General Compartment.

I just returned from Mumbai and the local trains there were an experience of sorts…This I observed is the typical scene in a general compartment in a local train in mumbai.

A middle aged clerk in a small time office, with frown lines on his forehead which read that he’s probably the sole bread winner of his family, wearing his thick glasses sits and eats his apple.

A college going girl wearing a chic tunic with peep-toe shoes and music plugged in her ears is reading a book

The group of giggly salwar clad girls huddle and look to be discussing the news with a lot of enthusiasm, probably of the latest couple in their college or someone who was not-so-cool!

Two or three men who are in their mid forties with receding hairlines, sitting and discussing how the politics in the country has taken a toll for the worse, and how it was better in the good ol’ days!

Women who are selflessly going to a faraway place for work, and spacing out are probably thinking “Did I switch off the gas stove” “Has my daughter reached school safely ” “I wonder what my husband is doing right now”

A young techie, who’s carrying his heavy laptop is sitting blankly, with puffy under-eyes and looks like his soul has been sucked out by a dementor.

Maharashtrian aunties who are wearing the paithani saris are discussing the “bhaav” of vegetables and how they are unable to keep up with the soaring rates and other household affairs.

The working class people who are making a loud chatter in some vague language that only they understand and cleaning and chewing unprocessed tobacco with their litter of kids dangerously running around everywhere.

An old couple who are traveling to a function or someones house, proudly discussing their son who stays abroad and sends them tidy amounts of money every month.

Rich hypocrites who don’t want to be spotted in the general compartments who hide their faces, but don’t want to blow 80 bucks on first class and look at everyone else with disgust.

And a few here and there’s like me, who are just observing and absorbing all the proceedings without much thinking!

You can find a pot-pourri of people. It goes to show how all kind of people are equal and travel in the same manner irrespective of their background! It boils down to this. It was really an experience for me cos I’d never seen such different kind of people, altogether in one place.

Viva Experiences

One of the most dreadful experiences of college life, for anybody… Is Viva-Voce! It’s like the one experience that gives you nightmares and sucks the living daylights out of you! However well prepared you are, things will NEVER go right for you. There are different kinds of 3^rd Degree torture the examiner might put you through. And different things, that could make it worse for you. (Note: It can NEVER go well!)

The Lone Soldier!

When you’re forced to go alone or the extremely patient/sadistic examiner wants to fry you all alone. He stares at you in the face and tries to kill you with his looks and his incessant volley of questions, most of which you’ve probably never even heard of in your life! You’re grilled and of course he thinks you’ve no clue about the subject!

The nerd partner!

If your examiner is slightly soft and decides to call 2 people at a time. And your partner turns out to be the “Hermione Granger” who is bouncing up in her (it’s mostly female; guys aren’t capable of doing that!) chair  to answer all the questions. Well that doesn’t leave a lasting impression of you in front of the examiner, so there go the marks right down the drain!

The Stupid partner.

Don’t be so happy that you have the stupidest person in class as your viva partner! You’ll still screw up! That person’s knowledge is zero about the subject. And if you know a teensy weensy bit, the sum total of answers given are still very low, so not only is your partner getting flushed in the drain, he’s pulling you along too!

The “gumpnalli govinda” viva.

That literally translates into “lost in the crowd” You’ve gone with say 4 people, and that clearly shows, the examiner is BORED! And a bored examiner NEVER translates into more marks. The fact is if he doesn’t care about the viva, chances are he won’t give a rat’s tail for your marks either!

You’re roll no 1.

If you’re called first/voluntarily go in to give your viva first, the chances are you’ll be screwed the most. You’ll be the standard benchmark for the mark allotment for the rest of your batch. So he wants to know fully well about you!

It’s time to go home

This sort of examiner is in a hurry to go home, and asks you questions like “nimma uru yavadu” (which place are you from) and your entire viva marks depend on that. If you’re a localite and speak the local language (kannada here) chances are you score brownie points! Otherwise, the generally regionistic examiner, doesn’t care two hoots about you!

The I’m not asking questions examiner

He’ll make YOU do all the talking and ask your partner questions. Or he’ll make run errands for him or do him other favors (don’t get me wrong here) I don’t think people are so corrupt that he would take monetary favors, but general stuff like, let me use your laptop (I’ve seen this happen!) Or bring me this or write that for me etc…

Essentially every person would have been placed in one of the above categories. And heaved a sigh of relief when he got done with the viva!

One piece of advice though. NEVER go drunk for your viva (inspired by five point someone!) Trust me. You’ll be in a LOT of trouble!

Go GOA!

Goa! The land of the most amazing beaches in the world! Phew what an experience. I’d gone to Goa on what the college knew as an “industrial tour!” But boy, you can’t imagine the amount of fun one can have in that place.

For me personally the beaches are the best part. Just lying around on the sand and feeling the waves hit you is just the most beautiful feeling ever. And when you go to a beach the next time, sit down at the shore, hold the sand in your hand and you’ll realize that it has so many things to tell you.

Personally I’m more of a nature person than a booze person and the only two options you have in goa are 1. You can go hit a bar and booze till you snooze or 2. You go spend all the time you have on a beach. Evidently I chose the latter.

My friends and I had an awesome time doing like a various bunch of things that we thought we’d never do.
1. Parasailing. Trust me you’d never ever have felt so “on top of the world!” (Literally and figuratively)
2. Water Scooter. Speed and Water are two things that I absolutely love and a combination of both is just mindboggling!
3. A banana boat ride. You feel it’s a normal boat ride until you’re toppled off the boat in the middle of the sea! You fear your life, but still an experience you’d never forget!

And spending time away from parents means no deadlines! And crazy night outs. We went out familiarizing ourselves with the streets of Goa! And the various restaurants that are open till late night.

One particular night, we spent at the beach. It was a near full moon night, the sky was well lit and the waters really torrent. That experience was surreal, something I’d never forget. The beauty I saw in nature isn’t something that I can explain in words. But it made me realize that there was a superior power. When you sit under the sky that defines infinity and a roaring wild sea and soft brown earth underneath you, you’re overwhelmed with emotion at the beauty of the sea. This no man can ever create… What we prefer to call God lies in nature.

Goa is one place that you HAVE to visit! It’s the most amazing place ever. And make it a point to spend the night  at the beach and enjoy the waters, just like I did!

Another Hero martyred

Another life taken… In the terrorist encounter that took place in Delhi yesterday, Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma was shot at… 4 bullets in his system and he succumbed to his injuries on Friday night. He was the mastermind in the investigation of the recent Delhi blasts. He was the best encounter specialist in the Delhi police force after ACP Rajbir Singh who was killed a few months ago. He was successful in tracing the people down. 2 killed and 2 caught. A highly efficient officer. He had 150 medals and the encounter of 35 terrorists, to his credit.

The nation mourns this gallant hero’s death. But this hasn’t been the first.

There are so many people that are killed in encounters, fighting for the nation, fighting so that we sleep peacefully at night. Isn’t it overwhelming to see such people martyred? It’s saddening.

If you ask me there is no God that is fighting all the crime in the world as religion believes. It’s people like these who selflessly fight to protect the nation against cruelty and crime… While on the other hand there are criminals and terrorists who are waiting to kill innocent people for no fault of theirs. Because they’ve been born into a certain religion. That’s not justice. These are the people who are giving justice to those victims.

All these people die, but the question is do they die fruitlessly? After all these years and probably thousands of people who have died, terrorism is still rampant in our country. There is still war and there are a lot more lives that have to be given for there to be complete peace…

May his soul rest in peace and spare a thought for all the people who have been martyred for the country. All those men who have died for us. All those people who we haven’t been grateful to. We owe our lives to these great souls.

God bless them and May all their souls rest in peace.

A fat girl’s diary!

I started Aerobics and Kickboxing today! (sounds pretty fancy no!) Not the first time I am doing aerobics. I went to the gym and found a couple of people. I was surprised that I was the FATTEST there. All my life I’ve thought I was “on the heavier side” this doesn’t really mean I’m fat. I stand 5 feet 6 inches tall and am 65 kilos. That’s pretty reasonble. I mean when I went and saw all the thin people there, I thought OMG where are all the fat people in the world?!

Does it mean that Fat people are too lazy to do aerobics, or the species is fast disappearing from the world or plain and simple, the gym instructor does a bloody good job!

And one more thing I noticed. The trend is that most people there were over-30 housewives. My nice little ego bubble about professionals bursted. Hardly a few working women.

I think most people are so caught up in their jobs that they forget to take time for themselves. They forget that the fitter the body is, the fitter the mind. And you don’t necessarily have to work out to lose weight or build muscles. It just keeps you active all day.

Technically speaking, physical exercise pumps up hormone release rate and thus energy. It also helps keep you in a better mind all day. Your brain cells get stimulated with exercise.

So all the lazybones out there, get up and start working out!

The NEWS!

A beautiful little Aarushi in her happier times

Why I haven’t updated in quite sometime is 1) I’ve had exams (which are STILL not over. They’re taking forever!) 2) Whatever free time I’ve had I’ve wasted playing absolutely useless games on facebook… Besides I’ve not found anything interesting to write about… I’ve been leading a rather mudane life.

Till today. I was watching the news and I saw that the Aarushi Talwar murder case has been solved. And a certain Krishna, Vijay Mandal and Rajkumar have been convicted of the murder. I was glad to hear about the guilty being punished…

A month and a half ago I’d written this post and I, like everybody else thought Dr.Talwar had murdered his own child.

The Noida police “cracked” the entire case with such reassurrance and the chief of the Noida police made statements like “The father was as characterless as the daughter.” and etc… The media published it all over the place, soon everybody was talking about it, people were writing about it… Everybody thought What a ruthless father that man must have been, to have murdered his own child. And it wasn’t any fault of the people who spoke. They were given the wrong information. And it was thrust into their face in a rather convincing way…

Then, amidst all the confusion, the CBI took over and thankfully solved the case revealing to the world the true culprits. But in all this there has been so much loss, so much tragedy, so much trauma.

That little child is dead and gone forever. She was prey to the dirty lust of some antisocial elements, that are still so rampant in today’s society.

The parents, who had to not only go through the trauma of the loss of their only child, but also the shame and humiliation that the society imposed on them for no fault of theirs… I mean imagine if you were the parent, (god forbid.) But it’s scary to even think hypothetically of putting yourself in their shoes.

The media, the oh-so-powerful media played it’s part, some say it helped the situation, some say it ruined it… I only say it did it’s part, whoever it be, the print, broadcast or even bloggers for that matter. All they did was spread awareness and create more opinions, isn’t that what they’re here for…

In conclusion, all I would like to say is that, may God bless the people who were innocent and had to see the worst side of this gory murder. And that little child that lost her life to the most savage inhuman thing in the world. May her soul rest in peace.

What is joy?!

Today, I’d a very touching experience that I thought I should share.

 I had my physics practical exam and I was as usual very tense and didn’t eat anything all day! So by the time it got over I was famished… My friends and I decided to go to our usual ice-cream joint. MTR! So we landed there and among the 3 of us we had 90 bucks! We bought a hot chocolate fudges costing 20 bucks each and 2 samosa packets for ten bucks each! We ate till I thought I was ok! Then one of my friends left.

My other friend Sneha and I decided to use the 10 bucks we had usefully! By buying more Icecream… 2 softy’s costing us 6 rupees each. We dug Sneha’s bag and voila… we found it!!! (why is this a “touching experience?” You must be wondering… I promise I’ve a point to make!)

As we sat outside and ate, two small kids, a boy aged around 5 and in his arms a girl aged around 2 came to us and begged us for some money! (US!!!) Well we were broke, but we felt sad and dug in and all we found was 2 samosas, so we gave it to them. But they looked at us longingly as we ate the ice cream.

The poor kids shared the samosa. The brother was very sweet. He offered the small girl a larger portion even though he didn’t have much.

Our hearts went out to them. Suddenly I put my hand into my pocket and found 10 bucks! But that wasn’t enough to buy us 2 softy ice-creams. So we just rummaged everything and with difficulty found 2 bucks! We bought them both one softy each. We gave them the ice-creams. They weren’t expecting it. They were elated! As Sneha and I went and sat, we observed how the siblings ate the ice-creams. The girl was too small to even eat the ice-cream! And probably had never eaten one in her life.

That set us thinking… My dad reckons I’ve eaten around 2 trucks of ice-creams in my life! And there we saw those kids enjoying one of those rare luxuries of life. The joy on their face knew no bounds. The joy I saw that joy on those faces was a lot sweeter than all the ice-creams I’d eaten, put together.

I’ve a lot more to say about this tiny, and almost forgettable experience… But I’ve no words! It’s just a feeling. A good feeling. It’s these little experiences that enrich life.

Embracing death with arms wide open

This is a story of three people, A person named ‘N’ a person named ‘A’ and a person named ‘I’. All young teenagers.
When A met N for the first time he saw that she was a pretty girl with a sweet voice, and he was immediately attracted to her. He went and spoke to N. N was a very nice girl who instantly became his friend.
A had never felt this way and didn’t know what to do because he couldn’t get N out of his head.
He didn’t know what to do. He had to consult someone. I was his only confidante when it came to such things. I was his best friend. I was someone who he could trust with such sensitive matters. I was a girl.
One day, he introduced N to I. And N and I hit it off almost immediately, N was too nice a person to not be liked by anyone.
I was the one who played cupid between N and A. And soon enough N and A were “going out”
Slowly A realized that his feelings for N are more than just a “teenage crush.” It was something more, something so profound that his young, inexperienced mind could not even understand. He was in love with her. In due course of time N also felt the same way about A.
A and N were very happy in their own world, they were both high scorers in their exams and they didn’t seem to have any problems in their life. When they did have occasional fights and arguments, they would turn to I, who was always their unbiased judge as she liked them both equally. I was very happy to see her close friends so happily in love.
Then N graduated into the 12th standard. A very important year, for any teenager.
Since N was always a bright student there were a lot of expectations from her. She wanted to become an architect and with all the efforts she was putting in, it looked very likely.
N looked like a happy person whose life seemed like a bed of roses. Beneath the sweet and happy face was some kind of fear. A fear of failure.
Soon enough N completed her 12th standard and her results were due for tomorrow. She was talking to A. A had just begun his 12th standard preparations. A was telling her stuff, inane stuff that she didn’t seem to understand. But she knew she loved him a lot.
The next morning, N was rather gloomy and scared. But she went unsuspected.
The next afternoon, when nobody was paying any kind of attention she crept into her closet and took a dupatta and climbed down the stairs and then without a second thought…
Without thinking about what her mother, father, sister or A her dearest A will do without her, she wound the dupatta on her neck and hanged herself from the fan. And before she knew what was happening she was dead

A and I were blissfully unaware of anything while this fatal act was taking place, when A was told about it, he thought it was a joke, it was too big a shock for him to take. He couldn’t fathom the fact that she was dead. N his dearest N. Then he called I up, in some hope that it would turn out to be a false news and that somehow his N would magically reappear and become alive. Though he knew for a fact that she was dead, he didn’t want to believe it. I was devastated to hear about it. I and A immediately planned to rush to the hospital where N lay dead, where N’s body was brutally cut apart to do a post mortem and was thrown into a cold morgue. I reached there, it was dark and cold and she was alone and didn’t find A and wasn’t allowed to see N’s body
When A and I met up, they cried, cried like 2 children who had lost something so big in life.
A had to get over it. I was very worried about how A will take it. A was a brave young man, who took a little time but was over the grief in sometime.
Now A and I are living their own happy lives. Still 2 best friends, but there is something missing between the two of them. A hasn’t found the love he lost that day and I hasn’t found the friend.

Cold Blooded Murder

Switch on any news channel and you can see pretty little Aarushi’s face splurged across it. The entire country has been following the twin murders that took place in Noida.
It’s really shocking to hear that the 14 year olds own father has killed her. The daughter’s throat was slit very neatly, to cut her vocal cords and make sure she didn’t scream.
It’s scary to kill somebody to begin with, how can a man have the heart to kill his own daughter. His own flesh and blood. It’s disgusting and disturbing…
There are currently a lot of missing links in the case
* The motive is not clear to begin with, though they say that the father killed the daughter and servant because they were having an illicit relationship and they also knew about an affair that Dr.Rajesh Talwar was having. But the news says that Hemraj and Aarushi were caught in a “compromising position” which I frankly can’t decipher!
* The role of a certain Dr. Anita Durrani is not known. Though they say, that Dr. Talwar and Dr.Durrani were involved romantically.
* The role of Dr. Nupur Talwar is also not known. She was present in the house at the time of the murder. Any mother… Even animals for that matter puts the life and safety of her children before hers. I don’t know what this mother was doing. It’s worse than inhuman.
* It’s not yet known as to who was murdered first, Aarushi or Hemraj.

Well, we’ve all got to wait and watch as to what punishment Dr.Talwar will get.
But I believe he should be hanged to death for this. Cos seriously, nothing in the world, I mean NOTHING is motive enough to kill your own child.
All said and done, even if the murderer is punished, the sad truth is that, the little girl is dead and gone forever…
May her soul rest in peace.

Monotonous beat syndrome!

Well the summer has been taking it’s toll on everyone and more so on me, cos life in general has been very boring! I’ve been victimised to “writer’s block” and thus this very boring blog!

It’s just so sultry and you don’t have the mood to eat anything (except ice creams!) and forcing people to attend classes is like subjecting them to 3rd degree torture! Well my friends and I decided to catch up on some movies…
I saw “U, me aur hum” and “tashan” both of them were dreadful (in their own ways!) I didn’t even feel like writing reviews about them!
Some people are good actors and some people are good directors and some people look good doing certain kind of roles, and some people are old and should accept it! They should learn to stick to that in life! If they (I’m talking specifically of Ajay Devgan, Anil Kapoor and Akshay Kumar here!) don’t… They end up making disasters like “U, me aur hum” and “tashan”
I’d been re-reading Harry Potter and the deathly hallows (which has been the most interesting thing I’ve done in the last fortnight!”)
Everyone’s talking about beat the heat and all that! But nobody’s telling me how…
Wanna help?!