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.

PS at ST: The StarCast

Well..it has been a couple of months since PS II started...and ab to sab logo se jaan-pehchan ho gayi hai..And like minded people have ganged up now..So I thought I'll introduce you to some of the friends I have made @ PS.

KP aka KumarPrashant-I think KP was one of the first guys I had met when I had joined Goa...College mein to zyaada interaction nahi tha...but PS mein to khoob acchi dosti ho gayi hai...KP ke mast waale funde hi generally hamara breakfast time ka discussion hota hai.

Somanchi aka Shashank Somanchi-My namesake, he is by far the quietest guy among all BITS trainees. Campus mein we lived in the same corridor and there too...he was the quietest one. I still remember the late night movies in Abhay's room and in the middle (a half asleep) Somanchi coming in and requesting us to reduce the volume...
I think he is the reason that afternoons mein ST mein neend nahi aati...because we keep mailing each other the entire afternoon and our conversation generally begin with "I am feeling damn sleepy...Whats up at ur end??"

Akshat-He was the sole reason ki hamara Embedded System Design ka project complete ho paaya tha..3 baje bande ki train thi..aur 11 baje bhi bhai lab mein baith kar project complete kar raha tha..I think that gives you a fair idea of this guys dedication.
Aaj kal to zara Gymming-shimming chal rahi hai...aur ST ke LAN par mast links with lots of movies dhoond kar bhi share kar raha hai.

Sanket Jain aka Sankat-You have to hear his PJ's...bilkul below poverty line wale. Breakfast ho ya lunch ya Lunch ke baad Sanket Jain ke phatte sun full time on.There is no way that you will not laugh at his jokes.
Both of us are in the same group, so kisi ki bhi treat hoti hai to hum dono ko bas ek doosre ka sahara hota hai...And because me, Sanket, Rishi and Krishna share a pantry so we keep meeting between meals too...

Rishi-Ab iske baare mein kya boloon-he is the only guy from Pilani who has been placed in Cosmic Semiconductors(Agar aap BITS waale ho, then you surely know what I am talking about). A guy with a great sense of humour, he can match each of Sanket's joke with one of his own.

Mayank-This guy is also Sanket's roommate, subah shaam Sanket ke phatte sunta hai. Thoda asar to hota hi hai..though PS mein sabse tough life inhi ki hai..he stays back at ST till 7:30 PM to work everyday. Shaam mein ek din inhone socha ki Gym jaen thodi der. Waha pahuchne se pehle hi inke mentor ka phone aa gaya and his mentor tells him "Where are you..itni lambi break le li hai Next time I will not call you up, I will directly call your PS instructor.." Well uske baad se Mayank bhai se GYM ki shakal bhi nahi dekhi hai..

Ankit Agarwal aka ANkitag (Thanks to his ST internal mail ID)-Well, inke baare mein aap samajh jaoge when I tell you that he was the one who had written the acknowledgement I had posted in the last post. Jab Sanket missing hota hai, to uski kami Ankit poori karte hai. Yeh bhai ab to employees ko kisi tool ki training de rahe hai..

Sudipt-Iske baare mein kya kahoon after all he is the man who has got calls from all 6 IIMS. Inke mentor ne inhe kaam de diya hai and a deadline of 2 months..aur keh diya hai ki usse pehle mere paas mat aana...agar pehle bhi khatam ho jaaye to bhi mat aana.

KrishnaMohan aka krishna-Another IIM guy he has got 3-4 IIM calls and he is also Sanket and Mayank's roommate. Even after 3 years at Pilani, his Hindi is a gone case..And one of the very few people I know who doesn't eat potatoes...I can't imagine how he survived in Pilani for the last three years.

Ritesh and Ranjot-One of my school friend at Pilani has told me earlier that two of his good friends had also got ST...so they were two PS mates from Pilani who I knew before the first day atPS. They have breakfast at PG so we generally meet them at lunch.And Ritesh is one of the 8 people from BITS who has got an admit from Stanford..PRO banda hai...

And whenever we sit down together for a meal, it feels like sitting down at the campus mess..and not just because the plates are similar, but because wahi harkaten karte hai...wahi ek doosre ki taang kheechna...wahi ek doosre ka din kaisa raha uski kahaniyan sun na aur bade bade plans banana.
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And that sometimes makes me feel nostalgic remembering the things that these are the same things that we used to do at Goa too...in fact mealtimes used to be the best times of the day for having animated conversations, Ankit Govil ko mess ke across chilla ke taang kheechna..and ek doosre ke mast wale funde sun na.

Ab bas table aur table par baithne waale different hai...waqt...bas waqt badal gaya hai...aur kucch nahi...


(but don't worry bhai log...phir waise hi baith ke timepass karenge kabhi...)

My first school

Well, the title of the blog may sound confusing to many cause most of them start and end thier schooling in a single school, but people from the defence background might understand...

Well, being in the Air Force my dad used to get posted to a new place every couple of years, and though going to a new place and making new friends was great fun, saying goodbyes to friends and packing everything up was really tough.

Anyways while we were driving back from Goa to Delhi after my last sem in college ( ya, will write about that trip in my next post).Anyways we came via Pune where Dad had done a course earlier ( earlier matlab when I was 3-4 years old). We stayed in the same mess there, saw my old house, the first one that I remembered ( I was born when Dad was posted to Bhuj, and I don't remember anyhting about that.After that Dad got posted to Pune.).So I saw my old school too...it was great, and a lot of incidents came back flooding to me. The pic on top is of the school in Pune

Anyways went to a lot of different places and schools after this-
Air Force Golden Jubilee Institute ( New Delhi)
Central School ( Utarlai, Barmer(Rajasthan)-yo thats the place close to which they found the tunnel to Pakistan)
Central School (Bidar(Karnataka))
Air Force Vidya Bharti School( Gwalior( Madhya Pradesh))
Air Force Golden Jubilee Institute ( New Delhi)

Anyways finished my schooling from the same school where I started it from class I. And made lots of friends, am in contact with most of them too..though I never even imagined that i would meet Gill at college, we had been together earlier in class 6-7th. Govi too was with me in 11th n 12th and so I knew he was coming to Goa too, and quite a lot of people I had seen/met at FITJEE came to Goa too...

Anyways I am going back reminiscing about those days at school..Cheers

Last Post from AH3-260

The corridors are empty, most of my friends have left( in fact there are just 4-5 people left on my floor of 62 rooms..) , some to come back next sem, others forever..and all of them have taken with them memories of this place..both good and bad...
...the years of friends and friendship, of fights and make ups, of ups and downs, of trust and brotherhood, years of cracking meaningless PJ's and still eliciting laughter from the audience( read like minded pagal log :) )..of exploring Goa, exploring the world of electronics (and electrical too :P) and ending up an IT job...


With regards to Academics in general and EEE in particular, the words that sum it up-

Been there, done that, can't remember most of it...

Learning everything from Biology to Report writing, from Advertisement and Sales to Analog and Digital Very Large Scale Integrated Circuit design (pheew) BITS ne sab kuchh sikhaya...

I will miss cribbing about mess food, complaining about the light and water problems that came up, especially the times when during exams A-wing plunged into darkness and electricity was there in C-wing..ohh those shouts of "Maaro Govil ko" ( our mess rep- kuchh khana nahi sudhar paaya) to "itna mat padhon saalon...mar jaoge padh padh ke"( during exams to "PHODU" ( which became the first name of half my hostel mates thanks to me) and how the hell I forgot HACs which we had coined in our first over dinner one night.I will miss sitting in Angad's room or Vishal's room at night trying to prepare for next day's exam, the tension at 8:50 AM for a 9:00 AM paper and the relief and the feeling "ki bas ho gaya paper.." at 10:00 AM...well life used to stand still during those 3 days of T1 and T2...

I will miss sitting in CSD in mornings with Vishrut, Gill, Vishal, Choos, Pantar and Chillu, will miss the BITSAA PR work, working on everything from BITS Website to Glimpses '06 to Melange '04, those deadlines and the work put into getting the work done..

i will miss spending time sitting at Mongi, juice corner or even the b-dome....hell i will even miss the dinner time discussions, which even made the bad AATISH food bearable. I will miss those movie sessions in Gill's room, the nightouts with Gill and Nimit playing CS in his room, the nighout before the exams and those nightouts at end sem, just being awake to wish everyone a goodbye before they left at all odd times ( arre bhai yeh low cost carriers ko subah 5:30 ka time hi milta hai re..). And to think the time for the final goodbye will come so soon...

And who can forget the treat about everything, those Birthday parties at Bogmalo, the cake, the birthday bumps and the awesome celebrations in the hostels..it used to really make us forget the last 18 birthdays we had celebrated at home, and the fact that we were away from home..

The Zephyr and Waves and Quark, which used to be events to showcase our talents onstage and off-stage, winning the hearts of the crowd and taking panga with other hostels and colleges..I will also neve forget the awesome AH3 dance-I like to move it that made the crowds go wild... :)

I will not forget the elections and the drama associated with it, 7 candidates for a post, the audi debate, the results in the audi, those fates hanging in balance..( bas ek wish poori nahi ho paayi-watching "None of these" win, lets hope yeh feat bhi manage ho jayegi Goa mein...)

This is the last post I'll ever write from my room AH3, 260 BITS Pilani Goa Campus..and no matter how much I cribbed about everything under the sun..the fact is "I am still gonna miss it..."

And no matter how everyone tells me that its still gonna be the same...deep down I know...it never will be...


I'll end with the true feelings that sum it up..

The pain of missing friends isn't their absence but...its when you think of the times you have shared and ask '..will those ever happen again...'and your mind silently says "NEVER"