A silent conversation

This was one of the least verbose but fully understood conversations I had with Sugata.

Love vs Arrange

Why people keep asking this question so many times?

I am not against love marriage. But you cannot force yourself to fall in love. Thats the first point I think is important. If somebody is thinking that his/her marriage will be love marriage then its like arranging for love marriage. :-P

What many buddies think that love is spontanious. You like somebody ..propose him/her... start loving and get married. You adjust yourself to opposite's behavior(swabhav) to keep your love alive. Means you need lot of understanding nature and adjustments in love marrriage too.

Now look at those who are not in love (like me). They are bound to bind with a guy/girl who is decided by somebody else for them. Now From start itself they are knowing that they have to be accomodative and helping each other to understand better as you don't know each other earlier.

So putting the same depth of adjustments and understanding, happy married life is possible with arranged marriage too. I don't want to get into discussion that which marriages fail more? If its true love then any marriage can sustain till end of the world(if end of the world occurs before that pair's end).

What the "boooo" means

It was not a surprise to me. People booing Sachin Tendulkar, The GOD. I won't criticise those who are real cricket fans, Mumbaikars for showing their displeasure after Sachin's awesome performance. Because we take him as GOD. Manytimes when you are passing through repeated disappointments you criticise real GOD too. But you won't stop worshiping. That is where newspapers like TOI need to understand junta mentality. I was not shocked by people behaviour and by TOI's article too, saying "Mumbai disowns Sachin". Making a mountain of molehill and conclude out of nothing has always been the habit of media now a days. How Mumbaikars can separate themselves from whom they loved every breath?

I am not a lawyer of Sachin Tendulkar. Ya, but I am afraid of those cricket fans who are ready forget the reason of effulgence Indian Cricket is having right now. I hesitate to recognize them as genuine followers of cricket. Had it been Dravid or Ganguly(only for cricketing reasons) in his place, I would have told the same thing. People are fastly forgetting the potential or talent for the sake of performance. Even if Sachin Tendulkar fails in 10 consecutive innings does it mean that MahendraSigh Dhoni or IrfanPathan who are making 50s are better batsman than him? No body can take his class out of him.

Its true that when one is playing a Team game, team needs are above individual records or needs. If we are playing with 5 batsmans it means that Sachin like any other batsman have to score sufficient runs so that Captain can go ahead with his strategy. If 3 batsmans out of 5 are failing then obviously they are not satisfying common goals. On performance grounds Sachin should be judged based on his recent innings and not his stature. Then team management is bound and free to put Sachin out of playing 11. But that can never deny the fact that Sachin is the one who infused art with aggression in Indian cricket. People are forgetting that they enjoyed cricket between 1992-2003 because of the gentleman called Sachin.

Compare Sachin with yourself. Yeah I mean it. Whatever the job you are doing or studying or housekeeping. Will your performance remain the same throughout as it was when you started with? I am afraid if you started badly. Treat him like a man. Ordinary people like us succumb to the pressure from our parents, teachers or managers. See yourself in his role and tell me that you can bear pressure of several million frantic, crazy cricket fans.

In recent times I have heard lots of irritating and mindless comments about Sachin. Being an avid follower of him I always get into fights with my friends who used to scold Sachin . Then I realised I cannot fight with everybody. But still whenever people threw any personal comment on him I was there to defend my GOD. Yeah but when they comment on his performance, I will wait for Sachin's bat to speak.

I strongly believe that this is the hype created and intensified by media with ultimate desire to print something sensational. Otherwise who could have thought of asking this rubbish and harebrained question Tendulkar or Dravid: Who is the greatest? . And all the time I am seeing TOI interested in such insane topics.

**In this article am answering those people who are questioning the standard, ignoring the diligence, and denying credit of Sachin Tendulkar. Not the current performance.

Lucky Chap

Getting into WIPRO was tremendous luck. I used to consider myself as unlucky guy. Many times my close friends used to hear "I am not lucky" from me. But now I don't think the same. And this makes me to tell you the story of how I got into wipro. On every step of campus selection procedure of wipro I was aided by my luck.

We three friends, Samir Hemant and Myself studied together. Actually from last 6 years were studying together. Ya, they are my classmates from my graduation. These two guys are too good in solving puzzles. They have completely solved both the puzzle books by Shakuntala Devi. I used to hear them keenly and interrupt them with some foolish solution inputs from my side.

Infosys came and we solved almost 9 out of 10 puzzles(correctly). God save that company. I know they must be regretting by not selecting anyone of us. Our only hope was infosys, as other companies had technical means programming tests and interviews along with aptitude tests, which I feared most. Reason is simple, I have studied programming languages but not practised a single time. The only programme I wrote on my own was "Welcome to C programming."

Samir was preparing C on the eve of 16 of August, 05, the day wipro visited our campus. He and Prashant (another genious) were discussing some cases of infinite loop. Prashant told three-four cases in which programme will go in infinite loop. After some time Samir told me to read at least something about pointers. So I took Balaguruswami and started my C study. I just read the definition of pointers, something reference to the address and slept.

Next day morning with despaired hearts we all went to attend the ppt (pre placement talk). Then started the real gamble. Written test, MCQ. Aptitude was as hard as a 10th class paper. All of us were already preparing for GRE so english was better than what we had before 1 year. 15 questions were based on unix, object oriented programming and C. Fortunately two questions in C were about infinite loop. For questions on unix and OOP I used all my knowledge gained through commonsense and literal meaning of the words like 'inheritance'. Also some artificial intelligence. For example, if answers of previous two questions were 'c', and I am confused between 'c' and 'd' options for next question then I wrote answer 'd' , using law of averages. I thought the way examiner will think.

The names of the shortlisted students were to be announced at 1.30 pm same day. We, with our unfavorable experiences earlier, were sleeping lazily in my room. Finally aroung 1.30 pm we decided to go to see the results. It took atleast 10 minutes to reach to the notice board through the crowd there. Myself and Samir were shortlisted for the interview. And Samir's interview was first to be in whole list of 150 shortlisted people. And It was just in 10 minutes after we saw the results. We ran back fast to our rooms, got dressed quickly and again went to the hall where interviews were to be held.

Hearts were pumping. But we were confident this time. It was our first interview for job. We never knew it was going to change the course of our life. Samir's name was called. First interview was technical and then HR. I was watching samir giving answers confidently. After half an hour, he was handed over a form. By the time 4-5 company officials started conducting interviews simultaniously. I saw some students were getting the application form and some were coming out directly.

Samir came out finishing his HR interview and looked relaxed and convinced about his performance. Then what he told was a wrong 'un (googly) for me. Only those students were given the form for HR interview, who cleared the technical one. My heart again started beating hastily but I told myself I have to get that form. Luckily, mind you luckily same person took my technical interview who interviewed Samir. My technical interview continued for 30 minutes. I was surprised that I was perfectly answering each question. Rather I should say It was best of me than perfect. Then he started asking questions on C. First question he asked was ," Do you know Pointers?" with slight smile on my face i told him, "yes". Only question he asked then was "what is the definition of pointer?". I need not tell the whole story.

After lingering for so much time on my extracurricular activities, he asked me about location preferances. I guessed now he will surely give me green signal for HR interview. I proudly told,"I have been out of my home for last 6 years already and I don't have any reservations about place." HR interview lasted not more than 15 minutes and I was very comfortable. Poor chap was asking about current sports updates. Earlier night I was watching Holland vs Greece Europian Soccer league and saw some news about West Indies vs Aussie cricket match. He said "Thank you".

Samir was waiting for me. We were happy with our show. Anxiously waiting for next day morning, we spent our night. Alwhole night some strays thoughts were coming in my mind. I was thinking how I will feel if samir only get selected? or what if both are sidelined?

Next day morning also we were curious but didn't dared to go and see the result.It was Avinash, who came with good news that we both are selected. With full of enthusiam I ran to Samir's room. I tried to deceive him with false news that nobody is selected. But He came to know from my bright face that I was cheating him. Then we rushed to our campus to see our names written on notice board. Our placement officer congratulated us and rest is what they say is history.---abhijit

My Cricketing Years: First Rejection

Like every other Indian, I am playing cricket since I was a kid. I saw myself in different roles in different stages of life. Some fascinating moments are still fresh in my mind. I am trying to put them in words.

First Rejection:
I stay in a Housing Society formed after some 15 professors of same institute came together to settle in my hometown, Karad. Then what could be more proper name other than 'Gurukul Colony' to our society? We had a group of 10-15 energetic boys always ready to do anything peeps in mind.

Normally there are seasons for playing specific sports. Like we played football in rainy days or swimming in summer. But cricket was always there every evening whatever may be the season. We played cricket in empty plots available in colony. We used to organise matches with teams from other areas in city. Prize money could range from Rs 5 to 20. Rs 20 match will be played with seriousness as if it was world cup final.

Those days I was recognised as specialist of none. I was better known for easily finding and bringing the lost ball. On a hot Sunday (or sunny day :-)) we decided to have match with other team from our own area, Vidyanagar. Both teams gathered on big college ground. Tension was visible on every face. I was also tense. But soon I realised it was not for the result of match.

We were 13 players from our colony. And as per rule 11 could play in Team. After selecting 10 obvious players Team management (means 1oth standard boys) had three equally poor choices for 11th player. Other two were Vijay and Bunty. Finally our Captain decided to go for better fielding criteria.

We three Vijay, Bunty and me, were standing in half circle. All of us did well in ground fielding. Then it was a turn for catching ability. Everyone was given only one chance. Vijay and Bunty fortunately got the sitters. And what a hard luck, I got a damn low catch. Obviously I was not able to catch. It was really difficult for any other player also.

But then captains decision was final. I had to watch the match sitting outside the rope. I had to see Bunty dropping another simple catch in live match. I was very disappointed. I still feel if not the best I was better than other two. I was not expected to bowl or bat, but was desparate to contribute . I cannot forget the moment that denied me from playing competitive cricket for first time.

--abhijit