Money

Back after a long time...the last one by Sunny gave a glimpse of the transition from the carefree college world to the dog eat dog industrial world.

And heres something I chose to write on....one thing that makes the world go around....

MONEY

The first thing that comes to anyones mind is the most common phrase "Money is the root of all evil"

Have we ever really thought about what is the root of all the money that exchanges hands all over the world every single moment???? The obvious answer wud be all the people working all day long to earn money so that we can live a happy life....and to put it more precisely I quote some lines from Atlas Shrugged.

"Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. Then is money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By the ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is made--before it can be looted or mooched--made by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that he can't consume more than he has produced."

All thru the years when I gained enuf sense to form opinions about money and life and other concepts of life, I have never believed money is the root of all evil, on the contrary I started believing that money is definitely THE source of happiness. Of course what gives a man happiness is solely a reflection of his mind, his soul. Although in the last few months I found enuf reasons to think over the issue money being THE source of happiness all over again

I have always been crunched to spend money all thru my life, another way to put it wud be I never had money to afford luxuries in life. Basic necessities are all that I could always afford. Which again is a relative concept in itself. What is luxury for me wud be a necessity for others. But I wud define necessity as smthng I cant stay happy without(example: Ice cream) and luxury as smthng u can enjoy and feel good about but can live happily without it(example: Vodka). All thru those years when money was not an abundant resource we had, I always thght it will give me all the happiness that I look for in life.

It will give me the ability to do all the things I love. Finally I will see ppl around me happy at least from the money point of view in life. But sadly I was hit by a unprecedented reality check as soon as I started earning. And that was now that u have money which u never had in all the past years, u start saving it rather than spending it. And the Q is why?????. The answer really simple....what if those years come back again....or is it that difficult for us to move ahead and accept change in life????

And all this just leaves me with a faint smile...definitely taking back my own words....money IS THE source of happiness...I must say it can be...but it is not THE source of content and happiness.


U can have the best meal in ur life eating at a roadside stall or at a five star restaur. What matters is the experience and the memory. Baskin Robbins back then was not anything great cause I was the only one appreciating good Ice Cream. But now when u have a great company to share it with(I hope u get I am talking abt u) it taste like never before. In our college days we had the best times with not more than 50 bucks in our wallet every day. And today when I have the liberty to carry 500 in my wallet, I dont have my friends to live those great moments again. Of course after reading this I am sure they will come flocking to me this weekend for a party

To put the above whole idea in a better(philosophical) way here's Atlas shrugged again

Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants: money will not give him a code of values, if he's evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he's evaded the choice of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent. Money will not give you the unearned, neither in matter nor in spirit.

And if u think this post can end without the Floydian view of money...sorry

Pink Floyd - Money

Money, get away.
Get a good job with good pay and you're okay.
Money, it's a gas.
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.
New car, caviar, four star daydream,
Think I'll buy me a football team.

Money, get back.
I'm all right Jack keep your hands off of my stack.
Money, it's a hit.
Don't give me that do goody good bullshit.

I'm in the high-fidelity first class traveling set

And I think I need a Lear jet.

Money, it's a crime.
Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie.
Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil today.
But if you ask for a raise it's no surprise that they're
giving none away.

Pink Floyd - Dogs

For all the blog frequenters or none at all, for those wondering whether the blog is deceased or breathing, is it with the blog, or simply, the contributors dead? The answer to all of this is just that we are all riding are lives with the clutch pedal on. It’s the time to change gears fractions ahead of the next chicane. It’s the time to continue the engine (here, the hearts that drives men of immense wisdom) churning the revs with very modest or almost no power transmission. Only to keep it all set to pump up enormous muscle at the exit of the chicane. In plain simple words, it’s the point of our lives when we are bumping into the world of competition, technology and service.

So what is it that has caught up on us? Most of our time is occupied in recovering from the old concepts shattering blows of information each day at work. The rest of the time is used up in finding ways to spend the compensations after all the beating (This may not include others). I call it the Dog part of our lives. It’s the exact metaphor for human behavior at this juncture of our life.

To understand it better just run thru the lyrics of Pink Floyd song from the album Animals. Contrastingly, Roger Waters had composed these lines with a different view point; I looked at it from a different dimension.

Artist: Pink Floyd

Album: Animals

Title: Dogs

“You gotta be crazy, you gotta have a real need

You gotta sleep on your toes, and when you're on the street

You gotta be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed

And then moving in silently, down wind and out of sight

You gotta strike when the moment is right without thinking.

And after a while, you can work on points for style

Like the club tie, and the firm handshake

A certain look in the eye, and an easy smile

You gotta keep one eye looking over your shoulder

You know it's going to get harder, and harder, and harder as you get older

This is where it is right now. It couldn’t have got along any better than this. Beginning with DG (he has to start this). DG’s ass has always been the first ass to feel the gush of braking inertia each time. He was the first one to get a job (sadly with MBT though), first one to turn 18 (he did nothing, it just happened to be that way, or well, all of us were born after him) and most significantly the first one to fly abroad (purely on his credentials). Rohan is working with international clients selling the Americans insurance plans, Sunny (the author) is riding on 3D models of bikes and Junior is still burning up few more gallons of fuel on the test tracks for some more time.

The scene on the circuit is beginning to heat up. The start-finish straight of this new lap has faded in the rear view mirror (the induction training, I mean). We are all running down to lower gears to hit the first of the dreadful corners of just another lap of our lives. The analogy remains the same, the rules of the game remains same. The tyres are feeling new and the brakes are beginning to heat up. Time to develop a skill set to negotiate the trickiest of turns. I am allowing the Dog in me to take over. It’s the right time to run down the gears, feel the revs of engine and release the clutch lever once the curve is nudged away.

And this one is for you Junior; often the winner of the race is the one who hits the brakes last and hits every bit of the turn when the others are just trying to nudge off the apex. You’ll see a few people ahead of you in your visor, but they might very well be a lap down, so you don’t know who the winner here is? No one does…. The entire script is off course written by something Supernatural, we are just dogs in the park.

Still alive.....

long long time......but frankly no time as far as i am concerned.....and no intention/time as far as others are concerned to write smthng here...

has been 2 long mnths since i posted here...lot happened...siemens strted...went to nasik for 3 weeks training...first outstation trip....earned a huge amount of this trip...

had a great time there...both in office and outside it as well....nice city to live in...small but independent and complete i must say....got to know some ppl better than i knew them before....will really cherish these memories abt this trip for a long time....

back to office in mumbai....first day we get down kind of assisting on a project...learning some softwares....second day at office i get my salary cheque.....a few thousands more than i was expecting....pleasant surprise....two parties planned for the coming 2 weekends...hope we have a great time....

srry this post is written out of an attempt to announce that this blog is still alive....i am not in touch with music or general entertainment means for a long time...so a good post will follow soon...over the weekend....

Coming Back to Life

Here I am again.....this time its a pure tribute to a Pink Floyd song...
Song: Coming back to life Album: The division bell

There are times in everyone's life when u want someone to just be there with u....most of the times u know whom u want to be with, but there are times when u just dont know who u r craving to be with. Just the presence of someone u are connected to can make the difference between being comfortably numb or coming back to life.......

This song is David Gilmour's take on such times.....a song for his wife.....but many say tat maybe this song was written for his friend and band mate Roger Waters after he left the band(tats just before this album was released).

As always too good lyrics and never will u hear such pure love and longing in any other pink floyd song......all others are mostly outrageous takes on all unwanted thngs happening around us...the kind of rebel feeling to their songs...and yes wish u were here is another song which gives u the same feeling.....

The rest of the talking I guess shud be done by floyd....

Below are the lyrics and MP3 and click here to see the song performed by floyd at pulse,most of u wont, i know..:(

Where were you when I was burned and broken
While the days slipped by from my window watching
And where were you when I was hurt and I was helpless
Because the things you say and the things you do surround me
While you were hanging yourself on someone else's words
Dying to believe in what you heard
I was staring straight into the shining sun
Lost in thought and lost in time
While the seeds of life and the seeds of change were planted
Outside the rain fell dark and slow
While I pondered on this dangerous but irresistible pastime
I took a heavenly ride through our silence
I knew the moment had arrived
For killing the past and coming back to life
I took a heavenly ride through our silence
I knew the waiting had begun
And headed straight into the shining sun

Passion rules the Game

So its me again. coz I am the only one doing nthng as of now. sunny is in pune, living his dream at bajaj auto. Rohan has also strted with his job, looking pretty decent as of now. So tat leaves me and Junaid as we say always bekaar, lukkha and what not.....

Most of these days have been spent by me doing nthng, sitting and just dreaming of big things, lots of money, lots of places to go to, lots of lists already exist in my mind of "to do things"....

Life has been on a roller coaster ride in the past few days. From good news tat I am still being considered for automation department to the news tat I cannot be absorbed into process control. Then came a super shock, when a candid chat in the canteen turned out to b an interview.....what is the freq vs current response of a rlc series circuit.....total bouncer....still managed to crack it.....all because of those basics tat are considered trivial.....anyways...managed to crack it somehow..

Then came the hardest part....waiting ...waiting...waiting for a reply....mentally preparing myself for the worst news and the good one as well.....was almost drained out of all energy waiting for a reply.....what if they say NO....every assurance I gave to myself and got from friends and mom....had that end....what if NO...being so close still if I dont make it....it will b harder to go to tech mahindra than before....back then there were no options and all thru the final year I somehow prepared myself to go to TM for a year or so....

Finally the news came...drives and motion control dept....was happy...but was kind of prepared for that news...so not surprised.....but mom was very tensed and I saw her crying after a long time when the news came in....the feeling was just awesome...kind of the same when i got the news of getting electronics engg at RAIT....and I knew now the time has come....its upto me now....I make it or break it....and I know I will make it the way I want it to be....

And in the past days I saw a documentary on Mclaren Mercedes F1 team....extensive footages and interviews of Mclaren drivers Alonso and Hamilton and boss Ron Dennis..was so moved by the whole story of Lewis Hamilton....when a 8 year kid goes to a ceo(Ron Dennis) on stage and pulls his pants and tells him..." i have just won the british junior championship....and one day i would like to drive your car"....and what a journey it has been since then for him...he is 22 now and has been racing for the past 13 years....and i am 22 now and driving INDICA occasionally.....well srry, no over ambitious comparisons

He and his father saw a dream, one day lewis will drive a F1 car....and they saw it when lewis was 6.....and there has been no black driver in motoracing's 50 years of existence....and they worked towards it...It was a pact....lewis will pursue his dream but not let studies suffer and dad will work two jobs, one for the household and one for his son's dream....to build him go karts....

Ron Dennis gave him his chance when he was 9.....he won, they paid for his studies and racing.....Ron dennis says " when i met him as a child....he spoke more thru his eyes than his mouth....they said it all" ....the most striking line in the whole documentary was when Ron says for Lewis" he is confidence devoid of arrogance".....

All this comes down to one thing....a tear in lewis's fathers eye when his son was on podium in his first ever F1 race....the dream accomplished....and what a way they did it.....

As for me, the chase towards the dream begins shortly....standing on a formula 1 podium as a team engineer....but the Q remains...who will be the one shedding a tear??????

A Saucerful of ?????????

Long time since I posted smthng here......the last one by sunny was really nice......

Frankly speaking I was too bored to write smthng.....just lazing for the past whole month...I was expecting rohan to write smthng here....but he is lazier than me....

This post is not abt anythng in particular....so will not match up to the standards of this blog.

Lot of thngs going on in the past few days.....

Interview with siemens....was a big learning experience..

Matheran trip.....very close to the goa trip...was a really cherished experience

Daily outings with coll friends.....nerul station hang outs.....probably the last few days of freedom and fun....

Few quotes by friends....prasad said on last exam day...." apne liye jeene wale din shayad khatam ho gaye"....will always remember tat coz at tat very moment i was thinking our days have just strted.....prasad again" duniya ek medical store hai aur main aaj dosti ki goli khaa ke aaya hoon"....maan really feel like killing him sometimes...kitna pakata hai yaar

So many plans to spend money when i finally strt earning....I find myself making a list of restaurs where I wanna eat....things I wanna buy....parties I wanna give.....gifts I wanna buy for ppl.....and in distant future CARS I wanna buy

Sunny finally leaving mumbai....the first among us to strt his job...hope he achieves all tat he wants to...

Prasad and Rohan finally got their calls....all of my friends stay in Mumbai....except Nair and Charu.....really sad when I thnk of this...I hope v never find it difficult to find time for each other....

Lots of new music in the last few days....mainly Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.....dont feel like listening to anything else other than Floyd these days.....they are like GOD himself teaching u abt different aspects of life....the medium here is music...

Just realised a few days ago....so many common members between Pink Floyd and Ayn Rand community on orkut....two different takes on LIFE, but the ideology is the same.....

Didnt get chance to have vodka for the past 2 months almost.....waiting.....:(

My mom and bro gng crazy abt this Art Of Living Thing....and driving me crazy with their pravachan all day long.....no ways will i ever go to tat place.....the whole idea just feels disgusting to me.....how can someone else teach u "THE ART" of living your life...wat have u done all ur life if u dont know how to live it?????????

Thinking for the past few days....do we really mean when we say ..."we will be friends forever"...."i am always there for u"....and if we are not sure of whats gng to happen the next day why do we give these false assurances to others and ourselves????

Is guilt the only way u can make a person confess to his true self.....Is guilt the only link between u and ur conscience???? Have we stooped down to such a level tat we tlk to our conscience only when we feel guilty about something?????

Isn't the desire to take up the hardest challenge and beat it, a confession of weakness in itself????

Enuf said.....the saucer is overflowing now....so i better stop!!!

High Hopes - Pink Floyd

Artist: Pink Floyd; Album: Division Bell; Title: High Hopes: Composer: David Gilmour

I have always existed with an illusion that beyond the horizon there is a world far superior and evenhanded than the world I currently live in. The world, which does not work on magnets of control bred from fellowmen. Men do not believe in power of miracles but hold high regards for value of labor. Men with immense passion to achieve what they dream. The world of my imagination where men are rewarded only for what they deserve. The inhabitants, who are blessed enough so that they don’t have to depend on an Abstract Extra-ordinary Super Power to live through their lives. A world where emotions are not like shackles that bind men. Instead they stir up motive power to go a step further. Men, who cheat or kill, perish at once. The others that survive the heat of healthy competition live their way with an honesty of purpose. Not very sure whether it is same as Atlantis or is it different?

Several attempts, successful and unsuccessful, have been made to get a sneak peek in a world of my fascination. The successful ones could only succeed to break open just a small hole through the horizon, just open enough to allow a distinct single ray of light. The unsuccessful attempts were blurred at first and then beyond a certain distance they went no further, only to be blocked by a wall. As DG very rightly stated in his earlier blog entry, the whole scenario looks so similar to masons building the wall around the center of creativity and talent, the bricks being the our well-regarded communal round, the masons are left for us to figure out. Inspiration very naturally came from Pink Floyd – The Wall.

And then I was moved by a brilliant blend of music and lyrics composed by David Gilmour, popularly known as ‘High Hopes’. The fact that it was the very last song composed by Pink Floyd, it couldn’t have got any better than this magnum opus. The lyrics were instituted during the period when the band had torn apart and law suits worth of a million dollars were trying to bring it further down.

It an epitomized by talking about all the insignificant countless small creatures that are trying their very best to confine our feet to a second-rate way of life. And to add to the agony, leaving all of us to a life obsessed with slow decay, signifying end in the most brutal mode.

But very soon, a passion drives a ray of hope in the blood stream of brave men who fear none but loss. And it’s this towering hope that keeps the will going, to achieve what currently appears to be behind the walls of a narrow minded world. It is this hope that shall dwell in men of character. Men that deserve to live in the world of my imagination. For now it may appear like a tough ask, but I have HIGH HOPES.

The desire, ambition and the hunger shall remain forever and ever.

PHANTOM of the Opera

A long time since any activity on this blog…..but it has to be today…..of all the dayss....

Today I sat in a ROLLS ROYCE PHATOM!!!!!!!.Yes I took a ride in it, probably the most expensive car we cud ever think of(i hope not....i plan to buy a mclaren F1 in the far future)...it was on a promotion spree for the mobile store in our college campus…..God knows what connection is between a 5 crore masterpiece and some crappy mess of similar looking cell phones and utterly confusing talk plans…..

Still who cares….as far as u get a free ride in your own college campus in a Rolls Royce……..oh yes u do feel like a king!!!!!!!!!!!!

So here goes….we were studying in the library(seriously…we were)…and Ashish calls me…..come down fast to RRC…..fast…come fast…Rolls Royce….ride free…free ride…come fast….and I was on my way….we reached there…Ashish and the others waiting with sparkling eyes….chatur updated us on the experience ….he went in the rolls for a ride already….we all were waiting…finally after a lonnnnnng minute we see it coming towards us….first slow…then suddenly accelerating very fast….car stops….some girls and guy come out….we pounce in the car…I was left waiting due to foto sessions…but I got the front seat….we climb in…there are buttons to close doors. They are too heavy and hinged in opposing manner….so electronics doing the job for us.The car starts…we take a left turn….the guy blasts the stereo with a promotional track and shows us how to take reverse using proximity sensors…and a free demo of how ur car can be rear ended if u have an asshole driver at wheel….n number of sensors cannot help u….an Indica bumped at the back….indica’s bumper seriously damaged….rolls left with a small scratch and slight mis-alignment of the bumper.

Ride ends with a small trip thru the petrol pump in front of the college…..lots of awestruck looks….and finally when we arrive in the college…theres a huge crowd waiting….felt as if we were kings getting down the rolls…(too imaginitve I guess….but happens when u r in a Rolls…a whole new world inside there)….well how was the car is the big Q…and I am no Jeremy Clarkson to comment on it….but still

The car was awesome royal,quiet,heavily loaded with gadgets and screens and controls and auto doors and mirrors and wood and leather and 100 years of Rolls Royce 'hand crafted' heritage and a blasting sound system and also an ASSHOLE driver

We managed to see the features of the car in live action.....the rolls wing logo going under the bonnet when the crash was detected (a typical feature of the Rolls Royce cars).

At the end I was left with the same feeling Jeremy Clarkson had after driving Bugatti Veyron.....I will never be able to afford it.....and is it really worth the money???

Do u pay 5 crores for the car or the aura that comes with it...the Rolls heritage....the umpteen man hours that have gone into it...the fanatic attention to details...the perfect combination of cosmetic and scientific excellence?????????

Well u pay to be a part of the elite who have driven on this planet in the ghostly coffins(all rolls cars are named after ghosts).U pay respect(read crores) to humans who have dedicated their lives to create the feel of a "ROLLS ROYCE"....

NEVER SAY "LIFE IS NOT FAIR"

How many times have you heard people cribbing about life not being fair? It is a pretty common statement used by people to blame life for all that they haven’t achieved even after working so hard to get it. But is Life really not “fair”?

What do we mean when we say “fair”? The Oxford dictionary gives the meaning of the word ‘fair’ as “just, equitable” (and a whole lot more but irrelevant here). Something that is acceptable to all. But what is the meaning that we tend to understand? What we actually want is to succeed in everything that we do, reach every goal we want and never fail. That is the ‘fairness’ of life we are looking for!

But I say that “LIFE IS FAIR”!!!! How you ask? Simple…..

There may have been times when you have got something you really wanted and you were so happy. Like when you were a little kid and your parents got you that toy that you really wanted. Remember that happy feeling? And what about that sadness when that toy broke within a few days? You may have had similar experiences in your life till with different things. The sadness really gets to you if it is something that you really longed for and finally got it only to lose it again. At such times we get the feeling about life not being fair. But what if our desire would not have been fulfilled in the first place? Obviously we would regret our desire not being fulfilled. But wouldn’t that regret would be LESSER than the pain of losing it AFTER having fulfilled our desire????

Instead of blaming ‘life’ for not being fair, we should thank it for saving us from going through a greater pain.

So now tell me………..Isn’t Life Fair?

When the smoke is going down - Scorpions

When the smoke is going down..................................

Artist: Scorpions; Music: rudolf schenker; Album: Blackout; Lyrics:klaus meine

This article is a continuation to what Rohan had written earlier, which really inspired my thought and blogging. It is in continuation to “BECAUSE I CHOOSE TO..”

How many times have you felt, that you have been living your life to the fullest? How often you want to live life extreme?

Nothing is as satisfying as satisfaction - A personal satisfaction in a world where achievement is second hand. Achievement is synonymous to an act, duty or accomplishment that is approved, recognized and appreciated by someone else. So when people sit down to contemplate their achievement, the reflections are merely in terms of academics for the geeks, failure for the jerks, social-service for the politicians and promotion for a regular service class individual. Satisfaction is what you reach when you do something for none other but your own self. Anything extra that you may achieve is purely fluky and or just a consequence.

The other inspiration to this article comes from a song by Scorpions – WHEN THE SMOKE IS GOING DOWN. The song talks about the band scorpions who want to be on stage even after the audience have left. They want to be there for the love of it. They want to do it all over again only for themselves. Because they simply love it.

I cherish the moments when I have done things for myself, sitting outside the closed doors of the library late in the night, not because I wanted to complete a topic for the day but because I was enjoying studying the subject. My performance was only consequential. Or for the matter of comparison; spending nights in college to put up an event, the fun was only coincidental.

Do we truly love our work? Does it come out of our OWN choice? Or simply because we are entrusted the duty to perform a task, so we shall succeed if we manage to complete it. Till today, all that most of us have been doing is what the system has demanded from us. But it is only few distinct individuals who trace the self-made paths.

I wish I could belong to myself. Do a little bit not because I am required to do, but because I enjoy doing it. Yes, I want to be on the stage even when there is no audience. I want to do it for myself. I want to work for no men or organization but for myself. I wish I live a life like this every day. I wish my work will keep me occupied and fascinated till and beyond the time when the smoke is gone down, the lights have gone dim and the gates are closed. It will only be me and my work and loads of contentment…. How I wish??? The pursuit begins very soon…

Beginning of the End - One Last Time

Been long since I have written. Thought of it many times but didnt. I wont be able to live up to the standards of the last few posts but here goes....

The End has begun. My submissions are over, and am waiting for the exams to begin. Its that time of the year again when everyone is thinking of the amount of syllabus that is left to cover for the exams...For some it is the time to begin the revisions... for many, like me, it is the time to realise that we have insufficient notes and start hunting for them. But this is for the One Last Time.

Four years have gone by and it doesnt seem like a long time, but feels like a lifetime. When we began, we couldnt wait for it to get over and now we want some more time - not for the college work ofcourse but for the time we spent with friends.

We can split our entire life into 4 lifetimes - 1st the school life, 2nd junior college (albeit a short lived one), 3rd engineering college (or whatever course you do), and then the life after all this.

My school life was spent around the world (2 continents and 3 countries) - 2 years in Qatar, 2 years in Canada and 4 years in India. (I know that it adds up to 8 years, it is not a mistake. The remaining 2 years were spent between India and Qatar, not exactly sure how much where.) Out of these I hardly remember about Qatar and a little bit about Canada. My actual school life began in 1997 at St. Lawrence, Vashi where I met some of the best people I would ever meet - Sunny, Deepak and Aarohan. Thanks for being what you are. But the school life ended. Some friends were lost forever, some friendships were forged forever. But the memories remain.

The 2 years of junior college went by like a breeze. Got to do stuff that you couldnt do in school (like bunking lecs and going for a movie or openly flirting with girls). Had fun but didnt last that long. The college life ended too. But the memories remain.

Then came Engineering. The 4 years of copying assignments, completing the journals and doing the submissions on time. The running after the dumb profs for getting the experiments and assignments checked (here the hindi proverb applies perfectly - 'Kabhi Kabhi Gadhe ko bhi Baap banana padta hai'. I used to count the semesters as they got over ( i m sure every1 did).

And now the End of this life has Begun. But this End will be for the One Last Time. The new life that awaits us has no end. It ends only with our life. We have learnt a lot in our previous lifetimes and now we have to apply it. We shall be on our own now, no teachers to guide us and no dumb profs to act smart.

We got a few more days left but it seems too little. I want some more days, some more of the senseless waste of time that we did at leisure, some more of the carefree times spent with the friends, some more memories to cherish.......a little bit more....

But we have no choice. The new life awaits us. We have to greet it with Arms Wide Open and make the best of it. We have to face the End and a New Beginning..........for the One Last Time.

END of the BEGINNING

This post is by Rohan(arrows), and I am posting it here because Rohan was too lazy to do so, but anyways, the post is what matters and undoubtedly it is another masterpiece after the last one Sunny posted.

“After the game king and the pawn return to the same box”

This is how I perceive my subsistence these days. Who am I? I am anyone of you, and yet distinct. I am like any other student who is counting days before he calls himself a Graduate, and yet I have an identity that can’t be assigned to anybody other than me. If you have not guessed it as yet; I am one of those constituents of the game who has realized that the game is nearly over and the distinction of identity and stature is subtly losing its existence.

We all played this game to the best of our ability, the game we call Engineering. Some played it straight-forward like the Rook; some tried twisted ways of the Knight, a few chose to swagger around like the Queen, and many were satisfied with the simple ways of a Pawn. Everyone equally engrossed in the pursuit of an objective which could provide the best possible clarification to and assign a cause reasonable enough for, his existence. By the end of this phase of life that is but just the beginning of what they call life, we are all related to each other by one euphoric sentiment “WE PLAYED”.

Lingering somewhere in the memory (which is by now perfectly tuned to function only for a stipulated amount of duration at a fixed time of the year) are those days when we stepped into this hallowed institution of engineering for the first time. Those were the times we had to stick together out of no choice, as the only savior of a drowning man is the man drowning besides him. Never had we then perceived that in one of these drowning men we will find the steadfast hand of a friend. At the end, for some friendship remains a virtue for others just a means to reach the end. In either case they cherish the moments of bliss when they could actually understand the profundity of this emotion.

From the horrors of mechanics to the mechanics of (managing) horrific profs we conquered it all. Some found their calling in Nirvana (Kurt cobain fans) some found nirvana in the intriguing circuits of Boylstad. The listless faces (of students) gazing at the excruciating ‘external’ (sometimes ‘internal’) metamorphosed into enthusiastic bundle of nerves with the onset of sports and cultural fests, only to surrender that zeal again to the inevitability of results. The vicious cycle of term end-submission-viva-university exam seem like a mundane affair by the end. From high school sweet hearts to newly discovered made-for-each-others many found themselves shot by the cupid and others just found a reason good enough to keep them happy for being neglected by the angels. From moments of self-denial to moments of feeling I-am-god we’ve all been there done that.

A thousand different stories yet we all relatively stand at the same point in our respective lives. A point where the world is waiting for us with its arms wide open. A point from where the lessons learnt in classroom will be applied to real life situations, where answers to practical questions will certify the gained knowledge. Equipped with the same eagerness in heart and fire in the belly here we stand all set to go. This is the point where the beginning meets its end.

As for the future, I am just reminded of these lines which say all that I would like to say to all my colleagues and juniors.

It’s something unpredictable,

But in the end its right;

I hope you had the time of your life.

The most valuable waste of time

The most valuable waste of time is how I can best describe my four years (almost four as on date) of engineering in VJTI. So what did I do in college today? A question that remained unanswered daily after I reached home from college. For years, it didn’t bother me much, because it was the time to cut loose, let my hair down and simply have fun ‘JUST LIKE THAT’. Until today when I want to pen down, what it was like being in VJTI and doing all that was done, I make an attempt to find the answer.

What did I gain? A day in college was always like an open forum for discussions, where topics varied from the most unpredictable ‘University Exams’, to the most sensational ‘Good looking FE Chick in college’, to the most fascinating ‘theory of machines taught in the lecture’, to the most spell binding ‘Diction of a professor’, to the most mysterious ‘loss of words in an assignment’ and finally to the most trivial ‘bad taste of the tea in canteen today’. Issues never thought, planned or intended, but simply there for the heck of it. Ideas flooded in from the optimistic, from the pessimist, from the authoritative, from the sly, from the class clown and others straight from mars. Some ideas came out of choice, the others because there was no other choice.

At the end of it, there were a zillion perspectives left to contemplate, which were often overlooked until today. The four years of mere wasting time has left impression in the form of multi dimensional thinking. Engineering has given a new dimension of analysis. Earlier there were always two ways of doing anything: the right one and off course the wrong one. Quite like always, engineering is path breaking in the sense that, it may not necessarily be wrong if it is not right. It can neither be right, nor be wrong as the same time. The justification follows: Copying assignments is not right but not wrong either, if you know no one is going to read them. Bunking lectures is not right but not wrong either, if you know how well read the professor himself his. The above mentioned are very obvious material benefits, but otherwise too, that is how life is…. You may not be doing what is wanted of you, but you will still be acknowledged for not doing what you are strictly not supposed to do. And this is just one aspect of it……

Thinking that grew into the evolution of individuality, a thought and a very predictable behavior. Today, the smallest of contributions to the discussion are individuals, people I call my friends, people I can trust, people I look up to for advice and people whom I can call in the middle of the night just to pull off a joke on him. In the process of taking each other’s case, we have bonded so well that our expressions are beyond words. We can laugh together at the mildest of smirks or, for that matter, absolutely nothing. At the same time we can feel the agony; generally referred in terms of failure to get a girl for those who don’t have one and loss of wealth for those who have managed to get one or more.

Individually, we are ideas, notions, visions and loads of fun together. For the spectators, we are a force, a team that organized equal volumes of fun with festivals, submissions, PL’s, vivas and even results. We, better known by the brand, BE Mechanical, have managed to add value to the institution and ourselves. At the end of four years, who are we? How do we recognize ourselves? It is plainly just a sentiment too difficult to be talked about or even written here.

Time is often considered money. Here in VJTI, we have splurged all our money (time) in having the most priceless moments of our life. And all this happened so incidentally, when we were simply finding ways to kill them. Today when all the smoke is gone down, we are left with an individual, an idea, an emotion and NOSTALGIA.....and the most valuable FRIENDS.

Can’t believe that the Law of Conservation applies here too…. “Energy can neither be created nor destroyed; it can be converted from one form to another”. We have succeeded to convert almost everything into fun with minimum losses... and guess what friends our conversion efficiency simply ROCKED!!!!!!!!!!!

RAIT- The wonder Years

Hi guys, this post comes after a very weired time in my life, the last one was an outcome of a very depressed and frustrated state of my mind. Anyways, am back to normal, alive and kicking and yes getting bored and wondering what to do next and always ending up lazing arnd rather than dng smthng constructive.

But thats not the point I have in mind as I write here. This one is completely dedicated to my friends, my collegge friends as well as Sunny Junaid and Rohan. But since I have written about Rohan Sunny and Junaid in a previous post, I would tlk more abt my coll frnds here.

So guys, first of all thanks for being there(a typical line when u want to show gratitude, but nthng better than this). As the last sem is finally beginning, a strange realisation of the past always fills me when I am with u guys. All those moments we have spend together just keep playing as if a vdo being played repeatedly.

Earlier I never cared to enjoy the moments we had together in coll, for me coll was not more than IEEE and robotics. But since the last sem when I have 'retired' from all these activities, theres plenty of time to have fun, at least to be with u guys. I think I have started recognizing u guys a bit better, all because now I bother to care.

But as always I am late in dng good thngs, here I am realising all this when coll is about to end. The other day me and Abhishek were wondering how many of us will care to stay in touch after our coll finishes. And I really found the answer hard to fathom, that is when I realised how little I know about my frnds with whom I spend most of my time of the day. But still at least I know that I will care to stay in touch.

I was just browsing thru the pics and vdos we have shot in our engg days and I realised we all have changed a lot, physically of crse(from those timid FE's to care free BE's), but many other aspects as well. All of us have reached a new level of understanding, the pitty fights have reduced, they have transformed to hard core wars:). I have started appearing more in front of the camera, rather than always preferring to take pics. Most of us are 'committed' now. We all have graduated to gvng surprise birthday parties to everyone, most of us have stopped bothering abt results(except me, i never cared abt results), the meaning of coll has changed from a place to study(atleast we made sincere attempts for the first two years to do that) to a place to just escape from a harsh wrld outside and go inside a cocoon, a shelter with frnds arnd and a sense of protection and warmth.

Ppl have strted acquiring the status 'busy' on messenger, courtesy the permanent status 'committed'. I must tell u guys this committed status comes with a lot of packages attached. For eg. lots of profile fotos for orkut, to share on messenger. Ppl have strted going on shopping excursions just for 'her' or 'him'. These things were just dreams in FE and SE. But times have changed and they have changed for good. All these situations have kind of tied us tighter than we were before, made us more tolerant of each other.


And all this while I feel like I am a bystander, I never lived those moments of initial bonding with u guys, I was always there, but never connected. Again no regrets for that, I never wanted to get too involved with ppl, I always feared our friendship wud end before it even began.

But all that time has gone and has taught me a lot, u guys have taught me a lot. Thanks for all that. This might look like a farewell message, but honestly guys, every moment we spend tgether, seems like smthng is cmng to an end, which I want to hold onto, but cannot. So just wanted to make the most of the moments left, just wanted to thank u guys for being a part of the most wonderful years of my life.

It Begins......

Hi to all....Finally after 3 or 4 aborted attempts I am finally putting up a post. The name is Junaid (aka Junior as called by the other three 'distinct individuals'). What is about to follow will in all probability be incoherent ( this is bound to be the case with many of my entries) so please excuse me....

Before I begin with my crap, there two things that I would like to say....
1) The previous post by Deepak is no surprise to me as it is totally expected of him. It was sooner or later gonna find its way as a blog entry.

and 2) Deepak 'STOP' regretting all that you haven't achieved coz regretting isn't going to get you all that you missed!

The other day I was telling Deepak that I want to fly in the air, just jump off some really high point and fly. No worries, no thoughts, no desires, no regrets,.........nothing at all.....just me with the sky above and land below!!!!! And then it struck me.........3 months or so more and we step into the real world. The very thought brought me crashing down from my flight of fantasy.

Till now we were more or less insulated from the real world. We were safe from the worries of life.....the kind that our parents generally worry about!! And the inevitable question....Am I ready yet? I dont know....I am not sure.......


What could be worse than an engineering students life?........LIFE ITSELF!!!!!!


Today we have all the time we want to do all that we wish, we may not have it in the neat future. We meet our friends frequently. In the future we may not even find time to speak for days....All the responsibilities.....worries.....The thought sometimes makes wonder ' will I be able to face it all? '

Looking back I can see that it was not a bad journey up till this point of time in my life....a few ups and downs...a few hiccups...but I got here......There were a few things that I would have liked to achieved in the past but it is no use regretting.. (so Deepak you are not the only one who missed out on a few chances, it happens with everyone).

Here I would like to share a Few words that I came across....The hammer that breaks glass can also give a shape to steel. So it is upto you to be glass or steel...

Now that I think, life in the future may not be that difficult a journey....I have reached here...I can go ahead too.....

But then again......Am I ready yet? I dont know....I am not so sure.......Till then I want to continue with my flight through the air....no worries...no thoughts.......just me with the sky above and the land below........

ME- Beginning and the End

This post comes after a long time since Rohan wrote something here. I was a bit busy to write smthng good here for some days and then was too bored to vent it out here. I generally refrain from writing smthng here so that I don’t trouble poor readers with frustrations in my life.

But today when I was generally reflecting back on whatever has happened so far in my life, I just realised that it is equally important to share sadness and frustrations with others, which i restrict to a very few individuals in my life.

So I tght why not write it on the blog as well, let others know what brings sadness, dejection and regret.

So guys this one will be full of rantings about how bad my life has been so far, so if u r in a happy and joyous mood, plz dont read further and then curse me for spoiling ur mood..

Let’s make a list

I REGRET

1. not trying to get into IIT.

2. not being rich enuf to own a hard earned CAR(so far).

3. not being daring enuf to go out of the way to achieve my goals, considering they are a bit out of the way for a normal guy being born and brought up in a limited opportunity country like INDIA(again considering my interests like cars, electronics).

4. not being intelligent enuf, I need to work a lot more than many others(and less than many many others) to achieve something.

5. having an absence of luck all thru my life(i honestly do not remember any instance where I got help out of my luck, its just non existent in my life, good luck , bad luck both).

6. my family all tearing apart, never really disturbed me as a kid coz I never realised what I lost then, but now I realise what I wud have gained had it not happened. But again it was inevitable, and maybe happened for good (thats a universal justification for evrythng bad that happens, isnt it???).

7. all the circumstances making me so tough mentally that I am almost unmoved by any other human beings presence, everythng in my life is just abt ME. Its ME always first. So when I get too tired of ME, there’s no one else to relate to, coz I never allowed anyone to relate to ME.

8. understanding that in any relation a persons character is what matters, and not the relation tying u together. Thats why u will never see me asking for or doing smthng for someone by the excuse that he is my frnd or bro or sis. The reason will be he is Prasad or Sunny or Rohan or Sneha. The person is the reason, not the relation.

9. being a bit different from all the others I have come across. I agree every human is different from others, but I have made an effort all my life to be as diff as possible. I really dunno but I just tend to dislike any general behavior shown by ppl. I never feel like accepting the fact that general rules in a society can govern a persons existence. And that is the most prominent rule accepted by everyone. What I mean here is for eg. its accepted that u shud respect ur teachers coz they ' are teachers and they are elder to u' and on the contrary, recently its considered uncool and stupid to appreciate a professor if he is really good, then u r termed chaatu, sharif, padhaku and what not.

10. having a ‘dont mess with me’ kind of attitude and aura arnd myself, I have always been told this. Although I honestly never made an attempt towards this attitude, but rather its the outcome of my character and beliefs.

11. lacking the ability to speak, compliment and even scold others. I just dont know how to show care for others, coz I have really never cared for others, other than myself and very few ppl whom I like as a person. Again coz I never try to relate to ppl under the pretext of a relation.

And as I finish the list, I am also left with the feeling that some of the above stated reasons are also the source of all the content that I have in my life.

1. No luck- only hard work, so all that I achieve and lose is coz of me and not some divine unknown, unseen power. So my life is a result of my deeds alone.

2. My attitude- keeps away unwanted and stupid ppl.

See, so at the end its more regret than content. Well I guess this was supposed to be a vent out, so I am in no frame of mind to think abt good things in my life.

Sorry guys (especially Sunny, he will kill me for posting this after Rohan’s wonderful post, sorry dost). I wish to see something here soon by Sunny or Junaid.

But I am sure that ME will be the end of all my regrets as soon as I am able to justify all my actions and beginning of a wonderful and content life

.....Because I CHOOSE to!

Of all the realities of life, I think I came across the most compelling one; in the most unassuming way……

A few months back, the stage was set, when Deepak came up with the idea of watching MATRIX REVOLUTIONS. Just another Hollywood flick, from the look of it…..rarest of its kind if comprehended. This is not about how great the movie was, but how great a message it conveyed. At the onset I understood head-nor-tail of it (lots of action and expenditure; typical Hollywood), but it had something in it that made me choose to watch the movie again.

A second look at the movie made me choose to watch THE MATRIX, which made me choose to watch MATRIX RELOADED. And here I am after I chose to write about this verity. The essence of matrix lies in a single line spoken by its protagonist NEO……… The backdrop is in wreckage (like the picture of earth, just before its extinction or origination), the moment is like an epoch when the opposites (I won’t say good and bad) collide and lead to annihilation of the difference between them. AGENT SMITH asks (not exactly like this) “why do you want to fight a lost battle….you know you can’t win…. Can’t you see? Is it for love…… or friendship or freedom or faith…. or for your people, who do not even value your existence?” WHY WHY WHY? The answer to this answered all the “WHY’S” of my life and probably human existence.

The reply came from a man who himself was in search of the same answer, a man who was enlightened at that very instance, a man who knew the extent of his own power and also his enemy’s prowess. He said “BECAUSE I CHOOSE TO”.

The world today is as it is because one of us at different instances of time wanted it to be like this. It was because one of us wanted to light up our lives that we have a bulb glowing in our drawing rooms, because somebody wanted to fly, we see these heavy metal bodies cutting across the sky. Because somebody wanted to rule the world, we had to suffer World War II, because someone thought non violence is the greatest weapon, we had to overthrow tyranny with its torture. Because somebody wanted to reason falling of an apple, physics was born. Because somebody somewhere chose to make a choice for himself and backed it up with a great amount of conviction; human race had to simply follow the path lit by them.

No disregard to any of those who followed the path, because they chose to follow the ones ahead of them. So the reason of all the human achievements and sufferings is a simple six letter word CHOICE. We live our life, the way it is because we chose it to be ours. There is no supernatural or extraterrestrial reason that controls the course of our life. We have the power to make a choice and we have all the requisites to fulfill our choice. But we mostly choose otherwise.

You see corruption everywhere because you choose to be a part of it whenever it benefits you. You feel the quality of education is abysmal because you choose to let the level of your knowledge be decided by the system. You feel the nation is under-developed because you choose to see it like this (and fly away at the first chance life offers you to). You face dejection and rejection because you choose to let your mind believe in such vagaries. You fail to achieve your goals because you choose to accept a small tryst as your destination. The world is as you see it because you choose to visualize it like this.

The question is not about right or wrong but about who decides it to be either ways. It is you. It is every human being who consumes the oxygen available on this earth to breath, who consumes the food resources to fulfill his appetite, who enables his mind to believe in whatever it does by a mere CHOICE. The reason and consequence of your existence, the way it is, is YOU. That’s the ultimate truth of life. There is nothing and nobody in control of your life other than you. That’s the power of you, that’s the power of your choice.

You chose to read all of this. Now you may choose to believe it and accept it or simply discard it. In either case you will have made a choice and I am sure you have the power to make your choice worthwhile.

To Think or not to Think

This post is kind of a continuation to shamanth's 'about blank' post. Shamanth, I must say u r a true initiator man.Anyways thanks for initiating that post on thinking.

So here goes my view on it

Its a very rosy thought- not to think anything. To be on the lighter side I totally agree with Aneesha that some or the other time most of us may have used the phrase that 'my mind went blank' during the first few minutes of an exam. Wasnt that the time we dreaded the most, or was it the time we enjoyed the most. Dreaded not because u were afraid of failing, but very honestly because u realised that there is something u are not able to do, coz u found urself incompetent, kind of a fear that u experience just after a bad accident, whether ur shoulder which is paining so much is really going to work, or u have lost it.(speaking out of 2 brutal experiences)

Frankly speaking i fear those times the most when i found myself unable to think. Its just that mental paralysis which cannot be shown to anyone, it cannot be cured with someones help. It's just within u, u have to fight it. Have been some moments in my life, very brief but very scary.

I would go a bit further in stating some(actually many) lines from Ayn Rand's ATLAS SHRUGGED, which very precisely answer the question"to think or not to think". Here i would like to state a small disclaimer that i am not quoting these lines with reference to any of the comments or posts on Shamanth's blog, but just a very outright and kind of outrageous way of stating the subtle topic Shamanth started on his blog

Thinking is a man's only basic virtue, from which all the others proceed. And his basic vice, the source of all evils, is that nameless act of blanking out, the willfull suspension of ones consciousness, the refusal to think-not blindness, but the refusal to see, not ignorance-but the refusal to know. Its is an act of unfocussing your mind and inducing an inner fog to escape the responsibility of your judgment.


Man's mind is his basic tool of survival. Life is given to him, survival is not. His body is given to him , its sustenance is not. His mind is given to him, its content is not. To think is an act of choice. The function of your stomach , lungs or heart is automatic, that of your mind is not. In any hour and issue of ur life, you are free to think or to evade the effort.But u are not free to escape from ur nature, from the fact that reason is ur means of survival, so that for u who are human beings the Q is not "to be or not to be", rather it is "to think or not to think"


Too much philosophy to start with, but I hope I don't get any hate mails for this. Coz even if i get, i "choose" not to "think" about them.