dvitiya varsh

A good start is half work done and all is well that ends well. Strangely nobody talks about what happens in the middle. After surviving the most violating series of tests i am suddenly reminded that its half time for my bitsian life. What is most amazing is that i have heard almost all bitsians say that any given sem is faster than the previous one. Even i affirm to this totally unscientific notion.

                Second year has been a mix of good and bad, complete joblessness and unscalable schedules, As and Cs(missed a D), the big chill and inedible mess food, chilly nights and the energy sapping hot afternoons, the foggy days, the cloudy evenings, the amazing oasis(headbanging, cave, KGs poetry sessions etc), BOSM(fooseball...), APOGEE, delhi trip, khetri, daily runs for mt classes, single room, sworn on by the supree who used the F word, running in the night with my lappy when it rained cats and dogs( elephants too), let there be light .... and much more. In all it was a totally different experience from the first year.

Things have passed. Half time as i said. And the young lad who came into this campus two years back finds himself more insane than ever. I feel damned to use this cliché but yes time does fly.

 1-1 was a time of showing thadi. A time, when the echo of my own id no. from seniors, used to put me up on some imaginary pedestal (because my id no started with zuk which fascinated people ...why the hell). The 1-1 CG card was a slap on the face which still echoes. I guess this is the story of half of the a7ites, the other half is a sad lot. Next year horrifies me of CDCs and i really want to join that sad lot. In the middle of sudden void in the schedule, i am forced  to write this completely arbit post. 1 month of survival and then the half time will be official. Looking forward to it.

Yeh Delhi he mere yaar

The dryness and dullness of APOGEE by the 4th day and the mess exploited tongues forced the secret seven( well there is neither anything secret about the seven nor did we go and solve secrets, it just sounds cool) to flee from this campus for a day. The question was where, and after much thinking, discussing, deliberating, pleading, we decided on the closest feasible destination. Delhi. The voyage started with the seven of us doing a disappearing act. Not more on this. Big brother is watching :P. It was 7 of us ... rather 6 n a half... Barbie, mojo, d2, cow, mcbhat(i would like to propose a new name for him...metro), me and of course the person who made the number non integral... pinky.

After some nerve racking minutes, we finally left pilani at around 3. The wait for a train in the midnight at a railway crossing in loharu was so childishly appealing. Then we got on to a really deserted route to delhi. And then we started with the ceremonial ghost story sessions featuring headless man, lady with totally white eyes, dejavu , dreams etc and the best being the one in which the lady ran alongside a car at 120kmph.

At around 5:45 the vehicle stopped at some dhaba. After a cup of tea our spirits were back in full throttle. From Gurgaon till the end of our destination, there was a series of songs murdered by us... starting from the “dinga dinga dinga dinga......” of rang de basanti. As this was my first trip to Delhi ( rather second, my mom told me that my first birthday was celebrated in Delhi... strange piece of trivia), i was really glad that i got to see the best parts of delhi at first.

Destination 1 was India Gate. It was morning 7 and the place looked so majestic. We werent content enough from taking pics. After some time when our stomach started sending signals to brains and so we went in search for food and reached Connaught place at some 8 30.

As it was too early, no shop had opened till then and we could do nothing but gaze at the closed doors of countless McDs, pizzahuts, dominoes, CCDs, subways, KFC, subway, baristas etc. That was when we decided to take a metro ride to kashmiri gate and grab something to eat. We reached that place and reached a McD outlet. Our mental state was similar to war refugees. But in the greed of eating i (anvi was more responsible) ended up wasting a chicken burger.... utterly outrageous... can’t forgive myself for that :P.

In the meanwhile we didn’t notice that psychological impact caused by the metro ride on rohit. He persuaded us hard to drive on the red metro line. But coz he is tall and big, his childish tantrums were given no notice. We took a ride back to Connaught place.

It was 9:45 and the shops were still closed. We decided to go to red fort. After going through the monument we sat down in one of the gardens inside. It was then that Barbie started flirting with ... u know what.... a lawn mower . After doing that for some 20 minutes and realising the futility of his efforts, we finally left red fort to fill our tummies ... again :).

We found a way through the roads of chandini chowk(delhi6) to reach parawathe vali gali (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gali_paranthe_walee). We went inside one of the shops and i was totally taken aback after looking at the menu. The varities of parawthe offered were unimaginable. We tasted 8 of them (paneer, rabdi, mirchi, mixed, gajar, poodina, papad and kharchin) followed by a big glass of lassi. The food was just amazing.

From there we left for Connaught place again. This time it was alive and active. We went inside the palika bazaar. We found people selling 250GB pendrives. There was another place which was giving out 3 tshirts for 100 bucks( Rs33.33 per tshirt). In the middle of this we won a bargaining fight for anvi. There was a weighing machine also and we found that anvi’s weight is half that of rohit :P. After this, KG joined us and we took the metro to go to rohini to reach the adventure and the joy on rohit’s face was radiating coz we had to travel on the red line. We reached rohini and had to wallk through some open land and around stinking waters to reach adventure island ( which was described by rikhsaw vaala as “chote bacho ke khelne ke jagah).

After taking the tickets, we went inside and went directly to an insanely scary ride (atleast for me,d2, Barbie and kg to some extent) called side winder. The craze of anvi towards this was too much. After her third trip over that there were speculations that anvi’s brain has taken a 180 degree turn inside and that she will start painting and will forget coding in C. In that place we also met one of the most impolite person that i have seen who refused to take our group pic(poor d2).

We left that place and rode back in the metro to reach CP. We took our cab and then KG directed us to heavenly hell. It was the Khan Market and we went in to a cafe to get chilled out. It was the BIG CHILL. We ordered a round of desserts. The prices were like a slap on the face( we took it delightfully...it costed us 100 bucks per head). What surprised us even more was the size of chocolate mudpie and the cheese cake that we ordered. It wasn’t big enough to even have a mouthful. But it was just too yummy. So much so, that the discussions in the drive from there to Gurgaon was totally based on that.

After burning holes in our pockets, there was a sudden realisation of the wickedness of the tongue. Barbie was especially disturbed by this. The fund of big chillu(the hole) by cow... the poem... Barbie calling chote bache harami... everything happened in this while. But the fundamental problem still remained... we were still hungry :). After dealing with our upset driver, we made our way to the malls in gurgaon and got split up for KFC and Pizza hut. After burning our pockets a bit more, we left gurgaon at some 11 for pilani. It was a really tiring job to keep atleast one person awake next to driver. With some brave acts from saransh, ajay and rohit the driver could be kept awake. This driver had a unique set of songs like any other driver. It had comments on the songs as interlude. With tired body and mind we finally reached pilani at 3oclock completing exactly 24 hours of maverickism. We had to do the appearing act this time. Finally the trip came to an end.

Thanks to a lovely weather, planless decisions and the wittiness of the secret seven which made 27 march 2009 a special day and the trip a no regrets trip.

Networking... Social networking

There were days when ‘orkut’ was the new buzzword. Suddenly people started asking whether i was in orkut or not. When i said i was not, they would make it a point to convince me that i am missing something important in life. After hearing this time and again i gave in to the temptation of finding out what this word had for me (initially i felt it was taken from mandarin). Although i was bogged down till then by the countless arguments of elders that internet is a haven of ‘dirt’.

When i made my account on orkut, i was under the able guidance of one of my happy go lucky friend, prabuddh , who scared the wits out of me when, in order to screw me, he added one of the girls from my coaching class as ‘friend’ in my account. I was really worried about the prospective consequences of declaring a girl(whom i never talked to) as a friend on web.
Then there was a phase of juvenile enthusiasm, of making a community, meant just for me and my friends. It was the birth of the bad boyz (hail all you Bad Boys!!!!).We, monkeys... running in a rat race... really got overboard with our community... and most of our recess discussions in school were dedicated to this... the teenage blood was at work and the innocence and fun that i derived from such trivial things really makes me miss my teenage.

I remember when one of my ‘interactions’ ( :P) with a junior, i figured out that people can have ‘networking’ as their hobby(initially i was impressed, thinking he was talking about computer networking, to be dawned about my ignorance of the usage of a term). It really amazed me how a thing so unproductive can feature in that list.
I agree that it is really a nice medium of keeping in touch with people and i myself have benefitted a lot by finding long lost friends on net. The thing is, these sites are social networking sites and not keep-in-touch sites. And so these come with value added services which can keep you occupied for hours together, only for you to find yourself growing grey and dumb.

A very significant important social/cultural shift that has happened lately, is that people are given an option of living two lives at the same time. One in which they are what they are and they cant change how people look at them. Then there is this virtual world, where one can manipulate their own image. Where everybody becomes the cool dude they always wanted to become. Those cool funky names that people keep on orkut.... or sudden escalation of interest in photography specially in the art of self portrait... or people using the ‘about me’ column to write in length about how complicated a creature they all are and use that space to display their command over English language . Hypocrisy has mutated from the time of jews to social networking sites.

And well i am no exception to this hypocrisy and myself have gone through all that i have criticised. But at times my conscience does prick me. Living virtual can never bring a real peace. It has now become a necessary evil. But then i guess i have bigger evils to deal with and this doesn’t need my efforts :P.

Bleeding Nephrons

Living in this college and having a decent standard of living created a bubble around me. A bubble of complacency which got a pinch in the winter vacations of December 2007.

                After surviving the gruelling round of my first set of comprees, with the hope of taking a break, i boarded the bus to my home. Little did i know that the pre planned visit to a hospital could shake me up.

                My mom was suffering from a stone in her kidney and a surgery for the removal of the same was scheduled in last week of December. It was to take place in Muljhibhai Patel Urological Hospital in Nadiad,Gujrat(considered one of the good ones for kidneys).

                Since  i am a fraud mallu( if you are encountering this term for the first time, it refers to all those people who have their native place in Kerala but are settled elsewhere) all my relatives are spread across the country and so it was gonna be my dad me and devaraj bhaiya( very good friend of ours) who were gonna take care of my mom( my granny was supposed to join later). It was on the Christmas morning (25^th dec) that we left for Nadiad . I was extremely relieved to find that the hospital was really clean. But that was just a consolation to much more that was to come later.

                The next day i got a feel of the magnitude of thing that we were gonna face as a family and it made me shiver. My mom was gonna be on the surgery table, and then my head flashed all the surgeries that i had seen on television ( by then i hadn’t seen house md). One day before the surgery we were asked to arrange for blood as a ‘precautionary’ measure. I was getting more and more and scared. My mom is O- but gladly we were able to arrange the blood from the red cross blood bank( devaraj bhaiya gave his blood as replacement).

                The surgery took place the next day. By God’s grace it all went well. I was relieved. But then came the challenging part. It was very very sad to see mummy in the post operative ward. She looked so sick and weak. That was really scary. My dad was the only person allowed in. And then i had to replace him there for some time so that he could take a bit of sleep. It was somewhere around 4 in the morning i guess. I sat next to her the rest of the night. Had never experienced anything like this before. Then I went to the railway station to receive my grandma. Finally we( me and dad) felt relieved.

                The day after that, everything was alright. My mom got her consciousness back. The surgery was without any complications and she was recovering properly.

                But the whole ordeal didn’t end here. After my mom was out of any kind of danger, i started observing my surroundings and found that the place was full of sick people.

                I was shocked to see the various kinds of diseases that people suffered with. There were young people with fatal conditions... old people with endless complicacies... it was a mayhem of kidney disorders.

                There was this one person whose one kidney was not working and the other kidney was shrinking. There were rooms full of people getting dialysis(blood clean up in normal language) done and delaying the final verdict of death. Wards full of patients waiting for their names to slide up on the kidney transplant list.  There were many more people i saw. I don’t remember what they were suffering from. But there was one case which i cant forget. It was a lady who was terminally sick. But she didn’t have enough money to continue with the treatment. And the hospital authorities asked her to leave the hospital and enrolled her name for aids given by NGOs.... there were lot of other patients.... and each and every one depicting misery in different forms and shapes.

I was shocked. It was the first time that i had ventured out of my ‘bubble’. Out, to a living nightmare of people. Where hopes were run by strands of irrationalism because rationality was cruel. In the midst of all these bleeding nephrons i suddenly felt small. Suddenly me, my problems, my aspiration and my circumstances looked microscopic when scaled up in front of these traumatised folks.

                Whenever i remember those days, it gives me jitters every single time. I will treasure this experience forever.

19

Although in relative terms, 19 is not a big figure but in absolute sense it is surely a big time. And this is the end of my final teen year. But somewhere i am still that teen. The rebellious in me is still a spark away from explosion. And suddenly this realisation of my expected maturity makes me feel a bit robbed.

                When i sit and write down this, my past flashes back. My home, my school,  my old friends... everything... it just makes me realise that i had no less than an awesome 19 years of my life till now. And the dullness of sorrows and pains are so miniscule on the colourful piece of my history, that i really wanna thank God for this favour.

                Even though my soul cries in rebellion to the reality that it is time for me to “grow up”, i have no option but to grow up. I have realised now that even my smallest action is so consequential in my life and in the life of others unlike how it was when i was younger.

                In the midst of all this economic jeopardy, my future, for the first time, looks like a struggle. But i love uncertainties. Its a nice getaway from boredom. And i think its the remnant teen in me which makes me enjoy my own plight.

                With totally uncertain days ahead, life looks challenging. But i know there is one person up there who would be looking down and smiling at me., like the way i would have smiled at a small kid struggling with his shoe lace and finding it the biggest problem of his life. This one reason forces me not to be worried about anything. And it reminds me of the first Bible verse which i learnt:

Psalm 23:1

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”

Genetically "Informalz "

Genetically "Informalz "

A ray of light, screeched through the pipe

And woke me up to a nightmare nigh

My alarm failed, i woke up late

My job interview 5 minutes ahead

 

Chewed a gum, toothbrush was luxury

Combed my hair in pain and fury

Suit and tie would have taken long

Was comfortable in my tshirt and shorts

 

Rushed and hurried to reach that room

Saw nervous creatures, as if down with flu

The last call for my name screamed out

Expected a storm in this drought

 

The grey heads gaped in shock

‘twas too much for that flock

They stretched out their hand to check their pulse

Coz they found me in INFORMALZ!!!