My Dislike grows..

I know I have been blogging irregularly for the past month or so, but I shall explain the reasons for that in some other post. This post is about an incident I witnessed yesterday, which compelled me to write this one straightaway.

I came to my home place, Ahmedabad, yesterday. My parents had come to pick me up at the airport. We had just moved a mile or two when I saw some people crowded and a bike lying in the bushes of the divider on the road. We immediately stopped and went to see if there was any help required. What I saw was one of the most ghastly sites I have ever seen in real life. Sitting on the divider and crying in a muffed voice was a child (barely 7-8 years old), with blood all over his face. There was a big hole in his forehead and he could barely open his left eye. He had probably smashed his head on the street lamp post. The driver was his brother, who didn't look more than 15-16 years old. He had cuts here and there, but wasn't as seriously hurt. We immediately called for the ambulance and also called up the parents of the children. The ambulance arrived in 5 minutes and the children were attended to.

This is 3rd bike-related accident that I have seen/heard in the last 2 weeks. Just 4 days ago, one of my close friends, Ronak Tamra, met with an accident and had about 20 stitches in his left leg. Another friend of my friend died while driving on NH 8. A senior of mine died in a bike accident. I guess you would all acquiesce with the fact that you would have heard a lot more about injuries in bike accidents than the ones in car. Since my school days, I have detested bikes. I know that is weird for a 17-18 year old guy, but maybe I value my life a lot, and always found that the way my friends drove their bikes was extremely dangerous. No wonder, I never learnt to drive a bike and don't even intend to learn one.

It is a tautological thing to say, but I would request all of you to please minimize bike-driving. If you cannot stop it completely, please don't go past the 50 kmph speed limit. The main problem with bike-driving is that it might not be your fault at all, but still, if a car hits you while you are on a bike, you are one who is likely to suffer the maximum damage. You get to live only once, and you wouldn't want to lose it in an accident, would you?

Welcome to IITKGP

Any IITian's blog is incomplete without some posts from his college days. Though I should have written one long back, it's better late than never. I am sure that in due course of time I shall be writing multiple posts on the fascinating college days. However, let me start off with the very first day at IIT Kharagpur. 

Our train reached the KGP platform at 12.30 am. My father and I got out with the luggage and started walking towards the nearest stairs. After walking for, what seemed like eternity (thanks to the longest platform in the world), we finally reached the taxi stand. I was all excited to see the best engineering college in India, as India Today had rated IITKGP as the best college for the second year in a row (yeah... I believed in the India Today ratings then). Well the grand entrance gate didn't disappoint at all. The roads inside were very well built and since it was night, the infrastructure around looked great.

Soon we reached JCB Hall, the hostel which was allotted to me. There was no security guard and no person to assist us as it was 2 am in the night. I met a guy roaming about and asked, where could we park for the night. He pointed us towards the mess. It's been 2 years since I passed out of IIT, but the mere mention of the word "mess" makes me lose all my appetite (shall share the horror stories about mess later). Anyways, thanking that guy we went ahead and entered the mess. We were welcomed by the most nauseating stench of fish (despite the fact that I am a non-vegetarian). There were no sleeping arrangements made inside, and my father and I just lay on one of the mess tables with the disgusting stench all around. What a fantastic way to spend the first night at IIT!

Early morning, we went outside and found the guard sitting on the main exit. After seeing my identity proof, he gave the keys to my room. Having always stayed at home in big spacious rooms, the allotted room seemed kind of small to me. It started looking much smaller when moments later a guy entered my room with his parents and introduced himself as my roommate. We put one more bed in, and there was hardly any room left for us to walk. After exchanging the pleasantries, he told me that we need to go for the registration. The registration was all manual at that time. Also, the icing on the cake was that IITKGP gave admission to a whopping 650 students. When we reached the Hangar, we saw hundreds of students swarming like bees all over the place. Like good students, we also got into one of the lines and started the registration process.

After filling up a million forms and after a zillion obligations, we finally got the registration done. Tired from all this, I came back to my hall and decided to take a bath. Going into the bathroom, I realized that there was no water. I came out and saw that there was as water tanker outside and and a long queuee here as well. After standing in the queue for about 45 minutes, I finally managed to get the two buckets of water. Dad left for Ahmedabad soon afterwards and I started feeling homesick. Then it was dinner time and I had one of the worst meals ever in my entire life. Lying on the bed later that night, with all my body parts aching, I recounted all the events since yesterday night and how different I had expected IIT life to be.

I knew that I was in for a tough ride and things would get worse once the classes started. In hindsight however, I realize that it was probably IIT's weird way of making sure that our life at IITKGP could only get better, which it did.

 

Yadav Raj

The Samajwadi Party recently released its Election Manifesto. Some of the salient features of the manifesto are:

• The use of computers in offices is creating unemployment problems. Our party feels that if work can be done by a person using hands there is no need to deploy machines.
• A harvesting season brings employment for the labour class for at least six months but these harvesters will snatch their earnings. So no machinery use in agriculture as well.
• The salaries provided by private firms should be in sync with the minimum wages that have been set by the government. Essentially instead of increasing the standard of living of the poor, we should bring down the standard of living of the rich.
• Mulayam Singh Yadav has also vowed to abolish the 'expensive education in English'. So, we all should stop studying English and the entire country should converse in Hindi only. 

I have actually run out of adjectives to describe the ridiculousness of this manifesto. If it was upto these people they would get us back to the stone age. Warped priorities and self interest seem to dominate their character. They just don't seem to have the wherewithal to begin the process of reform on a war-footing. I feel really sick knowing that such idiots are actually being elected leaders by our people. What is more sickening is that sitting at my home in front of the computer, I am actually doing nothing to stop such bullshit.

I just hope that no one elects any leader from such a party, which has only its own selfish interests in mind. Sometimes I wonder - do they owe nothing to anyone? Not even to their progeny?

Frenzy Begins....

It's that time of the year again. IPL is starting tomorrow and for the next 45 days, my productivity is going to be reduced by 3 hours daily. It is impossible to resist the excitement and the frenzy surrounding this mega-event. With the event taking place in South Africa this year, I do agree that the following will be reduced compared to last year, but still, it shall easily surpass anything on the Indian Television this year. IPL a fitting response to all the football leagues in Europe and USA's NFL and NBA.

What I don't like about this year's version is that, the organizers have become more and more greedy. Apparently, now each match will last 3 hours and 15 minutes instead of 3 hours, so that they can rake in more money. There will be two 7.5 minutes breaks after 10 overs in each innings which has been labeled as 'Tactical Time Out'. WTF? Also, there will be more advertisements and so we are again likely to see a 5-ball over only.

But all said and done, I am really excited about IPL because of 3 hours of awesome fun and the Royal Challengers' Cheerleaders (Man they were hot!!). Since I don't have any team from my hometown, Ahmedabad, I shall be supporting Chennai Super Kings. With Flintoff, Dhoni, Hayden, Raina, Murali, Albie Morkel, Gony (and Jogi for bowling the last over), they are the team to beat this season. May the best team (Chennai) win!! 

The ballooning phenomenon

Now that my body is feeling revitalized after the long road trip to Punjab, I wanted to share with you a phenomenon which I have been observing for a long time now. For the uninitiated, my whole family, except for my parents stays in Punjab. I spent the first 10 years of my life there. Now, I do believe that all of us tend to like the opposite sex more if they are from the same state as we are.

So, obviously I have a soft corner for the Punjabi girls (PGs). But for PGs it is different. Almost all my single friends (and since most of my friends are IITians, they are all single) have the hots for the PGs. It's mainly because of their fair complexion and their curvy bodies (What more does a guy need huh?). Everything is fine till they get married. After marriage is when you start witnessing the "Ballooning Phenomenon". Its like literally somebody has started blowing air into their bodies.

I know that Punjabi's are easily the most overweight people in India. For crying out loud, that is a land where people call ME underweight. All of you who have seen me, can easily testify that by no standards am I underweight. So overeating is a common thing in Punjab and guys start doing this since their childhood itself. So, for them I can see why they become overweight as they grow older.

But for wives, I don't understand that why this is a conjugal thing. In about 10 years after marriage, most wives overtake their husbands as well. It is a mysetery which has perplexed me for a few years now. Hope I can solve it sooner than later. Man, if I ever marry a PG (and the chances are high), hope I have the wherewithal to prevent this phenomenon from striking my family !!

This too shall pass

Read this beautiful blog on thoughtcourt's blog. Thought would share it with you all. It's a really nice read. Came back from a long road trip today. Really tired. Also, Liverpool lost to Chelsea in the Champions League QFs. Upset. Don't feel much like writing today.   

The joy of beach !!

This post is a continuation of my last post on the event that is "Beach". After cribbing about not getting work in the last entry, I have realized that the beach is not bad at all. After 19 months of working your ass off for the company it actually feels good to have some personal time. The Grass definitely looks greener on this side atleast for the time being. I have been keeping myself busy all this while:

• Getting my 3 lazy left fingers to work: I have always typed while looking at the keyboard because I have never used all my 10 fingers for typing. I have been working on my typing speed nowadays by competing with others here. Being in a profession where you need to type a lot, I think speed does matter. 
• Towards Jimi Hendrix: Have completely fallen in love with guitar. Also, since my new guitar is really sexy, I just can't seem to have enough of it. I think I shall be able to play as well as Jimi in about 6 months or so.
• Blogophilic: I have been following blogs for 6 years now. Presently I follow about 40 blogs. Don't matter if a blog is good or bad. I just love 'em. It is great fun to know other people's thoughts and their day to day activities. I have been wanted to start a blog since 2 years now, but was just too poor in time-management. I now want to write daily (don't know how long will that continue). Hope I can continue writing even after I am staffed.

By the way My Baby has arrived and its the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. This post is really special as it is the first post from my Baby :).