thewittyshit.com

Hi friends,

This post is about my venture, thewittyshit.com

Being a creative guy, I failed to succumb to the technical jargons that IIT had to offer to me, and I decided to take the uncommon path - the entrepreneurial path. My start-up is an online-networking-cum-merchandising venture, which will be focussed around one-liners fabricated by the aam-aadmi.

We've openings for young and dynamic people who would be interested in working full-time or part-time with us. If you're interested, read the careers section below.

About us:

www.thewittyshit.com is a networking-cum-merchandising website intended to tap surges of creativity in common people by creating a network of people who are good with words(especially one-liners), providing them a customizable-space to record and host their 'witcraft' and giving them an opportunity to get incentives for the same by merchandising. We believe that quotes are for those who don't have a say for themselves. And if you've the wit, you're equipped, to fabricate your own quotes.

With us, you can get your facebook status messages and tweets recorded, hosted and reach a larger audience with your signature attached to it. We are here to host your quotes in the masses. If your quote gets popular, we would bring out a product featuring your quote and give you royalty from the sales. Just be with us and see how your little creativity can fetch you a lot!

Careers:

At thewittyshit.com, you’ll find people obsessed with the word called ‘communication’. We’re all about communication - communicating through written words, communicating visually through designs and communicating verbally. Not that we do it because we love sharing our thoughts and ideas, but rather because we love to get to know the thoughts and ideas of the other side – your side. We love enthusiastic people, who know how to take fun from the work that they do for us and make work fun for the people around. After all, how boring is this life without an exclamation mark!

Our work focuses on marketing strategies to target youth(especially college students), graphic designing to cater to the gen-x needs, supply chain analytics, web-development and maintenance, product development, plagiarism-check algorithms and inventing smart financial and publicity schemes.

If communication is your passion and you’ve the guts to imagine out-of-the-box communication solutions, you’re born to be a wit-maker! We, being passionate wit-makers ourselves, are the most active users as well as staunch critics of our services and we think we understand what we need and how to get it. Despite being a start-up, we promise a handsome remuneration if you’re ready to show your mettle, plus a lot of enriching work experience for you to carry for your lifetime.

See our current openings:

Marketing Team:

1. College Student Ambassadors

Responsibilities:

• Host our brand in your college and market our products(tees) there.

• Help us organize slogan and design competition in your college.

Qualifications Required:

• A college-level significant position of responsibility would be great!

2. Business Outreach Executives

Responsibilities:

• Pitching a plethora of colleges and companies.

• Convincing people, conveying what we are all about and what do we offer!

3. Marketing Lead –

Responsibilities:

• Talking to your team members

• Coordinating their job, assigning them targets and deadlines.

• Devising astute marketing strategies to reach out to the maximum crowd.

Qualifications Required:

• A significant position of responsibility in the cultural or technical fest of your college.

• Previous work experience in any start-up or NGOs would be an icing on the cake!

Design Team:

1. Graphic Designer

Responsibilities:

• Poster designing for events and competitions that we organize.

• Information brochure design.

• Visiting cards design

2. Textile Designer

Responsibilities:

• Designing of T-shirts

• Creating characters, mascots and logos for assignments.

Pre-requisite: One should be proficient with Photoshop and Corel Draw.

Web-development Team

Web-Designer

Responsibilities –

• Giving an aesthetic feel to the website.

• Working on Drupal modules.

Pre-requisites: Should be fully aware about the CMS Drupal. Must have some work experience in the same.

Prerequisites for each of the above openings:

(a) Enthusiasm (b) Enthusiasm, and (c) Enthusiasm.

No matter what college are you in, no matter what place you reside currently, if you've the passion and the required skill-set, we have a position for you.

Question yourself:

1.Do you want to work with determined creative entrepreneurs?

2. Do you think you're capable enough to contribute in any of these domains?

3. Are you enthusiastic enough to be a wit-maker?

If yes, mail us your resumes and a 'statement of purpose' at thewittyshit@gmail.com, our team'll get back to you immediately.

P.S. Follow our facebook page - to remain informed - http://www.facebook.com/thewittyshit

The Law of Attraction

Hello people.

It's 4.25 pm and I am sitting on a comfortable chair, light brown in colour and am staring at the monitor in front of me, with alphabets being poured down on the screen according to my wish. There are headphones in my ears and they are playing the song 'Here I am' by Bryan Adams into my ears. Incidentally that's my favorite song too, having the best combination of lyrics, music as well as the feeling of hope embellishing the soft background.

In one hour, I am going to have my first tryst with a foreign language i.e. French. I had no special plans of learning a foreign language lately, though I would have done it some time later in my life, since my semester schedule this time is already packed with tiresome courses and a stimulating research project, but around a week ago, I got an internship for the coming summer in France, in the city of wine - Bordeaux and I got very enthusiastic about visiting the land of renaissance. To enjoy my stay to the fullest, I decided to learn French, whose classes start from today. It's going to be an interesting experience, I sincerely hope so.

As a matter of fact, I wanted to share something. No, it was not the news of my internship, rather it's my experience with the law of attraction. To those who have not heard/read about 'The Law of Attraction', I would urge you to read the book called 'The Secret' by Rhonda Byrne. For your ease, I am giving its crux - the law of attraction states that - if you really want something and truly believe it's possible, you'll get it. There she had talked about something called as a vision board, where she asks us to paste pictures of whatever you want to have, since nothing stimulates universe more than a want backed up by visualization.

In December, I was down with typhoid when, just to pass my time, I took a photo of mine and edited it in photoshop and placed myself in front of Eiffel Tower, with my index finger touching its apex, quite gleefully. It came out looking quite realistic and I told my cousin sister Aishy, 'See, this is a photograph from the future, I am going to France this summer,' just out of the blues. Throughout December, I had applied to USA for internships hoping to get a chance to visit the land of Obama. But all the replies that I got were negative. I didn't apply to Europe at all, since I was too much into US. And then I left applying for internship even, the heap of rejection took its toll on my perseverence. Throughout these days, my photoshopped image of measuring Eiffel Tower's height with my hand adorned my desktop and my gtalk profile pic.

In Jan, I came back to IIT and got busy in many useless things, leaving the internship thingy completely at bay. However, one day, just out of the blues, I went to a friend of mine, who gave me the email id of one professor in France. I came back to my room and sent an application to the Professor and the day later, I got the invitation later. I was euphoric. You should have seen me then. The smile on my face didn't fade for almost two days. I got an internship in France with the very first application that I sent, though I'd sent around 120 apps in US and got rejected every time because of funds shortage or inavailability of vacancy. The time when I had given up hope, this miracle happened. Isn't it incredible?

I am sharing the picture that I modified in December. I know I am looking stupid, but please bear with me. It isn't about me after all, it's about the law of attraction.

Remember - Whatever your mind can conceive, it can achieve. Trust me. Now I got to go, am getting late for my French class. Au revoir(bye). Bon Jour(Good Day).

Back...

Synergy has been lacking energy from my end, courtesy to my great passion for laziness and recently discovered talent at idleness. It's so cool to be lazy, after all. In the last one month, I've got plenty of developments at my end which I would like people to get updated with. Here are some of them :

• I experienced constipation in my life for the first time. It was an awesome experience, I must say. Even the fundamental phrase 'shit happens' ceased to exist in my life for almost two days. Yes, two days! God only knows why he chose me out of so many bad people like you around for this divine experience. After surviving the dread, I must admit - it really feels suffocating 'there' when you're 'blocked'.

• The second news is more disgusting than the first one - yes, I've not seen 'Wake Up Sid!' yet. I have got good reviews from almost everyone I know, be it from mess workers to rickshaw-walas and even my expert friends who sit idle and blog day and night for more useless hours than me.

• The third news is a bit on the light side - after just one month of its release, my novel has sold around 3000 copies till now and the third print is coming in about two weeks. Regular mails from the readers keep me satisfied and elated all time. Now, I can proudly say that I've got 'fans', with no blades.

• One of my stories from Graffiti, titled, 'Will you die for me?' has been selected in the soon-to-be-releasing famous book - 'Chicken Soup for the Indian Romantic Soul'. That's a good enough achievement to boost the morale for a budding writer like me.

• I am having exams from today - just 12 hours ahead and I am quite relishing the fact that I am in synergy with my long forgotten blog.

Hope to have a good time in the days to come and all the best wishes to you for Diwali and coming holidays(if there are any!) from my side. Good night and take care.

P.S. You've reached the end of this post. And now you realize that in the end, it does not even matter.

Yo!

A BIG NEWS in my life:

My Professor has just offered me to do a Ph.D under his guidance, if I 'wish'. No competition, no examinations, direct admission. Hmm, the universe is conspiring to let me realize my destiny. :)

P.S. If you think you can, or you think you can't; you're right - Henry Ford

Quantum Leap

Friends,

I am not getting time, seriously, have loads of work at hand. Plenty of stories are in the assembly line waiting for things to settle. I am leaving on 15th and my stagnant blog would be bloomed only after I step in her majesty's land. Meanwhile, I am making a new blog(photo-blog, I suppose) to encompass my 'Videsh Yatra'. I named it Quantum Leap and that can be accessed at :

http://quantumwanderings.blogspot.com/

The Stepping Stone

Have you ever had a flash of idea? An idea which can make you lose your sleep, can overpower your thinking so vehemently that no moment passes without it. If not then certainly you are missing an important ingredient of life, called passion. I am not here to preach you about passion but I want to share my experience with my passion. For those who don't know, I have written a novel titled 'Oops! 'I' fell in love!' which is due its release this August. It is a comedy of errors in a vulnerable small-town guy's tryst with love in this strange Delhi.

After writing this bit of humorous thingy, an irresistible urge to write something with a message - impactful but without any trace of philosophy - came within me. My urge to get this flash of idea made me into a story-teller and in the meantime I wrote about five stories which turned quite impressive(even to me!). Ideas for a dozen more of these are in the assembly line waiting for my exams to end, but none of them could help me out with the theme for my next novel, until the day before.

It's a matter of just yesterday. After struggling for over a month to find MY IDEA I have finally got it ~ in just a flash of second. I was sitting in the library and reading my plasma notes with the concentration of a drunken driver when I was shaken by this thought. The idea traced back to my last article '18+' in Graffiti and it made me think of an issue which could be addressed in a novel which is still(hopefully) not thought of by anyone else on this planet!

Friends, I have an immense pleasure in announcing that I have got a theme for my next novel. With AIDS as the backdrop, I would address the issue, "If a sufferer is deprived of love and care, what devastating impact he/she can have on the society!" I am not disclosing the plot, nor am I going to publish it on blog. I would be working silently on this theme for the next half of year and then come up with my creation materialized in my hand.

It is a very dark theme and demands quite a lot of research at my end. The moment I got this idea, my mind jumped in thrill and enthusiasm. I called two of my closest friends and shared my excitement with them, they instilled faith in me by being very appreciative of my plot and even the uniqueness of idea. I searched my mobile contact list and I felt really bad that I could not share it with anybody else since either they would not share the same excitement as me or they would be too critical.(It happens, as I've seen that if you bestow the right to judge your work to someone who has no niche in your field of art, they tend to be over-critical, they start thinking that they are the God! Offences meant!)

AN EXCERPT FROM MY DIARY:
20th April

With great hope at night I called my Dad and said, "Dad, I have got that flash - my BIG idea! I am going to write about AIDS, in a completely different perspective! Dark theme!"

I then went on to discuss my whole plot with him and he showed some mixed reactions - happy but fearful.

"It will serve two purposes - (a) Create awareness about AIDS in an impactful way, and (b) develop respect amongst people towards the affected few. We are educated ones and I think I will create a long-lasting impact on the society with a dark theme instead of the same happy ending themes. For that I would need to meet AIDS affected people and need their story of discrimination plus their feelings towards society." I continued.

To which Dad replied, "That's really innovative, brilliant sketch. But don't mix up with those AIDS affected ones too much. Avoid shaking hands or even accepting something from their hand or any physical proximity. Always maintain safe distance from them."

I was stunned. I replied, "Dad, you know everything about how AIDS occurs and it is not communicable, but still! I am shocked. I am sorry to inform you that your advice worked in the wrong way. These words of yours have made me a thousand times more enthusiastic about doing immense research in writing this. I would meet the affected people, shake hands with them and even hug them. And I will change this very perception of people around me."

Dad did not reply. Perhaps, his inner voice saying that his son is right overpowered his fatherly protective feelings for me. I instantly knew that he inwardly desired me to break free from all these social taboos and reach out to my dream!

"Thank you Dad." I said.

"I am proud of you son!" He said. There were tears in my eyes, and I could see his eyes too filled with tears, which were however 1000 kms away from me. I smiled anticipating the green signal in the path of my dream.

P.S. I love you Dad.

Graffiti

To reduce the accumulation of any more 'Kahani' in my personal blog Synergy, I have made another blog titled 'Graffiti'. The word literally means - a rude decoration inscribed on rocks or walls and can be metaphorically linked to scratches of my mind and imagination while creating stories. The stories, which are numerous to recount and are in the assembly line demanded a separate quantum number for their residence, so here it is Graffiti, ladies and their non-gentlemen:

http://anotherscratchinmymind.blogspot.com/

The way to remember is simple. When you forget the link, just start scratching your mind and another scratch in your mind will sublimate your oblivion. Good Night.

P.S. Check out the recent one in Graffiti. For the first time I wrote something meaningful.

Concurrent Diary

Quite a long break from my blog, it had been quite too long for me, I suppose. The month that passed brought many things in my life, plenty of surprises and good fortunes to see those who comprises the heart of India.

Three events simultaneously made the last one month kinda' overwhelming and amazing at the same time.

@ SPIC MACAY: Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth, a society which preserves the essence of Indian music and renders its diversity amongst youth rocked the pavement of my alma mater in the last week of march. Maestros of world fame sparked their divine presence in midst of the students and the visitors from all around the capital. Started in 1977, by Dr.Kiran Seth - a professor of IIT Delhi, this organization now encompasses not only the whole nation but also various segments around the globe. Dr.Seth has been bestowed with a padmashree this year for his inexpressible contribution towards the promotion of Indian Classical Music across the different stratas of people. I had the privilege of seeing maestros like Ravi Shankar & Anoushka Shankar(Sitar), Ustad Zakir Hussain(Tabla), Pt.Hariprasad Chaurasia(Flute), Pt.Shiv Kumar Sharma(Santoor), Ustad Asad Ali Khan(Rudra Veena) and Rashid Khan(Vocals). Spell-binding, nothing less than mesmerizing, was their performance and their the nuances of sur and taal were crafted with perfection.

@ National Science Day - 28th Feb, 2009 - The birthday of C.V.Raman, this day had in itself a special guest for all of us. What name does it strike your head when you are asked with the question, "Who is the greatest Indian alive?" Yeah, people Dr. Kalam visited IIT Delhi and his 10 minutes long motivation talk ignited a bubble of enthusiasm amongst all the students as well as professors present there. He ended his talk with a beautiful two line poem as follows:

When you wish upon a star
It makes no difference who you are

which is perfectly true to his personality. His wisdom was far beyond all the people present there. He took a good class of our beloved professors and for the first time, we had fun seeing professors receiving a lecture on their end.



@ My Life - Going nearly smooth.

• Studies - too much of backlog.
  
• Novel - cover has been designed, got some mixed reaction. Nevertheless, I am happy.
  
• Internship - Tickets booked, got the passport and visa to be done.
• Guitar - Speed increased enormously. Learnt raga desh and malhar on my own.
• Photography - Taken a backseat.
• Writing - Is in the dikki - behind the backseat.
• Movies - Delhi 6(3 stars), Billu(3 stars), Dev D(3.5 stars). Cindrella Man - 5 stars - worth watch!
• Saw Rushdie's interview on youtube. He is GOD - in capitals. Click here to see.

P.S. I love you

Intern ka funda!

Ah se Aha tak!
I got the call! I got my foreign internship : Glasgow University, Scotland, UK. (World Ranking 79 university, much ahead of IIT-D which stands at 135)

So, now after being successful, I got the right to write my tryst with this stuff called internship. In a series of Q & A's, I will answer all the doubts, which may turn to be of your help.

1. What is this bug called 'internship'?
-> There are companies and universities which have a provision for providing internship. What they do in an internship is that they offer a stimulating research experience or work experience during vacations especially long summer vacations.

Internship may be funded or unfunded depending on the kind of sponsors and the financial provisions of the institute or the company.

2. Why do foreign universities offer internship? Why do they pay for your expenses?
-> Offering internship to students from aboard helps the professors to enrich their CV and thus enhance their chances for promotions and future academic accomplishment. During the vacations the professors have several PhDs working on some projects and they need assistance. So, professors hire students from abroad.

The fund that they award may be from their University or some sponsors for the research that the PhDs are carrying out. Plus, there are some internship funding organizations too.

3. What are the eligibility criteria?
-> Rather than having a superb academic track-record, the thing that really matters is how you present your track-record. Organized resume, with a balanced description of your academic as well as extra-curriculars is really required. CG is important if and only if you are a non-IITian. IIT brand sells, professors get impressed in the first time they see the word IIT in your resume. I didn't mention my CGPA in my resume and it didn't make any difference.

If you're not an IITian, don't get depressed. Perform well in your institute, get a decent GPA(I am preaching about GPA, heh!) and try to get some recommendations from the professors!

N.B. Don't praise yourself too much in your resume. Be humble, even if you are basically not humble, but BE!

4. When is the right time to send the applications?
-> Start early to have an edge over your friends. One should start atleast during the mid-October. I started on 28th Oct nevertheless, but having an early offset helps you to be ahead of the rest of the janta.

5. How to find the professor?
-> There are some things more important than orkutting that internet offers you to do. Just google the word "Top 200 Universities". Go to every university, find your respective department, click on reasearch and then groups. Find the people associated with the research group and send application to any one of the group-member with the cover-letter clearly describing your enthusiasm for the research-area.

6. What input is required from you?
-> Of about 40 people in every branch, only about 8-9 people manage to get an intern in a good university. The key is not the academic qualification, but rather its perseverance that counts.

Be prepared for rejection and keep trying! Take rejection as there is something better in store for you. Interestingly, I received more than 70 rejections before I got a clear positive.

Perseverance will definitely win. I got my internship after sending more than 640 applications. Most of the people get tired after sending just a 100 or so, and that's the reason they don't get an intern!

The whole of my lecture can be summed-up in five key points:

• Present yourself well,
  
• Read their area of research,
  
• Show your enthusiasm for the topic,
• IIT-tag matters a lot
  
• Persevere, persevere and persevere

Best Wishes to all of you!
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P.S. My Stressed out self is finally happy, very happy!
P.S. Thanks to my friend Deepesh for helping me all through the way, right from resume to universities to doing the talkings.

The Break-up Prize

We had every moments spent splendidly, she had been always there with me whether it was my up or down. She was my first love and I was exceptionally fond of her, but you know, time changes everything. Our love had its own way and things started to go bad and then worse and finally to the worst. From the last few months, she had started behaving erratically. She had become numb to my emotions and she did not sound happy with me. Despite my conscious efforts to tune her attitude towards the better side, she resisted. The comfort level had been lost somewhere in the dust of time. The years of togetherness had been evil-eyed.

Tired of being sorry, my patience couldn't last for her to improve. Her behaviour was worsening regularly and at last I gave up. Annoyed, I left her last week when I found that she was irrepairable. I had not told her that I broke-up with her, since she was smart enough to understand the rift in between us. We neither hung out nor even talked to each other since I started ignoring her. She might be upset, but I don't care. She had lost her charm for all I care.

After snapping our relationship last week, I was happy, very relieved. During the last four days though, I missed the presence of that somebody in my life, I again became desperate.

I needed a girlfriend man! Someone with whom I could have more fun, someone more beautiful, sexier and with whom I could make my friends envy me. I went to many places to search for her. On my couple of visits to the best places in Delhi for finding my perfect choice, I found many sexy models. They were complete in themselves to satisfy my desires. But still I had something unknown inhibiting me from interacting with them.

Last night, I became very desperate to have that SHE in my life. I went to the other part of Delhi, which was a home to all the sexy and ravishing figures of the country. I interacted with about a dozen of super-hot models. While I was flirting with a super-slim  babe, my eyes came across Henna. If you don't believe that there exists a thing called "Love at first sight", then you are certainly wrong!

She was everything I had in my dreams. My break-up with my previous girlfriend proved to be fruitful as I found a real 'hottie'. Perfect figure, fair skin, beautiful texture and a raunchy voice. She had double the assets that my ex. She was the perfect material to make my friends jealous and even develop an inferiority complex in my ex-gf!

I asked her to accompany me, and she willingly accepted. She told that it was the first time that someone had showed so much interest in her. Being a Casa Nova, it was my forte to win hearts of ravishing beauties. I caressed her in my arms, and held her throughout I came back to my place.

In my room, I asked her to feel at ease. She was there in front of me, with a tempting charm in her body attracting me towards her. I was drawn towards her and I could not help resisting my desires. I needed her to dissolve my sorrows that had been entangled in my mind after the break-up with my first love.

I went near her and carressed her. I tickled her with my fingers and she laughed. I uncovered her body and started to touch her all around. She was sensuous, and when in my arms, I could feel that she was the one who would satisfy me to the zenith. I closed my eyes and shrugged away the rust of time from my senses. Lost in ecstasy, after a long trance of pleasure, I opened my eyes.

Standing in front of me, it was my ex-gf Eva staring at me with no emotions at all on her face. Angry, I got up with Henna still on my bed, and with coercion I locked Eva in my cupboard. She didn't even resist.

After my night stand with Henna, I took out Eva. I did not talk with her, I just let her stand in front of me. Right from the morning, Eva has been standing in front of me, withered and broken with rusted strings while my Henna, being more precious, is inside the cupboard now!

Looking at Eva, I can still feel the moments of our intimacy we had together. Amidst all these emotional turmoil, I have learnt that like grief, love also fades away with time. No-one is indispensable, new people come and make our life beautiful again. I am gonna sell Eva to someone, I just hope that she finds herself a passionate lover!

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P.S. This is the sequel to my most popular post so far "One Night Stand". Click here if you haven't read it.
P.S. Henna is something with which I can make the whole Institute jealous. It's a twelve string - double the assets, remember?
P.S. Henna is worth 8k bucks! She is broader, fairer and sexier. An electric guitar can never compete with the harmony of acoustic one.
P.S. Click here for having a glimpse of Henna.

Awed to envy...

For the past 15 minutes, I was on the rickshaw, having no faint idea of the way ahead. I told the rickshaw wala, "I need to get to Daryaganj - near the mosque." The rickshaw was trotting ahead and I enjoyed the view sideways. No, there weren't any girls there, but there was a majestic monument - The Jama Masjid, with elegant red textured walls. The other side of the road had a chain of slaughterers, butchers and spice-dwellers, the smell along the road was not at all pleasing my nasal cavity. A sudden advent of some dark clouds pleased my sun-warmed body. I was quite relishing the other side of Delhi - which contained an air of Mughal era in itself. Old architecture, sufi houses and small dhabas provided a periphery to my curious vision. Small roads, too many rickshaws and 'thelas', and ultra small shops retailing paper, clothes and glasswares brought back the memories of the Arabian Nights back into my mind.

A sudden voice brought back my mind to the present moment, I had reached the mosque and rickshaw-wala was demanding his reward for dropping me to the place. I gave him his share of my wallet, and went on to inquire about the shop that made me visit such a remote area of my city. The guy told me, "Just follow these stairs, the shop is at the third floor." About a half-century of helical steps gave me a sight - An ultra-modern heaven in between these small shops. Awed, definitely, I opened my sandals and entered the place. My eyes grew bigger and bigger to its maximum radius as what I observed was a childhood dream come true. It had every thing, every possible brand right from Fender to Givson, starting from a mere 3000 bucks to as high as 94,000 bucks. I was wondering that someday I win a lottery and purchase the whole shop. Clarinet, piccolo, ukulele, cello, pedals, double bases, tenor sax to the twelve-strings., you think of any of them - it was there. You might be wondering what I am talking about? If you haven't got it till now then let me elaborate. The shop had every kind of synthesizer, even the Yamaha electronic drum-set worth Rs 1.5 lacs and ranges of violin from a simple one to the elite. (You got that, I know!) Amidst this rural outset, this monolithic shop had it all, all the musical instruments, all the brands and everything one can think of. It was a kind of musical instruments library - just no lending was possible. I tried my hands upon a V-shaped electronic guitar worth 23,000 bucks and it was a fabulous experience. After spending 2 hours in the shop, analyzing every small detail of the instruments, I finally made up my mind(and my wallet too!) to purchase something. I finally gave upon a German chromatic harmonica(popularly known as mouthorgan) worth 550 rupees and was overjoyed at its mellifluous voice.

The return journey to my hostel was a very thoughtful one, my mind still being intrigued and awed by the wonderful sight I just saw, and a part of me pushing me to acquire the whole shop someday. In the midst of happiness and temptations, the auto moved along the road transmitting me from the remote area to the ultra-modern capital of the nation. Back home, there was nothing but a smile on my face showing my happiness on a nano-scale. I placed the harmonica in my drawer and had an ecstatic siesta!

P.S. Clarinet, piccolo, ukulele, cello, pedals, double bases, tenor sax are musical instruments.
P.S. The shop's name is Bhargava's Music. It is in Daryaganj. Do pay visit to it once in your lifetime. I bet you can't resist being awed!
P.S. Yes, I know how to play harmonica, I am not prevaricating!
P.S. Did you know that harmonica is the largest selling musical instrument in the world.
P.S. An advice - consulting a dictionary-cum-thesaurus while seeing a word is much more conducive for developing a good word power than consulting only a dictionary.
P.S. Today's movie : What women want.

There is no such thing as free lunch :

Amidst the sultry atmosphere of Delhi, what’s more chilling than the air-condition of a PVR. Not much, just 200 bucks were all it demanded to provide me a comfy seat in the second row. My neck tried to revolt a bit, but could not succeed in fighting my strict mind(and lusty eyes for Genelia). Having already filled the accounts of my stomach with an affordable McSwirl cone and an Alu Tikki Burger of McDonalds(Frankly speaking, I’m not lovin‘ it), it was only my thirst that kept haunting me intermittently.

After a two digit prime number of security checks, finally I got into the celebrated PVR plaza at the Connaught Place to watch one of the most celebrated movies of this season. As I was hopping around here and there to catch a glimpse of a really pretty blonde, my eyes found something that I had been desperately wanting. It was not a girl, nor any poster of Angelina Jolie, but it was HLMNO.(HLMNO = H2O = Water) Just outside the entry of the screening theatre, there was a big board proclaiming proudly - “FREE DRINKING WATER”(the font for this slogan was Times but I am using Arial, hope you don't mind). Seeing that, my thirst could not wait for quenching itself. The word FREE in the last phrase was in bold fonts, to display the big-heart of the PVRs. I assured my mind saying, “Chalo, they have been a bit generous by not charging for water.” While I was gulping the chilled water, my mobile vibrated, it was a message from airtel. As I was putting back the mobile(that's the new Sony K530i) in my pocket, I found a paper in the pocket. I pulled out the paper and found that it was a PVR ticket. I carefully observed it. The miser part of my brain suddenly got up from its deep slumber, as what I observed startled me. It was a strange realization - 200 bucks for a movie, bloody heck, they charged for everything they had. The water with the slogan “FREE DRINKING WATER” was not actually free but was included in the ticket only.

The PVRs have been a status symbol for people, as only the elite class can afford them. But the fact is - this very elite class is the most foolish class. They are so extravagant that they buy popcorns whose original price could not exceed 10 rupees by any chance, in 120 rupees. After taking a sip from a 300 ml glass of coke worth Rs.60, guys think that they are too smart or too intelligent. This artificial society has done nothing wrong for deserving all this. Its actually the mastermind of sharp businessmen. Businessmen target the soft spots, they earn money from so subtle sources that ordinary people have no other choice other than envy them. Can you, by any chance, find it logical paying 120 bucks for a cup of coffee in Barista? (special cases involving couples or dates not included!)

The point here I am making is - Should there be any upper-limit to profit making? If there should be then it would paralyze the whole economy. Economy requires freedom to grow, people have the rights to sell their ideas at what price the consumer is willing to pay them, but certainly, the businessmen and corporate levels executive should have a social and moral responsibility to the society. Being a federal economy, Indians have right to sell their ideas making as much ‘greenery’ as possible, but what common people like us want is an honest dealing. What's going on here in PVRs and Malls is nothing less than a loot. The things which we are purchasing in a particular price should more or less be of equal value. The businessmen have implied a shrewd way to extract more money from the society by limiting the access to these 'so called' elite places to lower classes and the middle classes. Places like Barista or Café Coffee Day entertain high class customers with ample green notes to feed their next generations. But very strategically, they cut the access to the general people by their roaring coffee rates. Considering the business, this is a very smart strategy as

• They are making as much profit as they would have by lowering the prices .
  
• They have to entertain less and less people.
• Their restaurants or coffeehouses are much less crowded and well-organized.
  

After seeing all this, I feel that India is certainly a growing economy. This price hike should be normalized and government should make some charges on the high prices. But if this monopoly of prices continues, then sooner or later, people would be buying breads crumbs and laces for shoes for more than hundred bucks!

P.S. The film was Jaane Tu…Ya Jaane Na. Film was good, the heroine was better and certainly the music was the best. The movie did not have ‘Aamir Khan class’, though.
P.S. McDonalds should have more seats.
P.S. PVR stands for Priya Village Roadshow. Did you know that?
P.S. Finally heavy showers arrived in the Capital.
P.S. Zigzag spellings : Millionaire and questionnaire. Most people get the italicized portions wrong.
P.S. Today's Song : Yaadein by Amit Sana
P.S. The bottomline is A.R.Rahman rocks.

Trespassers will be Rusticated :

Yesterday, don’t know what happened, an idea cropped up out of nowhere in our minds to visit insti top at midnight. We were idling around after the House Day of Jwalamukhi Hostel, and finally went up to the insti roof after much persuasions to many of my friends. Our bunch of young men and women, showing their gymnastics skills in trespassing the closed gates at the insti top atlast found the place worth for all the efforts they had put in. The breeze blowing was romantic and adding to the romance was the bright moon-light inducing inertia in our eyes. Dancing in our own rhythm, we were feeling at heaven. But things don’t always remain as simple as it seems. Our joy was evil-eyed. The culprits behind our short-lived joy are the ones who have enough power to make us dance in their own kind of DISCO(DISciplinary COmmittee). They are popularly known as GUARDs(as if a south-indian guy is pronouncing GOD). Their heroic entry induced adrenaline in many of my friends, somebody’s heart pumping blood at twice the rate, somebody’s mind working at a wondrous pace to provide excuses for our great deed.Of the seven of us three of my friends fled away(flight from fight, but not for long).

Surprisingly, I was quite calm because somewhere deep inside my heart I was assured that nothing serious is gonna happen. That’s probably because I was a bit more experienced in breaking the rules; having already dated security officers earlier when I jumped over the hostel gates at 3 o’clock at night after watching that torturous movie RGV ki AAG(Friends thanks for all your sympathy for me for having tolerated that torture). Waise, insti top was not too risky especially when there are no boundary-edges at the top of a building of ten storeys and its assured that if u get a chance to have a peaceful and instantaneous death, it’s undoubtedly the best option.

Coming back to the story, we four followed our able leader, a guard; providing him the best available excuses. He lead us to the king of ‘em all : The Security Incharge. He fired us with questions having no patience to hear our explanations to them. And to add to the spice of the scene, we were asked to call the three of them who fled away…lol…God does not spare anyone(GOD in this case is equivalent to the Security Incharge)..Anyways coming back to the point…when you do mistake there is remorse….which was quite visible in all our eyes; our able acting touched the heart of the GOD and he forbade his mercy upon us…asking us to write an APOLOGY LETTER and bestow them with our prestigious signatures(which he will store forever and will show to his grand-children for sure)…He warned us for the last time(though the time when I was jumping the gate, it was the last time too)…This not only provided us the opportunity to make our name and entry no. famous but also our hostel and room no. to be in those prestigious pages. Just coming out of security in charge’s cabin…we maintained a sorry face until we went far away from the cabin and found nobody near to read our face when our sorry face suddenly sprang up into a mischievous one…..we had a naughty smiles on our face and a deep underlying sense of achieving something great...out of this world…And I said, "Maza aya yaar", and all my friends reciprocated to it saying, "Sahi mein yaar"… a couple of ice-teas at NESCI brought us back to our ground level…and Shirshendu describing the whole incident in his superb gestures - full of expressions, added flavour to the ice-teas….
Now 6 in the morning, with the morning sun glorifying my whole surrounding with its funny light, I sense a tingle whenever I remember about yesterday. It is an experience which I will cherish the whole life…unless I have an attack of amnesia…


P.S.The photo displays the entry of the Insti Roof...It has to do nothing with the yesterday's event..it is just added to make the whole description more vivid...The fence remains closed at night and we jumped across this fence.

Being in IIT : The first semester

It has been about five months in IIT and I need to pen down my learnings and experiences. A senior told me that these four years would be the most wonderful years of my life and indeed it turns out to be.


The day begins with 23rd july......orientation processes begins.....

The orientation programmes and registration processes themselves extracted much of the enthusiasm from almost all the entrants. Can you believe that the professors were teaching moral science to a bunch of 17-19 years students. Morality cannot be taught, it can only be imbibed by setting an example.

Here comes August....and our semester starts......

The first class was an ultimate bore one. The professor was a shock for a lifetime. All our hopes and expectations came to the ground level.

The second class was somewhat better and thereon the process of continuous evaluation was started. There were workshops, chemistry practicals all in the afternoon and all carried marks to be added at the semester end. We cursed the system for having such a harsh time-table. After having a full-bowl of rice how can they expect us to stay awake in the afternoon sessions of practicals and lectures.The amount of curses that i blessed our beloved Institute and its faculties was greater than the total abuses that ever came from my mouth.

IIT is basically a one-eyed king among all the different blind colleges.The professors, leaving a few, are worse than hell. How can the Institute appoint ordinary professors to teach the sharpest minds of India. The teachers lack enthusiasm. They mug up and come in class. The condition is even worse in tutorials , where teachers are so shameless that they come in class with a piece of paper and ask the students to solve the tutorial-sheets and they note the solutions.

I wondered whether i had taken the right decision in opting the branch at Delhi which was available to me at Bombay too. For the first few weeks i was a bit disappointed.But, thereafter things started to settle.I started enjoying. Couple of movies at the PVRs, me being selected in the hostel footie team and late-night strolls in the campus made me feel at ease.

The other thing that kept me going was the students. I am mesmerized by the IITians to a great extent.There is something mysterious and unpredictable in every IITian. Each and every IITian has something different from the rest of the world. Their taste(be it of books, music, movies or arts), their tendency of going to the grass-root level about anything they are passionate about,their simplicity,their lateral thinking,their curiosity,their interest in trying out new things, their tendency to keep on trying until they succeed and most importantly their humbleness are out of this world. It feels great that AIR 15 and Air 27 are giving importance to a person with a much lower rank.

Having friends who are gold medallists in international olympiads is nothing ordinary and that is where IIT takes a lead from every other college. It provides the best atmosphere for any scientific and non-scientific pursuits.It provides an opportunity for ordinary people like me to become extraordinary.

Coming back to the scenario, for the first two weeks the fear of ragging engrossed our minds the whole day. We always used to move in groups.But the seniors were themselves inexperienced in ragging and they were caught by the anti-ragging squad when they were taking our introduction(poor they!). Now, we feel that ragging should have been there, it would have allowed more interaction of ours with the seniors and would have helped us to take initiatives in the various activities of our hostel. And when I was selected in the hostel football team this interaction developed and almost all the seniors became my friends.

The inter-hostel competitions are a trademark of IITD. And i feel really fortunate for opting Delhi as my institute because it is the best among all the IITs for the cultural pursuits. The first event of the first semester was duo-dancing competition. The high enthusiasm among various hostels was mind-blowing and the cheering gave us a feeling of belongingness towards our hostel. We cheered our hostel representatives and condescended other hostels. It was a great feeling.

Our hostel being a new one provides us ample opportunity to showcase our talents. I took part in Fusion Nite and played the synthesizer.It was great to work in a team and I got to learn many things from my band-mates. Then came the street play. The whole street play was organised by first yearites and it made me shed my inhibitions.

I became one of the most naughty boy in my hostel. I played many pranks with my friends. It was fun being at hostel(even at the cost of lectures...:)). My friends would regard me as the most "kamina banda" of the hostel.

After 1st minors, i became highly disorganized. I slept late and woke up late and missed almost all my morning lectures. But the interesting thing here is that I never regretted of missing one. Thats because the professors at IITD suck. While coaching for JEE, I never missed any of my classes as my teachers were great and it was a pleasure to attend their classes.

Amidst all these activities I always managed to get time for introspection and reading some outbooks : I read Surely You're Joking Mr.Feynman and One Night at the Call Centre and revised Autobiography of a Yogi for the third time.

Night-out before exams are a common thing in IIT. Almost all the exams that I gave, i used to stay awake whole night before. When came the exams, I sat almost without any preparations(night outs leave u oblivious) and as expected I got poor grades. I know i am responsible for this and now i have stopped blaming the circumstances for this.

During this periods there came a virus inside me of writing testimonials on orkut of my friends. Everytime i logged in orkut, i would end up writing testimonials for some of my friend. I wrote a total of 40 testimonials for my orkut friends. This made me glad that at least i am doing something different. This virus is still working and I am doing a lot of writing nowadays.

I joined the institute with no strategy at all. I was just too much excited. I wanted to enjoy life as for the first time i was independent. There was no-one to scold me if i don't study. And am glad to see that i did it. I followed what interested me.

I am totally satisfied with what I have done. I am glad to experience how it feels if no-one tells me to study, when there is no pressure by society and relatives to study. I have enjoyed each and every moment of this first semester and I am proud of what I have done.

I gotta know many things about myself, my psychology, my interests, my thought-process, my hidden talents and I have developed immense self-belief.

I have become a theist and have started looking for deeper vistas of life. Met some awesomely beautiful people and imbibed some qualities from them. I have started exploiting my creativity to the fullest. Most importantly, i have started loving myself.