Something to swank

Came across this newsletter the other day

Found it amazing, the effort and the display

From my current life, it took me away

To my past, it made me sway

And I remembered the beautiful period of my life

When I was an undergrad and there was ample nightlife

With assignments and deadlines, there was constant strife

Codes and breadboards were at that time too rife

Labs were places where a lot of time was spent

Lectures also required you to be present

Did not understand every word that the professor meant

Yet after everything, there was an enriching dent

Those were the days that shaped me well

Comes to my mind, when I sometimes dwell

And there is something that I want to tell

In life, the department and the Profs have made me excel

Many of the learnings are useful for long

Made my thinking sound and strong

Prepared me for whatever may come along

Made me realize where I actually belong

Finally, I would like to thank

Each and everyone across the rank

This is an opinion very frank

You have given me something to swank

haseena-e-kaif

Aaj ka din beeta
Jaise ho zindagi ka sabse bura
Itna lamba lag raha tha
Ho hi nahin raha tha poora

Pata nahin chal raha tha main kahan hoon
Hosh hi nahin raha poore din
Lag raha tha kya main kar daalu
Khayal aa rahein the bhin bhin

Kuch jyaada khaaya piya nahin subah se
Logo ne poocha ki kya hua hain par nahin bataya
Khud mujhe hi nahin pata tha to kya batata
Kuch dikat hain aisa nahin jataya

Phir jab din dhala
Kuch jaan main jaan aayi
Sone pe suhaga
Mere dost ne achi khabar sunayi

Ms. Kaif ka ho gaya hain break-up
Matlab ab line hain clear
Ab intezaar khatam
Here I come, my dear

Sallu miya to dhoke baaz hain
Main nahin vaisa
Tumhare saare aashiq bhaag jaaye
Ab karein kuch aisa

Some more things which I liked

'Strange thing about courage is that you become braver for someone else than for yourself'


From the movie 'Pulp Fiction'
A: Don't you hate that?
B: What?
A: Uncomfortable silences. Why do we feel it's necessary to yak about something in order to be comfortable?
B: I don't know. That's a good question.
A: That's when you know you've found somebody special. When you can just shut up for a minute and comfortably enjoy the silence.


'Real friends are the ones who survive transitions between address books'


'...every emotion doesn't need words for expression, you can feel someone's care through their eyes'


Love your love so much that you don't have to ask"With whom you were?" and trust your friend that much that u don't have to tell "Don't tell this to anyone"


Randy Pausch in his Last Lecture http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted"
"Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you"

The Rs 780/- incident

Travelling through railways can sometimes be a little dangerous and necessary safety precautions should be taken. Your luggage and belongings should be properly taken care of. Generally, the perception is that the A.C. coaches and the A.C. trains are much more safe than the non-A.C. ones. Incidents happening in these coaches are very less as compared to the others.

I was travelling through an A.C. train coach around 2yrs back. I was to start a particular station D and I was to get down at another station M. As the train came on the platform at D, I got into the coach, found my seat and arranged my luggage. I generally carry a chain by which I can tie the luggage to the seats to avoid any chance of losing it due to theft. I was sitting on my seat and waiting for the train to start moving.

After a few minutes, a man who was well dressed and looked decent approached me. He introduced himself as a co-passenger who is travelling with family. He pointed out towards a bunch of people who were in the same coach and claimed that it was his family. He said that he had lost the tickets and so has to buy new ones / pay a penalty for himself and his family members. He took out a bunch of currency notes and said that he had some money, but was short of just Rs 780/- which if I can give him, it would help him at that time. The promise was that some of his relatives were to come and meet him at some station on the journey and he has asked to bring the money, which he would return to me.

His arguments looked convincing and it looked a genuine case that needed help. But somehow, I did not give him money because I did not had so much cash at hand and would have to open my suitcase, which I did not want to do. I also thought that in this A.C. coach there would be someone who would be able to help him and so why bother.

He took off instantaneously as I told him that I did not have that much money. As the train started, I forgot about him and started enjoying the journey. Somewhere down the line, I remembered about what had happened and wanted to check if he was able to get the money. I looked for him at the place where he had shown his family but did not find him. I thought he would be somewhere and would come in a while. I checked again after sometime and did not find him. I didn’t knew if I should ask his family or not.

I did see the person for the rest of my journey and it did not feel as if I would see him again. The family looked cool and I did not sense anything about not having / losing tickets etc. I realized at that time, that even when that man pointed towards them, none of the family members were looking towards us (in anticipation) and did not even looked concerned.

I just wondered how people found ways to trick people and how they learn and change with the environment and the conditions.

Open book

What I have believed for some time now (some of the posts are examples of that), is that one should be strong enough that sharing of one’s personal issues with people at large should not make you vulnerable. Somebody has said

“Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway”

Just was remembering a few things about my past. Thought I should pen down so that if these memories fade away, some day I have the option to re-live them.

My mother tells me that when I used to go to a nursery school names Veena Nursery, a bus used to take me from my colony gate to the school and back. My mother used to come daily to drop me and picke me up at the gate. One afternoon, she went for a nap thinking she would get up before the specified time and pick me up from the gate. That afternoon she overslept by a few more minutes and as she woke up, she was a bit worried about me. As she prepared to go downstairs, I came to the home on my own and met my mother in the stairs. She says, then she realized that it was not necessary for her to go each time and that I knew the way.

My brother and I were generally of the silent kind from childhood. People in my family often remember that when we both were young and were about to visit some place, the relatives would try to keep things away in such a fashion that the two kids coming would not get their hands on those. However, they soon realized that their effort was futile for we were not among those kind of children who threw and played with anything we can get our hands on.

I was not among the people who used to come first in their class from kindergarten. However, one can say that I was always average or above average (in in terms of the academic performance), I did not much participate in extra-curricular activity but somewhat only in co-curricular activities. I rememeber in 4^th standard or so, I used to stay for extra time in school for some co-curricular thing – I am forgetting the exact term.

I used to be out with my friends for somewhere around 3 hours daily in the evenings (6pm-9pm). We used to play different games within the premises of the colony we stayed, and talk, and walk. The homework was completed in the afternoon to ensure that I did not miss those hours.

An old woman used to take my brother and me to school. Her job was to take various children from their homes to the school. That way the parents were satisfied to an extent that there is someone to take care of their children on the way. But after a while, as we went to higher classes, we neither used to listen to her nor did we need her assistance. But she was a very good person. She also did other school related stuff such as paying of fees so that my parents did not have to go to school. She used to come to our house sometimes after we stopped going with her, but I have not seen her lately and have neither heard of her from my mother. Hope she is doing alright wherever she is.

Some things which I liked

Jerre Stead, CEO, IHS says
" ... two most important measurements for his company 1. If their clients say to everyone outside that IHS is a company focused totally on the clients' needs 2. Does every person working in IHS say that I want my best friend to work here with me."


Ethan Berman, the founder and CEO of RiskMetrics Group says
" ... their biggest competitors are Google and GS for these companies are attracting the brightest and most talented people ... and not their peers ... for the most important thing is to find, hire, motivate and retain talented people."


Shashi Tharoor at S.P.Jain
"How, because of the strong emergence of Indians in Silicon valley and software creativity, the perception of Indians has changed from being that of snake charmers lying on beds of nails to one that every Indian is a software engineer. I saw instances when at airports Indians were approached by foreigners and being asked to fix their laptops!"


Warren Buffet about one of his company's executive
"Susan came to Borsheims 25 years ago as a $4-an-hour saleswoman. Though she lacked a managerial background, I did not hesitate to make her CEO in 1994. She's smart, she loves the business, and she loves her associates. That beats having an MBA degree any time."


Chinese intellectual libertarian, the founder of Taoism, in a 6th century B.C. quote on leadership
"To lead people, walk beside them ... As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate and revile... When the best leader's work is done the people say, 'We did it ourselves!"


Bill Watterson at Kenyon College
" ... and I was forced to accept a real job. A REAL job is a job you hate.

But having an enviable career is one thing, and being a happy person is another.

Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it's to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential-as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth.
You'll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you're doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you'll hear about them."

Not so sad

Should one be worried of being sad?
If you think about it, it's not that bad
Of all the emotions that I have had
It is something which always remains in fad

It holds you close with the tightest clad
Stays with you even when you are mad
Doesn't matter if it's presence is only a tad
Am thankful for all the things it does add

Ironically, it makes you glad
Will take time before you become a grad
Surely, of all feelings, it's the experienced dad
Making every other, look like limited utility lad

Say something

Has this happened to you?

For once in your life

As much as you wanted to speak

Words and you were at strife

You wanted them to behave

They did not listen

You wanted to express

They did not glisten

Made you wonder

If you have lost it forever

Silence for so long

What has made this ability sever?

Neither did it flow from up there

Nor did it rise from your left, below

The distance from both ends seemed so small

It turned out to be very large though

From paragraphs you started

Then focused on a single sentence

Then there was the point

It had to be word by word, hence

Though this helped

But upto an extent

The first few words came out

But they were infrequent

And I am sure the effort that went in

For those few

Was more than all put together in my life

That ever went through

Am there

Hey, my friend
Don't know how to say
I care for you a lot
Though I may not, as much display

Boasting is not my intention
But want to share the fact
That whenever you called for help
I quickly got into the act

And there were times
When you did not give me a shout
Still sensed and tried my best
To leave nothing for you to pout

And there were also times
When it was me behind
The way things got sorted
But you turned an eye blind

I don't complain
But am a little sad
For had expected a little more
In return, than I have till now had

I know it is not good
To expect something in return
But have tried explaining that to myself
Failed each time and so have accepted this yearn

But you be happy
That is what I will always pray
Even if it is not me
Who makes you happy and gay

Just one request
While choosing friends, be a little wise
What one sees with the eyes
May be a disguise

They will laugh at your jokes
And would pursue some amount of coax
The thing to see is
When would you realize that it is all hoax

Just ensure that
Such a situation does not arise
The one making you smile today
Becomes the reason for your cries

Finally, I promise you, my friend
That I will wait and wait
So that when you are in need
There is someone who can fight with fate

Why does this happen?

This is a long overdue post. I thought about writing this a couple of times but ... lets leave that.

It is sad how things change so quickly. I am in the middle of my second year in my grad school. In the break after the first year i.e. during the summers, I very sad incident happened. One of my seniors died in a road accident.

Firstly, it was difficult for me to even comprehend such a thing. I though it has to got to be a mistake. How can this happen? Though I didn't knew this person well, I had seen him a number of times. I think I had talked to him when I was to decide for whether and where to go on the Exchange program of my institute. And he was so helpful in not only hearing where I stood in deciding, but gave me all the guidance he could.

Like others, he had got himself placed in a good company and must have been waiting for the joining date or may have already started working. As my mother said on hearing the news, he was just about to begin his life for he would have struggled hard for the education he got and for the job as well. As one of my friends said, it is like preparing oneself for an event, putting one's whole self in the preparation - and then being told on the D-day that you are not supposed to participate in the event.

As soon as I heard the news, I checked his name on a social networking site to see if I could find his profile / photo. I did find those and just started wondering why has it to be this guy. What did he do different / wrong? I called some of my other senior to see if they knew more about the incident. Secretly, I was hoping that someone would say that it was a misunderstanding and that either the story is not true or that he is not dead but has injured himself.

To my dismay nothing of that sort was told to me. Those who haven't heard sounded as shocked as myself. One thing everyone said was that he was a very nice person - smart, intelligent and always eager to help. Why he, then?

As I though of writing this post, I thought of checking his profile on the social networking site again. It is kind of naive but again the secret hope in my mind was that there would be some activity against his name and I would not have to write this. I was happy to see that there was activity and for a few seconds my hope started gaining strength.

But soon I realized that it the activity was only incoming and no outgoing activity was getting registered. Some people who did not knew wanted to get in touch and some who did knew still wanted to get in touch or just remember him. It was his birthday last week and people had sent him messages wishing him for the day, knowing well what had happened but believing that the message would reach him, one way or the other.

Some messages

heyyy ...!!!happy birthday!! i wish i could call..

IN GONNA DO WHAT WE PLANNED ON DOING FOR YR BDDAY.... YOU BETTER BE THERE .....

it was a privilege knowing you. birthday wishes from the bottom of my heart... hope it reaches you.

I will never believe it... not and might take forever... I am wishing you Happy Birthday just the way I would have wished you otherwise

God, here is a plea, wish Happy birthday on my behalf.

happy birthday, never got to know you better, and i guess i am out of time now. :( you are an amazing person. I still remember the little time i spent together... Stay happy where ever you are..we miss you.

our frndshp is rowing older n stronger........ u r there........u r around us n i just know dat...just wanna say dat u r very good frnd, someone who is desired by everyone...........n u r not only remembered but thought of very often....u r one of the cool fnds dat i had the priviledge of knowing ...... n u will always remain as spl as u were the day we all met for the first time..!!!!!

I keep on visiting your profile buddy! Take care wherever u r!

abe kuch to indication de diy kar, chal jawaab nahin dega, phone nahin karega to kam se kam ek bar online dikh jaaa, kuch kar yaar... aise chalegaa nahin... is too damn crazy man... dude, its not really easy to get over tis and u aint helping...

Got your camera for the trip ... Couldn't finalize the dates and all, you know me!!! I hope you come by on a friday and force me to drop everything and catch the next bus ... Well i guess you won't, but may be you will!!!

u.. u know m travelling to delhi today...n remember we had planned to meet........ but now.....................................

despite wat i thot.. thrs no acceptance.. it still hurts.. sometimes the hurt is solid and sits in my heart.... and sometimes its warm and oozy ans spills over.. and then are teh questions .. the worst of all..they never go.. and no answers.. miss u..

I told u, u r the biggest RG i hv seen.

i still can't believe it mate..... Grp 12 was the only grp which remained intact throughout the first year..... but we never thought.. we will be separated in this way... :(

The real story of "Sardarji Barah Baj gaye"

Not written by me…


I was standing at Jalandhar station when my attention went towards a Sikh youth standing near me wearing a Black turban having a long beard and wearing a kirpan over his shirt.

After a while, one local train arrived, which was totally packed. The Sikh youth tried to board the train but failed to do so. Just then a voice was heard from the back coach 'Sardarji Barah Baj gaye' (Sir it's 12 o'clock!)

The Sikh youth looked over at that voice maker and instead of showing any anger smiled at him.

The smile was so enigmatic that it seemed as if some type of truth lies behind it. Not able to resist my temptation, I walked towards him and asked why he smiled at that person who teased him. The Sikh youth replied, 'He was not teasing me but was asking for my help'. I was surprised with these words and he told me that there was a big history behind that which one should know. I was eager to know the History and the Sikh youth narrated:

During 17th Century, when Hindustan was ruled by Mughals, all the Hindu people were humiliated and were treated like animals. Mughals treated the Hindu women as there own property and were forcing all Hindus to accept Islam and even used to kill the people if they were refusing to accept. That time, our ninth Guru, Sri Guru Teg Bahadarji came forward, in response to a request of some Kashmir Pandits, to fight against all these cruel activities. Guruji told the Mughal emperor that if he could succeed in converting him to Islam, all the Hindus would accept the same.

But, if he failed, he should stop all those activities. The Mughal emperor happily agreed to that but even after lots of torture to Guruji and his fellow members he failed to convert him to Islam and Guruji along with his other four fellow members, were tortured and sacrificed their lives in Chandni Chowk. Since the Mughals were unable to convert them to Islam they were assassinated.

Thus Guruji sacrificed his life for the protection of Hindu religion.
Can anybody lay down his life and that too for the protection of another religion? This is the reason he is still remembered as "Hind Ki Chaddar", shield of India. For the sake of whom he had sacrificed his life, none of the them came forward to lift his body, fearing that they would also be assassinated.

Seeing this incident our 10th Guruji, Sri Guru Gobind Singhji (Son of Guru Teg Bahadarji) founder of khalsa made a resolution that he would convert his followers to such human beings who would not be able to hide themselves and could be easily located in thousands. At the start, the Sikhs were very few in numbers as they were fighting against the Mughal emperors. At that time, Nadir Shah raided Delhi in the year 1739 and looted Hindustan and was carrying lot of Hindustan treasures and nearly 2200 Hindu women along with him. The news spread like a fire and was heard by Sardar Jassa Singh who was the Commander of the Sikh army at that time. He decided to attack Nadir Shah's Kafila on the same midnight. He did so and rescued all the Hindu women and they were safely sent to their homes.

It didn't happen only once but thereafter whenever any Abdaalis or Iranis had attacked and looted Hindustan and were trying to carry the treasures and Hindu women along with them for selling them in Abdal markets, the Sikh army although fewer in numbers but were brave hearted and attacked them at midnight,12 O'clock and rescued women.

After that time when there occurred a similar incidence, people started to contact the Sikh army for their help and Sikhs used to attack the raider's at Midnight, 12 O'clock. Nowadays, these "smart people" and some Sikh enemies who are afraid of Sikhs have spread these words that at 12 O'clock, the Sikhs go out of their senses. This historic fact was the reason which made me smile over that person as I thought that his Mother or Sister would be in trouble and wants my help and was reminding me by saying off 'Sardarji Barah Baj Gaye'.

"Its easy to joke on a Sardar, but It's too difficult to be a Sardar".

Delhi Blasts

Had written this after the Delhi blasts of 2005 ...


Initially, I had planned to write about my reviews of the currents happenings on the Television. But, when I started to write about one such event, I had to change the title to be more specific as other reviews can wait.

With every attack by the terrorists anywhere around the globe, all the countries come together and issue their condemnations for the same. Yet after sometime we have another attack, maybe at some other place, and here we are again listening to condemnations. I do not say that these are not required or are not necessary but wouldn't it be nice if the issuance of these condemnations could follow actions which actually plan to lower the number of such issuances.

I condemn these blasts not because they took place in Delhi, where I stay but because they claimed lives. I used to care little about attacks claiming lives till recently. However, this one shook me. The attacks showed (as many others attacks have also indicated) the intentions of the attackers. They are not fighting for a piece of land or some religion or for their community. They are thirsty of life. They are damn concerned about the religions of the ones dying, they just want lives. Remember the attacks in Kashmir after the earthquake struck. Why did these take place when their so called intention is the welfare of the people of Kashmir. They would go to any extent for claiming lives ... even to the extent of "sacrificing" their own lives. (Sacrifice is used here in the ironic sense)

Now to give you one of the most shocking news that I had ever received. The blasts which took place on the 29th Oct had claimed many lives, two of which were my friend's mother and sister. Though I had met them only once but the news sent panic waves across my body. I began to know how the blasts can affect a person, which till now I had completely ignored. How an event like this can change someone's life forever.

I had been on good terms with this friend from the day I met him and I believe he is of the few who remains on good terms with anyone he meets. And yet such a thing happens to him. I heard the news of his family members being lost on TV and tried to reach him on his cellphone. He gave me the news and told that he was at a hospital collecting their bodies. I did not, or rather could not speak a single word. On hearing such things happen to people so close to you makes one realize how large the impact of an attack could be. I want to confess that God forbidden, if ever I had to go through such a stage then I may not be able to handle the situation at all. The courage shown by my friend is commendable. I would also like to use this platform to tell my friend that I am with him.

Once again I have to change the title as I would end this entry here as I have no guts to continue further