An evening in wonderland......'Sanjha safar'

It was the evening of 6'th November 2007 when we three friends were returning from the much hyped and important event of our b-school, the national summit 07.It was blah blah blah...and blah. For more details contact the other saurabh....saurabh kapoor the student body president. I am not writing about it , its about something much much more enticing and enchanting then that.
The phrase, 'blessing in disguise' came into life for us when we failed to find an auto rickshaw to back home and were too properly dressed to board a bus(suit shuit and all). Oh by we, I mean me , santosh and girdhari by the way.
I called for a walk to India gate nearby and three of us settled for that, santy bit reluctantly though. Little did we knew that we were up for a very pleasant surprise. In the lush green lawns of India gate a awesome experience was waiting for us. It was the 4th International Conference on Federalism being held in the capital, the five-day parallel 'Sanjha Safar'. It seemed that we have entered a different land , a dreamland, a land where a diverse and culturally rich nation was exhibiting all its colors under the sky. The event was hosting delicacies from various nook and corner of India, art and artifacts from places as interior as bastar of chattisgarh, uttranchal, karnatka etc. Every footstep was a harbinger of a enthralling experience. Various stalls from different states exhibiting their native crafts. Food stalls where one could savor everything famous in India. To name a few, parathas from parathe wali gali, chicken from karim's of jama masjid, sondesh from streets of bengal, jhangora ki kheer & mandua ki roti from the hills of uttranchal, what else a food junkie like me asks for.
As if this was not enough, there was musical and dance performance at practically every step, honestly it was hard to decide where to stop. The odisi nitya by kids of orissa, the astounding folk song performance by kids of rajasthan, the awesome folk dance by teenagers from Gujarat, the baul gaan from bengal and not to forget the fakir who was just loitering around everywhere singing praise for allah-o-akbar.
We three then decided to board a ride in the giant wheel, honestly I was bit nervous, but it also proved to be a extension of the mood of the evening. On the top of it I could see the national capital, the giant India gate and below my feet was the conglomeration of art, culture and history. It felt as if the fair was saluting the epitome of national pride, India Gate, reaching out to the world and shouting the best way it could saying that India is not merely a land of snake charmers and beggars, it is the land of strength, of art, of culture, of people with hearts, a nation which was, is and will be a paradigm of civilization.
The mood after we came out can neatly be summed in words of my friends. Santosh said,"abe sapne sa lag raha hai be" and Girdhari lal commented, "If national summits are meant to end like this I am ready to pay for the summit and tolerate it once more "

P.S -The fee for two day national summit-07 at le meridian was Rs 4000 per head :(

Alone in the crowd..

I think, or rather I know that I am NOT a good poet, but still I am quite daring in nature, so here I dare to write that, after all its my ROY..al Area..
Ok here is a poem(atleast I thought so) I wrote almost 4 yeas back when I was in college, my college was situated in middle of farm houses with no other significant construction around a radius of almost 2-3 kms..and a river flowing just 1 km behind it. Also there was a graveyard surprisingly clubbed with an amusement park, almost 4-5 kms away from it. The poem was written post midnight when I was trying my best to study, had a bad day, the poem gives an idea of what may have happened ..So here it goes..

Today all of a sudden I felt alone in the crowd, and instantly I asked who are my friends??
Looked there were none, thought there were many, they, yes they are my friends..
The cold breeze of morning, the sun, alone who's shining,
the cold nights of summer, the warm noons of winter, they, yes they are...
The road long, alone on which I ride,
wind blowing in the farm which looks like a tide, they, yes they are...
The rose plant in the backyard,
that river near the graveyard, they, yes they are...
the roof which which gives me seclusion,
that calm water in the pond which trembles on intrusion, they, yes they are...
Those quite midnights, that white moonlight,
the bell of the midnight hour, the twinkle of that little star, they, yes they are my friends
They, yes they are my friends.

In the train

September 29, 2007 time 10:13 pm. This marks the longest time I’ve stayed in a place since I moved out of my parental residence in 2001. My horoscopes say that I will travel a lot, and I guess they have been proven right. I am heading for my home to Raipur from Delhi, in a southbound train, I have steered ahead of Itarsi a city in central India and expect to make my home by morning. I guess none of the railways in the world would be as culturally and socially vibrant as Indian railways, it is a conglomeration of crores of lives associated with it on a regular and temporary basis. See how many events happen in it, baraats, picnic, expeditions, inter cultural interactions, love, hate, jealousy; all the manifestations of human psyche, and not to forget, those rapes, sexual encounters, dacoities, drugging etc. I have, by the grace of god managed to stay away from the later parts which I considered quite blasphemous and horribly sad.

Let us talk about me now, my coupe as expected is full of the descendent of what history calls “Dravidians”, the other half of India, yes the other half. Whole of India is suffering from this great regionalism, no doubt about that, but none of its variety parallels the intensity of great North-south divide. This divide has taken many ugly turns in past and present, but this isn’t a historian’s blog so we shall not bother ourselves with it. I am trying to jot down the experience I had over the day with them. My first interaction was in a way, which until now, I thought was a trademark of us Bengalis, the anna walked to the coupe which had its sole occupant as me and kind of charged me by saying that seat no 25 and 28 is his property. I barely managed to suppress my smile on this very familiar action and politely said, yes it’s yours and mine is 29. But the man was in mood to attack whatever the purpose may be, and he barked again that he owns seat 25 28(he sounded very much like that white character of bunty and bubbly “I own the TAJ”), to this I smilingly replied “Did I said it was mine” I guess it was my continuing politeness or the smile, the mood changed in no time, and after a initial gorilla like intimidation, the man yielded to the seemingly better human in front. He was followed by some other fellow telgus who didn’t seem to be that charged, on the contrary they were happy to find their lot in majority, and the single alien, that is, me, I seemed to be non existent. Thankfully I managed to grab a novel before leaving, so the major portion of the day was passed either dozing or reading, doing both of which I truly love. The only problem was that by the end of the day I’d a queer dumb like feeling, as if I can’t speak. Though I must say the lot didn’t outrageously neglect me, they offered me various eatables which I had to politely refuse (damn on those who drug people). But on a whole this alien was non-existent. As the evening grew and night came falling the brotherhood of “Dravidia” was joined by two females one young chick who wasn’t very attractive by BSIS (Bureau of south Indian standards) she was quite thin, but yeah smart, other being her mother. Out of curiosity I eavesdropped on their conversation to find out that the young lady was a student of electronic engineering in Bhopal and was already placed in Accenture software. Then the younger guys of the lot started conversing among with other present and believe me not because of the reason you are thinking. These people had genuine interest in each other and nothing to do with the latest additions of the group, the discussion I could guess, was pertaining to the vibrant issue of finding a decent food joint for south Indian food in Delhi (just like we Bengalis ponder over the availability of “maach” or fish in our locality), one of them made fun of north Indian joints trying to imitate them. Then the topic shifted to politics centering on Andhra Pradesh (again an uncanny similarity to bengalis). I by now had firmly believed that I am wearing an invisibility cloak and have become dumb.

But one thing was noteworthy, right from the first interaction I had with them. That they all acted and reacted in a same manner any Indian would have. This raises questions in my mind that does that great divide of culture really exists or it is just a figment of our imaginations. Do we feed the divide or the divide is feeding some of us, is that the people who are different or it is just the language. Many more questions stung me at once and most of them remained unanswered. I prefer to leave that question to you. Enlighten me…

Thanks for your patient reading….

Tinu….

P.S - The pic is an old photograph of me irritating my mallu friend on our journey back to Delhi from IIM-A, I mentioned about it in my first post

My nights at call center

This was long due. First I needed to write, second I needed to remember these people, my roommates during my stay at LBSIM.
Just for the background, this was for the first time I was totally on my own, away from my home, choosing the best people to live with, no relatives, no cousins, just me, all by myself, and this is how it turned out to be. (clockwise)Me, santosh aka sandwa aka mishra aka neo, amit sindhu aka rambo, Adesh aka addy aka terminator, and siddharth aka bajrangi(he goes by many names, and they all are censored). In case u are wondering over those fancy names they all were assumed during our brief stint with counterstrike, a multiplayer game, which bonded us together and gave these people a break from there deeply committed lives. Carrying on to the legacy of 55-A Ber sarai New Delhi we had a conglomeration of 5 people, 4 with active romantic life and I was the single not ready to mingle one. It was a 3 bhk flat, special mention to sid's room, or 'the room' as I call, in that dark romm many records were broken , many msgs passed upstairs and below to Billu Rani, beginnings and farewells of relationships ahem ahem....bas itna hi...

So what are the perils of having 4 lover boys around you???, they are hardly available and you are mostly alone. Its not that they did it purposefully but gals now a days are demanding, you have to be at there beck and call even if you had just seen them 2 hours ago in college, our dear mini jatt was an exception, his lady was available round the clock over our head, oh I mean the flat upstairs. So we kinda had a 6'th roomie in her(whom we never allowed to pay). The days at 55-a were quite dull, coz there wasn't any sunlight, and we were busy in classes mostly. But the night were quite happening place to be. Three call center executives sid, santy and ady, one on duty boyfriend and me a ardent gamer who just had a lappy to himself. So you can imagine how boring it use to get at times, especially in holidays wen I was the only one left alone, though santy use to be there but our non vegan alcoholic interests never matched.

But then bamm!!, everything changed in a flash, we had a new companion thanks to few residents of another nest munirka, we had COUNTER STRIKE, finally the boyfriends realized the importance of boys and friends. Gals naturally were unhappy but hell who cares, I had my boyz back. To add to it we had paras who made up for santy who wasn't very proficient with the game of terrorists and there bombs. Studies till midnight and then CS from midnight till early morning, oh I love the way we did it, me and paras in one room, sid in his room, ady and amit in one. The whole night use to go swearing, cursing, laughing at opposite team, and offcourse the post game analysis. Anyone whose kill count scored half century or century use to get a gun salute or what we said 'salaami', Oh now I know how sachin feels when he scores a ton. I tried CS many times again, but it was never the same again. It wasn't the game actually, it was the company I really enjoyed, the game was just a podium which brought us together. We guys had our share of differences but they always exist, inspite of all that the room had some common interests, food, gals, games and offcourse me.. :) I was the eldest member of the clan and at times the bridge between team A and B(guys very well understand what I mean). Many people say that we guys never went out together like many people did, for them just one answer, we guyz had gals to go out with, unlike you...

There were other rooms or flats, but there was difference, at mine u never wear all is well mask, u say what you feel, you do what you feel, u love, u like, u dislike, but u never hate, u never cheat, u never talk behind, u never blaim, u always remember, u wish, u swear together loud, so loud that at 1 am your land ki lady at your doorstep, u pray for each other, u fight for each other, u party with each other but never part from each other. Guys I miss you, and addy and amit, yaar ab tum logo ki baari mumbai aane ki, baaki 2 to mil liye....

Thanks for your patient reading

Roy a.k.a Hitler

Dreams Unfulfilled- part 1

Yesterday I came across a T-Shirt quote it read , "I am from where you dream to be.......IIT-Delhi". It took me a moment to realize what it was, an act of arrogance or a mark of pride associated with IIT-D, a slap on the face of non IITians or a great attention seeking promotional trick. Whatever it was , it gave me a mixed feeling, on one side trumpets were bellowing in my head singing a song of triumph of this great institute or any such institute across the globe, whereas on the other side a sad violin was vocalizing the words I didn't wanted to hear.
I had always dreamed of being associated with a institute which resides in the dream and fancies of scores of people, but it was not meant to be, not that I had been in very bad institutes , be it my college , be it my B-school. I am proud to be a part of them, but still we must admit that these are not the type of institutes of which people dream of. CSIT had a beautiful ambiance good infrastructure, LBSIM is among top 20, very tough to get in and out as well, but still it does not figures out in the dream list. I think I will have to live up with this pinch throughout my life, as it is quite unlikely that I going to study again after LBSIM, untill and unless I decide for PH.d.
Not everyone dream, not many chase them, and only few bravehearts achieve them, I wish I do it too...but there is one dream I am almost sure I will never be able to fulfill.. Keep reading Roy...al area area for that unfulfilled desire..

Tharki... :(

This is something about gender bias, and if you are expecting something highly academical or philosophical in here then go away cause I am very angry, and not in a mood to write something goody goody and yes I will be using a lot of hindi coz it is the essence of topic. I would exercise my full control over this blog to vent off my anger for few ASSHOLES (got a glimpse kitna gali bakne wala hoon)..
A lot has been talked about biasness towards a particular gender, but yaha hum baat kar rahe hai purusho par badhte torture ki. This torture to men is surprisingly, by men only..Aahh screw it, I am referring to few of our faculty in LBSIM who have a tendency to favor chicks.. Hum gadhe ke bachhe chahe jitna bhi bole , jub bhi bole, galat hai, then who is right...??? Madam is always right..Kaun madam?? arre koi female teacher nahi, woh jo humare saath baithi hai , woh jo hamare saath padhti hai woh..baap re baap kitne saare kapde pehne hai madam ne..aur ye madam sir ko dekhte hi jhuk kyu jaati hai?? Madam kya sharam bech kar fees bhar di MBA ki??
It could have been tolerable if there was only one tharki around..but yaha to puri fauj khari hai...LBS ppl knows who was the original tharki , but doston kuch aur bhi hai naye buddhe khusat..
Have you heard the maxim boss is always right , now add to it, if he has a beautiful secretary even she is also always right.I mean this is limit, looking at there face (and other parts..ahem..) their gradings are changed, ekdum B- se A++ , hum kya dikhaye?? (Kadua)..
Beware if you are planning to cross question the MADAM in a presentation , if you do, tharki tumhe us cross pe chada dega.."NO YOU ARE WRONG, THE WHOLE QUESTION IS WRONG" would be his words..But guys if you are getting senti over his thrashing then look at whats going on Mr. Tharki's mind..actually he is saying"You are right or wrong , who cares untill and unless you are a MALE" So tension nahi lene ka...aur tharki ki to $$%$&$%^*@#$%&;*@#*?>:@#$%&##....and the swearing continues...

The world is running..should I care..

whoops !!! writing after a long time, thought of many things but, could not convert them in black and white.
So here it is.
The ambiance around me is buzz with activities. Suddenly the people out here have become busy.The surface and obvious reason is the study pressure, which is a compulsory aspect of a b-school. But the underlying reason is the placement season approaching towards us. Though its quite far(I mean to me atleast it seems so) but the mercury is rising, people are becoming more competitive, responsible and studious. The world ,if not sprinting, has started running, and here am I sitting as usual on my laptop away and out of reach of this mundane activities. And mind you I am neither proud of it nor I am liking it. Ask those runners, are you running??...huf huf huf...running??? who me??? huf huf you gotta be kidding...
I mean what is this..Is either the person answering fool or the person being answered nuts. Why the fact that you are seriously studying now is meant to be hidden, seriously these things only make me hate the concept of competition.
Minds are discoursing over latest economic activities , concepts are being recalled, skills are being sharpened for that cutting edge. And ask them bout it, the reply comes. "who me..?? I never do that, I am a laid back laggard, who is a born intelligent with a gifted memory(in short I am a super hero), who never did and never will do all that crazy stuff"
Dear a word for you , if thats your dishonest confession then you are a big fool, and if by any chance this as an honest confession then you are a bigger ...er no biggest damn fool....
And here comes the third category in which I fall. These thoughtful souls are those who very well know the need of the hour, but are not able to do the needful, the reason being their friendship with lethargy and leisure. Sorry if you fall in this category alongwith me, I don't have any praises for you either. I always say to people that its very easy to surrender to temptation and give up, but it takes a man(women plz don't get angry , its just an expression) to come out of it. I do not endorse or stand for any such activities I consider them the sign of weakness, a quality not worthy of a leader....I feel terrible that I have fallen in this class, though I am quite happy that I am not in the above two classes,but still this is not done, I have to come out of it and sooner or later I will.
So the moral of the story"The world is running, and soon it will run faster, and we all better care or else we will always follow , and never lead"

Deewana tera... a song I sang at LBSIM annual fest , it won the first prize

The other side

A couple of months ago I came across a orkut community of pakistan 2010. Its a forum which is supposedly made to discuss about a dream of pakistan of 2010. There one can find many interesting characters across the border ,basically school kids who dedicate their precious time and surfing hours discussing about Pakistan.
One thing I found was, between them the hottest topic of discussion is India,and the subtopics are bal thakrey ,RSS,RAW, etc.I bet Bal thakrey and his like minds are given more importance in Pakistan than India. Instead of talking about Pakistan and its development these people spend much time and resources on talking about India.One incident of violence in India and the community is vibrant with forums and threads,lashing and maligning India.Talk to them ,except for few sensible people, all are of the view that every night shiv sena and rss are out hunting for killing Muslims. As if Indians have no other work in there life.One person said that sikh are being tormented in India,and when a Indian sikh himself said that there is no such thing,the person refuted him.So pakistani's know about us more than we do...funny eh...I don't claim that we are a trouble free nation,and also admit that hindu and muslim communities have stupidly been in conflict since decades.But the view presented by them are extreme and definitely not true.Both the communities have equal number of sad stories to tell. If Gujarat was unfortunate,Godhra was inappropriate too,if operation blue star was wrong, jarnail singh bhindranwale was not justified too.
But I must say there are many misperceptions about Pakistan too.They are a very normal nation and something more than a backward burka cladded bunch. They too hate the fact that much is being spent on defense rather than education and health.But one thing, most of us Indian live in a fantasy that a normal pakistani has nothing to do with kashmir and they want peace,that is totally wrong.They give top priority to Kashmir and for them India is an intruder in kashmiri land.They strongly hold the view that their cannot be any economic or other tie ups between pakistan and hegemonic India(yes we are stupid big hegemons according to them) ,untill unless kashmir dispute is solved.
Now some interesting facts,In 1971 war it was them who won, we are a muslim nation from ages and we must be annexed by them, christian ,muslims and other non-hindus are living a life full of danger,Kargil we lost heavily and it was our mistake we tried to take our mountains back.The Hyderabad bombing was an act of Indian intelligence , sikh killing of chhitisingpura when Bill clinton visited India was planned and executed by Indian military,(Bill Clinton himself believes so),and whenever we stupid people blame ISI for any mishap in India we are wrong(offcourse we are,remember we are stupid) and many of the mishaps in Pakistan are planned by RAW. Infact RAW is a terrorist organization just like other dangerous militant outfits like shiv sena ,RSS etc..Bal thakrey must be mightily pleased when he knows that(bala saheb and shivsena plz don't ban me when u read this,I don't want your help in gaining popularity, do that to M.F.Hussain)
So Indo -pak peace I seriously doubt that its gonna happen so soon..But still
"mann mein hai vishwas pura hai vishwas hum honge kamyaab ek din,
hogi shanti charo or hogi shanti charo or ek din,ohoo
mann mein hai vishwas pura hai vishwas hum honge kamyaab ek din..

thanks for ur patient reading..
Saurabh Roy aka Tinu..

At the stroke of midnight hour..

I know India got freedom at this hour.The freedom is in real sense or not is still a debatable issue. But I am not talking of that I am talking of this midnight hour when we are in a transit between January 2007 and February. At the stroke of this midnight hour I look back at the past one week. What a week it was, a life time experience in true sense. I got a chance to visit the mecca of Indian B-schools,IIM-Ahmedabad.Its a place where you see how dreams look with eyes opened.The IIM-A is very right when it says "Don't say sky is the limit,there are footprints on the Moon".
I also was one of those lucky people who saw there dream materializing in front of there eyes. An experience you can cherish till the last breath of your life. I will always remember those rocking DJ nights ,those live shows of junoon, silk route, remo and many.I would remember those winning celebrations,those practices till midnights,the camaraderie our whole batch shared. Above all I would remember those words of the judge,who said "The first prize obviously goes to Saurabh Roy"
And now here I am in my hostel room no 11 with my room partners,who quite unusually have slept,with my eyes closed and mind opened.That cheering crowd,those clapping still rings in my ears.The sense of happiness when you are appreciated for a quality you always tried hard to inculcate,the sense of a hard earned victory fills my heart and soul with a unusual sense of calmness and gratification.Though the pain of loosing out in Dramatics and group song still hurts, but I've no regrets, we gave our full. I always believed winning is very important,no one remembers the second,but its not the ultimate. The ultimate is participating with your full might and capacities,which I firmly believe we did.
Thanks to LBSIM and friends for such a wonderful experience.

At last I would say At the stroke of midnight hour when the world dreams I lay here in my room no 11 thinking about the dreams I saw coming true in front of my eyes.Now I won't say that sky is the limit because I have left my footprints on Moon....