Its Time! Wake Up!!

MONSOON FURY: UTTARAKHAND FLOOD KILLS OVER 1000.SURVIVORS WERE CHEATED,LOOTED!

UGLY POLITICS OVER TRAGEDY

RETIRED ARMY DOCTOR BUTCHERS HIS WIFE INTO 300 PIECES

MUMBAI: 2nd BUILDING COLLAPSES

MBBS STUDENT GANG RAPED



THEN:

It has been sleeping for a long time. The hard rocks became its bed. The dark cave became its abode for a time longer than we can imagine. The walls of that forbidden dark cave echoed with the sounds of its snore. Its body breathed in and out in a systematic way; having a peaceful sleep.It was as if the whole happening world  could never reach it unless it tries to get out of the cave. Its a cul de sac. There could be no one who might rescue it from hibernation unless it would want to. But,alas, it never wants to get out of the cave, never did wake up.

NOW:

The noises from outside the cave occasionally disturbed it. But it never cared and tossed and turned, thinking its just a dream and enjoyed sleeping.

Lately it noticed from the depth of sleep that the noises were growing irksome. It wanted to make them stop. Maybe it wanted to growl at the infinite space from where the noises came, just so that the organism which was disturbing it might get dreaded or maybe it was finally intrigued to know what was happening outside its cave.Nonetheless, it suddenly woke up; as if it had a bad dream and desperately wanted to get back to reality from its dream world. 

Reality dawned upon it. It realized that it has been years under hibernation and wondered what triggered it into doing such a nonsensical act.

It hurried towards the mouth of the cave to understand where the noises came from. Those noises were painful to hear as it neared the opening to the outside world.And then the moment happened. Devastated at how the outer world turned out into, it hurried out.

The overwhelming feeling of melancholy and lugubriousness hit it right at the stomach. It choked, tried to get out of the hostile environment and wanted to survive. Its survival instincts pointed its thoughts towards its abode in the cave and inferred that was the safest place and yearned to return to its comfort zone. Now, there's just this thought of getting back to its cave lingered in its head. It ran as fast as it can, the noises didn't really matter now. But with each step taken ahead, the passage to its cave started to diminish. It ran even harder, with the duress on its survival. It finally reached the cave!


It panted and was horrified what was out there.And never imagined of going out again. But the feeling of defeat made it more vulnerable than the hostility. It didn't want to accept the defeat.And neither could it possibly put up another battle out there. It needed time. It needs to be healed. 

And thus, it went to sleep again; for it would wake up again and make an attempt to win the battle!

P.S.:
Here, 'it' is the conscience of the nation.

The Face of Change

I have no idea what's it going to be
But hey, that's how life tells us to be
That you shall never understand, before you experience it
So that the surprise strikes, right at the moment you get it

Ups and Downs i have seen many
Not the object of interest to me
Its the inevitable Change that bothers me
For i never shall know what i'm gonna be

Coping is one thing to endure
And then comes  with it-The Acceptance
Now whom should i look up to for consultancy
When the whole world seems to have accepted the Change

I want to fight it, I want to resist
I don't want to rest, till i get over with it
But my gut tells me; its not an easy manoeuvre
Though i fight  harder; Change is definitely going to be the winner

The face of Change is cruel to me
But i don't seem to blame the Change for it
Am i a weakling or simply a coward
For i seem to concede myself to defeat

Should i try harder, or should i let it be
This is damn confusing as it had always been
But i want to start fresh and clean
Let the Face of Change change me!

And it crossed 1000....

The page views.! ITS 1009 baby! Yayy! Celebration on its way!!
Thanks to all those who visited my blog and i hope you had a gratifying experience. I wish you come back for more posts of mine. You can also subscribe to my blog via email to get my posts whenever they are posted right into your mailbox. Or you can Join The Site for posting comments and message me.
1000+ really encourages me and makes me to write frequent posts. I shall try my best in doing so.

And once again....Thank You!

Another story which proved "shit happens! move on"

The end of another semester! Finally the day came, after 4 months 2 days and some x hours to return home from the extremities of life at NIT DGP. I was waiting for that day eagerly and when the day came, it was no big deal for me to pack my bags and head for home. I knew how everything would turn out to be. I knew that carrying my heavy luggage wouldn't be a piece of cake, and the Black Diamond express at Durgapur Railway Station won't wait for me long enough to put my trolley inside the coach, and i won't be having good dinner nor would be having a good night sleep.And after returning home, my mother would be appalled to see me become thinner than i was during winter vacation and will start feeding me, correction.,she would literally stuff food items into my mouth till my stomach aches and wouldn't take a NO!Mothers! What else can we say?!

BUT as we know, life always has something in store for us! It always amuses us in every single way. Life's a bitch!

 My luggage was inexplicably heavy, but not more that last year's. And surprisingly, the black diamond express came late (it never was late before). And what's more amazing was that there was no rush for getting inside the coach.And all my friends got in! (the other time, three of us missed the very train). And the train had very few passengers! I must say i was thanking almighty for He made that part of our journey a bit easier!

 We  safely reached Howrah Station from where we proceeded towards the Food Plaza, the restaurant at the railway station which serves food tasting like saw dust; which we can't avoid but eat 'coz there's no other alternative. Of course the food tasted like crap; but when you are with friends, you just eat it as if its a strawberry short cake(not that i like strawberry cakes!). Now what can we say about that? Friends they are! Always there to make things easier.

   So we walked out of the restaurant, to get some cool drink to help our stomachs digest that uncooked rice. At last , i thought---
                        "hmmm.....well,this wasn't as bad as i thought. its really going good. i might even enjoy my summer vacation not feeling lonely and bored"
       Now life has no intentions to let me remain in comfort zone. So it just flashed a thought into my head. My head asked as in reciprocation-
             "hey! mom and dad didn't call. Seems like they are getting in the drift of not irking me with their frequent phone calls.Thank God, they are not freaking out! Seems like Today's the day!............
and then.....................................
shit!
Where the heck is my phone!
Did i keep it somewhere else?Did i give it to Sravani or NVM? Or maybe i kept it in my bag.
 I searched for my mobile frantically and asked people if they have seen it. And the result was negative.



Now i know the obvious reactions from my family.Mom's gonna worry even more thinking about my safety, dad's gonna say,"don't worry dear! i will get you another mobile, but just reach home safely".And my brother, he's gonna laugh about it.So, thanks a ton,dear life. You really made my day!
          Friends came to my rescue when my face looked like a burnt potato after losing my favorite mobile. Sravani and NVM suggested lodging a complaint in the Railway Police Station would at least decrease the damage that's done. I considered that, not for regaining my lost mobile, but to have a look how police station will be like in reality.(i know...i was thinking of a little adventure or may i say, an experience after having lost something.Really,nothing can be done with me :P)

                          So, this police station i told you about wasn't  a big one actually! Didn't have goddamn cells for thieves! Damn, i expected more from a police station! I couldn't stop my excitement after seeing a constable with his rifle standing at the door. I was trying to stifle my laughter. But was in vain. Oh, why was i laughing? I was actually having a big gag in my mind about the way things turned out. Just few moments back i thought its all cool and now here i was , heading into a police station! Really, this is not a game, this is LIFE.

 I am sure that the head constable who was taking complaint of another victim who lost his cell phone was amused to look at us girls, with smiles on our faces. We went inside and sat on that old wooden bench and was waiting for our turn to speak up and surveying the whole place as if its a Buckingham Palace!The Police Inspector was busy talking on phone(now this phone's age could be more than mine)looking at which i had this severe urge to just touch it and make a call from it and feel the ecstasy of using it. But i did control it and thought i should make my face look sad for they aren't gonna believe me if i was smiling enthusiastically and say "Sir! I lost my phone. lol. hahaha!!"
  Not so convincing with happy face ain't it. So i waited for the man to put the antique phone down and told my story that i must've lost my phone in Food Plaza. Now this big man gave me a big lecture on how to take care of our belongings in a railway station and blah blah blah! At last , after it felt like eternity, he handed me a piece of complaint paper or as they say FIR to fill in the details. Neither he nor was i sure of its recovery, but still, i gave my mom's contact number. That done , we came out of Police Station like some heroes who accomplished something, and my burnt potato face became a cheery mango face.
                 
                                     I wouldn't have liked it when everything was okay! There has to be something to drive you. To make you feel things. To let you acknowledge the importance of certain things. I don't say that i really enjoyed losing my mobile to someone at a railway station. All i say is,
                                  Yes! I lost my phone! But i learnt a lesson. And i understand the significance of it.
And yeah, by the way.....LIFE'S NEVER PREDICTABLE

P.S.: The rest of the journey was comfortable except for few annoying things which are common. And i gave my friends' phone numbers to my mom so she could sleep peacefully and not freak out about my journey. And man! that was a big mistake.
                             

Image Courtesy: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/

PRAKRITI: The Family I Was And Am Proud To Be a Part of.

This academic year, we the Team Prakriti(the environmental club of NIT Durgapur ) have had many exhilarating moments, ups and downs, and finally we did accomplish what we’ve planned upon. Here’s a brief summary of what happened at Prakrti.

The Events: 

Green Art

The first event organized by Prakriti every year is Green Art which has Essay Writing Competition, Poster Making Competition and Photography. Fresh minds who just started their engineering career and the other year students of this college were seen attending the event trying and subsequently successful in voicing their thoughts and opinions about our nature and environment. Poster Making Competition has witnessed participants from Bihari More too and the ideas of those children were worth taking a look at. A photo was shown on the spot for the Essay Writing Competition, based on which, the participants wrote their essays. And yeah, we being the event coordinators didn’t take a back seat. We enjoyed participating in spite of the fact that they won’t be rewarded. We believe in the fact that the journey is what matters the most, not the mere destination! And the treat from the final years after the event is just priceless and adds to the aura of being a member of Prakriti.

Green Diwali:

I still remember the evening when we discussed if we should venture upon conducting a new event, which is out of the book and many people opposed the decision taking the proximity of exams and the turnout of public into consideration. Nevertheless, the zeal to DO things and make things work out of all odds made us embark into the event management and voila, it worked. Gymkhana too collaborated with us when we reached dead end with the resources. There were many participants in Rangoli Making Competition and utterly creative ideas came into light taking the shape of clay in Diya-making Competition. The event was a big success and it ended with us contently looking at all the Rangolis and Diyas people made and remembering the evening the discussion for Green Diwali started.

RUNIT:

RUNIT is a mini-marathon (6.4K run) for awareness among public for the need to save earth from the exploitation man is causing on her natural resources. This has been conducted on 16^th Feb and the first event by us in Even Semester and has been a delightful experience. The day after Saraswati Puja, waking up groggy at 8am in the morning, in winter, on Saturday, was a start for us. Faculty advisors of Prakriti club Prof Kalyan Adhikari and Prof A.Gangopadhyay’s presence during the commencement of the marathon added the vitality to the participants. The turnout of participants has increased from last year’s RUNIT and waiting at the check points for those runners to turn up and guiding them through the route, cheering them up to run faster was like serendipity yielding bliss in work.

Campus Cleaning

Now this is one of the events we Earth Warriors are tagged, by most of the inhabitants of this campus. We find this as a responsibility to clean up our own home before trying to reform the whole wide world. Teams were divided among which we along with volunteers from NSS have tried cleaning up the campus from non-degradable plastic. And the commonest reactions from the guys/gals who were assigned the Nescafe zone was- “Man! The number of coffee cups seems to be more than the population of our campus!”

It is absolutely rhetorical, but, think again. Should it be like this? I mean, whatever happened to the civic sense of us educated brains in an engineering college?

One thing for sure is, that the one who was in Campus Cleaning will surely make a note in one’s mind to not to litter the campus. And that exactly is what we need!

        “Be the change you wish to see in this world”

                                                       ----- Mahatma Gandhi

These events are followed by induction of new members into our club...the fellow 'greenengineers' we call them. So, the notices for auditions were put up and i'm not lying....i'm gonna be brutally honest; we expected at least 50 people for auditions and the result was a pitiful 20 students willing to be a part of the green club. This was a huge disappointment and the first round of interview happened with few of us trying to understand what the first year students think of us and our club followed by a decision taken to conduct a second round of auditions (which never happened before this year) for those who are selected in 1st round and this way we could expect more public (those who couldn't come for 1st round were also welcome to complete it). So finally the auditions of second round took place with an agenda to take people who are team workers and who are willing to work for the club. And it did turn out fruitful.

      In order to ensure that, we asked the students to form into teams and discuss a new event that we could conduct and try to find the p's and q's of their ideas. This group discussion brought very innovative ideas of those fresh minds and the round was successful!

Finally we could find those 15 nature loving minds which could work for the club.

The new team of Prakriti formed finally.

Team Prakriti

After this successful year at Prakriti, it became really hard to bid farewell to our final year members. And the jb treat from them was an awesome party and i shall never forget that day!

     "Prakriti is not merely a club; its a family!"---this was told by our club 's ex-president on the day of farewell and she meant it by every single word which echoed all our voices that day!

Finally, it was such an awesome year and looking forward to another one with a new responsibility as a treasurer of this green club. Hope i could fill up the responsibilities and learn more things.

P.S. there are lot many moments with prakriti like the village trip we went on,the most appraised candle march on the day of 'Earth hour', the college magazine 'NATURA' , the valedictory ceremony.....this goes on and on...but i couldn't mention it above. Just one thing i can say..."it was fantabulous"!

The Survey!

Day:1
The morning of that day (7am) started with me trying to get my carcass out of bed due to the last day's stress. I cursed the moment i wrote in Facebook page that i will go to camp for 2 days. It was unbelievingly tough to get out of bed. At last the will succeeded and finally we went to the camp.
               Our NSS chapter of NIT Durgapur hosted a medical camp in which doctors come and do free check-up to the residents of that locality. Let me mention that we did a great deal of work in convincing doctors to take out some time and attend our camp. Medicine samples were also collected the previous weekends and graded out according to their compositions.(yes,we are busy bees and work even during our mid semester exams and i take pride in saying that!).
                          
             THE Camp started with few teams' division for surveying the whole area and finding out the population and the general problems they face in that region that could be solved by the government. I were to assist the volunteers in workshop for making  a teddy bear(believe me..i was not at all into it and decided to switch into surveying committee); and since it would start after noon we were to go for surveying the region.I felt relived as soon as that was assigned to me and we set out for surveying.

      
  

The scenario was completely different at the moment i set foot in the assigned area of survey. The people there know just Bengali and can't understand Hindi. Since it was Ranchi Colony, i took a logic that the people residing over there might me knowing Hindi properly. But i was wrong and thankfully my friend started investigating that barefooted  woman dressed in a traditional sari which she tied a bit above her waist and a pot full of  water which she intended to carry inside for cooking. I understood that their financial status is not at all good and she did say that she is an illiterate( my friend tick marked the 'illiteracy' point in the questionnaire and hence i knew). Even her husband is illiterate. And that look on her face while my friend was asking questions! It was like her hopes rose since we started asking about electricity supply and monthly income as that some help would be coming to save them. Standing in the hot sun and not knowing what to do other than staring at those painful and hopeful eyes...i wandered there and found out there are few people who can understand Hindi.I enthusiastically ran back to collect the other questionnaires and do my NEW job. SURVEYING.

                                The moment i took the paper, the utter truth dawned upon me that i can't speak Hindi fluently!! As they say-'if you can't explain something as simple as it can be, then you don't completely about it'; i felt that i may not even explain them my questions even in my mother tongue. That was a big revelation to me!!And so, with my broken Hindi i managed to complete the questionnaire for one family. While fumbling with the words about how to describe something, they enjoyed our freakish behavior and  laughed out.  The housewife greeted us with a warm and shy smile as we explained why we came to her house. And there was this one moment when i asked about the income of the family(of course it was in the questionnaire)...
         
           Me: "aapki aamdani kitna hoga?"
(meaning-what is your monthly salary)
         Woman:(she started laughing out loud)
 Meanwhile i wondered if there was any grammar mistake in my question which made her laugh so much. Everyone started smiling at me owing to the situation i was in.And i....I showed my teeth as in acknowledgment of her joke.
          Me: "toh aapki monthly income kitna hoga?"(this time desperately trying to get answer to my question)
          Woman:"aamdani matlab ab hum kya kahe madam,kuch hota nahi....aaj kaam        milta hai to kal kaam milne ka guarantee nahi hota"....."mera aadmi bahut kaam karta hai..majduri bahut kam milta hai...haath bhi uska toota tha
....hum gareeb log hai madam"
(meaning: we don't have any salary.there's no guarantee that we get work the next day. our daily wages are too low and even my husband's hand was fractured recently)
   
                   I didn't utter a word after that. Silently gulped in and proceeded to the next question.
Knowing is different from experiencing. I have heard,read about the critical situation of people under low poverty line.But experiencing it and trying to digest it is an altogether a different story.

We proceeded to different houses and there were hearty welcomes with warm smiles (they offered chairs and water too)and  irritated looks from a man who just consumed liquor. 

        The rest of the day was spent in boring ourselves(me and my Bengali friend from surveying) for long hours in medical camp by fetching the prescribed medicines by the presiding doctor.

                                      Day : 2
This was the second day and pretty much the same and that day, i could have had my jaw thrashed. Thanks to my survival instincts, it didn't happen.
     While we were asking questions about basic hygiene and trying to tick off the symptoms of the various diseases listed, we had to ask if they "wash their hands before eating" or not. And the bewildered public over there first passes looks to each other and said "Yes" with a nonchalant and obvious look.
   And then the most controversial question of rural India has come. My friend was bothered suddenly as how to pose this question and i took to her aid.

           Me: "Aapke parivaar mein kisi ko AIDS hain?"
( shocked looks from the public.)
Definitely they must have thought i am a devil who has come to slander their family's name in the public!!
        And the fattest woman among them came forward .
       Woman: "haan, pucho kya puch rahi thi.... phir se puch ke dekho!!!!"
She was a belligerent woman i have seen in the recent past and i couldn't even utter another word.I silently prayed to God,looked at my friend gesturing that the work is done...and we slipped off from there.

I was saved finally!phew!

     I did enjoy going for surveying. Played with the goat cubs, talked with people over there and understood vividly what's their lifestyle.I reckoned that there are greater worries and problems out there in the society and i should stop bothering for petty things like my professor barking at me for not doing graphs of some experiment properly and being "insincere" and "dishonest".

Finally, at the end of the camp, i felt content and there was bliss altogether in spite of the body cramps. Only can wish and pray that the survey report goes to the government and suitable measures are taken.

The story of my mobile phone(s).

I used to have a thing for mobile phones when my dad bought his first Nokia mobile-the kind which doesn't break or get damaged even if you want to damage! I still remember the yellow screen and the games i played in it. My favorite past time used to be playing the snake game in which the tail of the snake becomes bigger and bigger as it swallows the food. And then the generation of mobile phones changed.And even i changed.Never took another look at the oldie Nokia.

 Slide phones, Bar types, 3-G mobiles, Smart phones what not!
My first mobile phone was a Samsung GT-S5320(bar type). I was so delighted to use it . My family and peers saw nothing so dazzling as i saw. it was my first mobile phone and it had many features like 3G connection, PC-suite,3.2 MP camera all in 6000 bucks!
     
 First few months i loved it. The black color of its body shined and the back of the mobile was like a mirror.And soon all the lustre of my mobile faded.And moreover it started hanging all of a sudden!!! Few months later, it became a pain in my nose and at last......it DIED.

Next comes my Nokia N73 mobile. Well, it was under my brother's service for 2 years and then when he finally felt that it doesn't deserve to be with him..i took it under my wing :P
 It has 3.2 MP camera, PC suite, Bluetooth,Infrared,Life blog and a lot of apps. I loved it when i started using it. Used to be euphoric that it has a front camera and a nice camera which can give print out too!
With its advantages i was blind enough to not recognize the reasons behind its cast away. 1 month of its use made me take away the blind folds. I coudn't receive any messages, nor any notifications for missed calls. And so  i had to abandon it too.

So back to square one!

Now is the time i have decided to use a phone which is of lesser cost and last at least an year with all new features like android,touch screen and stuff. And i bought a Superfone Punk A44 (Micromax) . Many people objected my decision before placing the order because its a Micromax mobile. But then i thought, its an Android phone coming just in 4500 bucks..and surely it will last atleast 8-12 months.

 Then started the story of my third mobile phone. I have to admit that i was irked in the beginning with its delay in response..but then i was impressed with the music player, dual SIM and all. And slowly it became my friend. And the number of delays decreased too. I started downloading apps with play store...and i loved the 'offline dictionary' and 'smart phone app locker' apps very much. Customizing my phone to highest level such that only i can operate on it...and the live wallpapers are too good in the smart phone. Had  fun with it and started recommending it to others saying its a handy mobile and comes in just 4500 bucks. I was literally happy with it until recent episode....!

     I got a new screen guard --the original one for A44 model so that it looks good unlike the previous one. And hence i wanted to have a glance at it every now and then. I stopped using the mobile pouch for it. Fate cursed me and the mobile slipped from my hands one day. Its battery came out and i thought it happens every now and then and not a big deal at all!!   But no!! The display of my beloved mobile has colorful lines in it. For a moment it was funny and i freaked out once i understood what it meant.

Right now its undergoing an operation by the people from service center.

                                                 
                           And i am missing my dad's old fashioned, hard rock kinda cell phone which never betrayed me and which was true to me.

I 've always LOVED YOU my dear Nokia phone! Its just i took time to express my feelings and understand you....that's it.