And I became an adult.......

It was nearly a year ago , I left home with some doubts in mind, lot of courage in heart and thousands and thousands of dreams in eyes. Earlier, whenever I left home , it was for a shorter period of time.But this time when Mukul Mittal dropped me and Nihil Sharma at Station , I knew that it is the final journey away from home.I was lucky enough to have Nikhil with me.He was well aware of the surrounding and was acting as a shield for me.
So, after a tiring journey of more than 36 hours, I reached my destination "Bangalore, A City Of My Dreams". When I landed up in bagalore on 8th April 2004, I had a lot to prove and yes nothing to loose. I was lucky enough to have wonderful friends over there and
all of them were quite supportive. Although , for a person like me , who can never harm anyone even in the farthest of the dreams, it was quite astonishing to see some friends had a wrong impression about me. Some one asked my companion that Siddhartha should bear the load of all the luggage because he deserves that. It hurt me but I said nothing because I knew that the person who told this was not bad. He was also a very good natured and helpful person. I told myself that there must have been something wrong on my part that had forced him to say something like this.But that was the last incident of its type.
After that each day was a learning experience. There are so may funny incidents that if I will start mentioning them here then this site will get overloaded and still the stories will not get over. Once a guy called Prashant Agrawal came looking for job and he was a martinet. Everything that is out of order annoyed him.Initially , we got irritated with his commanding attitude but slowly and surely , all of us fell in love with him and named him commander. Every guy had his own unique characterstics.
I would like to mention each guy's name who came in contact with me.When I reached at my place at bangalore, I was very happy that now I am least doing something , searching for jobs , studying hard and competing with others.One day ,Commander and I went for Lucent Technologies Walkin and he made me to march the whole intermedaite Ring road and when I asked that can't we go by Bus or auto, then he told me "Pagal wagal hai kya, Bus Wus nahi milegi abhi , Paas hi mei hai, pahuch jaayenge". I calculated that I walked for atleast 12 kms that day.
But it was Fun,certainly it was.
Every Guy who was in job used to give us valuable tips and help as far as anything is concerned.
I was lucky enough to have Rahul, Neeraj, Amulya as the help providers and three of us enjoyed all the advantages of having such good friends.When I say, three of us then it means Raju, Pappu bhai and me. The three of us used to spent most of our time together , planning this and that.
Another help that I got was from Nikhil Sharma, he used to travel on a bike and has proved a great boon for me in distributing resumes.Then came another prominent member of Gwalior sarai, Anindya sharma. He is a sort of low profile guy who is always at work.He knows what he is doing and has a unmatchable confidence in that.He is also a childhood friend of mine so there exist a natural camaraderie between us. Just after he came , I got job at Wipro. It was a dream for me that realised in a time of less than one month. I was too happy . I can say , it was the happiest moment of my life. I was happy because not only I got selected but Vishal yadav also got selected. I dropped my plan of going to Cognizant test and MBT interview too , I still don't know whether it was right decision or not. Two weeks after that was too enjoyable. I used to stay awake till late night thinking about my parent's happiness when they will hear this news. It took sometime becuase they were on a holiday trip to Andaman Nicobar.
In all these moments of happiness, I always felt for Raju who was the most sober guy of the lot.He was very low profile but everyone knew that he had something great in him (except his lambi lambi gapps).Sometimes there was a sort of compettition going on between Raju and pappu of bragging.Then a new member joined our group , he was Our sailes( Amit Babu ) .He also started studying from the moment , he arrived at Bangalore.
A thing always amazed me that how can more than 10 guys live at a place without even a small brawl.I had seen guys fighting on the the smallest of issues but at gwalior sarai , all you can hear is the laughter even at 2 'O' clock at night.We used to laugh for hours and then study as if we were most serious guys in the whole area.
But as the destiny decides, it was all over for me because of my training period at Wipro. I used to be in my own world , studying day in and day out.Trying to clear the test but it was not happening. I was always on the looser's end. I tried everthing I could but just couldn't make it through.That time was the hardest time but with friends of such good nature and intelligence , I made it at the final attempt.
There was joy all over again. We celebrated the occassion but I had to leave for Hyderabad a few days later. I was sad but had to move on. As it is said there are some place in this world where you can always check in but can never leave.For me it's like yesterday , a boy came to an unknown city with all boyish chahracterstics but today I search for that boy , where is he gone? where are his funny and teasing remarks( neeraj can tell you that)? where are his friends , with whom he laughed as if there is no one else to hear in this world?
Everything has past ,That boy has become an adult now, whose search for that immamture boy is still on.The boy that left Gwalior on 6th April 2004 had lost somewhere in Bangalore .Some say that you can always found him in the soul of Gwalior sarai.A place which contains souls of many gwaliorites who were also same as that boy when they left Gwalior.All of them had been lost somewhere in the valley of sillicon.Can we find them ? If this question had been thrown at that missing boy, he would have jumped at it by saying , yes I can do anything.
But for an adult, it is the most arduous question he has faced in his life. Can you answer it?


Comments Invited,
Siddhartha

Small place, Big Wonders

Some may call me a homesick person or overly nostalgic but it gives me a sense of relief and pride whenever i think of my native place.To describe Gwalior is really a matter of challenge for any novice writer like me.It takes a lot of articulation to describe a city of dust and dirt as a city of innocence and originality.
It may take a life time for a person to describe achievements of this city.It's like this city has never slept and has made remarkable contributions in every area and period through which country has passed.At the same time , it is also not fair to highlight only good points ( although there are many ).
It's always good to take on the bad blows first so that we get prepared for almost anything in the future.I must say that all the speculations about Gwalior's image does hold some ground.If you pass through any square, you can find young men at various kiosks chewing tobbaco, abusing each other .Certainly, this may prove to be a trauma for any civilised person.He may make an image in his mind that this city is abhorable and the people living here are good for nothing.
But that's exactly the point where he makes the biggest mistake.This city is not like it looks.It may have broken roads, shattered houses, clumsy looking people , no management as far as the public places are concerned.But this city has a pious soul,a soul that has not been dented by it's stinking alleys, a soul which is as pious as the flowers in a temple are .
The question here is , why this city has such a remarkable difference between it's inner and outer looks.What gives this city, a cutting edge over other cities of similar size and geography.The answer is very obvious and is known to every single resident of this city.It's the Gwaliorite that makes this difference.A Gwaliorites is not a mean achiever in any filed .He knows exactly ,where his roots are and where he is heading towards.
To start with the statistics, I would like to bring to notice that this small place has the only flood lighted stadim in the whole State. It has the largest Physical education institute in whole Asia( LNIPE) which has produced many gold medalists in Asian Games.
It has produced stalwarts like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Madhav Rao Scindhia.In the filed of education, this city hold 8th Rank all over india.This city has produced many IITians and many other brilliant student under conditions that were not at all favorable.Now, there are 9 engineering colleges running in the city which are churning out engineers to meet the demands in various fields of engineering.
This city has scored over other cities as far as Information Technology is concerned.In 1994, it became the first city in whole M.P to get connected to Internet.This city has produced some gladiators in sports too.Asian gold medalist Bahadur prasad ( long distance runner ), Weightlifter Praveen singh( you may remember him as Bheem in Mahabharata). Hockey player Roopsingh and Dhyanchand also played substantial amount of hockey in Gwalior.
It would be unfair if we do not mention anything about Music of Gwalior.
Gwalior Gahrana is a respected name in the field of music.The gharana has produced many perfectionists like Ustad Amzad Ali Khan ( The Sarod Maestro ), Balasaheb PoonchWaale(Vocalist ) and Shri Krishna Rao Pandit.One of the nine jewels of Akbar -"Tansen" was from gwalior too.
It is like a big world in a small pond.So, as a proud gwaliorite, I can say that this is the best place on earth for me( others have different places as per their liking ) which will run in my blood till my last breath.

Comments invited
Siddhartha

The journey of an engineer

Every engineer( we can call him hero ) carries with him a saga that he loves to discuss with anybody,
When I say anybody, it can be a paanwala, a local wine shopkeeper, a hotel wala where he had his own clout (credits were available without a card too), a close friend( poor guy),a vendor or even a mirror where he can make faces and analyze his expressions and can admire his hard looks as a sign of his male chauvinism.
He can discuss at length various aspects of his life as if he has been a king through out his life.
He talks about how he has cleared exams with the help of "parchi"( parlance is necessary to understand this tricky term ), he narrates how he had ragged his juniors and how he was known
as the BOND of the college.You can see the joy of a child on his face when he cherishes these
memories.Various anecdotes will come out of his mouth as if an expert softie( you may call software engineer) is dexterously writing some business logic.
He abhores his present condition of being a white collar man and mumbles a few lines of
a sher -" Aaj itni may bhi nahi mayKhaane mein, Jitni hum chodd diya karte thhey paimaane mei ".
He really seems to miss those night outs where he and his yaars went for a cutting chaai to station at 2 a.m., he feels nostalgic whenever he watches any brawl on the end of the street.
He remembers how he and his hostel mates fought for the pride of their hostel.
How they competed in the sports meet with the spirit of not letting the hopes of their supporters down, how they sacrifised grades to take part in various activities and even when the teachers were not supporting them , they considered themselves as an icon of youth rebellion.
But today, he has left behind all those experiences.Now, he appeares as a sincere man at work who has never been involved in any sort of panga with anybody,who has never abused anybody and it appears as if he had always been a book worm who has abstained himself from all the obscenities of life.
Everybody says history repeats itself. Yes it does in exactly the same way as if we are watching any replay.Another 'Hero' comes , enjoys his life in campus and follows the path of our ex-Hero and finds him as his boss after completeing his college and then thinks that how idiotic this man is, who never crackes jokes , never takes initiave in fun loving things and then passes a judgement that this man has never enjoyed his college life.
But a thing remains common to both of them and that is their saga that they carry with them to their tomb too.

Comments Invited

Siddhartha
(Another Softie)

I Love India,My India

When I was in my kindergarten age, I asked my father(Baba), Baba Who Am I?
My Baba was aghast at such a trciky question.
Instead of jumping to any reply , he asked me the reason of asking such
a question.
I told him that in my school, everyone knows who they are?
I further explained that Ram told me that he is a hindu, Aslam is a muslim, Naman is a sikh, preetam is a parsi, Tom is a christian. So, I was not aware of who I am?
My Baba wore a discomfited look on his face but I had always known him as my role model who can never get upset in any situation.He took me into his arms and told me that "you are an Indian".At that time, i was looking for some astute answer and thought that why he cannot find a better answer than this?
But as I stroll down the memory lane, I realise that what could have been a better answer than this.A country that is our motherland nurtures a child right from the moment of his birth.The child takes naps in the laps of her shadowy trees. He dwadles on her chest and what can be a happier moment for a mother than this.He tumbles down and she holds him in her arms.
But suddenly, the child who has grown into a man by his motherland's love leaves the country.He goes in search of money to pursue his ambitions .The blind love that he got from his country is of no importance to him.His country cries , she cries like anything ,the rivers are flooded with her tears.There is no one to console her . EveryBody was pointing out her short coming and going gaga over that man's abilities who has left the country.
Then there was a long lull. But listen to the distant cries of a man in pain.
It seems to be very famaliar sound.Then there are silhouettes of a man crawling on the ground, he is wounded.His wounds are emotional not physical.
He cries for help and her mother is on her toes to embrace him and love him as nothing had ever gone wrong between them and the man sleeps in the lap of her mother.
It seems that he has never slept in between and is currently the luckiest person earth who has all the things he wanted but all he wanted was his mother, his country,India.
That's why I love my country , my India.


Comments invited
Siddhartha

Review of Three Dog Night

some one has told that the "whenever you will try to hold sand , it will spill out of your hand".
Similar is the case with love. Whenever you try to get hold of some one you love, the relatioship begins to deteriorate.The main character of the story 'Herr Professor' also follows the same notion and doesn't wants to be possessive.
He and his wife wife havde come back from England to Australia.He has married to her student whom he had met during his stint as a prof. at England.
Writer has successfuly caricatured lively characters and their emotional Grand Guignol.
He has shown what does friendship means for a man like our 'Herr Prof.' .He has shown the
Prof. as a generous man willing to support his friend. His Friend however takes him for granted and tries to woo his wife.
So, Prof. and his gorgeous wife tries to be patient and do not neglect this bemired fellow.
So, the story has a number of instance where prof's friend makes awkward demands and how the humble couple copes with all this crap?

A bit lengthy and boring but conveys the gist of complex relationships in life.

Regards,
Sid

Review of Glass palace

It has beeen a long time since i read something like this.
This book contains the epic of a small town boy's struggle of life and his journey of pursuing his dreams.How that boy has survived in adversary conditions and maintained his poise?
This book depicts various instances of love blooming in the shadows of War
and bloodshed.It has several glimpses of the era of Kings.It gives us a feel thatwhat kind of life they led at that time.How people were indebted to them inspite of their atrocities? The world is not like it is in present scenario. The things that are on our fingertips were impossible to have in those days.
How can we realize the importance of making a call from our mobiles without being deprived of talking to our loved ones for years? One cannot value the price of Peace without facing a war.What our ancestors had gone through during World war 2 had been jotted down by the writer very skillfully.
However, there are certain things that i noticed and didn't liked ...
Towards the end of the book , Writer has disturbed the normal pace of the story .
He has hastened in finishing off many situations that were very deftly crafted by him in the
earlier part of the book....

But Overall , a must read and a good book for all avid readers.

Comments invited

Siddhartha