SPIC n SPAN..... :P

Convocation Hall: 9:40 p.m. (SPIC MACAY’s event )

Background: Music of Santoor and Tabla

Person sitting beside me: let’s say X

                                                                                                                           X   : Do u have any idea when will this programme get over?

Me:  No, sorry, I’m here for the  Kathak show.

Me:  Are you from outside IITR?

X   : No I’m 1st year IITR, you?

Me:  I’m 3^rd year IITR.

X  : Oh..!!

After 5 minutes.

Me:  So well, if you don’t like classical music, how come you are here ?

X  : Well, I had to cover the event for WONA.

Me: K, Did u not apply for Kshitij ?

X  : Well, I was out of Roorkee  when Kshitij recruitments were     taking place .

 Are you from Kshitij?

Me:  Well, yeah , I’m the Kshitij Vice President.

X  : Oh..!!

After 5 minutes:

X  : So, according to you, the programme was good.

Me: Yup.

X  : So you like classical music?

Me: Basically I like Classical dance, but, ya, I love the table beats.

X  :  And Santoor?

Me:  Well, thats decent, I relate music to dance, therefore prefer the table beats.

X  :  So you are a dancer ?

Me: Well, yeah I’m in Choreography and dance section.

X  : Oh..!!

Music programme gets over.

X  :  Well, I guess I should leave before the next begins.

Me:  Your wish :P

X  :  K, I’ll leave then, you enjoy.

Me:  Yup, thnx.. J                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                            After some time I’m joined by Kshitij juniors and the Kathak programme begins, and here my blog ends.

Btw the Kathak performance by Monisa Nayak was simply breathtaking.

                                                                                                                                                              PS:  Random observation:  Percussion musical instruments stimulate your left cerebral hemisphere , while the stringed instruments stimulate the right one.

A (BEAUTIFUL) MORNING.....

A breaking dawn…

A sleepy yawn…

The tinkling drizzle…

The blushing sky….

The morning scent…

The humming breeze…

The dancing leaves….

The mysterious nature…

The mesmerized me…..!

A DARK MORNING....

I woke up, to find myself in crushing darkness. Something made my heart collapse; it was the dream, the disruption from the dream or the sudden darkness, I can’t say. But before I could resolve this, I noticed my throat was choked in an attempt to imprison the scream that was wrestling to come out and vomit the sudden strange and overpowering pain I had just encountered. The next instant I was scared, which is strange because since childhood I’ve never been scotophobic.

But this was only one of the things that had changed in my life…

I remembered that it was some pain my dream that had triggered my sudden awakening in search of light, but the blinding darkness left me numb. I had nothing to fight that excruciating pain now, which started to possess me again, now stronger than it was in my trance rendering me incapable even to contain myself physically ,forcing me to curl myself up in defense as I usually do.

Its intensity could have killed me had I not had a desire to stay alive.

As the haziness in my mind cleared out, and I tried to figure what exactly it was that woke me up, I got the most obvious answer. The stimulus was not a dream, but the same haunting memory that attacks my consciousness each time I can’t contain myself. A memory so powerful that in spite of being rusted by time, it was able to cause me enough pain; even in subconscious.

I didn’t want to remember the pain I felt when I had encountered the memory’s blueprint.

Its strange how there always existed a light inside me that shielded me from every emotional turmoil in life, the light which enabled me never to be afraid of darkness, even as a child. But then my childhood was secure from handling this emotion. It’s strange how one person can devastate you without using a bullet. The light inside me had extinguished.

A part of me was dead.

The darkness kept me engulfed for a time that would have seemed infinite; but the sunlight filtered through the window, dissolving the numbness, fighting the darkness that was crushing me, injecting strength in me that was just enough to keep me alive for a day, but also giving me hope to find back the light in me;

To conquer the darkness and be alive again.

PS : Power cut in the hostel at 4 o' clock in morning can be dangerous.

       The first and last lines are absolutely true, rest is 50% imagination.

My experiments with cooking………….. :( :) !!

Now from the vast pool of important and trivial activities around the world that interest my crazy mind……cooking probably occupies the second last number , than swimming……..otherwise you’ll find my hand flirting with almost every damn thing (in dat case I’m a big flirt u see J)………from sketching and painting to photography and designing to playing basket ball and badminton to styling and fashion designing to reading and creative writing ……besides most importantly of course academics and social service……….a recent addition to this huge list has been financing or in other words fooling the corporate and local sponsors to make my ends meet….which is the reason I can be found in the finance cell of virtually every section.

Neway not digressing from the topic…….lets talk about cooking: tho I havnt done much of it, but somehow whenever I do it I come up with a wonderful taste each time, and perfect addition of salt and spices by approximation , and sometimes I feel maybe this was another field I could have successfully ventured in, could have done a degree from cordon bleau….got a job in most popular European restaurant…..nd enjoyed life…..but then that’s not what was destined.

Alfred nobel discovered (or invented) dynamite….

It were winters……My poor little stomach was feeling hungry…..and I surrendered to the best possible solution that most of us recede to for fastest eatable item in such challenging times…..bread and better…. I therefore opened the refrigerator……..but all I could take out was bread (nd the whole wheat one…mine is a diet conscious family u see) , coz butter had been consumed by the household unfortunately, I therefore decided to cook the bread in ghee……and as u all know in winters ghee solidifies to a (delicious) white mass, scanning the kitchen volume for a solidified white mass , my eyes found one in a bowl kept adjacent to the gas stove….I fetched the lighter , turned on the gas, added some ghee to the pan..when it melted I placed bread on it….nd in few minutes I was ready with a decent item to satisfy my stomach…..

Without delaying a second I took a bite……but the taste was like none at all I had tasted before….it wasn’t good or bad , sweet or spicy , hot or sour, but strange…..i was wondering bread ka taste badal gaya hai market me ya ghee ka..??.....as I was trying to figure out this million dollar anomaly, my smelling senses sensed smell of coconut oil…..now again I was sure (nariyal tel to maine lagaya nahi baalon me aaj..)…nd then all of a sudden it dawned upon my intelligent brain…..that I had used coconut oil instead of ghee to cook my bread……..

Now u must be finding it funny, but at that time I was irritated like hell…..boys can understand it better I’m sure…..the emotion u feel when u r terribly hungry and such a thing happens…….neway even I couldn’t avoid a laughter at that time …as I went straight to mom, narrated her the incident and asked for some help in the form of something good to eat now..

Now this was nowhere near in comparison to the atrocity which dad committed on his junior colleague once when he was home.

It so happened that one of his junior colleague came home for some work during afternoon from some far off place out of Lucknow.

Being a considerate family, we offered him lunch…..finding lack of salt in which, he asked dad to give him some, and dad in his overconfidence in the misnomer that he is a master in the kitchen area ; went and gave him the bottle of salt….without asking me or mom.

When the colleague had left the home…….and I was setting the drawing room for the next visitor we were expecting….I wondered y the bottle of baking soda was kept in the centre table…??.....and then that was it…I’m sure u can guess the fault in the whole incident here…J!!

Somehow, after two years of JEE preparation I’ve got used to adopting objective methods in making worldly decision, like I chose my dresses while shopping through option elimination , and at times I do cooking by hit and trial.

Once again I was hungry, and my taste buds had a restricted demand this time…the only thing I wanted to eat was poha….

Actions should immediately accompany thoughts…..i therefore took a frying pan…..added refined oil (minimizing the quantity ofcourse), when it was hot I added cut onions and tomatoes, when onions were a little pink, I added cut potatoes…..so that by the time potatoes will be fried onions will be golden brown…….but I realized potatoes were taking longer, and if I waited for them to be completely cooked; onions will be burnt. Now I remembered potatoes take longer than onions to be cooked, nd the formula is the one that takes longer has to be added to the oil first. Being in no mood to do everything all over again I weighed my options ………clicked..!! I sprinkled a lil water over the potatoes nd covered the pan with a lid, so the steam will soften them and they’ll be fried faster……….succeeded…..now I’m not adding rest of the details…(as it is I’m not writin recipe of making poha)….and strangely what I made turned out to be even better than how my granny makes it.

Neway people don’t assume I’m so naïve at cooking, its js dat I don’t practice it much. Law and cooking are two professions that get better and better through practice ....!! :)

I can make absolutely round chapattis…… I cooked chhole bhature for dad on father’s day (Dad simply luvs it, was better than giving any gift), I have been making cake since 8^th….cooked chilly paneer for mom once(again by hit and trial but turned out to be delicious J), and pav bhaji in these hols when grandmother was home…..

Neway I’m getting bored now……..wait for a continuation of this blog wherein I’ll be telling you about me and my sisters experiments with maggi……nd I’ll tell u a recipe to make the best ever maggi u can in life…!!

Straight from mind and soul…….

Disclaimer

The content is strictly philosophical, only people with a philosophical bent of mind are advised to go through it.

Now my friends strictly advised me against writing this blog….nd therefore I’m advising you not to read it, coz its strictly philosophical…..but people who are completely vella rite now…………..trust me u’ll appreciate urself for reading this blog……….so go ahead…. J

Tho I’m not an atheist, I’m strictly against the concept of religions……or atleast how mankind has perceived it. It absolutely seers my eyes and tear my ears to listen about religious wars…..how can u even think of killing a God’s creation by your hand…….Muslim kill Hindus and Hindu kill Muslims coz Muslims worship Allah, and Hindus worship Krishna, but people doing this crap please, explain me: if your Allah is God, or if your Krishna is God in true terms, it implies the entire world and each person on this earth is His creation, whether he be Muslim , Hindu, Christian or sikh, and I don’t suppose any god gives you the right to kill his creations, and that too the absolutely innocent ones.

And even tho the Quran strictly opposes suicide as a sin, I hav no idea how do terrorists come up with the idea of suicide bombing on the grounds of religion..?? And tho thankfully these religious wars have reduced, they are still going on a scale large enough to poison the mankind. (Here again I don’t entirely blame the terrorists for this, a person is not born a terrorist, in most cases it’s the situation and the environment, the teachings one is brought up under, that makes a person terrorist through slow poisoning, neway I wont discuss it in detail here, mayb I’l come up with another blog on inception of terrorism… J)

The root cause of all this is illiteracy and ignorance. Therefore more than fruitlessly rubbing their heads over issues of overpopulation and civil wars, the politicians and diplomats across the world need to give more time and weightage to the problem of illiteracy, coz that is one thing that is eating up the world in true sense.

Another absolutely illogical thing is the piling up of nuclear arms and weapons by the nations: , now if we have a war , and these nuclear weapons are used, I’m sure u’ll agree that the world will almost come to an end, owing to the havoc caused by them. ( “One lesson we must learn from history and pray that the only arms the world uses are the ones to hug each other”.), and if we don’t use them the financial , manual and nuclear resources invested on them are an absolute waste………..so either way there is no point going for a nuclear race…but then that’s what happening, atleast lets hope we don’t fall in the first situation.

Now , talkin about the fashion of becoming atheist, that has recently come up in gen-x………..let me state it as a fact, there’s no concept of being an atheist and there never was, ……early civilizations worshipped sun, the later ones went on to idol worshipped,………..or rather personified the various forces of nature……..indra , pawan, usha ,vayu, jal , etc……….everyone(atheist or a theist) has a principle, a belief….GOD is that thing; the belief that is the fulcrum of your life…..it can be the purity of your heart(in my case…that’s what I perceive as god, nd yes I also feel that while dancing….it means sheer purity to me) , it can be positive energy flowing in the universe………for some it can be their parents…and then usually for others, it can still be Durga , Shiva, Vishnu, Nanak, Christ or Allah……….in neway all these are manifestations of one single entity which you can term as infinity….coz u can approach it, u can never reach it………it is the super power that has created this beautiful world, u nd me……the fluttering birds , the gurgling stream, the perpetually smiling flowers ………..nd everything that u see around…………it is the positive energy flowing inside you….

You don’t need to see above , in the idols or in the portraits……to seek God………..look within yourself, feel the purity , the positivity within you, nd trust me u’ll get Him, or even for those who call themselves as atheist, they’ll feel the existence of a power within them.

Once we discover this power within us , there’s nothing that we cant achieve……every person is blessed with one unique talent…..nd more than falsely worshippin God, He wants you to achieve excellence in that field………Achieving the highest state of yourself is achieving GOD in true sense……nd as I mentioned u can just approach infinity, u can never reach it……..but the purpose of life is achieved even if you reach the edge of your highest state…….which is not at all difficult owing to the existence of that power within you that is called GOD, its just a matter of realizing it….for which you want some level of purity, innocence, faith and trust.

So its never a question of this person is big , nd this is small…………..the one who realizes this power becomes big……the ones who remain ignorant remain small…………….but its within everyone’s realm to discover this power….so people , never , ever feel , that you are small or u r incapable…………its always within you.!!

THOMSO ’09 and me………

Ohk……so after trying to dig out time since a sem, I’m finally writing my first blog…..!!! J, nd what better topic to chose than the most HappeninG event of the sem (and I guess also my life… :P)….THOMSO ’09.

Whoa…!! It seems it was js yesterday..the 8^th of july…when I dropped here in Roorkee…..awaiting to meet the much talked about TOC . By this time I was 60% finalized with the sponsorship of Airtel (for securing which I suffered 3 accidents on my way to Airtel office L ), therefore had a good recognition amongst the TOC J.

The TOC in general was congenial to us,(me nd my roomie : Samya ;sumhow we’ve got the status of being perfect roomies, being similar in n number of ways with even the differences complementing each other;nd yes we can have an infinite bakar session anytime , anywhere ranging frm tips on applying nailcoat(before my maths end sem) to discussing India’s politics (on mayb the coolest weekend)); and one person (a non TOC involved in THOMSO ) who seemed quite distant then is strangely one of my closest friend now. J keep guessing…!! :-B

And how can I forget the chapos, that followed work, nd specially the moments when Shikhar sir, Sahaj sir and Kartik sir united and what followed was an unforgettable laughter session. ( Money is no problem with Jetty u see , and takin Chapos is no problem for us J)

Oh …!! Nd tho I never knew I’d become so cool for acads, but it was only two days bfore TS-2 I’d hit the books, dunno I should laugh or cry on the fact that I was writing and mailing HPCL even one day bfore TS L J.

One high water mark event between all this was the SAC elections, which we should thank for giving a dramatic turn to campus life events, ranging from the unexpected results to the bollywood style fight (hum bhi hain josh me; baatein kar hosh me…., yun na aankhein dikha….!! :B, neway personally I hate political scuffles, but somehow , dunno y I like political people.. J). From SAC, entered two more members in TOC, nd tho hats off to the sincerity with which he did work, I was literally scared to enter THOMSO office in his presence, yes I’m talkin about Caius Cassius part -2, Gaurav Nemade, God!!, he would never spare me without a one liner everytime I set my foot in the office, but I’ll hav to admit; besides the Convenor, THOMSO ’09 would not have been possible without him .

Oh, yes, …….here’s an observation, if you take the name of all the designers involved in THOMSO , nd remember their visages, u’ll notice they all were cute ….(no misinterpretations here…I’m stating that js as a matter of fact).

That was it about pre THOMSO, I’d better come to the main event now, or else it will be a never ending blog…

So here comes the 29^th of October; I’m on my way to THOMSO office , as I wish all the best to the Convenor nd the TOC, I see the panorama outside the office. Gosh!! Is this the IIT R ,I was familiar with……college groups thronging the Hyde’s park, swaying to the music of their guitars …..our UG ground dotted with damsels and hunks now in its more glamorous version of a food court ….nd all u can perceive in the air was fun nd only fun......nd yeah, do I need to mention that these three days r the most awaited by the IIT R guys.. J!!.

Day 0 was not much of a fun for me, for I had tasks to complete for my event Extravaganzia del Salsa, had to show around a sponsor, had to finalize few steps for my Solo, nd mst importantly had to decide dresses for the next three days. Amidst all this Thahake came as a treat, especially Ashok Chakradhar with his witty and offbeat humour, Shivank’s sir saat phere……nd a very confidential bakar session between me ,Rashmi and Ibrahim sir at the library steps (where I reached barefoot, with my stilletos in my hand….couldnt let my feet suffer more…L).

Next morning came Day 1: again tension of getting the salsa trainer on time, some footloose work, + frustration on the fact that THOMSO was happening at a time when none of my frnds could turn up coz of their exams,I was not in one of my very good moods.

It ws around 12, I was standing at the salsa registration desk….mood down, therefore I was lookin down at the table , when my gaze fell upon on the i-card of the person standing next to me, the face seemed familiar…gaze moved right…..name also seemed familiar……next; my heart skipped a beat, as my gaze moved upwards, was I dreaming or was it Karan Dewan standing next to me flashing me one of his killing smiles…instead of greetin him all I could say was “ Oh, my GOD…!!”, neway we chatted for a while,…….the normal questions, if u meet a person after two years, nd then teasing each other , sayin “for old times sake”….. to say a sweet-salty moment…

Oh, btw for people who don’t know., Karan Dewan / KD was my bf in school, was the most handsome hunk in the school , neway we mutually broke up for good, became even better frnds, nd took up the job of advising people on relationships… J

Seemed like this was the lucky charm event of my day…coz the follow ons were even better…including getting a compliment for my style statement by my bhawan secy, Sonal mam.

Next , I was anchoring for footloose prelims. I was standing by the side of the stage , enjoying the ongoing performance , when somebody tapped on my shoulders, I turned around….thinking its again the DU guy with his non sensical query…..and here I receive another shock of the day, this time big enough that I could have jumped upto the ceiling of convo……when I realized I ws on stage….nd audience’s attention should rather remain on the performance than on me J. It was Milan sir…!!!,my guide., my bro, my friend, my critic in dance…nd most importantly my best advisor….u hardly find selfless people like him these days….so his passin out was indeed sad for all of us in choreo, therefore the happiness of seeing him after six ,months was …..beyond wrds…

Following footloose, I had my workshop to attend to…missed motomania sadly…..here again hats off to the Convenor, getting the permission frm dean for Motomania, was not at all a piece of cake….

But, honestly, if Pronite is the heart and soul, Salsa workshop is the charm and spice of THOMSO .

It was all exciting to see the perfectly and oddly matched couples……the committed ones as always adding to the charm of the ambience ; the female counterparts dressed in most attractive attire, in contrast to the guys of our college who severely lack in fashion and style, how can u come to a salsa workshop in floaters..??. !!

Oh yes,…..never before I knew that people in IIT R are so deft in rumour making……for I heard some of the wildest rumours with inevitable spice on, about myself…on hearing which I could js laugh at the fact that IITians hav lost all logic…. L!!

Those who didn’t come to the final day of the workshop missed a lot…….was the most spicy one , especially the part when a person proposed his girlfriend, dat too with a ring…..it was good to know that IITians kno how to b romantic…..:P, I was neway happy on the fact that the workshop came to a good and a spicy end…!!.

And also all the time spent, going together to CL for sponsorship and all with the other co-ordinators Jimit and Rishabh/ tom and jerry J (they’ll kill me for writin their nicknames :B) nd Maqbool (Mayank kumar Bansal), was no less fun. One being one of the coolest IITRian, and another angry young man(I’m sure u can guess, who’s who..). The workshop would not have been possible without either of four of us. Four cheers to all of us….!!

Day 2: Now this was the most busy day for me, I woke up late….hadnt even prepared my anchoring, nor decided what will I wear on stage…it was 9:30, footloose was to start at 10, I rushed to the bathing room…changed, stuffed some of my clothes, and dress for solo in a polybag, and rushed to the convo….

Stage preparation thankfully bought me some time….. So I decided I’ll change and then write down something to speak…….and Omg!! I even had to practice my solo once, else I’d go down like a lead balloon…..

I hadn’t yet decided what will I wear, i wore a random combination from all I had brought along with me, and luckily it came up to b a perfect stage wear (dressing comes naturally to me, is what I’ve realized by now).

I had hardly penned nethin down, when audience started pouring in….…..nd in a next few moments the teams were ready, the convo was packed, the judges were seated, and I was to begin the show.

Presently, I cant express ; how nervous I was bfore mounting the stage……but once I was at the centre of the stage, with mike in my hand….sum thousand audience in front of me, the adrenaline rush , the hooting, the spotlight….I was more comfortable than anywhere else in the world……

The first performance itself set the standard for footloose, the ones that followed were no less…..I’m personally a fan of MISBAH tho, for their nearing perfection performances, MMEC mullana was again great….

The guests performances further added to the charm of footloose, Falguni’s(Boogie Woogie winner) spell-bounding kathak (now kathak is my favourite classical dance and requires extra-ordinary head- hands- feet- eye co-ordination), nd Vishal’s breath takin MJ’s break were a welcome to the eyes……….nd yeah ,I remember I got a CCD sandwich free for advertising for CCD, which I literally hated doing……..

Also having a solo to perform , I took leave of the audience after the group round. But thnx to the adrenaline hormone gifted by Him that I could actually manage some energy for solo, after standing in heels on the stage for so long, …….following the sizzling duets, started the solo round nd tho the convo was vacated by some of the audiences by now, coz of overstretched footloose this time ; one special person who I wanted during my solo was there J ; Now u must hav guessed ,reason for my performance being this late..!!. I won’t be telling u how I liked performing nd all, coz I neway cant express, in words, my love for dance, but the joy of dancing in front of audience of some thousands (including the special one) was truly exclusive .

By this time, I was drenched of even the last drop of energy in my body, so I decided I’ll rather take a short nap in my room before going to the rock show,……but when I woke up I realized it was 10 am next day…….so I missed the first ever foreign band rock show in IITR. L

Final day was the most relaxing and euphoric, from chilling out with choreo , to meeting some of my school friends…….managing salsa ……attending the pronite……Now, apart from glowing handsome JAL band, TOC could hav been a must watch at the pronite….all of them were literally glowing with satisfaction and exultation…..the one u really call ……..hard wrk paid off..!!

As I was enjoying this moment and remembering all the precious moments gifted by THOMSO ’09, I was also wondering the future teams will have a tuff time breaking the standards set by THOMSO ’09…. …..so a warm gratitude to the entire TOC this year……and all my best wishes to the future ones…!! J

Final observation: Conveners of two of the most successful THOMSO share the starting syllables in their names…. J