One heck of a train journey!!!

This post is going to describe my train journey back home from college and a few related incidents.Ok, so where to start from?I guess I'll carry on from where I left in my previous post.

The best time during a semester in college is the last day, when you're done with your exams and have to do hundreds of things in a very short span of time to pack up and leave for the station, to board the train back home. So,let me skip the routine packing part and fast forward a little bit.. Its 10.30 pm, we're at the station, accompanied by hundreds of students from my college.Some people just came over to see us off and the usual joking and pranking around was going on. It felt a bit awkward for me to be standing there away from my dearest of friends(one of the sad parts of taking the a.c. coach), trying to keep myself busy with the girls by initiating useless talks which werent as amusing as they made it out to be.Its funny how easily you can make a girl laugh.. you crack the silliest of jokes and they'll be laughing their stomachs out.. anyways, I could write a whole post on "Stupidity of girls" so let me keep you away from that one.

Someone in the crowd of passengers made me happy and I prayed for her to be in the same compartment as mine..read on and I'll elaborate on this..

So, hundreds of false smiles and about an hour and a half later, my already delayed train arrived and as usual, people rushed here and there not caring the slightest bit as to what their seat nos were.True,the train's scheduled to stop there for about two minutes but a bit of common sense could have avoided the pandemonium that the lunatics caused for the next half an hour.. here's a description of what followed:

As we all know,each compartment has two doors so my idea was to check for the door nearer to my seat and take it, to make things easier for myself and others.I did that but, to my irritation,I found people with seat nos 1-8 boarding the train from the other door and vice versa, and leading the pack was none other than a girl from my class and I wasnt really surprised to see her lead an idiotic act, as she derives ultimate pleasure from such acts. It came to a point when I had to give up the effort to reach my seat,which was visible,just two compartments away but when you have people trying to traverse both sides through a two feet wide passage with their luggage(again girls contributing to the farce by carrying or rather tryin to carry twice the luggage they could manage), waiting patiently for the passage to clear up seems the wisest thing to do. Finally I reached my seat and there we had another problem but it was expected as it was the outcome of another abberation's (read girl's) "intelligent" mind.

Indain railways have fixed quota of tickets from a starting station(udupi in this case) to a destination(nizamuddin, new delhi). During vacations, theres a mad rush for tickets and that girl was foolish enough to be sleeping when she should have been rushing to the travel agents to get the tickets done and when she did this, it was already too late and all the tickets from udupi to delhi had been booked so she took her ticket from an earlier station.Now the railways rules state it clearly that if you have your reservation from a station and you actually board the train from a later station, you have to get the boarding changed.She happily ignored this fact and when she reached her seat, she was informed that her seat had been allotted to someone else,as she didnt report in time.

We were three friends(myself, Sarvesh and Ishaan) in the adjacent compartment so we decided to share our seats with her till the time she got her seat back.For the next 24 hours, she watched movie after movie(god save Sarvesh's laptop) and finally at about 2 pm the following day(26 hrs after boarding the train) she got her seat.


Looking out for similar aged girls is one of the first things that any guy does once he gets into train and me and Ishaan were no different.And, to our joy,we instantly found one in the next compartment.We rushed to take the seat so that we could see her all the time and this was the one I had mentioned earlier too, while building up to this post.She was the girl I had occasionally seen in my branch's library during exam days but please dont think that she was the purpose of me going to library for the last fortnight, as my friends would like to belive.Anyways,I was determined to talk to her and all,and was in no hurry as it was just the start of a 36 hr long journey so I was confident of getting many chances.It was already late night and our fellow passengers were requesting us to switch off the lights so that they could get some sleep so we obliged.The next day, after having brunch and all, I felt sleepy again at around 1pm,while my friends were busy watching movies. Woke up around 3.30 to find that "she" was missing from her seat,as was her friend.I thought she might have gone to some friends' seat,as is a common practice but when she didnt return till evening,it made me suspicious and when I checked the chart,it said that she had her tickets till Kalyan only,which had come about 5 hrs ago!!!Anways,there was nothing much to feel sad about and I read "Oliver's Story" for some time before falling asleep,at around 2pm.

This is when the more interesting phase of journey started.
I was awakened by Ishaan five hours later, to see off Sarvesh as his station was to come any moment now.He was arranging his luggage when he found his shoes missing!! We tried searching everywhere but to no avail.He borrowed sandals from his friend and prepared to leave.His wait seemed to last eternity as the train was stranded at the outskirts of Jhansi from 7am to 9am.Finally we bid him goodbye and hoped that we'll get through to Delhi without further hiccups.Then we came to know about a derilment that had taken place and we had to wait another 3 and a half hours before our train could move.It finally moved at 12.30 pm, already 6 hours late and just then, another of my batchmates complained that his set of shoes and sandals were missing.It was then that a newly married gentleman told us that he saw a policeman checking out shoes under our seats at around 3.30 am the previous night and he didnt object, as he thought it was some routine luggage-checking going on.We were getting bored so we thought of stretching the matter further(fully aware that the shoes wont be recovered) and complained to the TTE(Train Ticket Examiner).We had some pleasant arguments about the credibility of police,etc etc. The train was reached Gwalior and another gentleman from the Indian Army joined us.

He had been in the army for 20 odd years and he was returning to his posting(Baramula,Jammu and Kashmir)midway during his holidays.We were surprised and when we asked the reason he said with a smile," My bullet proof jeep has been bombed a couple of hours ago and a few fresh incidents of militancy have been reported so I decided to go back".Another shocking enough incident and it took my mind towards those in the army who have to deal with these things day in and day out.

Coming back,we finally reached Delhi and it was time to bid goodbye.Not surprisingly, that girl whom we had offered seats didnt even bother turning to us once during the last 17 hours,i.e. from the time she got her own seat!!

I somewhat struggled to get an auto at a reasonable rate and then found one.Talking to the driver is always better than sitting for half an hour with your nose held high, reminding him of the social difference so I asked him about his native state and as I had guessed from his style of speaking, he turned out to be from my native state,Bihar.He started by asking where I was coming from, what I do there,etc etc.When I told him that I was an engineering student,his eyes lit up and he fired a thousand questions to me!All were centred around his 5 yr old son,whom he wanted to turn into an IAS(Indian Administrative Services) Officer or an Engineer.It felt amazing to know how many ambitions parents have from their sons and to what extent are they ready to go for fulfilling all their needs.

The 11 km route from station to my home seemed like nothing and finally I was at home,after six months, exulting like a kid and partly,thinking about the journey,the kind of people I met,the 2500+ kms I had travelled during the last two days and then, to the gala time that I was going to have during the next month..

Another Sem of misery ends..

Long time since i posted and I'm sure the handful of people who had started accepting me as somewhat regular to blogging would have gone away by now.Cant even say that have been busy studying as my results would not remotely suggest that.
Anyways,its the time to reflect back on the last five months or so, since my fifth sem started and sadly, it presents yet another sorry picture in terms of academics. Agreed, that in general the course was tough, as my classmates would agree,but I know for myself that I've done badly even by those low standards.

Its amazing how time keeps slipping out of your hands.More than half the engineering is done and next sem it'll be time to sit for placement interviews.God only knows what those people will find in me worth paying me a decent enough salary,if at all they do!!!

Actually, I cant find myself doing anything wrong this sem,but I dint study either, so other things stand for nothing.Its amazing that however bad you might have written your exams, the feeling after writing the last paper always remains the same,the kind I'm having right now.
Yes,today was my last sem exam and I can gladly say that I'll be boarding the train back to delhi in about five hours from now.And since I've seen the time now,it reminds me that I've got whole lot of things to do before that.So, I think that is it for today's post,I know there's nothing worth reading in it but then, I am in such great mood that I dint even think what I'm writing...
Happy Holidays to me!!!
n I genuinely hope that I'll be a bit more regular to blogging over the next month.

Fun,frolic,fear and farce.... tht's life!!!

So,here I am,back!!! :)

Its been quite a while since my last post and going by the no of daily visitors of my blog(or rather the lack of it) its high time I updated it.
I've got my reasons not to be able to post anything new.Not that I was busy killing myself working all this while,but still, going by my mediocre standards,the last three weeks have been as close to "busy" as I have ever been.

Class Trip

I had the privilege of taking the lead role and organising a trip for my class to gokarna and murdeshwar on second oct:two nearby places,but the place was never of utmost importance for the trip, getting the class together was.I dont want to boast about how I played the superman role to get this thing done,but still, trust me,it was quite a task.Booking a bus 5 hours prior to leaving for the trip,without knowing the exact no of participants can lead to a really messy situation,but thank god, I wasnt led to one.The trip was a runaway success, you could feel it during the journey,otherwise you wouldnt be seeing people dancing around from midnight till 3am non stop in a 22 seater mini bus, you wouldnt see people playing football madly on the beaches and you wouldnt see people dancing again in the same bus,given the fact that all of us had barely sat properly,leave alone resting, in the previous 18 hours.

Tech Tatva- our technical fest
The aforementioned trip was really tiring and it took me more than 3 days to get rid of the pain in every imaginable joint of my body.By the time the "trip hangover" got over, there was further trouble waiting for me,but I can't complain much,as I had "invited" that myself.I got a message from my senior asking me to meet up regarding my work in our college's technical fest,which was to start a week after the trip.My job was relatively easier,I was supposed to wear the "organiser" tag and roam around with the camera people,getting them to take footage of the various events that were going on.It was fun working with them for the four days of the fest and when it ended on 13th oct,I was one satisfied person.

Indian cricket team are hosting Australia nowadays and we've lost the 7 match one day series 4-2 but still, the manner in which we won those two games should only add to our confidence and stature.Its not everyday that you win a match agaisnt them after being 62 for 6 chasing 194.

Of late I've not been in the best of health and that's been one of the main reasons for not posting regularly.The latest jolt came yesterday.I spent a good part of the day in the library and actually studied there for a major part of those 7 hours.I was ecstatic when I returned and soon I began feeling cold, sneezing at an abnormal rate and feeling weak as ever.Neglected it yesterday,thinking it would wear off when I get up from sleep but it wasn't to be.The whole of today it got worse,forcing me to even skip a lab,which I otherwise would never do, and sitting in my room without switching on the fan,in a 25 degree C plus environment.One of the few good habits I've acquired after shifting to hostel is this one.I've learnt how to be on my own in times like these.I would never have imagined my parents allowing me to even step out of my room in the condition in which I went out in the sun,hunting for medicines and then coming all the way back.I just feel this might have come at the wrong time,as I've got my sessional tests starting from Thrusday,less than a week from now.Anyways, it's going to be a nice experience,as it has been till now,managing everything on your own in such bad health.After all, life's not a bed of roses,isn't it?There are worse things that happen to people without them cribbing about it so who am I to complain??

This is for my readers... thanks for making me happy!!!

I dont know what it is about 6pm of the day.It does something to me.I know it makes a strange reading,but then,its a fact.Anyways,decided to devote this time in blogging instead of surfing meaninglessly through innumerable profiles on orkut or chattng to so called friends who're online all the time and dont have anything to ask other than"hey,how're you?What's up at your end?"

Had a full day in college today,that is,lab from 9am to 12am,then had to submit an assignment which I had not even done and it hardly gave me any time to eat.Then,I was in class again,from 2 to 4pm.And wait,that's not all,after that we had to see our papers of the recently concluded first sessional tests,which were pathetic,as has become the norm with me all these years!Without discussing the marks,it'd be fair to say that I need a drastic change in my time table,else I'll be facing a new kind of trouble,academic,to add to my endless list of personal problems,which I've been wanting to kick out of my head,without much success,of course..

Anyways,changing the subject,its that time of the day when you actually sit down and think-think about a lot of things.The thought going through my mind now is,"Why the hell do I have to be sad all the time?"
Well,my acquaintances here might raise eyebrows about it,as you can never really make out what mood I'm in.Still,I'm the best person to know it,right??

What is the best idea of happiness?Is it hanging around with friends all the time?Is it scoring astronomical marks in your tests?Is it watching your favourite cricket/football team win?or is it just lying leisurely in you bed and thinking about the people you want to think?Ahem.... the last choice isn't there for me,at least,as it makes me feel sick,neglected,idiotic.....but at the end of it all...Lucky!!!

Anyways,my idea of happiness for the last two days has been the fact that people from Philippines and spain are actually reading my blog and giving their ideas about it.I can't express the happiness you feel when you see a comment on your blog,or when you see the rise in the counter that you've posted in your blog,for keeping track of the no of times its been visited.Obviously,the bad thing about counters is that they keep increasing even if you visit your own blog many times.But,even excluding that,I'm glad to see that every time I visit my blog,I find a decent enough increase in it.

Before I bug you people too much,would like to end on a happy note,and here's a message for my readers.."Thanks a lot!You people have given me the zest to let my imagination free and keep on writing.I'll try my best not to disappoing you,but even if you are disappointed,forgive me!"

Hail The Champions.....

September 24,2007,8:45p.m.IST.What a day for Indian Cricket!!!We are the inaugural ICC World Twenty 20 Champions.What adds to the pleasure is that it was a dream final played at the Wanderers,Johannesburg,a thrilling match between India and Pakistan and,like they did ten days ago,India held their nerves again in the final moments to win the trophy.

The match started with a bad news for us,that sehwag wasn't playing due to a thigh straigh suffered during the last match,and,what added to the surprise was that it wasn't Dinesh Karthik who made it into the side,but it was Younus Pathan,who was making his international debut.India won the toss and opted to bat and then came another surprise..Yousuf Pathan was going to open with Gambhir.And,he just showed us why he was chosen, lofting Asif over long on on the 4th ball of the match, his second delivery in international cricket!However,he couldnt carry on and lost his wicket going for another similar shot.Then Uthappa followed him back after a while and India were looking for recovery.It never really came,as the two key batsmen,Yuvraj and Dhoni both departing in a hurry,but Gambhir was holding fort from the other end.India got some sort of momentum in the final overs,thanks to a brilliant 16 ball 30 not out from Rohit Sharma.This is one of the many players who's impressed everyone through the limited opportunities that he's got.I just hope he doesnt get targeted by the internal politics of the team/board and plays for a long,long time for us.However,despite Gambhir's 75,India's total did look about 5-20 runs short.
Pakistan's chase of a target of 158 got of to an undesired start,with R P Singh removing the opener Hafeez off the 3rd ball of the innings.Then came the counter attack from Nazir,in which he carted Sreesanth for 21 runs in the second over of the innings.It was a shift in momentum and he looked to be carrying the match away when R.P. Singh cleaned up Kamran Akmal's off stick in the third over itself.It was followed up by a maiden from Sreesanth,which started to shift the momentum back from Pakistan.However,Imran Nazir was in for something special as he kept carting boundaries.Pakistan's score:53 for 3 in 5.3 overs,with Nazir 33* off 14 balls and hitting everything at will.That was the time when my friend Piyush went out of the t.v. room saying,"let me go and eat something,the match is gone".I didn't stop him,as I wanted to sit in my favourite seat,which was occupied by him till then.And,then Uthappa at mid off produced a moment of magic...securing a direct hit form there to the striker's end to catch the danger man,Nazir,short of his creaes.The momentum was back with India.Pathan snared up Younis Khan shortly and it looked to be all over for pakistan,with their score reading 65 for 4 from 8.3,with Hafeez,Nazir,Akmal and Younis Khan all back in the hut.All eyes were on Shoaib Malik,Afridi and Misbah ul haq to deliver.Shoaib Malik,their captain,was accountd for by Pathan and then,Afridi came.Even though the asking rate was over 9,one knows very well what he can do.He tried for the heroics off the second ball that he faced,a slower one from pathan,which was taken neatly by Sreesanth.Pakistan were well and truly out of the contest at that stage,their score reading 77 for 6 off 11.4.Then Misbah and Arafat seemingly crawled towards the target,scoring at nearly a run a ball,pushing the required rate up all the time.Arafat too departed,the score reading 104 for 7 off 16 overs.But,as has been the norm over the years,Ind v Pak matches always do have this moment of brilliance which swings a match in a particular direction.Misbah,who was now joined by the youngster Sohail Tanvir who was facing his first ball in international cricket,and he smashes it for six!All of a sudden it started raining sixes as now Pakistan needed 28 off 17 balls!Sreesanth acounted for Tanvir.It went down to 20 off 12 and then,R.P. Singh accounted for Umar Gul to leave Pakistan needing 13 off the last over.

Joginder Sharma bowls the first one wide,then Misbah smashes one for a six and Pakistan now need 6 off 4,a perfectly gettable target,but Misbah tried the fancy chip over short fine leg,landing the ball in sreesanth's hands to give India the first ICC World Twenty 20 cup.

This augurs very well for Indian cricket.The first trophy consisting of more than 2 teams since Natwest,2002,and the team which brings it home doesn't consist of Sachin,Sourav,Dravid(the three mainstays of Indian batting) and Zaheer,the best bowler by a distance.This team has won all the matches through team efforts,aided by two mercurial innings from Yuvi.Given the average age of this side is much below 25 and the way the youngsters have been led by Dhoni,the future's really looking bright for us.

Even Shah Rukh Khan was there in South Africa to congratulate the team for their truly amazint performance.Really,a deserved victory for India's young side.Do feel sorry for Pakistan but there can only be one winner.However,they don't have to feel disappointed as they can keep their heads high.
Well done boys,keep it up!!!

Arrogant Aussies sent home... !!!

Its 1:34am of 23rd of September,hardly an ideal time to be writing blogs,but then it was that kind of a day,or rather,night.Well,am referring to the India vs Australia semi final of the inaugural Twenty 20 World cup,which concluded half an hour ago,with India hunting down the kangaroos in a roller coaster of a game.

Sports is a great unifier and its evident when it comes to cricket in India.The match started with somewhat subdued start from Sehwag and Gambhir,the former getting out rather cheaply,folowed by Gambhir and then it was Yuvraj's turn to take centrestage.He carried on from where he left against his six-sixes-in-an-over act against England just three days ago,and changed the entire momentum of the game,aided later by the skipper for the tournament,M.S. Dhoni.
Then started the Aussie chase of 188,and as expected,we didnt get an easy win.They kept coming at us and at the end,it was thanks to an excellent 17th over from Harbhajan followed by two more from R.P. n the villian till then.. Joginder Sharma,with Aus needing 22 off the last over,which he wrapped up giving six runs n bagging two wickets.

This indeed is a very special phase for Indian cricket and as a fan you can't help but ask for more.The final is still to come in 48 hrs time and no one could have written the script better..its India vs Pakistan at Johannesburg!!!
The last three days at Durban have seen India beat England,South Africa and Australia and the rank outsiders Indians have excelled in every department.Durban seems to be a venue where we can just not lose.

Apart from that,there's not much happening in life,except the poor sessionals papers in which I skipped two papers and would get under ten in three of the four papers I wrote.All the friends seem to be too busy with their own lives and that's what I'm trying to do,with a lot of success,I must say.As for the studies,now its the time to alter my lifestyle a bit so as to get more involved with work and keep myself busy.Let's see how much I succeed.
And yes... today I somehow managed to download the song I'd been searching for,"Beautiful Soul" by Jesse McCartney.Not that I'm too much into these foreign singers but then,some songs just take your heart away,and this is one of them..

Sorry South Africa!We love you but we can't let you win...

Well,the title should say it all,regarding what the content of this post is going to be like.Still,if you're looking forward to reading it,let me warn you that this one's going to boast of three things,cricket,CRICKET and ONLY CRICKET...

The past week has been nothing short of amazing for Indian cricket.First,a win against Pakistan,coming back from a nothing situation to squeeze out the match in a bowl out,that was on 14th of Sept.Then, a run feast against England on Wednesday which marked the return of Virender Sehwag...have to applaud the man for the way he came back to answer his critics.
And then,last night,it was the turn of the Proteas to feel the music!It was the most special victory as it came thrugh channels which haven't been the forte of any of the Indian sides till now...Fielding!The openers started decently,fell early and then India were reeling at 31 for 3.In comes the debutant who's been waiting on the frignes for ages-Rohit Sharma and,together with the not so fluent Dhoni,took us to a total of 153,completing his half century in style,hitting a six off the last ball of the innings.I always felt a total above 150 could get tricky for them as was apparent from the bounce of the Durban pitch.That was the reason I overcame Sagar's taunt(kya dekhne jaayega?over me 25-25 runs jaayenge)to catch their reply from the very first ball itself.R P Singh's sensational second over of the innings produced two wickets,the second of them accounting for Greame Smith with an airborne Dinesh Karthick diving full length to his left at second slip to take a blinder.Rohit Sharma produced another sensational run out to put India firmly on the course and later, as it turned out to be,South Africa couldnt even qualify for the semi finals and they deserved it too,given the over confidence their captain exuded before the start of the match..

We've got a bigger hurdle to cross tomorrow,Australia,at Durban itself and India'll need all the departements to click simultaneously,which hasn't been done in this tournament so far..but yesterday's match has given us a million hopes.I'm not counting them out as our batting has been in fine form.Fielding and bowling were problem areas but barring Sreesanth,both the areas came good yesterday.May be tomorrow all the things......
Chak de India!!!

F.R.I.E.N.D.S...... really???

This topic had been lingering for far too long in my mind.I was in a dilemma whether to actually publish this in my blog or not but when someone tells you that,"Jayant,you shouldn't be sharing each and everything about your life with me,it's your life.Live it as you want to."If that wasnt provoking enough,picture this dialogue,delivered a few months ago by the same person,"Jayant,its enough yaar.Now i can't bear it any more.Plz mujhe maaf kar do tum log."

I can't exaggerate how much I cried,what I felt,the desire to live was slowly being overcome by that to...........u can guess.Its not everyday that you feel disappointment,rejection,anger,guilt and countless such not so good emotions simultaneously.Your mind tells you to grow up,to let those people go to hell,not to waste your emotions upon somone who'll not even bother knowing how you are!But still,there's a voice that still urges me to keep faith,to forgive everything,put those things down to badly timed chain of events....probably it's left a scar beyond cure.


During my last semester vacations one of my family memebers told me something that I diamissed as rubbish at that time but now I can't overstate the importance of that sentence.

It was,"Friends are good enough only for college/school time.Once you get into your own lives, these people will not help you out.You have to face this world on their own, without expecting anything from anyone."

It has only been around one and a half months since these words were spoken(and neglected by me) and now I truly realise how true they were.I would rather like to modify it to....the word "Friend" has lost its meaning nowadays.All through my school life and even till now,I believed you make friends to interact,to share your moments,to rejoice in joyous times,to have a shoulder to cry on in not so happy times or simply to roam around,chat senselessly or do whatever that doesnt make you realise how time passes with them.This provoked another thought,"When you start counting the moments you are spending with your so called friends,when you dont know what to speak to them,when you say a "hi" or pass a reluctant smile just for the sake of it,when time just refuses to pass in his/her company and you still call the person a friend,there's something seriously wrong.
Now the word "friend" has become synonymous to parasite.



From some of my experiences over the past six months or so,I've started realising the value that sentence holds in my case.I've been known for getting too much involved in friends,sacrificing everything for them(including my grades) but that never bothered me.All these years of changing schools,cities and colleges,one is bound to have a laaaarge friend circle,so to say.But how many of them will really be there is a question I'm in the best position to answer.Without taking any names,all I can say is that I can count them easily on my fingers..............of one hand!!!


I have a principle about this whole thing:Make a lot of friends,but dont get yourself addicted to anyone as ultimately it'll be me who'll end up as an emotional fool.They tell you to wait for dinner,only to later say that they've had it somewhere.They'll tell you how much they care for you,but the truth is even if I were to die now,it'll take them a few months at least(if not years)to realise.You study with someone for a decade,spending each and ever moment from 8am to 12.40 together and now they'll not have the time to scrap/mail/sms/call you.Not that communication has been an important criteria in my friendship as it is somewhat an expensive business,but the desire should be there to make the most of it when life presents such an opportunity.Never really blamed anyone for this,but when you're shunned constantly,you're bound to consider all the possibilities..their placements,their own friend groups(of which I once used to be a part) and on top of all that,their SELFISHNESS.Frankly its reached a point where the word "hurt" has lost its meaning.Still, I'm grateful that I realised all this soon enough.


Emotions shouldn't have any place in one's life,as they consatnly initiate those clashes between your mind and heart which take up so much of your time and the funny thing is that the person concerned doesn't even realise this!!!

Hellooo...hang one,seems I've just been awoken from a sleep.What am I doing?Since when did I become sensitive to all these things?Who in the world has mattered that much to me that I start cribbing and crying??The answer is: NO ONE.

I might have sounded akin a depressed soul not willing to live any longer.hahaha..I can get overboard with emotions sometimes!
Just wanted to get this mess cleared of my mind before I start studying for my upcoming tests.
However,I'm confident of rising through,as depicted by the bird in the picture."How long" is probably a question no one can answer,maybe a lifetime would be enough!

Don't dare try pulling cricket down in India...!!!

Mr. Shimit Amin(the director of chak-de-India),Sania Mirza,Leander Paes,Narain Karthikayen,Mahesh Bhupathi the Indian football and hockey teams(men's of coruse!)I've got some BAD news for all of you and many others whom I've not mentioned here.

YOU CANNOT MATCH THE PUBLICITY AND ATTENTION OUR DEAR CRICKETERS GET.

It's simple as that.No matter how much we criticise them for failing to get past Bangladesh in the World Cup,how much we curse them for concentrating more upon shooting ads rather than on their game,however much we hate every batsman(and bowler) for not scoring a hundred(taking 5 wickets) in each innings,the fact remains that we follow every move of our cricketers,that's why we find so many points for/against them.

Today was that kind of day when you couldnt have written the script better for a cricket match involving India.Settings of The Oval,Indian bowlers drawing first blood by knocking back their top order for nothing,then the recovery,a few run outs and a late cameo by Mascarenhas which saw Yuvi carted for five consecutive sixes off the last five balls of the England innings....
....and then the counter attack by the tried and tested(and also criticised) duo of Sachin and Sourav,both falling in quick succession,then the departure of Dravid and Yuvraj(who took with them our hopes of winning),the cameo by Uthappa and INDIA winning a close match!!!

You'll never realise the emotions attached with this until you've been a part of the celebrations in our hostel t.v. rooms,on the streets,on the famous "chaiwallah's shops" and countless such places.The most introverts of audience were dancing and swirling their shirts above their heads,people hugging each other,Rahul Dravid,the perfect gentleman,pumping up his fists and jumping up and down like a 20-yr old,Yuvraj singh running onto the field and hugging Uthappa for so long that it might have given dirty minds so much "other things" to think...........these scenes underline what cricket means to us.It's religion and it'll always be.
Our heart still misses a beat when an appeal goes up against Sachin......
We still engage in debates regarding where the Indian captain went wrong tactically..
We still turn up the second last pages of newspapers before going through the details of the first page...
We become more nervous than Sachin himself in the nervous ninties...
..
..
..
.. and we'll continue to be like that.Some things will just never change.
Once again..sorry to the people mentioned in the first paragraph.period.

That Kind of Day for India...!!!

As usual,I've delayed this post but for a change, this time the delay is only for a day.However, this doesnt de-mean the importance of the day for my country.Yesterday was a great day for India.Most of the people's thoughts would be inclined towards the brilliant performance of our cricketers in yesterday's match but hang on, I'm pointing at an event which holds far greater importance than Sourav Ganguly winning the man of the match award to keep India alive in the 7 match Natwest one day series against England.

India launched Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle(GSLV-F04) into space yesterday, from Sriharikota, 100 km from Chennai. Seventeen minutes after its launch, it placed successfully INSAT4CR into orbit and just imagine, it had covered a distance of about 5000 kms in that time!!!
Given the weight of the vehicle was more than 2100 kgs, it would have been quite a task providing it a thrust so that it attains a velcity of 10.2 km per second.
One feels good for the scientists of ISRO, given that their last attempt, on July 10, 2006 failed miserably seconds after the lift off and the vehicle had to be plunged into the Indian Ocean just 56 seconds after its propulsion.
Just to give you an idea of how mammoth this entire task would have been,here's an image of the vehicle, straight from ISRO's site.

ISRO's next challenge is a mission to moon planned in March next year( I'm sure not too many Indians know about it now,sadly) and it's eagerly awaited.

Anyways, the day was made further special by by a senior of mine,who kept her promise of treating me, which was made online some months back.Considering I'd never met her personally till yesterday's treat, it was quite a surprise to find the seriousness with which she kept her words.The details of the meeting/person would be better kept with me so...that's about it.

Today was a gloomy day, in total contrast to yesterday.Bunked all the four first half classes and then the second half got cancelled, giving me more time to kill, starve, chat and yes,am glad to add, study!!!

Sometimes things just dont work out!!!

So, half the engineering is complete!!!


Never realised that until I returned to college and was being referred to as a "third year student".
Its already the fourth running week of my 5th semester so am somewhat late in publishing this post, but oops..to whom am I offering excuses?(I wonder how many people take the pain of reading blogs but still, am writing for myself, after all, so doesnt matter)
Coming back, a few interesting things have already happened in the brief time that's gone by this sem, with their share of twists and turns...

Planned a trip to St. Mary's Island on 15th Aug(not that I was dying to go there, but am actually sick of making awkward faces when a batchmate asks,"Gee...!!! Not been there even once till now?.. huh.. i think.. as if it was a promotion criteria to third yr...), which eventually turned out to be the seemingly worst time to go there, as the ferry service to the island from Malpe beach is out of service during these monsoon months.
Still, had some sort of enjoyment at Malpe beach itself and I could make out from everyone's face that however hard we tried to enjoy, it just wouldnt work out.Still, after fooling around in water for a while and doing our familiar "chick-surfing" act around the beach(which wasn't too fruitful either), we put an end to the thoughtless splashing in water.... but hey, just recalled, seeing our very own Tiwari trying to learn swimming in water still inspires a dose of laughter....

Anyways, we didnt give up and geared up for yet another "outing" on the saturday that followed, this time it was APS's idea, to watch "chak de india", which he claimed was running at the nearby theatre in Udupi.The same set of people ventured out, followed by a chain of unexpected events..... APS and Omveer missing out on the stop where we were to get off the bus, me, Sagar n Tiwari going to the theatre to find out that some kannada movie was running, our trip to big bazar, getting bored, coming back... to end another day on which things went awfully wrong.

Took a break on the next day, i.e. Sunday but couldn't resist planning a trip to Mangalore the next sunday,4 days ago...for the customary ritual of paying at least one-visit-a -sem to adlabs for the Holy purpose of watching "Chak de..." n yes, this time it was surely running there.With the usual information-gathering on the net, we called up, only to know that 4pm show was sold out and we'll have to plan for the next show 7pm..Sagar took the initiative of calling up that place, booked 4 tickets and then, he wasn't sure of the price(whether it was 70 or 170!!!).
And, to make matters worse, he didnt clarify it over the phone, but broadcast his doubts to us later.
"Oh God.... not another mess up...."--I thought.

Eventually we went there, had our share of fun, watched a good movie after a long time and then took a bus at around 1045pm to Udupi.Things were going fine, got an auto from Udupi to our college and then, just as I was beginning to thank rain gods for showing the mercy of not pouring down heavily upon our 4 umbrella-less selfs, something truly bizzare happened..
We reached the K.C. entrance of our college at 00:05 hrs and the guard refused to let our auto in, stating "the rule" which said no vehicles allowed inside the campus after midnight. After wasting our time in arguing with him, we came out of the auto and then it happened!!!
It began pouring down and we were left with no choice but to wait...
Now I'm a firm believer of the rule,"chances of rain depreciate exponentially with the event of a person carrying an umbrella....and whats worse...the converse of this statement is true!!!"

Attended a seminar a while back by Dr. Raj Rodriguez and he quoted Paulo Coelho's quote," When you dream about something,the entire Universe conspires to get you there".Applying that to my situation, I wonder if the negative of that sentence works out better for me....

That's all for now,as i've got some LAB WORK to do for tomorrow(notice the capital letters if you havent already)

It was inevitable,but.............

A person like me doesnt update his blog when everything's going fine in life. My posts carry a reflection of joy,anger,pain,relief,guilt,frustration,etc...something which makes my day memorable and which has got some memories, happy or sad...whether one can extract out tht emotion or not is not my headache...

Its 2a.m on 17th may,and i should hv been enjoying the success of my third sessionals by now,but dont feel like doing it.The reason is simple... i was supposed to be sitting and writin my third sessional DEC paper 17 hrs ago,i.e. from 9.15am but I was trying to get over the guilt of having to skip it inspite of having scored 13 and 10 in my previous two tests.... not good enough by any standards.I can always shield this with the excuse of not feeling well for the past week,but then, have always believed that it shouldnt have got to this point in the first place...

You dont need to be a rocket scientist to make out that my life at MIT has been a complete "academic catastrophe" and I've been a lean shadow of what I used to be in yesteryears.Anyways,that's another story....

The day started with relief and tension......of David not having to face the Goliath(DEC) and the Herculian task that lies ahead of me.Being an optimist like me does help in these situations but when you put ur head down and think,one realised that Davids dont slay Goliaths everyday, and I guess i've already had my share of Goliath-hunting.The decision to skip the paper wasnt a tough one,given the hours....err... minutes of effort I'd put in preparing for it and was massively helped by my roomie's suggestion.
Finally,the clock struck 2.45 and I got past my 3rd sessionals!!!Just the end sem exams and then home,sweet home...
As always,the day ends now with an expectant tomorrow,the hope of realising my dreams,the agony of my past deeds, the promise of setting up realistic,optimistic goals and.......the confidence to fulfil it

When will this monotony end???

Another day is passing by,another plan is ruined,another hope dies...
Its been a while since my last post but thankfully i am back here.
Anyways,the way i've started here shouldnt suprise many if you know me.For those who dont,heres what it means.
If you've been through a journey of life such as mine,then you would identify with those lines easily.From being a brilliant student to an average one to being a below average one,i've defined new levels of mediocrity in recent times when it comes to my academics.And believe me,its not funny when you think of the difference between what I could have easily been and what I am.Every new day starts with a new plan,and the confidence to execute it.And every day finishes with the guilt of wasting one more day,one more opportunity,one more platform to gain something,yes...thats how I see each day and will continue to do so.

Uncountable hours of soul searching,innumerable amount of planning and Herculean confidence ultimately amount to nothing if you are not ready to get your head down and work towards achieving the goal.Its about time I realised this now..
Meanwhile,a lot of things have been happening around me(given the college I'm in,you should be really surprised if something or the other DOESNT happen periodically).Our university fest,Revels'07 concluded yesterday and we've got a holiday today,as has been the culture here.In the last week,I've hardly done anything of note,apart from missing out on the web designing team meeting,losing in our inter branch cricket match and then again in the famous "pitch fever",which is an exciting way of playing cricket on basketball court with indoor rules.

But then,life goes on,it has to!!!If everything in life went the way you plan it,Life would lose its excitement,but there HAS to be a limit to it,i.e. If nothing in life goes the way you plan it,somthing is seriously wrong and the sooner you start searching for the cause,the better.
Anyways,giving up is somthing I've never learnt,so tomorrow will be another day,another dawn,another plan and another hope....

Trip to Varahi Hydel Power Plant:Education and Fun together

Today was a special day,most of which was consumed by my first visit to an electrical power plant,and what made the experience doubly exciting was that it has been construcated underground,which added to the thrill..
The day began at 8am,at KC,from where we were to leave.It was a pleasant surprise to see the bus finally leaving at 8.20,contrary to the tradation in our country(punctuality is something I really appreciate).But then,if everything goes according to your wish,life would lose its charm,won't it??
Anyways,a few technical glitches kept us in manipal till 9.15 or so and we finally reached the 60-somthing km distant power plant at 10.45.20 mins(and the usual security instructions regarding leaving cellphones outside,etc) later,we found ourselves standing at the main entrance,a 500 m long tunnel staring at our face,with the lights dim enough to frighten you for a moment.Now was the time when the real trip began,and excitement had reached its peak!!!

We were welcomed at the reception desk by more than helpful staff,who were happy to guide us through the map that was drawn,presenting an overview of the location of the dam,the station and the race line(from which the used water is ejected back to the river).

As it was an industrial visit,its account would be meaningless without the technical details,so here they are:The Varahi Power Plant contains two units,each producing 115MW of electricity,with the turbine speed of 250 rpm.That tells you that it produces 230MW of electricity,which is supplied to the mangalore-varahi and shimoga-varahi power stations,from where it is sold.If tht doesnt sound interesting enough,read this..The estimated cost of a hydel power plant production is around 4-5 crores per MW.Add to it the fact tht its an underground power station,and the cost would be of the order of Rs. 1000 crore!!!

The entire set up is mounted vertically,with the alternator at the top and the turbine at the bottom,the total height of each plant easily exceeding that of a 4-storeyed building.We were fortunate enough to have access to all the areas of the plant,barring a couple of chambers,which contained open lines carrying voltages of over 400V. The turbines were powered by six nozzles,used to control the flow of water depending upon the required speed desired.The power plant has achieved a power factor in excess of 0.9,which is excellent,by all standards...

If you still havent had enough of technicalities,you SERIOUSLY are reading the wrong author.
Now comes the all important part of the trip..the food..and the big question,"The trip cost each of us Rs 50 but the college authoriteis didnt charge anything for transport,so was the food worth it?"
The answer,in my opinion,would be a big YES.I didnt expect ourselves sitting in the midst of a rocky stream,feet under water,sitting on a rock and enjoying as good a food as you get anywhere else,supplemented surprisingly by cold water and LIME(I realised today itself what an amazing energy drink it can be).We had fun cheating the HoD with a few tricks that we students are so proud of owning,interacting with seniors,volunteering for helping out as and where required,etc etc..
Finally we left the river at 2.30pm,stuffed waist to neck with food and fluid,ready to embark on another one and a half hr adventure amidst the curly,mountain roads back to our college..but wait..there was another surprise awaiting us...
The return trip was more fun than the morning one and it was helped by the dozen-odd bananas I had(our HoD is a great man indeed!!!) and the odd ice cream...
All in all,an amazing trip,just the right mix of food,fun and learning.Those who missed out for whatever reasons were really unfortunate.

That was not all the fun I had in the day.All the tired muscles were relaxed by a two hr sleep and refreshed by dinner,from where we straightaway went to the all time favourite sport of ours,night cricket at basketball court,where we won a close game.

This rounds off a perfect day,but would have loved to add at least an hr and a half of studies to that...
anyways,its already 1.02am on the 17th of april and I expect myself to be in class seven hours later,so have to stop here...