A decade... since my life started shaping!

I just realized that it is 2012... time flies... really flies... 10 years ago, at this time i was screwing myself in a bid to pass my 12th board exams... my schoolmates were all in the hunt for the 'competitive exams' that would follow the board exams... and i was least bothered about any exam apart from my boards... all i knew that it would be the last exam at school, after which i would be a free bird (remember the Red Bull ad)
2002 it was!!!
i didn't have any aspirations to study in a great college like the IITs or the NITs...  i was interested in colleges in Pune or Nagpur which would admit students on the basis of 12th marks... i gave my best for the boards and scored a decent percentage. And i was then pretty sure about my Jai Maharashtra aspirations.
But fate had other plans... i landed on an unknown land, southern India, somewhere i had never been to, in my life till then!
It was a college in Vellore, a place that is well known for the country's best medical college and hospital... but engineering???
Unaware of what was in store for me, i blindly put a 'kabar' on my Jai Maharashtra' dreams and joined this college...
But then i realized, be it any college (ok, not any college, somewhere you can get placed, atleast), those 4 years are the best years in your life. Something that one can never forget, perhaps not even in his/her death bed.
August 2012, for the first time in life, i was going to be away from home, some 1000 kms away, atleast. It was suicidal... thank God i didn't commit suicide... my first lesson in life, to always look ahead... something much better might be in store.. and better; no my best moments followed... i developed my friend circles... i was allotted a room at the hostel, but i never used to stay in my allotted room, just used to roam here and  there, either in college or hostel... people would say 'yeh kaha paaya jaata hai?' :D
but it was fun... i befriended as many people possible... something that used to be in my mind, ki kandhe se kandhaa milaate chalo... :)
The college was midst a barren land... a small town with limited amenities... but the atmosphere inside my college was completely different... it had the general characteristics such as bunking classes, proxies, couples roaming around, guys (say prospective FOSLAs) hanging around, watching girls (bird watching) etc etc etc...
But all this made the 4 years go like a breeze... Few activities made those years extra special:

1) Weekend movie at a decrepit cinema theater called Raghavendra, a place with wooden seats, no reservation of seat on a ticket and very dingy, but excellent screen and sound quality... and certainly, my all time most favorite movies got released during this 4 year period, perhaps, mainly because of the company i had, while watching them... :)
2) Even a small town like Vellore had good eateries... there was a China town, a Rajasthani meal centre and an Irani restaurant,  places where we used to frequent...
3) The best moments however were when we used to head home after the exams... 2 major trains from Vellore would be the Brindavan express to Chennai and Dhanbad-Alleppy Express (Dhanno)...Spending time with friends in our journeys have been very memorable...

i used to break at Nagpur... i had a friend who would travel to Chhattisgarh (CG) with me... the break time would normally be 5 to 6 hours... we would use that time to roam on the streets of Nagpur... at times we would catch a movie as well, at a Janki theater :P
Even exams would be great moments... those were the first times when we would touch... no, not books, but xerox of only relevant pages... those were the one night stands, mugging up everything that we could do, humanly possible... :P
There were other moments like our second Diwali... what started from an uncontrolled Diwali celebration in hostels, ended up as a midnight protest against our college principal (he had rusticated on of our batchmates for stupid reasons)... the protest started with chants of "principal MC principal MC" and ended up with someone firing a rocket towards him when he was running away, the rocket went with just few centimeters from him...
And the Holi celebrations, it rained the previous evening... and we were at it, mixing colors in mud... the college was not closed, and there was this particular eccentric guy who was going to college in a white shirt (when all of us had planned a mass bunk)... he was dragged and thrown in the pool of mud...
Since then, Holi and Diwali were declared holidays, with the entire campus being cordoned off, as if a curfew being imposed... :P

College life can certainly be the most memorable time of your life... it is here where you get your first friends, you drink and smoke for the first time, you fall in love for the first time, you develop your passions, interests, disinterests and an outlook towards life...
It is the last time where you can stay carefree and get geared up for the remaining 75% of your life... it definitely shapes up your life!!!

The Sound of Music and the Feel of Lyrics

Music is known to be a great stress reliever. When good music combines with good lyrics, the effect it can have on you can be magical. It might turn inspirational. Here I present a list of my favorite inspirational songs:

1) My favorite things:

"When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad, i simply remember my favorite things and then i don't feel so sad!!!"

2) Yuhi Chala Chal Rahi
"Jivan me preet hai, hothon pe geet hai, bas yahi jeet hai sun le raahi, tu jis disha bhi ja, tu pyaar hi luta, tu deep hi jalaa, sun le raahi"

3) Lakshya 
"roke tujhko aandhiya, ya zameen ya asmaan, payega jo lakshya hai tera, lakshya to har haal me pana hai"

4) Dil hai chhota sa (Roja)
The entire song is just too good :)

5) Sweet child of mine:
"She's got a smile it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood memories
Where everything
Was as fresh as the bright blue sky
Now and then when I see her face
She takes me away to that special place
And if I'd stare too long
I'd probably break down and cry"

6) Nothing else matters!

"never cared for what they say 

never cared for games they play 
never cared for what they do 
never cared for what they know"

7) Dekh le:
"... marne se pehele jinaa, seekh le..."

8) Om Shaanti Omm!!!
"wo naa kahenge to khudkushi bhi kar jaunga yaaron, wo ha kahenge toh bhi khushi se mar jaunga yaaron"

9) Lakdi ki kaathi... :)
Makes you feel like a kid... again!

10) I Hate you... like I Love you :)
The energy this song has is incomparable :)

These days some inspirational ads are coming as well... here i present my most favorite ad at present:

Whether you are feeling low of feeling high or feeling normal, music with great lyrics will surely make you feel inspired. It may not help you forget your bad moments, but certainly induce good moments that will help you forget your bad moments... if any!!!

The December Casanova!!!

The month of December is always special. There is a festive atmosphere everywhere. The weather is pleasant. No pressure at office.
I decided to make this December a special one. Our organization has a core leave structure. I took this oppurtunity to have a great holiday. Many people prefer to spend the entire duration to spend at one place. I thought otherwise; to spend my holidays at different places, each place might as well be highly contrasting to each other.

My trip started on 10 December 2011. Calcutta was my first destination. It was my brother's marriage. It was a cullinary treat out there, with all Bengali delicacies.


Calcutta is also famous for its street food and street markets. I decided to take a day off to roam around in downtown Calcutta, a placed called Esplanade. The footpaths offered great varieties of food such as momos, kati rolls, noodles etc. Roaming on the streets can give you an essence of what city hiking is. I indulged in momos and did some shopping as well.
My next destination was Ranchi, my hometown. The first foray into cooler climes. I love winters. I love to feel the cold winds, the half baked sun and the taste of a winter coffee. But I was eager to go to much cooler climes. Three days went by. The wait was long.


17 December 2011: I took a flight to Delhi. The journey from Ranchi to Delhi was beautiful. It was because e of the view of the snow capped Himalayas that was visible from the window. The map in front of my seat indicated that the aircraft was flying very close to the Himalayas. And since it was dusk, the rays from the sun made the peaks appear golden in color. How nice it would have been if I could use my phone inside the plane. I could have taken pictures.
I went to Dehradun for one day. The train was wading through densely foggy areas. The visiblity was less than 20 meters. It was beautiful. That evening, in the cold weather was great, spending time with a close friend, boozing on rum. Dehradun was as beautiful as ever.


22 December 2011: The D day has come. I along with a friend started our journey towards our final destination... Manali!
We reached Chandigarh and took a cab to Manali. The road to Manali is long, with several instances of ascents and descents. The route becomes particularly good once you reach Mandi. The road starts meandering along the banks of Beas. The valley is huge, and provides spectacular views of snow capped peaks. We reached Manali in the evening. It was dark, with nothing visible in the horizon.
Morning, i went to the hotel terrace... and it was just awesome. I had been yearning to see snow closely, and my wishes came true that day. Even though Manali didn't have much snow, slightly higher reaches had traces of it. That day we decided to go for rafting. Though the distance was very small, just about 7 kms, it was fun, and such fun that all apprehensions regarding a certain amount of risk in it faded away. The next day we went to Gulaba, about 2 hours from Manali. I had always been fantasizing climbing a slope covered with snow. Here I felt like a kid, climbing on the slope with great difficulty, and then sliding down. My limbs got numb. A bonfire, along with a cup of hot tea was the next thing in my fantasy... and whoosh!!! it became a reality. I can admit, these moments were some of the best moments in my life.
Manali has a decent Mall road, though it is not as good as the one in Shimla. Shopping in these type of markets provides much better fun, as compared to the same in malls. And in these markets, you can buy a range of stuff, from local handicrafts to Chinese electronics, from handicrafts to beautiful to jewelry, and ofcourse, the best local made wine!!! I indulged in heavy duty shopping. It's in these type of markets that you realize that the real pleasure of shopping lies in buying gifts for people you really care about.
These three days in Manali went like a swift breeze. I wished to continuing staying there, but had to leave. My trip to the north of India was culminated by a city hiking trip of the beautiful Chandigarh. The following day, i.e. on 27th December I returned to Bangalore.
I had a rainbow in my heart. Tears were raining because I had to leave the snow covered climes in such a short time, but the sun shone because I had been looking forward to something really nice, in the following weekend, my maiden trip to south Kerala. I joined my office that week, and surprisingly I had some work in store. I didn't get much chance to unpack, because of the impending trip, just a couple of days later.


Our Kerala trip plan was sightly in disarray because of a cyclone that was supposed to strike the east coast. Though we were going to the west coast, seas are known to behave strangely. We had our fingers crossed. We were really fortunate to get a clean weather out there.

I was thinking, what a contrasting month it had been. One day I am dancing on the beach in south India, and just a week earlier I was dancing on the snow in north India. India is indeed a land of contrasting geographies.
The best place in this trip was Varkala. it has India's only cliff beach. I indulged in sea food. It is the best thing you can do while you are on a beach... isn't it!? :)
We had a nice new year celebration. We returned on the 3rd January 2012.

Traveling can be the best way of spending your time. It is here when you see new places, get to know people better and have moments that you can cherish throughout your life. I am proud to belong to a country with such topological diversity. If I think to see my country first, before going abroad, then I don't think I will ever go

abroad... :)