T.G.I.F.

I simply LOVE fridays. There is nothing that can match the feelings that you have on a friday evening. I had often heard many seniors and read a lot of jokes and satires on the Monday vs Friday debate. But could never really make out as to what the big deal was. Being used to the 5-day-week schedule during my NIT days, I never felt so exhilarated on a fri-night. Ofcourse, being a mechanical engg, bunking was a common phenomenon and as such, college was never really a bother for us. But now that I have been in the corporate world for almost 4 months, I have begun to appreciate the beauty of Friday. Thank GOD I did not opt for a job in a core company! Here is a small video that amply illustrates how I feel about mondays and fridays now...





He he..HAPPY DIWALI folks! Have a rocking year ahead.

Humko Deewana(MAD) kar gaya

Who the heck is the person in that picture??? Can't place him anywhere? Let me help you out...imagine him with a beard and a baseball cap.

There you are...of course, it is our own "beloved" Himeshbhai (I know i dont live in Gujarat anymore, but old habits die hard). Its just that with the Ganesh Puja season back here, and Pune, with its omnipresent pandals (Pune averages one pandal every 100 meters of the so called roads), definitely doesn’t have much choice when it comes to music. As a result, some ol' feelings are rekindled and here I am, with another round of my PDA (Public display of "Affection", the latest acronym I have learned, thanks to TOI). Though Nikhil is the one who got me thinking on these lines…

What 'use' can we put Himesh reshammiya songs to?? These are what i came up with...

1. Nikhil asks: Got anything for a headache?
Vamsee Replies: Lots of Himesh songs...want me to share the folder over LAN?

2. You have recently launched a new brand of razor...u can use himesh's songs for "BEFORE" and Coffee-with-Karan clips for "AFTER".

3. Himesh Concerts on LOC & POK: No need of all those peace talks and Agra summits. One concert, and all the terrorists will vacate the place in no time. So what if the people also run away, all we want is the land and the flora/fauna, right?

4. Introducing a 4th degree of torture: Himesh songs...Sources reveal that Al Gharib is using them on prisoners and this has the human rights activists raising a lot of hue and cry.

5. Ganesh Mandal: You have ur exams going (exams happen almost all around the year now a days) and the Ganesh Mandal near your house is celebrating noisily with loudspeakers n all. Get back at them by secretly replacing their "Jai Ganesh Deva" CDs with Himesh CDs.

6. End of India's Olympic Medal Drought: We are the only country in the world who has Himesh. Let our scientists work on him and develop anti-Himesh vaccines for all our athletes. And then, play Himesh songs at full volume at the 2016 Delhi Olympic games...

7. Set it as hello tune for someone u "love", Airtel now gives u an option of caller specific hello tune.

8. Ur GF/wife's name is Sayyoni. Well, "I LOVE U SAYYONI...."

9. UNITED WE STAND AGAINST HIMESH: Use them as a riot-control measure. When the fighting groups find a common enemy (Himesh songs), they will stop fighting, join hands and that should bring an end to Godhras and Babri Masjids.

10. You own a Bajaj Platina and you want ur ringtone to complement your bike.

11. The new-age Exorcist: Himesh songs can become the latest tool of your next door exorcist(Na na, your neighbour is not one, I was just using the phrase)...one songs, and good bye ghosts (After all, even they were Humans once).

12. D Cold Total ads : The punchline reads :"One dose will turn ur kid from Himesh to SP"

13. Use it in training sessions in IT companies.
Do Tarah ki hoti hai "JAVA"..............
Mar "JAVA" , Mit "JAVA"

14. Having early morning bowel-movement problems? The sure shot solution....HIMESH Songs!
(Ek bar aaja aaja, aaja aaja, aajaa...)

Water, Water......EVERYWHERE!

I hear thunder, I hear thunder.

Hark don't you? Hark don't you?

Pitter, patter raindrops,

Pitter, patter raindrops,

I'm wet through;

so are you.

This nursery rhyme really sums up my past few days. It been raining cats and dogs and every god damn animal on the streets. Really sickening. Added to that the pathetic roads of this city, makes me dread every time i step of my house.

Anyway, yesterday was FRIENDSHIP DAY. When I got the first of the smses at 12 midnight (what a perfect way to disturb a sleeping soul!), it suddenly stuck me that i don't know why this day is celebrated! I mean, there had to be some reason, like valentine's day being St. Valentine's birthday and children's day being Nehru's b'day (Exact 9 months the difference, what coincidence!). I asked Dipu about it in the morning, and turns out, even he didnt know. Times of India had no special article on this (I was expecting a whole supplement, going by their usual standards). So I turned to my most trusted source of information, dear ol' wiki. Surprise surprise, even wiki did not have a proper explanation for that. All it said was that this day was first celebrated in US in 1935 due to some declaration of the U.S. congress. How strange! So it continued through out the day and late into the night, the barrage of "happy friendship day" messages in all it varied forms. Poems in English, Hindi(Hinglish) shayari, witty remarks, picture messages or just simple plain texts. Plain silly to serious senti ones. But the best part is, they kept me entertained throughout the day.

How did i spend this day? In the best way possible (specially in these bloody rains):

In my room, wrapped in a blanket and enjoying an 8 hour long F.R.I.E.N.D.S marathon..hows that!

Btw, I watched Tokyo Drift over the weekend along with Soumen. It was really awesome. Drifting at its best! I really enjoyed the movie, never mind what TOI had to say about it. If u ask me, its a MUST WATCH!

Times of India though carried a very interesting thought :

"Friendship marks a life even more deeple than love. Love risks degeneration into obsession, but friendship is never anything but sharing"

My take on that :

AMEN!

Aamhi Puneri (!!!)

Ah, finally some time and something to write about. But so much has happened around me since my last blog that I have no idea where to start. Since leaving college almost two months ago, there has been the short vacation at home (which did not even last a month), the sudden call from IBM, the eventual joining and the subsequent training, the initial struggles in this Punya-Nagari (Pune), the subsequent settling down, the FIFA WC and so many other things. So while I sit at my IBM office in Pune on a fine working day, listening to In the Shadows by Rasmus, supposedly reading up on some project documentation, lets have a look at all of them. For one, this will rid me of all the “interviews” that people subject me when I meet them online.

After vacation, I went home and planned out things for a nice long vacation. Popular consensus among the guys was that the joining date will be sometime in august. So I did everything to make sure my stay at home would be comfortable. Bought some novels, got a broadband connection at home, burned almost the entire movie collection on college LAN on DVDs and was eagerly looking forward to enjoy the whole of world cup. But then, one fine day, Karan calls up and says, “Dude, joining dates are here. Check your mail”. And when I open my yahoo mail, there it was…IBM beckons!

Yes, I am finally in the corporate world. I am yet to see Madhur Bhandarkar’s Corporate, so I have no idea what image it projects of the corporate world. But as far as my experience goes, so far its been one helluva ride. Starting with travelling to Pune aboard Air Deccan (It was my first time in Air Deccan, and I could easily see why it’s a low cost airline), I arrived in this new city which I have heard so much about. Technically speaking, this is not my first time in the city, but my previous visit was so long ago that I don’t even remember when it was. But let me tell you frankly, this city has been a huge disappointment for me. Being used to wide, spacious and swanky roads and excellent civic amenities in Nagpur, Hyderabad and then Surat, Pune has come as a big shock to me. Pathetic roads, horrible public transport system and even worse traffic (People, your vehicles have something known as a horn, use it!). Added to that was my accommodation woes. Had it not been for some of my college seniors, it would have been really difficult for me. Here I must thank Charan, Dhir, Sushil, Swaraj and Billu for coming to my rescue. Guys, you have been amazing hosts. And thanks to you, I did not miss out on one of the biggest sporting bonanza on this planet, the FIFA WC ’06.

Speaking of which, what an amazing world cup that was! Germany got things rolling with a goal fest in the very first match. My team Argentina looked strong to lift the cup especially during their thrashing of Serbia & Montenegro. I was supporting Argentina and Holland from the very beginning. (Don’t ask me why Holland). Holland could not live up to the expectations, being outwitted by Luiz Felipe Scholari. And more heart breaks for me when Argentina got knocked out too (peaked too early maybe?). After that, Italy it was for me. With the pair of Buffon and Cannavaro at the back, it was only a matter of the forwards finding the net. And luckily, I got to watch the final in the best possible atmosphere…in a hostel with a totally football crazy crowd. How did that happen? Well I must thank the people who painted Meena Thackeray’s statue black. Thanks to the subsequent riots that broke out in Pune, I got stuck at Singhad collage where I had gone to visit Bamboo, Bajrangi, GA n others. I was forced to stay overnight at their hostel and there was my opportunity. Now bamboo was rooting for France, so we had our own rivalry going on. And the match surely lived up to its expectations. But ironically, it was three of France’s biggest heroes of ‘98 that led to their defeat. First, it was Fabien Barthez’s blunder that resulted in Italy’s equaliser. Then, Zidane did what he did (enough has been written and said about it). And to cap it all, it was David Trezeguet who missed that all important penalty in the shoot out. Understandably, while I was elated at the end of the match, Bamboo was literally in tears.

So after almost 5 full days (holidays at that) of house-hunting, and after looking at almost 20 different flats, I finally found a place worth living. And luckily, I found a decent enough roommate having similar interests as me. But there are people who say my choice of roommate has taken a “dip”. Why? If it was Ayan Ghosh (a.k.a. dobby) in my final year not so long ago, now it is Dip-ayan Ghosh. Added to that, they are both bongs (obviously) with NCR connections! Dobby has this theory that I missed him so much, that I took out an ad in the newspaper to find a roommate similar to himself. Ha ha!

Recently, we got our first pay cheques (I am not telling you how much it was). So I and Dipayan thought we should celebrate by watching a movie. We went to the multiplex, and found out that the only tickets that were available were for Krish (arrgh!). Even though neither of us was particularly inclined, we did not want to go back home without watching a movie. So we sat down to enjoy ourselves. And enjoy we did! We could identify so many movies that Krish(or is Krrish) was “inspired” from…Superman, Spiderman, Final Destination, Matrix etc etc.
Also, we enjoyed the commercials in the middle of the movie. What? Didn’t you see any? Oh com’on! If I am not wrong, these were the products advertised during the movie: Tide, Bournvita, Faber Castell, Vicks Inhaler, Siyaram’s, Lays, Hero Honda, Samsung and Karizma. Now if you missed even one of these, there are only the following explanations:
1. You enjoyed the movie so much that you did not pay attention to them (i.e. you are a huge Hrithik Roshan fan).
2. You found the movie so boring that you dozed off.
3. You saw the movie with your girlfriend/boyfriend, doing you-know-what rather than watching the movie.
4. You did not see the movie at all.

And if I missed out on any more, then the reason is none of the above.

Spell check please!

This is inspired by chinsi's blog...

Check out these spellings by one of the most famous "prof" of our mech department.











They say a pictures says a 1000 words...that makes this my biggest blog! ;-)

A Lazy Sunday Morning...

Frankly speaking, the only reason i am writing this blog is that i am really bored. The world has come to a standstill. I read the newspaper today after almost a week, and the news remains the same. Absolutely nothing new to read about. I know I am in the middle of my semester exams (the last one at that) and I should be studying for the next one, but it is still two days away. And as a mechanical engg in SVR, its a big crime to start off so early. Specially when your subject is something as dull as TQM (I am sure most of u out there know what it stands for, so please tell me about it). Just went through the stuff once some time back, and I realised then itself that my answer paper is gonna be a jumble of the following words :

1) Customer Satisfaction

2) Training for the workers

3) Continuous Evaluation

4) Self-Improvement

5) Scientific Methods

Mix them up, and make the full usage of the oh-so-flexible and versatile English language, and voila - thats my answer paper! It pays to have a decent knowledge of the language, u can easily play around with words and escape scot-free. Trust me, it works.

As for my previous exams, well...things were going fine till "Friday, the 28th" happened. Easily the biggest disaster of my illustrious academic career (yup...i am serious), the only consolation I have is that i have already seen the worse. And the next two being not so difficult, i can safely say i am almost done with engineering. Looking back, i was not so hard.

Amazingly, we have been getting internet 24 hours a day for the past one week. Yup, exactly the same time as our exams started. What sort of conspiracy is this! Dont they wanna let us go out of this place with some peace? We thought that if somehow we manage some decent scores this time around, maybe it will make up for all the previous catastrophes. 'Cause as they say, Alls well that ends well. But it was not to be. And with the orkut fever reaching it's peak, the guys end up spending almost 4-5 hours per day only on orkut. People like Pole and Hunk have their scrap counts increased @ almost 100/day!!! Unfortunately, urs truly has also fallen into the trap. Its like, ek chapter ho gaya...lets orkut for a while. So u study for one hour, and to compensate (!) for it, Ur orkut for almost 2 hours!!! Its is so goddamn addictive!

Now that i am coming to the end of my wonderful hostel life, one thing i am gonna miss the most is the college LAN. What an amazing storehouse it is! One stop destination for all ur computer needs. How can i forget those hours and hours that i have spent on LAN playing AOE? So many things to see, so many things to do. I was counting yesterday, and the number of movies available on LAN was close to 150!!! and this i am talking about only Hollywood stuff. Just dont know how i am gonna manage my comp at home with the LAN. I have spent the past 50 hours trying to collect all the stuff that i can, and burn it away on CDs/DVDs so that i can carry some part of it along. My dear ol' Compaq Presario is working overtime at the limit of its processing powers. Let us see how AMD Athalon holds out to this work load. And while all the work is going on in the background, this is the only thing i can do without using up too much of my CPU resources.

Now with the mouth watering sunday lunch around the corner, time for me to hit the showers (though no such thing exists in the hostel). A sumptuous lunch, and then to do what i am best at...

Zzzzzz!

49.5%

The decision of PM and Arjun Singh last week of getting reservations in premier institutes like IIMs, IITs and NITs raised a huge furore on virtual world too. Messages being pased around, strikes being called, orkut communities and yahoo groups being created, and tons of other such activities. but i wonder how many of them realise that this is not going to help in anyway. I mean, do they seriously think that our PM and president spend most of their time on orkut!!!

Anyway, check out this interesting scenario:

Suppose we have job reservations in all the fields. I mean ALL of them. Even sports. Com'on, aren't they called "professionals". Even that is a job.

Let's start the reservation with our cricket team too. BCCI should have 10 percent reservation for Muslims. 30 percent for OBC, SC/ST like that. Cricket rules should be modified accordingly. Theboundary circle should be reduced for an SC/ST player.The four hit by an OBC player should be considered as a six and a six hit by a OBC player should be counted as 8 runs. An OBC player scoring 60 runs should be declared should be declared as a century. We should influence ICC and make rules so that the pace bowlers like Shoaib akhtar should not bowl fast balls to our OBC player. Bowlers should bowl maximum speed of 80 kmph.

And then since there is only a minimum limit and no maximum, lets fill the whole indian team with them.

To hell with Chappel and his De Bono theories on thinking hats (6 colours at that!!!)

Dekhte hai phir world cup jeetne se kaun rokta hai!!!

WI, here we come.

Some things i find really irritating...

Ok...this is not something entirely orginal. But i saw a similar forward which got me thinking.
What are the things that I find irritating?
This is what I ended up with. Not necessarily a wholesome list, but just the things on top of my mind

1. People who point at their wrist while asking for the time...I know where my watch is pal, where the hell is yours? Do I point at my crotch when I ask where the toilet is?

2. People who are willing to get off their ass to search the entire room for the tv remote because they refuse to walk to the tv and change the channel manually.

3. This one just came into my mind, since its my birthday in another hour.
When people say "Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too". Damn right! What good is cake if you can't eat it?

4. When people say "it's always the last place you look". Of course it is. Why the hell would you keep looking after you've found it?

5. When people say while watching a film "did you see that?". No Loser, I paid a 100 bucks(yup surat is damn expensive) to come to the theatre and stare at the damn floor.

6. People who ask "Can I ask you a question?".... Didn't really give me a choice there, did ya?

7. When something is 'new and improved!'. Which is it? If it's new, then there has never been anything before it. If it's an improvement, then there must have been something before it, it couldn't be new.

8. When you are waiting for the bus (not in surat, but in hyderabad) and someone asks "Has the bus come yet?". If the bus came would I be standing here, dumbass?

9. When they say, "Hey, what's up?". Its always the ceiling or the blue sky idiot.

Am pretty sure everyone of us has had a similar feeling sometime or other, but then why dont we stop saying such stupid stuff?

He-Mess Reshammiya!!!

This happened a few weeks back. I was in Mumbai, at my cousin’s place. It was a Saturday evening and we were lazing out in front of TV watching a very popular movie awards being given away (don’t remember which one, there are so many of them). After almost two hours of BLACK, lots of BLACK and still more of BLACK, we soon got pretty bored watching more and more of Sanjay Leela Bansali. And then, came the award for Best Singer award. And surprise surprise, (or for most of us, shock shock) its Himesh Reshammiya!
And it took not more than 5 minutes (1 min for typing the message, 1 minute for transmission and 3 minutes for my 3610 to detect and receive it), along came Nick’s SMS. As soon as I saw it was Nick’s, I knew he was also watching the awards show somewhere on this earth. As it turned out, it was a condolence message, mourning the so called death of Hindi Music.
Nick’s exasperation is quite understandable. He is definitely one of the most out spoken critics of Himesh Reshammiya. One can not blame him, because of you have ever lived in hostel 6, and had food in its mess, being subjected to the “Aashiq Banaya Aapne” a zillion times in the span of few weeks, you would be in the same place. As he puts it, “Ah-Sick-Banaya Aapne”! All thanks to this particular mess worker of ours, whose name I do not know, but who keeps it going with his own “singing” during those power cuts, making us dread the process of eating in mess day in and day out.
His rancour reached its zenith recently when he started going around the campus, asking people for his address so that he can go and kill him! It turned out that Himesh Reshammiya’s new album got released, and nick’s quest to find out the meaning of “Suroor” drove him over the edge. Poor chap.
The latest bout came in the form of the following SMS …

“Who is Himesh reshammiya?
a) The lead monkey in the story "Monkeys and the cap seller"
b) Leader of "come what may, we won’t save"
c) Next step in the evolution of donkeys...”

I am sure there is a blog somewhere around the corner, some place for him to vent out all his furore. What say Nick?

Juggie Me!!!

Ideas for blogs hit when most unexpected. This one came during my trip back from home. I had been home to Hyderabad for holi. Raju had his farewell to attend, so he left early and I was destined to travel all alone. The Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy was not enough to keep me occupied through all of the 20 hours of journey, and coupled with me travel insomnia, my creativity went into overdrive.
Now Jughead has been my LAN id and nickname around the college for quite some time. Surprisingly, most of the guys here have no idea who Jughead is, and always keep asking me about my obsession with him. Let me tell you that I just happen to identify myself with him a lot. So I thought, why not put up a blog about him. This also gave me a reason to dig up on this character, with a bit of help from wikipedia. What came up was pretty interesting.

For starters, Jughead Jones is a fictional character in Archies comics. Though Archie and his gals, Betty and Veronica are the main protagonists of the series, Jughead Jones, Archie’s best friend, is easily one of the most liked characters. The "weird one" of Archie’s friends circle, Jughead is notorious for his eating habits, cheeseburgers being his favourite. He has an enormous appetitie and has won all eating contests in Riverdale in the past 10 years! As a result, Jughead is the most preferred customer of most of Riverdale's food establishments, especially Pop Tate's Chocklit Shoppe, and a very respected food critic who is said to have perfect taste, in that he can taste a dish and tell you exactly what's wrong with it. His other major interest is sleeping. He has white sheepdog named Hot Dog (I wonder why it wasn’t named Cheeseburger) and is often chased by Ethel Muggs, whom he loves to hate. In fact, Jughead does his best to avoid girls—unless a free meal is involved. Always dressed in his blue turtle neck with a big "S" written on it and his trademark crown-shaped felt hat, Jughead is seldom known to have opened his eyes. He loves to skateboard, plays drums for the Archies band and is the second best student in the school next only to Dilton!!! His IQ levels are known to be way above average and has street smarts that will knock you off your feet. Definitely the funniest character around, for those of you who haven't read Archies ever, let me tell you that you have definitely missed something.

Some other lesser known facts about him :

1. Full name : Forsythe Pendleton Jones, named after an uncle who fought in the revolutionary war.

2. In the Spanish versions of the comic book, Jughead's name is Torombolo.

3. He has a baby sister, Forsythia Jones, who is named after him! She is also known as "Jellybean", because she was born in a traffic jam caused by a hijacked jellybean truck!!!

4. The reason why Jughead doesn't like girls? He had a childhood sweetheart named Joani Jumpp, and when they were 6, Jughead's family moved to Riverdale, and had to leave Joani behind. Determined not to go through the heartbreak again, he swore off girls.

5. In the TV movie and subsequent comic book To Riverdale and Back Again, which portrayed all the characters 15 years after their graduation from high school, Jughead has become a psychiatrist.

6. To this day, the letter "S" on Jughead's sweatshirt is the biggest secret that Archie Comics has ever kept. No one knows what it stands for.

7. Instead of spending him money on girls, Jughead often blows his allowance at Pop Tate's, and currently, he holds two records...one for eating the most burgers at Pop's, and one for having the largest tab at Pop's!

Regardless of that fact, there's always something to like about Jughead, not very unlike me ;-).

Soccer mania

Even semesters in SVNIT are always the busiest. Not only is it the shorter one in terms of time, but also it always has all the activities crammed in it. These include MINDBEND, SPARSH, all freshers, farewells and job treats and of course, my birthday ;-). So more often than not, it passes off in a flash before you notice.

Even all the inter-hostel/dept/year sports tournaments are held in this very semester, with the exception of TT and chess. The logic is easy enough to comprehend. With the copious amounts of rain that Surat receives, most of our grounds turn lush green. Maybe too green for comfort. The name “ground” itself becomes a misnomer, thanks to the apathy of the college authorities. So come winter/autumn, the college turns “sportive”.

The story is the same this year too. In course of time, the inter hostel football tournament kicks off (literally). And my goal keeping duties are called for. Being in final year, nobody was really serious about this thing. They all just wanted to play for fun. Hence, no such thing as practice existed. Gone are those days of H8where night football used to rule the roost and all of us were in the groove. Since then, the only football we have known is FIFA2002 , courtsey EA Sports. Stiff legs, no coordination and it came as no surprise that we lost the first round robin match to H2. They then went on to draw with the h4 team and consequently, sealing our fate.

Last match of the league stage. H6 vs. H4. The equation was simple. H4 has to beat us by a goal difference of three; else they are out of competition. We knew we were up against a formidable opposition. (They drew against a team that beat us comprehensively). But it was a new day, and the guys’ soccer instincts were back in action due to last night’s match. The match begins and in the first three minutes, they push forward into our half. 5 minutes into the game and a searing kick curves into the top right corner of my goal. We were down 1-0 and it seemed to head for a familiar end.

The self instated manager of our team, GC, called for a change of tactics. With him screaming out at the sidelines, our team started to push forward. Our mid field (Rai, Gauri and Sudhir) combined well with our forwards (Kancha, Magaan and Yash) to produce some exciting football. They finally found their feet and continuous pressure produced an equalizer soon. The ensuing counter attack produced a goal for them which was disallowed by the linesman for off side (thank god!). And with the half time nearing, a low right footer from Yash scooted to the back of the net, and we were in front for the first time in the tournament!

The second half again saw them push forward again and our defense (JK and Dokes) did a pretty good job of holding them at bay. But soon, they managed to break through and scored through a corner. A nice set-piece. This pumped them up and they began attacking more. And then, the cardinal mistake was committed inside the box. A shove and the man goed down. Foul.
PENALTY KICK!

It was then down to just the four of us. Me, their ace kicker, the ball and the goal. All sorts of thoughts went through my mind. Should I go left? Should I go right? High or low? The referee blows the whistle. My mind goes blank. I let my instincts take over. He runs in, steadies himself and takes the kick. It was chest high, to my right. I stretch. First with both hands, and then I let one hand go. The ball traveling at sub-sonic velocity hits my outstretched right hand and goes out to the right field. It’s a SAVE! Yippee!

My team gets a new lease of life. They started to control the game. The time was running out, we were tied 2-2 and the opposition still needed to score 3 goals to get through. But they had given up in their mind. Tempers raise and some yellow cards get flashed around. The referee says last three minutes to go. A brilliant passes finds Magaan unmarked. He shoots and his long range right footer finds the back of the net. A fantastic goal! Its 3-2 with just 2 minutes on the clock. We play out the final few moments. The hooter signaled our victory.

Alls well that ends well. Some team did go on to win the tournament. But we are not bothered. We’ve had our share of fun. We may not play ever again.

But, we retire from the SVNIT football field on a winning note!

Go final year!

Long live St.Valentine

Last night, one of my friends asked me, ”What are your plans for tomorrow”, tomorrow being Valentine’s Day. I knew she was trying to pull my leg, ‘cause everyone knows that mechanical engineering is one of the biggest causes of the Valentine’s Day Phobia. But this time, I had decided that I am not going through the yet-another-valentine’s day-without-a-girlfriend crap. So I decided upon a two point agenda:
1. Try and stir some sort of anti-westernization campaign, and follow the activities of my friends at Shiv Sena.
2. Start a “Save Roses-don’t let them die” campaign, maybe try and stir up some much lacking regard for plant life (They too are living beings)

So I get up in the morning with these thoughts in my mind. Switch on Zee news and I can see the sainiks in action (“Balasaheb Jindabad”). Yup, this day starts off as expected. After having my bath, I am suddenly reminded that today is Formal/Saree Day, the continuation of the “End of Days Festival”. So dig in to my cup board, looking for that sole pair of formals that I have. A tie is also unearthed in the process…good. As soon as I get out of my room, Rai reminds me that there is a colour code also for the day, which goes something like this :

White – Seriously interested
Black – Stay Away
Red – In Love
Brown – Betrayed in love
Blue – Waiting for someone etc etc

Swell, I was anyway dressed in white.

Rumours of a Valentine’s Day bunk are rife through the corridors of mech dept. But alas, the first lecture takes place and the second prof is also in, before we could make a dash for it. But one guy took courage to stand and tell the prof that we want to go out and celebrate. He laughs and ask, “What do you guys plan to do? Go to canteen? Then what?”. We smirk. He then adds, “I generally go there to have tea”. Polie stands up and says, “Sir we will have coffee”!!! He finally relents and promises to leave us in half an hour. The clock ticks away, and the jeers and cheers emanating from the canteen make this the longest half an hour ever. We were very anxious to know what the hell was happening out there. Realizing that we were not paying even a single bit of attention to what he was saying, he tries a smart approach. The class was of Gas turbines and he was trying to explain us the concept of choke conditions and critical pressure (The only two words I heard in the class).
He says, “I’ll give you a Valentine’s Day example. This class has only one exit. It is filled with you guys at certain energy level. Suppose one girl comes at the door, equivalent to reducing the back pressure, one guy will get up and go out. If two come, a greater drop in pressure and two go out. But if twenty come at once, the exit will get choked as only 3 can go at once (calls it the maximum flow rate). So 3 girls corresponds to critical pressure and maximum flow rate.”
KUDOS sir.
Point noted. End of class.

Enter canteen. Guys in formals all around looking smart. And I must say the girls do look beautiful in sarees. So it was simply lots of hooting and shouting whenever girls entered or exited. There is more excitement when one of the guys (never a girl) takes up the courage to give rose to a girl. The whole crowd joins in and the decibel levels go berserk. All the digicams went flash-flash. And then the guy’s ass becomes the football of the day. But the spirit never dampens. I itched to join in. In the next 1-2 hrs, more and more guys do this and every one has a ball in general. And with everyone dressed properly and cams around, group photos were order of the day. As for me, I managed to gather all the Maharashtra guys n gals together for a photo shoot of our own.

After lunch, it was time for departmental photos. So we all mech guys get together and go around the college snapping our group. We catch hold of two first yearites to act as our photographers. Poor chaps. Library, ADM, canteen, department entrance, drawing hall, college gate…no location of significance was left untouched. I never knew there were so many of us in the class, it is always half empty!
During all of this, once the library was done and all of us were headed for the gate, it happened.

There she was, standing at the PMC. The guys see this and begin to nudge me. So I pick up the rose and head towards her, my whole class cheering and guys ready to click. I just give her the rose, with a smile and wish her a happy valentine’s day. She accepts with a smile.
Click! A Kodak moment!
(or was it a Sony)

Just when I think the day cannot get any better, I get to watch “Hide and Seek” at PT. A Robert De Niro thriller, it was really gripping. A story of how a small girl tries to cope with her mother’s suicide with the help of an imaginary friend, the movie scores on scary sequences and sounds.
A perfect ending to a wonderful day. With another half an hour still left in the day, is there more in store?

Beginning of the end of days

100 Days to go...

Thus read messenger status of a final yearite. Traditionally, no batch goes out of the college without creating its share of hullabaloo. Continuing in the same vein, this year also people got together to celebrate the “spirit of final year” (more on that later). To get the things rolling, a MOVIE DAY was proposed. With Bollywood doling out its usual loads of crap and Surtis refusing to recognize the existence of Hollywood, the choices were limited. In the end it was zeroed down to "Rang De Basanti-a generation awakens". Considering that the last hindi movie I had been to was really long time ago (Black I think it was), I joined in.

But as is the trend now-a-days, the movie goes through its usual pyrotechniques of controversy with Maneka Gandhi making her presence felt, leading to the rescheduling of the movie release. In the end the movie's release coincides with our 57th Republic Day. (Co-incidence?) How perfect! A public holiday, (not that it would have made much of a difference) and the whole of SVNIT lands at the theatre for the first day first show. After almost 3 years, (the only precedent being the Christmas of 2002, Saathiya), a movie hall is brought to life by the SVNITians. Along with its fair share of comments and laughter and a dance session for the title song, it turned out to be a enjoyable outing.

The theme of the movie was almost perfect for the day. The story of a group of youngsters discovering their patriotism with the aid of a foreigner suited nicely to the mood of the day. The first half was totally entertaining. But the second part of the movie should have been more realistic. Lathi-charging a group of peaceful protesters in front of media is something no politician could dream of in today's world. Also, in the end, when the guys had declared on radio that they were not terrorists, the order "I don’t want any survivors" given to the commandoes made absolutely no sense. And we keep cribbing that our movies don’t make it to the Oscars!

Though not an out n out Aamir Khan movie, he made his presence felt. Siddharth, Sharman and Kunal Kapoor(yup he's that handsome guy girls were talking about) did what was expected of them. But the best part was that of Atul Kulkarni, who as usual stamped his authority over the show. He had a limited but impactful role which he portrayed amazing well.

At the end of the day, it was something that he said that got me thinking...


hai liye hathyaar dushman
taak mein baitha udhar
aur hum taiyaar hai
seena liye apna idhar
khoon se khelenge holi
gar watan mushkil mein hai
sarfaroshi ki tamanna
ab hamare dil mein hai

haath jinme mein ho junoon
katt te nahi talwaar se
sar jo uth jaate hai woh
jhukte nahi lalkaar se
haath jinme mein ho junoon
kat te nahi talwaar se
Aur bhadke ga
jo shola-sa hamare dil mein hai
sarfaroshi ki tamanna
ab hamare dil mein hai

hum to ghar se nikale hi the
baandh kar sar pe kafan
Jaan hatheli pe liye
lo bad chale hai yeh kadam
Jindagi to apni mehmaan
maut ki mehfil mein hai
sarfaroshi ki tamanna
ab hamare dil mein hai
Dil mein toofanon ki doli
aur nason mein inquilab
hosh dushman ke udadenge
hamein roko na aaj
dur rehpaaye jo humse
dum kahan manzil mein hai
sarfaroshi ki tamanna
ab hamare dil mein hai

sarfaroshi ki tamanna
ab hamare dil mein hai

Seriously inspiring.

Provoked?

On my marks...

Flashback circa Dec 2005. I was at home for my mid sem break (the last one at that). After the initial scrambling around for some exams, i was suddenly idle. Nothin' much to do. The usual boring stuff on TV, friends having exams, bollywood doling out its usual load of crap and no cricket happening. So I thought why not look around in the virtual world a bit.
Log on to orkut (ha wahi Büyükkökten wala)...

And then, it happened...


"PPS: Don't you blog? Blogosphere needs scribes like you! There's a whole buncha cr*p being written in rudimentary english by amateurs like me! C'mon! Captain Planet! Save the blog world!
1:56 AM11/28/2005"

Thus scrape SLNC (a junior of mine, and yeah he is a gultie).

This got me thinking. Hmm...Blogging? The idea of entering blog world had occured to me long back during the oh-so-famous animal fight ( bow-bow vs jungle boy), which was faught on the blogspot battlefield. Even our own polie and total jr had started their own blogs. Why not me! But then, I somehow got too involved in other things, and it never really materialised.

But now here i am, at last starting it off. This one full week of bunk, courtesy GATE 06 (oh yeah i am an engineer), got me so bored that i resort to blogging.
So just wait and watch where it goes...