Me UnDefined

Lessons to be learnt from RMS Titanic

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 19:50:00 +0000

100 years ago, precisely at this very moment, RMS Titanic, the largest ship built till then, which was supposed to be an unsinkable ship, sank to the bottoms of the Atlantic Ocean, 4 kilometers below the water surface.

Titanic leaving the shore

As depicted in the 1997 movie directed by James Cameron and according to the book “Titanic: An Illustrated History ” written by the Donald Lynch, the historian with the Titanic Historical Society, RMS Titanic, the largest vessel till 1912 that could float, sunk into the ocean causing the death of 1514 people out of 2223 onboard.

RMS Titanic, a ship built by White Star Line based out of Liverpool in England was the biggest ship at the time and was on its maiden voyage. Titanic was 296 meters in length and 29 meters in breadth, by all means a mighty structure. The ship had multiple boiler compartments. Even, if the four boiler compartments were filled with water, the ship would remain afloat, making it absolutely unsinkable. The makers of ship had said – “Only God can sink this ship.”

Titanic left the coasts of England on 10th April 1912 and was headed towards New York, US. Since, the ship was made of the latest technology available at the time was considered unsinkable, the precautionary measures for a disaster were also not taken care of well enough e.g. the number of life boats on the ship was very less, not sufficient for all the passengers aboard (enough only for 1178 to be precise).

The ship had 3 main classes for the passengers. The most privileged called the “First” class, then the medium called the “Second” class and the least privileged called the “Third” class. According to the interviews of the survivors and the study of the ship plans, the First class enjoyed their stay in the top most part of the ship and the Third class had their stay in the lowest inhabitable part of the ship.

Four days into its voyage while the ship was passing through the northern part of the Atlantic, 600 kilometers south of Newfoundland, the ship noticed an iceberg ahead, on its course. Because of the bad visibility, the iceberg was sighted very late and was at an unavoidable distance. Due to the momentum of the ship, despite of all the attempts made by the crew, the hit could not be avoided and ultimately, at 11:40 pm (ship’s time), Titanic hit the iceberg fatally.

Sinking of the Titanic

The bow was badly hit and broken at the bottom (though it was made of iron/steel), submerging the FIVE boiler compartments. This was a tragedy. The ship was unsinkable if FOUR boiler compartments were full of water, NOT FIVE. Now, the ship had to sink, inevitably. Exactly, 2 hours and 40 minutes after the hit, the Titanic sank into the ocean killing 1514 people. Only 709 upper class passengers were saved on the very few lifeboats available. The life-boats’ rescue was offered only to First class, and the Third class was held by the guards under locks in the basement, so as to let First class leave and not cause a hullaballoo.

As the whole world acknowledges this historic date and this tragic event today, ironically, today’s world possesses a very similar situation or fate with the RMS Titanic.

Our world is divided into 3 classes – Developed countries, Developing countries and Under-developed countries. The under-developed countries are struggling at every course. Residents of these countries find it difficult to feed themselves and their dependents every day. They find it difficult to fulfill their bare-necessities of the life. Millions and millions of people of the under-developed nations and many from the developed ones sleep every day without food, without shelter, without clothes to protect them from environment.

However, we - the “Third World”, are advancing at a great pace towards an ice-berg. It could be a climate change, global warming or some similar disastrous future. We cannot avoid our hit with this ice-berg due to our momentum, our great pace – same as the Titanic couldn’t. Again, the sufferers would be the third class of our world – the under-developed nations. The millions would die and there is nothing they would be able to do to avoid this fatal state. Increasing nuclear threat, increasing climatic degradation, increasing global warming and many other worsening situations in our world would certainly lead us to the ice-berg that we are certain to hit.

The solution is still to be found.

Source: “Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron” Documentary on NGC, Internet and MY HEAD.

HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY, INDIA..!!

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:19:00 +0000

At the stroke of the midnight hour, we celebrate our 63rd Republic Day. But, repeatedly I ask the same question, to myself – Are we really a Republic nation? Do we still have a government which is by the people, for the people and of the people?

I sincerely doubt. I am also aware of the arguments that we vote and choose our own government. But, we all know how elections are conducted in India. Around 1 hour ago, while watching the news on television – I came across a news piece where a Congress candidate from Jalandhar constituency in Punjab was caught offering 6 bottles of whiskey against each vote to be cast in his / his party name in the upcoming elections in Punjab. When the media tried to contact him about the incident, he simply disconnected the call.

Is this democracy? Does this contain any remote essence of being republic? Our nation saw a country wide fever against the government for not passing a strong Jan Lokpal Bill, during the month of August 2011. The government was taken aback by the country wide agitation and promised to pass the Lokpal Bill in the winter session of the Parliament, given in writing by the Prime Minister of the so-called largest republic of the planet. And as expected, the winter session ended long back, and the bill is still far from becoming an Act. I question. What is the dignity of the highest republic office (the PMO) of the world’s largest democracy, which is about to celebrate its 63rd Republic Day?

The President addressed the nation a few hours ago and asked the countrymen to hold their faith in the constitutional proceedings. It is clear that this message was directed towards the civil activists team agitating for the Lokpal Bill. The icing on the cake is the fact that the President was simply conveying the message of someone else, who is now the KING (read QUEEN) of this Republic/Democratic country (pun intended). Our Prime Minister has been the worst Sardar ever, disgracing the fraternity which has always been proud to live a life of dignity. The followers of Guru Nanak Dev (the Sikhs) are as we all know, among the bravest of mankind, have always been the men of word. And look at our Prime Minister – NO Comments. Quoting a Sardar, I happen to know, addressing our Prime Minister – “Kis muh se Swarn Mandir ki dharti pe aayega ab tu”.

I come from the state of UP, so I am a little aware of the political happenings there. We have a Chief Minister, who has looted all the money and has spent it in constructing her own statues. Where did the money come from? The tax - that the common man pays expecting that it will be spent for the welfare of the common man, but as we know, common man always remain common. To benefit from this money you need to be uncommon - a VIP. And even till date one of the basic agenda driving the country’s politics is Caste Reservation. Everywhere seats are reserved for people belonging to different castes, whether they academically or by other parameters deserve them or not. The reason given is that some castes have been economically backward and have been suppressed. I say, if they are economically weak, provide them free education, provide them financial aids. Why reserving seats at a low IQ, results, intelligence when far more deserving people from the so-called general castes are committing suicide because of not being able to get a job or a seat in an institution, when they have proved that they are academically or by other criteria far smarter that the people getting in through reservation. When the poverty hits without caste biasing, why reservation?

I again ask, are we really Republic ??

HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY, INDIA
PS: NO OFFENCE OF ANY SECTION TO THE SOCIETY OR FOLLOWER OF ANY SECT / BELIEF.

Die(d) Another Day..!!

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:15:00 +0000

“Good morning..!!”, I said to myself at 7 am when my alarm went off and woke me up.

“Crap, still a weekday? Am I still alive to relive another day of my shitty job?” I asked myself.

“Yes”, the devil-me smirked.

I got up with a few curses on my lips for some unknown people. After I brushed my teeth, I finally woke up. “Damn you, hurry up else I’ll miss my office bus.”

Finally, after half an hour of lousy actions I was ready and left my house.

I reached the office at 8:30 am and went straight to the Food Court to have breakfast. After skimming through the menu, some one spoke, “Same menu again. When can I get some good breakfast that I used to have when I was back home?”

Oh, it was again the devil-me doing the talking. I had my usual breakfast and then went to my cubicle.

When I switched on my machine, opened my mailbox, it was flooded with mails from my senior in Australia, who scolded me for my lack of commitment, lack of responsibility and for not being proactive.

“Damn it. Not again.”

I spent the next hour in the remedial steps. Then, thought of calling him and have a little project related chat. I picked up the receiver of my VOIP, and dialed his number.

“Stop it.!!!!” shouted some one at me. I looked around and it was the devil-me. And for the first time in a long time I listened to someone, obeyed and reacted immediately.

I disconnected the call even before it got connected. The next couple of hours were spent in fiddling with Putty, Eclipse, VPN Clients, Filezilla, WinSCP, the thing called production sever etc.

After sometime a reminder popped up on my screen. “Lunch?” it asked. (Yes, I have set up a reminder in my outlook for lunch, to occur everyday.)

“Oh, yeah. Hell, yeah”, I answered.

As I stepped out of my cubicle, my mobile rang. Unknown number.

“Hello?”

“Sir, this is XXXX from Citibank. Where should I meet you and collect your papers?” the caller answered.

Now, I smiled. Yesterday, I received a call for lifetime free credit card from Citibank. It was free for lifetime, consequently, I agreed to take one.

One advantage of being in this company (I am unaware about others) is that I get too many credit card offers, which usually are lifetime free and this has triggered an urge inside me to have all of them. I say yes to all and now have multiple credit cards, though I sparingly use them.

“Lunch delayed. Cost is credit card. Accepted”, buzzed somewhere inside me.

Since, I had to come out of the main premises to submit the papers; I decided to have lunch outside at a restaurant. I went to a nearby restaurant, which someone had suggested me and I had never had a chance to go.

“Today, it’s time to go there”.
I went to that anticipated restaurant and was delighted to see the menu. All north-Indian food. I was overjoyed. I ordered many things. (Yeah, I ordered, and not “we ordered”. I go for lunch alone, after being in a company of 1.2+ Lac employees.)

But all the joyous moments were short lived as when the waiter served the rice, there was “kari patta” (I don’t have any slightest idea what is it called in English language.) in it. Damn it. Mood spoiled. I haven’t been able to figure out, how does it make any sense to put “kari patta” in every thing. Any thing edible that can pass through the human throat.

I returned back after a late and long lunch and continued to bang my head on my PC and do my work.

After some time, I mail notification popped up with the subject “Party”. I opened the mail and it read there was a party as one of our colleagues was travelling to Australia the next day i.e. tomorrow on a project assignment.

“Lucky you”, I said to the mail. Next, was the treat time. Everybody gathered at the food court and started to place their orders. I chatted with my co-worker who is travelling tomorrow. She enlightened me about many things I never knew about my company.

After the party got over in about an hour, I returned back to my cubicle and saw that the communicator was flashing someone’s messages.

I opened it and it was another colleague from Australia and wanted to have a talk. I looked at the watch, “It is 10 PM there in Melbourne”, and still time to talk.

Anyhow, I called him and he was in his office even at 10 PM. We talked about my new project assignment and decided the plan of action. As soon as the call ended, I shut down my pc and ran. It was 6 PM IST for me, and I had attained my saturation limit of the day.

I came to the bus bay, sat in the bus and took out a book to read. I read a book everyday during the commutation. (I guess, this is one good and worthwhile thing that I do in the whole day.)

“The Tipping Point “, I took out the book, opened the bookmarked page, read a couple of lines and then heard someone saying, “You’re not getting your tipping point anytime soon.”

Oh, it was the devil-me talking again. I closed the book and put it back in the bag. Then, I took out the earphones and started the music player.

“Humko deewana kar gaye”. I listened to this song, and smiled. I thought about someone and smiled again.

I played the song five times in a row. After that, I got bored with this one and switched to next one, which was “aisa des hai mera ” from the movie Veer-Zaara. (Please no comments on my choice of songs. It’s my choice and I like it.)

Immediately then, the bus began to move out of the bus bay. I smiled again. I was leaving the office. I was happy. This is the happiest time of the day for me, like a cake with chocolate icing.

Then on top of that, it is Thursday. Tomorrow is Friday. Thank God It’s Friday (TGIF). “Icing with a cherry topping.”

The happiest moment of the week. I listened to the same song all the way back home and kept smiling.

1 Year back..!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 14:09:00 +0000

Hi all

After an extremely long gap of nearly 1 year, I am reappearing on my blog.
The day when I entered the gates of Infosys campus, Mysore on 6th December 2010, I lost all the touch from the social platform. Really missed my blogger, wordpress, facebook and orkut. I left the Mysore training campus on 1st May 2010, and got Bangalore as my posting. Since then, am stuck in Bangalore.
Yeah, I am sad at this. Really, missing my home, and North India like anything.
Anyways, I’m not going to grumble about life anymore. As it is, it is beautiful.
So, coming back to the track and talking about missing my social platforms, I discovered the InfyBlogs which were the only blogs accessible on the Infosys Intranet.
Here is the first post that I made there:

December 30th, 2009

A start..!!

10:53 pm

So, finally after exactly 23 days of being in Infosys, there is something that I’m cherishing and that is making me happy. Yup, I am blogging. After discovering that, Google’s eblogger and Wordpress are blocked here, I was suffocating. But now, I can respire again.
It is 30th December ’09 and I had arrived in Mysore on the 6th.So, almost three and a half weeks.
The first week was usual Induction and the ILI sessions. They passed and the E&R started. Currently, just done with one module i.e. Programming Practices and RDBMS Basics. The prejudices that we had in our mind about this E&R training was simple and clear, which is They are the easiest way to the EXIT, from the training.
The modular tests have always been a tough nut to crack (a normal prejudice here in Infy :D).
But, due to somebody’s prayers and luck too (by chance: P), I somehow managed to get through the test with an A.
Hmmm... guess, have grumbled a lot on the test scene, leave it apart. Let me also have a look at the beautiful campus here at Infosys. The scenic beauty of the place is mind blowing. It is simple sensational. I have been continuously clicking my camera at anything and everything that I could rest my eyes upon. Everything calls for a click. Be it the beautiful trimmed green belt, be it the beautiful ECC, or the GEC buildings. Even the multiplex, which is an awesome globe, is a marvelous piece of architecture that rests in every camera which has entered the gates of Infy campus.
Have a long time to spend here. I haven’t even explored the whole campus, yet. A lot has to be explored. Recently, I heard from someone that we might get some time after the first half of our Intermediate gets over. Well, hoping for the same. Have a lot to capture, lot to play, lot to make a fuss about (yup, am good at that too. :P).

Friend

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:22:00 +0000

What do we need friends for? They are someone who know you better than any one else, at times even better than you, yourself. Friends are some one who might help you fight the strongest of the troubles and that too with an ease.

In the time of need, you can cry on their shoulders and will definitely feel better. They would always suggest you a solution out of your problems.

I too have a lot of friends, many good ones, many close ones, and heck a long lot, with whom I hang around and have a blast.
I am open to a few, those who know my real self and what exactly I am.

I have 4-5 very good friends who know me exactly how I am.
But, there is a boy, whom I consider a little special, (special among the best ones) with whom I have cried, laughed, enjoyed and shared every single problem of my life, however, big or small.

He has always been with me in all my ups and downs. He has always lent me a shoulder to put my head on and spill out everything.

When ever I am down, I call him, knowing that he will surely solve my problem. The time has separated us and there are distances between our locations on the earth, but that has never effected our closeness. Whenever, I have a crush for some one, I seek his advice; when ever he used to have, he seeked mine. (Now, the stud has his own special one. Lucky Chap..!! )

I remember when I used to spend hours at his place during our school days, discussing my problems. It was always me, who was in a problem.
I was always the misery bringer in our case and he was the one to help both of us to come out with a solution.

If, i could not study during exams, I called him to help me. He made me study.

If ever I was down, he uplifted me.

Today, we live in different cities and still, he helps me in every scene of my life.
Be it motivational, be it career, be it academic, be it sports, be it personal affairs.

Despite of all this, he still says, "Call me anytime. I'll come".

I know, I should thank you for all this, but I won't. Today is his birthday. I can't give him anything, as I am too small in front of his greatness. You're the best.

I have just tried to express myself a little for you. I'm lucky to have you as my friend. Thanks for always supporting me. Be with me always.

Happy Birthday Rohit.

The Rejection

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:04:00 +0000

After thinking and toppling my head a lot over the title that whether it should be A Rejection or The Rejection, I finally decided it to be The Rejection, as it was the first one so far with me. Read on.

2nd March ' 2008: I am at Devesh's room along with Rajesh.

"Hey, help me out. What should I do?", I asked both of them closing my Computer Networks textbook.
I remember that.

"Fuck Off..!! Do what ever you want to, except irritating me.", said Devesh.

"You Morons.. You help me out and tell me. Kya karoooon..??".

"Ok, wait. first let me complete my this last chapter and then we will talk about it.", replied Rajesh.

This was my recently acquired crush on a girl called Neha who was my junior in the college. And I was unsure as what should I do, in order to be with her, or simply her to be my girl friend. The next day, i.e. 3rd March we had our sessional exam of Computer Networks in the 6th semester.

I very well remember it.

Rajesh and I were staying for a day at Devesh's place to study together. I depended totally on them, as I have been a total sucker with my studies.

After 15 minutes, both of them closed their books and then we 3 sat face to face to discuss the hottest issue of the hour. My New Crush on a junior, Neha.

"Hmm.. Now tell me, what should I do. Man, I like her a lot."

"Then, it's simple. Go and propose her.", Devesh said calmly.

I envy that. I envy this mode of his. How he remains so calm n cool, when the person around him is so restless.

"See, I don't have enough balls to do that."

"Then, forget her. Forget that anything can happen.", came up Rajesh with his smart ideas.

"Nops, buddy. I am quite mad for her."

"Then you have to do this. Else how would you ever know that she would agree or not to be with you", both of them said in unison.

Then, we kept our books shut and both of them started to pump me for something that I had never done in my life. Propose a girl.

Whooohshhh..!!!

Immediately, I knew our paper was screwed the next day.

3rd March ' 2008:It was 11 am sharp and Devesh and Rajesh were standing with me at the academic block's gate where the 3rd year students were supposed to come out after their exam. I was sweating badly.
I remember the time, too.
Suddenly, the guard opened the door and students started to flush out of the gate. We spotted her.

She was in her red color suit, that had earlier made me fall for her.

I felt goosebumps down in my abdomen. Although, my stomach was absolutely empty, as I had been to the loo at least half a dozen times, since I had got up at Devesh's place. I could recall how his room-mates, Rajesh and he himself were cursing me badly to occupy the toilets and they all had to be on my mercy to save their dignity in front of each other by not shitting in their pants.

Rajesh said, "Go, and say."

"I looked for Devesh. He had disappeared in the crowd.
"Where has he gone?", I asked Rajesh.

"Fuck him. You go and just blur it all in front of her.", Rajesh motivated me.

I was thinking how could the absence of one out of the two morale boosters who had boosted me the whole night, might affect me.

I again felt like going to the loo. I said, "After the exam. We haven't studied anything the whole night and have our paper in half an hour."

"Shut up, you asshole, Go right now." he kicked me and went back.

I finally decided to go and spill the beans. I went up to her, feeling my absolutely empty and unstable stomach and the bumps in it.

"Listen, Neha, I have to talk to you.", i said to her appearing confident, though I was not up to my spirits.
But she got a little away from her circle of sahelis.

"Yes Sir??", she said.

The words fell in my ears and i could feel the music resonating near my ear drums. I could have died for such a lovely voice. Everything was perfect about her. A perfectly slender body, fair complexion, the perfect dressing in red suit, that I simply love. And the most important thing; the absence of western outfits. I looked into her eyes and as I was about to utter.. I was again lost in her face. She had such a sweet face with no artificial product put on them and still so pretty.

Saadgi me hi sundarta hai(Beauty lies in the simplicty), I said to myself.

"Yes, Sir??", she said again.

I opened my mouth to say the lines that Rajesh and Devesh have made me rehearse the whole of the previous night. But I couldn't recall even a single word. (Leave word, I had even forgotten the phonetics of the syllables those were supposed to be my punch lines.)

I immediately went in a fight with my brain to recall those words. But, after a long battle with my memory cells, I finally gave up and ended up saying, "Do you have a boyfriend?"

Hell, what have I said. I immediately realized that this definitely was not an auspicious start to begin with and then, her lips parted and with an unexpected smile she asked "What???"

"Do you have a boy friend??", I repeated. Holy Mother of God, what am I asking?, echoed inside me.

"No..!!", she said bewildered and definitely surprised at the question put to her. Have I gone crazy? Why am I asking this? Moreover, was she even bound to answer me such a question?

Perfect. I said to myself and then I said, "I like you very much."

"Sorry Sir. This isn't possible."

Sir?? Call me darling, sweetheart. Call me darling. And then I realized that she had already called me Sir twice before I had even prompted a word about my stupid questionnaire.

But, immediately then, I sensed the meaning of the words that she had said. She had said, that she was least interested in my proposal.
Speak up Bastard. Speak up. Talk now, else forget that you would ever get her.

"Well, don't answer now. Take your time.", I told her, feeling my urge to go to the loo getting on my nerves. I immediately felt my sweat glands working on a high and droplets of sweat running down the forehead.

Saying this, I turned back and she was still staring at me. But, now that stare wasn't mesmerizing me. I was in a dilemma, whether I should have said all that to her or better if I had remained quiet.

I looked at my watch, it was still 15 minutes for the exam to start. I knew it was screwed and definitely all that I knew about networking was surely not going to be recalled. I felt my Physical Layers of the OSI to be misplaced. My mind was boggling between the Transport and the Network layers.

I realized that this was probably the last thing that I had wanted my day to start with.

I went to the canteen where Rajesh and Anshika were waiting and smiling at me. Anshika, (Rajesh's girlfriend) asked me, "What did she say?".

"How do you know??", I asked a question that perfectly displayed my stupidity realizing who else other than Mr. Rajesh. Immediately then, Devesh came from nowhere and joined us.

I didn't utter a word to them. I went to the counter and had 2 bottles of soft drinks and swallowed them one after the other down my throat. I don't remember the brand.

Candies and Lollies 1

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:18:00 +0000

A few days back my maternal aunts and my mom decided to give a visit to my cousin's place in Lucknow. My cousin has a sweet daughter i.e. my niece. Her name is Anu. She is around 3 years of age. As is very customary, all the women started to play with the little girl.
While, they were seeing some family photographs and while encountering one of my pictures, my mom asked Anu, "Do you know who is this?"

"Arey, this is Arpit mama" , she replied.

Meanwhile, while my mom was thinking of applauding her correct answer, she immediately continued,

"Arey aapka Beta, itna bhi nahi jaanti".

Beans Spilled..!!

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 05:09:00 +0000

I sit back on my chair in my cabin. I look around and see that currently I have no work to do. I look at my watch and realize that I'm free for a couple of hours, more.

I lean back and close my eyes and a similar face comes in front of my eyes. The more I try to forget her, the more she haunts me. Fine, I agree that I loved you with all my self and all my soul, but now since you have betrayed me and I want to hate you; why am I unable to do this.

I had committed to myself that I will try to forget her and remove from my memories. But, the more I try, the more goes in vain.
Recently, I came to know that after kicking my ass (due to her betrayal), she is happy and enjoying. She is living the life that she wanted, doing all the crap things that she had always wanted to and I always said a NO to it.

Why does it happen that the person whom we love the most, causes the most pain. I always wanted your good and advised you in a fashion that would save you from any harm. But, you considered my talks as crap. My possessiveness for you was my love and affection for you, but what have I got. A Simple Betrayal.

You always wanted space. Why? Just to do those stuffs that I asked you not to and even then, while you knew with every minute details why I asked you so.

Whose loss is it by the way?? Is it mine?? I have lost some one who made fun of my emotions and ditched me. And she has lost some one who cared for her and loved her passionately.

Nevertheless, you have taught me one damn thing. Never to trust a girl. I will always keep your lesson with me. I have cried and I now I don't feel like crying whenever your thoughts strike my mind. Rather, my heart aches and bleeds. It bleeds badly. Let it happen. It is preparing me for the longer run and be away from any crap like Love. You have taught me Love is bullshit.

29th August

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 13:01:00 +0000

29th August, 2009: You may wonder what is the speciality of making an entry with the topic as the date. But, those who are unfamiliar with this date, should feel pity on themselves of being unknown of the importance of the day.

This day is commonly known as the National Sports Day in India. Now, many people will think that what is so great about this day. And being the National Sports Day, there must be many sports and games being played all over the country in the schools, colleges etc.
But, almost all will be unknown of the fact the this day is the Birthday of the Wonderman of Hockey Major Dhyan Chand. He was born on 29th August 1905.

He was the legendary hockey player and played at the Cenral Forward of the Indian National Team. He is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players till date.
He was awarded Padma Bhushan in 1956 which is the third highest Civilian Honor in the country.

He was primarily known as Major Dhyan Singh but he was then awarded with a title of Chand (or MOON) by his coach, who was impressed by his extra ordinary skills with the Hockey Stick.

He won 3 Olympic Golds for India in 1928 Amsterdam, 1932 Los Angeles and 1936 Berlin.

After his mesmerizing performance at the Berlin Olympics, legend has it that after seeing him play , the then dictator of Germany, Adolf Hitler offered Dhyan Chand, a Major in the British Indian Army, German citizenship and a higher army post. But the true patriot, the prolific striker politely turned his offer down.

He was admired and feared by his opponents, who felt that the ball got stuck to his stick when he played. Many times during the play his stick was objected and was checked by the opponents and officials who suspected that it contained some illegal stuff that caused the ball to adher with the stick, but all in vain. They found nothing. It was the magic of Dhyan Chand, his extra ordinary skills with the piece of timber, that caused the ball to move as he desired, on the turf.

Residents of Vienna, Austria honoured him by setting up a statue of him with four hands and four sticks, depicting his control and mastery over the ball.
One of his famous statues stands at the National Stadium in New Delhi near the India Gate. The National Stadium was an honor to the legendary player who died finally in 1979.

A Graduate preaching the Post-Graduates

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 12:58:00 +0000

29th July, 2009: I had joined the PSIT College in Kanpur as a Lecturer in Computer Science & Engineering Department. I was offered the subject of Operating Systems, which I accepted whole-heartedly and the class which I had to teach was MCA 2nd Year.

6th August, 2009: I entered the Lecture Hall of MCA 2nd year to deliver my first Lecture. I was a little bit nervous as I was about to face the people or rather teach the people who were elder to me in age and in the degree as well. After all, I am a mere graduate and they were pursuing post graduation.

I entered the Lecture Hall, with a tension in mind though the face portrayed the confidence and a cool attitude. I started off with my name and the name of the subject I was supposed to teach. Then, I asked each student to introduce himself/herself. After this student introduction was over, one of the guys sitting at the last bench asked my introduction.

Though, I had pre decided that I won’t tell about my year of passing, but, when insisted and exclusively asked, I had to tell them. As I uttered ”I have completed my B.Tech in 2009, this very year”, everyone in the class started to laugh. I am right now short of words to explain my reaction and mental state at that instant.

Still, I tried to look unaffected and carried on in a very serious tone ”Don’t laugh. It’s me who is your respective faculty, and if you keep laughing in my subject you will surely flunk, because the subject is damn conceptual and tricky.”
In response to this, the class became serious and remained attentive and looked studious (this is what I suppose) the rest of the lecture.

Later, I passed an attendance sheet, and one of the girls trying to act smart, the very first day, marked the proxy attendance of one of her friends. Again, being my first class, I tallied the names and she was caught plump. :O

Again, issuing a warning, I continued with the lecture and assuming the students to be studying Masters in Computer Applications, I started with my subject. Quickly, I discovered that most of the students were quite dumb. They were nomadic to the computer world, even though they were in their 2nd Year of the course.
So, I had to start from the very scratch of the topic, which I had not expected.

Very quickly, the allotted fifty minutes passed and my lecture got over.

This was the experience of my first lecture, which I delivered.

Tragic End..!!

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 07:34:00 +0000

“I love you..!!”, that’s exactly what I told her while proposing to her an year ago. But, today I stand alone. I don’t have her with me to share my own and herself. I am devastated and totally shattered by her betrayal. Was it my mistake or was it her fault? I am not sure. But I am absolutely alone today. I loved her, and I still do. But she has left me. She betrayed me and now I am alone.
She said that she loved me no more.

My first encounter with Kiran was quite strange.

March 2008: I was in Lucknow for an IT company’s recruitment process. I was going to the venue college on my friend Rohit’s bike in the morning. I was cruising and suddenly at the entrance of the college, I bumped into a girl.
I gazed in horror as to what a start for the day it was. Certainly, that was the last thing I would have liked to encounter. But, the girl was okay. She was not hurt, but just a little touch of the mud guard on her dupatta.
“Sorry”, I uttered out of guilt.
“It’s okay”, she replied and walked away with a smirk.
I kept gazing at her. She was damn beautiful. One of the most beautiful girls in the city, at least. I stood there staring at the moving beauty. She wore a pink colored Salwar Suit, which blended extremely well with her fair complexion and her slender body.
I parked the bike in the stand and immediately ran in to search for that girl. I too got a friend of mine with me to accompany me for the task. We found her at the registration counter where I soon discovered that she was an Engineering student from Lucknow itself. She was a localite and was also in the same year as I was in. I peeped in the registration clerk’s register to discover her name. Kiran, it was.
Later, we i.e. my friend and me, planned as to how should I plant something to get to talk to her again.
After some planning, finally I got a chance to talk to her. After hanging around a little with her, I managed to get her mobile number and exchanged mine too.

August 2008: Till now, we had become quite close friends, and I had developed a liking for her, though I never did let her know. We shared almost all sorts of talks, be it personal, emotional and the usual ones related to studies too.
My trips to Lucknow from Kanpur became quite frequent. Bunking my college to visit her and meet her became a very regular task for me.
“Aajkal tu kuchh zaada hi Lucknow aane laga hai”, Rohit asked me, one day when I called him informing that I was again planning to visit him.

October 2008:I was once again at my friend Rohit’s place and was revealing him all the details of my recently acquired crush.
“Does she love me too?”, I asked him in doubt.
“Your description suggests me such, but better you ask her”, he quipped.
“What if she doesn’t feel so?”, I doubted.
“Atleast give it a try. If you never ask her, you wouldn’t ever come to know.”, he remarked.
After too much of encouragement from him, I decided to propose to her.
I was feeling balls in my stomach. I decided to meet her, but then dropped the idea. I instead decided to call her.
“Hullo”, she replied the call.
“Listen, I want to tell you something very important”, I said.
“Yeah, say. What is it?”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.“
“Whattt..???”, I asked bewildered, being happy and shocked at the same time. I was overjoyed.

Back to July 2009 :I am alone. She said that she loves me no more. She betrayed me for some thing that cannot be mentioned here publically. But she said that she won’t forget me ever and bid me a BYE for ever for her crap preferences.
Now, I want to forget her. I want to remove from my thoughts and after trying a lot, still, I am unable to forget her. She makes me weep; I can see her in my dreams. But I am unable to forget her, though I desperately want her to be out of my thoughts (She is out of the life).
She did what was the only thing that I hated her to do and told her a thousand numbers of times, still after hell lot of promises she did it. And now I simply want to forget her.

Chrome Unleashed..!!

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:03:00 +0000

I recently came across this video made by Google Japan. This was made a couple of months back to promote the Chrome market.

A Journey..!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 08:44:00 +0000

5th June 2009:: 3pm: The session at the college got over. The engineering had completed and now it was the time to leave the place. I arrived at the bus stand in Kanpur to board a bus for Lucknow, as I always get my train to home reserved, from Lucknow.
I reached Lucknow at 7pm and was waiting for my friend Rohit to pick me up from the bus stand. My right hand was injured so it wasn't possible for me to go on by myself. He tested my patience again, as usual and arrived about more than half an hour late.

He arrived at 7:30.

"Now what should we do?", I asked him, "It would get late if we go to your hostel and come back. Most of the time would be spent in commuting".

"Let's hang out at some place and after having dinner , thereafter we shall go to the railway station", he said.

"Okay".

We then, went to Sahara Ganj. We headed straight to the Food Court on the 3rd floor, as the both of us were damn hungry. But reaching there itself wouldn't have filled up our bellies. There was no room to sit, all the seats were already occupied.
We had to wait for around 15 minutes before we could get a vacant seat to seat ourselves.

After munching a lot there from the choices of McDonalds and Dominos and chatting, we left for the railway station at 10 pm. My train was scheduled to depart at 11pm.
It took a little more than half an hour to reach the railway station. After getting the platform tickets for him and getting through the enquiry for the platform number, we finally reached the platform at 11 pm. The train had just arrived. We rushed in and i searched my berth. It was an upper one. I looked around, it was extremely crowded.

God knows, why does it get so crowded on the days I choose to travel.

Then, after bidding bye and all, Rohit left as the train had started to crawl.

I got up on my berth and sat down on it. There was a girl in front of me on the side-upper berth staring at me and smiling.
"What happened?", I asked her.
"Nothing.", she said and lowered her face away from me.

"Am I looking wierd or is there something on my face", I asked myself. I checked my face and it was okay. I couldn't make out why was she smiling.

I laid down on my seat and kept thinking why was she smiling. I couldn't make out anything.
I then noticed the girl's face again by looking at her. She was a very beautiful face. A very well craved face, full of innocence. Every feature on the face was perfect. "She must be around 18", I tried to figure out by myself.

Meanwhile, I realized that the weather was extremely hot and humid and I was feeling uncomfortable to sleep. I again sat up and watched her. She was now talking to her family who were in the next 9-set of seats. As I sat, she glanced at me, and again got busy with what she was engaged in.
I kept fiddling with my mobile and kept awake as it was too hot for me to sleep.
My watch ticked 1 am. It had been nearly a couple of hours since I was sitting and could't sleep. I looked at the girl again and she was awake too. Again, I noticed she was looking at me.

"Ain't you feeling sleepy", I asked her.
"Nopes", she replied with immense politeness and a voice full of affection.

I was startled. But I again told myself, "She must not be more than 18. Lot younger than me".

I again laid down and tried to sleep. Well, thinking about the same thing, i felt asleep.

Suddenly, there was lot of hue and cry in the coach. A big hullabaloo made me awake. I looked at my watch, it was 3 am. I looked in front of myself. The girl was still sitting, awake.
I sat up and saw that it was raining heavily outside. The weather had turned quite cold and that was why I had been enjoying a nice nap. All the passengers were creating a mess because the rain water had seeped inside the coach through the windows and people were busy putting up their stuffs to keep it away from the water.

My sleep was gone in an instant because of that weather.

I settled myself and looked at the girl again. She was still looking so innocent and beautiful as hell.
I drew a little in front of my berth to have a full view of the coach and was enjoying the mess the people were through because of the rain.

"So, you don't sleep at nights in the trains?", I asked her.

"No I enjoy being awake and enjoy the journey.", she said.

"Hmm.. Right. Earlier the weather was too hot to sleep and now it is too pleasant to enjoy rather than sleep", I said and she nodded in full agreement.

After this short conversation, I again looked at the other people in the compartment.

"What is your name?", SHE ASKED ME.

Whoops.!!! She started the questionnaire now.

"Arpit", I replied. "What's yours?", I fired back one.

"Shivani", she said.

"Hmm.. so are you some college student or a school student?", I asked.

What a decent time to interview such a sweet looking girl.

"Yeah, I go to a school.", she said.

"Which class?"

"8th standard."

She was too young. Very very young in age.

"So, you people are going for your vacations?", I asked her.

"Yeah", she said, "We are going to Meerut to our aunt for the vacations".

"So, you people live in Lucknow?", I asked.

"Yeah".

"Which place?".

"Gomti Nagar".

"Hmm.. Nice place", I said. and then we sat talking for about an hour.

I had developed a caring and an elderly feeling for her by the time we were chatting. It was nice to talk to a younger gal on the train.

After talking for that long, I again started to feel a bit sleepy. But she was still as fresh as an early morning rose.
I told her that I need to sleep and then I lied down again.

My eyes opened at 7:15 am. The train was stationed at Meerut City. I popped up and immediately looked at that gal, but she was there. I sat up, she saw me.

"Won't you people get down here?", I asked her.

"At Meerut Cant.", she said.

"Okay", I said.

I again lied down. The train moved after some time and reached Meerut Cant.

I was awake but I didn't get up. I didn't want such a sweet kid to go away from me. Strange though.

I kept myself lying down. The train halted and that kid got up from her berth. I turned my head in that direction and she said to me, "Byeeee..!!".

"Bye", I said too, waving the broken wrist of mine.

She was gone in a minute with her family and I again lied down and slept as it was again 2 more hours for me to reach Saharanpur.

Google and Facebook Massacre

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Mon, 18 May 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Do you know Aaron Greenspan ? Perhaps, not. He is the guy who claimed recently that he invented Facebook and his batch mate Mark Zukerberg, the so called inventor of Facebook (current CEO of Facebook) stole his idea while being at Harvard. Greenspan claims that he was apparently hit by the idea while doing a project called Housing System – a set of online resources for Harvard students.
Greenspan also wrote a book titled Authoritas: One Student’s Harvard Admissions and the Founding of the Facebook Era.
This blog post by me, is not on the topic what Greenspan claims or not, rather it is on an act by Google coming hand-in-hand along with Facebook to suppress the guy. Greenspan also sued Google at the United States jurisdiction and actually ended up winning $761 in the case. It is surely not a life changing amount of money but a quixotic endeavour.
Coming to Greenspan’s recent tryst with the giant Google – the story is far more interesting.
It all began when Greenspan decided to subscribe to Google Adwords service in the hope of popularizing his book via Google search ads. He wanted his ad to be thrown up anytime if someone ran a search that included the word ‘Facebook’.
Google couldn’t allow this because Facebook is a trademark registered to Facebook. So, Greenspan filed a petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office claiming prior use of the word and even going back to the old slug match of accusing Zukerberg of fraud. The plea is still pending, but Greenspan believes that Facebook lobbied Google to implement the ban.
The story doesn’t end here. Greenspan in the meantime signed up for AdSense, to be able to post ads on his own website. When people click on such ads Google works its series of arcane algorithms and deposits a sum into the AdSense holder’s account. Greenspan was able to use this service for his website for a while when until Google arbitrarily discontinued his account.
He was given a standard automated response on his account page which said his membership in the program “posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers.” (Holy Mother of God.!!! Google plays with everyone. They banned my account as well. But, I can’t file any petition at the US jurisdiction.)
Now, this treatment is usually meted out to miscreants indulging in clicking fraud – which involves installing AdSense on an empty site that gets lot of traffic for some reason. The result is that the website gets a very high click- through rate from people with not much interest in the topics but just clicking the ads to exit the site.
Whether he was involved in click fraud is not clear but Google didn’t offer Greenspan any explanations for axing his account and besides all of his communication with the search company went unanswered. I should mention that Google has a clause in its terms of service by which it reserves a right to cancel AdSense members account for “any reason”. When Greenspan was after all able to reach the real person at Google in one of his attempts he was told “there is no one I’d be able to transfer you to.”… ,says Greenspan on Huffingtonpost.com.
Finally, fully frustrated Greenspan filed a civil small claims case at the Santa Clara County courthouse for $721 – the amount accrued to his AdSense account before it got canned. At the hearing, Google apparently sent over a paralegal, who refused to divulge the reason for the termination of his account and rested its entire claim on the fact that “Google’s terms of service specified that the company could terminate accounts for any reason” .
According to Greenspan, the judge wasn’t impressed and even went so far as to ask the paralegal “But you could not terminate my account because of the color of my eyes, could you? I have brown eyes. You couldn’t terminate my account because of that.”
The judge eventually threw the case out and according to Greenspan, asked Google to pay his $721 plus another $40 in court fees.
The few points that are important are the underlying issues that this description throws up.

Firstly, that Google’s terms of service are arbitrary.
Secondly, if Greenspan’s website was thrown up automatically (same as mine), as possible fraud by the application of an investigative algorithm, Google’s detection system is flawed because moral intentions cannot be understood by mathematical analysis.
Third, as Greenspan argues - “terminating accounts for ‘posing significant risk’ just when they started to earn significant amount of money seemed like a great way for Google to cut accounting liabilities in a difficult economic climate”. (Recession effect, you know)
And lastly, none of this can be put under the scanner as AdWords and AdSense have limited reporting capabilities.

The gathering belief the world over is that Google and its affiliated companies are becoming some sort of an unapproachable shadowy cartel.

But apart from that, this incident even has the undertones of the two biggies Facebook and Google, coming together to quash the little guy.

Exam Time...!!

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:22:00 +0000

I see out of my window, peeping. All I could see is the hot air blowing; called LOO in the local dialect. I look back at my computer whose GPU is groaning at me because of excess workload that it has to do these days following my absence from the college.
I throw a frustrated look at my study table and see the books piled up, ready to be studied. But the weather and the absolute ZERO inside my head, made me again fall back on the bed.
Again it is the exam time for the engineers. We have to study again desperately. But the only relaxing and soothing thing is that it is our last semester. The final time o study as of what is called the STUDYING PERIOD.
This semester was a lot different from the other semesters that we have had so far, to be precise 7 in number. We were allowed to bunk any number of classes, uptil now. But in this semester, only the SATAN knows what happened to our college management that the attendance was made compulsory with monetary penalty, and that too was quite high.
My personal record of attendance which was: always lower than 60% was broken in this semester. I too had to attend all the classes since 12th February till date. Never in my whole academic life, have I been regular for such a long duration without a single bunk or absence from the class. It was a real pain in the ass for me at least and surely for many others too.
I laid back after getting a good look at the LOO, and fearing the heat strokes. I tried to plan my studying schedule again but all in vain. I kept thinking that we have been the most regular in the college and still we know the least, when syllabus is compared. Since my first semester, we attended least classes and studied on our own when the exams approached. Our conscious became so guilt-filled that we had to study and got well prepared before the exam time.
But now, in this semester, we continuously attended a hell lot of classes and our teachers taught us with a hell lot of patience and time. Still, not a single student knows anything.
We sat in the classes everyday with half closed eyes.. eye-lids batting half way down the way and brain cells in an OFF position and we returned all exhausted. There was a feeling everyday while returning “Today we studied a lot.” But, actually all were nil.
The whole semester has passed and now when the exam time is right at hand. The gongs are blowing just above the ear-level; I am tensed about what will happen in these final semester exams…
I keep staring at the ceiling in a dazed horror of exams. May be I am getting a kinda exam phobic.
And watching the movie of previous 3 years in the college inside my neural canvas, I again slept, as usual.

Dating 16 Years..!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:46:00 +0000

10th April ’09: Today I took a day off from the college and didn’t go. The last 2 months were extremely hectic due to the college. We had to go everyday else were fined monetarily. So, today I got ill, to have a holiday and rest. All my life I have never been so regular for 2 months, without taking a day off.
I got up at 7 am, because of everyday’s habit of going college, when we have to rush out latest by 8am. Then realizing that I am not going college today I again slept at 8. After that I got up 11. Hmm… pretty long time since I have had such a nice and sound sleep.
I got up, pinched myself; Yeah.. I really was in my bed away from the college. Holy Heavens, I was so happy.
Then, I did all the stuffs including the breakfast till 12 noon.
After that I sat wondering what to do? Had nothing to do. So, I got up and cleaned my study table and scheduled my studies as our finals start from 5th May.
Then, I lied down planning what to do next.
I was planning my schedule and then I noticed that only a little of college life is left.
The time to transit from the student age to a grown up has arrived.
I recall my days when we had to leave our school life and enter into the college phase. I was so sad, then. But there was an assurance that we shall all meet at least every 2 or 3 months when we go home in our holidays. But, now the conditions are different.
I recall all those days with Rohit, Prashant, Pankaj, Harsh, Anshul, Saksham, Priyank, Ankit, Siddharth, Sanyam, Gaurav, Nikhil, Gurkeerat, Anant, Shubham, Naveen and a hell lot of others. The entire nuisance that we used to make, all the fun that we had during our school time. But then we all separated.
But we continued our bond in the time when we went home in our vacations every 2-3 months. We talked on phone and did everything. The time during the college was also soothing. We met every couple of months and did all fun. Even more that what we did during school days. We were easy in touch and continued our bondage well.
It was a lot easy for me to bunk my college for a couple of days and board a bus to Lucknow to meet Rohit.
It was too easy to extend my vacations just to hang out with Pankaj or Prashant for a few more days in Saharanpur.
I miss our long long drives till the notch of Dehradun in the evening with Saksham.
I miss the late night treats at Chandralok and Meridian by Shishir Bhaiya that Gurkeerat and I always forced Bhaiya for.
I miss going to Hot-Breads with Nikhil every day after our P.K.Bansal Sir’s classes.
The long long walks with Anant into the deep down unexplored areas of Taharpur.
I miss my trip to the river-side by the canal with Pankaj and the photo-sessions that we had there. The trips to Chuneti to our school in the night having a packet of Chips with Anshul, Siddhharth & Pankaj.
I miss the Bluff sessions at Harsh’s place.
I miss the strolling with Priyank in Mission Compound.
The late night walks with Sidhharth through out the roads of Avas Vikas.
I miss the time that I spent at Rohit’s place all day long discussing about our Important Stuffs.
But now the big transition phase has arrived.
Our B.Tech is ending. We shall go to different parts of the country or may be the globe. No one knows the destiny of any one. We shall be physically parted away. Now, we won’t be able to meet as frequently as we have done uptil now.
After we all start our respective jobs or post-graduations, it might turn into years or a little more or less to see each other.
In the evening I was talking with a batch mate and we were discussing the ending college days. The other person was too sad that I myself went into a deep thinking.
Well, I don’t have any attachments with my college nor do I have any one great whom I would miss. But, I am thinking about all my dear friends since my school days, who have always stood by me in all the ups and downs of the life uptil now.
I never really had thought that a stage would come that I would be missing my friends so terribly. But this was my mental situation today. I kept thinking this all day long and am still in state of dilemma about this.
Our such loving days spent with friends will never return. Gone are those wonderful days. Gone with the Wind. But we will always cherish those amazing days in our soles.

Over grown babies…!!

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:51:00 +0000

20th March ’09: I’m sitting in my classroom waiting for the bell to ring and the first lecture to start. At 9:30, the bell rang and the teacher entered the class. Suddenly, I felt a sting inside my head followed by a severe head-ache. I put my head down and when the teacher asked me what it was, I replied that I wasn’t feeling well. A classmate touches my hand and says that I have a terrible fever too. I sat silently in the class for 2 lectures. After the second lecture the CSE co-coordinator asked me to go back because of my fever.
I came back to my room at 12 noon. Feeling unwell, I slept after having some medicine. I kept sleeping for 2 hours, when my project partner calls me at 2, whether we should work on our project that day or not.
I got up. Feeling a little refreshed, I asked him to come and we started working on our project. We worked on Microsoft IDE for around 3 hours. At 5, he left.
Immediately then, the electricity went off due to a power failure. I cursed the KESCO. India is working well in all departments except improving its infrastructure.
Then, trying to grasp some fresh air, I asked my room partner Priyank to accompany me for a walk. The weather was a little cool due to the over cast clouds.
We walked in the neighbourhood for around half an hour. After that, I again saw that the electricity is still not back. I again cursed the KESCO.
Then, the two of us sat in the park near our flat. There was quite a happening season inside the park. There were a few boys playing cricket and 2 small girls playing on the swings. There were few other elderly people out for their evening walk.
We two sat on a bench chatting watching the kids playing on the swing and he guys’ cricket.
Suddenly, my attention was diverted towards those 2 kids. Those two girls were around 7-8 years of age. One was dressed in blue and the other was in pink.
The girl in pink was a lot cuter than the other one. (Plump, what do I mean by this..!!!)
The girls started to fight among themselves. The fight was in English. (Huh.. Schools are forcing kids to over grow, out of them. )
“Hey, let’s go that swing”, the girl in blue said.
“No, I won’t come”, the kid in pink replied.
“Come, na!”
“No, I won’t.”
“Fine, I’m going.”
“Ok, go!”
“Don’t talk to me.”
Seeing this kid- fight between those two girls, the guys who were playing around started to tease the girl in blue.
She got irritated and said, “I can’t see you people.”
“But, we can see you fighting with your friend”, said one f the guys trying to be over smart with the small kid.
Immediately then, the girl in pink came to the rescue of her friend. She came by the girl in blue, and looked at the boys.
“I am so sexy. See me.”, yelled the girl in pink, at the boys and walked out of the park with her friend.
Everyone was stunned. The guys, the elderly people walking in the park, the women roaming and chatting about their households, and the two of us, all were awe struck.
Everybody walked that small girl in pink walking away with her friend out of the park.
The people, who were thinking those girls to be small kids, were now shut blunt by a girl of 7-8 years of age.
I stared to think what struck the girl’s mind to speak such a thing.
Does she even know the meaning of what she has shouted.???

1 night @ my room

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:22:00 +0000

5th February 2009: It was around 5pm. I was sleeping, which is the only thing that I have excelled through during my engineering. Suddenly, my sleep was interrupted by ‘korbo lorbo jeetbo re’, which is my mobile’s ring tone, which is also the theme song of Saurav Ganguly led Knight Riders cricket Team.
I saw the screen, it was flashing Pankaj’s name. ‘Can’t even let me sleep soundly’, echoed somewhere inside my head.
“Hello”, I picked the call clumsily.
“Hi.. What were you doing?”, answered the caller.
“Hmm.. obviously, what you can make out of my voice. I was sleeping. Anyways, yeah, say what is it.?”
“Hmm.. Aur kuch to hota nahi tere se, sone ke alawa”, he replied, “Anyways, tell me are you free on 9th February?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“I am coming to Kanpur on 9th and shall stay overnight. I have to attend a marriage in Lucknow on 11th, so just wanted to meet you”.
“Hmm.. Let me see. 9th is Monday and 10th Tuesday. Sure. Come I shall bunk my college and we will have a blast.”
“Ok done. Bye”.
“Bye.”

9th February 2009: My watch was ticking 8 pm. I rang Pankaj, “Where are you?”.
“Just reached Railway Station, on platform 5”.
“Fine. Wait there. I shall be there in 2 minutes. I am on platform 1”.
I rushed to platform 5 and quickly found him. After all, my pair of eyes, behind the pair of fiber eyes works quite efficiently.
“Hi. How was the journey?”, I asked.
“Great. Lost my Apple iPod somewhere in the train”.
“Fantastic. This couldn’t have been better. And stop calling that stupid mp3 player your Apple iPod.”
We then went to a restaurant and had some dinner. The cuisine was our common favorite -> Butter Chicken. After having an overdose of the stuffs, we made the payment and we left for my room.
It was nearing 10 pm now. In half an hour both of us were at my room.
“Chal, now let’s make our self comfortable and let me show you what I have brought exclusively for you.”, said Pankaj.
“Hmm… take it out.”, I asked him, setting the bed for both of us.
Within 5 more minutes, we were in our quilts and he held his ream of writings and some photographs, which he had brought to show me.
Then we started to discuss his writings and the stuffs. It had a description about Kalpana. Now don’t expect me to write who Kalpana is. Better contact Pankaj and ask him. ;)
He also showed me the photos of his college group and his buddies, with a detailed description of each. He masters the art of making description.
The clock was now showing 1 am.
But who cares. After all, we are engineers.
“Aren’t you tired?”, I asked him.
“Hmm.. It is better to talk than sleep right now. We have met after a long time.”
And our experienced talks continued till 4 am. I remember till this instant, after that I have no idea when the two of us slept.

Next morning: “Uth be, 9 baj gaya”, I kicked him, “Gosh, quickly get ready.”
“Yup. We have to go to IIT to meet Sanyam too, and then I have to leave in the afternoon.”, he said.
“So, get up na.”
We were ready in half an hour and were munching our breakfast in no time.
At 10 am, we left for IIT from my room and reached there in another 30 minutes. We reached Sanyam’s room and he was waiting for us as I had already informed him about our arrival.
“Where is my book?”, Sanyam threw a question right in my face as I entered his room.
“Shit, I forgot again.”, I replied.
I had to give him a book entitled “Anything for you ma’am” by Tushar Raheja. He is quite desperate to read it, after he completed Chetan Bhagat. These IITians have no work other than writing exaggerated stories. After all how such a trail of co-incidences can follow. I seriously doubt.
“Next time. Promise”, said I.
“Leave it, have this chocolate”, Pankaj offered a chocolate to Sanyam.
“Good, now you offer chocolates to guys also. ”, said I, followed by a burst of laughter by all three.
Then, we spent nearly 2 hours at Sanyam’s room searcing to a video by Corrs, but in vain and it was now time for Pankaj to leave.
After, both Pankaj and Sanyam bid adieu to each other we left from there back. We had some lunch at another restaurant and then back to my room.
Next, at around 2 pm, we left from my room towards the bus stand as now Pankaj had to board a bus to Lucknow. I dropped him at the bus stand and then after bidding bye to each other, I left back for my room and he stepped inside the bus.
I was returning back with a helmet on my head and some nice thoughts of the last 16 hours inside my head.
Really, I miss my friends. But, now life will keep us further away, as time passes, but our hearts will be drawn closer.

The Unexpected

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 10:07:00 +0000

It was a winter evening. I was at home enjoying my vacations. My watch was ticking 5 pm. I took my car and went out as I had an appointment with a doctor. My flu was bad.
I sat in the driving seat, had to go alone, slid the key in the key hole and switched the engine on. The car started with a usual hum. I geared it and moved.
As I reached the main road out of the lane, I saw a friend of mine standing with a little sweet girl. The girl must be around 6-7 years of age. I stopped by my friend and asked him, who the kid was. He replied, “She is my Uncle’s daughter. Can you leave her at the Court Crossroads?”
“Sure”, said I. Then, after having a little chat with my friend, I left, as I was getting late for the doctor.
I took the girl with me, and asked her to sit in the seat next to me. She was an amazing kid. She was outstandingly beautiful with immense innocence on her face. I haven’t seen any such a cute kid all my life. I asked her name. “I don’t know”, she replied. I was shocked to hear such an answer from her. My friend’s known person, and at an age of around 7 years she must at least know her name.
Till then, I had reached the Court Crossroads and I asked the girl to get down and where did she have to go now?
“I had to go to Patel Chowk”, she replied. “What? But your Rahul bhaiya said you have to go to Court Crossroads”, I asked her in surprise.
“Who is Rahul bhaiya?”
“Kiddo the guy with whom you were standing when I picked you up.”
“I don’t know him. I met him right there.”
“Whoa. What is that?”, I asked myself. “What is this? Aren’t you his uncle’s daughter?”, I asked her.
“Nope.”
I rang my friend Rahul to I asked him who the girl is. My head was gazing in a turn moil as to what was happening. I had least idea. The phone was out of range. Now, I wasn’t surprised at this. After such a long trail of strange events, this was bound to happen.
“So, fine. Now, tell me who are you? Where are you parents and where do you live? ”, I asked the girl.
“I am an orphan and I live at an orphanage called Krishna Orphanage at the Patel Chowk.”, she replied.
‘Holy Heavens.!!!!!! Such a beautiful creation of the Almighty lives in an orphanage and still she has her natural glow and a face that could keep any human spell bounded. If the other living forms of life other than humans can feel the beauty of God, then they too must be left captivated by a single look at that kid.’
I was thinking as to what should I do now? I ask her to sit back in the car and I started to drive not knowing where to head. I was still not completely in my senses as to what has happened in just an hour.
“Fine. Listen kiddo, Patel Chowk is bit far from here. So let me complete my appointment with the doctor, and then I’ll take you there”.
“Ok. As you say.”
I left the girl in the car and bought her a burger presuming she might be hungry. “Have this kiddo, till I come back.”, I said giving her the burger and then I went into the doctor’s clinic.
Waiting for my turn, I rang my friend again. This time the call connected.
“Hello?”, said an unfamiliar voice. “Rahul, is it you?”, I asked. “No, wrong number”, and the call was hung up.
“What the hell Is this happening”, my head ache was soaring badly uptil now.
After having the diagnosis done with the doctor, I went to the parking to my car. And to my horrors, the car’s window panes were broken, and the girl was nowhere. I looked around, but there was no one.
The degree of my amazement went high up.
I immediately drove to Patel Chowk at a ravishing speed, and started to inquire about the Krishna Orphanage, but there was no such orphanage to be found. Infact, the whole area had not even a single orphanage. The amazement degree went further high up.
I sat back in my car with my head down on the steering wheel, trying to fix things up running through the neurons inside my brain and correlate the things, but all in vain. I didn’t draw anything out.
“Arpit, Arpit. Get up.”, I heard a hoarse voice.
“Arpit. Uth be. Jogging par nahi chalna kya…”, I got up. I looked around. I had been dreaming. I looked at my table clock. It was 6 am. My room partner was calling me, for the morning jog.
I quickly brushed, answered the call of the nature and got ready in the track suit.
We left for our morning task, but I was constantly thinking about my dream.

Google inspired from Microsoft :)

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:40:00 +0000

I found this picture while surfing on the internet. This one looks damn funny. :)

What exactly I am..???

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:07:00 +0000

Life is so unpredictable. I look a few days back and I see a bunch of people surrounding me and all of us having fun. Who are these people..?? They are my friends. I love them and they love me. Years have passed. We all moved to our respective career streams, studying in different colleges and institutions in different parts of the country.
I am now in a college of mine, where I study. The start here was good. I was lovable and a known kiddo in the college. Everyone’s favorite. Then, gradually time flew. We advanced in our course. The things began to change. I was no longer everyone’s favorite. I had a few good friends and a few NON-FRIENDS too. Few people liked me, and some hated me like hell.
What was the reason for the change..?? I tried to monitor it, but really couldn’t reach a conclusion that could rest my heart and inner-self in peace.
Now, I am currently in my last semester of B.Tech i.e. the 8th semester. Only a few days are more to be spent in my college. Then, the destiny will lay me in some other part of the globe. Who knows? But, when I enquire my friends about my scenario and my vicinity having different views about me, the same person, they have many things to come up with.
Pankaj says, I get too involved in my relations and keep the expectations from the other person as well, and when they don’t come up with it, I get annoyed. So…..
Rohit says, I am too truthful and straight forward and good as anything. I beat others with my confidence, and they hate my self-confidence, will power and my determination.
Saksham says, I am not a hypocrite so can’t fit with other’s hypocritic world.
Anshul says, I am simply kewl….
Priyank (my school buddy), says I am perfect and hot as hell. He loves my simplicity and my straight forwardness too.
Prashant says, I am cool and confident and don’t give and should not give any shit about people against me.
The list contains many others, but can’t list all.

But, they are my friends. What about the opposite scene? There is a complete lot who doesn’t agree with the people mentioned above. I won’t name anybody to make them offended publically.
But they say that I am rude, arrogant, selfish, and proud and all the shit I can think of.
Who is right?? Who is correct..?? I haven’t been able to reach a convincing conclusion. I still feel there lacks something to make the scene clear.
What exactly I am..???

Touching moment!!

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:07:00 +0000

It wasn’t that great morning today but became one after I rushed to get Accenture bus to BANG-1. I stay at Koramangala 1st Block, where traffic is peak between 7.00am to 10.00am (thanks to all company buses). As usual I was eager to cross the road to catch the bus and then I saw a visually challenged person who also wanted to cross the road. Anyway, even I wanted to cross so I thought of giving him company.

The moment, I held him and said “let’s cross”; he asked whether I am an Accenturite. I was wonderstruck and my cluster of grey cells started buzzing up (why he didn’t ask my name or where I work, why directly asked whether I am an Accenturite). I literally interrogated him for asking me this question. He smiled and replied,

“Everyday I stand here waiting for somebody to help me cross this road. I know that this place is a stop for many company buses, but each day only an Accenturite helps me reach the other side.”

That very moment made me flash 1000w smile (I wonder what people must have thought). But these beautiful words changed my perception. I realized that we do “act with sensitivity” in our day-to-day lifestyle. Every morning unwritten agenda of mine was to blame ACCENTURE for keeping me away from DELHI but today the feeling of pride has sunk in so much that still I am keeping my head high and those goose bumps haven’t settled down yet.

I thought of sharing this touching moment with you and seriously...….. ACCENTURE culture Rocks!!!

Regards,
Gowrav Garg,
accenture, Bangalore.

This is what I noticed from the experience of an employee of Accenture. Just wanted to share with you all.. Do give a read, and comment..!! :-)

CAT GONGED ME...!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:35:00 +0000

15th November 2008: It was a Saturday afternoon. I was packing my bags as I had to leave for Lucknow because of my CAT examination the next day. I got ready with bags packed at 11am. I rang my classmate Devesh, as he too was supposed to travel along with me to Lucknow. He said he was busy and would take an hour more. At 12, I reached his place and he was still, wrapped in his minimals, surrounded by all typical student stuffs.
Well, obviously, I shot back and then he hurried to get ready. At 1 we left. Next, was a tiring and very thirsty journey to Lucknow via train. It took 2 hours to reach Lucknow and I was dying for water as the bloody LC train never attracted water-vendors (those who are familiar with Lucknow-Kanpur route are familiar with this too).

I reached my friend Rohit’s hostel at 5pm. There, Prashant, another dear friend of mine was waiting for me. He too had landed there for his CAT, from Agra. Lucknow is the only center for CAT in the whole of UP.
Obviously, the three old dearest of friends since the school days had met together after a long time so obviously is had to be fun. We hung out in the evening till late checking out Lucknow’s night.

Prashant insisted, so we had to come back as he wanted to sleep early before the paper.
16th November 2008: It was the big day. Prashant and I got ready at 8 am and we left Rohit’s hostel. We had borrowed Rohit’s bike for destining to our respective centers. Firstly, I dropped Prashant at his center at LalBagh in Lucknow and then I headed to mine at Aliganj.
I reached there, quite early at 8:30 am. The reporting time was however 9:30 am. Anyways, I had to wait alone in that large crowd waiting for the gates to open. There were students all around me studying. I was wandering what all were they studying for CAT that too just before the paper. CAT is all about IQ and English, and you cannot study either of these rather practice. Many students had protruding eyes into their notes and notebook s as I was afraid any of them might pop out anytime.
I had no plans for MBA after some unavoidable reasons, so I was appearing for the exam just because I had filled up the form.
After the paper was over, I realized that I had screwed it big time. Mathematics and English went fine for me but DI section sucked badly. I had totally screwed that.
Well, but that was over for me. No MBA.
When I returned back to Rohit’s hostel and Prashant had already reached there. We discussed the paper for 10 minutes and then the discussion was over. Prashant had done quite well. He was happy. So were Rohit and I, for him.
After that at 3pm, we decided to have a blast. We arranged for another bike and then the three of us went to Waves. The crowd is quite appealing there.

We did some shopping there and hung at the food-court for a long time. Rohit was treating us for his achievement (personal enough for him to be written here). After a long stay at Waves when the place started to bug us. We went for a long drive, in the midst of which Rohit’s bike ran out of petrol and Prashant and I had to rush back to a distant pump to fetch him some fuel.
We then had a heavy dinner at 11pm and returned back to the hostel, all badly tired to be awake and the CAT-DAY ended in such a fashion for the two great engineers, Prashant and me. The doctor Rohit had no issues with CAT though.

DZone - The Evolution of DZone

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:35:00 +0000

5th September 08 : It was my classmate’s Devesh’s party, as he had got placed in Sasken Technologies, the world leader in embedded system n microchip designing.
All our classmates (guys only, after all, gals don’t come at night LOL) and many of his friends had gathered at his place for the party. After a heavy dinner, I along with a few others decided to stay back at his place, over night.
25th August ’08 : We came to college and saw the posters bearing Thunderbirds everywhere. What does that mean? No one, atleast I didn’t have any idea what it was. Later, It was revealed that a few students of our class had formed a group called Thunderbirds to conduct events in the college. So, many students, including me (of course me, that’s why I am writing this), felt offended as how can these people do this without telling anyone. After all we all are classmates, they should have had a good discussion over it.
Back to 5th September 08: 12:00 midnight:
Everybody had slept till then except my classmate Rajesh and me. Rajesh and I were talking on this Thunderbirds. Devesh was busy in his some USUAL work.

“What the fuck? How can these lamers do this. They haven't even bothered to have us also with them. After all we all are from the same class. They didn't even inform us being our classmates before all this decision.”

“True, this is simply ridiculous. They can't go alone. Rather, they shouldn't go alone. It had been a lot better if all of us had been working together.”

“Yeah, but one thing that I admire is that atleast they are doing a good job anyhow if they succeed.”

“They haven’t contacted us, because if they had done, they would have gone unnoticed, this is for sure.”

“Very True. Holy Shit. We have to get into a healthy competition with them and let us super pass them.”

“Let us also do some thing. Something different, Let's show them that they had done a wrong job by starting on their own.”

“What exactly?”

“Well it should not be any routine quiz or exam or game. Some what different. What about a tutorial class? ”

“Fantastic. But what will we teach? And 1 important thing, it shall have to be free of cost. No registration fees at all. Beat Thunderbirds here as well.”

“Sure. 100%. But, whom to teach, what to teach, we shall decide this later, after we get the permission to organize such a workshop.”

“Yeah, the teacher might doubt us for the groupings.”

“Definitely, they will. We will have to convince them well enough.”

DZone - ReLoaded

noreply@blogger.com (Arpit Gaur) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:32:00 +0000

6th September ’08: It was a Saturday, our project lab day. I called Devesh and told him about all the talks of the previous night. Then I called Rajesh and all the three of us went to the CSE Department, to ask for the permission for the workshop. As was doubted, Siddharth Sir immediately said about the grouping creep. But anyhow, we convinced them that it was an independent event.
“But what will you people teach?”, asked the teachers, Anuj Sir & Manish Sir.
And we were blank, as none of us had any idea as what was about to be taught.
“Sir, we’ll survey all the students and ask them what points do they feel like to be taught well. We’ll share our Computer experience with them”, was my master reply.
“Ok, try it.”, replied Manish Sir, the CSE faculty.
Very soon, I was in the 3rd year CSE lecture room and inquired them. I told them that we shall be organizing a practical workshop on computer languages and if they would be interested in that. The response was over whelming. Quickly, I decided that it would be latest website development technologies, different platforms and Operating Systems, and computer languages to be covered in our workshop.
I showed the response sheet to Manish Sir, CSE department. He immediately agreed and in a few hours a notice was on the display about “A Practical Workshop on Computers being conducted by Devesh, Rajesh & Arpit.”
After we came back home, from the college we decided the name of the workshop being OZONE, and I asked Rajesh to design the logo for the same. He did.
But, just before the new notice being printed, I decided to change the name from OZONE to DZONE- The Developer’s Guide.
The reason for the name change won’t be disclosed.
Later, started our sleepless nights and class bunks, preparing the content for our workshop. All the presentations were prepared manually by the three of us.