C'est La Vie

Songs and Memories

2009-04-19T19:49:00.000-07:00

I am a complete music freak. You will always see me either listening to some song or humming one. And, hence it is not at all surprising that a lot of my memories have got associated with some song or the other. There are quite a few songs that remind me of those good old days...some memories very old while some pretty fresh. Here are some that I can remember now:

The entire DDLJ album - I still vividly remember this time. DDLJ had just released and our summer vacation had started. I was in 8th standard and we just had got a new walkman. Every evening, I used to take my bicycle and go for a ride listening to the DDLJ songs :-)

Pop songs by Madonna, JLo, Britney, Backstreet boys, etc - This was the time when my SSC exams had just finished and we had got a new cable connection. I used to spend the whole day watching MTV and Channel V and songs by these pop stars were quite popular during that time. How much my dad used to shout at me and my sis. He always wanted to watch news and we would start our day by switching to some music channel :-P. I guess this was the only time in my life that I was actually eager to listen to English songs. After that, it's just been Bollywood and Indipop.

Chaiiyya chaiiya (Dil Se) - Dil Se songs were released tentatively around the time when I started junior college in Fergusson. I took an instant liking to this song and it reminds me of my first few days in Fergusson.

Dil Chahta Hai songs - Dil Chahta Hai released when I was in my second year of engineering. The first time I heard it's songs was when I actually saw the movie and what a movie outing it was! We were to go to the City Pride near PICT (which during that time was the best theater in Pune) and quite a few people got lost before reaching the theater. When we were entering the theater, "Chameli" (mind you, this is the guy's nickname), as he always used to do, decided that he has to reveal the "suspense" of the movie and said "अरे तुम लोगो को पता है क्या, end में तीनो heroes को AIDS हो जाता है" and then gave his wicked laughter "he hahahahahahahaha". Everyone went in cursing him and came out ridiculing him :-D
Jeene ke ishare (Phir Milenge)/Dhoom Machale(Dhoom) - This was the time when I had just joined Persistent and my seat wasn't in a cublicle but was "highway seat". These songs take me back to the first few carefree days of my first job ever :-)

Swades songs - Swades songs were released during the Diwali of 2004. This was the time when I had moved to a proper full time project (IBM-ETL) and had started working on my first live assignment ever (Replication Operator). I was loving every bit of it and yes, I also got rid of my "highway seat" and got myself moved to a nice corner sear in a cubicle :-)

Bheege hoth tere (Murder)/Aashiq banaya aapne (Aashiq Banaya Aapne) - A bubbly girl, full of life, singing these songs loudly in her cubicle...this is the sight that comes to my mind when I listen to these songs. The "soulful" renditions of these songs by my dear friend had moved (read shaken) a lot of people on our floor. :-D

Jhalak Dikhala Ja (Aksar) - When the songs of Aksar were released, "Jhalak dikhala ja" had become quite a rage at dance parties. This song particularly reminds me of all the rocking dance parties I had with my team.

Salaam-E-Ishq/Omkara songs - I had just come to US and had started my first semester. These songs take me back to the time when I, for the first time in my life, had started living independently and also learnt to cook :-)

Tere bina/Ay Hairate (Guru) - I used to play these songs pretty loudly in my lab. Reminds me of the most hectic time of my Masters.

Resolution check....

2009-04-12T20:04:00.000-07:00

I had made some resolutions at the start of the year, so let's see how I am doing with them :-).

Go to the gym regularly, bulk up a bit and get a flat tummy (I bet this must be the most popular resolution amongst the guys :-D) : Well, I am not doing that great on this one but still am on track. I do go to the gym at least 2-3 times a week. Will have to make it at least 4-5 to achieve the desired results. One important thing that I believe I have achieved is control on my diet :-).

Learn some Latin dance: I haven't even started on this one, but planning to do it this summer.

Reduce television (i.e. online movies and US serials) and start reading more: I still follow quite a few US serials, but have almost stopped watching movies, except for the occasional movie in the theater. I have also started reading actively. Finally, finished the Bourne series......Shantaram and The Kite Runner are in the pipeline.

Learn a new technology, not related to work, every 2-3 months: Well, I haven't got a start on this one, but I have been learning a lot of new stuff related to work.

Start blogging again: :-)

Some gems from Calvin :-)

2007-11-29T19:25:00.000-08:00

Reality continues to ruin my life.

I understand my tests are popular reading in the teachers' lounge.

Life's disappointments are harder to take when you don't know any swear words.

That's the difference between me and the rest of the world! Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!

In my opinion, we don't devote nearly enough scientific research to finding a cure for jerks.

Its no use! Everybody gets good enemies except me.

What's the point of wearing your favorite rocketship underpants if nobody ever asks to see 'em?

This one's tricky. You have to use imaginary numbers, like eleventeen ...

I go to school, but I never learn what I want to know.

Moods of NYC

2007-07-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Abhijit for the awesome snaps!!

Photo Sessions!!!!

2007-06-29T21:04:00.000-07:00

Photographs leave behind some great memories…..memories that last forever…..memories that bring a smile to your face……memories that take you right back to the exact moment. They help you relive those amazing and exciting moments you have had in your life any number of times and that is why I am such a photo crazy person .

When my brother gave me a camera around two years back, I decided to make maximum utilization of it and thanks to some photo fanatic friends that I had in Persistent, I have a huge collection of photos now. In the span of one year, we managed to produce 4 gigs of photos. We hardly needed an occasion to start a photo session. Such was our affinity to photos that someone from the team just had to suggest and everyone would be on their feet. And of course, there were fights too as to who would take the snap, everyone wanting to be a part of the photograph .

My friends who were a bit photo shy initially became champion posers after a few photo sessions . We had become so obsessed with photos that the day our project got over we had an exclusive photo session that lasted for more than an hour. Mannnnn…..How I miss those awesome days. Here is a tribute to all my photo crazy friends from Persistent…Enjoy!!!

MESCOE-PADES – 1

2007-06-18T17:11:00.000-07:00

My engineering days were full of hilarious incidences and so I thought of starting this mescoe-pades series . For those who are not aware, MESCOE was the acronym used for my engineering college . So here is the first:

This one took place in the first semester of my final year during the Computer Networks lecture taught by Tiger (thats the nickname that we had given to our "professor"). My friends and I had occupied the last few benches. As usual, Tiger was drawing or writing something on the board. Suddenly, just for fun, one of my friends started clapping loudly anticipating that other would join him too. But no one did.....

Tiger, obviously with her sharp instincts, located the area of the class from which the clapping sound came from. So she walked towards us and then stopped near my bench. "Kay Rakesh, talya koni vajavlya?" (Rakesh, who had clapped?), Tiger asked me. I said, "Mahit nahi Ma'am, me tar diagram kadhat hoto" (I don't know Ma'am, I was drawing the diagram). Tiger said, "Sang mala nahitar me tulach pakden!!!!" (Tell me otherwise I'll hold you responsible). I, very sincerely replied, "Seriously Ma'am, mala nahi mahit." (Seriously Ma'am, I don't know a thing).

Don't know what happened to Tiger after that, she went to the end of the class and burst out into laughter. Then coming back to our group, she asked Hero (Kartik) "Koni vajavlya talya Kartik?" and this is what Hero replied, "Kahi sangta nahi yet Madam, bahutek vartun ala aawaz" (Can't say Madam, I guess it came from the top) . The whole class burst out into laughter. Tiger finally gave up and went back to the board to continue the lecture.

Scavenger Hunt in Manhattan!!

2007-06-17T08:37:00.000-07:00

As a part of my internship, I am required to participate in various events organized for all the interns. Leaving aside the serious events, some of the fun events include going for a Yankees game, bowling, watching a Broadway show, trip to an adventure park, etc. etc. . The scavenger hunt in Manhattan was one such event.

In this hunt, all the interns were divided into 10 groups, each group consisting of 4-6 members and each group had to find and solve clues and at the same time also take pictures of team members in different situations that were given to us. Some situations were really funny like "Doing something funny to a stranger", "Performing with a street performer", "The entire team looking lost", "Cooking in the kitchen of some restaurant", "Wearing the clothes of a mannequin" and many more. Then, we had to name our team and one rule of the scavenger hunt was that all the team members had to always be together throughout the hunt.

So our team, "The Manhattan Hunters", started our hunt trying to figure out the first clue. For this, we were given a locked baton that contained a paper chit. To unlock the lock to this baton, we had to go to Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan and find the date of birth of a statue that would contain the number combination of this lock. Of course, this information was also provided in the form of a puzzle. So, taking a few snaps on the way, we headed to Bryant Park. There were some 2-3 statues in the park. But, we quickly managed to find the correct one and finally unlocked the baton. The chit inside said that we had to build a sculpture out of junk stuff that we could pick from anywhere, such that the sculpture reflected the mission of our company and as a proof that we built it we had to take a lot of pictures of the sculpture. Since we were running out of time, we made some random sculpture and then made our way to the Grand Central where one of the members of the organizing committee was waiting for us with the next clue.

It was so difficult to find this fellow from the crowd at Grand Central, but we tracked him down and took the clue sheet from him. This task required us to find answers (all numbers) to 3 questions related to the Grand Central and then sum up the answers to get the extension to which we were supposed to call to get the next clue. The clock was ticking and so we decided that rather than roaming around the Grand Central looking for answers, might as well ask the helpdesk. As they say "All is fair in love and war". He he he!! So with the help of the helpdesk we found out the required answers, calculated the extension and called it to get the next clue. This time too we were routed to the same person to collect the next sheet.

The next sheet also had a format similar to the previous one. 3 questions related to the dates of objects located between the 42nd and 47th street. It was already 5.15 pm, just 45 minutes left for the hunt to end and we had no clue as to how many more clues were left. But, as in day to day work, Google came to the rescue here too :-D. One of my team members and I started calling our friends for the answers. After calling a few friends, I managed to reach Kartik who had access to the internet at that time. My other team member had already found one answer and Kartik managed to find one more. So we were left with one more answer to calculate the extension. We quickly rushed to the place where the object was, found the date and calculated the extension.

This time we were told to go to a close by toy store and look out for another member who would give us the next clue. By the time we found this girl it was already 5.45 pm and we had 4 blocks to walk to reach our destination. So we quickly took the next sheet from the girl. This time we were supposed to take photos of our team with some toys from the shop that reflected universal appeal, diversity, excellent marketing, etc. We managed to take some snaps here and then rushed out towards our destination. Thankfully, this was our last clue and we had completed the hunt . We finally reached our destination with a minute to spare, submitted all our sheets and camera and heaved a sigh of relief. All 10 teams had made it in time.

So while our scores were being calculated, a slideshow of all the photos taken by all the teams was shown to us. Some photos were absolutely hilarious!! Finally it was time for results. Though we had managed to complete the hunt, we had not taken sufficient photos for which too there were some points. And, so, our team didn't even expect to be in the top 5. But it looked like there were some teams who had not even completed scavenger hunt. In fact, there was this one team that thought that after solving the first 2 clues the hunt was over and they were happily sitting in McDonalds . So coming back to the results, we come 4th. Overall, it was a great experience wherein I got to do a few crazy things that I normally wouldn't do like dancing with a street performer at Grand Central and that too in formal clothes . It was one mad afternoon!!!! Looking forward to the next event that is going to be the Broadway show .

Shadows of the past........

2007-06-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

Don't know why, but I have somehow always lived in the past. Maybe because I take a long time to adjust to a new environment and by the time I have adjusted to it, the time comes to move on to the next phase of life.

When I passed out from my school, where I spent 10 fabulous years, going to junior college was like jumping from a sea into an ocean. How I wished that my school had a junior college so that I could have continued there not having to leave my friends and teachers (who also became friends by the time I left school). But I had to move on.... By the time I made some very good friends here it was time again to say good bye and move ahead.

Engineering was like an extension to school and junior college where I had friends from both the previous phases of my life. This was an enjoyable phase of my life where I met all kinds of people and made some great friends. Of course, having some entertaining teachers helped in making this phase enjoyable .

Then came my first job. This has probably been the best phase of my life till now. Never ever in my wildest dreams had I thought that working would be so much fun. Here, I met some of the best people and had a great team to work with. Every day was a fun day in office. Of course, there were days of struggle and hard work too, but even that was fun. I sometimes wonder why I gave up all this and came to US for my Masters.

My journey in the US has been full of struggles. My life for the past one year has just been assignments, exams and LAB!!! But as I look back at it now, it has been a very good learning experience. Nah... not in terms of studies , but the different aspects of life.

Someone has very rightly said, "There is nothing permanent except change" and I believe this change is what makes you appreciate your past as it either gives you treasurable memories or valuable lessons.