TSG Elections

19.03.2010: The date for Technology Students' Gymkhana elections, a very famous event at IIT-Kgp. The odd number of people who get elected for its various coveted posts are the demi-gods of the campus for the next one year. One of my very close friends who happens to be my class mate is contesting for a post, so kinda excited for him. Hope he wins.
Anyways a lot has happened ever since my last post. I joined Indian Institute of Technology, the Mecca of education, to pursue my post-graduation degree. An LL.B. degree with Honours in Intellectual Property Law, the name of the degree does sound quite hefty. It fulfills my long desired wish of becoming a lawyer, better late than never. The questions that pop out:
why "law" after "engineering"?
why strive to become a "liar" when the world anyways is teeming with them? Why leave the opportunity of joining the best IT company to study again for thre-years?
Why?
Why?
WHY?
My answer to all your questions:
MY WISH!!
Whatever...
Life in IIT had been fun till now; there cannot be a single moment of the day when one can say that he/she is bored. There's so much of activities all around. Classes run for almost eight hours a day, there's a project submission or a moot court or a presentation every other day. One can play any sport one can think of (if one has time after the hectic schedule of classes). The intra-net (read: DC++) has a plethora of materials to keep you occupied... movies, tv series, e-books, softwares, games, music...you name it and you have it on DC++!! As one of our professors once asked, "Is it true, that DC++ can provide for things ranging from the Bhagwat Gita to pronography?" Our unanimous answer, "Yes, Sir!" Still, if you are left with time in the twenty-four hours of the day, the campus spans over an area of 2100 acres, one can always go for a "short" walk.
Nevertheless, classes started off from July, I loved the different genre of subjects that I have to study here post my engineering days. The pressure was a bit difficult to cope up with in the beginning but things settled down fine.
The month of September proved to be tough, Ma fell seriously ill: got diagnosed with rheumatic fever. I didn't really enjoy that phase of my life; watching Ma bedridden is the last thing I would want to see in my life. Nonetheless, life moved on, spent a quiet pujo with Ma and finally she moved off to Assam with Dad.
Month of November brought with it the end-semester exams, which went fairly well. I went off to New Delhi in December to do my winter internship in an NGO called Action India, will write more about my stay in Delhi later. It was a pleasant experience, I met "him" after almost seven months, so kinda enjoyed my stay thoroughly.
So that's how my 1st semester came to an end.

Love! That's what it's called...

I came across this song after a long time, a very popular number back during my school days. Till date it makes my heart flutter and the mind floats off to "Neverland".

In your arms I can still feel the way you
want me when you hold me
I can still hear the words you whispered
when you told me
I can stay right here forever in your arms

And there ain't no way
I'm lettin' you go now
And there ain't no way
and there ain't not how
I'll never see that day.

'Cause I'm keeping you
forever and for always
We will be together all of our day
Wanna wake up every
morning to your sweet face always

Mmmm, baby
In your heart--I can still hear
a beat for every time you kiss me
And when we're apart,
I know how much you miss me
I can feel your love for me in your heart

And there ain't no way
I'm lettin' you go now
And there ain't now way
and there ain't no how
I'll never see that day.

'Cause I'm keeping you
forever and for always
We will be together all of our day
Wanna wake up every
morning to your sweet face always

I wanna wake up every morning

In your eyes(I can still see
the look of the one) I can still see
the look of the one who really loves me
(I can still feel the way that you want)
The one who wouldn't put anything
else in the world above me
(I can still see love for me) I can
still see love for me in your eyes
(I still see the love)

And there ain't no way
I'm lettin' you go now
And there ain't no way
and there ain't no how
I'll never see that day.

'Cause I'm keeping you
forever and for always
We will be together all of our day
Wanna wake up every
morning to your sweet face always

'Cause I'm keeping you
forever and for always
We will be together all of our day
Wanna wake up every
morning to your sweet face always

I'm keeping you forever and for always
I'm in your arms.

This song makes me want to fall in love over and over again.

THOUGHTS...

Through the haze of smoke
I find myself lost
Gloating in my past
Trying to live the perfect life.

A life
That goes on and never ends
Towards the infinite that it tends
Careful, at times, reckless
Slow, at times, breathless
In an ultimate effort to evade the fears.

A life
Full of patches
Uneven edges
Torn stitches
Faded threads
In an ultimate effort to make the perfect(!) collage.

It is this life that I live
Hopes, false hopes, far flung hopes
Yet I believe!

A Realization

Sometimes,
What you want in life, you do not get
Sometimes,
What you get in life, you do not want
Sometimes,
You fail to realize, what happens is for your good
Sometimes,
When you realize, it is too late!
With the above few lines in my head, I come to face the fact that how often (or I guess, always), I fail to appreciate the things that life has bestowed on me.
Yesterday, when that immensely thin hand woke me up from the doze (I probably had dozed off to a beautiful landscape in Switzerland) in the Kolkata bound Raichak bus, I seriously got a jolt! With no piece of clothing to cover the emaciated body, what stood in front of me was a stark contrast to the scenery I was, virtually, in a few seconds ago. What stood in front of me was scary! It was an insignificant beggar with a very significant presence. Many reading this piece would just laugh out because such entities are a part and parcel (yes, I too admit that they are) in these corners of the country, then why was/am I astonished? An answer to be searched for; perhaps the mesmerizing beauty of Switzerland is at fault!!
His age, I failed to fathom; may be six or seven, may be less or more but that’s immaterial. Whether he is suffering from Rickets or some other such deficiency disease, I am not aware of and that again, I guess, is immaterial. What is material are those eyes; asking for a penny or two from every traveler in the bus. Those eyes had hope and innocence.
Like most of my fellow passengers, I just threw buckets of water on his hopes. The ones, who yielded, gave him an amount, which am definite, was not more than Rs 0.50! In such circumstances, what holds me back is my revered thought: Even if I shower him with my benevolence of Rs 2 (Strange! That is always the maximum I can think of!), how can such a meager amount help out anybody? What goes unnoticed at that point of time is that if I can spend Rs 500 for a new pair of shoes, which mostly goes out of fashion in a fortnight and finally just adorns my shoe shelf, why can’t I think of increasing the amount from a Rs 2 to a Rs 20 (even if it happens to be just a thought and not an action)? He can then, at least, afford one decent meal that day. Probably that is the time when I start to think of saving! When that urchin (that’s the word such creatures are usually referred to by, by bus travelers, conductors and drivers) hopped out of the bus, I did not care to notice; they usually stay In the bus for the period till they have managed to pester every passenger for "something", successfully or unsuccessfully is immaterial.
There are times when I feel extremely ashamed of my ways of life (though such times are very short-lived). I have always been getting good and nutritious aahar every day of my life but I complain over the mundane menu. I come across this fellow who probably has had no food for, God knows, how many days; I do nothing. I do not remember appreciating ever the variety and number of apparels my closet boasts of, yet my shopping spree continues. My house needs a new coat of paint, is what I think, but I never ponder over the statistics as to how many people sleep (or I suppose spend sleepless nights) under the sky.
Life is short. Life is transient. The urchin of that day made me realize that it is not my house that needs a fresh coat of paint but it is my thoughts and my conduct of life that need a new and a more meaningful coat.

Je suis

Rain rain don’t go away

Keep pouring forever this way

Li’l maDDy loves it and wanna say

With thoughts she likes to play

As they all say, “It’s better late than never”, finally even I took to blogging. An in activity for quite sometime, so thought of becoming a part of it as well. But Li’l maDDy prefers analog systems to digital ones [Read: writing diaries to typing out at Blogspot]. Shame on me: It is a sheer wastage of bandwidth (running out of place to store my diaries) and immunity to noise is considerably less (invasion of privacy is pretty frequent, code words can be cracked with ease after continued reading). Good, at least four years of communication engineering has helped me to relate the book world to the real world, at a much elevated level, though!

Did I call myself a Communication engineer? Till yesterday I knew that WLL stands for Wireless Land Line and not Wireless Local Loop (the correct expanded form of the abbreviation). I suppose with Tata Indicom Walkies making BSNL landlines an extinct species; the former illustration makes more sense than the latter! Damn, no wonder I find myself placed in Infosys Technologies and not in Texas Instruments. Oh but I was thinking of transforming myself into a Finance Manager (Yes I was one of the three lakh students who had appeared for CAT 2008, the sought after entrance exam to premier B-schools). Then again I need to know about stock markets, Sensex, bonds, equities, FDIs, FIIs… things I have no clue about.

Indeed an example of a life of extreme vagabondism!

Indecisiveness is surely one of my characteristic traits. Sometimes it makes me frustrated and at other times it is this unknown-undecided future that intrigues me and gives me the ultimate thrill to live on. Alas for my parents and my well-wishers, who sincerely strive to provide me with a secured future (a meaning unknown to me, especially after Lehmann Brothers was hit, “security” has become a more mysterious word), I continue being a Vagabond. Good or Bad, may be the inclination is more towards the latter, I don’t want to know, because that is what I am: Li’l maDDy.