Of Fading Memories, Cricket & More

I remember standing in a crowded school bus somewhere in the 1996 summers when I overheard someone saying “India has finally got two good players- Ganguly and Dravid”. Today one of them decided to call it a day and few others who have been omnipresent on television screen are going to do it soon. I’m not a big fan of Ganguly or Sachin or anyone (except Lara) but I’m more worried about the void that will be left behind. The sight of these players doing the stuff they are known for, for years, is so deeply engraved in our minds that the feeling of ‘what next’ isn’t really pleasing. The passage from childhood to present times has shown me a lot of new things in life but not as much as I would have liked to satiate myself. I was born and brought up at a place where even electricity was a luxury (I faintly remember kids in neighbourhood screaming in joy whenever power came). The TV shows like Chitrahaar and Saturday/Sunday cinema on modern DD-1 were the spikes of entertainment in the barren feudal land. There weren’t any computers (and we can’t think without internet?), songs, dance videos, porn, video games, flash games, rock stars, pop stars, junk stars, flirting, x-day cards, y-day cards and xy-day cards for the kids of our times and sports meant cricket, just cricket, unless you could raise appreciative glances from your uncles by playing the great Indian and apparently intellectual game of chess. The emptiness due to all the historical and sociological factors made cricket the real entertainment and probably that’s the reason why I feel the void so wide that it signals the end of an era- not just of cricket, but more of me as a puppet-show watcher. It’s the pace that makes me uncomfortable, of course things moved at the real gentle pace, probably I wasn’t as fast.

I loathed the way Indian media ill-treated these players and pushed them towards retirement. India media probably considers itself as the force that brings change. However for a change, they show reports on commissioner’s lost dog and shiny flying objects but otherwise they are the harbinger of all great things that happen in the country. Commercialization is okay but being so fake and interfering and then overdoing to gain viewers’ attention is criminal. Indians on field were as arrogant as Australians but these things aren’t portrayed the way they should be. And I’m preaching like politicians, which doesn’t serve any purpose.

Getting back to reality, I had an amazing-cubed bike trip to Wayanad and nearby areas. It was a welcome break after the midterms and we really enjoyed to the local maxima after the excruciating mid-terms. A 300 km bike trip in a place like Kerala can at best be described by pictures; still it will be far from reality because you can’t feel the wind in your hair.


Its the path we followed to and fro..

H-life

HYDERABAD MEMOIRS

Dusty streets of Madhapur|My home with 3-side balcony|Parties@ Café Latte | Flashy Biking at Jubilee hills, road no. 36 and Banjara hills|Traffic Police haunting|Frequent trips to McDonalds at City centre (often with Nitesh)|Get-togethers at IIIT|The Ayyappa society road for daily shopping|Parathas@ Rajasthan Food House|Cousin’s trip|Trips to Bangalore for interviews|MMTS, Hitech City Railway station|CL Ameerpet and Workshop at Ragala resorts|Riding back to home for lunch|Winding streets|Pearl shops|Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani|A moment that changed equations|Late night talks on phone|A wonderful experience to remember|Naveen's Village|New year's get together at JD's room|...

su - ozak

I'm done! My first job is over. I've clicked pictures here and there, burnt 3.07 GB of nostalgia and bid goodbye to many. Right now, I've completed all the exit formalities and am waiting for a friend to come. Incidentally, it's one of my friend's birthday today so I don't have to go back home. The ride back home alone would have been melancholic as I'm leaving some really good stuff behind me. It was great -coming out of college-moving to a big city-few friends to accompany-work-learn-be responsible-work-learn- ... . I've learnt more in last 1½ than I did in 4 years of engineering. Learning by experience is the best way to learn.

I was able to sucessfully pursue the dream. It might appear a bit dry that I was just keen on changing a job and called it the dream? Dreams aren't supposed to be such hackneyed stuff. But the way I carried myself loosely in last few years, it was no less than a dream.

I hated outlook before coming to office. I thought it's one of the most useless softwares made my microsoft which complicates things, opens virus attachments unwarrantedly and acts sophisticated to give you a "corporate" feel. It was good to have a mind shift by experience. Software engineer- An insider's view and An outsider's view are way too different. I intend to write it in detail sometime later. Lastly it might be lingering in your mind, why this blog is titled su - ozak? It's a linux command that I used atleast 25 times in my daily work, so it looks apt to name it this way. su is switch user ozak was my linux ID with special admin privileges that I used for logging and doing stuff as a part of my job responsibility that a normal developer was not supposed to do.

Bangalore is a pretty nice place, it just needs a bit of self-policing to make itself nicer! Hyderabad, I'm pretty sure it would be nice and I've hordes of Hyderabad lovers around me. Biryani is good nonetheless! kill -9 0

My blog has become a dlog(deadlog). I haven't posted anything in last three months. The misery is graphically shown below.


As one would make out from this graph, I started blogging quite enthusiastically but it dried down later. The graph needs to plunge upwards in coming days.

For the time being, I'm posting some pics of Ooty and Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary. I went there last to last weekend and the whole experience was fabulous.





The cottage where we stayed!


The whole album can be found here: Ootacamund

Metro

Delhi Metro me aapka swagat hai.Agla Station Chawri Bazaar hai. Kripya Darwaze se door rahen.Darwaze Baayi taraf khulenge.Kripya Savdhani Se Utren.Metro mei safar karne ke liye dhanyawaad....




All this sounds like music to my ears. Metro is one of the best facilities that a person living in a big city can avail. Someone who commutes by a city bus daily at 8:30 AM will definitely agree with me. The Speed, Majesty, Novelty or Ambience that is associated with Metro is really exalting. Not only those who travel by Metro are benefited directly, but also those who drive independently on a busy road as the traffic density comes down by a considerable 10-15% or even more in busy areas. While a DTC bus takes more than 1.5 hrs to reach Dwarka from Connaught Place(lovingly called as Rajiv Chowk by some neogenerationalists :) ), Metro does it in 40-45 mins flat minus the pollution, pushing-pulling, suffocating crowd, pick pocketing threat etc. plus comfort, agility and a sense of gratification that lingers for long. The clean, serene, secure environment of a Metro Station fosters a feel-good sense as well. And yes, you won't find anyone keeping a torn newspaper, towel or a piece of stinking cloth on a seat in order to 'reserve' it and later fighting with a co-passenger for the occupation :). All this comes at a dirt-cheap rate to us, thanks to the Government for bearing the huge installation expenditure.

The exemplary success of Metro in Delhi is to be re-enacted in various other Indian cities, some of them really crumbling under infrastructural problems posed by ever-growing traffic. Bangalore and Mumbai are the prioritized ones where the mammoth task of carving out ways underground has started since August of this year. The other blessed cities are Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Calcutta(second phase) and Kochi(Sky-rocketing developments here, really impressive!!). These massive projects, expected to complete by 2009-2010 will really be a boon for people residing in these cities. There is different school of thought though. Some Urban Planners think that Metro should not be on top of priority list. Basic issues like water and urban habitation which have not been resolved yet can be worsened during the setting up of Metro as it consumes a lot of water, electricity and land. Sad but true. Can we wait for all basic problems to be resolved entirely and then look for alternatives that raise the standard of life?? Not really, because it is never gonna be a level playing field for all. So, those who need the most should be given a bigger piece of this cake. Having lived in Ahmedabad and Bangalore, I guess I am qualified enough to comment on these two cities. Ahmedabad, being smaller and less crowded of the two, is still far from having the status of Metropolitan city. The roads are great and traffic is not smothering barring a few busy areas. My present abode Bangalore, on the other hand, is in dire need of Metro. One feels smothered, waiting in the middle of road for the signal to turn green and before crossing it turns red again leaving one stranded in miasma of SO2,CO,CO2 etc. With Metro, there won't be any such plight. There is still a long wait to 2009, nonetheless, I would be really pleased to see Metro running around.

Sanskrit, Cousins and IIM K interview

So here I was for my last interview of the season, IIMK! I stayed at my mausi's place in Kaushambi and had a great time with cousins.My younger sis was having her Xth board exams and her next paper was Sanskrit on 13th March so alongwith her I read little bit of Sanskrit remembering the good old class X days. Poor girl! She studied Sanskrit till 330 AM and was still cheerful about it. I enjoyed listening to her school stories. I really appreciate her attitude towards life- full of zeal, dreams and ambition, straightforward with no complications.Sanskrit was an ordeal for me then and I barely scraped through it in preboards. There was a general notion that Sanskrit is like mathematics and everything is based on formulas. I never felt so. Anyways, I slept just two hours before interview and here is the experience:

12 March, 2006
IIC Annexe, New Delhi
----------------------
GD- An article was given: Sumantra Ghosh, a management guru presented at NASSCOM infront of various IT professionals. His slide contained only "Thankyou". He was thanking IT professionals for what they have given to country. Indians in foreign are proud and confident but an average Indian man in any city is not so.

11 ppl in GD! And to put it mildly it was chaotic!! Though I spoke but no one heard me, and my pen stopped working so I could not even take notes, thankfully no one was asked to summarize.
Two interviewers and me, I was the first person to be interviewed.

P:Tell me something about yourself.
A:intro, hobbies, technicals..
P:What kind of communications?
A:Signal transmission and reception..digital communications..
P:What is Nyquist rate?
A:told
P:Minimum or maximum bandwidth?
A:*confused, took time* told
P:What is the sampling rate of audio?
A:44khz
P:What is the sampling rate of PCM??
A:64 khz
P:Are you sure?
A:not sure
P:So in Software Development, what do you know??
A:Told about languages *cut short*
P:Difference between C++ and JAVA?
A:JAVA is platform independent, many features are inbuilt
P:Why programmers prefer JAVA?
A:Repeated the last answer
P:Any other advantage?
A:Can't remember
P:POinters...
A:*snatched the opportunity* yes JAVA doesn't have pointers, memory allocation fundas
P:How should we evaluate your performance in GD??You hardly spoke??
A:You might consider me as a docile person who gives due respect to others say
P:SO you would have performed better had the group been a little peaceful?
A:Yes, but the discussion was fruitful, points were raised and we were able to address to the problem
P:You have done well in school but how do you rate your performance in graduation??
A:Not up to the mark, could have done better
P:So what was the reason?It is not expected that you get all As but it could have been better?A:told about various reasons..
P:I can see that you repeated one course?
A:That was because I submitted the assignment after my internship and college's SRS has no such provision
P:Did you inform your college authorities because it's a permanent thing?
A:Yes, we've told them and they're changing it...
P:I can see a lot of chess certificates, tell me who is the world chess champion
A:Told that two international chess authorities PCA and FIDE are running in parallel, so there're two champs- Vladimir Kramnik and Vaselin Topalov
P:Who is you all time favourie chess player?
A:Bobby Fischer
P:Why?Tell me about his matches
A:Talked about his style, visualization and famous matches...
P:What is ELO rating?
A:Explained the formula..
P:Why is named so?
A:After the person who made it...
P:Why 10^something?
A:*dumbfounded* Sir it could be anything 8^something 9^ something..*whatta stupid answer*
P:Has it got something to be with common logarithms?
A:*jumped* yes it is because so and so...
P:OK Amod, you live in Gandhinagar, tell me something about Gandhiji
A:Told..about freedom truggle and how he differed from extremists
P:What's his autobiography's name?
A:my experiments with truth
P:So how was Gandhi's methodology different??
A:appeal to common mass, moves like satyagraha and dandi march
P:What qualities of Gandhiji do you possess?
A:*stumped* non-violence blah
P:Oh yeah, you told me you are docile *laughing*, that we saw in GD *laughing*
A:**smiles*
P:You want to be a public figure??*hehe* how?
A:some arbit gyan..pure philosophy..
P:So what all have you learnt in mathematics?
A:I have done courses on calculus, matrices, discrete maths, probability, stats etc.
P:Matrices hmmm.. what is eigen value?
A:I forgot, but i will take a guess, told something *completely wrong*
P:What is transpose?
A:told
P:What is diagonal matrix?
A:told
P:Repeat it
A:repeated
P:Does elements of a diagonal matrix have to be equal necessarily?
A:not necessary
P:Sure?
A:yeah, sure
OK, Thankyou, Best of luck!
---------------------------
It was a simple feel good kinda interview. I came back and spent fun-filled evening with my cousins - shopping, eating out, driving etc. I really wanted to go back to home from there but considering the fact that India is a highly populous country, getting ticket of any sort was impossible. Now I feel like reviving my B Tech Project out of shambles and with just two months left in college I also need to preserve things for nostalgia.

IIM L Interview@New Delhi

So here I was, once again, in New Delhi. I love and hate this city simultaneously. Love it, simply because Delhi and everything related to it has a class of its own. In general, Delhi education, Delhi chicks, Delhi roads, Delhi culture and the feel of Delhi is just rocking! What I hate about Delhi is the people out there which includes autowalas, hawkers, cyber-cafe owners etc. who always try to cheat. These are all my personal experiences and I do not relate it to any Delhite in particular, so don't pounce on me :) There was lot of security in Delhi this time because of George Bush's visit. Fortunately, I was not caught in traffic jam due to the reason aforementioned. Well, the purpose of my visit was IIM Lucknow interview at IIFT.

Mar 1, 2006
1000 AM
IIFT, New Delhi

GD Topic: Income Tax creates more liars than showmanship (..kinda)
In my group there were two of my friends Riddhi and Diwesh, so some fraternizing was there :) GD was cool with people cooperating and even summarizing at the end.

I was 5th guy to be interviewed...A long wait once again. I just want to get rid of this number '5' from my life.

Some of the questions asked in PI:

Tell me something about yourself.
So the other guy is also from same place?
You good at number crunching?
Why acads bad?
How did you manage same marks in both X and XII?*laughing hysterically*
How does number crunching help in your course?
What is 'three thinkers'?Who were they?
So you took a course on philosophy?48 hrs a sem on philosophy?
What did you do in that course?
What is the meaning of 'tactile'?
Why a separate word like that?
How is it different from touch by emotions?
You have done a course on Business Finance, what were you taught?
What is balance sheet?
What are the components of balance sheet? Explain!
How is it different from profit and loss account?
What are expenditure and income?
If I buy a house for company, where will it appear in balance sheet?

Interview was cool, no serious grilling, but not soothing either. How on earth do you expect an engineer to know about the intricacies of balance sheet? Anyways, life's like that only, so no hard feelings.

After interview, I went off to meet some of the old stupid useless friends. Incidentally, I also met one of my blog friends -666 and we went for a coffee. It is always nice to meet new people especially girls. Thanks for the treat 666!

All in All, it was a decent trip. Have had loads of fun.

IIM A Interview Experience

18th Feb 2006
0900

Venue- KLMDC, IIM A

GD: Case Study

I was the 5th person to be interviewed, it is toooo difficult to wait!
There were three interviewers, two young and one old. I didn't like any of them. :)

Interview Questions:

What are you doing these days??
Do you expect to passout and join us??
What is ICT??
What is Ranchi known for these days?
Dhoni Dhamaka?
Gave a graph, find the slope at various points!
Have you read algorithms?Networks?Data Structures?
What is a priority queue?
What is stack?
Difference between Queue and Stack?
Operations of Stack?
What will happen if I do pop operation on an empty stack?
Linked List??
Protocol of Internet??
Does it follow the OSI model?
Is internet session oriented?
Condition for maxima and minima
Integration by parts, write the formula
Integrate xe^x
What games do you play?
Apart from Anand, who is your fav player?
What do you know about algorithms of Deep blue?
Basic difference between thinking of human chess player and computer?
So you like risk taking abilities of Topalov?
Why don't you go for enterpreneurship, if you like risks?
Do you consider India a poor country?
Tell me five ways to remove poverty from india.
Is corruption prevalent everywhere?
GDP of India?
GDP of US?
How do you define poverty?
Why $1 per person per day? why not $2,3 or 5?

Crap Interview!! Took exactly 15 minutes, but felt like years!! I was totally exhausted after interview, slept like log.
Totally unconventional interview it was, no HR questions just acads acads and acads. Next is IIML@March 1.

Bangalore and IIFT interview

I've always held Bangalore in high esteem, and it hasn't changed despite all the oddities I faced there during my recent trip. Due to myriad postponement and preponement in schedule my whole travel plan was shuffled up, and Steve couldn't go with me :(, otherwise we had major plans of having 'fun' there. I reached Bangalore on 27 Jan 2300 hrs and the guy whom I befriended during my train journey gave me lift on his cousin's car to nearest hotel. Now I know it is a juvenile and risky proposition to take lift in a stranger's car, but what the heck, I'm not a kid anymore! I had my room booked in a guesthouse but that was from 29th, so on 27th night I stayed in some lodge. It was such a scary area, bars everywhere, drunk people shouting in kannada and looking at me strangely, all shops closed (it was not even 12) etc. Bangalore has become so populated, can't even imagine boarding in bus with people fighting to grab a seat. Worst was when I was returning back at midnight and a group of eunuch was standing there and staring at me..I was so scared..I started counting 1,2,3... and took a deep breath when I left them behind.
Finally I slept peacefully and next day I woke up early in morning(obviously on my own), took bath with ice-cold water and reached TIME GD/PI workshop centre right on time. It was St. Xavier's High School, Museum Road. I just loved the building- Christian Style, church, beautifully carved out structures, high roof corridors, pigeons flying and producing gutar-n-goo sound... I really adore classical buildings, one of the interests which I may develop in future. The workshop was a good one, GDs were really chaotic and PIs were stressing but the best thing was food! TIME guys brought some real good caterers and food was delicious. The day 2 of seminar was at St. Joseph High School nearby and it was much better. I had a decent warmup GD and PI just before actual IIFT interview, finally I left the workshop midway to study for tomorrow. I made some good friends there... Sandeep( RVCE Bangalore guy), Eileen( BBM girl with 6 calls, very decent girl), Srinath etc. but I didn't ask anyone's contact ID, that was such a stupid mistake on my part.
Then comes the purpose of my visit, IIFT interview.

Venue: Coffee Board, Bangalore
Date: 30 Jan 2006

24-25 ppl divided in two groups..I was in group 1
Essay topic: Morality and Consumerism (which I misread as consumers :( )

GD: FDI in retail sector
Moderators explicitly mentioned that they donot want a fish market and they are expecting a debate. They also told the criterions on which we were to be evaluated.
12 ppl - 1 absent = 11 ppl in GD . I was the ONLY fresher there.. so was feeling little awkward.
I was asked to start the GD ..my first attempt... fortunately I read a news report in TOI just an hour ago about FDI expectations in coming budget, so that really helped.
I was also the first person to summarize, and consequently, the first person to be interviewed ( hence I missed the coffee at coffee board)..

Prof himself came to call me for interview and I had to walk down three floors with him in complete silence except for boots...imagine..how I must have felt!

PI was ultra-cool!! Interviewers liked me, probably our auras matched..
all in all a 20-25 min affair!
Three ppl :
P1: Decent guy, asking psychological and HR questions
P2: Very learned person, Prof. of International Finance, He is a Sardar.
P3: Came late, asked a few ques only..

Questions and Answers:

P1:
1. Tell me something about yourself.
A: told abt Strengths, Hobbies, Interests...
2. What is blog?
A: told them..webspace where you express unrestricted thoughts...
3. Why do you blog?
A: no restrictions, know abt world, informal media etc. etc.
4. Do you like unrestricted world?
A: yes, as long as it doesn't offend anyone
5. Freedom of speech?
A: yes, definitely
6. Having shackles like regulation of blog, isn't it contradictory to the original idea?
A: Yes, but reader's sentiment must be cared..gave some examples of offensive blogs and its impact..
7. You live in G'nagar, why did you come to Bangalore?
A: planned my final yr proj here in some company, but doing in college.
8. Which companies in Bangalore did you try for internship? Why in telecom?
A: blah-blah, telecom is matter of interest
9. What do you listen in Music?
A: Mostly Rock
10. Your fav band??
A: PF
11. Why Pink Floyd?How is it different?
A: they are natural and touch every facet of life, not just musical instruments but natural sound, explained a song and its beauty
12. Name the band members
A: bol diya
13. Tell me something about International Business
A: Finally came to the point!! told abt globalization, shrinking world, disappearing boundaries, increased trade..
14. What is Globalization?
A: defined in my own words...not very convincing..
15. Wasn't it there always?
A: yes, but it's faster than ever now..
16. What do you unerstand by Globalization in present scenario?
A: increased interaction, trade, services, outsourcing, global communication...
17. Define liberalization, give few points
A: Govt going easy..explained some fundas.. low taxations, licenses, setting up industries etc.
18. Name some items in India's Export Basket.
A: So bad! I couldn't answer prperly...Services..
P2:
19. What is your strongest area?
A: Mathematics
20. What is mathematics?How does it help?
A: Language of nature, explained him how the table infront of him was designed by the help of mathematics.. concept of numbers and operations..
21. You said you're good at calculations, what exactly do you mean?
A: Can do normal multiplication, division fastly..may find sin,cos,log,tan mentally..
22. I don't know log. explain me.
A: Started with defining 'numbers' and then 'operation' then addition then multiplication as repeated addition, then exponents as repeated multiplication, then log as a form of conveniently expressing it.. exponents converted to linear form..advantages..basically blah
P1:
23. You have said some nasty things about your homestate Bihar in your performa, Justify?
A: Rampant Anarchy, Mentality of people, underdevelopment..
24. If I make you CM of Bihar, what steps will you take?
A: Law and Order, faith of people in govt.,
25. What is the problem with Bihar? How can you solve it? Give steps.
A: Mentality, poverty etc. gave him ideas about controlling crime..
26. Why Acads so low?
A: adjustment problems, some personal reasons..
27. Can't you managed it in a better way?Time management?
A: accepted my fault..could have done better...
28.Scenario: You're manager of some firm..someone comes with a request for urgent payment..but payment is not possible today..what will you do?>
A: ask for reason..if genuine..recheck system for any provision, and even if there isn't any, allow him..humanitarian grounds..
29. Why don't you work for two years? MBA now and MBA then, whats the difference?
A: talked about perspective..can utilize two years in a better way
P3:
30. Tell me something about Gandhingar
A: trees trees and trees, nice ppl, retired ppl living...
31. How are ppl in Gandhinagar different from ppl in Bihar?
A: helpful, good business skills..blah
32. How do you find Gujaratis?
A: very nice...praised a lot..
33. Where have you been in India?
A: Started with delhi, rajasthan..and I was stopped in middle..
34. You've read Alchemist and summarized it as "Treasure lies where your heart belongs" Explain
A: talked about innate abilities..and how to realize..blah
35. Isn't it contradictory to some idea?
A: complementary actually..
36. Heart and Mind?
A: Mind should win.
37. What do you do after you return from college generally?
A: play football/TT, study, roam around, surf net, sleep..
38. You've leadership skills?what are they?
A: popularity, amicability, dealing with controversies and many more..
P2:
39. How do you finance yourself?
A: sound economic background..blah

So it got over finally! I enjoyed every bit of it..
My very old school friend was waiting outside..so I met him after 2-3 years, we roamed around in Bangalore but then we came back to hotel and talked a lot about present life, school, engg..he kept talking about marrying his girlfriend, I kept telling him 'get a life'..and I explained him fundas of Othello(was there in his mobile).. finally I left for Mumbai same night and then came back to personal hell..

Leaving for Delhi tomorrow..
Bye!

Rakshabandhan

Since the college reopened on Aug 6th, I've been busy with various mundane stuff like completion of RI, 'inaugaration' of B.Tech. Project, selection of electives, mock CATs etc. So when Bhavesh invited me and Vivek( who couldn't go for some reasons) to his home for Rakshabandhan it was a welcome break. Though I was little apprehensive in the beginning because of "studies", but as always Bhavesh, with his super-duper persuasive skills, belittled me. Finally we left college by 2000 hrs on 18th Aug. For the first time in my life the principles of murphy's law were violated and everything went right.

1. We got a bus to Railway Stationeven before we got out off autorick! It never happened before as generally it takes me 30-40 minutes to get a bus.
2. The bus took the long route and still managed to reach Station at 2058 with 7 minutes to go before the train leaves.
3. My queue at ticket counter was the fastest! We were ready with ticket by 2103! We ran towards the train but it was so crowded that we couldn't get in.
4. The train started to limp along and we decided to leave this train and wait for the next one. But lady luck was smiling for sure and we managed to get into the least crowded LAST bogie after chasing the train.
5. Fortunately we got to sit and it turned out to be Anand( Bhavesh's home) special bogie. The policeman was kicking out all non-Anand passengers from that bogie. hehe!

The stay was very pleasant and I feasted on a lot of Sindhi cuisines. I wonder I will turn obese if I stay at his place for a couple of days. Rakshabandhan was special to me as I was tied Rakhi for the second time by Charul(Bhavesh's sister) after 10 years gap. Post Rakhi, we strolled in NDDB colony and I met Bhavesh's friends. They were all so sincere guys!! I came back and slept like a log. I ate, ate and then ate again and again.We left back for college the same day and there comes the end to a wonderful stay. Thanks to my cellphone, I took a lot of photos which I will post in my photoblog. These memories are gonna last for a long long time. Next Rakhi, I won't
be here but I'll relive in those memories.

Animalia

It was way back in 1988 when I was mathematically 4 years old . I bought two white rabbits, Rs 300/- apiece. They were cute especially when they kept their long ears straight like horns. The biggest problem was faced by my mother because they used to shit anywhere in the house, but obviously it didn't bother me . I was busy making a living place for them.I took my TV's box and put some mud and plant leaves in it and the rabbit-house was ready. I was simply fascinated by those rabbits, they jumped higher than me. One morning I found their blooded dead bodies. Dogs ate them, I mourned and it was over. Behind my house there was a grazing field. I saw one black memna one day and it was love at first sight. The good thing about goats is that they shit out of the house. Well that memna was owned by some shepherd but he allowed the cuty memna to stay with me while others grazed every evening. With my new found fantasy, I used to collect vegetable remnants all day to feed him(or her, not sure). Weeks passed. One fine evening, the shepherd boy told me that memna is ill, two days later it died. Life went on.













My rabbits were pretty much like this, but not so fat.














A cute memna

Years passed, I was still one-digit old. I found a cow. Well there were many cows roaming around but they were rowdy but this one was retiring. So I befriended him/her and everyday at some fixed time it came to me. Animals are more punctual than we human beings. It felt great when that cow leaned infront of me so that I can touch its head. But then my father got transferred to a different place and(as an 8 year old boy) I could not even bid goodbye to that cow. Phew!!!!! I have always disliked dogs, simply because they dislike me. I've been haunted by dogs so many times, but luckily I escaped on each occasion. Once a dog even managed to grab my foot in its mouth, but I survived then also. Birds, I love them, Bird-watching, my hobby. There have been quite a few times when a bird came in my room and ruined its life by colliding with moving fan. I did whatever I could do, but life and death are beyond human control. When I was in class Xth(CBSE), there was a chapter in biology on birds. (Knowledge fact: Study of birds is known as ornithology.) There was an exercise for which I had to roam around and see all kinds of birds and make notes on them. During my summer vacation, I did that exercise with my colony friend Nitesh and I really enjoyed it.

Slowly and gradually as I grew old, I lost touch with animals. There are still animals around, just go out in Gandhinagar you'll find cows with really humungous horns which scares me badly. Obviously there are lots of dogs in college, but I hate them for reasons mentioned above. I change my way if I see a dog standing infront of me. I'm a nonvegetarian but that is another aspect, I still love animals. However if you feel bad about it, I'd clarify my stand if needed. Why is it that I've lost touch with animals? Partially because I'm busy with my daily routine and more because of lack of commitment.There is an Indroda Nature Park just 1 km away from DA-IICT and Deer Park may be 3 kms from DA-IICT. But none of my friends are willing to go there with me to enjoy the mystic flora and fauna. How many of them know about it?? It's not too late so if anyone is interested, leave a comment. Some of us may have attended the Animal Help Foundation seminars and rallies in Ahmedabad( because I see people wearing those T-shirts as their nightdress) but that does not bring us closer to animals. The most effortless way to interact with animals is to feel them around and just shower our love on them. Cat, Dogs(eww!),Squirrels(lots of cutiepies), various birds, chameleons, Peacock(its a privilege!!), monkeys etc. are some of the animals that we can see everyday in college. Ofcourse attending AHF seminars and rallies will help us, but natural interaction is more needed. Nature has been benevolent on us, I feel I should express my gratitude towards her.

A Road of Relief

Why do I have this false notion that my DA-IICT days are over??3 years over, but don't know why I feel that I've to pack my bags very soon. Probably that's why Nostalgia strikes me so that I remember my fresher days in college often. When I came to Ahmedabad for the first time(June 22'2002), I stayed in Hotel Marvel, Relief Road. I went to Relief Road today with my friend Abhijeet(don't know?? ok he's Babu) for shopping. Relief Road has always been a warm, welcoming and friendly place for me, so I dedicate this whole post to Relief Road.

By definition Relief Road means a road which is opened specifically to relieve the traffic in the concerned part of city. Relief Road was my first impression of this part of country which really amazed me. This was my origin in Ahmedabad and I used to find my ways w.r.t Relief Road. I like Relief Road because this was the place where I did my first few shoppings alone, first place where I learnt to bargain(an art for life, which I'm trying to develop), place where I get damn good quality products at reasonably cheap rates and have never been cheated and last but not least as as an emblem of Ahmedabad. For those who have never been to Ahmedabad, Relief Road is a very busy hustling bustling jostling 1.5 km long road(paved from Ahmedabad Railway Station to Lal Darwaja) with clothes, garment, leather goods, book shops on both sides in bottleneck congestion(quite resemblance with Chandni Chowk, Delhi). The traffic mainly kerosene driven highly polluting auto-rickshaws and two-wheelers travel in jig-jag manner putting pedestrians at a high risk, as I always suffer. All over Relief Road you'll see hawkers and vendors shouting at top of their lungs, agents trying to grip your neck(or hand, or whatever they catch) and drive you to their shops, customers trying to bargain, traffic police failing miserably etc. etc. In one sentence I will describe Relief Road as a street of complete chaos and mayhem with healthy business flourishing between shrewd adroit shopowners and expert bargaining customers in a miasma of vehicular emission, that's how I paint the picture in my mind on this blog.

Talking about todays shopping it was fun.I was answering thoughtfully to all of Abhijeet's inane queries.(Like looking down from Nehru Bridge he asked me which river is this? Two times he was almost crushed while crossing the road). And the best thing which could ever happen, it rained today and I got wet happily. My only concern was my mobile but after putting it in a plastic bag borrowed from some hawker, I jumped out in rain. Despite the fact that heavy rains lashed the market, Relief Road was as chaotic as ever.That's the spirit, and this is an example of management in brawl. In the end I would like to say one thing to Relief Road, What a Relief you have been!!