Kicking Asses!

A graffitti disobeying the laws.
Courtesy: Wrote on Flickr | License: CC BY 2.0

There are only two forces in the world, Sword and the Spirit! In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit! -Naploean Bonaparte

You get up late. Dress nice (...it was taught to you in last semester, on one of the days when you were not feeling well, sick you too fall buddy!) and go to the class you like, more than any other class (... being precise it is an elective course in Renewable Energy Sources...)

On day 1, you were 9 minutes late and as you had crossed the 5 minute buffer given by teacher you decided to track back to hostel, without even making an attempt to get into the class.

Day 2, you are 7 minute late (...a nice improvement of 2 minutes...), you try to make a silent entry but are gestured out (...the guy, he is a professor, on podium is man of his words, will not let you in even a second outside the prescribed buffer...). So once again you make a 180 degree turn and join walk with some guys who would proxy for you the whole semester, for simple fun of checking out girls of your department (...must say though starved of the feminine wafts to the core, these are some really cool people I have met; for a change they are actually alive and do not act programmed zombies...).

Later in a 4 hour session, cut to 1 hour 30 minutes (...am ecstatically glad about that...); your spirits are (...sorry your spirit is, got only one spirit though it is very random and miss directed...) raised thinking about steel, nuts, bolts, glass, overhanging yellow lights, poker tables, sail boats and thought of a multi-story club house with exclusive graphic exteriors (...one has a pole dancer clinging to the extended tall column you plan to make into an elevator shaft...), while much touted about teacher fails to faint even the most frail soul in the studio...

Written enough of it. Bye Bye personal Blogging for a rather long spell (trying to do so but this habit is addictive and therefore this announcement does not come with a guarantee...) :) :D :P ;) Meanwhile friends, sworn enemies and non-descripts learn to blantantly disobey with a sly and wicked grin, make people pant and get a spicy life. And yep am not going to stop web-logging for the very precise reason of it being the only perfect platform for me to give away my exhibitionist tendencies with little harms done.

Morning Star

Image courtesy : inajeep on Flickr, check usage terms before using the image.

06:15, MNIT Footlball Grounds

I just abruptly take a walk listening to some "different music." "Stroke 9" playing into my ears, I catch glimpse of thick black clouds flying past the Arravalis as sun redens the sky and the morning star (venus, yes it is venus) hangs high at the zenith giving competition to half pizza which is slightly to its left or probably right (now I know why a benchmark is necessary!). A group of guys gather for their morning play.

I observe this spectacular 360 degree panorama, simultaneously taking note of the whole beautiful feeling on my rather retro mobile, a 5 year old thing is retro when a new model is launched every week! Bryan Adams is still happy on "Cloud No. 9".

Chilling mid-november wind blows over my face and sleep-deprived eyes as I enjoy my slightly feverish body and muscles straining from last few days of exercise drives.
Occasionally gasping for breath.

Round one is over and its about 10 minutes, sky is more bright revealing alot to eyes. More colours have appeared on the canvas generally reds, pinks, purples and shades of black. Blinking red lights scare away airplanes taking off and on at nearby Sanganer airport.

Third round begins for me and now I can distinguish ashes of Oil Depot fire from the black clouds. Britney Spears does not wishes to be "Overprotected". More the light more truth is revealed. As the world has started its day, birds are heading away from their nestles, school bell rings as dogs sync their barking tone in this rather barren land.

And yup I have made my mind for another bunk, excusing myself of worthlessness of attending a 4 hour session just for the sake of a "P" marked on an obsolute paper sheet.

Meanwhile I learn it is good to wait and watch, before any action, as when their is light things are not that good. The part of hills in front of me is not that cool, it is barren and nude. Thanks Mr. Sun for teaching me a simple lesson. Round three is ending I wind up my morning walk, Bon Jovi screams aloud "Its My Life".

Back to hostel. Times Of India confirms its Jaipur after Pune in the race of H1N1 casualities. 52 more confirmed cases, 10 school shuts, CM holds meet as Shakira gets busy telling us "Whenever, Wherever..." and I no longer find words and thoughts to write more.

TATA C.U. :) :D Time to sleep! Probably!!!

A Colourful Power Cut

00:54 IST, Aug 04’ 2009.

A power cut leaves whole of NIT Jaipur campus in dark. Wi-Fi routers go numb rendering 3.5 hours of battery backup of my laptop useless. I have no option but to look out for traditional means of entertainment  called Radio. In Jaipur the 5 odd stations are serving ill quality of music, mostly very low tone oldies. I plug-in my earphones and move out of hostel to have a stroll, while my friend asks to sit back in the lawn and share the ear-plugs.

Outside the hostel vast darkness spreads over whole of the campus, everything has turned greyscale bathing in bright white moonlight. You can catch nice views all around the campus as there are few things to obstruct the view. Under the star-studded sky you find red-lights flickering atop the newly built high-rises dotting the skyline of city all-around the NIT campus.
Walking on the roads in campus, you find a few solar battery powered streetlights working to not much use. You can find headlights of autos and cars serving to students leaving for their home cities. I meet a pack of guys, interested in knowing if am mad or drunk that am pacing up and down the campus at those unearthly hours! I bullshit them and walk my way down to hostel, where I find numerous faces glowing under lights from the LCDs of mobiles and PCs.
Back in my room as I wonder, how my roommate can sleep so easily in dark and humid room and ease myself on the cot, electric supply resumes. I access net for sometime and then sleep to wake up early, a habit now-a-days!

August Encounter - I

Sometime in August of 2008, this incident took place in the second year studio of Architecture Department of NIT Jaipur. I am, being a fresher, summoned by my ‘immediate’ seniors to have a discussion. I am told in advance that the guy I would be meeting is the most tough to tackle and tamper with. Rather than making me understand anything, the words just do the opposite and I stick to only constant quality of mine and that is stubborn-ness.

As I enter the studio with others from my batch, we are asked to stand in an orderly fashion. As we all que around, the seniors start asking reasons to all of us for the errors we had done. Some had not attended to their earlier calls, some were wearing belts or shoes and many others were indulged in other petty things. Many are let off easily while others have to bear with them for a bit longer.

This tough guy on recognising my presence asks me for my name and other introductory details, before coming to the straight talk of asking my reasons for not abiding with the dress code supposed to be followed by freshers in the college. As I ‘argue’ with them giving reasons for me not giving up the jeans and tee. The guy tries to manipulate my thoughts a lot but as I forbid to give up and his batch-mates and many others also give up, he is forced by friends to leave me as in their words I was a “stupid, stubborn crap, who will regret this all very soon”.

The whole lunch break is over in the incident, but I get a start that was quite unexpected, unplanned and registers in my memories quite well. To this date I consider the guy to be best of seniors I came in contact with as he and most others never again troubled with the same immaterial topic of dress code. We have a lot of interaction and talks and quite good communication on several occasions on varied topics including rock music, interaction among friends, seniors and juniors and things like why we shall indulge in socializing even though some time we might not like it…

April 21 : Nice Tuesday

The day was an awesome one. Well reached studio early, 8 am. Waited for folks and later enjoyed the company of people in studio. Lil panneling and lot of talks followed. We pretended to work on sheets as the inspecting team of council of architecture did its work. Passed comments on nagging teachers. Time after lunch break was fun in studio. We enjoyed sitting idle and gossiping. It was fun to make humour of something notorious! Well probably we should not have. Interaction with council guys in lecture theatre was quite boring and we passed time doing random rubbishes including SMSing, small chatters, some random mockeries on paper and likes. Evening was spent sleeping in hostel and time after dinner was killed on phone, laptop and a stroll till Saras. Looking people giving birthday bumps to Sudhanshu was rather another sight. Having shared my 'NIT' life till now with Debz I now feel at ease. Having browsed a lot am still not able to sleep and enjoy imaging and day-dreaming a lot.

Little Enlightenment!

Everything is moving cool and hip these days. We all have enjoyed working on those small things in studio, it looks nice now. We people are talking a lot to each other and it includes meaningful and fun talks also. Looking back to these days we will never regret anything. We are learning a lot about things and people and now we are liking them for there goods and faults and they too are understanding us much better. Somehow we are now in much improved bonds and we have put in efforts to create these bonds, so these are very less likely to be temporary and we hope these to be everlasting. We are also learning to act more maturely and inter-mingle with a large number of people and enjoy all the times and all the people. One thing that I notice is with friends life is supreme when things are mutual. I have started believing in this mutual life thing and feel being a part of the enthusiasm, zeal it is. Sharing fun and problems alike is cool. Everything we do is a shared initiative and for a person like me who has had very less tendency of working in tandem with others, it is not like that I am not comfortable working with people but I think works done solo are better, it is an overhelming experience to work like a part of the system and be in the flow. Things have changed for sure but I have figured out it is more important to live the moment then to think about living it, mistake that me and most people in world do. Anyhow times are nice, people are enjoying so its all nice around here.

April 10 : Another Day Well Utilized

Image courtesy : Channy Yun on Flickr, check usage terms before using the image.

Well it is 9:40 and I must be there in the extra class at 10. Of course, I will be late as I have decided this in my mind, despite the fact that I have done quite good work and am satisfied with it. Leave for the class at 10:15 with Abhinav and Himanshu and accompany them in the 10 minute punishment session with few others. Enjoy the lame excuses they give to get out of it. Through the class I prefer to stay silent and communicate only with teacher and a few not so close friends! Work a bit and just get hold of all that matters to me. After class I straight away hurry to the hostel and pass sometime. A nap post lunch and small chat session before annual day function are the only activities I am indulged in. Enjoy the bath and music. The annual day function is usual formal time guzzler, could be done away with but is actually harmless. Well atleast people around me and ofcourse me too were happy poking comments at those old non-chalant responsible people enlightening us with their 'read-from-the-page' speeches. May were enjoying the meal, they say it was better than usual! A stroll till GT and I realise am quite on track when it comes to my aim of maintaining a balanced BMI, proper fit of jeans tells me so. Back in room Mahendra is hardly the one who would talk much after his dose of the day (in his words it was just 2 litre, he knows better!) and other two guys are missing, my lappy and mobile (with calls and SMSs deemed sins, no SMS in last 56 hours and hardly 2-3 outgoings!) are my buddies as I organize my stuff, everything in place! Clothes done! Room done! Sheets no immediate action needed! Hard to believe but am totally organized and a lot of time is with me and have nothing to bother but kill time chatting, watching movies, browsing net and such things. The only thing on my mind is preserving this attitude and try to focus on a short-listed pleothra of things so that some output is visible soon.

Not in a state of deeming anything good or bad these days and loving it as atleast am not confused in any case!

Truth Or Dare?

Image courtesy : CarbonNYC on Flickr, check usage terms before using the image.

Hmm posting quite emotional and depressing stuff lately. Time to break the routine and post some cool and hip masala, but it is also real stuff, as usual, not a cooked story. Times back to my initial days in hostel 7 of NIT, probably initial 1 or half month. Due to Supreme Court instruction regarding safety and ragging, there used to be regular attendance at 9:30 PM, after which entry and exit from hostel was not allowed. On one regular day after the ceremony was over me and my room-mates casually decided to delve into the game of Truth and Dare. Bottle rotates and turns come one by one revealing some fun and dark secrets from everyone falling into the trap. Those who opted for dare had to act various crazy things. And now the bottle suddenly points at me! Truth or Dare, the quetion resonates in my mind. I opt for dare thinking it will atleast keep some things under cover. Well the crazy demand comes from Mahinder, he asks me to go out of the main gate, not giving option of jumping walls, to the back-gate of th campus - a stroll of about 15 minutes. Move into a liquor shop, buy the stuff and get it back to the hostel room once again walking just below the nose of guard attending to his duty there. Having said it all I had to do the stint, just because I didn't want to cheat or was afraid of being called a coward. The next moment I decide and make headway toward the hostel gate, luckily guard does not notices me and I am able to slip away quite easily. Walking down the way I just expect that I find no familiar face on the way and that my face just doesn't give away anything. The dilemma of doing it or not also helps kill the time in the way. As I reach the shop I look around that no one is looking and hastily enter the shop. I ask the vendor for the brand Mahinder had told and quickly agree to pay anything he demanded, first time I was buying liquor and till date it remains the only time and don't know why just wanted to flee even though I was sure I can handle any situation that comes my way. Having it packed in a black polybag (just another beverage then why black polybag?) I try to hide the stuff in pockets of my pyjama. I wish to walk fast as the backgate closes at 10:30 and earlier I am back is better but the sound that the liquid produces with the glass bottle forces me to slow down. Througout the way I just keep a straight face, having learnt that it is the best way to camouflage the act! Hostel gate is in front and once again I am lucky the guard is 'busy' smoking and gossiping his time with a counterpart. I slip into the hostel through the side gate and reach for my room. Mission accomplished. They all cheer and I am happy with the praise that comes my way. Some kind of bravery award I deserve?

The dare I was given, the truth I have written so it is Truth and Dare now. Adventure and fun is life back here in hostels, specially when you are novice and amateur.

Confused Again Or May Be Exhausted, Probably Frustrated...

Image courtesy : daisybush on Flickr, check usage terms before using the image.

Something is definitely wrong when I tend to think too much about what people around me are doing. This does not stops me from doing my work but certainly tenses me a lot on ocassions as I tend to draw comparisons. The problem is intensified as soon as I realise that it was none of my business and start regretting that I even gave thought to such a thing. Of course am not able to hold these things for long and bail myself out easily by consoling myself or by any other means since I am good at playing with words and justifying myself. And as we all know there is nothing right and nothing wrong and its just a state of mind. Still trying to improve. Off late have realised the things that brought a smile to face even on thinking about Jaipur are drifting apart and I am loosing control of them or may be just feeling the same way. May be if people simply what they felt actually and whats on their mind the life would have been a lot much simple and we never had to think about what on others' mind and etc etc. Hope to get them back and shred the loner tendencies of mine I sometime love a lot. Love the thought of lying down in Central Park on a bright windy day with music plugged into my ears with simply no associations with anyone in the real world around, totally free. Wish life is similar fun for everyone and we all get our desires fulfilled without much interference in others' lives. All done and happy after spitting out some real fake crap, masking away from realities...

March Ahead

Image courtesy : Fabio Marini on Flickr, check usage terms before using the image.

March has dawned upon and last week past very quickly. Time is running at a rather rapid pace and life has gained its usual pace. All the ill effects of hectic and unorderly schedules have been cleansed away. The regular organised and lovely class routines are back and quite amazingly most of us like them this way only despite of them demanding us to put in all the efforts in drafting, planning and the things. Once again massive submission festival is ahead and a mass of pending submissions is with us. Still we stand united and look straight into the eyes of this menace saying just about two weeks and we will settle everything, albeit we are planning to run to our houses. The fest season of Jan and Feb was rather a spoiler but it taught a lot of stuff to me and us in general. The learnings are quite personal and at the same time very practical and much rational. Learnt that our insecurities and lack of communication mar the situations most. On most occassions we are our best friends and our worst enemies too. Came to know that we all are very similar thinking alike, acting same and living quite simple lives, and not amazingly we all hesitate in baring our selves to others and delving complete infos thereby making a lot of room for confusions and the fun that follows. The important part is I tend to understand people more, being a part of them and avoiding over indulgence simultaneously. Being a part of crowd is more fun and still having your own identity is a requirement. Ultimately we all stand united and will surely do beautiful and lovely things to make life fun for all.

Love life, flying high, busy times...

Moron Manik

Image courtesy : J O I D on Flickr, check usage terms before using the image.


The melodious tone of alarm shakes me out of sleep, its 6:30 am, but I prefer not to leave the comfort of my blanket. Resolving to wake up at 8, in time for 9 am class I continue with second lap of my sleep. I skip the one hour class at 9 and another one at 10 is marred by the absence of teacher. During the 10 am session I continue to complete pending works and submissions for the post lunch session. Meanwhile I unwantedly try to ignore some real nice friends of mine, acting arrogant and showing off some real crap negative attitude, which I am bound to regret at a later time when I find time to sit back and look at the day's proceedings. Don't right or wrong I just was trying to isolate myself, since I somewhere was learning that I was diverging from the real me self and becoming obsessed and over-dependent on some people, whom I like the most in this whole campus. On other thought I tend to think that this may be the effect of hectic times we all are going through. Last two days I simply skipped breakfasts and lunches to survive only on dinner stuff. Waking up early to sleep late is a routine. Such situations are expected to induce serious mood swings in most people and I feel am one of them. But I regret the uncontrolled nature of mine that sometimes makes me so much disillusioned that I just act absurd and even end up blaming myself. Moreover the self-imposed performance anxiety, serious obsession of doing something even though knowing that I am 99.99% sure to fail in the stint took serious toll on my mood on several ocassions in the past week. Though I was able to recover several times but the thing is still not ready to leave me and so am posting this stuff to take some burden of myself. The fucking selective introvertive genetic disorder will hamper my prospects of growth on several ocassions and am very less likely to act out something to clear the crap that it is. Hope I survive the crap and able to enjoy the fun that this crap and whole stuff provides.

Signing off! Expecting to come back with a LOLZ style B+ post! :D

Jan 08' 2009 : Confusing Day

Image courtesy : Tall Chris on Flickr, check usage terms before using the image.

I wake up quite late at 9:20 am, going by recent standards of mine, only to find other fellows either still sleeping or engrossed in early morning teases like loud rock music, newspapers and such things. Having Ram Milan appointed for a post-lunch visit to Chaura Rasta, probably Jaipur's own veersion of Broadway, but unlike the Broadway in NYC it lacks theatres and performing art centres and is known for being a major whole sale market to cater to various needs of the city. I wait for time to pass meanwhile having proper bath and reading few more pages from my recent pick titled "N or M' by Agatha Christie. Around 1:30 in noon we leave for the mart. the bus ride reminds me of blue-lines of Delhi, rickety, over-crowded and grossly unruly but here they don't ride over you! We deboard at Ajmeri Gate and walk our way to the pre-thought shop! Having shopped for the stuff we needed, we take an auto-rickshaw back to our hostel in MNIT. Ram Milan shares with me his worries about choice of stream and concerns like having formed good friendship bonds in present section. Meanwhile a call from Abhishek in Delhi cheers me up as the whole day had passed minus messages or calls from friends. the call ends with me declaring to him a probable visit to Delhi in next week. Later we pass time watching "21", my third time, in Abhinav's room. I and Abhinav visit GT in evening and binge upon some burgers at McD. Buy some chocolates just to suppress the desire of taste of the caffine filled stuff, actually had seem thenm in movie! On way vack I make calls to friends in Bhopal and Mumbai, to feel later the hollowness of my life in the hostel room called "7/13, MNIT". Post dinner a part of me urges me to go to room number 56 while another wishes to go to 58, still another calls for 73 and one more is busy thinking about a special fiend in Girls' Hoste ltwo blocks away. Simultaneously other sections of brain keep on thinking about friendsin Roorkee, Pune, Delhi, Texas, California and more such locations across the globe. And still the brain has rationale to remind me of the mammoth task of completing submissions due on Monday and Tuesday. I try hard, complete 1/6 of my work and move to wash room to find gigantic Himanshu standing shirtless in a towel and washing clothes on this cold winter night. Am quite amazed to hear him ask me for clothes to wash. I come back to my room and scribble whole stuff on paper to take a lot of stuff off my mind and later form it into the blog post. Listen to music on room-mates Pc and fall asleep meanwhile...

Freshers' Bash

Image courtesy : *Muhammad* on Flickr, check usage terms before using the image.

Well long time since last post! Its the way you find it in India. You are in alien city familiarizing with new ways and your institution's computer center is in the process of renovation and cyber cafe owners' would allow you use the PC without an identity proof, for you may turn out to be a serial bomber who came to city to ruin its peace and chose to disguise as some architecture student. Anyhow a lot to share. Would start with the latest buzz as the older experiences lie in the yellow pages of my rough notebooks! September 02' 2008, freshers' party was organized for us in the central lawns of the college campus. We all turned up well in time, primarily for the purpose of checking out those beautiful girls dressed in all sorts of formal, casual and well good looking attires. And to our pleasure there was a plenty of those, well compared to what we generally hear of engineering institutions situation is quite heartening in MNIT Jaipur. Soon the formal proceedings started with the arrival of dignitaries that included Dean, Director and other highly placed persons . By the time most of us had settled on seats arranged for the purpose, of course late-comers had to stand through the program though they had privilege of dancing to the tunes. By the time the formal speeches were over many of us were feeling great to be the part of this institution and the facilities and opportunities thrown to us. The real rocking show was open once the Director of institution left the place after welcoming the new-comers and ensuring them of a lot of things including safety from ragging, exposure to newer facilities and opportunities and all those formal wordings! The stage performances included dances, solo and group band performances , some stand-alone performances and more such fun stuff which was largely applauded in general. The performances were nice given the positive outlook they couraged to face a crowd of about 1000 and fared very nice. Though some disappointments were there as some tried to catch the light without any performance! The food made the party a hit with hostlers, who are pretty aware of being denied a food good to taste, who cares for the nutrition if taste is not an ingredient. Well the party was over and it is time for something that most dread, the real ragging - after all the director declared that we are no longer starangers to the institute and we should be "interacting" more with our seniors, hmm sorry our "respected boses". While I was enjoying my dinner a fellow asked me to join him to meet the seniors once under the flood lights that sprayed the whole lawns. Well I will I said and I did. As I made my way to meet the seniors, a group of them surrounded me and tried to infuse little fear. But I tried to remain indifferent though a bit confused of what will happen next. One of them joined me and we walked towards hostel talking on topics like my name, place, hobbies. Soon he was to the topic, he wished me top wear formals which I refused to wear once again. His repeated persuasions were not able to change my mind or probably my ego didn't let me give in. Probably it would be killing my self-esteem if I give in and go for formals. May be I am wrong in choice but the road less taken is always full of uncertainties and some unique rewards, slaps or some special privilege! Lets wait and look out for the rewards that come my way but standing stubborn is my way!

Fuccha in Jaipur

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August 07' 2008, The day broke at 8:15. Daily morning routine followed and I tried to achieve 9:00 am deadline, so as to have some free time before 10:00 am morning class. Wanted to check out Orkut scraps, mails and browse the net before the hectic schedule that was going to follow. The hour past more in circumventing the blocked paths and learning more proxy techniques for a more happy net experience in the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Jaipur, as we had to plan for the future! The mathematics class was more than enough to disillusion even most determined student and the 11 am English lecture marred the day as grammar is something that I don't like to study and wish English was merely limited to expression and "feeling", and the same goes for any other language also. The lunch break is always short as the 1/2 hour walk to and from hostels eats into the 1 hour break. Worse is that morning's boring classes make me confuse a Thursday for Friday and I follow wrong schedule and end up cutting short a 3 hour basic design session into 2 hour class. The photography lecture of last hour of academic session of the day was fun as I could have a little nap amidst the boring talk a 3rd year senior shared with us, but what proved to be quite interesting was invitation by our photography instructor to join him at a photo exhibit at KK Art Gallery on Prithvi Raj Marg in Jaipur. We were pleased to go out of institute's walls, sort of jail during initial months of the year, at least for the fucchas, for obvious reasons of ragging! Anyhow we binged upon the opportunity and packed into an auto, 9 in 1 and reached the destination, half hour spent admiring or rather finding flaws in the 25-30 odd photographs. While leaving, we were pleased to fill in the guest cum comment book, our attendance for the day! We, a group of 5; 3 boys and 2 girls walked into Crossword, a book. While I and this girl from Pilani were interested in finding something interesting, other 3 tried to make us walk out at the earliest. Out of the showroom we walked across the road into a roadside nook-and-corner restaurant and ordered Chowmein and some fast food along with soft-drinks, not familiar enough to share beer and no experience of the stuff yet! The food was quite fine but the heavy and boring discussions about mass-bunk and nays and ayes following it virtually divided the united class into anti and pro bunk sects. The hopeless discussion made me gulp down a whole 500 ml bottle of Coke, knowing that it contains pesticide it was brave, or may be I was just trying to make a style statement, the Sir-Utha-K-Piyo style! Brushing aside the topic somehow, we grabbed auto back to NIT, 10 in 1 this time, rapid population growth may be at fault! But the compromise saved us bucks at 10 per head it is and OK deal. The evening in hostels passed over calls, SMSs, reading the new novel (...am modifying into a critic!), music on FM and the stuff of the sort!

My apprehensions about life outside Delhi are changing now, it is more of a life out of the cage now, well life on your own! Pros and cons are there but look on the brighter side and you will find pretty girls everywhere (boys for girls!). Just joking, actually such cheesy comments make your writings worth reading and popular! NIT is the place to be, but SPA final application results are still pending... Things are in pipeline, soon it will again be lack or access of resources governing the future course of my ambitions!