Ironies

The President is coming

2012-01-26T00:45:00.003+05:30

With a cup of coffee in one hand and other hand ruffling his hair, he stared blankly at the documents kept in front of him. Just when he was about to give up on it, he saw his enlightened 'boss' coming in, seizing the opportunity, he went up to him.

"Sir, What do I do about this clause?" He asked, keeping the documents on his table.

"Which clause?" The boss replied sheepishly, while checking out the show timings for the newly released movie 'Andaz' starring some new comers like Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Nargis.

"This clause, sir, In the British constitution, we have the monarchical head, What do we do about it here, in India?" He asked with a sense of hurry.

"We will have a monarchical head as well then" The boss replied in a "Don't-you-know-it-tone".

"Sir, however, our nation has decided to do away with Monarchy, and if anyway we were to select one monarch, who would we select, we have so many kings and emperors." He said, now becoming restless.

"Yes, that is a valid point, we cannot have monarchy" The boss said, now a bit alert.

"Exactly my point, then can we have a president?" He asked curiously.

"Yes, yes, absolutely, let us have a president then" Boss added, impressed by his subordinate

"So then, the people of India will elect the president?" He added, to extract more from his boss.

"No, how can that be? We have made so many drafts incorporating the British constitution, according to which Prime Minister is the head of the country, it will be a lot of rework, if we were to change this." The boss added with authority and already regretting why he ever got impressed by this chap!

"However, the President is supposed to be the commander of armed forces and some other powers like passing the bill etc., What will the PM do, and what if there is a conflict" He added, still trying to keep his point.

"We will give him all the power a president is supposed to have" The boss said, "However, let us have a clause that he can use all these powers only in consultation with the PM" The boss added after seeing the blank look on his subordinate's face.

"This solves it then, thank you sir" He came out, satisfied with the answer and impressed by the solution given by his boss.

The above scenario, to those familiar with the world of IT, may resemble a coder catching up with a team lead with a problem and the team lead providing a work around for it. The above conversation is as fictional in nature as India overtaking China in terms of economy and military might. However, the outcome of the conversation is exactly what happened to India, creation of a ceremonial post.

On 26th January 1950, India became a Republic. A Republic means , a form of government in which the people or a significant portion of them have supreme control over the government and where offices of the state are chosen by people. In a nutshell, a state which is not headed by a monarch. But, our constitution makers somehow ended up adding a president as the head of the state, to keep intact, the inspiration.

The president is the Supreme commander of Armed forces, he can dissolve the lok sabha, he can remove the Judges of Supreme courts. He appoints the governor of states, he declares wars on countries and all the diplomatic treaties are signed by him. The President with all these powers may really be the superman of India, however to spoil the party, there is a small rider to it. A president can dissolve the Lok Sabha only on the 'advice' of council of ministers. He can remove the judges of Supreme court, only if a motion has been passed for impeachment in both the houses. He appoints the governor, who can at best be described as a miniature of president at state level. President declares the war against countries, but who decides when to go at war? All the diplomatic treaties are signed by him, but who negotiates the terms of these treaties? No prizes for guessing all of it.

The boundaries of power and advise by counsil for president can easily be said to be thin .Powers, which are diminished by a single sentence in the constitution which says that a president be advised by council of ministers, can still be easily rendered if a President knows how to play 'Politics'(Quoting a former minister Jagjivan Ram here). There have been presidents who haven't taken too kindly too the advise by council of ministers. So we had our very first president Dr. Rajendra Prasad openly opposing the Hindu code bill by Nehru. Giani Zail Singh used pocket of veto in 1986 for Postal bill, whereby, a president can delay his assent to a bill by indefinite time by not actually reviewing it, thus eventually pushing the bill into dustbin. And more recently we had APJ Abdul Kalam sending the modifications to office of profit bill back for reconsideration. And here came one more catch, the president can only send back a bill once. The second time it comes to him, he has to sign it. Smart UPA, ignoring the reconsideration request by Mr. Kalam, sent back the original bill to him.

The above facts and observations raise uneasy and probably blasphemous questions about the creators of our constitution. I have absolutely no doubt over the abilities of the drafting committee, however certain aspects of our constitution , like the ceremonial head of the country, which are lifted directly from the British constitution, make for an shabby copy and paste. Even if we had to have a head of the state, why wasn't a clear demarcation done about the powers he possesses and the powers he can actually wield? Why were the clauses kept so ambiguous? We have a President, who has a remuneration of Rs 150,000 a month, along with the Rs 220 million spent from annual budget on the activities of the president, who stays in one of the biggest palace in India(Rashtrapati Bhavan), the maintenance of which again is a costly affair. All this, for him to be a dummy in hands of the government,to be used like a rubber stamp, to be the face of the nation, probably the way Shahrukh Khan is the face of the N number of brands he never even uses.

The President will keep coming, irrespective of we needing him or not.

Pakistan: A problem child of a troubled mother

2011-11-27T17:21:00.003+05:30

It had been exactly an year since I had not visited my friend's home. Yes, he had traveled to UK for his higher studies, and yes, practically I had no reason to go to his place. But theoretically I had offended his mom and his kid sister. More so his kid sister because her supply of chocolates had been reduced drastically over the past one year. So when he finally came to India for visiting his family, I got an opportunity to wash away my theoretical sins and finally visited his home.

"I am so sorry Gia, I could not visit you for so long, how are you?" I said, trying to sound like an 8 year old
"This is not done, I won't talk to you" She said, sounding haughty.
"Ok, here you go, Is a cadbury good enough deal for you to start talking to me again?" I offered, "Let me make the deal more delicious by making it a cadbury crunchy, How about it?" I added while taking out the chocolate from my pocket
"Yeah it will surely do" she said and snatched the chocolate from my hand. "Can I share it with my Pakistani friend?" she said, showing rare obedience.
"Pakistani friend? How do you know a Pakistani?" I said, showing all possible emotions of confusion.
"Yeah, she comes to school with a white scarf over her head, we all call her a Pakistani" She clarified.
"Ohhh" is all I could say to my this kid's mindset.

A few days later, travelling with the same friend in the suburban rail transport towards the famous VT station, I was talking to him about how south east Asians live in UK. I was recounting, how one of my friend told me that most of the fights in the city of Glasgow are picked up by Pakistanis and eventually leads to Indians being crushed in their fights. Immediately, a bearded guy with a skull cap sitting in front of me, got up and stood in the passage. I looked at my friend and he was nodding his head with his tongue out to indicate that I committed a mistake. Later, he told me, how that guy must have felt that I was talking in context of Muslims being a trouble maker in UK. I wondered how and why?

Almost every cricket lover in India remembers the T-20 cricket world cup triumph of India in South Africa in the summer of 2007. Chak De had just released and Mr. Shahrukh Khan, promoting the movie along with fulfilling his desire to watch an India-Pakistan world cup final, was present in the VIP box waving the Indian flag undeterred. India eventually won the match and SRK went down to give every player a hug. A Hindi news channel whose motto is to deliver news the fastest to its viewers spared no time in interviewing SRK. The last question of the interview went like this:

"SRK, it is known that you are a pathan from Peshawar, and since Peshawar is in Pakistan, how do you feel today, that Pakistan lost the match to India".
A stunned SRK somehow regained his composure and replied
"I am an Indian, proof of which is my passport, I was brought up on Indian values and I was there to support India. Yes, Pakistan had a good team, but I would ALWAYS WANT MY COUNTRY ,INDIA, TO WIN".

Does the news anchor know, that the Bollywood's first family i.e. the Kapoors, also belong to Peshawar. 80% of the Khanna's and Malhotra's in Bollywood are from Pakistani Punjab. Would the anchor dare to ask the same question to Ranbir Kapoor or Rishi Kapoor?

After every terror attack that occurs in this country, before anyone, including the state, central and international agencies and government can condemn the attack, the Muslim community spokesperson(usually a cleric) comes out and strongly condemns the attacks. Any attack should always be condemned by all civilized people, However when the condemnation, although truthful has an element of compulsion in it, it raises questions. Not on the community, but on us and the system. The compulsion to condemn immediately is due to threats from right wing Hindutva groups, for they, before condemning the attack, bay for Muslim blood "for sowing the seeds of terror". So we have Aamir Khan calling a press conference to condemn the 26/11 attacks and some of the other big stars could do with a simple tweet or a Facebook update, because they don't have a Khan appended to their name.

As clear, by many ,Muslims are categorized as Pakistanis.How many people know ,that the crescent and star flag which is seen hoisted in any Muslim congregation and is often mistaken to be Pakistani flag , is not a Pakistan flag. It is simply holy to the Muslims. How many people know, that one of the most orthodox Islamic school of thought, the Dar-ul-uloom in Deoband, which is infamous for publishing Fatwas against Sania Mirza for her skirt, Salman Khan for bringing in Ganpati and more recently, Muslim women for going for jobs, was one of the first Muslim organization to out-rightly reject the idea of partition of India into a Muslim Pakistan from the rest of India. It said that Idea of Pakistan was political and there was nothing Islamic about creation of Pakistan. How many people know, that the first paramvir chakra in the republic of India was given to a Muslim named Abdul Hameed in a battle against PAKISTANI forces in 1965 war.
If all Muslims indeed wanted Pakistan, then what can explain the fact that until recently we had more Muslims in our country than Pakistan. It was not very difficult to migrate to Pakistan, which was ready to accept all Muslims with open arms.
Some people may come up with the argument of Indian Mujahidden and SIMI being Indian Muslim terrorist organization, then I can come up with equal number of terrorists organization which are not Muslims. Calling all Muslims Pakistanis and terrorists would be as blasphamous as calling all Tamils as supporters of LTTE , all Sikhs as supporters of Khalistan movement and all North east Indians as Chinese.

For those who read the title of the blog and are confused how the content of the blog is related to the title, the answer is , no, I don't have a problem with Pakistan, it is a beautiful country with beautiful people with a problematic government and Army, however it is the Idea of Pakistan and its eventual creation which is the problem child and is the sole reason why the integrity of a Muslim is questioned in India,which is the troubled mother. Agreed, that a communal rift has been present in this nation since centuries, but creation of a Muslim theocratic state out of India only led to a bigger feud between the majority and the minority. Had we been together, yes, we would have fought, and fought fiercely, which we still do, but anyone's loyalty to the nation would have been unquestionable.

Omar Abdullah(J&K chief minister) had once famously said in a parliament speech:
"I am Muslim and I am an Indian and I see no distinction between the two"

I stand by his remarks.

Sacrificed Innocence

2011-10-23T19:35:00.003+05:30

"I don't think she should be hearing all this, please send her in" Mom pleaded with my Dad.
"She is a 9 year old girl, and she should know fully about the problems we face" He said, "Come out Paramita" He added in an affectionate but stern tone.

"What can it be about?" I said to myself. "Have I done something which has caused embarrassment to the family? Anindita Ma'am did not even call Dad to school this time for not standing first in rankings at school, neither have I pulled hair of my sister Mishti in a long time". Hesitant and embarrassed, I walked out into the room, having been hiding behind the curtain and listening to the conversation between Mom and Dad all this while.

"So dear, We have been talking about some family problems here, Your elder brother has suffered a total kidney failure and our farm has not produce any good crop this year. We are in a deep financial problem. We have to arrange for a lot of money for your brother to survive or else find a donor for him" He said with a glim of tear in his eye.

"Can we not buy it from shop? I am sure Banwari would have it, he keeps a lot of things in his shop" I said trying to suggest something useful at least.
"No, we need to find a donor for this" He said in a authoritative voice.
"What is a donor, dad?" Trying hard not to sound dumb.
"Dear, a Donor is someone who can donate one of his kidney to someone who has none"
"Ohhh, then can we not give him ?" I said, trying to sound thoughtfully.
"No, one of my kidney is infected too, I can't give him mine" He said, sounding thoroughly disappointed.

And then suddenly, My Mom started crying profusely. "If we don't get a donor or money, Doctors say your brother will die in 1 month, your brother may not have much time left, pari, not much. And we can't even sell off our land, what will we give in dowry for your marriage otherwise?" and she went on crying. And then I did, what was not expected of me, being a big girl now. I started crying too. Hugging my mom, I could not stop myself from sobbing hard, I could feel the pallu of my mom getting wet from our tears. I felt a hand on my head,I looked back. it was my elder brother.

"Don't worry pari, We will manage" he said with a smile.

That is when I decided, I will find a solution to our problems, I cannot see my mother sob, I cannot see my father so tensed and I certainly cannot let my brother die.

"Dadi Maa, how old are you?" I said, in a lost tone.
"Why do you ask, you have become very ill mannered", She said in a very harsh tone
"Can you donate your kidney to my bro, he will die otherwise, please dadi, please.You are old anyway, my brother has such a long time to go". I said, pleading with all my might.
"You Moron, How dare you shorten my age? I have a long life ahead and I am proud of that. If you want your brother to live, why do you ask me? Go give your own kidney" She said, shouting loud enough for the neighbors to hear. "Girls are always waste of resources anyway, and a burden on family, had you not existed, my son wouldn't have had to worry about your dowry" she added scornfully.

Was I really the cause of all this. Is dowry the gift parents give their daughters at marriage? How do I tell them that I don't want any gift, I will marry a rich guy? Dad told me donor is someone who can give a kidney. Can I not donate my kidney? How does one donate a kidney? and what is a kidney?

"You've gone mad" My best friend Suparna exclaimed.
"But why? I think this is the only way I can help my family, Won't you like to join me? We had promised to stay together always, It won't be tough, trust me" I said, trying to sound convincing.
"Go away, Else I will tell Anindita ma'am that you are disturbing me.

My mom had once told me that when times are bad, no body helps, not even your best friends. She was right. I had always trusted Suparna, and today, instead of helping me out, she thought of complaining about me to Anindita ma'am. So many times I had lied to ma'am to save her from the scale whipping by ma'am. But I am a big girl, I can do it alone, I will handle it all alone.

All things were in place, I cross checked everything once again. As I began climbing atop the stool, I remembered something. I got down and opened my drawer. And there it was. I thought of cross checking the letter. Anindita ma'am would be upset if I commit grammatical mistakes. I began reading...

Dear Mom and Dad,
I am really sorry, Because of me you could not save money for buying kidney for brother. I wanted to tell you that I do not want any gift after my marriage, I will marry a rich boy, but you wouldn't listen. Hence I decided to give kidney to brother myself. I had even asked Grandmother as well, but she said, she has a long life to live and cannot give her kidney to brother. I tried to find out ways to donate kidney, but couldn't find one. I tried to use a knife and fetch it out, but I did not know where to start looking inside my body. Hence I have decided to leave it for you to decide how to do it upon me. I guess, to donate something, one needs to die first. Hence I am ending my life, so that finally I can be useful to someone. Now you won't have to worry about brother, he will live long now, like grandmother. You even won't have to worry about my dowry gift as well. Please forgive me for giving you all the troubles.

Yours Paramita

I realized my mistake, scribbled my name and wrote it below yours. I again climbed back on the stool. More determined than ever. I saw the elliptical rope in front of me. I could see everything through it, it didn't look different. I put my neck through it.
"Would it pain if I do it this way? Does it pain a lot when people die?"
"Ohh, c'mon, it cannot pain more than it did when i broke my finger,it was so painful"
"Yes, it will not pain more than that"
I smiled and kicked the stool from under me. I am trying hard to breath, but i am unable to catch any air. It is becoming harder. My chest is aching now. I am trying to get back on stool and stand up, but it has fallen too far. I am unable to use my hands or leg. My whole body had gone numb, I can't feel my body..
"Mom.....Broken finger was not this painful...................................."

This is a real story of Mamphy Sarkar of West Bengal who committed suicide on July 04th, 2011 because her brother had kidney failure and father had a degrading vision. She wrote a suicide note asking her family to use her organs, however a bigger tragedy followed, the note was found by the family after they had cremated her. Her Innocence was sacrificed under the burden of the mortal troubles. This blog is a fictional account of the events, only the premise of this blog is the same, and not the entire story.

God bless her soul.

Click here to read the news item of the above girl

Taxonomy into 9

2011-10-06T21:34:00.002+05:30

"Bhai......." My kid sister mumbled, perched on my lap and scratching her head
"Yes" I said, expecting one more of her questions, which have increased many folds in her growing up years
"You kept all nine fasts for this Navratri, right? and today is the last day of it..?"
"Yes, today is the last day of it, from tomorrow, you wont get to eat all the chocolate by yourself"
"Today, mom called 9 girls to feed after some pooja, is that because 9 girls represent 9 Devis?
"Yes" I literally exclaimed. "How do you know so much" asking her inquisitively
"Doesn't matter" she said shrugging off my question "What i wanna know is, does this mean, girls can be of 9 types?"
"ehh...errrr...huh" is all i could say in response.

Although her idea of girls being of only 9 types is an understatement. However, she did actually wash up my thoughts of all girls being of one type. I have written quite a few blogs on girls, always assuming them to be of one single type, but today i venture into a dangerous territory.

So after a lot of pondering on the 'Taxonomy', I came up with the following classification.

1) The eternal whiner-

One of the very common types. Everything in this world has been designed as a scheme by the Gods up there to harass her. She whines when her boss gives them extra work,she whines when she has to cross the road, She whines when she has a friend who doesn't like her nail polish and she whines when her dog doesn't poop the way she wants him to. If you are a guy and interested in her, then giving her the shoulder to cry upon would go a long way in impressing her. But remember, you may be somebody whom she whines to, but it wouldn't be long before you become somebody whom she whines about.

2) The Feeble one-One of the endangered ones among the girls. She thinks that her sole purpose on this planet is to keep quiet and let someone else stand up for her. She is a spitting image of Hema Malini as Sita in "Sita-Gita". If she is shouted upon or scolded upon, she wouldn't think twice before accepting all the blame for the mishappening and chide herself for being reckless. If you are a guy and interested in her, please handle her with care,

3) The Dominant one-

One of the emerging types among girls. She is exactly a spitting image of Hema Malini as Gita in "Sita-Gita". She never even for a moment thinks that her ways and opinion are mistaken. She loves to dominate and hates her own type of opposite gender.If you don't do something she does, you are a loser and if you do something she doesn't you are still a loser. So when you are with her, you eat what she eats, you drink what she drinks and you sleep when asks you to sleep. She would be "oh c'mon, you can't be like this" every time you say or do something which she doesn't approve of. If you are a guy and interested in her, keep aside your ego and male chauvinism and just tread the line she wants you to.

4) Legally blonde-

She is drop dead gorgeous, she is dumb and she accepts it. She doesn't make qualms about not being intelligent. On the contrary she is vocal about not knowing a lot of things(nothing to be honest). Her sole focus in life is to look more beautiful today than she was yesterday. She would be more than happy to delegate the decision making to others. She would finch when you try to infuse any sense into her already small in number ideas. So if you are a guy interested in her, then accept her beauty, ignore her lack of intelligence and accept the decision making process for her, she will be more than happy to be with you.

5) Illegally blonde-

She is drop dead gorgeous, she is dumb and she never accepts it. She thinks that she is the best creature ever made by God, for she has the looks and the brains. Her focus in life, other than looking more beautiful today than she was yesterday, is to brag to the world about her 'intelligent ideas'. She would go to any length to prove that "she knows what you are talking about". She would finch whenever you correct her 'knowledge repository'. She wants to make her own decisions and almost every time commits blunders. If you are a guy interested in her, accept her "Intelligent ideas" and keep reassuring her that she is the most beautiful and intelligent girl you have ever met.

6) Too hot to handle-

To begin with ,she is smoking hot ,would leave your jaw wide open for a long time when you see her for the first time and best part is that she knows you find her hot. She would never fit the "girl next door" bill. She would almost always shock you with your bold outlook. She never needs reassurance about her 'oomph' factor, she knows it. She would always be out of your reach but she would make sure you try reaching her first. She is the ideal girl friend you can have as a showcase trophy but the last girl you can take to your parent. If you are interested in her, then you have to be her male counterpart, else, you will always be trying.

7) The brainy brawn-

She is a nerd, a geek and she gracefully accepts all of that. She may be very beautiful, but she thinks looking beautiful is a waste of time. Sometimes she can be intelligent to the level of arrogance. She wouldn't mind correcting you when you are wrong, no matter what the situation be. She may also sometimes come to think that anyone who doesn't match up to her in intelligence is a trash can. She wants everyone around her to understand her and her ideas at one go, coz she understands them and their ideas at one go. If you are interested in her then better be intelligent or at least act like one.

8) The career spawn-

She may or may not be very intelligent, but she is the career focused girl. Anything which comes between her and her way to a successful career is an enemy.Her sole aim is to reach the top of the ladder, mostly by hook i.e, by hard work but if need be, she wouldn't mind being a crook. If you are a guy interested in her then prove to her that going around with you will be a profitable venture for her and her career.

9) The one-

Yes, the elusive one. Some sightings of this now believed to be extinct type have been reported, but the reports haven't been corroborated with evidence. She is the perfect girl which guys so often describe. All of the above girl types listed above would like to believe that they fit into this category. Her description as given by guys makes many think that finding a girl with such characteristics is an achievable dream,alas not. Just take out anything negative or offensive from the above types and combine them and put it into one girl and you have the perfect one. If you are a guy interested in her, then please contact and let me know about her location, I have been waiting to meet one like this all my life.

PS- If any of you can come up with further classification, do let me know. After all, taxonomy of girls is never accurate and certainly never easy,Charles Darwin would agree.

Fundamental Rights:Re-Defined

2011-08-13T17:23:00.000+05:30

"So do you remember it now?" My mom said, with a smile, she knew she had won it,finally..

It has been more than 10 years since I last learnt them, our Fundamental rights, guaranteed to us by our constitution. To say the least, I was embarrassed , that all I could remember about them was their count i.e 6. My mom asked me, at least name them with proper definitions and I could only name 2-3 of them. 'Shame on you' she muttered as she went in fetched an old dust ridden Civics text book and asked me to skim through. Which I did. And this time I understood what it actually meant in present context(I admit, I mugged them up for exams in 7th std).

I am sure, there are many like me who studied the fundamental rights only for Social Sciences(सामाजिक विज्ञानं ) . Here they are, simplified, in sync with year 2011.

1) Right to equality, including equality before law, prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, and equality of opportunity in matters of employment-

It means that the State cannot discriminate any of the Indian citizens on the basis of their caste, creed, colour, sex,gender, religion or place of birth. However, its a law of nature that no two humans are equal. Lets understand it better.

On the religious front, the constitution guarantees that no discrimination will be done with minorities, however, if the BJP led NDA alliance is ruling, its is requested of the minorities to please adjust,you sometimes not find employment in govt due to your religion. If you are in Mumbai, you may also not be able to rent or buy a flat in some of the posh buildings,hence you are encouraged to live in minority populated areas.

The Constitution also considers every caste equal,and strongly believes that no one should harbor any castist ideology. However, it has made a provision of reservation for the backward classes. The constitution assures that the govt will try in its entire capacity to ensure that this reservation policy reaches to every member of the backward class and not the affluent few. The Constitution also requests the members of open category to forego any castist attitude, against any caste or the reservation system itself(even if they are suffering because of it) as it is a punishable offence to do so. The reservation system may tend to make castes unequal further,but the sole aim of the constitution is to ensure no caste is discriminated upon, really!.

2) Right to freedom of speech and expression, assembly, association or union, movement, residence, and right to practice any profession or occupation

but...

some of these rights are subject to security of the State, friendly relations with foreign countries, public order, decency or morality.

Every Artist, be it writer, film maker or a painter also come under the purview of Freedom of speech and expression. However, the expression or speech should any of the millions of communities or tribes. It should also not offend some of the lesser civilized political parties, because otherwise a law and order situation may arise which the state is not in capacity to handle, not to mention the threat to your life. It is hence suggested that a prior review be done in consent with all the communities and political parties before expressing your polarized views.

Constitution also gives you the right to assembly and association, however , if your union or association is not backed by any political party, its not gonna be dissolved. Hence before forming an association, make sure you have the blessings of any one of the political party's high command.

You can also live in any part of India freely, however if you are in Mumbai, you need to know Marathi and present yourself as a Marathi, better still, stay away from it. You also cannot practice any profession in Mumbai because you are not the "Son of the Soil", if you try to , you may end up facing the wrath of lesser civilized political parties. If you intend to visit Chennai, please make sure you don't use any other language than Tamil.

Keeping above precautions in mind, the constitution guarantees you your Freedom.

3) Right against exploitation, prohibiting all forms of forced labor, child labour and traffic in human beings-

The right against exploitation, provides for two provisions, namely the abolition of trafficking in human beings and forced labor. Child labor is a heinous crime, and anyone who employs a child below 14 years is guilty under Indian law. However, this would apply to only those kids working in tea stalls or garbage collection. Any kid working for the entertainment industry doesn't come under the category of child labor, the basic premise may be same, a kid working for something and getting paid, but kids working in entertainment industry are affluent and are doing a novel job. Also the child labor rule may be exempted for contractors undertaking civic construction contracts for development of cities and towns. A kid taking part in such development will be a proud contributor in country's development after all.

4) Right to freedom of conscience and free profession, practice, and propagation of religion-

Right to freedom of religion grants religious freedom to all citizens of India. The objective of this right is to sustain the principle of secularism in India. According to the Constitution, all religions are equal before the State and no religion shall be given preference over the other. Citizens are free to preach, practice and propagate any religion of their choice.

However it is entirely alright, if any particular religious community decides to propagate their religion by sometimes force and at other times lending money to poor people and asking them to convert and not return the money(in the name of LORD).

Also if however, any religious community(or a member thereof) doesn't follow the above mentioned ways of propagating religion and tries to spread the religion only in the name of God and and teachings of religion, he may have to face the wrath of people like Dara Singh in Orrisa and the person(s) run a high risk of being burnt alive in their sleep,be careful!

5) Right of any section of citizens to conserve their culture, language or script, and right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice-

As India is a country of many languages, religions, and cultures, the Constitution provides special measures, in Articles 29 and 30, to protect the rights of the minorities. Any community which has a language and a script of its own has the right to conserve and develop it. No citizen can be discriminated against for admission in State or State aided institutions.

However, as noted in the exceptions of rights above, your language or script should not offend any of the lesser civilized political parties. If you are in any regional city, you have to completely forget your culture and adopt the local culture. The local state government will help your cause printing all the official documents only in vernacular language and if you cannot cooperate and don't get a job or admission, please don't claim discrimination on basis of language .

The Central government in its endeavor to make Hindi as official language of the nation, has decided to document everything in Hindi.So anybody who doesn't understand Hindi well enough, please find a tutor(Constitution also provides for free education!). The Hindi curriculum in school will be so heavily तत्सम (Tatsam-Sanskritized) that every instance of Urdu/Hindustani will be erased and eventually making Hindi and Sanskrit a single language.

6) Right to constitutional remedies for enforcement of Fundamental Rights. -

Right to constitutional remedies empowers the citizens to move a court of law in case of any denial of the fundamental rights. For instance, in case of imprisonment, the citizen can ask the court to see if it is according to the provisions of the law of the country. If the court finds that it is not, the person will have to be freed.

However, the constitution doesn't take into account the time it may take for justice to be delivered, it is left on the better judgement of the citizen using this right to take into account these factors. It may also happen that the government out of fear of losing in the next election, declare a National emergency to get its working sorted eg. 1975 emergency, in such a case, this right first, and every other right will cease to be effective.

Other than the citizens, the Constitution also provides for anyone who is not a citizen to file a habeas corpus against any detention, the person in question may have been someone who may have killed 100 people in front of 100 witnesses, but our divine constitution doesn't differentiate, when it comes to judiciary!

So these were the new definitions of the Fundamental rights as defined in our constitution. Either the makers of constitution were terribly mistaken or may be the subsequent generations in India managed to tweak the constitution. What goes without saying is, today, the original definitions don't hold true.

In today's India, only a child in womb is the one who is equal to every other child in womb, the moment it decides to come out, his future,status and his equality would be decided by the condition of hospital he is born in(Lilawati, or Rajawadi!).

Immobile life

2011-06-12T21:10:00.000+05:30

10..9..8..7..6

Cutting through the late night traffic in Mumbai on my sweet pulsar I saw last few seconds of the traffic light being green before it turned red

"I can make it, c'mon" I said under my breath

5..4..3..2..1

"Should I stop?"

"No I think I should move on"

"Oh shit, the car from other side has already started moving, SOS, apply breaks, quick quick quick"

"Why the F*** is my bike wobbling?"

"Oh shit,I have fallen down, why the hell ME, why me GOD?"

And there I was,down and out besides my bike right in the middle of the road under the Ghatkopar(E) flyover . Trying to act as if it was a minor accident, I got up instantly and tried to lift my bike up, in an instant, everything around me seemed hazy, an excruciating pain shot up through my left shoulder, I felt it, and the bones seemed a bit out of shape and I knew I have a broken collar bone. A few good Samaritans pulled the bike up and asked me to sit near a pole, I started with a step and fumbled, and knew, that my ankle doesn't seem alright.

I decided to give shocks to my family in installments rather than at one go, so Shock 1) I called up my dad and told him that I have taken a fall, come and pick me up. Shock 2) When he came I told him, I may have a broken shoulder. Shock 3) When we reached hospital, the X-ray showed I have a broken leg as well.

However destiny reserved its biggest shocks for me, Shock 1) When in a casual tone the doctor told me, I need to undergo my first ever surgery for ankle repair and I ll have stay in hospital for a week.

With drop of water dripping on your head and your hands and legs tied, this form of Chinese torture is considered to be the worst, but I beg to differ. I say, put a normal, agile and active person in hospital in immobile condition, and thats the worst torture. And when you are admitted into the hospital just a day before the semi final match of India-Pakistan, and the hospital doesn't even have TV, it becomes a living hell. So here I was, lying straight on a hospital bed with a broken left hand and a broken right leg. My daily routine started off at 4 am when the staff woke me up to take a bath(which I could never take due to my extreme immobility), then the same staff would ask me to sleep again, amidst their loud shouting and conversation. At 8 am, they used to serve Bread butter(Hardly any butter visible) and tomato soup(all I could see was red water). Followed by this, I was allowed a few visitors. Visitors quite understandably had only one query, how did this happen. Initially, I explained everything out of my pain and enthusiasm and agony of being immobile. But after a day or two it became a monotonous routine. Every middle aged visitor had only one conclusion, Bikes kill, which was never encouraging.That one week was so boring, that i still remember the pattern of a patch on the wall above and ceiling fan.

Coming home after a week to home with a heavily laden plastered leg and an extremely delicate shoulder, I was showered with all the home made delicacies. Visitors who missed out cribbing about bike travel at hospital, came to meet me at home to finally crib about it. Almost everyone either brought a bouquet or fruits, fed up with gifts which I couldn't use I had to tell my friends to bring something like chocolates which only "I alone" can enjoy. However, in absence of wheel chair, I was left to the mercy of my poor revolving chair(which became my mode of transport for a lot of weeks to come!). With only one leg and one hand active, even my daily chores were very difficult for me to handle by myself. Occasionally, I would move my shoulder out of habit in sleep and I would get up shouting in pain.

Finally after two weeks, doctor removed my stitches(I have talked about pain so much, that it would look petty if I talk about the pain of removing stitches) and advised me to take physiotherapy sessions. Two weeks after experiencing excruciating pain of a broken bone, I experienced the next level of pain. Day after day, the physiotherapist went on tearing into my leg, a movement by even a few degrees gave me jitters(This went on for Eight more weeks). While my leg was being tortured, my shoulder was quietly recovering and after four weeks, it became more mobile and less painful, which came as a relief, because now, some of my daily chores were now managed by myself.

Any one who has fractured bone will ask only one question to the doctor, "How much time will the bone take to heal?" and the answer would be six weeks. I counted each day and each week for six weeks. And away I went to the doctor the day I completed 6 weeks. He advised more physiotherapy, and destiny gave me shock 2) The doctor prescribed a walker to me and I was expecting to walk straight away on my two legs the moment my accident turned 6 weeks old. The walker was to be used for 4 weeks!.

After gaining enough confidence of using the walker, I decided to join my office back. I was glad to see my office desk back, though I had never thought I would miss it, but 8 weeks of absence from office and immobility made me realize that there are things more boring than office. All my team members swarmed my desk inquiring about my health. I was pampered to no end by my team mates. The watchman at the access gate asked me to get a special card made, Surprised at his suggestion I asked him why, and he pointed at the walker, indicating my disability, while I was talking to the watchman, a girl asked me if she could fetch an auto for me, and I realized what a disabled person goes through, he/she doesn't need help, they need acceptance, that they can manage things on their own, We try to help them on pettiest of things, trying to be good. I denied the offer and thanked the girl for her offer(which under normal circumstances I would never reject!).

And now I am writing this blog on a day when I have finally started walking normally with a stick(quite normal considering what I had gone through over last 11 weeks). This accident has virtually taken 12 weeks of my life, but these 12 weeks have been memorable for me. But these are some memories I would never like to re-encounter!

PS- God forbid if you are in such a situation, never reject a girls offer, because this offer may offend your ego now, but it will always boost your love. Don't let ego kill love!

Women-The reason for our existence

2011-02-27T19:56:00.000+05:30

Alright, I know, I have written so many blogs on the female variant of the species Homo-sapiens that I can claim expertise in it. However this time, its different(please don't consider this as just another marketing gimmick!).

8th March of every year is celebrated as International Womens day across the globe. I would not dwell into its history as it doesn't hold as much significance as the day itself. Many may consider it as a western world's just another reason for celebration. I would not disagree either, after all, all countries are not blessed with so many holidays as India is. However I would still like to see it from India's perspective.

India has always been a country where women have held a special place. Amongst the 330 million odd Indian gods, the Goddesses hold a special place. Be it Durga or Parvati or Kali. All of them are revered by the faithfuls, Not to mention that up in the heavens too, the decisions and policies of Gods are often believed to be driven by wives of Gods i.e Goddesses. Coming back to the mortal world, Kerala, God's own country is proud to be a matriarchal society(quite rightly God's own country). What that means is, women are the leader of the family, its the husband which goes to his wife's home after marriage, that was quite long ago,not anymore it seems. Coming closer in history, the Indian independence movement was driven by powerful females like Sarojni Naidu amongst others. After Independence, the most powerful Prime minister India ever had was a woman, Indira Gandhi. Her daughter-in-law controls the current political scenario quite adeptly. Indian women are going places, be it Indira Nooyi(pepsico's CEO) or Late Kalpana Chawla(astronaut).

Of the shining Indian women movement, a few things stuck me.......

"Whats your name dear?" someone asked her
"Mehek" she replied, rolling her tongue out
"How old are you? and who do you stay with?"
"I am 4, no 5 no 4.5, I stay with my uncle, My parents have gone to meet God. But my uncle is taking good care of me. He gives me ice-cream everyday. And he plays a game with me everyday after coming home" she said, confused what else to say
"What game?" he curiously asked
"He removes my clothes, and then he removes his clothes, then we lie together on bed. He does something to me and I feel a tickling sensation between my legs. Its so much fun" She said with all the excitement in her voice
"WHAT??????" he said.

The so called uncle was arrested by the man himself who was asking these questions to the little girl perched up on a bench in a park all alone. The man is an IPS officer, and the uncle, a successful man who took advantage of this orphan girl.

Little girls are not always the target and common man is always not the accused.

A girl in Banda district was inhumanely raped by the MLA from SP. Worse still, the police made a blooper by disclosing the girls identity and arresting her for theft instead. The girl has threatened to become a dacoit if she doesn't get justice(as if phoolan devi was not enough). If you think, this is a one off case. A NCP MLA from jalgaon is accused of a similar crime against a girl on the pretext of giving her job. And if even this is not sufficient, a cop attached to a police station in Mumbai committed suicide, reason, he was accused in a rape case and had been absconding. If the lawmakers and law protectors indulge in crime against women, who will safeguard them?

And if people think, rape is the only crime that can happen, think again. An Indian diplomat attached to Indian embassy in UK was accused of domestic violence. Cases of dowry harassment and female infanticide are taken in pride by the Indian society. Everybody and anybody who has stared at a woman, tried to seek any attention out of a woman in any form is an accused for sexual harassment. Everyday when a girl leaves her home, she anticipates and expects that she will be stared at in public, she will be suppressed in office. Unfortunately and shamefully for us, the women have accepted it as a part of their life.

For a nation which recites Durga chalisa with ease. Takes pride in Indira Gandhi and Kalpana chawla. For the set of politicians who pass the bill Women reservation on one hand, and are accused of rape on other hand, its shameful and pitiful.

If we can get rid of the 'Sati' system efficiently, then why not these crimes?

A man is not a man because he can control a lady, he is a man if he can protect a lady. And if we can't protect women, the reason why we exist on this earth, then we cant protect our existence either.

Signing off-
Abhishek
A proud pro-feminist

Till Death do us apart

2010-11-28T16:00:00.003+05:30

I have never been in any relationship whatsoever, or to put it in a better way, no girl has found me good enough to be in a relationship, however, their are a few things in life which are better enjoyed from a ring side view. It may be a fight between two people, a wrestling match or a guy proposing a girl. Yes you heard me right, it is always enthralling to watch a guy propose a girl with "true love", big promises and the heart breaks that follow when the promises are not met or when the people don't want the promises to be met. I have come across some of the cases during my not so long lifetime of 23 years. So lets chronicle them.

Case-I:

Day of Proposal-
"I Love You", the boy says, slowly steadily yet nervously.....
"Yippeee, You idiot, you took so much time to say this, I Love You too ,duffer", The girl replies and hugs the guy tightly.
"Thank you, I ll love you for ages to come, not even death can torn us apart", the boy says and hugs her back even more tightly.....

A month later.....

"You know you are a jerk", the girl says it aloud to him
"I know", the boy says with overflowing sarcasm
"I can't stay with a possessive fool like you"
"Not that i want to continue with a bi**h like you"

The ages and reincarnation which the boy spoke of, lasted only for a month. This kind of love can be associated with high school where love has a fickle existence.

CASE-II

The day of proposal

"I.....I....I just wanted to tell you that....I... I....love you", the boy says putting in all his heart and overcoming nervousness
"Ok, I was kinda expecting it, but do you think we will click?", the girl says with a expression of corporate czar about to sign a big business deal.
"We will give it our best shot, I just wanna stay with you, I am unable to think beyond you, I ll flunk in my exams if you say a no now", the boys says switching to desperate measures to save the deal.
"Alright, I think I like you as well, we can give it a shot", she says with an authoritative tone only comparable to the US president signing on a go ahead for a nuke deal.

One year later.......

"You don't love me anymore,all the time you speak only of Java, can't you speak love, like you used to?", the girl says with wet eyes
"Oh dear, I am so sorry, this work is getting on my nerves, but I ll surely spend more time with you hence forth", the boy says, knowing very well, how tough it would be and trying to sound as convincing as possible.

One more year later........

"I can't stay with you any more, You are not making my life easy by calling up everyday while I am at work", the boy says in a "no option left" tone.
"But you said you can't think beyond me and would not be able to stay without me" she says in a tone which will even persuade god to weep
"And you said, lets see if we click, which as I see it, we don't, so lets end it before I hurt you any further"

The case is of a college couple who are unable to continue the affair like they did in college due to the added responsibilities of life. Its not a case of fickle existence of love, but its a case of giving precedence to life than love.

CASE-III

"I hate you, I hate you" she said in a tone which only girls can describe......
"I am sorry dear, but you know that college can be so demanding", he said, trying every possible way to convince her.
"aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" She gave out a loud screech
"Ohhh c'mon you never shout like that,what happened, Hello, Hello, Aarti you there? Hello?"

"Now that was unreasonable, she hanged up on me? and she switched her phone off? she has never done this, Only god can convince her now" Sunny thought .

Little did he know, that it was not unreasonable, it was rather unfathomable. While talking to sunny, Aarti met with an accident which left her paralyzed. Her world became immobile and his world, was shattered to the last possible piece.

Seeing Aarti Makwana at Summers job in 2006, Sunny pawar had fallen in love with her. Things were all rosy for him as Aarti too, reciprocated the love. He never promised to love her till eternity or reincarnations, all he wanted was to love her as long as he could. One terrible day in December 2007 Aarti met with an accident which left her paralyzed on the right side . Sunny could not bring himself to continue with his education, although he never considered himself to be a true lover, he could not see someone he loved lying on bed waiting for help. He took a sabbatical from his education and started tending to Aarti along with her mother. Crying occasionally when Aarti could not recognize who he was or when Aarti was in pain, all she could do was make incomprehensible noises, he kept up his spirit and love, Spending almost 12 hours a day at her home, feeding her, singing for her and making her sleep. His effort of 2.5 years started to reap benefits. Aarti had gained 15 kgs since her accident, which was a good sign. Doctors had declared that for them to remove the clot causing the paralysis, Aarti has to start responding to commands. To everyone's surprise, she started doing so pretty soon. Seeing all this, Sunny joined back his college to complete his education. But as they say, fate always has the last laugh,just when things started looking good, Aarti was diagnosed with pneumonia resulting in high fever, she died within 2 days of being diagnosed in June 2010 due to her already fragile condition.

When people proclaim their love for ages to come, I don't doubt their intentions, but its all about will, how many of them are willing to love for ages to come? True love is not about words, but actions and Sunny sets the example of true love. I did not write this blog to comment on his gestures, because his gestures speak for themselves, I wrote this blog for people to know the extent love can reach. And when i say love, it would include everyone you ever loved, your family, your girlfriend, your pet. He never proclaimed to stay with her till death does them apart, but it was ultimately death which had to set them apart. If this is not love, then there is no love. For many, Life is all about love, but for him , his love was his life. My condolences for Aarti and my tribute to Sunny's true love.

Love Lives on.........

PS- This story was covered by Mumbai mirror in december 2007 and june 2010(on Aarti's death). Following is the coverage by a news channel prior to Aarti's death.

The Great Indian Language Divide

2010-11-08T00:30:00.001+05:30

"Language is the biggest barrier to human progress because language is an encyclopedia of ignorance. Old perceptions are frozen into language and force us to look at the world in an old fashioned way."
-Edward de Bono, Famous Maltese physician,originator of term Lateral thinking and author of best seller Six thinking hats

During the second semester of my engineering degree, we had a subject(which we never accounted for) called communication skills. Though this was a subject which one could clear with relative ease(when compared with mother of all horrors, Mechanics), I took time to mug up one answer, "Barriers to effective communication". One of barrier which holds true in the Indian context ,is Language.

I wrote a few blogs in the past one year which showed how a constant bias is being developed against speakers of one language(Hindi) by others(namely tamil and marathi). What I saw is what I wrote. But what is the reason for such a huge prejudice and bias? The rivalry of Indian languages goes back a long way in our very old history.

1000-1500AD: The Arrival of Muslim rulers in India

The Islamic era of India is something we owe a lot of current tourism revenue to(read Taj mahal). But one thing which this era gave us was our official language. Surprised? Yes, Official language of India, Hindi was not in existence before the Muslim rulers came to India. We had Brij bhasha, Maithili amongst others, but not the khari boli dialect. The Muslim rulers who arrived in India spoke persian and arabic. To gain ground among the locals, the rulers adapted ,and with mixture of persian and brij bhasha came the khari boli(Urdu/Hindi). The father of this khari boli movement was Amir Khusro, famous poet of 12th century, who had mastered brij bhasha along with his own native persian language. Following prose gives us a fair idea of his mastery of the two languages,

zihaal-e-miskeen mukon taghaful (Persian)
doraaye nainaan banaye batyaan (Brij)

The development of the khari boli went on for a long time and not surprisingly, it is still under development(more on that later)

The British Era:-

The Britishers, taking a cue from the previous Islamic rulers, made Urdu the official and national language of communication in India. Almost all the literates of the North Indian belt could read, write and comprehend Urdu, so not surprisingly Urdu was made our national language. What the Britishers did not account for, was that a language could be associated with religion. After the 1857 rebellion, the Hindus started distinguishing themselves by calling the language they speak as Hindi. The very same language, developed by Amir khusro et al, written in devnagri script. This was the first seed sowed for the communal tensions which were to develop between two religions which had so far lived in peace. In response to this, Sir sayyed laid the foundation for the now prestigious Aligarh Muslim university, focussing on educating the Muslims in Urdu, as a counter response to this, the foundation for Benaras Hindu university was laid. The offensive and counter offensive went on till the year 1900, which was a significant year in the history of languages in India. That year, Hindi and Urdu were accorded the equal status. Two dialects of the khari boli, which when spoken colloquially had no difference, were given a status of two official national languages. The Hindus rejoiced, finally they had an equal standing with a "foreign language imposed upon them". What they did not realize was ,the language they were rejoicing for, was given to them by the very same foreign rulers. From that year, the supporters of Hindi, to make it distinct from Urdu, increasingly 'sanskritized' the language, while, Urdu was constantly drawing from persian. And this is what I meant when I said, the Khari boli is still evolving, because even till today, the languages are getting influenced. When the demands for the creation of Pakistan was raised, Gandhi, Nehru amongst others, propoganded the language Hindustani(the khari boli, Hindi/urdu) and even assingned the famous Hindi and Urdu author Munshi Premchand to compile his work in this common language. They wanted Hindustani to be the official language, which could be written interchangeably in Nastaliq(script of Urdu) and Devnagri. But it was too late, to save the language, and to save the unity.

Post Independence:
The very same congress, which proclaimed India to be a secular country(which fortunately it still is), and propoganded the use of Hindustani, made Hindi the official language of India(not national), along with English as a defacto official language till 1965. Every effort was made, to increase the reach of Hindi to everyone, sometimes by words and sometimes by force. The Hindi, which liberally used words from persian language, was being 'sanskritized' at a faster rate. Meanwhile, our neighbors left no stone unturned to make Urdu increasingly 'persianized'. Hindi and Urdu which were like conjoined twins a century before, looked like non-identical twins now.

Anti-Hindi agitations in Tamil Nadu:
Apparently, Urdu wasn't the only nemesis for Hindi, bigger nemesis for propoganda of Hindi was the dravidian states in south India. Anti Hindi sentiment in Tamil nadu goes back to 1936, when the then congress govt led by our first governer general C rajgopalachari, made Hindi a compulsory subject across all schools in Tamil Nadu. This came as a bolt from blue to Tamilians. They were forced to learn a language which was a polar opposite of the language they spoke. They felt no need of introducing a new language, when just tamil was enough for administration. Instead of addressing their concerns, the chief minister of Madras, used brute force to quell the agitation. But the agitation did not die down and the Congress govt resigned in 1939. After Independence, Congress decided to make Hindi a National language, which would mean all the communication hence forth would be in Hindi to all states. It was only after the threat of secession by the Dravidian states that it was decided to keep Hindi and english(defacto) the official language and not National language, while a scheduled list of 22 national languages would be maintained. English would be the defacto official language only till 1965, but all attempts in the year 1965 to remove english as the official language were quashed by massive protests by DMK and their landslide victory in the state polls(Trivia-Congress has never managed to come back in power since). This prompted Indira Gandhi to make English defacto official language indefinitely. Agreed, their was a hint of linguistic chauvanism in the protests in Tamil Nadu, but the use of force to impose Hindi only increased the Anti-Hindi sentiment in the state. Though the Anti-Hindi protests led to English being made a permanant official language, which is now the source of the Service Industry boom in India.

Current Scenario-
The linguistic chauvanism has reached heights never seen before. The Anti-Hindi sentiment is gaining momentum in Maharashtra and West bengal is not far behind. Their will be no dearth of parties like Shiv-Sena, MNS and DMK for a long time to come

The country which feels proud of being a land where language changes every mile, is suffereing due to the very same reason. The Hindi language which was envisioned to be a uniting factor for all Indians has instead ended up dividing the nation.One solution to this can be going back to the colonial ways by completely adopting english. But for a problem as old as a millenium, I am no one to offer a solution. I only believe in what is said by Abhishek bacchan in one of the ads for a telecom operator,

"Language needs no words"

The phases in life of boys-With girls II

2010-11-01T00:05:00.003+05:30

Almost a year after writing the first part of this blog, I am here with the much awaited sequel( pardon me if it sounds like a line lifted off from one of the movie promo). In case people are reading this without reading the first part, Please stop right here and go read the first part. Ok I know you still did not read the first part, so all those lazy bones like me, I would give a quick recap of what happened in the first part.

I spoke about how guys behave at various stages of life with girls. Right from hating them( The school days) to using them( The dark college days). In all these stages, guys share "love me, hate me, but can't ignore me" type relationship with girls. But after all this, boys come to office, and here starts a new adventure.

Phase VI-Bachelor at work

Before starting of with this phase and before you start to relate it with youself, I am assuming that there 'are' girls in office(sorry mechanical civil and govt job guys, no donuts for you). I also assume that you are not a workaholic.So lets move on.....

It was the night before my first day at work, when I was very excited. I was excited about having my induction at a 5 star. But more than the place, I was excited about the crowd that was to pour in the next day. If the word going around was to be believed, for this batch the company had hired lots of 'chics'. Dressed in the best possible clothes I had(read-First Impression is the last impression), and a mind full of anticipation I entered the hall. Immediately my eye-brain coordination got down to work, my eyes started to scan for vacant seats near any hot chic seated in the hall. After a lot of hardwork, I managed to get a seat next to a chic.

   "Hi, I am Abhishek", I said ,extending my hand for a shake
   "Oh, Hi I am Anjana", she said,taking my hand shaking it.
   "So you from which college? I am from LT by the way, heard of it?", After I said this all in a single breath, I cursed myself, how can I just behave like just another wannabe?
"I am from VESIT, and yes, I have indeed heard of your college, I stay right next to it" , she said , half gigling half smiling.
"Oh thats nice, So you have any friend with whom you have come?" I said, anticipating an acquantaince with one more hot chic.
"Yeah, My BF is also here today, his name is nishant, you must be knowing him".
"one down" I said to myself referring to a chic being out of list, for the moment ofcourse
"Hey abhishek, meet nishant"

Seeing that guy made me realize one thing, If guys like Nishant were to remain around, I will be having no girl around me for a long time to come at my work place. When I say long time, a perfect parameter for this is the fact that its been 10 months at work and I still am yet to find a 'chic' who is 'single'. During my entire course of 10 months, I met many Anjanas and almost everytime I met their Nishants. Even the girls, a notch or two below the Anjanas I met, had a Nishant for them. This gave me the inspiration for the sequel that I am writing. This phase of boys is of eternal search.

Tired of either being a nerd at college or a casanova, the guys come into their work life, expecting to find the right girl. A girl who is independent and earning(aah, thats important as well, chances of your wallet getting empty on an outing become less). A girl who would stay around for some time and would understand your need of spending time at work. A girl who herself would be so busy the whole day, she won't get time to get possesive about you. However the biggest twist in a guys life here is, that most of the girls come into office with their hearts truly committed.They don't miss an opportunity to proclaim their commitment to the world, in every gesture, they smell of commitment. They can't stop going gaga over their guys, which makes you feel more envious every passing moment.Those 'good' girls who are fortunately not committed are so immersed into work or career or family or friendship with you(The "just friend" types rememeber?), that chances are, she will surely not fall for you. Whether or not a guy admits it, he invariably joins the long list of waiting guys, the so called waiting list of guys. This list reduces at every break up of a girl. The girls, whose guys are not in the same organization start to feel the heat and here comes in the cracks, which are amplified by none other than the waiting guys.

The wait list here is indeed analogous to the one for railway reservation. Those who get a reservation travel the distance, those who don't, have to catch the next train. If you could't do anything serious in college, you lost it, its too late to board the bus now. Those who are committed , won't get committed to you, unless of course you do something la "My best friends wedding". Those who are not, chances are, they may not get committed to you. This is one of the saddest and mostly lonely part in a 'single' guy's life. At work, their will always exist a lucky minority of Nishants and an unlucky of majority of people like me. The only hope left for us, is our parents. Only they can "arrange" for a reservation now.Mom and dad, you are my only saviour.......

The next part will take a few years in the making(c'mon I am only 23, it will be sometime before my parents can arrange for a reservation). But I do promise to come up with the next part.

Phase VII-Married at work,Horrors of working in same office as spouse.

A land of thieves ,beggars and snake charmers.

2010-09-25T14:49:00.000+05:30

Cursing the Mumbai university I boarded the BEST bus from university campus and sat down on one of the seats. I did not notice an American girl sitting next to me. She politely asked me if i could speak english, to which i nodded. She had been having problems comprehending what a lady was asking her in hindi. I was very glad to help, more than the 'atithi devo bhava' thing, it was the cuteness factor of the girl which did me in. Not a man to miss chances I striked a conversation with her, asking her about her city and country and about her pupose of visit to India. She turned out to be an urban planner and surprisingly she had done extensive research on this country. Amused, I probed her further to check if she had the stereotypical image of India like every other westerner has. It turned out, she did have the 'slum image' of India, courtesy 'Shantaram' and "Slumdog Millionare". I started with the "Namastey London" dialouge. I proclaimed India has more people speaking english than the US and UK put together. I went on 30 mins and told her every postive thing about India which I could recollect. I told her to visit bangalore to see the real 'Intelligent' India. She seemed totally convinced with my arguments. She said this,as a departing note

"It seems I need to correct my friend who thinks of India as a land of thieves ,beggars and snake charmers".

"You better do" I replied with a faint smile.

I was patting my own back for a job well done. At least one American got her facts corrected due to my efforts. But, was the correction correct? Aren't we actually a land of thieves and beggars? Some observations in past one year has put me in self-doubt. Whether what she thought of us was correct?

Unlike New Delhi, road infrastructure is pathetic in Mumbai. To travel from Eastern suburbs to the Western suburbs is a big pain. When the actual distance on the map is just 4 kms, one has to take a detour of 10 kms to reach the same place. To solve this issue the state government in 2004 decided to make an elevated link road from one suburb to another. Such was the marvel of the plan, that it was featured in NatGeo's Megacity series. The deadline set for this was 2007.
Current status-50% complete.
Revised deadline-dec 2011
Original cost of Project-Rs 100 cr
Revised cost -Rs 300 cr

The reason? The same old Indian problem, Slums. Relocation of slums for the project was stuck in the high court, until state govt. used one of the old laws to forcibily move them. Their demand? they wanted a 450 sq. feet home instead of the 300 sq feet home being provided to them. The ground reality is that these people are currently staying in less than 100 sq feet shanty. How ironic it is, when these people even dare to keep such demands.

It is said , making a home in the city of Mumbai is a dream achieved by a lucky few, I say, it is achieved by those acting smartly.Modus operandi is very simple. To make a house in mumbai, all you need is an investment of Rs 10000 and lots of patience. Make a shanty on one of the govt land and wait till govt plans a project on that land. Now you are a citizen of the city and cannot be just thrown away for a 'petty' project. The govt promises to rehabilitate you to a "better place" to live in. If you are a bit ambitious and daring, you challange the govt and demand for a bigger place to live in. It won't make any difference to you because the govt will be using the tax payers money to move you to a "better place", so why not try your luck in bargain. Till the time you get a "better place" to live in , you easily use the open spaces for daily chores like washing and bathing among other things, the govt will take care of the cleaning from the tax payers money. You can also freely watch your favorite TV program , all you have to do is put a plug into the wire going to one of the "permanent home" nearby your acquired home and get the electicity for free of cost, so what if the poor tax payer is footing your bill without him knowing the good deed he is commiting.

One can be easily mistaken, if they think that people who are "poor" tarnish the image of this nation. When the CWG OC can purchase $89 toilet paper rolls and rent a treadmill at Rs 100000, all again from tax payers money, then it is grossly unfair to give all the credit of discrediting the tax payers to "poor" people alone. It is also heart warming to see that the CWG OC, politicians and the "poor" people have a lot of competition from the corporate world. When a certain famous contruction company supposedly quotes an escalated cost of Rs 1600 cr for a sea link made just at Rs 600 cr, it is unfair to leave them out.

So this is the story of the great Indian stealing circus. I really hope, the girl whom I supposedly corrected, is not cursing me, seeing the state of the CWG and the IPL expose.

I think its time to coin a new statement for the social status of India

"The rich gets richer, the poor gets richer, and the middle class gets poorer"

Love for Friend,friend for love.........

2010-07-31T21:37:00.000+05:30

   First Sunday of every August is celebrated as World Friendship day, and here it is, the first Sunday of august. The site in any gathering of friends tomorrow will be similar. Friends will be tying friendship bands to each other, sobbing, hugging and laughing aloud together. Although some may say that friendship doesn’t need one particular day to be celebrated, it is something which should be celebrated every day and every moment, true, but none of these arguments can take out the enthusiasm out of that one day, where we find more reasons than one to celebrate the togetherness.

          I have always been blessed with great friends wherever I have been (including the kinds who screw you at every given opportunity in sight). But I have shared a very strange relation with one friend. A relation, which I find it hard to describe in words.

         “I love you for this abhi”. She had said when I had resolved her issue with a common friend who had turned a jilted lover. That was a start of this strange relationship. She is a year older to me and one of the most chilled out girl I ever met. Although amazingly beautiful, I always saw a great fun buddy in her. It was not these lines that changed it all, it was the way she poured her heart out to me when she wanted to get rid of the mess. I came to know her better and knew that there was more to her than just being a fun buddy. I developed a feeling, which I knew was not love, because I had been in love and knew this was not love, but still this feeling kept dragging me towards her. We had a lot in common and shared same ideas about a lot of things and we often joked that we would make a great couple if we get married. Every time such a discussion happened, my heart raced and I found asking myself about this strange bond and attraction that I have for her. And deep down in my heart I knew we would make an amazing couple and knew that we would be happy together, but the feelings which lead to this conclusion were simply unclear to me.

        “Abhi” she said in a soft but a very disappointed voice
        “what?” I said, alarmed at how a usually cheerful girl was so dull
        “That guy screwed up my life, he really played out a jilted lover’s role” she said referring to the common friend who was smitten by her. “He called up my place and told all bullshit about me to my parents , although they didn’t trust him, but this has lead to hastening of marriage proposals and as a matter of fact I am being married off to a guy 8 yrs older to me living and working in a small city”.

       “What!!!!!!!!!” I repeated the same statement again with much more intensity than last time. “that damned guy is 8 yrs older to you dear, and for god’s sake you are an MBA, and he works and lives in a small city and I am pretty sure that his salary might be only half as yours”. I said, trying to sound as rational as I could.

      “I can’t do anything now, my parents are hell bent, and you know they really liked you……” she said laughing and crying at the same time.

     “Then I’ ll marry you” I said in ‘I-mean-it’ tone

      “Too late, you will take 4 more years to marry me and my parents just want it right away “

   After she hung up, I could not draw any sleep, I did not know why I said that I ll marry her, was it actually love? Was this the way love felt like? I closed my eyes and left everything that was running in my mind. I wanted to feel lighter, free from all the thoughts. I felt afloat in the nothingness and then it struck me.

           All my confusion in the last few cleared in that one moment. Was it love? Yes it was. Was it friendship? Yes it was. She was a friend for love. It was not a lover’s love, it was a love you have for a person you always want to see happy even if you have to take the world on. When I said I will marry you, I said that because I was unable to see her pain, I could not see her life getting ruined and I knew, I may not love her like a lover does, but I could keep her happy. The feeling which I could not decipher in months was clear to me now. It was love indeed, and she was the friend I loved, beyond myself and beyond anything. And she was a friend indeed.

                She will be married in a few months and all I still hope and pray for is that she finds some happiness in the disaster which awaits her.

                                Love you my friend

Used and Thrown?

2010-07-03T12:01:00.000+05:30

" Help a girl when she is in trouble and she will remember you.............................

When she is in trouble again"

These are the messages and emails which always float around mostly within boys and sometimes as a rareity within girls as well. One Email along with this message which comes to my mind is the one which classifies boys in the scheme of things of girls, like friend , best friend and bestest friend and so on so forth, But never a boy friend(mind you!!!!!) and advices boys to switch from best friend to boy friend.

So after much deliberation and personal experience(yes as always) I decided to analyze why boys do it?

Lets take a very simple example to this effect, Boy likes a girl who is( with or without his knowledge) already committed ......

SCENE I

Boy- "Hey nisha coming out for a movie, its been a long time"

Girl- "No, Rahul today after a long time swapnil has agreed to come out for a hindi movie with me, Just imagine(exclaiming)"

Boy-"No issues"(Sorely disappointed)

SCENE II

Boy-"Hey Nisha stop crying, c'mon I can't see you cry, its not worth spending your tears on a moron like swapnil , you deserve someone better"

Girl-"You are right, he is such a moron, I am wasting my time with him"

.........

.....

Girl-"I really wish Rahul that my BF was like you"

.....

After 'N' such conversations and praises for Rahul by Nisha which makes rahul go on cloud nine, one fine day( which usually happens to be in a day or two of Nisha's so called break up)

Girl-"Hey Rahul guess what"

Boy-" What!!!!!!!!"( thinking he is in for a proposal)

Girl-"Swapnil is not a bad guy after all, you know he sent me a sorry card and a bouquet"

Boy-"Yeah"( In as low a voice as possible)

Girl-"In fact I think he still the sweet heart I loved, thank you Rahul for all the support you gave, I will always remember that!!!!"

The boy hangs up the phone assuming that the girl will always remember his good deeds and the girl hangs up the phone knowing that she will have the boy when she is going through a bad phase.

Now all those guys reading the blog might agree in unison and all the girls reading this may label me as anti-feminine, but don't jump to conclusions like rahul did in my story about being proposed. As an epilogue to my story the girl keeps on calling the guy with similar problems and apparently only when she is in trouble and after sometime the guy gets pissed and moves on or blasts out his feelings at the girl leaving the 'poor' girl to believe that all men are pigs and opportunists.

So lets start with the analysis. Boys first(for a change). The boy has every reason to believe that he was used, but does he ever think why he was used? And does ever bother to think that he may not have been actually used? Having feelings for a committed girl and then even nurturing thoughts that he may actually stand a chance of relationship with a girl is like a wild goose chase. The goose may come right within your grasp and then slip away from right under your nose. He will give all the suggestions,mercy and shoulder to cry to a girl when she is in trouble and when she is out of it he expects the girl to be the same cry baby and always use his shoulder. In short he always wants the girl to be in trouble so that she comes to him crying always. My suggestion to all such boys, avoid any such notion and expectations and you will be saved of lot of heart break.

Now about the girls. If the guy in question is to be blamed, girls can't go empty handed can they? It will be so unfair if that were to happen! If anyone were to say that the girl is unaware of the guys feeling for her then I will disagree with those people hands down.She knows he will be their for her when she needs him because she knows he likes her. Meddling with the fire that cooks may lead to burning of hands. The girl has two options, Don't use the help of a person who likes you, especially emotional help or else if you are using his help then don't drop the help machine once it has been used. Keep using this machine or it will catch rust and would be useless for use next time.

Last word to all the rahuls out their, Don't chase a wild goose and rather become a wild goose or else a Brahmachari, and to all those Nisha, Their are people beyond swapnil and in life whom you need to look after,or stop using any help.

To be or not to be-On bench

2010-05-15T20:38:00.000+05:30

Bench-A piece of furniture, which mostly offers several persons seating

In our life, all of us must have sat on bench, I am no exception to that. I have had an interesting relationship with bench. When i was in kindergarten, i hated being tied up mentally on bench by the stick our teacher used to carry. This hatred carried on till the day i got my 1st punishment,kneeling down for 30 whole minutes made me realize the importance of bench, how people were cozily sitting on bench and teasing me in whatever way they can.This punishment which i got in 1st std started my love for bench,because i never stopped getting punished and my love for bench just went on increasing day by day. Add to this those boring assemblies,where we had to slog it out in scorching sun and chilling wind.Bench was the comforting factor then.

   This love for bench stopped abruptly when i entered engineering. All over again after my kindergarten i hated being tied up on bench,this time with the fear of attendance shortage or some scheming profs who were hell bent on cutting your term marks on every single % shortage in attendance.I used to think of ways to get punished(after signing attendance sheet), which no longer meant being on knees,rather it was more like go out of class.These acts of mine reached a crescendo in final year when i along with my friends virtually became an expert at it. Finally i was done with engineering,i sat comfortably at home(mind you on a sofa and a bed and never on bench) and then i joined an IT company..........

   In an IT company the wikipedia definition i gave above doesnt hold true officially but unofficially it means the same.Bench is a state of a person who gets the same salary as others on project but for doing nothing. Now how people perceive this "doing nothing",is a different question altogether. With gleaming eyes I got trained for Java and the day my training got over i geared up for projects, but to my surprise despite recession being done with, i could not get my hands on any project. And hence i was transferred to "bench" , now this bench was a lot different from what i have been on, here i got an internet connection , a nice cozy chair and a landline to fiddle with. Suddenly i started enjoying bench all over again, no work, no time constraints and loads of parties. This went for a month, people started getting projects and my frustration on not getting project started increasing, and one fine day i got a call for project....

   "Am i speaking to Abhishek" interviewer asked
   "yeah" i replied
   "Hi this is Anup from XYZ project, is it the right time to take your interview?"
   "yeah absolutely" i said almost shouting with excitement
   "Tell me something about yourself Abhishek"
   "Ok I have done my engineering from LT college and trained in JAVA, and currently on bench" i said
   "Did you just say bench? Look Abhishek, bench is not the right word, you are just a part of inter project talent pool, you are undergoing trainings in advanced java right? So how can you call it bench?" He said in a lecturing tone
   "Yeah Anup you are right" i said in a low voice

   Two days after the call i got into the project and my period on bench was over, finally my frustration was over, i was doing something now, i had a project team, a team i could call my own, but with this team of my own, came the perils. The work load, the release date fears and many other things.And now while i am writing this blog i wonder if in my life of almost 23 years, i love this bench or i hate it? Enough reasons for me to love it and enough for me to hate it. I guess as the saying goes, you can love it or hate it,but cannot ignore it.

Education for all

2010-03-07T18:41:00.000+05:30

As long as learning is connected with earning, as long as certain jobs can only be reached through exams, so long must we take this examination system seriously. If another ladder to employment was contrived, much so-called education would disappear, and no one would be a penny the stupider.
- E. M. Forster

This is quote given by Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970), he was an English novelist, short story writer and essayist.

  The quote obviously meant that by learning a person can connect to earning, but it seems a century after this quote was given the meaning has changed entirely. What it means now? Isn't that the question that arises in your mind? Of late I just love keeping suspenses, so wait for two minutes( that i hope is the time you take to read this blog, not doubting your reading skills!).

   Lets go back into time to year 2005, month July. I had blown up on common entrance test big time, before the CET, Dad warned me to work for engineering and i ended up preparing for medical, result, Medical CET- Good but not good enough for admission, Engineering CET-Bad, but still good enough for me to get an admission. So here i was, standing in a newly built college, standing in a hope of getting admission at least here!. Forms filled, armed with a folder full of certificates and mark sheets I waited. And bingo, I got a call on by the clerk to meet the principal of the college, Excited i went in.....

  "Sit down son" , principal said in a soft spoken voice.
  "Thank you, these are my mark sheets sir" ,i said, as politely as possible for me.
"As I see it, your marks are not too great......
  "yeah i prepared for medical sir", i cut in before he could complete
  "That shouldn't matter to me,because this is an engineering college" he said in a little stern voice
  "Thats true" i said nodding in agreement
  "The marks you have secured, are not enough to fetch you admission in this college" he said
  "oh, My PCM marks are good sir, that can be considered, please" i said in a pleading tone
  "Thats true, I can consider you , but along with PCM marks you have to make certain contributions" he said
  "I am not sure if i get you" i said with a quizzical look on my face
   "The college is newly built and needs contribution from its students to develop further, and hence your help is neeeded" he said in a soft reassuring voice


   I headed back home and wondered if he indeed was the principal or the marketing department head for the college. I didn't take admission in that college anyway. And this brings us to the biggest known unsaid thing in this country about the education system, the donation.

   We always take it for granted as part of our education system, but never really bother to know what are the reasons for it and what can be the consequences. The professional education is going for a toss in our country. India is an assembly factory for engineers yet the number of colleges are not sufficient. Every year country puts out around 3 lac+ engineering students, but is this number enough in country of more than 1 billion? and out of this 3 lac figure, how many are from quality colleges? very few!. So lets see it from a student's point of view. If a student is only little about average, he can forget about his dreams for a technical degree, If he is fairly good, he can think of some nondescript college, and only if he is very good, that he can think of good colleges. And not to mention that only geniuses can get into IIT. Their is one more way around, he can have any quality of brain but his dad's pocket must be full of money, the money can always compensate for the lack of brain. In all this, it would be foolish of me to even start writing about medical education. One has to be a genius or a millionaire to study medicine. This great country of India doesn't need doctors. We all believe in god and he is the true healer, isn't it Mr. Education minister?

   Why does this happen? Why is IIT reserved for geniuses, why cant we have IIT like quality education for non-geniuses? Why is there only one AIIMS with just 50 seats in a country of 1 billion people. If at all the budget for education was even 10% of the defense budget, we would have had 5 IIT's in every city. In the good 'ol British times, it was said that technical and professional education is only for the elite, however Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru said, In a free India education is for all. However it looks like as times pass, governments are getting Nostalgic about the old British times. Otherwise how would you explain the 5-10 times jump in the fees for engineering and medical college in last 7 years? The organisation controlling the fee structure is appointed by the government.

   Questions are many answers are none. Better we start asking them, otherwise my and your children would not be even able to think of a technical education. But before i sign off, i will answer one question, i am sure you don't remember the question, i remember my promise to explain the current context of the quote,

"as long as learning is connected to earning "by colleges",as long as certain jobs can only be reached through exams"given in colleges".so long must we take this examination system seriously. If another ladder to employment was contrived, much so-called education "in colleges" would disappear, and "colleges" would be a penny the stupider."

The White "Sainiks"

2010-02-03T23:39:00.000+05:30

   Okay the title may sound a little weird and may force you to think that a long break from blogging by me must have done something radical to my brain. But i would suggest that you hold on for 2-3 minutes to know what i really mean.

   It has been around 12 months since the first attack on Indians started taking place in what can now be easily called as a racial hub of Melbourne and Sydney. It all started with a one-off incident and suddenly it snow balled into a full fledged attack on Indians. Every other day an Indian is attacked and our media doesn't spare a minute before claiming it to be racial.The events reached its crescendo when an Indian was allegedly killed in a racist attack. Rather going into the details of the attacks, let me come to a bigger picture, are the attacks indeed racially motivated? If the attacks were racially motivated then why is it that no other brown skinned or black skinned nationals are attacked other than Indians? I would like to assume that the attacks more out of frustration rather than race. The Australian economy was reeling under pressure  due to the recession and people like in any other country were jobless. At this time, Indian students who would do any job(mind you, they won't even think about doing the same Job's back home) for a much cheaper rates were preferred by small and big industries alike. Hotels, restaurants and garages started more of Indians, the influx of Indian students in any first world country is never questionable anyway. This obviously didn't go down well with the natives( Who are aggressive any way,remember the cricket team's antics with Indian team?). And this frustration was vented through hostile aggression which later turned into violence. The use of violence is unjustifiable even in extreme circumstances but the frustration if not acceptable is at least understandable.

   Okay so travel back to home and have a look at the financial capital of Mumbai. Its been decades since north Indians or rather any Indian other than maharashtrian is being attacked. It all began with attack on the south Indians in the 1960's to the recent spate of attacks on North Indians by both MNS and Shiv sena alike. Things here have already gone past the crescendo, people have died in this violence.The economy of Mumbai has always been amazingly good with jobs available for almost everybody. Mumbai is a pride of maharashtra but it has been a livelihood of whole India. People from the poor hinterland of UP and Bihar come with their high hopes of getting a job and usually take up any job for just about any salary. The salary, much lower than what a local would demand, whom companies would hire in such a case is anybodies guess. So one can find most of taxi and auto drivers in the western suburbs to be all from UP and bihar, most of the construction laborers and manual labors are not locals. This obviously doesn't go down well with natives, does it?

   Uhhhhhhh..........!!!! Did you find the two paragraphs similar? Yes they are similar and they are because the situations are similar. I don't know what is right and what is wrong. I don't know if the demand of aussies or that of MNS et al are justified. But i find them similar. I am very small person and i saw the similarities but alas , MNS and Shiv Sena with seasoned polticos don't see any similarity. They possibly don't even know if it exists. The MNS threatens to stone the aussies if they play in India. The Shiv Sena won't even let them set foot on the soil of Mumbai. Why? because they have attacked Indians??? ohhh may be then the people they attack are from uganda and not uttar pradesh. According to them Indians have full right of protection and Job in any other country but not in Mumbai. They are standing up for the very same north Indians who they attack blatantly. When sachin says Mumbai is for Indians they call him traitor, but by denying the very statement makes them a traitor themselves.

   All the dear "Sainik" please stop the political hypocrisy, and treat the aussies as equals, they are after all the white skinned "Sainiks"

Can you get away???

2009-12-27T01:23:00.000+05:30

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???

2009-12-12T23:15:00.000+05:30

   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 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 to loose the virgin tag( ohh yeah marriage is the only way for me to loose my virginity!!!! ),then buying a good huge car,a huge flat in the posh south mumbai area, a world tour, and telling all the girls whom i had a crush on that " Hey, do you know i liked you??". 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. l 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 why 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. What we think and what we see in movies is not completely false, in fact it is an ideal way to behave, and some people may do it as well, but how many would do that??? I am uncertain of the statistics, but i am certain of one thing for sure. 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

2009-12-04T13:35:00.001+05:30

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

2009-11-27T19:44:00.000+05:30

   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

2009-11-22T00:18:00.000+05:30

   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

2009-11-21T02:22:00.000+05:30

  "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....

2009-11-18T01:20:00.001+05:30

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

2009-11-15T19:16:00.001+05:30

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

2009-11-13T20:26:00.002+05:30

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.......

2009-11-11T20:55:00.001+05:30

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

2009-11-10T21:11:00.000+05:30

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

2009-11-09T13:03:00.003+05:30

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

2009-11-08T12:46:00.003+05:30

   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

2009-11-06T23:47:00.001+05:30

   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 bak bak.

   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

2009-11-05T15:50:00.001+05:30

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

2009-11-04T18:08:00.000+05:30

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

2009-11-03T22:57:00.000+05:30

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?

2009-11-02T20:12:00.000+05:30

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.

College life and the love life......

2009-11-01T23:20:00.000+05:30

There has been a lot of debate and discussion on love life should start and how it should start, what is the correct age. But according to some there is no age for love. In hindi movies the lead actress would be head over heals over the boy right from their childhood flashback. That may be possible but i would like to generalize the right age to the college life.

My love life also started in college. No i never got into a relationship, but i fell in love on 1st week of my college itself. The girl a simple one, no make up, salwar kameez clad , armed with books to compensate for the expensive fees of the college with her good grades. I was very shy at that time and hardly could muster the courage to ask her name, all i did was sit on the bench next to hers and look into the attendance sheet to know her name. I was successful at that. I was happy to know that she would be in my batch for practicals. So finally on the first practicals i got introduced to her "Hi i am ............" is all she said, those were the golden words for me. We became good friends, probably because i always helped her with assignments( Ohh yeah i was this sincere student, first year engineering you see). I was so shy i could'nt even ask for her mobile no. and she had to ask me for that.

Her result wasnt all that good, i thought this is my chance grab it and be the pillar. Everything was done and laid, but then came the heart break, i came to know her more and she was those types of girl who does not have any sort of interests in relationships. My dreams were shattered, i never let her know my feelings, she became my best friend and still is, i came to know her, but she still doesnt know me. The golden words that she had uttered have probably become just another set of words for me.

Life moves on and so do we. We cant go on crying and whining over the first love. Love doesnt happen only ones.

Because i have found out that love can happen even in office life, at a family function and even at bus stop.

Always good but never the best

2009-10-31T20:45:00.000+05:30

My life has always been this way. I was a 4 year old kid, barely into kindergarten, the teacher told my mom, this kid looks bright he ll excel in the class and may be top it. My mom turned to me and said " Do meet her expectations, she is your teacher". I started believing in my mom and the teacher who said those golden words which started it all in my life. I attended the first day of my class and was seated next to yet another bright boy. So that started the competition. My ma'am called my mom one day and asked her to prepare me for fancy dress as i have very little stage fear. I did so, was applauded but unfortunately i stood second, to the guy who always sat next to me. I was good at poem recitation as well. Took part in it but again stood lame second, no prizes for guessing who. It was time for my final exams. Again i do not have to repeat it, i stood second. It was only 3 years later i realized what i have in store for my entire life when i realized that he came in this world 15 mins earlier than me, and his mom was on the bed next to me.

2 years earlier i was relieved to learn that he is placed in the same company as i am, i could match him somewhere, but again, he did'nt take up the job and is now in prestigious georgia tech univ, i am still sitting at home waiting for the very same company.

So in short i have always been good but there has been some one who has been better than me, to beat me.