Those were the best days of my life….

Everybody wanted to stay for some more time but one by one people were moving out. The hostel rooms which were always filled with vigor and enthusiasm were all empty. Nobody was playing cricket in the hostel lobby, music was not being played in any of the rooms. I was one of the boys who left the hostel when approximately 90% of the people had already left after the completion of the final year. I was sitting in the lobby, watching the sun set and remembering the good old days.

“Raah dekhi thi is din ki kabse
aage ke sapne saja rakhe the na jane kab se
bade utavle the yahaan se jaane ko
zindagi ka agla padaav paane ko
par naa jane kyon, dil mein aaj kuch aur aata hai
waqt ko rokne ka jee chahta hai”

Yes, I really wanted the time to stop so that I could live there for some more days. We used to crib for everything we had. The teachers, the labs, the library, the facilities, everything was bad. But now when I think the opportunities the college gave me it makes me feel proud. How fortunate I am to be a student of this college.

“Jin baton ko lekar rote the
aaj un par hansi aati hai
na jaane kyon aaj un palon ki yaad bahut aati hai
kaha kart tha ..badi mushkil se chaar saal seh gaya
par aaj kyon lagta hai ki kuch peeche reh gaya “

When we got ragged, when we ran to the classes chanting ‘kao kao’, when we ragged our juniors, when we went to out teachers house in the midnight asking him to cancel the test, when we calculated the grades to be 9 point something and it actually came out to be 7 point something, when we played badminton for the whole night and bunked the first class for sleeping, when we took the Xerox of the circuit diagram because we didn’t have time to draw the diagram, when the ‘farras’ were photocopied, when we played Holi with ‘mitti’, when one of our batch mate teased the wife of our hostel warden by mistake, when we beat the shit out of the PCO owner when he slapped one of our colleagues.

“kahi ankahi hazaaron batein reh gayi
na bhoolne wali kuch yaadein reh gayi ”

I miss all my friends and we still spend a lot of time remembering all of them. I can still remember how people made groups to make fun of someone, how all of us got united when any of us faced a trouble, how we all went to our teacher asking him to be lenient while checking the examination answer sheets, how the people cheated during the exams, how some people slept while sitting in the first row, how we used to tease each other, how we prepared ourselves for the Lanka trip for a cup of tea, how we used to wake up for the whole night so that we can go to the ‘The Ganges’ and see the sun rise, how some of my batchmates acted after drinking ‘Thandai (with Bhang)’.

“kaun fail hone par dilasa dilayega
kaun galti se number aane par gaaliyaan sunayega,
aise dost kahaan milenge jo khai mein bhi dhakka de aayein,
par fir tumhein bachane khud bhi kood jayein,
kaun kahega chadhe tere joke pe hansi nahin aai,
kaun peeche se bula ke kahega..aage dekh bhai,
Kaun mujhe ab class main jagaega,
Is khadus manager se ab kaun bachaega,
mere certificates ko raddi kehne ki himmat kaun karega,
bina dare sachi raay dene ki himmat kaun karega,
raat ko 2 baje pooch khane kaun jayega,
6 gilaas lassi peene ki shart kaun lagayega,
achanak bin matlab ke kisi ko bhi dekh kar paglon ki tarah hansna,
na jaane ye fir kab hoga“

Wish I could live that life again. Wish I can meet all my batch mates again and play all the pranks again. Wish I could go back in time.

“keh do doston ye dobaara sab hoga
doston ke liye professor se kab lad payenge
kya hum ye fir kar payenge "

The lobby was still empty, silence prevailed everywhere, and the sun was already set. Somebody called from behind, “Kakke chal dinner karne”. I thought that perhaps all of us will not be together again but “THE MEMORY REMAINS”. You turn around and it comes back to you.

“bahut kuch likhna abhi baaki hai
kuch saath shayad baaki hai
zindagi mein milne ki fariyaad karte rehna
agar na mil sakein to kam se kam yaad karte rehna
chahe jitna hanslo aaj mujh par
mein bura nahi manooga
is hansi ko apne dil mein basa loonga
aur jab yaad aayegi tumhari
yahi hansi lekar thoda muskura loonga”

I pulled the chair inside the room (room number 205, Morvi Hostel) locked it and went out for the dinner.

Mentos Zindagi

Problem 1:
Ramesh was a ‘Honhar’ student of B.Tech at a premiere institute who want to publish a few papers so that he can fulfill his dream of getting into a nice university for post graduate studies. But, the problem is that the projects require a lot of effort and if you have not worked hard then it is almost impossible to publish anything and Ramesh can’t work.

Solution:
This is how he solved his problem. Ramesh was apt at making websites. So, he developed a website which announced that paper presentation contest is going to be held at some university in US. So, interested students can submit their papers to annakurnikova@lulu.com. He received a lot of papers and he did choose one of the best. The paper got published in one of the university journals. Yeh thi mentos zindagi.

Problem 2:
Ramesh was studying in the third year. It was the fifth semester and everbody was busy in applying for summer internship. Ramesh also wanted to go abroad for summer internship. He tried for some time and got bored. But one of his close friends was still trying hard and Ramesh was afraid that he will get the call eventually. But how will he pass the summers alone. Without him it was impossible for Ramesh to do anything. So, how to stop him?

Solution:
So, the first question is how the students were applying for internship. It was a very simple 3 point process:

1. Open the University’s website.
2. Browse the website and find the e mail addresses of the professors who were working in any field of the stream you are doing your engineering in.
3. Fire an email to all the email ids.

So, Ramesh thought he can take the advantage of the process. Since, nobody was keeping the track of the universities they were applying to; Ramesh developed a website of a fictitious university, UCLU. He sent an email to his friend confirming that he was selected for the summer internship and he would be awarded some scholarship during his stay at the university. After receiving the email his friend stopped applying further. For the next couple of months Ramesh guided his friend on what to study and what not. Finally he told him the truth. Both of them did their summers from the same place.

Action…Drama…Romance

It brings tears to my eyes when I remember ‘Spider Man’ weeping like a kid (How ‘Bhavuk’ a superhero can be). It brings tears to my eyes again when I remember ‘Spider Man’ dancing in the middle of the street. MJ and Spider Man on the web in the jungle looking at the stars and then MJ saying,” I can sing for my whole life with you (Peter) in the front row”, wow…how romantic. The movie had everything a movie is supposed to have. Be it action, be it drama or be it romance.

Two heroes, two villains and only one heroine made me feel like the script was written by Karan Johar. And the death of one of the heroes in the end did strengthen my belief that Karan Johar was involved in some way. I guess the director didn’t want to confuse MJ on which one to choose, Red (or Blue) one or the green one.

MJ feeling jealous of Spider Man’s lab partner when he kissed her. Marie Jane getting angry with Peter when he invited her to the French Restaurant. I thought that Peter would sing a nice romantic song to placate her. But, to my disappointment, no song was there. Peter’s aunt getting sentimental when Peter told her his plans of proposing MJ. Perhaps, I will swim across some channel with my ‘would be’ to propose her on a lonely island by singing ‘Kaho Na Pyaar Hai’. There were many emotional sequences which, unfortunately, couldn’t make us feel emotional.

When Spider man forgave ‘Sandman’, I sank into my chair so that no one could see me laughing with tears in my eyes. But, I gathered some courage to sit straight again and then I whistled loudly. But, everybody else in the theater was so engrossed that my whistle disturbed them and suddenly all the people in the theater were looking at us. I sank into my chair again. But, the last song of the movie sung by MJ, “I am done with love. I shall not fall in love again…” provoked me enough to whistle again. The response was not same as earlier. Some people did respond with an equivalent, if not louder, whistles.

But I liked one thing about the movie, one of the last dialogues. The choices make you what you are (A truth I firmly believe in).

I heard that ‘Spider Man’ is coming in ‘Bhojpuri’ with the hero clad in dhoti and ‘Gamcha’. I can bet that it will be fun to watch it.

I think Hollywood has started taking inspiration from Bollywood. Hope we shall see more such movies in the future.

Disclaimer: I copied the following poem.

Aj ek baar sabse muskara ke baat karo,
bitaye hue palon ko saath saath yaad karo,
kya pata kal chehre ko muskarana,
aur dimaag ko purane pal yaad ho na ho.

aj ek baar fir purani baaton main kho jao,
aj ek baar fir purani yaadon main doob jao,
kya pata kal ye baatein,
aur ye yaadein ho na ho,

aj ek baar mandir main jao,
puja karke prasad bhi chadhao,
kya pata kal ke kalyug main,
bhagwan par logon ki shraddha ho na ho.

Baarish main khoob bheego,
jhoom jhoom ke baachon ki tarah naacho,
kya pata beet hue bachpan ki tarah.
kal ye baarish bhi ho na ho,

aj har kaam khoob dil laga kar karo,
use samay se pehle poora karo,
kya pata aj ki tarah,
kal bajuon main takat ho na ho,

aj ek baar fir se chaein ki neend so jao,
aaj koi aacha sa sapna bhi dekho,
kya pata kal zindagi main chaen,
aur aankhon main sapna ho na ho,

kya pata kal,
kal ho na ho.

Cheers,

Memoirs Contd.

1.

It was a fine Sunday morning, a bit chilly ‘coz the month was December. One of neighbors, Mama Ji, came to our house to meet my father. They were talking when I joined them. Mama Ji was telling my father why he couldn’t sleep for the last few nights, the problems he had been facing for the last few days, when I suddenly spoke, “Mama Ji, raat bhar to ullu jagte hai. Ap to ullu ban gaye ho”. I can still feel the echo of the slap.

2.

It was my first company after the college. The first week was quite exciting but gradually I started losing interest in everything we supposed to do. One day, I was sitting on the couch in front of our cubicle. I was reading a book on Extra Sensory Perception. There was a fire extinguisher close the couch. I unconsciously opened the knob which was holding the pressure. The sound generated made everybody from the building to come out. I could not understand the situation for a moment but then my conscious mind instructed me to close the knob and run away. I followed the instructions.

3.

I have been to Frankfurt once. We used to have a day off in a week which happened to be Sunday. On one of the ‘Sundays’ we visited ‘Main Taunas Zentrum’, a huge shopping mall in Frankfurt. An open air fashion show scheduled which was free for everyone. So, we dedicated ourselves to the fashion show. Some of us tried to act like a professional photographer and, I must say, they did a good job.

On the next day we were in the office and I was having a look at snaps. One of the models was very beautiful so I decided to upload her picture on Orkut. I was customizing the picture with the help of Picasa when I felt some one on the backrest of my chair. I thought that he was one of colleagues who also visited the MTZ along with us. I asked him, “Kitni Khoobsoorat hai na ye?” He replied, “Yes, She is”. Then I realized that it was our site lead. All of us burst into laughter.

You can watch the picture of the lady in my Orkut album.

4.

I also visited Munchen (Munich) to attend ‘Oktober Fest (synonymous with ‘Beer Fest’)’. We really had a nice time in the Oktober Fest. At the end of the day we decided to have a photo session. After taking a few pictures, I thought about a picture with a German chick. Then I did spot a girl in the traditional German get up. I ran after her and asked, “Would you mind to have a snap with me?” Suddenly, I felt someone’s hand on my shoulder. I turned around. It was her boy friend. I told him that I just wanted to take snap with her. He said, “Sure, why not”.

This picture is also there in my Orkut album.

Samachar

I was watching news sometime back when a breaking news flashed “Yet another murder of an innocent girl for dowry”. A boy used to love a girl and the girl too was in love with him. Their parents accepted their relationship. The got married but they didn’t live happily ever after. The boy killed his love for dowry. What the Fcuk? What kind of love it was? People who are frustrated with their life, who do not have guts to fight with life, who want money without working, who feel proud when they receive huge dowry and who fight with people (who care for them, who are harmless) are doomed. Their life is a complete failure.

Sometime back I watched an interview of an eminent bollywood personality, Mr. X, on ‘AAJ TAK’. The interview went on as following:

Interviewer: To, apko kya lagta ki Aishwarya Bacchan ko aage movies karni chahiye?
X: Apne is desh aisi aur bhi bahut mahatvapoorna ghatnaen ho rahi hain jiske bare main charcha ki ja sakti hai.
Interviewer: To ab ap humein batayenge ki humein kya dikhana chahiye.
X: Nahi mera matlab tha ki ab aisi baataon kya matlab hai am aadmi se.
Interviewer: Agar 5 % log bhi is karyakram main interest hai to hum dikhayenge.

It is really frustrating that the news channels which should try to bring a social change in our country are more interested in ‘Masala News’.

I switched off the television and picked up TOI for news update. It had been 4-5 days since I read the news paper so thought of updating myself for all these days and picked up all the news papers.

The picture on the front page of one of the newspapers portrayed ‘Richard Gere kissing Shilpa Shetty ‘. In the Bangalore Times, an apt reporter had written a very informative article about KISSES which was about the different types of kisses, the ‘Kissing’ history of India etc. Why do we always blame extremist groups for creating fuss of every small event? These people are equally responsible.

Recently Bangalore Times published an article which had the heading"Chocoloates are better than Foreplay”. We can find such articles in TOI quite frequently. Once I read an article in Sunday Magazine which explained new fascinating ways of having sex. Even minors read news paper and I think they don’t really need this information. If they are trying to educate the minors about sex by such articles then it won’t really help. There are better ways to do so.

Everything changes with time, positively or negatively, and ‘Samachars’ are no exception.

Life is....

“Hazaron Khwahishen aisi ki har khwaish par dum nikle,
Bahut Nikle mere armaan magar fir bhi kam nikale.... ”

Life is about having the “Hazaron Khwahishen” and a desire to realize all of them.

Life is about dreaming big and working hard to make them a reality. It’s about winning a match or losing it. If lost, then a desire to win it the next time. If won, then a desire to win it again and again. Winning might be a the only thing while playing the match but sometimes outcome of the match is unimportant because the focus is lost, because the aim is not clear, because being a winner or looser won’t make any difference like when you play a TT match with your boss then thrashing him is really not important. Match doesn’t really relate only to sports. Everything is a match whether it is relationships, a competition or anything one can think of. So, you should know when a ‘win’ is important and when it is important, do not loose the focus.

Life is about celebrating the smallest thing happened to you, which brought a smile to your face like scoring the highest marks in the class, cooking the dinner for your mother while she sits and watches, being in love with one of your close friends when you were just 8 years old, buying a gift for your parents when you got the paycheck for the first time, clearing the interviews of your dream company, getting admission to your dream college, caring for those who care for you etc.

Life is about doing what you want to do. People get so involved with the work that they don’t even realize that there are few things which they used to enjoy. ‘Jahanavi’ in ‘Lage Raho Munna Bhai’ rightly said:

“Shaher ki is daud me daud ke karna kya hai?
Jab yehi jeena hai dosto to phir marna kya hai?
Paheli barish me train late hone ki fikr hai
Bhul gaye bhigte hue tahelna kya hai?
Serails ke kirdaaro ka saara haal hai malum
par maa ka haal puchhne ki fursat kise hai?
Ab ret pe nage pao tahelte kyu nahi?
108 hai chanel phir dil bahelte kyu nahi?
Internet ki duniya ke to touch me hai,
lekin pados me kon raheta hai jaante tak nahi.
Mobile, Landline sab ki bharmaar hai,
Lekin jigri dost tak pahuche aise taar kaha hai?
Kab dubte hue suraj ko dekha tha yaad hai?
Kab jaana tha shaam ka woh banana kya hai?
To Dosto Shaher ki es daud me daud ke karna kya hai
Jab yahi jeena hai to phir Marna kya hai?”

So, keep doing things which you used to enjoy because it will make you feel nice, at least for some time.