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Only @ BITS -http://onlyatbits.com

I experience these just some years back :) ...and now I feel old :(

The Soldier...

On the 12th anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas...here is a very touching poem about a soldier and his thoughts...of how the country and the countrymen have forgotten his contribution to the country...(btw I haven't written this poem...) and it is a repost...

"
How you play with us, did you ever see?
At Seven, I had decided what I wanted to be;
I would serve you to the end,
All these boundaries I would defend.
Now you make me look like a fool,
When at Seventeen and just out of school;
Went to the place where they made "men out of boys"
Lived a tough life …sacrificed a few joys…
In those days, I would see my 'civilian' friends,
Living a life with the fashion trends;
Enjoying their so called "College Days"
While I sweated and bled in the sun and haze…
But I never thought twice about what where or why
All I knew was when the time came,
I'd be ready to do or die.
At 21 and with my commission in hand,
Under the glory of the parade and the band,
I took the oath to protect you over land, air or sea,
And make the supreme sacrifice when the need came to be.
I stood there with a sense of recognition,
But on that day I never had the premonition, that when the time came to give me my due,
You'd just say," What is so great that you do?

"Long back you promised a well to do life;
And when I'm away, take care of my wife.
You came and saw the hardships I live through,
And I saw you make a note or two,
And I hoped you would realise the worth of me;
but now I know you'll never be able to see,
Because you only see the glorified life of mine,
Did you see the place where death looms all the time?
Did you meet the man standing guard in the snow?
The name of his newborn he does not know...
Did you meet the man whose father breathed his last?
While the sailor patrolled our seas so vast?

You still know I'll not be the one to raise my voice
I will stand tall and protect you in Punjab Himachal and Thois.
But that's just me you have in the sun and rain,
For now at Twenty Four, you make me think again;
About the decision I made,
Seven years back;
Should I have chosen another life, some other track?
Will I tell my son to follow my lead?
Will I tell my son, you'll get all that you need?
This is the country you will serve
This country will give you all that you deserve?

I heard you tell the world "India is shining"
I told my men, that's a reason for us to be smiling
This is the India you and I will defend!
But tell me how long will you be able to pretend?
You go on promise all that you may,
But it's the souls of your own men you betray.

Did you read how some of our eminent citizens
Write about me and ridicule my very existence?
I ask you to please come and see what I do,
Come and have a look at what I go through
Live my life just for a day
Maybe you'll have something else to say?
I will still risk my life without a sigh
To keep your flag flying high
but today I ask myself a question or two…

Oh India …. Why do I still serve you?"
-Anonymous

Mumbai 13/07

I don't know whether Mumbaikars heading to work on the 14th July 2011 is a sign of resilience or resignation that nothing has changed and nothing might....

Another eligible bachelor goes :)

Sender : Meet Sagar Singh Rajpal
Message: 'Hello, Good Morning :) I have good news to share. I am engaged :) chalo ab congratulate karo :) ...'

And I was barely awake that early in the morning as I paged down to find out what the joke was...And then it finally hit me :)

I called up Meet and my first sentence was 'Abe yeh koi message karke batane waali baat hai' and the standard reply to any good news 'Party kab hai' :)

And as I and Angad were talking the same evening...apne group mein Meet and Abhay hi the jinka sabse pehle engagement ka scope tha ;)
So this post is to congratulate my batchmate, my hostel wingie for such wonderful news. Here's wishing you and amazing life ahead...

PS: I hope I don't get the message next year 'Congratulate kar do..I am now married :) ' :P

Meet, party kab hai???

Travel cafe

Yesterday Vishal, Mudit and myself had to spend to spend the peak afternoon time waiting @ Hauz Khas village for Vikas to come back from his office where he is interning for the summer.

The hands down choice was Kunzum Travel cafe (http://kunzum.com/travelcafe/). Now to admit the truth I had no idea what the concept of a travel cafe was or how was it different from a normal cafe. :?

So, it was a small cozy place with pictures sent in by travellers adorning the wall, travel books which one can either read at the cafe or buy. Free wifi and the unique concept of this particular place - you can have coffee and cookies and pay whatever you want...

You can sit the entire day and laze around, use the wifi and there is no compulsion to buy anything...you can  sit on the sofa, the cane chairs or even on a comfy rug on the floor.

Spent a couple of hours lazing around talking about nothing in particular and wishing I could work from home from this great place. :)

Puff Away

CIGARETTE: A roll of paper with fire on one end and a FOOL on the other....

On this Anti Tobacco day 2011, suddenly everyone except the smokers themselves was talking about quitting. A radio channel 104.8 FM went even further and invited listeners to leave messages to get Shahrukh Khan to quit smoking...bhai uski cigarette, uski marzi...and infact why persuade just him to quit, there are other actors who smoke..why don't you take messages for them as well..

What is the use of someone telling someone else to quit. I have a senior in office, very hardworking, and he has been blessed with a daughter some months back. But he needs breaks every couple of hours to go out to the shops just outside the office to smoke. Now he is educated, no doubt knows about the ill effect of smoking...I don't think he needs someone else to tell him smoking is bad before he quits.

Yes, you can tell about the ill effects of smoking to people who aren't educated, but since the tobacco lobby is so powerful in India, the plan to introduce pictorial warning is yet to see the light of the day after i guess 3 postponements. The next date is 1st December. Lets see what the next date after that is...

I feel that it is up to the smoker to realize how they are harming themselves and their families with their smoking...Nobody can do that for them.

Reverb

Date : 25/05/2011

Venue : Reverb, The Great India Place Noida

Reason: Team Party o.O

Meet was supposed to give us a prty @ Reverb some years back when Vishal was in Delhi oops Dadri :P , but Vishal ka woh sapna sapna hi reh gaya :)

Lets hope the place lives up to its reputation..

Swim Season

And swimming season 2011 officially starts today :)

Chat mangni pat shaadi

Well, everybody has heard this phrase, but I saw this happen :)

Thursday : Girl meets boy ( who is the son of family friend but this is the first time the two meet..)
Sunday : Girl meets boy's parents.
Next Thursday : They are married  :)

Congratulations guys..Wishing you a very happy married life..

Earth Hour 2011

Well, its that time of the year when we switch off unnecessary lights for 1 hour on the last Saturday of March and feel proud that we are saving electricity and helping Earth..

Grow up...

Just one hour of switching off electric appliances for 1 day of the year doesn't make you a savior...do your bit everyday...it isn't that difficult.

Read my views on the same topic at Earth Hour 2010 and Earth Hour 2009.

Samskruthi 2011

Today, we had Samskuthi...the annual carnival at CSC and the atmosphere was simply electric...It was like we were back in college.

Lots of stalls, lots of activities but the best part of the evening was the performance by the Hindi Rock band Musafir (http://www.musafirtheband.com/). They were amazing and belted out back to back power packed performances including a censored version of Sutta :)

And when they started playing Sutta, the crowd matched thier energy and sang along...poore college type wala mahaul :D

Now I do not know music..but as with most of the performances that I have seen, the energy is infectious and the efforts by the band members is what scores with me..

And listening to Musafir, I was suddenly missing Vishrut, Vishal, Angad, Govi, Abhay, Meet, Pandey, Phodu, Govil, Nimit, Purnoor, Puneet, Maddy, Rao, Popat, Sagar, KK and everyone who made those numerous DJ nights in college amazing fun...

Kadi Sadi Gali Bhul Ke Vi Aya Karo...

Well, I am not talking about the movie or the album from which the song comes from...

I am moving to the 6th floor in a few days @ office while my closest friends on the floor stay back... The only positive of my new seat is the lesser value of acceleration due to gravity :\ . I guess its kind of rhetorical to say that I am not looking forward to the new seat considering that I enjoy going to the office because of the really great neighbours Rishi and Sugandha who make the day interesting ;)

Apni to history hi kharab hai...yaa to doston ka floor ya building change ho hi jaati hai :|

So I will be soon singing this song for my friends- Divya, Manu, Mohsin, Rishi, Sugandha, Sanjeev and Gourav :)

LOMA 290: Cleared

So, after a lot of FB updates and a bit of studying too..cleared my LOMA 290 exam today :)

So that makes me an FLMI Level I certified in Insurance in the US o.O

Happy V-day :)

Last year V-day status:
"I'm single by choice. Not my choice."


This year :
‎"Jahaan itne valentine nikal gaye, wahaan ek aur jod do...
Mathematical induction lagaao aur aagey ki ummeed bhi chhod do."
- via Abhay Murarka

Delhi Roads :\

On yet another weekday, travelling towards home on roads that don't just require you to have a license...you need a 360 degree vision to look out for idiots who overtake from the left, the person ahead who suddenly breaks hard and decides to take a turn or the guy behind you who has suddenly realized that he is late getting to a meeting and overtaking you like a maniac will get him there on time..

Oh..and the bikers can zip from any direction and you have to stop to let them go...after all they did buy the road when they purchased their bikes...

And if you thought that with blueline buses gone, your problems are over...think again...as government seems to have given jobs as DTC drivers to people driving bluelines..

To a city where 1 pipe burst can cause a traffic jam over 3 flyovers and 1 underpass and about 4-5 km long..

Welcome to Delhi D(hell)i...

Delay by chance

Date : 7th January

Time : 9:00 PM

Vishal calls me and tell me that he will be in Delhi to catch a train to Guwahati ( on the way to Shillong..). His expected time of arrival in Delhi 10:00 AM on 8th January ( by train on a winter morning ;) ). As fate had it..I was on-call on 7th night till 3:30 AM :(

Date: 8th January

Time :11 AM

Friendship is deadly...makes you do crazy things like running towards a metro station on one of the coldest days of the season in Delhi, catching the metro by running down the stairs and just managing to enter the compartment just so to save 10-15 minutes...

Vishal's train is late by about an hour...and well so was I...

Anyways while I was still in the Metro, I got a call from Meet to say that he was with Vishal and they were waiting for me...

Managed to get to the Railway station without any further adventures. And as always, it is gr8 to catch up with Meet and Vishal, talking about the good old days, swapping stories about the rest of the group ( special mention about Abhay Murarka - bhai, you better explain the stories I have been hearing about you!!)

AND then came the announcement - "Guwahati se jaane wali 12423 Guwahati-Delhi Rajdhani Exp 7 ghante ki deri se chal rahi hai. Guwahati ko jaane wali 12424 Delhi-Guwahati Rajdhani Exp apne nirdharit samay 2:30 baje ki jagah shaam to 8:50 par chalegi" :D :D

We then hauled all their luggage to the cloak room..spent an hour in the line as most of the trains were late, some by up to 37 hours.

Next Stop : CP

The scene was as if there was no heavy winter in Delhi. Most girls roaming about seemed to be straight out of some fashion week's winter collection.. ( Not that I am complaining...however after looking at them, we were feeling over dressed with 2 sweaters and a jacket :P )

Spent the afternoon walking in the inner circle, met Meet's roommate and his friends for lunch at Haldirams, then we met another of Meet's friend afterwards. Meet then had to leave for Noida so it was me and Vishal again.

We decided to walk back to the station as there was still a lot of time before his train left and the best conversations happen while walking. :)

Read Vishal's take on the same topic at http://biliex.blogspot.com/2011/01/lucky-delay.html

PS: Meet..pics bhej de bhai :)

Right to Education

And so why am I suddenly talking about the RTE today???


Well, my cab driver today was a talkative fellow who was apologetic because he was late, he was late because he had to purchase forms for nursery admission for his son whom he wants to get admitted to a private school and not to a Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) School.

After talking to him, I realized how important the RTE is for a country like India, in fact I was very happy that the UPA Government has implemented the RTE, but as I read online, it was simply the sad old story that repeats itself everywhere in India...scheme to bana di, but implementation bhool gaye...

I know the implementation of RTE is a long term project, but shouldn't it have at least started now?

According to what I read; It has been 8 months since the act came into force on 1st April 2010, but private schools openly flout the guidelines of RTE by conducting screening tests for students and interviews for parents and Government schools...well they don't have the number of teachers required...and even where they have the manpower, the teachers are simply not interested.

And how and why would they be. From what I could find on the net, the average starting salary for a government teacher in a city is around 8,000-10,000 while it is even less for smaller towns. How can you expect a person who is earning such a petty amount to be interested in teaching...?

Well, I hope, there is some turnaround soon, so that even a 5 year old son of a cab driver can dream of becoming a doctor or engineer.


For more info on RTE : http://right-to-education-india.blogspot.com/