F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

Friend; a beautiful word, has a much more beautiful meaning and even better is the relationship. We often get confused with acquaintances and a friend and often use the word friend instead of acquaintances in most of the cases, which is actually harsh and demeaning for the great word. I’m also a victim of this habit and moreover I get confused and think someone is my friend but actually that person is an acquaintance. The dilemma continues for a long time before I come to know, okay, this person was never my friend, it was the circumstances which brought us together and we spent some time roaming together, talking during breaks, having conversations etc, but were missing the passion of friendship.

Sometimes it happens reversely, you think someone is not your friend but lately you come to know that the person you were ignoring is actually your friend. Like love friendship can also be one sided. Love and friendship have a very thin line drawn between but if you go by the mathematics, Friend list is the SUPERSET of your love list. But Love is the superset of the friends. Oh, I’m sorry for all those who don’t understand basic mathematics. Without love there are no relationships that can succeed and so is the friendship.

For me a friend is not one who talks too regularly or spends time with you. For me the friends are those who accept you with all your shortcomings, love you the way you are, no matter how many days you didn’t talk to each other, you feel them with you always and you know that person is just a phone call away when you need them, who is you critic but also an admirer, who may slap you hard but will own the pain, who will get happy in your happier times and gloomy when you are suffering. I’ve a few of them, thou they are lesser in number but they mean the world to me.

Friends are precious, value them, they are the treasure of your life………

“Akhil”

Patriotic, are we?

The reality shows have been using the human emotions over the years to attract the mass audience and to a great extent they have been successful too. Not only reality shows, but every event in our melodramatic society has been playing with human emotions these days. It’s getting cheaper day by day. Over the years the usage of patriotism in such events or shows has increased drastically.

Singing a patriotic song or using the tri-color in our dress code or dancing over a patriotic theme is good but only when it is not intended to publicize. If you start selling the patriotism, you are hurting the sentiments of the real patriots; we are disgracing the sacrifice of the unknown soldiers fighting for us on the borders who by no means are going to appeal you for votes or SMS. May be we are least bothered about them as we consider they are doing their duty and are paid for it.

Not everyone can be a Soldier. To be a patriot you don’t need to be a soldier either. If you are a real patriot contribute in the development of your nation. Save energy, pay tax, be a part of building your nation, that’s it you need to do. Instead of standing or clapping on a performance in a reality show or event, Stand up when you national anthem is played. Respect your country; respect your culture, respect your identity, no matter from which ever country you are. I’m trying my bit, but not always with success. I would like to be perfect in this regard. Let’s be a real patriot.

Using patriotism for publicity is contemptible, it’s despicable; it’s a sin. Patriotism is the ultimate feeling; it’s an honor and should be respected.

“Akhil”

Serene Lansdowne: Discover the Traquility and Quietude

Lansdowne, I’ve heard about this low profile holiday destination of Uttaranchal from one of my relatives, who is a great traveler and has visited a major part of Himalaya and for that matter Indian holiday destinations. As he says, the more you visit Himalayas, the more you love it and the more you want to visit it. Now I too feel the same. Rudyard Kipling and Ruskin Bond, both had portrayed Himalaya in the same way.

It was the year 2007 when I first decided to visit this place but somehow missed it. So when some of my close friends decided to spend a weekend, 13th and 14th March 2010, 1st destination that came to my mind was Lansdowne. The trip was initiated by two of the cute girls actually, Preeti and Tulsi. After few back-outs which was compensated by inclusion of one of the best human beings, the silent wind what we call him, Prashant, who joined us on a very short notice. The final troop consisted of Preeti, Tulsi, Jayasree, Amit, Manas, Sourabh, Deepak, Prashant and I.


The initial drift was over having two Innovas as Mr. Pahadi baba was reluctant to be on liquid diet throughout the journey, but the intervention of ladies forced us to go for one vehicle and we decided to have bigger vehicle, “Force Traveler”. How can the name of the vehicle suits to the situation we were in, especially Mr. Pahadi baba? It actually turned on to be a wise decision. Also the presence of ladies made it sure that the boys remain decent throughout. We’ve decided to stay in one of the best facilities available in Lansdowne and we went for “Fairydale Resorts”. This resort was built up in 1912 and is one of the finest staying places available in Lansdowne.

It was decided, we’ll be leaving Noida by 4 AM on Saturday morning. But due to some mechanical issue, we were able to hit the road around 5:30 AM. Not bad it was as it was still dark and the roads were clear. By 8:30 we crossed all the busy routes of UP and were heading towards the foothills of Himalaya. Around 11:30 we were in the arm of nature moving at around 50 KMPH in the zigzag and loopy roads of Uttaranchal. Around 1 PM we reached our destination, The “Fairydale Resort”, the reception was as hospitable as it should be and I was more pleased with the staff working over there. At the end we all were satisfied by their services and quality of food and comfort they provided. We all felt it was worth for the money they charged.

I must mention that the company of the people we were travelling was amazing. Be it cutie-pie Jayashree, Sweet and Salty Preeti, Caring and Commanding Tulsi, or the Boys Brigade consisting of silent yet witty Prashant, the local boy Sourabh, the brilliant canonist Deepak, the lovable Manas and non-the-less the man with a big smile on his face Sinu (Amit). The trip was more enjoyable because of these guys only. Thanks a lot to all you lovely people.

The good thing about Lansdowne is that it has nothing much to offer and here lies the beauty. You don’t have to search for tickets for any tourist place or site seeing, nor need you to get a nod from government authorities. All it offers is calm and serene environment and a place where nature is close to you. It offers a beautiful dawn and equally pleasant dusk. It offers the golden silence, a peaceful place away from the clamor of polluting vehicles, it offers the sweet rhythm that winds plays over the chords of the nature and the chilly breeze playing tunes over pine trees, it offers the small little world that we have forget over the years of technical revolution, It offers the means to discover tranquility, it offers the means to discover yourself.


Two days we were cut-off from the rest of the world as none of the mobile networks were consistently available other than the old BSNL network. It was a blessing in disguise actually as none of us were busy over mobile phones and were very much involved with each other. Spending some quality time with friends is itself enough to revivify, rejuvenate your mind and soul, and if it is spent in the palm of nature which provide such a tranquil and serene environment it even gets better. Spending two days there in Lansdowne invigorated a fresh life within us, we came back rejuvenated filled with extra energy and fond memoirs and also with a promise to ourselves that we’ll come back once again.

"Akhil"

My Golden Days …..

The college life is memorable for everyone and that so if you reside in hostel it gets multiplied. I’ve been lucky to spend my last few years of studies in hostel and that too in the best ones available in India, the great BIT Mesra Hostels. Yeah, there were many shortcomings including the food, but we use to find some taste in it, the facilities were okay but the best thing was the company of the hostel mates, my batch mates, a bunch of exuberant individuals. They were all amazing, different from each other. Few were aggressive, some were silent but one thing was common in everyone that they all were notorious in some way or other. I enjoyed the company of all of them. Few of my best friends are my hostel mates. Debu,Nachiketa Hakeem, Sanjeet, Basuki and Prakash were with whom I spent my maximum time during BIT days. But at times there were different people with me.


Right now I’m feeling hungry; so, let’s talk something about the food. Since my maid has not come today so I’ve to order the food from outside, and it’ll take at least half-an-hour to reach the food here, so by the time it reaches, let me tell you about the food I’ve during BIT days. It is always good to talk about food when you are hungry, right? The Breakfast, Lunch and dinner were the tough time normally in BIT hostels. Yet Chhole-Bhature on Sundays and puri-sabzi on Tuesday and Fridays were excellent, the dinners of Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays were relatively good. Evening supper was comparatively okay as if you had something not of your choice you’ve always the option to go out to dhabba and have Jalebi-Samoshas over there.


Sharma Dhhabba and Aunty-Dhabba are inside the BIT campus and are the great place sto hang out with friends in the palm of the mother nature. It is a place full of trees providing shades in summers and the tunes played by wind over these trees create a great ambience, natural and exotic. The view from the dhabba is awesome apart from the flock of girls you may see over there. The couples thou preferred the OC (outer cop) canteen, which served its order with extra delays in time, which was actually a great pleasure for couples.


I’ve a very bad habit since my childhood, I hate eating alone especially in public places (unless I'm too hungry). In BIT hostels I’ve enjoyed company of different people while dining. We use to have Morning breakfast essentially in hostels, Nitin, Manish, Abhishek and Omi as they were the closest from my room, room # 251, Abhishek, 249, Nitin 250, Omi 252 and Manish at 253, more often than not accompanied me. That does not means that only these guys were during breakfast with me, it is that they were more frequently with me. The dinners were normally with Debasish, Nikhil, Prakash and Nachiketa. Nachi used to take us to the sweet shop opened lately during our, we eat up different kind of sweets, ice-creams or pastries over there after dinner. Lunches were often in hurry and almost whole bunch was present in the dining area.


The Saturday lunches are memorable thou, on Saturday’s, We, I mean Debasish, Manish and I, often planned our lunch in CHHAPRA Dhabba, which was around 5-6 Kilometres from our hostels. Let me tell you going out on Saturday lunch by BIT bus was a tough ask as it was jam-packed with all the studs going out either for shopping, movie or lunch. Chhapra Dhabba offers only one thing that we liked, Fish Curry. Awesome the taste was of the traditionally prepared fish curry, and it was available only with two other traditional companions’ rice and roti (bread). If you were 5 minutes late to reach the destination, forget about the food in chhapra dhaba, just travel to the town and go for the BOSE restaurant in the city.
TING-TONG!!!! The home-delevery guy has arrived with the food I ordered, so I’m going to have it 1st and then continue ….. Laziz, the restaurant I came to know from one of my friends provides yummy non-veg dishes. I’ve a filled up tummy now, so I cannot talk about the food now. Let’s talk something else.


BIT has a great environment. About 70% of its 780 plus acres is covered with trees and greenery. Nachiketa and I often had long walks across the campus and sometimes we were accompanied by Praveen and others as well. Our walks were more frequent during winters, the foggy atmosphere, the yellow and white lampposts and the chilling cold was an awesome combination. We used to walk silently for hours before getting tired and get back to our rooms to sleep.

The entire hostel life was a great experience and the memories are still fresh, the memories of the long walks across the campus, the card game and fight over it, the mid night TT games, the badminton in 50K indoor wooden court, the law-breaking parties, the MCA cup, which irrespective of all differences was able to unite us, the Sunday’s chhole-bhature and us jumping over it like doggies (I cannot get a better word for it), the half-baked bread, the daal-fry, the news-paper printing, the interaction-days, the mass-call, the Prof named JHEL and our march to his place to celebrate his anniversary, the BIT bus and the visit to the town only to have Litti-Chokha over there, The OC canteen and the IC canteen, The Sharma Dhaba and the aunty dhhaba , the December Bus strike and a walk from BIT mor to the Institute, the hot summers and the chilling winters, the chappal kaand, the cricket matches, the quizzes and end semesters with last minute preparations, the tough placement days, preparation for Technical, Aptitude, Puzzles and Interviews, the sleepless nights and the joy in each other’s success …. It all that happened in BIT and in some way or in other made us better human beings.


But they are the people, its all of them whom I miss …. Karia, Nishant, Abhishek, Kunal, Nitin, Parashar, OP, Naveen, Luv, Praveen, Debu, Dinu, Prasant, Sailesh, Rajesh, Vaibhav, Rastogi, Pandey Jee, Nikhil, Feraz, Srivastava, Basuki, Nandy, Razak, Sanjeet, Karan, Gupta and Nachiketa. They all were and are different but they all had impact in my life and I learned something or other from each one of them. The time may make us forget each other, but it’s the memoirs that may keep us along, it’s the institute that may make us abide as we are the Alumni of BIT and that we were the most versatile batch 2K3. I surmise, I construe those days as my golden days.

"Akhil"