is lot elder to me( don’t be shocked as to how did I manage to get hooked with a senior….read on).

She is like this normal girlfriend, not much of a difference, total NON SENSE AND ZERO COMMON SENSE. You ought know, she is a beauty. She has looks which can command every eyes in her direction, you might as well call it unmatched.

First look, second look, third look,…….. Guaranteed. She is the neck bender and a head turner. Many people who see me with can her seldom understand the chemistry between us. Many of them have even gone to the extremes by asking “WHY HER??”. I would give them a candid reply-“lovvu guru”,


She is fun to be with. She is a apostle of simplicity. But can be very hard and rude to the people who have no idea about her. Many people don’t know how to even start meddling with her. The flare and the flamboyance of hers is uncommon.

You might ask what is she like ? You mean as in attitude, let me tell you folks she has loads. It’s not easy living with her but when you are not with her the only thought in my mind will be when I can take her out on a ride again. And she talks so much. Much more than you can imagine. When she talks its always at the top of her voice, lest everybody could hear it. And when she talks, it’s a restriction on you that you listen because there is no option b. she can scream too which she does very frequently.
In my quest of maintaining a relationship with her, she has turned me into one major spendthrift. She has been drilling a hole through my pocket since the time I said I DO. Today I cut down on my food just to take her out and spend some time of solitude with her, the time which is only mine. You will have to cajole her a lot before taking her out and I have to do it every day. But once she is in the mood then there is nothing which can stop her.


What is it, I cannot hear you? Oh you are asking the most obvious question. How is she to look? What can I say? The word is SEXY, its her body which sent my mind spinning in the first place. Truly a love at first sight!! She has got the sleekest body I can imagine. Not an ounce of unwanted muscle. Right parts of right size at the right places. She is way too simple compared to anyone else. I don’t think she uses any cosmetics but still manages to look so great.

I don’t have the looks which can parallel hers. I, with this tiny frame of mine, people often wonder whether I can lift her at all. I do, somehow I manage.

I took me good three months to get to know her. I am still in the endeavor of getting to know more. If she gets angry, its one heck of a predicament which you don’t want to be in, god only can save you and nobody.

She can embarrass you in public like anything and you can do nothing but get embarrassed and gulp in the insult because you love her too much to break up with her. But when she is in good mood I bet you, there cannot be a better companion.

You go on ride with her, she will see to it that all the disturbances in your mind is cleared off and you are back in your high spirits again. The way she instigates the free flow of thoughts, you really feel lucky to have someone like her along.


I sit in the class waiting for it get over coz I know that she is desperately waiting for me in the bike stand all alone with no company. Once I am done, I run to her as I never have for our reunion and there she is standing in the shade, my bike, my YEZDI ROADKING(CNH 1101).

And by god in the 4th para from the bottom, i meant my mechanic.
 

The making of CieSta ‘09.

This post of mine is coming after a long gap, although I don’t think many people are very anxious and curious about what I write. In the past few days there are so many incidents which I badly want to be documented and to be known to everyone.

I don’t remember the date. I was sitting on the steps of yampa( its our college juice parlor, now don’t ask me which is my college). My friend Sindhu comes and says,” hey, Satish( the CR of 8th sem B) is trying to organize CS fest”. The reaction on my face was indifference. I knew about Satish. He would have so many plans but still would end up with no one supporting him except one or two. I thought this plan of CS fest is also going into drains as did the plans of giving a freshers party to our juniors (Yes, my dear juniors. There was a plan to give you guys a Freshers party, I guess you weren’t lucky enough)

I told sindhu,” wow, nice initiative. Madi madi( translating into English: go ahead and do it)”. She was like,”yeno madi madi anthiya, madthiVi annu ( don’t tell us to do it, instead say that we shall do it)”. I was literally flabbergasted by her common sense. Just an addition of one syllable changed the entire meaning of the sentence. Then I said something to cover my indifference for the topic which she was forcing into our conversation. I asked her the dates, she says that its on 28th and 29th of March. Then I asked her were they not the days immediately following Ugadi and she said yes. After this reply of hers I was damn sure that the feast is going to be a glib and moreover I had promised my parents that I will be coming home for Ugadi as I had not gone for Shivarathri. My immediate question was that why cant Satish get better dates somewhere in the next month. Answer was that there were no other dates available. If it had to be done then it had to be done only on those dates and no other go. Then she told all sorts of ideas: going home and coming back on the morning of the fest and blah, blah. I made my face as though I bought the idea of CS fest. Then I went away telling her that I have a lab and will surely think about what she said.

The matter of CS fest was out of mind in no time. But I did hear people talking about the fest once in while, but their talk seemed to be more skeptical than enthusiastic. Then one day somehow I got to know that there is going to be a volunteer meet for organizing the fest. And it came unto me to do the announcements in my class. I did the announcements; in fact those were the highest number of sentences I had spoken in my new class since 5th semester with some exceptions. There were few raised eyebrows, indifferent atmosphere and not much of enthusiasm which I could see. I did away with it somehow.

I enter the classroom where the volunteer meet was happening. I hear satish saying that this fest is going to be a low budget as there were strict NOs on getting any sponsorship, on collecting funds from juniors (the administration thought it might turn out to be some extortion scheme I guess). I was dumbstruck. How in the heavens were we to organize a show without no one financing it?

Our cs junta kept coming in and going out. Few were from first years. Even less were from second year, some third year and most of them finals year junta. On a book we started jotting down all the events we are going to conduct. Committees were made, volunteers assigned.

The next day comes the bomber. Our first internals are scheduled at the beginning of the week in which the CS fest was to take place. The internals was followed by Ugadi on Friday which made it a long weekend, giving people all the more reason to go home for the festival after internals. Mind you, the volunteer meet was held when there were less than twelve days left for the fest.

Our biggest hurdle was to make the students of CS branch to stay back for the fest, at the least. We had posters to be printed, classes to be notified, there was this internals coming up, people bunking every now and then. We were finding it difficult to sell the idea of people staying back for the fest or coming back early for it form their native. All of a sudden I get a sms in my phone and …….

To be continued.

Your eyes don’t decide what you see these days !!!

Have you ever wondered today we don’t see what we want to see but we see what the mass media wants us to see. Few bunch of people who sit in the place called editors office sit and decide what we see. What an irony of life. In the name of freedom of press there is just a wild fight of the TRPs and sale volume.

The interest of the viewers has been sidelined so much so that today the subscribers don’t even know what is that they want or what should they expect.

I appreciate the way the doordarshan(DD) channel for having kept its virginity. I call it virginity because it has never let go of its values. I recall from the days when I was a kid and the only channel coming on my home TV was doordarshan. Even today the shows broadcasted in the channel are so meaningful.

The people in the media have taken the viewers for granted. They think whatever bull they show on tv will be accepted. They are falling short to make a meaningful flow of information and choking the information and manipulating it the way they want. Today we see or hear what the media wants us to hear.

They just make people get glued to mega(chewing gum) serials and wasting the precious families quality time. The highest viewed programs today are from those relating to crime sectors. No wonder why crime rates are rocketing high at such an alarming rate. They are just behaving as a slut to a greedy landlord who does anything he wishes for the sake of some coins. The common is being deprived his right to information without his knowledge.

There are some shows on tv(for eg: splitsvilla on mtv) on which in the name of open mindedness are ruining our culture and the people are happy watching. Can the media stoop down to this level just to make more and more people watch it. don’t they have some guidelines to follow. And moreover the media acts in India are so toothless.

Its very clear. Today’s media in no more interested in unearthing the true facts, which is what is its primary function. India has some hundreds of channels and most of them private. They don’t even make an effort to educate the people about the culture of our country. I agree making people familiarize with the culture of the world is very necessary in today’s global setup but that doesn’t mean its don’t at the cost of not educating people our countrymen about our country and what has it stood for. Whenever there is the a birth anniversary of a great Indian leader not even a mention about him is made these days. How do you think the younger generation in gonna get to know about them. With our education system mostly concentrated towards scoring marks and piling up marks card it becomes the immediate duty of the media that is should carry on the duty what it was built for.

In times of festival only the glamorous side of it is shown but never the value of it or the reason why it was initiated for the first place in discussed. Unless and until we contain this enormous power of the media in the right way the very essence of culture is going be strangled by neck by the very own media which is meant to prevent.

The measure of a man.

The thought I am gonna put forth in front of you are not the usually ones as in they don’t come in your mind any other time. But only during exam time.

What is the measure of the man?

What does one consider as a life lived worthwhile. Is it the life when someone does something for the society, or does something to his family? Does an mba or be comes teacher. Or is it like giving the best in where ever you are. It doesn’t matter where you go but how much you love being there and what do you do to grow in that area. After all this time on this planet I have come to believe this one simple truth.

There are only two kinds of players, those who control their nerves and win championships and the others who don’t.

Life is always unfair and we better get used to it.

The philosophy that if you do good to others good will be done to you never holds but that doesn’t mean that one should not do good. Doing good to someone brings meaning to life but expecting good things to happen because you have done a good thing is just so mean way of living.

In life the ability to communicate is everything. And for you to communicate one should possess enough knowledge for that one has to be educated.

The only way for a country to become superpower in today’s world is only by education. Only if the people are educated to the highest standards the upsurge of the country will be a dream which will be hard to realize. By education I mean the people should know be in a situation to manage crisis. They should have trained themselves of prime performance.

How could a country possibly come ahead if the people inhabiting it are still ignorant of their potential or obscure about their duties? With kind of population we have in our country we can make the whole world come to its knees in front of us. The road is not easy but not impossible.

The first and foremost requirement is to educate people. Not just making them academically come up.

Teachers and schools play a crucial role in making the life of a man. If only the teacher gives his best effort to make give a life to a student.

PS: I write my blog with the free flow of thoughts. My blog is never structured but look closely there will be some order in the superficial disorder.

WHERE has all the GUTS gone?

Why has India become such a soft targets for all the terrorists out there in the world. It has become a practice field for all the kinds of inhumane activities. Today people out there have been stripped off their right to live because of some whimsical fantasies of a group of fanatics.

Our politicians are happy selling our country away and laundering the money in their Swiss bank accounts. we are living in a world where every politician is only worried in how much money he is making per day. I guess if all the illegal properties of all the politicians is confiscated and given to a man, he ll be twice as rich as bill gates. Majority of politicians are just around us are convicted criminals. I don’t think the incident in Mumbai would have ever happened if only our political parties spared little time for worrying about the countries security. But no, all they want play a blame game and mud slinging till the eternity.

I don’t blame the police for the kind of image they have painted for themselves. They have become too immune to corruption. They have been sandwiched between situations where they have to obey someone who hasn’t even a graduate degree in his name. The ias officer work their way up by studying their ass off and all they get to do the rest of their life is to obey the orders of a money thirsty hypocrite.

What about those soldiers who are perennially and year after year under paid. What will be left of their dignity of labor when they are paid much less compared to their civilian counterparts? Just because they are not around to do a strike asking for a pay raise that doesn’t mean they should be sidelined forever.

Today whatever situation we are in, we are in it just because we let this situation come to us. We have become too short sighted.

Our value system is getting diluted. We are drifting away from our principles at a rate higher than ever before. Why have we become so patient and so bloody immune? How can we get used to these ungodly treatment meted out to us so easily. We are proud to call ourselves as the people from the exotic land. Very soon it does gonna be a land of exotic garbage if something very soon is not done about it.

They say the man who chases two rabbits catches none but here we are trying to chases tens of rabbits together. We are not even western. We are torn between language, sentimentalities and religion. We are sabotaging all the values our forefathers gave to us. And everyone against us are making total use of these aspects.

We are torn between western and our own culture. In our country itself we are divided into northies and southies. In this we also are multilinguistics. And as if these differences are not enough we have communal riots also which have becoming fairly frequent in our lives. We have ample talent around us being unused but there is not enough talent to spot these talents. And who is to be blamed. Is it us or the people around us?

Iam sure in this way the meaning of democracy is going to be changed very soon. Our kids are gonna learn them as buy the people, far the people and off the people contrary to what we learnt!

You may be wondering whats the issue over here. the issue is am just concerned about my motherland my country getting ruined right under my eyes. A bunch of people who have a gun are able to bring the financial country to a grinding halt in no time. Its not gonna be very far where we have to think twice before letting ourselves or our kids out of our house. And I just don’t wanna be concerned I wanna do something about it. and the next question hits me like a boulder. What should I do? Will I be supported? Who are the people to support me?

Even today I swear I don’t know the educational qualification of our politicians. Today lot of youth who are interested in politics are shying away from their right of managing the country because of the ghastly picture portrayed by our current political scenario. People who have the heart to serve mankind are shying away because they don’t have nerves of steel to withstand the filth which is growing amuck in politics.

We don’t voice out our opinion. We are too busy making a worth of our life. Many of us think its not their job. They may very well be right but the trouble is all of us think the same.

B-R-E-A-K-U-P

The faint music of Cher goes on in the background. The track Believe.. Cher goes on.. Do you believe in love after love.. Do you belive in life after love.. ! His mind is disturbed suddenly. Not for the first time though. He knows this feeling so well by now, one of a deep hollow. A void. An irrepairable loss.

When he split with his significant other, the albatross around his neck was hung!

His eyes close, though not forcing to recollect the images and words, the scenes from a distant memory come back in a flash.

Months have passed since then, but it just seems like yesterday. He recollects with great fondness the playful times of the past, the-lack-of-responsibility-cool-head that he had, the cheerfulness every single morning, the lack of Monday morning blues, the patience and the help-everybody attitude, and most importantly, the sense of accomplishment, the feeling of having won something priceless, that used to cloud his personality those memorable days...
And the ever-smiling happy face that he has today, only to mask his deep void within, that has so much become a part and parcel of his life ever since...

Many a tear bag in the eye has dried up, many a vein has been dissected, but all in vain!
He needs something as drastic as the Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind to be inflicted upon him.

He understands that if you really want to attach yourself, attach yourself to your goals, not people or things. Only his head understands logic. Not his heart.

He wants to put up a statutory warning like the one on cigarette packs, for the ones who are living his past, and are most likely to live his present too, sometime in their future.

As these flashes of form a lump in his throat, he opens his eyes. But The Memory Remains.

This blog is a reproduction of one of my friend's blog. I could not have matched the impeccabality with which he has captured his feelings in words. I didnt have the words but the feelings were true to the core.

This is how I fell…

I am writing this blog to give people the first hand information about how I fell from the train. Sorry, I am not here trying to glorify my accident or trying to attract undue attention. I am rather sick of giving details about how I fell and how did I feel. So with this blog I am just trying to simplify my job.

Its very detailed and intricately written story so read it when you have all the time in the world.

The man who inspired me to write this blog is my room mate SAMEER (you are great myaan).

The date was 6th of August, 2007. I was coming back from hubli to chickamagalur. I am not so much of a traveler by train. I usually prefer bus to travel any place how much ever far that place might be. But I decided to take a train to go back home, the reason which I have not uncovered yet. I boarded the inter city train at hubli station at 6.30 in the morning. I had one large kit bag and sholder bag. I was wearing a Levis jeans which I had bought just the day before, a t shirt, pullover and a thick jerkin and a shoe (you may be wondering why details about my overalls, you will know don’t worry just read on). I selected a bogie in the mid section of the train and I took a seat in the compartment which was right next to the door. As it was a Monday there was not much crowd in the train.

I bought my ticket till birur. Birur is a junction where I had to get down and take a bus to chikamagalur as does not have railroad connectivity. I didn’t eat much on the train also. I thought anyway I am going to go home. Let me have a proper mom made lunch at home itself (I didn’t know then that it will be another two weeks for me to go home).

I started reading a book. I was getting call now and then and I was chatting with one of my friend through the sms. As I told you that I am not the one who travels much by train I didn’t have an idea what time will the train reach the birur station. My stomach was hungry and while reading I dozed off.

I woke up from my sleep and looked around. The train had stopped in a station. I checked my watch, it was 10.15. I don’t know why but I didn’t bother to trouble myself to check which station it was. I convinced myself that birur cannot be reached this fast. The train started. I was still looking out of the window sleepily and the train started moving slowly. As the train moved I saw the boards showing the name of the station appearing.

To my utter shock the name plate bore the the name BIRUR. I cursed myself for being such a stupid. My mind started to race. My immediate reflex was to stand up.My mind was trying to come out with a logical decision. . My mind was still under the spell of sleep goddess. But my body proved faster than that. It already seemed to have taken a decision. Out of practice as if entire body has become involuntary, my hands reached for the bags kept on the top rack. The book was shoved in to side pocket of the bag. My body moved and my mind was still thinking. In no time I was standing at the door. I could feel the train swaying, picking up pace. With every passing millisecond my mind was forced to come with a decision but it hadn’t booted up yet. My entire body was shouting,” you need to get down, you need to get down”. And I jumped and that very moment all hell broke loose.

In a split second so many things happened. There was a lot of commotion around me. I thought that I felt the platform of the station next my mind registered was that I was being dragged by some force(probably the inertial force). I was still clutching the bag tightly and somewhere in the midst of all those movements I had let go of it. Next when I opened my eyes there was bigger shock awaiting me. I could see the under belly of the moving train.

The very moment I opened my eyes my brain came into action (it realised my body had done a blunder). I could hear the rattling of the train wheels moving close to my ears. To my right seemed to be a concrete wall. I understood where I was, in the fucking gap between the train and the platform and it was just about enough to house me. I asked three questions to myself.
1) Am I dead. The answer was negative.
2) Is anything under pain (my brain meant, was there any part of my body dismantled?)
The answer was no.
3) Should I move?
HELL NO, YOU GOD DAMN IT.
I held my body tight, concentrating on not moving even a millimeter. I thought to myself is this really happening? or is it just bad dream I am having while sleeping in the train. I told myself let the train pass. Once it is gone I can get up.

In the meantime, someone on the train or someone standing on the platform might have seen a boy with a bag on his shoulder going under the train trying to detrain. They got the train stopped. The train came to a halt while I was still under it. Once the train came to complete halt I mustered all the energy left in me and got up but I wanted to put body onto the platform but my legs gave away. I could hear hurried foot steps and shouts of people coming towards me. I just gave them my hands and they pulled me up and laid me flat on my back on the platform.

There were about 50 people I believe. Half of them were shouting at me for jumping outta of the moving train and the other half shouting at them, the rest half for pestering me. They asked me whether I could sit. I told I can’t. I told them I need to see the doctor. By then the stretcher was brought. I was put on that and taken to the nearest hospital. Once I was in the hospital I called my mom and asked them to come over and as they say the rest is history.

And about my overalls, I was fully covered from neck to toe. And because of layers of clothing the bodily scratches and injuries was reduced to minimum.

Some people may be inquisitive about what happened to my luggage. I got them back, thank you. My kit was torn underside as I had dragged it on the platform surface.

You may think it as very foolish. You may ask me could I not have got down in the next station or had pulled the chain in train to stop instead of jumping outta of the train or why was I so lazy that I didn’t go to check what time will the train reach birur. I know, buddy that’s why it is called an accident isn’t it??

I thank the almighty for letting me live so that I could narrate this story and I thank my parents for having taken care of me for over three months after the accident like they did when I was a toddler. I can never forgive myself for the agony they had to go through. I am just happy to have a second chance to live my life again.

No pain is bigger than this one.

The biggest pain one can suffer is not when you meet with a life taking accident but it is when a person who you feel has understood you the best fails to understand you when you need them to understand you the most. But yes if understanding is painful and if my friend is HAPPY avoiding me, then i would never wanna be understood.