32 pages....

One of my frnds put a pic on facebook capturing the faces of individuals 5 minutes before their exam…and I couldn’t help commenting that those who’ve still got their books open are gonna fail.

Looking back at my school and college days..... there is this one simple fact that I never understood……………
When you sit for a final exam.. you have been given a booklet which has 32 bloody pages in it…….blank……. how the hell can you write so much tht u would need a supplementary copy.

And some of them actually took two :-o

I honestly don’t remember filling up more than 16-17 pages… max.. tht too in a theoretical exam… I kinda got worried when people asked for an extra copy in some exams.. I went thru….actually.. ..literally through the Qs paper to make sure I haven’t missed something….

Maybe they thought they will get more marks …..

My target in an Engineering exam was 35 out of 100 . The biggest worry of any engg student.. any normal engg student… is that he shdnt carry the paper to his next term… called ATKT.. meant allowed to keep the term but remembered as Already Tried… Keep Trying .

I just used to count marks after every 15 minutes.. Qs No. 3…… 5 marks.. no no lets say 4 marks… 7 marks in this one cos I thought I have written it well……

The moment I was sure.. that 35 are not gonna go anywhere…this paper has been taken care of… Time to go out take a stroll have some water…….. say Hi to a few people from outside still haggling with their papers….

Those people know if this guy is taking a walk outside in the middle of an exam… he is getin through…… and thru the windows….. the look on their faces writing their exams …. I’ll never forget it.

I once peaked into a frnds copy during a Mech . engg exam… and I saw him frantically drawing a one page diagram of a Boiler using a pencil and a scale.. on full page man…
Compared it to my answer.. a couple of paras saying some stuff abt the boiler… and a little blue-ish diagram resembling the boiler.

I had the audacity to draw …….. forget scale or pencil… with a pen… a boiler… which is supposed to be bigger than the room I am sitting in right now writing this stuff.

Herez the little boiler Mr. Examiner…. Herez what it does… gimme anything more thn 3.5 out of 10 I’ll be grateful…

Maybe he took an extra copy cos he was drawing massive drawings ..

Drawing.. reminds me of a subject.. every sane student’s nightmare..Engineering Drawing…

I can…… infact I think I will..write a different blog post dedicated to this ….. this …… this atrocity of a subject called E.D.. cos I can really write a lot given the experiences I had with it…

Practical exams…on the other hand..used to be better……

The nerds and juniors proved to be really handy during the pracs…

These nerds, an alien breed… the first benchers..the guys who would be buying books and making notes one week into the new semesters ..while the likes of us were yet to figure out the subjects…. There was one good thing about them.

During final practicals… their files used to be complete…. Thts whn we remembered them..ran to their rooms.. bhai file de de yaar… and they innocently and happily gave it to us….

Next minute we are on the juniors floor trying to find someone who can purchase, punch, and complete the file for us ……… one warning… ‘ Kal subah mere room me aa ke de daiyo ‘ used to do the trick.

Continuing with exams…

The night before the exams…was popularly known as “ Qayamat ki Raat “ … this was one night when we dint sleep..and the only night we realized tht now we actually need to pick up the book.

Which we did NOT… Books ! what are question banks for… who would read books on the final night ?

So the room policy was, each person would get a question bank for a subject… the booklet would be teared apart into pieces..5 pieces for 5 units…

Each one would take one unit at a time and exchange them once done..and forget about the 5th unit… preapare 4..they r enuf to pass

Obviously we would need a break in the middle of the night while studying!...
There was a cotton farm…. Puri raat this kisaan used to prepare Poha , Jalebi and tea for us… where we used to do a little bonfire and completely waste a cpl of hours talking abt everything except our paper which was about to begin in the next few hours……

Amazing, unforgettable experiences……. I might recall a lot more later , a lot more which simple cannot be put in words…..

Just a picture of seeing a few guys studying before a test brought back all these memories..…….

I can actually write a book if I keep thinking abt it…….

Bhavin

Scientific Temper !!

10th March 2010.

3PM - Avaya India Cafeteria



We had the pleasure of having one of India's most revered scientists, Dr. Jayant Narlikar at Avaya today as a part of our LEAD initiative. Astrophysics, being a topic which for some reason has always fascinated me, I totally had to attend this session when I knew that one of the best in that field is coming to meet us !



Its 8:50 PM right now as it happens to be one of the rare occasions when I just have no work at all , m done for the day... got my ass covered on all my projects.. so probably for the first time.. I am able to record my experience in a blog post on the very same day. Not sure if I'll be able to publish this today though...



Being 71 years old he was a lively chap.. focused, knowledgeable and he covered a few things which I personally would like to remember , recall... laugh ....thts the reason behind me writing this post .



He started off by stating a very simple fact.. any theory in science is questionable, scientific heroes like Newton, Einstein... have given theories which are the backbone of future research.. but at times we come across information which contradicts what they have predicted .



This is when he put forward the term Scientific Temper, questioned the ST of Indians...

the logic, the application of ST behind the thinking of our society.. or rather..the lack of it.

Any theory, by any scientific hero.. can always be put to a test...... amazing isn't it.. something which is taken as the core of a research, the starting point.. is proved wrong...... back to square one.. how would you feel.



He then moved on to quoting some examples around our beliefs and tactics...and this is where the fun starts..they way he described these experiences... m just gonna quote a few which I remember.....



The biggest superstitious belief very prominent in our country... Astrology... our tendency to believe that Horoscopes can be true... and the stars and the planets govern our future !..
I am sure most of us must have met some friend who would tell us.. that hey I met this baba in my town ..whatever he says comes true nd all..
It is sheer chance... if someone wins a toss for 4 times straight.. it doesn't mean that he has some special predictive powers !! If you toss a coin 100 times, 50 times you might get it correct...

Here how to look at it.. look at the sample space.. if one prediction is made ...and 2000 people read it... even if something comes true for even 100 people.. that's sheer chance ! nothing great about the people who predicted it.. in fact the ratio is miserable.. but those 100 people would become fans won't they !!

At times like these I remember a front page article published in T0I, about a research they conducted for people from various sections of the society.. grouped the ones having the same zodiac sign.. and found that most of them had totally contrasting fortunes which had nothing to do with Astrology.. and I always wonder why am I the only one in the entire world who has read this article !! ToI.. front page...

Prof. Narlikar went on to quote a few examples around his research where the Astrological society of India failed absolutely miserably , when they were given Kundlis of 100 very bright and 100 mentally retarded individuals.... I cannot believe people purchase Bejan Daruwala books .. look at the scale at which these folks and fooling people.. Tarot.. oh my god that's a complete joke....

Vaastu Shashtra !..and its Chinese counterpart.. Feng Shui... when Astrophyicists were blasted by agencies for labelling these stupid stuff baseless.. they questioned the logic.. asked them to submit a logical explanation behind their so called science.. and magic !! NO ONE TURNED UP WITH ANY SORT OF LOGICAL EXPLANATION !!

Good way to sell stuff though.. funny articles, lamps and crappy lil things in the name of some completely illogical science.... shoudlnt even call it science !

People thought it was a miracle when Ganpati idols started to drink milk and people flocked in lines to get a chance to feed their favourite god... things shook up and researchers were questioned !... simply putting the blame on us.. Dr. said that the real miracle was bcos of u telecom people who made it possible for this news to reach all corners of the world in no time... and there he was in his lab ,where his Tea kettle was also drinking milk through its trunk !!

Faith.... , the easiest way to fool people in India is in the name of faith.. Godmen, Babas, rofl... whos that lady.. Swami Nityanand.. running a sex racquet and having 20 lac followers for all the wrong reasons !! Good business , getting money out of people in no time...!
Fortunately.. there are campaigns by NGOs in villages where a group of people perform some miracles and cures and next day a group of people from the same org. give a logical explanation of how they performed the so called miracle !

Superstitions ! and more interestingly.. the means to counter those superstitions.... the workarounds....
first thing tht comes to my mind is Billi rasta kat gayi.... and people waiting for someone else to pass before moving ahead !
Here are a couple more...
While leaving for a tour.. if the date is found inauspicious to being a journey.. what would you do ? the itinerary is ready, tickets are booked, all arrangement is made.. but the bloody date is the problem !..well take your suitcase.. get out of your house.. and give it to your neighbour.. one day before the inauspicious date.. come back with a smile on ur face !
so you see.. the journey already began one day earlier ... cos u already moved 10 metres outside your house with the luggage you were supposed to carry .
Congratulations.. your plane would not crash today !

1995 - The Prof. travelled to Allahabad to watch the total solar eclipse.. where he stayed at his friends place.. who was a district magistrate.. ofcourse ..the Magistrate's wife welcomed them n all but refused to go out of the house to watch the eclipse.. cos oooooooooooooooooo the eclipse is sooooooooo evil !!!
infact.. she was more worried about all the food in the refrigerator.. which would get contaminated due to the advanced evil solar eclipse technology and should be thrown away....
no no..wait... we are Indians.. we can counter the eclipse technology .. and how..
simple.. place cowdung around your refrigerator.. and the evil sunrays would not be able to enter your food.. She actually did that...
and these superstitions can actually benefit some people who actually think!! not only by not keeping them hungry ...thanks to cowdung.. but... the professor was struggling with railway tickets to go back to Pune on the same day... and was banking on the TT.. to give him tickets once he gets into the train..
to his delight.. not only the railway platform was deserted.. even the railway compartment was empty.. cos you are not supposed to travel on the day of the eclipse.. evil sunrays will derail your trains !
Good thing to remember, I can book my tickets on days like these and have a peaceful journey.

He concluded by stressing on the fact that we should really think before we accept facts as miraculous... and suggesting Kalam's vision 2020 was nothing but a good combination of number until our country develops our Scientific temper.

Some folks questioned what can be done to encourage research in India since most of the discoveries ans inventions were from Europe and US.. and herz where I really liked this person..
smashing answer...
he simple had no bloody political bias ... he was just not bothered of which country comes up with what technology.. just simply answered... the important thing is information should keep coming, inventions must go on.. doesnt matter where they come from... a clean scientific mind with a very focused and to the point answer.. no politics involed..

He left following a standing ovation.. everyone enjoyed the session.. and there I was sitting at my desk.. looking at people going around with their day to day work...not really thinking about what the Professor said...
See.. life goes on as usual.. attended the session..enjoyed it forget it.. go on with the work.. .. go to cafeteria and chat over tea and coffee about movies...
the emails to people sitting far away or maybe just sitting next to you.. with Regards, all sorts of regards,, warm, best, warmest, kind regards.....
my colleague once rightly said.. 'itne regards aaj tak apne gharwalo ko nahi diye honge kjitne email pe ek din me sabko dete firte hai'

I just thought that this was something worth remembering before I go back to my work, usual life and forget all about it....

One of the best one hour sessions of my professional life.....easily.

Bhavin

Ascension

The concept of humans directly entering heaven without dying ,called as ascension, is a belief held by multiple religions and traditions.

29th January 2010 .

try to VISUALIZE what you are reading.

A noisy Tata Indica, driven by a Sardar, with a broken bearing laboured towards Katra . The broken bearing part applies to both the car andthe Sardar. Very talkitive Sardar.
Katra.. 50 KM from Jammu , the base camp township in Reasi district... is where the trek for Vaishav Devi begins.

After a fantastic lunch , we reached the the point where the trek begins... a majestic white gate... followed by a checkpost..

The first thing you will notice in Jammu, wherever you are is the presence of Army personnel . Checkposts, guards ready with AK 47,watch towers.. you can feel that the threat of terrorism at that place is very much real . Being one of the most divine shrines in Indiathere have already been numberous attempts to destroy it... whether this is a Myth or reality is not known. People like to brag....

THe first checkpost is like an Airport baggage scan.. a very thorough search of your luggage and urself.... no video cameras allowed..
.......................annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd we were through .

You will notice a clear distinction in the air you breathe at a place like Jammu and a city like Pune. You can feel its very very clean.. the first thing that came to my mind is the stench that enters the Delhi Metro coach when the doors open on every station. There is very minimal SPM here.

Ofcourse... once you start the ascent Horse litter wil constantly remind you of the preferred mode of transportation for elderly people and most women .

The Stairway to Heaven :

Appx 5:00 PM

" Pitthu Pitthu Pitthu " , " Ghoda Ghoda Ghoda " is almost like the joker's cry " Women and Children first " you will constantly here on a sinking ship..

Crap this post is sounding negative so far !

We started our ascent , I recalled in office we were counting days to 28th Jan when we would catch the flight to Delhi and night train to Jammu..
Even at the airport , we were constantly waiting for the take off.. looking at our watches.. to finally begin the journey ! song running in my iPOd :

Jump in the cockpit and start up the engines,Remove all the wheelblocks there's no time to waste.Gathering speed as we head down the runway,Got to get airborne before it's too late........

Our first laugh came when Nilesh looked up the peak and said.. 'yaar wo wali pahadi ke upar hai kya... bahut upar hai ! ' ...
everyone knows the feeling when reality strikes.. we laughed ofcourse...but all this time we were talking abt Vaishnav Devi being one of thetoughest trek to go on foot.... and we were like.. ' na na.. we'll do it , no worries.. tickets book karo '..

but we were now starting to realize..tht a 14 KM trek.. walking continuously.. for 4 to 5 hours.. is not as simple as..' haa haa ho jayega '..

perfect weather.. cold.. somewhere around 5-6 degrees, little bit of moisture in the air due to rain and snowfall the previous day ..it was beautiful..

In the begining you'll see a lot of tea stalls and shops around... you have to constantly mind the people coming down on horses.. a few times you'll narrowly escape ramming into a Horse or being run over by it...

be observant... especially while posing for photographs :)

last thing you want is a pic of you being kissed by a Horse.......... unknowingly

As you go up the number of shops reduce.. the journey becomes peaceful.....
We saw a staircase then.. around 350 of em..... and we took it.. man what a mistake.....I dnt remember the last time I broke so much sweat !!
highly not recommended.. your thighs will refuse to go ahead at one stage... dnt tk the staircase... u'll miss a couple of vistas and get urself tired !

Then came the sunset... view better then any Sunset point I've been to .. cool breeze .. and the sun setting besides you as you move forward..

as we went up we saw the top of a hill ..just visible.. covered with snow !!! we had to stop there and admire the view.. ofcourse out came the cameras and the poses... !

It was starting to get dark... we had put our woolen scarfs and caps to cover our ears....when we came across a moutain..in front of us..with white light glowing in the background..

it took us a few moments to realize wht we were looking at was actually the Moon's glow...

People have seen Sunrise and Sunset.. but we .. for the first time.. were looking at what we could call as Moonrise !! ..really cant put in wordsthe beauty of the moon slowly rising from behind a hill.. donning its glow and aura

If we were 10-15 mins late in reaching tht point.. we would have missed this experience.. this was plain lucky !!

We reached Ardhkuwari ,also known as Garbh Joon , where the goddess is supposed to have stayed till 9 months .and is believed tht whoever passes through this little narrow cave will be spared Re-Birth !

if that is true..... I pretty much got an assurance tht m not gonna born again on my 26th birthday ! I hv no idea why is that supposed to be a good thing..

We did get thru the narrow cave... enjoyed looking at the relief of a very fat guy who managed to scrape through after a long time.. and screamed Jai Mata Di , Jai Mata di ... man he seemed relieved... pure elation on his face !!

but what I remember more.. is what happened ealrier ... we need to go barefoot into the cave..so we decided to remove our shoes , wash our feet..and get ready to join the line.. we saw a bunch of people sitting on benches waiting for the cave to open...
when we put our feet down on the marble floor.. we realized immediately why people were sitting with their feet up .. no one standing.. not a single soul..

it was IMPOSSIBLE to stand barefoot...never in my life have I experienced flooring so cold.. 5 seconds and ur feet would start hurting... we ran..gathered courage to wash our feet ...

this is where the fun starts.. our feet went numb... we were desperate to sit..there was no space on any bench... we were literally trying to stand on our toe nails.. we were running around in circles trying to occupy any..any vacant space.. one more minute and I can promise I would have tried to convincesome girl to make me sit in her lap !

we found an under construction temple ,went and stood on the broken bricks.. dint help.. same temperature.. went and stood on iron rods .. nope.. cold.

to our good fortune.. behind those rods..we found a kind of hidden bench..dashed towards it and sat with our feet up..cant stop laughing when I think abt it.. that 1 minute was the most desparate moment in my life... wish I had a pic...

So Ardhkuwari marks the halfway point of ur trek towards Vaishnav Devi....

We passed thru a lil tunnel while sipping a much needed cup of coffee and came out to a beautiful deserted , cold path which showcased an amazing view of Katra....

This is when a splash sound with a thud sounded out quite loud.. startled.. we turned around and saw Gaurav staring blankly at his digicam lying on the floorwith coffee all over it.. half filled cup of coffee in his hand..............tilted..

M pretty sure the cam is still not fixed... tht was its last click..

We Marched forward.. pretty fast now....... passing through some amazing naturally erorded hills on our right .. high cliff with forests.. dimly lit..with clear warning signs suggesting u can get hit by a stone falling anytime from up above the hill......touched snow for the first time in my life
3 KM left and we saw the Bhavan.. our destination.. where Amit had already booked a room for us...

By this time we were going very fast..... we were being driven by the fact tht our destination was within reachh...

We took a break.... had some disgusting tea...and biscuits...

more on Tea.. by the time we completed our Jammu trip and were about to catch a train back toDelhi.. we had pretty much come to a conclusion that people in Jammu dont know hw to make tea... we really struggled to get some good tea ..at each shop.. railway station..hotell.... we ordered tea with hopes of finding a good cup but it was simply horrible.. just couldnt finish it..

10:10 PM - We reached Bhavan after buying prasad.. got the keys to our room and literally crashed on the bed.... took out the heater and placed our feet in front of it..awwwI'll never forget tht feeling.. after removing my heavy Woodlands... 5 hours walk.. the relaxation ..the heat radiating from the rod..it was better then any massage possible....

Around 11..after spilling a lot of hot water... all of us were ready to go for our Darshan.. we left the room heater on..

We went out of the room barefoot.... fortunately the flooring was not marble so it was bearable..walked towards the cave..to out disbelief..there was no queue..no one following us.....

kept going and stopped straight at the cave...

There is was.. the ' Pindis ' ... Vaishno Devi, Saraswati and Kali mata.. usually security guards would just push you over..but we stood there fora full 15-20 seconds... my friend later on coudlnt stop emphasizing how lucky we were ..

11:58 we were out.... all done !! happy... relieved... no feeling in our numb feet.. smiles on our faces.. in disbelief tht all this time, formonths we were just talking abt this trip... and we did make it.. far way from home.. from work... people spoke abt it.. we actually made it..

We absoulutely devoured the Rajma Chawal and Kadhi chawal at the cafeteria.. another round of Rajma chawal.. at this moment we were very relieved..no hurry, it was like our mission was complete and we had all the time in the world.. no hush hush.. no lets go on.. no getting late...

3 blankets each...is what we covered ourselves with........and slept...

7:30 AM ... Out of ours room after my 45 min effort to wake everyone up and get them ready was successful..

Had some butter toasts, dosa.. half cup of tea and a gr8 gulabjamun.. the temperature could not have been more than 0 degrees.. snow clad mountains in front of us added to the effect !

Got down while listening to the Helicopter's sound reverbarating around the mountains..VIP darshan..2000 RS per head..

Enjoyed the warmth of Sunrays hitting our face for the first time on our trip... off came the jackets and out came the Sunglasses !

10:30... End of the descent. Vaishno Devi.. the trek complete, the perfect exercise.. the most beautiful trip of my life...

Not because of it being a Divine and one of the holiest shrines.. that doesnt really matter for a Atheist like me...but best because of the experience.. never experienced cold and fatigue like this...

feeling how 10 grams can feel like 10 Kgs when u r tired.. feeling the snow.. the Sunset.. Moonrise.. unforgettable scenes...

Irrespective of religion people visit this place... and rightly so.. this experience is not one to be missed.. really guys.. go for it..

Seems like everyt time I am writing a new post it getting longer and longer........

Will try to keep it short if this one was boring...

As my friend rightly said.. when I think about our trek and what we've seen... it would be like a dream...it is.. just revisiting the place in mythoughts is just so exciting and pleasing.... I am up for another round if anyone is interested !

More to come !

Bhavin

Through hairpins and speed breakers

If I would have titled this blog post 'Through hairpins' .. first impression would have been 'this person must have struggled to get through some girl's lousy hair while sitting in a park'
Hence the word speed breakers..any seasoned driver who has driven on ghats or any kid , boy, manwho has played Need for Speed in his life would know I am talking abt a road trip.
Road trip with hairpins and speed breakers which would better qualify as car breakers .
This was a trip to SriSailam which was a last gasp attempt to save us from a boring weekend at Hyderabad. We called the resort at Suryalanka..was fully booked..so SriSailam it was .. full n final... leave in morning.. come bk the same day.
one of our frnds decided to sleep.... so dint come...7 in the morning 4 of us were standing besides an old Toyota Qualis, with only Telugu songs casettes in it,
We got a battery operated speaker, and the only option was my iPod which had nothing but Hard Rock music in it..... decided to play it neways...
frnds always hate me for the kind of music I listen to..if only they can listen to the music as I do..understand it the way I understand.. minutely noticing the drum beats, the bass guitar giving the background effect, leads combined with rythm and distortion.. u will love rock music if u notice these complex and very intense combinations that make the adrenaline pump faster...

so neways..the trip started off slowly... with a lot of traffic.. we came out of Hyd...
One thing I have noticed about Andhra Pradesh is.. it is a highly underdeveloped state... with the exception of the exorbitant Hyderabad... and to and extent.. let me emphasize.. only to an extent.. Vizag andVijaywada.. . No decent road, small villages with kaccha rastas , no decent place to eat for 300 KM...youcan easily see why the suicide rate of farmers is highest in AP.... it is really in a bad state...

Other thing you can notice is that if at a village in AP. you scream LAXMIII... 7 out of 10 girls would looktowards you...this input was courtesy of my Uncle ..Kirit !! .. just in case you thought I
actually screamed Laxmiii at Village....maybe he did !!

So there we were in the Qualis... out came the playing cards.. where every time we hit a bump all our cardswere exposed.... was fun though.. playin cards... not the bumping part

We were not able to believe that there was no decent or even an average place to eat all along the way...nd we were hungry... so we stopped in a small room sized Udipi where we had some hopeless brkfast.. we were better off hungry is what we realized.

Yes ..third thing you would notice about AP. Every village has a place called Udipi hotel.

Then came the Jungle....the SriSailam Tiger Reserve.. only animal we saw except ourselves were cows..
We reached the Dam... decent water level and very funny circular boats..lot of weird music being played..

4th thinkg you will notice about AP ... mind blowing music..( and I mean mind blowing in a negative connotation)... on top of that.. grown men in questionable clothing dancing as if they are having a seizure.

and the round around the dam is actually crazy.... nothing but hairpin curves..you contantly keep going up the hill along the hairpins..and I was really takin pity on the driver..witha car like an old battered Qualis with no power steering.. it was like a gym session for him..

15 hairpins atleast.. I am not exaggerating.

The temple was nice.. I came to know that it is a Shiv Mandir which is regarded as one of the 12 'JyotHirlingams' , the crowd was not massive ..

Observation number 5...South Indians will never improve....I mean.. 'JyoTHI' and 'teek hai bai' ... they have a serious problem with the alphabet H .

I came back from a mahabaleshwar trip yesterday ..visited the famous temple over there too....and the same though came into my mind ..same one which came to my mind in SriSailam.. which is ..what to say.when you are in a temple...I mean.. yeah keep me family same and dont destroy the world in 2012 !! this is what I say usually.. not sure what people do stading there for 20 mins...
For those of you who know me...I am not the most religious guys.. an atheist who likes visiting peacefulplaces of worship be it a Church, Temple, Dargah or a Gurdwara....
People behave so formally in temples.. they r like in their best manners.. being quite.. aware of the crowdaround..a bit weird .. I just dont feel comfortable in a crowded temple...

Darshan over.. time to freak out... every taxi driver and rickshaw wala would point you towards Apurva hotel..the only place where u get decent food in SriSailam.. had some good Andhra thalis.. lots of sambar andoh yes an awesome matka kulfi.. I mean the packing as well as taste was awesome.. I really wanted to carrythe littke kullad/matka home with me to have tea in the mitti ka bartan.. but couldnt carry it all throughout the journey.

neways,..next was a cool ropeway ride into the lake and boat trip till near the dam... it was awesome..theview from the ropeway and feeling the cool winds while in the boat... u can actually book a speed board for500 Rs. and go for a very fast ride !!

Time to go back.. the resort looked good and a couple of us really wanted to stay back and leave the next day.. but the others wanted to go back home to their Momma... so had to leave...
my friends grabbed a bunch of beers and had a talkitive journey back to Hyd... went to a frnds place.. hadsome awesome home made Rajma.... and crashed .......

What a Gr8 Saturday. Got a traveler's soul... but not the best company when it comes to going out andenjoying.. everyone wants to sleep...

You get one shot at life.. why waste it by sleeping !!

Bhavin

Got Skinnnedd !!!

8th Nov 2009 .


It all started with a surprise visit frm my frnd Talli who is a lousy guy and does nt
take his frnds outside ( this is in case hez readin it ) at the guest house in Hyderabad whr I was
or rather..as I am writing this blog.. I am staying right now....


so we decided to go out to the much hyped GVK mall with a cpl of more frnds with us...


The mall was gr8, big and if u r in a mood for shopping for some branded stuff u'll almost get all
the major ones there....




We got out at 7 and came to a conclusion that this is way to early even for a early dinner.
and for a cpl of people lke us even dinner at 10:30 would hv been classified as early...


so after 15 minutes of immobility in front of City centre mall, DeepTHI realized she wants to buy some dress for fashion show it was I guess...so we parked the car..nd while DeepTHI and Himesh went to chk out the dress , me and Suhit loitered around and found this neat Tattoo parlour...


Now I've been pushin people to find out a tattoo parl. frm where I can get a temporary tattoo lasting 2-3 months...
but I was told there is no temp tattoo which would last more than 7 days....


and I was also told that removal of a permanent tattoo is very expensive and even more painful than getting one done....


so my plan of getting 3 or 4 tattoos b4 getin a permanent one was tossed away..
so the artist showed me some pics frm where I got an idea of getting a tattoo on my thumb...


well I decided to give it a shot.. asked him to google the Rockstar game logo..and lay it down on
my left hand thumb...


Was the perfect setting..Black Viking metal T-shirt , BLue Jeans and dishevelled hair..the way I usually am


so he did some printout business and made an imprint on my thumb..now the scary part


he produced a motor..mini sewing machine like instrument and a biig needle..


then he started wearing gloves as if he was gonna do a surgery...


got dettol and a lot of cotton..


in the meanwhile my other frnds had returned empty handed..Talli got them in to see the show


also in the meanwhile I would have asked the artist 20 times as to how painful its gonna be


" It'll be a bit more painful on the thumb"


next 10 minutes I was wondering what is the level of pain 'bit more painful' is supposed to represent


I mean if he said painful..it would hv scared me enuf..given the rate at which he was producing sharp instruments...


but was it really necessary to say bit more painful...


DeepTHI had already uttered 3 times "ohh my god I cannot watch this" and Himesh was ready with his mobile video cam 10 mins b4 that...


so he was ready..I tightened my thumbs...tightened everything I could infact... and till the moment he was to put the needle
on my thumb..I was like dont..dont do it...dont do it.. no.. why am I doing this..?? why the thumb..


how would I hide my thumb at a business meeting, I'll hv to shake hands using my right had.. will I be able to eat dinner after this


I couldnt believe at one point that I was actaully gonna get a permanent tattoo in my life
while these questions flashed thru my mind very fast..


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L3JsuC44IA

my skin felt the needle..oh yes what a pinch..its like how Earth would feel when someone takes a flag and tries to drive it into the ground..


the motor was running... I tried not to scream.. just made some funny faces...the needle mkes its presence felt, goes in and out of ur skin at an inclredible speed...


after maybe 15 seconds..I was like..thts not too bad.. and I was sitting normally throughout..,


we were chatting something thru out the operation..yeah I would inded call it an operation..


there it was...................the R and a star..lookin incredible..awesome...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr-7oF4QbLA


I was given some tips as to hw shd I tk care of it


apply vaseline on the tattoo for 6-7 times for a week..moisturize it regularly..dont keep it too wet..etc..


Paid the 2500 bill at the counter to a cute sort of girl.. who asked me a few questions abt my tattoo..


I would hv surely managed to prolong the convo and atleast managed to get her phone number if I was in Pune..
but hell who wants to put in an effort in Hyderabad... I m leavin in the next 3 days..


was a good opportunity though..


anyways.........


thanks to my tattoo it was 8:30 and everyone was hungry... we had an ordeal to find where tried to find Sardar ka Dhaba at LakdikaPul and never found it...


got 25 minutes waiting at Sahib Singh Sultan and decided to move onto to a Chinese restro..


had some exotic chinese food at Aromas of China...


went home slept..


was so happy tht I had got a permanent tattoo...


so m not boasting here.. it needs guts.. till the moment u get it done..it takes guts to sit thru this...


few of my frnds are shocked that I can actually get this thing done.. they hv been thinkin of me as seedha bacha..which I am.. no debates around that


few of my frnds back at Pune are waiting to see the tattoo and are saying how proud they r gonna feel to say to others that one of their friends got a permanent tattoo..hving seeing it only on TV before they see mine....guys get it done urself..really !!


few of you are waiting for me to publish this blog..


and when you do read this guys....m sorry to hv kept u waiting..I wanted to get back to Pune, before I published this


this has been drafted as of today....30th November...


Guys... get a tattoo in ur life.. u r definitely missing an experience..


and for those of u who are still wondering why did I give the title " Got Skinned" to this post...


the organic ink of this tattoo is supposed to fill into the second layer of ur skin...epidermis..


so that tattoo eventually develops as a part of ur skin...


so when I ask u how it looks..say it looks good.. cos if u say u dont like it ,
it will be an insult to my skin !


Signing off with one of my fav. youtube vids.. 6 yr old Kid playing one of the
most awesome songs in Rock music history !!

I love it when he says Ay Ay Ay


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKYAhVSBxsQ




Cheers !!


Bhavin

The Trip to Hyderabad.... Prologue..

Before I begin.. Gamers.. this has nothing to do with 'GranTurismo5 - Prologue.'
Stepping into my new role at work.. I was asked to go to Hyd.. the place I hate..for a month..its a good place to stay in a hotel or company guest house...go out with frnds and n stuff...
but living here for 6 months in 2008 while trainig the NOC team was indeed a nightmare..neways.. so I decided to go there with a positive frame of mind...excited about my new roleand training.......... and came to know that two folks from my former team are also joining me...
one of them a new joinee who is getting married in a few days... poor guy..
and other..... well dont wanna say much apart frm the fact.. he is the ultimate deifinitionof Fat Lazy ASS.
So then came the day.. Konark express... yes our company has this train guidelinegoing on where we are not allowed to travel thru flights .. cost cutting
so for a 7 PM train... the sluggish guy said one of my frnds Nilesh.. whom I mentionedin a earlier blog post is gonna drive us frm my home.... He soon made me realize not to depend on a laggard like him ... who has not done one single thing in his life on time....by getting late while me n Nilesh waited at my place.....
U know in Movies.. during a very exciting part.. u get unnecessary scenes whr emotions andsome stupid stuff is done to strech the movie nd u r like..... plss cut the crap and get a move on .. thts what this guy is like...he can really test ur patience by being extremely slow and stupid..
so we hurried to Pune station..ran to platform num 3... and realized the train was a hour late
You knw we say...hey Mumbai airport is good.. Pune is a small pathetic airport. Indoreairport is a joke..
I sweared then and there .. I am never gonna say anything bad about any airport in my life again after experiencing the Pune railway stations platform number 3.
on top of that we got the heartening news in form of a deformed voice from an old speaker.tht Konark express is gonna be two hours late... so from 7 PM it was 9 PM.....
tht train starts frm Mumbai and got late ..6 hours bw Pune to Mumbai..we were alreadyregretting why dint we take the earlier Hyderabad express....
So I went to the vada pav shop as my frnds started dying due to hunger..saw a a Chennai guy frm Pune Chennai express struggle with the vada pav guy ..language issuesChennai guy wont speak Hindi as he thinks its a shame.... bloody MF Chennai guy.... the shopkeeper wont understand English or Tamil.. so I helped him out with his food and expenses... Fu**ng A didnt even say thanks...
not that I was helping someone to get a thanks.. I dont really mind ppl not saying thks nd all..but Chennai guys.......
here is why...cos I have heard abt Chennai guys..assholes of the upper category...I am 110% sureif I was struggling in Chennai no one wld hv sorted it out for me... I wished I hadnt helped him..
so I will, yes I WILL help Chennai guys in the future if they are struggling.....But I will make sure his black ass really has a hard time for 5 full mins and enjoy the show before I step in..
so there we were on the stinking platform.... had two rounds.. of vada pav.. still there was 1 hr 15 mins to go before the train arrived.
So we started loitering around the platform, found a book stall.. and after checking many a of novels decided to go for a 50 Rs Forbes magazine...
When we came across another book stall.. where my frnd also had a sudden fancy of buying something to read ... I saw a Reader's digest....
I felt like kicking myself.. how could I miss a RD at the previous one and take a Forbes,RD is like the novel I enjoyed so much since class 8th and was a regular reader before I started working..
Still cannot believe I boguht a Forbes and RD didnt come to my mind...
But neways..the moment I saw an Avaya ad in the magazine.. felt amazing..Two major reasons :
1. cos this is first time Avaya sales team had taken a intiative where it would take its visibility to the public.. Poeple in India feel proud while saying they work in Tata or Reliance and we miss saying that despite of being in a bigger and better company..itabout time Avaya is known in my country.
2. Big thing for me moving into my new role.. if the sales org. in India kicks off.. good for my future......
But I would still prefer a RD over Forbes next time........
So the train's arrival was finally announced.. weren't we delighted...
the Train did come in..now for some of the people who have seen Mumbai's local train barging into the station and braking... this arrival would have been testing......
I mean.. the train was entering the station at an amazingly... and trust me..amazingly slow speed.. I promise you could hv walked faster than the train.. and we did when we realized our AC 2 tier is gonna be ahead of where we stood..
the speed ..and it really does not deserve to be called speed.. so.. the manner in which the train was coming was a serious insult to the horse power the railway engine holds..
neways....
so the poeple in the train were interesting. couple of fat people who told me 'Jab me tumhari umar ka tha to aisa hi fit tha '.... m nt sure I would wanna be in a position to say thatto some 25 yrs old guy when I am 45.
and a Vora guy who narrated stories of his international travels..
and a military commando who was involved in the 26/11 raid in Taj Hotel...he told us the story so non heroically.. such a down to earth commando... a really amazingguy frm Mathura who despite of being a hero didnt flaunt it...
and readers of my previous post titled 'General Observations'.. you would understand when I saythat no girls were there in the train bogey I travelled in.. ofcourse they were in thenext one !!!
Morning I woke up at six, read a sticker in the bathroom saying no to use headphones loudly .. gave me the idea of getting my Ipod ,..... stood at the door for two hours listeining to someHard Rock music....8 am we got down on Secundrabad station........
So thats it.. it seems this is already turning out to be my longest blog entry....
Thats the prologue to my one month stay in Hyd..
if my journey towards Pune is as exciting.... or maybe exciting is nt the correct word..I'll say if it is as eventful as my arrival in Hyd...
there surely will be a Epilogue to this post.
And pals.. pls do not build a perception of Chennai people by my blog..
not all of them are bad people, one of them happens to be in my team and is a very nice guy :) .
Bhavin.

General observations..... or not so General ??!!

Maybe general for the minds of people like me who likes noticing things like these either because we have too much time or no time at all due to the life of excess we are living with too many things to to do in very less time...

So here are a few things which happen with most of the individuals I know..these experiences are acknowledged by plenty of guys.. and I mean plenty...

I was travelling to Indore recently... or rather coming back towards Pune I think while these few thoughts unravelled..

When two or more buses are standing at the local dhaba ... prettier girls will always hop on to the bus next to yours but never in your bus. This probability of a similar experience is high and entirely possible while travelling via a plane or a train.

There will always be stray dogs and Murgas ruuning around in the dhaba and u will be very careful with your legs if one of them even comes close to getting underneath ur table..

Toilets in all dhabas are hidden in the darkest of corners. Needless to add they r never clean.. never will be .. no arguements.

This one made me laugh while I was stading near the road tying to check out the tyres of all the vehicles passing by to get an idea about which comapny has the top market share in the state.....neways.. so this is what happens..

30 people are standing outside the bus at the dhaba waiting for the driver to open the door , and a new bus just enters the dhaba...all people turn towards that bus and keep watching it until every single individual gets off that bus and the door is closed..

I actually couldnt stop laughing when I was looking at a lot of people all watching the same bus with their arses facing me.. there was nothing in that bus.. in fact it was one of the dirtiest buses I had ever seen .. nothing u can term as attractive regarding the aesthetics of the bus or the poeple inside it.. bus bcos one person turns and looks... everybody follows...

Instant Messenger window copy paste.....dangerous thing to do... how often have u pasted or typed something highly embarressing to a person in a different chat window by mistake.... and needless to say... the person is totally bewildered..and a 100 thoughts are racing throught your mind to find out what excuse should you make for such a blatant..or in some cases vulgar... umm.. in most cases ..vulgar statement.

You are perfectly capable of writing very well articulated emails at all the times, espeacially emails to frnds may turn out to be flawless... but there has always got to be a spelling mistake in emails sent to your managers....

if ur underwear does fall down in a bathroom it will be on a pool of water...

Jeans of ur Size would never be available during Sale

Tata sky would be disabled and would need a recharge only before a crunch football, F1 or a cricket tie..
Chances are u will realize this very late and would be watching the highlights next day on YouTube.

And of yes ...if a drop dead gorgeous one does board the same bus as you do.. and I can write this in my blood .. she will be seated next to a very old guy or an individual who has no potential or guts whatsover to speak to her..

Reminds me of my frnd Nilesh.... if he reads this.... Ohh man...

I would end this by stating.. two facts..not observations.. but facts..:
1. There is no such thing as a seedhi saadhi ladki
2. Boys will be Boys.

I must thank my pals Amit, Gaurav, Vikas and Nilesh who contributed while having tea in our office cafeteria on a weekend when we had no work whatsover...which is usually the case in GNOC team..

Bhavin