Anywaz it was a different saturday morning for me, there were two reasons for it. The first and the logical one was I don’t have a test on Monday and the second and the stupid one was I watched a movie till 2:30 in night. So I make a promise to myself that I’m not going to wake up till 11:30 next morning. But all vows, promises and resolutions came to an end when at 10:30 I found someone pushing me up by my leg, with unspecked and half opened eyes, I tried to recognize him but my mind refuse to do so. “Sir, can I please change the sheet..?” He was house-keeping guy. I wanted to kick him out of my room, but even in that unconscious state, I remembered the most pronounced word of Infosys i.e. AASHI. I found it too risky to think on his eligibility criteria of imposing an AASHI on me. I sat on the chair, while the guy was changing the sheet, after sometime he was gone and so was my sleep. I dropped the idea of further sleep. I had no other option than going to class.

I went to class and as always, the first thing and the most common thing that I used to do is to check my mailbox. There were 6 unread messages with 4 bearing the same subject and the rest 2 having the same subject. I opened the one from two which stating something that it was some ridiculous photo taken 100 years back, you should get good luck in next 15 mins if you forward it to 10 more peoples. I recalled that I don’t have a module test, I deleted it. Opened the one from the list of four, It was stating something like .  “Today its world Cancer Day”, though I’m not good at learning dates, but I remember the dates of “World Cancer Day” and “World No Tobacco Day”since I was in class 10^th, crosss checked my knowledge from Google and feel myself pretty satisfied. While I was emptying my MailBox I came across a mail that I got some one month back and that was from a  NGO named Pratham. It was a flagged mail, indicating its importance. I recalled in the first week after joining Infosys I gave my name as volunteer. After that twice I got a mail from there stating volunteer meeting. But due to training overload, I didn’t find it feasible to go there, But I really wanted to go. Thinking it was the right opportunity, I dropped them a mail stating Volunteer participation. After 15 mins, I got a reply saying that the NGO wouldn’t work on Sundays and they had a knowledge bridge session on every Saturday at 4:00 pm. If I’m interested I can attend that. I desperately wanted to go there. I wanted to meet the children and knew them. I believe that there can’t be a better way of enjoying a weekend then devoting it in some social work. I know I’m lucky being educated but I feel myself luckier If I depart this knowledge to those who really need it. The next quest was to find out someone who can accompany me. I aksed few of my friends for same, but they were bit busy with their studies and wanted to devote in the test prep that was on Wednesday. But we all have some friends who are always there to accompany us in anything we do. I called one of my such friend asking her to accompany me, She liked the idea and finally we left for Pratham. It was a typical address, we called on the number that was  there on the e-mail. The guy explained us how to reach there and with little difficulty, we reached there.

It was a small building, on the main road looked more like a house than an office. We entered it, there was a big room having a computer on one table and a laptop on other. There was a showcase having different books on different subjects. There was a chart lying on one corner that had some beautiful words encrypted with wax caryons, stating “The way a man answer the questions depicts his cleverness but the way a man asked the questions depicts his Wiseness”. Perhaps those were one the wonderful lines I had ever read in my life. The chart itself was speaking that its been made by some child not more than 8 years old, but it immensely impressed me that how can one think so deeply. Finally we met the person who was  incharge of that office. He welcomed us, and told us about different programmes that Pratham runs. He told us that they had seven locations in Mysore with 500 students where they run knowledge bridge sessions. Volunteers go there and deliver sessions on any topic which can enhance knowledge of those little children. Since it was our first time, he suggested us to go on any of the seven location and watch the session so that we could get an idea. He then show us a clip, that was devoted to the poor children in India, stating certain facts and figures on illiteracy rate in india. The clip was really touching with an emotional feeling. It was all about children who had to leave their studies because of one or other reason.

Finally we reached one such location, It was in some remote part of Mysore city. The location again resembles more a house than a school or office. We were welcomed by bunch of children, in the age group of 8-15. The children look better than my expectations. They were clean and smart. There was a lady who told them something  about us in Kannada. They were around 25 in number. Each one was having a notebook and pen. The children started conversating with us. They all seems to be intelligent. One of them asked us our name. Me and my friend introduced us to them. I aksed them how many of them knew English, around 15 of them raised their hand. We again asked how many of them understand Hindi, around 4 of them raised their hand. There was a kid who stand up and told me that he knew four languages i.e. Kannada, Telugu, Hindi and English. That was more than a surprise for me. I aksed the children what they studied on the last Saturday and how many of them went to school nearly all raised their hand and one told me that on last Saturday they studied on savings. Water Saving, Electricity saving and Money Saving. I was impressed.  I asked one of the girl who seem to be eldest in the group, how can we save Water..? Irrespective of my expectations she knew each and everything from water cycle to chlorination. I was extremely happy. My friend asked them If they are interested in playing quiz. She told them what actually quiz is and told them that she would ask questions and anyone who knew the answers should raised his hand. The first questions she asked was What is the capital of india..?  Around 6 children raised their hand, one glibbed out Delhi. She told him it was not Delhi but it was New Delhi. He got confused. Next question she asked was how many colors are there on our national flag. I was answering it in my mind as three. But one child answered it as four. I saw at my friend and smiled perhaps she knew the reasons and just said I expected it from you Dumbo. Then she asked many questions like Who is the prime minister of country..? What is the capital city of Karnataka..? Which one is bigger ½ or ¼ and many others.. When we were told that the person who had to take their session had arrived. He was a tall handsome guy. He shaked hand with us. He introduced himself as a localide who was in his final year of B.E., We watched him teaching those small child for sometime, say good bye to them and then left out.

There were mixed kind of emotions going on in my mind, Seriously speaking I had learnt so many things from those small children. There can be 100 excuses of not studying but 1000 hurdles can’t prevent you from studying if you really wanted to study. Education is the basic moral right of every child and to exploit this right is a crime and against human nature. Our Govt. spent millions of rupees for the betterment of these small child but the sad story is not even 10% of it reach in the right hand. We human beings have become so selfish that we can even snatch share of a 5 year old kid. A share if once given to him, he will not live his complete life as labor or as criminal. Man is a social a animal but these days he is howing his animal nature more than his social nature.Things have improved a lot and are still improving, hoping the day is not far away when we have litteracy rate of 100%.

Being a part of a Multi Billion company superficially seems very pleasant and perhaps I’m not feeling gloomy because of workload or I hate studying. I’m feeling gloomy because now I can’t do the things according to my desire. I’v to change the priorties of my life and that too because of someone else.I’m feeling gloomy because everyday I recalled my college days and realized that those days days have passed away and never gone to happen again. I missed my college friends and later found that I don’t have time even to pick their phone calls. Friends have always been my top priority whether its been my school days or college Days, but now things got changed, in corporate life they becomeeven more difficult. I’m feeling gloomy because since the day I’v reached here,our multiplex has screened 12 movies and I’v missed 11 out of them, not because I don’t wanted to watch them. Infact, those who know me, know it well that I’m a big movie freak. I missed the pre lunch classes on Friday throughout 4 years. I’m feeling gloomy because since past 10 days I wanted to read “Half a Life” by Naipul but I’v to read my slides in place of it. I’m feeling gloomy because on the first day after reaching Mysore I purchased TT Rackets but never got time to use them.

I’m in company at a place where there are more than 40000 like me, I’m no cynosure and hold no unique identity. I’v been given a mailbox from which I can shoot mails only to those whom I see daily. I’v been provided an internet connection who loves to load “Access Denied “ page. I’m a desperate MBA aspirant, but now I can’t even dreamt of preparing for MBA.

Since the day start, so start my running. I don’t know where I have to run and why I have to run, what I know is only to run, the fear of not loosing in the race makes me to run. I find myself to be a part of big crowd where each one is more or less same. But the irony lies in the fact how many of them feels in the same way. I don’t know whether I’m expecting too much from my life or I’m just masochist. I don’t know.

A: Amitabh Bachchan, Astrology.

B:  Bidi, Bollywood, Black-Money.

C: Caste, CellPhones, Communal Violence, Corruption, Cricket, Cows.

D: Dacoits, Dowry, Dhabas.

E: Elections, Emergency.

F: Fasts, Films.

G: Gandhi, Ganga.

H: Hindi, Harijan.

I: Illiteracy,IPL, I-Pill.

J: Jokes.

K: Kashmir, Kargil, Kamasutra.

L: Lataji, Law, Lalu.

M: Mangoes, Monsoon, Maruti, Minorties, Music.

N: Nepotism, Nationalisation, Netas.

O: Opinions.

P: Partitions, Pollution, Population,Politics.

Q: Queues.

R: Railways, Reliance, Religion.

S: Sari, Socialism.

T: TajMahal, Tendulkar, Traffic.

U: Unemployment, Undevlopment.

V: Villages, Vegetarianism.

W: Weddings.

X: Xerox.

Y: Yes-Men.

Z: Zoroastrianism.

The place where every guy would ride a ladybird though he never dared test his sisters bicycle when she bought it for the first time.

The place where the alarms woke you up instead of Mom shaking and pushing you to get up.

The place where you always had a shoulder to cry when you were sad and a hand to high five when you were happy.

The place where watching movies late night was no issue even if that meant getting up early next morning.

The place where the gates tell you “you are entering a disciplined place, act one even if you are not one”.

The place where you can return the next day and no one would ask you where had you been.

The place where you were paid to study and you studied so ruthlessly like never before even though your parents paid for your fees and you never bothered to study throughout your life .

The place which gave you your first salary and you have no clue what to do with it but want to do everything with it.

The place where every weekend meant a party or an outing.

The place where Friday nights meant going to a laundry to get your clothes washed though you had no clue how much Surf for 10 clothes.

The place where you remember mom’s food 24X7.

The place where you miss dad yelling at the slightest mistake.

The place where you can’t find peace without your brother though you always were at war with him.

The place where you realize you loved someone more than the hottest girl/guy in the campus.

The place where you made friends for a life though people always said friends at work don’t last long.

The place where you saw a life you never imagined.

The place where time management skills will be developed without your knowledge. You will learn to toggle between swimming ,study ,GYM and home and always have enough time to do them all.

The place where projects means team work and you really have to work.
The place where people didn’t bother who you were and still entire hostel erupts in claps when they heard someone play a guitar or sing a song.

The place where all of them had some room keys and all that mattered were room numbers. You never felt far away from the farthest person you know on the campus.

The place where you would go to a place called “gazzebo” and ask an unknown person for a smoke and then you realize you made a big gang out there.

The place where you never felt odd to stand in a queue for 3 long hours to get a movie ticket with all your friends in the queue whereas back home you always asked friends to do advance booking for entire group.

The place where you learnt 10 different ways to cook Maggie in a kettle  which will be ‘par boiled’,’unboiled’,’half boiled’ but never properly boiled whereas you only knew a single recipe back home and shouted at Mom for overcooking or undercooking ‘Maggie’ .

The place where you realize why mom always made a checklist while going to a supermarket because you always purchased 9 unwanted items from the 10 items you just brought from ‘loyal world.’

The place where bread, jam or bread, butter or bread, cheese always have kurkure as toppings .

The place where you realized you must be having more APPY and MIRINDA in your veins as supposed to blood.

The place where you spent talking to mom for hours though you rarely talked to her that long daily back home.

The place where you would call up friends daily just to tell them how much you miss them.

The place where you realized the magic of words and power of blogs.

The place which showed you the best of life and then one day say “you are on your own. Now go to $#$%% and face the real world.”

 —

From a Forwarded Mail..!

There are few days in every one’s life, which he can never forget and these few days are some special days, such as the last day of school life, the first day of college life or the last day of graduation. We all have an imagination for these days, before they actually happen and after they passed, they dwell in our heart forever. The period between one left the college and join some job is a transition period, marked with emotions. There is a pain in departing from your beloved ones and there is a happiness of going to be self dependent.

Like every human being, I too had the same thoughts, from the time my DOJ had been mailed to me. I tried to imagine how things may happen. It was 9th of July when I started  journey of my new life, we were total 8 with the same dreams in our eyes and curiosity in our hearts. It was 36 hours ong journey in Rajdhani Express, which was well equipped with entertainment and fun, the best thing about Rajdhani is that it  feeds you till your stomach gets over full. Overall it was a wonderful journey which ended when we reached Bengalure at 7 in morning, the train was at right time. As soon as we walked out from station, we were surrounded by Taxi drivers. After a long barganing discussion with one of the cab drivers, we hired a cab. The cab driver put our luggage at the top, we asked him to get it covered with polythene sheet since it might then  rain. He looked at his watch for 2 mins and then told that it won’t rain. We were surprised instead of seeing in the sky for clouds, the driver was watching his watch. It was interesting that rain too follow a time schedule. Finally, it was a comfortable journey of 2:30 hours, well equipped with jokes on south Indian people and the first change that my language adapted was that we were calling “Anna” each other, inspite of “Yaar” and “Bhai” and every time we used it we laughed.

Finally,  he dropped us at Infosys’s Gate, we were before time and were expecting a huge crowd, but to my surprise, there were only few people, we entered the gate after our offer letters and photos got verified. I was mesmerized with the first look of campus and never ever expected a better infrastructure. Without exaggerating, I would say that the buildings were looking like palaces, and the roads were shinning. There were markers indicating where we were to go, finally our luggages got security checked and we were given the Id-Card along with rooms keys and induction kit, a piece of paper stating the formalities for the next day. After then our luggages was taken in a transport vehicle and we were asked to sit in another vehicle. The driver was taking us to our hostel, he was following a zig zag path, Our hostel building number was 93 and it really surprised me that there were 92 buildings there before that, moreover mine was not the last one. There were different kind of buildings such as the one that looked like football and the other one looked like that of a paper is folded into many folds.  Finally, I reached my hostel,  it was a great room and the good thing is that I need not to share it with anybody. From LCD TV to Sofa to from AC to Coffee maker, it was well equipped with all things. There was an Intercom telephone also. I took a short bath where the first five minutes were spent to understand the tap circuitry. Later, I went for lunch with my friends and there was a big food court near my hostel, it had the capacity of occupying more than 700 persons at the same time and the best thing is that Infosys has 7 more like that. There were different stalls for North Indian and South Indian food  and there were a variety of other things too, like there were a variety of juices from Watermelon to Lemon. I was in love with each and everything, thanking God and ofcourse Infosys for all this. Returned to my room, watched TV for 2-3  hours, then along with with few of my friends walked from my hostel. I found a super market nearby. It was actually a super market resembling Big bazar, Nearby this super market, I found a big hall that was actually a TT Hall, I purchased two good quality TT rackets and sweated for next 2 hours. There I came to know that in this campus we have every game played in the world right from Rock climbing to bowling and from swimming to horse riding. I walked back my hostel took my dinner, watched TV for some time and slept. This is how my Corporate life starts. Love you infosys

Pankaj

Since the day i was born i’m hearing this sentence Kuch nahi ho sakta is desh ka, There is flaw in everything here.. But the thing that amuses me is the fact what actually our nation is..? Is Nation something physical, no not at all.. We are nation, In fact when we are saying these words that kuch nahi ho sakta is desh ka then we are not saying this for our country we are saying it for ourselves, because we comprises our nation. Kuch nahi ho sakta is desh ka because we don’t want to take pain to do something for it. We curse the poor water supply, but its we who are responsible for poor sewages.. We curse the electricity problem but 22% population is still using unauthorized connection of power.. and the worst come when we curse the bloody politician forgetting that we are the one who chooses them.. It seems to have great pain in taking out 2 hours of one life for casting vote then to curse them for next 5 years, In india 65% of the middle class do not vote which comprises 40% of Indian population, 65% of illiterates and 75% of slumdwellers vote.. If such is the vote statics then how can we expect from government.. We don’t go for vote because we think one single vote doesn’t make a difference but we don’t know that in 1923 it was the single vote who make Hitler the leader of Nazi Party, In 1960 it was one vote change in each precinct that have defeated John Kennedy, In 1875 it was one vote that ended the bloody custom of monarchy in France. But we don’t know facts and figures what we know only is to curse.. To curse this nation, its politician, its education system and its everything.

We are the same one who created Pentium chips, we are the creator of free email system, we are the only country other than US, Japan to have built a super computer Indigenously. We have the sharpest mind in the world but still we dream of being a developed nation by tomorrow, not today. If really we want to change something about this nation, first we have to change ourselves, to change our thinking that a single person can’t make a difference we belong to a nation where persons like shivaji exist who alone became an iron nut for the mighty mughals. In fact when ever a difference is being created in history it is been created by a single human being, because mob always consists of foolish. So stop thinking that what our country have done for us, think what we can do for our country.