Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The Man who never agreed!

There was a guy with me in Satyam. He actually belonged to my college and my batch, but we hardly communicated to each other. The very first day I saw him in Satyam, he was the center of attraction of all the guys/girls/chairs/tables present in the conference room. I had heard about his ventures and daring activities during my college days, but I never knew that he was so daring that he would object to anything, anywhere without even listening. Sometimes, he would listen, but he would listen only a fraction of the whole speech, lecture and based upon his 'part' he would weave the rest of the story.

He was appointed as the Seminar Representative of the group of new joiners because of his ability to speak and argue about any topic, from potty training to Indo-Pak relationships. He fell in love with almost every girl of the organization. During the Satyam Scam, he became so busy that he helped almost every perishing soul with his soothing words. He never agreed to the trainer, he never agreed to the mentor and he never agreed to the speaker. He would play games on his mobile phone and by the time the speaker would end his lecture, he would be the first guy to speak and his favorite line was,"I do not think so". :P

Even the Reporting Manager(s) was scared of him because he never thought what she thought and he always wanted her to realize what he was thinking.

He loved getting stoned and he was God of Liquor. He would drink few drops of liquor and start talking about his adventures and past lives. Girls were his favorite topic and he knew everything about the girls. Once he went on to say that I do not agree with the anatomical make/design of the girls and they should not have been designed the way they are. He liked drinking in the bars and restaurants and he was a common figure in the Hyderabad and Bangalore bars. It is a hearsay that he never agreed with the bartenders as well and always demanded another drink from them one hour after the closing of the bar.

While our stay in Pune, he disagreed with the Pune Satyam Head (or someone like him). The old man was stating the current position of the company and asking the employees to work as usual. he was standing besides me and he was looking at the girls and making a note of the girls he had missed. I can bet on it that he did not listen to whatever was being said and after the 'explanation' ended, he said. " I do not think so". I ran for my life as he was unstoppable, once he had started. Now he is disagreeing with people and trees and buses in Chandigarh but that fellow is in complete agreement with life.

I think 'stoning' and drinking habits have hit him in the head but even now I can see him disagreeing with people on FaceBook.

You Rock Man.
\m/

He can be found here and here

P.S: The purpose of this post is to tell you that such 'daring' people also exist who are not scared of any thing.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The Accident - II

Perspiring, I opened my eyes and tried to understand the whole scenario. The first thing that came to my mind after opening my eyes was, " Dude, You are fucked for life."

I tried to get up and succeeded in it and when I looked around, the whole picture was painted with red and green. Green because we were lying in the jungle and red because all the people were drowned in their own blood. The bus was lying next to me, upside down and I do not know how did I come out because my seat was totally crushed and demolished. Three local guys came to me and tried to get hold of me. I said to them," बाकी लोगों को ले जाओ, मैं खुद चला जाऊँगा"

Limping and holding the bushes and grass, I climbed on my own, uphill 200 feet. After climbing, I became unconscious and I knew I had done a mistake by refusing their help to take me up. The whole body was no more a body and it was a soul, light and weightless. I regained my consciousness in a bus carrying victims and by that time I knew which parts of my body were gone.

Leg in three parts, backbone in two and head in one. I somehow managed to bend my leg and then a fellow came and he saw me dying with pain he thought that I want to straighten my leg. He pressed and that moment onwards, it remained straight for the next 100 days. It took me exactly half an hour to bend that leg and the *naive* fellow did in one second. I laughed [tried to] and told him that Dude, you have unknowingly screwed me.

Unconscious, as I was, reached the hospital. There was havoc everywhere, I was lying outside in the rain, in the pain. Few people came and helped me and next thing I remember was that I was in a bed lying in the City Hospital. My father got to know and as he was coming to see me, his bus broke twice. My mother was not at home, I could not inform anyone and the *absolute randomness* was falling in place, guiding me at every single step. The doctors cooked my leg and after nine painful days, they dispatched me from the hospital. The sun rays looked beautiful and the sky was never that clear and bright. The moment I reached home, I decided that fuck the exams and Engineering I will work on increasing my weight.

For the first few days [2 days] I used pot to shit and piss [ answer the natural nature calls] but that looked horrible to me and I decided to drag the leg and do it on my own.

The Filmy Touch-I
I was given a medicine by the chemist and unfortunately, he could not read the prescription properly and gave a medicine that was meant for cardiac patients with severe blood pressure problems. I swallowed the first pill and was about to swallow another one when a relative+doctor called up. She was casually inquiring about the medicines and I was about to swallow the *second* pill. My sister started crying and snatched the tablet from my hand. She told me that the tablet could have stopped my heart from beating permanently as it had some serious aftermaths if taken without prescription. I survived one more time.
Fuck that Chemist.

The Filmy Touch-II
The leg was cast with POP for 45 days but my adventurous dragging and pulling made the whole process to be repeated and for another 45 days, I was on bed.
The most awaited and unwanted exam day came, I wrote the exam and scored an abysmal rank.

The Filmy Touch-III

And there I was, going to the place where I never wanted to go, again in my life.


So two days back, these questions entered into my mind:


Where is Free Will?
I wanted something else but I got something else? Who decided my destiny? And if someone is deciding my destiny then what is Free Will?

Not that I am unhappy now [ except my Satyam Days, I was never unhappy], but what if same thing happens again. What if I land in a job rather than owning my Personal Venture(s). I work 14 hours a day and sometimes more than that but Is there anything for me to do? Or is it PreDecided?


And according to my very dear friend " If I am not sure about the starting point [birth] and If I am not sure about the ending point [death], then where is Free Will and What is Free Will?

Monday, April 26, 2010

The Accident-I

As I sit here in front of my computer and I do not want to do anything, I decided to write about the 'turning moment' of my life.

28thJanuary 2004:

A bus fell into the ditch [200 feet] and 16 people died there and then, on the spot. I was one of them who survived. But that survival was very painful. I used to boast that my body does not have any mark of stitches or whatsoever and there I was lying among the dead with rain falling on my face and I was smiling, counting the marks on my hands. I [was] an intelligent [academically] fellow. I wanted to become an Aeronautics Engineer. I worked real hard to acheive my goal and I [knew] it was there, just few weeks away from me, right in front of me.

I was about to go for the Navy SSB and I was damn sure about it that I would return as a Navy Officer for sure. My mother asked me to come on 24th itself and I postponed the program to 28th. I wanted to stay in Hamirpur for some more time as I [knew] I would never return to this place again.

For me, my life at Hamirpur and for more than 18 years, I have lived here only. That day made me believe that the way Indian movies are picturized, they are actually very realistic, or at least for me they look real unless it is Fardeen Khan/Zayed Khan/Harman Baweja starer.

Here goes the story:

I left from the academy and decided to leave at 9 AM. But, I decided not to and as I was sure that was my last day in the hostel, so I decided to 'बांटो' some 'ज्ञान' in the hostel. Eventually the ज्ञान बांटो session ran for two hours and I decided to leave. I reached at the bus stand and boarded the first bus but as I was/am fond of the first seats, next to the driver, I got down from that bus and started searching for another bus. Soon, the ill fated bus came and I happily sat on the first seat next to the driver, which gave me immense happiness because I could talk to the driver and learn new गालियाँ from him. :)

The bus started and by the time I could finish my book, the bus more than half of the distance.

The driver was smoking बीडी and I asked him not to smoke because the road was dangerous but the drivers are drivers and they never listen to kids. He was driving with single hand and that made the situation even thrilling/dangerous. I slept, for the first time in my life on that route, considering that I had made more than 100 journeys on that route, and by the time I opened my eyes, the bus was flying in the air, I could not sense anything, as I was just feeling the numbness in my feet, stomach and head. I looked at the driver and he was nowhere to be seen, as he jumped out of the bus. I closed my eyes, smiled and then there was rain, blood and cries.

I opened my eyes because I felt a very bright light penetrating my vision and when I opened my eyes, my forehead was covered with sweat and palms too were sweaty. Probably, this is how यमराज decides to beat the shit out of human body.

I opened my eyes and felt rain on my face. I saw myself lying among the dead bodies, flies on my face and my body covered with blood and painful marks.


Part-II in progress.

Monday, April 19, 2010

And they saved our lives-Chamba Diary!

Traveling is fun but traveling with insufficient preparations is dangerous.

We left from Chamba to Hamirpur after enjoying the scenic beauty at Khajjiyar Lake.

Its disheartening to see people throwing plastic and water bottles not in the trash cans but just outside them, even when the trash can is empty. May be they are too busy to notice that.

Anyways, after feling mesmerized by the giant शिव मूर्ती at Khajjiar [image], we decided to leave. This time we decided to take the Dalhousie Route as it was raining and the road condition was not good through the Jot Pass. Jot Pass is good when you are traveling in a group, if you are alone then it is not advisable to go through Jot Pass, as no one will get to know if you happen to encounter any accident, which has very high probability. We went to Chamba through Jot Pass, but the adventurous spirit sped away when it started raining. It was raining and as soon as we left Khajjiyar, things became difficult. I was wearing sports sandals and the rain water was so cold that it did beat the shit out of me. We traveled for ten kilometers and my back was numb. JP had his fingers glued to the handle because it was very cold and we did not have any sweaters, gloves or jackets with us.

Then we saw them, the PWD Laborers, smoking बीडी and enjoying charcoal fire. They were sitting there and we saw them as our saviors. We helped ourselves by heating the 'crucial parts' of our body and also dried our T-shirts and shirts. The place was लक्कड़-मण्डी, which happens to be the highest point [2250 meters] in and around the Chamba town and Dalhousie town. Their bonfire helped us to save ourselves from the chilling rain and windy conditions of Dalhousie.

I noticed in Chamba, that almost every single village/house in the hills has electricity. Abdul Kalam once said that Himachal is blessed and a privileged state because those twinkling stars are actually bulbs lighted inside the small houses on the mountains. Honestly, I felt proud to be a part of this beautiful state because people do not have to worry about the electricity, which is not the same story at a place in Bihar, 200 KM's away from Patna.

It takes just 4-5 hours, if you drive like me, otherwise it is 6-8 hours journey from Hamirpur to Chamba

The travel route >>> Hamirpur---Jawalaji---Kangra---Dramman--Chuwari--Jot--Chamba

The safe route>>> delete the Dramman to Chamba part and add Dramman--Nurpur--Dalhousie--Chamba.

Moral of the story:
1. Wear Shoes while stepping out for a long journey
2. Carry jackets/woolen clothes
3. Do not take the Jot Pass route if you are alone.

Friday, April 16, 2010

The Dharamshala Stadium

Two weeks back, I and JP decided to go to Dharamshala on one of our random journeys. The Dharmashala Stadium is where two matches of IPL will be held. The stadium was still under construction. The left portion of the stadium, if you enter from the main gate, was under construction. It reminded me of Delhi's preparation of the Commonwealth Games :P

Himachal also belongs to India, i felt suddenly :D



The left side is completely nude and they are working on dressing it up.


The HPCA Pavillion, Dharamshala


If you join the top of the Red Building with the top of the flood light and then extrapolate its bisector towards the Dhauladhar Range, the point where it meets the hilly terrain was my colony in my 9th and 10th class :)



The place is cool and somewhat like New Zealand Grounds . However this ground has a capacity of 400 runs in a single innings.

I was about to go to see the match but ICICI dumped me for the first time and now we are going to Chamba. Just another of our random trip \m/

You can read more Chamba stories at this site. Trekking and Riding in the Chamba Himalayas. 

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

MDC

झांसी is a major railway junction in the state of U.P. When one leaves Bhopal towards Delhi in a train, one sees a statue of a man standing on the top of a hill on the left hand side. The hill and the statue troubled me every time I crossed that area, sitting on the doors of the train. I always thought it to be the statue of a landlord or a local leader. however, I got to to know recently (few months back) that that statue belongs to the Hockey legend, Major Dhyan Chand, who beat the shit out of many Hockey playing nations on his own, without failing in the Main Events like Olympics.



The Gold Medalist



However, he stands alone on the top of that hill with birds singing to him his glory of the old forgotten days. The statue is built on the top of the hill in his hometown where he might have rocked his village with his masterclass and he remains there only, even today.

P.S: What Sachin Tendulkar has become today was once his status in his days. Nothing lasts Forever.


Whenever you cross that region, just remember him, may be he will feel good in this over hyped country.