Dreams and Desires

Dreams and Desires
Courtesy: Google

I don't have dreams

just compelling desires. 

They leave me sleepless

burn like fire 

catching me restless

holding me at edge

like a question unanswered

or as an insane philanderer. 

It chases me

until I live it

until I turn it true

and believe it. 

No, i don't have dreams

just compelling desires

China at the Olympics

It was in the year 1952 when flag of the People's Republic of China was raised for the first time in Olympic history at the Helsinki. They participated in only one event and couldn't manage any medal.  However, they din't paticipated till 1984 'cos of the dispute over the political status of China. Lets take a look at the medal tally of china in the olympics for last 5 years. 1992 Barcelona: China won 16 gold, 22 silver & 16 bronze and with a total of 54 medal they were at fourth position in the table. 1996 Atlanta: China won 16 gold, 22 silver & 12 bronze and with a total of 50 medal they were at fourth position in the table. 2000 Sydney: China won 28 gold, 16 silver & 14 bronze and with a total of 58 medal they were at third position in the table. 2004 Athens: China won 32 gold, 17 silver & 14 bronze and with a total of 63 medal they were at second position in the table. 2008 Beijing: China won 51 gold, 21 silver & 28 bronze and with a total of 100 medal they were at first position in the table. In only eight participation in the summer olympics they have managed a total of 385 medals that includes 163 gold, 117 silver & 105 bronze and is ranked at #7 in the all time Olympic games medal table.  The 2012 Olympics in London is scheduled to begin on 27th July and China is once again ready to dominate the medal table.  
But what's the truth behind this great performance? The children in China are scouted at a very tender age. They are tested to see if their bodies can withstand the demands of the sport. The majority of them don't make into it but those who are selected their training starts which is a life long process of becoming the best. At an age of 4 years they have to balance between a toilsome training schedule and a tough school routine and are allowed to meet their parents only at the weekends. This age is a lot earlier than when athletes from other countries start training and their training programmes also are  not as harsh as in China. However, not everyone from these sports training academy makes into the Olympics and win medals. They often suffer from unemployment and poverty. They can't do anything 'cos they have no skills. The over training also results in health problem at the later stage of life.  Isn't this a cruel behavior on children and should constitute as child abuse?

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well. 

The story of an IITian

Everyone in the country wants to be an engineer and when it comes to engineering there is one and only name on everyone's mouth - Indian Institute of Technology. It is a dream of every engineering aspirant to be a part of this prestigious institute. The reason:

• It is difficult to achieve and the challenges adds to its appeal. It is human nature that the thing which we find tougher looks more attractive to us.
• It sets the students apart from the rest of the society - they are viewed as a subject of envy and receives praise and applause from all around that gives a sense of euphoria.
• It is considered that it gives a great start to the career 'cos companies compete each other to hire IIT graduates.

But are these reasons actually true? or it just seems so until one gets inside? I recently read about an IITian and that presents a different inside story. 

The question arises: Is it worth studying in IIT? Of course the answer is YES! But everyone in IITs does not make it big and everyone not in IITs doesn’t end it up here. 

There is a LIFE beyond IITs. 

Jesus Christ

I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless 

An angel, Gabriel, sent by God met Mary and told her that  she would give birth to the Son of God.  She was engaged to Joseph, a carpenter and he was instructed by the angel to marry her. He took her to Bethlehem to register for a census and there she gave birth to Jesus. The wicked king learnt about his birth and sent soldiers to kill the child. Joseph was warned by an angel and he took his family to egypt. They returned only when the king died and raised the child in a town called Nazareth. Jesus had many friends, including John the Baptist and the 12 disciples whom he selected as companions. Their names were: Andrew, Bartholomew, James(son of Alpheus), James(son of Zebedee), John, Judas, Matthew, Peter, Philip, Simon, Thaddeus and Thomas. They had different backgrounds and they travelled with Jesus as he preached. Jesus taught people how to live godly lives. He often used parables to teach his listeners to: Trust God, Not to be anxious about future, Stop judging others & Love all including your enemies. He gave the golden rule that said: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Jesus had power over nature, disease and even death and he did many miracles to show others that he was God's son. 

Power over nature: Jesus and his disciples were on a small boat in the sea of Galilee. A fierce storm came and started to sink the boat. His disciples were worried and asked for help. He arose and reprimand the storm to be at peace and even the wind and sea obeyed him. 

Power over disease: A blind beggar was when told by the crowd that Jesus is passing by the street he cried out for help. He said he wants to regain his sight so that he can see the world. Jesus said: "Receive your sight; your faith has made you well." and it brought light back in his eye. 

Power over death: A man named Lazarus who lived in Bethany died. When Jesus learnt about his death he came to Bethany. The man had been dead for 4 days and his body was kept in a cave covered with stone. He asked to remove the stone and shouted, "Lazarus, come forth!" and the man came out from his death bed. 

However, jewish leaders accused him of blasphemy. He was arrested and was sentenced to death by crucifixion. His body was placed in the tomb and soldiers were kept to guard the tomb of Jesus. On the third day, soldiers fled and disciples came and found an empty tomb. Jesus had risen from the dead. He appeared in front of his followers and asked them to spread the knowledge and teach others. 

An ode to Goddess Saraswati

A page from my diary

Date: 30/01/2012

It was not planned but I had to go Ranchi today. The reason was that my friends wanted a treat for my birthday that was a month back. On my way I saw people carrying idols of Goddess Saraswati. My general awareness is good enough to know why and where they were taking the idols but the point of discussion is not that. Its not even about the 'traffic problem' they were creating 'cos of the occasion as it is very normal phenomena here and it doesn't require any special occasion, all thanks to the traffic sense of ranchites. What attracted and made me curious to think about it was actually the songs the 'devotees' were playing and dancing on them. At first it was hard to believe on ears but when I believed I was in a stage of shock trying to figure out the relation between Goddess Saraswati, Songs and the motives of crowd going crazy over the bollywood tunes like Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast& Munni Badnam Hui Darling Tere Liye & Chamak Cham Chamke Angoori Badan!!! Being an optimist I was trying to defend them by arguing myself in their favor. My sole motive at that time was to  somehow give a rationale reason of playing these songs at that occasion and these were the reasons I came up with:  
Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast 
Saraswati is Goddess of knowledge and she is prayed for gaining knowledge and studies, to sharpen the intellect and improve memory. With this song, perhaps they meant to say that she is awesome and best of the best. This was an easy pick. But the next two was definitely not! 
Munni Badnam Hui Darling Tere Liye 
We call someone by their nicknames or some kind of loving sweet name when we consider them very close to us. Munni is one of those loving sweet name (remember a father calls his son as munna and daughter as munni) and calling Goddess Saraswati with this name shows their affection towards Her. But how is She infamous is tricky to answer. This probably denotes her sacrifice for us.   
Chamak Cham Chamke Angoori Badan 
This was the toughest one to justify. The above lines seems a lustful expression to me and it cannot be related to Goddess Saraswati in any sense. Perhaps they who were playing it knows better than me.

Life @ BIT Mesra: PART 1

PART 1: First Year 

A journey that started on 22nd July 2008. That was the day when I reached Mesra to live my dream in reality. Yes, it was my dream and I always wished to study here. I was allocated 'Hostel No. 3; Room No. 63'. It was a long lobby and where that ended was my room and perpendicular to it was another small lobby. I was happy 'cos it was a single room and a big window through which I could see the jungle behind the hostel. I was impressed with the campus since my first visit during counselling and admission process 'cos of its location in the middle of a jungle and far from the city. But there was an unusual silence over there at that moment which I had never felt before during my earlier visits. The silence was kind of disturbing and was making me feel uncomfortable. One more thing that I worried about was 'Ragging'. That's the term which makes every fresher shivers down to the spine. There was a lot of people in there like me with their parents. Everyone was busy in cleaning their rooms and trying to settle themselves. But still the silence prevailed and it was broken by this guy, Ankit Goyal. He came by to say 'Hello' and then we had a little chat. He told me that he is from nearby Ranchi area and was preparing for entrance exam from Kota. I was never good at making friends and I was happy I got a friend.  Later in the evening during snacks time I met other guys of my lobby and those were Deepanshu Ujjain, Prateek Jain, Ranjan Kr Rahul, Sparsh Sinha, Riju Chatterjee, Subhradip Saha, Anchit Jain, Aditya Ujjwal and Shailesh Kejriwal. That was the friend circle and I had so many friends on the first day only. This was the new start of life at a new place.  

The induction phase

From the next day, only the classes started. I realised one thing that there are way too many students in my branch, a whopping 120. During our initial days, there was no study pressure. We were taken by our professors to visit the laboratories in the college and there were many. At first, it was exciting to visit but later that proved to be boring as they started to explain everything related to a particular instrument and that was too much for a twelfth pass out student. One day we were asked to gather at the institute auditorium. That was an official introduction of so many clubs functioning in the college and that so many clubs counts to approximately 32 at that time. Every club was giving their brief introduction and was asking us to join. It was told that its necessary to join one technical and one non-technical club and at max one can join three clubs. 

Ragging? 

Ragging... That's the term which makes every fresher student live in fear. But, luckily I never faced any ragging and in fact nobody faced it in the college. The administration was very serious on this aspect. Our seniors had to submit a document stating that if they will be found indulged in ragging than they will be expelled. There were security guards in our hostel and patrol parties used to spy any such activity. The location of our hostel was also such that it discouraged anyone to come for ragging. But the downside of this was very less interaction with seniors and the result was we were not given 'fresher's party'.   I was happy 'cos I never wanted to feel the heat of ragging. 

PT and Games 

I hated it. There was a dress code: white t-shirt and half pant? The instructors there used to think themselves as a professor. One of the instructor Mahendra Prasad aka Chaddi Singh used to boast so much about himself in games activity but that always used to end with him saying that he is having pain in his leg and can't play. That was not like a game period but more like NCC 'cos we had to do 'attention' and 'stand-at-ease' stuff most of the time. They never allowed us to go before time and that continued for two years. I wanted to switch to NCC or NSS but there was no such provision. 

IEI club 

There was a test conducted by this club. A set of questions were given and we were asked to submit it later. We all cheated. Our every answer were matching but don't know how I came third and was given a prize of 'One Hundred Rupees'. There was another guy, Antesh Singh, who came first and was given a prize of 'Three Hundred Rupees'. A total of four hundred rupees and all came 'cos of us cheating together so it had to be spent in a party at the canteen. 

The Best Professor 

...and the award goes to Prof A K Roy. He was kind. He was supportive. He used to teach us 'Engineering Mechanics'. It was a boring subject but 'cos of his style of teaching it used to seem interesting. Beside teaching us the subject he always used to tell us about 'intranet'. 

The Worst Professor 

Prof S K Chatterjee. No Doubt. His subject was C Programming. Either he doesn't know the subject or he doesn't know how to teach. Everyone was afraid of programming 'cos of that man. Those who were in 'Computer Engineering' started thinking of a branch slide while those who wanted to slide to 'Computer Engineering' dropped their idea.  There was such a fear of the subject. 

Technieek 

The first fest in the college and the participation was huge. Everyone in the first year had participated. We had to participate in a team of five members. The name of my team was 'Fraternity' and that included Aditya Ujjwal, Deepanshu Ujjain, Prateek Jain, Ranjan Kr Rahul and of course me. Though we didn't reach the core night of the fest but it was fun. 

Pocket Tanks 

Our own little competition that got huge participation. An entry fee of ten rupees was kept and a cash award to the winner was declared. However, the plan was to make someone in our group to win and that actually happened with Ankit Goyal winning the title of first ever pocket tank winner. We had money, so another party but this time at Munna Dhaba. 

Gauri-Gunda 

An another name in the list of worst professor category. The man used to teach us 'Basic Electrical Engineering'. But I don't think he was teaching but actually harassing us. He was a self-obsessed and an insensitive human being. He was a frustrated soul and we used to pity 'EEE' guys of having such professors in their department. 

...And somehow the first year ended with 'us' heading for the trip to Darjeeling-Gangtok.

A Happy Ending