Lucknawi-Tehzeeb

The Mid-February found me and Dhruv travelling to Lucknow for a trip having unexpected surprises in store. Here’s the one from the ol’ Diary

Well, here’s the latest trip to the city of nawabs, Lucknow with The Mr. Dhruv Walia and yours truly. The night before boarding is chill as Reykjavik. The overnight travel is sleep interjected by loud snoring uncles and loud-mouthed bhaiyas. We both had the upper berths so the world that was passing by was going unseen in the night. Next morning I’m woken by the tea-hawkers trying to sell me some of that stuff, which I plainly deny. The moment I got down and looked out, I saw the famous Kakori station of that hum-angrezon-ki-lucknow-jane wali-train-ko-kakori-me-lootenge-aur-us-se-hum-kharidenge-HATHIYAAR!!! Well there was Kakori Martyrs Memorial alongside it too. Anyway having reached Lucknow, which I expected to be one hell (seemingly most of us in Punjab don’t imagine UP to be a clean place), was surprisingly an orderly place. The train was well before the scheduled arrival (another surprise, God bless Mamata Banerjee, for this one time!!)

The first expected thing here was the old buildings and the Railway Station was One. Starting with a breakfast at Comesum on the railway station with a Patiala peg chai, Another product of Lucknow, namingly the Luckhnawi–tehzeeb was another thing I guess we could sense in the air. But on the contrary of being “Romans”, the tehzeeb was shot to hell as we were swearing off our friendly banter. When started getting strange looks from people, thought of limiting it till we were around there.

So we soon reached the IIM Lucknow campus for its 25^th Management Fest – MANFEST 2012, and got dropped in a hole with like 20 more guys in a dormitory. They all had laptops or journals in their hands studying religiously for the competitions, I guess. Probably we were the only engineering undergrads on that campus (we deserved some respect). And so we hadn’t the slightest idea of should we study or start having fun. We decided for bit of both. Took out a Corporate Finance book (read again) and started watching the ending scene of Fight Club and later had some kinoos. Dhruv started getting sleepy so opened the book to some random page towards the last, just for the sake of showing that he knew something and probably was revising (the book was like ABC for the finance management grads). I opened my laptop to shuffle through the e-books I got from RBIs site.

The Fest started at afternoon with the Inauguration being addressed by IIM-L’s Director. He gave a very impending speech about his own experience of working in the industry for good 30 years. It was followed by a high tea. Then started the main attraction of the day, the TATA Leadership Summit, which had some renowned panelists: A Former RBI Deputy Governor, CFO of TCS, Head Partner of Deloitte India, CEO of Comp Research Labs (TATA Sons). It was moderated by a very well known face, Founder Editor-in-Chief of Bloomberg UTV – Mr. Govindraj Ethiraj. The panel’s topic was India Inc. Going Global: Prospects and Pitfalls. The most informed and striking personality in there was the lady former governor. Mrs. Shyamala Gopinath. The discussion was something I can call was an actual panel discussion. The topics were very intelligently described by each of the panelists. The day ended with a mind boggling performance by Ronu Mazumdar – a flautist and a Padma Bhushan awardee.

TATA Leadership Summit. Last-minute-hustle

The second day had a run-of-the-mill slow morning. The fest OC seemed to be still snoring their hangovers off. (That actually is true coz every event in morning was 2 hours late at an average). So we caught a guy sitting in the middle of the arena with some Lego blocks (obvious attraction for Mekanchis) and made an AK-47 with a rose out of its muzzle (it was a competition too to come up with something expressive). The first event was an Operations Management simulation event – Opstrix. We got to the event hall and received the problem statement. But then we had to rush to a session by Mr. SP Shukla (he invented SMS, pre-paid connections, the modern landline numbering scheme, etc.  and he isn’t from any IT background) who apparently had more Industry experience than my age. He was simply AWESOME! The best talk I ever had in my life.

We rushed back to the Opstrix thing; played the thing for 2 hours against 18 other people. And came out winners. We raised 123500 from just 25000 in 6 quarters. On risk of sounding too informative, the game involved running an industry and maximizing profits. But it was way more complex than it seems. The evening was a performance by an NY based band – Goldspot (do check out this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_hfh2k8p6oand the Hindi version of this). The evening was colorful with the Kishore Kumar-esque voice playing an acoustic guitar.

The Screenshot of the Winning Scores. Middle one is us. The right pic is Goldspot performing.

The last day of the fest, it was the Mahindra Leadership Summit with which the day started. Again there was a panel of bigwigs including the inventor of Mahindra’s Rise campaign, Former RBI deputy Governor and a few more CEOs and MDs, the talk being moderated by the Deputy Editor of Forbes India magazine. The evening was a bollywood triathlon – First performance by Benny Dayal on his best songs. His energy was totally contagious. An hour of headbanging later we had a fire-cracker on the stage – Anushka Manchanda, an ex Viva! Member and a Channel [V] – VJ. She had quite chartbusters to her name, Lehrien, Golmaal titles, Zindagi rocks et.al. She had an hour’s slot – 9 to 10. But such was the fervor in the limited but high spectators that she was not allowed to get off the stage till 12 in the night; awesome time. The last bit was DJ Suketu with his jouncing beats what ended the night late.

The Mahindra Leadership Summit. And DJ Suketu warming up to his show.

The next morning we were released from the campus and our train was still 38 hours from departing. We got back to the city and sought a hotel in the most densely populated Muslim area of the old city – Aminabad. Obviously the first thing we were interested in after throwing our stuff in the room was the local food. First stop, something on the street called Khasta Kachori. Ridiculously rich taste, we couldn’t have enough. So we keep walking through the old city looking at old buildings imbibing a historical charm. Soon we reach a place called Bada Imambada. It’s a religiously and historically a very important place specially made to its advantage for fighting the British forces off. By the evening we went off the buy some Chiken. Not the edible one, but the wearable stuff. Bought a pretty pricy kurta for my sis with her handiwork upon it the one to kill for, and a suitpiece for mommy. Next was the delicacy called Makhan – basically a flavored whipped cream which is a specialty of the area called Chowk behind the Imambada. Next we had some Lassi upon which mistakenly Dhruv boy choked so hard, he literally almost died. He vowed never to touch lassi ever again. Soon we started back to our hotel 4kms away. There was an option to go by autos. But we choose to find our own way through the dense streets and markets. The area was totally intimidating… we saw kothas, heard mujras and also lost our way once fidgeting through the landmarks. Anyway with dead feet we reach the hotel and lay down for a safe sleep.

CW from TopLeft- The welcoming Mr.G @ IIM-L gates, The shooting alleys @ Imambada, The picturesque mosque @ Imambada and the pic from Imambada’s roof.

Next day after another venture to devour Makhan we boarded our train back to Home.

Left2Right – Me and Dhruv on the back march. The Time Capsule Pillar at Railway Station entry. The Long Wait.

Moral: Well one, keenly observed thing was that we usually hear our local bhaiya using the word ‘Hum’ quite often e.g. Hum idhar jayenge.  Well let’s not make it a grammatical stereotype ‘cause apparently it is a lesson in the Lucknawi-Tehzeeb!    : ]

Demi-Gods

There is a very conspicuous element of the Indian society I’ve some thoughts to put forward about. These are the ones who are chanted about like demigods and criticized like criminals, all the same. This is a class of people who are  considered the power seats in the political corridors but also are seen the ones who denounce the idea of a crowned head.  No surprise, but there is an ever growing class of them here – The Babaji! Most of them run parallel sects in the public domain declaring themselves the originators of it. Nice way to create a legacy (if that is one).

Although the mere suggestion of opiniating upon a particular sect or faction be made, is always taken (murderously) critically i will want to still take an independence  of presenting my thoughts.

For the starters, they have a complete product life cycle. They start by launching themselves in full fervour and a marketed way, reach a zenith of popularity, get embroiled in controversies or fizzle out generally to finally disappear from the social stage. One thing mentionable is all have a product unique to them. A clear cut off the shelf example – Third Eye of Nirmal Baba! What a presentation. The guy seems to have a solution to each and every problem that belies upon this trodden public. (Hope what’s he got to say about the decreasing amount of petrol in my scooter’s tank). There are a lot controversies that keeps them limelighted. The infamous case of Asaram Bapu and the Nityanand are fresh as the memory serves, have been typical cases defining that controversies are a part and parcel of this field. There have been many with sqeaky clean records too. But to say, all that is not the purpose of me writing this post.
I recently came across a very different perspective towards their general creed.

It was in October last year, I one night was at the UIET campus for the preparations for Effi-Cycle ’11. It was dead in the night and we were working adjacent to the campus boundary wall. Beyond the wall is the only Chandigarh’s only slum area, notorious for the record. In the dead silence there was a gunshot that we heard, a moment later there a PCR rushing with a blaring siren towards the sound. The University security guys also came around and the general chit chat the guy explained how the area had an average of one incident every night. Somehow it travelled down to the standards of people and then to the beleifs of such a society. “The only reason that such people don’t eat each other alive is due to these demigods”. That was a striking statement that somehow made sense.

Agreed that the godmen struck a cord with the public sentiment by their preachings, they do more than just making people follow them. The Iliiterate mind that doesn’t go scientifically subscribes to them  readily seeing them as higher beings. That’s when there is a sense of right and wrong that they are taught. That said, there’s been a deluge of people travelling regularly every month or even week to their local friendly godman! In Punjab there’s a considerably large amount of people visiting deras and melas religiously since years. No wonder these godmen are considered a strong political pawn, a ready vote-bank for that case. (Punjab’s all major political factions were found running to Dera Sacha Sauda these elections). But the flip side comes when these godmen fail to motivate people to think scientifically avoiding their own fall.

The question rests, “Should they be followed on pre-text of their role of saving people a moral turpitude when they themselves are a tainted authority?”

A nice insight of a very fast propagating value that has ingrained in our youth culture already…

Psyche's Circuitry

A recent Pew Report polled internet experts and users about the “gamification” of our daily lives, particularly in our networked communications. They write:

The word “gamification” has emerged in recent years as a way to describe interactive online design that plays on people’s competitive instincts and often incorporates the use of rewards to drive action – these include virtual rewards such as points, payments, badges, discounts, and “free” gifts; and status indicators such as friend counts, retweets, leader boards, achievement data, progress bars, and the ability to “level up.”

According to the survey, most believe that the effects of this gamification will be mostly positive, aiding education, health, business, and training. But some fear the potential for “insidious, invisible behavioral manipulation.“

Don’t pooh-pooh the behavioral manipulation point. Do you really want to have your on-line behavior shaped like one of Skinner’s rats by some faceless conglomerate? But that’s actually not…

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Girls and Mechanical Engineering

As my Engineering is over to this date and I can ardently add “Er.” to my name I feel stroking the minds towards some sensitive topics:  Girls, yes and Mechanical Engineering. The first thought that jumps here is – Not a Cup of tea (or cake, whatever). And that is because, let’s accept it – A girl can’t even tell which is a bolt and which is the nut (ponder over this right this moment).  Moreover, the argument is over when we come to topic of road driving sense.

…I’m sure there will a lot of guys who failed on this too, but come on a guy (especially even when high), still knows which direction a screw tightens.

The whole reason for girls not joining in, I guess boils down to 2 things –

a. Mechanical is Male dominated and

b. Mechanical needs Practical Wisdom.

And Sometimes (c. Mechanical is vulgar, (I have even heard this one. Mechanical terms are vulgar))

Let’s for once leave the hypothesis that parents force girls not to choose Mechanical Engineering during counseling as there is no “scope” for them.  I ask every girl out there, reading this: Would You Have Taken Mechanical Engineering if given a choice. The most common answer would be that they have never considered it as an option. I question why?

For the first thing, girls say they have no interest in it. All I can say that Mechanical is the most awesome field to study. U just don’t create logical codes, or make computerized models “but also” make the same things with your own hands. It’s your own creation. Secondly, Mechanical Engineering “is” Male dominated, “because” girls bail out on it. God bless those rare souls who venture out to master it nevertheless. A usual corollary that goes around is that Mekanchis are rowdy stuff. For the information, rowdiness doesn’t come with this course. Rowdiness comes from the past backgrounds, and studying in a lecture hall where there is no reason to behave like men, makes us rowdy. Nobody can deny this, but presence of a girl makes a guy control his antics till a level.

And now the wisdom thing, here is a statement I’m picking from a guy’s article on this:
Knowledge is what you accumulate in these four years of college. When you graduate you will need to use that knowledge to solve real world problems yourself or help other solve them. When you do that your knowledge will start getting converted into wisdom. Engineers are not paid for their knowledge. They are paid for their wisdom. And wisdom is not something that can be taught or handed down to you. You need to build it yourself through experience.

 

And I guess the only argument now worth mentioning will be the career options. Mechanicals are expected to work everywhere from deep tunnels to high risers, deserts to forests and cubicles to workshops. Girls are simply not allowed to work on some of such extreme locations. But for just a moment let’s focus on the fact of how many of men are doing that too. Most of us got placed in companies whose address boards are on the same urban streets as that of the average IT/ECE/EE Company that girls got. Many of Mekanchies got themselves in these non-core companies too. So it’s not that there is no scope for girls to work in these firms. And also let’s agree most of us irrespective of the Engineering degree have put up hopes on CAT scores once, to hell with the engineering degree. So what’s the whole brouhaha about Mechanical being not on the choice list?

I’m sure boys will welcome this idea, although am pretty sure the scorecards are gonna dip like Rupee depreciation, coz for one thing, girls heavily rely on rote learning (against which our sad education system has little tools, and boys simply can’t rote) and that it is extremely difficult to focus when there’s a sweet smelling someone(s) in the same room as you. 😉

A very been-there-done-that story which makes me realize, it was worth it after-all!

Pretty Feet, Pop Toe

I haven’t done much in the past week to generate much inspirational hatred or annoyance and so my scathing humour is offering up little in the way of wryly observed witterings based on the cretins I’ve met. Fear not for I still have plenty to say about life in general, only this week I’m not aiming to make you laugh, I’m aiming to impart some sage advice on a subject I usually avoid like a plague ridden crack den; Love, or more specifically, that which happens when love goes wrong. Heartbreak.

Every one of us spends our every waking moment (and a few sleeping ones) hoping to find and hold on to never-ending love. We are programmed to crave it like Pavlov’s dog craves a spittoon and so it never occurs to us that actually, the opposite of love may be something desirable and beneficial to us in the long…

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Surprise!?

Alright! Make this an exercise!

Open Winamp! Type in Lucky -> Put it in on the loop -> Hit play

Enjoy along this legendary number from Radiohead…

Now…

Every one of us has things that we wish every morning we wake up! Consider the first thing that comes to your mind every single day. I have one two that come to my mind every day. (Not applicable when I haven’t even slept till 5 AM in morning or if the “high spirits” were just way too much). Wishing is good, gives you a direction to work towards it and makes living through the day meaningful. Let’s just say, you wake up the next morning, waking again with a guilt ridden feeling of missing the alarm time and waking at 7 AM., sway an arm looking for the phone around you somewhere, check for any messages with half eye shut! As usual drill checked for updates – a missed call, a good night message and an FB update of a friend request. The friend request didn’t evoke any sharp reactions because post-Baja it was a norm getting friend requests from juniors quite frequently. BUT THIS ONE WAS JUMP-START REACTION. The name read ‘N*****’. Eyes widen, heart races, head swivels, the brain doesn’t come to believe it. Life, sometimes gives some pretty rude shocks! A turn of events passes before the eyes and I go in the ‘if’ mode.

Well… What’s done is done. One’s gotta believe the carpe-diem shit after all!

But for one un-ignorable thing, it changed the “morning wish” to the height of borderline inappropriateness. 😛
And so, what all I want to justify is let’s just let the things be, let’s things fall in order by themselves. Controlling the world can be way too boring and asking from oneself. Life’s way too awesome, with half a dozen mental idiosyncrasies hitting you every day. It could land you somewhere good too. It won me a competition award in an IIM once. It could do you good sometime too so, leT gO! Smack the moments as they whisker by. Make every Surprise! a Surprise!?

A status I just read on the Wall – Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the level of brutes, and sink to the levels of demons.

Here I can share my insanity with everybody! Hell Yeah!

Being Flame

Running till the lungs burst and then running some more; but then I halt. It’s not the destination that just stopped me. A thought flashed; it numbed me; the light wasn’t what I wanted. I just had the inner light guide me: the greatest guide. It tells me to run again. But not to reach somewhere but because the world is moving, it holds a life’s gift for me. I should be privileged to be running, coz it’s not everybody that’s got the gifted legs as I have. That’s the gift. I need to prove I’m worth it.

It’s not the urge of being full that’s pushing me, but a feeling of emptiness that’s pulling me. It isn’t fulfilling. When I reach that pinnacle, I find myself alone; all empty inside, like I had no motive, no inspiration at the first place. The sky turns gray when I reach that moment of completion. And the question remains.

The climb always continues. There’s a proclaimed thought that there’s a summit up there somewhere
which has to be attained. But as I reach one, there’s a higher one standing before me. It pulls me,
when instead I should really be pushing things towards it.

So… there’s hope still at the end of tunnel. But how long is the end. Coz I’ve been running
and running for so long. Might be I didn’t knew I was in darkness. Might be coz they say I’m
the flame. But what does the flame do? It enlightens around itself. Is that the only motive a flame
exists for? I guess there’s more to it. The best thing about it is the more flames that you make and when
u fizzle out, you have light all around you.

I read somewhere. A flame always burns upwards whatever way you put it,
it always points upwards. A Man similarly may be in difficult situations but
a flame always keeps its hope up and aspires to stay steady.

 Being flame. ð

Sister Scribble

Well, for a major proportion of my life till now, the laziest being I have ever come across – Elder Sister!
Isn’t it one of the best pleasures and the greatest agonies the same to have an elder sister; a human being who has the god given right of getting anything provided before you do. She has the right to command you, treat you like a toy to cuddle, punch, smirk, throttle at any time due to apparently no sensible reasons (literally man, I don’t know when to expect a jab in my ribs whenever she’s around). But she’s the one epitome to set standards of living life for you for sure. So wondering for once of she wasn’t my elder sister, say I was the elder one. I’m in college and she’s still in school. I write a letter to her. Call it a unique way to reflect on what was most likely a time of self doubt and self-absorption and reflecting on all of the lessons we both learned since then.
So here goes,

Dear Annam,

It is okay if you feel it’s the end of life if the school’s getting over. A whole new world you couldn’t ever have imagined is in your reach, is waiting for you. It doesn’t seem like you have found your clique of friends yet. Your best friendships are yet to come. You will have great friends in life. You will get to stay up all nights for no reason at all except that there is Maggi to eat in the middle of night!
You are going to discover soon that scores and grades are not the things that matter, it is how you gobbled those five more episodes of the season and still managed to brush off that exam. The score well, they are just a number. The real pride can only be gained when you know when you are working in something you love. And I bet the day, you feel like you accomplished a thing, it won’t be a number that you will be looking at. So just follow your instincts, don’t go for what everybody is running for, coz you are in for some great surprises.

And now the topic of Ahem……Boyfriends! Well, you see you one day that someone one will come to sweep you off your feet and you will feel having accomplished the world. Unfortunately, you will experience heartbreak but you will also experience a love and companionship that still surprises you. It’s supposed to be easy, and when you find the right person, it is. Make that day really worth and make that guy be worth of you.

Life is going to be very generous to you. That mollycoddling of yours is here to stay, all courtesy to Dad. That fiery i-want-it-right-now attitude is going to win you somethings but till the day you get to realize you are being cut some slack. So be ready for that dear.  And soon you will discover, parents and family is one thing indispensible, and greatest strengths one can have. Mom as always is going be your strongest supporter and critic.
So embark dear, fly and enjoy life, we are always at your back, looking for you.

Love Always

Angad

SWOT Analysis of an Engineer

SWOT Analysis of an Engineer.

The Hundred-Bucks Newspaper

16^th August:
So the story starts with our ol’ Team Chargeurs Phoenix preparing for the Virtual Baja 2011, which was the Prelim stage for the actual SAE Baja Asia 2012 event. So come 16^th August, MANAV (Manish, Ajay, Nitish, Angad, Vidit) leave for New Delhi in the morning after wishing every possible guy, friend, gf, family, etc (u know the drill). The bus wasn’t as bad as we expected. We had some standing fellow passengers to keep the talk alive. (;-)). First leg of travel completed at Kashmere Gate ISBT was followed by a visit to a girl’s PG. Heaven, that. Actually thing being, I had to get the Rakshabandhan Ceremony done with my Sis living at Oberoi’s Trainee Girl’s PG so that got the other guys with their hands in pockets during the brief stay

there so as to avoid any additions of a threads on their own (they didn’t anyway as girls were out at the insti). The next leg was 40 hrs in Karnataka Express to the beautiful city of Bangalore. The 3^rd AC seat we got was a respite from the regular squalor and bedlam, one being a trademark feature of Indian Railways. So the journey had us covering 4 largest states and a Union Territory of India at a stretch, Things definitely were looking exciting like hell. So the journey starts with us reaching Civil Lines Metro, then to NDLS, catching some fit-for-nobody sandwiches and wait for the train. The beastly thing chugs along looking fresh from a wash. We get on and the first thing, rip out the extension strip out of the bag to check if it’s working on the compartment plug. (We had plans of some core Counter Strike till wee hours, so to keep the laptops working). The night ends with us having no games but again fit-for-nobody food, and then get flattened on the berths. The stations were flowing past us as the train rode into the ink dark night.

17^th August:

The best part of the whole journey was and it always is that you sleep in one world and wake up in a totally different one. The night was all traffic-holding-railway-crossings, underpasses, overpasses, dim lights in distance, settlements, people, etc which makes u drowsy in spite how hard your nose is pressed against that sealed window. So the morning was a magic, a time travel of sorts. The place when I woke looked no less than an English Countryside. The rolling hills, the greenest matted grass on it, stretches of trees lined on hill edges, and cows. The place looked nothing like Madhya Pradesh, but it was. We being past Bhopal then, I felt those Incredible India adverts weren’t just photo-shopped images of some off-hand locations; it was our country, our India. Well there was one station Itarsi that got something happened. A guy came rushing into our bogie when the train alighted there; selling newspapers, he offered me one. I asked him for TOI, he gave me one and said 5 bucks. I knew TOI was for 2, but anyway I decided to give him 5 for saving me pain of thrashing him for 3 bucks right in the morning. I found I had no change so I asked Mansa staring at me thru his cylindrical glasses, for it. The newspaper guy said he had change for 100, so Mansa offered a 100 buck note. He said he will return in a jiffy.
Well that’s the catch, He never did. Mansa and I get down looking around for that shameless thief up and down the full platform. Finding him nowhere, we got back on train and soon we both were sitting back on the berth looking at each other’s faces as blank as the newspaper seemed now(100 bucks paper should contain some very good amount of info now).  The rest of day involved we wasting the whole day eating every new delicacy the coming region brought, jus for an example the best combo we had was Vada-pao and Lassi (AWESOME!!!).

Vada-pao, Lassi and Cool Maharashtrian Wind \m/

The day ended with us working for the actual aim we were travelling there for – The Presentation.  (description later)

18^th August:
The Terrain again was a stretch of imagination. Total emptiness it was; with just two things on the landscape- The Brown land and the Gray clouded sky. The morning giving me such a surprise was more than enough to make me happy (nose hard on the window).  Soon (11 AM) everybody wakes up and prepares for the destination. The terrain by noon was making train slither like a snake amongst a hill range. So it was Nitish and I again travelling the footboard with the chilliest wind of the plateau chilling our interiors as the train swung out to huge curves and ramps reaching the final destination. One thing to be noticed was that it wasn’t just terrain; it was the language being gibberished around, the food, the skin color and also the swear words that had taken incomprehensible levels. The day ended with us reaching the Central Bangalore Station and lodging in a hotel nearby.

19^th August:
The morning jump starts after a lot of snoozing the phone alarms as we rush to reach the Dayanand Sagar College of Engg for the interview. Reach at 0730 hrs to find just the Organizing party rushing mad to complete the last minute preps. Anyway, wait around for another 2 hours to see a probable start of the event. The whole assemblage of 500 men from 180 colleges from all over India in a fabulous Audi was

The Beautiful Auditorium at DSI

Nitish and Yours truly at DSCE

mesmerizing. Soon our turn came and we rushed to their Aeronautical Deptt to find our judging panel. We waited outside the room for about 20 minutes which apparently were 20 years, as we were there to present our work of 8 months in allowed 15 minutes (we were 20 slides, 12.5 minutes), Nuclear hot stuff, that! But controlling those nerves, that heat wasn’t much of a struggle as we had worked hard, we knew what we were talking about and it was all Mechanical! Our turn comes and we enter the room. The most striking thing sitting there was the Technical Head of Chevrolet India. It actually motivated as we were ensured that our all work was gonna be evaluated by someone that knows what language we talking in, not some half-interested douche-bag. Two bangs happen in the first 15 secs we enter there. First he says, u have only 10 minutes to present and second that the damned pen-drive wasn’t being detected by the piece of tin kept there when the ppt was supposed to be already fed into its drive. Anyway, the ppt starts with me introducing myself, my team and my college. Some time into it, the white guy exclaims 1 minute to go. Nitish springs into action, cutting me in between my slide. Pushing Rawat to start his own, which he does like a Speed Reading Course 101 and then Nitish starting his ending slides. We finish under 10 minutes. \m/
Then comes the question answer round. They hardly have anything substantial thing to ask, as every damn thing is there in the ppt itself. So finally the genre comes to HR type of questions. They ask a very wrong question to a very wrong person. They ask, “Why should we consider your team an asset for Baja?” to Nitish.
A question of passion to Panjabis can prove disastrous most often, and it did. The next thing I remember is one of the interviewers thanking us for presenting there and we rushing out like mad and group hugging amidst revelry filled cries.
The rest of the day was one fun filled venture at the campus of DSCE including enjoying a late evening Cultural Show by the college as a tribute to SAE Baja.

20^th August:
The time is 0730 and u can find all 5 standing outside their hotel waiting for something. A bus; package tour; 16 hours; 300kms; Mysore!
The Royal Mysore was a relish in the whole trip. The tour started with us getting aboard a tour bus to Mysore. The bus driver in particular was a pathetic one; he had an aversion to changing the gears of the vehicle and so was taking 2 hours to make 50kms. Anyway, somewhere near the banks of river Cauvery a man alights the bus and starts addressing everybody aboard. I thought he was there selling something so I ignore him, but he started describing the Srirangapatna fort built in the midst of Cauvery, so I knew he was the guide (wonder where was he for so long). First we come across the places where Tipu Sultan ruled, fought and was martyred. Then we henced to inside the city of Mysore, the place having history since the early 800s; the venue being the

The Ranganatha Swamy Temple in midst of R. Cauvery

The Palace's Front Facade

The Inner Courtyard in the Royal Palace

Party after being enlightened at Chamundi Temple

Mr Rawat in his rare of lighter moods!

Maharaja Palace of Mysore. It was pure royalty I hadn’t seen since the Chittaurgarh Fort in Rajasthan. So, in we go and awestruck we return. Next stop is a lunching place. And then is the Chamundi Temple. It’s one of the 8 holiest of hills in Southern India. Made in 896 AD, it is seriously good architecture made of rock and still standing solid. On the hill ascent were breathtaking views of the whole city including a distinct Horse Race Course, Queen’s Palace, and the river Cauvery shining at the edge of the horizon. The next stop was the State’s Sandalwood Factory Outlet (Sandalwood was Govt’s property and it was unallowed to sell it and its products except under Govt. permission). We buy some stuff up and reload the bus. The next and the last stop was the Krishnarajasagara dam and the world famous Brindavan Gardens made on it. The most beautiful fusion of engineering and nature I had ever seen, built by the best engineer India ever had – Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya (on whose name we celebrate Engineer’s Day). We witnessed a Musical Fountain Dance there and clicked enough pics to run our battery’s out. Then the MAN trio had crabs and fish too. Reached back to hotel at 1 on a bus driven by a man (who looked like he was sleeping himself the whole way of 4.5 hours).

21^st August:
Rawat and I are down with fever. I have a bad throat and he has a bad stomach. Anyway repair up by noon and vacate the place to wait for the train at the station till 1920 hours (a good wait of 7 hours). Well it’s almost 10 in the night now, the rain’s lashing the windows, I’m at the lower berth, the trio sitting above is again fighting over absolutely nothing and I’m trying to finish this article. The trip I must say has been lovely.

Dialogues:

nitish(handing over some docs): mansa ye sambhal

mansa: main koi bank haiga

nitish(after getting delirious over a long duration of talking bullshit around): parhne ki niyat ho to banda tubelight main bhi pardh leta hain

nitish: vidit aaj main teri ankho me dekhunga (his gay instincts coming up)

vidit: main akhe band karke so raha hun

nitish: ankhe band karke jo dekhe use bazigar kehte hain

vidit: lekin jo band ankho ko dekhe use ch****a kehte hain

guide: right side main apke sarkar ka hotel hain, yahan rehna, khana, sona sab free hain, aur kaha jata hain ki yahan body guard bhi free milta hain…… (Vidit and I see each other with Sparkling eyes)

yahan pe aap veerapan ki family se bhi mil sakte hain……   (pause)

jagah ka naam… Mysore Central Jail

Angad: Kaan ji ne Jahaaj banaya

(kaan making paper planes in air……)

nitish: jo chez ne hava main urdhna hain vo hawa main hi banna chahiye….

mansa: kal to boeing wale engine vi hawa ch hi banange.

Nitish: Manse ja batti thik kar ke a (Askin him coz extension strip Mansa had brought was allegedly tripping down the whole socket power supply of the coach)

Mansa: Tussi aiwe hi banda ragdee chalo…..

Rawat: Je Mansa lower berth te sowega ta mai (facing) lower berth te nahi sowega (the secret behind this statement is to be kept secret, anyone wants explicit details, please come over to hostel no. 2 on a Team Chargeurs Phoenix evening session party)

Mansa: Mai speaker tan leya ha, par chalde nahi hai, IC sadd gayi hai (so he was carrying a 2.1 system in his bag that didn’t work at all)
Angad: Aiwe kar koi na naal lai chal, raste ch 2-3 dariya aange. Parwah kar deaange….

The Hundred-Bucks Newspaper