Change Rules, Change Laws, Change the World; But First- CHANGE YOURSELF

The boy and his friends were walking.......

"Brr. It really is cold here!" said the tallest girl in the group.

"I have a doubt, which part of the country are we in right now?" asked the tall lanky bespectacled boy.

"It is the eastern part of the country. i think Sasu can explain better", a curly haired bespectacled boy informed from the right side of the boy.

The boy himself, it seemed, was walking along a wide road with his 6 friends, 4 girls and 2 boys apart from him. The place was foggy, as if it had not yet materialized, surroundings felt as if it had not yet solidified into a stable structure. And yet the place seemed oddly familiar. It was a cold winter morning, yet it felt warm and homely for the boy.

The pleasant, dreamy eyed, lanky girl on the immediate left of the boy looked at him, "So we are finally here. I'm very happy" She smiled. He smiled back.

"Yes Yes. Welcome to our home city!" the curly haired bespectacled boy announced.

"Thank you Rahul for bringing us here" said the cute faced, doe eyed, slightly dark complexioned girl.

"Yeah thanks Motu and Sasu" the cute, fair  complexioned girl chipped in.

And then the boy realized. Of course the place seemed familiar. It's his city. It's his birthplace. It's his home. Kolkata
As soon as this realization came the fog immediately started to clear up. They were walking along Fort William he concluded. He felt excited. He had wanted this to happen for a long time. His friends where here. He had seen their part of the country, now its their turn to see the place from which he dwells. They passed on to the Red Road, going along the Maidan (which is actually a huge playground of grass in the heart of the city, like that of Little Manhattan in New York ). His home wasn't too far from here, about 3-4kms. Wow! He would love to see the reaction of his family upon seeing all of them! He couldn't even resist to hold on to the excitement.
"Dekho Sasu, you didn't tell us it would this much cold. It's like we are in a hill station!" the tall girl complained.
"My god its freezing, in here" the doe eyed girl squealed.
"Haah Sasu! Will it snow?" the cute fair complexioned girl asked.
"Snow! My god! It snows here, yes?" the tall bespectacled boy asked excitedly
"Ha mujhe bhi bahut thand laag rahi hain (I too am feeling very cold)! I don't want snow, I'll catch cold!" the pleasant, dreamy eyed girl added.
"No No. No snow here. Its snow in the Darjeeling side. Not here." the curly haired boy informed.
The boy wanted to laugh, hearing them talk about Snowing in Kolkata of all places! Instead he heard himself speak for the first time- "yes actually I feel very cold as well! But probably that is because my blanket is out of position. I only need to adjust it, and it won't be cold."
As soon as he said it, he knew he had said something wrong. Something that did not fit the context. He realized all the other 6 were looking at him, smiling.. and just like that everything started to dissolve. Things became jumbled up. 
And his eyes opened. 
 His hands were clenched to the the thick blanket, with the back of the right shoulder bereft of the warmth of it. That must be what caused that sudden cold, he thought. It was 6am. Thankfully he can still sleep for an hour or so. But his sleep went away somewhere!
He was thinking of the dream. He knew he couldn't go back to it anymore. Stupid cold, he thought! But then again, winter was the reason he came back home for during the holidays. It was the one season that he waits with eager anticipation, to occur,  the 12 days that he cherished most than rest of the year (except probably Diwali). And he wasn't let down. It's the coldest Kolkata has ever been in the past 20 years.
He was thinking of the people in his dream. How great would it feel to have them in here. In his city, the city he loves, his hometown......... The city where the girls don't feel safe after 10 pm anymore. No this ain't New Delhi or even Bangalore. But even this city is full of those derogatory, sick and twisted minded vermins, supposedly wearing a mask of Human beings. 
Where is the Kolkata he knew? he thought and closed his eyes.........


Exactly a week ago I got on to the home bound train via stopover in Chennai. These past 5 days were quite erratic, with patches of excitement mixed with boredom. I had, however, a brilliant Christmas thanks to a splendid 'finger licking' Christmas lunch treat from my bro and sis-in-law. Rest everything has been a bit silent but peaceful even though topped by a terrific weather. The best wintry Kolkata I've had (in my life probably, as of yet that is). Probably the coldest of my 23 year old self!

I've never really concentrated on writing on Current affairs because I believe the best way someone can know about what's going on around the world is by watching the news or reading the newspaper. And if you want to express your views directly you can either call the news channels or write to their website in the feedback section and write to the letters to the editor section in case of newspaper. However the recent events of past 1 week, that has happened and are happening in New Delhi has stirred even the most current-affairs-illiterate persons! Well I am not going to write about why our government is not creating new criminal policies on rape cases; I am not going to write about why our constitutional laws doesn't include capital punishment or at least severe punishment to rapists; And I am not going to write about why the current government should hang the human swines who raped the 23 year old Nirbhaya. Lot has been said about these three specific points and lot of protestations have been showcased by the protestors in the capital and also around the big metro cities. So my repeating of the same things would only add to the already piled up protests, which no one in the Parliament seems to respond to , albeit pretending to listen to.
You know if i had written this post 2 days ago I might have emphasized upon these exact things, about what our government lacks and how are politicians are incapable of reacting according to the situations. But to tell the truth, our Government has been like that all through.  Not only this current Government but all the previous ones as well. They have screwed up in some way or the other. I am not bringing this discussion from any political point of view. My view is completely from a social aspect. As my anger in this issue ebbed down, after 2 days, it subsequently got filled by something else- Sadness.  
This wasn't the first rape case that surfaced, was it? And goddammit its not the last one either! But this one got all the attention because of the severity of the outcome of the poor girl. Fact that she has to fight against survival instead of society (as is the case normally) tells us/me what has become the state of mentality of modern day society. Men in particular! Heck, being a male myself I know most men are not like that. About 90% of the population of men in big cities are not like that. But the fact that 10% of these Sick, twisted bustards exists is something to be alarmed of. There are some individuals who may not be rapists in its literal sense, but their sick mentalities make them as worse as one in actual sense. Few days ago there was a cry of foul from few sections of men. It went something like this- "these days women of young generation don't have any regard for the clothes they wear, so naturally they get raped." What the hell! So is that a punishment that is being handed out to these girls for choosing to wear what they feel like wearing?? So is Rape a social punishment inflicted on girls for choosing to express their freedom, which is too much to handle for some sexually frustrated, mentally sick nincompoops! You know what if that is so I think people who think that way should be the first ones to get hanged or given worst punishments (if at all such punishments are even amended by the court of law) rather than the actual rapists. This is similar to the Facebook post, which goes something like-
 "You raped her, because her clothes provoked you,  
   I should break your nose, your stupidity provokes me".

I should tell about a personal experience that happened to me last week after this rape incident surfaced last Wednesday. I came back from the college at the usual timings, and at around 7.30pm I saw a status update from a boy in our college, even though I am not very close to him as a person I regularly talk to him whenever we see each other. The status update from him was something like this- "Another rape case. Horrible. But we should first enquire what the girl was wearing! ;)". I should tell you one thing, it took me greatest of strength to control my anger at that particular moment. Even greater strength when I saw him the next day laughing and dancing at the back of the crowd. (we had Marine Fest next day) Some part of me really wanted to break his nose. He doesn't read my blog. But i know some of my readers know him. They would be shocked if they hear who this guy is.
But I realised one thing that day, people like him are in surplus in our society. And you really cant realize who has what on his mind just by seeing them or talking a few words every day. Is this what the today's thinking of men has gone down to? 
One day we are gonna get get married, have a family, have a daughter may be, god forbid, what if something similar happens to your daughter or are u gonna lock your daughter in your house in the fear of getting raped? Cage her? Deny her her rights? Or would you let her live on her own terms, her own life. Because to be honest it's not her own fault. It never is and it shouldn't be. 

Someone said to me that time for words are gone, its time for actually doing something. No, I wont completely agree. It's time to change ourselves first. Changing our mentalities first. Then changing the society and then influencing the Government and the old grandads who occupy the seats in parliaments, our respected politicians, to change the punishment laws!
Kolkata unfortunately ranks 5th in the total number of rape cases in the big cities in the country, behind New Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderbad and Bangalore! Not something to be proud of for me. 

But I am not an idealist. I am a realist who would like to have a viewpoint an optimist on this. Things will get better, if we want to make it better. And I am optimistic that my dream that I saw, distant it may be, improbable it might be, may still happen some day and...
.....and they would end up exploring the entire city in the haze of the winter morning, laughing, smiling and enjoying..........

That may be the 7 people in the fog in the dream with the backdrop of Downtown Kolkata!

 P.S.- Did you find out who was the boy in that story at the beginning? If you have, keep it to yourself. If you haven't, then keep thinking.. It wasn't made up. It happened, but only in dream. My dream!

 

So What's Your Hobby??

This may not be my last post of this year, but is surely the last post of the year, from Kerala. I'd be leaving for Kolkata tomorrow 20th December, for two weeks in home, amidst the unusually merry atmosphere of winter! But then again I wont be reaching before morning of 22nd! For a pessimistic and ignorant mind this will be a tragic factor!! Why?? Well isn't it obvious?! Because somewhere in between 20th and 22nd comes 21st! 21st December, the end of the world! The day that most of us have been waiting for! No not for death, but for a laugh! I was reading a report in the papers that 21st December should be declared as the "New Generation's Fools Day", removing the age old concept of 1st April! So are we gonna die?? Oh yes everyone has to die at some point, but I don't think 21st December would cause us any harm on the front of World's End! "No it's not the world's end!!" It would however continue to be the 'shortest day of the year,' which is quite good enough! And on personal level it's the birthday of my good friend Arnab! However for those of us who are quite regular in social networking sites like Facebook, 21st is going to be a nightmare that we all have to endure, with all sorts of stupid posts and poor jokes about that day! :( So in a way I'm glad that I'd be in train on that day! :)

It's a common concept that the time after the exams is the most boring time for a student, when things stop moving, the pace of life becomes slow, and you end up battling against absolute stagnation for the next 1 month at least. I have to say I always look forward to these times. It's the best time to keep up with your hobbies. So even though I would agree past 20 days have been slow moving, they have however not been uninteresting, especially if you have so many hobbies like I have! And some how it's hard associating the word slow when you live in a boys hostel. There's always something or the other happening.
I guess herein lies the importance of  keeping hobbies.. Okay there is no necessity of multiple hobbies for one person, just one to two hobbies at a time is enough. Having said that wasting precious hours in Facebook or else Chatting for the most of the times in your mobile phones or on yahoo and gtalk, can't qualify as a hobby! Unfortunately about 30% of youngsters comprising of late teens and young adults of up to the age of 24 are absorbed in these two activities most of the time, and consider any other activity (how much creative they may be) as a waste of time.. There was an article a few days back in The Indian Express by someone (don't remember who) explaining the negative effect the three C's have on the mental growth of Indian teenagers. He claimed these three C's to be- ''Cricket", "Computer" and "Cinema"! Bit of a sensationalist claim isn't it? Look the fact is too much of all the 3 C's is harmful, which is true enough! But how much harmful are they in controlled quantity? Computer has had probably the most effect on the teenagers of the above three. Mainly after the rise of internet. But I'm not gonna lecture or talk about the perils of Internet using. Its already a hot topic and I don't need to emphasis on that. More established people than me probably can enlighten us about it! :p

My point is, Its good to have a hobby, its good to have a creative extra-curricular activity that leads to positive brain development. It can be anything, and as simple from a cricket card collection to remembering the capital of various countries, to listening to music (which by the way is the most common hobby in the world), cooking, reading various books, writing, to playing various sports. It may change with people and with age. I had a friend who had a strange hobby of collecting the caps of  cold drinks! It however ended after he reached a certain age. My cousin on the other hand had an unique hobby of collecting matchbox logos of various matchboxes found in the different places. This again changed when he started growing up, when he became interested in stamp collecting, and at somepoint was even interested in becoming a Philatelist! One of my Best friend has Photography as a hobby. Some people have a strange hobby of "studying and meeting various different people", while some others are outdoor bugs and like travelling, trekking and explore the adventurous corners of the world to feed their curious mind..
At some point hobbies may become passion, when you want more than only to feed your curious mind, when you are so passionate about your hobby you want it to define your life. But for most people hobbies are always there as a stress buster, to use your free time to something which you like doing (provided its creative :p)

On a personal note, honestly speaking, I have always struggled to keep up with my hobbies. In my case the problem is a bit different. I have too many hobbies! Its a problem of plenty! When I was young my (less than 10 years old) only hobby was playing! Till i entered my teens things stayed pretty much to that. When I was 12 I took up the hobby of reading (English Novels mainly) to go along with Cricket. (My knowledge and interests in sports still remains quite high. one of my present hobby is watching European football and cheering for my Childhood club Manchester United!) I was briefly interested in stamp collecting as well (in which case the interest went away as fast as it had come). Then came basketball which stayed till I passed out of Standard 10th! While I was 14 years old I got introduced to the world of English Classic Rock. I have to say for about a year it the music seemed only noise and the lyrics only too much shouting to me and nothing else till of course I could differentiate between the various sounds. This started my genuine interest in music, which still stays as one of my best hobbies. I took up learning guitar as a hobby in my college days, which i still do, as it is not easy to learn to play everything in guitar, which in the words of my Guitar Teacher is-
"Guitar is like an ocean. Like the universe, it is limitless. Each day and everyday a new tune can be made and is made out of it. New music is created. There is no ending to learning to play guitar. Even I am only a student, even though I know a lot, but in greater sense my knowledge is not even a quarter of what there is to learn, rhythms to follow, tunes to play and melodies to create!"
Travelling is another activity I had been quite keen on developing as a hobby but I never quite found the time to do that. While I was in School life I started the habit of writing stuffs. Mostly poems. However very few of them were completed. I had the same problem with writing stories, they always had an incomplete ending. It's like those famous words "He who knows the art to begin, should also know the art to end." Nonetheless I still write sometimes! Probably my best hobby is "simply sitting and doing nothing!" :-)

The thing is its better to have 2-3 hobbies rather than to have plenty of them and ultimately struggle to juggle them altogether. But people should have at least two.
There are some people though who don't have any hobby at all. They have a nice excuse for that as well. "We have friends! Who needs a hobby!?" Friendship is important, the most important may be. But sometimes its good to give ourselves some time as well. We owe that to us at least!!

So what's your hobby?

MUSIC IS THE MOST COMMON HOBBY IN THE WORLD ,  ACCOUNTING  FOR OVER 70%  OF WORLD POPULATION WHO HAVE A HOBBY

P.S- This may well be my last post before Christmas.. So I wish all of you a "MERRY CHRISTMAS". :-)
(with a touch of creativity) -

TOO MANY WORDS, TOO LITTLE SPACE
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

Looking Back, At What Was The 3rd Semester

"You are writing that story thing again.. Hey what do you write these days? I mean I don't see you write anything in your blog. Heck I haven't seen you write anything of substance for lot of days. and your last blog piece was nothing really, just emotional wreck! But i see you write all this stories on your laptop plus some other articles, poems and stuffs, not that I've read any of them, but nothing in your blog. What are those writings all about? Surely you can post some of those to your blog as well?" was what Rahul said to me about a week ago.
A long "hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" was all that I could reply to him.

True its been sometime since I wrote something good in my blog. And my last post really doesn't qualify for a decent writing either. Life was quite action packed since my last entry of October the 20th, comprising of a crazy fast forward vacation, horrible internals and ending with mentally draining, blood sucking, external!

Our trip to the southern and south-western tip of India was quite action packed. It was not one of those stereotyped holidays where you rest- lying on the beach, with your naked feet, sipping lemon juice, under the shades of an umbrella and enjoying the blue sea. It was quite the contrary in fact. It was the sort of a holiday where you run around more rather than rest in one place. The problem of visiting too many places in too little less time! But we enjoyed, and that's what matters. It was the most I've enjoyed in a holiday for a long time! I only wished that we could have stayed in Kannyakumari for a bit longer time. I've never been to a coastal city of India that has so much peace, with so less pollution and chaos! Trivandrum on the other hand was like a typical city, which, although I have to say, seemed better one than Kochi. But then I was there only for about 48 hours or so! Anyways it was just 72 hours of pure fun, chaos and drama! Not exactly living on the edge though but not living too far from it either. Inspired by that chaotic and fast forward motioned holiday i had even started writing a first person fictionalized yet a non-fictional account of that tour (though sadly when I'll get to complete it, I don't know).

Coming back from such a tour and then adjusting our mindset to the upcoming internal exams in a span of 3 days was not easy, but it  is least expected from a 22 year old senior year M.Sc student. And that's where I disappointed myself and had my worst internals yet, so much so that I slipped to 9th in the class after the numbers came out! No I'm not disappointed because of  the rank or the marks, they are just reflection of my  efforts! To me marks and ranks don't matter much, unlike knowledge. But yes, there are people who are ready to do almost anything to get good marks and high grades, competition for the sake of competition, is what they claim. Poor fellows. No I'm not like that. fortunately or unfortunately I never was. But what's disappointing was that I did not study! I didn't put up any effort at all. My mind was busy wandering somewhere else, in its own world. While others where busy mugging up their portions I was busy creating an universe inside my own mind. You can't study when half of your mind is busy searching for the other half to assist me in studying, only to realise its lost!!! Imagine that!!
Luckily I sort of recovered a little, between the gap between Internal's the External's saving myself from a catastrophic consequences, academic wise at least.

Between the inters and the externals came my birthday! I had the quietest birthday this time around. That is if you go by the trend of past 4 years record! It was silent, gloomy, with slight tensed atmosphere of the exam lurking in the corner (more like death lurking in the corner), it was a type of a birthday i deserved. At least I had my friends. Their presence inside the room was good enough for me. The sad part was we had our first exam right after the day of Diwali! That too in Kerala! I hope it is understandable how our Diwali was like! :(
I got through my externals somehow. Chained my escaping mind to my brain and studied! There were some prison breaks though! :D but the culprit was brought back to its place as fast as possible!!! It wasn't the best external a student could have had nor was it good, but it was better than worse at least!

In midst of all this came the big realisation... Its the end of the IIIrd Semester. Just one more semester to go!!

It was a very strange 3rd  semester. Things  flew by pretty thick and fast. starting with the arrival of our juniors and welcoming back amongst ourselves Koushik (in a way he never left :) ). Blood donation and the consequences I had to face. Leaving of my/our seniors, which was something Rahul and I never got over with, I still haven't. Then the field trips. Making a joker out of ourselves (me and Rahul) by wearing Moond and a Dhoti in the Onam celebrations. Then going back to home in late August. Coming back and facing a barrage of practical exams (which we should have faced long before, both teachers and students to be blamed for that), then off course struggling with feelings, struggling with friendship, fights, study, stress, insomnia(for the 2nd time!), classes, assignments, and again field trips. And then finally winding up with the Kannyakumari tour and exams. Its quite incredible when you think all this happened in a span of only 4 months!

So, in hindsight, only 25% of my M.Sc life is left as of now. 8 more months! With all probability this may well be my last 8 months in Kerala as well. Don't know where I'd be heading to after this. Or whether I'd be staying here or not. Don't know for sure what I'd be doing after 8 months. Don't know where would Rahul, Suraj, Arnab or Soumya or my new friends (the one's that i made here) would be doing. Funny thing is, neither do they know! And that's how uncertain life is! And with all that we still have to study, and have 4th sem projects and dissertation works and exams, I don't think we would get much time to think either! So the best thing we can do is stay in the present. Stay optimistic. Work hard. Set our priorities. Not planning too ahead but definitely keeping a goal in my mind, and hope everything will turnout for the best!

Something I wrote a few days back- (one of those that Rahul was taking about)

"Just for a moment, You get the feeling. 

Somethings are stolen and Someone is dreaming..."

(I'd rather keep contents of the rest of the poems to myself :D ;))

Here is a picture from Kannyakumari..... (I'll try telling more about that tour later!)

P.S.- I apologize for my last post. Didn't make myself too popular with some people, while some found it very amusing and funny.. but then people, it is, at the end of the day, it's my blog! :P

The sleepless wanderer- the realization of a part time Insomniac!

Its been quite some time, since my last post.. more than a month in fact! its been a real hectic one and a half months to be fair, balancing between 2nd semester pending exams and 3rd semester field visits and assignments and practicals. but why the exams were left pending is another different matter completely, lets not go into that..
With my M.Sc life moving towards its end, with less than 10 months remaining, my dissertation, future job/research aspirations and attachments with close friends (including Keralian friends), things of late has been really tiring and draining, and coupled with serious thought provoking, more emotionally so than anything else. the result of that is I've lost my sleep. i mean it quite literally, not metaphorically. doesn't really mean that i am having nightmares of any sorts. its more like staring at the ceiling fan every night with lights off, and hearing the slow but deep breathing of my roommates.. for 2 weeks straight. early stages of an approaching insomnia??
this is not the first time i lost my sleep though.something similar happened during April-May 2012.Which ultimately resulted in my losing of 4 kilos of weight with epithelial ulcers in mouth, and possible peptic ulcers.. but there was a concrete reason the last time this happened! during those two months sleep wasnt really possible due to the load of study each of us had to go through

Its been a busy 1 and a half months.. but that is a bad excuse for not writing anything new! For not posting anything new! Everyone faces problems. Everyone has their own problems. No one is absolutely free of troubles.. I was facing some problems of my own, like everyone was, and of course
,to me, my troubles were more sinister than others.. This is the normal thinking, of most human beings..
But problems would be there all our life! That is life. I guess it took me some time to realise that! :D I would thank Rahul for bearing my complaining behavior, and calming me down when I was worried. And both Suraj and Koushik for making me realise that this was just a passing phase! Everyone goes to tough times! (feels like I just got some sort of an award, and this is my acceptance speech!:D)

Worries would always be there, but dont waste time worrying after them.. Life is too short..
Enjoy it as much as you can without tension....... :)

Foot Note- the first two paragraphs even though were supposed to be a part of this post have been strike through. Just some petty whining of a stupid young kid. Not worth reading. Ignore it.... ;) 

Room No- 58:- A Tribute To My Seniors

 Its been over a month since my last blog post. You can put down the reason for that as laziness. But yes this time around it wasn't laziness alone. I really had been busy this past 1 and a half month with my PG classes, both due to academic and non-academic reasons. I did however received a lot of comments about my last post both on and off the web (sadly, none of which were made inside the blog itself! :( )

This post is a bit different from all other I have written yet. Its more personal than my last few posts I've written. Its about what we actually have, what we value and what we are left with in the end. What we hold on to in the end. Its about the people who left in this period of only 2 months. Oh no, I didn't meant from this earth! But have gone a bit far than I would have personally liked. It started with an elderly Bengali brother who was a Ph.D pursuer in Marine Microbiology but left for New Delhi to start a new chapter in his life, IAS officer. We all wished him best in his life, we all are happy for him. But that said and done we all were fond him and you know even staying in touch with someone isn't equivalent to having their presence in your daily life. That was about couple of months ago. Then came the time to say goodbye to one of my favorite M.sc teacher which in a way or the other was a bit more tougher than I had expected. More for Rahul than for me though. 'Cause for Rahul she was the only teacher who has influenced the way he conducts himself as a student, as a responsible M.Sc post graduate scholar, a constant source of inspiration..
Am i sounding too selfish?

Because I don't know you anymore
I don't recognize this place
The picture frames have changed and so has your name
We don't talk much anymore
We keep running from the pain
But what I wouldn't give to see your face again


Let's go back a few years, (4 years to be precise). You know on the eve of the start of my college life, my brother, being elder than me, lectured on how important it is to stay away from all the troubles ragging may bring upon. And also about the roles the seniors are going to play in my college life. To be fair the second point was quite non-existent. During my B.Sc days my immediate senior year students were absolutely non influential in almost every field. And we cared quite less about them. But yes my brother was right seniors have really played an important role in my life. May be not then. But definitely now.
I had never lived in a hostel before in my life.  And the first time I lived in hostel has been during my PG days. And that to in a different state, in a different part of the country altogether. My hostel life was going to be a crucial part for me for rest of my life, that was what I had thought. I was welcomed in my hostel Sarovar by mine seniors- Swapnil Chatterjee, Soumya Subhra De, Srikanta Acharya Chowdhury and Swarup Saha. Ragging was always in the back of our mind, we knew it was something we were bound to face. But you know, when you are away from home, and you have those with you who can speak your language, can understand, it does not take much time to become fond of them. Same happened with me. And as far as that ragging is concerned, it never came.. Instead we were made comfortable, with ourselves, with our surroundings even with the language and culture we were going to face.
We never got to see much of Swarup Saha as he left Cochin 2 months after we got admitted. But the other three kind of became the part and parcel of our life. Swapnil Chatterjee was the youngest of three (1 and a half years older than me) was pursuing his M.phil after completing M.Sc; Srikanta Acharya Chowdhury was doing a job in a leading Ornamental Fish export firm, while the eldest of them all, Soumya Subhra De was halfway to completion of his Ph.D.
This had been the most memorable one year for me Much of which I owe to these guys. And somewhere some part of me always knew that someday these guys would have to leave us. Leave this hostel. Leave this city. And go ahead in their life, and I/we should enjoy whatever time we get. Easier said than done!
How do you get over the hangover of seeing your seniors leave, with whom you share your day to day life? I dont know. That's an answer I would like to find out myself. I have been having a tough time keeping track of all the people who have been getting a farewell. Especially those whom I value quite high in my life unfortunately. So to answer my first question do i sound selfish? I guess I do.

But yes I will never forget this 1 year. I will never forget these 3 people. For that matter any of those people who bid goodbye in some way or the other, last few days. Till I complete my M.Sc, till I stay in this hostel, that room will always keep on giving me those fond memories. Room No 58 may not be having any of these 3 seniors but to me it would always stay as the room of my seniors till the time period I am here. That's the way I would like to keep it
Lastly, I know these is the most unorganized piece of post that I've ever written. I guess that's what happens when you write with your heart, and you can't think straight, cannot think with your brain. This haphazard account of my seniors would never be considered as a testimonial in any sort of way. Neither would I want that. Nor would they. But to me, this is my way of paying tribute to these fantastic guys (which I know is not even nearly enough), to whom I would never say a good bye, ever. Just a..................


"Thank you. We will meet again. Best of Luck. Till then...." :)

Happy Days :)

A Midnight Tale

Please read the entire post from start to end.. dont go by the length of the post.
It's a true story. I'll rephrase that.. Its reality.. ;) t.y

So this past week my bro and sis in law went for their honeymoon to Thailand. And like a good brother I went to see them off to the airport. Well of course there is nothing much to talk about that, is there? Yeah, so it would seem. I mean you wish them well, hope they have a safe journey and enjoy their time and have a good, and much needed, holiday for them both. There, nothing much to write about it, ain't it? So why am I troubling my fingers to type about something which clearly doesn't require my, otherwise lazy, mind to take the pain of racking up my vocabulary to produce a singularly non-interesting or 'not worth blogging' entry? 
Because may be this is not much about what happened while going to the airport and seeing them off (though i assure that was the prime purpose of my going, and the one of the two reason I went to the airport), but I'll remember it more for the experience and the stories I heard while coming back, which really intrigued me....


The driver of our car (the one who drove us to airport and drove me back) was quite a modest fellow. I guess i can tell his name 'cause not too many people who read my blog actually know of his name. His name is Biswajit. Quite an honest (so far) and trustworthy driver. He used to be a Cab driver, and still is sometimes depending upon the need.
You know of the many things Kolkata is famous for, people somehow, tend to forget, to mention "the Kolkata yellow Cab". No there is nothing extraordinary about the cars itself . Just plain old Ambassador, produced by Hindustan Motors. But what's interesting are the people who drive them! Kolkata yellow cab or taxi drivers are the most talkative, proud, hot headed and apparently highly knowledgeable drivers. Whether they are really educated or not is not the point (though most aren't). But if a cab driver gives you a lecture about sports, namely about cricket and football, always remember, they know more than you do, even if they actually don't, in reality!:) But all in all these guys are really experienced in judging people, 'cause they see plenty of people, quite closely in fact. Most have had some telling experiences, which they would be dying to tell you, but only if you are a trusted person of his.


Now coming back to where I was, so Biswajit is/was a cab driver and a friendly one at that, and as he knows me (calls me as Jijo da or sometimes Jijo Sir!:o) he started talking quite immediately as we left Dum Dum (the place in Kolkata where the airport is in). After talking quite a bit about the, then ongoing Euro cup, he became a bit quite. Later he declared, he is hungry cause he hadn't had any dinner (it was 11pm at night, at that point). I offered him an advice of stopping at any of the roadside food juncture and filling his tummy (for my Keralian friends, the food joints in Kolkata do not close before 11:30 at night!) Which he declined. He became quite serious and even a bit gloomy after that. And then after a while he started to talk. let me quote the entire thing he said.....


"You know Jijo da, for past few days I've been called upon quite frequently by a certain gentleman. Obviously for driving purposes. Actually the days when I'm not driving for your aunt, I'm a cab/taxi driver those days. And some people have my cell number to call me up to drive them in my taxi. I like doing that. But of recent times this elderly statesman has been calling me up, do u know why? (you wouldn't have guessed this right even if you were a genius) To drive him to the famous restaurants in the city!! Now isn't that surprising or what?"
"But what's so surprising about that?" I asked.
"True. but the surprising part is this has been happening for every Saturday-Monday for past 2 months!! Yes I know there is nothing surprising if a person is wanting to go to famous restaurants quite frequently, but this is been happening for 2 months now and not only that, but its always those 3 days. But this is not the most interesting part. No not at all. The most interesting part is, in all those times that I have picked this person up, all these places were actually hospitals!! In the first month it was in front of PG(SSKM) hospital, in these last few times in front of Appolo hospital and Amri hospital. 
I said 'may be he is a doctor'.
Yeah that's what I thought at first as well. Till i gathered up courage to ask him, whether he is one or not (I generally do not interfere, with my passengers life, you know), and he replied he is not, not related to medical Sciences at all. I thought may be this guy is another crackpot old fool. But to find that out I used to talk to him in the car, and he seemed completely normal. You know I almost stopped caring last few weeks, about this guy. I said to myself, 'let him be, all care about is the money I get in the end'. But this resolve of mine ended last week.
This last Sunday and Monday when your aunt called me up for shopping purposes of your brother's wedding I had to turn her down. I was booked in those two days by that same person. He made go to Kolaghat on Sunday. I would have turned him down but he promised to pay me quite a hefty sum. He made me go all the way to Kolaghat in the evening, do you know for what purpose? Just to eat to eat 2 Mughlai paratha's!!!:o He made me eat 1 as well (he paid off course). But imagine my anger at him! I gave him a piece of my mind!! Told him he should a buy a car of his own with a well paid driver. But I did not expect what he said next, 'I have a car. And i used have a driver. Not anymore. Can't afford to do that anymore!' Imagine my condition then Jijo da. What do u think, what is all this about? I am pretty sure he'll call me this week again, what do u think I should do? Should I say no?  What do you think?
"Hmmmm. Most interesting!" I smiled. I did not knew what to make of this story. Most of me was disbelieving him. While some part of me was exploring the ideas of what may be the case, if this was true. He somehow understood what I was thinking, 'cause this is was what he said next,
"I know you must be thinking I am making up stories, or may be making fun of myself, but believe me its nothing as such, what would I gain doing that? You may complain to your brother or your Aunt, that may even result in me loosing my job. This is true. what's troubling me even more is that I have found out nothing about this guy! i don't know his name, his address, who he is, what he does, nothing! Absolutely nothing"......................................................................
Even if he was telling the truth, I thought may be we wont get to know the reality behind this mystery man ever again. I thought that was the end of that.................

 


P.S- 25th june- the day I went back to the airport, to pick up up bro and sis in law, back from their honeymoon. It was again Biswajit.
"Jijo da, I found the story behind that mystery man's life, the one I told you about last day. It's too much sad.. That guy is battling from pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed with cancer January this year. He lost his wife in an accident last year. His daughter's live outside the country,  USA probably. Apparently he doesn't have much time left. And no he didn't call me to drive for him this week.
That night he didn't uttered a single more word, after this.. no stories no Euro cup, no politics, nothing..................

A Match made in heaven

I came back home in the early morning hours of thursday on 7th of june.Its was not only to visit my family members or enjoy the summer vacation in an even hotter (than Cochin) Calcutta but mainly to attend my only brother's wedding! Yeah my elder brother got married on 13th of june and he is already in the 3rd day of his marriage! As for me I had a splendid time as well...

In many ways attending this wedding and the subsequent reception was a strange feeling for me. I have been to many Bengali weddings before this one, but this one was different. Because it was special; Special to me; Special to my family; Special to my home. It was different because It was my own brother who got married, different cause, I've never been this much busy in any other wedding, my home has never been this much full of people for 4 consecutive days and likewise has never been so chaotic ever. And lastly no other wedding has ever been so tiresome yet so exciting for me or my family.

What I will do though is upload some of the snaps that i took on the course of those 4 days.

Here goes...

puja on the morning of wedding

gaye holud

  

these three were taken during the morning of the wedding.

the next two were taken in d evening when it kind of becomes a chaos and people start hurrying for te final preparations.. well at least the one who mattered, was keeping cool! :))

mirror image

 

anyways enough of introductions.. just glance through the next few ones.. the important ones...

Don't know where i was looking!:(:(

we have a reason to smile, and that's not only for the photographer's!:)

and finally...

there were a two hundred and ten more photographs more.. but umm I don't think I'm gonna sit and upload them all, its my blogging page not a photograph album sharing site!!..:p

these were some of my favorite pictures from the day of reception and, later in eve, the reception function..

one of my favorite snap

looks delicious, doesn't it? yep, it really did! ;)

And finally they had the stage only for themselves!:)

this one was pretty funny to observe.. which order you would want to arrange them eh? ascending or descending? :)

It really was super 4 days.. sorry for the fact that i can't/dont want to upload all of them pictures.. hope this was good enough.. there were a lot of people who i knew wanted to come, but could not attend in the end, I hope they liked what they saw.
I had to brood over a considerable amount of time about what heading i should give. Well I had a heading in mind, but sadly a certain someone already took it before me in facebook.:( But no pressure.;)

To all my friends who have been constantly texting me in mobile, I'm sorry I could not answer them back, and wont be doing so till 6th of july.  And to all my Keralian friends, I'm not going in to details of how Bengali marriages are performed or what are the rituals that are performed under it. You can find that out from any of the Hindi movies on Bengali customs or just google it!:)) or you know what, just wait for us to return and to tell u! :P :)   

Its all about trusting your Friends

For past two weeks I've had a lot of suggestions from different people of what my next blog post should be about. Yes there were some very interesting suggested topics on which i could have reflected upon. Thank you for all the suggestions. But then its my blog and unfortunately (or fortunately) I have the liberty to choose whatever I want to write about.
It took me a lot of time to decide what the heading of this blog should be. Well of course I knew what I wanted to write about. But yes, it took me a while to fix what the heading should be. No its not the most sensitive issues that are rounding your newspapers, or your modern Breaking News crazy, TV channels. Its not a controversial political topic, nor a sports related one, or about publicity stunts of modern entertainers! However its the most common topic that every human being faces in their lives. And no less important than any of the above said sensitive issues.
When I was in standard 6 in school, I clearly remember a certain intelligent, bespectacled boy telling me these words- "friends are the building blocks of life, give them more importance than your cells!" Well! I laughed at his words! We were young then. And that particular phrase wasn't really a common one, in those days (11 years ago!). But as you grow older, I kind of realized what it actually meant (not literally that is).
Lot of people define friendship in their own way, and incredibly everyone has a different opinion of what friends should be like, or what is required to be my friend, or even the qualities a person wants in his ideal/best friend. Its even more stranger that when the question comes about importance of friends, its never the same for people. Well yes of course its understandable, that every one has their own views and different perceptual ability.
But how much do we really value friendship these days?? I am not gonna answer that. people should answer themselves.
 I think the question is not, "why friends are important in your life?" rather it should be rephrased as "why friendship is important in your life?" And apparently its not always that much important for everybody! Well of course we tend to value some friends than others. Some are more close than others. while some we trust a bit more. But the basis of it always stays the same, "friendship".

For me its always been like that, fortunately (or unfortunately). Somehow friends have always played an important role in my life.. More so in last 4-5 years. One of my closest friends keeps telling me always that, "all of my friends are important to me, cause we have to live with everybody." I used to oppose him. I mean I could not agree with him. Not completely anyways. But yes if there is some one you call as your close friend, he/she should always be an important person in your life. But of recent times I have seen exceptions as well..
May be I don't see myself as a person who sees all friends d same way, but yes there are some I call as close ones, who are pretty darn important to me. They'll always be.

But i don't think everyone sees Friendship my way. Not everybody gives it the importance that I give. And its a hard fact that I came to know only recently! Why do we take some friends for granted? We call some people as good friends and yet do not feel the need of sharing our time with them. Yes, "a friend in need, is a friend indeed". But these days people have taken this saying quite literally! "Remember your friend, at the time of your need, and when your need is over, forget them!" In that case its not friendship, at all! Its rather using one person to your own will, manipulating him, giving him a false sense of importance, pretending to be friends with him and ultimately forgetting him altogether.
I'm sorry but that's what modern day friendship has come to. Yes of course there are exceptions. There always are and always will. But then, they are exceptions only and not majority.

I dont know if I have made my point clear or not. But I dont think its difficult thing to understand!

P.S- the picture used above is a copyrighted picture, and any kind of misuse may lead to criminal prosecution.

Exams, exams, exams, but after that.....

A student's life is never easy. he needs to gain enough knowledge. Knowledge, so that he can write in examination. So that he can score enough marks. Marks that would satisfy his teacher's, that would satisfy his parent's or guardian's or even, in some cases, his tutor. So what is the purpose of his studying? Well, the obvious answer would be to gain knowledge. But that's where education in a student's life baffles me! No, the purpose of studying is not primarily to gain knowledge, its primary purpose is to make a student earn money in their life. Okay, let's see it this way, what does 90% of parents in the urban or metro cities want their child to study for? They'll give u only one answer- to earn money, at some point, by virtue of it. So is knowledge important to them? duh! if it fetches money of course it is important. if it is not necessary, well, who cares!

 So does the student study to learn  or does he study for knowledge? can he? he cannot. Let me tell you a school boy of 10 years, whose parents have rested all their hopes on that boy for studying, giving him expensive formal education, is not even in the position to decide what is right for him and what is not, he is not old enough to do so. he can't make that choice in that young an age with all that family pressure on his head. bottom line is- primary education should always start from home.

Now, how is his knowledge tested? Or rather, how does a teacher, a school or an institution find out how much a student has studied? How much knowledge he has acquired? How much understanding of the subjects he has developed? That process is known as examinations. so, in that case this examinations or in short exams (as they are called) are a very important part of a students life, right? Yup. Very important. They are almost as important as knowledge itself, right? err.. umm.. Actually they are even more important than knowledge. This is the bitter truth. yes, a lot of people will disagree with this. most people will say otherwise. quite naturally. but what they overlook is the fact that, knowledge takes u forward in life, but how far you actually go is unfortunately determined by exams!

So are exams, the best way to judge a student's knowledge? No. Not at all. It's not the best way. But unfortunately, Its the only way in Indian education system. This does not count only for primary education or higher secondary education, but for higher studies as well. to be a doctor you have to sit for a series of examinations at the end of the semester, or even to be a scientist you have to go through examinations. these exams doesn't test the knowledge you have, but they test how much you have learned about the syllabus that has been prepared for you.

But what do you do after you've gone through all the exams. Simple, you get marks and ranks, which tells you how good or bad a student you are/were. The numbers you get the grades you receive will define you what student you are, and what you're knowledge level is. is that a real or true representation of your knowledge?? hmmmm.. Even though more than 70% students in the country(comprising various education stages) study only to get good marks, I'm sorry to disappoint them but it does not give the true representation of a students knowledge, his capability, his talent. his talent may be superior than the magnitude of his marks, or it may even may be inferior than his marks suggest. but we can never know that, unfortunately, coz there is no other way of assessment. Hard to imagine the fact that, what work you do or what job you get is dependent on what marks you get, but not how good you can do that work, how good you are actually at it. A person with better marks may get a job that another person is naturally better at, but lacks the marks of the other person.

why? because they both sat for the same exam, and one got more marks than other.

 

Okay, to conclude, all I want to say is I'm not an "idealist" neither am I a "sensationalist", nor am I an "intellectual person". but yes, the truth would always be "in your face", rather than hiding behind your conscience if you are honest with yourself, which fortunately or unfortunately I am..

As long as this system exists, we all (that includes me as well) will follow it, adapt to it. some people do it very well, some not very well, some struggle, while some are eliminated at a very primary level. its struggle for existence, and its in everywhere, so why not in education!!!

P.S- All people do not have the same views, this is my from viewpoint (based on reality) doesn't mean everyone should have the same opinion.

All facts and figures used are true, and are not made up.