Experiences of a Lifetime

When a senior of mine told me that the only place he hadn’t been driven out of yet, was Connot; I really didn’t think it was possible anyway; that is until the Mr. Arun of Arun store decided to do the honours. “Sheesha toot jaayega yaar!” a frustrated old man letting it off on a bunch of innocent children (read:3rd and 4th yearites), after we decided to go crazy with our crazy ball(the 10 buck thing that bounces madly?) in front of his shop. It was a nice feeling. It reminded me of the days we used go down to ‘play’. Playing would involve being divided into teams for a game of cricket and then being selected by a captain to play in their team which would prove a privilege if you were selected first. (I was the youngest of the lot and was invariably selected last by an unfortunate captain). I would try to do my best to prove them wrong and yes, there were certain days I was declared the hero of the game (grin).This was in Calcutta (as it was called in those years during my 3rd standard)...

It is a small and dingy room. The last rays of the day’s sun are gliding into it through a little window located rather close to the ceiling. The walls of the stuffy room are poorly plastered and the floor is almost bare. In the left corner, a middle aged man is sitting on a white cloth that he has placed on the floor. He is wearing a white kurta pyjaama and an intricately woven cotton cap on his head. He is facing the wall and performing his daily namaaz. Just then there is a commotion outside his room. A hawaldar with a rather large underbelly opens the lock to the cell. He pushes in a small, thin man. Enter Hawaldar and the new prisoner. Hawaldar: There you go. Now, yours is an open and shut case and you'll be free six months from now. You will get two meals a day to your cell. Once a week you will get some fresh air and help provide free labour to the mining factory. Ok? Without waiting for a reply, he hurriedly locks the cell and gives him a warning look. Exit ...

Life could get so much easier had it been like Gtalk wherein you could take a while to think, during which you could always pretend to be doing something ‘important’ after which you would be shown ‘typing’ your message across. Imagine if you could just erase what you shouldn’t have said to someone you care about and then replace it with something more carefully thought out. However, instead of trying to make our real lives electronic-ised by internet influence; we, the human race are evolving more to make our e-lives as real as possible. We started out with e-mails, Video Conferencing, and finally, Instant Messaging, most popularly on Gtalk. Now the latest buzz and the in thing is Google Wave. Yes, Google is omnipresent. I wiki-ed it up (finally, something that is NOT Google!) and this is what I found: Google Wave is "a personal communication and collaboration tool" announced by Google at the Google I/O conference on May 27, 2009. It is a web-based service, computing platfor...

It’s a faraway place A ‘home away from home’ Keeping our eyes closed gives us a solace That we’re amongst folks of our own Then one day the festive season comes riding along Dusshera, Diwali reminiscent of revelry Amidst fire crackers, sweets and a song All in colourful attire, we turn merrily Towards the makeshift little puja of Saraswati That we have swapped for our own luxury Diwali has gone leaving behind a lil wound But college fests approach in time to heal the moan To bring us out of the cocoon Showing us that we’re amongst folks of our own No matter what road the future leads There is always a ‘home away home’ A family of friends to share life’s lil glees And here we build a shell of our own Adapted I have to my shell now A place I have come to know and love Will shed a tear or more saying ciao Where I have lived two years with fortified safety above Knowing the days I know will never come back again To live amongst folks of our own P.S.: My first ever poem!!

I had written this synopsis for a competition I had entered(for the summers). Well, that didnt work out but anyway.. its here for you to read. Its been one of my favourite films and not really for the story but more for the dialogues--they're quite hilarious! Music and Lyrics, a sensitive movie directed by Marc Lawrence, is a reality bite for anyone who dares to dream of stardom as a pop star. Starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore, it is the story of how a struggling musician and a writer come together to compose a song in just 3 days. They, of course as things normally turn out, fall in love with each other. Alex Fletcher is the member of a renowned band “Pop!” and was a rage amongst young girls of yester years. Years after Pop disbanded, he gets, despite all efforts, lost in obscurity. He now performs at small gatherings like college reunions and amusement parks that are only glad to pay him his small fee. However, things change when the contemporary music sensation, Cora, asks ...

I spent my first day of apogee preparing for my paper presentation the next day and as the fourth day came crashing to an end, that felt like an aeon ago. I don’t know where all that went. I hadn't the faintest idea that a technical fest of national level could hold so much for me-me of all people. Interviewing Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia Foundation, felt good. He gave us another perspective of things. He introduced us to the idea of making the world a better and easier place to live in-and not just making money or being successful (without sounding idealistically silly-really).I also got to interview an Environment Lawyer, Mr. M.C Mehta, who upon research I found out, was the winner of the Raman Magsaysay award and Global Planet award for Asia. Gee, I wonder what two more Apogees will hold for me in the next two years! Apogee was good for more reasons than one. My paper presentation on Biodiesel was seemingly decent (despite lack of much preparation, I confess). I worked har...

Day 2: The Semi-Finals “Tauba tera service…tauba tera smash…..Tera Emosanal…Aatyaachaar!!” My ears were ringing with the taunts as I watched my team-mate play the singles match with the best player of MNIT Jaipur, a girl called Preeti, who I think is also their captain. She looked as malignant on the court as she looked sweet otherwise. The score was 19-17 against us. I tried to concentrate on the game, cheering her as much I could, when another one came our way. This time I couldn’t help grinning at the creativity of it. “Jo hamse takrayega, BITS BITS ho jayega!” They couldn’t be more obvious. We lost to MNIT in the Semi finals but that didn’t dampen our enthusiasm for too long. After a light lunch at a food stall, we spent a gloomy afternoon and dozed off at the Computer Room that was where we were put up. Two of the team girls went shopping at Shopper’s Stop while the two of us went to watch the girl’s Volleyball finals against MITS. I spent the whole evening cheering for my college...

MNIT Day 0: It took us a long and tiresome journey 6 hour to reach the Pink City of India from our little township of Pilani. After listening to about almost 1/4th of the songs on my Ipod (mind u, I have a 5 gb collection), I found the bus turning into the gateway of the much known institute, MNIT. An hour later, after all the captains had registered their teams at the registration desk, all us Bitsians, realized where we were, and suddenly hit the epitome of craziness. Girls were not allowed outside their hostels beyond 8:30pm. So if we were to go to our allotted rooms, we could not come out. Then began a well planned strategy. Girls of each team put their luggage with the guys of their teams(in their rooms), and then set off to explore civilization. An hour and an extra two kgs later, we, the Badminton team was walking back on the deserted streets of Jaipur, near the known Gaurav Towers. It was 11pm. ‘GT’ as it was called was at a throw away distance from the Institute and was their ...

It was a midnight. I cleaned my cup for my regular dose of coffee. I’ve always loved variety in Life but this time it was different, it was beyond just the regular thing. It was something that gave me a sense of special satisfaction, coffee! My heart leaped, (a minor one though) as I realized that my cupboard stored a variety of coffee powders to opt from. There was a Bru Cappucino, Nescafe Sunrise besides a bottle of the regular Bru and Nescafe each! Wow! I amaze myself! I must be quite a prize to the coffee-holic community, I decided. So I finally gave myself the much needed regard a true ‘coffee-holic’ should get by putting this up on the World Wide Web! Long Live Coffee!

Q and A was brilliantly written by Indian author, Vikas Swarup. The ingenuity of Swarup in naming the protagonist, “Ram Mohammed Thomas” and his story of Rags to Riches has totally amazed me. So when I got to seeing the much acclaimed and talked about movie Slumdog Millionaire, I decided to post my views on it out here. Why do Indian movies never really make much sense to most sane people? With the exception of ‘Salaam Bombay’, very few movies, I think, have been able to project the lurid and extreme social realism in India as was done in Slumdog. A certain Karan Johar or a Yash Chopra seems to, more often than not, wants to please not just the Punjabi audience but the Tamilian, Telegu and Mallu audience, the Bengali and the Bihari audience and ALSO win the Oscar for it!! No offences meant. I admit I myself have loved these regular ‘masala’ movies like OSO and Rab Ne… where everything is all hunky dory as the curtain drops. But the ‘famous’ Bollywood should have churned out such stuff ...