The drudgeries of life
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
The art of envying the right people
I'm sure it's due time I relinquished bragging about all my infatuations and became a bit sober! So, here you go! This post is dedicated to anyone and everyone who has been envied by me for some reason or the other!
When I was in the second standard, even before I was acquainted with the term jealousy, let alone envy, I remember my Mom taking great pains and teaching me Maths lessons late into the night and being the dullard that I was, I was never able to keep up with her pace! I still clearly remember the words that she used to utter out of frustration:
"How many times will I have to explain the same simple problem for you to understand it? See Elitriya (She was a kid in my neighbourhood, a year younger to me! Pathetic *Yuck). She always solves all her problems so fast and always tops in her class (which ofcourse was a rarity as far as I was concerned!). When will you change, Appu (Yup! That's my pet name 8)!)??"
That was probably one of the first instances when I realized that I desperately sought to be in other peoples' shoes! Be it for the cool school bags they possessed, for the lunch boxes they brought along to school, for their moms being simple housewives whom they could find at home each day after returning from school while my mom being a working woman and myself reaching home everyday to find the gates locked that I had to open, or for their good grades in school which seemed to impress my mom more than anything I had managed to score!
Probably most of my childhood was spent envying other children, most importantly my younger sister who's seven years younger to me! After being the apple of my parent's eyes for a long long time, all the love and attention suddenly being diverted to this queer little thing made me feel real lonely! How jealous I was at that time of my sibling, I know! It must've been way too obvious because I soon found myself being lectured by my parents about not to be jealous and that I'm still loved the same as before if not more! Yeah right you guys! Then why does it feel like I'm being stabbed in the heart and not loved anymore and only that... that thing is the center of your worlds?!
That phase passes! Somehow!! I'm in ninth standard! Till the eight, I was not at all interested in studies! The constant comparisions had finally taken their toll! I had lost all hope of excelling in studies! My parents were very bothered about me and my future! A chance encounter with one of my bestest friends till date ( The encounter not unlike the one about which I posted a couple of messages back was a really humorous one! I'll post about it in a week or so!), Nupur, was a new ray of hope! The girl is excellent in everything! She is an excellent student, has a brilliant handwriting (Mamamia! I'd die for such a beautiful way of writing!), has excellent elocutionary skills, and her dad worked in the same bank as my mom! Yeah I know! The ideal specimen for my mom to compare me with and the perfect person for me to envy!! But this time round, I didn't need no prompting and comparing to get me started... I was on the job right from day 1! I actually realized the art of envying the right people and try to make myself better in that direction rather than losing all hope and tagging myself as a loser! And in Nupur I found a friend who helped me with my studies, helped me copy notes thanks to my switching over from a pathetic handwriting to a much better looking one which vaguely resembled the cursive, shared my passion of playing the keyboard a bit, and made life really wonderful! I envied Nupur for being not only all of her above mentioned qualities but also her qualities of being a modest person, not at all proud and selfish as people with the above mentioned qualifications tend to be, cheerful, helpful and most of all being a wonderful human-being! And I learnt a very valuable lesson: "Envying the right people isn't enough; You've gotta try and inherit the qualities of theirs which you envy!"
If the phrase "turning over a new leaf" meant something to my parents, I certainly gave new dimensions to it for them! From a pathetic student to the one of the top rankers in the class throughout the ninth standard (Shucks! Nupur managed to stay ahead of me!) was something my parents had never expected! That, my dear folks, was just the beginning! Tenth was also a superb class! Ended up envying a buddy, two years my senior, who got selected in the IIT-JEE the same year I passed out of the 10th standard! Again I tried to follow exactly in his footsteps during my two year IIT preperation stint and ended up as all my professors' best bet to get selected in the main of 2002! That, sadly was not to be! *Sighs! Just like the saying about aiming for the stars and ending up on the moon, I cleared all the exams except IIT-JEE! The senior I mentioned is at present leaving for the MIT, and obviously there's no way I can stop envying him! Hats off to you, Sir!
Reach a deserted area in one corner of the country to attend college! After being a topper for the last 4 years in school, I felt damn sure I'll do well atleast here! Finally no need to envy anyone for anything! Life has it's ways of playing it's cruel jokes! Trns out most of the batch is made up of toppers in their own perspective! And good bye good grades! And as you guessed right, Miss Envy is back in action setting her eye upon a good friend of mine in college who is exceptionally good in college studies! But try however I may, all my efforts are ruined in some or the other way thanks to some persuits (read CS, q3, orkuting) of mine!
The most important part of this post is not my highlighting all the people I have envied for their excellence in studies or academics! These were just provided to serve as an example of how single-minded and materialistic our desires are (don't take it personal! If this isn't the case with you, I salute you!!)! We tend to envy people for their looks, their clothes, their affluence, their knowledge, their skills, their good grades, their beautiful girl friends, etc. Big deal! Apart of envying people for all that, I have envied a friend I have known for the past three years for his simplicity, for his being able to be cool even under adverse circumstances, for his remarkable ability of being able to smile and laugh despite all the plethora of emotions exisiting in his mind! Never would you be able to guess that something is wrong with his childish attitude and silly grin proving to be a convincing façade ! I shall not name him for all the inconvinience that it might cause. All I can say is that if there is any such place as Hell, then he has gone through Hell unflinchingly, believe me, and has emerged unscathed! Many of us might crumble under the fear of facing situations as adverse as his experienes! Such a gem of a person is a rare find in today's world! You know who you are.... I bow down to you buddy!
Sorry for such a sentimental post... Couldn't be helped! I do get sentimental on occasions and today was one of those! Damn I hate getting misty-eyed *sniff!
When I was in the second standard, even before I was acquainted with the term jealousy, let alone envy, I remember my Mom taking great pains and teaching me Maths lessons late into the night and being the dullard that I was, I was never able to keep up with her pace! I still clearly remember the words that she used to utter out of frustration:
"How many times will I have to explain the same simple problem for you to understand it? See Elitriya (She was a kid in my neighbourhood, a year younger to me! Pathetic *Yuck). She always solves all her problems so fast and always tops in her class (which ofcourse was a rarity as far as I was concerned!). When will you change, Appu (Yup! That's my pet name 8)!)??"
That was probably one of the first instances when I realized that I desperately sought to be in other peoples' shoes! Be it for the cool school bags they possessed, for the lunch boxes they brought along to school, for their moms being simple housewives whom they could find at home each day after returning from school while my mom being a working woman and myself reaching home everyday to find the gates locked that I had to open, or for their good grades in school which seemed to impress my mom more than anything I had managed to score!
Probably most of my childhood was spent envying other children, most importantly my younger sister who's seven years younger to me! After being the apple of my parent's eyes for a long long time, all the love and attention suddenly being diverted to this queer little thing made me feel real lonely! How jealous I was at that time of my sibling, I know! It must've been way too obvious because I soon found myself being lectured by my parents about not to be jealous and that I'm still loved the same as before if not more! Yeah right you guys! Then why does it feel like I'm being stabbed in the heart and not loved anymore and only that... that thing is the center of your worlds?!
That phase passes! Somehow!! I'm in ninth standard! Till the eight, I was not at all interested in studies! The constant comparisions had finally taken their toll! I had lost all hope of excelling in studies! My parents were very bothered about me and my future! A chance encounter with one of my bestest friends till date ( The encounter not unlike the one about which I posted a couple of messages back was a really humorous one! I'll post about it in a week or so!), Nupur, was a new ray of hope! The girl is excellent in everything! She is an excellent student, has a brilliant handwriting (Mamamia! I'd die for such a beautiful way of writing!), has excellent elocutionary skills, and her dad worked in the same bank as my mom! Yeah I know! The ideal specimen for my mom to compare me with and the perfect person for me to envy!! But this time round, I didn't need no prompting and comparing to get me started... I was on the job right from day 1! I actually realized the art of envying the right people and try to make myself better in that direction rather than losing all hope and tagging myself as a loser! And in Nupur I found a friend who helped me with my studies, helped me copy notes thanks to my switching over from a pathetic handwriting to a much better looking one which vaguely resembled the cursive, shared my passion of playing the keyboard a bit, and made life really wonderful! I envied Nupur for being not only all of her above mentioned qualities but also her qualities of being a modest person, not at all proud and selfish as people with the above mentioned qualifications tend to be, cheerful, helpful and most of all being a wonderful human-being! And I learnt a very valuable lesson: "Envying the right people isn't enough; You've gotta try and inherit the qualities of theirs which you envy!"
If the phrase "turning over a new leaf" meant something to my parents, I certainly gave new dimensions to it for them! From a pathetic student to the one of the top rankers in the class throughout the ninth standard (Shucks! Nupur managed to stay ahead of me!) was something my parents had never expected! That, my dear folks, was just the beginning! Tenth was also a superb class! Ended up envying a buddy, two years my senior, who got selected in the IIT-JEE the same year I passed out of the 10th standard! Again I tried to follow exactly in his footsteps during my two year IIT preperation stint and ended up as all my professors' best bet to get selected in the main of 2002! That, sadly was not to be! *Sighs! Just like the saying about aiming for the stars and ending up on the moon, I cleared all the exams except IIT-JEE! The senior I mentioned is at present leaving for the MIT, and obviously there's no way I can stop envying him! Hats off to you, Sir!
Reach a deserted area in one corner of the country to attend college! After being a topper for the last 4 years in school, I felt damn sure I'll do well atleast here! Finally no need to envy anyone for anything! Life has it's ways of playing it's cruel jokes! Trns out most of the batch is made up of toppers in their own perspective! And good bye good grades! And as you guessed right, Miss Envy is back in action setting her eye upon a good friend of mine in college who is exceptionally good in college studies! But try however I may, all my efforts are ruined in some or the other way thanks to some persuits (read CS, q3, orkuting) of mine!
The most important part of this post is not my highlighting all the people I have envied for their excellence in studies or academics! These were just provided to serve as an example of how single-minded and materialistic our desires are (don't take it personal! If this isn't the case with you, I salute you!!)! We tend to envy people for their looks, their clothes, their affluence, their knowledge, their skills, their good grades, their beautiful girl friends, etc. Big deal! Apart of envying people for all that, I have envied a friend I have known for the past three years for his simplicity, for his being able to be cool even under adverse circumstances, for his remarkable ability of being able to smile and laugh despite all the plethora of emotions exisiting in his mind! Never would you be able to guess that something is wrong with his childish attitude and silly grin proving to be a convincing façade ! I shall not name him for all the inconvinience that it might cause. All I can say is that if there is any such place as Hell, then he has gone through Hell unflinchingly, believe me, and has emerged unscathed! Many of us might crumble under the fear of facing situations as adverse as his experienes! Such a gem of a person is a rare find in today's world! You know who you are.... I bow down to you buddy!
Sorry for such a sentimental post... Couldn't be helped! I do get sentimental on occasions and today was one of those! Damn I hate getting misty-eyed *sniff!
Sunday, May 29, 2005
The Gods must be crazy... for sure
What a day!! Man! Never imagined that a day that begun with my screwing up every damn thing that I set out to do would end up as a wonderful day!
Got up at 5:15 AM! Wow! Did I just type that?! Damn right, I did! I am capable of things other than nightouts, you guys! Completed 10 *phew* rounds of the cricket ground! Had about half a litre of buttermilk soon after! Man, was it heavy! Took a shower and was present at the insti gates to board our hired jeep and proceed to attend four hours worth of CAT coaching! And as it was the most likely thing to happen, the jeep didn't turn up! Swell! And neither was there a single autorickshaw to drop us off at the nearest bus-stand which is half a mile away! Half the people returned to their rooms to resume their incomplete sleep as there was no way now that we could make it to class on time! But here I was, with my mind vacillating between attending the class even if a little late or to bunk the class! With most of the folks turning back towards the hostel, the decision that I was going to take was getting more and more biased by the minute! But finally, my pal Anand persuaded me to attend class and convinced me that it was a good decision because we could rush off to the multiplex to watch the Revenge of the Sith after class! So, amen to that!
Reached Ahmedabad somehow in the hot and stuffy weather in a hotter and even more stuffy rickety old bus, with fellow Gujju travellers screaming away to glory in their mother tongue which seemed as some sort of exchange in codes! Phew! What a relief it was getting off the bus! It was almost 45 minutes past the time the class was to start, so I and Anand decided to roam around Ahmedabad a bit and reach the class in time for the second lecture of the day. Reached McDonalds with loads of hopes of having a nice breakfast only to be disappointed by the sweeper who somehow managed to convey the message to us in Gujarati that the place opens up at 11:30 AM! wtf!! Ok! So we proceed to Crossword to while away our time browsing through books! Guess what! Again a couple of sweepers tell us that the place opens up at 10:30 AM! WTF!! It's like we've been frequenting these places for the past 3 years and have not even the slightest idea about their opening and shutting down timings! Reminds me of an instance where Sherlock Holmes asked Watson to tell him the number of steps in the staircase that Watson walks up and down each day, and Watson's failure to supply an answer ! Jeez! How ignorant we are about the smallest of things!
Anyways, I and Anand head for CG Road, one of the cool places to hangout in apnu Ahmedabad! But believe me, nothing was cool about the place today! Found all the shops closed, and with the blazing hot sun making all the girls cover up themselves from head to toe, there was nothing worth doing! Found a supermarket shich seemed open! So I rushed towards it like the Master Incredible, olnly to be stopped in my tracks by the guard and turned away because the damn place opens up at 11 AM! I give up! All I wanted to do now was get back and wait for the second class to start! Enough of making a fool out of myself!
So there I am waiting outside the classroom for the first class to give over! As bad luck would have it, the instructor was a guy who neither possessed a soft corner in his heart for me and Anand, nor did he like anyone coming to class without doing the assigned homework! Here I catch a glimpse of him coming out of the class and a few minutes later, he catches sight of myself and Anand lazing around in a couple of chairs! The look that he gives us said it all! He probably thought that we hadn't done any of the homework(which was true:D) and had purposely bunked his class! "I'll deal with you slobs later" was all that was etched on his face! God SOS!
So for not so good! This is where things start to look up! The second class was pretty good and fast! Soon after it got over, I and Anand rushed off to Fun Republic! Purchased a couple of tickets for the movie, dumped out bags and rushed into FR! Holy macaroni! Today being a Saturday, the place was swarming with people! Not that the people interest me, but defintely the feminine population making up the mob do! Window-shopped for quite sometime throwing a stare here or having a glimpse there! Couldn't get my eyes off one particular beauty who really had me stumped! Just about 2-3 inches shorter than myself(I was standing by her for quite some time), very beautiful face, mesmerising eyes, nice figure, and a cool dressing sense! Can't believe real life isn't like the cyber life where you don't hestitate even a moment before saying Hi to someone! How I wanted to walk up to her and speak a bit! But alas! Mr. Scaredy Cat chickened away from this one! Ahem! The posts of mine are getting out of hand, don't you think?!
So, concentrating on the movie was a bit difficult but I somehow managed it! The movie in itself was ultimate! Top class! And though I'm not a keen follower of the Star Wars series, I found the movie quite enchanting, and not at all confusing as I had feared! Remarkable graphics and fight sequences! The sound effects were good! The actors were good and so was the director! Total paise vasool, as they say!
The drive back to the college was also not uneventful! There was a storm on it's wasy and the weather had chilled down a bit! The ride was fine sitting in the rear seat of a jeep enjoying the cool breeze and the tiny rain drops, more so because accompanying us on the journey was a lovely Gujarati girl! It's a fact that I've been shocked more than once when pretty gujju gals open their mouths, because it's like a perfect anticlimax! But this girl had a great voice as well! Probably the second Gujju girl with a really good voice whom I've heard, the first being my blog-friend Ekta!
It's a fact that I've been blabbering a lot about girls recently! Surely I'm out of my mind! Previously, a single attack of infatuation per day was okay but more than 2 or 3 times a day is damn too much! Any panacea?!
Got up at 5:15 AM! Wow! Did I just type that?! Damn right, I did! I am capable of things other than nightouts, you guys! Completed 10 *phew* rounds of the cricket ground! Had about half a litre of buttermilk soon after! Man, was it heavy! Took a shower and was present at the insti gates to board our hired jeep and proceed to attend four hours worth of CAT coaching! And as it was the most likely thing to happen, the jeep didn't turn up! Swell! And neither was there a single autorickshaw to drop us off at the nearest bus-stand which is half a mile away! Half the people returned to their rooms to resume their incomplete sleep as there was no way now that we could make it to class on time! But here I was, with my mind vacillating between attending the class even if a little late or to bunk the class! With most of the folks turning back towards the hostel, the decision that I was going to take was getting more and more biased by the minute! But finally, my pal Anand persuaded me to attend class and convinced me that it was a good decision because we could rush off to the multiplex to watch the Revenge of the Sith after class! So, amen to that!
Reached Ahmedabad somehow in the hot and stuffy weather in a hotter and even more stuffy rickety old bus, with fellow Gujju travellers screaming away to glory in their mother tongue which seemed as some sort of exchange in codes! Phew! What a relief it was getting off the bus! It was almost 45 minutes past the time the class was to start, so I and Anand decided to roam around Ahmedabad a bit and reach the class in time for the second lecture of the day. Reached McDonalds with loads of hopes of having a nice breakfast only to be disappointed by the sweeper who somehow managed to convey the message to us in Gujarati that the place opens up at 11:30 AM! wtf!! Ok! So we proceed to Crossword to while away our time browsing through books! Guess what! Again a couple of sweepers tell us that the place opens up at 10:30 AM! WTF!! It's like we've been frequenting these places for the past 3 years and have not even the slightest idea about their opening and shutting down timings! Reminds me of an instance where Sherlock Holmes asked Watson to tell him the number of steps in the staircase that Watson walks up and down each day, and Watson's failure to supply an answer ! Jeez! How ignorant we are about the smallest of things!
Anyways, I and Anand head for CG Road, one of the cool places to hangout in apnu Ahmedabad! But believe me, nothing was cool about the place today! Found all the shops closed, and with the blazing hot sun making all the girls cover up themselves from head to toe, there was nothing worth doing! Found a supermarket shich seemed open! So I rushed towards it like the Master Incredible, olnly to be stopped in my tracks by the guard and turned away because the damn place opens up at 11 AM! I give up! All I wanted to do now was get back and wait for the second class to start! Enough of making a fool out of myself!
So there I am waiting outside the classroom for the first class to give over! As bad luck would have it, the instructor was a guy who neither possessed a soft corner in his heart for me and Anand, nor did he like anyone coming to class without doing the assigned homework! Here I catch a glimpse of him coming out of the class and a few minutes later, he catches sight of myself and Anand lazing around in a couple of chairs! The look that he gives us said it all! He probably thought that we hadn't done any of the homework(which was true:D) and had purposely bunked his class! "I'll deal with you slobs later" was all that was etched on his face! God SOS!
So for not so good! This is where things start to look up! The second class was pretty good and fast! Soon after it got over, I and Anand rushed off to Fun Republic! Purchased a couple of tickets for the movie, dumped out bags and rushed into FR! Holy macaroni! Today being a Saturday, the place was swarming with people! Not that the people interest me, but defintely the feminine population making up the mob do! Window-shopped for quite sometime throwing a stare here or having a glimpse there! Couldn't get my eyes off one particular beauty who really had me stumped! Just about 2-3 inches shorter than myself(I was standing by her for quite some time), very beautiful face, mesmerising eyes, nice figure, and a cool dressing sense! Can't believe real life isn't like the cyber life where you don't hestitate even a moment before saying Hi to someone! How I wanted to walk up to her and speak a bit! But alas! Mr. Scaredy Cat chickened away from this one! Ahem! The posts of mine are getting out of hand, don't you think?!
So, concentrating on the movie was a bit difficult but I somehow managed it! The movie in itself was ultimate! Top class! And though I'm not a keen follower of the Star Wars series, I found the movie quite enchanting, and not at all confusing as I had feared! Remarkable graphics and fight sequences! The sound effects were good! The actors were good and so was the director! Total paise vasool, as they say!
The drive back to the college was also not uneventful! There was a storm on it's wasy and the weather had chilled down a bit! The ride was fine sitting in the rear seat of a jeep enjoying the cool breeze and the tiny rain drops, more so because accompanying us on the journey was a lovely Gujarati girl! It's a fact that I've been shocked more than once when pretty gujju gals open their mouths, because it's like a perfect anticlimax! But this girl had a great voice as well! Probably the second Gujju girl with a really good voice whom I've heard, the first being my blog-friend Ekta!
It's a fact that I've been blabbering a lot about girls recently! Surely I'm out of my mind! Previously, a single attack of infatuation per day was okay but more than 2 or 3 times a day is damn too much! Any panacea?!
Friday, May 27, 2005
The encounter
Can I have your attention please?! Yeah! The fact is that I'm on the road to recovery after yet another attack of lethargy and fits of procrastination! It's been almost a month since the semester got over, and more than half a month since I got free of the project work and officially attained freedom! But I was very wrong to assume that I'd be blogging away to glory once the hols start! For one thing, I was more frequent here during the semester than I am at present! The sole credit for my not blogging goes to laziness and procrastination! About 10 days ago, I did write a blog but the damn text got lost thanks to some internet explorer error (Bless Gates)! To think of it, I've been sleeping for almost 10 hours each day:D! Nothing much to be done in the unbearable heat except perhaps hibernation! Apart from that, I've been playing card games and table tennis and what not! And how could I forget the gym and the loads of novels that I love to read while lazing around on my bed! So there you go, loads of excuses for being an infrequent visitor at blogland! But I'm back thanks to people tagging my blog as a "dlog" and making derogatory comments about it!
To continue from where I left off, nothing much has taken place in greensville a.k.a. Gandhinagar! But just a couple of days ago, something rather unexpected and pleasant happened! I never knew that being up early in the morn would ever benefit me much but on the fateful day, I was having breakfast after jogging a bit when my eye caught sight of this pretty damsel having a chat with some of the college staff! Having read my previous posts, you might've guessed that there was a pretty slim chance that this particular chick was a student at my college! So here I'm eyeing this girl just like a hungry dog eyes a bone that I realize that she has started walking towards the table where I was with a group of pals! Holy cow! The next moment, she was standing in front of me! "How you doin'?" as Joey would say;)! It turned out that missy needed some help and couldn't find anyone in the deserted campus at this hour of the morning, and she had stumbled upon a bunch of nightouters, namely us, who had nothing better to do than laze around in the cool morning breeze! Oi! "At your service, madam" was what I heard my heart shout out and before I knew it, I was on my feet! I can be swift at times, you know! Dunno why but I asked my pal, Nemo, to accompany "us"! So there I was walking with a damn cute girl with Nemo trailing a good distance behind!
What say we call the lady Ms. X?! So Ms. X is apparently excited about something! First and foremost, she tells me that she's from neighbouring NIFT and I'm like "That's obvious"! She somehow managed to forget the path she took to reach us and so I walk with her, showing the direction to her destination, chatting about this and that never wanting this moment to end! Thank God that Nemo managed to remain a fair distance behind us! I found out that X actually wanted to get a few snaps of the clothes she designed in front of some of the wierdly painted trees in our campus! All the excitement for that?! Sheesh how very embarrassing! But what the heck! It's her choice! As we begin to zero in on our destination, I realize that there are more of where X came from, 2 to be precise! There they lay sprawled on the lawns oblivious to our approach! Gosh! Now this I did not expect! Same was the case with Nemo! Anyway, we helped them with what they wanted! O how I wished to stay back and be of more assistance but...
So after bidding farewell, me and Nemo walk back to the hostel discussing, you don't need to be Einstein to guess it, the 3 girls! At this point of time, I would like to remind one and all that the normal life of a DA-IICTian male is spent observing either the computer or books or most importantly, trees! So it was a much needed break from the mundane everyday routine to cross paths with a beautiful gal as X! And if there is any such thing as history repeating itself, how I pray now that it turns out to be true in this case! Wouldn't mind another such encounter...
Signing off,
The chosen victim of Infatuation,
Steve
To continue from where I left off, nothing much has taken place in greensville a.k.a. Gandhinagar! But just a couple of days ago, something rather unexpected and pleasant happened! I never knew that being up early in the morn would ever benefit me much but on the fateful day, I was having breakfast after jogging a bit when my eye caught sight of this pretty damsel having a chat with some of the college staff! Having read my previous posts, you might've guessed that there was a pretty slim chance that this particular chick was a student at my college! So here I'm eyeing this girl just like a hungry dog eyes a bone that I realize that she has started walking towards the table where I was with a group of pals! Holy cow! The next moment, she was standing in front of me! "How you doin'?" as Joey would say;)! It turned out that missy needed some help and couldn't find anyone in the deserted campus at this hour of the morning, and she had stumbled upon a bunch of nightouters, namely us, who had nothing better to do than laze around in the cool morning breeze! Oi! "At your service, madam" was what I heard my heart shout out and before I knew it, I was on my feet! I can be swift at times, you know! Dunno why but I asked my pal, Nemo, to accompany "us"! So there I was walking with a damn cute girl with Nemo trailing a good distance behind!
What say we call the lady Ms. X?! So Ms. X is apparently excited about something! First and foremost, she tells me that she's from neighbouring NIFT and I'm like "That's obvious"! She somehow managed to forget the path she took to reach us and so I walk with her, showing the direction to her destination, chatting about this and that never wanting this moment to end! Thank God that Nemo managed to remain a fair distance behind us! I found out that X actually wanted to get a few snaps of the clothes she designed in front of some of the wierdly painted trees in our campus! All the excitement for that?! Sheesh how very embarrassing! But what the heck! It's her choice! As we begin to zero in on our destination, I realize that there are more of where X came from, 2 to be precise! There they lay sprawled on the lawns oblivious to our approach! Gosh! Now this I did not expect! Same was the case with Nemo! Anyway, we helped them with what they wanted! O how I wished to stay back and be of more assistance but...
So after bidding farewell, me and Nemo walk back to the hostel discussing, you don't need to be Einstein to guess it, the 3 girls! At this point of time, I would like to remind one and all that the normal life of a DA-IICTian male is spent observing either the computer or books or most importantly, trees! So it was a much needed break from the mundane everyday routine to cross paths with a beautiful gal as X! And if there is any such thing as history repeating itself, how I pray now that it turns out to be true in this case! Wouldn't mind another such encounter...
Signing off,
The chosen victim of Infatuation,
Steve
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Three years down the memory lane - Part II
Traversing those dewed winding pathways stained here and there by bird-droppings; watching the dry leaves, forsaken by the trees, being swept away by the mild soft breeze; feeling the dew pearls, cold and fresh, on my naked feet; watching the silent and gloomy buildings, a part of the concrete jungle that seems to be infesting the lush-green campus, with no sign of the activities that go in them during day time; watching a sea of familiar faces converge on the goal I was protecting, some for defending and some for scoring, their yells for passes and encouragement drowning out the night's stillness and tranquility... I smile a self-satisfied smile! This is life at its best! I wouldn't have missed it for anything!
Why am I typing out all this?! Just today, when I joined my buddies of three long years for a game of soccer at 2 AM, I couldn't help but reminisce the good old days! Didn't seem good at that time, that's the college three years ago, but now my point of view has taken a U-turn! When I came for the college, it was nothing but a couple of stand-alone buildings with trees and trees and... more trees! No girls, not even many people for that matter! The atmosphere at night was eerie! How frustrating!! But now, we have loads of architectural marvels, on-campus hostels, food-courts, a sports complex, an open-air theatre, a cricket-cum-football ground, some wierdly painted trees and loads of people, especially some (read negligible) pretty damsels!
I can still remember July 22, 2002! My first day at college! I know no one; no one knows me! We were all strangers united together at this place thanks to a terrible twist of fate! There is a look on every face which seems to be saying that this is not where I belong! A few awkward conversations later, I decided that things weren't going to be tough after all with almost every soul here being on the IIT's shunned list! The registration process was the last straw and I got the feeling of being committed to DA-IICT! Here's to a brand new life!!
The first sem was spent at an apartment in sector-7 with 16 people per block! I could boast about residing with really great chaps who were from all over the nation! Friends made then and there are still buddies with whom I feel really good! My roomie at the time was the college's favorite clown and I was an object of worship for being able to put up with him! Dhirubhai Ambani, our mentor's, death was a bolt from the blue which left all of us stranded! From showing some wretched scums, who called themselves seniors, the cold shoulder when they apparently came to "rag" me, doing nightouts, unwittingly spending a marathon 5 minutes in the ladies' room without realizing it:D, to breaking a couple of doors, I had done it all!
Second sem was something totally different! Moving to the on-campus hostel! More nightouts! Procrastination on the rise! Addiction to coffee and icecream! Screwing up in studies! Bunking lectures by the dozen! Learnt to play badminton very well! Playing football at night was a fancy! Got a serious crush on a gal, and realized that the same feeling was shared by 2 more friends and that too for the same lady:(! The rural internship was a completely new and life-changing experience!
Third semester was for studies... and 3 new addictions, gaming, ping-pong and working-out! Fourth sem saw gaming at it's peak and a completely screwed up grade report! The industrial internship added a new game to the gaming addiction queue! Formed a gaming clan! More nightouts, introduction to fag and enjoyed booze the real way!
Fifth sem saw me going to my dream place, namely IIT-Bombay, to participate with my best friends in a contraption event at their Techfest! Won a lot of hearts and nothing more! Screwed up studies with the clan matches doing the rounds! Another addiction joined the list of them... Orkuting! Ended the sem with a career-worst preformance! And seeing the placements and packages that the senior batch received, came face to face with the realities of life!
Sixth sem was a complete makeover! Forsook gaming, but orkuting continued! Blogging was a new found addiction! The director for whom I joined the insti showed us the middle finger and took off for leading a peaceful life unmindful of our placements that were due in a few months! Couldn't the old geezer have stayed back for a few more months and see us safely settled?? Yeah right! Whatever! Did well in studies and worked more on my abs!
So that brings me back to the present day! With the finals over and a week of crappy project work to be persued before a research internship, I can't believe how time has flown by in the past 3 years! Feels bad that after one year I'll have to leave all this behind and get stuck in the drudgeries of life! Though life at DA-IICT wasn't the college life that I had expected, it is surely gonna remain a cherished memory! I am no longer the skinny bloke who was a wannabe, lacked personality, a sweet and shy guy who had never used abusive words, wore his pants high up in the air, had never stayed out of his mumma's sight, had no idea what responsiblity meant!! No sir! I'm a grown-up man now, with a personality, with an attitude, no longer skinny, a sense of responsiblity, and large black circles under my eyes! The been-there-done-that feeling runs in my blood! The only thing about me that is probably the same since I joined college is that I'm still a virgin, unless ofcourse you consider one's modesty being ravaged by the profs as losing one's viriginity:(! Sad, yet true! *Sigh* A time for that will come as well...
So that's about it! Three years of college over! One more to go! Hope it proves to be a success! And I pray to the Almighty to get me a good pay packet!!
Thanks you guys, all my DA-IICT buddies, for being there and making life so pleasant and fun! Hate to say it but here goes: Thanks DA-IICT for making me who I am (Not a sure shot compliment;))! And thanks fellow bloggers for bearing with me once again and for your comments, which are the sole reasons for my being unable to detatch myself from this addiction!
Why am I typing out all this?! Just today, when I joined my buddies of three long years for a game of soccer at 2 AM, I couldn't help but reminisce the good old days! Didn't seem good at that time, that's the college three years ago, but now my point of view has taken a U-turn! When I came for the college, it was nothing but a couple of stand-alone buildings with trees and trees and... more trees! No girls, not even many people for that matter! The atmosphere at night was eerie! How frustrating!! But now, we have loads of architectural marvels, on-campus hostels, food-courts, a sports complex, an open-air theatre, a cricket-cum-football ground, some wierdly painted trees and loads of people, especially some (read negligible) pretty damsels!
I can still remember July 22, 2002! My first day at college! I know no one; no one knows me! We were all strangers united together at this place thanks to a terrible twist of fate! There is a look on every face which seems to be saying that this is not where I belong! A few awkward conversations later, I decided that things weren't going to be tough after all with almost every soul here being on the IIT's shunned list! The registration process was the last straw and I got the feeling of being committed to DA-IICT! Here's to a brand new life!!
The first sem was spent at an apartment in sector-7 with 16 people per block! I could boast about residing with really great chaps who were from all over the nation! Friends made then and there are still buddies with whom I feel really good! My roomie at the time was the college's favorite clown and I was an object of worship for being able to put up with him! Dhirubhai Ambani, our mentor's, death was a bolt from the blue which left all of us stranded! From showing some wretched scums, who called themselves seniors, the cold shoulder when they apparently came to "rag" me, doing nightouts, unwittingly spending a marathon 5 minutes in the ladies' room without realizing it:D, to breaking a couple of doors, I had done it all!
Second sem was something totally different! Moving to the on-campus hostel! More nightouts! Procrastination on the rise! Addiction to coffee and icecream! Screwing up in studies! Bunking lectures by the dozen! Learnt to play badminton very well! Playing football at night was a fancy! Got a serious crush on a gal, and realized that the same feeling was shared by 2 more friends and that too for the same lady:(! The rural internship was a completely new and life-changing experience!
Third semester was for studies... and 3 new addictions, gaming, ping-pong and working-out! Fourth sem saw gaming at it's peak and a completely screwed up grade report! The industrial internship added a new game to the gaming addiction queue! Formed a gaming clan! More nightouts, introduction to fag and enjoyed booze the real way!
Fifth sem saw me going to my dream place, namely IIT-Bombay, to participate with my best friends in a contraption event at their Techfest! Won a lot of hearts and nothing more! Screwed up studies with the clan matches doing the rounds! Another addiction joined the list of them... Orkuting! Ended the sem with a career-worst preformance! And seeing the placements and packages that the senior batch received, came face to face with the realities of life!
Sixth sem was a complete makeover! Forsook gaming, but orkuting continued! Blogging was a new found addiction! The director for whom I joined the insti showed us the middle finger and took off for leading a peaceful life unmindful of our placements that were due in a few months! Couldn't the old geezer have stayed back for a few more months and see us safely settled?? Yeah right! Whatever! Did well in studies and worked more on my abs!
So that brings me back to the present day! With the finals over and a week of crappy project work to be persued before a research internship, I can't believe how time has flown by in the past 3 years! Feels bad that after one year I'll have to leave all this behind and get stuck in the drudgeries of life! Though life at DA-IICT wasn't the college life that I had expected, it is surely gonna remain a cherished memory! I am no longer the skinny bloke who was a wannabe, lacked personality, a sweet and shy guy who had never used abusive words, wore his pants high up in the air, had never stayed out of his mumma's sight, had no idea what responsiblity meant!! No sir! I'm a grown-up man now, with a personality, with an attitude, no longer skinny, a sense of responsiblity, and large black circles under my eyes! The been-there-done-that feeling runs in my blood! The only thing about me that is probably the same since I joined college is that I'm still a virgin, unless ofcourse you consider one's modesty being ravaged by the profs as losing one's viriginity:(! Sad, yet true! *Sigh* A time for that will come as well...
So that's about it! Three years of college over! One more to go! Hope it proves to be a success! And I pray to the Almighty to get me a good pay packet!!
Thanks you guys, all my DA-IICT buddies, for being there and making life so pleasant and fun! Hate to say it but here goes: Thanks DA-IICT for making me who I am (Not a sure shot compliment;))! And thanks fellow bloggers for bearing with me once again and for your comments, which are the sole reasons for my being unable to detatch myself from this addiction!
Three years down the memory lane - Part I
Warning: This post is probably gonna eat up a major chunk of Blogger's database space and would end up being my longest till date! So, I find it my humble duty to dissuade anyone who wishes to traverse through this post from doing so because I tend to get very nostalgic at times and this definitely is one of those! For those who wish to continue undaunted, R.I.P :P!
May 5th: Appeared for the mains of IIT-JEE 2002 with a confidence which I never knew I possessed. At the end of the day, everything depended upon the outcome of the Physics paper! I somehow knew it at the back of my mind that my fate had been sealed but stubborn that I am, there was no way I was going to believe it until I saw the outcome with my very own eyes...
May 12th, 2002: Appeared for the national level entrance test of DA-IICT although I had no intention of doing so! Even my good performance didn't seem to help me get my thoughts off my performance in the JEE and the outcome of the same...
May 19th, 2002: Appeared for AIEEE 2002 under adverse situations with no preparation whatsoever and no hope of clearing the exam! Didn't care to discuss the solutions and probable answers with my mates! I can clearly remember one buddy remarking that with the kind of questions I had attempted and assuming that maximum are right, I'd probably bag one of the top colleges! Big deal! I don't care a damn, no sir! The only thing seems to matter is the D-day when the IIT-JEE results would be out!
DA-IICT results got out 2-3 days before D-day. I bagged a rank of 243 which was not bad at all considering the meagre amount of effort I had put in! Though I wasn't exactly exuberant, I did find a silent joy on being selected which served the purpose of a morale booster which I desperately needed for Judgement day!
"The day" came and went in a flash... The IIT-JEE people, I realized, don't prefer beating around the bush! They are definitely the epitomes of straightforwardedness! Their laconic way of playing down your hard-work of 2 miserable years pinched my heart! No, I didn't cry! I was too big a man to shed tears for some entrance exam result! But my heart ached with the thought of what my parents were feeling right at that moment! They expected so very much of me and I had let them down! I knew that behind their assurances that this wasn't the end of the world and that I had much more to look forward to and that "everything happens for the best", there lay their veiled dissappointments!
AIEEE All India Rank 611! Big deal! Call from IIIT-Hyderabad! Nothing matters now!
I was intent on taking a drop to have another go at the IIT-JEE! But my parents had had enough! Whether they had lost all faith in me or whether they didn't want me to sweat it out for another year and flip my lid, I had no idea! I had no intention of hurting them any further! This time I wanted to do it their way...
Now came the hard part! Let me make it clear that I was not short of options! The decent AIEEE rank ensured that I was ranked 13 in my entire state (no need to Oooh and Ahh about that one; my state is as small as they come!) , so thanks to the bureaucrats who has ensured that each state has a fixed quota in the Regional Engineering Colleges, 2 well-known RECs were added to my list of options for colleges to choose from! Not a choice to be made by Eenie, Meenie, Mini, Moe, this one! So after all the pros and cons of all the colleges in question had been considered by the elders + me, I had to choose either the new, upcoming, world-class, located-in-luscious-green-Gandhinagar, and most importantly Reliance-endorsed DA-IICT, or the 4-years elder, established, much heard about, offering only IT and not ICT, IIIT Hyderabad!
What a mess! So, ok! I decided to attend the counselling sessions of both and then come to a final decision! As fate would have it, DA-IICT counselling took place prior to the other alternative's, and the then director, the ICT salesman that he is, and his high ambitions and seemingly impromptu speech about the scope of the field and the future of the college were the sole reasons for my decding in DA-IICT's favor and jilting IIIT even without caring to attend it's counselling!
*Sighs* The worst decision probably that I must've taken in my entire life!
May 5th: Appeared for the mains of IIT-JEE 2002 with a confidence which I never knew I possessed. At the end of the day, everything depended upon the outcome of the Physics paper! I somehow knew it at the back of my mind that my fate had been sealed but stubborn that I am, there was no way I was going to believe it until I saw the outcome with my very own eyes...
May 12th, 2002: Appeared for the national level entrance test of DA-IICT although I had no intention of doing so! Even my good performance didn't seem to help me get my thoughts off my performance in the JEE and the outcome of the same...
May 19th, 2002: Appeared for AIEEE 2002 under adverse situations with no preparation whatsoever and no hope of clearing the exam! Didn't care to discuss the solutions and probable answers with my mates! I can clearly remember one buddy remarking that with the kind of questions I had attempted and assuming that maximum are right, I'd probably bag one of the top colleges! Big deal! I don't care a damn, no sir! The only thing seems to matter is the D-day when the IIT-JEE results would be out!
DA-IICT results got out 2-3 days before D-day. I bagged a rank of 243 which was not bad at all considering the meagre amount of effort I had put in! Though I wasn't exactly exuberant, I did find a silent joy on being selected which served the purpose of a morale booster which I desperately needed for Judgement day!
"The day" came and went in a flash... The IIT-JEE people, I realized, don't prefer beating around the bush! They are definitely the epitomes of straightforwardedness! Their laconic way of playing down your hard-work of 2 miserable years pinched my heart! No, I didn't cry! I was too big a man to shed tears for some entrance exam result! But my heart ached with the thought of what my parents were feeling right at that moment! They expected so very much of me and I had let them down! I knew that behind their assurances that this wasn't the end of the world and that I had much more to look forward to and that "everything happens for the best", there lay their veiled dissappointments!
AIEEE All India Rank 611! Big deal! Call from IIIT-Hyderabad! Nothing matters now!
I was intent on taking a drop to have another go at the IIT-JEE! But my parents had had enough! Whether they had lost all faith in me or whether they didn't want me to sweat it out for another year and flip my lid, I had no idea! I had no intention of hurting them any further! This time I wanted to do it their way...
Now came the hard part! Let me make it clear that I was not short of options! The decent AIEEE rank ensured that I was ranked 13 in my entire state (no need to Oooh and Ahh about that one; my state is as small as they come!) , so thanks to the bureaucrats who has ensured that each state has a fixed quota in the Regional Engineering Colleges, 2 well-known RECs were added to my list of options for colleges to choose from! Not a choice to be made by Eenie, Meenie, Mini, Moe, this one! So after all the pros and cons of all the colleges in question had been considered by the elders + me, I had to choose either the new, upcoming, world-class, located-in-luscious-green-Gandhinagar, and most importantly Reliance-endorsed DA-IICT, or the 4-years elder, established, much heard about, offering only IT and not ICT, IIIT Hyderabad!
What a mess! So, ok! I decided to attend the counselling sessions of both and then come to a final decision! As fate would have it, DA-IICT counselling took place prior to the other alternative's, and the then director, the ICT salesman that he is, and his high ambitions and seemingly impromptu speech about the scope of the field and the future of the college were the sole reasons for my decding in DA-IICT's favor and jilting IIIT even without caring to attend it's counselling!
*Sighs* The worst decision probably that I must've taken in my entire life!
