Bumps- Ah Aaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!

The most sacred religious ceremony performed when wallclock (or for that matter any clock!) says, "Your birthday starts now..." is BUMPS!!!!! Although this must be known to everybody, but for highly illiterate sections of society, let me explain the ritual briefly. All your close ones gather at a place; two (or some time, it can be 3-4 also) people get your body in their arms (one hold legs and other arms), and suddenly, you feel proud to have risen few feets, thankful to those lovely people... Rest of lovely people worship your back portion till one of the following conditions gets satisfied:
1. Majority can see all colors of rainbow on it (or be sure about it..)
2. Majority appreciates your dramatic cries (Ideally they should start before first "Aarti")
3. People who have come to worship start fighting amongst themselves (some stupid being highly sentimental about others spitting their wrath on an innocent)
4. You lose consciousness (as you can't bear so much respect at one time)
5. Majority feel tired and hungry too.......

There can be two motives behind active participation in this noble activity. One is pure friendly intention and other is highly friendly (Like "Janam Janam ka sath hai tumhara hamara" or "Ye dosti hum nahi todenge" type..) People in first case are confirmed atheists, so they don't worship, but second type are pure ascetics... A leading doctor Udham Singh, AIIMS said, "There are various benefits of BUMPS... Memory retention power increases.. You can't forget birthday of anyone who attended your ceremony.... This leads to more interactions, warm and healthy relationships."

Recently I found a shop in Miranandani Complex, where you can get glasses through which you can see real intentions of this fake world. I saw them at a recent gang-bang of one of my friend. Results, though very bad and humiliating, didn't shock me as were expected... His close friends (I mean so-called friends) were bashing him with kicks, footwear, hockey.. whatever they could find (not with good motives, I am sure..)... Infact, there are some moments when you can check who's your friend... They say, "A friend in need is a friend indeed" How true!!!

The problem of carrying this evil way of worshipping in society lies in society itself. Once prayed in the manner, everyone accepts it for next one year before he is given realisation for his misdeeds in last one year. I think this is a heinous crime, and imbibes in youth, a quality of extremism/hatred, which rises its head at various occasions.

I strongly condemn the practice, and sincerely hope that victims of one time won't increase the number (Think what will happen if AIDS patients wish to spread it up????). This will slowly erode away then and relationships will improve at a subtler level. May God listen to my wish... Aaaammmeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!

First TIME(d) test of CAT

May 28, 2006 Exactly a month after my four years at IIT, I took first timed test as a preparation of CAT (Common Admission Test). I had well prepared myself, and with two HB pencils, two pens, a rubber and a borrowed sharpner, I thought I could do any given problem.... We were given question paper some 10 minutes earlier for reading instructions (I presume We can get more marks if we put a 100 rupee note in question paper booklet as bribe).... Soon at sharp 11 am, the seal was broken, and eyes were running here and there on pages to find easy problems (not with the slightest idea that picking simpler ones is the toughest job).

Started with English section for around 10 minutes and then switched over to Mathematics... Did pretty well there (at least seemed so before seeing results!!), but forgot one basic fact while was engaged in Quant (We should allot some 10 minutes to see TIME), and I can identify now that was the blunder I made, I used around an hour there eating up time of other parts... then moved to DI (Data Interpretation) where first part was comparatively easy, but second one lengthy and a bit pricky (infact 32-bit pricky :)... I was engaged in a fierce battle with enemies all around when some stupid announced, "Last 10 minutes....." and Whoooop!!! My eyeballs confirmed this thrice, and then also, mind wasn't ready to accept it....

English was almost untouched at that moment and I had to fill answers in answer sheet as well.. There were various types of signals getting generated in my system (Doctors would have said me nervous)... After marking answers, I scanned English paper marking all easy-looking questions in last 5 minutes.... And then, same stupid again announced, "No more writing, TIME over..." (Why do some people always make stupid comments???)

There were lot of things to learn from the test... Time management, Selection of proper questions, Managing cut-off in each section, extra pressure of timed test (When you hate your watch moving... worst is seconds hand moving as it is fastest!!) and many more... Now that answers are in my hands and I have evaluated myself (I scored around 34/35)... The score is pretty bad, but there are 25 weeks left and more importantly, WILL ... Someone said, "Where there is a WILL, there is a way...." I am searching my way with this will-lamp.

XI XII (my steps in New Delhi)

My days in Bhiwani were over and luck forced me to Delhi, my family shifting to Gurgaon. I was keen for joining any government school (where attendance is not a problem), as I wanted time for JEE preparation, but parents care too much ("What if you don't get through JEE, you can make it to DCE easily if you are in delhi school"). It was already late for admissions, A search started for school and I found many stupid people in the way.. One principal told, "We appreciate your interest towards science stream, but we don't have seats available, so, opt for commerce, you can do well there also..." (I wonder who made her principal of a reputed school in Delhi..).... Ultimately, search ended on September 6, 2000 at TAFS (The Air Force School), Subroto Park, New Delhi, where destiny had placed me for coming two years.....

If one has in mind that metropolitans have better level of education (as I had), he/she is pretty wrong. The only problem of mine was english there (not that much... I am exagerrating it a bit..) Communication with some of the teachers would have to be in english and I was hesitant to this language.... Slowly, this faded away and I realised I was living in a world of fake fear (fear of spoken english is a mere illusion... this is a pretty simple language...) The day I came over my fear, English became like any other subject.... Similar was the story of computer science.. More than half of syllabus was already covered when I joined. I met with an accident just after joining and was at home for around next one month. In the month of October, I went to computer lab there.... people were writing codes... Vinay Bhardwaj burst into laughter when I said, "What's this KAAOUT(cout) and SIN(cin)?" Realising I was lying low in terms of coursework, I swallowed the contents of book.... and my enhanced focus towards these two subjects Comp. Science & English honoured me by announcing me individual topper of these subjects with overall III in XI.

XII class was a mockery of education. There was nothing to be done in class, I mean, even though the syllabus got covered but teachers knew everybody was studying for entrance exams and would have covered almost everything, the attitude got reflected in teaching.... I used to be a regular student earlier taking only 2 days vacation in 3 years (VI-VIII), that too for one external exam.. But in XI-XII, I bunked a lot.. Classes attended were also for sake of attendance.

After straining my memory strings also, I can only recall two of my teachers: Dr. Mukesh Chand (Chemistry), Mrs. Vandana Parashar (Physics).... Though academically, this school didn't help me too much, but there were other benefits: I got hold over English, made many new friends Varun Bhatia, Varun Dua, Satvik Upadhaya, Srijan Agarwal, Arjun Sondhi, Shatakshi Bhupal, Divashri Sinha and a lot more....

There are some lovely memories of these two years too... Someone wrote "Kiss me" on my back and (I wish it was a girl :D ), Having a NTSE form always in pocket and making the same excuse after being caught bunking, "I had gone for getting this form attested" (That form never got attested in two years)..... Meeting Physical education teacher first time at board exam practicals and he asking me, "Are you sure you are a student of this class?".... Some teacher sending me to call some bunking students and I too am gone :DD.... going back home early after bunking lectures...

Udham Singh says, "God gives many a things when he snatches one..." Seems true I lost contact with my earlier friends but gained many things (new friends, experience) and again very importantly Delhiite Babes (They simply rock!!!) and the biggest gift, passed JEE as a student of this school :-)

VI to X (end of Bhiwani)

VI marked a change. I was moving from being seniormost in junior school to juniormost of Senior branch Halwasiya Vidya Vihar.... can't say it was an improvement in terms of social status, but there were many things to cherish- Bigger playground, new teachers, school closer to home and most importantly many new babes got into the class :D.

Library was one of the best libraries I have seen till today. All kinda extra-curricular activities ranging from Yoga, Drawing, Athletics, Football, debates, dramatics, olympiads, quizzes (both scientific and religious) found me involved somewhere and I love their memories even today..

Academics took a new role in my life... Till now, it was a challenge, from here, it became my passion... With the brightest faculty there and enormous facilties, I used them to the fullest. Saurabh Sharma, a senior of mine, used to break all previous records and set a new target for juniors like me.... More than getting at top, I always had an eye on this target (as I knew both are almost equal), suceeded too for four years while succumbed in X. I thank all of my colleagues for providing me the right atmosphere of enormous amount of challenge... I can recall how each one of us fought a Kalinga- level battle for every half mark (half mark meant two ranks!!)

While I am writing about the golden days of my past, memories keep on coming from so-called unconscious mind. Even now, I can see Mrs. Anup Khaneja throwing my notebook on the first day of VIII class due to bad handwriting and then only due to her efforts, I got III in School hindi-writing competetion. Mr. Ghananand Shastri telling me in IX that he could see me breaking sanskrit record, The day I achieved this feat, he was the first person who came to my mind to congratulate me. Principal Mr. Narendrajeet Singh Rawal saying in prayer there is a person who got full marks in all subjects and I was on top of world. Mr. S. K. Halwasiya trying his best in extra classes for us to qualify NTSE, I still feel scholarship comes through him, while receiving. How I said to Mrs. Gogia, Social Studies teacher, that you have done partiality in checking and then, had to bear her blunt anger... How whole of class complained to principal against Mr. Malhotra, IX science teacher... later on realised those things couldn't have been taught in a better way.

My first meeting with Mr. Malhotra is also worth-mentioning... On the first day of IX class, he came a bit late in class, before he entered I was playing football with friends and as he entered, ball left my foot and striked him leading him into anger which converted into 4-5 slaps on my face (Face was innocent. whole fault was of legs!! There is injustice everywhere :-(.. He started, "IX is a very tough class... even toppers of VIII struggle here, people like this stupid fail.... and few more similar comments.." Last question was "Who is topper of VIII?" Seeing me standing in front of him evoked arbitrary reactions in him (in me too!!).

English was a language I always feared... I hesitated to speak in english, somehow (I don't know why) I wasn't able to convince myself that I can speak inspite of doing well in written English. And I always had a special place for people well in english. I thought to balance this inability for english by excellence in Hindi... the day I met Aastha, my quest for Hindi had started... Mrs. Jyotsana Sharma, Mr. Ramakant, Mrs. Anup Khaneja helped me boosting it and library helped me a lot... I chatted with Munshi Premchand, Ramdhari Singh dinkar, Mahadevi Verma, Maithilisharan Gupta, Manish and many who couldn't leave their imprints in my mind. Though life became busy after X in preparation for JEE, but a hindi poet and writer was born in me at those times...

Bal Sansad (found by Mrs. Adarsh Malhotra) was also a good concept in school. People, given various portfolios, represented very much like MPs in our parliament, and National parliament also felt proud when Bal Sansad visited it, with Rajya Sabha Vice-Chairman Mrs. Najma Heptullah extending our visiting time just to show us how a bill gets passed in houses of parliament to become a law.

These 5 years VI to X gave me a lot of friends: Aastha Sidhanth, Jyotsana, Riju Sikri, Ekta Dhamija, Jyoti Jain, Preeti Devpura, Rahul Bhardwaj (this is a long list...) people whose names are not here, don't feel offended, you have a different space. One of my dreams is to make a school where same knowledge can be imparted to students.

All timeframes can't be recollected, All collected can't be written down, All written frames can't be understood by someone who has not seen them..... So, I have listed main features of my school-life and this is a brief record of my memories.... I needed to write it here as I fear an epidemic of Amnesia in old age..

LKG to V

The deeper I pierce through pond of my memories of olden schooldays, more and more gem of moments get on surface. Udham Singh has said, "Information in our brain is highly volatile, not very reliable." So, I thought to write it down here before it vapourises for the benefit of future historians :-D.

My first step towards schooling (must have been a little one) went to Baptist Senior Secondary School, Bhiwani, Haryana. Though my stay there was small (Nov 1, 1988- April 1989), this 4 months duration Lower KG class imbibed in me hunger for academics, extra activities, and you can still find the footprints there of a world ruler of 21st century.

Lower KG to Upper KG was a big transition for me, for my previous school, for my future school, for Bhiwani. My parents, like any normal parents, thought of me going to the best school in the city at that time. I couldn't pass the test first time, but got through second time, courtesy right palm of my dad kissing my face many-a-times when I didn't do well in home-exams. And, thus I entered Halwasiya Bal Mandir- A new atmosphere, new teachers and biggest change: New prayer to God, Although I couldn't learn the sanskrit prayer, but I think God listened to me....Udham Singh says, "Only emotions matter to him."

I just can't forget sitting on "chowki" with face down to save myself from singing prayer, having "Bhojan Mantra" before food, eating from other people's tiffin, making a gang and teasing others (Ranjum Chowdhary suffered the most), playing football, racing with friends, always having an edge doing both odd and even things (mostly odd things in even manner and even things oddly)..

In the meantime, my marksheets used to tell me, I was among the toppers, so I was always forgiven for my little pranks, although they were many in number.... Due to a stiff competition academically from one of my all-time friends Sunil Kumar Singh, I had always to be on my toes... His father was working with my father, so I couldn't tell lies... I always was second to him with the exception of II class, when I got the trophy but the challenge was never absent... It became fierce with entrance of a girl Richa Chowdhary in V class.... Some say, brain's weight is proportional to body's weight... I wonder how did this 12 kg. girl top in 5th class in presence of many of the heavyweights???

A lovely incident of IV class final exams, When I went there having studied Sanskrit, completely ignorant of the Social Studies exam that day and fainted there, but recollected my lost senses and started seeing course there.... With the paper in front of me, I felt blank... Thanks to thirst of Stuti Gogia who had gone with her answer sheet left in front of me only to save me (This was answer to all those tough Sanskrit prayers to GOD by him)...

I have many close friends who were there from the first day in my memory of schooling, Manoj Dhawan, Sunil Kumar Singh, Nikhil Halwasiya, Kush Malik, Stuti Gogia, Richa Chowdhary.... I don't know when did I first meet them, How our friendship grew, but somethings always remain mystery... let them be.. doesn't matter.. They are all precious jewels for me.

I wish those days would have lasted for some long.... but I know there are things you want to do, moments you want to cherish, some courses where you want to score, babes you want to be with, some girl whom you want to marry.... but couldn't do any of these.... In short... All wishes are not fulfilled.

Reservations for OBC

I remember one day when I told my father, "Why can't I get adopted by some SC/ST/OBC".. and this was in my 5th class when I missed qualifying an exam due to reservation. That was a child's viewpoint with some anger in his little mind over these reservations....

And as time passed and size of so-called brain increased, I realized problem was worse that what I had imagined.

May be I am lucky to have surpassed this reservation criterion in IIT's, but there are many friends of mine (and many who are not my friends) who have lost the battle because they didn't had high-tech missiles provided to reserved category persons against JEE paper terrorists... The only thing they can enjoy through their 4-year degree course elsewhere is the feeling of being from upper caste, while their counterparts are also happy and feel dignified in saying themselves "BACKWARD".... I am surprised to see people feeling so happy in getting their castes included in OBC.. This is not my view, various caste representatives had actually pressed their opinion to get themselves included in OBC list when it was framed. Today, the situation,as per media, 85% population is SC/ST/OBC... Then, Isn't it unfair to reserve only 50%, why not go for 85%?

Basic purpose of reservations should be to make the unpriviliged people competent enough to get through the entrance exams for the prestigious institutions... As told by Prof. M. Balakrishnan, IIT Delhi,"IITs have had reservations for SC/STs for decades. Why would this be different? Aren't these students likely to be better prepared than the students admitted under the existing reserved category? Here I would like to share some of the facts with the readers. IITs have been admitting SC/ST students for years under two modes. From the general category, a significantly lower JEE cutoff is decided and reserved category students scoring above this cutoff are admitted directly to the UG programmes.
Another still lower cutoff is decided and reserved category students from this set are admitted to a one year preparatory course conducted by IITs themselves. After passing this course, they can join the programmes without having to appear in JEE again. Even this exercise collectively yields less than 15% in IIT Delhi though the quota amounts to nearly 22.5%. Half of the reserved category students manage to clear courses comfortably while the other half struggle on the margins. What would be called a good performance (cumulative grade point average or CGPA of 8 and above) and is achieved by nearly forty percent of general category students, is rare and occurs once in many years among the reserved category students."

I am from a Hindu-Brahmin family which used to be a staunch believer of caste system a generation back. Now modern education has changed the mindset and infact some of my best friends are SC/ST... but these bloody politicians don't want to abolish caste system.... Not only these politicians, majority of SC/ST community itself don't want it... Here are the views of Dr Udit Raj (formerly Ram Raj), Chairman, All-India Confederation of the SC/ST Federations.
"http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/may/16inter2.htm"

As a citizen of India, I strongly condemn any form of reservation anywhere amongst higher education. There should be steps to promote primary education amongst all those financially weaker sections of society, and that too not based on caste. Generations and generations of some castes have benefitted from same old policies. While we have entered 21st century and trying to be near developed state, we still want to remain divided in castes.... Good India! I feel proud of you.....

I don't know how much weight this voice caries being from 15%, but in the end, I remember one statement I learnt in my school for MotherIndia "Tera Vaibhav Amar Rahe Maa, Hum Din Chaar Rahe Na Rahein"... I feel if these reservations are passed, it will be an ugly spot tarnishing India's image in international arena.

Yahoo Chat!

Yahooooooooo!!!!!!!!! ya, this word is a good friend of mine, infact the best friend, something above than a friend as it made easy for me to contact my other friends.... My dictionary says "yahoo" means chat... One from Oxford publication says something else.. doesn't matter...

When did I start chatting????? hmmmmmmmmmm... can't remember.. like I don't know who was my first friend...? when did I hear Kishore Kumar first....? who was the first gorgeous lady who I wanted to kiss...? These are some questions which only TIME MACHINE can answer... Oh! Chatting.. This yahoo business I started mainly after my third semester in IIT when I took comp, though some net-ding-buzzing was there in initial days also.... Then after 3 more semesters, I got a mail from one of my schoolmates after 5 years... Where was I that day?.. some say seventh cloud, some say ninth, some say 'Antennas Lab, Elec. Dept. IIT Bombay'... All of them are true..

Era thereafter was of reunions.... I peeled off the layers of dust from people's address books to get many of my old friends' contacts..... and then CHAT became second most important thing in my life, after my family......

These chats also have a very predictable phenomenon. Starts with "Hi", ends with "bye"...In passage of time, "hi" turns to "hello dear" & "tc", "Good night" etc. get added to original "bye"..... Eventually, emotions with this word "dear" start intensifying... Consequences of this phenomenon, I found myself on a lovely-pulling-path of chatting where everything starts with chat... Presently, I think chat, do chat, love chat and in a lighter vein, eat "Chaat".

Current schedule of mine actively supports this noble activity. 10-12 hours go in chatting, 4-5 hours in collecting material for chat, 2 hours on phone-chatting, 2 hours in eating and 3 hours in daily activities and rest(if something left) for sleeping. Udham Singh said, "Great minds don't sleep." ... "Wow! what a man! great ideas.. " No these words are not mine, these are my friend's, I confess I can't praise someone so easily :).

Someone said, "U waste so much time on chat blindly..." wonder How can I write with closed eyes?.. Who is blind? this itself is questionable. There are people with wide open eyes who can't see and there are ones who can see it all with closed eyes and thirdly, there are rare ones who chat blindly :D.

There has been various advantages of Chat for me... one writing speed improves... can keep in touch with people easily... In my 3rd year PT (practical training), chat was my best friend... I get to know other person's views... Can go on chatting for long long time.... is best management of waste time...... and the best part of it is: "You can crack a poor ...... rather pathetic joke and then send a 32-bit Smile and it does the job, while the same joke can get you a tight slap in reality... " :-DDDD

Guys' Dressing Sense

Recently, a female friend of mine commented, "Guys just dont know how to dress... " which initiated some thought process inside my tiny brain, output of which I am copy-pasting here.

Girls are much more conscious about their looks, their dresses... I agree.. As I didn't want to get convinced by the statement, I was trying to imagine girls in all wild dresses (all beauties of the world), and boys with heroic looks :-). According to John Gray, "Male brain has more than 40% stimuli which respond to sexual desires (some doctor can comment.., while female brain has very less in comparision." No doubt, boys appreciate female beauty however it is... (reason imbibed in the above statement), but opposite doesn't hold true. Getting appreciation by girl is really tough, this extra factor doesn't work.

Some things do favour girls, they have lot of varieties to choose from. Infact they have stolen boys-wear, whereas, boys doing this has lot of physical, practical and social constraints :-D. They don't have much choices left.

No wonder Girls should be better in dressing because not only they, boys also care about their dressing ;-).... But my ego have final say here "Boys are at par with girls in dressing sense, if not better..."

Initiation of a new Universe

God was discussing one day with his council of ministers that this creation of his is getting into boredom. The discussion, moving into different phases, finally landed up here that God should convey to some person and through him, create a new universe where no one is sad, no one is angry. All are njoying, each one teasing other and enjoying :-). So Here, I am........on this planet to make it happy..... My ultimate aim is to make earth laugh out loudly hearing which other planets, other galaxies should feel jealous about it.

The only difference between Human and any other speices is the ability to laugh. So why are we not fully utilizing it or exploiting it? Either we are always worried for future or are sad pondering over past. A noted philosopher Udham Singh said once, "Future has infinite dimensions. We keep drowning with our present moments taking confidence of some future dimension which actually may or may not exist. Past also doesn't exist.... This is like a virtual image which can neither be touched, nor can be changed. In a way then, we can only live in current moment. njoy there, you don't have any option :-) " I always keep these intelligent words of a legendary philosopher in my mind.

This I think is an ideal introduction to my blog page.... I'll write often about various things ranging from Who, why, where, when , how to You and Me :-).