From the Observation desk...

This post is about various people I’ve met in last 10 days in US. I like to observe people and how they go about the doing thing.

The one thing I liked the most about people working in US is that they have a smile on their face, have a cheerful attitude even if they actually don’t like the job that they do. They are eager to help you. A simple thing like opening a bank account, which is a boring task in India given the amount of paperwork is such a fun task here. They treat the customer as a friend and talk very freely.

Now, a little bit about the Indians I met here. I came to this place with a bit of prejudice about my peers and seniors whom I would meet. But things are not the same as I pictured them to be. Our seniors are extremely helpful. I expected there to be some ragging, but there wasn’t any. Infact, all of us freshers had someone to pick up at the airport.

I live temporarily with 4 Bengali phd students who prepared food for me for the first day and brought food packets for me for that would last 10 days till I find a permanent apartment. Bengali food tastes great I tell you! The Indian student bodies working here are doing a great job. They are full of enthusiastic students, there is no senior junior divide, and all of us sat together in a conference room and sketched a plan for the Indian Independence day program in the university. We played cricket and football and hopefully play that ever weekend.

Now, about the batch mates, there is a lot of variety over here. Many of them are quite diplomatic. I think that’s because most of the students who have come here carry a form of burden which will ease as time progresses. ‘When I get a safe and secure job in the university I’ll give you the information about all the other jobs available in the campus’ is the indirect message everyone around is carrying. Safety first is on everyone’s mind. There is a bit of professional touch to friendship, you help me and I help you. Give and take. I’m sure if I’d met these people in Engineering Degree College, they might have made great friends.

One thing I like about blogger more than facebook or twitter is that not many people read it! So, you can be more frank about the things you write rather than writing the edited version or the polished one.

I hope all of us here get good jobs, at least the hourly ones and things around change for the better. One more thing, a long lost friend called yesterday. I don’t know where he got my number from, but the conversation went something like this….

A: Hey Sanket, wassup, how’s life, Aaj teri bahut yaad aa rahi thi.

Me: Oh Sahi hai, good you remembered after such a long while. How’s life.

A: Life’s great, acha sun, Can you help me with one thing, actually…….

Now I know why he remembered!!

A new beginning

It has been a really long time since I’ve written something, but it’s not been long since I’ve thought about writing something.

This past month has been a crazy one for me, both in India and US. Things have slowly started to fall in the right place, I’m enjoying every bit of the journey. Uncertainty has been a major part of life. 2 days before coming to US, I didn’t know my date of departure; I was clueless what I would do in New York, how I would land in DC with all the bags all by myself. But these problems are a problem only if you see think of them as one, they eventually get solved.

Every Indian student who has come here is in kind of ‘a race’; a race to finish all the tasks in one go. Finding an apartment, buying a phone, laptop, University ID, registering for courses, making a resume, cover letter, hunting for an apartment, making departmental contacts the list goes on and on. Now I know why they call it ‘Apartment Hunting’.

There are a few things I learnt in US. Patience is the key to getting your job done and there is a way of getting things done, you just have to figure it out. Secondly, you have to be at ‘The right place at the right time’. Things change here from time to time. There have been times when we thought we were extremely close to getting an apartment right away, but minutes later, it was not to be. One moment, you think the forex card that you brought from India will handle everything, next you realize it can’t be swiped.

There is no point cribbing about such things as every Indian who goes abroad for studies faces such kind of crap. The thing is, you cannot become too excited about the fortunes that come your way or dejected by the misfortunes.

The place where we live feels like home coz of many Indian students in the vicinity. Everything that’s there in India is available, so while coming, its okay if you just bring along only a bag filled with clothes. Sometimes it’s painful to convert the dollars to rupees while buying stuff, but that conversion will stay till we start earning in dollars.

Hope that happens soon, waiting to write more, will do soon.

PS: All the people in my bloglist seem to have stopped updating!!!     

A Call for Strike

To
Chairman
Auto-Rikshaw Union
Mumbai


Subject: Rikshaw Strike


Dear Sir,


This is a humble request for keeping a one day Auto-RIkshaw strike in Mumbai. The CNG fares have increased and the government has not increased the Auto fares. This is injustice, go fight for it! Don’t ply your rikshaws on the road. 


Mumbai is a wonderful place to travel with no rikshaws, all roads clear, no bottlenecks. Try to take the Taxi drivers with you in the strike, then whole of Mumbai will be a better driving place. Last time around, me and my friends went for an amazing long drive during the strike. There was never a better day for driving in Mumbai. 


My apologies for people who do not drive in a car or bike, but I guess they can manage for a day and take a day off and enjoy or roam around in their friend’s cars. Sometimes, it’s better waiting for a bus rather than asking 10 Auto drivers for nearby fares and then you ppl saying no.


Last time, I went to Pune, there was a rikshaw strike for 5 days. Why is the Mumbai Union lagging so far behind. Very few strikes, that’s not good for your reputation. The last strike was long time ago. Inflation has increased, prices of commodities are steep, meter’s have been manipulated to the maximum extent possible, people’s salaries around you have increased, why should you suffer. Plus you can have a day off from work. 


I am sure you would pay heed to this advice and go on a strike as soon as possible. Afterall, it’s for your benefit.

The Premier League Paper

Engineering question papers have a typical Style of setting the question paper.

If we had a subject called premier league, we would have a paper something like this.

Here it goes

Premier League

Note: 1. Question number 1 is Compulsary
2. Figures to the right indicate marks
3. Attempt any 4 out of remaining 6 questions
4. Any assumptions made should be clearly stated.

1. (a) Why the only good thing about Liverpool is their history? Answer with reference to 18 titles overall, No title in 20 years. (10)

(b) Money cannot alone buy you trophies, Explain. Also, compare Man City with Chelsea (10)


2. (a) Describe the incredible success story of Harry Rednapp from 17th position when he took over to the top 4 finish. (10)

(b) Describe the revenge of Leeds United over Man United (10)

3. (a) Explain Chelsea’s misfortunes in Champion’s league semis with the mention of Luis Garcia and Tom Overbo (10)

(b) Average age of Arsenal Squad is currently 23 years and 3 months which is decreasing at an average of 5 months per year since Wenger took over. How many more years will it take for the average age of squad to be 16 years. (10)

4. (a) Describe the legendary Champions league final where Milan beat Liverpool with no mention of Istanbul. (10)

(b) Who are better, Hicks and Gillett or the Glazers? (10)

5. (a) Distinguish between Liverpool minus Gerrard and Torres and Wigan Athletic (10)

(b) Why is every successful manager in the world tipped to replace Alex Ferguson? Jose Mourinho, David Moyes, Martin O’ Niall to name a few. (10)

6. (a) Why do most of the players leave Arsenal at the peak of their career? (10)

(b) Why is the Istanbul game the only one for which Benitez will be remembered for? Can you name any member of that team still surviving in Liverpool squad? (10)

7. Write short notes on.

(a).Burnley at home with and without Brian Laws. (5)
(b). Birmingham’s 12 match unbeaten streak. (5)
(c). Italy, a retirement destination for premier league players. (5)
(d). Van Der Saar, Still going strong at 40. (5)

The final Countdown

(Warning...long, slightly boring post ahead...)
College term in coming to an end; a 4 year wonderful journey will soon be over. With incredibly talented people around me, I’ve transformed quite a lot in these years. From being a quiet, low profile schoolboy who was comfortable talking only with a closed group of people to somebody who has decent interaction with each and every person of the class.

Few days back, I saw my junior k. g. class photograph. I could recollect a lot of faces in it, but couldn’t identify who they were. One thing that I regret about my school life is not having interaction with a lot of people (interaction beyond the hi-hello). In college, I’ve distinct memories with almost everyone that I can never forget.

There are many reasons behind these interactions, the most important one being that you clear the misconceptions about people that you had in your head. People are sometimes a lot different than you think they are. Secondly, it’s interesting to listen to a variety of people living life very differently; People watching champions league till 4 in the morning and coming to college at 9 and people running from college at 5 to catch their 7.30 pm TV show.

Also, these interactions will remind people about me (hopefully) and I’ll remember them by the same incidents. Many people see this socializing habit of mine as some kind of flirting or friend circle improving exercise. Let them cook stories. But the truth is I am not in it to expect something back in return. I would be more than glad if I’d be in contact with 2-3 people from the class ten years from now.

I’m terrible at maintaining friendship. I’ve lost two of my best friends to the degree that we feel awkward being around each other. The reasons for both I know and I had an opportunity to correct things. But I didn’t feel like doing that. That’s how weird I act at times. But yes, the first time, losing a good friend had created a big void in my life. From talking almost daily on the phone, to never seeing each other for 3 years, the transition was difficult.

Luckily, I’ve not done things to alienate friends this time around in college. I want to end things on this happy note. The last day of exams would be the last time I would be seeing many of my college friends. It is going to be an emotional day for me. For I know, I’d be missing a lot. Ideally, I would like to leave the college as soon as the exams get over, amidst the cheer of the crowd and go alone to one of the beaches, switching off the mobile. Walking with the breeze and bringing back the memorable moments from 4 years to mind and relishing them.

But, I know I might end up in college doing exactly the things that I wouldn’t want. 68 people trying to get an individual photo with all others, then the group photos. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t need photographs to remind me of the good times with my friends. I mean we already have roughly 100GB of photos from last 4 years, when are you ever gonna watch them. After the photographs, couple of hour’s discussion about which place to go, where to eat, what to do kinda crap….. some side planning....some other side planning…some more side planning….some heads turning here, some there…..A Hundred bye-bye’s. Possible night-outs. I’m actually looking forward to the final day stories.

Motorcyle diary

It was late at night and I was driving back home on my bike on the S.V. Road. The road was largely empty with cool breeze blowing. I love riding the bike at night, no signals, no traffic, good weather et al.

A guy was riding a Bajaj Discover alongside my bike and an empty truck with speed of around 60 kmph was behind us. I usually give way when high speed vehicles are behind, but at that time, I was in no mood to let someone overtake. Neither was the guy on the Discover.

I remember exactly what happened next. This guy looked into the mirror to see how fast the truck was approaching. While doing this, the front wheel of his bike got stuck in a pothole, he applied brakes; the back tyre did a little wheelie, while the truck was still approaching with fairly the same speed. I took my bike to the side of the road, turned to the mirror praying for the biker. He pulled his leg out from under the bike and took an incredible 5 feet long jump. Next moment, the bike was thrashed by the truck.

In 3 years of my driving, I’ve seen people die in accidents, people severely injured, badly crashed cars, lots of bikes skidding in the first rain, but I have never seen such a miraculous escape. This was the best real life stunt that I’ve ever come across. The description seems like one of Akshay Kumar’s movie scenes, except that it is highly predictable with Akshay in it. Our life is no movie. Trust me; you would never want to see such a thing in real life.

I stopped my bike; the truck driver had driven away without stopping, nobody was around. The biker lay on the footpath, absolutely numb, cold as a rock, not knowing how to react, wondering how he came out of all this. His body was shaking and couldn’t speak for couple of minutes, eyes filled with tears. He couldn’t believe that instead of being in a pool of blood, he was in a pool of petrol which came out of the broken tank of the bike.

2 very different types of people live in this world. One who cannot bear the troubles in their lives, succumb to them and commit suicide and the other kind, who are ready to put themselves through all kinds of trouble just to be alive.

Moments like these make you realize how precious life is.

Westlife

I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see….

I heard this song playing on the radio a few days back. It brought back wonderful memories to my mind. Memories about the times when the only English songs I had listened to were party tracks like Who let the Dogs out, the Vengaboys, Escape, Un Dos Tres, Living la vida loca, It's my life et all. One day, out of the blue, I thought of buying an audio cassette of any random English Songs and listen to it for a change.

I happened to pick out the album ‘Turnaround’ by Westlife, and I am so glad I picked that one. I’ve listened to that cassette for atleast a 100 times before it finally broke a couple of years ago. Each and every song is amazing. Struck gold with the first cassette!

Now, many people will say Westlife is not that famous a band. They are not that great. Many people wouldn't even have heard them apart from songs like 'My love'. But for me it’s never about famous. It doesn’t really matter that the thing that I like must be famous. Also, it’s not necessary to like what everyone likes! Infact, I prefer Westlife songs over other famous Boybands like Blue, Backstreet Boys, MLTR, Boyzone etc.

I’ve listened to every song that Westlife has sung and everytime I listen to them, I get a different feeling. The feeling that no other song can give. I can very much relate to the lyrics, they are the best!

Many people feel, the problem with a lot of Westlife songs is that they are not original compositions. I still feel that Westlife has done a good job with them too. It’s not that I am in favour of remixes or something, but sometimes the same song in a different way, feels good. Infact, I’ve liked the Westlife version of ‘Uptown Girl’ more than the Billy Joel one. There are people who hate Guns and Roses for remaking the ‘Knocking on Heavens Door’, but what’s the problem if they have done a great job. Infact, if you search for it on you tube, firstly you’ll get the GnR version.

Also, Westlife have a lot of original compositions, some of which went unnoticed, yet were pretty amazing. These songs have helped me cope up with some of the dullest moments in life till now, during the tough times. They continue to be special for me. I am still looking for the ‘Turn around’ cassette in every music store I visit. The day I’ll get that one, it will remain with me for life.

In the end, I would like to mention a list of the best Westlife songs that I feel every music lover should listen to:

• Home
• On my Shoulder
• Fool Again
• If I let you go
• World of our own