Room Excavation !!!

It is sad but you have to pack your things and go back. And when you start this final packing, you will unravel lots of interesting things that sat in the corner of your room till today. You look at them and listen to each of its stories while slowly packing.

1. A Doctor prescription dated 14th november 2007 that gave me spectacles for the first time and for life.

2. Two Citi residency discount coupons whose validity was over in August 2008.

3. A birthday card from Uday given 2 months after my bday and which read :

Some B'day cards are flowery and frilly,
Some B'day cards are goofy adn silly,
Some B'day cards are cold and sedate,
And some B'day cards like this one are,
.
.
.
Late !!!

4. Autumn 07 edition of Deja Vu- college's newsletter and My Article in it.

5. 'One love' song lyrics which i gave my junior to write during ragging.

6. A 40 page CAD-CAM assignment that took a whole day to write back then.

7. A ninth class computer text book i brought here to learn html which i never did. And also a logarithmic tables book.

8. A college letter that ordered us to refrain from ragging and get a signed letter from parents supporitng it. All of us forged it. No one will travel/courier 1500 kms to get a piece of letter signed.

9. The first question paper i set as part of Maths N Tech club, set of 30 questions to solve in 30 minutes.

10. A january 2006 calendar of events, that month I dont know why but i recorded everything, prominent of which are

Jan 15 - Gulti family rejoins after winter
Jan 21 - the first real session of ragging (which meant seniors beat you)
Jan 25 - Seniors asked me to propose shruti coz she was a telugu speaking girl
Jan 28 - Session got cancelled luckily.

There are a lot more things to look at and smile and upon.... Life always gives you memories. They dont come with pictures. They come with real things that you can touch and reminisce.

Final words !!!

This post is all about ME ... ME - Mechanical Engineering

It's good when things come to you when you least expect it. The departmental farewell was something that came so.

There were highs and lows in Dept of Mechanical Engineering and both were memorable. We gave two grand viva's that showed our real calibre. We were cross questioned by Professors on things we had no idea upon. We were dipped into CATIA when we least wanted to.(But this was of great help...). We just managed to get out alive from the Electrical machines laboratory. We sold 'Chededeen' to our professors. We minted marks for nothing. We were fined 25,000 /- rupees for NOT breaking a vernier height gauge. (It was cancelled after a month luckily...).We manipulated values of the Standard Units to get answers. Things like Simply Supported Beam and methods like Simplex Method were too complex for us. We painted our drawing sheets instead of Engineering drawing. We gave seminar's on each other's topics and project on senior's topics. But we were very decent. We didn't give mis-calls to the very professor who was teaching us in the class. We din't fling chalk pieces at them. We didn't comment them in their presence. :D

On the occasion of Farewell, I would like to record words of our professors in their final address to us:

Prof. I. Basak : Points at the banner behind that reads 'FAREWELL' and says " FARE WELL IN YOUR LIFE"

Prof.B.Halder : A chicken needs to come out of its shell to grow. But it should not forget the shell because it was what provided witht the initial nutrients for its growth. Never forget this shell - NIT Durgapur.

Prof. A.K. Pramanik : I taught you thermodynamics and it is my habit to deal with ideal processes and ideal cycles. You have been in such a state till now. You are going to go out of the ideal case into the real world. All the best.

Prof. N.Hui : Do not continue your future the same way you read Air conditioning and refrigeration (The toughest subject of ME), You need to control your life properly. And every time in life try to optimize and achieve maximum efficiency.(He teaches Control systems and operation research)

Prof. N.Banerjee : I will tell you a story. There was once a stone statue carver. He was selling his statues while a passer by asked him about another statue that was kept at the back of the stack. The carver said that it has a small hole and is defective. The man said that It wouldn't matter because when this was mounted at a height of 30-40 metres it wouldnt matter. No one would know its defective. The man said " I would know that it was defective." Similarly only the college and the professors know whatever defect is in you. Outside this world no one knows you. You are just 2k9 Mechanical Pass out. Use this oppurtunity to prove yourself inspite of what you were in the college.

Prof. A.K.Saha : The 2k5-2k9 batch rocked. It was a batch that took a lot of initiatives and that achieved a lot.

Prof.A.Layek : All the best for your future.

Don't know when the whole batch will meet again. It might not be long for there is a convocation. Hope we all make it and share our 5 month Real life Experiences.......

A Rupee's story !!!

I was born in 1991 in bombay. I weighed 10 grams when I was born. I still weigh the same. Over the years I look the same but I lost some of my shine. And always My net worth was just one rupee.

The very first transaction that I recall is the one when a kind-hearted man gave me to his son on the day of Eid-ul-fitr. I was shining like silver that day.The boy clutched me tightly in his hands all through that day. At the end of the day however I went in exchange to a lolli-pop.

I was in the possession of many boys. Some were good enough to give me to their mothers. Some kept me in their pencil box. But some tied a thread around me and dragged me all along the road. I was frequently used by high school boys to draw a circle and that made my edges black. I was used to represent how solar eclipses occur. I was used to represent nuclear fission reaction. I was used to give a simple example of probability. However I was too small to represent Rutherford's atomic model.

I used to travel a lot. Today in bombay and the next in calcutta. I remember an international visit too. I had to bear all the seasons. I would be cold in kashmir, hot in rajasthan and almost always wet in kerala. I was 10 years old when a boy put me on a railway track to see what would happen if a train ran over me. I survived when someone suggested him to replace me with a 5 rupee one. I was thankful to the minting press for making me slim.

One day I entered the NIT campus. The first purpose I served in the NIT was to decide who would bat first in the cricket ground. I was often used in exchange for the 101 and 111 top-ups of Reliance and airtel. There was a place called TECHNO where I exchanged hands nearly 60 times in an hour between 10-30 and 11-30 pm.

I was touched by both vegetarians and non-vegetarians. I was licked by dogs and 3 year old's. I was the profit margin for a vegetable seller. I was the charity outside places of worship. I vanished under a magician. I was suddenly found in a bus-taker's pocket. I allowed people 60 seconds of chit-chat. I could fetch 15 marbles for a child. 2 of my kind could fetch 3 pani puri's to the teen. 3 of my kind would fetch protection for an adult. 4 of my kind would fetch a day's tobacco for an old man.


But now I am neglected. The two rupee ones seem to be everywhere. They are now circular and have taken my place in the geometry class. I don't fetch a newspaper anymore. I am not sufficient to predict your weight at the railway station. I don't know how many days before I loose my place in the bus conductor's pouch and the xerox machine's desk. May be in a few days I will not even be worth charity.


One day I fell in the hands of a 18 year old coin collector. He looked at the year inscribed on me. He loved the fact that both of us were 18 years old. And immediately I found myself in a dark box with a number of other coins. I suppose this is my death. And this box seems no less than a coffin. I have lost track of time since then. May be this is what it means to say '18 till I die'.


Everyone has desires in life. Even I do. I want to decide who would bat first in an India-Pakistan encounter. I want dhoni to take the call and I would willfully fall as per his wish. But it seems so far now. . . . . ! ! !

The Travelogue !!!

Usually travelogue refers to a place. But this travelogue travels in time. To my first year. To my first days in the college. Irrelevant though, the legal age for marrying in india is 21. Atleast for men. And my dear friend, RAJU GUGULOTHU, turned 21, some 4 months back, is currently married. Married on 13th of Feb. 2009, 9-35 A.M, IST @ Mangalabandi Tanda, Warangal.

I never expected that someone I would meet on the first day of the college as my room mate will marry mid way in his final year. I remember he received a call from a girl on 14th February 2006 on my number. I never expected though that he would be marrying her on 13th of February 2009. I remember he bought some bangles and ear rings from BIG BAZAAR in December 2005. I never expected he would be preparing his wedding suit in December 2008. I remember the first day he told me about her, way back in September 2005. I never expected though that her name would be scripted on their wedding card so soon.

I am his first year room mate, 4 year branch mate, 7 month ragging mate and an eternal friend. I have some little known facts about him. He would struggle with hindi sometimes, he would heat 3 buckets of water in winter to take a bath(which even i followed), he was fond of roll no : 05/166 atleast for a small period of time, and also recieved some festival bonus from Prof. Kumbhakar, dept of physics to buy sweets. He found a hundred rupee note on the road once, he got a Waitlist 265 ticket confirmed on a train once. we were 4 mechanical engineers in one room and it was the only room in the whole of Hall-9 which had 4 students from the same branch.

We would play cricket and chess in that first year room. Satish panda the other mechanical was a clear winner at chess. you can look at him and you would know how he earned his -5.5 power spectacles. Of course, the obvious. He was fond of a particular roll number too, but due to some special reasons I wont be mentioning it. The strange thing about him was that he had an airtel number which started with '9'. Okay Okay that's not strange. But the strange thing is that his balance suddenly falls by Rs. 50 /- for cricket updates which he never subscribed. He never complained about anything. I have so many sorry's to tell him, for things i dont like to recall. All these aside, he topped the room in the first semester with a grade point of 8.7/10. Though he spoke hindi, he had strange flaws in it. He used 'Main jaa raha hoon' for both 'Im going' and 'Im coming'.

Our fourth partner GOPAL SINGH, on the contrary was a hindi pundit. Flawless both in ascent and pronounciation. He would correct us in grammar and was ever ready with the meaning of any stringent hindi Vocabulary. I remember he wrote a 4 page essay once in ragging on a COW'S TAIL. He had seniors who changed his name to PALGO SINGH. And to-date he is also known 'palgo'. When i first entered our room, he'd already reached and had a really colourful bedsheet on his mattress. I don't recall him being in fond of any particular roll number. But i remember he suffered from typhoid for no fault of his. Like satish, he also never complains but he had a friend who always complained. They called him Alok khatiyar. He could curse the college, the mess food, anything he could imagine. But hearing him was fun.

None of us had a camera or a mobile with a camera and so we could never record our time together. It just remains in the neurons. But the pixels are large enough not to erase. We had weekly room cleaning sessions in which all the 4 participated actively. Every 15 days or so we would change the alignment of beds. If only we had paint for free, we would have painted our walls lavender.

It has been a long journey since then. We are about to complete our engineering. We have very little time left here in college. May be we will meet next in our convocation. May be Raju, the married man will be blessed with a child by then. The travelogue of TIME. Time will only tell....

Your dreams are not yours alone !!!

You asked her to make do in a one-room apartment, She did.

You got up at three to watch the world cup, She made tea.

You never had to worry. About your health, your mom, your kids. She did.

You were too busy to call everyday. She understood.

You sometimes forgot to say , "I love you."She never forgot.

When she cried, she cried alone. Whenever you cried she cried with you.

Your dreams are not yours alone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .



Thus went the advertisement of Union Bank of India - Good people to bank with.


My money was safe with Union bank of india. And it was amusing to find the half page advertisement of the bank I most trusted on the first page of my morning newspaper. In my admiration of the bank and the advt. I forgot one other important thing. That Union bank of india was not the only bank managing my dreams. There was another, boiling tea in the kitchen and burning hands to cook the breakfast.


A look at today's date said that today was the date when i first opened my account in Union bank of India, the date when I first learnt to fill up a form and deposit money in the bank at the age of 17. The date when i saw her for the first time - standing in the line next to me. Today was the date, years ago, that I fell in love.


It was the same date when I built up enough courage to try and talk to her. I slid the pen I'd brought inside my pocket and asked her for one. She generously lent it. However I had a tough time filling the already filled up form. I saw that I'd missed the date. I asked her the date. She thought I was dumb. I couldnt fare much better. She in all this melodrama forgot the pen she'd lent me. I couldnt be happier.


Over the next few days I paid regular visits to the bank, I was ready with the pen and a few rehearsed dialogues. Much to my disappointment she did not turn up. And gradually my frequency of visits also declined. But whenever I went I scanned the bank completely.She must be cursing me for the loss of a costly pen.


Years passed. I completed my engineering. Posted at kolkata with a reputed firm and a respectable pay I grew busy in work. My salary was linked with Union bank of India. An ATM in front of my one-room apartment was the source for me. But one day I had to go to the bank to manually withdraw because the ATM wasnt working.


After a long wait in the line, I finally reached the counter. Whom should I see there behind the cash counter but her. Yeah the same cute one that lent me the pen. She didnt remember me. I didnt think excavating old facts would please the busy banker or the ones standing behind me. I left the counter normally, almost raided my room to find the Epic pen and finally found it tucked in my dairy.


I waited for her to get out of the bank that evening. After waiting in the senior citizen lounge in the bank for an hour, she finally came out. I approached her with the pen. She thought i was a salesman. It took some time to remind her of the whole episode. She still thought i was dumb. A few minutes spent discussing the old town, another few minutes spent discussing the arrival in this town. In those few minutes I understood that I was drifting.


Friendship followed. Love traversed. Marriage succeeded. Responsibilities sprang up. Life just continued. Home - Office - Home - Office. Over the years something was lost. It was the same morning tea she had always made but slowly we dint have it together. We no longer watched movies in a theatre unlike the once upon times. Calls on the phone no longer cost as much now. Year after year we spent lesser times in form of vacations or eating out. There was no strife or quarrel but it just happened. A slow and steady decline not in love but in showing affection.


This paper advertisement has reminisced some fond memories. After all life can never be lived alone. Someone intentionally or unintentionally, with your knowledge or without lives with you. No part of the life is completely yours alone. Of course our dreams are not ours alone.


She came into the verandah to give me my morning tea. I caught her hand before holding the the cup and gestured her to sit down. Today she can think is another day I grew dumb. Doesnt matter. Love is for everyone. Who said old people cant love? Atleast Cheeni kum was one of the movies we watched. The only sad thing was that she burnt the breakfast on the day we rediscovered love.