हिन्दी में

थोडे दिनों पहले विकल्प का लेख पढ़ा पिलानी के हिन्दी प्रेस क्लब के ब्लॉग पर| बहुत दिनों बाद हिन्दी में कुछ पढ़ा| उसके बाद प्रतीक माहेश्वरी का ब्लॉग पढ़ा| बहुत अच्छा लिखते हैं| तब से हिन्दी में लिखने का मन कर रहा था, इसलिए अगली रचना हिन्दी में| अब से इस चिट्ठे में थोड़ी हिन्दी, थोड़ी अंग्रेज़ी|

!!!Two hours

In those two hours, the world went topsy-turvy. I received three CDC papers in two hours, one was good (surprisingly) and the other two left a lot to be done in T2 and compre. But these are not the two hours I am talking about. They are the ones that followed. I decided I was in no mood for snacks, instead went to the library and settled down with a book, only the fourth person inside. No network inside lib, switched off my phone. The clock showed six and I was completely immersed in All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot. Another hour went by among sheep, horses and calves. {James Herriot is a vet and writes about his country practice.} By now, I was ravenously hungry. I proceeded to the Institute Cafeteria for samosa chaat (staple food at IC). Saw some crowd outside audi, couldn’t figure out why. Maybe there was something related to the visiting MIT delegates, but without prior intimation… Wondering, I reached IC where the guy asked me that what was happening in audi. I replied with a negative probably for the first time. Anyway, returned at a leisurely pace to hostel where the world exploded. And I came to know a lot had changed…

An Answer

An in-depth reply by a friend to my post Does Self-Improvement Improve? :

In my opinion, personal/relational influence is what matters. Books, movies,sports,music etc happen to be the channels through which the authors/actors/directors/singers(different persons) convey what they want to.What exactly matters, changes individually. At the same time whatever the person is trying to convey, has to be caught immediately by the person being conveyed. I call this ability to catch, "an innate spark".

I love Mumbai

Arrival on 25th May, Departure on 18th July. A lot has happened in between.
An application I made is up and running on supercomputer Anupam Ajeya.
I found some great friends here, as you have read and some about whom you haven't.
I've travelled in Mumbai in all modes of public transport. Sometimes alone also.
And I am in love with the city.

Reasons:

एक फुग्गा....दो दीवाने

दीवानों के नाम - Alan and Alibe. The story begins with Opal's balloon which brought the two together. On Sunday evening, we were coming back in a bus from Carter Road to Sion. It's the most moving-shaking bus ride I've ever had. Every time the driver hit the brakes, every person used to jump a metre ahead. And on Mumbai roads, brakes are a recurrent feature.

When the first time this happened, we were caught unaware. I was holding only with one hand which slipped on the rod, and got cut slightly. Opal was holding with both her hands and still did a mighty swing. Her precious balloon from Mad Over Doughnuts meanwhile, was being doctored by Alan and Alibe. The tiny hole in it needed immediate medical attention. So out came remedies from Alan's bag : first try -packs of Jaljira, second - sugar packets from Mocha, third - comb, finally a fevi quick. In this busy scene, the driver interrupted with brakes. Alan fell forward holding a rod with one hand. Then, in slow motion.. Alibe fell on his other arm, the balloon still clutched safely in his hands. Two guys and a balloon... The situation merited violins playing.. Alan says some did sound in his head :P

Yumyyy

Sunday is fun day no, food day. Just a quick look at what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast at 10.30 - a glass of milk and sambhar vada

Image via Wikipedia

Lunch- Typical Andhra food in good quantity. Food was awesome. Andhra specialities - पुलिहोरा (tamarind rice), दद्दोजनम (curd rice) , रसम, आम का अचार, छोले।

Image by Chocolate Geek via Flickr

Then, a treat at CCD - Chocolate Fantasy,their speciality. A hot chocolate pastry with a scoop of vanilla icecream. I love dark chocolate.

Image via Wikipedia

In hostel, for dinner, sweet corn soup and we made four packs of maggi (3 ppl).

Image by jetalone via Flickr

Then, for dessert, we cut a water melon.

:-) :-) :-)


Now, why did I eat so much in one day? Maybe because Vir Sanghvi publishes Rude Food in Brunch on Sunday :P

Does Self-Improvement Improve?

Self Improvement is a must section for any book-shop now. I went to Odyssey store some days back and they had those in huge numbers. Then, I went to Matunga Circle this weekend, and they were there too. Matunga Circle is a place in Mumbai where second hand books and cheap reprints are sold on street-side shops. (I got an old book on financial management for 10 bucks). I also got Robin Sharma's Megaliving and Who Will Cry When You Die?, though they weren't such a treat to my wallet.

Megaliving is a true blue, 'you can have a perfect life' book. It begins with reassurances that you can turn around your life and has a 30 Day program to revolutionise your life. My mom is suspicious of such attempts at becoming successful and believes in action not words. I do not know whether such books can change lives but they sure give me an uplifting feeling. For a while I could have a can-do attitude and an optimistic outlook. Long term effects are more a product of my philosophy and upbringing rather than inspirational literature.

Many books in the motivational genre have went on to become best-sellers. They are read by countless around the world. So, does the world now have self-motivated, go-getters who never say die? Though if I consider the world around me, BITSians are constantly working to improve in their fields, be it my batch, seniors or alumni. Each one does something to excel, it is almost amazing. Reason, I suspect is just the atmosphere at college.

Coming back to books, most authors claim that they have changed thousands of lives by their endeavours. Is it pessimistic of me to think they are bluffing or do books actually change lives? Or........ the high lasts only for a day?

One believer: Abe Oye!
One non-believer: Soul Surgery

Essel World

As you know we reached Borivli after an interesting journey. From the jetty, we took a ferry to Essel World. At 480 per head, it was costly entertainment, but worth it I guess. Especially for Alan and Opal, who went on all rides, mostly more than one. They give the top prize to Rock n Roll, a small ride which made their brains do big circles. In it, the seats rotate continuously, no track of which way is sky and which way is earth. Plus, the mandatory going round in a circle too.

I would call Hool-a-Loop as the most jarring. It’s a roller coaster which has extreme dips and a 360 degree loop. Whenever we went down a slope, everybody used to scream. It was perhaps the first time in my memory that I was screaming involuntarily. Nothing else has ever made me scream yet including 3-feet long snakes when I was 10. When X saw the first almost vertical dip, the words that came out were “हे भगवान्, मैं यहाँ क्यों आया”. Opal got so scared by this proclamation that she didn’t open her eyes throughout that ride.

There’s another roller-coaster called Cadbury Xyclone, but it is tamer in comparison to hool-a-loop. I went twice on this one and all of us tried putting our hands in the air instead of clutching as if holding on to dear life.

Another big one was a giant wheel that used to go from horizontal to vertical, with high-speed revolutions. This time it was I who got scared because of X’s proclamations. The guy himself went on to all rides, but managed to transfer his fear around. I have been on giant wheel before, so if you put me there without giving much time to think, it would’ve been okay. But after listening to “यार, ये बहुत खतरनाक है” and “अब ऊपर मिलेंगे”, I didn’t open my eyes. X has a nice theory, it feels better if there are two in one gondola, at least there’ll be company while dying: D


There was also ice-skating and roadies-style bull-ride. After ice-skating, opinions: Opal – “four-wheel skates practice doesn’t help”. Rav – “No skating for me in this life”. Me – “I’ve never tried skating, after looking at them, good…” Alan was our sole champion in the ring.

That's the water splash. Only Rav and I went for this one.

Out of a local train

A major event in my EPA as in Extra PS Activities: Essel World on last Saturday. We left at 7.30 and came back at 8 :)

For destination Essel World, we braved the local trains of Mumbai for the first time. We includes four other friends besides yours truly. And since I don’t want to be bashed up for telling you about their silly acts, let us call them Opal, X, Alan and Rav.

Nature's bounty

I am living on the seventh floor in New Bachelor Hostel now. btw, how do u define a "new bachelor"?
It rained for the first time today. And the view from my balcony was awesome. There are no buildings to block my view. So I see only tree-covered hills and a blue sky above. I've been told that we can literally walk through clouds when it rains. I'm waiting..
The best time view is in the morning. The sun's rays' interplay on the hills, the shifting patches of sunlight. Gives a lovely start to the day.
The campus is about 5000 acres in area. I think half of it must be greenery. And we are not the only ones in Mother Nature's lap, there are scores of red-faces monkeys too. Even one of the guys found the monkey-babies cute, merrily clinging to their mothers as they walk. Also, there's a cute cat who lives near the canteen. She's still afraid of me but not of the lassi that I gave her.
The campus reminds me often of home, I guess nature will always be like a home away from home...