Eyeing the Success - Part 3 - Bachpan

Finally with Amita's influence on my side, I was able to convince the ever modest Jayant (Or as I call him Jayant Dada). He agreed to tell me his story which turned out to be fun and all the more inspirational. I will try to put it here in the best possible form with Jayant's permission.

Jayant Dada's both parents being goans made Jayant as well Goan by heart. He was born in Margao, a small town in south Goa on 12th September 1968. His father had to shift to Pune to make a living a few years later, which started a different chapter in Jayant dada's life.The whole family shifted to a small rented place at Laxmi road, Pune where Jayant Dada has lived most of his life.

Jayant dada was well behaved to the extent that we can call it so. He did all the things that generally all children do while his father was not around. He was a celebrity in his "Wada" and was loved by one and all in the society. He was brilliant in studies and together with his lovable behavior, he could easily get whatever he wanted and that too from punekars. This in itself was an achievement of sorts.

As a child he never dominated or dictated anyone due to which he had many true friends. While maths was a dreaded monster for most of the students, Jayant dada was like a magician playing different tricks with maths and accounts.

He finished his studies until SSC and took admissions for 11th Commerce.

Stay tuned for more....as Jayant Dada is about to enter college which is when is converted the most sad part of his life into the most important part of his life.

Eyeing the Success - Part 2 - The coincidence!!

I was very optimistic about my life since the day I met Jayant. As usual this optimism lasted for about a couple of months and it was that time of the year when we all start creeping about how we had less salary than what we deserved, how our bosses were the worst persons we have in our life, resigning from our jobs and starting our own business etc etc etc. It was appraisal time!!

My parents were busy searching for a daughter-in-law when I was busy spending my time with my friends. My trips to Goa had increased much more to my amazement. I was also of the opinion that it is now high time that I should get married. Then one fine day I was at my home in Vasco, the port town of Goa when the door bell rang. One bubbly looking lady in her 40's had come to meet my parents. I was in a hurry to go downstairs to attend one of my "Goa Friends Catchup" session. When I was back, I got to know that the lady had given a photo and "Patrika" of a potential bride. I reluctantly saw the photo. I saw a girl who was slim with big eyes and who had no expressions on her face whatsoever. Come on Pranav, Photos don't have emotions. Her name was written as Amita Shikerkar.

The patrika seem to be matching and this time I did not go to Jayant for patrika matching instead one of Amita's relatives volunteered to match the patrika and gave a positive signal that we both will make a wonderful loving pair (Open for discussion!! :))

Our families decided that we should meet. We both met and decided that we should now get married after speaking on phone for hours together for about 10 months. We both were in Pune now, with me back to routine and Amita searching for a new job. After a couple of weeks Amita told me that she has a relative of hers staying in Pune who sees "Patrika" and tells if we need to perform any rituals for our well being. I had thought that Patrika was essential only until marriage, this was something new for me.

"Come on Amita, why do we need to see Patrika. Lets believe in ourselves and with hard work and enough confidence we should be able to crack any interview".

This is what I would have said had our marriage been about couple of years old, however we were newly married couple and I thought I should not ruin my impression in the first month itself after marriage. I agreed to meet this relative of hers. On one Saturday morning we went to his house and to my amazement it was Jayant again. This time Jayant Dada as Amita would call him.

I remembered my first meet with him about 1 and a half years ago. I was excited that I will be meeting Jayant dada many a time now in the future. And this time as I had Amita by my side, my visits would have been easier.

More to come about how I could convince Jayant dada to tell me his story, some amazing incidents from his eventful life...

Eyeing the success - Part1 - My First Meet

I had to marry now, its high time and nobody would have tolerated a "No" from me for any reason. Finally I agreed to the pressures from my big family after words of wisdom from most of them. Prasad bhai, a relative, suggested me to contact a person called Mirvankar for patrika matching of any girls who had the potential to become my wife and tolerate me for the whole of her life without complaints.

Matching a patrika in Hindu marriages is like validating the skills of the candidate whether they match your requirement. This is kind of a requirement document with the designs not yet in place. Even before a girl meets a boy, their patrikas should meet each other. I did not have very good ideas about patrika matching, however for an arranged marriage you had to believe on something and I thought Patrika would be the most reliable of all. At least better than the fake human behaviors.

I called up on the number prasad bhai gave me and took an appointment. The person spoke with a puneri dialect and told me the address
Mutheshwar chowk, shaniwar peth, Pune.

I was amused by the way he spoke. He asked me to come on Thursday at 7:25 pm "sharp". I thought "This fellow must be a busy man or like most punekars behaving as if he is busy". In any case I had to face him.

Okay, Mutheshwar chowk, shaniwar peth. Going to any address in "peth" is like going to a Thrill adventure park. Small streets with people behaving like streets have been built for them, making life as tough as possible for anybody who pays road taxes, as if foot paths are built only for couples to be in their own comfortable positions and yes for bikes to go over when there is a traffic high tide. Any non-punekar going there for the first time pleads to the RTO, "Take double road tax, however please build a special highway to bypass peth". In short going to Jayant Mirvankar's place is going to be a 7D ride and that too for free.

I reached the address told by Jayant with some bike heroics which Rohit shetty would have envied. It was a small old building, however new by Pune Peth's standards. I thought it can't be this smooth in a Narayan Peth in Pune and then from no where while parking the bike I heard a loud voice.

"Arey eee.....He kai vahan tal vatla kai tumhala....Vahan taal JM roadla kinwa patrya maruti jawal ahey, tikde park kara" (Hey, do you think this is paid parking?, Parking places are present on JM road or near the patrya maruti). It was the watchman, at least he looked like one from his clothes.

I said, "Me ithe kunakade tari alo ahey"("I am here at someones place".).

He, "Nav naslela manus hai kai??"(Does he not have a name?").

Staying in Pune I too had learnt a bit of Punekar bashing. 

I said, "Me ithe Jayant Mirvankarankade alo ahey......Kaam pan sangu kai ataa??" (I am here looking for Jayant Mirvankar....Do you want me to tell the personal work that I am here for?) 

And I left the place towards the stairs looking for the name.

I saw the name "Jayant Mirvankar" with names like Joshi, Apte surrounding it. The staircase was such that barely a person could pass through. Finally, after the pune traffic bike heroics, the watchman bashing and squeezing through the staircase I was at the doorstep of Jayant Mirvankar. I knocked the door with some fear of meeting a Punekar.

I entered the house. There was something different about that house. The house was clean, with "Gondavalekar Maharaj" overlooking you from the left and curtains on the right hiding the kitchen and bedroom from outsiders. Though the flat was located in the midst of honking pune traffic, there was a sense of calmness about that place. Jayant came from one of the rooms to greet me with his wife following him and guiding him when need arises. He does not need support or guidance all through as he has been independent all his life and his wife knows this very well and offers help only when he absolutely needs it.

I was sitting in the living room thinking what I should expect. I knew it would be a typical talk like I have had earlier with many match makers. They would look at the "Patrika" and tell me which planets are suited and which are not and conclude whether I should take steps further up towards marrying the girl whose Patrika I had given.

Jayant was a busy man, he had only 15 minutes for me. from 7:30 to 7:45. So he came directly to the point and asked me for both the "Patrikas". As his wife read out both the patrikas to him, I could see him listening intently and asking her to read it again whenever needed. Probably he was making an image of the patrika in his mind as his wife read out the patrika to him. I was continuously staring at the couple with a "That's awesome" expression lit up all over my face.

We are in so much distress and pain, always complaining about small things we don't have in life. "I need car", "I need a Promotion", "I dont like the work here", "I am frustrated with the traffic in Pune", however here was a person who did not have one of the most important organs with him and was the happiest person, happier than all of us who had all we need in life and still crying about things we did not have.

By the time he finished and gave me advice that I should not marry the girl. I found his advice very practical. He said "Patrika is not a final verdict, it is just a probability of how well your life will be with that girl as your partner". So according to him though we should believe in the patrika's verdict, we should not be obsessed with it to such an extent that we ruin our lives. This was the first time that I heard a very logical view about match making.

I learnt a lot in this first visit of mine. Though I was a little sympathetic about Jayant, my respect for him was far more than the sympathy and he surely did not require any sympathy from anybody. Wonderful human being, brave, practical and logical person is what I had concluded of him. I did not knew then that I will be meeting Jayant many a time in the future to come.

Stay tuned for the parts to come....

Kebab's in the haddi's...

What do you say when you find a "Haddi" in a "kebab"?. Did you say "Kebab mein Haddi"??. No, it is in reality Ankita (My saali) in between Pranav and Amita.

My saali is a self declared "Go by my terms" person. She thinks she can do anything in this world while simultaneously asking her brother to pull a chair for her as she cannot pull it.

This incident took place on the first day when more than us our parents thought that I and Amita were perfect for each other.  So we were in Ponda for the marriage registration. All went well, I looked at Amita and the reaction came back, though with some hesitation. Our names were bonded together. Amita shikerkar was not Amita Paranjape on paper.

On this wonderful occasion our parents thought it would be best to take lord ganapati's blessings. We were the old generation types, hence though we wanted to be alone and together for some time, we did not indicate it. Our parents asked us to go to the Farmagudi Ganapati temple. I was happy as I would get some quality time with my "to be". Also, I had bought her some gifts from Pune. It would have been the perfect time when I could give it to her and see her reaction. I already had some thoughts as to what I would ask her, and what she would ask me, we both would then catch each other's hands for the first time and like a typical Bollywood movie might even circle around the banyan tree at the GEC ground before returning the new addition in the paranjape's, temporarily to the shikerkar's.

I had not heard of cold mentalism then, otherwise I would have not even thought of such good things. This is exactly what happened, Ankita could read my thoughts and she exactly knew what to do.
She called out Amita with her thin, shivering voice.."Aaaamiiiiiitaaaa", with some vital vibrations in the tone.

She wanted to come and hence she influenced Amita's mind so that Amita started asking her to accompany us along. I thought please "No...No....No"...This is supposed to be our time, only you and me. This was my second mistake, she read these thoughts too.

I was a good boy, how could I ask Ankita to not come, that would have been such a bad impression and I could not afford making my first impression my last impression.

That's it. I had to give up. I could see my Bollywood dreams being crushed. I could not do much other than posing a wide smile on my face and welcoming my one and only saaliji in the car. Saaliji obliged and I had to forget all my dreams.

This was just the first incident, I did not know this would happen many a time in future, so much so that she would be with us in Pune. Let me stop writing now....I can hear her call with her amazing voice calling "Aaaaamiiiiiiitaaa" with some shiver and yes vital vibrations in it..

My Adventures with Amita - The Shivaji Returns

I and Amita were speaking for quite sometime now and hence we had the urge of understanding each other as much as possible before we get into the act of getting married or what is called the knot for life. We knew it won't be all that easy because the so called generation gap comes in the way. We are not supposed to meet often before marriage is what our parents would have told us.
We both did not want to lie our parents, hence we decided that we wont tell the truth at all. I know this is something of an oxymoron, but that's how we decided especially to make ourselves comfortable with each other. Amita was a little reluctant about this initially, however her sister Ankita had a big role to play here in convincing her that there is nothing wrong in what we are doing.

So here we were already planning for another chori after a successfully one few months earlier. It was Ganesh chaturthi time when we decided to meet. Being Ganesh Chaturthi in the house it is not easy to even get out of the house and we both would have to answer a lot of questions posed to us at our respective native places. It was here that I understood the truth that while speaking a lie we have got to be far more careful and alert as compared to when we speak the truth. When speaking the truth you say the same thing always, however when you bluff you need to careful not to speak a different version of the same thing each time.

As per our plan we were supposed to meet on the evening of 3rd day of Ganesh Chaturthi, however we did not know that the small puppy (depicting the vodafone network) would have a major part to play in not allowing us to meet. We all were in the festive mood and I was trying to contact Amita whose name I had saved as "Vibhav" to make sure I am safe from my tech savvy cousins. I told home that Vibhav had called me at his place for Ganesh Chaturthi and that I cannot miss it as he was calling me for past quite a few years.

I took up the phone to call up Vibhav (Yes Yes I know you as readers would not tell anybody and there is no reason for me to write "Vibhav" here, however I am of the no risk types) and god help me; I was not able to contact her as the puppy had decided it wont even go close to "Keri" the village where Amita was enjoying the Ganesh Festival. I got a little panicky now as I wanted to meet Vibhav at any cost this Ganesh chaturthi and until vibhav receives my phone I can't do a thing. I was getting a little restless now and trying all the more harder just to see if my persistence compels the puppy to reach "Keri". I was helpless and the restlessness was not helping my cause. I tried contacting Vibhav repeatedly with no luck. I knew Amita also would have been equally panicky as she was in a similar state and was not able to contact me. Now it got late in the evening around 5:00 PM and I told home that my meeting with Vibhav had cancelled and that I might meet her (Oh Shit!!) tomorrow. Luckily nobody realised it or even if somebody realised nobody took it seriously. And then suddenly my phone rang. The name said "Vibhav". Though I had already cancelled the plan, we could for sure meet the next day early morning.

Yes, It was Amita and she was gasping for breath while speaking. I asked whats the matter and she said "I fought with my mother to come here where I get range so that I could speak to you". I could imagine the way she might have had her way out from the joint family of around 40 odd old and Young. She had come with as she was concerned that I might not travel all the way to Ponda per our plan. I thought, was I a little too pragmatic? Would it have been better if I had gone. I brushed the thought aside and answered her. I said "Don't worry.... I am at Panaji and we will meet tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM.". Now, as per our new plan we were to meet the next morning at 10:00 AM.
The next morning I woke up as early as possible or rather can I say sleep was elusive to me? I prayed to Ganapati Bappa and told him my plans. It was only he who could make this possible hassle free. However, As I have written in my previous blogs there are very few things in my life that happen smoothly.

I reached Ponda at around 10:15 AM. I called her from the Bus stand to check her status. She said that she was ready and asked me to come to her home as nobody were present at the house except for her and Ankita, Her sister. However, I still thought to avoid inconvenient situations it would be better that I don't go to her house right away. I stopped close to her house and called her back to ensure that all was safe and sound. She confidently invited me in. I parked the bike at some distance and entered the house in a careful manner.

Until she got ready I thought I will sit on the sofa outside. Girls take time forever to get ready. God must have added this in every girls configuration file that they should keep whoever waiting for at least 1o minutes. I was served some delicious ice cream in the freeze, how romantic!!!! Her sister was in her "Leg pulling" best not giving up a single opportunity to see me on my face in front of Amita. Perhaps all "Sali's" are like this.

When all this romance was in its prime, with me concentrating on the ice cream and pretending that I loved it, we heard a knock on the door. I was startled.... who could it be, I thought my helmet and sandals were outside, what if her father was in. This badly reminded me of Murphy, "The thing you think will never happen always happens". It was her father, I could read on Amita's face, she was all red. I was in an awkward situation trying to save my reputation and impression. What would my father in law think of me? If I was some Mark richardson from USA and if Amita was some Michelle bush, we would have not worried and I myself would have opened the door with me kissing Amita. But at the moment, I was Pranav Paranjape and she was Amita Shikerkar from conservative families!! which prmpted me and the best reaction I could give at that time was ask Ankita, her sister for help. She almost instantaneously read my face and took me by my hand in the room inside which has a back door. For the first time in my life I hated the flat system. What if this was a 1 BHK flat? I would have been flat on the nose under a bed or may be a cupboard. I followed Ankita with desperation on to the back door. While running in desperation on the way I also made a foot print in the wet mud. I said "wow, my legs are mighty Big!!!". It wont surprise me if somebody is scared by it. Me and Ankita patiently waited to listen to the conversation inside that might go on so that we get clues on how to act further.

Amita opened the door nervously to check out whats the matter. Luckily my Father In law did not notice the helmet and the sandal outside. He came in hurriedly as though searching for somebody. Me and Ankita were having an ear on the conversation.
Dad asked, "Amita, why are you behaving a little weird?".

Amita, "No baba, I am fine".

Dad, "Okay, give me a glass of water....And where is Ankita??"

Amita all the more nervous, "Must be having bath....or may be outside, or might be in college...donnnnnnt know"

Dad, "Today is Saturday Amita, what college. Why are you shivering??"

Amita, "No baba, just I was working a little so might be I am a little tired".

Now, dad coming towards the backdoor, "Why is this door open?".

Amita came in hurriedly saying, "Dont you worry baba, I will close it".

Dad, "Okay fine...I am going to Margaon now and will return in the evening, I have told Umma also... You and Ankita go to Keri...We have Ganesh Chaturthi there and what are you two doing here??".




Amita, By now had gotten a little more calm "Yes baba....Jato na....You go cautiously".

The storm went the way it had come, very fast.
At that moment I had a thought, what if baba had seen me? I imagined him to be Shivaji and myself "Shahiste khan", the mughal king.
The moment he sees me he would have said,"Mere kille par tum kya kar rahe ho Shahiste Khan".
Since I am the duplicate Shahiste Khan I would have said in a little sober manner, "Kuch nahi Shivaji, Muzhe tumhara killa nahi chaiye....sirf tumhari ladki se muzhe pyar hain aur main use ghumane lekar jana chahta hoon"

Shivaji, "Is tarah se chori se ghar mein anaa, kya ye aap jaise mughal rajaa ko shobha deta hain.....Chale jao mere nazron ke samne se warna yahaan anarth ho jayega".


Shahiste Khan, thats me, borrowing some bravery, "Nahi toh Kya Shivaji?? Pyar karna koi gunah toh nahi!! Kya Majnu ne koi gunah kiya, kya heer ne....."

Before I could complete, Shivaji with the naked Talwar in his hand "Shahiste Khaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!" and runs on me.

I try to save my hand, however while I was taking a turn while going from the back door, he cuts my fingers, I came back from my dreams.
I was still outside with Ankita and cool as well, enjoying the lovely breeze coming from the midst of a few banana trees with no Bananas on it. Somehow, I was feeling safe outside, could be because of sportsman personality which gives me the confidence that I can run any distance with ease and without anyone noticing me, or it could be because Ankita who was at peace brought about a sense of calm to the environment.
My god! though this was very much fun, at that moment it felt like I was looking down the barrel. I could not ask Ganapati Bappa also for help, he would have said, "Every time you have me drowned and that too dancing all the way until the lake, now it is my turn to take revenge".

All went well later, me and Amita had a nice 2 hours time in Ponda at naturals though Amita was shivering. I was not sure if this was because she was still scared or because we ate an ice cream. All is well that ends well! I had somehow managed to save my reputation and impression.

Moral of the story: Never enter your girls house chori chori even if she insists. Because a girls confidence is a simple indication that she is not confident!!!

My Adventures with Amita - First Crazy Moments

If you need to know what you mean by edgy you can refer my life. I was born at the end of July i.e. July 25th, I was not 5 years (The age required to get admission in June) on June 1988, however I got admission on the edge. While playing cricket my best shot was edging through the slips, I slept on the edge of the bed and many a times making it to the ground. I got both my 12th and engineering admissions on the edge with just enough percentage to make it. I became a BE on the edge by clearing in the Final Semester the only back paper the murderous, "Theory of Machines". In short, it has always been on the edge and I was very much sure that it is going to remain the same in the years to come.

Though I was never crazy all along my life, somehow crazy things happened to me. I knew if I kind of believe that I can get crazy, the things would go out of hand and had become vigorously pathetic rather than funny. With this background, I was told that I am going to get married to this particular girl, whom I had met only once and that too when all the white haired people were around. Like an obedient boy and as I am not a maverick by nature agreed to it. I was as if in a river which takes you only to the sea, you cant come back to the mountains. As all engaged and committed fellows tend to do, we both exchanged phone numbers, started speaking in order make ourselves comfortable with each other and also get to know more about each others behavior. We instantly understood that our frequencies matched to quite a good extent with all the typical feelings of being in love hovering over us. We spoke well on phone and understood and complimented each other well or can I say in software terms we both were "compatible". However, I still could not imagine myself spending my whole subsequent life with her. I suppose this feeling reciprocated as we both were sailing in the same boat.

She said, "Pranav, speaking on phone and being in person with each other are two completely different things". She was actually speaking my mind out.

I said "Yes, that's correct. We are comfortable speaking with each other, however I am not sure if I will be equally comfortable when I am standing in front or besides you".

We had to come to a solution soon as we had only 8 months ahead of us before we get married. And here is when our idea of meeting each other developed. Now the big question, will our parents or even if they agree, the so called thinking hats around them agree?. Hence, we decided that we meet for the first time without our parents having the slightest idea of it. We spoke until around 11:30PM that night with all plans ready for our first chori chori the next morning.

First crazy moments
I told my parents that I was going to meet my friends in Ponda as I am to treat them with some breakfast. She as usual left home saying that she is leaving for office.

We met for the first time early in the morning at 9:30 AM. I had come by bus and hence was waiting at our decided place for her. She came with her nice little two wheeler. I could not believe my eyes. I was actually here, seeing her. I pinched myself hard a couple of times until she almost dashed on to me with her Hero Honda Pleasure and I was compelled to take some breath and avoid myself looking foolish in front of her. After all somebody has said, first impression is the last impression.

I asked her to continue driving with me enjoying the seat behind which allowed me the opportunity to experience the fresh aroma of the shampoo she used. Whichever shampoo it may be it was good and for the first time, I enjoyed sitting behind a girl on a scooter. This in reality meant I was inviting risks of my life, however I was prepared to take that risk to experience her uneasiness while driving, caressing her hand through the hair without any reason and yes just sitting idle.

She might also have so many things going through her mind that once she bumped me in the air over a speed breaker and apologising instantly. I did not hear the apologies and was more interested in seeing her nervous face in the mirror at that point. It was our first date together and everything around had a different feeling to it. The hot sun in May seemed like ordering some of his rays to protect us from sunlight, the breeze used all his might to make us feel comfortable like never before, the bike engine sounded like a musician playing his best notes to make us feel romantic. Everything was so beautiful.

We went to the college and had a nice time together speaking about all the things we could not speak, rather when we were together, we had very little things to speak as our body did all the talking as we just sat without speaking a word. It was the best time I could have had on a hot May morning.More to come. We had many more chori choris further and all those were not as smooth as this one and we had a hard time making those happen without anybody interrupting us. It was fun in any case and I am sure you as readers will love reading it.

Theory of Murdering - Part3 - Concluding Part

I could not keep cursing my past for long. Thats another thing that an engineering college teaches you. Don't waste much time mourning on your past because without even you realising it, your present will turn into past soon as the back papers are fast approaching and you need to study for them besides the current semester.

I had started studying again for the theory of machines or in my context theory of murdering as it was virtually murdering me with its cruel stress/forces and torques. This time I wanted to keep no stone unturned and I understood that this was my last attempt or else I will have to loose six months. I started evaluating my last appearances to that same paper and noted down a few mistakes that I might be doing. Systematically coming up with points that made me falter three times did help a lot and this time I felt far more comfortable, confident and self-assured about myself as far as clearing the subject was concerned, that has been haunting for the past four semesters.

8th semester is usually a time when everybody concentrates on their own projects, however, I was compelled to concentrate on this trecherous subject. I studied day and night, I had the whole syllabus on the tip of my tongue and my mind continuously thought about the forces that I might encounter in the examination paper. My finger automatically revolved in conjunction with my thinking to analyse the forces acting on a car when it took a right turn and they went up and down like a pendulum to understand the stresses that might be faced by a cantilever. I had solved almost all the question papers of the past 10 years and Khurmi (The author of the book we referred) had a surrenderred look and pleaded me not to open him again for the 15004th time.

Finally, the day for the fight appeared. My most dreaded enemy was already in the examination hall, the question papers for the theory of machines paper. Like a skilled worksman, I entered the hall confidently, since I had answered quite a few back papers I could guide or rather console many of the first time answerers. The time when you sit on the desk until you get the question paper is the most scary time. You feel like a Father waiting outside the operation theatre while your wife is being delivered. You are tensed, anxious and happy, all at the same time. I was in a similar situation, not knowing what to expect in the question paper. Finally the questions were in my hand. I started writing the question paper, I had the paper easy and completed it well in advance of the stipulated time. I still did not have the courage to exit the examination hall prior to the time and I checked and rechecked the whole paper a couple of times before the final bell rang.

I had answered the exam well and again I seemed confident of clearing the subject easily. Though I looked happy, something in my mind said, "So you were also confident in all of the earlier attempts, but still you had failed, you had failed, you had failed!!!" and mind you this voice somehow also had the fading effect. I shrugged off the bad thoughts and got back to studies as I had to answer the 8th semester exam in a few days time.
I could relate the quote from "Prestige" movie in here:
"Every great Examination consists of three parts, The first part is called "The Pledge". The student has the books and reference and all ordinary things. He studies the books with utmost interest with the expectation that it will appear in the exam... it probably isn't appearing. The second act is called "The Turn". The student takes all the ordinary knowledge he learnt from the books to the examination hall and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the question that you have studied... you find it, answer it well, but you wont clap for yourself as of yet..... Because answering a examination paper isn't enough; you have to show the results. That's why every examination has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige".

Exactly, now it was the third part that I had to be successful in, "The Prestige". It was result time. We tend to get tensed when the results are out, Though we all are aware that getting tensed now, is just greying another hair in your head. I had done all things correct until now, now I just hoped that this thing turns out right. I was waiting outside the academic section along with many other students who were as well keen to know their own results. I am sure, however, that none of them would have been as anxious as me. When we all were waiting patiently for the academic section to open, one of the students got a newspaper which had the results declared. We all plunged on it like hungry lions. When I got my turn I carassed through the numbers impatiently. My number was 32. I could see a 31, 34 as well. However 32 was nowhere to be seen. I was dumped again. I could not believe my fate this time, my feet went numb, my eyes got red, my nervous system failed to respond. I felt like a junk, rusted metal of no use who was on earth only to waste parents money and fail in subjects like Theory of Machines. I still stood there patiently with no expressions on my face only to see whether I have done any improvement as compared to 31 marks I had achieved last time. Simultaneously, I also searched for another person from my batch who had failed so that we can share our sorrows with each other.

The academic section opened, all the students rushed in, I had an un-interested look on my face by now and waited patiently until the academic section got empty and I had loads of time to look at the marks. I checked the 32 number, as expected it showed "Failed", drilling down to the marks displayed nothing and said that I was absent for the exam. I was in double shock now, how could this happen, I had written the exam, rechecked the answers twice and now this results say I was absent for the exam. I said lets check again properly with a cool head from the start. The name that was displayed against the 32 number was "Pritam singh junewalia", for a moment I was shocked for the 3rd time as to how come university also printed my name wrong on the results sheet, before I realised that my seat number was 34 and not 32. I checked 34 and what a relief I had passed and with flambouyant marks of 53. I verified atleast a 10 times before I went out
dancing like a galileo, only difference was I wasn't naked. I called home and cried before declaring that I had saved 6 months of my career and finally the studies and trouble taken before the exams had paid off.

Finally, I had managed engineering in 4 years. All is well that ends well!!

Theory of Murdering - Part2

I was wrong! Totally wrong! Pathetically wrong! I had failed in the Theory of Machines subject again in the back papers and also had got one back in the 6th semesters. How can that happen. I could find drastic similarities in my feelings and feelings when any Bollywood heroine says "Mein tumhare bacche ki maa banne wali hoon...Tum Mere sath aisa kaise kar sakte ho..Nahhhhiiiiii!!!!".

However, the feeling disappears as soon as you go away from the academic section, the place where the results are put. This is another speciality of being in an Engineering college, after getting backs all these years you get accustomed to it to such an extent that, it does not affect you for more than 10 minutes. I assured myself, it is not the end of world here, I will try again next time and will clear it with good marks consequently increasing my aggregate percentage. It was an opportunity for me to increase my aggregate percentage. This is one of the methods I used all my engineering years to keep my self positive and optimistic among the hard fought competition around me.

In my opinion, the time in an engineering college is a mix of reality and innocence. On one hand, we are very much aware that there is a bad bad world outside waiting to try and crush us. We need to fight against it in order to survive. On the other hand, we have great friends with whom we hang out, laugh, have fun, though we know that these are all our fellow competitors with whom we have to play the rat race in order to come on top and taste success. Though we had shallow pockets we were the happiest humans on earth. We slept in rooms where nasty smells came in from the nearby stinky toilets; We believed that the single bed were meant for at least 3 persons; we were great fans of Maneka Gandhi and had dogs, cats and rats sleeping besides us in the same room. It was fun, just pure fun, it is here we understood that, money or any material things do not bring in such pure, pristine, uncorrupted happiness, we enjoyed during the engineering college days.

Here I was back again enjoying the college days. I had already forgot about the "Theory of Machines" subject which has been haunting me. However, as the saying rightly mentions - "The only thing constant in this world is change". I had to study "Theory of machines" for the third time now, besides the 6th semester back papers and the subjects from the 7th semester which added to the frustration I already had.
I went to the examination hall confidently. I was very much sure that now it is impossible for me to fail again. I knew about the subject to such an extent that I could have probably taught the professor himself with ease. He could have taken tuition's from me on how to teach that subject and references of the different difficult problems present on the subject. I had referred to most books available on the subject in the library and I was in a state of extreme confidence.

However, I could not believe my fate when I failed in the subject for the third time again though I had cleared the seventh semester with good marks. This time the theory of machines subject had gotten to my nerves, how can I fail in the same subject for three times when i had studied my heart out to clear this subject? I was unable to understand where I had gone wrong and this was a great concern. You can rectify your mistakes if you know what and where the mistake is. My state was like a drunkard who had the habit of falling into the same "nullah" everyday irrespective of whether he is drunk or not. Similarly I failed every time in the same subject no matter how more or less I studied.

So here I was in a desperate position when I had to clear theory of machines in the next attempt or I would have to loose 6 precious months of my career. Though I was not depressed, I was for sure concerned about my future.

Stay tuned for the last and most important part of the series.

Learning life from Business Management

In my opinion, managing a business and managing your personal life has striking similarities. Managing the business efficiently will provide you monetory benefits, while managing your personal life effectively will give you internal peace and respect.

When any business is new, it is unstable, fresh with innovative ideas, trying to learn from the environment, market. Explore as much as possible and finally creates a niche of its own. In this process, it has a particular aim to make it big. When it grows to such an extent that one person cannot handle it, we create a hierarchy structure and many stake holders are involved in order to sustain the growth of the organisation. Now to make this business a success, we need good managerial and organisational skills.

Now, if we apply a similar theory to our personal lives and metamorphose ourselves as an organisation, I find that we again need the same good managerial and organisational skills in order to sustain the personal growth. The growth could be quantitative in terms of the amount of relationships we add to our life and also on achievement basis, the new milestones we achieve on this path to make it big.

When we are born we are an organisation that is created and we try to explore, learn, innovate and keep ourselves always open to new things. Here we are a company of just four entities, ourselves, mother, father and siblings. We love each one present in the company at this moment because we know that each one here wants to make this organisation big and does everything possible to achieve and fulfill the wants of the company even if it means sacrificing some of the personal pleasures. Here the organisation tends to be selfish and they are worried only about their own self.
When our organisation grows a little, we hand over contracts to a few vendors like school, college and other institutions to fulfill our desire to gain more information and train us intellectually. It is in this phase that we have another entity in the organisation called friends. In the form of teachers, We have people who have been given the responsibility of nurturing the organisation in the correct direction and has correct processes or in the words the right moral values. The organisation learns that to be successful we have got to share, we cannot remain just selfish. This is also the place where we recruit friends. We recruit them very meticulously by focusing whether he/she will meet the requirements of the organisation. We check whether he/she understands the policies, processes and overall conduct to be maintained or in other words whether he/she understands you and whether he will be there in time of crisis. These recruits either stay or leave the organisation, we also layoff some of them. It is very important for the sake of wellness of the organisation that we take the correct uninfluenced, impartial decisions. We also experience many good and bad incidents which teach us life.

By the time we are done with the education, we realise that not all people that we have recruited are loyal to the organisation. We now understand that only the people loyal to the organisation remain in touch with you, others come and go, there is no point in forcing them to stay in the organisation by displaying your wealth.

When we take up a job, another entity called colleagues join our organisation. These are like shareholders of your organisation. They invest in you and are concerned about your well being. However, most of them are concerned only with the returns. What is that they can obtain from you, if they invest in you. What will be return on investment. Hence, it does not make a difference to most of them whether you remain in the right state or no, they are only concerned about their returns. Once they get their dividends on time, they are not bothered about the state of the organisation.

Having said all the things above, the most important thing in any organisation is that it has its top management happy and keeping them happy keeps the organisation in the best shape. Similarly, it is important to keep our parents happy, so that our organisation touches new heights and we remain happy throughout our life!

Theory of Murdering - Part 1

It can be really frustrating and sometimes make you feel useless, hopeless, good for nothing, pathetic and all the different negative adjectives that you can use for yourselves. I went through a similar situation when I was in my 5th semester of Engineering and the spread of this experience went upto the final semester. As Rashmi Bansal (the author of stay Hungry, stay foolish) says, this could be a dot in my life which was required to be connected in order to make a broader picture/image of your life.

I was in my 5th semester and surprisingly I did not have a single back and hence was very much enjoying my stay in the hostel as I had to answer only 6 papers and not 7 or 8 unlike previous 4 semesters. I was on top of the world and pretty much saying to myself, "If I can clear 7 or 8 papers at a time, this just 6 papers should be a walk on cake". However, thats when engineering challenged me unknowingly, "I will ensure that you have atleast one back paper to answer from now on". Unaware of this situation, I was having fun in the hostel and as such thought myself to be a good engineer.

Just one month to go for the 5th semester and as usual we had not even started to think about exams. This is another feature when you stay in GEC hostel, though you are aware that it is high time for you to start studying for the semester exams, you somehow start becoming a philosopher and suddenly turn into a saint saying "yeh toh sab maya jaal hain, padh ke kya hoga...akhir toh marna hi hain, chalo jara bahar hare bhare saundarya ka anand lootte hain, taki hum moksha pa sake". And when we realise that if we do not come into our own we will fail, it is already time when we have got to make calculations so as to study in order to give ourselves atleast 35 marks.

So here I was just 15 days to go for the semester and I was still busy writing and completing term works. The semester came and went and the result overall was pathetic, out of the total 42 students only 10 passed and obviously I could not ven think of passing. I had two backs, both rather very surprising ones. One of them "Theory of Machines" and " Machine Technology". Thats how it is, the unexpected always happens and when you are still cursing the professor who gave you less marks, the back paper exams are already ejecting their heads out.

I knew I would for sure clear out both the papers as I was very much prepared for both, besides we had excellent professors who taught us this subject. Especially the "Theory of Machines" subject is the one that I loved conceptually. It had the overturning couple that explained the theory that went behind designing the right weight/height ratio for a car. It also had a separate module explaining vibrations and forces that affect a particular machine. Hence I did not consider it that seriously and took the subjects from 6th semester seriously.

However as mentioned earlier, my life had challenged me which I was still not aware. Lot of tortures to come in my subsequent engineering days!!! I am sure you all readers are sadiest and will love reading the troubles that I had. Stay tuned.

7 friends in Bangalore - Part6 - Concluding Part

The best thing about being a student is that you dont have to worry about the consequences of not joining the college in time. And so were we at that time, not worried about anything, all that was on our mind was roaming about, enjoying ourselves, spending the amount given to us by our parents and enjoying the freedo we got away from home.

After a mind refreshing trip to the hill stations, we were now all set for a shopping session before leaving for Goa the subsequent day. We first of all caught a lodging very close from the bus stand. The loding had a lot of similarities to the "Decent" hotel from the movie "Jab We Met". It was not a great worry to us as we needed only a shelter to hide ourselves during the night. We freshened up a little in the hotel and thought of going close by to shop around. We bought ourselves the tickets to Goa and then it was all our time to shop around. I must say Bangalore did not dissappoint us. There were so many various places, roads where we could go shopping. The most i remember is MG road and I am sure none of us will forget it.

In every city there is one MG road and it is always the most happening road with college boys and girls using their precious time to be in the most convenient positions that they could ever be. I always wondered why such happening roads are named by the great Mahatma Gandhi. I would not have taken by surprise if that road was named "Nehru road" because nehru liked children and secondly the whole country knows about his adventures with Mrs Mountbatten.

Anyways, whatever it is we i.e. Me, Atul, Nilesh and Manesh were shopping and concentrating on what we could buy that will be like a tresure with us forever. Farooq, Ketan and Sandeep considered coming on to such a happening road and shopping was a waste of time and hence kept their eyes busy and healthy. We bought a few Tshirts with Atul topping the charts. Until this time we never knew that Atul loved shopping. But this was just that start and Atul was yet to display all the different colours and shopping qualities he has in him that even a girl would envy.

Next we went to a small road which had shops on either side. It is called the Tibet street. Atul was shoppping like hell. We would have called him a kleptomaniac with the speed that he was picking each thing from there. Yes of course, we did not call him that as he was paying the amount to them. However not before using his bargaining skills such that the shopkeeper would sell the item to him with him being at loss. We had a lot to learn from his bargaining skills.

Atul's theory of reasonable shopping was "If a shopkeeper does not argue, it means he is selling you at an unreasonable price". So the degree to which he got a item at reasonable price (or the buying satisfaction) is directly proportional to the amount of time spent in arguing with the shopkeeper irrespective of the quality of the buy. With this theory making his shopping foundations, we went in a shoe shop as Atul wanted shoes to wear in the interviews soon to start. The shopkeeper was quite a friendly man and I thought he would show us exactly the shoes we wanted and we could scamper out on to another shop. But I forgot that Atul also had another shopping theory of best buying. According to him "If you want the best, check the rest" and the most sad thing was that he applied this theory in the shoe shop. The shopkeeper was patiently showing him all his collection one by one and Atul would respectfully get them aside. I thought, Lalu might stop eating "Chara", a British might stop cursing the Indians, Karan Johar might become straight, however i had lost the hope that Atul would stop anytime soon.

I was already tired and thought of calling it a day for me and went to sleep. The subsequent morning I got to know that the shopping saga had ended as i coudl see all of them sleeping tight.

We had bus the same evening and decided to bid adieu to this beautiful city which gave us the experiences of our life and yes who could forget this fun for the coming years of our life!.

Truly life is like a rainbow, a combination of different colours, some bright while some light. But still the overall combination is what matters and in the end looks awesome.

7 friends in Bangalore - Part5

The "mogembo" that we initially thought had turned out to be a side hero (obviously we are the heroes in this story). We were actually enjoying the trip. I dont think we would have enjoyed it in case we had decided to go independently for a sight seeing. This was another incident of the many that I have had in my life that makes me believe on the phrase "Whatever happens is for the best". So it is always good to be happy as nothing bad can happen to you. Instead of being dejected and low spirited that we were for the first couple of days, we should have whole heartedly accepted whatever was happening since we had no control on the skim of things. That would have made our life easier and our trip more pleasing, delightful and all the more fun.

Now, finally, the trip had begun to be fun and we were praising mogembo to some extent. I also had uncontrolled emotions and thought he was like a father figure to us who had terrified us only for our good. I always thought fathers were allocated, by god, the work of terrifying their children. I kept the thoughts to myself with the fear of being killed by the persons whom I called friends.

Our next destination was Ooty, a famous hill station known for its picturesque beauty. Also known for its sever cold in winter which we had already started experiencing. We reached our hotel at around 9:00 PM. We were not surprised when we did not see a cieling fan. We were rather cursing the anatomical features of our respiratory system which blowed out air. The temperature was in minus and we with our nasty minds planned to experience the chill outside after freshning up a little. We went out that night with the aim of shopping a little besides also having some experience of ooty as a city. We were not dissappointed. Lot of shops, shopping complexes besides a small sweet garden as well. Also having boiling tea in the the chill is fun. We did some shopping Sandeep bought a jacket in the intention of saving himself from cold and also gifting it to his father when he is back home. This is called "Ek tir se do nishan".
The next day were the destinations Kodaikannal and Kunnur. Another awesome hillstations with beautiful views. If you remember the song from the movie Raja Hindustani, pardesi pardesi, that was shot here.

In all, these few hillstations are known for peaceful glamorous shootings, i meant movie shootings. Our trip was coming to an end and we had to head back to Bangalore so that we can take tickets to Goa. Mind you it is not going to be that simple with shopping being the hurdle and we would stay at Bangalore for a night.

Stay tuned and you will know the shopping adventures we had together. It was fun anyways!!!

7 friends in Bangalore - Part4

We were like dolls at the hands of the mogembo. Distressed, dejected, low-spirited and helpless. He had already taken the whole amount and we were fully in his trap and there was nothing we could do. We fully understood that only a Mangal Pandey could revolt against him and hence we relied upon our destiny to save us. We now only hoped that this villain does not extract our organs by killing us and sell them to some sheikh in Dubai. If he happens to think so, I was sure that he would have killed me first in the greed of getting 4 kidneys. Farooq would have been the last person to get killed or rather i would say he would not have been killed because he would have already made a lot of money by killing me and atul.


Enjoying the trip was the last thought that came to our mind. We were already shocked by the way our trip was progressing. The rational part at the topmost region of our body had gone dumb and we were behaving as robots in the mogembo's hand. Suddenly a new voice cropped up "Go and sit in the bus. The blue bus. Jaldi jakar baitho time nahi hain". I wondered if it was my conscience. Soon realised that it was Mogembo's assistant. We boarded the bus and were about to sit on the seat available on the first row. The assistant shouted "Nahi wahaan nahi. You have to sit behind on the last 7 seats". Again our Jacky chang Nilesh protested, "what do you mean?...we also have paid the same amount as others". The assistant was well trained by mogembo and hit back at us saying "If you demand or command you wont get. Go to the last seats. do not demand or command". We like programmed robots sat on the last seats as per the order given by our master. Anyways, we did not have the habit of sitting on the front rows. Only Carl Costa dared to sit exactly below Prof. Amonkar's nose.

The bus started and we were on our way to mysore our first sight seeing destination. We were slowly getting into the groove now and though we thought the villain to be mogembo, our perception about him was changing as the bus was in good condition besides the guide provided on the bus as well had good knowledge about the places in karnataka. We had started enjoying the trip and were having fun by playing some witty games. By this i mean doing "Foktepana", mind you doing foktepana requires quite a good amount of energy and brains. Manesh as usual was at his best doing it. We also played Antakshari in the bus. After around 3 hours of journey we were at the beautiful city of palaces.

Huge palaces and gardens all around the city. Mysore boasts itself of great history of maharaja's and their rich hobbies. The vrindavan garden was what we were looking upto as we had heard about it a lot for good things like light dance. Sandeep had already started imagining all naughty things when Manesh told him that Vrindavan garden has a light dance. However, soon after Manesh clarified that it is just water fountains and bright lights dancing together. I could understand Sandeep's grief at that point. We reached Vrindavan gardens at around 6:15 in the evening and we were told to return to the bus in half an hour as we had to travel a good distance before we reach our hotel. We all prayed and our god was Michael johnson, jesse owens and also PT Usha as we had to almost sprint to win the race against time. We also wanted to see the water dance and return back to the bus in half an hour.

Ready steady go. Off we go with a bang. we also compelled the sweet looking couples usually in their comfortable and convenient positions engrossed in their so called future plans, to give us an expression and they obliged. We were running like galileo in the garden except that we were not naked. We jumped, jaggled, banged with our aim just one, Vrindavan water fountain dance. It was suppose to start at 6:30 and we had just 15 minutes to cover the distance which was around 6 kms. Ketan's mathematical mind had already started to make the calculations. He declared we have to cover a kilometer in 2.5 minutes in order to get there in 15 minutes. Now how on earth are we going to measure time and distance was each ones headache. Persons like me not very good at calculating thought I should run as hard as possible. The flowers in the way were clapping, the leaves appreciating our determination, the concrete under our foot giving us the support to indeed cover that distance in record time. We were still 2 kms away and Manesh suddenly realised he also had a camera to capture these moments. Except for Atul nobody was in mood to click, however as if it was our respectful duty we all stood creatures in a hurry. Finally we could see the finish line and a incharge there told us that there are still a few minutes to start the water dance. Nilesh also had his hands raised to acnowledge his fan following in the stands before me reminding him that we were here to see the vrindavan garden and not 100 mtrs sprint.

Yes we had done it and we were about to witness the water fountain dance, the lights had started and music which consisted mostly of string instruments. It was an amazing sight, with all different colours and water fountain dancing on the tone of the music. We relaxed for the first time since our disastrous trip started. The music playing its part and lively colours as if asking us to forget the bad things that have happened because after a black colour there is a white colour and then a green colour and then a yellow. After a soothing stress free session at the gardens it was time for us to return back to the bus and we now had just 10 mins remaining to reach the bus. Ketan was attempting to make another calculation before he realised that we all had already started running. We were back by the same way, over the bridge and in the bus at the right time.

Such a trip to Vrindavan garden was one of its kind and this can be done only with friends together!!! Rocking experience Long live Lee Family.

Stay tuned for the Ooty experience in my next blog. The chilly december climate is awaiting us.

7 friends in Bangalore - Part3

We woke up early the next morning excited about visiting the youngest city in India. We were all set to visit some good views (not girls....I actually meant views). We had a different kind of feeling on that first morning on our first visit outside Goa. A little tensed, a little afraid, somewhat excited and many such feelings coming together and filling our minds with so many different thoughts at the same time.

I am always amazed by the capabilities of our mind, how can it handle all different feelings simultaneously and we now in the cyber world speak about multi threading and such concepts in a tech saavy manner as if we were working on a world changing project. In the haste of admiring all the technically complex things around us, We forget to admire the most beautiful, complex but easy and the most configurable thing manufactured and evolved on this earth - the Human being. Truely a wonder produced by God.

With all this going through our mind we were totally unaware of what was going on outside our rooms in the hotel. We heard a knock on our door. It was Nandu again with his smiling face. We were not staying in an Ashram where Nandu was the head saint and hence we promptly came to a conclusion that he had come to our rooms to gain something. He said to Manesh "Kya sahab...Neend kaisi rahi?". Manesh was quite impressed and happy with Nandu as he had brought us to such an nice place at very reasonable rates. Manesh replied "Bohot achee neend ayee..." and then turning to us said "Goyan sudha itli bari nhid yena mare". Nobody was interested as we all were engrossed in getting ready. Manesh realizing that his joke was not good to attract anyone of us, turned back to Nandu. Nandu said "Sahab, be ready at 9:00 AM as our bus is leaving at 9:00". With this sentence we all except Farooq turned around with double respect for Manesh, as we never knew he had also arranged an Bus for us. We all thought "He surely possesses great organisational skills". We were standing besides the next Dhirubhai ambani. Looking at each of us faces he shrugged and asked Nandu "Which bus, what bus....Humne koi bus nahi bulayee...hum apne aapse ghumne jayenge" to which Nandu prompty replied "You cant do that sir, Speak to our boss". All of a sudden Dhirubhai Ambani had disappeared and Manesh fokto had taken its place. We all along with Manesh went out of the rooms to have a conversation with his so called boss. I felt this getting scripted like a movie scene where we are being called by a boss from some mafia who had kidnapped our heroines. I was expecting a final fighting after which we walk out of the hotels with heroines by our side.

But this was not to happen, the boss did not look like a gabbar singh or a mogembo who will require a Dharmendra or a Mr India with special powers to fight against. He looked more like Prem chopra or a shakti kapoor who loose against the meagre heroes as well. We were relieved a little and thought lets see what he has to say.

The boss started. "Look boys, I am the owner of National travels and our bus is leaving at 9:00 and offering you a package tour to Bangalore, Mysore, ooty, kunnur and kodaikanal. Just 1000 is what you need to pay for this tour of 4 days. This proce will include everything i.e. Bus and staying in hotels".
Manesh interrupted "Wait a second Mr. We do not need your package tour and are happy travelling on our own. So please...thanks."
The boss was enraged "This is a very reasonable deal that i am giving you and very cheap as well. You will get to see.....".
Manesh interrupted a little sternly this time, "Thats fine, however we do not require your services, we are fine with moving around on our own...."
The boss this time turned red in anger, the redish tint seen even on his dark coal colour face. He said "Zhant....salo tum kya samazte ho....ye jo maine tum logon ko saste mein hotel diya hain woh kya aisehi hi diya hain....Tum log yahaan mazein mein reh rahe ho...rickshaw bhi free di...woh kya tumhe akele apne aap ghumne ke liye....Tum log muzhe nahi jante.....I can sittt here and a call will get you arrested in no time. You better go with us or else watch out...marke bharta bana dega mein"

To this we all were confused of not knowing what to do, frighted as well as a little angry and now we thought this boss only looks llike prem chopra, however is no less than a mogembo. Nilesh our jackie chan or thats what he thought himself to be, took a march towards the boss saying "Do whatever you want to...we aren't travelling with you. You cant force us..."....Our mogembo was not to be taken aback by this sudden resurge from Nilesh...he said "Okay lets see then how you get out of this hotel".

Manesh, until now quite and shocked by the events taken place, got himself to his own senses and went down to Nilesh to calm him down. After a short discussion we decided that we compromise with him such that he wins 100% and we loose 100%. So it was a 100% deal. After analysing the consequences that might take place considering that he is a localite, we thought of taking his package tour. Nilesh was not be calmed down he said in Konkani "Fonya yo re...Tuka dakhaita @#$%%". That could have again taken the situation out of hand if Manesh had not interrupted. Thats the reason why I call Nilesh a witty character. He said everything in Konkani and not in Hindi. This had two advantages ...First, All his frustration was dumped. and second, we looked upon him as the bravest among us.

So finally with all our excitement down to the X-Axis and frustration at the infinity point on Y-axis, we were in Bangalore with the mogembo gang (with no Mr India among us), getting ready for the tour with not knowing whats in more for us during this package tour.

More to come in the next blog. Keep tuned!!!!

7 friends in Bangalore - Part2

As soon as we reached Bangalore we could make out the difference in the climate. A little towards the cooler side. Until that day we were aware of a place called Mumbai which was well known for its criminal activities and since we were not in Mumbai we were quite assured that we are safe in this small IT hub of India. As soon as we got down from the bus, a man in his 40's introducing himself as Nandu approached us and offered us help. We were impressed by the Bangalore's hospitality and were very excited at the thought of exploring Bangalore.


Since we were just out of a hectic 8 hours travel, we wanted a hotel to freshen up before going out and having a great time in this sweet city of Karnataka. Again Nandu was our saviour and inquired if we wanted to hire rooms. Obviously we had seen life to such an extent that we knew he was not offering it for free and Manesh our leader took the initiative of asking him the amount we need to shell out. Being students, money was always on top of our minds and always looking and searching for ways to save it in order to enjoy the maximum extent with the minimum available wallet space.
He was prompt and said, "Dont worry about the money Sir. You will get the most reasonable lodge in Bangalore". Manesh was still adamant and wanted to know the amount. We all looked at Manesh with respect and he as well acknowledged it with a small tilt of his head. With this motivation from us Manesh was now not going to spare him until he tells the rate of the lodge.
Nandu obliged and said "Sahab sirf 250 per room and we give you a rickshaw until the hotel with you not needing to pay any extra". We discussed among ourselves and thought the price was actually less compared to what we had known about Bangalore city hotels. So we all decided that we take two rooms and pay him 500. We were happy with our achievement, giggling and laughing and thought we were not all that bad on our first trip outside Goa.

Nandu got us an Rickshaw and worth mentioning here is the thrilling auto ride we had. We forgot all the engineering concepts. It seemed like the forces we learnt in theory of machines or the stress, vibrations, couples and overturning couples we learnt were all a waste of time. The auto driver was changing the direction of the vehicle at his own will. I understand it is his vehicle, however he had forgotten that the 7 lives were not his property. Our hearts were in our throats for most of the time in the vehicle. Possibly he was planing to open a business of his own something like Essel world or something on the same lines where people pay to get frightened. I forgot I had a back in "Theory of Machines" to answer, Manesh had forgotten all his coconut making abilities I mean that he had a job in Marico. Ketan and Nilesh were the only fearless as they had closed their eyes tight and hold their fists tight. Farooq had the courage to smile sitting in that rickshaw, quite possible he had worst experiences in engineering. Atul as usual having a look on his face making me feel calm that nothing is wrong and it is just a few moments of fear and good is always on the wait after the bad. I only hoped that this good does not come in heaven. Sandeep, I am sure must have forgot that there is a female species existing in this word for those few moments . I always thought this guy Sandeep must have taken birth with his elbows ducking behind.

Finally with a screamy ride until the hotel, we almost hastily jumped off the rickshaw so that he does not take us again on that bamboozzling ride. We reached the hotel and Nandu took our bags to our rooms. We paid 500 bucks at the reception. Rooms were good and were more than worth 250 per room. At that point we thought we were the most clever persons in the history of mankind. We were of the impression that the einsteins and the newtons might have become famous by bribing the governments to market them as brainy guys.

Our plan that day was to freshen up and just go over Bangalore for sometime and sleep tight that day due to tiry travelling from Goa. We had planned perfectly how we were to go over the city, what to see and what not to. So accordingly we were back from a small walk close by. We slept early that day as we were to wake up early and waste no time. All really excited!!!!

Thats it for now. Keep watcing this space. Guys it is going to get damn interesting in the next blog.

7 friends in Bangalore - Part1

I wanted to write about this since a long time now. This story took place when I was in my engineering final year, when we 7 friends together had gone for an outing to Bangalore. None of us had a good touring experience until then.


Since it was our final year, we all decided to freak out together and capture these valuable moments for the rest of our life. It is tough to meet up and get together after college when all the messy creatures like office, family, money, investments, taunting bosses take priority in the short rational stuff called brain, the topmost portion of our body.

So here we were, Manesh floated the idea and we all agreed to it. Manesh being the more organized fellow among us took the responsibility of making this trip happen. Sandeep gave an Helping hand to him, while we all were given the job of environment creation which meant we were supposed to stay excited always about the trip scheduled in December.

With the date now decided Manesh came to us to show us the tickets of the Bus from Goa to Bangalore. Now we were on Cloud number nine, especially me, because I was travelling for the first time out of Goa without my parents. I was sure it will be a good experience besides a lot to learn about touring and the bad bad world outside which we were going to be a part soon after our engineering.

As the day approached I had already become a good listener as my parents are very good orators. All the instructions, lessons, chapters, do’s and don’ts were imparted on me and taken care that they were revised at least once a day. My mom said “See you all boys are going….Do not get too excited and do wrong things there. Be careful of robbers and be alert”. My father with his deep voice said with authority “And do not waste too much money there”.

Our bus was to depart from Ponda and we all, from different parts of Goa, which is of course small, decided to meet at Ponda. The bus arrived on time with the driver quite a friendly chap welcomed us aboard. We looked at the driver as a lord and our whole sole, one wrong gear or an extra pressing of the accelerator instead of brake could do the next worst thing to engineering. The Bus roared its way through the usually empty roads of Goa.

All excited and looking forward to our first morning in Bangalore. We were not aware of what the destiny had in our plates as soon as we reach Bangalore. Will write about it in the next part of the Blog.

God's own country - Part 3

After experiencing the beauty and thrill of Kerala, we were next onto Aleppy back water cruise which is one of the surely to do things in Kerala. As planned, early in the morning our driver, Marcos was on time and did not give us any single opportunity to complain. He always had a good smile on his way all through the trip and today was nothing different. With an "Okay Sir Okay" attitude he was always prompt on any task.


So here we were on our way to Allepy boat cruise, our last Kerala activity before we leave for Pune. Marcos took us to a boat owner for negotiations and we were on the boat with the intentions of having a relaxed time. initially, the backwaters looked dirty and with all the dirt closing in at the shore and why not be with we humans not sparing anything be it land, air or in this case waters. The start was not as we expected, however we were under the hope All is well that ends well.

Our boat started taking us deep into the waters and as the water started surrounding us, we were starting to enjoy every moment of the boat ride. It was pleasure to see the life on the shores of the backwaters. There was everything in it, that we did by staying on land. The children playing all around, the women gossiping, men having a good chat or working hard to improve their boating skills, so that they win the next boat race tournament that may happen in their "in-water" society. Children making the most of the waters and playing hide and seek. They went under water to hide. The business man and shopkeepers were busy attracting customers by either giving a loud shout about the attractions or by displaying enticing banners outside their on the shore shops. It was just the same, as if they did not feel any barrier due to the water. The land might be a barrier for them, but not the water flowing. The water also did not interrupt the neighbor fights. The ladies were shouting on the top of their voices from one shore too another with our boat cannoying through the middle, i just hoped that we were not the targets just in case they decide to declare war against each other and flung coconuts across.

We also got to see the paddy fields, now you might wonder, where the hell did paddy fields come from when there is all water around. The Boatman told us in Malyali which Marcos translated for us that those are floating paddy fields and since paddy is a kharif crop and requires good water and hence is just the crop suited. No wonder, Malyali's eat a lot of rice in their day to day food.

Another wonderful thing during the cruise was the boat races we witnessed. Since it was Onam day, there were many activities all around, one of those was boat race tournaments. All hefty and strong men, flexed their muscles to be first and reach the finish line in record time. It was amazing piece of team work and coordination on display. Boat race is all about team work and single goal focus. One fellow cannoying a little slowly can make a difference of minutes in the final result. One thought ran through my mind. Aren't we all Indians as well cannoying in the same boat? Then why slow down our boat or rather progress, by dividing ourselves on the basis of Muslims, sikhs and fighting within us. It is like all people in a single boat are cannoying in many different directions equally and hence we feel we are progressing, however, we are still at the same position.

So here we were finally at the end of an enthralling trip and at the airport waiting for our fight to Pune. Thank you Kerala. Will visit you once more for sure!!!!

God's own country - Part 2

Hush!!!! finally i have taken up Part 2 to write. It has been quite a travel filled month and just could not spend anytime for blogging.

So here I am to narrate some good experiences during the Kerela trip. I have already narrated the Munnar experience in my last part. I was pretty much excited after that because I had begun to expect more and more out of the world stay in Kerela. It is just a normal human tendency, when it gets better, he expects the best further up. Though this is not true always, this time in the God's own country it was surprisingly true.

After leaving Munnar the next morning, our plan was to attend "Madhu's" wedding the next day and have a look at Athirapally waterfalls. Here I also got an opportunity to see what a mallu wedding is like. Mallu's are believed to give education the utmost importance and that could be easily seen during the wedding. All Aunty's and Uncles had come up dressed with the best saree and the best lungi on the special day. All the Aunty's were busy engrossed in praising each other, obviously these praises were flowing in the expectation of return praises. Surely so women around the world, whether be it India or any other country this gossiping and praising stuff will always be there. All Uncles were busy discussing some political stuff in Malyalam and i regretted and dissappointed that I did not know Malyalam.

It has been said somewhere in the Purana's that Boy is interested in the girl's look, girl is interested in the Boy's strength so that he can protect him, girls father is interested in the Boy's bank balance to ensure that his girl will be happy and finally all others are interested only the food offered during the wedding. So as per this saying our eyes were searching for the finger biting malyali food. But that was not to come until all the rituals were completed. I always feel pity for the couple as they have to smile throughout the wedding even though they are tired. I must say Madhu has loads of energy and i respect him for that, even in those tiring times he had some humour to spare. When I was on the stage to congratulate him on his achievement, he whispered in my ear "Thanks for Representing everyone man"... This was a stinging bite to all his close friends who had not come for his wedding and unknowingly I was representing them all.

Finally all the rituals were done and we all headed towards our favourite destination, the dining hall and my god we were absolutely awestruck by the way it was arranged. We had banana leaves arranged and all were supposed to it on those. We sat without wasting any amount of time. It had in all 24 items on our plate ohh sorry on the leaves. We were in a state of confusion. We had to decide on what to start with. I imagined myself to be in an examination hall and I approached the food in a similar manner, eating with precise judgement as to which one would be the easier to eat so that I remain motivated to eat the rest of the food.

Finally it was time to bid good bye to the new couple and have them wished for their good future. There was some photo session as well, with Krishna boasting his new camera, though his photography skills are still under the scanner.

So here we were at our next destination, the athirapally waterfalls. I have not seen such huge waterfalls in my life (I know it is still a short one). It is here that the lovely aishwarya Rai and Stud Abhishek were shooted for their movie "Ravaan". If you remember the song "Beera Beera", yes you got it, thats athirapally. Krishna, was not in a good mood here and was not much interested even after he saw the waterfalls. Could be that he had met some of his history in the wedding. Not to go into the details, this is not the right channel. I was enjoying to the fullest extent and he did not object to it. I also respected his privacy and thought not everytime that a person can be happy as ever, downtime cannot be avoided each time. We had a nice time at the waterfalls and came to our hotel in the evening at a place close to Cochin from where we were to head towards alapuzha or allepy water cruise the next morning.

Thats it in this blog, will complete the final part with the boat cruise and the philosophical thoughts I had during the boat cruise.

The dawn after the Dead..

What I have found in my experience though not much, is that, people are afraid of two things:

1. Dying
2. Killing somebody.

While in all other cases humans are shocked and subsequently get tensed, one such reason is when they hear that somebody has got killed or when somebody has died especially someone very close to the emotional interface within each one of us.

I always wondered what could be the psychology behind us being transitioned to a shocking stage when we hear somebody is dead though each one of us knows that someday or the other this has to happen. Now, if I reason out that this could be because we as Human beings do not know the exact date and time in advance which is why we are bound to get shocked. However, if we know the date of our death in advance, we would be dying every day as the day approaches with the mere feeling of it.

It is like we know there is a defect in the system but still we are shocked when we see the defect. Why so? What could be a possible solution to this?

Here is where spirituality comes into play which makes our mind and soul stable so that we do not get distracted towards such emotional instabilities in life.

Get spiritual get emotionally stable is the fundamental principle to happy life.

Jai Shri Ram

God's Own country - Part1

I have been on a plethora of tours for the past few weeks which has taught me lot many things which I would carry for the whole of my life.

One of the tours was to the God's own country, Kerala. The state known for its maximum percentage of literate population, the beautiful backwaters and the ayurvedic essence. No wonder especially Munnar makes the favorite destination for at least 80% of the newly married couples who want to enjoy to the fullest the best part of the new phase in their life.

It is quite amazing to watch and experience the two different sides of a single country. Towards the North we have Kashmir with lush green environment, cold climate, handsome men and beautiful women and is called the heaven on earth while well to the south of the same country you find a region which is exactly opposite in every sense including culture, language, dressing manner though equally beautiful and called the “God’s Own Country”.

The climate here is very much similar to Goa besides the churches, beaches on the way and the palm and mango trees on both sides of the road made me feel at home. The most important thing to note here is the way the population here maintains their own culture and language. Though most of them know to read and write Malyalam, a very few know English or even Hindi. My dramatic workshop lessons were tested here. I had to use my each inch of body to act and each pore on my face was utilized to display emotions so that they could understand what I wanted to say. We were lucky to get a decent English speaking cab driver which made our lives far more easier that we had imagined.

So here we were two bachelors in a crowd mostly consisting of either couples trying to understand each other and the ones who had already understood each other and were in their own comfortable positions. Munnar a hillstation with mighty views of the tree farms, lakes and can be readily identified as a perfect tourist destination with all the facilities like lodging, and shops and eateries luring the tourists towards them. We had real great time here with camera’s continuously ON for almost the whole time that we were at Munnar. It has a few typical tourist spots which display some awesome and breathtaking views of the tea plantations and foggy mountains.

I conclude this part with the Munnar and keep you all and myself reliving the Munnar experience. Will continue with the further experiences I had at this beautiful place situated at the foot of India. Especially the Allepy backwaters cruise.