Memoirs of Independence Day

It just struck me that I should be writing about this topic in the blog coz there are many things I want to share about this great day-Independence Day. I became a little nostalgic for a while thinking about the golden days of our school life. As children, this day was very big for us.

Flashback (10 years ago on this day)-

At six in the morning, my mom begins her Suprabhata- “Get up girls, you need to go to the school early today to witness the flag hosting programme.” Throwing tantrums, I and my sis struggle to open our eyes and somehow manage to wake up. We lazily get ready in our white and white uniforms, glowing white shoes (we had a P.T. Sir and a Maths Sir doing investigation on the brightness of our shoes, failing which we were prone to punishment!!!! So a day before the Independence day and Sports day, it was our duty to apply white make up on to the canvas shoes…) and a flag pinned up on our uniforms to express the patriotism towards our Mother Nation. So we happily go to the school minus the heavy luggage (our school bags and classes suspended for the day) and stand in the scorching hot sun for the assembly. The day begins with the school prayer followed by the pledge taken with due respect (which is a daily business in the school, but I would like to quote the pledge coz somewhere in our busy lives, we would have forgotten it!!!!!)

“India is my country. All Indians are my brothers and sisters. I love my country and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage. I shall always strive to be worthy of it. I shall give respect to my parents, teachers, classmates and all elders and treat everyone with courtesy. To my country and my people, I pledge my devotion. In their well being and prosperity alone lies my happiness. Jai Hind!!!!”

Then our music teacher would begin his countdown-1 2 3 4-the choir of the school (who would rehearse for days together after the school hours) would begin singing- “Saare jahan se accha, Hindustan hamara….”and the whole school would sing in sync with a feeling of pride. This was followed by the flag hoisting ceremony performed by the Princi of the school. The whole school would salute the flag and pay a tribute to all those martyrs who at the cost of their lives put all their efforts to make India an independent country. The day would end with the National Anthem…”Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka Jaya Hai, Bharatha Bhagya Vidhata….” and the school would disperse. As part of the Independence Day celebrations, the students were treated with sweets and chips [which was “amrutha” (SK's punch word) to us coz we would be starving to death after standing in the hot sun!!!! :-)] We would come back home and watch the live telecast of Independence Day parade on Doordarshan. The same day, the Doordarshan channel would also air a patriotic movie which we would enjoy with all enthusiasm.

As part of Independence Day celebrations, the following Saturday was reserved for patriotic song competition during the Co-Curricular Activities (CCA) period. The school was divided into various houses- Ashoka, Sarojini, Shivaji and Tagore. There were a handful of people selected for the competition by the House leaders who would sing their throats out after series of rehearsal sessions!!!!!! As there was a system where in points were allotted to the winning teams and the runners up, the respective House leaders would try to inculcate the spirit of competition among their House members so as to win the competition!!!!! So on the D-day, the students would sing with devotion and patriotism in the presence of the Judges and the best team was declared as the winner.

The present scenario-

Friends, where are those beautiful days gone? Do we ever make any effort to celebrate this golden day marked in the Indian history. I am just lost in the mesmerizing thoughts of school days. Ah!!!! Those days Republic Day and Independence Day celebrations meant a lot to us. Now we don’t even make an effort to witness any flag hoisting session occurring in the vicinity or our workplaces. The present youth would rather dedicate this day for an outing/a get together (remember our get together party on 15.8.2008-the year we all graduated :-) !!!!!) or prefer to watch a nonsense movie with friends. The labour class would be happily boozing in the nearest bars till they lost all their senses- this is what freedom means to them!!!!… I can go on and on with many instances…On this day, I would like to dedicate a few moments for Mother India through this blog… Let's take an oath to protect our Nation and be responsible citizens.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY TO ALL!!!!!

(Ammu, I just flagged off the writing session. Hope I keep up your dreams of contributing to this blog in the coming days…:-) I will make a serious effort and will jot down whenever possible…)

VALENTINE’S DAY

This is about the two memorable valentine’s day and the irony is that there isn’t any romance involved. It is one of those flashback memories that I wish to write.The year is 2007 and the date is Feb 14, I am riding my dio, and I take a turn at the bunt’s hostel junction when a two wheeler from the other end bangs onto my dio and I fall down and the scooter falls right on my left hand (since the vehicle had hit me from the right side, so according to Newton’s third law I had to fall on the left side!!). I wish to pause right now and put forth the words rightly said by the Adopted son which is “When a girl meets with an accident many people rush to the spot, four of them lift the vehicle(he meant two wheeler) and another four lift and manage to massage the girl but when a guy meets with an accident four of them rush to the spot and curse him, even though he might be bleeding, no one helps him, he has to go to garage to get his bike repaired and then go to the hospital to repair his body” so now back to the story, so as usual some of them rush to the spot and lift the vehicle which had some damage and some lift me but I don’t allow the massage part! I still am in shock as I am considered a good rider and haven’t had any accidents before, the guy on the other end didn’t get hurt nor his girlfriend/sister/wife ( I don’t know who she was) was hurt, so many people gather, shout and create scene but since I was getting late for college I said it was ok and started riding again, though I thought I wasn’t hurt, I had bruises on my hands and legs and also couldn’t move two of my fingers on my left hand. Once I reach college my good pals sense something is wrong and ask me to go to the nearby clinic immediately. The thing with friends is, they never listen and are very persistent so I am accompanied by two of my pals Appu and Dillu and after an appointment, the nurse gives me TT shots and bandages my wound and the doctor asks me to take an X-ray of my hand which is very funny because I have to keep my finger raised in certain gesture which in the X-ray is shown as a bony finger saying f…k off! And finally I am diagnosed with ligament tear and have to wear a crape bandage for 3 weeks for the muscle to heal. Another thing about friends is, they always find humour in any situation. So I have my gal pals asking me if the guy was cute, SK says “Ammu, Keep the bandage on your finger till your MSc ends who knows, you might get the handicap quota for PhD”!!!Feb 14, 2008: It was a break from the tiring projects and heavy doses of theory classes. The sport’s day of the college and we had before hand decided that the uniform will be red shirt and dark blue denim. Though we wanted cute skirts the guys refused to wear them!! The event was marching and it was a combined event so the entire MSc both first and second years had to take part. So despite differences we decided to make the event a success and it was, as we bagged the first place later on. Now the incident is memorable because it was during that time, wearing red and walking on road with any guy was considered a sin! (It was the anti-valentine committee, which later on in 2009 had become a big issue of the pink chaddi andolan!) Secondly we enjoyed a lot because of a cricket match between seniors and juniors (seniors won) and also the traditional relay which we have the record of always landing last which our juniors truly followed! The millions of photos clicked and the fun of playing and cheering pals despite of their very poor performance in so many sport events which is missed after the collage days come to an end :-(

ONCE UPON A TIME…

Reading the title do not assume that I am going to write about any fairy tale in this blog, its about some incidents in life which are meaningful and yet so unbelievable, let me put in this way last week was a very dramatic one for many reasons:

Incident 1: I had come home for vacations, as a custom which I follow, I stay at my granny’s, meet my pals and talk philosophical things about life, so one such meeting was held in Hao Ming(one of our regular adda) and my usual members of gang had a get together, Prajju joined us too, so we finish our food and then we decide to have ice cream at one of our other favourite joint Cherry Square. When we meet we talk a lot, firstly about our jobs, classmates finally ends up in philosophical thoughts and when Prajju spoke these words ,made me realise though how simple the words he spoke, it was pretty powerful stuff which made so much sense, he said “When we were kids we didn’t have to worry about anything , I am in second standard they automatically promote me to third standard, it was like life is a bus and we were traveller’s who knew what their destination was, after I finish my MSc I don’t know what to do, there is so much of confusion, it felt as if I am now the driver of the bus and have to lead it to some destination which may or may not be right”! All of us nodded our head in agreement and I said “Don these words are definitely going on my blog”

Incident 2: Four years ago, in Granny’s house, it was the Fifa world cup of 2006 and me and my cousin Nit sat there cheering for some match and I said “I wonder where all of us will be when the next world cup will be held!” Last week, one of the late night matches of Fifa cup 2010, I am sitting next on a sofa to Nit and cheering Netherlands for an awesome goal, when both of us went into flashback and laughed. Sometimes I just feel so glad the way things turn out, I never imagine I will be there at the same time cheering of course for different team!

Shakespeare rightly said ‘life is a drama!’

GOD’S OWN CAPITAL

The time is 6:20 pm, Vic and I wait at the platform for Mavelli express and then I see it arriving, my friends waving cheerfully and I say casual bye to Vic and hop on to the train and sit amongst my friends, what follows next is the usual chit-chat lasting very long. (I love to talk till my jaws start paining) and meeting my MSc pals brings back all good memories. Train journey always fascinates me because of the good conversion, packed food, lush greenery outside and the track sound. I believe it shows how diverse India is!
The objective of this all girls trip was a conference in Trivandrum (God’s own Capital). So as the train swung in its regular rhythm and we are engrossed in some conversation, Dillu gets a call on her phone. It’s Mr. R, the organizing secretary of the conference and they talk in Malayalam and after the conversation comes to an end, Appu and I keep staring at her and she gives us this ‘whatever you gals are thinking is not true’ look. So the conversation goes on like this:“So Dillu, why is it that he responds only to your call and not to our mails???” asks Appu .Dillu replies with her usual nakras that there is nothing going on. Though both of us knew she wasn’t lying, we weren’t going to give up that easily! So I kept the conversation flowing that if there is something cooking between both of you then I will be the proud aunt to Dillu’s imaginary kids Rathna and Dillesh! Appu goes one step further and hums the tune Rathu…rathu…rathu…aaja..aaja..aaja!!!
This amount teasing is directly proportionate to Dillu’s anger, so we didn’t continue longer. The train arrives at the capital city and we walk with all our bags as Sharukh in main hoon na. The hotel is nearby so we walk and after waiting 20 mins in the lobby they give us rooms, though we already had a reservation. Strike 1,We reach our rooms freshen up and decide to have the ultimate Kerala delicacy Puttu and Kadala curry with awesome Kerala Tea. So we decide to have breakfast at the hotel where we stayed and to our surprise they didn’t have the basic Kerala food!! It’s like you come to M’lore and can’t find neeru dosa! Strike 2.The rest of the day is spent visiting the beautiful Anantha PadmanabaSwamy Temple, the lovely art gallery, museum and zoo. The food wasn’t up to the mark in any of the places we dined!
Day 2 was spend in the conference where we first encountered Mr R for the first time and Dillu and He made the ‘Perfect couple’ .Though I had my presentation that day, I was busy mentally preparing a romantic duet choreography, with these two running behind trees and since it was a hotel conference hall running behind pillars. The song was “Oh little flower…” from Quick gun Murugan. So the conference went on I finished my presentation, Appu’s was the next day so after lunch we bunked the noon session and made sure we came right on time for dinner. The fun part was yet to come. The organizers had arranged for a magic show which was truly ---- I don’t have words to describe let me just put it this way…the magician thought he is a cross of South Indian superstar and a Cheer girl and his assistant was imitating Shakira but sadly the assistant was a male! So after a magical evening we sit to have dinner. Now instead of us enjoying a quiet peaceful dinner we are stuck with group of non good looking guys trying to hit on us with boring lines! Strike 3 the conference didn’t have good looking guys!
The next day turns out to be as boring as day 2 but we finish with the presentation, take all the certificates and escape, the only relief is meeting my friend Chotu at railway station later that evening! The Trivandrum melodrama ends in a very meaningful note i.e. do not expect good things always! Life aint fair. The journey back is once more full of colours, lively discussions and friendly spirits :-)

EXAM PREMIER LEAGUE

1:40pm: A warm summer afternoon, a crowed corridor, the atmosphere tense, books flipped, views exchanged, the only time of the year when the student gangs discuss actual subject content! No point for guessing it’s the EPL, the less glamorous version of IPL, except it is not a team work during the final trials. I walk through the haphazard crowd, making sure I do not stamp any students on my way to room X. I enter the room, place the booklets on the table and open the windows of the room for the air circulation as within the next 20 minutes the room will be occupied by 40 hard workers who slogged throughout night resisting their urge of not watch exciting matches of the FIFA world cup!.

1:45pm: I place individual booklets on the allotted seat according to the B-form given. B-form is a list of roll numbers where the students have to write their booklet number and signature and it is a proof that they were physically present for the exams. Once I finish arranging them, I go through the instructions which are to be given to the students prior to their exam; it’s usually the same for examinations all over India. I glance at my watch 1:50pm, time for the students to get inside the room, I ask them to do so, some of them vigorously turn pages as their life depend on it, others open up their bags dig in and bring out the usual stationary, calculator, id card and the hall ticket. The next 5 minutes goes into reflection, examination sure brings out the God in the atheist! I read out the instruction, they hear it with no interest.

1:55pm: The booklet consists of 40 pages, in the first page the students need to fill the examination i.e. BE, their University Seat Number, the semester, the branch, the date, the exam they are going to attend, the subject code, their signature, the room invigilators signature (which they do not fill but I do), the set of instructions and the space to draw the diagonal lines. The diagonal lines are drawn in specific boxes against questions to which the answers are attempted. The second page has the detailed set of instructions including those on malpractice. The third page on is the space to write and the 40^th page is for rough work. The external examiner usually from other college provides the question papers. Usually there is combination of various branch students in a single class so there will be three-four different set of question paper.

2:00pm: The bell goes off and I distribute the question paper and the next 5 minutes is spend on browsing through the content of the black and white powerful piece of paper which in a way is going to decide the future of the studentkind! The tension eases in some and others shake their head in disbelief, the testophobics nervously chew on to their fingers or pen tip in an optimistic hope that the college get raided by group of extraterrestrial this moment and the exam gets cancelled but trust me sadly it never happens. The journey of writing begins…

2:05-2:30pm: In India, there is a system of being non-punctual and the trend applies even for exams. I walk around in the class checking out that all of them have received their papers and make sure their first few moments are smooth. At 2:15pm, a tensed girl enters my class and searches in total desperation for her seat and looks at me and stops and I ask “which paper do you want?”Girl “Ma’am…8^th sem...”I knew she was nervous to the core as I could barely hear her through her shivering and stammering. “I know your in 8^th semester, which paper do you want” She looks at me as though I just pulled her oxygen mask and I could literally see her going blue and I tell her “breathe, calm down!!..Relax” In a moment she manages to bring her cardiac beats to normal and says “programme language”. I give her paper and show her where she has got to sit. It made me realize one thing that testophobia prevails through out the life span even if you might have written like 100 exams before hand. Once the agitated class relaxes, I go around with the B-form and collect their signature, sign on their booklet and hall ticket and ensure all the entries are made, in most cases they write wrong date and forget to sign which is rectified. So the first 30 minutes goes in setting things in order then the colossal of boredom over takes for the next 2 hours, not for the students but for the invigilator and that’s me in this case.

2:30-4:30pm: Life is quite strange, 2 years back I was among the ‘writer species’ and now I am walking in the room doing invigilation. When you have lot of time to spare you become a philosopher and I guess it’s the same with me, so what do I do to kill time is the million dollar question, well I do little statistical survey of the room. This idea to kill time was first suggested by a senior colleague of mine. If I had to write a repot it would go like this: There are 40 students in the class, the male: female ratio is 1:1, 20 boys and 20 girls (I am reminded of ‘Sarva shiksya Abiyan’, where the government appeals for rights to education to all despite of their sex and with this ratio I am impressed that it is implemented at least in this class). The favorite colour of the class is blue as out of 40, 15 of them have worn some shades of blue. The next is the sense of clothing, I am not a fashion analyst but most of them during exam time are not bothered how they look. The guys have the ‘I just got out of the bed look’ and girls do not feel the need to apply make up around their dark circles developed due to night outs. The next focus is on the footwear, out of 40, 27 of them wear shoes and the rest 13 wear sandals. The sandals vary in their colour, texture and size of course. The shoes interest me the most as the versatility is known. The usual brands like Reebok, Adidas, Nike, Converse etc, so I check out for the brands and the winner in today’s class is Nike as 15 of them are wearing them! The other accessories are also noted such as ear rings, watches, strange bracelets etc. Though one can engage themselves fully in the statistical analysis it can last only 30 minutes maximum. The next thing is to wait for the attendant to bring coffee or the reliever to come to the class. The reliever is the one who gives you 10 minutes of freedom from solitude walk. The times is used for visiting the rest room, taking bag out of staff room and bring it to the exam hall. You cannot escape as the reliever keeps track of time. The attendant brings you a steaming cup of coffee in the smallest cup possible.(I am not joking, the cup barely contains 15 ml, by the time it goes down the throat it disappears).No complains as it remains the sole source of glucose for the sunny noon. The order of who comes first doesn’t matter but it gives you a hope that you’re waiting for someone and time is passing by. The other time pass one can do is supply water to students, this works only in summer, during exams in winter its not applicable. All these things work only till 3:45pm, when mind starts getting restless, organizing thoughts is another way of killing time for eg:I keep thinking if I had some supernatural powers I could have watched movies in my mind without disturbing the writer’s out there, but sadly like ET that too never happens. I keep walking in the empty spaces between the seats, looking at what they write, most of which I do not understand as I am a life science person, not an engineering, the hands and mind move in coordination. Sometimes the students stare at my face continuously as I walk and I think that may be they feel answers are written on my face, whatever it may be, if it helps I don’t mind them giving blank looks. In between all the organized chaos, external squad visits twice and ensures students do not malpractice.

4:30-4:50pm: The restlessness grows further because the regular time to exit college is 4:10pm and it keeps popping in some corner of the brain. This is the time when the watchless students keep asking time.I do announce time every hour but I guess the examination affects their hearing temporarily. I was never a sports person and so I begin to feel tired due to continous walking as we aren’t supposed to sit. The students occasionally call me to sign for change of ink. You know a paper is tough when you see the following events during the due course of examinations

- Students tend to stare at their hall ticket (probably they calculate how many back papers they will have if they include the current one)

- Students keep playing with their pens, hair ,nails, shift positions too many times

- Students cancel out 1 answer more than 3-4 times

- They write too much for 1 answer, its usually the same thing over and over again

- Students leave the hall within one hour

4:50-5:00pm: The time when the earth revolves faster than usual and I keep up my pace and give them final set of instructions to make sure they write question numbers, strike out excess page, draw diagonal lines in first page etc. The bell at 4:50 brings many back out of sleep and they spring out like a brainwave hits them and write the entire 10 minutes. At 5 its time up and they usually don’t take extra time as three hours of imprisonment is sufficient! I collect the books and walk out

A relaxed evening, a crowed corridor with the hustle bustle, dialogues fly out ,“I will pass” “machha..wait for me!” “who set this question paper…” “match nodidiya”(I guess they didn’t miss the FIFA match), “aree yaar, shit I didn’t write it..”. I walk through the crowd remembering the memories of the most unchanged experience of one life even with the fast moving pace of time “The Examination”

WHY DO I LOSE MOBILE?

I have been a mobile user from the past 3 years and in that span I have lost 3 mobiles!!! And believe me I don’t lose things that easily, so I decided to write a blog as a tribute to my lost cell phones

Mobile 1: The final year of MSc, all are busy preparing for the last exam i.e. the viva voce of the final year project. We were called into a room to give instructions and our respective bags were placed outside the room. After which we departed to our allotted rooms for viva. After finishing my viva smoothly, I decided to give a call to Aunt L about my great achievement! And I dig into my bag only to find my mobile missing. The next 30 minute were spent by my friends in searching the mobile in the entire college campus. Alas! I wasn’t destined that way; I lose my mobile 1, a Nokia 1100 and am sad that I lose it. The next step is to retrieve the same number which is as follows:

Step 1: Go to a nearby police station, they have a template ,write a story using the same template, which briefly states that on my way from place 1 to place 2 the mobile fell from my pocket along with the sim (this is their actual pattern for everyone who lose their mobile)

Step 2: Take a photocopy of the letter and 1 is filed in police station, the other is given to customer care of your network and then they give you your number

Step 3: Buy a new mobile, use social networking to get back all the lost numbers of family and friends

Mobile 2: I am at home it’s the lovely monsoon of the coast, after talking to a friend I place the mobile in the telephone desk and after around 3 hrs when I decide to check on my pj’s, I cannot find it, search begins and no one knows where it is, I thought of all extreme possibilities where it would be some of which were- Jadoo (the alien in Koi Mil Gaya)-because he is active in daytime, my brothers and their pranks, evil spirits, Day time robbery etc. The three steps were carried out meticulously. It was a Nokia 1600.

Mobile 3: I am walking very briskly as I have to catch a bus home, its night and it’s a crowded bus stop and the cool atmosphere puts a pressure on my kidneys which in turn on my bladder and so I got to pee. I move to the rest room which is one of the filthiest place but one has to do what has to be done! Unfortunately my mobile slips and lands up in the gutter and I stand there and think -goodbye mobile I will miss you…I do know what awaits after this which is series of laughter from family and friends. By the way no one is really sad that I lose mobile! It was a Nokia 1650

The steps are not followed as I change my number, well step 3 is still valid, but during one of the gang meeting of my pals, (which I couldn’t attend) 5 minutes of condolence was offered to my mobile with continuous laughter and bad jokes!! So I am just about finishing my blog when I receive a message in my mobile which is from Dillz “Hi dear, cell loser, how are you?”

So the question arises again why do I keep losing mobiles? My brother has a simple answer he says “Stop buying Dabba cell phones”.!!!

COUNTRY COUSINS

Situation 1: Bhat’s residence, a fun filled evening, “So why do you give her money, when you know she spends it!!” Aunt S asks me surprisingly. I reply instantly “She is my younger sister; besides I don’t mind giving money because I myself do not spend much”. The Confused Gemini smiles nodding her head in agreement.

Situation 2: “What time is that boy coming home?”a tired Aunt L wiping her face looks at me with a hope that I say within the next 10 seconds but even I am not sure if that is ever gonna happen. I speed dial Big V (of course he is small V to me!) “Yo! What time shall I expect your arrival- standard or the V time” He mumbles something and I know its time to act, I mentally calculate some time considering the heaviness of his dialogue and my intuitions and reply “in an hour or so, probably coz”…and there goes another cock and bull story. Yup Big V indeed was the reason I got the nick name “V’s lawyer”

So I am writing this in the fond memory (they are not dead) of two of my bloody cousins…I mean my blood related cousins without whom my life wouldn’t have been so wonderful ;-) The major coincidence is the fact that both of them are of the same age and do know every intelligent and stupid moves of my life!

Confused Gemini (CG): I could actually write a biography about her life, she is practical, animal loving, Salsa dancing, dirt biker adventurous gal whose soul aim is to enjoy life the way it goes, jack all trades and master of business (she’s done her MBA).CG as the name suggests is confused most of the time as she keeps multitasking many things at a time and lands up somehow completing them. An apt listener who can at times speak words of wisdom wiser than her age. A fellow blogger who introduced me to the world of Blogging. J

Big V: I can talk about anything under the sun and moon (coz most of our talk were at night during exam times when I get bugged from reading and disturb him with my constant chit chats and he would manage to reply in few hmms and ok and at times also reply more than that).He always manages to get his work done using his puppy dog face! (He’s a grown up version of the tare zameen par kid, who keeps dreaming).He manages to get on my nerves at times by playing pranks. He lives life Kings Style. I wish you all the best to your future adventure J