How 7.7.7 turned out for me…..

It’s the neptune’s number. The date is so auspicious that people are getting married on this date at 7 am or 7 pm and commencing the marriage ceremony within 7 minutes. Pregnant mothers are “trying” to give birth to their children on this day. People are buying land, gold on this auspicious day. Well, this is all the television channels and the newspapers have to say about 7.7.7. Here’s my story.
Scene 1: I get up early in the morning to go to Ahmedabad to meet a certain person. Let’s call her Miss X. After getting dressed up and all set to go, I get to know that Miss X has left her workplace months ago. Great going. Next, I sprain my shoulder which prevents my head from turning more than a few degrees. Awesome. Cut to scene 2.
Scene 2: My mother has been pestering me to attend this marriage of some colleague of my father. Since she is already pissed off with my non social behaviour, of late, I decide to go. She helps me decide on some decent dress for the occasion.(let’s not talk about it..) But this attempt of mine to be social turns out to be a “bigtime” fiasco for me. For one, there was nobody I knew. For that matter, there wasn’t even a single person of my age group attending the wedding. The only aunty I was acquainted with, comes and strikes a conversation with my mother. She starts off, “Your daughter is quite thin”(OMG, for anybody who has seen me these days, I am anything but thin….)Another uncle advises my mother to let me take GRE and go to US for further studies. BTW, the place where I am currently staying, any Tom, Dick or Harry who takes GRE can go to US to study. Your GRE score and profile hardly matters.(Money speaks!!) I say, I am not interested in MS, want to go for an MBA. But my voice is lost in the din of their conversation. Wow. I rush to the nearest benches to sit, but there’s s*** there and thousands of ants around. I decide against it. Finally its time to leave….Yippie!!!
But 7.7.7 has to be a special day for me. How can it end so easily? The car in which we were traveling decides to breaks down. Thanks to some uncles around, the car starts running again…
Final scene: I am hungry and asking my mother to make me something. After such a pathetic day, I have to give vent to whatever is going on inside me. So, here I am, writing such a lousy piece about my experience of 7.7.7. - the most auspicious day in a thousand years… I might end this blog with one word of advice to all those couples who have literally run to the altar on this auspicious day. Beware!!!

PS: The above piece is the product of a bored and tired mind. Please do not take offence at any of my comments.

We, the Bathroom Singers...

Bathroom singers - a very interesting species, to say the least. I pride myself on being one(trust me, I and my room mate actually got scolded for incessant singing in the bathroom when we were in the first semester). There are certain peculiar characteristics of us -the lot. Once inside the bathroom, and our voice becoming the sole identity for the rest of the world, our talent blooms and of course then, there's no stopping us...Before I continue, let me tell ya all what prompted me to start writing on this very enthusiastic class of singers. Well, while I was having my bath this morning, I was really made to suffer by two of my very enthusiastic fellow beings. They picked up one song after another and did not stop until I was done with my bath which was like for half n hr...Neways the point is not that the singers in question made a very genuine and sincere effort to deafen me. The point is the complete ignorance on our part of the extreme pleasure(read:nuisance) that we tend to provide to the listeners, while we sing. The irony is, the moment we stop singing, and someone other than us starts doing so, we start scrutinizing the notes and the everything of the song being sung. One of my friends tried to explain this to me scientifically saying that we actually never get to know our own real voice until we record it and hear it. It's very true. But I think the various traits of a bathroom singer cannot be explained thus.Whatever it is, I would have loved to record the songs that these girls sang this morning and would have loved it even more to make them listen to their songs sometime...And the funniest part was, after every song that they sang, they used to applaud each other...at least their singing wasn't enough..Phew...


PS: At this point, I must confess one thing. It was in the first semester. I don't know what got into my head and my roomie's as well. Because we decided to have an antakshri while we had our bath. And believe me , we must have really bugged the others because Shashibala(our BEC TA) actually came out of her room and shouted at us to keep us shut...

Sometimes, certain things happen

and you never remain the same...



There are a few incidents strewn here and there in my life which have really influenced me, made me the "me" that I am today. Good or bad, they have made me think, drop certain habits, pick up some others..The earliest thing that is etched on my mind is that of my mother forgoing several of her wishes to fulfill mine..Her leaving practising law for almost fifteen years so that she could see me grow up well. Though I did not realise the significance of this as late as when I was in my teens, I promised myself never to let her down.(Sorry if you do not call this an incident, but what is life if not an incident!!!)One day out of a stupid fight with my mother I tore some important papers and I saw the hurt in my mother's eyes. And God, I swore whatever might happen, moi never going to vent my anger this way...When I was in class Six, I had been slapped by the principal of my school(and that too just before I was appearing for my Geography exam) for no fault of mine, but because of some stupid teacher. (That stupid teacher did not even take the blame and got two of us soanked)That day,I realised, all teachers are not to be worshipped. I was dumped by my best friend, and I realised to trust people but not to let them take control of my life. Later, I met some great new friends and I realised that all people are not bad. I screwed up my first sem at DA-IICT and I realised what my priorities where..Had some great and awful experiences with project partners, and I realised whatever comes to you, you have to take the responsibility.But all this while I understood the import of the saying
"The foundation of friendship can be work, but the foundation of work should never be friendship".
Started blogging, and I found a space beyond my diary to express myself. Did not work very hard for the first part of my BTP and got a B while my rest of the team got A's . I realised, my good luck always comes with the hard work.

But there were innumerable other incidents which influenced my life, but they had nothing to do with me. These were the things that happened to my friends, to people I knew. They might have just caused a ripple effect, but yes, I never remained the one I was....

A day well spent...

Yesterday was a day well spent..away from the monotonous routine of going to the lab, complaining about the heat, fussing about the food, and orkutting.. We, a group of 12 girls(Shruti, Shanthi, Rigveda, Richa, Aditi, Tanvi, Nadu, Praneetha, Anusha, Vandana, Bushra and myself)went to the Shonku Water Park yesterday and trust me, had real good fun. The heat was scorching but the water was cool and our minds were merry. The only bad thing about the entire trip was that Shruti took ill and had to remain in the first aid room for most of the time. We even befriended a few kids. I was shocked by a certain breed of parents who simply forgot about their tiny kids at the mere sight of the rides. I and Shanthi spent almost half an hour looking after some of them. Ruggu hurt herself at one of the slides, but if you think that could have prevented her from enjoying herself at the other rides, you don't know ruggu at all!! Well, all in all it was fun. I especially enjoyed myself at the kids' zone where you have this big plastic house wid huge showers...Shanthi and I loved the ride wid the tube boat kind of a thing. It was simply awesome(actually it felt much safer wid something to hold onto :))Even i did not escape unhurt. I banged my head twice against a slide because my hands simply refused to be in the position they should have been!! Finally the clock struck five, and the water park came to a standstill. With some great memories, we bid this place good bye. I dont even remember what happened after I boarded the jeep for the return journey because I slept off...

PS: One of our greatest regrets will remain that we could not manage snaps of this trip.:(

India in the World Cup

Like all Indians, I was shocked and horrified at India's loss against Bangladesh and finally its dismal and "early" exit from the world cup. Team India did let us down. No doubts about it. But I think the people who think that they should avenge this defeat by targeting the Indian cricketers and their families are worse. If we idolise these cricketers (when they win anything, against anyone.. ) and grant them a semi god status because of the victories, we should have the courage to accept them in their defeats as well. One thing that I feel, we Indians as a species seriously lack, is constructive criticism. We go overboard while praising our idols but when our idols of worship fail to live up to our unrealistic expectations, we almost always tend to subject them to inhuman cruelty. I agree, our country spends like crores of rupees on these people, I also agree that each of these cricketers has become millionaires and they earn more money than an ordinary person does in his entire lifetime(even when they lose matches). But we must also realise that it is "us" who are responsible for this. Kids, teenagers, adults ...almost everybody love the brands that our cricketers go for. All of us live the moment vicariously when these people get us glories, then why can't we be sensible enough to stick to constructive criticism and do something about improving the state of affairs rather than churn out stories for news channels by painting these people's houses black or such other acts of cowardice.

BTW I really liked this article by Ranabir Majumdar on NDTV.
http://www.ndtv.com/debate/showdebate.asp?show=1&story_id=243&template=&category=Sports

The best days of my life...

It has been nearly four years since our batch arrived at DA-IICT. These years have been a mixed bag for almost everyone.(apologies to those offended by the generalisation..)Winning and Losing, Good grades and Bad grades, Friends and Not so friendly mates, Good proffs and Bad proffs, Vela time and Exam time, Bakar time and Project submission time, Good food and Baddd food..the list is endless. Looking back, I think even the most insensitive ones' amongst us shall feel nostalgic. (I know many might not agree but I am sure about this!!)Many of us had their first night outs here, many of us were away from their parents for the first time,many of us made their beds by themsleves for the first time here,many of us washed their clothes for the first time(and realised that "some" coloured clothes are not to be washed with others), many of us were ragged for the first time, many of us got an "F" for the first time....many of us had their first dates here :); in fact most of us had our many firsts here. Some got hooked to "Friends"(the series!!), some got hooked to games, some mastered the art of bakar and some found solace in the nearby galla. But whatever it is, looking back, everything was so fun. Even flunking in some subjects was fun(read: AIS). Bunking lectures became regular by the middle of the first semester, and almost all of us were against the proffs who took attendance.(They infringe on our new found freedom!!)With passing time, different friend circles evolved, got intermixed and separated as well. We got used to having Brajwashi food but always craved for something better. We became efficient in finishing our projects at the nth time, and in giving proxies , giving that 1 ring missed call(I am almost acclaimed for doing that, ask prachita) and soo much more.I bet none of us can ever forget our rural internships... I know I am being totally incoherent in what I am writing and I have lost lucidity right from the start, but I can't help it. This blog is and shall remain one of the closest to my heart. I can't help but type almost everything that is coming to my mind...As I write I am constantly reminded of the fact that I have just 1 and a half months left here and I can't feel nostalgic. Thank you DA-IICT, for all that you have given to us. My best four years of life have been here, no matter what I have lost, no matter what I have missed.

Rejections and a thing called "hope"

"Sorry you are rejected". For the upteenth time. The year 2007 has proved to be disappointing till now, in fact very depressing. Wherever my hopes were pitched, I was shown the door. These rejections have tried me to the extent that I do not feel the pain any longer. All I know is that a void has been created (atleast for some time) and that I am trying to fill this void by keeping myself occupied in various things. I look around and I know that I am not the only unfortunate one. In fact there are people who are better than me and who have missed the bus to their dream collges. Do I call life "unfair" because of this? Of course not. Because I believe that at the end of the road, there still lies success. But in order to taste it sweetness, I have to strive hard. and Harder. Till then the light of hope is all I have.

A matter of shame

"Very unfortunate" the only thing that comes to my mind when I think of a story narrated by a friend. I narrated the same to my romm mate yesterday and she did not have a different view as well. Well, the story is about my friend's(let us call him Mr. X) friend(let's call him the Mr Antagonist). Now Mr. Antagonist belongs to a family where sons and daughters are married off quite early.Since his family feels that he has come of marriagable age, he has started getting offers(they make it sound like lucrative "job offers"!!) from "good families"(read: wealthy and high caste). The best offer till then with him was from a family which promised him to sponser his studies abroad on the condition that he get engaged to the girl prior to both of their leaving for abroad(wow!!what a settlement). Had I been a boy and had I been made such a offer, I know I would have been shamed. I would have confronted anyone who would even dare to make such an offer.But to my horror and dismay, our protagonist, Mr Antagonist is elated.In fact he is quite excited about the deal(Let me be rude..). I call this highly unfortunate. Before anybody gets me wrong I am not a feminist. I believe in humanity. For me my self respect is the most precious thing I have. And I feel that even by thinking of accepting such an offer and narrating this to someone, Mr Antagonist is losing his. What good was his expensive education if it could not make him sensible and honorable enough to shun such practises. I feel sorry for the girl as well. Everything might spring out of a wedlock like this but true love. I am not against these people but I disregard such kind of mentality especially from people who have recieved education from the best of schools and colleges. It is nothing but, a matter of shame.

Hmm

I found this on a friend's blog..Found it to be pretty.

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The world we live in

Its Thursday morning and since I had a class at 8:30, woke up early. Decided to do use my time and started on with my usual dose of orkut, mails and newspapers. On Orkut, I noticed quite a lot of forwarded messages which claimed to be collecting money for people suffering from some ailment. Though for a split second, I think of hitting the forward button, I end up dumping such messages in the trash. Then I move on to ndtv.com and there I notice this photograph and I am reminded of a similar child about whom I read in one of such forwarded messages. We live in a strange world- where you'll have people who spend billions of dollars on their birthday bashes or marriage parties sharing the same anatomy with people who cannot even afford two square meals a day. Hearing of such cases, especially where a child is combatting some fatal disease and it is refused treatment on financial grounds, affects me deeply. And more so because I know even if I could do something about it, I am not. In fact we have become so insensitive that when we even read such newspaper clippings or get such forwards, we either consider to be fraud or think ourselves incapable of doing anything. The fact there were, are and wil be certain fraud cases cannot be denied, but I feel that weshould not shrug from extending whatever liitle help we can towards such causes for fear of its misutilisation. We never know when we shall lose the genuine opportunity to help somebody in need because of such paranoia.

Tit bits..

The media has come to believe that people do not want to read anything which makes them think. Today, the print media is suffering from a mad disease which has played havoc with our newspapers. It is "the tabloid syndrome." You open any paper in the morning, and the pages are full of pictures of young models and actors in various stages of dishabille. There are pages and pages on these models, supermodels, actors and designers — people you have not even heard the names of — garnished with "information" on what they love to eat, what kind of dress they like best, what they do when they relax, what they think of love and sex and such trivia. The special city pages of the papers look like a cross between a cheap fashion journal and a puerile film magazine, full of gossip and crude colour pictures.

A newspaper is not a dustbin for dumping drivel, film gossip and crime. It must have news. It must have information. It must educate the public about events with background information and editorial comments. One of the reasons why the press has deteriorated is: people who run the newspapers in our country now think that a newspaper is just like any other commodity. It should be nicely packaged, because their idea of "nice packaging" means filling the papers with semi-nude colour pictures of models and actresses and trash.

This shallow, unthinking attitude gets reflected even in the news stories and articles that are printed in the papers. Reporters do not always cross-check the information they get. They often write one-sided versions of events and about people who do not matter — absolute non-entities. Often good stories are not followed up properly. Even factual information given in a newspaper is at times incorrect.

-------Kuldip Nayar on Sify.com

Random ramblings..

Well watched 2001-A Space Odyssey yesterday. Space has always fascinated me and I simply loved my trips to the planetoriums at childhood, so I thought this movie would be an enjoyable experience. The movie begins by showing some splendid photographs of the sunrise and the sunset. The next thing that we see are animals looking like something between apes and humans together with pigs eat some green plants. The kind of eveolution that is shown is undoubtdley good..I mean how one tribe of apes master the art of using bones of other animals for hunting and fighting. Then all of a sudden a black monolith appears and the next thing you see is, man has moved on to outer space. And then follows the discovery of a similar black monolith in the moon. Somehow I feel for someone who is watching the movie for the first time, this is the point where we get lost. It is difficult to understand the significance of the appearance (or rather the discovery) of the black monolith on the moon and then the travel of another lot of astronauts to Jupiter. The concept of a super computer HAL 9000 going faulty and its being able to destroy the lives of all but one astronaut, again raises the same cliched question of how far machines can be trusted..The movie ends with the appearance of the black monolith again on the jupiter and the transformation of the alive astronaut into a baby still in the womb but capapble of viewing the universe at its entirety does confound the viewers. The movie does become slow at times and I shall be a big cine hypocrite if I do not admit that I did got bored at times because of the pace of the movie. But yes I feel that these kind of movies cannot be enjoyed at the first time. Probably if I watch it again or even as I ponder and try to think about the movie, I can atleast connect the parts of the movie. In the end not such a bad experience over all..even though it could not give me the kind of thrill a planetorium experience does!!

A lonely start..

Was felling unusually low today so thought shoudl be writing something...I woke up today morning and decided to start preparing for the mba entrance exams again..Started wid some verbal..Am doing not bad..I was never bad at verbal atleast.(jus that I have screwed them up in CAT and XAT) It's real hard on anyone to start afresh with something. Things keep on coming back to your mind.What if you had got this one correct, things might have been different..What if you had got 1 more mark.. To say the least it is very depressing. But then brighter things might be at the far end and there is always hope that they are. So I carry on..wid a heavy heart though.Well right now have to do some BTP related work, but think will have a quick nap for half an hour or so. (I woke up early today ...) Just hope I do not lose sight of my goal..The rest shall follow. Read The Secret of the Cemetry by Satyajit Ray.Everytime I read his Feluda novels, I feel the story has woven after the end had been decided. In all I do not find his books very satisfying(maybe because they r meant for kids and not for 20+ olds like me!!) but I do enjoy his movies. Talking about movies, every newspaper, newschannel seems to have nothing better to report than talk about Nishabd.(After Ash-Abhi nupitals thing this seems to be the major hit for them!!) Jia Khan is being termed as the big B's girl and they are analysing her from tip to toe, people in Alahabad are suggesting that Big B should voluntarily resign from the industry..CRAP..Everybody knows all these are nothing but means of achieving publicity for movies like this. But atleast we can expect better from news channels and newspapers than this..or can't we?

Why MBA?

Why MBA?
Hah..For preparing for my gd/pi, I have made numerous attempts to answer this sensibly. But I have never been able to express what actually motivates me. My answers never came close to the actual reason behind my wanting to do an MBA. Because I could not articulate it. Or maybe because I knew it was too trivial to be even accepted by anybody. Well since here I can write without fearing anything I shall write it the way it actually is. I feel with the kind of technical aptitude I have, I can do ok types with my current job. But I can never excel. Because I am not gr8 at this. But I know if it comes to presenting things before people or managing stuff, I can hope to excel. This is because I have forever seen myself this way. And I love doing the kind of studies involved in such courses..And I know I can think of such things without getting stressed out or bored. I can work on presentations for hrs at end and still love to do some more..I remeber working on my EBM, ITM projects and I know how happy and confident I was..It is this why I wnat to an MBA..Because I know I can make my name there..I just want to do soemthing which I am good at..But who is gonna accept this..So I reframe my answers..rewrite .practise them with the occassional aahhs..to make the answers look natural..And as long as I get through I do not mind the acting as well...

phew!!!

There are some times in your life where you actually are at a loss to comprehend yourself. I am going through one of those times. After faring badly in the entrance exams for the colleges that mattered, I have very little choice other than take up my job. Not that there is anything wrong in taking up the job I have got, but somehow I am apprehensive about what wil happen after that. I have always wanted to be successful in whatever I do, and I feel that I shall fare better in the managerial side of an organisation rather than being entirley in the technical part. And I also know that if I am to get the kind of job I want, I shall have to pass out from a top notch B-school. As much as I think about this the more confounded I become. Well the rational mind asks me not to worry and give my hundred percent to whatever I am doing right now, but all this anticipation is meddling with my mind and not letting my mind at peace. Sheesh...that is why I am writing all this here..so that I can atleast articulate my thoughts and by jove it helps..I know I can't undo whatever part I do not like in the past, but yes I can frame my future and I shall. Lets hope for the best...:)

Life is so strange, and right now I fnd it amusingly funny. This when I do not have much reason to smile. Ironic, well it's life after all that we are talking about..

Well for anyone who feels totally lost, let me give u a brief background to the above. Being in the final year of engg, placed at Infy, I harboured the aspiration of getting into one of the good management colleges this year. So wat's so special about it u mite ask? After all this is what almost majority of engg(atleast Indians) wish to do...But this is my story and so I have the right to indulge in slef description, haven't I? Till now I have lost on almost all but one opportunity. Even this one is bleak...But the issue is not that I didnot get thru, the point is that somehow all this have stripped me of so much that today, I only feel a sense of relief, and a sudden thrill has taken over me again to give it another try. This thrill feels nice, it gives me the vigour to carry on, to smile when I know for this year atleast, the doors to many have closed for me. And I feel funny Sometimes even failure boosts your confidence. Sounds crazy?? Well believe me this is what all this entrance exams have done to me...Life's alright. I know I shall soon get over even this sinking feeling ..I know life heals, even though it is the one that hurts. Till then, I let fate tickle me to laugh, smile ....and live.