SEBI gives suggestions on p-notes

Draft Proposal by SEBI to restrict P-NOTES

Explanation on P-NOTES

Check out this article on P- NOTES

P Chidambaram's profile at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit

P Chidambaram, Finance Minister, India

P Chidambaram, the Finance Minister of India in the Congress-led UPA government (2004-2009), was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2004 from Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu, the constituency from which he was first elected in 1984.

An MBA graduate from Harvard, Chidambaram, who started as a leftist, went on to be an architect of the Congress government's economic reform strategies as Rajiv Gandhi's right hand man.

He was also a finance minister in the United Front government in the mid 90s. An able administrator, he has handled different ministries since 80s.

Dr. Manmohan SIngh's Profile at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.

Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India

Dr. Manmohan Singh, much before taking over reins of the country, was the architect of India's 1991 liberalisation policy. He brought about a revolutionary change in the way the country's state-directed economy was run.

In 1991 PV Narasimha Rao invited him to become the Finance Minister at a time when the country had an unsustainable fiscal deficit of close to 8.5 per cent of the gross domestic product - almost double of what it is presently. The balance of payment deficit was dauntingly large.

The foreign exchange stood at just a billion dollars and India was on the brink of defaulting on the repayments of its international loans. The country was on the verge of bankruptcy. He took the initiative and single-handedly spearheaded change of which there was a crying need. With the Prime Minister's backing, he brought in reforms that liberalised India's economy.

Hailing from a simple family, he acquired a world-class education and became an economist with a vision to eradicate poverty. He has also been a professor and a civil servant before turning to his high profile roles as RBI Director, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission of India, Finance Minister and now, Prime Minister of India.

He became India's fourteenth Prime Minister on May 19, 2004. He is one of India's famous intellectuals, a man of rare integrity and honesty and a quiet but courageous demeanour. He has been conferred with 'Honest Man of the Year' award in 1996 for his clean image.

Doctors use vodka drip to save dying man

Courtesy of the Hindustan Times

Australian doctors in a far-north Queensland hospital saved the life of an Italian tourist by putting him on a drip-feed of vodka to flush out the poison he had drunk in a suicide attempt, local media reported Wednesday.

"The patient was drip-fed about three standard drinks an hour for three days in the intensive care unit," physician Todd Fraser said Tuesday. "The hospital's administrators were also very understanding when we explained our reasons for buying a case of vodka."

Fraser told Australia's AAP news agency that the 24-year-old was brought to Mackay Base Hospital after drinking antifreeze, a chemical compound that can cause renal failure and is often fatal.

He was administered pharmaceutical-grade alcohol as an antidote to the poison. Supplies soon ran out and had to be topped up from the local shop. The Italian made a full recovery.

Forgetting things!!!!!!

It really irritates me.

I keep forgetting whatever I plan to write.

From the time I think, to the time I start writing I forget half of what I wanted to write.

Sometimes there are a lot of things that go through your mind which you'd like to share, and then there comes a new thought throwing the old one's out of the window.

Yuva Dasara is starting from tomorrow I guess in my hometown Mysore. So visit it guys and gals. Lot's of good singers are coming so have fun.
The venue is the Maharaja college grounds. So do visit it and have loads of fun.

Love,
Matter.

Blasts in hyderabad

At least 30 people are feared dead and several others injured in two separate blasts in Hyderabad on Saturday evening.

The First Blast Took Place in Lumbini Park Which is Beside Hussain Sagar Lake. This park is Near to Secretariat, It happened Around 8 PM (IST).

After 15 Minutes 8:15PM (IST) Another Bomb Blast Took Place in Gokul Chat Bhandar. This Chat Bhandar is Very Famous in Hyderabad.

Eight persons died when an explosion ripped through an auditorium in Lumbini Park in the heart of the city when a laser show was on, police said.

After visiting the blast site, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy has said the attacks are the acts of terror. He held an emergency meeting with top police officials.

The blast occurred at about 7.45 pm when the laser show had just started. So powerful was the blast that some of bodies were flung into the air and scattered over the area.

In another blast around the same time at Gokul chat bhandar at Kothi area, at least 12 persons were killed and scores were injured.

The police cordoned off the areas and sounded a red alert across the city and conducted searches at railway stations and bus depots.

The profusely bleeding injured were admitted to Osmania Hospital, Mediciti, Gandhi hospital and other hospitals.

''The government has put the state on high alert. We are looking for people who caused these blasts. We appeal to the people to maintain peace in the near future. This is the work of some terrorist organisation which wants to disturb the peace of the state,'' said Sriprakash Jaiswal, Minister of State, Home.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has condemned the bomb blasts and expressed deep concern.

Police say the blasts were meticulously planned and executed. The state government has appealed to maintain clam and asked people to remain indoors.

There was confusion about what exactly had caused the explosion at the eatery after initial report said it was due to a cylinder blast.

However, police suspect that going by the impact and high casualties, it could be triggered by RDX.

Phobia

A phobia is an irrational, persistent fear of certain situations, objects, activities, or persons. (Source: Wikipedia).

A few uncommon phobias.

1. Amathophobia: fear of dust
2. Barophobia: fear of gravity
3. Cacophobia: fear of ugliness
4. Cyberphobia: fear of working with computers
5. Octophobia: fear of the figure 8
6. Ophthalmophobia: fear of being stared at
7. Optophobia: fear of opening one's eyes
8. Panophobia: scared of everything
9. Phasmophobia: fear of ghosts
10. Phobophobia: fear of fear
11. Plutophobia: fear of wealth
12. Satanophobia: fear of satan

The best of 2006

100 Fastest Growing Tech Companies

101 Dumbest Moments in Business

Things that could have made you a billionaire

World's Most expensive cars in 2006

The world's billionaires

The past week was good

Last week was quite something.

To start with the first half of last week was filled with holidays.
Went to Kerala and had a jolly good time with the guys from office.

Independence day, time for the re-union of all our classmates from school, made it special.

All of us went out for a movie. "CHAK DE". Couldn't be anything more than perfect.

And yesterday, all of us from school got together again.
This was for all those who missed out the get together on I-Day.
Reminiscing what we'd all been through.

The best part was it was filled with Laughter, which we so often miss.

Chamundi Hills adding to the fun. It was the best time I had in the recent past.

Have fun people.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

Nehru's Words of Freedom

Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.

At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals, which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?

Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this Assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom we have endured all the pains of labor and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now.

That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfill the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.

And so we have to labor and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart. Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this. One World that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.

To the people of India, whose representatives we are, we make an appeal to join us with faith and confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill-will or blaming others. We have to build the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell.

The appointed day has come-the day appointed by destiny-and India stands forth again, after long slumber and struggle, awake, vital, free and independent. The past clings on to us still in some measure and we have to do much before we redeem the pledges we have so often taken. Yet the turning-point is past, and history begins anew for us, the history which we shall live and act and others will write about.

It is a fateful moment for us in India, for all Asia and for the world. A new star rises, the star of freedom in the East, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materializes. May the star never set and that hope never be betrayed!

We rejoice in that freedom, even though clouds surround us, and many of our people are sorrow-stricken and difficult problems encompass us. But freedom brings responsibilities and burdens and we have to face them in the spirit of a free and disciplined people.

On this day our first thoughts go to the architect of this freedom, the Father of our Nation, who, embodying the old spirit of India, held aloft the torch of freedom and lighted up the darkness that surrounded us. We have often been unworthy followers of his and have strayed from his message, but not only we but also succeeding generations will remember this message and bear the imprint in their hearts of this great son of India, magnificent in his faith and strength and courage and humility. We shall never allow that torch of freedom to be blown out, however high the wind or stormy the tempest.

Our next thoughts must be of the unknown volunteers and soldiers of freedom who, without praise or reward, have served India even unto death.

We think also of our brothers and sisters who have been cut off from us by political boundaries and who unhappily cannot share at present in the freedom that has come. They are of us and will remain of us whatever may happen, and we shall be sharers in their good [or] ill fortune alike.

The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavor? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman.

We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be. We are citizens of a great country on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.

To the nations and peoples of the world we send greetings and pledge ourselves to cooperate with them in furthering peace, freedom and democracy.

And to India, our much-loved motherland, the ancient, the eternal and the ever-new, we pay our reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her service.

JAI HIND.

Useful Websites

1) You can download plenty of technical books in

http://www.pdfchm.com/

for free.
All you have to do is register once, which is again free
and start downloading books you need.

The only feature lacking in this website is the search feature.

2) http://paymentdefaulters.com/

This is one of the sites that has just started in India.
I have heard that all the banks and credit institutions are registering with this site.
Any person who has been a defaulter with any of the credit institutions might find difficulty in obtaining a loan or opening a new account with any of the banks.

You can check out in the search tab, if you are one of the defaulters.
If you are make sure, you get your name removed as soon as possible.
The instructions on how to remove your name is given in the website.

3) http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page

Very good content.

The best pages that I saw on this site are
How to do NOTHING!!!!
How to call in sick when you just need a day off!!!


Check it out.

Happy Birthday Kishore Kumar

Happy Birthday Kishore DA,

Listen to all Kishore Kumar Songs at his fan club site.

Hindi Songs here.

Download Songs here.

Microsoft Surface

Microsoft Surface Presentation

One of the amazing things thats happening in technology.

The official Microsoft Surface Web Page.Microsoft.


Check this out. The video might take some time to open up.

Microsoft Surface.

Search Engines

Some of the Search Engines that are making an impact apart from Google and Yahoo!

1) http://www.retrevo.com/
It's a niche search engine that serves the gadget and electronics crowds.
Retrevo concentrates on reviews and articles about products, not storefronts.
If you're searching for more information about a specific product,
Retrevo will only show you editorial reviews,
comments, blog posts and forum posts about the product

2) http://www.hakia.com/
hakia is building the Web's new "meaning-based" (semantic) search engine with
the sole purpose of improving search relevancy and interactivity,
pushing the current boundaries of Web search.
The benefits to the end user are search efficiency,
richness of information, and time savings.

3) http://www.picsearch.com/
Picsearch connects its users to the vast visual resources of the internet.
Picsearch uses its own technology to crawl the web and has created a searchable index of images.
When a user sends a query to Picsearch the result is received as a set of thumbnail images
that are sorted to ensure that they are as highly relevant as possible.
When the user clicks on a thumbnail they are linked to the original web site where that image is located.

4) http://tubesurf.com/
You can find videos on YouTube, MySpace Videos, Google Video, and Yahoo! Video.

5) And as
Anonymousadmirer said... there's another one called chacha.com.
ChaCha combines the best of the web's search engines with the human intelligence

Shayri

1) neenu naanu olle jodi
maduthiruve nanna mele neenu modi

neenu naanu olle jodi
maduthiruve nanna mele neenu modi

ashtaralli banda namma maava,
hodenu naanu odi odi.

This one is for machi.

2) Machi neenu thumba sacchi,
machi neenu thumba sacchi,
adre iruvudu ninage DIL hecchi hecchi.

3) Neenu super duperrr, Neenu super duperr,
ninna ittu tegadre picture, adu blockbuster.

4) Gudugu Minchu Haakithu Sanchu,
Gudugu Mincu Haakithu Sanchu,
Maadalu Doora Nammibarannu Inch-u Inch-u.

Happiness, sadness

I never saw where I was going. I just went along wherever life took me. If given a chance relive my life, I wouldn’t want to change a thing. No regrets is my policy.

Life gives you a lot of things, takes away a lot more.

Being happy with what you have make’s a lot of difference. Just whining about what you don’t have will end up making you miserable.

At times, you’re sad for some reason. Your sadness spreads to others very soon. If somebody comes to cheer you, take their happiness and let go of your sorrows. It’ll be good for you and to others around you.

Just adding to an already gloomy camp can make life miserable for everybody.

Let sadness be a step on which you can place your foot and move forward towards happiness.

Don’t make sadness your final destination.

Time

A desire to do so many things.

But as always, there s always a shortage of time.

Whenever, you are doing anything that’s interesting, time just flies by.

And boring stuff just seem go on and on till eternity.

Just remember a class in which you had to sit for one whole hour. The lecturer mumbling something about signals and systems. And you’d be signaling to your friend’s waiting outside the class to wait until the class got over. Also precisely at that time, somehow the clock slower than usual. That’s the most frustrating point in college. But blink and time just flies by.

Imagine this, it’s 12.45. You’re in a lecture that end’s at 1. You have a movie to watch at 1.30. The lecturer throws caution to the wind and continues to take class till 1.15 Those 30 minutes will seem to be the longest time of your life. Don’t they?

Also, when you have your lunch break, and it seems like you just entered the canteen and it’s time for the next class.

The double standards of time can be quite interesting at time.

Sometimes can be irritating as well. Weekend’s finish even before they started. Whereas work seems to be around for ever and ever.

You go on a weekend getaway, it feels like time is racing against us.

Most of the times, time itself wins.

While we lag behind. So just catch hold of time and you’ll be changing the whole theory of relativity.!!!!!

Desperate Choices

There’s always a given point of time when you wanna do something desperately and you don’t get the chance to.

It happens a lot of times to everybody, is my guess.

Not that I’m a psychologist or anything near to that.

However, considering that I’m a normal person in this totally abnormal world, I consider myself as saying what is happening to everybody.

Think about it, when you were in college you might have wanted to do a lot things.

For example, If you are guy, you might have wanted to take a girl out on a date and vice versa.

Considering the fact, that I’ve spent most of my time in college with hostelites, I know for a fact that none of the guys had money to spend lavishly.

Well most of them!

So, the first reason as to why your idea might have failed.

The basic funda behind guys/girls not going behind girls/guys could be:

1) When you are in college, and upto some point of time after college, friends are your life. Anything that your friends don’t like is not at all acceptable.

2) The rest of the things are at the moment out of focus as in a telescope without any focus.

The other things are you desperately want to study and the moment you pick up your book, behold, the KEB thinks it’s high time they removed power.

And lo, the boys and gals, who are hell bent on making an impact in the exams lose out their chance to do so.

A few more things like your favorite hero/heroine ‘s movie is releasing and you have no money around. And you are bankrupt. Also at that point of time, It so happens that none of your friends have money either. You are SCREWED. I can’t think of a better word than that.

My vocabulary is limited, so please make do with whatever I have.

The most important thing according to me is what you have to say to your friends.

That’s the most difficult part. If you have to say something to your friend/s that is gonna hurt them, then your SCREWED PARTII. Because if you don’t tell them they are gonna end up in deep shit. But if you tell them, then you’re gonna end up in their deep shit.

Sounds kind of crazy. But it’s a mad mad mad world.

You end up in a catch-22 situation. Which is the worst situation to get into!!

Read the book Catch-22, a superb book by Joseph heller.

No, I’m not a marketing executive for the publisher’s. It’s just a nice read.

Have fun while you’re at it, cause you never, when you might end up where.

In the end, it might all be bullshit of the highest order!!

Chances

Quite a few times it so happens that chances decide or rather turn you towards your destiny or wherever you happen to go at the end of the day.

I came across this thought when I was sitting in a tea stall called Manju’s One stop near our college.

You’ll get some really nice Tea and Coffee. Stop by if you have the time.

Returning to the topic of chance, just imagine wherever you are now. Would you be there now if something small had changed let’s say five or ten years back?

Think about it.

I took five years to complete my engineering. Rather still on it. Hoping to it finish this time around.

I got a job at the end of my fifth year. The company that recruited me came to our college for the first time. And lo.. I got selected. If I had finished my engineering on time, then may be I wouldn’t have joined that company and may be I would have been an unemployed youth till now.

Also since I gained one year in engineering, I made a lot of friends. If I had lost that 1 year and completed my engg in 4 years, I would have missed getting to know a lot of great people and would have learnt a lot less than what I’ve learnt now.

So just think about it some time when you are free.

Is there something that could have happened, which could have changed your life?

Of course, there’s no big deal if you don’t think about it.

I’d like you to think about it because I’d like you to take some time for yourself.

What say?

Another Short Incomplete Story

How life can change in a short time?

It goes through lots of Ups, Downs, Plains, hills, forests and lot of other things.

I came to this conclusion, recently when I went to Manipal from my home town Mysore.

It’s about 325 kilometers from Mysore to Manipal. I went ALONE on my bike. The YAMAHA ENTICER. ALONE!

I had been to Madikeri on business and I finished my work by around 12 in the afternoon. Then suddenly I had this brilliant idea of going to Manipal.

I am known for my wacky ideas. Crazy they are and a sudden surprise to everybody most of the time. You should ask Babu about that. Babu being the guy around me most of the time when I get these weird Ideas.

Biking has been a passion. Is a passion and hopefully will continue to be a passion as time takes us towards wherever we are destined to be.

I didn’t own a bike when I was doing my Engineering. So I sort of felt bad about going on outings with my friends. They invited me but I didn’t like the idea at all. It’s whole different scene when you OWN a bike.

I am an Engineer! Well Almost!

Don’t ask me about that. That’s a whole story in itself.

So coming back to where we started, the journey to Manipal. I say Journey because I learnt a lot of stuff. Most of them useless, some useful.

The whole Idea was wild. Considering the condition of the roads, it was Risk!

The risk factors would be that I would alone and if anything happened to the bike I would be lost in the middle of nowhere.

The roads were BAD! I cant find any words better than that to describe the condition of the roads. PATHETIC. That’s sounds good in a bad way.

The fact that I was on a National Highway didn’t help much.

I had my lunch in Madikeri and set out for Manipal.

Madikeri is a lovely place. The mountains with their lush green cover make it a sight to marvel at. Also you can feel the clean air. It tickles your lungs. That’s good tickling.

Anyways as I started from Madikeri, the roads where pretty good. Pretty because of the tree cover. Good because the roads where good.

A few kilometers on the roads grew from bad to worse. And so it continued. Whenever I thought the roads where going to be good it turned out that at the next instant, the roads would be bad.

So after a point of time I stopped of thinking of the roads.

There were other things that had to be thought about.

Things like WORK, WORK and WORK.

How is it that when you go out on a vacation or a holiday, WORK manages to follow you in one way or the other?

Is it only me who’s having this problem or is it common to everyone?

I’d like to know that.

Let’s FLASHBACK Four months.

One among the many unemployed youth of India. Yes me! I was!

I was too worried about my future and what I was going to do and all that.

It’s one thing to know what you wanna do and work towards that goal and it’s a whole different picture figuring out what you wanna do!

For starters, just imagine yourself being in that dilemma. It’s becomes so confusing, you end up wondering most of the times “what the HELL am I doing ON EARTH?”

I had no IDEA as to what I wanted to do!

And then there was this beautiful tag line from IDEA CELLULAR “ An Idea can change your life”.

Yeh sure! An Idea can change your life. But if you aren’t getting any, where on earth do you go and find them?

The best tag line according to me is that of Honda. It says “THE POWER OF DREAMS”

I’ve been dreaming all my life. So WHAT?

A short incomplete story

What’s happening to me?

I really don’t know.

I think this is the right time for a little bit of “introspection”. I need to take some time off. SSDD. This sounded quite sensible to me the first time I read it in a Stephen King’s book. The expanded form being Same Shit Different Day. Doesn’t it sound familiar to you in a way.

“I’ve told you a hundred times you aren’ fit for this job”, said one part of my mind.

“Then give me an idea that’s going to feed me and let me enjoy my work”, said the other part.

“Well, there are so many things you can do”

“Like?”

“You can be a teacher or become part of a NGO that’s into wild life conservation”

“Cut the crap, you know that I thought about these two options long before I took this as my profession. When I thought I was interested in wild life conservation there was nobody to support me. And as far becoming a teacher is concerned, the pay they are going to give me won’t be sufficient to fill gas in my bike. We’ve had this conversation before and every time I have to remind you not to screw my happiness thinking about things that aren going to happen. Instead why don’t you help me solve the problems I have on hand. Will you give me a break and help me out”.

“Okay, Okay, chill man, why are you getting so frustrated. We’ll figure out way to kick these problems out. However, the first thing that you need to do is take a break. Give your boss an excuse and get the hell out of here. I think its time for a long drive on the bike. Its been a long time since we had one. So give him some lame excuse and lets get out of here. Also, don’t give that stupid excuse saying that your grandma died. Think of something innovative”.

“All you can do is just crib. Have you ever in my lifetime given me a good idea”.

“Of course I have. Who thought about the excuse when we had to go on a drive last time. It was me who told your boss that your friend had died under mysterious circumstances. We had great time on the beach. Don’t you remember?”

“Yeh that was THE most brilliant idea you could think of sending some innocent guy to the grave”.

“Now its you who are cribbing. So cut the crap and go meet that bulldog boss of yours”.

That evening I told my boss the truth. The truth being that I needed some time off and how I needed some alone so that I could bring about some order into my completely disordered life of mine. To which my boss laughed his usual sarcastic laugh and said that I was just running away from my work. Finally, after an hour of lectures, seeing that I was keen on getting away, he gave me a couple of days off. Relieved, I said my usual goodbye s to everyone around, I got on my bike to go on a journey which later I can tell you had a profound effect on my life.

I always loved going on long drives. As a kid whenever I needed some time off I used take my bicycle and head to any place that was quiet. I loved silence around me whenever I needed to clear my head. This was one such getaway.

I always made it a habit to pray before I left on a journey. And as usual I asked God to take me safely to wherever I was going and back.

As I was filling gas in my bike I thought of going to the hill station nearest to the place I was staying. It was a five hour long drive and it was my favorite place.

I went home changed into casuals, and stuffed a pair of clothes into my bag, grabbed a bottle of water and my Swiss knife. I always made sure that I never carried expensive stuff whenever I went on these long drives. From the point of view of safety I guess it made sense. I used to carry a little change along and mostly carried a credit and a debit card. Since I was going on a holiday, I figured taking my mobile wasn’t necessary. So, taking into consideration all the factors I guess I was ready for an outing.

It was not more ten minutes on the highway, a strange thought occurred to me.

Why do we live? Or it was more like Why are we living?

This is one question for which I could never find an answer. Of course, most of the times we live for our parents, then its for our spouse, for our children, for friends and for a million other things. However, Why do we live?

Whenever I thought of such things, I used to feel that there was something happening out there in space, and we were like actors in a movie. Somebody out there was directing each and every step that we take. And then I wondered if it would be possible. There are more than one billion people in our country and how on earth would it be possible for someone to direct each and every one of those one billion people!

You must have heard the things people say whenever something bad just happened to you. Oh! Its all God’s wish. Oh! What can we do, when God wants us to do something else? Or if somebody passed away in your family, then the most common phrase would be “God takes away all good people!”. Does that mean you are bad? Or “Why did he have to die so early?’’. Why would you like to take his place?

Coming up next is the beautiful track from Rang de Basanti, and I hummed the song for a few minutes. I wasn’ listening to radio, it was my one of those things that I dreamt. I wanted to be an RJ. Now there were many things that were close to my heart. I wanted to be a psychologist, a lawyer, a pilot, a journalist, a entrepreneur, a doctor and a lot more things that I’ve forgotten over a period of time. Each time look back and regret not being one of these. The irony was that I never in my dreams imagined that I would be an engineer. I really never thought of being an engineer. But life had other plans and I became an engineer. Which was the saddest thing and the most boring thing that can happen to a man of innumerable talents. My seniors’ used to come to college on weekends and they would give us a treat since they were working. And with every person I spoke to the syndrome would be magnified. The syndrome being SSDD.

Friends have always been an integral part of my life. There were different groups among my friends. Friends I met in school, in college and when I was working. And the funniest part is I enjoy being with each group and enjoy my time with them. I had sorted out the time during which I would meet the three different groups. Morning to evening would be the college group.( morning meant 11 am, because I used to hate rising earlier than 11 am.). Evening to the end of the day meant being with the guys from school( Again, end of the day means not earlier than 1 am). And the weekends were meant to be spent with guys from work.

I found a drive in restaurant, and I loved the food they made here. North Karnataka meals was the specialty here and you could have an unlimited amount for a very meager amount of money.

The next town was about 20 kilometers away. So, the next couple of minutes went in silence. I was concentrating more on the road, than on the anything else. And Then, again my train of thoughts again started chugging their way through my mind.

It so happens that most of the times in life, you end up doing things that you never expect to. Events unfold in a such a way that they make you change or reconsider your decisions. This has happened a lot of times with me. Let’s go back on a flash back.

Whenever I wanted to attend class or do something that I wanted to, it never used to work out. Something or the other always used to come up which sounded atleast more important than going to class. And CLASSES! They are most boring thing that can happen to anybody. Going to college is fine! But going to class, is UNTHINKABLE!

I lead a totally disorganized life in college. As I’ve said before, can you imagine waking up at 11 and then going to college. And that STUPID HOD of ours. He was a real pain in neck! Rather the whole damn department was stupid. To meet the most sadistic, pessimistic people on earth you have to visit our department.

I don’t know how I scraped through with all those people around. Sometimes, I felt I really wouldn’t complete my course. I did. I somehow did.

I always believed the line “Don’t irritate people for the solo intention of irritating them”.

But there is one more line which goes “ For the rule, the rule itself is an exception”.

The reason why I mentioned the two lines was that, the first line holds false when it concerns my department. The second line is just an argument to convince myself that its alright if you follow the first line.

This is the best part about going on a ride. You can think of all the nonsense you want to without the tension of being ridiculed.