The year that was - 2009

Year 2009 has been a mixed bag of events for me. In the monotony of daily routine, here are some of them which I recall as I type this post...

Year started with my refusal to go to Korea, as I was dreaming of ABC, but this dream was shattered as early as Jan 10th. Jan 14th marked the 10 years of a mistake, which turned out to be the best thing I did in the decade. To mark this, I wished happy birthday to a totally unknown person. Got my spectacles on 19th, which I never wanted.

Reporting manager was changed in Feb, but not the kinda work I was doing. March started with New project, which was dropped by the end of the month, all of the efforts wasted. Appeared for my first Group Discussion and PI on March 28th, and I was like, God ! it's totally different experience. Got a call from my best friend on March 31st. I felt like forgiven for everything wrong I did to that person.

In the first week of April, I was assigned to develop a mobile application. It was really good experience. As the complete design, study, Algorithms and finally the coding was done by me alone.

I went home in the first week of May, the only time in 2009. I had a drink with an old class mate,now in Army, for the first time and came home after chewing a dozen of green cardamom. In the mid of May, I lent a couple of grands to another old friend for a week, it's not recovered yet. On 25th of May, Got many calls from friends, a miss call from bro, 3 calls from ....., finally, I called home to tell my Mummy that it was my Birthday, and she was surprised, as it was still to come as per the Hindi calendar, I gifted my self a Dell Studio as a Birthday Gift, with thanks to Rohit and his friend.

Next 2-3 months passed in the same rut, office, home and mock tests on weekends. I was on compensatory leave on Oct 23rd, was getting bored at home. Clicked on JS.com advert on Orkut. Created my profile there out of curiosity. I sent a request and got another 2 in next few days, and finally hide this profile as the fun might have taken some serious turn.

November too passed in the work, exam prep, and a false but exhilarating experience.

December started with very high hopes for many things, Manager was changed in the office, but 9 days' continuous stay at home for some prep was really boring, and it was not fruitful either. CAT came as a shocker, I was unable to concentrate fully( don't ask the reason) and left many sitters in the paper unanswered. 15th and 16th of Dec have really been ...tough but good in a way. I had to lie to my room mate that I got mouth ulcers, mind went into a whirlpool. Sobering up in the last week, canceled the tickets to Home and went on a trip to Ooty and Kodaikanal. It was real fun, around 1400 km in 3 days by a taxi, the great hotel search in the middle of night and the ultimate broker guy!!....today, manager came to me and asked to think about more applications for touch screen mobile phones.....lets see what we can get for you.

over all ....the year 2009 is ending as any other before it.... but T10 is going to be different...some hard decisions need to be taken ...and I'm gonna take this time for sure...another lie!

Wishing you all a very happy and enriching year ahead :)


Don't look 4 mistakes in this post...just go and Have some Party ;)

Hum - Tum

मैं, मैं ही था जब तुमने मुझे देखा
मैं, मैं ना रहा जब मैंने तुम्हें देखा
तुम, तुम ना थे जब तुमने मुझे देखा
तुम, तुम हो गए जब मैंने तुम्हें देखा

----N.P.

Ek boond ne...

Cont..

Bhari bhari si reheti hain aankhein..
Inke chhalak jaane se darta hoon..
Bas isi liye aajkal main..
Ghar se kam nikalta hoon..

Chaand mujhe bhi bhata hai..
Par tanhaiyon se darta hoon..
Phool mujhe bhi bhaate hain...
Par unke murjhaane se darta hoon..

Yahi soch kar bas apne aap mein..
Simta simta sa reheta hoon...

Ek boond ne saari mehanat bekaar kar dee..
Aise chhalki ki saari hadein paar kar dee...

Qaid tha jo toofaan mere seene mein...
Aankhon se uske liye ek raah taiyaar kar dee...

Yaadein teri naam tera sab bah gaya usme...
Dil ki zamin phir se banjar bejaar kar dee...

----N.P.

My Roomie has changed....

He has changed!! certainly.... I have seen him Happy and Sad, but not the same at the same time, that he has been for last 5-6 months.

You see for yourself what has happened, I know he's got great talent, or its result of something...

these are some of his custom messages in gtalk, i like most..

the paths i pave....the doors u close.....the knots i tie....the bonds u break.... :)


I give my love freely... for it is mine to give.... My love has no possessor.... My life is mine to live.... ;)

and for this one, I dont know, how he read my mind, may be we drink from the same bottle, or we breath the same air, he has got this right from my head....

shaam se aankh mein nammi si hai... aaj phir aap ki kami si hai.... dafan karr do humme ke sans mille.... nabaj kuch derr se thami si hai.... waqt rehta nahin kahi tikk karr... iski aadat bhi aadami si hai.... koi rishta nahin hai phir bhi ek tasvir lajmi si hai.... shaam se aankh mein nammi si hai... aaj phir aap ki kammi si hai.... :)

more to come....sure he's got more of it...may be I'll also learn something...

Exams, Cheating and friends...

Exams! Exams!! Exams!!!, Millions of students worldwide get nightmares because of these. I too have been thorough incubus since I’m aware of my existence as a student. Exams, to me, are still as tough as these were when I was in primary school. During the school days, it was all about maintaining the first rank in the toad’s world. In High school, it was all fight related to internal exams, classes and tuitions. Then college, here too it was no less game then earlier, labs reports, surprise tests and yes, Viva and thesis. Getting bored! Ok...finally but not the last, Examinations for professional degrees, crucial observations by big bosses, friends, and society at large.
Even the ways to stop the malpractices in the exams are getting tougher exam after exam. In the school days, it used to be just beating, scolding and answer sheet snatching. In the board exams it became punishable offense, and now in professional courses, even the movements of students are A/V recoded. But I’ve been amongst the few lucky ones, those who have passed through government schools with students insisting on cheating, whatever be the punishment, after all it was their Army career which was at stake. For teachers, catching the cheaters red handed, beating hell out of them was great fun. Some used to say, “Even I used to cheat in my school days, it’s a normal practice. But your crime is that you are being caught. What will your spouse say? That you didn’t even learn cheating in your school days!”
Unlike others, who, used to depend on high amounts of ammunition (Kharre) and even pass books. I was among the small times crooks; we could just tell the answers, show the copies and in some case pass around the supplementary sheets. In one 9th class exam, Vinay Sharma, who used to be just after me in the row, and I cheated. I showed most of the answers to him but not all, because even I had to finish my paper. After exam, he was all fired on; he had to leave two questions because of me! As I didn’t show all the answers. What a show of gratitude. In the next exam he kept on calling but I didn’t turn back. Half of the exam time was over and he was worried. Then suddenly said, “Hey ! there is something in your hair, just above your neck.” “Is it ?”, I turned back, stroking my head. He was all smiles. And now he asked again,”Yaar tell me the answer of no 14.” "what? I just have 10 questions in my paper", I asked. How come you have 14?. I turned over my paper again. But it had just 10, nothing more. He showed his paper to me, and then I came to know that my paper was printed on one side only. Had he not asked, I was happy doing just 10 questions.
After maths, next exam was of science. For this we were huddled in a single hall. As per the seating arrangement, Sonam, the topper, was in my right side in second column. She came excitedly and said, “Let’s tally our answers in objective part of the paper.” I agreed, after all I was going to gain something this time. We decided that we would show 1 for A, 2 for B ...4 for D. After 20 mins both of us were done with first part of the paper, so it was the time to start with the signs. She kept showing A,C,B.....and I kept nodding for all the questions, suddenly something came in my mind and I indicated that answer is A. Apollo-7 not B. Soyuz-T for the last question. She replied in negative, but I insisted and she agreed. I felt strange for a moment but I did this while I kept my answer B only. It was the first time that I’d cheated someone just to make sure that I get the full marks in the first part of paper. For the second part of the paper we didn’t make any attempt to cheat. After exam, she was happy that both of us helped each other for the first time and I was feeling guilty but I didn’t say anything.
After the winter vacation, in the first week of Jan, our science teacher Chandra was ready with the evaluated answer sheets. He first announced the overall highest mark in the both the parts combined, and then he told the marks in first part as well. I got the best marks in both parts of the paper. I got 10/10 in first part. After 10 mins he started to collect the answer sheets back. I asked Sonam sarcastically, “So what happened topper?, you got just 8 marks in first part.” She didn’t reply, but I insisted. Then her friend said, “She left one question unanswered to make sure that you get the highest marks and got another wrong by bad luck”. I said,”I wish you were a boy.I need a friend like you.” Then I could not stand there any further. I felt as if she cut me into the pieces. I betrayed her trust. And you know what; there was no rule to punish this cheating.

PS: Purists please let me know the errors....names are fictitious.