The Final War...

Caution: Long Post!

The battle is over. The battle whose beginning lies in the oblivion of my mind, the battle interspersed with many wars, a victory in each giving way to the next. The battle, the last war of which was the largest and deadliest.

In this age of competition, where people are practically running at a breathtaking speed to secure their livelihood, the first concern that a parent faces when a child is born is of his living. They leave out no straws to ensure that the child gets a good job, probably better than theirs' and lead a decent life when he grows up. And the preparation of this fight for livelihood starts at the very beginning, when the mother teaches the child A, B, C, D, or when the father tries to get the child an admission in the best Montessori. Then the wars come along one by one. The war of getting the highest marks in a subject, the war of terminal examinations in school, the war of standing first in class, these wars typically shape up the Childhood of a person and give way to his youth. At the dawn of youth, the person is exposed to something more challenging, the board exams, and then the college entrance tests, for these wars are vital for the battle.

Well, even I fought these stereotype wars. And my battle culminated with one single war, the largest of them all, the placements! In my previous post, I had spoken about placement pretty lightly. Well, I had taken it lightly till then, for I had an impression that for a electronics guy with a fairly good performance record, placements would be a piece of cake. But then, I finally felt some sort of pressure on the night before my first entrance into the arena. For the kgp junta, placements started from 3rd December. For me, it started from 4th, because I was not interested in finance companies or i-banks. On 4th, I applied in nVidia and Cisco Systems and qualified the written test for both. But the interviews were like nightmares. In nVidia, I was an idiot enough not to have solved the rest of the written paper before the interview. And in Cisco, I faltered even when asked the simplest algorithm. nVidia made its intention clear even before the results were out, and Cisco rejected me after first interview, bringing my first day of placement to an early end.

Dejected and demoralized, I took the next day off, i.e. the 5th. There were no core companies and I spent the whole day ramping up digital circuits, object oriented programming and C++. The next day, a confident me took the written test of Mentor Graphics and made it through to the interview. But again, I faltered at the interview, because they asked questions not from C++, but from C, and that too pointers and memory management. Also, my performance in the circuit questions were pathetic. Still, on the 6th night, I waited for the results till the dead of night, only to learn that another company had rejected me. Now, even more demoralized, even more dejected, and in the mortal fear of failing to secure a job at all, I walked back to my room at 3 in the morning to find that the test of SanDisk, is scheduled at 7 a.m!!

I slept for 2 hours, and then madly rushed through the books on analog electronics so that I would at least have a chance in SanDisk. Yet, I failed to clear the written test. Then, the next test scheduled was for Adobe Systems, a core Computer Science company. Initially, before the start of placement season, when I was shortlisting companies, I had included Adobe only half heartedly, not sure whether I would like to pursue a career in Software. But now, I hardly had any doubts in my mind. I appeared in the Adobe test, and am sure, scored full marks in the first two sections and fairly well in the next. Thereafter, I had my lunch and returned to my room at around 1.30 pm, only to learn that Magma Design had scheduled its test at 4 pm. I decided on a quick nap. At 3 pm, a placement representative called me up to inform that I have been shortlisted for Adobe interviews and need to be there by 3.30 pm. Dressing in formals were no more a new thing, and by 3.15, I was at the site. Also, to our great fortune, the Magma written test was postponed to 5 pm. So, I gave my first technical interview in Adobe, which went pretty well, I answered all questions related to algorithms and programming, but faltered in computer architecture. Anyways, I was called for a second interview at 6 pm. So I rushed for the Magma test. Magma was hiring for two profiles, hardware and software. God knows what happened to me, in spite of my hardware background, I appeared for software and qualified. Thereafter, I again rushed back for the second round of Adobe interview, which went like a dream. I never knew I could be this good. Then there was another round, in which I again faltered in architecture. Thereafter, there was a HR round, which went uneventfully.

After Adobe was over, I rushed back to Magma at around 11 p.m. My interview was scheduled originally at 1.30 a.m, but was later rescheduled to 11.30 p.m. The first interview went pretty well, because by this time, I was quite confident in software. I was asked for a second round, in which I answered all the questions asked. Finally, I returned to my room at 1 a.m, only to realize how hungry I am. So I went to cheddis and had some Maggi. At around 2 a.m, I again went to TnP to check the results. The Magma interviews were not yet over, so results were not out. But somebody told me, I was through in Adobe. It was unofficial, but still, unofficial stuff in kgp is more official than anything because of high student participation in the placement machinery. But yet I waited, only to find out, at 3 a.m in the morning, that the battle was finally over, the final war had finally been won! I was placed at Adobe Systems, posted at Noida!

I came back to my room and called home. My mother, worried as to what might have happened to force me call at such odd hours was the first to get the news. She asked me to get some sleep first and celebrate later. The next day, I woke up at 8 in the morning, and met the Adobe officials as is customary. Then, I submitted a declaration in TnP that I actually accept the offer. Thereafter, it was all silent, all lull! Quite contrary to what I have imagined the situation would be after I get placed. Then, I realized, I was standing like a lone winner in a battlefield, while most of the other soldiers were still fighting. And those who had won had already left.

So here is wishing all those soldiers who are fighting the biggest war of their life's largest battle a very best of luck. May you all get placed soon and prosper in your life.

On the eve...

So this is how it feels to see things materialize in front of you, things that you have once dreamt about, things that at one point of time demanded so much of your thoughts, influenced so much of your decisions, things that you have once lived for, things for which you could even lay down your lives, things that you have eagerly awaited since time immemorial. Yes, finally its placement season in kgp, something that every kgpian await eagerly, something that keeps a kgpian going even in the toughest of the days, be it working for days straight trying to complete an assignment or be it trying to digest the inedible shit in the mess. And today, as I write on the eve of the placement season, it seems as if I can see the dreams, hopes and expectations of a thousand young minds materialize in front of me.

Yes, I am in final year too, and will surely be trying to secure a job for me, preferably with a good salary and work profile. But then, all those dreams, those thoughts, those hopes, I don't seem to be able to find them. With placements around the corner, my sight seems to be fixed on something even further. All of a sudden, something that influenced my life till today, something that forced me to come to IIT, seems to have become meaningless, inconsequent. Three odd years ago, on this very day, I would be sitting in my room, wondering when I would get placed, when I would be able to lead an independent, secured life. Stuff that appeared to be everything that day seems to be hardly of any importance now. For today, I hardly care for jobs. I seem to be more concerned about what would happen to my applications in the universities, whether I would get through CAT, whether I would be able to publish a paper before I leave IIT.

Guess this is life. No body ever seem to be consented with what they have achieved or even with what seems achievable to them. While this sure is a sign of the ever progressing mankind, one can not deny the sense of insecurity, depression and agony this brings along. And when ever you try to stop, to protest, you are silenced by some cheesy quotes from some motivating poetry, stuff like, "rest if you must, but don't you quit"!

Moving on...

Did you ever have to move on? Were you ever asked to get over somebody or something? Were you ever asked to forget something that in your recent occupied a large portion of your life? Did you ever fail, and in an attempt to recover from that failure and stand up to face the world, try to surgically remove all memories of that particular person or thing from your mind? Well, if your answer to any of these questions is an "yes", then you know what moving on is.

Well, for others, moving on is not that easy as is shown in series and movies. Consider a mild example. You are trying hard to get through an exam. You devote every single minute of every single day of say an year in its preparations. Then, on the final day, something goes wrong. That's when you try to move on, try to forget the failure and regain your motivation, for that's supposedly not the end of the world. Again, this is a very mild example, but even this moving on is not easy.

Consider another case. You like a girl. You have had a crush on her for, say, a long long time. All these years, all these days, that girl formed a large part of your life, influencing things as great as your decisions and your career to as minute as your handwriting! Then, one day, may be in desperation, you let her know your feelings. She responds saying that she has no such feelings for you and asks you to "get over" her. You take a full 24 hours to realize that the part of your life that influenced you to such a great extent for years does not exist any more, and you are left with the task of "moving on". I won't even try to describe the agony, for my knowledge of the language would fail to provide it justice.

But then, one day, you realize you have finally moved on, may be after a few months. And in this few months, you have had a variety of feelings. Sometimes, you have been frustrated at how worthless you are. At other times you felt confident that she was not right for you. Sometimes, you had been insanely angry at her. At other times, you been in love with her so much that you felt you could lay down your life for her. Sometimes, you wished you could be friends, very good friends, in the true spirit of friendship. At other times, you hoped never to see her again.

However, after finally moving on, you reach a stable state. You are neither angry, nor are you in love with her. You don't think yourself as worthless, neither do you think her below your standards. And as for friendship, she would be just like the scores of other friends you have, not your best friends, the "other" ones. Also, as a side effect perhaps, you form this skewed opinion about relations and commitments. All these appears to be bullshit, meaningless, time pass stuff. You don't even seem to remember how you got trapped into this stupid thing yourself. And as of the present day, you pledge to remain single forever, you pledge not to approach another girl professing your "love", you pledge to remain sensible and rational till the end of time.

Happy Diwali KGP

Students of IIT Kharagpur "celebrate" the festival of lights in a unique way. This day and a whole month leading up to it, they actually "prefer" to work behind the scenes, putting their engineering skills to use. In this process, apart from "enjoying" the preparation for the national festival, Diwali and bonding well with their hall mates, the students present the IIT community with some of the finest works of art, encompassing skill, perseverance, dedication, hard work along with insomnia and a total denunciation of self safety. The whole thing is officially known as illumination and is "lovingly" referred to as illu.

But then, there are this group of people who do not actually seem to support the concept of illumination. They are of an opinion that Diwali is a festival of light for every one. Why then do the poor students have to slave for an entire month just so that the frustrated professors of Kharagpur have something to enjoy on the Diwali evening? And then again, why should these poor people be forced to hide in the dark corners after the diyas are lit? And why on earth should these poor students have to arrange the entire finance for the whole event?

The pro-illu junta, however advocate their cause pretty strongly. Their reasons, whatever they may be, are generally filled with words like spirit, tempo, tradition and unity. However, they seem to blatantly overlook the fact that all the objectives that the costly dinosaur named Illumination achieves can actually be achieved at a much lower cost with much less labour. And needless to say, a very high share of the pro junta are the professors, the ones for whom its actually a win-win situation. Rumors have it that the erstwhile Dean of Student Affairs of the institute had threatened the student community of dire consequences if illu was scrapped. The threats included a total shut down of Spring Fest and Kshitij, the two annual fests organized by students.

Whatever the logic, whatever be the case, one fundamental truth cannot be denied. The students who work hard the entire semester deserve much more than what the present has to offer. Being drenched in oil completely, having suffered burns, having had cuts from the sharp metal wires, injuries from the careless rush, and finally hiding in the dark during the presentation - this is Diwali for IITians. The single most important day of the year, when every one in India wakes up with a smile, the IITians don't, because they never went to sleep for the past few days, some of them have even been working round the clock. The day when every single Indian pamper themselves, relax at home with their loved ones, the IITians work in the fields the entire day, perfecting the past month's work - and the strange faces turned friends in the past few months providing little consolation for being away from home. And lastly, in the evening, when every Indian wears new clothes and enjoy fancy dinner, these poor souls starve.

At the end, to make it even worse, the authorities assign the title of winners and losers to these people. For the lucky few who win, it is a belated Diwali, and for those who lose, it is yet another sleepless night, this one more painful than the last few.

Happy Diwali KGP!!

One day, I met Relation

And this is what she had to say in her support after being accused
of being the root of grief and suffering.

Hello! you might not know who I am;
One clue - you hate me! Still in dark?
I am the one you accuse as a harbinger of grief
a solicitor of suffering, an advocate of pain.
Its me, I melt faster than snow.

How fake is your heart! how flimsy is your decision!
I fail once and you leave no effort to curse me.
Dont you know, its me who holds the Universe together?
Dont you fancy that I have taught you how to live?
that I have given you a cause to do the same?
that you are you because of me?

Is this justice?
One failure and you throw me away?
How feeble are you,
to overlook the glory of a thousand splendid suns
in the darkness of one cloudy night?

How stupid are you, not to realize
that nights follow days,
and days follow nights - this is nature's law
I am as powerless in front of it, as are you

Yet, you blame me, and alas!
I cant even complain!

The fallen Winter

I did not complain
the day when my heart failed me
or the day I found myself alone in a sea of people
even the times when I was so burdened by expectations
that I found I could hardly breathe

I did not complain
the winter when others smelt promises in the air
and I found nothing but rejection, guilt and agony
or the spring when every one was falling in love
and I was trying to run away from memories

I did not complain
when I kept deceiving my own self
or the time I restrained myself to painful asceticism
even when words betrayed me
and I felt so overwhelmed by feelings - I wished I could cry

No, I did not complain, object or accuse any one
neither did I claim my share of happiness

Shubho Bijoya

Its all over. With the dhakis playing their dhaks on their way back to their villages, with the decorators dismantling the gigantic pandals, with the idols floating back to their unknown destination in the Ganges, yet another Durga Puja had come to an end. I remember the first time I went to see the visarjan with my father. When we returned from the immersion ghat, and were headed towards home to start the celebrations of bijaya, we were passing across the para pandal when I noticed a single lamp burning on the dais, the same place where ma durga ruled with her children for the past four days. Ironically, the solitary lamp seemed to be the only entity valid in a place which would hardly have any room to even stand few hours ago. Noticing that, not many bengalis can hold back their tears.

This would happen year after year. This year, I was so busy with my engagements, I hardly had any time to realize it was autumn again. Even after returning home for the festival, I did not seem to feel the charm, the magic, the festive fever. It was as if, "oh ok! yet another Pujo, big deal!". Even during those four days, I went out visiting the pandals with my cousins just for the sake of it. I did enjoy the vacation and rest and everything, but hardly felt anything special. And before I knew, it was dashami again. This time also, we went to the immersion ghat. And then again, while returning, I happened to come across the solitary lamp again! And yet again, I felt a pang of grief. But this time I was hardly involved in the whole thing, at least emotionally. But perhaps, it was my roots, my origin that denied to be left out! It was a different feeling altogether. I was cautious not to let a tear roll down my cheeks, for then people might make fun of me!

Its hard to be an introvert and be emotional!

In Retrospect...

Miss the night you called, miss the ecstasy of speaking to you.
Miss the anxiety and tension that would grip me before calling you.
Miss myself wandering, groping for topics while chatting with you.
Miss the sleepless nights, tears with your name etched on them.
Miss the pain of being far from you, the desire to meet you.
Miss my wavering confidence, excitement on my way to your city.
Miss the agony of your rejection, of the failure of my first love.

Strangely, in spite of all these, I hardly miss you any more.
What I miss more is being in love, for the first time in my life.

Click !

Did this ever happen to you? Did you ever realize that the coming days, say the next month or two hold a lot in store for you? Did you ever find yourself overwhelmed with the uncertainty of the immediate future, so much so that you had, at some level, wished that you could take a peak at the other side of these few months? Or have ever you wondered if it was possible to magically breeze past these few months to land up somewhere in the future?

Well, it has happened to me, in the past. Again, its happening now! During the summer of 2007, I was doing my training in Motorola, Bangalore, and did not have the slightest idea about how to go ahead with the project assigned to me. All my coding and engineering skills seemed painfully inadequate and I feared, I might not even be able to start, leave aside reaching a satisfactory conclusion. It was then that I hoped to find myself on the flight back home. I had hoped to skip those two months of my life.

Now again, I face the same emotions. The future seems to be so dynamic, so animated that my life seems to be changing everyday, every moment. One fine evening, I would just browse through the net lazily, and the very next moment, all I would know was that my TOEFL was in two days time! I would then spend the night practicing speaking, reading and writing. As of now, I am expected to meet my guide shortly, and it does not need mention that I have hardly done anything satisfactory to report to him. I am expected to submit a big c code in an week. I am expected to mug up fifty odd word lists for my GRE that is due in a few days time. Also, lately, people had been getting words outside the word lists, which means, I need to take a peak at the other vocabulary guides also. My CAT is due on 18th November and my performance is still pathetic at the mocks. The placements start from the first week of December and I need to brush up my undergraduate knowledge. Not to mention the Puja Vacation amongst all these. And to add the last straw, now I am one amongst those red eyed people who roam about wearing black glasses! And these stupid bacteria plan to stay in my eye and cause rampage for the next few days. Its kind of good though, I finally realize the importance of having eyes!

All these seems so very overwhelming. I can't seem to even see the shore on the other side of the vast expanse of water. I just wish that I could skip this period to land somewhere in the beginning of January. I know I am talking like an escapist, but I am only human!

A Vacation

One fine morning, you wake up and find your left eye closed! Yes, you just can't open it! At the first instance, it freaks you out, but a few moments later, you realize that you are among the chosen few to have caught something called conjunctivitis - an eye infection typical of Bengal in the month of September. It is so typical of this region that its local term is "jai bangla", literally meaning, "long live Bengal"!

So, then you rush to the toilet with one eye closed, kind of feeling like a pirate, and then try different means to open it. Around ten minutes later, you realize, it wont open any more than it already has, which means you will have a small, red, swollen eye for the next few days! Thereafter, you come back to your room and ask the "know all" (your PC) about the stupid thing. It, in a despondent tone, replies, "there is no cure of conjunctivitis, lest it cures itself, typically in 3-5 days time. Also this is highly infectious"! And in a moment, life is good again! How? Well, if it is infectious and going to last for 3-5 days, that means no more classes this week. And no more professors threatening de-registration. Also, no more Research Scholars complaining about your utter indifference towards your dissertation. It is in fact a week long vacation in your room with the love of your life, the compu!

Jai Bangla !!!!

Good Morning!

It is 6:30 in the morning and I am awake. Awake in spite of the fact that, I slept at around 3:30 last night, awake in spite of the fact that, my alarm did not get a chance to scream today. I have a 7:30 class and had found myself looking up at my watch at six in the morning. Then, instead of falling back asleep, I had decided to get up!

Its nice, its nice to see the morning after such a long long time. Its nice to enjoy the serenity in the atmosphere, with people around you, all fast asleep. Its nice to see the red sun play hide and seek in the clouds, its nice to see the little sparrows getting disturbed by the sudden morning breeze, its nice to see the leaves of trees consoling the birds that their fluttered feathers actually look good on them, kind of bringing out their subtleness. Its perhaps the best start one can have to his day. I feel glad, I didn't fall back asleep.

Often, I wonder, why can't I have the world on my terms? I want to live in a place where its night when I decide to go to sleep, and its early morning when I decide to get up. I don't want stupid small clocks deciding what I should do and what I shouldn't! I want to get up early everyday and see nature flicking its magical wand to decorate itself. I want to get up early and watch the squirrels scurrying around. I want to see who wins among the sun and the cloud, in their childish play. I want to be a part of nature, to be free from the guilt that I, as all other human beings, have alienated myself from my very root. I want to go back to nature, I want to live freely, far far away from an artificial world!

My Tryst with "Matka"s.

Matka - (mat' kaaaaaa.... ) 1. N. Master of Technology Students of IITs. Coined by the B.Tech (undergraduate) students of IIT Kharagpur.
2. Adj. Very Stupid creature, not necessarily human.

Warning: Calling any one "matka", specially if he/she is not one, might lead to loss of life or property. Also, as per the directive of the Supreme Court of India, the attacker (who was called matka, by mistake) cannot be prosecuted!

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the definition of "Matka". This term would have been included in Oxford dictionary long back, even before "lathicharge", but apparently, one of the person in charge of inclusion was a "Matka" once in IIT Kharagpur! Well, thus you can see that having IITians in top ranks world over is not always a pleasant thing!

My experience with "Matka" in IIT was so far restricted only to labs, where these creatures would take extreme pleasure to see us in trouble. And not many would disagree to the fact that lab hours could have been really enjoyable, but for these matkas. Its like, you are having your viva, and your professor has run out of questions and in a while, perhaps would have started asking nursery rhymes, when a matka barges in and starts asking stuff that, I bet, even he doesn't know! And you end up getting C in lab. Consider another case, when you have submitted a lab report, and in KGP, lab reports are prepared in the last moment, its not that we are lazy, but we take pride in the fact that we can complete magnanimous amounts of task in enviably short time, with the strained voice of Atif Aslam in the background reminding us of our distance from civilization, "dooooriiieeeee"! So, consider a situation where you have prepared a 10 page report in 30 minutes (well thats the time you get between lunch and lab!), with tables and graphs and crap. In the lab, with a sense of pride and self satisfaction, you submit the report. An hour later, a matka calls you (it took the matka one hour to figure out what you have written!) and says that, you did not put the scale in your graph, and you get a C, again!

But that was not it! In my final year, I had to take PG electives, that is, I would do my classes with the first year matkas (its a shame you cant ask for their "intro" or take their OP, now see, whats the fun without that?). And let me tell you, sincerely, from personal experience, Matkas are dull! They are, in some respect, even duller that George W. Bush! Firstly, they keep on standing up while answering or asking a question in a 30 strong class! They also keep standing up while giving attendance, and man! they attend classes every single day! Not Satisfied with these, the Matkas keep asking stupid questions in class, something that even a kid would figure out. Also, if a Professor does a mistake while writing a formula or an equation, it takes the Matkas full 10 minutes to figure that out, and once they do, they start shouting like crazy, as if in a race, who could point that out the fastest! I mean, grow up kids!

And lets not talk about their understanding of the subjects, some of them could even make Einstein look stupid, all they need is an aureole, and you could paint them and put those paintings up in a temple and worship! Once, a professor asked, how would you plot the probability density function of a sampled speech signal. Its very simple, really. You normalize the speech signal, break up the amplitude range into class intervals and go on ticking the proper class interval whenever you encounter a sample. At the end, you plot the curve! Leave aside answering to the professors question, half of the class raised their hands when the professor asked "who can't plot the pdf now?", after having explained the whole thing two times over! And to say, they are graduates in electronics engineering, or rather, they are electronics engineers!

Now I know, why graduates from IITs do not prefer to complete their Masters here. Its perhaps the aversion to the classrooms, where these matkas would once sit that drives them out after graduation, not only from the institute, but from the country altogether!

Disclaimer: Author does not intend to hurt the sentiments of any communities, other than Matkas, but since they are dull, they would take more than a year to realize that its them the author has written about! Also, for the readers who are dual degree students, the author wishes to clarify that they are not referred to as matkas here. Only the two year M.Techs are eligible for this grand title!

The Accused, The Trial and The Sentence...

"... don't walk into my footsteps. It is a horrible and painful journey. "

Well, the journey so far hasn't truly being pleasant. Believe me, its very very painful. You feel lonely, even in a crowd of your friends and acquaintances. It seems as if anything and everything that is happy in your surroundings is mocking you. Every little incident, however unimportant it may be, reminds you of those pages of your past that you would prefer to tear off.

I don't mind the pain, really, because this is my punishment for being horribly mistaken. And as a student of communication engineering, I realize how much a wrong estimation is penalized. So, I have learnt to live with the pain. However, something that bothers me the most is, after completing my "sentence", how much will I change? And I don't see any good changes on the cards. I fear, this awful experience of mine will turn me into a cynic. Nowadays, when I see movies or read novels, and whenever I come across a happy event in any of them, my reaction is like, "huh! like that could ever happen!!" I now have problems in coming to terms with any good thing happening to any one, be it even me! I blankly stare at problems that I successfully solve, in disbelief - "Now how could that happen!"

I have no idea of what I will become after passing through this sentence, this stage in life. But all I know is, I will have only myself to blame for all this. How could I not foresee this, how could I not consider failure to this magnitude. May be because, I never imagined I would fail, for I even today fail to realize, where I was mistaken, where exactly I went wrong. In the trial, the prosecutor did not even care to turn up, leave aside speaking. It was only me and me alone, shouting, pleading, frantically running here and there. And then, I was sentenced!

I object ... Your Honor !!

The Nor'wester - A sonnet

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"

I would once wonder, I would contemplate

if it was just to see thee in the beauty of may,

for "thou art more lovely and more temparate"!

Alas! I would once summer's beauty defy -

drunk in thee, for thy to me was untiring;

eternal, even death to me would fail to deny.

li'l would I know, fate against me conspiring!

Now when I watch summers passing by,

I search thee in the bright sun, the skies fair.

Its then that I realize how foolish was I,

To think of thee as my golden summer.

No, in a summer's eve, only a nor'wester is thee,

that destroys everything - as thee hath destroyed me!

bye bye Bangalore

5th of May 2007, I landed in Bangalore. The first thing that struck me was, when would I return, for this was a new place, an unknown land.

But now, on my last day of training, and with only a couple more days left in Bangalore, I fail to smile, I fail to feel the excitement I thought I would feel when I would wake up on this day. All I want to say now, good bye Motorola, good bye Bangalore. You gave me a lot, more than I expected from you. You made me forget my grief of missing an FT. You let me stay with the people I love and respect the most for these two months. You taught me cooking. You let me meet my somebody, after 3 long years. You gave me the courage to travel alone in a second class compartment for over two days, something I have never done and would not perhaps have done, if for you. You let me explore new places. You taught me what a city life is. Without you, without these 2 months, my life would have been a step away from completeness.

Thank you Bangalore.

Yet another blog

Nopes, I am not new to this blogging culture, and neither did I delete my original blog yet again. Still, I decided to start over in a new blog, in a new way. Mostly because in my past blogs, I have concentrated on one particular topic. Because my other blogs contain some of my most intimate thoughts and experiences that cannot be shared with everyone. Its not that I was not happy with those, just that I wanted a more general blog that I could share with people. I wanted a more general blog where I could post the other aspects of life. Thus, the birth of "One amongst the crowd". Enjoy reading.