A night to remember

(The following, though a draft of mine, was checked and formatted by a few more individuals. Since I am very sure of forgetting a name or two of the list, so won't actually reveal my editing team)


I gazed down the hall. She was standing there, shimmering in the sleeveless white outfit and pearl necklace. Her hair was done as mop over her head, strands falling loose over her shoulder. The light seemed to form a halo around her giving her a magical aura of a princess from a distant kingdom. She had air of perfection around her like a piece of art, a da Vinci, a Monet. I realized I stood there gaping at her, awestruck and speechless by her beauty!

She was talking to her friend. Then, without any indication, she turned her face towards me and looked straight into my eye. She smiled; I reciprocated instantly with a half embarrassed and half disbelieving smile and tried my best to look away. I was clearly getting infatuated by her. I looked away slightly embarrassed. How could I behave like this! I am a married man. It doesn’t suit me, at least not tonight, I thought.

My head was getting muddled, thoughts were uncontrollably streaming in and there was little I could do but resign to them with a helpless sigh. If I floated around in this blissful oblivion shunning away from my duties, what would the guests say? After all, all these people have gathered here on my invite. I was the one who was supposed to see that everything goes well. So I took a deep breath and start to walk upto Mr. Mehta for a courtesy chat. I slowly moved from one guests to another exchanging polite nothings. The task was mundane but simple. The conversation did not matter as long as the glasses were filled and they kept me distracted from her thoughts.

But tonight, something was not right. The conversations were more mechanical than usual. All my focus was centred on one face or rather at avoiding that one face. I meticulously walked around her lest I betrayed an emotion, a scary thought after I gaped at her as if hypnotized just a few minutes back. I was taking this to ridiculous proportions as I now stood staring at the shoes daring to raise my eyes maximum to the level of the dishes on the table but not an inch more! Calm Down! Breathe! I told myself almost loudly. Never before did I felt this way since I was 17 and was out on my first date!

And then it happened. I was in a conversation with Mrs. Roderick and did not see her approach till I felt an electric current pass through my spine, goose bumps spread over my arm as I realized her hand brushed against mine. I must have been blushing beetroot red as I turned to see her smiling while walking past me. Suddenly, I had this intense urge to grab her by her waist and disappear in a magical moment. I wanted to be by her side and the rest of the world could well burst into flames for all that I cared at the moment was to be with her. I wanted to touch her, feel her, kiss her and never let her go. The day dream was so vivid that my stomach hurt as I pulled myself away from the thoughts. The wedding ring was hurting around my finger as it literally leashed me back to the social norms.

As the evening turned into night, the gathering started thinning slowly as guests began to go home. I saw them off in person as even the smallest assurance from them of their enjoyment unburdened some of my guilt. And they did. They thanked me for a wonderful evening and wished me luck for the future. After exchange of a few more meaningless courtesies and farewells, I walked out onto the balcony. There were a few more guests, who were a closer circle, but tonight I did not care and anyways, they were being attended to. So without any much worry, I turned and looked into the night. My mind was all blank. Slowly, it started again. She and her thoughts were there again. As I relaxed, I went over her thoughts, wondering what was so special about her that I wanted her so much. The answer was simple enough - Everything.

A Ronan Keating song started playing on to the music player and I closed my eyes, thoughts running deeper (I secretly cursed the person who played it as the song made my longing unbearable). As the last notes hummed, I turned around to see the culprit was. As I turned, I saw her waltzing down the hall towards me. My heart skipped a beat. Could this be it? I waited as I almost forgot to breath. I don’t know how long I stood like that, it felt like an eternity as she slowly glided closer to me. Just when I thought I could reach out to her she turned towards the dark night, staring over the horizon, with her long fingers gently curled around the railings. She looked like a dream.

After a moment, she was looking at me with that twinkle in those pair of eyes, as they fluttered teasing me to say something. I couldn’t think of anything and couldn’t meet those eyes, so I turned around looking into the same direction as she was, just standing besides her and enjoying her presence in blissful silence.

“How are you feeling?”, she asked in a casual tone. “A bit tired, but that’s fine”, I answered trying to sound as normal as possible, trying desperately to hide the shortness in my breath with sips of water from the glass I clutched.

I put the glass down and before I could think or stop myself, I blurted out “Shall we dance?”, and before I realized she said “Sure”. Had I planned it I would have been a nervous wreck. But things were going on an autopilot like a divine script controlled by destiny. Que Sera Sera I thought as I took her hand and stepped into the hall. There were a few couples who were dancing on a slow track. All eyes turned towards us, but it didn’t matter anymore. I put my hand around her waist, the song changed to an Eric Clapton number – Wonderful Tonight. Perfect! I thought as a slight smile escaped my lips. As we started moving to the rhythm, she looked up and slowly said in her musical voice “It was a wonderful evening. Thank you for such a good time”. I smiled.

“Happy marriage anniversary, Mr. Mukherji”, she continued. ”Same to you, Mrs. Mukherji”, I said, kissing her on the forehead, as she rested her head onto my shoulder.

Faking it – acquaintance with gossips and controversies

Imagine, you are reading something quite interesting, when you hear a low murmuring somewhere near. Normally, you won’t pay any heed to such mono-syllabic sounds, but when it starts appearing in an intermittent fashion, often lined with a full sentence in between, what do you do in that case? You keep aside that that interesting piece which has been in your hand all this while, and try to tune your ear to the lower frequencies of human hearing so that you can actually hear what is being said. Suddenly you hear words which are too cheesy and mushy (though my friends may be at different opinions with this) and you suddenly you realize that you have a gossip here… (Okay gossips are for the fairer sex….)…or may be a possible relationship to talk and ponder over… Yes, a relationship. For the better or worse, that depends on what kind of relationship. (If you are still thinking what kind of murmur, you can ask any of your friends who has spent a quality time of his life in hostels and is acquainted with those poor souls waiting in anticipation for the night to end to meet some special people next day and meanwhile murmuring in mono-syllabic tones into one of the finest inventions of all-time-a cell phone)

Okay, you might say, how does this relate to the title, and I would say it does when the person in consideration (the above said murmur may or may not be an inspiration for this post, I can write a disclaimer if you want), though it can be seen in full light, fakes it saying what murmur is being talked about. See, (s)he is obviously Faking It. Now the question is why that person is faking or rather trying to brush aside the issue. There might be a great many reasons for this. May be there is actually nothing in that murmur to talk about or may be that person does not actually let the people know about this. Whatever might be the reason, it surely will keep your mind occupied, and racing to distant thoughts. You might even get into your Sherlock Holmes instinct search for clues in the daily behavior of the person in consideration, which might irritate him/her and he/she might resort to desperate measures (common tactics include maintaining distance with people while on a call, or not taking the call immediately but calling up later when no one’s around).

Here some might argue that every person should have his/her privacy and others should respect that. I agree and I do respect that thought. But my point is, if it’s really a relationship they want to go ahead with or if they are not too comfortable with the relation, they should let others know too before the news comes out in some other way. I know you might be thinking what if there is actually nothing to tell. Then why this secrecy? What is the reason to be all hushed up?

Many a times it happens that, initially after faking for quite sometime, the truth comes out as expected but in a different situation. Particularly, at a time, which we say, is “not a good time”. These untimely revelations may cause a lot of friction between people with healthy relations. Again, people might argue that when a person does want to discuss it, it’s his/her wish. Also, when they seem its time, they would definitely reveal it to the world. I again agree to that. But isn’t it moral enough to let know about yourself who actually care about you and not to people who show on your face that they care but mock at you when your back is turned? Isn’t it moral enough to let people know so that they could help in case you may need any? Why do they have to fake it all the time like those celebrities,”No comments please”, “Oh it’s nothing like that”, “No No, we are just good friends”, etc. It always helps to SHARE your thoughts or perspectives. You may gain something out of it, may be learn from others’ experiences. It’s not good to let people make a controversy out of such things.

This post might seem a little obscure and boring, but what I want to say is that it’s never good to hide these things from people who have faith in you, care for you and think you as a part of their own self. My personal experience says that it is never advisable to hide even the tiniest part of information or piece of news from your near ones, especially those who are related or can be affected by that. Never helps in strengthening bonds of friendship and kinship. Announcing it at a later stage may also be like adding fuel to fire, making that person believe that he/she is no longer into your circle of trust even when there has been no wrongdoing on their part. And this goes for not only announcing relationships, but in matters or activities which everyone close or living with you should be aware of, however trivial they might be. It builds Trust- an utmost essential thing required in any relationship.

My advice- never hide news or info from your friends, family, beloved ones. It hurts.

Time, Mishaps & Ano-moolies

Sigh, long time since updated my blog. Reasons? Not many, some rather personal stuff to take care of, but nevertheless very important stuff, they could not be ignored. Anyways, enough with why I didn’t write anything earlier. Since it’s a new year, so let’s reminisces on what all happened in between.

A major event was my trip to God’s Own Country, the beautiful state of Kerala. Made that trip with parents, of course. (I am considered a big bore or sometimes snotty, sometimes a snob, other times some other adjective, to go on a trip…so people avoid me, anyways...). Visited a few places like Cochin, Munnar, Thekkady, Kumarakom, Alleppey, Thiruvananthpuram-Kovalam. The trip was via Chennai, so had a chance to go to Marina Beach too. Since I hv forgotten most of what I did in that trip, so writing a travelogue won’t be possible. But I do hv some pics to show…on picasa...

http://picasaweb.google.com/prateek2712/Kerala09GodSOwnCountry#

Right. Apart from this, there was again my failed attempt to get through any MBA exam, though my peers in other fields are excelling, which is actually creating a situation which throws only one question everyday at me, “Do u want really to move ahead or not?” I mean, Ya I want to but I don’t hv any idea how. Anyways, this fight between my concerned mind and my confused mind would go on for some time(maybe some years, and we can name that period as Some Years War, or Battle of Minds, or something to put it in history books and increase the syllabus for school children…..)

Also, we (as in my friends and me) had some light and some dark moments at this time…of which I remember nothing……had some eat-outs….Dipak’s bday….3 major festivals(my apologies if I miss any)….

Worth remembering thing is that our small company got a major job project to do for the Oil Sector biggie. Imagine a work force of mere 100 people to work on a project which requires 5-6 times the strength. Is this another “300” in making? But we will have to change the name….

Another thing worth remembering is my purchase of Nokia E72, the latest QWERTY from the Finnish company. Till now I hvnt explored my new possession completely…but with time, I will master it….

Hey, did I tell u guys, that I even got a DELL laptop with mobile broadband internet connection? Doesn’t matter.

One thing that happened, which I will never forget…the 31st night….a tragedy that actually made me think that life is too fragile and too unpredictable…..
Other trivial things during this time were some marriages, some nice movie releases like AVATAR 3D, 3 IDIOTS, KAMINEY and so on.., my Bday (Ya, a very trivial thing...for actually most of them…)….apart from other things…..

You must be wondering about the title….(those who know me are actually not wondering about it…because they know only I can come up with such stupid title, anyways)…..I did describe what all took place in the period between my last blog and this one….so that comes under TIME……some mishappenings like the 31st Dec night one….comes under MISHAPS….but what the hell is ANO-MOOLIES…..? Yesterday, when there was nothing to do, I visited my blogs of my friends….which inspired my to visit mine too. Since, blog sites are blocked in our office, so had to use a proxy server…( No, I wont eveal the proxy name; won’t want either u or me to get into trouble)…..Since it had been 6 months since my last post, so the total hitcounts at that time was 500+. But the proxy server showed a staggering 1 Miliion+, with daily visits of 500+. Now that was something which made me jump with joy and spill half of my coffee on the table….but then again, I thought, It can’t be…I have total faith in my writing…and so many people wouldn’t hv visited…so I asked my friends to check it out, which confirmed that I cannot be more popular than already what I am. So that anomaly on the tech part stunk like Mooli ke Paranthe (Mooli-a seasonal vegetable from India, available mainly in winters. In English we commonly know it as Raddish. Paranthas are Indian oil baked pancakes, eaten with different types of vegetables, assorted curry preparations and stuffings.)

So that sums up the title of the day……more updates to this blog are suppose to follow….I mean…I wud try to update more frequently…..which anyways doesn’t matter….whose gonna read them anyways? Ha ha….

Ciao…..

हिन्दी दिवस के उपलक्ष्य पे....

India हमारी country है,
और हम है India के citizen,
इसलिए हिन्दी बोलना हमारी duty है,
पर आज की new generation,
whatever मु खोलती है,
जब भी बोलती है english ही बोलती है,
हमें हमारी हिन्दी भाषा को ऊपर लाना है,
world wide फेलाना है,
तभी मेरे सपने होंगे सच,
thank you very much.

Being Naked

Coming home after being out in the sweltering heat for nearly 10 hrs, it feels quite good to sit under the fan and drink chilled water. But it feels even better when you start taking off your clothes wet with your sweat. At that point of time, you hate your own smell; the smell similar to that of a stinking pig. Your perfume of 2 grand also seems to have failed in keeping out the stink out of your body. You walk into the bathroom, remove whatever piece of clothing is left on your body, open the shower and walk under it. Aah! So appeasing. You reamin there for quite sometime, with your eyes closed, losing the track of time. You don’t even wipe the water off your body. You let it stay there, to give tha heavenly feeling. You come out with only a towel on (read:half-naked). The cold breeze through the living room window gives you goosebumps. You stand there, try tocatch more of it. Its an experience which you cannot describe. You need to feel it. A very naughty thought crosses your mind. What if you could roam around naked, free from the prying eyes of the world? Remember the time when you were born? I know no one does. But still, you can imagine how it would have felt. It feels so nice when, on a hot night, you switch on the desert cooler/AC and sleep only in your bare essentials. It feels so good to be naked, isn’t it?

The same is true with truth. A “naked” truth is sometimes far better than giving someone or having false hopes. This truth may hurt someone so badly that it may affect your relation with him/her. And sometimes, some truths may have such a scintillating effect on that person that he/she, as a person, may change completely. This change may be for good or bad or it may be as you wanted it to be but nevertheless, the change is so drastic that you may have a hard time getting accustomed to the new person, though it may have reduced your efforts to have your way with him/her.

Sometimes it becomes hard to accept the fact that truth can be so bitter. Why does it become so hard to accept the fact that a truth can be so true, so harsh that it may entirely change your life and your perception towards it? Like it can take your life on a totally different path. Then again, why does it happen that some people can’t accept the facts or they don’t want to accept them? They don’t want to see the world as it is. They put a blindfold on their eyes so that they cannot see the reality what others are already seeing. I do agree there are a few things which you should not accept as they are or there are some situations/truths which should not be disclosed lest you want to create confusion. But sometime in the future you will have to face the facts. You just can’t sit there in your make-believe world and hide away from reality. Facts can be disturbing but they can be more disturbing if you don’t disclose them or face them at the moment it is in front of us. In my opinion there is no such thing as the right moment/time. Every moment is a right moment. It is said that if God gives you all the worries in the world, He also gives you the courage or strength to face and fight them. The earlier you disclose the truth or face the facts, the better it would be. Initially it may sting like a bee, but when the fact would sink in, it would be a very sweet experience, though not so fast but eventually it would, when you look walk down your past memory lane. Like it happens when you are naked; initially it feels cold when you are wet and the cold wind blows. But after sometime, it feels so comforting and soothing.

On the same lines, it is very important to know what people think of you or letting others know what you think about them. It is of no use keeping everything under covers or avoiding and ignoring facts because momentary ignorance may give you bliss but would hamper your relations with others in the long run. Until and unless you face the music, how will know where you stand? If you are brave enough to take a step with dire consequences, then you should be equally brave to face the truth or result. But you know what it all comes down to trust or faith. You need to have faith in the result. You need to keep faith that whatever the truth may be, it will be for your own good. It would never happen that some truth may be so hurting in nature that it can never be for your good. If someone is going away from you or you are going to lose out in some race, never think that you would never gain anything from out of it or you don’t have a chance for better than the current position. You will be done justice but eventually. It may take sometime but again, you have to keep faith in time. Faith in yourself, in others and in your destiny written by the highest power above us. A faith so strong yet so simple like the one we have in the cold breeze which you trust would relieve off the heat.

Amritsar-Vaishno Devi--DAY 3 and DAY 4

SATURDAY, 04-04-09 and SUNDAY, 05-04-09

"Impossible!!! How can be their seat numbers same as ours? Check their journey date", replied an agitated Sandy. True he was. The people who were thinking berth nos. 1,2 and 3 as theirs, didn't notice that theirs were a previous day's ticket. Happened due to confusion of departure time. After the T.T. cleared their doubts, another family took their seats in front of ours. Chalo, problem solved. Now sleeping time. But no. God did not allow me and Dipak to sleep. The family in front of us were constantly chatting at high pitched voices the whole night. Great! What a way to start the journey! Anyways. At around 4:00 in the morning did we get some sleep. The train reached Jammu Tawi station at around 7:00 AM. The station had not changed in terms of cleanliness. We came out of the station and got into line to book bus tickets to Katra. Sandy suggested that I look for private buses too. They would hardly charge 10 to 20 bucks extra. Right he was. We got into a private bus at Rs.60 each. But we did not get any seats to sit. Instead, we were asked to sit on upturned coke crates, with cushion on top as the consolation. This way we started our 2 hr journey to Katra.

In between, when the conductor was collecting the money for the ticket, a few people fought with him regarding miscommunication with ticket fares. As a result around 10 people got down. So we got lucky and took the vacant seats. But eventually, after 5 mins they returned as a result of settlement between them and the conductor. As soon as they arrived, they started demanding their seats back. I had an 1/2 hr long verbal fight with 3 of them which resulted in my partial-victory. Why partial? Bcoz, as soon as I stepped down the bus, when it took a break from the journey, my seat was taken by one of the idiots. I thought what kind of shit head people you have to come across. Anyways, we reached Katra by noon. There, though my eyes were searching a hotel, a guy was pestering us to go to his Dharamshala and I had listen to him unwillingly. Sandy asked him about the fare. He said no charge. Sandy asked him to show the rooms. We followed him to a narrow lane, and when we reached the Dharamshala, the truth came forward. We would only freshen up before the ascend to the temple. Before leaving, we need to keep our luggage in their cloak room and have to surrender the room. Though they were not charging for the room, we will have to buy the Prasad from their stall. And if we wanted to keep the room booked, we would need to pay 300 bucks for a night. So this was the case.

After freshening up and reluctantly buying prasad from the dharmashala, we had our brunch in a nearby cafe. After that, when Sandy had gone to get passes for entrance, me and Dipak were discussing about returning in Helicopter. But since we didn't have that much of money, so we scraped off the idea. After some more purchases, we finally started our ascend. Though Sandy showed a lot of enthusiasm at start, eventually he had mellowed down and we took a lot of stoppages in between. During those periods, we bought water ad eatables, munching on each and everything we found on our way. Since the whole ascend was of 14 kms and technically it should take us 5 hrs to reach the top, we had taken 7 hrs bcoz of our long stoppages and also bcoz we were not in a hurry to reach there. Interesting things that happened in between -

• Munched a lot of things
• Drank around 3 ltrs of water and 1 ltrs of soft-drinks each
• Took a lot of snaps
• Came across a very nice girl whom we named a Miss Cyber-Shot, bcoz she had one. I think she was from Delhi. Should have taken a snap of hers too.
• A monkey attacked Dipak's Prasad packet. Took away some of it. Dipak consoled himself saying "Hanumaan Ji le gaye. Accha hai"
• Ate the worst jalebis you can ever get.
• Met Miss Cyber-Shot a lot of times. SHIT! Got infatuated with her
• Met a person walking all the way from Haridwar to Vaishno Devi.

After we reached Bhawan(the entrance to Vaishno Devi), saw huge rush. Though people were being given batch numbers for darshan, it didn't matter how you went inside. We could not take anything, apart from prasad, inside. So had to get into line for lockers. But the person at the counter said, unless others who have already taken lockers, return from darshan and return the key, we could not get any. So I asked Sandy to search other places for lockers while I waited in this line. Luckily he got one and we went to keep our belongings in that locker. Before moving for darshan, we had our dinner, which was quite tasty. But now came the most difficult part-the darshan. though our line moved very swiftly, we were literally pushed inside the temple, so Dipak and I could not have a glimpse of the deity. Anyways, we roamed around the premises, though we were not satisfied with our darshan. After taking our belongings, and a cup of coffee, we moved on the trail to Bhairon Baba Temple. Sandy and Dipak took the roads, while I took the stairs. I felt disgusted seeing the half-breed ponies shitting all around the place(those who do not know, ponies are used in the whole area to carry old and tired people while ascending and descending). After Bhairon Baba's darshan and some nice snaps, we started our descend through some dim-lit trails. In between, we made a few stoppages for ice-creams and coffee, that too around 2:00 in the morning.

After we descended, we hurried to get our luggage from the dharamshala cloak room, and I became desperate to find a hotel bcoz it was already 6:00 in the morning, and I was feeling so sleepy that it was difficult to keep my eyes open. We again went on our negotiation skills, and took a room at Rs.600 in a pretty decent hotel. We were supposed to check out at 2:00 PM(instead of normal check out time of 12 PM which we got changed as a request). But we got up late and hence and checked out a little later than 2 PM. After checking out, we again had our brunch and finally looked for a cab to Jammu city. Here, too, we had an altercation with a family, who finally decided not to travel with us. While returning to Jammu City, we caught a glimpse of a scene of accident, where a bike was lying on the road, with 2 smashed helmets, one bag and a shoe but no blood. GOSH!

We returned to Jammu bus stand at around 4:30 in the evening, from where we took an auto to the railway station. There, we spent a long time watching the crowd come and go. We saw a lot of jawans in Jammu Tawi station, as a part of beefed up security. Our train was at 8 in the evening, so we had our dinner quite early just outside the station. After getting our luggage checked through the new X-ray machines installed in the station, we reached the designated platform waiting for the train. It was a nice train, the newer ones where you have three berths on the aisle side too. We chatted for a while in the train while it was moving towards New Delhi. Eventually everyone went into deep state of slumber, before our eyes opened to the sights of New Delhi station the next morning.

Amritsar-Vaishno Devi--DAY 2

FRIDAY, 03-04-09

After getting up from not-so-good sleep, 'coz someone was snoring horribly, we went to Golden Temple for a dip in the holy tank. After the dip, which was fun, came back to hotel, freshened up, and headed to Jallianwala Bagh after checking out from the hotel. There, we saw the Amar Jyoti, the Memorial, bullet marks, Martyr's Well and the museum. We had a small discussion relating to the official and unofficial counts of bodies and rounds fired. After visiting the whole Jallianwala Bagh, a thought came to my mind that, how could Britain, one of the most civilised countries of those times, honour General Dyer with the title of Sir, after such a heinous act?

After having a brunch of Dosas, we again went inside Golden Temple, this time for darshan. After getting in the main building, in my mind, I went back to those days when I used to stay in Mumbai and visited Haji Ali whenever some relatives came over. After the darshan, we visited the Central Sikh Museum, where we came to know a bit about Sikh history. Then, we bought souvenirs and "kadas" for ourselves. "Punjab aake Lassi nahi piyenge, aisa kabhi ho sakta hai?", said Sandy. SO all 3 of us had a glass full of Malaiwala Lassi. We were then looking for a taxi to Wagah Border. After negotiations with a few of them, we finally fixed a private car at Rs.350. But when we were being led to the taxi, a foreigner was walking along with us. It was quite surprising when that driver told us she would sharing our cab. We tried to reason out the deal we had made with the driver, but he said he was helpless as she had been pestering him along with her 'hotel wala' to take her too. So we were 3 helpless dumb people, who couldn't even think what to do. Anyways we travel in a Maruti 800 to Wagah, in between passing the famous Khalsa College, where SRK-starrer Rab Ne Banadi Jodi was filmed, and OCM Mills. When we reached within 1/2 km of Wagah Border, we were asked by the driver to leave our bags inside the car itself. "How can I leave my passport and Visa in the car?", asked the lady. But she was not allowed to take the bag inside. So she had to carry her passport and Visa in her hands and leave the rest with the driver. By the way, her name was Manu, short for something which I didn't hear. She was a French National and Accountant by profession. As we walked towards the main area, we passed along the immigrations office, customs office and a temple. Manu had to go to the VIP area while we were suppose to seat in the amphitheatre-type stands.

After we reached those stands, we saw a huge crowd on the Indian side, while not so many people on the other side of the border. Patriotic songs of Bollywood were being played at high volume. People were asked to settle down. The announcer seemed to be some Captain or something. He said we could only chant "Hindustan Zindabad", "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" and "Vande Mataram" and nothing else. We saw girls, small kids and women were allowed to run to the gate with national flag in their hand. They were also encouraged to dance to the songs being played. Then, as everyone eventually settled down, the 25-min long parade started with the sound of bugle and orders from a sentry. People chanted as instructed and were making noise, encouraging the jawaans. We saw the opening of the gates, the hand-shakes, the famous "High Leg Lift" steps of jawaans, the taunts, the lowering of flags, orders and march till 6:15 PM. We returned to our cab after taking snaps of the Swarna Jayanti Dwar, No Man's Land and the Electric Fencing on the border. It was totally an unusual experience.

While returning to the main city, we stopped at the Khalsa College gates to takes pictures of the well-lit building. After dropping Manu at her hotel, we went on to experience the Amritsari Gol-gappas but it turned out to be a bad session. Then we strolled into a restaurant for our dinner. An attempt to have Mushroom Masala for Sandy and myself failed when the waiter brought us a wrong order of Paneer Butter Masala. Dipak, as usual, was happy with his Chowmein. After dinner, and an attempt to charge my cell phone, we again entered Golden Temple, this time to rest for a while before catching a train to Jammu Tawi which was at 01:20 in the morning. While the other two slept soundly, I was struggling with my unnecessary luggage. At around 11:45 we decide to head for the station, as we were not sure whether we would find any conveyance at that point of time. After we reached station, we had to wait for 1/2 hr before our train arrived from Bhatinda. When we occupied our berths, we breathed a sigh of relief as we had just a night's journey which we would spend sleeping....

Amritsar-Vaishno Devi--DAY 1

THURSDAY, 02-04-09

Finally, Sandy's prayers were answered. A trip, which in some way, was planned a long time ago. But could not materialised because of the one of my sins-SLOTH. Frankly, I could not muster enough courage to decide whether to go or not. But finally we boarded train no-2013-AMRITSAR SHATABDI.

After hailing an auto from our place to NDLS, a commute of 45 mins spent half sleeping, we waited for the train on Platform 1, Dipak went around with his uncanny talent of bird-watching. After boarding the train and settling down in our seats, we were informed by the train PA system that it would take 5 hrs and 40 mins to reach Amritsar. After a round of snacks consisting of 4 biscuits(not enough!!!), only 1 Samosa(again not enough!!!), 1 cheese-butter sandwich(thankfully only 1!!!) and a choice between Tea or Coffee, we passed out time with music and sleep. The train departed at right time of 16:30 hrs.

In-between, we had conversations about Sandy and some coincidences, esp. those lost-smiles-on-his-face types. The mention of all coincidences again made him smile and he tried to present some weak arguments over the denials of those coincidences. I don't know when will he become more pragmatic than be lost in fantasy world. He also went into his Gluttony-mode, asking more food before time. Seeing so many laptops, I felt restless for still not able to but one. A kid behind me was making such a racket.

At around 19:45 hrs, we had our dinner comprising 2 rhombus-shaped paranthas, rice(or was it pulao??), watery Dal, Paneer Butter Masala/Chicken Preparation, pickle, curd and Vanilla Ice-cream. I slept most of the time after that, with y iPod plugged into my ears. Dipak, after failing to decipher Agatha Christie, went off to sleep too. Sandy, in his usual way, drifted in and out of slumber frequently. Somewhere()may be in the train PA system), "Jadoo hai nasha hai" was being played.

At 22:35 hrs, we reached Amritsar. We were very excited, more so, because our salaries were credited to our accounts that instant. Took an auto to Golden Temple so that a hotel in that place would mean easy trips to Jallianwala Bagh and Wagah Border too. We had already checked out some decent hotels on net, but they were quite expensive. A few names cropped up when we asked about this to a policeman. One was Archana Guest House. Price??-Rs.300. By its look, looked like a rundown place. Not worth. A Sikh guy pestered us and took us to another shady types. Everything same. He said he can get us better rooms for Rs. 400 too. Dipak said, "Enough is Enough. There is one down there. Lets check that". HOTEL GOLDEN CASTLE. Turned out to be a good place. Rent?? Rs. 600.

"Babuji, 400 ka budget tha. Aap to 600 maang rahe ho. Abhi to season bhi nahi hai".

"Betaji, hamare yahaan to hamesha full rehta hai. Chalo 500 de dena".

"Chalo na aapki na meri, 450 final".

"Oye Room ki chaabi le. Sahaab logon ko le jaa".

Fixed. Nice room. Then went out for a stroll to Golden Temple.. Here you need to cover your head with a cloth, deposit your shoes, and walk through a pit of water before entering the main premises. It was exhilarating. The view, the air, everything. Looked at the watch. It was 12 in the morning. Lightening with drizzle added up to the nice background for snaps. It started to rain heavily after sometime. So we ran into the building where Langar is served. Had a cup of "Masala" tea. Then lead by Sandy towards the Community Service, where people voluntarily wash dishes used in Langar. Stayed there for 15-20 minutes, after which went for a round of Langar food-Rotis, Kali Dal, rice and water. After roaming around for some more time in the premises, we headed back to hotel for a nice sleep.

The Tribulations of a Philanthropical Hero

Okay...this is an inspired description....the inspiration was quite close to me....not much but still. I knew a bit of him.....and was unraveling him (now don't get me wrong on this) as we spent a lot of time together.....

Once there was a guy....a simple guy from a small town located somewhere in India, born in a religious family with decent teachings and principles. Had a family of 4 - Himself, his parents and his younger brother.

His father was the sole bread winner of the family. He used to study in a decent government school. He was also a brilliant and talented child, earning quite a few accolades in his growing years, and had all the impetus to make himself and people around him happy in whatever resources he had at his disposal. In short he was very content with what he got from his parents, though his parents never stopped him from doing anything and rather encouraged him to take risks. He had ambitions to make his and his family's life better. He knew only one thing that its his family which has to be considered first in whatever decision he would take in future.

Since he took science in his +2 course and because he had the notion that he would do better in Engg rather than in any other stream, he wrote competitive exams. The first year did not yield anything much except a seat in his state colleges and a not-so-good rank in AIEEE. So he determined to crack them the next year, for which he even joined a coaching institute. The same institute, which helped his cousin to materialise his dream of getting into IIT-B. When the results came, he missed out the cut-offs by a very thin line. So he had to give other exams, where his marks were fair enough to get him a good seat in a top-notch college/university. Instead of going for the type of branch he opted for brand name of the institute. Got into NIT, his haven for next four years. It was this place which took him on a roller-coaster ride and his life would be much different from what it used to be.

He met some new people who were going to change his life completely, a change about which he never knew or contemplated. People, some of whom where going to be his best buddies and some who will stand on the other side. And there were a very few people who were going to be something more than just buddies. The first year of college went, as for anyone else, into ragging and stuff , though his ragging could not be taken lightly as he belonged to such a region of India, whose seniors behave inhumanely. He did all the chores his seniors asked him to do, and went all those places where he never expected himself to be. So it was at this time when he found solace in unexpected places. He gelled with people whom he might had despised at one point of time. Then came the welcome party after which he finally got included in the motley crew of his seniors. It was also the time when something very interesting happened. He met someone.

Though a studious kind of kid, but not those nerd types, he had the traits of a big flirt. He had quite a few female friends in his school life. One of them even had a crush on him. But he did not want to get into all that, just friendly relations. So talking to a girl came naturally to him. Also by this time he was quite popular among other people in the institute. But this particular female had the right vibes to entice him into talking to her. That talk did not result into anything but it did give them a chance to look forward. Then came a major event which gave him another chance to ponder over this relation since the college was closed due to neglect of authorities in proper functioning of the system. After he came back, he thought this is the time to act, later than this would only be a loss. He proposed to her. She was a bit skeptical because of her family background. He said he would care take of everything. She agreed. Suddenly, his life was full of tulips and daisies. He was on cloud nine. BUT.....

Then came an incident which had created fissures in his life. An act of friendship which caused him embarrassment, earned him rebukes and taunts and which had made him feel so disgusted about himself. But the irony is people for whom he showed his friendship had turned their backs on him and accused him of divulging their names to college authorities regarding the tussle with police. He was shattered. He thought how would his parents and his love would take this incident. But he was happy to see that they rather became his support and backed him in his future endeavours. He returned the favour by promising his parents never again to get into situations like these and tried to change himself according to the likeness of his love. But his love started to become a bit restless after a few months. She even came up with this problem and told him that she feels so left-out when people link-up other girls to other boys but they don't even try to do that with her fearing the consequences they would have to face at his hands. He felt as if it was his fault that she is suffering. His act of friendship had turned him into a monster. He hated himself. But she cajoled him saying its not a big deal. Saying this, they continued to be happy being present in each other's life. But there was something he felt that was not going right. There had been a few trivial fights but not any big to cause any damage.

Then came the time when he had to do something to make his this relation permanent i.e something to make her parents agree of this relation. For this, either he should have a decent fat-paying job or he should be well-qualified. Where his academics were concerned and the events that came in before this period, he became an average student from the one very-brilliant one. Though he came to know about the world around him and shed some of the conservative/narrow-minded nature, he was not able to excel much in academics. He was good in extra-curriculars but academics were not his cup of tea. So he settled for whatever job came to him, his first one in an IT company alongwith hundred others. He tried his hand at preparing for competitive exams for post-graduation. He did secure some marks but not enough to get him a seat anywhere. So again the pursuit of job started. Finally he did secure a second one on the basis that his two friends were going there too. Last day of college arrived soon. Everyone in college was full with emotions and fear of leaving friends behind. He, himself, feared of losing and not seeing his love ever again. To fight this, he spent a whole night with her in a coffee shop and while he went to see her off to the station, she gave him, as a memory, a bunch of cash memos of all times they dined in a restaurant. With this his 4 years of life in college came to an end.

After a fortnight, he landed up in a cosmopolitan city with regards to his job. He was very happy to be there and also because of the things that the company had in store for him. He enjoyed his time there, after which he was posted in another cosmo city. He did not complain about this. More so because he found out that his love in college returned to his life. Whether it was sheer luck or his destiny, he did not know. But he definitely knew one thing that till the time she was posted in the same city for her job, he would give ample time to the relation he once had. Though his new office place and the work there sucked big time, he never complained. He was happy to be close to her. He had lengthy discussion about this with her, who too, was very eager to make her relation permanent. But as the months went by, he again started to have those feelings of something not going as thought. She laughed it off saying he was getting paranoid. But his worst fears came true, when small altercations turned into big arguments. It was this time when he thought may be because he was from a middle class family or from a small town which had resulted into this. He started to share these with his room-mates and said its altogether his fault that he has still not able to impart the courage into her to make her parents agree. He also said that its his PHILANTHROPIC nature that has caused all the damage in his life. He tried to be good for the sake of his family. He went against everyone for his friends. He even changed himself for the sake of his love. But what did he get in return? He said its his this inherited trait that may cause further damage. His friends tried to console him and even tried to be mediators between him and his love. But in vain. Then came a time when he and his love parted ways on cordial grounds. No dumping. No bad break-ups. On mutual grounds. But he said he would definitely wait for her to return. To make him happy, his friends went around enjoying every moment with him. They even made new friends. But his mind always wandered off. One of his friends even tried to use rude words in relating to him and that girl, trying to knock him off the whole episode. But he always kept a small flame of hope burning in his heart.

Even after returning from a break to his favourite place, he still has hopes. Hopes, which he claims to be the only thing running his life. Hopes, which his friends think he should give up and move on. But the important thing his friends say is his PHILANTHROPIC nature that he needs to change. A nature which is making a victim out of him. A victim to situations which he used to despise. It is his this nature which has always been an obstacle in his pursuit of goals, a nature which will always result into despair unless he changes.......

Chemical Batch 08 of NITD

This is a just a jist of what we did in four years of engg. while being at Durgapur, West Bengal. Every thing here is real, even the people. So this video does not require any disclaimer.