This year

Check out the my facebook status cloud for this year :) . Check out the app here

Wish everyone a Happy and Prosperous new year . The beginning of a new decade. hope it brings lots of cheers to your life :)
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Waise..khush hai zamana aaj pehli taarik hai :D

Weekend :)

Weekend-> 2 trips to Office,2 visits to GIP and 2 rides in the metro and trip to CP.

or

Weekend -> Catching up with friends at the Airport, Railway station and spending time with my cousin brother who is in town for college vacations.



And who says weekends are for relaxing???


During the first weekend, we had to go to the office for some online training on Saturday. Fortunately or unfortunately the thing refused to work. So we were @ Noida and we had nothing to do. So we spent the morning playing pool and TT. But then we realized that we couldn't do this the whole day, so while some people went home, others still playing Pool and TT, we decided to head to GIP (The Great India Place). Spend the entire afternoon doing nothing in particular...strolled about in the mall, went to a pet shop where Ruchika and Divya couldn't have enough of the cute puppies they had there and Manu couldn't wait to get out...and spend time @ CCD.

(At the pet shop)

(All of us At McD: From L to R-> Ruchika, Me, Mohsin, Manu and Divyanka)

We then headed back to office but the online thingy still wasn't working so we decided to head home...BUT my destination was Meet's place where we had decided to spend the weekend :)

Meet was still busy at office (I am now not very sure whether he works at BHEL or not...in office at 6:30 PM on Saturday :0 ) so Vishal and I sat in the park and talked and talked :)

When Meet returned, there was still some time before dinner, so we decided to head back to GIP (2nd trip in within a space of few hours..) but this time we took the Metro, and the station is just outside Meet's place...and it was a change from the overcrowded stuffy buses...

After we came back, Vishal picked up his guitar and we sang a lot of songs (in a bad out of tune voice...but who cares :P ). We talked and sang and finally slept at 3.

Next morning, I was the first to wake up at 10. We did not have any specific plan for the day, so we started off from CP ( kyonki..in the 4-5 months he has been in Delhi, Meet hasn't gone anywhere in Delhi...)

Going to CP involved another ride in the Metro, but this time it was pretty crowded...and Rajiv Chowk seems to be a underground city altogether...so much crowd, so many shops and all..

We roamed about in Palika, inner circle, had Chole bhature from a street vendor.

We then headed to the central park and we were actually Embarrassed (note the capital E) with all the public display of affection all around...

This weekend was equally good. Spent an entire afternoon with Shreya who was on the way to Lucknow...having 'Ghar ka khana' at Delhi Airport.

Today I had gone to the railway station where Atish and Ankur were coming from Goa. It was also Atish's birthday today, so it made the trip all the more special. It was great to catch up with them, couldn't spend time with them because both of them had to go in different directions...Looking forward to spending more time with them on 3rd when they head back to Goa.

And tomorrow, I have to go to my aunt's place to meet my cousin who finished first 6 months at Med School... :)

Positives in the midst of Chaos

The past week, I finally started working and hence spend a lot of my time commuting between Delhi and Noida. In the midst of the all the traffic jams and the lack of traffic rules in UP, I keep observing a lot of things (as I have nothing better to do :|). Some positive scenes that I saw and can recollect.

-> The visually challenged man who leads an independent life, commutes to work daily by public transport and does not feel in anyway inferior to anybody else. I don't know why but looking at him lead an independent life makes me feel great. I had earlier written about him in detail. Check out the entire post on this topic here.

-> Good to see policeman standing at bus stops forcing buses to stop in a single queue and in the leftmost lanes (at least during times of peak traffic), thus ensuring smooth flow of traffic at least around bus stops.

->The DTC bus that goes from Delhi to Noida and back is generally quite full and there is not enough space to even stand. Although there are a few seats reserved for ladies/senior citizens/physically handicapped people. However they do fall short. A very heartening scene to see a some guys getting up from their seat (not reserved for ladies..) to offer their seats to some lady.

->The Delhi-Noida ticket use to cost Rs. 17/-. Then the UP Government increased it to Rs 27 and told Delhi Government to increase their tickets to the same amount or else close th route. Bluelines have already been phased out on this route (A positive step, while this is not what the point I wanted to make...). The DTC conductor now gives a Rs. 29 ticket as 4 separate tickets of Rs.15+Rs.10+Rs.2+Rs.2. And then the conductor tears off the 4 tickets to indicate the bus stop of boarding and getting off...and takes a very long time to process each request. People spend most of their journey waiting for the conductor to give them the ticket. Today I caught a bus from UP Roadways and observed how they have smartly embraced technology. The conductor carries a hand held printer, takes the money, enters the code for bus stops and gives a printout of the ticket. Impressive!


And you might think that I have written only about road, traffic and stuff related to it...I reiterate I take at least 2 hours everyday commuting :(

The first time...

Most people know that Nimit blogs at huntersuniverse, however I just stumbled on another of Nimit's blog (which he started writing during the psenti sem) and had a gr8 time reading about the post which describes his first meetings with some of the people who became his close friends...

I am including some interesting portion of the post.

Purnoor
" There i spotted a tall lanky Sardar standing. To me seeing a sardar that time in BITS was like finding an oasis in a desert. So i tried to make small talk. I asked where was he from ? Instead of an answer i was asked a question in return ….. “Guess where?” . So I thought a sardar how tough can it be … Punjab… no … Delhi … No … Mumbai … No …. now i gave up. The answer was Kerela and I thought to myself … ” Ek sardar mila aur vo bhi illad”. Sometime into the conversation some asked me my room number, on replying AH4 364 …. the Sardar gave me a wierd look and after a second said ….” oye me in Ah4 363… we are neighbours” ….. And thats how I met Purnoor Singh Sodhi."

Boxer
" So one day Gill calls me up and asks me Vasco chalega. I reply “ok khaane chalta hu “. He was accompanied by an imposing figure. The kind of materials which bullies are made of. Some one you better be in good books of. He introduced himself ” Hi I am Shashank Tandon ” ” Or Boxer” said Gill. Later I came to know about this shrek. The guy just looks imposing he wouldn’t even have hurt an ant till now."

Maddy and Puneet
" One day a person comes to my room and asks ” Hey today is my birthday … will you come and dance” ( yea thats what he said!) So i went to the birthday party of a person whom i hardly knew. Later that room would be the room where some debates would happen which would go on till 4 in the morning … Room of Mohammed kheezer Hayat. In the same party i met a sleepy drousy fellow who i thought i definitely on weed – Puneet Gupta."

Vishrut
" Seeing a lamp light on opposite from my window and me cursing that guy for giving me a scare and after 2 months coming to know he was Vishrut. "

Rao
" I remeber hearing about an IIT ranker aamir khan look alike who used to solve every problem in thermo book , who in his first meeting lent me his LOTR and thus met Rao for the first time."


The credits for the post to one and only Nimit aka Nimmo.


Check out the entire post here. and the blog here.

1 year thence

Most people vividly remember where they were on the night of Nov 26, 2008. Well as on most evenings, I was with friends @ Monginis chatting about nothing in particular. While coming back to my room, I got a call from home. Amidst the general chit-chat, Mom told me about random shootings in various parts of Mumbai. The media till that time thought it was some gang war.
But as we sat in front of the TV in the common room and watched in numb horror as the magnitude of the incident unfolded and news of the casualties started pouring in.

It has been a year now and not much seems to have changed.

Yes, we do have a NSG hub in 4 cities now, but there is still a finite time that the NSG will take to reach any other city from the nearest hub. What we need is the local police to be trained in counter terrorism action so that they can hold fort till the NSG reaches. Not like in Mumbai where police were caught on the wrong foot with not even enough weapons or even bullet proof jackets.

The capture of David Headley by the FBI clearly exposes the modulus operandi used by terrorists during most of the strikes. A US passport holder would never be considered a suspect by Indian authorities. Our president can be frisked while boarding a US airlines flight at Delhi Airport but...
And now the police is asking people who Headley had interacted with, asking them how they did not know that he was here to plan terror strikes. Well if the embassy officials and immigration people did not find anything wrong with Headley, why and how do they expect citizens would have guessed his ulterior motives.

The fake passport racket busted in Lucknow, UP raises questions of how terrorists could so easily bribe officials to get passports made in false names, without any police verifications (and the address provided were obviously incorrect too).

This is an unrelated issue, but everyone know how porous our border with Bangladesh and Nepal is. What I don't understand is that why can't we fence the entire like that in Jammu and Kashmir to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and terrorists with arms, ammunition and fake currency. From the Nepal border anybody can walk in or out without any checks. A person entering India doesn't even need to declare what he/she is carrying etc. This makes it very easy for them to bring in fake cash to India.

Anyways even 26/11 couldn't make Mumbaikars come out and vote. The reason for not voting was given as not much to choose from- BJP in disarray, MNS with thier "marathi manoos" agenda and the Congress which had handled 26/11 in such a manner. And RR Patil, the deputy chief minister at the time of 26/11 who was made to quit has been promoted to the post of home minister in the new cabinet of Maharashtra within a year of the incident. And now the Congress is talking about a Rs. 350 Crore monument of Sivaji in the middle of the sea to counter MNS's marathi trumpcard.
350 Crore in a state where farmers are committing suicide everyday and whose police force does not have bullet proof jackets and modern day weapons, is SHEER WASTAGE.

Most people know that our media is always in overdrive, making huge issues out of non issues. So when they witnessed 26/11, they just didn't know where to stop. And the senior officers of Army and Police seem to oblige them with information that was classified and should not have been disclosed. Some of this info could have seriously compromised the operation. Reported incidents include that of a politician hiding in Taj who was giving a telephonic interview which was being reported by most channels. It was seen by the terrorist handlers and informed to the terrorists who started moving in that direction. Also while the NSG team was being dropped on the roof of a house close to Nariman House was shown live on TV and the terrorists were ready for the NSG team and a soldier of the NSG was killed. But the media seems to have learnt its lessons and have decided that from next time on they would have a delay of a minimum half an hour showing such an operation on TV.

Our politicians are yet to learn the lessons. They are still trying to politicize the issue one year on. And though I feel BJP is correct in asking the government while 1 year after the incident most of the victims haven't been paid any compensation even when both the state and central government is a Congress coalition, why did the BJP have to wait for a year to raise this question (as the timing of the question is what the congress seems to be protesting).

After the incidents the home ministry started to reduce and remove security cover of politicians who did not have a threat to their life but had a large number of soldiers of the SPG (who have been trained in counter terrorism operations) simply as a show of strength. But politics on this issue stopped it prematurely. Some of the soldiers have gone been removed from security, but most of the politicians have resisted and we still have politicians who have 10-20 trained men protecting them, and some more for their families. But no body bothers about protecting the AAM AADMI.

Inspite of all these things, 26/11 did unite the general public as suddenly everyone realized that no one was safe- even the richest in a metropolitan city. And they have forced the government to pull up it socks and to punish those responsible and take steps to stop further acts. Hopefully the government will continue to act and not let the sacrifice of 173 innocent citizens go in vain.

Things I am missing the most...

There is time for everything in life...and its called COLLEGE.

Today my cousin has finally got admission in a Medical college and so he'll be heading off to a hostel in a few days. He was asking me about college life and hostel experiences. Talking to him... remembering the great times I have had brought back many happy memories :)

So...

This post is dedicated to all the great friends I made at college and have made the 4 years of college an awesome memory.

This post is also dedicated to my cousins Mridul and Sujoy who are both heading off to college (and hostels) and I hope they will have even more fun than I had @ college and hostel. :)

Here is a list of some of the things that I felt I am missing about my hostel life.. (and it turned out to be a long list...)

*Pulling (Ankit)Govil's leg (THIS HAS TO TOP THE LIST :D )

(That's me, Vishal and Shashank Pandey trying to find out what Govil is up to ;) )

*AH3 260 yaani my room :D

*Govil (aka Aashiq) and his disprins (This guy ate 4 disprins at a time and when everybody refused to give him disprin's, he got them couriered from home)

*Listening to Meet Radio Balle balle.

*The time we spent in Angad's room (AH3 237) (considering the fact that he was the first one amongst us to get a lappy).

*Listening to 'Shubham ke mast wale FUNDE'. Remember the HAC theory :P

*Pandeyji (aka Shashank Pandey) ke PJ's..(Notice the 'ji' at the end of his nickname..that's the respect for his jokes)

*Pulling Abhay's leg

*Abhay's room (AH3 254),which was our common room.. Whenever any one of us came back from any class..we used to invariably stop at his room..infact sometimes he went off to attend classes and we used to remain in his room...

*It happened a couple of times that Phodu (rarely also known as Abhishek) slept off in Abhay's room and poor Abhay had to go and sleep in Phodu's room.

*Vishrut's room (AH4 234) which used to remain absolutely spotless any time of the sem.

*Meet's room (Ah3 252) with his simple rules of clothes- clean clothes on the desk, dirty clothes on the floor. keyboard and mouse of his desktop on the matress on the floor.

(Meet's room in all its glory ;) )

*Exams ke time par kabhi Pandey ke room mein, kabhi Vishal ke room mein padhai karna...aur waha Govil ka aa ke DOUBTS poochna aur phir khudd hi answer bata kar nikal jaana aur phir sabka usse gaali dena.

*Meet's room again where he taught us the OP RE, OPTI and NUMAL hours before the exam. 2-3 people on the bed and 2-3 on the floor and Shokee (Ashok Mittal) coming in between to ask the syllabus hours before the paper.

*Food and chocolates from Nimit's home (AH4 364). His room was the venue of our initial RDC meetings :)

*Hostel mein b'day aur birthday bumps, those eggs and tomatoes aur agle din ki treat :)

*Playing baddy (aka Badminton) in the hostel..

*Common room mein baith kar koi bhi Cricket match dekhna...woh continuous commentary aur woh kisi bowler ki ball par 4 ya 6 padhna aur phir usse gaaliyaan dena..

*Going to the water cooler at anytime of the day (or night) and finding Phodu in his standard Baniyan-trackpant walking in the corridor...

*Shouting BAPPUUU while coming back outside Bapu's (aka Rohan Gandhi) room (AH3 245).

*The three indications of impending exams 1) Andhraites playing cricket in the hostel, 2) Sudden improvement in weather (read cool breeze and rains) AND 3)POWER CUTS

*Sitting in the corridor during power cuts and trying to study..and when it became too dark to study..just sitting there and gossiping..

*Baarish...aur baarish ke saath woh sondhi sondhi mitti ki khushbu

*The discussions on DC on everything from averages in different courses to random bakwaas.

*Cooking Maggi at 2 in the night (and eating it too :P)..

*Walking into the corridor after that and finding Pandey, Abhay, Phodu and Meet all awake and then discussing some point for hours..

*Lazing between classes at Monginis or the stairs near the Library..

*Meal times par apne hi corridor se hi zor se "VISHAAAAAAAAL" chilla kar Vishal ko uske room se khane ke liye bulana..

*Mess mein baith kar logon ki mast taang kheechna..

*Shaam mein Basktball Court ke peeche wali road par walk karna..

*The classes in LT.. and ST ( aka Sagar Thakur) and (Purnoor Singh) Sodhi making up songs...(Harshvarshan) Mohta taking down notes..and Meet and Sagar cracking jokes..

* Workshop course (for obvious reasons :P)

*Electronic Lab ki woh masti aur EMEC lab ka woh terror..(shirt tucked in, wear shoes and not floaters, with diagrams drawn with scale and compass..)

*Woh single digits mein number..and then calculating how much below the average did we fall..and then thanking God for relative grading...

*Those movies in the Audi and the 'nautanki' that we used to do during those movies..

*Sitting on the stairs of the Audi during Zephyr aur Waves right in front of the participants and then "encouraging" them..taking panga with other hostels...and pulling the legs of participants from other colleges..

*The T20 World Cup in the Audi after an exam...the rush of adrenaline and emotions...the last shot by Misbah Ul Haq, thinking that we lost the match, and then the catch and the celebrations breaking out afterwards..

*The Dj nights for any occasion and RDC (Rejected Dancer's Club) opening the dance floor. Nimit, Purnoor, Puneet, Vishrut, Vishal, Angad, Meet, Abhay, Anurag, Shubham and all the others who have made for some awesome Dj nites...

*Raat ko VGH par jaa kar baithna..aur waha baith kar Panjim ki lights dekhna aur gappe maarna..

*Sitting outside Shop Co after dinner ..

*GOD MADE MAN, WE MAKE THEM HANDSOME the quote on barber shop, the place where every time you go...you’ll come out with a weird haircut.

*B Wing ke bahar baith kar Kashi Dairy ke paranthe khana :)

*The 40 hours of train journey from Goa to Delhi (and the other way round too)..and the thousands of incidents that happened during those 40 hours

(The view from 2379/80 H. Nizamuddin- Vasco Goa Express)

PS: It's late at night and I can't remember more, though things can be appended to the list if I remember any more things.

Remember Kargil?

Well, it has been 10 years since Indian Army recaptured the areas captured by Pakistani intruders and instead of celebrating our victory in Kargil, our politicians are busy downplaying the importance of the 1999 war in which over 500 of our bravest soldiers laid down their lives.

Two Congress leaders expressed to the press that Kargil wasn't something that was worth celebrating. Congress MP Rashid Alvi said he saw no reason to celebrate the Kargil victory. "Kargil isn't a thing to be celebrated. The war was fought within our territory. We didn't even come to know when the Pakistani army crossed over and built bunkers inside our territory."

Former minister of state for home Sri Prakash Jaiswal couldn't even remember when the Kargil war was fought and won. Asked about Vijay Diwas, he wanted to know when the day was celebrated.

All this when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took time out to take part in the 220th anniversary of the Bastille Day in Paris. But neither he nor any senior government official has time to participate in the 10th anniversary of the victory over Pakistan in Kargil.

Doesn't this attitude show that it does not matter to the country if our soldiers lay down their lives. Doesn't it demoralize our soldiers that we do not take pride in the sacrifices they make. why would anybody join the defence forces if no body is bothered even if he dies for the country??

I came across these ad's for the Veer Jawan Fund.





The agency which created the campaign wasn’t one of the big agencies in India. It was a small Delhi based agency.The ad was created with true bleary-eyed emotion. Some of the team members come from army backgrounds and understand not only the trauma undergone by the loved ones of war martyrs, but also the callous attitudes of successive governments towards them.

I'll include this poem which was also a part of the campaign.

He loves Hindi songs.
Just like you.
He hates injections.
Just like you
He cried each time Amitabh died.
Just like you.
He’s been in love once or twice.
Just like you.
He’ll bleed if you cut him.
Just like you.
He’s happiest at home.
Just like you.
He loves the smell of rain on sun scorched earth.
Just like you.
He cheered India at old Trafford.
Just like you.
He dreams for his children.
Just like you.
He’s gone to die for a stranger.
And that stranger is you.

Google Baba ki jai

Remember I had blogged about the keywords that people used to come to my blog (which I had found out thanks to Google Analytics).

So now that I have got time to study the Analytics application, I dug in deeper as to how much information does Google get when you use Google search or any other Google service or even arrive on any site that uses the analytics.

And I have to admit…I am amazed by the amount of things that Google knows about you, your network and even your computer.

This is the basic dashboard for the Analytics. It gives you basic information like the entire traffic to your site for the previous month, the number of visits, time on site, location from where traffic has arrived on your site and a pie chart showing what percentage of traffic came directly, came via a search engine or came via a referral site, for e.g. someone else’s blog. And it also gives the pages that people landed on.

Each section also has a ‘View report’ button which allows you to see a detailed report. The first report is for VISITOR OVERVIEW

This is the page that appears when you click the view report.

The page gives details like the number of visits, the absolutely unique visitors, the time on sit, bounce rate etc. It even gives a technical profile and tells one about the browser the visitor was using, what kind of internet connection was he using.

The right hand side shows the visitor segmentation based on the Visitor profile-language, network location or even some user defined parameters. It can even classify traffic based on the browser profile which would include the browser being used, the OS, the screen colour (16bit colour or 32 bit colour), screen resolutions, java support and even whether flash was installed on the browsers or not.

This screenshot for the flash version shows that 507 visits in the last month used 21 different versions of flash. :O

The network location gives the networks that people were using when they came to my blog. 108 different networks for 507 visits.

Next is the TRAFFIC SOURCES tab which opens up a window which list outs the sources via which people came to my blog- the top was direct traffic, while Google was a far second. Other blogs too came in the traffic sources.

For all the visitors who came via any search engine, analytics also lists out the keywords of the search. The keywords include assignments on dsp, disprin cnf, vishrut meaning, google baba, IC 814 hijack, delhi+mussoorie+yamunanagar+route, where does aziz premji live, further study after bits dlpd degree…

So if Google can release this much information to users, then I can very well imagine what they do not release. Just imagine the amount of information they can extract from a single search that one does using Google search…

Na kisi ki aankh ka nuur huun..

This is a poem by Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal ruler. I heard the para which I have put in bold, and found the rest of the poem. Quite a soulful poem.

Na kisi ki aankh ka nuur huun

na kisi ki aankh ka nuur huun, na kisi ke dil ka qaraar huun.
na kisi ke kaam an aa sake, main vo ek musht-e-ghubaar huun.

( I am not the light of anyone’s eyes,
Not a harbinger of peace to someone’s heart,
Not of any use to any one,
But just a handful of dust.)

main nahin huun naghma-e-jaan fizaa; koi sun ke mujh ko karega kya?
main bare biruug ki huun sada, kisi dil jale ki pukaar huun.

( I am not a life-giving verse,
No use to someone who listens to me.
I am a cry in the wilderness,
A call of a heart gone on flames.)

mera rang rup bigar gayaa, mera yaar mujh se bichar gayaa,
jo chaman khizaan se ujar gayaa, main usi ki fasl-e-bahaar huun.

( My colors of self-image are now gone,
My beloved from me is now stranded away.
The garden which the spring turned into wilderness,
I am the spring harvest of that garden now.)

na to main kisi ka habiib huun, na to main kisi ka raqiib huun, jo bigar gayaa vo nasiib huun, jo ujar gayaa vo dayaar huun.

( I am lover of no one,
I am rival of no one,
I am the fate of my ruins,
I am the river of a wilderness.)

pae faatihaa koi aae kyuun, koi chaar phuul chirhaae kyuun?
zafar, ashk koi bahaae kyun, ke main bekasi ka mazaar huun.

(Why should anyone sing a requiem?
Why should anyone place four flowers on my tomb?
Zafar asks: why should anyone shed tears,
As I’m buried helplessly in a vault underground.)

~ Bahadur Shah Zafar

First rains of Monsoon 2009:Delhi

Here are some pics that I clicked day before when the first rains of this season at Delhi.. (They aren't fantastic like the ones taken by Angad, but they'll do ;) )

(That's how it looked..)

(Small kids enjoying the rain too.)

(Even the plants on our balcony seem to be enjoying the rains :) )

Would you be happier??

Heard this song after a long time today...and the lyrics are pretty good too.. :)

Would you be happier- The Corrs

Have you ever wonder where the story ends, and how it all began, I do (I do, I do, I do, I do)
Did you ever dream you were the movie star with popcorn in your hand, I did (I did, I did, I did)
Do you ever think you're someone else inside, when no one understands you are (you are)
And wanna disappear inside a dream but never wanna wake, wake uuuuuup
Then you stumble on tomorrow, and trip over today

(Chorus)
Would you be happier if you were someone together
Would the sun shine brighter if you played a bigger part
Would you be wonderful if it wasn't for the weather
You're gonna be just fine (gonna be just fine)

Are you not afraid to tell your story now, when everyone is done it's too late (too late, too late)
Was everything you've ever said or done not the way you planned, mistaaaake
So you promised that tomorrow, be different than today

(Chorus)
Would you be happier if you were someone together
Would the sun shine brighter if you played a bigger part
Would you be wonderful if it wasn't for the weather
You're gonna be just fine
I think you're gonna be just fine
You're gonna be just fine
So don't worry baby

You're racing for tomorrow, not finished with today

Would you be happier if you were someone together
Would the sun shine brighter if you played a bigger part
Would you be wonderful if it wasn't for the weather
I think you're gonna be just fine

Would we be happier if we were someone together
Would the sun shine brighter if we played a bigger part
Would we be wonderful if it wasn't for the weather
I think we're gonna be just fine
I think you're gonna be just fine

Don't worry baby
Gonna be just fine
Don't worry honey
Gonna be just fine
Don't worry baby
Gonna be just fiiiiine

Random thoughts

Just some random thoughts passing through my mind right now...

Thought #1
Just finished with a memorable trip to Lucknow... met Ankur and Shreya..and remembered those times @ BPGC. awesome lunch at Shreya's place and my first treat for becoming an engineer to both of them at Moti Mahal @ Sahara Ganj Lucknow. :)

Thought #2
Driving a two wheeler in Lucknow is SAFER than driving in Delhi. I always believed that traffic in Lucknow is a lot worse than Delhi, and it might be with no body following any traffic rules, but driving with Ankur on a two wheeler, I realized that drivers there were more tolerant than Delhi ones...

Thought #3
My cousin is giving his medical entrance exams these days and its common discussion about the very limited seats for general students, the donations for seats etc. Recently he had given the exam for MAHATMA GANDHI INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES, WARDHA.What was uncommon about the exam for this college was that there was a seperate paper for Gandhian thoughts apart from the normal PCB paper. AND, the PCB paper would only be evaluated if the candidate score over 40% or something in the paper about MK Gandhi, and all the people and places associated with him. Now my question is that if you don't know about MK Gandhi, are you NOT good enough to be a doctor????

Thought #4
All these surveys about Engineering colleges etc and the fuss being made about them. Don't we all know how these surveys are done?

Thought#5
Why does MTNL net pack up when you need it most...I have been sitting foe hours waiting for the net to get connected to be able to post this entry and this thought has been added as a result of my frustration.

Yesterday I booked a complaint with the MTNL call centre that my net was not working.
Today, the exchange guy called came and checked if the ADSL light was coming on. Since it was, but no sites were opening, he told me that he will tell another guy to checkup and change some settings. Till last edited, I am still waiting for that second guy to come.(but the net is working on it's own :|)

Thought#6
The weather has been cloudy but...When is it gonna rain??

Life will go on....

To quote Anurag’s status message that reads “And here we are...back at the fork way... (Hope the roads meet again)”

As I sit here today..it’s the same feeling that I had during the last few days on-campus. Everybody leaving for home and then for PS… nobody knew where life would lead us…kaun kahan hoga…kuchh nahi pata…

Exchanging permanent numbers so as not to loose contact…on the last few days, thinking how different it will be without the friends who supported me through thick and thin, in all those happy moments, and consoled me during those unhappy ones, leaving the small 10X10 room that had been my home for 3.5 years..my comfort zone, I had a feeling that life will not be the same again..

But then I came to ST..a new place, new environment, and the new faces…and quickly bonded with my PS mates...we became a good group..sitting and chatting during breakfast, then lunch and in between while taking a break. A special mention of Sanket, who was in the same group as me..just a cubicle away…we became break partners..calling each other whenever we wanted a break. Also Rishi and Krishna (aka Krishnamohan Radhakrishnan aka KiMo) also deserve a mention. They were also on the same floor and called on me and Sanket for breaks too.

Shashank Somanchi who was my mailing partner, we actually used the ST internal mail as a chat tool..ST ka 1/4th traffic to hamari mails se hi hota hoga… At exactly 4:45 PM nearly everyday, either one of us would mail the other asking whether we wanted to go to the cafeteria…99.9% of times the answer would have been yes, just to go and sit there to take a break…

The TR&D team- KP, Mayank (aka Mugga), Ritesh, Ranjot, Sudipt, Ankit (aka Ankita g - his ST mail username) who we generally met during lunch, exchanging incidents of the day, pulling Ankit’s leg (who is such a good sport that he never used to mind it) the table looked very similar to our dinner table at Goa..with all of us pulling Ankit’s leg.. (Read more about the friends at ST here)

And as I exchange mail id and phone numbers with the friends I made at PS…it’s the same old feelings again...

But this time I know..all my friends would always be there just a ping or phone call away anytime..

And that gives me the strength to go on…

PS: Heading to Lucknow tommorow :)
PPS: Will put up pics of PS as soon as Somanchi n KP send them across ;)

PPPS: AND finally I am now officially an Electrical and Electronics Engineer from BITS Pilani.

Nice One!!!

This joke is courtsey Reader Digest...

"On a soft drink vending machine, somone had attached a note saying- Diet Coke is not working...

Someone had scribbled below- Try DIETING and EXERCISE.."

I protest

Well, this post has been written because of the recent protests in three different places- Punjab, Khusrupur in Bihar and Melbourne Australia.

And while one can easily say that the protests were for different issues, one thing that was common in all three cases was that the protesters were Indians.

In one case, Indians students observed a peaceful protest against the recent racial attacks.

While in the other case protesters at Khusrupur were anything but peaceful. Around 200 protesters setting the station on fire and pulling up train tracks delaying dozens of trains.

And everybody knows about the Punjab issue too...a murder in Vienna...bus truck yahan jala diye...


So, why were the protests different??

Well, it has all to do with the reactions of the governments and government agencies. If the students in Australia or Sikhs in Vienna had dared destroying public property, they would have been made to pay or even put behind bars.

But in India, no mob has to ever think about the consequences. People are not afraid as they know they would not be made to pay for damages or even get arrested...That is a major reason that most protests in India turn violent even if they start as peaceful protests.

Also while people may argue that the Indian government knows that these people will not vote for them if they take action...while the Aussie government knows that the Indians there do not have voting rights...well that’s just the price of being second rate citizens in another country.(and apart from students...I do not know why any person would want to be a second rate citizen in some foreign country...yes, you'll have a high paying job, a nice house, be called an NRI..but still be an outsider in that country.)

And the result of the two protests is evident too...In Australia, the cops lathi charged the crowd and dispersed the crowds and ended the protest whereas in India, they mob got whatever demands they wanted. And though I am not saying that the cops should lathi charge innocent people, but then governments should not blindly give in to such blackmail too.

As in the case of Punjab protests, nobody protested or burnt public property in Vienna, but the mobs had a free run in Punjab and not one of them was arrested.

They say that a mob has no faces- but I say catch some protesters and make them pay the price..and from the next time, such people will never dare to damage public property.

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Added as postscript on June 8, 2009 10:15 AM, an hour before my final seminar for PS II.

A Times of India columnist also shared his view on similar lines a day after I wrote this entry. Check them out at http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/clicklit/entry/come-let-s-burn-a . Very well written article.