The Five Places

Its that time of the year, when lists are drawn, a time to remember what happened. So I am also going into the spirit and take a trip down memory lane. But with the simple life that I have I don't think an year in my life would be worth an entire blog post. Instead decided to put in a post about the five places which I believe have had the most role in shaping me into whatever I am today. By these I refer to the five schools/colleges which I went to. So here goes.

1. Biharilal Khandelwal Comprehensive Public School, Kanhan (1986-88, LKG & UKG)

My first school in Kanhan, a small town near Nagpur. The place where I learnt the alphabets and numbers. To be honest twenty years down the line I do not have too many memories about the place. I remember my first teacher (Ms. Julie), the school's location besides the Kanhan river and the railway line on the other side. I have faint recollections of going to school in a rickshaw. I can recollect the rabbits and the school gardens. For memories all I have are the two report cards and a class photograph (in which I locate myself with some difficulty).

2. Woodlands School, Patna (1988-1992, Std. 1-5)

It was a return to roots when the family shifted back to Patna. I got enrolled in Std. 1 with only 3 months left in the academic year. But still managed to clear it (I was good then :)). Cleared 4 more academic years in the school. From this point on I remember all my teachers. The school did not have any building of its own and separate classes used to run in various rented rooms across Rajendra Nagar. The school though had its own playground with a basketball court. Made quite a few friends here. Still am in touch with a couple of them, thanks to the social networking sites. Unfortunately the school closed a couple of years back. For memory sake, I have the school report cards, class photographs and the little trophies I won during my stay there.

3. Loyola School, Jamshedpur (1993-2000, Std 6-12)

Easily my favorite amongst all my schools. I spent the most time here and feel that this is the place that has played the biggest role in shaping me. The first thing I fell in love with were the school buildings and the huge ground. The friends I made here are still connected. Almost all the memories are still fresh. This was my first time in a boys only school (the previous 2 had been co-ed). The memories I have with Loyola are too many to list down, the buildings, the grounds, the libraries (there were 3 of them), the clubs (around 30 at last count), the events (both inter-school and intra-school) and many more. I took special pride in representing and winning for the the school. The collective joy the entire school took in your success was a feeling which has no parallel. Loyola taught me to believe in myself. After all if you do not believe in yourself , then who will. The school started in 1947 and still is going on strong. And hopefully will go on and on. My memories include report cards (again), the photographs, the various medals and certificates, the honour cards, the yearbook... As I write this I can hear the school anthem going on in my mind.
Till the echoes ring again

4. Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad (2001-2005, B.Tech)

This was one place where I never really wanted to go. Well, after all when someone prepares for IIT-JEE, then you would want to go to an IIT. But having cleared IIT-JEE with a rank of 2724, the IIT option got closed. Not intending to drop another year, I took up the Petroleum Engineering course at ISM. It was an entry to a totally new world. My first time outside the safe confines of home. The age of 18 was the right time to take these first steps into the real world. The campus spread across 200 acres with buildings dating from 1926 to some under-construction did not really seem a home away from home in the initial days. After all, ragging (though much milder than expected) does not make one feel at home. The sight of seniors would be enough to send anyone running for cover. But as time went by, the place did become home. In fact, the number of mid-semester trips to home reduced from 10 in the first to none in the last. This was the place where I got a chance to meet people with varied backgrounds. People who had got together for similar goals. Also this was the first place where I really thought about what I want to do with my life (that I still don't know is another issue). The memories of ISM, well, the semester grade sheets (:P), the certificates for extra-curriculars, the photographs, the degree certificate (:D), the job treats at Mani's Cafe, Ramdhani, the mess, watching cricket in the common rooms, the first steps in connecting to the world, my first computer, the trips to Dehradun, Gujarat and Mumbai for training (:P), the slogging during the semester times and the fun at all other times, the elections and the games of poly-poly, Pratibimb & Srijan. ISM was the place where I got a reputation of being a decent quizzer. And it was also the place from where I got my first job. As I look back they were four truly memorable years.

5. Indian Institute of Management, Indore (2006-2008, PGDM)

Unlike other schools, this was the one place I went by my choice. Of course my choice had been limited to 3 by a few small mistakes (Basically, the choices were IIM-I, IIM-K or continue working in OIL). Continuing working wasnt really an option and after a little deliberation I chose I ;). So 20 months were spent in Planet-I. Wouldnt really go into too many details about my stay there (Already covered). I did feel at home at I from the very beginning. However one thing that the place did do was open up the world. Now I knew more about the options existing in the world than earlier (leads to more confusion actually, I still dont know what I want to do with my life after all). But the time was wonderfully spent. As for memories, photographs & videos (too many of them, but dont want to delete a single one of them), the walks down the hillock, the night quizzing sessions (my reputation as a decent quizzer remained intact), the movies and serials, the occasional trips to the city and outside; All still very fresh.

So this is it. These are the five places which have shaped me. The post went a bit long but I dont feel I have done justice to the subject.

P.S. I would like to get in touch with people with the same shared meories, specially relating to BKCP & Woodlands. So anyone who reads this please feel free to cotact me.
P.P.S This post took up nearly 3 hours of a Sunday evening (phew).

IRIS

1. Natural World - Plants of genus Iris, plants with narrow sword shaped leaves and showy variously coloured flowers.

2. Medical World - The round, contractile membrane of the eye, suspended between the cornea and lens and perforated by the pupil. It regulates the amount of light entering the eye.

3. Physics - A rainbow or rainbow like display of colours.

4. Greek Mythology - Messenger of Gods and Goddess of Rainbow

5. For the residents of Planet I, the most awaited event of the campus life

IRIS ' 07

BE

http://www.iimi-iris.com

Footprints

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing o'er life's solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The above words came to my mind as the our annual alumni get-together "Footprints" took place. Footprints - a time when the alumni came back to a place where they spent two years, where new friendships were forged, a place of many memories and a place from where a new life started. It was an occasion when a lot of familiar faces were back on campus and some not so familiar ones too. It was an occasion to relive the memories of the days gone by. And for those of us still on campus, an occasion to learn from their experiences.

As for the event was concerned, everything went perfect, whether it was the play having a play within a play within a play (got confused in the end, but it was backed up by brilliant acting) or the party which ended sometime in the early morning (i had slept off by then).

Footprints is over and now for the next stop, IRIS

Till then.... maybe some other things might come up

Questions 'n' Answers

Thought about this post a long time back but could never really bring myself mind to write (or rather type) it out. Summer placement interviews and group discussions were going on. Everybody in the batch interacted with some or the other company executives. This is a random sample of some such interactions.

Interviewer (I): So, what do you want to do in the long term?

Participant (P): Well, I read a book by the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. I was inspired by the book. Now I want to Ph.D. in Developmental Economics.

The least expected career goal of an engineer...enough to shake up any interviewer.

I: What are you here for?

P: I joined this institute for learning. [a small pause] I know this is not the answer you were expecting.

I: Do you have a girlfriend?

P: No

I: So far in your life you haven't been able to market yourself, so how are going to market our product.

Good Point to ponder upon

Diwali Dhamaal

Been a long time since my last post. I guess the excuse would be I was busy with many things at the same time. Well, Diwali was nearly 10 days back, but got a chance to write about it only now. This is the second post of A Day in my Life series.

The date October 21, 2006, Diwali. The first Diwali on campus. The day started like every Saturday at Planet I. Three classes in morning...many people were grumbling about this what a way to celebrate diwali. But my thoughts went back to Diwali 2005. On that day I had to gone to Digboi for some field work (nitrogen unloading job to be precise), which was 50 km from my base Duliajan. Although not exactly ideal but relatively speaking it was still a far better situation.

After classes went to the city with a big group of friends. Going to the city seems like a big escape from the daily routine over here. Big movies like Don had been released over the weekend but no one was in mood for that. So all of us went to fun and games section (me thinks that the name is something else....but who cares). So then it was 2 hours of bowling, pool, video games, races and finally striking cars. Never thought that this could be so much fun.

Late in the evening, back to the campus for the Diwali celebrations. Had a gala time there too. So overall quite an enjoyable day.

Trip to Patal Pani: A Day in My Life

This post starts the first series of posts in my blog "A Day in My Life". These postings will be about some interesting days in my life, some in the distant past and some in the not so distant past.

First, about Patal Pani. It is a waterfall located about 36 kms from the city of Indore. Water falls from a height of 150 feet into a kund (trench) whose depth is still unknown. It is believed that the bottom of this trench reaches patal, hence the name Patal Pani.

Now for my trip to Patal Pani. The day 27th August, 2006, a Sunday. The trip was arranged by the Cultural Committee (or CulCom as its known). Around 50 of us started off from our campus in four vehicles (am not sure whether to call them buses or vans, so let them be called vehicles only). We left at around noon and the plan was to have lunch at the spot itself. After taking the wrong route a couple of times, finally managed to reach the destination in around 2 hours.

On reaching the spot the initial reaction was actually disappointment. All I could see was two tiny streams joining together and falling down. Had I come all the way to see this, wasting an entire Sunday? As I came closer the reaction changed from that of disappointment to awe. The sight was simply breathtaking. Water falling from such a height and creating a mist.

Then we proceded to go to the base of the waterfall. To reach there first we had to find a way down. The climb down the rocky face was pretty difficult specially for people like us who did not get much chance for any outdoor activity as such. But we managed to safely find our way down to the base of the falls. It was done at times on all fours as we only had the rocky side of the the cliff on one side and the valley on the other.The view from the base was, well, awesome. The water falling from such a great height right in front of us. Its spray being carried towards us by the wind. All this made for one fascinating sight. After some time it started to rain. Now, this was a problem as we had to climb up the cliff which was going to be more diffcult as the path would have become more slippery. But fortunately for us the rain stopped. So, we decided to go back up. The climb up was even more interesting than the downward trip. Firstly, we had to retrace our paths quite a few times as we kept taking the wrong path. Then one of my friends claimed to have seen a snake in a hole between the rocks. But fortunately, the snake if it was there, decided to stay inside its hole and not disturb us. Finally we made our way to the top without any more alarms.

Around 5 in the evening, we started our journey back to the campus. The return journey was filled with all of us sharing our experiences with each other. Returned to the campus quite exhausted. But it had been quite an enjoyable trip.

The Patal Pani trip had been quite an adventure. It was nice to get out of the monotony of the daily life at campus (to be discussed in some other post). It was a great experience where you get to be one with nature. Overall quite a pleasant trip and am looking forward to more such trips in the future.

Till next time..........

Technology, Creativity, Time.........

The picture looks like some serious activity taking place. People sitting at 4 long tables. Some sitting at chairs a bit away from the long tables (the late-comers). Others standing near the counter (the real late-comers). People sitting pair-wise staring at their laptop screens and making notes.There is also a bit of cross-talking taking place, but mostly people are minding their own business.



Maybe its some exam taking place...or maybe some online trading going on...or some stock market scenario....................

Actually nothing of such sort is taking place. Its just a quiz where you have to identify the logos of various companies. Surprised???

Well, this is what happens when you have too much technology, a liitle bit of time and a certain level of creativity available. Add to that a bunch of people high on enthusiasm.It makes for a real heady mixture.

And this what makes life enjoyable...makes it interesting and breaks the monotony of everyday life.

Till next time...............