Closure

And so we came to a close of Darling. There can be more than one way of perceiving things and due to different situations that a person is in, simple things might look very different. Forgive me if I intentionally or unintentionally offended/hurt any of you during any of the posts in this blog. My humble and sincere apologies. These are only my views. These may in fact change with time and experience...

To all those readers, friends, who have appreciated me, given feedback for improving, suggested me to continue writing, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I felt really joyous every single time that you have talked about my blog. You have been and will remain to be Darling. There are things which I once thought of writing but didn't. Didn't get that emotion when I had the time and couldn't manage the time when I had the rush in mind. So may be some other day some other place. Until we meet again...

Keep smiling. Take care. Have fun.


Cheers :)
Aditya

14th Feb The Last One - 6

I was in love once or at least I thought I was. Yes, we are not together anymore. We barely talk, not because I have a problem in talking with her, but because she never started talking after she left. It is a little weird thing, the way we parted away, no fight, no long discussions, she just told me and I accepted. May be it was the long gap, could be my fickle mindedness. Actually, we hardly met each other, may be three or four times in those two to three years. Now they call these by a fancy abbreviation "LDR" Long Distance Relationships. Some are very sure that they don't work out. I differ in opinion. Whatever it was (infatuation, someone said) it fell apart. I am not a heartless, emotionless person, so Yes, I felt bad, sad, depressed, deeply disappointed. But thanks to that being my final semester at college, there were lot of things and people who kept me occupied and pulled me out of that pit. If you are wondering, what all I did after the separation, then there is nothing interesting there... I just used to blabber a lot, crib, like one hell of a crybaby, think and rethink about what went wrong and all this was probably for a week or so. Later, as I said before, I let myself get occupied with carroms, basketball, badminton, smriti, major project and of course treats, one last month of the final year after all.

It is not that I never thought about it again. Thoughts kept coming back to me. Thoughts like, may be she is just playing with me, may be it is all a bad joke. There were times when I wondered "what if she comes back now". But eventually all that faded away and I had truce with my thoughts. I am happy that I don't have to feel sad when I look back. I am thankful to her for not making it a mess. I am happy that we met and got close, for she, without doubt, was one of the best I knew caring, considerate, polite, sweet and of course lovable. As I moved on I fell in love again. and once again and once more. Just kidding. As I moved on I had my own new experiences and heard many other stories, of some who didn't express, some who got separated, some who found love again and of course of some who are with their first love. And with every single story or incident my definition for a good relationship took shape.

There is no perfect couple. The couple has to make themselves perfect for each other. You won't find someone custom made for you. As and when you know more and more about someone you like, you might find one or two things which you may not have expected. What matters is whether you are able to adjust with those one or two against the remaining awesomeness that attracted you towards him/her. No one will stay exactly as they are. Surroundings have influence, careers have influence, peers have influence, parents have influence, even movies have influence. Some minor modifications in personality keep happening. That is why it is important to communicate well, whatever feelings you have for the other one. At the same time, there are two vital things, Trust and Commitment. Love is one thing. If you can understand it in the right way, I could say I have fallen in love with many. There are certain things, behaviours, beliefs, philosophies (could be anything) which make them special and so you love them. But you wouldn't want to marry them all. How committed you feel inside yourself for the other person is what I believe truly defines it all. And that is why I believe that there is nothing like "LDRs do not work out". If the two have immense faith in each other and have a strong commitment then the two shall always be happy together. Issues are there. Issues are always there. It is upto people whether to split up and give up or to face those issues together until they are solved, to be happy ever after.

It is not just about people in love. The same is true for married couples. For that matter it is true for any relation what-so-ever, family relatives, friends, business partners. Adjustments are to be done now and then. We are humans and all of us have egos, sentiments, emotions, feelings. But we have also been bestowed with the power to use something called "brain". So let us use it at times when required and let us not jump to drastic decisions but think, apply some sense and then take the right step.

Cheers
Aditya

P.S. Closure

4th Feb The Last One - 5

I accidentally noticed this date on the calendar and saw that it is Basant Panchami. They used to celebrate Saraswati Puja really well in the university. I think they do even now. The lights of SAC illuminating the idol of Maa Saraswati, the Prasad, the crowd. For me college was always fun not just because of the friends, the fun and frolic, but also because of my studies and work. After being somewhat away from such a continuous study and that style of working I came to know how much I miss it. Back in those days I didn't study very well and now I want to get things right but it is as if I have totally lost touch.

My mother always suggested me (she does even now) that I should read more, that spending more time with books is better for me (After some real good experience-with and thinking-about lot of things I have come to realise that I feel more pleasant and peaceful when I am with books) The first novel I read was probably during my secondary schooling. But that didn't become a very regular habit. I used to read once in a while, some fiction novel, during university. I read a few after joining my job here in Gurgaon, but haven't been able to do much reading recently. In fact, only recently I realised that I am unable to sit for studying continuously for longer time (you may read longer as nearly 20 minutes). So this is what people meant when they said if you want to do higher studies do it right after your bachelor's, it is very difficult to do it after joining job. The stubborn fellow that I have been always, I believed I can handle it, said I'll do it my way and here I am, stuck up with less than a fortnight before my entrance exam for Master's, wondering if I will be able to attempt the complete paper.

Now I think I somewhat understand why they say "Knowledge is Power" and "Knowledge is divine" . There was this day last month when I was working on something in the office. I stayed back after my working hours to finish up some work. Instead of just finishing it up and going home, I started studying how the whole thing worked and what thing actually meant. That day I got back to my room at around 10 in the night. But there was no strain in my body or mind. All there was, was the happiness that I understood something substantial. It wasn't the whole of it but it definitely was something important, which I didn't know or may be just didn't realise before. Typing this reminds me of how I used to be like, how much I loved to read through initial pages of textbooks while covering them with that brown paper. I still remember I couldn't wait to finish the eleventh standard textbook of Maths during summer holidays of tenth (Learning Maths has always been fun to me). Those were moments of great happiness during university when I could solve numericals in assignment by myself.

I am sure all of us have that one thing that we like to read. It could be a comic, a textbook, may be newspaper, some tech stuff, or it could be random browsing about a hobby, the point here is to learn something, to keep adding some more to our existing knowledge, to grow. It is a good hobby and we should try not to lose such a good one.

May the blessings of Goddess Saraswati be with us always.
Cheers
Aditya

26 Jan The Last One - 4

Earlier I was thinking I wouldn't write one for 26th Jan (all the politics that I have been hearing about was partly the reason for that). Then I was also thinking of a special 7th post as 7 is like my lucky number. But I clubbed 13, 14, 15 as a single post and I have one scheduled for 4th and another for 14th of Feb. So here comes the part 4 of the closing as 26th Jan. Now that I think about it, though, technically, it is not a "festival", but is a public holiday and a day of importance for the nation, it is still a special day for me, for as a school going student I felt some pride in doing the Parade. I kind of liked it, saluting the waving flag, most of the time it didn't wave because of still air, and i used to wonder how good it would look when the wind flows.

The song "Himmat watan ki hamse hai" gives me goosebumps even today. However my whole idea about country about nation has changed. I have grown to become one of those common citizens of the country who crib because they have no idea how to solve issues. As a child I used to feel happy watching advertisements of "India Shining" and the "Golden Quadrilateral" and highways. "School chalein hum" was a kind of inspirational audio for me played on the radio in the mornings. I was innocent then and did not know of any burning issues of the country. I am ignorant now and still do not understand anything about my country's economic state or the crisis it is going through (or may be it is not going through). Now I hear people talking about all sorts of things, about politicians, bureaucrats, state of the country, what other nations are doing, what is wrong in the system and so on. At times I wonder how it is so easy to say things sitting in one small room but it seems almost impossible to actually do something for a good cause.

Though I started it I do not have much interest in talking about Republic Day or about constitution or politics (because I do not know well enough to talk about them). So I'll just leave it at this. I shall close this with something that is coming to mind now. It is not about my country but is about a peaceful world where countries like mine have grown and developed. It would be great if everyone is getting what they need (not the same as what they desire, something like the difference between comfort and luxury) and they are content with what they get. If people can be good to each other; if people could try to see sense and reason from each other's perspective, understand each other; if only they could desire for harmony and not just peace. Sounds somewhat like Jiraiya's dream (#Naruto). Reality begs to differ. There was this one big ambitious idea in my mind "Adhyantha" in which I thought of an organisation which could gain control over markets and push some goodness into the world by influencing people and their thinking. Looks like that was only a dream and I woke up from it, it's more like people woke me up from it. I now know that those ideas that I had may not work at all. But that thought process and that fall did teach me a lot. My philosophy now goes wider and about humans and living beings, it understands balance and believes that good and bad are relative. I hope the world grows into a better place to live. I think I have already said a lot of random stuff. I'll keep my philosophy of good bad and etc with me and instead of stretching any further I'll put a stop to this here and  may be get some sleep. See you in my next post of 4th Feb.

Cheers
Aditya

13 Jan The Last One - 3

Many of you might already know what is special about today (referring to the Date) and the next two days. But just to be sure we are on the same page below are some links giving some info about the festivals Bhogi Sankranthi and Kanuma celebrated in Andhra Pradesh and many other states of India.

The day preceding Pongal is called Bhogi when people discard old things and focus on new belongings. The disposal of derelict things is similar to Holika in North India. The people assemble at dawn in Tamil Nadu to light a bonfire to discard old used possessions. The house is cleaned, painted and decorated to give a festive look. In villages, the horns of oxen and buffaloes are painted in colors and people celebrate it in a grand way as most of them would have their harvest ready or even would have made money out of the harvests.

--from Wikipedia--Full Link Here

Pongal is the only festival of Hindu that follows a solar calendar and is celebrated on the fourteenth of January every year. Pongal has astronomical significance: it marks the beginning of Uttarayana, the Sun's movement northward for a six month period. In Hinduism, Uttarayana is considered auspicious, as opposed to Dakshinaayana, or the southern movement of the sun. All important events are scheduled during this period. Makara Sankranthi refers to the event of the Sun entering the zodiac sign of Makara or Capricorn. 

--from--http://www.pongalfestival.org/what-is-pongal.html

Third day i.e. the day after Pongal/Sankranthi is celebrated as Kanuma. According to mythology, on this day Lord Krishna saved the local people of Gokula who came to his rescue after there was a huge flood in the village. It is said that Lord Indra—the deity of rains flooded the village out of anger and rage. Lord Krishna picked up the Govardhan hill with his little finger and gave shelter to all the villagers in danger. Seeing this, lord Indra realized his mistake and withdrew the heavy rains from Gokula

--from--http://www.prokerala.com/festivals/kanuma.php

I said I would be talking about good and bad or at least something like that , as far as I remember. But since that doesn't have much to do with these festivals. I will change my topic. To me the festival of Bogi had always been lot of fun because of the bonfire that is put up early in the morning. In the bonfire people put twigs, cowdung cakes, wood from old furniture etc. The whole idea is to discard less used old things so that there is scope/space for new more useful things. And that is where all this connects to me at this time when I am writing these LastOnes. I have realised there are these things in me which I didn't used to do earlier but now I have got habituated to. These things are no harm as such but I think In the second One I talked a lot about change and that is exactly what I need now. I need to change my habits. There are some things which I need to let go. There are some " alterations " I need to do to my attitude. And it looks like it is high time I should do these things.
Well, It is not just about me. I think with time all of us make habits, some of which, we are better without, could be smoking, booz etc. I'm not saying it is a bad habit, I'm just saying that may be at some point you feel that you shouldn't do it anymore. You might also find yourself hanging on to some things in your life, thinking of the same thing over and over, not being able to come out of those thoughts. Reason could be anything, sentimental or just mental. Think about it and may be you can free yourself from it. A friend's advice comes to my mind here. He said "It won't help if you keep thinking or saying that you'll change, you will leave it etc... rather think I've left it, I don't do it anymore, I've Changed!"

Cheers
Aditya

P.S. By the way 13th Jan Bogi, 14th Jan Sankranthi, 15th Jan Kanuma are the festive days 

1 Jan The Last One - 2

52 weeks, 365 days, I am in no mood to calculate and say the number of hours. One Year. Time keeps running. Not a single second does it stop. Ever changing, and that's the only constant thing about it. And that is what keeps it up-to-date, updating itself with every second.

As a kid, for that matter even as a teenager, I always had this one thing in mind 'I won't change' ' no matter what' . Yeah I've been a stubborn fellow all along. My parents have a lot of patience that they actually handle me without getting irritated. (I'm blessed that way and also, somewhat, spoiled) But as I grew up I understood change and that is what I am going to talk about in this post. The second of the Last One of Darling.

"This is the right thing. This is the way to do it. This is how I should be. This is how things should do. This is what I am going to do." These and lots like these were the thoughts in my mind. Until time passed. As I saw more, heard more, felt more, faced more and understood more, my thinking, my ideas , my philosophy, it all changed. I dunno much about what Charles Darwin talked about Survival of the Fittest, but I do understand by experience that in order to survive (or perform, in the context of our competitive world's scenario) one has to adapt to new environments and that requires change. Change of methodologies, change of ideologies, change of mindsets, change of lifestyles. Having said that, I would also mention here that this change is only to be an add on to what you really are inside. When time passes it does not lose its past. 2014 is here only because time passed through 2013 and the years before it. You are what you are because you have been what you have been all this while. If everything is going good then nothing more like it, but if you are not liking the way things are going then it is time you embrace the change that is required.

My mom told me a few weeks back, i.e. after shutdown when I returned to Gurgaon from home. As a school going child when I used to get summer holidays and I used to go to my native place along with my parents; after every such trip there used to be some change in me. I used to become more matured or something like that. I was very young then. Don't even remember what kind of a change it was. But it felt good when I heard it from mom. Change is not to be afraid of. May be the word is a little misleading. By change, it is the seventh habit of Covey I'm referring to. He says Sharpen the Axe. I'm just putting it in different words. Update yourself with things around you. Learn from the environment around you. Change yourself to adjust to the situation so that you survive, so that you perform well at this moment and cherish this memory at a later stage.

While saying all this I have been thinking, about the possibility of this whole idea being misunderstood, misinterpreted or mistaken. What if someone thinks that I am supporting an idea that changing into an unfair person is the solution to an unfair world around him/her, (or something like that,) and that's where comes Good and Bad. What are they? Are they absolute of relative? Do they even exist? an insight into my thoughts about them is what is going to be my next article on the day of Bogi, a festival celebrated in the southern states of India. (celebrated as Lohri in the northern states).

Cheers
Aditya

25 Dec The Last One

With my "internal energy" fluctuating a lot these days and my spirit playing a hide and seek with me (i.e. being high at one point and low the very next moment) writing a complete article is something I rarely do. Though I started again with a thought that I can manage at least one in a month (and maintained that for three months), there was a break last month. In fact, the previous entry was on October 31st, late in the night. And now, I really wonder if I can continue blogging under this name of Darling.

Just like I thought this blog never got over on the night I started typing it. It has almost been a month and I couldn't squeeze in the time to get back to it.
And I had left it here yesterday night and in a few lines I am gonna leave it unfinished tonight as well. But at least now I know where this is going. The next few posts, precisely 6 including this one, will be mostly revolving around me as I say a good bye to this Darling.

I thought for a bit about the 'The End' for this blog and decided against the initial idea of this article being the last entry (and that was the reason for the name) that I would write 6 articles including this. That would make the total number of articles 54 (summation of the digits = 9, a number I really like; coincidence is 54 is 9 times 6, and I noticed this only now; I know... I go gaga over numbers. Maths is like a Darling !). These articles would mostly be put up with dates of festivals (like this one bears the date of Christmas Day) and the last of these would be published on (with a 'duh') 14th of Feb. After all it is gonna be for Darling so if not Romantic I will try to make it Dramatic. May be I will talk about my love life. Hahaha... I can be such a show off !!!

Now then. Before you conclude that I have gone crazy and out of my mind, I'll put a stop to this entry here.
Oh!! I managed to finish it today itself (JustForYourInfo it is 25th of Jan 2014). So there it goes. First of the six to come. The Last ONEs.

Thank you all who have read my blog, appreciated it and suggested and encouraged me to keep going. Thank you so much :-) Hope you will like these last six :-)


Cheers
Aditya
P.S. Next one on New Year's Eve 
oh yeah... Happy New Year all of you. Wish you a happy joyous cheerful year ahead :-)

31 Oct A random fancy thought

I parked my bike on the corner where the smaller road joined the main road; went to the ice cream seller on the other side of the road and bought myself a kwality walls cone; came back and sat on the bike. I wasnt facing the road. I didnt want to. I didn't feel like looking at vehicles rushing by, didn't want to look at the busy lives of the people. I silently took a bite of the cone. A couple were walking a little far away. A girl and a guy, thirty plus or minus. The wind was pleasant and I let my thoughts go along with it.

I will get married some day. Me and my better half with may be a kid or two, living in a comfortable home in the countryside. A two wheeler for a long casual ride. A four wheeler to go shopping to the nearby city. A few math problems to be explained to the kids. Like the Gult Group says... Eat Love Pray. Simple life with a caring wife. Haaaaahhhh *sigh* . I called myself back from the dreamland. The ice cream was over. I had to get back home. I told myself that I am nowhere near to such a life; then kicked off bike's engine and started driving.

I wonder what is the cause of this detachment from life, for some unknown reason I don't like the pace or the ways in which I see the world around me going. Bored of the things I have been seeing over the recent past, I wonder what I'll finally do. It is so funny but nowadays I get a feeling I can't socialise... Whatever be the case... I like that glimpse of the future I imagined a few hours ago.

I have been writing this blog for the last two days. All the while searching inside myself for someone or something which could remind me of what I used to be like and what I wanted to be, to set for myself a better path to walk. A walk that could be cherished... A walk that could be remembered to bring a smile on to a face. Lets see which other turns life has to take...

5 Sept No Theme No Topic, It's only about me

This one is going to get a little personal. I am dying. Every other day I do things which sometimes make me ponder 'What am I doing! What have I become!'. Whether I say I was better seven years back or I give reasons for being disturbed for a long stretch of time, the fact remains that I have been failing myself. There were so many things that I had taken up, call them projects, challenges or targets; there were things which were professional in nature as well as those of personal importance and as I look back I see I have failed almost every single time. I have always wanted to be a man of my word and yet all I have done is just talk, never fulfilled any of those words. Those seven years that I talk about, I have always told myself that I shall do this, try that, achieve this, work on that, but have never been committed to myself, never met a deadline, whether it be a freelance work or a report generation at office.

While I was at institutions, School or College, I don't know if it was fear, or prestige or may be interest in a subject which made me learn. Competing was fun. There was discipline amongst people. Everyone was dedicated, at least on the day before exam, we cared highly for each other at least for finishing assignments. That was a small and beautiful world. I guess I should be grateful to my Mother Father and Teachers for that wonderful life. In the first six years of the seven though I wasn't doing any wonders I sure was doing what I wanted to do. I learnt it is not always about performance but also about experience. I did a whole lot of things ranging from falling in love to failing in love. I tried out things which earned me names other than my given name. I made more friends. Lets stop running behind success for a while and I will say I was satisfied with my life. However it has been different in the last one year. I came out into the bigger world, the world that is not enclosed within a building or campus with a playground and classrooms and labs and hangouts. I faced it and I have, kind of, lost it. This place put me into situations where I had to question myself if what I was doing was right or wrong. It put my heart and mind at fight. It slowed me down. I spent my time pondering about past and future while I should have acted in the present. I realised that I rusted.

Apart from the hiccups that this year gave, it also taught me simple yet important things and moulded my attitude towards life and people. I understood that, what people think is right and wrong and how they treat each other is their personal choice. It isn't so good for me to break my head on such things. I found out what keeps me relaxed, what I am interested in and also I somewhat found out what I want. I realised that I was not being my true self, I was not being what I wanted to be. Like the Linkin Park line goes "I tried so hard and got so far but in the end it doesn't even matter".  It is time for abscission and so it shall happen. What changes the time will bring in me and whether I will cope up or not, ONLY TIME WILL TELL

Cheers
Aditya

11 Aug Cheers

Found this day to be very auspicious to get back to my blog, which I hadn't seen in a while thanks to pre-occupancy of my life with a variety of more or less interesting things. What's special about the day is that someone very close is getting married today. The ceremonial wedding would've probably got over by now. The celebrations would obviously be going on. With a delighted heart, praying to the almighty and wishing the couple a very happy married life, I sat to put something in my blog and now I wonder "what should I write about". 

There are these times when life seems so boring and mind is totally detached from work. Or sometimes there are these times when you know you have to work hard to reach your targets but you can't get enough energy out of yourself. There are these times when mind goes astray. I have got stuck many times. There is this turmoil of thoughts, one thought creates another and that connects to one other, simulations of situations keep going on inside that small head. It is times like these when this close one I mentioned earlier and many others like her have helped me. Motivated me when I went low. Inspired me with their words and acts. I still remember how I understood the meaning of the phrase "being committed to something" after it was attribute to this girl. And then there is guy who, for me, is like the benchmark for sincerity, and many other God-level people. They are nothing different from others. No special PhD has been done by them. They are just like the guy/gal next door. They sit with me, eat with me, laugh with me, and randomly at times they leave me stuck with wonder about how awesome they are; about how my life has been and is so much fun with them; about how lucky I am to have such FRIENDS.

Look around you. There are so many such people who have made your life so much fun, may be inspired you to do great things. Treasure them, never lose them. They'll give you energy to move even when you have hit the bottom. But yeah, unless you have informed them before, they wouldn't know that you have to go to office early the next day, so you are on your own to wake up in the morning and so am I. Until next time...

Cheers 

Aditya
P.S. 1. Signing off as 'Cheers' started as a memory of this close one.
2. Though it was on the previous Sunday, every day with friends is special and so Happy Friendship Day.

27 Feb Benign Nine

A short one for the end of short month. 

Deduction of logic, drawing meaning out of the most bizarre things seem interesting to me at times. If you let your mind free, and allow it to think all random possible or impossible reasons for anything that you can think about, then you could come across a couple of amusing things. I am going to share something which I found this way. It is about the number 9. You might have already noticed it before, but in case you haven't, there is this very interesting property of this number. It is about the summation of digits of any given number after adding or multiplying with 9. Notice it yourself right away. Take any number . Add all the digits of that number. Now add the digits in the sum. Keep doing this till you get a single digit as the sum. Now add 9 to the original number and repeat the same process of summing up the digits. You'll find that the final digit is the same. Now take any number and multiply it with 9. The final digit after summation will be 9. 

There is this strange thought which then occurred to my mind. If you can think of Addition '+' or 'plus' as making friends with some one and Multiplication 'x' or 'cross' as fighting or something like war (if I may exaggerate a little). Then you can see 9 has a character of a legend who makes friends with whichever number he is added to (lets the sum remain the same digit as before) and it wins the battle with whichever number it is multiplied (the sum of digits in the product becomes 9). Well this is all just random thinking, someone else could think that 9 multiplied with any number maximises the strength (as the sum of digits in the product will become maximum possible). There is no moral of the story here... But for now there are two things I can say... one. be like a nine be it in making friends or winning battles and two. let your mind go wild !!! ***

Cheers 

Aditya

*** lots of conditions apply  

P.S. Wonder what happens in case of a zero :P !!!

22 Feb 2013 E=mc^2

And I was thinking that I would put up at least one blog entry per month. I did resume with that idea in October but then New Year came with a lot of new things and somehow, call it laziness or improper time management, January '13 passed without a blog entry. But then there is nothing so interesting for you in how exactly there was a power surge in the house and my laptop battery charger was damaged or how the internet connection at our house was playing something like hide n seek with us. So I won't bore you with the details of how the month went by. Nor am I going to tell tales about my times with Batch-2 during induction training or about my work in NVH testing group in Manual Transmissions Department at MSIL R&D.

Today I am gonna tell you something which I had thought about long time ago. My wandering mind had once hit a thought about analogy between Physics and Psychology. Just like how in Physics formulas in Gravitation and Electromagnetism seem similar I wondered if there could be parameters for Human Psyche which could be interconnected with a formula similar to something in Physics. Crazy you think?! Tell me about it later. For now read on and lemme present to you the "E = m c square of Psychology"

We have been told right from our childhood that one needs to work hard for success, we should have hope, we should have determination, we should have confidence and so on. Well... I thought these could be the ingredients for Success and so I started connecting them with the parameters in Physics. When we succeed in doing something we get happiness or satisfaction. This I called Energy of Success. To succeed we need to put in Mass of hard work. We work hard only when there is hope. The volume of Hope affects Determination. Determination, I felt is somehow analogous to Density. With zero there is no division, with zero volume of hope there is no density of determination. High hope and high determination will make you work harder to achieve your goals. The final but the highly influencing ingredient... Confidence. Just like how the mass energy conversion is applicable only when the body is moving with 'c', the velocity of light, the energy of success will be realised only when the hard work is put in with confidence. So there you go, the final equation

:-D That's it folks!!!

Cheers

Aditya

8 Dec From 10-11-12

I didn't feel good staying alone in the silence of the room. It was a little while after 7 in the morning. I knocked on the door of Srikanth's room. Good for me he got up. I started talking to him, which eased me out a little. After a while I left his room, took bath and came out to see off few people before I left. Krishnakanth left the night before, with his cousin. I got to know that only in the morning when I met other gults. Missed meeting the apache boy before I left. Mech wing people left to Mangalore. They were taking a bus to Bangalore from there. I bid them a farewell at the blocks and then went and met members of the Baja team. There after I met few people individually and before I returned back to block I met Varshini to say good bye as she was leaving with Kavya to Mangalore and by the time they would come back I would have left. My bus was in the afternoon. When I left the wing with luggage my juniors also came with my batch Gults to give a send off. Madaka dropped VT at the Surathkal station and reached my bus stop in time. I had met almost everyone amongst Gults, Raaj, Anthill, Basava, Yoyo, Bams, G1, DarkKnight, Babu, Chicha, Rummy, Dady, Kadiam, Mastaru. We all missed Naag, Sagar, Shyam and Deeps who couldn't make it to the convocation. There were others also who couldn't make it due to various reasons. I couldn't meet Achyuth or Mahesh with whom I had spent some of the best times of my college life, playing Carroms in 5D wing. I wanted to meet Mandi (Deeps) later before taking my return flight from Hyderabad but it didn't happen as it was a weekday and so he was in office. Most of the Gult gang came to the bus stop. It is at times like these when we feel good even when the bus gets delayed due to some passenger who comes late. But ultimately the passenger came and the bus started. It felt like I was leaving one home to go to another. Nothing in the journey bothered me. There were thoughts running in my mind all the time. Random thoughts... about our lives... our pasts... how we all came together... possibilities of coming together in future... and I fell asleep. I at Buns Sambar, which I couldn't eat while in campus, when the bus halted in the evening for a snack. After that I only got down in Hyderabad. During this bus travel I probably covered up for all my sleep lost in the last three days. From Hyd I accidentally took a bus which travels a longer route. I somehow reached home by afternoon. As expected Mom was surprised; Dad had gone back to office after lunch. Mom made me call him and inform about my coming. Dad came back home for a while and I told them briefly about all random things. I also gave them the watches I had bought for them. Dad was excited. Mom was happy. The next two days went by very smoothly. I kept talking about things from job and convocation, and they gave me updates of family and functions. I started sometime around 11 in the morning from home on Wednesday and reached home in Gurgaon at about 11 in the night.

My induction training has got over. After considering my choice, I have been put in Manual Transmission Department of Engineering Business Vertical (R&D) where I am undergoing on-job training now. The time is about half past two in the night of 7 Dec. Exactly one month before now I was in a train sleeping happily, probably with a broad smile on my face. I had met my friends and I was going to college with them.

Cheers
Aditya

30 Nov 10-11-12

I was not the first one to get up. Shanthi's mother and Kavya were already awake. I freshened up and sat on the side lower berth looking outside the window. I watched with amusement as familiar scenes went by. First came Mangalore Junction and then came Mangalore Central. We got know that the train would go even to Surathkal station. But then it would have started from Central only after half an hour so we decided to go by road. I saw Meenal's bargaining abilities when we booked a taxi to college. I got down at the junction near GB and walked towards boys hostels, passing in front of Main Building. I started getting calls from juniors and batch-mates. The excitement rushed in again. I went to my juniors'  wing which was the wing opposite to one in which I was staying in my final year. They were staying in the same rooms. Unlike us they were allowed to continue in the same rooms.They came out yelling hellos. The greetings, the slang, the lingo. I was loving it. Gult batch-mates called up and asked me to come to Food Court. We met up there, hugs and high fives. Mechwing gang from the train had left to Ocean Pearl (in Mangalore) for breakfast from the railway station itself where few others from the Mechwing were joining. They came to campus later. Meanwhile Supreeth got down from Pune. We met before he left to Mangalore to buy a formal shirt for the function. The remainder of the day was mostly spent partying. I went to Suraj for lunch with gults - few batch-mates, few juniors - and found that most, if not the whole, of Suraj International was occupied  by NITKians. Meenal Varshini and Kavya were also there. I promised them a treat which couldn't happen then because everyone was busy with everyone else :P . There were lot of other people I met while I was in Suraj and after that we came back to campus. We registered that we had arrived and would be receiving our degrees the next day on stage. Sometime after that, me and Supreeth went and met Gangadharan Sir in SOLVE Lab, and from there while walking back to the hostel I met Shruthi. As always we walked while we talked and after about two rounds in front of the main building she left with others and I came back to the hostels. Most of the gults had gone to beach and they probably had dinner at GNPD after Vidyun came (I'll leave his adventurous bike ride for him ;) to write in his blog ) I went to Sadanand for dinner with Supreeth and Vaishali where I also found Yaswanth and Saketh with their fathers. By the time they all left I was joined by my juniors. We all came back, I don't remember when, I had no track of time, and after a long talk about a lot of things, where mostly only I was talking, I went to sleep.
The next morning as I got up and got ready, the familiar running around for paste, bucket, slippers etc brought back a little nostalgia. I left with Supreeth, went to Amul, took a snack and came to SJA where others were having the so called Hi-Tea.We joined them. Exchanged greetings, asked each other about jobs and job locations.Then when moved into the auditorium. Shanthi managed to continue her legacy, though this was totally unintentional, actually it is never intentional :P . The arrangement and everything else for the occasion seemed just perfect. Everything went on smoothly. We had our moments of fun with random applause. Our chief guest was a Dean from Kumamoto University, Japan. There must be something between me and Japan, I will probably figure out someday. DBZ, Naruto, FairyTail, MarutiSuzuki and now the Chief Guest for convocation :-) . Anyways. After the National Anthem, we all moved out and clicked photographs with our degrees and then people dispersed. Few went out. I came to our very Mega Mess to have lunch with many other graduands. Convocation was over. Things slowed down. My evening had more of thought than excitement. I got a little emotional after getting a lovely graduation gift along with a sweet letter from this sweet sister Vaishali. Later I spent some time at the NITK Beach. I had my dinner with Shanthi's and Saketh's families at Sadanand and I came back to college where people had started leaving. Supreeth, Vishwas, Shruthi and Meenal left that night. I felt bad for not giving a send off to Shruthi; while in college I always used to stay at the pick up point till her bus left. I could meet Shanthi and Varshini for a few minutes before they went back to GB. Thereafter I went to Red Rock where there was a gult party going on and finally came back to hostels with Saketh and few others, and after a sensible yet random chat over phone with Madhu the day came to a close. I slept off very soon probably because I was tired due to all that running around during the day. Next morning I was woken up by Saketh. We went to Surathkal where Shanthi was going with her family to Sringeri. I was going to leave that afternoon and so wanted to meet her once. After they left me and Saketh came back to hostel. Then Saketh left with his father to the hotel room. I got out of the lift on the fourth floor and while I walked towards the wing I felt a chill. I felt all alone. It dawned on me that everyone would be getting separated again, that I would be back to Gurgaon. I realised how much I missed my college days. I started wondering about the possibilities of us being together again and I got lost in the flow of emotions and the thoughts about our future.

Cheers
Aditya

28 Nov To 10-11-12

I started with the thought that the Beginning and the End of this post are probably gonna be one of the toughest ones for me to write, as it is difficult to express extreme emotions especially by me who does not have a good pool of words to chose from. But then it is also very difficult for an expressive like me to describe few of the most memorable days of my life in such small posts. So I decided to do this in parts. Since I have to begin somewhere, I'll start with my ticket booking for convocation. The whole excitement began when the dates for convocation were announced. It was scheduled for the first Saturday of November and I started counting the number of days left to meet my buddies and juniors, gults and mechwing, pclub and baja. Slowly began the discussions with friends about how they are going to travel and who all are going to travel together. Finally my travel plan was set. I was going to take a flight from Delhi on Thursday to Bangalore, train from there to Mangalore with friends, attend convocation on Saturday, and Sunday was return flight from Mangalore to Delhi, with a change point at Mumbai. Few people probably wished that the convocation be held the next week so that Diwali holidays could be used well and God heard them. The convocation got postponed by a week, rumored reasons were the unavailability of the chief guest, about whom, I am sure, no one was bothered. 3 flight tickets cancelled 3.6k cancellation charges. Planning started again. I checked my training schedule and my intuition told me that the Sunday after my convocation would be declared working and the following Monday would be declared a holiday as there were three holidays following, on the occasion of Diwali. There were discussions again but my plan didn't change much. I was still taking the flight to Bangalore and then train to college. But I wasn't coming back to Delhi from college.I decided to give a surprise at home and so got a ticket booked for a bus to Hyderabad.

I wanted to buy something for mom n dad from my salary. After considering lot of options and taking a lot of suggestions I finally went on with the standard "mummy pappa ke liye Ghadi" and bought watches for both of them. I bought sweets for pals whom I was going to meet at college, finished up work at the office, informed that I would be on leave for next four days and packed everything on Wednesday night. The flight departure on Thursday morning was delayed by about 40 minutes for reasons I didn't know. I reached Bangalore at about 2, met Shanthi and along with her parents and elder sister we went to her office. We had lunch at the colorful cafeteria on the ground floor of her office building. We kept talking about all different things, from IT buildings in Bangalore to the malls here in Gurgaon. From there we went to the magnificent ISKCON temple. We spent some time there, then came back to hotel, vacated their room and headed to the railway station where Saketh's father was waiting for us. It seems Shanthi had a record of reaching at the nick of time. We let the legacy continue. For me it was fun to go out of the station with her to get something packed for dinner, all the while teasing her that I will make her miss the train. Her phone kept ringing. People were calling to find out what she was doing when the train was about to come. We did come back in time. I met Varshini, Meenal, Aparna and Santosh. I found Das and Rao were in the same train. Abhinav Kartikeya and a lot of other tricalites were also in the same train. It was only after I got into the train that I realised that the train was full of NITKians. Sarvesh Gabbar Kamath Vijay SrikanthNayak and so many others. I had no control over my voice box. My excitement was at peaks. Only I know how much I enjoyed the journey that night. The Idli Dosa Sambar CurdRice. Moving between S10 and S4. Frustrated TTs. Mysore railway station. Conversations about new times with old friends and old times with new friends. I dozed off, cherishing the memories of those times and thinking about the times to come, at some unknown time after 2 in the night.

Cheers

Aditya

30 Oct And thus it began...

After nearly three months of vacation, which was spent mostly at home, I started off towards the national capital on the night of 25th July to begin my so called corporate life. Yes I came to Delhi, Gurgaon actually, to join my job at Maruti Suzuki India Limited. As they say there is always a first time, this was my first time for travelling in Rajdhani Express and also first time for staying in a star hotel ( country inn and suites ) and yeah first time for a bath tub too :P ( paying double the rate than what the distance is worth was never new to me )

My joining was on august first but I had to go to the company for some paperwork. I submitted my medical report at the health centre. After reading a few numbers from a booklet, which apparently prove that I am not colorblind, I was given a certificate signed by chief medical officer that I am fit to join the company.

Then I went too "MEZZANINE"-1 where the paperwork was being carried out. As soon as I entered the hall Mr.SS asked me if I had my lunch. I hadn't. He handed me coupons and asked me to come after lunch. I walked out of the room and went to canteen-1. I used one of the given coupons and had lunch which wad okay for me as I got a good amount of curd :D . I came back to 'mez-1', took a set of docs which were to be filled up, filled'em up and waited for my turn, while getting to know few other new joinees.I had a little tough time in convincing Mr.SS that there is no conversion rule in my college and 8.5 cgpa is not exactly same as 85%. When he said that I will be the one at loss, I thought let it be. I filled up all the remaining blanks which I had not filled before (because I didn't know what to fill) and submitted. Then I went to the other end of the room where Vodafone, ICICI and HDFC had kept their mini stalls. I took an ICICI bank account and a Vodafone sim card (both of which did cause me a lot of trouble later on). Then I went to the uniform store and collected uniforms. I was always okay with uniform as it made my mornings simple. I don't have to think about what to wear for office. I came back to the hotel, changed and waited for Anup's call.

One of my dad's friends had mentioned about someone from NIT Surat joining MSIL and it was Anup. I met this brilliant multi-talented personality on fb. He told me later that he added me as friend when he saw that I, like him, was the only one from my college joining MSIL. Anup called to tell that he met few people from Osmania University and they had seen a few houses. I went to their hotel ( 1589 City Mark ) and met them. From there we all went to the house that they had almost finalised. I had a look and I quite liked it. We talked about things like rent electricity and water supply. Managed to convince the house owners to get us an inverter (We also asked for a fridge which we got after about 2 months). We roamed around for a while outside and I came back to my hotel and dozed off, thinking about the days to come, waiting for 1st August... The day I would move into the house and more importantly my day one in the company as an employee.

Cheers

Aditya

2 Oct This is not what you are thinking it is

It has been three quarters since I made my last regular entry on Darling. The special one entry in the mid of May came out when I left college (:-/) at the end of which I mentioned that I won't be blogging for a while. I just noticed that it got the highest view count amongst my blog articles. I am wondering if the reason was the content of the blog or the postscript at the end of it :P

A lot of things which happened in these three quarters... fun, masti, yaari, dosti, break-up, new job, new places, new faces, new cultures, first salary, my birthday (which brought along sweet surprises)... are not the topic of my article today. Nor is Mr.Gandhi. My today's entry is a copy work. Dosth ke blog se copy maara :D. You will enjoy reading his other articles on myrandomtihs-viddydusa.blogspot.com . This one I wanted to keep a copy on my blog too.. NITKians would love it.. Others may not understand the whole pun, but you would still like it... so here it goes

the brief history of engineering ..

picture this: god said let there be light ......(fastforwarding) ...eve eats apple .....(4x speed) ...adam needs to protect his family from the rains and the sun (play mode) ..this is where our story starts ..adam gathers some leaves and branches and starts 'building' a shack ..tadaah!! ..the beginning of civil engineering ..

a few hundred years later ..adam's family expanded ..they needed more 'shacks' (can now be considered as houses) to live in ..now life is no AOE game - click of a button and houses appear ..they had to get materials to build ..in the beginning they had no preferences ..then through experience they found better materials but 'transporting' them to the building site was difficult ..even donkeys have 'yield points' ..so they needed 'something' to bring the material ..one guy saw a round stone tumbling down the slope ..ding bolke uska dimag ki batti jala ..he designed a wheel ..mechanical engineers are here ..then came a crisis - the stone resources were getting used up (and again like in AOE, 'rock on' doesn't get you stone) ..

another guy out of joblessness started digging ..he found some different looking rocks (there is a doubt here though - with what is he digging?? - let us assume that its a hard & sharp rock for time being) ..this rock had some shine on it ..as they already know what fire is (this is a general discovery - you don't need an engineer to create fire - anyone can do it) this jobless guy started heating the rocks ..he must've been really tired after all the digging ..so decided to have a 'short' nap and when he woke up he found a hard shining substance (named it 'metal' later) ..unknowingly this jobless guy created job oppurtunities for many people ..these people called themselves - 'mining and metallurgy engineers' ..the population began to increase 'exponentially'  to fill up the houses built by the civil engineers ..this led to the increase of unemployement eventually ..so the 4 heads of 'The Engineers Gang' ..TEG for short (ISTE IEEE IE & CSI started when these 4 heads had a rift recently and split ..the heads are now being called 'convenors') ..the heads came to a conclusion that the branch 'mining and metallurgy' be split into 2 branches - 'mining engineering' and metallury engineering' ..

mechanical engineers meanwhile with their innovation created new machines ..there was too many innovative ideas and the demand for mech engineers increased ..soon the supply matched the demand (in the recent years the supply exceeded the demand ..it was difficult to manage them ..so they divided them into M1 and M2) ..in the midst of all this there were people who wanted to be engineers but didn't know which branch to join ..these people created an exclusive branch for themselves called 'the chemical engineers' (some of these people were quoted saying that they are still clueless of what they do) ..a mathematician (also a chem engg fan) once described chemical engineering as the set of all possible engineering branches excluding civil mechanical mining and metallurgy (circuit based branches were still a generation away at that time) ..another mathematician claims that he can prove that the set is a null set (citation required) ..

coming to the newest arrivals ..the 'circuit' based branches ..E&E E&C ..computers were made by these engineers and soon a situation came where a seperate branch had to be created to handle the expansion ..computer engineers came into existence (now called computer science engineer) ..as always there were some jobless people left who (as usual) wanted to be engineers but did not want to join any group ..they named their group as 'information technology' (they wanted a technically sophisticated sounding name to demarkate themselves from the chemical engineers) ..no one knows why they don't have the 'engineers' tag in their group's name (or do we??) ..

this my dear fellow engineers and humans (by humans i mean humans who aren't engineers not something else) is the truth of how we engineers came into existence ..


NOTE:
# if i have hurt anyone's sentiments i have only one thing to say - truth is bitter but you have to digest it eventually ..

# joblessness is definitely the mother of creativity :P

@Vidyun Dusa ... Jahaapanaa tussi great ho.. but no tohfa :P .. many happy returns of the day.. wish you a very happy birthday :-) 

 

---------

Aditya

14 May 2012 One Last Entry

I never thought it would be so difficult to leave college. Rewind my life by two months and there was this Aditya who used to think too much about every other thing happening around him, worried about his pending works, disappointed about his X-girl friend and sad that he would probably leave college and no one would remember him. He always carried a feeling that he couldn't make good friends in college. But then it all changed with the "chhoti chhoti khushiyaan" that the college gave him. Month of March got over with works from the aftermath of Baja, major project in SOLVE and a little running around for a few other things like department website, robotic arm etc. It all started with the initiative to celebrate Ugadi and Rama Navami like how we did two years ago. People came together and though there were a few disappointing things that happened, we pulled out a huge event on the occasion of Ugadi. Credits to all gults ... Special Credits to the Lord Rama and Lord Hanuman (read Manideep and Saketh).

Enter the One Last Month at NITK. Most of it was spent by people (final years) doing minor works in major projects, the major part was always kept for the end (there were exceptions though, not me of course). But even in the midst of that entire busy people spent time going for treats and treks with their buddies for four years. Writing testimonials was also one thing people spent most of their time on, at least till the site was closed. Then came club and branch farewells (mechies didn't get fresh and so they don't fare well I guess :P). Carroms in 5D wing with Atkins boy (now LSI) along with others in the last month was one of the best times I had at college.

I didn't know that my casual work on a particular website would influence my life so much. I would always be grateful to Ravi Teja (Gundu) for he was the one for whom I did it. Sometimes I felt I should have listened to him and joined PClub but then may be the things wouldn't have been the same if I had done that. It surprises me sometimes how a handful of people can change your life and bring you back from your own lost world. I found these few friends towards the end of days at college. I found those people to whom I can go back to, to share my joy and sorrow. They were with me from the day one in college; the only difference is I now know what difference they make. I have no regrets about anything in college. More or less everything was fun. There were a few disappointing things but then without anything bad how will you realise the importance of good. In the last week I met a few faculties who taught me and said a good-bye. 

Eyes filled with tears, tears rolling down cheeks, lips shivering with sobs, with an exchange of gifts and tokens of affection, with messages coming not just from a mobile but from the heart and soul of friends, I spent my last week at NITK sending off people. My Last Day at college was a little sad in the beginning because of the previous day's hang over (I just learnt the feeling of missing people). I went to a movie with a few friends, had an awesome dinner at food courts and was given a send off by all the remaining friends. After an extra-ordinary chase, which was successful thanks to the Dark Knight who pulled the chain to stop the train, we all started our journey back to our homes saying good-bye to Mangalore for the last time as students of NITK. At some point between all this (when even I was feeling sad and depressed) it occurred to me that this separation is nothing to be sad about. It shows us how much we love our friends. It tells us how much we want to be with them. Thank you guys for all these awesome days in college. A part of what I am today is because of you. Will definitely stay in touch ( read as "will kill you if you don't keep in touch"). I am already looking forward to the time we are going to meet next. Till then Have Fun. Take Care

Cheers 

Aditya

P.S. Last entry for the time being on Darling.