coz life's a journey

still 2 hours for the flight to take off and i'm home-sick already! :'( always wanted to move out of chandigarh and when i'm finally doing so couldn't stop myself from getting all 'senti'! :P realising for the first tym how tough it is to say goodbye to family and friends even if it is for a few days..want to take along everything small or big that would connect me to home..newaz..a new experience awaits me..looking forward to meet the 450 odd young and like-minded (hopefully!) people..as is said 'life is a journey' seems very appropriate both metaphorically and literally..i just hope not many things will be left behind and that i'm able to strike a balance between both old and new..so all those friends who are reading this please stay in touch forever! i might try to fight with you( that is a chaav!:P) but take it sportingly and support a healthy argument :P haha..tumhe lag rha hoga ke ye kya hogaya isko! main bhi yahi soch rahi hun! :P and chaav i hope they let me access u on train and to friends all i'l like to say is don't ever give me a chance to miss u! saying goodbyes is tough and since this is the first tym it is even tougher! chalo give me leave now..india i'm coming..haha..the time has come for the caterpillar to leave it's cocoon..

adios chandigarh, my hometown, my small, green and clean city :)

universal adult franchise

cast vote for the first tym today! apart from exercising your power to chose ur representative it brings along a feeling of being a responsible citizen of the country..the ink on the finger is a reminder that it's tym u take control  of yourselves as well the society u represent..growing up does have a lot of benefits provided u exercise ur rights judiciously and perform ur duties well..so for all those who don't have a voter id yet or do not feel the need to vote..i would like to urge them to get one made and use this right of theirs because ultimately we the people are the puppet-masters of this democracy even if it is not apparent directly it would certainly show in the long run..so get urself inked ( i'm definitely NOT referring to a tattoo here ;) ) ..feels gud :)

why this kolaveri di??

hmm..well this i guess is wat my blog has been singing for the past many days considering how long it's been since i last posted..but let me assure u that i'm no blood-thirsty girlfriend and chaav no jilted lover :P ..exams r wat happened! well they are still on but i felt like getting back together with chaav :D these end sem exams are so taxing..for one you have to study buks and chapters u didn't even know existed for the past 6 months! and to add to that you have to sit there glued to your desk for three hours! well that atleast is the case with ppl who do not have notes hidden in the bathroom :P these days i'm actually worried about writing for three hours rather than about what i'm writing :D.. done with 3 exams, two big ones yet to come..hope they go well and that i'm able to study for them! coz that's been a huge challenge lately considering how much i'v been thinking of the post-exam list of activities! ok then with this let me since off for today..the next break from blog wud not be as long i hope :) ..back to books! well actually to a page in the book that's been staring at me for the past many hours! i should flip over to the next one now..watsay?? :D

a day to remember

yeah i got up early in the morning cursing this very company! :P who knew that i'll be working for it in the near future!! aftr many excruciating rounds of interviews and group discussions i finally made it..i now realise that watevr happens, happens for gud actually!
apparently a fused tubelight brightened my day and a paper boat set me afloat ;)
amazing day! looking forward to the next six months now..jagriti yatra + intrnship at amex :) 

puppet

 

more of a scare-crow actually!

:\

i'm not among the ones who believe in luck for day to day happenings but today wasn't a very favorable day! visited the rdb fort for the second time with a college club, apc..all was well till the car i was travelling in was hit by a truck from the side i was sitting on..if that wasn't enough on my way back my mobile slipped out of my jacket pocket and landed on the road..we kept going on in utter oblivion until i realised i wasn't carrying my mobile..shocked and terrified at the same time we decided to follow our route backwards meanwhile trying to call on my phone..the first few calls declared the phone was busy! but i finally let out a sigh of relief whn a person picked it up on the third try..he told me that the phone had dropped out near a crossing where we had turned and he would return it provided we give him a "treat"!..we immediately tracked down the fellow..i got my phone back but not without a big crack on the screen and innumerable scratches..which the person told me were the result of a car passing over it whn it fell..the ppl who were along asked him wat treat he wanted..my respect for the man immediately fell down several degrees whn he said "daaru hi saadi party h"!..i still shook hands with him and made my way back to the vehicle not wanting to be involved in the "party" transaction...

peace

@ people tree

the little swing

starry night

convo

Convocation'11...from the diaries of the co-convener :P..

gr8 environment with a lot of happy and enthusiastic vibes

but "high" tea was definitely the low point!

APC

this is how it's done here

yesterday they asked me can india have companies like google, facebook, apple.. my first thought was if u ever let people follow their passion..and with the day coming to an end it just reinforced my point that this kind of encouragement would not come netym soon!..
corporate sector! every one here aspires to be steve jobs but i bet hardly a few can dare to break that glass ceiling and do something beyond the ordinary..beyond wat the chain of command asks them to do..beyond sitting in their cubicles with eyes bored into data sheets and desktops!
well if u r wondering y suddenly the corporate world is facing my ire it is because today i faced my first or first two interviews with a renowned business analyst company and wat i ended up learning aftr the process was "i need to muster the art of telling lies!"..in both the interview rounds of this company i was asked the ques "what are ur plans for the future?"..i having never felt the need to lie on such a basic question, went about my plans of starting an ngo or at some point of time even adopting a village and making it self sufficient..never once throughout the session did the panelists make me feel that i was going off track or this wasn't wat they were luking for..they kept probing and smiling and so i kept blabbering..when i finally came out of the room i was so calm, relaxed and my naivety was such that i thought i couldn't have answered the ques better (but they truthfully would have yielded better results had i lied!)..but i didn't realise my mistake till the results were out and as it so happened i hadn't made it..i aftr a moment of realisation of wat had just happened i went up to one of the panelists of the intrview and asked "wat went wrong?"..she with all the tact that these people have repiled with utter politeness "i wouln't put it like something went wrong..it was only that u we appreciate are going for a very noble cause..ngo and all..but we are not looking for that sort of a profile"!..the 'mistake' dawned upon me and i left without saying a word..at home my dad told me how "grossly politically incorrect" i had been telling a core business oriented company that wat i finally want to do is start an ngo!..never-the-less i'm not utterly disappointed coz this experience has certainly taught me a big lesson which i hope hasn't come too late in life..just tell them wat they want to hear and not wat u want to tell..   

c'mmon

yeah i kno!..somehow the boring aftr diwali break made me pick it up..
i wudn't say i'm a chetan bhagat fan, never-the-less i have been thru all his books (well wat else can ne author or publishing house aspire for!) unlike the name the novel has little revolution to portray and the author leaves it to our imagination as to wat kind of revolution myt occur in 2020 (if any!)..though the story line set in the backdrop of varansi is pretty typical but it has all it takes to makes a bollywood masala muvi..beginning with a poverty stricken IIT aspirant who even aftr repeating an year in kota doesn't make it to a good engg insti..on the other hand is the protagonist's best frnd raghav who bags a good enuf rank and also gopal's love, aarti ( and thus the love-triangle)..then a certain shukla ji the politician comes into the picture..he is a mentor and father figure to gopal, but a villian for the other guy raghav who is trying to bring about this revolution against corruption and injustice!
the only thing that grabbed my attention was the bhagat's eye for detail and the kind of observations or shud i say allegations which he makes on girls thru the digs his character gopal makes at aarti..take for instance how he points out that girls use a '!' very often and a smiley when they want to avoid a topic or they don't kno about it..amusing as one may find at first this comparison and description of Girlese, but after a reading over hundred such pages it certainly becomes irritating..
the book like chetan bhagat's every other is a best seller thanks to the people who have just started reading novels and find the language easy and the subjects catchy..or shud i say thanks to the author for making people read atleast..
but i hope the author realises that there is dire need to revolutionize and write about things with greater depth and also i hope i wouldn't have to wait till 2020!

diwali h! :)

we have so many festivals in our country but diwali without a doubt takes the lead..

a very happy diwali to all!

green pigeon

bird3

bharosa2 :D

Bol

rendered 'bol'less i would say!
well for all those who r wondering what exactly am i referring to, the topic of this write-up is none other than a pakistani movie called BOL..don't worry if u havn't heard about it coz now i'l make u watch it :P..
had heard a song of this muvi by atif aslam called 'hona tha pyar' and it did make a place in my list of favs..and generally i have a tendency to watch a muvi for just bcoz i liked a particular song in it and wanted to check out the context in which it was included! and without a doubt the same happened when it came to this song...

it had been quite sometime since i had this movie in my laptop but it was today that i finally played it..and it's unlikely i'l forget it for tyms to come! though the theme of the muvi is a very typical one..depicting a muslim society with a 'hitler' dad and the multiple daughters he's blessed with..but the way it's been depicted and the story that been woven is so powerful that it took me by total awe.. truly speaking even aftr watching the muvi i didn't even have the slightest clue as to who directed it or who starred in it (except for atif ofcourse!)..now since i'v mentioned atif so coming to his role in the muvi i would say it was one of the most non-challenging roles compared to those played by others in the film..and since more was expected of him it was an extremely disappointing performance on his front..
but the protagonist of Bol (Humaima Malik as Zainub) certainly left no stone unturned to give the muvi her best..it was her performance, the rebel that she played, that kept me spellbound throughout and though i kno it was only a muvi but if i'm not wrong then such situations do exist in today's world as well..i wish every girl or lady displays such tremendous courage and grit to fight against the atrocities and oppression they are subjected to without any fault of theirs except for the fact that they were born so!
i don't kno if the theme was able to strike a chord with u or not but if you were able to read all of this then i was certainly recommend u watch the muvi too..i wish the msg of this muvi doesn't die out soon!

floral2

steve jobs.

the apple co-founder passed away on the 5th and the world hasn't stopped talking about him ever since..what was it that made him comparable to some would say thomas edison! the man no doubt was a great entrepreneur and he certainly doesn't need an obituary by a person who doesn't own an apple product..but after reading and hearing about him all day today i fell like putting forth some views of my own!

jobs as most of u by now must be aware was not a college graduate and was an adopted child..he mentions in one of his famous speeches, how lucky he was to have understood what he wanted early in his life and made decisions which were more or less guided by his heart..having being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003 he understood what each passing day meant and the need to utilize the little time he had..

it was under his supervision that the mac and the 'i' products saw light of the day and needless to say these creations were milestones in the history of modern technology..but more important was their packaging and elegance they brought along..even steve at certain moments had to confess to the technology not being their original but what they finally made out of it certainly was..

well some people also suggest that he was more of an expert in marketing rather than a creator..he knew his business well and that certainly helped the company scale new heights, apple is the most valuable company in the world today, leaving behind competitors like microsoft and ibm! 

a few days before steve passed away i was reading an article questioning the exorbitant prices of the ipad in comparison to one of the products by its competitors, the amazon kindle fire..the later is not very different from what the ipad has to offer, even so the price difference is huge..apple it is said has a huge margin of profit(30%) whereas amazon is ready to even face loses for a long term gain and is said to have a margin of just around 3%..so the big ques was that why would anybody ever buy an apple ipad?..apple by now undrstnds the fact that more than anything else it the sleekness of their products that adds to the charm and that owning the brand's products has become a status symbol among the youth and elder generation alike..

just the othr day a frnd who was planning to buy a new phone said now that steve is no more he'l have to buy the new iphone just as a tribute to him..this proves what a strong influence the 'stay hungry. stay foolish.' man exercised.. 

bird2

crane

cropped!

Getting a haircut has always been painful (no sarcasm intended!) for me!! my mum used to dread taking me to a barber coz she had experienced the aftermath plenty of times..and that included me crying (tears rolling down my cheeks :P) while scissors worked on my hair and pestering everybody at home with luk "how short they r now!"..needless to say i didn't have very gud things to say about the person who did it..
now once it so happened that for a change i didn't show any of those above mentioned emotions! My mum who had gone with me as usual with fingers crossed too saw this change of behaviour and was obviously delighted! thus the verdict was given that henceforth i visit the same place and the same person wud cut my hair everytime..i agreed and all went well for a few years.. but dear frnds this is not the happy ending to a hybrid fairy tale of rapunzel ! :P
some years later..2/10/2011..it had been quite some time since i had been thinking of getting a haircut done..yes i thot i had grown all rational aftrall it was just hair! so mustering all this rationality i went to the salon..and my first guideline to the barber as usual was 'cut as little as possible'..but ye log sunte kahn hain! bas baal mil jaein aur scissors, shuru ho jate hain! well i guess the above lines give u an insight to wat great tragedy fell upon me today :P..i'm trying to b funny evn tho i'm very upset about it! all i can say is history repeated itself yet again... :'(

diamond studded :D

"can" do it!

lauki

putting the vegetable to a better use! :D

kingfisher's feather

panic

ya i kno this is probably not the best topic to discuss!..but this is what u do whn u have two exams lined up the next day well the 'u' here is probably true for everybdy except me.. here's the situation ;)  the genius in me refuses to study!.. :D and even though i think i've written a fabulous line :P..mind u i'm not very proud of what it conveys!..here i'm babbling away while my batchmates continue to toil for the demanding day ahead! i'm thinking to myself.. 'ok! i'l start whn the clock strikes 8'..but it'l soon be 8, thn 9 too..and it will be so even quicker if i don't stop writing and start studying (yeah! that ought to slow down the time!)..oh panic y do u elude me???

floral4

star2

exams...

so the first sessionals for this sem. are finally here..and as usual i'm busy with all the least academic things( for instance blogging! :P)..the phenomenon of mind wandering away to lowest priority stuff  during times of stress and exhaustion is not something unheard of..but i think in my case it's wandering even before encountering the bouts of tension and my stint with books..and i'm generally at my creative best during these pre-exam days and to suppress that does require a whole lot of will power and of-course the surveillance of parents!..yesterday my dad saw me sitting with an open course book and all he said to me was "tu padh rahi h? ye kaise ho gya?".. coz every time he sees me, i'm either fiddling with my laptop or mobile..btw i'm doing the same right now too..whn there is too much to study and one doesn't know frm where to begin, i guess this is what happens!
being cool and calm during exams used to be a plus point previously..yup i was a diligent student once!..but these days i'm waiting for nervousness to dawn upon me :D...coz i believe that is now the only driving factor that could make me open up books! feeling only more sleepy by the second!

philately

star!

this is a pouch cum wallet
also my first go on block printing!

stencil2

stencil1

mango ppl..

from our very childhood days we somehow know the techniques of blackmail and chamchagiri, though it most certainly was done out of sheer innocence..but as we grow older we come across such similar things set in a bigger and harsher environment..well if u r fearing that this write-up also features anna-govt. thn sit back and relax coz here all i'm going to talk about is ground level realities! coz i believe i'm just a beginner :P.. well in the last few days i've come across diff kinds of politics..though it is not for the first tym i've felt it's existence but it's certainly the first tym that i felt like writing about it :D..student elections..anti-year back aandolan..selection in committees..some of these r authorities vs. students and some student vs. students but the thing common among all of them is "sab upar se hota h!"..Approach has certainly become the need of the hour..used to watch a program on tv called office-office but never took it seriously..the program brought into light "how the society functions?" and now whn i think back i realise that a great amount of it was very true..infact "mussadi lal" and "common man ( r.k. laxman's )" have often depicted the miseries and tragedies of an aam aadmi's life only a few could possibly relate them with the bigger picture and could see beyond those cartoons! just the other day i read a facebook status saying if even aftr this anti-corruption drive one would prefer being issued a ticket or giving 100 bucks to a traffic policeman and driving off! well if we still continue to think on such petty lines and keep questioning our own integrity then no law of the land could possibly help us out!

knot

not my work..did make it though..

27/08/11

dear blog

i write this today coz sum1 just pointed out to me that it's been two days since i last posted on the blog (the author here is thankful ;)..)..it's not that the last few days have been very hectic or that i was busy with other activities the only reason for my lax attitude is being preoccupied with thoughts!..and these being no profound ones i assure u.. :D the thoughts i'm referring to are the ones that plague u whn u have many things which need to be done and u r either unable to prioritize them or they r just too many to be sorted out!..to give u an insight to the kind of things whirl-pooling in my mind...saturday!..yes that's going to be a big day (literally!!) daniels organising the rock-band comp. Silence Denied and a major company recruiting for training on the very same day..i also think once in a while about studying for it :D..but that thought unfortunately has failed to strike a chord uptil now..and in the next two days i'll know its worth!..i've never been so complacent before and the tragedy is i'm doing nothing about it even aftr realising this! chalo enough of self-criticism let me get to work now (yes i'm trying to study! :P)

wired1

as far as i remember
this was my very first attempt at jewelry designing :)
and is one of the best in my collection now..

wired2

floral3

19th aug

nothing i write today would be able to do justice to how happy i am at this moment..and this is because the last two days have been totally exhilarating on the family front, even though i haven't contributed much to it :P..take for instance today being my mum's b'day i decided to get sum sweets for her on my way back from college as a surprise and to my utter shock realized that my wallet was in my other bag lying securely at home! newaz whn i finally reached home i was greeted with a whole bunch of guests and needless to say sweets too :D..so i just had to console myself thinking dat my motive had pretty much been met..even though it's rare, but as it so happened the icing for the cake was ready even before the cake was!..and here the icing i'm talking about is my dad being elected the president of the univ teachers assoc. yesterday..lyk this everything eventually fell into place..talking of the weather, even the sun burnt day gave in to a breezy night..ok! let me not romanticize it further and take away it's essence..coming to the point, on a serious yet optimistic note..as parents continue to be our source of joy i hope we could be theirs in the days to come..only if those days could come sooner! 

bachpan

 stumbled across this old hand made diary while rummaging through the contents of a drawer :)

      

spiral2

r u anna??

as the protest against corruption is gaining momentum, we as laymen are witness to many varied opinions regarding the anna vs. govt. tiff or should i say one political party against the other..well when i write now i'll try not to take sides but excuse me if it becomes apparent..anna hazare aims to go on a fast tomorrow i.e. 16th of august..the delhi police has refused to grant him permission to do so, but team anna is hell bent to carry on with their plans and as in the media would even go in for court arrest..well many have come all the way to support him but many have questioned his method citing that this technique is far from Gandhian!..anna in his defence quipped that he wouldn't hesitate to become Shivaji if need be..
the PM today in his I-day speech said that people who do not agree with the current drafting of the lok-pal should present their views in the parliament rather than sitting on hunger strike..bringing judiciary or the prime minister in its purview would only set up a parallel govt. and that certainly would create a bigger crisis situation!
well all of us are aware that corruption is an epidemic and it would take more than 4-5 people challenging the govt. and speaking out loud against it wearing caps saying "i'm anna"....it is a deep rooted phenomenon and even a non-corrupt citizen finds it difficult to survive in the existing circumstances..i believe a legislation comes into play after an act of corruption has been done..it would not be required if every citizen takes upon himself to shun this evil practice at its core..so this movement should start from within each citizen's conscience rather than a few people who claim to be representing the civil society!...

even i'm surprised

rakhi'11

engrossed!

time..

friends hav often pointed out that i'm an incessant speaker and always seem to hav so many stories and situations to narrate..but when it comes to writing and that too on a public forum, strangely i'm out of topics! :P

cuming to today's activities..the day started with a pretty dull dbms lab wherein my laptop refused to install a software! then APC's event Graffiti kicked off and was quite a crowd puller..though art work by any individual at the end was difficult to discern, overall it made up a pretty picture..barely pulled out 10 min. for lunch fearing my mum's wrath, which i was the recipient of a few days ago :P ..then evening also didn't bring along any sort of respite as i had to design sum passes and posters..well all said and done i'm not even sure if this is how u waste or this is how u utilise tym! now i better get to the assign i have to submit tomorrow b4 i doze off out of tiredness!