Can you get away???

Ruchika had just returned home from her school when she saw a man talking to her father about her being good in Tennis.An air of feeling good filled her lungs,she went into the kitchen and saw her mom cooking hot bhajiya's for the man in the hall room....

 "who is that uncle mom"??? she asked with a mixed expression of happiness and inquisitiveness
 "Ohh that man is the IGP of haryana"???? her mom said, with heavy stress on the word IGP
 "And what is he here for???"she asked, knowing very well what he was here for
 "Ohh he thinks you are very good at tennis, he wants you to be promoted to next level, by the way he is the president of the association as well and you have to go meet him tomorrow" her mom said with a sense of pride

 "Okay" ruchika said with a smile and giggled her way into her bedroom.


       Ruchika went next day to the man's office, full of energy and excitement, she wanted to play for India, and would do any hard work to reach there. She took along her best friend anuradha to witness her praises, but what she didn't know was anuradha was to witness the most heinous crime of humanity. On pretext of calling the tennis coach SPS Rathore sent Anuradha out, when Anuradha came back she saw ruchika crying for mercy and rathore molesting ruchika, Anuradha screamed in a high pitch resulting in him letting go of ruchika.

       SPS Rathore warned ruchika and her friend with severe consequences if they confided into anybody, Ruchika couldn't keep her emotions at bay and confided everything to her father 2 days later. His father was a  rich man and he could not bear his daughter being molested, he filled a police complaint and the result??? No rathore was not arrested,

• ruchika was expelled the very next day from one of  the poshest convent school for stealing pens of other students 
•  2 weeks later her younger brother was expelled from the same school on similar allegations. 
•  1 year later some goons forced ruchika's family out of their home in panchkula, they shifted cities, determined to go on with the case
•  2 years later ruchika's brother was arrested by the police on allegation of 11 thefts, he was tortured brutally giving him multiple fractures, despite being a minor.......
• Unable to cope up with the pressure, ruchika hangs herself in her bedroom, all at the age of 17 

          Yes this is the true story of Ruchika girhotra, the girl from panchkula, haryana who was molested by IGP rathore in 1990 at the age of 14 at the pretext of promoting her to the next level, she committed suicide three years later at the of 17.The story seems straight out of an Hindi movie where the villain always has his way,where the sufferer is made to suffer even more until one day the protagonist wins, truth prevails over lies, justice is delivered, Did i say justice???? Thats the only difference between hindi movie and this case, rathore after 19 years of long case got 6 months of imprisonment and Rs 1000 fine and is now currently out on bail.

           Why does a molester becomes a molester??? what is the reason behind it??? Mallika sherawat did her first film amd became famous for some 17 kisses, unprecedented in hindi cinema, the director of the movie was asked why he always has kissing scenes in his movies, his reply was, if he had been in france he would have made art documentaries, but since India is compact and close, he takes out his frustration this way. Nothing can justify molestation of a minor or in fact anyone, but, is our proud heritage the very making of a devil??  Why do so many rape cases happen in India??, and no, i wont buy the hypothesis that Indians are the most desperate men on the planet,its proven otherwise already. Right from an AIDS awareness campaign to a condom ad, all is a taboo in India, the intolerance level amongst us is so huge that the list of don't's keeps on growing, this leads to the making up of a demon, the frustration. I would rather live in a country which has zero cultural values(as we claims our culture to be the best), rather than living in a country where women are molested every minute.

          
             Now coming to this case, and in general the judiciary system, how fair is our judiciary system??? I would say , naah not quite.....The track record has been poor, jessica lal's murderer almost got acquitted, had it not been for public's intervention. Salman khan is still a free man after running over 4 people, driving drunk and without license, whereas a common man would face jail for a year even if caught driving drunk. And more  recently SPS Rathore being given just a 6 months jail, and a Rs 1000 fine, more surprising is the comment by the judge who claims that Rathore is being victimized.Why It took 19 long years and life of the girl to deliver the judgement?. Why was SPS rathore not booked for abettment  of suicide? that would have invited imprisonment of at least 10 years. Why was he made the DGP of haryana state despite a criminal case going against him and what was Om prakash chautala thinking as a chief minister when he recommended him for the president's medal for great service to police force??

           Questions are many, answers are none. Will the young girl who wished to play tennis for India get justice?? It is time to stand up against this system united, every single drop makes an ocean. I know it is all philosophical, but then philosophy is what drives our lives..........

What if "it" happened?

           Part of the credit for this blog I would like to share with the movie buff which resides inside me. I saw three movies in past few months. 2012 to start with, then I saw Dasvidaniya on PC and then recently Paa on the big screen. No these movies don't have anything in common, except for my mind which tries to link up things. So, to my mind, these movies had only one thing in common, the feeling of impending death in the mind of the protagonist(s). 2012 was a movie which showed the impending destruction of earth in the year 2012, Paa was a movie which showed a patient of a genetic disease progeria who would ultimately die. So what would a person do if he knows he dying??

            In the movie Dasvidaniya the protagonist prepares a 'to-do' list before he dies, like buying a car, marrying a girl , hitting his boss along with many other things. Ideally that is what a person should be doing, enjoying his very last moments.

          A friend asked me if all were to die in 2012 along with me of course , what would I do, I made a similar check list, getting married, then buying a good huge car,a huge flat in the south Mumbai area, using all my cards to their limit. I asked my friend, "What would you do??" ,she replied "Is this how things go??"

                 I pondered a lot over her last statement(yeah I wasn't working till then so you see i had a lots of time to spare for any kind of thoughts).A calm human mind free of any stress who is giving a personality test on facebook  would certainly give the answers like I did and probably get a reply suitable enough to publish it to his/her freinds, but a freaked out stressed human mind with the fear of impending death would certainly panic. He could have two ways to go about it, he may either loose his mind and go into depression or would try to frantically find a way to prevent the impossible.  If his relatives and near and dear ones know about the impending death they would be inconsolable and that would further drain out his/her mind of anything cheerful left. If his/her relatives are unaware of anything then although he may get occasionally cheered up but he would suffocate inside thinking over and over again about what impends him. Occasionally he may blame god( if he is a believer) for choosing him, an atheist would probably be critical of himself or the cause that may cause it. Believer or non-believer, criticism for anything and everything will be his part of life. He may become more rude or more soft depending on his persona,  Stress always makes a person temperamental so chances are he may become rude.

                      The person would count his days to death and may finally die a painful death. So what would we do? I am uncertain of the answer. Perhaps, I will go on a world tour, tell my loved ones how much I love them and spend time with them. The character of Anand from the movie Anand comes closest to what I think is the perfect way to leave the world gracefully. Having said that, I also believe that although unknown death is painful for the body, but knowing death is painful for mind, soul and body.

                         May god bless everyone with immortality

A day in a stadium

Okay so by general consensus, a few things can be concluded, Guys and Girls both don't like Test match, Many guys and a meager no.of girls like One day cricket match, and all guys and a few more no. of girls like T-20 match. Basically i am like any other normal guy who would at many occasions find a Test match very boring( although it can be nail biting sometimes). So when one of my best friend and a passionate and avid cricket watcher offered a pass to me for the test match between India and Srilanka at the brabourne stadium in Mumbai i refused to go on the first day, reason being it was srilanka's batting and primary reason being stadium is far away from my home, but i could not refuse on the second day, primarily because he is the best convincer i have ever met and secondarily because it was India's batting.




                  I reached the stadium a little late but just in time to see our Viru paaji making a century, the crowd went into hysteria and chants of viru viru went louder and louder. Jay took me to the North stand and then i recollected, oh my god this is the costliest stand and apparently the most notorious stand. This was the very same stand from which three people were arrested in 2007 for mocking andrew symonds with monkey faces. I frowned thinking of the menace i had got myself into. I looked around my self and so few good looking girls sitting, that came as a relief as i was prepared for a boring day ahead.

              Viru paaji had just hit a huge six of muralidharan and i stood up to cheer but to my surprise the whole crowd was chanting "Aussie suxx" again and again. I asked my friend why and what is happening, he pointed his finger to the commentary box right on top of us and there he was, bradd hogg the former australian cricketer who is here as a commentator. He at first tried to ignore the comments but he went in and came out and i saw something which gave a very fitting reply to the crowd, a middle finger in his right hand was raised towards the crowd. Although this only raised the chants from the crowd. In the meanwhile dravid was on the strikers end and was playing in his trademark "wall" style.

             It was tea time and i was definitely feeling very hungry, i asked my friend to buy something, but all the food stalls were overflowing with people( Test match at mumbai still draws crowds!!!!), to my relief a food vendor came up with domino's pizza. I heaved a sigh of relief.....

         "Bhaiya, give me two pizza's,small" i said taking out Rs 80
         " Saab it is 200" he said
         "What?????????!!!!!!!" i said in a voice loud enough for the chic sitting a block next to me to look at me.....
         "What else do you think sir, we have to pay license fee to the BCCI, besides we also have to pay the stadium authorities to allow us to work here and get things in"   the vendor said
         "But......."
         " Leave it yaar, we will buy one pizza and enjoy" jay interrupted as i started to say something
    

     So a pizza meant to feed one person ended up feeding two hungry souls. Since it was not enough, we bought samosa's and cold drinks and we did't argue when we paid Rs 15/ cold and bland samosa and never mind the half cup not so cold "cold drink" which was priced at Rs 20.

       The match resumed and even sehwag's sixers started looking monotonous to me and again the crowd surprised me... "Walk and talk talk and walk" the crowd started shouting with increasing tempo. I looked up and saw a TV production team official talking on his phone. And this time i couldn't stop myself from laughing and couldn't stop myself from joining in the crowd chants.I couldn't stop myself from dancing when sehwag hit a six. Slowly i was getting pulled in to what i considered a few hours back a taboo. I was all pumped up when crowd started with this yelling "Item" again and again. I looked at jay with a quizzing look, he pointed to a girl who was walking behind the boundary towards the cameraman. I could not blame the crowd for this behavior . The girl was wearing a designer outfit with cross cut at shoulder and knee length dress. The dress was black and was well complementing her body( read curves). The girl then looked up with a faint smile towards the stand and everyone started shouting again, but this time it was "Sorry". Although i was tempted to join in, but didn't join in the crowd chants. I didn't want to end up in police lock up(yes the aussie monkey haunted me).

       Finally dravid labored to his half century and with a heavy heart i asked jay to leave along with me. The experience of watching a match in stadium which would have been boring other wise on a TV was amazing. Everytime going to a stadium may be impractical but one such experience is must for cricket lovers.

  PS- 1) For BCCI and cricket authorities....."kyu paisa paisa karti hai, paise pe kyun marti hai"
         2) I tried watching the Test match on TV and i still find it boring......
         3) The north stand i was sitting in had the plushest of crowd with the roudiest of the behavior......

The phases of life for boys- with girls that is

        When a boy is born in a north Indian family,the grand parents go hysteric regarding a boy being born in their family, i don't know why?? From all my 22 yrs and at least 17 yrs in conscious i don't see a reason for being extremely proud of boy being born in a family, because ultimately intentionally or unintentionally females get more attention than males.

       So i went over the incidences and mindsets i had possessed or most of the boys have possessed over their years regarding girls.

  Phase-I- (0-4 yrs)

     This is the phase of innocence for boys. The girls reading this, believe me or not but all boys are innocent at this point of their life. From innocence stems ignorance for them. Boys are always confused about what a "girl" is. What exactly separates girls from boys. Parents usually have a hard time telling us the difference without dwelling too much into other things(read Birds and bees).

     "mom" i said shouting at the top of my voice after attending the first day at prep
     "what son?, keep your voice low" my mom said
     " What are these girls???"
     "Girls......they are just like you, sweet children but they keep long hair and don't shout like monkeys, like you do"
     "But mom, one of my friend kushal keeps long hair and he is a boy, and anuja keeps short hair and she is a girl" i asked inquisitively
     "ohhh then....well girls are some one who will wear skirts to school and not pants like you do" She said
     "haan, yeah so thats the difference" i said satisfied with the answer

 Phase-II- Primary and may be up to 7th or 8th std 


This is the phase in boys life where he actually hates girls, i know all you girls reading this may find it hard to believe but it is true, Boys hate girls for many things during this time. Guys don't like girls crying all the time. Guys hate the high handed attitude girls have and guys don't like girls getting special preferences.So in short you can say guys are jealous of girls getting pampered by teachers and guys getting the stick all the time. It surely doesn't help if the guy has a younger sister at home who gets pampered all the time( as was the case with me). This actually translated into ultimate hatred for girls in me and many other guys of the class and we formed a union against girls in 4th std( yeah see, we were smart enough to form a union, communism any one?). The main purpose of the union was to ignore girls. And then one day eureka.......

       "Hey abhishek" sneha came up to me putting her hand on my shoulder
       "stay away" i said in a calm voice and at the same time i brushed my shoulder and blew air from my mouth in a sweeping action.
       "What?????? you brushed your shoulder just because i touched you??" she said this and touched again
    
       I brushed again and what followed was an utter chaos in the school, all the girls were running behind the union guys to touch them( how badly i would give an arm for such a situation now!!!!!!). The whole school turned into a chasing ground for the girls.It was only after the intervention and scolding of the class teacher that we stopped( damn these girls, they got away again, we thought).

       The boys become a little milder by 6-7th but the some hatred still remains.....

Phase III- 9th and 10th


   This is the phase where the guys learn about birds and bees from some knowledgeable sources. And this is when they realize that why girls are the way they are. The two years,that is 9th and 10th go away noticing the changes.

       "Hey look that girl has grown so tall" 1 boy says
       "forget that, don't you think her chest is a little weird?? she is getting fatter" 2nd boy says
       "Dumbo, she is becoming a woman now" some other boy says

  During this phase guys are best behaved with girls or at least most of the guys. After learning about many things they refrain from hitting them( which was very common before), in fact not even touching them, If a guy shakes hand with a girl, it is considered to be a big taboo in the class. Also during this phase we get to see the wannabe perverts,in case girls always wondered when and how, yes it is during this time that many guys become perverts. So these perverts go about trying to grope some of the girls in the school, may be during assembly prayers, may be during the physical training classes. I have to shamefully admit that some guys do this on many innocent girls in the school.

   Phase IV-High school(11th and 12th)


  This is the beginning of the love stories. Yes this is the time when guys take crushes on the beautiful girls who have by now realized what potential they have.The mentality of boys mature too. It is no longer a taboo to shake hands with a girl. This is the time when guys instead of forming hate unions against the girls form the admiration society for all the good looking girls in the class. Although this is the time when almost all guys are shy about their feelings for a girl(a rare sight, a shy guy). The guy will admire the girl from a distance, the girls during this time are at their ignorant best, as they hardly gauge a guys feeling. Basically this is a very non- happening phase, but a phase of significant change.

  Phase V- College life


 Enter college and guys become roaring tigers.They are no longer shy about their feelings.They become overtly practical about feelings for a girl and flirt quite vocally. The girls also start liking all the attention and finally able to understand a guy. The guy on the other hand is now scared of commitment, he believes in flings, sometimes to satisfy a part of his desires( i don't have to elaborate, do i have to??). And this is the time when many guys are at their best for rudeness. The care which they might have shown during their high school days is now missing. A guy may have one or more than one affair or else their are guys who don't commit to any one girl and enjoy a healthy "just friendship" with many girls at a time. This is the most fun filled and also probably the darkest phase in a guys life.

Phase VI- The office 


 Sorry all those who are reading this, the time i was writing this blog i was into office yet, i ll surely write a sequel in a few months as to how things go in a corporate world for guys , with girls that is.........so keep reading and keep commenting on my blogs till then..........(geesh i very think i should be in marketing)

Bull who got bullied- II

       This blog of mine won't be a short story like the previous one....ohh by the way if some of you have missed my previous post, it was a short story on ragging, and it was kinda prelude to this blog. Since you have already taken the efforts to visit my blog and then please read the part-I to able to find a  link with this blog( i know its torture, but 5 mins of your precious time and a nice comment will make my day....uhhh i guess i should be in marketing).

      Before you start abusing me for veering off the topic, i ll snap back to the topic, no, its not ragging, its a wider issue of bullying. Bullying in a simple way can be defined as a process in which a more powerful person suppresses a weaker person to have his/her own way and the person who does that is known as a bully. Bullying  can be at any range and level. Even in small preps where a stronger kid may snatch tiffin to big corporate offices where a boss or colleague may bully people.Bullying may sometimes be funny and sometimes lead to dire consequences.

                A very common example of bullying is in local trains of mumbai. Yes its just another public transport, but for those who use it daily,its almost like a second home for them , and for some of them for whom it is a second home dont like it when they have to share it with some one new. In such a case they may not allow the person to board the train or else ask a person to vacate the seat for him/her(yes women are big time bullies as well, in case you thought why i used "her"). Bullying is very common in school and that is where it reaches dangerous proportions. Because a child's mind is like a dough(i know, its an old saying but very true), it can get molded any way we want. Bully or the one who is getting bullied both of them suffer.

              Now my previous post was loosely based on an incident which happened in gurgaon last year in school. Yes the person involved was my name sake(Abhishek tyagi). This particular name twin of mine was a big time bully in the school and stopped at nothing to bully two kids into frustration. The two poor souls started going into depression and worse still, their parents were not aware of anything of it. The two of them decided to set things straight with the bully. The carried a hand gun to school and shot the big time bully in a secluded place taking turns.( uhhh by the way it really feels scary when you hear that some one who shared the same name as yours actually died, and more so when it is splashed all over the news). The big bully died and the poor souls put into even poorer remand home. Result?? Everyone suffered, right from the kids, their families and even the school.

           Now what explains a bully's behavior?? Unfortunately i took up science and further still engineering , so i could not take up psychology or psychiatry. But from what i have seen and read, i believe that a bully becomes a bully because he has been at some point or other in life been a victim of bullying. It could be his parents, teachers, boss and sometimes even by life that he could have got bullied. The rule of nature is simple, the powerful suppresses the powerless. So someone bullies a person and in turn he bullies some one else and so the hierarchy goes on. Then the question is, why is everyone not a bully. That is because bullies are mentally not strong enough to handle the pressure of being bullied and hence they take out the frustration on someone less powerful than them. Those who are able to handle the pressure don't resort to bullying the powerless.

          Is bullying a psychiatric problem?? yes, indeed it is and it can be solved, but then how effective the solution would be. As long as the rule of nature exist, the bullies will continue to exist and as long as such bullies exist, the weaker people will continue to crumble or take drastic steps as survival instincts........

Bull who got bullied

  "Turn around" the 1st boy said in a cold voice
  "No please" he said
   "Dont force us to force you, co-operate please" the 2nd boy said in a sarcastically polite way
    He turned around and closed his eyes tightly waiting with heavy heart for lashes he was expecting...

    "Now strip down" the 1st boy said
    "no........aaaahhhhh" he screamed aloud as he was hit by belt by the second boy
    "I told you not to force us to use force" the second boy said with firm devil intent in his voice
    "please i beg to you" he said while stripping down into nothing
    "oh c'mon don't beg to us, you are an engineer and hence you are not supposed to be a beggar" the second boy said giving a hi-fi to the 1st boy

    Still warm with the belt lash on his back he felt a warm body closing in on him, his heart started pumping hard expecting another belt lash instead of which came something he never expected.......


           "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

    He got up screaming aloud, he looked around there was no one, his room mate was sleeping cozily on his bed, He was completely drenched with sweat, His heart was pumping heavily. He got up from the bed and headed straight to the bathroom, he washed his face and looked into the mirror, his face was blood shot. He was not able to forget the series of events which happened to him a week ago. The dreams kept recurring to haunt him again and again of the helpless state he was in. The police and principle of the college refused to help him because both the boys were well sourced and "good students" of a "good college". Even his anal swabs were not enough to convince the police of their crime.

      "Enough" he screamed out aloud in the bathroom and started crying. He was not able to sleep . It was a night he had to take a decision. He could not remain locked in the room his whole life. He had to face  the world and he had to face them, but this time things would be different and he would be different.....

   "Ohhh so you came to college today??" the 1st boy said
   "He was cherishing the experience man, it is a once in a life time experience junior, isnt it??" the second boy said to him mockingly
   "Yeah , it was indeed" he said with a faint smile
   "Is that supposed to mean you enjoyed it??" the 1st boy said
   "Ask him if it were the lashes he enjoyed or the other thing" the 2nd boy said to the 1st boy, laughing hysterically
   "I guess both" he said
   "Lets have an encore then" 1st boy
   "For the old memories sake, see you at the same place" the 2nd boy said
   "Sure" he said
   "And like last time, don't force us to use force" the 2nd boy said with cold expression


  It was a full moon night. The full moon was beautiful but it was still faint in front of the beauty of the new found feeling he was about to experience with those two boys. A feeling of satisfaction and completeness.

 "You came before us???" the 1st boy said
 "I have to turn around, isn't it??" he said
 "You seem to be in a big hurry man" the 2nd boy said
 
  He pulled his pants down and again he could sense the boys warm body nearing his body. This was the moment he had been waiting for, the moment which was about to give him satisfaction, satisfaction of revenge.
As the boy neared him...

     The second boy was looking at the full moon. How beautiful the moon was, but it was nothing in front the beauty of the feeling of suppressing someone. He suddenly heard a gun shot and a loud shriek from the 1st boy. He turned around to see his junior, he was holding a pistol upside down between his legs..... His body felt numb, he could not face the enormity of the situation, his best friend had just been shot in the groin, his friend was writhing with pain lying in a pool of blood. He reached for him and shook him, he shook him again, "wake up man" he said under his breath. His friend was dead.....

      "You fool, bastard, you killed my friend, you will pay for it" the second boy said at the top of his voice and proceeded to take out his belt but stopped mid way
       "You forced me to use the force" he said pointing the pistol to the second boy's head
       "Now man, don't you think its a bit too much, it was just ragging, senior junior interaction,thats all"  the second boy said in a shaky voice filled with fear
       "Yes, i know, so even what i am doing is a plain senior junior interaction, bye bye" he said in a cold voice
      
     He touched the pistol on the boys head and pulled the trigger immediately, blood got splattered from the boys head on to his face. The blood was warm and he could feel it. He was satisfied now, and he was complete. He looked at the moon and said, "this is more beautiful than you". Looking at the bodies ,a smile came across his face, the smile converted into a laugh, and then a roar of laughter. The round nose of the pistol barrel appeared attractive and amusing to him, he looked at it again and again. He wanted to have a closer look at the pistol nose. He brought it close to his eyes. He wanted to feel this round nose of pistol. He was the king of the world now, immortal and undefeatable, he touched the pistol nose to his forehead, his fingers went slowly to the trigger, his heart after what looked like an eternity started to pump heavily again but he could not stop himself, he knew he had to do it, this was what he had planned and this was what the destiny had planned for him. Slowly he pulled the trigger and soon he could feel a force entering his head. Thats the last he remembered, he could not see or feel anything anymore.

Next day newspaper cutting-

           "Last night in freak incident, three boys from RSNP engineering college died here on the terrace of the boys hostel.Dhananjay roy was a first year student from mumbai, the other two Shantanu mallik and Chriss Joseph who were third year students are said to be belonging to well to do families from delhi. It is apparently believed that the Dhananjay was mentally unstable and brutally murdered the two boys who were just having a night out on hostel terrace. Finger prints on the pistol are of dhananjay roy who apparently stole the pistol from one of the guard standing on duty here. Dhananjay then in a fit of mental instability shot himself on the forehead. The college authorities and local police are investigating the case and promise to reach the depth of the issue very soon.

The boy who lived....

 A young boy climbed up the aisle to the stage in the morning assembly on the 1st day of our secondary session,  he cleared his throat before starting to recite a Hindi poem in chaste and fluent way.

       "Mom who is this guy??" i asked my mom who was also a teacher in the same school i studied  in
       "Son,he is tanmay, he will be your classmate from this year, he is manju teacher's son"
       " He is so nice on stage" i said
        "isnt he,you know he used to stammer at a young age??"
        "ohhhh....but he doesnt stammer now....how??
        "Hard work to get out of a bad situation is what he did"
        "ok"
We all proceeded to our classes after our section were announced, since he was as tall as me i approached him and sat next to him.

           "You are seema aunty's son naa?? Hi i am tanmay" he said with a wide grin and a loud voice
            "Yeah i am abhishek"
            " I know"
            "Ok take this" he said with a melody chocolate in hand
            "uhhhhhh okay thanks" after some resistance i accepted the chocolate from him

                I started enjoying his company more and more. So much so that i used to look forward to the next day to spend time with him. We shared many interests which included hatred towards girls( How stupid i was, and how diagonally opposite i am now), hating homeworks ,bad handwriting, passion for going on stage and laughing aloud at silly jokes. We used to play cricket in the evening together. And sometimes we even studied together. My mom taught us English and social while his mom Hindi and Sanskrit. The quarterly exams came by. He to my surprise topped the class and i barely made it to the top 10. He turned out to be much more than what i was. We did share interests but he was better at them . He was better at handling the stage, hating the girls to the level of having a fist fight with them which i never could do and later it turned he was much better at studies than me.

               We never fought, but when our mom's went for a picnic with 10th std to ooty they took both of us along. And it was there that we started fighting. The fights were always petty, like who will get to seat at the window, or why i am sharing my bed with my mom rather than with him. One moment we used to fight and the next moment we were together.This all continued till 8th std.And yes he kept on topping till 8th std.

            In 9th std i got into different division due to my choice of elective subject. Slowly 9th std passed by and i became less aware of him. And we then came into the big year, the 10th std. Suddenly i came across him one day at the market.

                "where you coming from tanmay??" i asked
                "ohh i went to movie , devdas, nice movie"he said with a sense of excitemet
                "dont you think you should be studying? and how did aunty allow you??" i asked in bewilderment
                " I didn't tell her, as simple as that" he said shrugging his shoulders

        The results came out and i was shocked, no, not for me but for him because for the first time i had scored more than him, he had lost his position and many people had climbed up on him. He seemed least disturbed by this and seemed uncharacteristically chilled out. We went to the same high school, and this time again he was in a different section. It was my birthday and i decided that it was time to reconnect with my old friend. He promptly came on time for my party but was panting....

             "What happened?" i asked worriedly
             " nothing i need to go now, my girl friend is waiting for me" he said with a smile
             "I thought you hated girls, who is she any way.....and...."
             "No not any more,i love girls now ,she is my classmate,wanna see her?? come along"
             "No you go, i ll stay back"

     But out of curiosity i followed him, without knowing ,i saw the girl, she was pretty, but she left in only 5 mins and he was joined by some other set of friends. I saw one of them taking out a packet and to my astonishment, it was cigarette which he had lighted. I was shocked to the core. I didn't keep much touch with him may be due to some of my morals(baseless may be) and fear of being in wrong company. Grade 12 exams also came by and went and this time he had fallen well below his previous score. And he was least perturbed. His dad and mom promptly gave donation for him in the same college in which i had got my admission. Unfortunately he took different branch and yet again i couldn't be in his class. His consequent results were not good . He got 2 backs in 1st sem and 3 in 2nd, as a result of which he got a year drop. He cleared the least no. of subjects required to move on to next year and came back as a year junior to me. But this time again he could not clear one first year subject due to which he was denied permission to move to next year and now he became 2 yrs junior to me. I have passed out my engineering and he is still in third year.

       I lost tanmay my friend somewhere in translation, someone i had loved as a brother had gone astray. Who can we blame for his debacle?? His parents?? no that would be a grave mistake. He is himself responsible for his downfall. Deciding the set of friends is always a personal choice and i guess he made the wrong decisions at crucial times. The rush of testosterone and adrenaline, and the will to prove to this world took him to stooping lows. The boy with whom i lived my best part of life is i think no longer even living the life he is supposed to live.

          Their is a famous doha by someone i don't know( uhh plagarising again, but from my old hindi textbook) which says that snakes may be always wrapped around a sandal wood tree but a sandal wood tree never gets poisonous and always retains its charm...............Hope you are well versed with this doha tanmay.....

Things not to do with a girl

Now if the title seems suggestive of something else, please forgive me, but this blog is going to be all about how not to behave with a girl when you are in love. And if at all you started reading this blog thinking that the blog will be like the suggestive title then you have the choice of not continuing.

        Girls- They are very much human like men, but then men would like to believe they are not. A girls mind is one of the toughest nut to crack and even great psychologists have failed in doing so. No i have not even come close to even seeing a girls mind but all i will share with you all is my experience. One moment a girl would be giggling with you and the next moment she would ask you not to laugh as you are embarrassing  her in the public. When you ask her what's wrong and if she says nothing then it surely means you are in great trouble.

         From the above para it may seem you have read and know all of this before hand. Yeah thats true because i have borrowed the above content from an email.Then how about something original?? I was in my second year engineering, happy that finally i was in my dept and wanted to work hard for it. To do publicity for the tech fest of my dept i decided to woo people from non-technical background into LAN gaming. And hence i chose a mass media college(partly because of the sensational crowd they have). I was standing there with a poster hanging from the bench provided when a girl tall and sharp, standing apart, approached me to take part in one of the LAN events. I casually gave her the form, when i collected the form,

   "hey you know we share same surname" i said
   " ohh really, thats so nice, so we from the same small community huh?" she said
   "yeah thats right" i said
   "ok then bbye"
   "yeah bye"

    Then taking advantage of the event i gave her a call written by her on the form, and with that we started speaking on phone and started getting more and more close. One day i received an sms from her

 i

 l
lo
lov
love

u


utthappa more than dosa...

I replied , " hey thats an old message, very old infact, send something new" to which she replied " what if i remove the last line??"

 To which i stupidly replied " what, the message will be reduced by a few characters what else??" i laughed out praising my self for the humor i showed. Now who ever thinks that it was indeed a good humor, please learn a lesson, it was the most pathetic way of stopping a girl's intent. Dont ever do that if at all you want to woo a girl, better still, try out a similar reply, or at least say a yes. 


       Now coming to second incident with the very same girl. We had planned to watch the movie DON in a theater, it was a well planned event, a day before that she calls up

  " hey wassup" she said
  "nothing" i said
 " i m really getting bored at this exhibition, would you care to join me here??" she said
 "uhhhh no re, its too far, pakega aane ko udhar"
  "plzzzzzzzz come naa"
   "no yaar, i need to study as well"
  " ok we will meet tomorrow"
  "yeah sure"


   The next day we met for the movie, and i thought it would be better if i could explain her why i didn't  come yesterday.
  "hey i am sorry i couldn't turn up yesterday" i said
   "yeah.......it is okay" she said
   "look its like i was already going to waste a lot of time with you today, so i thought to cover up some syllabus" i said
   "Ohhh spending time with me is a waste of time is it??"
   " uhhh ohhhhh........"

       Gone.....that was the last nail in the coffin. She didn't actually meet me for sometime after that and i actually started missing her. Then finally called me to meet up one day. Along with her their was a guy who looked quite older. She introduced him to me as a building mate. I took it lightly, then a month later she confessed to me that that building mate whom i met was actually her BF. This news really got to my brains, i started behaving a little aggressive with her. I started taunting her for not calling me from time to time and finally she added me to ignore user list on the orkut!!!!. So that was it, 2 yrs ago was the last i heard from her.

        Lessons i learnt?? You always spend time with a girl and it is never a wastage even if you have a  meeting and even all she is doing is shopping for herself. Second, if the girl has moved on with a man, you also should gracefully move on, don't stagnate yourself with a thing which can never happen.


       I wrote this blog in public service for boys and men who are still like my older self. If you found this blog informative, please do comment, if you found this blog a crap, still comment. And girls who are reading this, My new self is a polar opposite of my older self........:)

A wall that fell, and a wall that should fall

Unified India got divided in 1947,USSR broke into 15 countries, vietnam got divided into north and south, so did korea but 20 years ago a wall fell, which was the only incident which went against the tide. It was the fall of berlin wall. And this fall could happen only because the people on both sides wanted it to fall. They had the will to stay united and undivided by just the politics of economics(capitalism and socialism namely). The Wall was only physical because emotionally they were still united, physical walls are easy to break but the ones inside a human mind are .....???
             Theirs a wall that needs to fall in India as well. No i am not talking about wagah border, we dont love pakistanis any way and neither they have any affection left for us after all the bitterness between the countries. I am talking of the wall that of intolerance and ignorance that has enveloped and divided the whole country........
   Lets go 2 months back. I was meeting a girl whom i knew for sometime, but not well enough. We had joined a common class for embedded systems.......

          "Hey do you know, parul the student coordinator is a big flirt"i said with a wink
           "Uhhhhhhggggg how can she do that"she said
          "yeah, morals right??"i said wondering why she gave such a reaction
           "no, she is so ugly"she said
           "aahhh" i said
           "besides that lady has no class, look at the cheap unbranded clothes she buys"she said
           "hmmmmm"

         I was speechless, because i had never judged people by the money and looks they posses. That lady made me conscious of the brand of clothes i was wearing. I had only seen it in films but i saw it in real for the first time, the rich person thinking and talking lowly of not so rich people. And i realized one thing that day, for some people money does speak. The girl and lady in question stay very nearby to each other obviously in very polar housing societies. And apparently theirs no wall except for the  compound wall which separates them. They are accessible to each other.......

   Lets go little more back in time, april 30 the central election day in mumbai and.........this


     ' Guys this is the deciding day, vote for MNS, the beacon of marathi pride, lets kick out north Indians like  tyagi(me) who have taken up jobs in MNC's like accenture and denied us the employment'

       This was an SMS sent by one of the maharashtrian in my college class  to another who happened to be my close friend. Nonetheless i was shocked after reading this SMS because i could not fathom the logic behind the sms.The person who had sent the SMS would always address me as "mitra" meaning friend in marathi. Anyway the so called 'marathi' group always keeping to themselves was a known fact but what i later came to know was even more amusing, these people actually became members of MNS by paying up 100 bucks in the hope of Raj thakerey securing them a job with his Fist force.

          It is these kind of people who serve as pawns for political parties based on the agenda of hate. I somehow dont understand the logic, MNS doesn't want the people to come to mumbai, but the same people can go to any other damn city in maharashtra? The marathi pride is hurt only when people from outside come to mumbai, but nagpur has more hindi speaking people than marathi's, that doesnt bother Mr. Raj. 52% of people in mumbai live in slums, that again doesn't bother Mr. Raj. The level of intolerance and animosity which has been generated between maharashtrians and non-maharashtrians is unimaginable. The vibes are almost always cold and negetive. But then Mumbai is united, isnt it? No one can see any wall.....

     Lets go some 2-3 years back into flashback. It was my 20th birthday and finally i was no longer a teenager, i decided to throw a party in a newly opened mall, 'Bread talk' was the name of shop selling exotic breads, i approached the counter which has pretty Chinese girl....

      "Hey, how much for the connizza ??"i said
       "25 rupees sir" the girl replied
       "Then serve me 5"
       "Okay right away sir"
      " by the way did anyone tell you, you have a cute voice and eyes" i said( taking a chance, she was not an Indian anyway)
      "No sir, you are the 1st one, thank you" she said
      "ohhhh, by the way which country are you from?? china??"
      "Sir i am an Indian"
     "Ohhh you have taken up Indian citizenship"
     " No i am from meghalaya"
  

     My whole body went numb, a bolt from sky had stuck me. It did not occur to me that there is a part in India called the "North-East". I was totally embarrassed. How easily we call the people from north-east as chinese and japanese. We don't realize that by actually calling them that we are giving them an idea that they don't belong to India. But then we are living in an Undivided and democratic India which has no god damn walls.


   Many of you who are reading this may think Mr. Raj is the only 1 who is a staunch linguistic.Lets go further into flashback, 1997, me along with my family went for a trip to South India, Tamil nadu in particular. In Madurai, we went  into a hotel.....

          "Kitna room ka??"  dad asked
           "Hindi???"the receptionist asked, my dad nodded in reply to which he said
           "Hindi illya"( no hindi), he said
           "How much for the room??" Dad asked in english
        
       In reply the receptionist just pulled out a placard saying no rooms available, and the very next hour we saw a couple checking into the very same hotel. The hostility towards the hindi language and people speaking it, even if he is a tourist is very much evident in Tamil nadu.Even purchasing a coconut water is a hard task And this hostility is existing since the eighties, so Mr Raj you are very new to this hostility, go learn your lessons from Tamil nadu. Theirs no physical wall to stop you.


       The wall in germany was only physical wall and even then it took 44 years to come down.We Indians have developed a wall much stronger( even stronger than ambuja cement) than the germans, the only stronger thing we have. This wall is a mixture of communal elements, linguistic element,regional elements and sometime even moral guardian elements. With such a combination who on earth can dare break this wall??? Unfortunately Larson and toubro Ltd hasn't designed a bulldozer yet which can break walls inside a human mind.


           Is there any one who can make this wall fall???????? 

Rain rain go away.......

A friend whom i was meeting after 6 yrs called me up early in the morning.....

"hey, its kinda gloomy, it may rain heavy today" she said
"yeah, so....thats so normal with mumbai" i said
"but you may get stuck, i live near-by only"
"You delhites will always fear rain, you dont see them any way"
"Ok then you are coming is it??"she said
"Mark a man's word on stone " i replied

It had rained only in the morning for past few days, and then by afternoon the skies cleared out. I thought to myself that it will be no different today. I ventured out in the rain armed with an umbrella and mobile charged to full( in case of emergency!!!!!). It was drizzling lightly. I reached the bus stop, the stop was empty. I felt happy at heart, lesser the people more the probability of getting a seat. 5 mins , 10 mins, 15 mins, 30 mins. No sign of any bus, my happiness became short lived as the stop was again packed to its capacity, the drizzle had became heavy by now. Finally i decided to catch a bus which takes me till halfway and then change over. I did so, believe me people, standing on 1 leg in a bus for 1 hr is not a simple task. I reached the mall where we were supposed to meet at a CCD . I realized that day that girls dont like it when guys come late. I had not realized that earlier because i am quite punctual when it comes to meeting up with females. As we were reminiscenting about our old high school days, my phone beeped , an sms from BMC ' BMC advices its citizens to stay indoors and not to venture out unless very urgent'. I looked out and said to my friend, "where is it raining that hard to stay indoors" to which she replied " i am a delhiite now, we dont see rains any way(taunt any one??)". We decided to go for a movie and that is when i started getting calls from home now, as i was unable to pick them up, the calls became more frantic. Finally i picked up and  consoled my sister. After the movie i was planning for a lunch, but when i looked out of the window, the heavy drizzle had become heavier and water was there everywhere. I bid my friend adieu and decided not to take a  bus and instead take a taxi or rickshaw....

 "BARC colony" i said panting after a  long walk
  "nopes" he said in a monotone

  "BARC??"
  " pay me Rs 400" the auto driver said
  "hehe, it comes to around 100 and you charging me 4 times?? you must be kidding" i said
   "You can come if you want to" he said
   " i ll get soaked in water here till my skin, but i wont pay you Rs 400"

      Finally i got an overcrowded bus again till halfway, and when i got down the water was ankle deep( only!!!!!).  I see one more sms on my phone from the commissioner of police, "All offices are closed , please go back home". And immediately after 30 mins , the buses got crowded, the trains stopped due to some cable failure, that added more pressure on the already overcrowded buses. I was only 20 mins away from my home when my bus broke down, no incoming bus decided to halt due to the crowd and i had to walk back home. And surprisingly by now the rain had stopped.The skies had cleared like all other days in the week, but by now all offices had been closed 2 hrs before time.


                      Now that leaves a question to be asked. Was all the panic required?? The rains are nothing new to mumbai, but is it getting more importance than it should be getting?? All the office goers and their family members were panic stricken , why?? No it was not because of the rains, it was only because of the so called advance warning by the authorities. Had their been no warning , no one would have panicked, My family called me up minute after minute only because of those smses, and in turn even i panicked( in front of a delhiite and that too a girl!!!!!). The already overloaded transport system got further load of people and finally who suffered were the people like me who finally had to walk down for hours in some case to reach homes.

              
        The thing i realized that  day was that,yes precaution is better than cure but then sometimes too much of precaution can cause a pandemonium of unnecessary height...........

Maximum City, Minimum Hearts

Mumbai- The land of opportunities, the city with people having "the spirit". How often do we hear all this on news channels when it rains and people are stuck or when there's a blast. But how true it is?? Is this city really a Maximum city??

          The dahi kachori was spicy and finger licking good. We were chattering with each other as usual when i heard a mild sound of crash

 "Thud"
 " What was that??" sunand asked me
 "Lets finish off with the kachori then we will see" i said

 After finishing the kachori we decided to check out what was happening....

 "You mother f***er, you broke my helmet, now pay me Rs 500 or forget your bag" a man in his late 40's with an average built was shouting.
 "Sir please, I have to deliver this bag with sarees to a shop, please sir i beg to you" a very tall but thin man probably in early 30's and an outsider to the city was begging.
"You can take the bag, just give me my Rs 500 and the bag is yours" the older man said
 "Please dont waste our time and shell out the money" the old man's daughter, probably in her late teens stepped in with her view.

 "hey son , leave it..dont get so angry" a very old lady said in marathi
 "Hey old lady, you better get lost from here, dont say anything between us" the man replied in marathi
 
  The middle aged man with his daughter entered a doctor's clinic next to the eatery, the poor tall man followed them to the clinic. The middle aged man started pushing and shoving this guy.This is when me and friend decided to step in and do something.

   "What exactly happened??" i asked the poor tall man
   "I lost my balance due to the bus coming very close to me and  ended up hitting the helmet on this fellows bike" the poor man said
   "Its ok uncle, give the bag back, in any case your helmet doesn't seem to have an ISI mark" i said
   "Thanks to this poor fellow, you must have realized how weak your helmet is" sunand said
   "Weak or strong, i had spent money on it" the middle aged man said
   "The guy looks poor, leave him for the sake of humanity" i said
   " If you are so much of a human, then pay up" he said
   " Now c'mon uncle" sunand said
   " Ok lets go to police stn, we will settle it all there" the middle aged man said in a threatening tone
   " Yeah i insist we go to police station, i can accumulate 100 people who saw you stealing the bag from the poor fellow, lets go now itself" i said
  
         He gave the bag to the fellow with a hint of disdain, but while parting he said one thing which has now become very common...

     "maharashtra made rahaysa naa?? mag marathi mansa la respect dya" (" You want to stay in maharashtra ? then respect marathi people")
    
       The poor fellow, not getting a word of what was said to him left the place happy and thanking us profusely.
  
                The question to be raised here is, What were so many people doing there outside an eatery? enjoying the show?? Except for an old lady, nobody cared to interfere. The middle aged man didn't show any mercy to the lady and even shouted on her, what was every one doing? Everyone was a mute spectator. Is this city really a maximum city with maximum spirit??

               I would say that everything we see in news channels and films is a total hype, no one has time in this city to help people or rather i should say have the courage to stand up to something wrong. Eve teasers roam freely on stations teasing college going girls, who stands up ?? no one

             Then how and why is such hype and hoopla given to the city's spirit and resilience ?? No it is not the spirit of the city which makes people travel in the local trains just a day after a blast in the very same local, it is the helplessness of the people which makes them do it. We mumbaikars are no brave soldiers who love taking risks, it is just that we have no other option. The people are not even brave enough to stand up to injustice, forget the terror and blasts.

           If this showed the lack of courage in mumbaikars then the last sentence by the middle aged man showed the intolerance and false pride of many mumbaikars . The hearts of the people have shrunk so much so that they can feel and see only their family and no one else. They can't tolerate an outsider in their premises. The rich south mumbai people don't feel like travelling to the suburbs as "Suburbs??yukkk , the life lies in South mumbai".


        Wake up mumbai from the self attained mask of resilience to see what the reality is.

        This is a Maximum city, but with minimum hearts............

A night of horror, chance and stink

 It was after four years in the history of our college and branch that an Industrial visit was arranged for. Courtesy the president of the students association of the branch( ohhh thats me!!!!!!!!). It was a four day trip to udaipur and mount abu.

        We checked into one of the best budget class resorts in udaipur, the oriental palace resort which had it all, swimming pool, garden and rooms wer actually row houses. Being a north Indian i have relatives spread all over north India. Before going to udaipur i was put on a condition that i have to visit my aunt their. I decided to have dinner at my aunts place so that i dont miss out on the fun the whole day. I came back to see everyone sitting by a bonefire in the garden, i headed straight to the room and changed into dockers shorts and came to the lawn, but all my close group of friends with whom i also shared the room were coming back, i asked them what happened, they ignored my query and asked me to head straight to the room with them.

  "When did you come??" ashit asked with a hint of worry on his  face
  " Just 5 mins back...why??" i said
  "No i mean how did you manage to go the room alone?? it is so dark here"ashit said with some sweat rolling down his face
  "Ohhh , fortunately i am a grown up man, and besides the room had lights" i said, winking to one of friend
   "It no joke dude,it is said this  was crematorium before" sunand  said
   "Ohh really???" i said giving out a sudden burst of laughter
   "the manager said so,it is believed some of them roam here, and this...this darkness is so haunting"ashit said, fear quite obvious on his face
  "And those idiots are scaring a lot of people by actually placing candles and trying to call the souls" jay said pointing to some of our classmates

   "Now seriously man, chuck it out,souls  would be pissed if they saw our group at all and run away, and even if we all die, we will die together, bharat mata ki jai" i said, to make things  light.
       But somewhere down a fear had gripped me too because the resort was indeed not well lit. I tried to act cool so that others can come out of it. As soon as we reached our room, i started reading the hanuman chalisa, giving some sort of positive vibes, I dont know what worked, was it the well lit AC room or the hanuman chalisa, but we were not much scared now.

         We decided to play teen patti , sleeping was not we had come here for, so this was the best way to spend time.1 pack of cards were used for playing and other pack served as money(ahhh we are always broke any way!!!!!!) I got my cards saw them( i never take a risk of blind), it was 3 spades, 4 spades and 7 hearts, i said pack without a second thought. I saw Sunand with a wicked smile on his face. He must be having great cards i said to myself. Everyone else had packed seeing the way sunand was betting, it was only Rischav who was playing blind after blind, finally sunand asked for a show. Slowly he took out his  cards,
 2 of hearts,3 of hearts, 4 of hearts, it was a colored sequence, and finally with a smile rischav showed his cards, jack queen and king of hearts.

             This was enough for sunand to start with his theories
"look dude, this particular position has something in it" ,he said  pointing to place where  Rischav was sitting
"May be a good person was buried here" ,ashit said,looking worried again

We continued the game, i kept on packing and rischav kept on winning, finally sunand decided that i should sit where rischav was sitting. As it turned out, i still kept on losing,

 "Look there's no theory,i am still losing",i said
"Thats because you have a saade saati on you" jay said
"Its all a chance dude, look rischav is still winning" i said
"uhhhhhhhh whats this stink???" sunand said, holding his nose hard
"yukkksssssssss" every one said aloud
" I am sorry guys, it seems the papad i ate, decided not to get digested" Ashit said laughing aloud

  We all used all kinds of deodorants we had to fend of the stink, but somehow it was overpowering, we decided its better we sleep.The next day we all left for mount abu, leaving the haunted resort , and its stories behind. We continued playing teen patti in the bus train and any where we could play and i still kept on losing, ashit decided not to eat papad anymore and fortunately for us his digestion had improved.

                      The IV is still remembered by whole branch for the fun we had, fortunately only the great moments were remembered. I remember this particular incident because all it took to remove the fear out of our head was 1 fart. 'How a moment can change our life'. If you people have heard this line, please dont accuse me of plagiarism!!!!!!

Speed thrills, but kills or at least screws

      Now, since its my blog so i have taken the liberty to add a few words to the already famous and now very common line. It was 6-30 in the evening and i was having my cup of bournvita( yes it is still my tan aur man ki shakti) when my phone rang, pissed, i got up and picked up the phone........

"Dude i am screwed", rajat said
"its no time for rhyme buddy, i am very pissed", i said
"Its no rhyme man, i have met with an accident,i have fractured both my hands"
"yeah right, then how is it then you are making me a  call with those very same hands huh??"
"uhhh , nurse is holding the phone for me"
"really?? how does she look???"
"a**hole, come down to bandra man, i am suffering"


     I got a lot of scolding from the guy because he had indeed fractured both his hands, a suffering he was facing for the second time in four years,the reason and means being different both the times, earlier it was on a bajaj chetak and this time it was on his swanky hero honda hunk. The means, i ll come to that later.


      Now what causes accidents??? No i am no RTO analyst and neither i am doing any case study, but a plain simple observation. I can attribute it to three reasons.

1) Intentionally or unintentionally, the women are are the reason for a man's downfall( quite literally). A guy is riding his bike with his girl friend sitting behind, his adrenaline(excitement) and testosterone( manhood quotient) rushes surely to a very high level. He would always want his girl to believe that he is one of the coolest riders in the town.Impression is not the only reason for accidents because one my friend riding his so called safe bike(Unicorn) in a safest manner couldn't resist public display of his affection whilst riding his bike and ended up hitting a hand cart right in front of my eyes. It resulted in bruises on foreheads,his wallet became lighter by 7000 and got a few laughs and taunts from all of us.If the girl sitting behind is not a boy's girl friend, he would still like to impress her by some way or other, irrespective of his interest in the girl, i own a pulsar 150 and since i am very happily single(no pun intended) i have had the pleasure of more than 1 girl sitting on bike (which committed people dont get), but unfortunately i have never had the chance to show off because all of them have been a scraredy cats

  "phat(sound)!!!!!, drive slowly, we are not in an aeroplane"
 " stop the bike abhishek, i am not going to ride behind , if its going to be this way"

The third way in which girls causes accidents are by walking on the footpaths and the bye lanes, The guys can never have enough of a show off and when they see a chic on a footpath they dont miss a chance to impress. To solve this girl menace, we can either ban girls from walking on footpaths, stop them from sitting behind boys or give boys a horses view blocker.

2) The second reason for bike accidents is what we can call "khujli". The itch to do something out of this world. It was a chilled winter morning, the bike was only 3 months old, i was riding it for the first to the college which lies on the highway, i was riding smoothly at 50-60 odd when i felt the urge( khujli in crude language) to twist the throttle hard, i did so, the speed went from 60 - 70  - 80 - 90 -100- 112, the wind was gushing in my helmet, my bike was flying, i saw a tempo some 1 km ahead, i thought to myself, haa i ll just go past it, but suddenly at that speed my handle felt stiff and it became very hard to turn it by much, some how i managed to whizz past that tempo. This incident blew the hell out of me, My speed came down like the mercury of a  thermometer kept in a freezer. I imagined my mangled bike and amputed  body parts in case of a crash at that speed, since then i dare go past 60, and since then i have never received any slap on my back or any warning from the girls sitting behind me. The friend of mine who is currently in hospital nurturing his fractured hand, also had this khujli and skidded of the bike at quite some speed.


3) The 3rd reason is one of the lame reasons, its generally because of the fault of the people walking in and out of the road, a toddler coming on the road or a dog or cat coming on the road. and sometimes it is the bad condition of the road itself. I wont dwell into this much because frankly i dont have much to write on this reason, but if you scroll up a bit i had written about my friend suffering for the second time, yes the first time he was sitting casually on his dad's parked bajaj chetak when a maruti 800 hit him and dragged him for some 500 m before stopping, by then he had suffered multiple fractures on his leg and skull, 3 months in hospital, 1 yr wasted academically and then a change in stream next year were the consequences of this accident.


   Then what are the solutions??? how to be a safe while driving??? No i wont advise people to wear helmets, lets leave that to government and traffic police. 1) Try not to show off in front of a girl, if its your GF, she is already impressed, if she is of no interest, then you need not impress. 2) Try avoiding the khujli by just thinking over the consequences and last 3) pray to god that you dont share the luck of my friend......

Placements-Life before and after

       For an engineer, campus placement is a big thing, it ensures that you lay your hands on a good job well in advance, and for one, you wont have to be in a hindi film like situation where the elder brother of the hero walks around in scorching sun with his certificates in hand. The packages in the bonanza are, good impression on the teacher, automatically you can see a change in their otherwise stern attitude, and that gives a possible hope for better internal marks. The other thing which comes along with campus placement is that, juniors start to respect you, and when a cute looking girl who you thought never knew you, approaches you for small talk on the adventures of placement, it all feels great.

           It was the starting of 5th sem and one of professor said something very important,
 " you may have cleared all your sems, but dont screw this sem, trust me no company will look at you"

I took those lines seriously and started working very hard(only for a day or two). Then one other professor said,
"Just being a bookworm wont help, start solving aptitude, if you see a car, read its number and try to find a mathematical relation in it"

Trust me I actually did that while travelling in bus for around 2 months. Then I got fed up of it all and gave up. I decided to concentrate on sem first. 5th sem came and went like all other semesters, and now was one of the most troublesome time for me. My building people would often stop me and ask.....
"son, this is your placement sem naa? when is the company coming???"

       That was routine for almost a month, believe me its not easy staying in a colony full of nuclear scientists.Finally my wait ended, Accenture announced that it will be coming in three days for campus placements, I was relived, only because I would have an answer to the queries of my building people,and  preparing in three days was impossible. Still, as engineering is based on optimism , I could see all the toppers of all the branches sitting in a huddle cracking RS aggarwal and shakuntala devi. Those thick books were always beyond my comprehension. The D-day came, I don't know if it was hook or some sort of crook that i cleared the apti test , rest was easy because I am always good at chit chat.

     Then came the best part of the campus placements, I was amongst  the only 2 students from my class to get selected. The second thing, the person who got selected with me was the hottest and probably the only chic in my class. The third thing was seeing my name on the notice board for being placed. The forth thing was    that the best looking junior approached me for notes( she is still very much in touch with me!). The fifth thing was all the people in my building stopped asking me anymore regarding the placements.

    Barely 1 .5 yrs after the placement came the most haunting part. The very same building people started poking me again.

" Arre son you were placed naa??? which company??? "
"Accenture"
"haan accenture accenture, what happened to it?? when are they calling you??"
"Dont know uncle, i am waiting"
"Good"

My relatives from all the nondescript places would call up and ask me when i am starting my job and that they need something out of my first salary, now if i spend all my first salary on them, how will i buy a new mobile for myself???.

Then there are some super worried seniors who love to play the role of guardian angel. Advices flow from all direction.

"look dude, do some course in CCNA"


"I would advice you to take up dot net and java"


The same uncle met me at the same place the next month asked me the very same question( damn these nuclear scientists). The next month he again met me and this time i told him that if and when i get my job, first box of sweet will come to his place, thankfully he hasn't haunted me with the same question again.


    The placements has affected my life for sure, positive or negative remains to be seen. The last time i got flooded by haunting questions( 6th sem) accenture came to my rescue and placed me. Now i am being haunted again,

               Accenture , are you listening?

Free too loose can fly, holding too tight can die

 Recently an insurance company started running a very interesting ad. The ad features a cool urbane girl sitting in a compartment waiting for the train to depart, to her amusement a couple arrive to see of their son and start to pamper him irrespective of the people sitting around, treating him like a kid much to their son's dismay, because he is not left with a chance to impress the girl.


     Well unfortunately this kind of behavior which was shown in  the ad was not at all exaggerated and was  to an extent true. The situation in many households may not be like this, but for those people who relate with the ad may feel a connect with the boy in the ad. And i am one of them.

       Sixth sem results had just come out and we all were having a lot of fun, the result was good after all. So we decided to release our pent up frustration by going to some hill station, and we chose lonavala, a hill resort at an  hours distance from mumbai on the expressway. After a lot of convincing and lot of promises i was allowed to join my friends in their car. Loud music jarring from the car which was at a speed of around 100kmph(expressway is India's best and safest highway), i receive a call from my dad..

"yes dad"
"where have you reached??"
"i am near panvel"
"alrite,what speed is your car going at ??"
"uhhhh 80"( a blatant lie)
"you idiot, seems you having troubles following my guidelines huh??"
"what??"
"Ask you friend to reduce the speed of the car"
"alrite, aye ashit, bring the speed to 60(winking), yeah done dad"
"hmmmmm, ok you had water?? listen son drink water at regular intervals, and don't poke your head out of the car window"
"yes dad, don't worry"
"And do give me a call when you reach there"
"yes dad"
"I hope you wont do the kind of mischief you are known for"
"ok dad"
"bye son , take care"
"yes dad bye"

        That was the last time i took permission from my dad to go out for a trip any where, i had to find excuses to stay out of home and roam around. But unfortunately the conversation you saw above was not the only one i had to ever face, Still after passing out my engineering i face such kind of pampering (or the lack of it). Why does this happen? And what are the consequences??

                The parents excuse of their love for their children is indeed a good one, but how true is it?? Does that mean parents who give freedom to their children or don't poke their noses in their things, don't love their children?? So the excuse that these parents love their children and hence this behavior is baseless and falls flat. The real reason as i see, is lack of trust in the child or lack of ability in them to understand their child. Such parents don't really see their kid as a grown up man or woman, they still tend to see them as child and end up embarrassing them in front of their friends and sometimes potential love interests(i never allow any of my friend who is a girl to meet my parents....). They don't have the confidence in them, this lack of confidence from the parents actually ends up making the child a nervous wreck and sometimes a blatant liar(like me!!!!).

            The consequences of such kind of parenting are not too good. Because mostly as we see around such children, who suffer with the lack of personal space are usually book worms, dull at extra curricular and lack heavily in self confidence, some of them(like me) who have a rebel in them can come out of it and stand up to this world,by lying, and having their way with molding of words, but not everyone is a rebel. With frustration and sometimes with a will to only go against their parents, children end up taking up the wrong path, i have seen many people taking up smoking and drinking to get the feeling of doing something against the unwritten  law at home. I know many girls who got into a relationship only to get the feel of opposing their parents ideologies, Ideology of not even allowing their daughter to even speak to a guy.

         Conversely, very lenient parenting can also be very harmful, i cant imagine my parents being too lenient with me because otherwise i would have been a free bull on a rampage. Those parents who give so much freedom so as to not even inquire what their child is doing ends up giving their children a feeling that parents don't love them. Even such children end up being on the wrong path of life and getting farther and further away from their parents.

        Then what should the parents do?? Do we children can ever be satisfied??
  
      Frankly we can never be satisfied but, at least the degree of unsatisfaction can be reduced by a parenting which is a perfect balance, i know the line is thin but those parents who can walk this thin line can end up being the best parents. (10 yrs hence i would be writing another blog to tell the degree of my success as a parent!!!!!!)

      For this i just remember a line from a famous song "numb" by linkin park

         "Holding too tight can die, a free too loose can fly"

Recommendation, money and patience

Now,There are people who have had a brush with the Mumbai university may actually have an idea of its functionality and then are those who dont have any idea may be because they dont belong to mumbai or never had the luck to visit the shrine for students(all puns intended).

My first encounter with the MU was quite memorable. My first sem engineering exams got over and i had promised my father that i wont get anything less than 65%. If at all i got anything less than that i would change my name, after the results got declared i realized how eating your own words can be like eating an elephant, and since that day my dad calls me Mr. hype.

The results for 1st sem had been declared and all i could hear around me was.......

"ohh my god, impossible, this is certainly not my result"

"what the f**k???"

"f**k"

" i am so screwed man"

I was standing in front of results sheet, bewildered and amazed at how expectations and come crashing down in a moment, when a hand patted me at the back and said

"welcome to mumbai university my dear junior"

Apparently she was a female(cute!!!!) who had flunked for 3rd time in mechanics, although i dont know if i remember my result for how much below expectation it was or for a cute pat on my back by an even cuter female.

Cut to 2nd sem results, i decided it was enough and i will check out the photo copy of the corrected answer sheet and see how exactly papers get corrected. The venue for fetching and submitting the form was the university campus itself and the time was early morning, i was the third person to be in the queue for the getting the forms. By the time the counter opened and by the time i was able to get the form and by the time i was able to submit the form, i was standing at no. 145 in the queue for the final submission. Apparently everyone behind me had some source or other and had their way into the queue. My photocopy arrived in two months and those with some recommendations laid their hands on the photocopy well in advance. I learnt the first method in which the university functioned............

Recommendation

I saw a classmate of mine sobbing profusely after seeing her 3rd sem results. I went up to her to console her, She looked up to me and said, "abhishek, i vow to get my way with the results, i wont take it lying down"

I said, "uhhh how is that possible??"

"you just wait"

Two months later not only had she got her photocopy, but had also applied for reevaluation and finally had even cleared the very same subject with better marks without having to reappear for the subject. While my other friends sadly couldn't even lay their hands on the photocopy. I somehow mustered the courage to ask her and she burst out, " I used a language these MU people understand, the language of green crisp money, I threw money and had my way". This was the second lesson for me regarding the MU.

Money

The fifth sem for me had been an ultimate disaster. 45 people in the class of 60 flunked in what was the most easiest subject, reason-tiff with the teacher, that apart, thinking that this was internal correction i applied for the reevaluation, the result of which is yet to come, and this was two years back, i m still waiting for it because i actually don't care for it anymore, The university although says that the reevaluated marks can come to me anytime, I am still waiting. This was third thing which i learnt in dealing with MU......

Patience

So all those of you who want to deal with MU, please be vary of the above three things, either you should have great recommendations, or else you should be filthy rich or else you should have patience and perseverance, The limit however for your patience may extend from a few weeks to eternity.

Love- liability,threat and strength

Uhhhh......Many of you who have read my previous blogs would tend to think, is this guy love starved psycho who goes on and on giving lessons on love???

For those who think so, i would say i do not disagree completely. To those who do not think so, thank you for being the way you are.

To some people the title itself may confuse them, "kya likhta hai yaar", just 5 mins of pure reading and they will realize what the title stands for.

In this blog i ll discuss a story of a girl who fell in love and got trapped in the vicious circle of emotions and drama.

Renuka(of course thats not the real name of the girl), a happy go lucky girl from ahemadabad, decided that she had had enough of studies crap. She was already going for two tuitions for her grade 12th. She decided it was time to have fun and possibly fall in love. As is the case always, girls with determination never fail. She met a guy Arpan and fell in love with him. The guy, an engineer placed with a reputed company and passion for everything he did was enough for her to determine him as an ideal guy. Their love story started on a very sweet note. The guy brought her flowers every week when they met ( you see, she could still meet up only ones a week, damn this Indian education system). Fortunately for the girl, her apathy was over and her 12th grade exams finally got over, it was fun time for her and her BF as well. They started watching more and more of movies, until one day the guy demanded that they watch the next show of the movie they had just seen. The girl thought he must have liked the movie and went in with that frame of mind, alas the girl did'nt know that the guy ran high on passion as well as testosterone.

"ouch, you gone mad, what are you doing" renuka said.

"Shut up, dont you love me renuka" arpan said

"uhhh i do"

"then dont behave in this immature manner"

And from then on the movies served only one purpose. Unfortunately for the girl, her apathy didnt end at movie screen itself.

"Hey arpan, my dad mom have gone to native place"

"then what you waiting for renuka?? lets go to your room"

"No arpan"

You still dont love me renu it seems"

Renuka did'nt have the courage to go ahead and break-up, she loved him but could'nt bear him. One day she finally got a relief.

Renuka's father got transfered to another city and got admission into a college in this new city as well, she thought it was all over with him. She went to him and told him a goodbye.

"Cant you come with me for a movie for the one last time renuka, this will be the last time i get turned on you baby any way??"

She found the new city interesting with nice set of people. And within this nice set of people she found aditya the best. The guitarist of the college's lead band and a senior. The two of them started seeing each other more often and eventually renuka fell in love with the guy, naturally.

But her troubles were far from over, the passionate fellow being true to his nature followed renuka to her city and demanded what he has been doing in the past. The threat, the photographs of the two of them together will be mailed to her parents and put on the social networking sites.

She gave in for few times but then finally broke down in front of aditya, who immediately took a drastic step by calling in the cops. The chapter of arpan was closed for ever.

Aditya till date hasnt touched the girl, hasnt demanded anything from her.

Then what is the moral of the story???

Now you want me to give everything??

Any way i will still give the moral i felt, The girl saw possibly all faces of love. The passion, emotion and threat.

The same feeling of love from someone which threatened her, gave her the strength and support from someone else. Love is a feeling of varied dimensions, isnt it?

Online love ,any one?

Considering the new trend which the Indians are witnessing in particular, i decided to address this issue as well( No i am no politician but i can at least give my views huh?). Off late we are witnessing a surge in the number of people getting hooked by meeting online. The issue came to limelight when an Indian girl fled her home and ran away to pakistan to find her true love, a love she had seen only on the virtual medium!!!!!. The aftermaths of this virtual love story were not too good, the girls husband died and then harassment by the in-laws, but i wont be dwelling into that much.

A big shot in the arm for online cupid followers was the arrival of social networking sites like orkut and facebook. Those looking for eligible bachelors and spinsters( now who said only boys look for girls, its true vice versa as well, and believe me its true) could easily visit a profile have a look at the profile and add the person. But a more interesting sub-type in this category of were people of those communities or families where intercast marriages are a strict no, and the children of such families dont want to settle for anything less than a love marriage. Orkut very conveniently served the role of a match maker for such people.

The method is quite easy, simple step by step procedure( please dont consider this as a handbook, it may be a disaster). First the guy uses the search engine to fullest by typing ' female (surname) and city'. Ones the girl is seen the next step is the toughest step, to make the girl accept the friend request. For this the usual ploy which people follow is to add them saying " Its so nice to see people of my community online, why not stay in touch and make our community proud" (yeah they will be proud of our match and my efforts ;)). Now the mentality of the girl comes into equation, is the girl really interested in looking out for boys of the community?? if yes then she ll surely see the profile of boy, check out the pictures(is he handsome??), if all suits them mostly a smart girl would reject the request and wait for him to send it again and then add him, you see attitude.

And now comes the most interesting and funniest part. The first chat.

Boy- hi

girl-hi

boy-so wat u do???

girl-well i jus completed my BMM nd u?

boy- oh me i am engineer..

girl-hmmmmm

boy-so temme

girl-wat?

boy-uhhh......r u like commited??

girl-hmmmm....y u askin?

boy- jus like dat.....tell naa yaar...

girl- no i m single

boy-gud.....

girl- yy?? y gud?

boy- arre its very rare to find girls so gud as u single any more( flirting started)

girls-ohhh rlly?

boy-yeah....

So this is how the boy starts flirting and this is how the girl starts to give in. The boy goes on flirting and girl goes on blushing, this thing goes on till they exchange number and then finally meeting up. Then the same flirting continues but this time in the real world. This again continues till the guy ends proposing the girl and possibly marrying her some few years later.

I have seen this for real in my community itself and now the two concerned people are happily married.

But the real question here is, Is the virtual medium of social networking stealing away the charm of real world?

Is the method of finding and loving, really giving the people involved, true love??

I dont think so, but for those who follow this method, they are totally convince about their actions. The debate goes on and so does the match maker orkut. But i really hope that the love goes on and on.