You know you're in SP COMPS 2012(B.E) if..

After three of the series of the previous years FE,SE,TE , here comes the final of the lot, the final dhamaka if you will (I so miss writing random nonsense like this :P ) , You so know you belong to SP COMPS 2012 if


1) Almost the whole class happens to have attendance less than 50% (yes, everyone including me and this is a big thing for a class where "the" defaulters also ended up having a 90% in TE :O)

2) Everyone seems to be large hearted (or should I say large pocketed) and give awesome treats at brilliant places, at least more reason to hog on food :P

3) Practicals have again become a place to sit and chat on gmail due to the absence of you-know-who and mass printing of the same codes is BACK!

4)The sight of a JPEG pic reminds you of arrays of never ending pixels

5)You have written stuff about yourself in the LOR that you wouldn't have even dreamed of doing so...

and the professor actually recommends you with all of that! :O

6)You spent more time with the professor getting them to send this ^^ than you have ever done sitting for their lectures

7) You've totally forgotten college existed for something other than placements. :P

8) You can't help thinking about how much fun dress shopping for the farewell will be :D and how sad the farewell itself will be :(

9) No practical exams! There can be nothing more relieving than that!

10)And you would never have studied as much as you did right before your vivas and so effectively as well

11) This is one of the first preparatory leaves when you actually didn't use it at all for what it is intended to be-STUDYING :P

I think there should be a part 2 to this considering next semester it would be the LAST exam and the LAST midterm and all of that..or maybe that's just me trying not to end this series.. I guess we'll just have to wait to know so till next year.

Happy exam season until then :D

Home Sweet Home * 2

Change is unavoidable. It is what is permanent. But too many changes are bad, I tell you! I'm already struggling not to think about how it will be exactly a year later, where life would be so different, etc etc which will come in a later post.( Yes, this year it is all about emotional moments, nostalgic stuff cuz that is exactly what is going on in my mind.)

In the same breath, the time has come when I've left yet another place which has been my abode for 20 years. Yes, 20 whole years. Where I spoke my first words, where I took my first steps. The place where I wrote my first poem, the roads which inspired me to write many a post in the first place.The place where I made my first tune, where I sang my first song. The roads where I walked happily thinking of the best things that happened in my life. The roads where I sang out loud not bothering about the world around me. Where I cried I couldn't learn music and the same place where I walked awaiting my next music class. The roads where I've walked with my closest friends talking about so many odd things.


I'm gonna miss the familiarity about this place. Why, I could walk with closed eyes from one room to another over there at home, something I'll do eventually over here but still. And that area was abuzz with people I know, people I wouldn't talk to but that friendly smile of acknowledgement, even primary school teachers who somehow recognize me and talk to me finally leaving me feeling good about myself. Those bhajiwalas and all those small shop people who have literally seen me grow from someone who couldn't reach the vegetables to someone who'll work in a few months. Familiarity will so be missed.


It's 10 days since I shifted now. I sort of feel guilty to talk good things about the new home as though I'm betraying the old one. But its been an adventure in itself. It's exciting to stay on 8th floor after staying on the 1st floor for so long. It is so nice and windy and the chance to sit at my balcony which is in every room somehow is enticing enough. And the whole 'newness' got me to clean all those cupboards that got dirty in the years they have stood stagnantly and the mirrors in which we couldn't see our reflection no more. I've cleaned everything here except for the paint on the doors which I can't using cloth and soap, it seems. I somehow like cleaning when there is lot of dirt, the sense of satisfaction and the happiness is impossible. It's like that token of appreciation you expect from your boss when you've done your share of hard work.Also, it's been nice arranging stuff, participating in the discussions of where to keep which furniture, how does the house look good etc which makes you feel old,responsible et al.


Whenever we lost something under the bed or under a unreachable almirah, my mom used to say that 10 years later if and when we shift, we'll find these things intact right where they got lost. And It's funny the things we found while unpacking. I found really old stuff that I'd written, poems I thought I didn't have copies of, random notes I had written when really in despair, cards that had been made for me, cards that I and my sister had made for the different occasions in the year, actual inland letters (I so miss the days of letter writing). I actually found a copy of Aesop's fables, wait a second, "in Marathi". God knows how it came there but it did. :P And I found a treasure trove of my parents' old books. (Thank God for the fact that we share the love for the books by the same authors) Also found was 46 kg of raddi and an equivalent amount of trash waiting to be thrown away.



We packed on one day and shifted the other. I thought I would have time to go to each room and just think of all the memories and say a quiet goodbye so as to mentally accept that I am actually leaving that house. But the chaos that was there when people came to shift the boxes out, it suddenly got decided that I'll have to show them the way to the new house. Hoping that I would come back to do all the mental mourning but still trying to say a goodbye I left. And by the time we finished all the work in the new place it was 11 at night and it wasn't possible to come back that very day. I shed a few tears all of a sudden missing all those memories, missing just the presence of the home that we had created in that place. Its been 10 days, I still haven't been to my old home, I think those tears were all that were needed to know that I had finally moved on. The memories may have been abundant over there but like a close friend told me, I'll make new memories in my new home. It may be just 8 months but this is the place I'll be coming back to irrespective of where I go for a lifetime.

Our very own home. Gives a nice ring to it. :)

Holding on

Walking on the road, all by myself

The picture seemed clearer, clearer like never before

All this while, all I saw was an illusion,

An illusion like always which is meant to be broken.

Those wonderful memories were etched into the hearts

But to bring them alive was a task,

nothing less than daunting I would say,

 almost like predicting tomorrow today.

Trudging along on a road all alone, 

wondering if happiness would ever be my home, 

with smiles lighting up the face of every being,

only I seem to be left out of a happy dream.         

I cried my heart out wondering what I had done wrong,

is it just a nightmare or my ideas and decisions all gone wrong,

have I become bad, I asked every person in whom I would see,

that small lingering trust, for that dear old me.

It was a fight, I had to hold on,

to those ideals and principles which had been mine all along,     

it was difficult, no doubt, but not impossible I convinced,               

held on to the tiniest sliver, standing at the very brink.                    

It seemed almost forever,

waiting, helplessly waiting for help,     

would someone not get me to a place,

a place devoid of any guilt,                             

Saved I was after introspection came to me,             

being yourself is never wrong, but seems so at times in the world of eyes that would see.        

Brought to a state of tranquil I was, finally, just when sorrow had almost usurped my heart.                  

Walking on the road I am by myself, but it doesn’t seem lonely anymore,

a ray of light shining bright in my content face,

happiness had again become my home.                      

Finally, Quiz

FINALLY I did make a quiz before I left this place for good. Thanks to Gaurav and Vinit who actually did give me a slot unlike one of the so called presidents of the previous year. And a big thanks to dear old Ashmita for having helped out with her set of questions to make a complete set of questions. No go ahead, relax and enjoy the quiz while I may actually start thinking of preparing my next one!

The answer is the Del Monte Fruit Juice ad song.

Strangers, yet not so

                We meet so many people in the span of a day. We may not even realize that we do. We even converse with them, it usually is only a few lines, but conversation nevertheless. By people, I mean the book shop person, the lift person, the mama who sits at the library entrance, the conductor on the bus, why even the bhaji wala!

But some days, these conversations go beyond the lines that you would use everyday. Some days, it goes beyond the small talk that you indulge in everyday.

Like one of the days, I was buying a book at Bhavan's book stall, the place I've been buying books for the past 5 years. There is one incredibly grumpy, always irritated old man at the cashier counter who has always asked me to stop talking to whoever is with me and buy the books and leave. So, I'm usually not enthusiastic about standing at the counter for too long as I can't not talk. :P

But then, one of the other days, besides mentioning the fact that I've been a customer for almost 5 years (I was surprised he knew that! ) he started talking about how they have been right outside the college for 50 years and while people earned away by unfair means, his shop has remained the same old humble shop. He also spoke about students coming back from America with a foreign wife and showing around the college.(He also let me return my books worth Rs 2000 15 days after the deadline..the advantages of being a regular customer I tell you :D )

Another incident with the mochi. This family owns a slipper shop on the roadside as well as a vegetable cart. The lady of the family handles the vegetable sales and there is no time that I have bought something from her when she hasn't given something extra as goodwill. Always a handful of curry leaves with lemon, a bunch of coriander leaves with ginger, 50 more gms of ginger when buying 100 gms of it. Also the rangoli powder in case of festivals. They will give you that knowing smile and you probably know nothing about them but there is this vendor-customer connect between the two.

Yet another incident. 3 years ago, the day I had got admission into this institute of mine, I was really surprised on my way back home in the rickshaw. The driver asked me about my marks and admission and all of that and  also spoke about his son who was doing his diploma and how he would want admission into an engineering college the next year. He asked me if I would do a favour and tell him the cut offs for my college and gave me his number, didn't ask for mine. I somehow didn't dismiss it and actually searched the whole year on every notice board for cut offs but in vain. But finally when I did find, I made it a point to call him up and tell him. He was so happy and said that he used to wonder every time when he passed by my building if I had forgotten about this. Almost 2 months later, when I had totally forgotten about all of this, this very person called back to inform me (he had stored my number as I had called him on his mobile phone) that his son got into Saboo Siddik with an aggregate of 86% and thanked me profusely for having informed him. I wouldn't recognize him if I ever saw him again but then this incident proves how random people are related somehow by small incidents like these.

How can we forget those BEST bus drivers who see you running across the road and stop an extra 5 seconds for you to reach and get into the bus?! They don't even know you, they might have had a bad day but yet they'll wait for you the day you are so late for college and you end up thanking them so much.

Leave aside people you may meet just once and never meet again. Consider people who are your colleagues, who you have spoken to so less often but still they are people you see everyday. One of my practicals in which there is this one professor who absolutely hates me( at least hated me in the last semester) was the invigilator. I was so terrified of the practical exam because of him. When I did get the experiment, an easy one at that, one of "the people" I spoke about asked me not to show the experiment within 5 minutes as the professor might screw my case. When I got done with my vivas with no hassles( I was so terrified before entering his cabin, I tried taking long breaths to calm me down :O), another person came up to me and said that it was surprising yet good that the professor did nothing troublesome. (Thank God, he had forgotten my face! ) I was so surprised, the fact that they would approach me and tell this, my faith in people instilled back again.

Being in IEEE the last year, I can name and thank all the watchmen, the library mama and the lift mama as well for being so supportive and going out of their way in their own ways to help us out whenever we had an event on the weekends.

I can keep narrating incidents like these. The whole point is that people are so cynical about the world around us. We pity ourselves for the state we are in. We complain that people are money minded, only looking for materialistic gains. These are incidents that show us that people despite all the things happening in their life sometimes do go out of their way to make someone else's life better, in a small way maybe, for no gain, just for the mental satisfaction. But then we dismiss them as nothing. We shouldn't. As it is things like these, which help us restore our faith back in people and realize the world isn't too bad a place to live in either.

Microsoft-The end of it

        I just don't feel like changing what I originally thought of it. This title came in the last week of my internship. Now when I sit to finish what I intended writing, it seems it isn't the end after all but a whole new beginning.

I remember the last time I wrote about my internship. I knew nothing of what I had to do. I didn't know how I was gonna fare. I didn't know if I was worth the internship. But I was very sure I'll make myself worth it. Those 8 weeks were difficult. But weird enough, they were equally fun. (yes, I don't mind confessing I love coding, call me a geek if you want :P ). And never ever try to uninstall SQLServer, it is such a pain that I can't even explain how much. Plus I had to do it thrice, making it the first time I had to sit beyond 12 in office. (Blame the cab system, which drops you to your home whatever time may be :P )

The internship was even awesome'r' because of the other interns. We got to know each other pretty well I must say, making that one of the main reasons why we wanted to come back more than anything else at all. All those group lunches, group dinners, stupid banter, coffee breaks and sometimes even serious doubts and discussions really mattered a lot. (Must thank the seniors for the unofficial facebook group, that really helped us know each other much before we were even there). Not to forget, those late night movies as well!

Talking of late night movies, to be out at wee hours of the day was definitely a first for me. Never have I even dared to ask, forget enter out of the house beyond 10. But there, this happened as I got to work at my best time (yes, I'm a nocturnal person, an owl would ideally be my animagus if I think of it) and even late night movies. None of this a secret from home makes it the icing on the cake. No objection would be a cherry on the top. Why, when my deadline for the presentation got advanced and a time came when I had to do my project right from scratch in one night (yes, that did happen and trust me, I wasn't ever more confident that I could finish it, just a gut feeling I had, didn't even know why), I actually sat till 4.15 a.m. and was wide awake when I came back at 8 to complete the project, managed to add a few finishing touches as well which I hadn't added in the previous version. The project was ready right at half an hour before the presentation.

But anyway, when you're a girl with overprotective parents, this kind of gives you that independent feeling ,you know, something I wasn't sure I was ready for, definitely sure my parents weren't. But then, they suddenly seemed to have felt that their girl has grown up to make her own decisions whilst I was there which made me really happy, as they did think I was responsible for myself. Considering its my first time all by myself, I found that a big deal.


I had awesome team mates without whom I doubt I would ever have reached the completion of my project and I'm not even exaggerating. If it wasn't for my manager's encouraging words, I wouldn't have ever imagined myself completing in a night what took me 5 weeks. If it wasn't for my mentor's support, I doubt I would have had thought I could sit myself through. But that's ok, I made sure I thanked all of them profusely when I left and also informed them that I got the job and that I attributed part of my success to all of them.

Its not even sunk in yet and I'm not at all saying this because everyone says this. Of course it was crazy to hear the words "you're hired" after a very dramatic pause; but still, the fact that I am going there next year, the fact that I have indeed got a 10 lakh odd job(although that hardly matters), the fact that I indeed am so lucky in so many ways... Things have been going in the right way, rather the perfect way ever since my 11th std now and every time I take a new step I wonder if its the end of my lucky stretch. Guess this wasn't either. Never did I work with the intention of getting the job, of course finally everyone wants it but the internship meant much more to me, much more than I have ever imagined. It meant me knowing that I can push my limits to achieve what had seemed impossible to me by my own self, it meant me knowing for sure that I am meant for coding and me saying 'I like coding' is not a farce, it meant that, I reiterate; with practically nothing technical on my resume, I could actually come to live a computer engineer's dream.

So I am a jobless person the following year but to reminisce about the past 3 years( now I am emotional 4th year old person and I'll be ranting about missing everything in a few months I think ), Microsoft IT for the next year at least and of course, really really happy to be back with all the people that I missed so much whilst I was there. I think I have spoken too much about Microsoft now, I'm bored and I'll be back to usual Preeti post in some time. Till then, tada!

The sounds of wisdom

Oh my little conch,
what is it that I can hear you say,
yes I hear, as it becomes clearer,
you have come to speak the music of life.                       

The sounds of the seas come floating to me,
those waves of memories come rushing near,            
each wave has a story to remind
or a new story yet to hear.                          

A tale you are yet to believe,
a person you are yet to meet, 
a friend you are yet to know,
a place you are yet to go.

The wonder of it all may seem,           
so beautiful and yet so much like a dream,
so ephemeral, that you cant touch it so,
try it, and there it goes.           

The tingling, though alien seems nice,
the novelty, you want to feel it twice,
the feeling, its so hard to let go,
but its life, you learn to do so.         

You may never realize,
the day you learn to forgive,
the day you let go of everything,
the day you learn to live.               

What I speak may be right,
or who knows maybe wrong,
but right or wrong cease to exist,
the day the material needs are gone.

You may live to survive,                  
or are surviving to live,
they're like 2 peas,you may say,
but aye they are two different things.                         

All this seems so difficult to understand,           
it would be nothing but impossible to live, 
but trying is never wrong my dear friend,                        
the effort is what matters,it all comes back to you at the very end.     

The farther the waves moved from the shore,
lost in deep thought I lay,           
trying to make sense of everything that was said,               
as the waves slowly ebbed away.

mera kauwa mulayam

"If i dont write abt this, i dunno if i shud even write..talk abt the biggest stroke of luck u get..the so non tech person i am, the most unimpressive cv,i tht i cant even think of a chance..forget think, it was definitely a no..i was as not bothered abt this as i am abt the cat exam.."

These were the exact words I typed into my phone in order to make it a blog post when it finally sunk in that I did in fact get an internship at Microsoft.(To be exact, I was walking towards the bus stop with a big smile on my face :D also forgive the sms language but I just didn't feel like changing it in the post.) Things that everyone know, its a dream for anyone who is somewhere close to programming to get into Microsoft. There are other equivalent software companies , yes, but somehow Microsoft always generates this awe filled response, the whole unbelievable aspect about it. But yes, it did happen. I still think getting to the interview part was luck, pure luck and the unending wishes of all my well wishers.

Now that I am here, its already been a week. Sometimes, if I think about how busy it was, it seems to have gone really fast. But then, when I think I have 7 weeks left, it seems way too small a time. I have always wondered about myself about the fact that I adjust to a new place real soon, without having so much as a thought about the people I have left behind. But that has always been proved for a period lesser than 15 days or so. I always thought it was sad that I don't miss people. I really didn't like the fact that you get used to life, something that I emphasized in my last post.

But yeah, I do miss people. When I speak to my friends online or on the phone, I feel that sadness at the back of my mind that I won't see them for 7 weeks. And the point is it is only 7 weeks. But that is actually something I'm happy about. I thought that when I go do an M.S. I might forget the people here, my friends here and all their importance in my life will be lost in oblivion. But its not so. So fine.


Plus, none of us are used to an environment like this. At least, not me. Where you are held responsible for the work you are allotted, albeit not critical but work nonetheless. The point where you have to prove to your own self,  prove to your seniors that you are worthy of this internship, not that it really matters to them but it always matters to you to make an impression. Its been a week and I am anxious if my hardworking mentality will transform into actuality, into observable results. Right now, I can only hope.

So yay, a new place did manage to make me write. A poem on the way too(surprising what a wasted sunday can do to you :P ), hopefully, I compensate for the dryness of the blog in the past few months. Till then, toodles.. Have a happy vacation, y'all! :D :)

The final goodbye

 Change is the spice of life they say, but the transition is what makes it so difficult...they're off to a new life but it only deepens that chasm that I suddenly feel has been created in my stomach..no one to pamper you here,you're at the other end of pampering now..the empty quadrangle.. and you realize exactly a year later you'll be in exactly the same state..puts things in perspective doesn't it?


The junior senior relationship is a very different, special and a really endearing one. They introduced me to things as I know them now in college. Why, the senior I am to my juniors has been inspired by some of them. I hate it that we learn to move on. That we learn to adjust to people's absence..as years later, you may not be able to sustain a conversation for 5 minutes with the very person you can talk with for hours now.

I guess and I hope I made the most of their presence over here. I owe it to them for always being there for 3 years of my life here. And I wish they have the best of lives wherever they go.

The rains have arrived

The cool winds strike your face,
providing that calm quiet solace,
 the sun seems to have set,though yet it has not.
Is it the sign of rains?? No, maybe not.

Just then, the first drop, falls to the ground,
followed by so many others on their way down,
to wipe the dust right off the leaves,
 to make them green lovely trees.

Those that were waiting with their arms wide open,

                to receive the first drops, the joy of being soaked.               

The fragrance rises just in time,
to mark the beginning of this wondrous occasion,          
why do people run for shelter,the trees cant help but wonder,
as they rejoice what they've been waiting for,
 a little longer and hope they would have lost.      

You wonder if its come just for a fleeting appearance,
 but no, its not so,and your heart leaps with joy,

while it continues to pour, as though the earth deserves it all.

the sun slowly hides,to be lost into oblivion,
the night queen arrives to spread her dark blanket over the sky,
the cool wind has reached your very soul and you instinctively feel alive,
oh what a feeling to know, the rains have finally arrived.

(I always owe it to the rains to make the statement "The poet in me has risen again :) " )

Dear Blogger

I must be dumb. really dumb. I cant believe I let myself type blogger's link and clicked new post to write nonsense.That too right before the first semester exam.That's right.

I must say Blogger dear, I miss you loads. But you see, the paper seems to be winning over you in a bid to capture my thoughts. Very specific special ones for special people. Also add the really funny Big Bang theory which actually makes me laugh unlike How I met your mother which I continued seeing hoping they will show the mother. (cmon guys, at least now! ) Just having two people at home and a free kitchen makes me rush to the kitchen, get milk and add a bunch of fresh cut fruits, grind them to make a wonderful cool milkshake which is just right for the season. I plan to try some ice tea too!

I always hoped I don't fall into the cliche third year category where you totally forget that you even had a blog. You must have thought I am already in it. And I assure you I definitely don't have a writer's block, on the contrary, I have too much to write, just analogous to round robin scheduling, each post gets a short time but never reaches its end!

But don't you worry. Once the paper is done with seeing my handwriting, you're next! Which is really soon, like 20 days! And I'll be back to do what I love the most, only second to music. Till then, toodles!

Don't bother

Seriously, don't bother reading this unless some calamity has occured and you are absolutely bored and having nothing to do. Even if that is the case, you may not read it.

Whenever I saw blogs and those random posts, I would think how can someone desecrate their blog with posts like these when they have written such retrospective, beautiful pieces of work. But then, fatalism is hard at work I guess. It had to happen to me too. Like all others.

Do not even get close to thinking that I am suffering from the age old complaint that all bloggers have: WRITER'S BLOCK.

On the contrary, I have so many things on my mind, so many things to write about, just that I am forced to prioritize and give more attention to an exam that is just 5 days away. Writing this wouldn't involve me thinking too much nor would I spend too much time wallowing in emotion and not realizing how time flies while I write something that has touched me. Also, I'd rather not spend too much time in front of the computer screen cuz invariably in studying for GRE, I continuously stare at the screen reading passages that are sometimes really interesting speaking about pre historic earth and astronomy else they are just paragraphs that I usually avoid reading if I come across them anywhere else. I must say this exam has made me appreciate formal writing, even if most of it goes right *zoop* above my head, the way they talk about it, it does make the least amount of sense.

Anyway, I'm relieved I did write something that was not formal, that did not behoove me to use GRE words (Yes, I did realize the conspicuous use of GRE words but trust me, these ones came instinctively to me, not forced :P )

This is just a short post written for self satisfaction and to show the world( and myself), this blog ain't dead yet! (Too much dramatics, but God, I need change, real bad )

 I assure you that long winded posts about various stuff will be BACK! :P

Till then, God bless! Have fun

The final one yet the pinnacle

                                    It was always supposed to be an experience of a lifetime. I had always known it and dreamt about it ever since my first IV. But it would be such a memorable one was not expected. For more reasons than one.

It is one of the biggest events in terms of the calendar year. Pressure was immense. It has always been about managing more than 100 people. So much anticipation about something I really did not have any idea about it in terms of management and in terms of enjoying it,absolutely nil this year. Probably the horrible semester had a part to play in it. Even the thought of seeing new places right near my hometown didn't cheer me up. I sort of put this IV away as something nothing more than an event that I will put my heart and soul into making it one of the best IVs, probably the only thing that I thought. But then I would never have expected that the joy of knowing people would return back in this IV. Never thought I would be having this big smile on face even after a fortnight after I returned from it.

And I don't think a day to day narration would do justice to what I've experienced so here's to a hatke narration.

*edit* Its a pretty long post, so I hope you survive till the end of it if you haven't been for the IV. If you have, I hope you go back to those 9 days again after reading this. :D
Also, I usually don't mention names but I've differed this time as names are very important to this narration. *edit*

Bus Journeys- They have always been the same..People almost always sleep 10 minutes into the journey. And so would I. But this time, it became about what I was amazed about a year back. People, again! My class people were with me only during the first bus journey and then it was only me, my co-coordinators and the FEs. These bus journeys became what turned these guys into people who changed my perception about how this IV would be, obviously for the good :). A special mention of Mukund and Apeksha and Rishabh must come here who made my bus journeys so interesting with their stories which is still as fresh in my mind, totally made my IV happening! Also, I didn't mind missing out on the required sleep too, the knowing them phase was something I just could not miss. So, a big thank you to you guys!
And also the FEs who although faltered at the start, got better with the headcount with time(so we always knew no one was missing) and also were this continuous source of entertainment, made the bus journeys memorable.

Vannakam :P - Again, something I never anticipated. In spite of the fact that 2 out of 3 places were in tamil nadu, I never thought I would be speaking as much tamil at all. Turned out, everyone from the driver to the sightseeing guide could speak broken hindi but would any day prefer speaking tamil. So yes, I became the quintessential middleman with no commission (:P) who would speak in tamil to these people and translate it for the helpless committee members on the other side. ;) And you should see the happiness on their faces when they realize there is someone who they can converse with in tamil. In Kanyakumari, this very funny incident happened. When all of us were having coconut water and that guy charged Rs 20, I started conversing in tamil saying its too much. But the guy said he gets it at a high price so he can't reduce it anymore but he seemed pretty pleased to speak in tamil. I asked him to cut the coconut so that I could have the flesh. He did that willingly. When I asked him to do the same for my friend Parth standing next to me, He said "No,no, I did it for you, for him, nah" much to Parth's chagrin. But finally yes, he did cut for him too. And I stole the attention totally there, it was fun, I was needed everywhere, but beyond a certain point, people could talk in hindi and yet they would call me to converse.( I mean mukund here who made me talk tamil to the driver every time who spoke pretty much decent hindi. Lazy bum :P )
Also, I happened to pass right through the place where my maternal grandparents stay, got to meet them too and got loads more food to eat. Wow, I did feel at home to some extent, so cool it was :D 8-)


Madgaon Blooper- God knows why people voted this as the Kodak moment of the IV, it was hardly that. One of those things that just go wrong ,you know. The ticket said Trivandrum to Madgaon. 10 compartments and a pantry car away from the other organizers, I barely had any clue about the destination becoming Thivim as it was nearer to the hotel albeit the train would wait for lesser time there. Mostly cuz I was catching up on the sleep which I didn't have the first 6 days( forced to, by Nisha who even confiscated my phone so that I sleep, literally..lol) And considering a FE woke me up when we reached Coimbatore half an hour earlier than it was supposed to( really, these south indian railways are crazy! ), I planned not to let it happen again. Woke up at 4.30 as Madgaon was supposed to come at 5.45. Went to the FE bogey S10, woke everyone up, got them packing and ready to alight. Never suspected why the other organizers in S1 didn't turn up cuz there was a closed pantry car in between and no signal in my phone to call them. Madgaon arrived, every freaking person got down from the S9,S10,S11 bogeys with their luggage and I even made sure everyone did. I started going towards S1 when the tour operator came screaming and running towards me saying they are supposed to get back into the train. And thankfully, since the train waited for 10 minutes here, people frantically got in but everyone did and so did every piece of luggage. I was pretty embarrassed by the whole thing but most of them saw the funny side of it, Pankit praising me saying its amazing how I got all those 60 people down and up. An experience, nonetheless.

Bargaining :P- To those of you who know me, bargaining and me have been old enemies. But yet, I tried to conquer my inability to bargain in Goa. (Credit goes to Neelam who is "THE" successful bargaining idol for me) We successfully got the price of some set of shorts down from rs 250 to rs170 (although I think we could have brought it down to Rs120 at least) which is a phenomenal achievement for me, at least, a first in years. I must mention Rishabh yet again here who is another phenomenal bargainer( a lesson he taught and something I remember from neelam too, learn to walk away #tipstobargainwell ). He spoke to a tea shop guy in kanyakumari in broken english and numbers and got down the coffee price from Rs. 8 to Rs. 6 for 140 of us. And me! I must just go hide my face somewhere. :P

 'Cinjal'ified pic!- And I finally got my amazing pic in sepia with the backgrounds of the vast ocean which was the immediate profile pic on fb the day I returned..I absolutely love that pic. Thank you Cinjal!

Bagha beach-The one day I had unadulterated fun..and probably the one day I spent wholly with my friends without running away in between..I decided not to go for the 'IV' and no one asked me to either, I deserved the break they said and I convinced myself too(which is a big thing really!). That was the day we had water sports which in one word was AMAZING! Plus the very necessary life jacket for the water sports only encouraged my friends to make the very-unstable-oh-I'm-gonna-fall me fall as often as possible by just tipping me with a finger! And I loved those life jackets-which apart from saving my life, let me float happily in water,bobbing up and down(sorry I know I sound like a kid but weeeee! ;-) )

After hours in the water, we had to dry and change and WOW,the feeling to change into shorts when the whole environment around you is conducive to such clothing followed by a pastry and paneer, bliss again:-)

P.S. Following those fun hours in the water, I went back to being the mad me,the one that my friends know only too well.. That night I was bubbling with happiness, dancing around when people were talking to me, acting funny, talking gibberish, basically acting drunk, a state my extc counterparts have never seen me in and never imagined either after seeing me for the first week on the IV :-P But that one day I finally felt.............Well, I wont try explaining it, trying to would belittle the very expansive feeling, but I guess its understood,no?       


 Awards!- A brilliant idea by rishabh( p.s. he demanded there be more than a mention of his in this post, him being a recent fan of my blog, I've somehow mentioned him thrice now, too much attention you get,boy! ), we decided to keep these awards ceremony on the last night based on whatever transpired on the iv, something everyone would know about..not rambling too much, I won two awards(for which I obviously didnt nominate myself, someone else did) the most popular person and the best nickname..now, I wont say I didnt expect the nickname one and I shared it with one of the star FE's Shero(short for Pratik Shirwaikar) because of Pankit,the guy who gave me the name and religiously calls me nothing but 'amma' and mukund spreading it amongst the FEs, I guess chota badri and gaurav doing the honours among the SEs,every1 knew me as that..and popular person,more about it later.                 





DJ night-Yes, the one thing that I've sorta learnt to enjoy because of the innumerable ones we have in the fests. I'm not at all a natural dancer forget a good one..I always try moving my hands and legs in some weird way which is always perceived as passable dance..whether it was on the boat cruise or at the hotel, I had decided I would do nothing but just move from side to side and maybe ape those steps in the songs itself. But then the FEs would not leave me without dancing and then the poor things say I dance good! In the hotel, I had to cross the dancing guys to go from one place to another and some group would pull me to the center, be it the se's or fe mech or te extc and I would dance...I have never and will never dance so much but yep, it was fun. :D

FEs : Now, where should I start? Ever since my first year, after seeing Divya nicely don the job of being our co-ordinator, I had imagined that if I ever get into IEEE, I would be the FE coordinator. So, it was done. Also, I remember Anna coming to our compartment and sitting talking to us when we were in FE and I was in awe of him and thought I must be a senior just like that, friendly and approachable. 42 FEs. Quite a number. They made every place look lively. Experiencing what an IV is for the first time, they brought back that excitement in me to look forward to enjoying in different places. Plus their conversations, their jokes, their codewords about the ragging kept taking me back to my first year, literally relived my first IV again. Also, I could see the respect in their eyes, that awe when they thought about the magnitude of organizing something like this, the love they had for us as coordinators...ohh, its come a whole circle for me, what anna keeps referring to, the circle of life. I must say, more than half of what I call experience in this iv is due to these guys who seemed like kids to me despite them being just 2 years younger. Its that innocence, that never ending optimistic expectations, the ability to find joy in just being on the IV, all the more reason I felt I was responsible for their well being and happiness throughout the IV. And yes, I realized this was the last IV. Told them they had two more to look forward to. They say that it won't be the same cuz we won't be there.. Ahh, FEs, I love you just for saying this to me, even if you didn't mean it. :)

Oh, and they showed their gratitude with such a touching gesture, I felt I have redeemed everything that I have ever had to through this IV. Maybe I'm getting too emotional but what is there must be mentioned. I just love my juniors. :D

My friends- If I don't mention them, then it is as good as I didn't exist on the IV. Oh, these so lovely people were that unfathomable support throughout the IV for me. The people who I thought I would completely take for granted( I guess I did to some extent too). The people who literally dragged my luggage everywhere while I roamed around in the name of committee. The people who continuously worried about my well being and made sure I was well taken care of, making sure I slept, making sure I ate and most of all, making sure I had my share of fun. They were so understanding about everything that I always made sure I came and spent time with them after finishing any kind of work. I owed it to them and I owed it to myself too. And bagha beach, they made it memorable. I love you guys(Nisha, Gandhali, Ashish, Aadish, Srinath, Amay, Parth) a lot more than I can express over here and of course, I will be grateful forever for this.

And I must mention Neelam and Harsh too, that I missed them so much on the IV and that given a chance, I would always want all of us to go on the same iv and I'm happy that their IV was a good one too. :)

Nevertheless, back to the post :P

Some things never change- And the tradition continued where the stupid sothdu extc guys decided to sleep and me and pankit followed by srinath later went from S1 to S10 back to S1 at least 5 times at 1 in the morning pasting all the college people for whom it was the first time they even knew it happens. And in my last iv, for the first time, my face was full of paste and shaving cream, so was my hair but wow, those Father Agnel guys really thought we were apparitions.(one of them actually shrank back in fear, no kidding! ) and by God, it was awesome to be the one initiating it. (But damn, I washed my face with facewash 5 times to stop it burning and Pankti amazingly shampooed my hair in that washroom without a strand touching the basin. Kudos to her! )

Day of retrospect- Last day was literally a day when the whole IV came rushing back to me. I found an amazing friend in Mukund, both of us being workaholics, as he says, someone who I've known the whole last semester being in the same committee but never managed to "know". (imagine me!) Also, I've changed his hatred of english music to madness for it! *collars raised* So, IEEE is gonna be much more fun this sem I think. :)
Also managed to know Apeksha through him and not to forget, Rishabh (Thanks to bus journeys) and I'm nowadays found quite often in the EXTC class only, as though its my own class.


I will never forget bagha beach, a place where I saw the warmth and love in all my friends' eyes and that happiness,its something that I will cherish, remember as the day I knew I was luckier than I thought.

Coming back to popular person, more than anything, it made me feel I had used my ability to talk to anyone at all to the advantage of me as one of the organizers. Made me feel I had done every possible thing left in me to make this IV as wonderful as possible, as memorable an experience for people as possible, the way my first IV had always been for me, a very special one. I really did put my heart and soul into this IV, did my best and when people meet me on the corridor and tell me they had a great time, it seems all worth it. All that running around, all that panic, every damn thing that happened.

*special mention* of Soham, THE chairperson who unfortunately couldn't be present on the IV (yes, soham, we missed your ghatiya jokes and singing!! ) but made for it by sending these encouraging messages to us for us to be enthusiastic about handling the whole IV. So, you're the best, Soham! :D *end*

*another special mention of mayuresh who would have come for the IV making it so much more memorable but GRE does take priority! A big thanks to him for his calls and messages and almost being present on the iv :) *
IF you have reached here, thank you so much for reading this whole post and a big thank you to people who encouraged me to write this and so sorry, if I missed someone out in the narration.

And its time for wordlists again. :P

Music and me

    Well, I must give credit to Rishkul for having written about it first which made me write today after having wanted to for months now :D.

Music..the word is enough to transport you into a different world altogether. To make you feel the emotions that you may not have reason to feel in your life but the music will make you do so. The lifting of spirits in a world where not but music seems to be around you. Music is as impactful as people. It can make you happy when you're sad, it can make you cry even when you're happy.

 Yesterday I had this long talk about how I've been exposed to music all my life. No, I lived in music my whole life. From my dad singing carnatic songs as a lullaby ever since I was born till I was almost 7. The days we had audio cassettes my mom used to carry my sister and hold the hand of 4 year old me ,Billy Joel,Lionel Richie playing loud, my mom used to dance with us, which is why I started loving pop of those times. Dad on sundays played those songs of Pink Floyd which used to sound scary then (I meant the is anybody out there :P) along with Queen,The Police and of course ABBA,Beegees ,Boney M topped the list. These songs weren't the ones which I loved so much then cuz I used to get bored of the songs which I hadn't heard often. But still, I absorbed everything I heard to love them years after I first heard them.

Music sort of grows on you. Whatever kind it may be. It enchants, enriches, invigorates.You don't need to have a natural liking to music. Listening to any kind a couple of times will make u like it. Just observe, you always tend to have the songs you hate the most running at the back of your head and at some point you start appreciating parts of it. (Although I make sure I don't listen to those songs anywhere for fear that this might happen :P )

Also, there is this sort of a connect between musicians, singers and instrument players alike. These musicians that we admire are mostly people who live on music and are crazy about it which is so evident when they are a part of it. And when two combine to be a part of a melody, oh, that connect is so visible and amazing, its almost like you're listening to 2 people who are trying to explain a point in their own way with their own mannerisms and yet the point strikes you as one and you have understood it because those 2 points of view made you appreciate the very point.

The following video,the part after 5.00 minutes will make you understand what I mean. I mean these people love doing this. Its the best career they could have asked for, doing what they love, doing what they live for, doing what would never trouble them in the slightest, I can go on and on. Accepted, reaching this point is not easy, you have to be the best in thousands and prove that to the right people.. Whatever, these guys are living a good life and we get to hear good music. :P

Even a bigger joy is to be someone who can create this music for others and of course your own self to listen and love. When it sounds as sweet from your own voice or hands. For me, after 10 years of resigning to fate that I would never be someone who I myself would listen to singing, in spite of the fact I sang all these years listening to the original song in my head, I finally started finding some melody in my own voice. Hopefully it will turn into bliss one day...all this thanks to my music teacher really!


I have always wondered why I have never been able to write about music which is ingrained in me and something I cannot dream of living without. I guess I found the answer in my question. Somethings are just precious and felt, words can do no justice to how they actually feel.

Music is an ecstasy is so good to be true and yet it is one which will last for eternity. It never can disappoint and never will. Happiness personified rather content personified is what music makes you.

So make sure music is your companion wherever you go. Life will be a beautiful symphony making you appreciate every note that has gone into making it one. :D

P.S. I still don't feel this post explains totally how much I'm mad about music.. but I guess you get the point :P

And the new year again

 And its the beginning of yet another year. This one is gonna be a phenomenal one, I feel. The start was amazing with people who I totally love. Started the year with a different perspective. Much different compared to the last new year. Childish I feel when I see it, but don't we all? :P

And I turn 20, nah, not nice.


Also, there are 4-5 posts in the pipeline which I keep thinking about the whole day but when I come home, I type only a few lines in each of the posts rendering all of them useless to be posted. But this blog will come up with a nice post soon, I promise and hopefully one before I leave for the IV.

Yes, this particular post is absolutely useless but leaving the blog not updated on new year was something I so did not want to do.

So, there I go, penned on the new year hoping the tradition continues throughout the year.

Wishing everyone a great year ahead :)