The 5 Dollar Bill

I was walking home from my workplace. It was a very cloudy evening with some light breeze flowing. I see a 5 dollar bill (In US, a note is called a Bill, Bill is called a Check and a Cheque.....well it's still a check!!! Why do they have to do things differently??) laying down on the road. 

That note or bill whatever we like to call it, made me think! And I'll be honest with you, I did take it and put into my pocket after some thought. Now before you label me into 'categories' that are unpleasant to hear, let me put down the possible scenarios that could have happened (or what I thought could happen).

Best Case: Someone who really really needs the money would get it. Now this is a really really rare case. I live in Raleigh and most of the beggars in this area are at Moore square which is 5 miles away. I've never seen a beggar in my complex, so that makes it even more rare. It could be that some college student needs it to get home, but the transportation system is free so that is ruled out. 

Most probable case: The bill would have blown by the wind in the forest nearby and nobody would have got that. 

Second most probably case: Someone just like me would have passed by and took it. 5 dollars is not a big amount but it's money nonetheless!

An unrealistic scenario: The person who dropped the bill picks it up again. How rare is that!

Another scenario: Somebody would have picked up the bill and used it for charity or some good work. I do not know how much good work can be done in 5 dollars. But I do know that that someone could just be me! 

One more reasoning: Think that I played some Roulette and ended up winning that 5 bucks. Luck as we call it!

Now 5 dollars is not a big amount and I am no thief. Had I known who the money belonged to, I would have surely returned it. I ended up spending that 5 dollar note to buy a pack of chocolates to keep in my office common room for people to have during the break. 

At the back of my mind, I was still thinking. What if that amount was big, lets say 100 dollars, 500 or 2000 dollars. At what point would I have kept the money to myself. What point could have caused greed to kill the senses. 

Frankly speaking, I do not know. And I do not wish to know. Life is good the way it is!

Smooth Transitions

For some reasons, transitions have been super smooth for me. Be it from School to Junior College, College to Engineering, Engineering to MS.

Somehow, the 'firsts' of everything have been near perfect. The start of something new. The time when people around you run with all the 'Goody-Goody' projection of themselves. In a couple of months, the make-up fades and you see the real faces.

The last hop of the transition till now has been 'The most interesting one'. Coming to US, everything is new. You are away from everything, the perfect set of friends you had back at home in India, your parents, your family everyone. In the first month of landing in US, you have a hundred different stories happening around you. The job search stories, house hunt stories, roommate trouble stories, rumors et al.

Basically you are loaded with too much stuff to keep it to yourself. You are on the lookout for new avenues to vent out these stories. Damn!!!You run into the wrong person and your story is a broadcast in the entire batch. Trust, who, what, when???

The 'Trust Building' period is amazing. Here, you are not too sure about the people who you can trust. At the same time, you are projecting yourself as a trustworthy person. It's tricky. If you reveal too much about yourself, you are more likely to land in trouble than adding a new friend to circle of trust. On the other hand, if you remain that person who holds on to their cards for long, you might remain holding on to them forever and watch other people play.

I use some really stupid but effective tricks for navigating around this maze. I use some really 'trivial information (hyped up, of course) which I absolutely do not care about' and tell the 'Target' person about it and ask him or her to not reveal it to anyone.If I come to know about it from someone else within a week, i know what to do!

The beginning is always interesting, you remember it at all the twists and turns. Now, when I am right there knocking at the exit door of MS, everything has pretty much stabilized. The glass is clear. I miss those times. I see the juniors revisiting these times and I really want to be one of them right. Or wait a second, do I?? When I get a job, it will be another set of beginnings that I'll look forward to.

Looking for yet another smooth transition.

New Semester...new beginnings

A lot has changed since my one month break in India. Life in US has taken a 360 Degree shift. Things around have changed a lot. 

Happiness is a funny thing. Last semester, I had a wonderful time, great friends around. Everything around just seemed perfect. We rocked the place. But somehow at the back of my mind, I had this feeling that life was becoming a big mess.

Enjoying the good times, I was ignorant about many things in life which weren't in the right place. It's like any sport. If you keep winning, you sometimes ignore the mistakes you are making.
After India trip, a lot has changed. Things around are not the same as they used to be. But, despite a big pile of mess around, I feel that my life is much more sorted.I feel that I am more happier than ever before. For now, I know exactly where I am heading. I know that the tangled part of my life is slowly getting sorted. I see a big pile of garbage lying around me, but I have no time to look at it. I walk past it and move on.

Sometimes Happiness comes from within and not things around you.

If everyday seems like a weekend, the actual 'weekend' loses it's value. Weekend has it's value after a tiring week. It gives you more fun if you've earned it! As life is getting busier, the courses getting tougher, there is no time to look at the mess around. Actually, there is very little time left for yourself too. I cherish this little time that I have and try to make the best use of it. 

Few months back, I had a lot of spare time and fewer friends to talk to. Now I have little time and lots of people around.

I love this life. When I look back, I've been happier during the busier times. That's when I have done the most substantial things.

Les Amis

It has been more than 3 months in America and personally a lot has changed for me. The biggest change has been my circle of friends. My closest friends in life are people who think more or less in the same way that I do and have kind of a similar approach towards life.

Now, for a change, I am around with people who have a completely different take on things in life around me. 5 of us staying together in the same apartment with a lifestyle completely different from one another, sharing very different opinions and having a very different persona.

Initially, I was a bit skeptical about how things are going to work and are we really going to have a good time together? Now, when I look back at these 3 months, I think we've gelled together quite well. Each of us has a very different nature and has brought something unique into the group. There is liveliness all the time. The variety is so vivid that there are people who stay awake in the night till 6 and then there are the ones who wake up in the morning at 6.

I feel it's good to have people with different approaches about the same thing around. It's like if you are in troubled times in life, you need friends who will keep assuring 'There will be a brighter day' and give you some hope where there seems none around. On the other hand, you also would like friends who would shout at you and say 'What the hell are you doing with you life? Stop cribbing and start working. Why do you need lady luck to help you?'

Both approaches above are effective in their own way and we need both of them!

Back to the original topic, would it have been better to have similar thinking friends? The answer is, 'I don't know'. At times, it is good that people cannot read my face.It is good that I can keep some of my happiness and pain to myself. It would have been freakish if friends around me all the time would figure me out completely. But, sometimes you feel that your friends should figure out what you want to say without you actually saying things. There is always a trade-off.

This is just the beginning. At the end of 2 years, it might be a completely different blogpost. Time will tell.

The Madness...

On the way to New York, I was sitting besides a psychiatrist. I always thought that they are the kind of people who must hate their job. After seeing so many crazy people everyday and dealing with them, who wouldn't? But, like most other Americans, he enjoyed his job.

I had a nice discussion with him during the journey and got to know lot of interesting things. He said that most people become mad as they cannot achieve what they want in their lives. Or rather, they would not accept who they are or what they have become. It can happen to anybody who finds it difficult to digest failure (or rather be jealous of the success of others).

After this, I was curious and asked him how people who seem to lead a perfectly normal life turn wierd all of a sudden. He said the process of getting mad is similar to the thing that happens when people get drunk. When people get high, the part of the brain that regulates what you speak mellows down and you begin speaking what you really wanna speak, without filtering it.

Similar thing happens when you become mad. The difference is that when you are drunk, you get back to normalcy within a few hours, it's not the same when you turn mad. It's very difficult to come back to the state of normalcy for them. The worst part is no medicine can bring your brain back to normal, you yourself have to work your way out of it. Medicines can only temporarily put you to sleep or mellow you down, but not change anything. It is like taking painkiller, the pain is still there, just that you don't feel it. There is no standard way to bring things to normal, different things work out for different people.

He talked about some weird people that he treated. He had a patient who used to be normal all day and turn mad after 10 in the night. Some people turn mad when the come across a particular person or see a particular color or object. These are the type of people who are the most difficult to treat. Their brains are wired to think in a particular way. They have to be taught to unlearn that, which is very difficult. People are a lot more reluctant to change rather than they seem to be.

He says, the best part about his job is that a lot of people come back happily to him and thank him for bringing them to normalcy. According to him, a lot of doctors in other fields do not get credit for the job they do. People visit them in times of sickness and when they get well, there is no acknowledgement.

His happiness lies in the fact that he has brought lives of numerous people back to normalcy!

Ten good things

1. Calling to India is cheap and it gives a great feeling.
2. The internet simply rocks; you never have to wait for streaming.
3. Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream rocks, I am going to buy all the flavors in the next 2 years.
4. Cooking is a lot of fun, at least the initial few days.
5. Weekends are totally worth the hype.
6. University is a whole town in itself.
7. Laptop, Ipod and everything electronic is cheap.
8. Girls are good
9. Pedestrian crossing is more valued than car crossing
10. Everyone you meet has a smile on their face.

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.

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.

Problems

Problems, everyone has them, but the way we approach them makes us different. It is good to be a spectator sometimes, listening to the problems of people around you and how they tackle them.

At times you are hearing about people who feel the pressure in handling the smallest of the problems. On the other hand, there are some who will never let the gravest of the problem tear them apart. You learn from both the type of people. One teaches you what not to do while handling a crisis, other one tells you how to face the crisis.

But, it’s not so easy always. Sometimes you see people stuck with a problem not handling it the right way. You feel had you been there yourself in that situation, you would have done things differently. But, one fine day, the same problem strikes you. You fare no better in handling it. Weird, but true!

I admire one of my friends when it comes to facing problems. He tells me, ‘Most of the things that we consider to be problems aren’t problems in the first place’. I feel he’s right. Problems are there for a reason. They make us who we are, how our lives shape up depends on how we handle them. If it is something that will shape our lives, then how is it a problem?

I’ve never seen this friend of mine succumb to any pressure from problems around, not cribbing about any of them. Not running away from them either, sometimes going from one defeat to another with no loss of enthusiasm. He was once consolidating someone who has just dropped from 80 percent to 70 percent saying things would be fine, whereas he himself had 60 percent marks in the exams. He was a person who would give in his best and then accept what the scoreboard says. This guy didn’t even get pissed off when his girlfriend of long time dumped him. He instead gave us a break-up party!

A week before the 12^th board exams, he fell of the staircase, fractured almost half his body, the left side, was bedridden and still appeared for the boards without a writer. His scores were affected badly, but he never cried about it. Maybe someday his scores will ruin his chances of getting admitted into a premier educational institute, agreed, still how is crying about the situation going to help? Making the most of what he could achieve was the thing he should’ve done and he did exactly the same.

Life is not a disaster when you are plagued with problems. Life is a disaster when you stop fighting the problems around you. Nobody could’ve known a certain Lance Armstrong if he didn’t have the fighting spirit.

These and a few other examples make me want to reflect on my own life. I’ve sometimes let problems dominate me, acted weirdly in situations, freaked out. But that won’t be a problem anymore. The world is full of people fighting millions of problems. I’ll face my share of problems, that too in a sporting way!

Optimism

I feel like a jerk today. Told someone that he/she is being excessively optimistic. Being an optimistic person myself, I should’ve never said that. Never crush the ray of hope people have about things turning the way they want them to be.

I think the word ‘reality’ is now-a-days more closer to me than ‘optimism’. Optimism sure drives you a long way. It tells you if a certain Ambani who came in with 500 rupees and made billions out of that in this city, but it will never tell you the story of millions of people who came to the city with 500 bucks and left with nothing.

By no way I’m talking negativity, but sometimes by choosing optimism, you make yourself ready for only one result, that’s called victory. Thousands of people come to Mumbai each year to become a filmstar, unfortunately, not everyone can become one. Raising your hopes high is good, but when the dreams crush, you should be able to handle it the right way.

I think the best approach would be about being optimistic throughout the journey and accepting the reality dose in the end. What’s wrong in thinking you can achieve massive things, thinking that you can be the best? But when it comes to the final outcome, you have to take it sportingly. You’re going to win some, lose some and accept whatever comes your way.

Optimism may tell you that you can climb Everest, reality might keep you happy with Amarnath yatra. Still, if this optimism would’ve gone missing, nobody would’ve climbed it till now.

Itz Mie Life!

Today, as I walked out of college, my bike was the last bike parked in the Bhavan’s Parking lot.

2 years back, this was an everyday scene. I was amongst the 10 crazy people who stayed in college everyday till 11 pm. Today, I had a feeling of Déjà vu. It brought back great memories. Memories of pushing the bike half a kilometer till the Petrol pump at 12 in the night coz’ some idiot stole Petrol from the bike. Coming Home on 4^th gear, full throttle, no brakes 6 kms, 7 minutes that too without a power bike. Cool nights. Counter Strike, Warcraft with full fledged sledging and cursing one another. Nostalgia!!!!

Around a month ago, I had decided to kick the word ‘Boredom’ out of my dictionary, and am very much happy to have lived without it for past one month. Idea is to stay occupied and not give boredom a chance. Most people feel boredom is related more with things around you rather than yourself. I feel the other way round. You are the one who lets boredom creep in.

I know people who keep themselves so much occupied that they utilize the 5 minutes that they wait for the train at the railway station to read the day’s newspaper. In a world where people cry for want of time, why should we aspire to kill available time by giving boredom a chance? We should live life in a fashion such that there would be no regrets later. Else, you’ll end up saying stuff like “I had so much spare time, I wish I had studied driving. Now, I am in a 14 hours job in an unknown city wasting much of my time waiting for the crowded bus to my office”.

After a comparatively dull semester, I want to be back working pretty hard again, making the most of the time I have, interacting with many people, pursuing my hobbies, living my dreams. Not thinking of college as just another 9 to 5 activity, being active in the society, completing some of the projects I’ve undertaken. Having a life! Not just having a life, I’ve began to love my life. For the last month or so, I’ve been very much active socially. My father is a very popular person in our neighborhood and many people know me as his son. I want to venture out and work so hard that people know me by my own identity. I want the pace. I remember Lance Armstrong saying ‘I want to die at a hundred year old after screaming down an Alpine descent on a bicycle at 75 miles per hour’. That’s the spirit.

So, hopefully I won’t be saying ‘I am bored’ for quite some time now, coz’ I know, I won’t be bored!

This is my 50^th post. The blogging experience until now has been great until now. Pratap and Yugandhar’s blogs have inspired me to start blogging. They both have killer blogs with amazing creativity. I also thank all my readers who spared their precious time to read my posts. Thanks to all of those who pointed out my mistakes, thus helping me improve. I’ll keep blogging.

Take the lead!

‘Hey people, let’s hang out someplace nice, say Juhu Beach’.

The response to this depends a lot on who’s asking the question, doesn’t it? Read on..

This post isn’t about personal bias, but it’s about how effectively some people can take the lead. These are the people who have mastered the art of persuasion. They are the ones who by one way or another refuse to take no for an answer and manage to get people to agree with the plan. This works even in situations where you thought ‘no’ to be a definite answer. Convincing comes so naturally to them.

I’ve never been good in this department, but have always observed the modus operandi of people who are good at convincing right from school times to college. They work in myriad ways, but the end result is the same. Being a good persuader and eventually a leader requires a lot of groundwork; it’s not an overnight process. There are many phases to it, first one being recognition. Unless you have recognition in the place where you want to influence your ideas, nobody’s going to listen to you. So, basic communication with everyone is a must here.

Next step would be activeness. One has to be very much active around the place where he or she has to aspire to be a leader. You can’t expect to come to college on time, leave right when the college is over and hope that one fine day when you plan a trek, many people from your class will come and join you. You can’t expect to hit the target right the very first time you try.

Bonding together with people who like to take the initiative is the next step. You gotta be amongst the planners of the group. It’s again necessary that you be involved in the plans these initiators make, then only can you expect them to join in your plans. Another vital aspect is building a bubble of trust around you. You can become a good persuader only if people trust you. This trust comes from small things like living up to the tasks that you took up, confining to yourself the personal stuff your friends tell you about their lives, helping your friends when they are in need, consoling them in their grief.

Getting the plan together gets a lot of patience. You have to listen to the tantrums of lot of people around, you have to clear everyone’s doubts, be ready to spend a lot of money on phone calls, sending reminders again and again and most importantly, not giving up despite the obstacles. Many a time, it also warrants to make big last minute changes to suit maximum number of people involved, keeping your own comforts aside for the sake of others.

It’s the satisfaction of a successful venture keeps you going through all this trouble. The joy of being together is more pleasing than relishing the happy times alone.

The thing I feel about leadership is that you don’t always have to be a leader, but you have to step up when nobody’s there to take the initiative. When few people are working towards a plan, we needn’t demonstrate our planning skill. After all, if everyone needn’t be cooking delicious food, sometimes we need to look forward to tasting those delicious dishes too!

Acceptance is Bliss!

Watching the sunset at Juhu beach is such a pretty sight. But today was different for him. He was finding difficult to find happiness is anything.

All alone in the crowd, he was wondering how things went wrong. Never in the last 10 years of his life had he finished outside the top 3 in his school. Now he had to see 60% marks, that too due to very bad fever during exam time.

All around him today, he could just see happy faces; faces of all his friends who scored 80’s and 90’s discussing about the best colleges in the city. He could see his friends trying to sympathize with him but they couldn’t avoid the hint of pride they possessed due to scoring more marks than their regular topper.

He had lots of questions. Why did God punish me for no fault of mine? Don’t I deserve to be in a good college after all this effort? If at all I had to fall sick, why the boards, why not some stupid unit test?

There’s one thing about defeat and most of the people in the world. After a failure, firstly people try to find who’s to blame. If no answer, they check whether they themselves are to blamed, if both answers are no, they find defeat very difficult to digest. I feel it that way and dunno how many of you agree about it.

One more thing about defeat, you just need a moment to get over it, a moment of ‘acceptance’. He had found it! He accepted reality and things appeared to be different suddenly.

He now smiled at the 60% marks, they were his own after all. He now knew that he would be happier with securing admission is a low profile college rather than the frustrated students who get their name printed in the newspaper saying 90% and still no admission. He felt that somewhere God must have a faith in him that he’ll be at his best and have a bright future despite going to a mediocre college. He was also thankful to face defeat so early in his life. This will make him a stronger person to cope up with problems that may surface in the future. People so often face defeat at the most important stage of their career that they can’t cope up with it, commit suicide and do other such stupid things. He was happy that he came out of depression so early. Such a powerful thing acceptance of reality is!

He now knows that happiness doesn’t come in a box wrapped with gelatin paper saying congrats! Happiness is much more than that. He knows now, who his true friends are and the other ones who are there for their selfish needs. Victory would have been sweeter, but for a change he was savoring defeat.

He now knows there are times in life when you have to pay a price even if you haven’t done a mistake. Everything isn’t fair always. After the storm, you have to start collecting the shattered pieces and start living. Crying over the lost things is just a waste of time.

Being happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections!!!!

Title credit goes to Yugandhar, I couldn't find any other well suited.

True Lies

In friendship, sometimes there are times when you are confused whether to speak out the bitter truth or to conceal it. Things are worse when it comes to your best friend. You know he or she is going wrong yet telling the truth might make things worse. Like the times when your friend asks you how’s the dress he’s wearing. The dress combi might be bizarre, but saying that directly might not seem proper. Ok the dress thing is a small issue, but when it comes to important issues, the problem becomes more complicated.

If you do not point out your friend’s mistakes and someday he himself realizes them, he’ll feel really bad about you. Why didn’t you confess the truth earlier? What kinda friend are you? On the other hand, if you are frank enough to tell the mistake, the other person might not take it the right way. People sometimes find it difficult to believe that they are wrong. Being too straightforward might actually come in the way of a beautiful friendship. Also, we have to be very careful in the way we confess out the truth so that it doesn’t appear to be hurting.

You need both types of friends. Some to praise you during your difficult times (You know your life’s a mess, still there’s someone thinking you are better off) and some people to scold you for your smallest mistakes. I’m glad I have both variants of friends. It’s difficult to say which ones are more right.

But there’s one thing. Being frank at truthful at such times requires guts. It requires accepting the risk of being misunderstood. It requires saying the harsh reality knowing that it might jeopardize your friendship. It requires overcoming the temptation of avoiding the topic instead of telling the truth.

I think I’d be glad if my friends be truthful to me, even if the truth is harsh. False praise and admiration will make me happy for the moment, but will do more harm than good in the long run.

Despite this view, sometimes I choose not to spill out the harsh truth. It’s the fear of losing good friends that keeps me holding….

Are numbers really important?

What is more important, the final results or the process? This question has popped up in my mind several times and I’ve had a different answer every time. Sometimes there’s this feeling that numbers are all important, no matter how you get them. Adapt to the system, follow the norms, get the results, job done.

Then there are other times where the numbers really don’t matter. At those times you really don’t give a damn for the marks and just concentrate on learning. You just enjoy the process so much that results are secondary.

I’ve been on both sides of the road. Can’t say which one is right or wrong; at various times in life, you have to choose one of them timely. If you say marks don’t really matter, all that I care for is knowing stuff, and then you may have to risk missing on a good college, a good friend circle and lot many things. The world will never believe you that you are intelligent; you’ll have to come up with the numbers to show them that. Plus what’s the harm if you know some tricks to get marks without actually knowing the stuff

On the other hand, sometimes I feel like running away from the rigid doctrines of exams. Solve this problem exactly this way, it will fetch you full marks. Don’t use your creativity. This is the crap I can’t handle sometimes. I don’t care that I get a mediocre score. Working on a real microcontroller excites me than calculating stupid memory map tables. In the long term, I feel some scores will just be another set of numbers. There’s no point pressing hard for such marks when they are of little use.

The recent GRE test was a wonderful experience for me. At first I was really vexed by the process. Hardly did I remember the words that I studied the previous day. I hated it, I almost quit the conquest! But with some inspiration and convincing from friends, started it all over again. This time it was different. I was actually enjoying the process of learning. I enjoyed that I was reading the daily newspaper in different manner now. Actually caring to understand the meanings of the words that I once ignored.

No longer did I feel the urge to curse the words, not even the yellow cards which carried them. I kinda liked them. I told to myself, whatever happens in the actual exam, I’ve actually gained a lot from this process. Even if I falter, not everything will be lost. That’s when the tension disappeared. I got a decent score but I think even if I had scored any higher or lower, I wouldn’t really have been more joyous or unhappy. For this time I surely knew, numbers were not all that mattered…..

Of Blackouts and Plunders

Warning! Long post ahead!!

Yesterday night, there was a blackout in our area. It brought to my mind my childhood memories; those were the times when blackouts were quite frequent. They were associated primarily with all the children hitting the streets and playing games. Something which came by as complement was robbery and many interesting tales of robbery. But this post is all about the one incident that I’d never forget all my life.

I was studying for my History paper next day. Boredom was taking toll as the clock neared midnight. Someone felt pity for me I guess. The next moment all the lights faded and cursing the text, I ran out towards the street, relieved. My other friends had similar relieved expressions on their face. Studying was out of question, so we thought playing something would freshen us before the exam next day. Dog and the bone was the game we chose.

It’s so true that sport makes you release all your troubles, be it temporary, so what! Nobody cared what time it really was and no-one wanted the blackout to end. Meanwhile, my friend saw something strange. “Dude, someone’s trying to break through into Ishan’s(name changed) house” he whispered into my ears. Earlier that day, after playing cricket Ishan had told us that he is going to Ahmedabad in the evening with his family and will not return until next fortnight.

It was a moment of horror, but we knew that we shouldn’t panic. We needed to do something wise. What to do? Call the police or call all the colony residents or maybe fight with the thief ourselves and be superheroes of the colony for next few days. Lots of options flooded our mind, not knowing what exactly to do. Finally four of us friends decided that we’d hunt him down ourselves. Childhood plans, immature as most of them are!

Now suddenly all four, although a bit frightened, were resolute on doing the task without any help. Three of us took a stump each and the fourth one with a wooden stick. We had to avoid doing something stupid; we had to have a plan. If anything went wrong, it could well go down to our lives.

We examined everything. There was the window near the kitchen left open by the thief; we decided to get in through it. One of us had a doubt as to why would the thief leave the window open. The others just shut him down by saying that he probably needed fresh air.

Taking care of three things was essential. Firstly we had to avoid making noise otherwise it would alert the thief and he would attack us with anything he has, probably a knife, could be anything. Secondly, he had a torch and we didn’t b’coz again the thief would be alarmed if we used the torch. Thirdly, we had to track his exact position before getting in.

Thinking about all possibilities, we saw the position of the thief from the window and made a plan of attack. The thief was on the mattress eating cucumber. This was assumable since if he came out with his loot and try to elope, people on the streets would come to know and probably attack him together. So now was really not the time for him to get out. Now was the time to eat cucumber.

Boldly we stepped inside the house without making slightest of the sounds. One of us who carried the stick cautiously approached towards the thief from behind the cupboards and dining table. We followed him with our stumps. As he was about 2 feet near, he hit the thief severely on the knee. Next moment the robber went speechless and numb. Till the other three of us join, he realized he had to do something, that too quickly!

He started running away from us and shouted, calm down, I’m Ishan’s uncle, what the hell are you doing? We froze there, thinking how foolish our act was.

In the meantime, two other stupid things happened. Firstly, someone called the cops. Secondly, someone called up Ishan’s Ahmedabad place at 1.30 saying there was a robber in their house. Next worst thing due was the history paper, which was due in 5 hours.

Surpriseee...

A couple of days ago, few of my college friends came to my house for a surprise visit. I was quite overjoyed seeing them and felt very nice. Overjoyed because it has been really a while someone came by without a reason, or without wanting something from me. It wasn’t my birthday too! That’s when I realized how good it feels when you call someone or visit someone without actually wanting something from them. I’m thankful to have such great friends.

This friendship day, I had no real plans. It was kinda getting boring going through dull GRE wordlists. To my surprise Anand came to my home around the evening after a day full of Linux course in college. It’s so nice to meet a friend than to send stupid forwarded messages to everyone. It’s the element of surprise that doubled the fun.

We had a crazy Idea. Anand said ‘Let’s go around and surprise more people.’ We had no plan as to who all we’ll surprise and how many places to cover, but hoped to cover maximum people. We hit the road on the bike at 6.30 pm towards Malad. With the crystal maze that Malad roads form, we had difficulty in finding our friend’s place. Finally at one point, I gave up hunting for the building and called him. He said, “Turn around, I’m right behind you”. Wish we could’ve looked around before calling. Still it was something that he didn’t expect to have happened. He offered a Cadbury as friendship day sharing which we shared till our last friend’s house. We had to cover many places so decided that nowhere we will have any food. We’ll come for that some other day.

Next halt, kandivali friend. Here we couldn’t resist eating delicious pakodas and Basundi. This time too, he caught us when we were entering his building. No surprise again, but he was really happy seeing us come. Here on, we got the map to our next friend’s house. The Mr. Gre was busy studying with last pack of flash cards and was literally shocked seeing us come. Finally, we had surprised someone completely. After a cup of tea and Lonavala chikki, we left his house. It was getting darker and we decided this would be our last destination.

On the way back, we thought we’d change plan a bit. Visit one more friend and surprise him. We had lots of options to think upon and would’ve liked to go visit many more people, but time just didn’t permit us to do that. Just then our friend from Powai called in to say he had prepared cookies and cake to bring to college the next day. That’s when we decided, ‘let’s go surprise him’. Kandivli to Powai was hell of a journey. All possible things that can happen on a bike happened. We were almost hit by a rick, almost caught by a cop, lost our way at Saki Naka and went all the way till Ghatkopar. After more than an hour of roaming around, finally reached the republic of Powai.

Now there was some more element of fun. We didn’t have his address or any details of where he lived. Just recollected random facts about what he’d told us about his apartment during college time. With some help from the locals and a lot of common sense, we finally reached a building which we figured out he might be staying at. The watchman asked us the room number where he stayed and here too, luckily we dialed the right number and reached his place. A day full of surprises as it was! Happy that we could surprise one more friend and shared the last bite of Cadbury.

It was such a nice day. Would’ve liked to visit many more friends. Hopefully, that’ll happen sometime soon. I’ll remember this friendship day for long. Something different than the regular...

One more year...

A few days ago, we gave a farewell party to our senior batch. One thing was going through my mind back then. Next year it will be us going through this. Actually during the farewell, there was one more thing going through my mind. This is not how our farewell would be. It was one of the most boring farewell parties to be.

Three years into college, I felt like I was seeing almost half the faces present there for the first time. It was not just me, most of my batch mates were seeing them for the first time that day. It’s strange for us because we are the ones who stay back late in college almost everyday and do many more things other than attending lectures.

In the Conference room where the party was there, all I could see was clusters of people talking within themselves. Group-ism was very evident. There were just three speeches in the entire class, none of them very efficient, none with an impact. There was no feeling of nostalgia at all. It was more like a formal function.

Worse still, it lasted only for one and half hour, out of that we played music for them for like half hour and had designed a fun filled award ceremony for half an hour. Party was over at 4 pm and everyone was outta college by 4.30 pm. Come on people, have a life!! Reasons for leaving early, ‘Padhna hai bhai, Viva hai’. Four years in college, this is what they come up with !!!

I just feel that with us next year, it would be an entirely different story. Even the shyest student of the class will come up to the podium and speak about the experiences in college he/she had. Things they thought engineering would be and what it turned out to be. Speak about how different their lives would be waking up tomorrow and realizing that they don’t have to head toward college anymore. No more Cutting chai and Misal Pav in canteen.

I think we might stay up in college that night. If not all, atleast a few of us as we did during college festivals. Playing TT or Rounders(This is our class’s National Game, credit to Pratap) in the middle of the night. Have intense debates and discussions on the silliest topics on earth and loads of other crap. But it’s far isn’t it? One long year to go, let’s see what happens then. Only time will tell………..

Just When I Think I Am Done

A lot of things in our life are almost done, well almost! Life would have been great if they were actually complete. But life’s great other way too, why complain?

It’s like when we study for exams, coming early to college on the exam day, trying to revise stuff from start to end. It’s when you start reaching pages of the end chapters; you feel that you’ve forgotten the earlier chapters. When you take a glance back to do the first ones again, there’s the feeling that something at the end part is not done properly. This happens with me no matter how many times I flip back and forth. Never really think I can say that I’m done.

Then the same thing applies to Projects. They are always in the state of ‘Almost done’. Small thing here and there remaining, that’s it. When you go about completing that thing, you discover that another small task is remaining. Then when this task is complete, just when you feel like dancing around the room, something previously working stops to work. The big smile on your face vanishes. Somehow you get things right. Show it to your professor. He adds something more that he wants out of your circuit, and you’re back to work again.

I don’t ever like to use ‘almost done’ with submissions. At what stage you can be screwed can really not be determined. Almost done submissions for me are submissions not done. They can find mistakes in a perfectly errorfree file. Other way round, files with some experiments missing also sometimes go submitted with a A+. Face value, what else to say. Everybody of us have had so many wonderful submission tales all these years, no description is really needed.

Here’s another different avatar of this ‘almost done’ tag. Sleep..... God really thank the person who added ‘snooze’ to your mobile alarm. You say I’ll wake up in 10 minutes. Another 10 minutes, still sleeping, one more ‘snooze’. You think you are almost done with sleep, suddenly, another temptation and bang! Another ‘snooze’. You have taken a break from studies. 10 minutes you watch IPL, then say one more over and I’ll be back. Another over later, same story. Eventually finally end up watching entire match.

Phone conversation is on, debate on one of the topics has been heated up. Mom meanwhile calls you for dinner. Now the phone discussion is equally important for you. You can’t just cut it for now. You say to mom, ‘a minute please, I’m almost done’. And you’re stuck on the Phone right until everyone else has finished their Dinner.

Almost done reminds me of last year’s formula one. Felipe Massa, the Ferrari guys and trillions of fans all around the world thought they had won it, including the commentators. But some Timo Glock had slowed down and ruined the ‘Almost done’ party to ‘not quite done’ tune. How agonisingly close he was to the title. They say it right when they say; the game is not over until the whistle blows.

This topic is so much close to me. On every occasion when Liverpool is losing, my hand is set on the send button to send message to all my dear Liverpool fans. But some crap happens after 90 minutes, someone scores and I’m left with the message still in the draft mode. Just when I thought Job Done……