A.r.T.i.L.i.G.e.N.t

Something gre8

2008-09-09T22:13:00.000-07:00

On one fine day email conversation started amongst us like this.

Shrikant: What is the plan of abhijit,Shankar & aNNa. Any idea pl.

Abhijit: Anna is working on it. :-) 23-24 weekEnd. Hint: be prepared for Satara trip...

Shrikant : Gr 8!

Mandar: See what anna said..“We might go for 5-6 forts within 2 days in Satara region.” Now ur “Gr 8!” shud bcome very Gr8! ?

Abhijit: say Gre 6. or should we add 2 more forts in list

Mandar: What an idea! Anna, plan it ‘8’ to make it Gr8!!

Shekhar: Done!!!

That's it and we were all ready for something which we have not done before. And nobody in our cognizance. 8 forts in 2 days. Target was demanding and we were determined. Rain was distant dream even in month of August and sun was just blazing earth. But it was not enough to prevent us from doing what we thought of. We decided to hoist pride of Maratha’s, the saffron flag, on each fort we complete.

After thinking over the choice of forts, we decided to take on the twin forts Chandan Vandan, Vairatgad, Pandavgad, Sadashivgad, Vasantgad, Sajjangad and Ajinkyatara. We were very eager to go for Nandgiri i.e. Kalyangad but due to farther distance from Pune-Bangalore NH4 highway we had to settle for Sadashivgad which is in Karad.

We were ready with all maps and books to help us in finding route and base villages. On Friday night at 10 we 6 friends (Rohit is the only name missing in above conversation) left from Pune in a car and with a bike. Shekhar aka Anna was with his Maruti 800 and Shankar with Discover. The name of his bike itself suggests our motto. We reached Kikli near Bhuinj in Satara approximately at midnight. The base village of Chandan-Vandan, Belmachi is not very far from here. It was a clean and neat village with concrete roads, so had a walk in the midnight. Rather than waiting for sleep we were anxiously waiting for dawn to arrive to launch our mission.

Early morning we started for Belmachi. All the dogs we barking like hell at us. We started our climb at five O’clock in the morning. Sun was yet to get up. We lost our way in dark. The forts were visible in moonlight and we kept climbing upwards. Finally we reached at the junction between two forts. First we decided to go for Chandan on left. Though we had covered most of the climb, the entry to fort was on the other side. We had to traverse all the way to other end of the fort. There we raised the first flag of our mission on Shiva temple. The nature around came to live with the resonating sound of slogan “Shivaji Maharaj ki Jay”.

We felt like we will run out of time it we take lot of time in finding the right place and tying the flagpole firmly to that support. But then we can not just hurry up the things we respect. After Chandan we immediately walked back towards Vandan. The door was almost intact. A dargah and one temple were there on the fort. After starting back to Belmachi, we realized that we had quite an easier route to Chandan and Vandan than we tried while climbing up. By 10 am we were in Belmachi. Villagers appreciated our efforts of completing both forts so quickly and putting flag over the temple.

We were not in mood to rest. We drove back to Pachwad city on NH4 highway. Vairatgad was visible and it was 11 O’clock in the watch. We had sumptuous breakfast Pachwad and reached Kapsewadi village near Vairatgad via another village Sartale. We started for Vairatgad at 11.30 and reached the top in 1 hour. It was a tiring 80-85 degrees up climb. Scorching heat was taking toll. We had big GluconD packet with us to rely on. After hoisting flag on Vairatgad, we got our water bottles filled with ice cold water from water tank in the rock of the fort.

It was just 2 when we were back to Kapsewadi and we thought of changing our plan a bit. Instead of going for Ajinkyatara we decided to trek Pandavgad which was quite bigger and time consuming. We had 5 hours of daylight with us. Instead of wasting time at some hotel for lunch we had dry snacks and headed for Wai, 12 km from Pachwad. From Menawali, a road on left goes towards base of Pandavgad. There is another route from Mandhardev but it goes through dense jungle.

We started our trek for Pandavgad at 3.15 pm. Not sure of the route, we kept asking every villager we came across. One uncle told us that it will take 6 pm just to reach the fort. ShekharAnna promised him that we will be back by 6 pm. And we have never dumped Anna. After a moderate climb for an hour we reach a hamlet of koli people. Pandavgad was straight up there but there were many false roads diverging in forests. A shepherd helped us in finding the right way towards the top. An old flag was fighting with wind on the bastion. After reaching the top we went to the same place and placed new flag on the poll. A spectacular view of Dhom dam, Matheran table land was holding us back from getting down. Sun was setting down fast and light was getting worsen due to clouds. At 5 in the evening we started our journey back to Menawali. In no time, i.e. in one hour we reached the place where we met the uncle first. In menawali we visited Krishna ghat. It was the most beautiful ghat I have visited ever. It is the same place where some shots from movie ‘Swades’ were filmed.

We left for Karad, my hometown, at 7.30 pm. We all were hungry but quite pleased with our performance. All four forts we trekked, none of us had visited earlier, at least by the routes we hiked. On the way to Karad, we had dinner at Assal Satari hotel. Though it was not all that great, it was certainly good for crying stomach. We reached my home in Karad city at 11 in night. All things were set for us. In no time we went to sleep.

Next day morning, we wanted not to spend time on breakfast. So carried the breakfast with us and left for Sadashivgad. Sadashivgad is nearly 7 km away from Karad city. The steps to the fort are built from collective contribution from the donors and villagers. The Shiva temple and a well on the top are the only structures on the fort. Spellbinding view of Karad situated on banks of Krishna and Koyna can be seen from the fort. It definitely took more time than we anticipated on this fort. We were back to base at 8.00 am.

Vasantgad is close to Talbid village. Talbid has immense importance in Maratha Empire. It is birthplace of Senapati HambirRao Mohite, who was behind Shivaji maharaj and Sambhaji Maharaj like Rock of Gibraltar in tough times. With target of coming back by 11 we started for Vasantgad at 9.30 am. It was a simple climb and we managed to reach the top quickly. We found a bastion to place the flag. We spent almost an hour there, thanks to Anna’s heroics of climbing the 25 ft high bastion.

We visited memorial of Senapati Mohite in Talbid and started our journey to next fort in the line, Sajjangad. Sajjangad, known as spiritual capital of Maharashtra by then, is blessed with intact walls, doors and beautiful temples. The whole atmosphere is serene and enlivened with spiritual chants. We spend for some peaceful time in retrospection. We were on seventh fort and only Ajinkyatara was left.

At Satara, we bought special Kandi Pedhe and we started for Ajinkyatara. We were relaxed as we had enough time in our hand and we were at the base of Ajinkyatara. But things were not going to be that easy. Our car started giving some sound on steeper slopes. So we decided to take it to doctor first. Maruti service station was available at 200 m. And doctor diagnosed that one of the cylinder is not firing at all. That was heartbreak for us. But it could not throw sand in our gears. Thankfully he said that car will go to Pune but we will not be able to raise the speed beyond 60 km/hr. All of us were stunned. Shadows of evening were in plain sight on Ajinkyatara. We decided to complete the campaign whatever it takes. We hoisted the eighth flag at the main door of Ajinkyatara and roared the famous slogan for the last time on our trek. We shot a brief concluding video about our mission.

After having lunch and dinner at 6.30 at a dhaba we started our return journey to Pune. The slower car came as blessings for our tired body. Shankar and Shrikant were riding the wind. We felt like victorious warriors returning home. Things will come and go but we will cherish this achievement for our lifetime.

An article by one of our trekmate Shekhar is published in E-Sakal marathi daily. Here is the link to it.
Abhijit

Identity crisis

2007-07-05T22:13:00.000-07:00

Ohh..congrats!! Sunita did land safely. That's great. I feel great to see somebody of Indian name achieving milestones. Just indian name? What abhijit so illiterate and so rustic you are? You don't even know that she is of Indian origin. Oh really. I never knew it before she took off for mission.

A loooong list of names passed in front of me. Some indian born but flourished in other countries and some totally foreigners(some call them NRIs). Mostly both had US (predominently) citizenship. We do take pride in saying them of indian origin. I am not going into details about what they would have been if they were in India. I am also happy to see them growing.

My only question is do we take ownership of those indians or people of indian origin who are involved in bomb blasts, terrorist activities, frauds etc ?. Please see these links 1 , 2

They haven't mistaken their identity. Its we who are suffering from identity crisis.

Dark side of a silver cloud

2007-03-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

And it is final now. Bob Woolmer was killed. Latest news from NDTV says:

The Jamaican Police have now confirmed that Pakistani cricket coach Bob Woolmer was indeed murdered.

Cricket, now, is not as simple as we used play on streets. Neither it is as simple as South Africa chasing 434 target successfully. Till yesterday we knew that it's money which is having the first say on who will win or lose. But happenings in recent past are indicating that money is having the first say on who will live or die in cricket.

A benign coach was mercilessly murdered by somebody or some organization that really does not know or do not want to see cricket as gentleman's game. We proudly say that it was Jagmohan Dalmiya or Kerry Packer who brought money into the game. But people with loose morale are taking the heart of the game away. We call it 'The game of glorious uncertainties' but now it is on the verge of becoming 'The game of inglorious happenings'.

A two minutes silence and that's it. The show must go on. But are we sure that show is going as it used to go usually? How can I be assured that India-Sri Lanka match, a virtually final match for India, is not fixed? My excitements about a dropped catch or a miscue shot from the bat of well known batsman will always have a tint of doubt. Doubt about genuineness. Who knows whether it was spontaneous?

With technology and brains, the game has reached new heights. Cricketers are role models. They are brand ambassadors of social and commercial organizations. Cricket, at least in subcontinent, is followed by riches and rags. Marketing executives of big shot companies take it as best way to reach out to people. A lot of money is involved and that lures bad elements of society to step into. They came, they fixed and they earned. And now whosoever favors them, becomes rich and who tries to expose them, goes the Woolmer way.

Let's take an oath that we will watch cricket for passing time. Now onwards nobody will burn posters or throw stones at houses of cricketers. Nobody will suffer from heart attack. Nobody will go and buy mobile or coke because their hero is advertising and nobody will cry if their team loses.

Let's take an oath that we will not be angry because losing match against Pakistan is not a national issue. A team of some private body called BCCI lost against another such from Pakistan. Players are not playing for some country, rather they are contract labours(although skilled) of these private bodies. We will watch them like how we watch horses of race course because people are betting on them like that. We have understood that calling it as Team India is an emotional trap. Sponsors are doing the same advertisement in different countries and projecting each country as winner. huh..how funny!?!?!?!

Let me pray for Bob Woolmer's soul. It was an eye-opener for die hard cricket fans. At least now people should be conscious and cautious followers of the game.

Ko-incidence

2007-01-05T04:51:00.000-08:00

Life is full coincidences these days. Unexpected, unforeseen but delighting. Let me explain. When I came to Hyderabad, being homesick, I use to search for people from Karad, my hometown, who are in Hyderabad. And I met Amol through orkut. Amol and I decided to meet on some weekend in Hyderabad. We were in good touch but could never meet in person. One day he mails me that he got transfered to Pune. I just left the thought of meeting again. To my goodness, when I went to appear for SNAP exam to Pune, I saw Amol too at the same exam centre and in the same exam hall as of mine. Well out of thousands of people appearing for the exam, he was one of those 20 (lucky) people sitting in my exam hall. We people call it a coincidence, for almighty GOD it is routine.

On another day in Hyderabad, I had sumptous dinner with two of my office colleagues. While coming back at one corner our ways parted. We were discussing something. I decided to continue walking till their home and not to leave just for the reason that I could leave as my house was nearer. So we continued the topic and around 11.30 in the night I was coming back to my shelter. While returning, singing a old KishoreDa's song, I noticed a familier face crossing me. I felt I have seen him somewhere. Then I recalled that he was one of my IIT friends, Satish. I rushed to him and asked,"Were you in IIT KGP?". He said, "Yes". And by that time he too recalled that we were staying in one hall. It's always a pleasure to meet somebody hum-alma mater. A small decision to accompany my friends till their home awarded me catching up with an old friend. We people call it a coincidence, for almighty GOD it is routine.

Inspiring nothing

2007-01-03T05:04:00.000-08:00

I felt awefully distressed to see what I have seen. I don't know why I read it. The best way to tackle any problem is to not know the problem. It was IIM A s PGP shortlisting criteria. I lost my composure and was almost crying for those who appeared for CAT with full of their preparation, pertinence and patience. I do not need to explain anything.

See this:

"A total of 280 seats are available for admission to the Post-Graduate Programme 2007-09 of IIM Ahmedabad. The break-up of 280 seats for various categories of students is given under:
General - 192, OBC (6%) - 17, SC (15%) - 42, ST (7.5%)- 21, PWD (3%) - 8."

Cutoffs:

“Please note that the cut off for short listing SC/ST/PWD candidates for group discussion and personal interview would not be less than 17% score in each of the three sections of CAT-2006 and no less than 25% score in aggregate. For other categories, it would be no less than 25% in each of the three sections and no less than 33% in aggregate. The actual cut-offs used for shortlisting, however, may be higher than the above mentioned percentage scores and would depend upon the performance of candidates in CAT-2006.”

Category-wise, the number of candidates, who met these criteria in CAT 2006, is as under:

General : 3431
OBC : 174
SC : 168
ST : 20
PWD :14

Please note that there are only 20 candidates in ST who are qualified.

Now : Category-wise Short-listing Criteria and Number of Candidates called for Group Discussions and Personal Interviews
1. General Category candidates: Out of qualifying candidates, who applied for PGP of IIMA, 608 General category candidates were short-listed. Candidates, whose percentile in each section was above 95.33 and who have an overall percentile above 98.3, have been called for the GD&PI.
2....
3....
4. ST Category Candidates: Out of candidates, who applied for PGP of IIMA, all 20 ST category candidates, who met minimum cutoff requirement, were short-listed for the GD&PI.

After qualifying through a minimum criteria of 33% or so, a general category student have to pass criteria of 98.3 percentile to get a call for GD PI. In the same place an ST candidate will get call for GD PI with only 25%.

So my one friend from general category with 99% is not getting call from IIM and another friend from ST category with 25% is getting call. Wah!!!! Is that the future we are looking for? Where are we heading for? How one can grow bigger by pulling others down? Where is the system in it? How does it justify conducting a so called COMMON admission test if people are going to be judged by their caste instead of score?

If somebody is going to get hurt after reading this, oops!!! I really do not care.

Reference: See this

Not really Silly

2006-09-19T04:13:00.000-07:00

Simillar conversations of Gandhi and Nehru have earned lot of publicity; have found places in museums. Then why not ours. Watch for these two. They are not just looking at the menu. They are discussing future of mankind. As Shreevallabh portrays the future as bright, I am really worried about whom to pass this tag-chain?

Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera!!

2006-07-06T07:38:00.000-07:00

Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera!!

Your country, your own country is calling you

You are tied in eternal bond which can never break

How could you forget the scent of mother earth?

for sure where ever you go you will come back to home

Your heart is lost at new place

you are feeling like denied breathing space

Somebody from here is asking for your love

Your country, your own country is calling you....

Listen, life is calling you..

What else you want when you have earned everything.

As such you are lying on golden bed,

but what worth it is being away from mother

Come lets go back to our home

Come to the people who say you are their own

Your country, your own country is calling you....

Yes, this is the time to decide.

Future of centuries is hidden in it,

with power of changing lives of plenty your brothers.

Then why is this dilemma? why is this hesitation?

You are the one who will guide us, you are the leader

You will show us the road to prosper

And for you there is only one way, come back

Your country, your own country is calling you....

Your country, your own country is calling you,

You are tied in eternal bond which can never break!!

^^^^^

A small effort to translate this inspiring song!! Please bear with me. :-)

My Most Treasured T-Shirt

2006-06-30T01:53:00.000-07:00

When I was @IIT Kharagpur, we always used to have intra-hall cricket tournaments. As name suggests those were played amongst hall residents and on the ground inside hall. I can not forget those breathtaking and closely fought(ya not played) matches.

Teams restricted to seven heads and mostly were units representing either close friends or regions or Wings in hall. So everybody was playing to preserve their reputation. Some team names for example: MaHaMagic, LTTE, B-West, Super7.

MaHaMagic was our team offcourse. Successively in two tournaments we reached to finals and lost to B-west team. We performed more than 100% of ours. Collective team efforts made us reach finals. And then it was like India lost to Australia in world cup -2003.

Grabbing 4 wickets out of 7 in one match I won a T-Shirt as a token. But our Sports secy, Gordhan was printing a Batsmans photo on back of the T-Shirt. I agreed to disagree. Then he handed the responsibility of finding a logo to me. I had exact picture of what picture I need on my T-Shirt. Only two bowlers I like in the world. Shoaib and Brett Lee. No need to stress why? Speed..Speed and Speed. (And offcourse no accuracy). And Shoaib fulfills requirements.

I must thank my friend shekhar , expert in autoCAD, for materialising my thoughts. I was paining to draw hollow outline of Shoaib's famous action for an hour or so. He came to my rescue and made it happen.

I keep this T-Shirt close to my heart(although I love what is printed on backside). I am never going to lose it.

Abhijit....

Brazzzzzzzil...........overhyped?

2006-06-19T07:52:00.000-07:00

No way. People love brazil because Brazil don't play football, they live football. Once Pele said, "Europians play football from their brain and south americans from their heart". This itself is the answer for why people like brazil. If you see the matches you will come to know that Brazil's play is full of art. They are strong in their moves, game plan. They have clear picture in their mind about what they are going to do in field.

If you observe the carefully you will find some major differences in brazil and other teams. First thing their player will be exactly in position where they are expected to be in field. Next, the nature of pressing the ball forward instead of crawling in own court. Brazillians are good in all departments of game like short passes, long passes, free kicks, corners, goalKeeper. Only concern is their defence. they look porous in defence but then if opposite side scores two goals brazil have ability to score more than them.

So not being partial to Brazil for any other non-football reason I won't hesitate to say that Brazil is not overhyped.

again...love??

2006-06-19T07:49:00.000-07:00

By defining love I am not going to confine it in few hard and fast words. As per my understanding, love is a very subtle feeling. When I searched for meaning of word "subtle" in dictionery it returned following meanings:
1.Be difficult to detect or grasp by the mind
2.Faint and difficult to analyze
3.Able to make fine distinctions
4.Working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way(?)

I think these are self explanatory. If not perfectly, at least it suggests approximate context of love depending on individuals. Our teacher used to say, "Love is spontaneous emission of highly emotional radiations from one heart to other." But with time I learnt that love is not spontanious. It is well understood and dedicated feeling. I say dedicated instead of commited. Because in one of discussions with my friends concluded saying, "Commitment may come even if you don’t like the job/wife. But for dedication you must like it. That’s your incentive… you get satisfaction from doing it well. As you said, it’s the outcome of inspiration."

Other thing which I realised just now is love teaches us to make fine distinctions. Earlier I used to say 'Those who are in love or claim to have found true love cannot hurt any one espacially their parents'. But then making subtle distinctions in roles we have to play is an art. And it depends a lot on understanding of counterpart too.

Caring each other is the one which make us feel or discover love. Trust and Ego are two sides of a coin. "S/he must trust me ". or "trust must be there" attitude can hurt the couple beyond repair. Because you will not be in mood to forgive even a silly mistake by companion. By being caring trust automatically comes. Trust is needless to ask or remind.

Ohh no....Why?? Why???

2006-05-15T08:31:00.000-07:00

I don't know what went wrong yesterday but nothing was happening. Till now I was just hearing how thing go out of your control but this Sunday experienced it. Right from morning 10 till night 10.

On 3rd June I am going Pune to attend one of my closest friend, Vivek's marriage. I went to reserve railway ticket at reservation counter at airport. To my surprise a 20 people long line was waiting for me. I have never seen such a long line there as I frequently go there with my friends. And many people don't know there is railway reservation counter at airpot. So I left the place thinking to get tickets from Begampet station in the evening.

In scorching mid-summer heat of Hyderabad, I decided to meet my friend Nilesh who stays near airport at Prakashnagar. Sweating like anything I went to his flat on 2nd floor just to see nobody inside except one of his room partner slept as if he was unconscious. He didn't realize my presence at all. To add some more frustration I enquired about house rent at one "To-Let" site. Arrrghhhh, it was Rs. 6500 for a penthouse turned 2 bedrooms flat.

On the way to my room I called up Swapnil, IIT colleague telling him that I will come to him. I wanted to transfer few snaps to his laptop from my newly bought cam. He was in office so we thought we could meet at around 10 night. He promised me to give a call at 9.30 pm.

Shankar, my current room partner and I was worried about how spend the whole day. “Why not to go a movie?” Shankar yelled. With a doubt in mind I agreed, "yeah, why not?” We left for PVR theater an hour before movie show time. By now you must have guessed, no tickets available. Both roamed in Hyderabad central for some time in distant hope for somebody to cancel their tickets and we to get a chance. At 1.00 we both headed for lunch at Hotel Shanbag. I should describe it as an oasis in the desert as we had a very good lunch there. While returning Shankar disappointedly questioned, "We came from Begampet to Punjagutta(roughly 8-10 km)just to have lunch?"

Meantime Sugata called me. He had to purchase some pearl jewels and I too had a purpose to learn about my Digicam from Sugata. So we decided to meet at Hyderabad Central (again!!!) at 7 in the evening. I thought I will leave a bit early and will get tickets from Begampet railway station before the counter closes at 8.00 pm.

So I left house at 6.00 with camera, walking through dust opened up due to road work I reached station. Very happy I was to see nobody against the counter. I patiently picked up forms, filled them in nice handwriting and went to counter to ask for reservation. Ohh my goodness, it was Sunday, counter was closed at 2.00 pm only. Lady inside told me to go to Secunderabad or Hyderabad station if I want tickets today. :-(

Squeezing the reservation forms (as reusable components) in pocket, I reached central almost 10 minutes before 7. Sugata, I always regard him as one of the few punctual friends I have. And he is. But it was my BAD day to see him half an hour late. And when he came he was little in mood to talk about camera as his own Digicam was suffering from cold. After shopping we had a long walk. Tiredly after some time we concluded to have dinner. And to climax the tragedy Swapnil called me only to tell that he got stuck in office because of some problem (software people read it as 'issue'). I couldn’t send my recent snaps to my friends ultimately.

Finishing the dinner, Sugata and I bade adieu to each other. Walking alone along calm though irritatingly silent road, I was thinking what went wrong?

Destroyer of the Nation

2006-05-15T02:19:00.000-07:00

Gandhi should have born 50 years after independence. And Lokmany Tilak and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose should have lived at least 20 years more.We could have seen a better India than this. I am not saying we could got freed before 1947, but nation could have been in better responsible hands after freedom. English ruled us for 200 years almost. The techniques they followed to batter down big kings and kingdoms in India were very practical. To beat an enemy you have to be tough and should retaliate its attack with same force and aggression. But the way we tried to get back our freedom is surprising me. It looks like after rebellion of 1857 a fear of getting defeated started growing in Indian minds. Apart from a few spot rebels in Maharashtra, Bihar and Bengal violent protest was almost vanished.

In 1885 a party born , basically not for freedom struggle rather for obtaining a share in british government ruling India. Later with increased opposition from british government over interference, Congress decided to fight against British rule. Even then it was undecided on what way to deal with british. Some thought to go harsh and some thought to please them and get the chunk. The roots of weak, disarrayed India lie there. Congress, whom we assumed unchallenged leader of our independence movement, were always undecided on its methods.

To throw away the intruder in your house you cannot be kind to him or need to beg at him if you are strong. The Gandhi Techniques of 'satyagraha' or 'law breaking(that too polite law breaking)' are valid today because it is our own government and (like what Medha Patkar or SBI employees are doing) we can force government to be proper in governance. But it is a grossly wrong method to fight with enemy. Otherwise Terrorists should leave killing people and Pakistan should not ask for Kashmir if ManMohan Singh is going on 'satyagraha' . Even my father, a Gandhi scholar(though not a blind follower), says, "People followed Gandhi because it was easier to follow him than Bhagat Singh".

Gandhi was a manager rather a best people manager than anybody else. He managed Netaji Bose, he managed Bhagat, he managed Jinnah and he managed 30-40 crore innocent though matured Indian crowd. Go back to history and you will see no country got her freedom without fighting violently with the ruler. Otherwise why britishers will fear of Bhagat Singh more than Gandhi. Why they kept Gandhi alive for years and hanged Bhagat Singh as soon as they saw his popularity is increasing?

I am not writing because I am inspired because of rangDeBasati or such seasonal patriotism. Any common man if thinks with his mind clear of prejudice and being practical, he will find Gandhi led us to a much shattered future. He insisted on his mild and obsolete methods even though he saw the success Tilak, Bhagat Singh and Netaji Bose. Proposing a weaker leader like Jawaharlal Nehru, he became KingMaker. Why it was necessory to go on hunger strike when Netaji Bose was becoming president of congress session for second consecutive time ?

I accept Gandhi had mass support. But I fail to convince myself that Gandhi fought for freedom and that too selflessly. He was great politician. Non-voilance and such stuff is good to negotiate with those who will listen. But those who don't listen need a blast.

More Later..
--Abhijit

Sugata's love @ first sight

2006-04-16T01:07:00.000-07:00

Veiled Rebecca, love @ first sight for my friend Sugata. He was unfortunate to get photo of her. A little trespassing of law and here is her photo. They say photography is not allowed in museum. I accept but then everything is fair in love and war.

Though not very clear, these photoes at least give me statisfaction to have worlds one of the best creation with me.

-abhijit

WOMEN OF SUBSTANCE?

2006-04-06T06:51:00.000-07:00

Scenario 1:

Last time I met Dinesh when I was at Pune. He is about 35 years old and a good friend of mine. We talked about lots of thing but he was avoiding speaking about the topic which I am telling here. It was some nice time when Dinesh fell in love with Disha. Fighting against the resistance from relatives they got married. They have a daughter as first flower in their garden. They were happy as I looked at them from a distance. The real agony started when Dinesh fell in love with Sneha, a good friend of Disha. Sneha is sharp, aggressive, confident, may not be so good in looks as Disha. Disha is confident, talented though typical indian girl who believes in following Dinesh. Now the things are changed Sneha and Disha are staying in same city. But Dinesh stays with Sneha. Dinesh and Sneha also have a son now . He comes to meet Disha and Smriti sometimes. He gives some monetary support to Disha also .

Disha, being a learned girl is doing a job, bringing up her kid . She finds a little ray of hope that Dinesh will come back to her. She still loves Dinesh like she did in college days. She don't teach her daughter to hate father. Divorce is out of question for her. Disha is facing all questions from relatives and non-relatives but curious junta. Like a strong women she is denying to buckle under pressure. She is determined to live without anybody's help. She is making her living without the only man she loved.

***********************************************************************************
Scenario 2:

Last weekend I and my father went to our farm at our village. After working for 3-4 hours in boiling climate we were resting in shadow. A lady, around 35-40 years old, was working in her farm. My father knew her. She started to tell her saga. She was married to an alcoholic man. I don't know whether he was like that before marriage or what? They had 3 daughters.

Lets call her Shanti. Shanti's husband (say Ram) was a total failure in his life. He was doing nothing. All farming work was being done by 3 daughters and Shanti. Out of three one daughter got married. Ram is not looking actively about marriages of other two. If asked about farming or doing any work Ram starts beating Shanti. Sometimes he beats his own old mother for giving money to buy alcohol.

As a result Shanti and her daughters have stopped interfering or telling him anything. Shanti has taken all burdon to continue their living by labouring in farm. She keeps looking for ideal matches for their daughters with the help of other helping people in village. Like Disha she is also strong and determined to go ahead without crying about destiny.

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Scenario 3:

Last Sunday I went to meet my aunt staying in a town some 40 km away from my home. We were talking about progress report of her son in school. Complaining about his non-cooperation movement she kept water to boil to prepare tea. At the same time an old lady, Radha came in. She was about 55 years old. Radha came to ask for money which was pending with my Aunt for sewing a carpet. Radha, a widow as I could guess from her missing Kumkum on forehead, was looking jaded because of her old age. Radha opened her life in front of us.

Radha's son Naresh is a hood man. He was never interested to care about how money comes for day to day expenses. Radha's family had a small general stores shop in town but most of the time it remains locked as nobody is there to sit. When given the keys of the shop, Naresh will throw them back at Radha only to waste his time in gossiping and roaming with his other vagabond friends. Don't talk about farming he will kill you.

Radha herself run the shop. She cares about watering, ploughing the farm. She is the one who arrenges for feed for their cattles. She keeps doing tailoring or other such part-time jobs to earn money. Like Disha and Shanti, she also has abandoned all hopes from those who were expected to support her throughout life.

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These three instances lively happening around me made me think about women. What they are really? Should I call them strong and defiant as they are fighting all odds to continue their living? Or should I call them traditional as they are not willing to break out from the relationships which are not fruitful and not harmonious at all?

Not the post, I guess comments on this post will be more conclusive...

A silent conversation

2006-03-27T03:00:00.000-08:00

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

Love vs Arrange

2006-03-24T06:36:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-20T04:22:00.001-08:00

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

2006-03-06T00:21:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-05T21:02:00.000-08:00

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