Things to do in PS

Hello. It's been 2 weeks in Bengaluru, and there's so much to talk about. I mean, as I am getting pushed and shoved in the bus, I think of a blog post, as I am helplessly swindled out of 100 bucks by these bloody rickshaw drivers, I wonder how I'm going to put the experience to words.

Office has been good, got my cubicle and desk y'day. Office people are really awesome and cool. And no, I am not trying to suck up... not so soon at least :)

However that's for later. First things first. I see a lot of status messages, saying PS sucks, or rocks(same guy actually) or giving links about what they're doing and stuff like that. Now how much does your PS rock, is a difficult thing to measure. I am sure, you'll all agree, no PS could possibly agree like mine (if you disagree go piss on yourself), so as a goodwill gesture I'll be listing some of the things that I did during my PS-2 and you can judge for yourself how well you compare. (PS stands for Practice School, and its a 6 month paid internship during the final year at BITS-Pilani) My PS was in Singapore at Infineon (no no, the list hasn't begun, I'm not so brutal :)) It was my first trip abroad, I left with an empty passport and returned with no pages to spare.

So here goes(in no particular order, all equally awesome)

1. Attended a Coldplay Concert - best band in the world I'd reckon
2. Cycled 40km for a cycling marathon
3. Ran a full marathon - and fell in love with running
4. Went to Arab Street for an authentic belly dancing show, and danced with the dancer (no I wasn't drunk, not until then and I do have pics to prove it)
5. Attended the Malaysian Grand Prix

...if you're already green with envy, you had better stop, I am just starting
6. Saw a stunt biking event, back flips and stuff, in front of my eyes
7. Called friends over for a week to Singapore(Rushi and Dhruv... you guys rock)
8. Brought my family over for their first foreign trip to Singapore and Malaysia.
9. Went to Malaysia 4 times.(most Singaporeans haven't :) and its just an hours drive from anywhere in Singapore)
10. Saw Disneyland and fell in love with Snow White (HAHA, over these 6 months, I fell in love many tims over :))
11. Went to Macau and Hong Kong, for bunjy jumping(world's highest), gambling in the world's awesomest casinos, Lantau island to see the Buddha(here too fell in love with the persona of the Buddha), an awesome show that left me crazy and happy, drank Russian vodka at -22 degrees.
12. Tried more cuisines that I like count. More sea food than exists in the Arabian Sea
13. Went to LAOS, an authentic back-packers destination(I have been to places, even google maps has no info about :))
14. ohh before I forget, I did get to do a cool project at Infineon, which I finished and my mentor was impressed.
15. Had a pic taken with a prominent film actress ('twas Sameera Reddy folks, and regardless of what passers by tell you, it was she who asked, no insisted on a pic)
16. Oh, how could I forget the Madame Tussaud's Wax museum in Hong Kong. We almost molested most of the figures there :)
17. Made some really really awesome friends at CHYK (Chinmaya Yuva Kendra), who made the stay so much more awesomer.
18. Went to a Indian pub for a cricket match, and came out happy and awesome, despite not even knowing who won the match... this may not sound so great, but for some things, you just have to be there to know. :)
19. Drove a car at about 190kmph on Malaysian highways (why didn't I cross 200, you ask, it was the speed limit I say, and before you can smirk, I say again, the speed limit is of the car not the road- that was 130 :))
20. Kayak'ed down river Mekong for over 50 km, this was in Laos.
21. Tried Lao Lao, thats a drink where they politely insert whole anima parts in a rice based alcoholic drink, the ones we tries were, sea horse, millipede and bear's feet (close your mouth, yeah its true, and yeah I have pics again)
22. Jumped into the river about 6 times, mostly from a circus bar-about 3-4 m, and once from a gorge, about 8-10 m high. No pics here, but the video is on youtube :)
23. Learnt the guitar and swimming... well I haven't lied and don't intend to start. Both I couldn't realllly get a hang of but desperately want to continue here in Bengaluru.
24. Blogged a lot and also launched my website... blog is still active, as you can figuere, website ke liye, wait a little, I promise I won't disappoint. Will update not too far from today.
25. There are a lot more things that come to mind, but I can't mention for this is a public forum :), there are children reading this :) and I fear for my safety :).

I am now both tired from typing, and nostalgic from remembering all those fun times. I had a wonderful wonderful time there. 6 unforgettable life-altering months. I am sure, I am forgetting some stuff, so until I am reminded of them, you can go on feeling depressed about your life. :)

All the pics are in my album(the link is to the right) and you're free to comment.

Errata: Stuff I initially forgot

26. Brewed our own beer at home, seriously we did man! And it was wheat beer, not the ubiquitous lager beer.

Times of Yore

Here I am again. Hope this is not too much trouble, and I hope you're not addicted. Because if you are, I'm here only a while longer, to be gone, not knowing when I'll return.

No, no, I'm not feeling psenti. Just random shit. Btw, my paper went fine. It was more of a test of my writing skill than actual factual recollection. If I write to the point, I'll fill only 5 lines, but its a 10 mark compre question, so I am obliged to call upon all my writing prowess and vocabulary skills and fill in 8 sheets. 

A simple sentence such as, "Valmiki authored Ramayana" is transformed into "According to historical evidence, which surprisingly conforms to local wives' tales as well as local heresay, one is brought to believe, however unlikely it may seem, that the immensely historically and philosophically important scripture of Ramayana, the story of the ideal man and his quest to hold his ideals dear to him, despite all obstacles was penned down by the great writer Valmiki with divine intervention and under the supervision of the Gods". So now you also know why I blog.

Leaving that aside, yes I am feeling a little psenti and spend a lot of time reminiscing. No, not about BITS, that would just bring tears to my eyes. I try and compare how much things have changed since school.

Remember, in school, we were made to wear washed, ironed and spotless uniforms, shiny black shoes with matching black socks, neatly combed hair and cut nails. And now?? Forget wearing clean clothes, I haven't bathed for a week, and my utterly stinking socks are lying right next to me. I have worn this same pair of socks this whole semester-placements, tea party, cricket, jogging and what not. My hair hasn't felt a comb in years, and my nails resemble claws.

Then I remember the note books. ohhhh, just the thought sends shivers down my spine. The books had to be covered with brown plastic covers, and neatly labelled, with an index. Red lines were drawn after each answer, double for names of lessons. The teachers used to correct each book... can you imagine!! each and every f***ing book. I seriously have trouble believing that. And at the end of the lessons stuff like, V. Good, or V.V. Good. The more Vs, the prouder I'd feel. Just a Good was just not good enough. 

And parents!! that part was seriously hilarious... every now and then, one weekend would be open house, wherein parents were called to receive their wards' report cards and hear their class teachers either complain about their son talking too much in class or not paying attention.

The best part was definitely the monitors. Everytime I remember this part,  just ROFLMAO. Each class had a class monitor, the syudent who stood first in class, who's job was to write down the names of the people who were talking... seriously man talking, not kissing or making out, just plain simple talking. And each added instance of talking would invite a cross next to your name. And the punishments, finger on your lips, kneel down, stand on the desk and murga ban. 

How much things have changed, forget having covered and corrected notebooks, or covered books, or even just books. Ab to xerox notes zindabad. Forget the Vs before the Good, as long as you're Av+ you're jumping for joy.

Parents aren't called for just report or rather grade cards. If parents are called in BITS, most come to know of what happenned reading the mess notice boards. Rest of the parents, the same one's who came every open house, could be congratulated if they know one course you're having this semester.

Monitors aren't selected, Presidents and General Secretaries are elected, with all dhoom and dhamaka. The punishments though less severe, are now nightmarish. I'd go through a hundred murgas, I'd kneel and walk like that from C'not to VK, if spared one meeting with you-know-who. 

Summer holidays with the family are now foreign internships. Anything at all to add one extra line to the resume. Talking of Basic Instint was taboo and now Jenna Jameson moans aloud all day all over Bhagirath Bhawan. Hand held video games used to excite, but now even NFS Undercover seems drab.

We have changed, a lot and seemigly for the better. But are you sure? There were meaningless rules then that we blindly followed and now we have this fake freedom, this 'independence' that we so take for granted. Then, we walked on paths that others had laid for us, and now that we're independent, we take predetermined paths to "success". Are these different???

A Farewell to remember..

It's been a busy week, with formal tea parties, informal farewells, naughty write-ups, free dinners, PS - 2 stuff, project work and make-ups. Now I have several times, expressed my love for my department. Not the work and stuff... that's always secondary. The people and the fun times. And recently my juniors gave me even more reason to be proud. Now we have all seen and experienced farewells, but none like this one.

In case you have the time, do come over to Bhag new wing, Ram upper front wing, and Ashok pi wing, and look at our invite. Invites are made to be different, but this one stood out like an oasis in a desert. This was just a sign of things to come.

The next day, we psentisemites were asked to be ready by 8am... :) No need to smile, we weren't late, actually we were an hour early(keeping in view psentisemites' rule of arrival 2 hours behind schedule). We weren't told where we were going, outside campus was a 20 seater bus ready to take us to... Surajgarh. A piece of advice, do in your BITSian life visit it once. Awesome place. Its a former fort, that's been renovated into a resort.

Once we arrived, we were given red carpet treatment... literally. And with each of us being accompanied up the stairs, by lovely young ladies on eitherside, we felt nothing short of royalty. After a brief trip through the palace cum fort cum resort, filled with wierdly posed pics, singing, some really really weird games :) and otherwise generally running around, we spent time at the pool.

If I ever have to list out some of the best times I have had here (and I have had many) this would definitely be in the top three. It was really fun, there weren't any tensions, worries, phone calls, arguments..anything of that sort. Just a bunch of really good friends, having fun. The water brought out the best in us, the child within. We could have been mistaken for little children who have just found a new game to play.

The food was brilliant... I mean seriously GOD LEVEL, a customised preparation for us exteemed psentisemites with handpicked dishes.. the hands that did the picking i.e. our juniors did a fantastic job of it.

After hours of lazing around, we sat down for a session. Recounting all the great times we had, all the laughs, the work... (I wasn't involved here much :) ), the great times, the trips (ohh.. the trips), the politics :) , the fights, the arguments... in hindsight they all bring a smile to my face. I have no regrets for the things that I did, but just for a few for those that I didn't. We felt like learned gurus, sharing our knowledge for the benefit of posterity.

Thus ended a day that I will never ever forget. Despite all that has happenned, we... I speak for all of us psentisemites, love you all. And no matter, how much you screw up, we will always be there for you. Thanks again for a wonderful farewell.