Time to leave..

It's time to leave
This ain't a summer-break..
I am an engineer now,
an IIT Madras make..

No more profs,
no more classes,
No morelit-soc,
or scroeter clashes...

Nobody will be a macha
Nor will anyone be maroing pain
Arbit stuff shall now have order,
but I won't be known by my nickname...

Will be online always,
there wont be an internet ban...
but won't watch any sitcoms,
u see, there's no LAN...

No longer a cycle, bus,
or a long distance walk...
No KG, Tarams or Vels
no more a tea in the haze of smoke...

It's time to leave,
and time to say adieu,
it's sad, but thank God,
We'll have better girls to woo...

Viva

So... I am an engineer now.. well.. hopefully... gotta wait till tomorrow to know for sure...
I submitted my thesis and went through the viva which went surprisingly well... I intended to reminisce about my days here but now i figure i have already done that in my blog.. So what do i write about???

I pulled off a real fast one... perhaps the fastest one this year... less said, the better..
My thesis/report??? full of typos and other mistakes.. if i remember correctly, even the values dont match up and the code has a mistake too...

My room seems to be burying under dirt and dust for the last one month and my resolve to hasten the process only gets harder as final goodbye approaches...

I'm hooked to hitman these days..lets see how long it lasts...

Next mission... job hunt...

and oh... i also need to write the concluding part of this poem. hang on people, it will come and i can assure u its not worth the wait.. as if anything ever is...

Its time now i guess... time to grow up and start talking bout serious stuff when u dont have time to discuss the little intricacies of life... where u will be too busy to wonder why should a cricket team not have a kung fu fighter as the 12th man and make him field often. A school of thought says that they would raise the bar higher. This comes from a man who is himself an expert at kung fu movies and has spent majority of his time here downloading them and for me, his views on the subject are final...

Anyway.. its time to hit a general...
so long.. n thanks for all that was fishy...

Acknowledgement

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who helped me to complete this project successfully. Firstly, I want to thank my guide Dr. R.S. Verma for trusting me with this project. It is his unique approach of guidance that helped me in finishing this work successfully. At every stage in the project, he was always there to help and guide me through it.

I would like to extend my gratitude towards our HOD, Dr. K.B. Ramachandran for his flexible and understanding approach towards the students. I am grateful to the entire faculty of the department and otherwise, under whom I had the privilege to study and learn during the past 4 years.

At this moment I would like to thank the 'BT Gumbal', Achal, Deepak, Ujwal and the rest who helped me with my academics and were always willing for a round of tea at the most unlikely hours, an experience I am unlikely to forget.

A note of thanks is also warranted for Satyan, Sajal and many more friends, seniors and juniors in my hostel who stood by me through thick and thin for 4 years, and supported me immensely through the course of this project. I would also remember the fun times and the meals at nocturnal hours with Pratik, Anshul, Saurabh and Ravi while I worked on the project.

I am also obliged to Piyush, Kanishk, Shivangi, Rachit, Suhani, Swapnil and Himanshu for being my support outside these walls and keeping me calm and compose during difficult times.

I am deeply indebted to my family for being patient with me, for their unflinching faith and encouragement during the hard times and their support during the good ones.

Last but not the least, I pray to the Almighty to be as forgiving and caring for me as it has been for all these years.

ASHUTOSH BIHANI
BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
IIT MADRAS
CHENNAI

and now a joke that was cracked a long time back:

Someone: We had a surprise quiz today

Me: how was it?

Someone: well, it surprised me...

A letter to Nandita

Dear Nandita,

Let me begin by saying that I have been a fan of your work ever since I watched 1947 Earth. Your performance was stunning and has been so in all the movies you have acted in. You bring a certain 'believability' to your character and they are amazingly easy to relate to.

Your direction brought out the same in each frame and riding on the formidable cast, every scene seemed,oh so real. The thing that actually disturbs me was the subject and its treatment.

What happened was horrible and there's no denying that. But it also seems to be a safe bet for debut, given your CV. Who wouldn't expect you to make a sensitive movie about the wrongs of our society. But should it really have been the topic? It happened long back and honestly,insensitive as it might sound, I don't want to be reminded of that.

I had hoped that you would deliver a certain 'other perspective'. But there was none. It was just about the cruelty on the Muslims and the way they coped with them.
I do agree that the portrayal is startling. Specially the scene where a nonchalant Paresh Rawal asked his brother if he enjoyed raping women and they both chuckle. Also the last scene where a 'aam hindu' just kills an unsuspecting man running away from the police by dropping a huge slab on him.

All through this, some questions beg to be asked. Why is Sanjay Suri's friend so insensitive? Why is Nasser ignorant of the happenings while his man friday is continuously bickering and nagging? Above all, how did you forget to even make a fleeting reference to Mr. Modi and the Bhagva Brigade who we all hold responsible?

I think I have all the answers. What was shown completes the movie, arousing exactly the reactions from viewers you intended to. And if you had openly stated anyone as the culprit, the movie would have been in for a controversy which you surely did not want. You also might have lost revenues since the movie wouldn't be played in any part of Gujrat then.

To me it was a movie made only to draw tears and anguish and in that sense, I interpret it as a 'thinking man's K-serial. I so wish it were better than this. I so wish it had shown some stories which also had good people and was more than a depressing movie about the plight of a certain community. If you really were making a movie about real events, then why not one on the Mumbai blasts or 9/11 or the way muslims suffer due to a handful of Jehadis? Why did you not portray any character which could remind of us Oscar Schindler, which could give us hope?

But you played your cards well. No critic even dare pan a movie which has you in the director's seat and when the cast includes Paresh Rawal, Naseer, Deepti Naval and even Lillette Dubey because these are the people who have been keeping cinema in touch with reality for decades now. To me it was a great piece of work but mediocre by your standards.

yours sincerely,
Ashutosh Bihani

Update: she replied... although it was only 2 statements n said something like u r free to have ur views...

Railway station

Today i realised that I am most relaxed and perhaps happiest at a railway station.. Lost in a sea of people, everyone judging you by your clothes, luggage, looks, accent n ticket but you don't care.. Through The uncertainty of getting on the wrong train or missing one, i am always sure of reaching my destination, sometimes in general compartment, sometimes talking it through with the tte n at a few other times letting money do the talking. The latter has been rare as initially i was careful to get a ticket and lately i just dont bother to carry enough.. I have never been a chatty guy so the journey in itself gives me time to ponder, to let my thoughts run with the only interruption being the frequent cups of tea.. Amazing experience this, on a train, without a ticket and less than sufficient cash.. What's more, i neither have my uncle's address nor my atm card.. My dad will frown if he comes to know.. Good luck to me..

Written on my way to Nagpur...

The Democracy that India is

As the assembly elections commence, I think about the past rulers of India and the vibrant democracy that India is.

It was centuries ago that the idea of a united India originated. Going by Hindu mythology, it was perhaps Ram who spread his rule over India with his Ashvamedh Yagya. That wasn’t so much of an empire as the respective kings only had to accept his supremacy but were free to rule their own kingdoms, but he was the only one to have had influence over the Deccan which would be left out until the British arrived.

The Mahabharat has references to almost all of India barring the South, where it only extends up to the Vindhyas. Although it was called Aryvarta but had a lot of independent and powerful kings. Then came the age of documented history where north India was united quite a few times under the Mauryas, Guptas and Asoka.

It was just before the Mauryan era that the Alexander dreamt to conquer the world and almost succeeded, leaving out only India. At this time a new ideology was coming to stage, propagated by a visionary called Chanakya, mentor to the great Chandragupta. It was this idea that has now become the hallmark of a free society. It is this idea that makes India different from its neighbours. It is this idea that has kept us safe from dictatorship. We call it democracy. Thank God that Chanakya happened.

After years of stagnation, we developed another quality; to revel in the past. I’m no expert but I believe it was during the period just before the Muslim attacks when it happened. The society was rotting, the caste system became oppressive and we were lagging behind the world on all the fronts. May be it was then that we started marveling our past because our present was grim and future looked bleak and the only way to feel good was to look at the sun that had risen long back.

The Muslims came with the sole purpose of looting our wealth and taking it back to their native lands. After a few such invaders, history made an exception and did not repeat itself as the Mughals arrived and decided to stay. Akbar ruled and knitted together an empire from an artwork that had been torn to pieces over the centuries. It was under Aurangzeb that the boundaries of Hindustan came closest to modern day India. He even tried to conquer the Deccan, spending the last 20 year of his life there but it proved to be a wild goose chase.

Then came the British who actually made the present day boundaries but eventually left splitting it up in two. They also reintroduced us to democracy, an idea that had been lost in the sands of time.

Since they left, we have always chosen our leaders, unlike most of our neighbours. It is perhaps this mindset that has kept us in a better state than the rest. Two years back an sms was doing the rounds stating that in a Hindu dominated nation, we have a Muslim president, a Sikh prime minister and the leader of the ruling coalition was born a Christian, a foreign one at that.

I just love the vibrant and sometimes foolish Indian democracy where we can’t seem to generate a consensus anymore and sometimes 3 MPs are enough to get you a Cabinet berth through a post-poll deal but it’s still better than having Taliban a mere 100 kms away from our capital. For that, I salute Chanakya as I believe that he seeded the concept of democracy in our culture and conscience.

Aarambh

aarambh hai prachand
bole mastakon ke jhund
aaj jang ki ghadi ki tum guhaar do
aan baan shaan ya ki jaan ka ho daan
aaj ik dhanush ke baan pe utaar do

aarambh hai prachand
bole mastakon ke jhund
aaj jang ki ghadi ki tum guhaar do
aan baan shaan yaa ki jaan kaa ho daan
aaj ik dhanush ke baan pe utaar do
aarambh hai prachand

man kare so praan de
jo man kare so praan le
wahi to ek sarvshaktimaan hai
man kare so praan de
jo man kare so praan le
wahi to ek sarvashaktimaan hai

krishna ki pukaar hai
ye bhagwat ka saar hai
ki yudh hi to veer ka pramaan hai
kaurvon ki bheed ho ya
paandavon ka need ho
jo lad saka hai wohi to mahaan hai

jeet ki hawas nahi
kisi pe koi vash nahi
kya zindagi hai thokaron pe maar do
maut ant hai nahi
to maut se bhi kyun dare
ye jaake aasmaan mein dahaad do

aarambh hai prachand
bole mastakon ke jhund
aaj jang ki ghadi ki tum guhaar do
aan baan shaan ya ki jaan ka ho daan
aaj ik dhanush ke baan pe utaar do
aarambh hai prachand

ho daya ka bhaav
ya ki shaurya ka chunav
ya ki haar ka wo ghaav
tum ye soch lo
ho daya ka bhaav
ya ki shaurya ka chunav
ya ki haar ka wo ghaav
tum ye soch lo

ya ki poore bhaal par
jala rahe vijay ka
laal laal ye gulaal
tum ye soch lo

rang kesari ho ya
mridang kesari ho ya
ki kesari ho taal
tum ye soch lo

jis kavi ki kalpana mein
zindagi ho prem geet
us kavi ko aaj tum nakaar do
bheegati nason mein aaj
phoolati ragon mein aaj
aag ki lapat ka tum baghaar do

aarambh hai prachand


Best lyrics in a long time. Wish it were a poem in school books.