This is a two part blog and is about my experiences at college, specifically one bit of it, my last semester tour. Read the post below to start ...
Our return journey was quie un-eventful. We reached trivandrum a little travel weary but overwhelmed by the sense of how big our country is, and how small we really are. Ok enough of philosophies.
I'd like to now reacollect how the tour and events post it changed my life. The tour gave me a very dear friend, and it was a pity that I did not know her until the last semesters. It also gave me some of the most unpleasant memories, which i will recount here.
Our class had two distinct groups among the guys. I was inclined to one group, but the other group did not find me objectionable either. When one group took up organizing the tour, I got pulled in as well. I did nt think of it at the moment, but since i was always interested in such things, i plunged neck deep into the state affairs. I got really tied up and did not have time for friends. My dearest friends started feeling that i was neglecting them and leaving them for the others. To my peril, such thoughts never crossed my mind. All this built up over the course of the 20 day tour. I did not find the time to go shopping with them or enjoy the places. All i was worried about was to conduct everyting successfully.
After the tour got over, and we presented the financial details, they came back with mis-appropriations. What hurt was that the people who raised this were my best friends, and I had no inkling that things would turn up this way. For almost a month no one used to speak to me. Those were perhaps the darkest days of my college life. It was perhaps a test of endurance, a test by the one above to see if our friendship was for real.
I am happy to say that they did. When things finally cooled down and we started talking, [I remember i cried while sitting in college and mutual friends were trying to put things back in place by having us across the table and talk. I also remember vividly that once we finally talked things over, all of us went to Aruna restaurant and had chilly porotta...just to cool things off ;-)]
And that my friends is the story of the tour. The tour which taught me to plan, the tour which taught me about friendships and the tour which taught me about love...not mine, but Shahjahan's...
Monday, July 31, 2006
Sunday, July 30, 2006
I am not sure if I've mentioned this before, but mine was a batch which had the unique fortune of going on tours every semester. We'd decided to combine our 7th and 8th sem tours into a mega affair and go on an all India outing.
Dates ver fixed, all tht was left was to plan. We spent an exact month on planning the entire tour. It meant a whole month of class bunking, but since it was on "official" grounds, we got attendance. We decided the places we were gonna visit, which where Goa, Mumbai, Delhi, Agra and Shimla (for non-indian readers, if any, these are places worth visiting when in india :-D) in the order in which they were gonna host us.
Once that was finalised, we had to book the train tickets; 56 tickets in one bogie was always a tall order, but we managed to pull it off. Once the train journey and the dates ver in place, accomodation was next on list. Being college students, we were on the lookout for cheap accomodation when someone suggestd youth hostels. We booked accomodation for Goa and Delhi in youth hostels (one comment on youth hostels..if u need accomodation cheap, and at the same time need a homely feeling, youth hostels are the best bet..) Our biggest problem was gonna be Mumbai coz accomodation never comes cheap there; but surprisingly that is where it was cheapest, coz we got accomodation at the BARC, which was also on our list of Industrial visit centers..
Arranging local tours was never a problem. In goa, the manager of the youth hostel arranged it, in Mumbai, we had a friends relative do it, and in Delhi we had a package tour arranged with Panickers.
Come August 18th and we set off to Goa. My first memories of Goa are the Panaji station which we reached early morning. The youth hostel was situated on a beach and needless to say the atmospehere was as serene as they come. We had our share of fun, frolic and shopping at Goa and finally started to Mumbai. We almost missed the train due to a miscalculation by yours truly. I actually thought 1600 meant 6 o clock rather than 4. It was fortunate that the bus driver had to leave early someplace and so had us dropped at the station by 3.45. Providence!!
The next leg of the journey is the one I will never forget. I believe it was a full moon and she was lighting the world for us to behold. I had only heard of the Engineering marvel called Konkan railway, now i was realizing why it was called so. We passed through numerous tunnels, some of them had water falling down the mouths and the train actually cut through the mini-water falls. I had never had such an enchanting journey my whole life. We reached Dadar station the next day, and had quite a time figuring out where the bus tht was supposed to pick us up was.
Mumbai was in essence everything we had heard of. A city bustling with activity, a city which ws the economic capital of the country. Mumbai's memories are a little faded, mainly coz i slept off my tiredness. The second day we visited the R&D hub of India, BARC. What we saw there really amazed us..we knew the future of our country was safe. Second day evening we set out for the Capital of India...
Stay at Delhi is what comes to mind first. As i mentioned earlier, it was at the International Youth Center that we were put up. It was in one of the most pristine locations of Delhi - chanakyapuri - spat in the middle of embassies. The roads were 10 times as wide as what we had here. Tour of Delhi was arranged by Panickers travels who also arranged our leg of the tour to Agra and Shimla. The Taj at agra is yet another memory that I shall never forget. She stood so pure in between all those standstone buildings, and seeing her I realized and imbibed the love that built her. She was the most marvelous structure I'd ever laid my eyes on.
Our bandwagon then rolled all the way to shimla, where the winter was just starting to come in from the mountains. We trekked all the way upto the snowline; albeit there was no snow to play with. We also bought a lot of apples and sabarjalees, which were as cheap as you could get. Shimla and then back to Delhi, and Delhi and a long journey back home..
My second story begins here..
Dates ver fixed, all tht was left was to plan. We spent an exact month on planning the entire tour. It meant a whole month of class bunking, but since it was on "official" grounds, we got attendance. We decided the places we were gonna visit, which where Goa, Mumbai, Delhi, Agra and Shimla (for non-indian readers, if any, these are places worth visiting when in india :-D) in the order in which they were gonna host us.
Once that was finalised, we had to book the train tickets; 56 tickets in one bogie was always a tall order, but we managed to pull it off. Once the train journey and the dates ver in place, accomodation was next on list. Being college students, we were on the lookout for cheap accomodation when someone suggestd youth hostels. We booked accomodation for Goa and Delhi in youth hostels (one comment on youth hostels..if u need accomodation cheap, and at the same time need a homely feeling, youth hostels are the best bet..) Our biggest problem was gonna be Mumbai coz accomodation never comes cheap there; but surprisingly that is where it was cheapest, coz we got accomodation at the BARC, which was also on our list of Industrial visit centers..
Arranging local tours was never a problem. In goa, the manager of the youth hostel arranged it, in Mumbai, we had a friends relative do it, and in Delhi we had a package tour arranged with Panickers.
Come August 18th and we set off to Goa. My first memories of Goa are the Panaji station which we reached early morning. The youth hostel was situated on a beach and needless to say the atmospehere was as serene as they come. We had our share of fun, frolic and shopping at Goa and finally started to Mumbai. We almost missed the train due to a miscalculation by yours truly. I actually thought 1600 meant 6 o clock rather than 4. It was fortunate that the bus driver had to leave early someplace and so had us dropped at the station by 3.45. Providence!!
The next leg of the journey is the one I will never forget. I believe it was a full moon and she was lighting the world for us to behold. I had only heard of the Engineering marvel called Konkan railway, now i was realizing why it was called so. We passed through numerous tunnels, some of them had water falling down the mouths and the train actually cut through the mini-water falls. I had never had such an enchanting journey my whole life. We reached Dadar station the next day, and had quite a time figuring out where the bus tht was supposed to pick us up was.
Mumbai was in essence everything we had heard of. A city bustling with activity, a city which ws the economic capital of the country. Mumbai's memories are a little faded, mainly coz i slept off my tiredness. The second day we visited the R&D hub of India, BARC. What we saw there really amazed us..we knew the future of our country was safe. Second day evening we set out for the Capital of India...
Stay at Delhi is what comes to mind first. As i mentioned earlier, it was at the International Youth Center that we were put up. It was in one of the most pristine locations of Delhi - chanakyapuri - spat in the middle of embassies. The roads were 10 times as wide as what we had here. Tour of Delhi was arranged by Panickers travels who also arranged our leg of the tour to Agra and Shimla. The Taj at agra is yet another memory that I shall never forget. She stood so pure in between all those standstone buildings, and seeing her I realized and imbibed the love that built her. She was the most marvelous structure I'd ever laid my eyes on.
Our bandwagon then rolled all the way to shimla, where the winter was just starting to come in from the mountains. We trekked all the way upto the snowline; albeit there was no snow to play with. We also bought a lot of apples and sabarjalees, which were as cheap as you could get. Shimla and then back to Delhi, and Delhi and a long journey back home..
My second story begins here..
I am thinking of writing a book titled "How to propose to a girl". Hey, thats easy. I'll list down the ways I have tried, and then write an antithesis to each. Simple rite? And then mebbe i'll add another word to the title "Successful"...Sigh....
Today a friend was telling me how someone proposed to her and she managed to wriggle out of that tricky situation. The first thought that came to my mind? Well, the guy has guts...
I did some reasearch and came up with "rhetoric". Yeah, thts what you need to possess to really impress. Hey its not the latest viagra on the block. It simply means, "art of using language correctly and effectively". Mhmm, that says a lot. And that they say is essential to "proposing to a girl you’ve fallen in love with (or gracefully turning down the proposal)". Well, I am not quite sure, because I am quite rhetoric (I hope it is the rite adjective), but success on this front has always eluded me. :)
I sometimes think I am no trying too hard, and then always console myself by saying "there should be someone worth trying"...(Oh, i know what you just thought "My gawd..as if this guy is casablanca)...Hey folks these are things I say to pacify myself.
i've finally decided to pin it on my sun-sign. Ares...Arians (not Aryans) have a flaring ego. And it does really hurt if someone whom you propose turns you down. Mhhm..that sounds better. I am now waiting for a Sagittarius (someone told me only they can tolerate arians...Next time, better ask a lady her DOB before anything else)
As for the book, I thought it better not to publish..
Today a friend was telling me how someone proposed to her and she managed to wriggle out of that tricky situation. The first thought that came to my mind? Well, the guy has guts...
I did some reasearch and came up with "rhetoric". Yeah, thts what you need to possess to really impress. Hey its not the latest viagra on the block. It simply means, "art of using language correctly and effectively". Mhmm, that says a lot. And that they say is essential to "proposing to a girl you’ve fallen in love with (or gracefully turning down the proposal)". Well, I am not quite sure, because I am quite rhetoric (I hope it is the rite adjective), but success on this front has always eluded me. :)
I sometimes think I am no trying too hard, and then always console myself by saying "there should be someone worth trying"...(Oh, i know what you just thought "My gawd..as if this guy is casablanca)...Hey folks these are things I say to pacify myself.
i've finally decided to pin it on my sun-sign. Ares...Arians (not Aryans) have a flaring ego. And it does really hurt if someone whom you propose turns you down. Mhhm..that sounds better. I am now waiting for a Sagittarius (someone told me only they can tolerate arians...Next time, better ask a lady her DOB before anything else)
As for the book, I thought it better not to publish..
This time, its about yet another lady..Yeah, i know what you are wondering...All he has are ladies...But lemme ask you, what else must a guy have :)...Ok, jokes apart, this one is dedicated to one who has really shaped my career.
One and a half years back when my then manager left, Rachel came as replacement. I hated her from first day on. She was a stickler for time, she brought in a lot of processes (which translated into lots n lots of documents) and was also not the jovial kind. I came to the know the reason only a few days later; she had spent time with the Indian Army..Oophh..
One week later she called me.
"David said you wanted to leave the project ?"
"Ahh well yes, Its been a year since i've been with this project, and i think its time for me to learn something new"
"Does it have anything to do with David leaving and me coming in?" (I was taken aback by this question. Though that was the truth, I was surprised at how she guessed.)
"Of course not Rachel, that has nothing to do with my decision" (Be diplomatic)
"Ok...I have been observing all the team members for some time now, and you are one person I'd really like to have it in my team." (oh yeah, the usual manager jargon) She continued .."I agree its a big change, but good or bad only time can tell. Give me a chance to prove myself. If you are still dissatisfied 2-3 months down the lane, I'd release you. but promise me you'll stay until then"..
I thought, ohh what the heck, just two months...and my answer therefore was "Oh, sure Rachel, sounds fine to me.'
One and a half years after that meeting when one evening she convenes a meeting of the team and says "I am moving out of the team", you could hear a pin drop in the room. The silence was deafening. No one dared move or speak. The knowledge that Rachel would no longer be there was slowly sinking in.
I am gonna miss her terribly. She is the one person who always showed me positives and negatives...She is the one who showed me that there is no limit to what we can achieve if we believe in ourselves. She is the one who taught me what a good manager is. And she my dear friends is also the first manager to give me a "Star performer" appraisal.
The day when she announced her decision to leave the account, she cried. Innately, all of us did too. After the meeting, when we came back to our seats, all looking gloomy and sad, a long timer with the company said - "Ive never seen people sad over a manager leaving". I'd say that is true my dear friend, no one has touched us so.
This entry is a tribute to the person who made me realize who I am and what I can be....
One and a half years back when my then manager left, Rachel came as replacement. I hated her from first day on. She was a stickler for time, she brought in a lot of processes (which translated into lots n lots of documents) and was also not the jovial kind. I came to the know the reason only a few days later; she had spent time with the Indian Army..Oophh..
One week later she called me.
"David said you wanted to leave the project ?"
"Ahh well yes, Its been a year since i've been with this project, and i think its time for me to learn something new"
"Does it have anything to do with David leaving and me coming in?" (I was taken aback by this question. Though that was the truth, I was surprised at how she guessed.)
"Of course not Rachel, that has nothing to do with my decision" (Be diplomatic)
"Ok...I have been observing all the team members for some time now, and you are one person I'd really like to have it in my team." (oh yeah, the usual manager jargon) She continued .."I agree its a big change, but good or bad only time can tell. Give me a chance to prove myself. If you are still dissatisfied 2-3 months down the lane, I'd release you. but promise me you'll stay until then"..
I thought, ohh what the heck, just two months...and my answer therefore was "Oh, sure Rachel, sounds fine to me.'
One and a half years after that meeting when one evening she convenes a meeting of the team and says "I am moving out of the team", you could hear a pin drop in the room. The silence was deafening. No one dared move or speak. The knowledge that Rachel would no longer be there was slowly sinking in.
I am gonna miss her terribly. She is the one person who always showed me positives and negatives...She is the one who showed me that there is no limit to what we can achieve if we believe in ourselves. She is the one who taught me what a good manager is. And she my dear friends is also the first manager to give me a "Star performer" appraisal.
The day when she announced her decision to leave the account, she cried. Innately, all of us did too. After the meeting, when we came back to our seats, all looking gloomy and sad, a long timer with the company said - "Ive never seen people sad over a manager leaving". I'd say that is true my dear friend, no one has touched us so.
This entry is a tribute to the person who made me realize who I am and what I can be....
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