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