a random chain of events !

pep talk

2011-03-10T12:04:00.000-08:00

Life is full of irony, surprises, shocks and awes.

Latest in the series of shocks that I have encountered off late includes a friend of mine.

Hong Kong

Well, so I was talking to this friend of mine whom I know for a very long time. She asked me about my future plan and I started off with my usual rantings about how I want to live the world, and travel to far off places and experience different cultures. She listened me say all the interesting things about the ways in which one gets to see different places in the world. And I gotta be honest with you, I felt superior when I was telling her about my plans. After all, it was I who was telling her about the steps to be taken to go abroad for the first time. Mind you, I am yet to set foot outside Indian subcontinent myself !

So few days back I was checking out face book as usual without anything in mind when I suddenly stumbled across her photographs that she had uploaded.

And it was from her trip in Hong Kong.

And I am ashamed ! I gave her the pep talk assuming that I would make it outside the country before her at least ! I am looking forward to talking to her. Lets see how she is going to make fun of me. Will keep the readers posted of my humiliation.

Cheers.

Rahul

My Experience with a high profile Gym in Delhi

2011-03-08T11:04:00.000-08:00

Hi . .

Its been a long time since I last posted in this series of my blog. But better late than never.

So I have joined what they call as Golds Gym. It was started by a certain someone named Mr. Gold in USA tens of years back and has successfully capitalized on their brand name globally.

I started 2011 on a high note and had made a promise to myself to get fitter, leaner and more flexible. My belly has been expending non stop for quite a while now and I guess its high time I start working out to contain the very expansion.

Again I am roving. Sorry folks.

When I had joined the gym, it was my first time. I have joined couple of times earlier too, but none of them lasted more than couple of odd days which makes this time indeed my first time.

I borrow my dads Maruti 800 to go to gym most of the time. Majority of people come from a high profile family. When I show up at their gym, they have awesome cars parked all around. But the front rows are reserved only for those cars that are worth being shown off to the outside world. Even if the space is free, and I park there, the freaks move my car to the end of the back row to remove it from peoples eyes. And the more expensive cars take my cars former position. Not that I am too concerned about it, but it says something about their mentality and their tendency to show off.

I found this incident pretty peculiar, in fact, weird enough to write about it to you folks.

Please post your opinion if you have any so that I can ascertain for myself whether I am the only one finding it abnormal or something is wrong with my normalcy !!

Cheers

Rahul

2009-11-04T10:56:00.000-08:00

wow

I was on my way to this place in south delhi for my counselling session regarding admission to University of West of England. I got to know that I am one of the very few students who received unconditional offer from the Univ.

Anyways. . So there I was in an regular autorickshaw when I came across this creature swaying leisurely on the busy streets of New Delhi. The sheer contrast in the speed and the nature of transport being used side by side prompted me to actually stick my head out of the rickshaw, avoid getting bumped into the head by the adjacent automobiles, and shoot !!

Hope you guys enjoy the picture !!

2009-10-30T09:45:00.001-07:00

Remember the Euphoria I was in after having clinched the Ericsson Job? Well , its gone long time back. The reason being the extreme amount of traveling involved in the duty to the remotest of the places.

A job at last !

2009-10-19T03:48:00.000-07:00

The other day I was randomly checking my email . . just the way I do every fifteen minutes when I am terribly bored and I got nothing better to do. . And I get this email saying there is an employment opportunity and calling the Telecom Engineers. . And I was sane enough to take that mail seriously. The first thing I did was to take the print out of that mail and send back my updated cv. . . I wonder whats there to update in it considering the amount of passiveness I have exhibited in the past couple of months.

So well, I give this concerned person a call saying that I would like to apply for the job and was immediately given an appointment the next day for an interview scheduled to take place in Ericsson Office somewhere in gurgaon; a place I had never been to. Told my parents about it and they were quite okay with it. The next morning my dad booked a cab to the destination, as if I am going to an airport for a trip to Las Vegas or something. But that was sweet of him. And a bit heavy on pocket too.

So I reach this venue quite well ahead in time. I had woken up late that morning and to save time I didnt really freshen up that way I usually do (okay. . dont misconstrue what I say here !)And by the time I reached the office I was quite uncomfortable. My bladder had developed a pressure that would have crossed the threshold level had I not taken an immediate action.
So, I went up to the desk and asked about the interview schedule and was told to wait for some time that I gladly did. Met some cool guys out there who were as bad an engineer as I was. . . (okay I am being humble!) The interview went quite well. They had asked us who would want to get interviewed first, and I was the one who took the initiative, not to show any leadership skills or something, but because of the immense ennui I felt there.

So there I was with the senior guys of Ericsson, who would eventually grill me for half an hour, asking everything from the GSM system architecture to whether I have a girl friend or not, and whether I am serious or not in a relationship. I had answered almost all the questions satisfactorily till there came some questions that I had no clue about. . But since I didnt want to stop the flow of the answer and question back and forth, rather than admitting about my unfamiliarity with the asked question, I was saying all the fancy stuff I could muster, and boy was he pissed. He said its better if I say I dont know rather than trying to answer something I have no clue about. And guess what, Thats what I did. So well . . here is the lesson guys. . in interview, you can afford to be a bit honest about yourself. . not too honest. but yeah honest to a certain extent that it doesnt look too fake. In fact , the interviewers like the honesty thing as long as their ego is being satisfied.

Anyways, So the interview was over and I came out and had a talk with some guys who had come to apply for the same job that I had applied to and asked me what all questions were asked. I tried my best to recall some of them and tried to help as much as I could. There was this person named Asheesh who was quite cool . .the typical lazy ass engineer who doesnt give a damn about anything thats got nothing to do with him. So we strike off pretty well. . And then at the end of eveyones interview we are told we will be gotten back to over the phone call.

The next day I called up the person who had set up my interview and he told me I had gotten a "good, impressive" feedback from the interviewer. I was happy to hear that for a change. . After the debacle at the previous interview my confidenc elevel was not quite as high as I would have liked it to be!

Sadly, Aasheesh didnt make it past the interview as far as I know. I might be wrong. So well. . the joining date and everything has been fixed. Got a big break in telecom sector and its just so cool to know that. And the best part about this job is. . . Its my own. I did what I had to get this job. And I didnt get what had to get done to get the job to me by itself as many people do ! (not that I could have wither though. . :-))

So there is the story of my first job.
There is a minor problem though. I had registered for GRE exam on 2nd november and I would have office that day. I will see what can be done to be in a position to at least take the exam, if not do well !!

More stories to follow . . . Hold on!!

Rahul

my maiden gig!!

2009-02-16T08:07:00.000-08:00

it was like a dream come true. . to see people headbanging listening to our music and . . . moshing. . its the biggest compliment any band can get. . . the more aggressive you get em, the better you are.

anyways. . in the end, what i feel is that . . it paid off man. . traveling in a freaking bus from pimpri to ghorpdi every time for jamming, . . trying to make my band mates understand the huge distance involved and telling em the reasons for my abscence from the jamming sessions on many occasions. .

the credit goes to everyone in the band. . specially bissy. . biswodeep the guitarist and amol the vocalist for putting the band together. . for calling up everyone and showing so much concern for anything and everything associated with the band . .

and i was so fucking elated to see a guy commenting in the rock in pune thread that godstonetrip deserved to win . . even if its a comment by a single guy, but thats more than enough to make us happy. . at least some people out there liked our music. . more than the awards, being appreciated by our listeners is what we care about.

thanks. for everything.

2008-05-19T07:04:00.000-07:00

Finally the search ends.

It was in the middle of the technical festival that i realized i had fallen in love. . at the same time cupid was doing something to the person i was falling in love with, and what happens next? we are committed.

I have had a long history with this girl . . I have been in talking terms with her right from the start of the college. We didn't talk much back then, but passed smiles casually, not aware that couple of years later we would be madly in love with each other.

She used to hang out with people who were supposedly bad bunch of guys. And I absolutely hated that part. And I somehow had convinced myself that those were the traits of the sluttiness.

Yes I hated her. Specially after the previous year technical festival due to the incident involving me and her. It happened that we had stayed late night at the college auditorium as we were running out of time for the stage decoration. I was also there. SO was she.

I entered the hall and she made faces the moment i was looking towards her direction. Now I could have kept quiet and ignored her. But the hatred inside made me shout at her. . "What you making faces at?" And she retorted with an equal if not more intensity or rather hatred. . "Its my face. . I do what i want to . . " And I pushed off from there afterwards. . . with even more hatred . . . hatred amplified like a differential voltage gets amplified across the open loop op - amps. (had to sound like a budding engineer. . sorry folks. . . )

And so the zion 2008 happened. I had asked Ripple, the students coordinator, to make me the head of the campaigning department. He did that. And by the most amazing luck or bad luck whatever you call it, she was my partner. She was also assigned the same portfolio.

I was so damn apprehensive at the first working day for the campaigning. I approached her and started talking about some official work to be done . . as if nothing had happened in the past and that we were friends. She also behaved not her normal self for a change and was receptive to what i said. Eventually we made announcements in various classes. And that was the day when I surreptitiously got hold of her number. . !!

And the story goes on till this very moment. Every day is a new day for us. Every second that passes by makes me realise how much I love her and how life has changed since her arrival. How I have started making an attempt to be a better person. . a better human being and more importantly, a better lover.

She is still not convinced that I love her and she occasionally states that I would leave her one day. When I say"I love you!!" She just gives back a smile and gently scolds me asking not to lie. I insist. She insists back. And I give up.

We have spent so much time together. She comes here and we stay together for almost 2 to 3 days and nights. Yet at the time she starts going back, I feel she had just arrived and that I ought to stop her from going away from me.

She is more practical, more light headed and has a sense of judgment. . some attributes that I perhaps lack. . or rather I am not good at.

Its a pity that My parents are against my marriage to someone outside the caste. I am not a selfish guy. I acknowledge how much they have done for me. I also know about their skepticism about their eldest son falling in love with someone outside the caste. . just like the eldest daughter of our extended family did. I remember how hurt my father was when he heard of the news that munmun would be marrying someone who happens to be a Jain.

At her marriage, various people from our extended family approached me with warnings like. . "Son . . you have to carry forth the legacy of our clan" . . or "you better marry a brahmin" or "Dont shame us the way she has!!"

My mother has never been supportive of me talking to some girl. Its stupid but understandable. She has been married to a guy she never knew before and she expects me to do the same. Wonder if its too much to ask for . . .

I had a talk about it with my girl friend when we were talking about whats gonna happen in future. I put a rock on my heart and said I would marry the girl my dad wants me to. . cos if i don't, he would die. !!
No obviously that sounds like we are bound not to marry ever. . . that the possibility of our prospective alliance is zilch. . which I feel is not the case. But I have already said those words and yeah . . words are like arrows. . once you have set them free, you cant take it back.

So yeah . . as of now. I am in a big dilemma. A big, complex and irksome task awaits me. . to convince my parents about the free will to marriage. . but a bigger task awaits me. . to make her believe that what i said was just to discourage her from being too sure about the future. . to avoid making her believe that there is no other guy except me for her in the universe. Future is uncertain. I do not want her to live on this false notion . I love her. And if being honest means she would be mad at me, So be it.

My father just called me up and asked me if I had read his article. Just now. . I reckon he would never imagine I was in the middle of writing something so relevant to him , to me, and to the future of our family.

I so much wish, my parents had not been so caste biased!!

My uncle. . look at him. what happened to him ? He followed what he was asked to. He married a woman he never knew before and whose photo he saw that was reprocessed from some adobe photo shop shit. . Is he happy today ? I seriously doubt it. Yes, he has come on terms with the different situations our society has imposed over him. But somewhere deep down in his heart I am sure he has a sadness . . with the way things unfolded for him. I would refrain from divulging too much . Its his personal life and I have no rights of stating these self opinionated piece of writings in a blog.

On this note I would end.

Do give me some feedback. I am fucking confused.!

2008-03-04T07:54:00.000-08:00

Last time i had mentioned to you about someone i met at french exam.
Its hight time that i lay some more light over this chapter of my life. she is someone i truly respect and cant even think of what i had thought earlier!

finally. . francais terminer!!

2008-02-18T00:49:00.001-08:00

done with level 1 exam in French and i am quite happy with my performance. .

more important than the exam, it was the acquaintances that i made which might turn the course of events in pune for better in my life. . one guy is an agent in a leading call center who can get me job without much hassle in a call center. Pretty cool French he has got. . so i can take help from him with French as well.

The more important acquaintance was made with Mrs. *******. Sadly she is married and i am freaking disappointed with it. but we had a long chat today while traveling and it seems that we gel well. we are gonna meet over the cup of coffee and lets see how things develop. As for me, I definitely have fallen for her, head over heels, despite her marital status.

Sorry . . no pictures to illustrate. !!

French EXAM FINALLY!!

2008-02-17T19:00:00.000-08:00

I have a french exam to take in another couple of hours. I thought it would be better to preserve my emotions in the safe hands of cyber space before it gets lost in the abyss of time.

Thanks to a friend of mine I managed to ameliorate my French just at the nick of time. I shouldn’t sound so confident, especially after not having worked as hard as I should have done to learn the language a bit better but I have certainly no idea where this uncalled confidence comes from!

I appreciate that friends help but she is over concerned about me – a fact that makes me uncomfortable with the entire deal. I think I am going to pass today. Not sure about listening comprehension though. . I can barely comprehend what the morons from the recorder blabber with such a high bit rate.

Rest when I come back from alliance de francais de pune.

Au Revoir !

2008-02-02T22:27:00.000-08:00

I have a strong reason to write this edition of my blog. I have been through so many things, all compressed into a time span which is considerably short considering the number of incidents that have happened.

I would start off with the outing to law college road with Christian and friends. . Okay hold on. . Before that there is another big story I have to unravel. This is about music. It was a dream of mine to be in one of the head banging hard rock band and it seems to be getting realized day by day, thanks to orkut. Having said that I am not at all feeling lame or whatever. . Few people tend to make fun of orkut for every damned reason they can contrive of, which is a bit unfair to the impeccably carved out website. Anyways to continue with where I was, There was an add posted on orkut community, where they needed a bassist. I promptly replied to the sender and we fixed up a date and time to meet up. Since I am a beginner, I am sure they were disappointed at first, but when they insisted it hardly matters cos the idea here is to evolve as a band together, learning things as we move on. But I think that was just to soothe things up. WHY ELSE would they be on a look out for another bassist? I feel something fishy, but asking them directly about it would sound a bit impolite. I should mind my own business and shouldn’t really delve deep into their business. That is the reason I have associated myself with another band and they are into melodic death metal . . . a genre I am really not at all fond of but considering the circumstances, I have joined it. We are auditioning the guitarists and we in fact went to a guitarists place and he sounded pretty decent. Every Sunday I go to randheers place to jam and this is so cool. . In fact Sebastian was really surprised when he saw us jamming. Of course he claimed that the local bands back in Germany sound 100 times better but i have no qualms. . They are ahead of us in every aspect and music happens to be their forte. Beethoven was a bloody German what more do you expect?

And then we went to law college mocha which was equally fun. .Katrina, Christian , Jacqueline, eshaan, Sebastian, shraddha, me and some others had gone there and we had lots n lots of food and hookah. I remember being very happy that night, though I am unable to comprehend why I was so that night. We clicked some very nice pictures and I had my first joint that night. . was . . . err . cough cough. . not bad. .

And then the real thing I am writing this blog for. . I ATTENDED IRON MAIDEN SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME 2008 in Mumbai. I had given up the idea of going to this concert, mainly because I didn’t know of anyone else from pune who would be going for this concert. So on 31sy January night I was quite passively listening to music on my computer while surfing net or something. . And then suddenly out of the blue I get this phone call from one of my high school friends, ritwiz, who asked me if I was coming or not. When I told him about my reluctance to go to the concert, he ensured that I would miss the concert by describing the number of friends he is coming with, and how nice all his friends are, and how they would meet up some of the other metal heads and how they would drink beer and alcohol that night and will have a gala time. This was the instant when I almost decided I would head for Mumbai immediately. I told him I would make an effort to reach their in time.

I gave my flat mate (ex) a call and he after some coaxing agreed to come to the railway station from where we would catch a bus to Mumbai. It was 12.30 am and I really wasn’t sure if we would make it. But I guess God himself didn’t want to deprive couple of metal heads from seeing their metal gods. So there was a bus waiting for us near the railway station. And it was pretty cheap too. And the bus dropped us right in front of the bandra kurla complex.

Nevertheless there we were in the dead of the night, no one to be seem in the vicinity and I was a bit skeptical if we would manage to meet up with ritwiz , who claimed to have reached Mumbai at 4 am. We walked for at least 5 kilometers that night, and when we didn’t find them , we decided to go to the station to fill ourselves up. I tried calling ritwiz 100 times in the meanwhile but couldn’t get through. . Low signal or something. I had the tastiest butter bun of my life in the train and awesome tea. We went to anupam’s relatives flat in kandivali and had rest. .set off for kurla at 10 am. Reached the station and I couldn’t muster up enough courage to board the train after looking at the monstrous crowd, the rickety compartment swollen with all kinds of people, and that’s when we decided to go to the complex in a bus. We had a long long journey from kandivali to kurla but at least we were sitting through out in the travel and that was a comforting part.In the middle of the journey I got a call from dad who is a in Hawaii right now for some international conference. He asked me about my where about and I told him I was in a bus. So he asked back if I was going to college in a bus or not. . and I lied !!

So we reached the venue and saw ritwiz and his friend ashwin. We talked a bit, and then met up with other friends. We very soon were on talking terms and infact indulged in abusing each other, which is kind of appreciable, considering we had met couple of hours back. I had breezer that afternoon. They drunk gin as well and insisted on me srinking that shit. I am glad I could handle this peer pressure successfully and refused. The entry started at 4.30 pm or something. They made us wait for so long. All the sound testing , mic testing , and shit like that. The opening band was nerve wreck and it actually wrecked our nerves. They were non descript, though they had come up with some of the melodic riffs but apart from that they were really not impressive at all. Then steve harris’ daughter came with her band and she sucked worse than the previous band. We were chanting like “Bring your daddy . . bla bla”. Though her guitarist was a shredder man . . real fast solos in virtually every song she sung.

And then to our big relief came parikrama. They are just phenomenal. I am their band. They are the desi band and need the support of us desis. I have made up my mind of buying their original stuff from now on. There was this guy infrnot of us who was like. . Maiden maiden every 5 minutes in a disgusting dialect. . Felt like taking his guts out from his anus. Yeah it’s sick I know. But he was in fact, way sicker.

We were inside on a 1k pass. . Which meant the stage was far off from where we were standing. Barricades were there to make us aware of the fact that we spent less than the bastards who were ahead of us. . but as maiden started we got violent, broke the barricades, and joined the idiots who had paid 700 more bucks to get the front row tickets. We joined them eventually and they must have realized their folly. Mind you we already had this idea about the breaking of the barricades and that’s the reason we opted out for a cheaper ticket.

Parikrama lifted our spirits and we came back to life after being subdued for so long. We got into groove, head banging and all . . and then came the gods. . they came 30 minutes after parikrama ceased to play. . . and from time to time they were showin us the teasers. . you know. . a small part of making their presence felt across the podium or something. . the background was covered with a black sheet, and it was in fact a huge poster of eddy, and they rolled themselves up in the background to change for the next poster. . and every poster was infact the album cover of the song maiden were singing. Despite being so old, the raw energy they exhibited was tremendous. It amazes me to see the 50 year olds jumping and kicking like teenagers. When they started off with their music, MANNN . . it was . . in one single word, most electrifying moment I have experienced in my life. No wonder they are considered the gods of metal. They deserve every bit of this title.

2007-12-20T09:43:00.000-08:00

Hey man . . long time . . this time i have got lotta things to tell you . . they include. . an accusation of rape on us, party at our flat , bad exams. . and other exciting things. .
The day I was done with one of the exam, namely DC, I was freaking happy. . I came back only to see there was a huge party going on . . and you know what kind of a person I am . . a slight whiff of distraction and I am gone, only to return back to studies too late and regretting having gone . .

So was the party . . cool . .with lots and lots of people, lot of chics, lot of cool people. . and most importantly I really enjoyed it . . right from the pan cakes that christian made at our kitchen to the wine . . I dont drink alcohol mind you . .but for a day I shed my inhibitions with alcohol. . .I just had 5 or 6 ml of this . . so thats next to nothing if seen from a practical way . .

Anyways, it was pretty late . . around 1 am. . and the girls who had come didnt have any bike to go back on. So one of my friend named eeshan offered to drop them home. I thought of going to the station on our way back when we would be done with dropping them.
But eshan misinterpreted what I was trying to say and instead it was decided that we would leave them on our way from where they could catch a rickshaw for their home in koregaon park.

SO we left them at a place near the bus stand of our flat. ANd then off we went to the station and roamed around in the platform talking about the past and the various experieces we have been through. . and it was an enjoyable conversation to say the least.

And then sudenly one of our flat mate arnab calls me up and asks me if I am okay. . I said hell yeah I am absolutely fine . .then he said something that suggested someone has met some kind of accident and its kinda serious in nature. . . Its only after we came back to the flat that we realized what deep shit we were into.

The girls were seated in the auto rickshaw. . and from there on we assumed they would reach their place without any problem. But how wrong we were!~! The auto rickshaw driver turned out be some drunkard and under the influence of alcohol started talking all kind of lewd and lecherious stuff with the girls. As it was their first night alone, they got scared. They ran straight out of the rickshaw and to make the matter worse few men started following them. They rammed into some residential palce. . . inside a flat where 4 or 5 guys used to stay together. fortunately for them as well for us, they turned out to be bunch of nice gentlemen and they ensured theur safety till the other guys from our flat came there to console and comfort them.

Now we are couple of disgraced persons in the circle. . irresponsible. and eager to save petrol. We were innocent but it was the circumstance that made us appear like bunch guilty bastards. Some snaps from the party follow. .

2007-12-13T07:20:00.000-08:00

heyy . . i am so much into writing blogs that i couldnt restrain myself from writing it even though I am not at my flat presently.
Anywayz to start with, I had my first exam today which went well. Not as well as it should have been. But good enough for me to sail through this shitless subject named DDCO. Though thanks to this subject I can boast of some of the most basic and difficult concepts used in the memory organisation and other coputer peripheral related stuff.

I have another exam day after tomorrow and that will decide the course of events for me thereafter. Because that is the subject I am most concerned with. Not because it is tough but cos I have hardly studied. On the other hand there hardly exists any subject that I have studied so by that logic I should be wary of each and every subject.

I clicked some very nice photograps. . . specially the one that i clicked from the top when all the students had come to a single place to check their roll numbers and the room number it will lead to.

I was little concerned with the state of a good friend of mine who fell ill just a night before the exam. All our engineering studies happen just a night before the exam and that night is priceless for us to afford to get sick. He told me he is not sure if he would pass but He is a smart guy and I am sure he will manage.

The rest update after I am done with this subject known by the name of analog integrated circuits and applications. In past 5 months this is what I have achieved. memorising the full forms of the subjects . . hehe . . Too add to the discomfit is that I have wasted a week in calcutta and I can feel the brunt now.

Adios.

coincidence...

2007-12-07T10:32:00.000-08:00

I had to mention this. Agreed I shouldnt be wasting my precious time at this moment as exams are around the corner but I just couldnt resist.

I was talking about the marriage to my flat mate. I told him casually that my cousins huband is a jain. And then I told him the marriage took place in kharagpur.

Now since he was brought up in kharagpur, he asked me my cousins husbands name. There are just 2 or 3 jain families in kharagpur and he would be knowing him . . or so he reasoned. When I told him the name Paras Jain, He turned out to be long lost friend of him . They used to take coachings together, for karate, physics and chemistry.

He immediately called him up and viola. . this is really a coincidence. Paras instantly recognised arnob and they talked for few minutes. Paras was in a train and people were sleeping so it was decided to continue the chit chat once they reach banglore.

How cool is that?

pune oh pune!!

2007-12-07T09:11:00.000-08:00

Finally I am in pune. . And for the first time I am happy about it. Not because I was missing someone or something but because now I can manage to study without getting deviated by ultra fast internet connection back home. Not the internet alone but so many things. To attend the marriage of the eldest cousin was such a big compulsion. I am so glad it’s over.

I have been a staunch supporter of Delhi winters but somehow I find pune weather more pleasant. I wonder why it is like that. May be because I have started living in a better place with better breed of people. The temperature is very comfortable unlike Delhi where I am constantly haunted by cold feet. Every winter I buy a pair of woolen socks only to realize its inefficacy afterwards.

I had the opportunity to come back by flight which is so better as compared to a28 hours in train. Although if you are lucky enough to get interesting people in your compartment you earn great friendship with them in that long day inside train. I have many friends whom I have met in train ,. And we are still in touch. It feels nice at the end of the day to see your social networking grow.

On a personal front I am busy with exams . 13^th December is the date when exams will start. So its pretty much possible that I would not be able to write any new posts till the end of the exam which is on 24^th December.

So I will see you after couple of weeks or so. Ciao

the marriage, the traditions and the disappointments. . .

2007-12-04T06:10:00.000-08:00

I have so much to mention about the marriage ceremony i attended. Currently I am back from the site of marriage. (a place 135 km away from calcutta . . named kharagpur!) All this while i didnt have acces to computer and hence the delay. . .

Anyways to start with, We arrived at the indira gandhi airport at 7 pm on 30th night. My father was very doubtful whether we would manage to catch the flight or not but fortunately we managed to catch the flight . . . you know why? the departure was delayed by an hour or so. . god helps those who help themselves so they say . . lol . .

So we reach calcutta at 11.20 pm. the same day. A Lancer comes to pick us up and i am thankful to god that an ambassador didnt come to receive us for a change. I think I would never succeed in understanding the love affair between government of india and our own very desi car ambassador . . Anyways back to thje topic. It was almost past mid night when we reached the inside of calcutta and all the restaurants and eateries were obviously shut. The chauffeur being the localite managed to get us to aplace that is famous for punjabi foods. The purpose of having dinner was lost though as we were looking forward to eat some of the most authentic bengoli dishes. Apparently even the bengolis are in love with the punjab stuff. Good for punjabis, their culture is getting recognition at so many places within india. Not good for babu moshais though. . With this attitude i wonder if they would manage to retain their extremely culturally rich heritage.

So we went inside the restaurant and waited for the waiter to get his very much solicted presence before us. First thing that my father asks him - "What do you have in fish ?". And when my father learns they dont have any fish in the servings my dads expression was similar to the lover of some typical movie in which the lover accidently watches his girl kiss someone else. To cut the long story short our first night at calcutta was more like a night in punjab.

The next day a Tavera comes to get us to kharagpur. We are joined by "peesa and peesi".I had to mention this word. peesa is a maithili word for your dads elder sisters husband. If you are not an indian perhaps you should stop wasting your time trying to figure out the nitty gritties involved inthe relationships .

So we reach kharagpur on 1st december 2007 at around 2 pm. We go to a place named gujrati baasa (what the hell does that mean by the way ?). All the members of my extended family had already reached there. Its perhaps after a decade or so that I get to meet so many of my relatives at the same place. And I am sure I would nt manage to meet them all again for atleast next couple of years. And since I had this thing in my mind I tended to give more importance to everyone. Even to them I didnt like previously.

Infact I met one of my cousin for the first time in my life. He is 3 years old. He is the youngest son of my dads immediate younger brother. I met aneesha after 5 years(she is also his daughter!) and I met many people whom I had met only at my ancestral place.(a place named chhatauni in indo nepal border. I tried googling the places name but it yielded not a single result. As unknown as the amazon tribes in southern india I guess.)

We danced dandia with the husbands family. It served as a platform for socializing. We had our bits of laughter and merry making. Gujratis are very good at this form of dancing and we were wondering throughout how to match their steps but in vain.

The next day of dandia there was proper marriage ceremony. It was a pure jain customary marriage which was very different from the kind of marriage I am used to watching. They have 4 revolutions around the fire square unlike the saat feras that hindus have. . and when a pandit asked the jain priest about this he sarcastically replied "We do it our way!"

The most important aspect of the marriage was that it was extremely dominated by the husband side. The rituals and the ceremonies were all jain oriented. They changed the name of the bride as well. Let that be, they even changed the religion of the bride. The bride also quit the job to move with her to be husband to banglore. All in all my cousin did all the working required to make this marriage a success. I dont see any efforts that might have taken place by her husband.

During the wedding night I had the opportunity to have a bit of talk with her husband. He sounded like an educated person and I appreciate that fact. I also happened to go to their ancestral place as every brides brother has to go there to perform some rituals. I was given badam milk which I drank obediently, not complaining about the size of the glass. It was fit for wine drinking, not for milk for Christs sake.

All in all this was an eventful trip. Last day we roamed around in calcutta. We went to victoria memorial palace too. We saw their collection of arts and artifacts. It didnt make any sense to me. They didnt have any specific theme. They had an assortment of different paintings on different subjects. They didnt even put any historical importance notes in the premises of that heritage complex.

2007-11-29T21:26:00.000-08:00

A marriage in an indian family is such a big affair. I never had the slightest idea of the authenticity of the statement until the eldest of my cousin decided to tie knot with her long time boy friend. (apparently they ve been going out for something like 15 years? gawwd . . )So my mom forced me to come home just a freaking week before the university exams start. The exams lose its relevance when a relatives marriage is around the corner. More so when the marriage is the first one of a generation. Mom was on a shopping spree and bought clothes in a single day as much as i would take couple of years to accumulate. Different dresses for different occasions, but on the same day . Meaning there by that one will have to wear more than one dress on the same day. . one , two , three. . you name it . . it depends on how many different modes of dressing senses are required on that very day. And this freaks me out . .

Then there is this dandia festival coming up in the marriage. Since this is a traditional jain wedding so they play dandia(a form of dance where people hold sticks in both hands and strike it hard with the other sticks held by the other people involved in the dance.)

The marriage site has been chosen to be kharagpur. This is where her boy friend hails from . They have some oil business. . as if it concerns me at all . .

So today is 30th november. . the last day of the penultimate month of the year and we are supposed to fly to calcutta today evening. This is going to be a family trip after such a long hiatus. Last time all of us went to some place together was more than 7 years back. So not excited about the marriage as much as iam excited about going to a distant place with family after such a long time.

Been to calcutta before but i was just a kid back then. My experiences would be more fruitful when i am in kolkata this time around.

earthquake

2007-11-26T09:12:00.000-08:00

the bed was shaking, the wind was swooshing down the alley, the windows were rattling and there was a thick air of uncertainty. . . uncertainty of whether the building would be strong enough to handle the earth quake that struck delhi on 26th november, at 4.42 am.

The shake was so strong it woke me up. . . it woke somebody who is difficult toget up from his sleep . I think that can quantify prettty well the extent of the magnitude earthquake had.
THe epicentre of the earth quake was right in delhi itself, at delhi university. It was measured 4.4 on richter scale and trust me its not a minor earthquake by any means.

The first thought that struck me when the bed was still shaking due to the tremors were . . "God, I dont want to die. The reason i have come to delhi from pune is certainly not to die if its not to study either!"

Next moment all the family members were wide awake. Mom came running to my bed just to confirm if it actually was an earthquake or not. Instanly the news flashed in the local news channel as well. They ar epretty quick these days you know . . .

The tremors were strong where we stay. It is because we stay in an elevated flat . . at 6th floor. A slight displacement at ground level causes more displacement at the top . . Its got some trigonometric shit involved. . so if you are not good at mathematics probably you should not waste time wondering why it is like that. . ;-P

Been watching lotta videos on youtube with my brother . . woo . .

2007-11-21T21:03:00.000-08:00

W 910 i

the journey back home was not really as entertaining as i had expected. Normally what happens is that i get to meet lot of students who also happen to go to delhi from pune in the train. But this time it was little different. Yes i did . . .I did meet 3 students but they were too drab and dull to make this trip a memorable one. On the other hand i was so much bored to death; may be i would remember this trip for years to come. So in a way this trip is memorable as well for me. The train was scheduled to depart from pune station by 5.20 pm and i was in a bit of hurry that day. I had to collect my refund back from a travelling agent who had promised me a ticket but later backed out. Then i was on my way to a shop to buy a heafone but alas . . that bastard was asking for too much . Thank goodness i had a cd player in the train. I would have gone mad without music in that compartment. I tried initiating some conversations but later on i gave up . If those faggets dont wish to talk too bad. They missed an opportunity to talk to a legend. May be they would regret it some day . . some fine day!!

Coming back to the trip . .almost a 30 hour jouney . . a non stop flight would reach new york before that . . whatever. . the most important thing right now is that my ass is comfortably seated in my home and i am happy. . i clicked some pics on my way and i think it deserves to be showcased in this page. . enjoy the visual add ons!!

ciao!

STIGMA

2007-11-14T23:41:00.000-08:00

I have never tried to tell tales of the happenings in my past. Today I will start with one of those incident that is still entrenched in my memory cells. The reason being something you will understand only after reading this. .

Let me start with the texture and color of the class. . The kind of teacher we had the kind of students our class comprised of, and things like that.

It was summer of grade 12^th. We had a class teacher named sadhna bhargava, we preferred calling her ‘budhiya’(literally translated to english, it means old woman!). She was one of the sternest teachers in our school with her favorite one liner being “Too bad”. She had a characteristic style of checking the papers with the tick mark running in the opposite direction to the normal tick mark. That showed her snobbish character I guess.

Then, there were students who were simply the best in whatever they did. .most importantly they did everything!! They were apparently the cream layer of our class. They were good looking, had talents and high profile connections, and performed well academically. They had everything an average student wouldn’t have had, thereby making them a better off crowd of the school.(Okay few sucked as far as looks are concerned!)

A bit inferior crowd amongst them comprised of the wanna be punks who considered themselves to be amongst the higher league. I am trying hard not to name people specifically, as it would lead to troubled relationships that I am really not looking forward to. Some of their group members were talented and worthy no doubt!!

Then there were students who liked bossing around.. They were the nigga ganstas. They liked making a statement with their activities. Either they were in a constant effort to prove something to no one, or prove nothing to someone. They harassed some unfortunate students who got highlighted in their sight, or flaunted their sports prowess on field, mostly basketball. Girls admired them despite them not being fine human beings. Sexual attraction doesn’t give a damn about the conduct of a person I guess.

Then there were studious bitches. They included aman Mann, arjun dutt, nihit jain. They were at a higher intellectual level than the rest of the class. They didn’t want to prove anything to anyone, probably because they were matured enough to overlook the trivial details of life. They had a moderate friend circle, with friends confined to the same sex. Somehow they weren’t comfortable with the fairer sex I don’t know why.

And the final crop of students included people like me, and few others. We had a bit of everything. We were better than an average in almost everything. We were like jack of all trades, master of none. And hence we were better off at some time, whereas dejected lots some other time.

There are still many students left to be categorized. But frankly there is no tool to put them strictly in some category. This has been a very coarse and crude classification. Anyway back to the incident I was supposed to tell.

There was this person named r**an. He is amongst those difficult to classify. He was good at sports, mediocre in studies, mundane in looks, sucked at verbal duels and belonged to a middle class family. Now the nigga gangstas kept harassing him. It’s still not confirmed if that was actually the case or not but according to him he was harassed constantly by their jibes and jokes involving his younger sister. So one big day he got pissed off big time, and stabbed a person at his residence that belonged to nigga gangstas. I wouldn’t name him though. And the next day there is breaking news in almost all the newspapers. . Student stabs another student in spv(the name of our school!). And to retain their privacy, the newspaper changed their name. They changed the name of r**an to rahul, which happens to be my name.

And the next day, call it a coincidence or what, I was absent from the school as I had planned to study for the upcoming test. People are dumb you know it. They didn’t get the fact that the names mentioned in the newspaper were just a fake one and instead virtually all of them mistook the stabber to be me, since my name was quoted in the newspaper. I received calls, all kinds of calls, from kinds of people I had never talked to ever before, from people who didn’t have my number, and from people with whom I was not exactly on talking terms. All of them had one question. . . “Is it you?”

The small change in the names of the person involved in that incident made me infamous. Even now when I talk to some of the juniors of our school over the net they have rahul in mind associated with that stabbing incident. Sometimes I feel stigmatized. Other times I don’t really care. Should I slap a defamation case on times of India?

child beggars. . .

2007-11-09T07:41:00.000-08:00

2 days back when i was coming back from mg road with a friend of mine there were couple of children who started following us in order to get some money . . by begging i mean . . and it was very embarassing situation . . not for me. . being an indian i am used to this . . ignoring them . . but for sebastian . . from germany., he felt bad about not being able to help them. . He had this logic that he would be unfair to other beggars of india if he gives him money . . so he decides not to give any beggar any money and instead just engulf in a guilt drenching feeling. . .what do you think ? should we give money to beggars?

2007-11-09T07:26:00.000-08:00

This diwali is the worst I have ever experienced. . to start with I am not with my loved ones which include my school friends and my parents and siblings and cousins and extended family members. . . .
And the next part is that I stay at a place which is very far away from my college . . Which means I am kind of segregated from my college friends . . . which means I would not be able to meet them with the same ease of access that I used to have when I stayed back in pimpri?

The worst part about this diwali has been. .

The moment I felt bored I caught my bike and started peddling it with full intensity. . and in the middle the gear shifting started giving me some trouble. . I was little far away from mg road. . and was planning to go to barista to give a finishing touch to the already morbid festival of lights. After I heard the cluck cluck sound I pressed the brake full on. And guess what. . a girl on some gearless bike banged my bike from rear. . First of all that bitch had covered her face. . Probably to hide her ugly face from public glare. . And secondly . . she had 2 guys . . Probably her younger cousins in the rear seat. This is not allowed by the Indian traffic rule by the way. And she blamed me for the collision. . not that I care what that bitch says. . .but look at her guts. . Thanks to her ‘sex’, she blabbered for few seconds about me being wrong and then went scot free with all the passersby thinking about the next course of action to be taken . Sorry people. . Reaction time was just too much. I started arguing with her but was panting too much to really be effective speaker. . . thanks to the hardship of peddling it every few seconds. . so well . . I am feeling like killing someone. . any volunteers?

2007-11-09T05:28:00.000-08:00

hey. . long time no see. . was so busy with daily struggle of life that couldnt update my blog .. .

anywayz to start with. . happy diwali to all of my readers. . its so weird. . i have never had an opportunity to celebrate diwali away from home . . .but when i did today finally i spent sleeping all day long and writing blogs./ . .its already 7 pm and i havent gone out yet. i will go out in a while and buy a candle and some diyas and flowers and incense sticks. .

as you can see inthe picture i bought some crackers yesterday from a near by shop worth 36 rupees . . which if you convert in euros, it wont equal one euro!! long live indian exchange rate!!do i sound like a european ?? well . . staying wid couple of firangs might have made me that way . . lol

but for everything seems soo gloomy. . . finally i am able to connect to the net using my handset as modem . . and the speed is not too bad. . though certainly its very slow as compared to the broadband speed i usd to have once upon a time., . practical exams going on. . will end on 19th november. and then off i go to delhi . .woo hoo . .though wish i could take these practical shit seriously. . but just like all the engineering students. . who gives a shit?

wooooooooooohooooooo

2007-08-26T12:03:00.000-07:00

tonight was such fun . . we went to this place called the charcoal pit and we had dinner there which included all the tandoori stuff because we wanted bjorn to try the typical indian stuff. . . and it was so cool . .and on our way back we happened to go to toons underground cafe by chance so that was another cool part . . . awesome fun . . happy after a long time actually. . .enjoyed it that is to say!

laziness

2007-08-25T06:38:00.001-07:00

err. . . woke up at 2 pm in the after noon i must say not morning . . hehe . and trust me it doesnt feel nice to whatever . . fuck it . . i am in no mood to write a fuckin blog .

laziness

2007-08-25T06:38:00.000-07:00

2007-08-24T14:23:00.000-07:00

finally i got myself a computer configuration of my dream . . . budget was a constraint but i managed pretty well .. didnt go for a monitor or a keyboard or a mouse for that matter and put all my money in buying high end core 2 duo processor and graphic accelerator . . . awesome . . i am so happy . . though i really miss the LCD screen . . . . . .

2007-08-19T10:49:00.000-07:00

hmm .. fine . . so here i start .. after so many hiccups and thwarted attempts of writing a detailed blog . .

well .. i am a guy who dreams a lot...thinks a lot and wants to achieve a lot. but the problem lies here . . . I am not willing to work as hard as i should in order to get what i want to.

I want to work hard. I want to work my ass off . . I want to keep working . .by work i mean indulging in such activities which will get me nearer to the target i have set up for myself. .

I am fascinated by the travellings . .I feel some tickling sensation when I see the umpteen number of photographs of my friends on facebook .. all happily showing off the latest pics at the most exotic places... i dont like looking their at pics ..because it makes me conscious of the fact that i am yet to step my foot outside the boundaries of india ..and that really sucks..

What the fucking hell am i doing in my life ??

virtually nothing ... just being a burden on my parents shoulders . . .I am talented... no doubts about that..91 percent is 10th wasnt a fluke .. i worked for that.. but that driving force is not there anymore. . . . the desire to perform well in the examination .. i have started looking down upon the institution of examinations . . may be thats the reason i dont take it seriously enough to score high. . .

reached 3 rd year and within 2 years I would be working somewhere.. tough to comprehend that . . considering i have never even given it a thought . . of working somewhere.. just like so many engineering graduates from india who, after 4 years of hardwork, end up getting placed in some IT firm irrespective of their branch and start working their ass off on some stupid projects restricted by the deadlines and dont know what!!

this is the beginning!!

2007-07-13T00:11:00.000-07:00

i was always interested in creating a blog.. but somehow could never materialize my intentions... now that i am done with semester exam and i can afford time wastage i think its better to come up with something..

yep .. time wastage .. what would i get anywayz by letting the onlookers see a glimpse of my life... apart from .. appreciation.. err.. may be... but does that add up to anything ? not really..

just begun .. will keep posting!!

bbye!