Bangalore & the art of gaining weight

There is no place in the world like home sweet home. Even before I step foot in Bangalore there is a new wave of happiness, I can hardly wait in that airport. Waiting for the clock to make its move, nope it doesn’t, it wants play with me. Even in the flight when it approaches Bangalore there some urgency in me just to peep outside the window to check if Bangalore has changed. Believe me u can hardly make any difference but still I do it.

As soon as the flight lands in Bangalore, my mind is normally flooded with thoughts about ur family, home, friends & many other things. Travel back from devanahalli (aka Airport) to my Bangalore (aka my home) is around 35Kms normally would take 40 long mins. On the way back home all I can notice is how much Bangalore has changed from the last time I came, ohh yaa this building wasn’t there last time. And few old buildings which are landmarked in ur recollections, brings back all the sweet memories. I am in front of my home, Nostalgic feeling all around.

Feels so good to be greeted by the people who love you more than you can imagine. That’s the best feeling in the world is just to know there are few people who care about you so much. The first thing mom says after seeing me, “beta you look so weak, you have lost weight”, funny considering I am 6 foot 2 inches nearly 93 Kilos & she thinks that I lost few kilos :)

The best apart being back home is the food, my mom treats me as though I have just returned from sudan ya Somalia who hasn’t had anything to eat properly for ages. She normally has cooking time table she has to prepare all the things I like before I head back. Just like sales target she has target in her mind. Before he heads back he should atleast put on 2-3 kilos. Normally she beats street expectation by miles!!

So guess what, I am still the most pampered kid in the home!! And even I like it :)

Conundrum of deciphering the Exams..

I have always wondered how come? Why is it so? Exam have always been a bouncer to me nothing much to hide is there? Though even I have had first class distinction stamped on my marks card all the way till my engineering. I have never liked the idea of testing a person’s suitability to… coming to that what are you testing during exams? Is it your understanding of that issue, is it your memory power or is it how long a person can write? Beats my understanding. Shouldn’t these entire exams test how suitable are you to work in this present world, how a person can adapt & learn new things. Can he do a task given to efficiently & etc shouldn’t these be criteria’s for judging?

I have seen people who have hardly any understanding of the subject and they score excellent marks, and believe me they will even forget that subject as fast as they mugged that subject. So what is the whole idea about?

Many people are vehemently opposing the removal of exams for students till Xth or even XIIth. I support it completely. Just think about it. I understand it’s a competitive world but why do you people want to push that poor kid in to the Bloody muddle. This initiative gives young talent time to understand himself and choose his own path for their future. I have seen how people were taking PCM in XIIth just because other people are taking it. Sames the case with Engineering..even the latest craze of MBA blindly follow the bandwagon. Welcome to the rat race.

I support Kapil Sibal for this initiative. Just wondering why can’t we have the same in professional Courses also??

love for hours of dusk

Late nights have always been the best things that have ever happened to me; needless to say engineering, during work even now during masters I have always had an affair with late nights. Be it exam time, on a zombie work day or online chatothon nights, it is the time I reach my reach my best. Strange!! But do think about it, that’s the only time you are totally free & that is the time you have for yourself liberated from all the worlds trouble. The silence of the night whispers in your ears.

These hostel days have only reinforced my love for hours of dusk. Insomniac you say.. I see the aspect in a different light. Night brings you the opportunity to spend time for yourself. Yesterday I was feeling bored at around 3 AM, I decided to go on a small night stroll, believe me it’s an experience you must have in chilling winters. As you walk the cold wind strokes me with gentle affection. The chillness of the wind brings an electrifying wave throughout your body. But the walk continues.. the careless ambling lost soul trying to solve its way through the puzzled world. The time you actually start noticing the surroundings the things that you might never have noticed that it existed all this while.

Then you put head down somewhere and start the “Star Gazing”, remembering all the childhood notions that are attached your memory, at least for me it moves like a wonderful movie. Childhood dream of becoming an astronaut one day. The best part is all the world around you changes and the only thing that stays the same is the sky with the twinkling little stars in it.

Night also brings the chance to dream.. the ability that makes us human. Start exploring your nights believe me u’ll also fall in love with it just like me.

Those were the times..

I every time I think about my engineering days, I feel like adrenalin being pumped into me. The happy-go-lucky days, the I can take on the world attitude, the newly learnt lingos, the night life, the lets do something times…. Seriously miss those days. There were times when I wanted the time to freeze for me, not that I wanted to become Peter pan but more so because we were having such a good time and I was afraid for losing it. Crushes, sports, you know whats, projects, cricket & the ‘bro’code during our internals time.... we were lost in a world of our own.

At that time I had upgraded my old mobile to a new flapwalla mobile, oh my god that was something else. Although at that point not many had silver flap phone but I was Flaunting the mobile as though, Samsung had manufactured limited edition phone just for me. It might sound crazy, but when I think about it always brings smile on my face.

First few internals were total disaster to say the least, no one was able to put their mind into studies that was the time we used to have the so called ‘Group studies’ ya ‘Study night outs’ where few close friends of mine used to meet at my place. Especially after dinner, we were on cost cutting drive at that time or should I say may be we didn’t have that much deep pockets to splurge ‘moolah’ on dinner meet on a regular basis. Father of our nation smiling at us was a once a month affair, But it is still very special to me, at that time my pocket money had got a little increment & had started getting modest sum as pocket money. Believe me at that point in time it was a great deal for me. I was feeling like a fund manager handling that sum.

None the less coming back to Group studies, it was always a good idea only till first few minutes. Then small minor break would turn into nothing less than NDTV’s big fight lasting at least few hours on topics ranging from exams, girls, movies, politics, ghosts, sports to many times philosophy. Funny isn’t it. But everyone had a perspective of his own, with his set of experience to back it up. The worst part was there was no moderator in between to resolve few tricky situations. I must say I Learnt a lot from those GDs and even started to appreciate others thought process.

For few internals it had become a customary practice for all of us to meet and study together, we even started seeing good results in the internals. But finally all of us understood that it was not serving our purpose (at least academic one for sure) over next few semesters we slowly stopped meeting for group studies, as they say all good things do come to an end.

Our imaginary world...

Its 3.34 PM, to be precise 3.34.23.. 24…25…26, every second looked like it was lazy to do its routine work. Felt like time was playing tricks on me.. Groundhog Day effect. I was bored today, totally bored didn’t know what to do after the class. For time pass I was watching Richie Rich, a cartoon series… today, on the so called ‘yesteryears most happening thing’.. You tube. The story revolved around riche’s dog Dollar being kidnapped by a cunning villain & how riche on time saves his best friend/pet by airdropping money on the bad character.

I had laugh, a boisterous one. I wished it for once it was real, or may be… me being in riche’s shoes :) Ya you are right!! I was wondering why we are so fascinated by unreal stories…. Be it Neo in matrix, superman, Spiderman, Krishh, Mr. India & even riche rich…. Whatever it be your fascination for ideal things…

The reality is far farrr away from truth, be it in our bollywood movies or even our daily soaps where you have family dramas. Making minor things look huge, many repeated replays that too in different angles. Where the main character faces all the trouble in the world and still never revolts. The ideal wife, husband ya some other character you can think off. Whom are we fooling…ourselves isn’t it.

It hard to accept that we are really ‘Ideal’ worshipers. We want to be the hero & heroine look alike, don’t we... For an example as a naïve guy you would want an eight pack… OK lets settle for something less may be six pack, but nothing less than that. An MBA grad wanting 7 digit salaries that’s the least that he can even think of working for. He/she would rather stay unemployed but never work for the disparaging 6 digits salary.

Thinking about it, I find it really confusing. Is it in really in our human nature or the society we live in?? all I can say is, I donno the answer…. Hope you can come up with one…

“a lot can actually happen over a cup of coffee”

This was an incident that happened few years ago in Mumbai, in a Cafe Coffee Day out let. After work I had gone to a nearby coffee day, I just wanted catch myself snack and coffee before I head back to my room. The outlet was nearly empty, It was just me and a couples sitting at far end on couch to be precise; It was just another humdrum evening. Suddenly a huge group barges in to the outlet. All of a sudden the outlets serene atmosphere had been overtaken by their overexcited group. They were very noisy, It was little disturbing to say the least. Meanwhile my coffee & and a multi grain just arrived.

Then I saw this young bloke, who was actually throwing a party to them. a tag hanging around his neck with the company badge. The guy had lean structure, thinking about it he could have easily convinced me that he was yet to pass her Xth. Anyway he was well dressed and Looked like he was pretty happy about something may be his birthday I thought or something else. He was splurging money treating more than a half a dozen of his friends.

All of a sudden he stands up on the stool he was sitting, “I am really happy today, on the house for all of them” he told seeing all of our faces. I was feeling little awkward at someone else paying my bill & even the unexpected generosity shown by an unknown stranger. Although I felt really happy for her for reasons yet unknown to me, I was just a passerby.

I went and congratulated him and I said my fussiness about him paying my bill, somehow he & his friends convinced me that it was cool with them. I had a small conversation with the group & I was about to leave, I couldn’t control my curiosity to know the reason for the celebration; I went ahead and asked him for the reason. All his friends started laughing I thought I had done something wrong, he turns towards me & in mellow voice he said “I lost a lottery”.

What!!!???? I thought to myself that was strangest reason I have heard to throw a party. But what could I say, I just smiled at them and left for my room. On the way I was thinking about the same thing. I somehow felt that people have become so busy and muddled in their work and other complexities that it hardly mattered, they just wanted to have a good time and they had theirs & off course I had mine!

Mundane life of a soliloquist

The door was far flung open, it was waving at me. Although I tried my best staying away from it, there was some urge in me to experience it! Reluctantly I entered the great temple of Solitude, where a man abdicates all the fears & worries. I felt like I was floating in the thin air, about to take off for a journey beyond the realms of my imagination. I was experiencing the bliss that the almighty could have bestowed on its VVIP devotees, the bliss of ignorance & innocence. Is this what it is like in heaven? I know this couldn’t last long…

A small tap on my arm by a close friend of mine woke me up. I was back from my heavenly blissful state; here I was attending class on Sunday, 9 Am to 6 Pm nothing short of epic marathon. Small glance at my watch, it was 3.33 Pm although I don’t believe in numerology but looked like number 3 was playing a game on me! Even watch looked like it was on slow motion like me after a heavy lunch. I was not to be blamed, for a change the hostel mess had prepared GOOD food, believe me it’s a rarity. My brain was telling not have more rotis but heart was telling me “Idiot you rarely get good food in the hostel mess, offer lasts only till the stock last”. Needless to say my heart had a thumping victory against the evil intentions of my brain. Here I was stomach full, lumbering to the class. Finally to add icing on the cake, my regular place below the fan, in the fifth line of middle row was waiting for me.

Normally 9 Am to noon is not a problem at all; I can say it’s a cake walk. But then on every minute looks like an aeon, seconds start playing games with your head. Faculty was a good one no doubt, but my thoughts were drifting somewhere else. To maintain the decorum of the class, a manual smile and a gentle nod of head once in a while was my customary practice. Then yet again I was standing on the vestibule of my temple of solitude, losing myself to heavenly bliss….