If only I could!

There was this strange thought that struck me .. what if I could freeze time and then move about as freely? rational / irrational , logical / insane whatever my thought might sound to be like.. if only I could!!

Grown up or yet to be!!

Today I stand 5'9" tall, am 21 years 8 months 19 days of age, have completed more than 3/4th of my graduation but still a question remains.. Am I a grown up?.. I seriously fail to answer this question whenever it pops up. What does being a grown up mean? does it mean ability to shoulder a responsibility.. to think maturely.. to be able to stand on one's own feet..??? or does it mean to be able to do all of it? Can I do this all on my own .. for sure I'm no Superman.. but yes I can certainly try. There are so many examples of people ( several of them who are younger to me) doing all that I mentioned above, with such an ease that it makes me, at times, feel microscopic. There was this once, that I was travelling by train, at around 8 in the morning, the train stopped at Adra Jn. I stepped out to look for something to eat and a figure to my right caught my eye. There was this boy, very neatly dressed;probably a 12 year old, who was sitting on the bench and was counting currency notes. Just then the train sounded it's horn and I headed back. This little guy also boarded the train and came and sat down in front of me. I wondered whether he was travelling alone or was with someone.. so I asked him if there was somebody elder travelling with him, to which he coldly replied "Nahin main akele hi hoon". Wanting to start a conversation I asked him where lived and there was again a ice cold reply, "Kolkata". As the train moved on, I was able to strike a propr conversation with this guy, whom for no good reason had made me curious about him. As I spoke to him I discovered that his father, who worked with A.H Wheeler Kolkata distributed newspapers till Adra at all Wheeler stalls, had died in a train accident and this boy had taken over his job. At first I thought, "These wheeler people should be sued under the Child Labour act!" but then as he spoke more about himself, i found out that he was supporting a mother and a younger sister. At this tender age when he is supposed to go to school,play with friends, this guy had was slogging day and night run his family. Things like government free education programme, child labour act did not matter to him, all that he saw was that he had a family to support and he was doing nothing else than that....

Circumstances harden a man... but have they hardened me.. am yet to find out

--Capt. krrunch

Bhubaneswar Puri Trip-Part II

.... contd.

While back in Bhubaneswar, i was waiting for the 13th of Jun to come as fast it could.

13th of Jun--- 10:30 a.m. Rohan:Aap log aa rahe ho na aaj??
Mondi:Yahaan khoob zor se baarish ho rahi hai pata nahi ghar se nikal bhi paayeinge ya nahi.. we'll let you know by noon.

Now what? After an hour long wait ... I started a chain of telephone calls constantly enquiring about their position.. whether they have left for the station or no? whether they have reached the station? Whether they have boarded the train? etc. etc. Luckily everything fell into place and the troupe was on their way to Bhubaneswar. I was on time at the station dot @ 9.25 only to find out that the train was delayed by an hour which later got extended to two hours. So in the mean time I got dinner packed for didi log.

Train halts! Everybody is very excited and exhausted at the same time. We then go to the guest house, and @ the guest house the plan for the next two days is disclosed. Everybody is happy and I head back to my hostel.

Next morning @ 8:30 a.m the car is parked in front of the guest house. We were to visit two of the most important landmarks of the country (i)The Sun Temple,Konark (ii)Lord Jagannath Temple,Puri. Everybody is into the car by 9. Just as we move out of the city, lush green paddy fields extending till the horizon create a spectacular scene. Enjoying the cool breeze as we move on, we reached Pipli ( for people who are not aware of this place.. This small town is the hub of applique artisans), not in the mood to shop we didn't stop here and moved on. After almost an hour's drive we finally reached Konark.

In the Sun Temple, my new avtaar of a Guide. History of the landmark was narrated to the newcomers. Mondi was busy analyzing all the sculptures on the walls, Roopam was not very interested and was finding places to sit here and there but still tried to keep pace and Tinadi was the one selecting spots to click photographs. An hour and a half later decison to move ahead.

10 min. from Konark , we reached Chandrabhaaga . Now this where we got to see a beach. Earlier when The Sun Temple was built in the early 16th century, the temple was on the sea beach but as time passed the sea receded and is now at Chandrabhaaga (2.5 km from Konark). Tinadi was very excited to have arrived on the beach, the trio raced to the waters and i was left behind screaming, "Yahaan sea bahut rough hai, don't go too near to the waves". They splashed and jumped for half an hour, got tired , had "poido"/"daabh" and we left.

Next stop was Ramchandi mandir, this place is not very famous but since it was enroute we halted. By the time we arrived at Puri, it was time for lunch. So our next stop was Mayfair Beach Resort. Had a lovely lunch in their restaurant "Aquarium" and then we went to beach. The weather was bit cloudy, which came as a relief as we sat on the beach. All of us were thoroughly enjoying the strong winds blowing onto our faces. At around 4 in the evening we left for the puri temple. At the huge gates of the majestic temple of Lord Jagannath, all of us gazed in awe at the splendid structure. It took us around 30 min for Jagannath ji's darshan and then we went to Anand Bazaar ( it is a market inside the temple premisis where the offerings to the Lord are sold) , Mondi bought "khichdi" which was to be the dinner for all of us.

At around 7 having covered all the spots for the day, we headed back to bhubaneswar. On reaching Bhubaneswar, we went out to the market as roopam had to buy shoes for herself, then we went to a restaurant had dinner.. came back to the guest house.. ate the prasad which we bought at the Puri Temple and called it a day.

Next morning at 7, I knocked at didi's room, only to find Tundi was on the bed with fever and she wasn't willing to go. It took us some time to convince her and move on. 14th,Jun destinations were Dhauligiri Peace Pagoda which was built by Emperor Ashoka after the Kalinga war and Lingaraj Temple, Bhubaneswar. We reached Dhauli hill at around 10. At the pagoda, spreading in front of was the vast fields where the war actually took place. We took a lot of pictures there and had a real nice time. Next stop was Lingaraj Temple ( which again is a majestic temple built by King Kharvel and it is only other place in the world other then Amarnath where the Shiva Ling is not man-made).

Mondi said she wanted to visit a zoo, so our next destination also had to follow our current series of majestic and huge landmarks. We went to Nandan Kanan which happens to be the largest zoo in Asia and houses more species of animals than any other Biological Garden. Then we went to Mayfair Lagoon to have our lunch. After a lovely lunch, we came to my university and Mondi, Tundi and Roopam took a small tour of the entire place. I collected my stuff from the hostel and we then stopped at Cafe Coffee Day for a cup coffee and then to the railway station where we were to catch our train back to Kolkata. Thus, came to an end, a really enthralling experience of a short and a reall sweet vacation with Roopam, Mondi & Tundi...

I LOVED IT!!

Bhubaneswar Puri Trip-Part I

Puri has always been a favourite in my hangout list (mostly because it is at a wish and go distance) and after years of persuasion and not a lot of planning I was finally able to arrange a trip with my sister and cousins. Here is how it all started.... I was lying on the bed at my Buaji's place in Kolkata, when suddenly I ask Mondi ( slash Mona didi slash Nidhi di) whether we can make a trip to Puri.. she readily agreed.. Tundi( slash Tunnu didi slash Kirti di) who was also free at that time tugged on. Roopam aka 'buchi', who we thought might be busy with her training on in Kharagpur, also informed us that she'll be free from the 12th of Jun onwards.. Now things had started to bubble up...

Next day Buaji gets concerned... "ACCOMODATION!!! Where are you people going to stay??". I have a hostel room so nobody bothered.. As for the ladies.. I told them that papa could arrange a room at a guest house.. else we could book a room at a hotel. We had a lot of discussion over the 'kharcha' involved and availablity. It was after analyzing all possible accomodation options and after a few calls here and there......... Acco problem was somehow solved..

Problems have a knack of popping up all the time.. so next on the list was local transportation.. here i chose to be the hero. I stood up and said "Main hoon na.. hum Bhubaneswar jaakar sab arrange kar deinge.. ". Convincing took time but it happened..

"Rohan hum log bhubaneswar jaayeinge kaise??? Itni jaldi tickets kahaan mileingi?"... Luckily seats were available and the next morning i rushed to the ticketing office to get it done..

On getting the tickets done I was happy that now finally we had a pukka plan for the entire trip.
The 2 day schedule was left for me to decide as I was to leave for Bhubaneswar before the didi-sister trio.

31st May - Tickets to Bhubanewar for the the 13 jun afternoon and return to Kolkata 15 jun night . This is how the tour plan of 2 days and 1 night stood when i left Kolkata and came back to Bhubaneswar

what i saw

Here I am this is me, there’s nowhere else on earth I’d rather there.
It’s a new day, it’s a new start .It’s a life with the beating of a young heart …. Thunk! Darn the battery !- campus 3 to KP-2(in case you have’nt figured wht it is-that’s my hostel ), a trip which I have made over a million times by now, seems to be a 100mile marathon every time classes get over and this time it’s not getting any better rather, after slogging through 4 terrible, treacherous, torchereous, tormentous hours of “PPT” it’s getting worse and now the battery of my MP3 player is down too.
Twenty five minutes,a cigaratte,a coke and a veg. patty later I arrived at the hostel gate, only to be greeted by a bunch of blue shirted piegons gossiping and chirping under the tree that we have at the gates of our palace and I utter to myself “God save them! for one day; they shall die of self pity.” Someone calls out my name from inside,"Rohan where the F*** had you been, I have tried your cell a million times.” That does it!, my dreams of getting back to bed shattered. “Harsh” and “Baady” come galloping out of our palace and the next minute the three of us are headed to our “daily ka adda”.
The genius amongst us starts the discussion on our way to the “adda” ,where our evenings have found shelter. He utters the “P”word, the word, the word spoken the maximum no. of times inside KiiT campus.
The tone is complaining and full of pain. This guy, I must say is very good at current affairs as he has the complete updated details of whatever happened when Bill Gate's company was here in our institute for recruitment.
For the next one hour and half, the three of us were busy planning strategies to get ourselves on board Microsoft. Somewhere at the back of my mind, a shrill voice out of nowhere said, " Dude,The race has begun.”
Back at the hostel, I notice significant changes on my floor. Topic of discussion of the different “Khatti” groups has changed, a transition from female sector to IT and ITES sector, from girls in different departments to departments in IT giants like Google,MS,Oracle etc. No more could I see boys loitering around sitting aimlessly in front of their laptops and chatting, instead they were busy solving aptitude papers.Our beloved “Khatti Session” had been rechristened as “Group Discussion“ with topics heavier than sumo wrestlers.
Come December and the scenario changes like it has now, I guess. Too many things are on my mind question like “Will I get placed?” I try to answer but then what if I don’t? Nothing can satisfy a confused mind. Confused is what I’ve become and I guess it happens with everybody.
A fear that finds a place in everybody’s heart but one needs to get over it. Peers indeed put a lot of pressure and we have to learn to get over it. This is one period where I feel, we learn to resist temptations and get control over the 1500 cc brain that we have - 'cuz if we don't it has got enough torque to spin you around a million times .

Here I am lying on my bed, with a crusade of thoughts going on in my mind. But that’s life.
“ Life during 6th semester @KiiT”

Reflections of a hostel boarder

9th February,2007 6:48 pm .. what a nice time to start writing something..

3 minutes later....

It was not a good time after all as nothing is coming to my mind.It is a complete void. Lying down on a friend's bed i wonder what an ideal day for an upcoming engineer would be like? What sort of a time table or a routine should he have? and suddenly... Routine! Time Table! what crap? It has been three years and i am not able to single out a day which could be identical to another.. Routines and Time Tables have long been forgotten and am in no mood to start following them again. School to Professional School has been a strange transformation, for me and other people as well.Those who came with thick glasses, now sport contact lenses, Short hair is now 'Uncool', as they say, Long locks are in.. and the list goes on and on.My girlfriend, from school, refuses to recognise me. Mumma says, i look as if i have come from hell, but seriously hell is too small a word, she adds.
Sun rises at 10:20am(classes start @ 10:30am) and sets at around 4:00 am. This is probably the only definite time that i can give. Classes get over anytime i wish(i.e if i chose to get thrown out the class by really messing with the faculty). Day starts with the worst possible beakfast and the worst possible lunch & dinner somewhere in between.Nocturnal is what i have become. Rate of fun/Work increases as the night grows darker.
Still on his bed i reminicise of my first day in the hostel, i had come at around 2 in the after noon and was surrounded by complete strangers. My father had dropped me at the hostel gate and "Find your own way out now.." were the words with which he bade me farewell. Amidst total strangers and their parents who were even more strange, it was a herculean task to keep my cool. At that point of time i felt like running back home..i wanted to escape!!! but 3 years from then, i think i have changed.
All these years i have been seeing so many things.. so many people becoming friends and then unbecoming, so many new relations budding and then withering away, so many people changing.. i guess CHANGE is inevitable. Coming to hostel has probably been the best thing i have ever done, it , in a way, has prepared me for what i am to face in the future. Coming face to face to some of the blunt and harsh truths, i have fallen head first many times and everytime learnt a new lesson. Life is all about giving you lessons and lessons which are worth taking. It is no more school going children that you need to deal with but with so called matured men ( maturity which at times is not there). Innocence has no value, if you are innocent you are weak and shall be trodden down. It is a world, a world full of lots of people and to face them, i guess, one has to change, change not only superficially but from within.
When i was at home, Dad used to say,"It's a dirty world out there,Son", and in 3 years of staying in the wild,i have started to get a taste of it already, as transformation in life has begun.