Be happy! It is your right and duty as well.

Often people feel unhappy and frustrated, blaming others for their condition of unhappiness an sorrow. To be unhappy you can find numerous reasons, ranging from traffic on roads to the loss of someone dear-to-heart. Usually we tend to seek the source of happiness in external entities; we are always searching for that center of happiness...wanting to try out that new restaurent, get that new car, spend time with that person and what not. The endless-ness of this search ( which is referred to as un-ending chain of desires) proves the presence of happiness, in its entirety, inside us. Its has been discovered by anyone who has tried, that we can BE happy and not BECOME happy.

As living beings we are a part of the nature, which is an harmonius and brilliant manifestation of a yet-to-be-discovered source of energy. And by this fact, our existence has a right to be as pure as the first drop of rain, as sweet as the song of sparrows, as musical as a waterfall, as beautiful as a flower and as fulfilled as the nature itself. But then why is humankind becoming more and more of an exception, even after proving itself as masters of nature.

The civil society teaches us to enjoy rights that are given, along with the fulfilment of some duties, in order to be a healthy and contributing part of the society. Similar is the case with nature. Its our duty to be happy, irrespective of what the circumstances one is in. Yes , it is our duty, and this dutifulness provides us with the privilige of exercising our right to happier living.

It may be sounding totally absurd, but just think upon it for one minute, it will open up in front of you. Why should I deny myself happiness, if I am presently not making enough money.. I was born on this earth without a penny and will leave all of my life's earning here only. Whatever I get ( or I dont get) should not come between happiness and me, because I had nothing to loose.. except my happiness. Why should I turn away from smiles if I have lost my dearest friend. This departure should not leave us in sorrow as what has ceased to exist, should not overshadow what is existing. Why should I be unhappy with my disease, when I know being unhappy serves no better than making me even more sick...and if I be happy I can face the days of my existence with a smile on my face and the spirit to live.

If we are dutiful in being happy with whatever we are, whatever we have got, and start looking at life in an attitude of gratitude, the universe will provide us with our right to be more happy.. more rich.. more healthy...more powerful.

Resurrection

It has been after a real long time that I got back on the blog-seat. Yeah. life was taking its toll and I was not actually finding a good enough reason to blog. But today it striket me.. what else could be a beteer reason than "no reason" .. i guess thats what blogs are meant for.

Life had been really exciting since my last post. Have touched all corners from Crush-at-work to start-up fever. Its interesting to look back and see the twists life takes for no particular reason. Have also read a couple of good books: 7 habbits of highly effective people and World is flat. Had a chance to visit pune and Coimbotore ( both were businees trips, even before starting it) .

The past month was full of expedetion, more internal than external , i would say. I cought hold "Bhagwat Gita" , which I was lucky to get for just Rs 20 from Bikaner Rly. station. Read the first three chapters. Was able to erlate and get answers to some of my seemingly eternal queries. Like who defines the rules, whats the purpose of life.. whats my duty.. whats on god's mind.. is there a GOD at all. Was strangled a few times in the subtleties of these transcedental ideas. But what I got out of all this exploration ( though its not complete) is that...life is a plain field.. you enter it with certain constraints and capabilities, with consciousness for perceiving whats happening in the feild. You perceive, you observe, you know , you choose and thats what takes you further in this game. Different people, at different times in life come up with philosophies ( or the Truth) which are largely goverend by the experiences they have had. I dont disagree with the existence of an intelligent creator and I really hope to get to realize that, but the fact that its own creations are heading towards self-desturction makes me imagine it as a fabric of energy which creates us all, and which ( the fabric of energy) will remain even after the "intelligent" manifestation destructs itself. There are situations when an individual has to leave things to his "fate", when things are out of control and he can just hope for the best. Though this hope, this faith can imperceptibly enhance one's capabilities. It was this blind faith in GOD which has lead human civilization to walk the first 5000 years of its existence ( untill the invaders came to life ), so with all due respect to the undefined and mysterious source and controller of us all, I take it to my incapability to perceive it and continue exploring while testifying the deductions of my tiny intelligence.

So, enuff of that.. life is rocking. Had a crush on this beautiful south-indian girl at work. Hope to get a little more physically and emotionally mature soon, so that I dont miss out at expressing myself. Bought a car ( Tata Indigo SX) for parents this diwali. Finally cancelled the GRE date. Learned the art of cooking. And back in full form to rule them all... coz the game is not over.

"Miracles Do Occur"

The biggest miracle which everyone of us witness each living moment is life itself. I cannot understand why there is a reluctance in admitting the existance of miracles. The recent event of sea water turning sweet could very logicaly (and obliviously ) be traced back to scientific phenomenon. But what the scientific community has ignored is , every effect has a cause and that cause has yet another cause behind it.
The miracle's immediate cause can be easily deduced as excessive rainfall or dilution of salts, but what about the cause of this unexpected heavy rainfall, or ultimately the cause of anything at all. What I am intending to bring to your notice is that the scientific communtiy should not plainly let-go these moments ,considering them as obvious deduction and disdain the faith of numerous fellow beings; rather they should regenerate the lost awe of nature, in which the great geniuses lived.

I would also like to bring to your notice the fact that, all the great men like Faradey, Newton, Coppernicus etc who laid the foundation of Science (or rather the human understanding of nature) were themselves refered, and are still, remembered as philosophers and not Scientists. The very foundation of modern understanding is the illogical occurence of intuitions in human mind.

Meet Lalit !

Its 12:01 AM ,on 17th of august...just wished Happy Birthday to a friend. So whats the deal with meeting Myself. Let me explain. I have recently joined a club called the ToastMasters club.. a very famous club popular for developing public speaking skills in people. Here people get together, do some chit chat, a few of the enthusiastic ones come up with some prepared speeches. one person speaks , while others evaluate him. So..you know myself being enthusiastic upto the limit of imagination... raised my hand for the P1 session ie. the prepared speech one. In this I would be required to introduce myself to others for FIVE minute.

GOd! I have never spent this much time even thinking about myself. But since I have lately decided that I'll never quit from anything in life... be it vegetarianism or anti-choclate campaign, I have to give this speech. So I am just pondering over my own self. Who am I?

"Hello friends..egotistic talks is what I am allergic too. So I would talk, not about me, but about a very close friend named 'Myself Mangal'. Myself came to this planet from God-knows-where on 12th of October 1984. Since childhood he was the favorite child in the whole family. You know why? coz he never used to cry and was always sensible ( my god! what kind of children give up crying...I guess crazy and philosophical from the very beginning) Myself has an elder brother...whom he loves a lot. Myself ones told me that his life could be seen in phases or chapters. The first chapter is the chapter till class 10th. In chapter 1, myself was shown to be a very good student. Very hard working and intelligent. Very popular among friends but kind of shy person. He had all the capabilities...but always lacked confidence, and that was the reason his creativity did not come out in the first chapter. He was a kind of person...who could stay up the whole night just to prove himself in solving a puzzling problem, and can give up at the very first ball of cricket game. I think he was a guy to whom appreciation mattered the most. He needed people to push him in doing things he wanted to do...but couldnt do; His mother played ( and still plays the leading role in bringing back the gone confidence.. when he is in a low mood). I think he was not very optimistic and lacked self-confidence from the very beginning of chapter one ( this is the reason why... he is taking part in toast masters sesion these days). Myself is a well acclaimed mimicry artist and a nice stage compeerer. He was overweight since class fifth...and didnt go for jogging or morning walks just because he was concious of what people would say when they see an overoaded-cart running. Just to state some facts... our frined Myself got the Merit in the CBSE board and then went on to Kota for IIT-JEE preparations. So in essence...till chapter 1, Myself is low at self-confidence, over-weight, concious about weired thing and over weight. But is an intelligent

Chapter 2 of Myself's life is encompassing his stay in kota. In chapter 2, myself was staying in a rented room all by himself, with the least amount of externeal control, it was the true test of his self-discipline. Mr. Myself scored pretty well to a great extent ( Apart from the late night discussions on bizzare topics..gaining even more weight and being little irregular in studies). Nothing much exciting in this chapter ( apart from a few crushes and failed one-sided infatuations), but what we discovered is that our friend is vulnerable at self-discipline, has a feeble belief system and poor at time management.

In Chapter 3, Myself clears IIT and joins IIT R . ...... BUT WAIT A MINUTE!

I just realized, the reason myself is so low in confidence is because he has a low self-image. He looks back and sees all the things he was not good at and the pessimitic shades of the past. Like in chapter 2, he was made irregular and a mis-time-manager, but on the other hand..the fact that he grew socially and made a lot of good friends was suppressed. So from this word onwards only positive things.

In chapter 3, Myself is shown very excited about his college life. Eventhough the college infra-structure sucked big-time, he never gave up. He was probably the only freshers who volunteered for the techfest that year. He was performing well in studies too. Scored wonderfully in mid-sem tests, but unfortunately screwed up the end-sems. Started an under-cover wall magazine, performed at the hosted day, grew up socially. Althought the technical prowess was not very evident in the grade sheets, but Myself was technically as much sound as any damn 10 pointer. His friends used to envy him of his high energy and enthu. He became the member of a team, which was entrusted with responsibilities like student database and Official institute website. His knowledge grew exponentially, and so did his social circle. He had friends in all the years. He was enjoying the college life to the fullest. Chapter 3, also mentions about the Leg breaking incidents, where myself got his left leg broken twice in a 12 months. Tied down with a cast in the leg, he struggled hard throught the whole of third year and with the support of friends and family, he won over all the odds and cleared the third year with flying colors. The final year was the most happening,year.. came into contact with a lot of friends. Myself got a exposed to the philosophical side of life... he delved into the depths of human mind, and was excited when a lot of his findings concurred with Bhagvat Gita. He grew technically into a deadly equipped computer scientist. In december got a job in Oracle.

Chapter 4...the professional life is under construction. But the trailer has succeded in getting viewer's confidence....... (to be continued)

My Crushes on Campus.

I am an absolute All-boys-education-system product. In my town it is still forbidden to ask a girl "If you know this address?", even if she is the only person visible in kilometers to seek help from. Now in such a Aadarsh environment my mom and dad got me into the best boys school in the whole town. You know, the typical all-boy-schoo chap has his first crush on his science teacher, who invariably is a young and charming lady in her 20's. After growing up a little, the neighbours' daughter makes it to the list. But when the neighbour is an Armyman and leaves your community right at the time when the story is about to take an interesting turn ( when the dude has had a few eye contacts and is waiting to break the ice, poor chap ) . Then when the sweet girl in the ice-cream parlour who does'nt mind smiling each time you come at the counter and sometimes even gets you into a conversation on tendulkars century. You feel excited, and even if it takes 30 min drive from your home to have a vanilla cone, you dont mind. But as the tenth board approaches every Majnu has to get his ass on the chair and mind into books(you know, ice-creams are necessary but not as necessary as CBSE boards). When the boards get over, unexpected things happen...the ice-cream parlour runs out of business and you see a garment showroom there; secondly, you are shipped to kota to drill for some stupid entrance exam.

The life settles there also, the dude is doing good. Enjoys cracking problems and baffling teachers with his doubts. He thinks thats hot. By God's grace he has a few girls in his batch, and since the environment demands full focus on studies there is'nt any chance here also. But slowly the dude-with-the-doubts gets famous and techer know him by name. He gets some confidence and takes a big step. He utters to this charming you girl from his batch "when is the physics class today?", Yesssss did it. Filled with joy of achievement and dreams, he is looking forward for the class the next day. He deliberately overtakes the same beautiful girl on the moped, and even takes a seat behind her in the class. With small but significant steps I had managed to achieve an image where the dude could comfortably discuss the test problems with my dream gal. But then something happened, something even Gabbar singh could'nt have done to Thankur and his family.
then our man met this frustoo chap, his PG(paying guest) mate, whose advised he followed to find his dreams blown off. Being as innocent as Koi Mil gaya Hritik ( when it comes to girls) he thought of this chap as the love guru and dug hole for himself. The frustoo told our dude to go for the "Stare like you-dont-know-what-I -want look". Man that was the stupidest thing one could have ever done upon someone's advice( the thing that I have done on my own include likes of riding the bi-cycle with eyes closed! ). But things that are'nt not to happen wud'nt happen.Our Guy's image was going down faster than Sensex. All those dreams of with the charming girl from his batch were like a million miles away. Damn you frustoo chap!!!
But like after every night is followed by a dawn, our chap also had a great time come back to his like. He got selected into IIT Roorkee. The campus was so beautiful that he fell in love with the natural beauty at the first sight (ofcourse he had to first come over from the nightmarish scenes of Roorkee Rly station and clamouring Riksha-walas). The amazingly colorful flowers, the trees ,which were a first ever sighting for our "nature Lover" or "Natural lover" , had cought hold of him for a while. But the dearth of a more-sought-after beautiful form (you know whiat I mean) could not be ignored for long. Here too our boy was lucky. With 4 ,out of 13 in the entire B.Tech ,girls in his batch he had a plenty of material for paying audience to during the boring lectures. Out of the 4 one of the faces was a familier one. It was the same face at which he used to throw (very)frequent and persistent glances during Apex Academy test centers. The presence of the same face was also cherished during the counselling at Bombay. And now this girl was in our buddy's batch.
He himself doesnt know what is his problem. For complete two years he had this crush which was heavier than iridium , on this girl. But still he could'nt speak his heart to her. Our man shold work on improving his self-confidence. While he was just tripping over every possible opportunity to express his feeling, a friend of the dude was accepted as Mr.Right.
But here I am, in the game again. Recently updated my Orkut profile ( took me 6 hours on the 56 kbps net connection to do this) , hoping for all the e-flirting to give some results.

Gradually Graduated

So, finally the day has come upon which I can say , without using the "I hope" , that I am an Engineer. Now I am ready to be counted in the country's workforce. Lets hope the forces do some work this time. The four years at campus have passed like blink of the eye (Man it was difficult to keep the eyes from blinking all this while.) .

The first year, with those long journeys to lecture halls under the smirking-and-blazing-and-hot sun. The boring lectures, the day dreaming, the pathetic lunch... but everything was made bearable by the amazing company I was in. My irst year group, Bansa, Ulla, Sid, Aaki, dada, Bhandari the wonderful people who made the survival a lot more fun. The late night Bakars, the JRC( Jagte Raho Correspondent) fever, the exam fever, topo-sessions and what not. It was like a new hollywood teenage movie in reality every day. I tried my hands on almost everything from T.T. to Tabla but nothing got to my hands( the T.T. bat used to fly off on my surprise smashes). The biggest achievement in my life till date.. got a chaggi (GPA 6.67), which made me not-all-so-happy for a while, but I was onboard the Dhoom-Dhamaka wagon quite very soon. The next semester was chilled, for the first time I realized what winter actually is. Even the Attendence-suppli threat would'nt have pulled me out of the warm cozy blanket(my savior from the chilling cold). The classes started to loose track of me as much as I was loosing track of em. The electronics lectures ,very rarely been bothered by my drowsy presence, became a cause of concern with syllabus reaching higher than E&CE Tower. The bold zeros in the mid-terms made it indispensible for me to crack my butt off in clearing the end-sem. But then came the BhawanDay celebrations. I was so enthused about it that even a bollywood debutant would feel cold facing my josh. It really overtook every sense of mine. Bhawanday compeering was all the time in my mind, doing breakfast .... yaah! got a great line to introduce myself... In front of the course book...Naah! That dialogue is not effective.... In the class.... Wow! I think I should whisle too. Fortunately all that enthu made my day, my performance was the best of all times, I was appreciated a lot and a feeling of conquest filled me, that furthere delayed my tuning up for the End-sems. The end-sem went so bad that I can't disclose the "dark" shadows on my grade sheets( If I see someone evading a discussion on grades, I totally understand his state). Just to give you a clue I was here for the summers when all my other batch mates were enjoying their time at home by telling their family the kisse-kahani from all through the first year at IIT.

My second year at the campus was one of the most happening time so far. I was recruited into team IMG(Information Management Group, which manages insti website and intranet), a really josh filled group. The days (and mostly nights) in IMG were loaded like Schwasnagger's macine-gun heaps of tasks to be done and fun along. I got to meet a lot of talented people , a few of whom would always be on my "great buddy" list. A few names - fasih, Rajas, Chandan, shabbo, creed all of them have been great to work with. While great tihngs were happening in the after-class time slots, the in-class slolts were equally breathtaking. Seriously, with exciting subjects like DigiElectn, MicroProcessor, SystemSoftware.. I was feeling the transformation already( from me to Er. me). There were some great moments like white-water-rafting expedetion, that was one adventurous trip you never gonna forget. The exciting life on campus was fudged with relaxing vacations to home-sweet-home, a few times accompanied by friends
,coz on those trip I was forced to go out and tour my own city for a change( I still find it difficult to backtrace my way home when mom occasionally sends me fetch some grocery) The Second year Thomso was more exciting than the first one( the number of chiqs had shooted up). Along with litSec vetrans, Rajas and Archish the "chiq of the Town"" was organised.. the best prank i had ever been a part of. Best of the beauties lined up and performing in fromt of huge crowd , contesting for title.. which was as fake as 200ml free on Coke. We were lucky enough to get our asses out of the site and escape a beating from the crowd. The Cogni that year, was made uniquw by my sisters visit to the campus, and also the Mid-night programming contest..I toiled over the chemical- equation balance problem the whole night, just to find that the solution was there at the back of one of my course books, but still it was fun( I solved the problem and got the fifth pos). And then came the sem exams.. as usual the last moment preparation could'nt get me over a 7 that sem.

The third or the "Thud" year. I came to campus a month after the classes had begun, with a broken leg I was sleeping and contemplating on the miseries in life ( like buddha, but offcourse in sleeping posture) while the geeks in my class were pouring over lecture notes.

The Legend of the Leg (part I): I was all packed up to leave for Roorkee, after a long stay at home. Just a day before the date of journey it was my mom's birthday, so my bro and I decided to give her a book on vaastu shastra as gift. We were on our good-very-old Kinetic honda on a journey which I dind'nt know will make me devoid of Kinetic enery for one whole semester. So while we were heading for the bookstore, on one of the many unplanned crossroads of Jodhpur a girl ,out of no where to expect, came rushing into us and crashed her Scooty with our honda. Everybody was on the ground the Kinetic and scooty were on one another. My bro, the girl and I were lying on the road equidistant from each-other. Very soon the public appeared and they took me in their hands with a fellow following closely, holding my lower limb in a manner that made my leg appear boneless. There were multiple fractures... The docs put my leg in a cast and I was doomed to sleep for one whole month and a half.

The prolonged stay at my home was great after a long time I was available to all my relations, my cousins who had longed for sessions on JEE preps were all around me. Overall minus the pain-in-the-leg part was pure fun at home( all acrued to the delicious food and unlimited tv).

Ya.. back to campus life. The third year was pretty much the same each day. I was staying with my mom so all the movies-masti-bakar, the chaapos, nightouts and cherished "freedom" were extinct in my context. But that was one good time with mom always there with you to talk. It was just like home. Mom had aranged the small guest room into a home-like prototype with a small kitchen and a Mandir in the corner. I was happy staying with my mom... it was an awaited thing that made it possible for me to discover and connect with myself. As its kind of obvious, with mom with me I was the studious Lalit again, and that sem I really enjoyed my acads, though there was'nt a significant jump in my GPA, but knowlwgde wise there was. The transformation (me to Er.me) was in the crucial phases. After the 3rd year first sem, there was another Leg-breaking accident which caused the transformation to intensify.

The fourth and the final year. I had just come from my internship in bangalore. The sem being supposed to be a cool one, I was relaxed from the very start. I got to make some very interesting and great friends, to name them these are Bela, Subir, Ganu and Raghu. The last-but-one sem was a confusing period. I was split on to decide,if I wanted to give GRE or CAT. With a GPA as flashy as mine MS and GRE are a farther than pluto. But I was still hoping to push my grades to a decent and speakable position. That semester was I tried my hand on ImageProcessing to Robotics. Suddenly I was so much fascinated by tech that decided to takeup a new area to explore every week. This practice proved to be great, the computer center became my permanent residence. During all this, there was BTP going on in the background. We (Ganesh Agarwal, Raghu and I) had initially overestimated our own potential and grossly underestimated the challenges of hardware based projects. With none of us having even the slightest experience with micro-chips had taken up "Distributed Robotic Task Accomplishment using Intelligent Bluetooth Communication" as our B.Tech Project. Our guide's reaction just what was your. So amid all the final-year-masti crap, my confusion fits, Raghu's thomso and Ganesh's Applying ;the BTP didnt really get the deserved hardwork and attention, apart from the reconsiderations of the problem statement and repeated requirement analysis a few weeks before the mid-eval presentations.
After the 7th semester, the placement bonanza started. All of us pouring into books and project report to brush up the comcepts( honestly, for some of us, these days were the first time when the building of concepts took place). I was lucky and was picked by two of the early birds to the campus, Oracle and ManH.
I never thought getting a job would affect me the way it did. I used to be all puffed up with dicipline and "value time and knowledge" stuff, but from the day I got the offer I was as carefree and relaxed as a guy who has discovered a family link to queen Elizabeth and is getting a share of the wealth. But I got swayed by the fun and frolic going around me. I could'nt supress my techno-hunger for long :) and was back in the game but this time a bit relaxed, coz I did't wory much about the boring stuff (like comp Arch). During the semester I made a project called SunRadio, the project was given the due appreciation which gave me a lot of confidence. Also at the same tim eour BTP was on a crucial stage ie.. the start stage ... yes we had'nt started the heavy project till Feb. Ganesh was worried like a guy standing on the rly platform, waiting for a friend who is having the ticket for his journey and the train is about to leave. So, looking into the possiblities (rather the immpossiblities) of the project completion, we decide to change a topic. We mulled our head for the whole night to come up with a topic which is not very diverse from our initial choice but is doable in two months. After spending the whole night on deciding a new topic (with a few sessions to canteen and a discussion ,enrouting sex ,career etc.. till Indo-pak relations, in between) a sudden spark in my mind gave me an idea to go for VoAdCA. that was Voice on Adhoc networks fo Campus, this was exactly what we were looking for. Convincing the guide was not a problem. Infact the guide also took a sigh of relief. So we began the projec Voadca. With considerable help from the internet, the project accelerated towards completion and with 240 man-hrs in the final ten days, the project was done. We were able to set up a voice chat between two chaps sitting with laptops anywhere insisde the campus. Yessssss!

Now, I am all alone with one friend leaving the campus each day. Its hard see people, who have been with you for 4 yrs, go. I would be the last one to leave from my group. I am all senti right now. These years have been amazingly great. I wish life remains full of excitement and friends at all times. Goodbye Roorkee..

Graduated.