Of Pink Chhadi & the Slumdog!

The two major news of this month were the Mangalore pub incident & the Slumdog millionaire glory. As I’m from Karnataka, the Mangalore incident left me a bit shocking. I had never heard of any attack on women in this state. It was shameful to see men beating up women. The reason: the women were having fun in a pub which according the Sri Ram Sena (The Monsters) is against the ‘Indian’ culture! These frustrated, lecherous men took law into their own hands, molested women, tore their clothes, beat them in public & even called them ‘whores’. Such disgusting men are now walking free in Mangalore. You never know when another attack may happen there. When media covers this type of incidents, it can really get ugly & it really got ugly. The media were covering Mangalore incident for 3 weeks showing the video again & again & asking every other person in M’lore bout the incident. It’s terrible. I agree. It’s a shameful act but covering the incident just as the media did put M’lore in a bad light. Media should act responsibly from now. The Taj incident was another example where the media went haywire! Then came the “Pink Chhadi” campaign. The idea behind was jus gr8. Women were asked to send pink panties to Pramod Muthalik, the head of Sri Ram Sene, on the valentine’s day.. The plan worked. For the first time, women were openly against a group. Salute those women who started this campaign. And for a Pramod Muthalik & his supporters.. “Get a life!”
The other major development was the Slumdog Millionaire winning BAFTA, Golden Globe & Oscars. It was all over the news. Slumdog is really a nice movie. The only message for the people who think the film showcases India’s poverty is “Jus grow up!” The film is fantastic. The child actors have done a great job. Instead appreciating them, people are criticizing them. Ridiculous! Slumdog won a record 8 Oscars. 2 of them were bagged by our very own AR Rahman. Resul Pokutty became a household name after he won an Oscar for sound mixing. It was fantastic to hear Resul speak on the Oscar stage. Well done guys! “Jai Ho”!

Parallel Thoughts

Morning tea, College bus, Late arrivals, Get out!, events, Slumdog Millionaire, Oscars, Kate Winslet’s speech, Heath Ledger, Frieda Pinto, A R Rahman, Resul, Lathe machine, Psycho Patil, assignments, sleep, coffee, Girls, Russell Peters’ “Fantaastic”, chalk throwing, pen fights, pro circle, fast food, 12.30 pm, Shine on you crazy diamond, friends, my crush, 6 Inch scale, text msgs, half replies, wru?, Sikkim, doodles, Mangalore, Hemant’s 3sha, SDM, Anup’s Kurt Cobain shirt, Nainital, Reflections, thoughts, Skanto’s Simmi, Fluid Mechanics, bingo!, Melina, soda, Fuck!, 5.00 pm, Bus, Swati, laughter, drowsiness, Kashmir, ol’ friends, Fastrack, blogs, Jim Morrison, Internals, paper presentation, make outs, patience, India-NZ 20-20, crowded hostel, Home, Blue curtains, Blue walls, orkut, F.R.I.E.N.D.S, Agatha Christie, Alternative fuels, Mick Jagger, power cuts, food, Yahoo messenger, Buzz!, Mehul, The rain song, late night msgs, late night replies, no-replies, procrastination, old memories, 1st crush, latest crush, New moon day, Night!

"Thoughts arrive like butterflies"!

Nainital.. A splendid experience!

Date: Jan 9-11

Late night train from Delhi takes you to Kathgodham, which is the nearest railway station. Shailesh, Siddu & me got down at Haldwani which was Shailesh’s hometown. We felt chilled to our bones. It was cold in Delhi too but this was much chillier. But we had enough woolens. The plus was that it felt much fresher and less polluted. Took a cycle-Rick (It is famous in this part of the world) ASAP & reached Shail’s home. Freshened up, had breakfast & we were off to Nainital. It’s a 1hr drive from haldwani to Nainital. Moving thro the fog, watching the fabulous scenery had already made my day. We reached Nainital at around 12. I found myself in front of the picturesque Naini Lake which is located in the heart of the Nainital town. I was like “FUCK!” It was amazing! We checked into Army resort which is right in front of the Naini Lake. In the afternoon, we had a walk down the Hill at the Mall Road which is probably the best road I ever walked on! It is flanked by huge trees & series of shops & hotels on one side & the beautiful lake on the other. The weather was pleasant. At around 8-10 degrees, it was gr8 to walk around & explore Nainital. We had our so called lunch at Hard rock café. It’s not the original one. But a small but good hotel like. Then, we roamed around the Local Market and had a bit of shopping to do. Most of the shops are run by the Tibetans. Then we set for our boating adventure. The water was freezing cold. But it was a fabulous ride. Fog surrounded us everywhere! Just opposite to the market and hotels is the spectacular sight of hills fully covered by dense trees. I saw some trees literally hanging perpendicular to the base!! I thought it would fall anytime soon! 1st day at Nainital was over.
We got up late on the 2nd morning. We had our breakfast the Army cafeteria. Then, in the afternoon, we headed for a Local Tour. First spot was the Natural Caves. There were around 6 caves. The names were kinda weird! Some of them were named as "Leopard caves", "Monkey Caves", “bat caves”, “Porcupine Caves” etc. We enjoyed those caves. We had to crawl, bend, sleep and jump to get to the other end of the cave! Next stop was a view point where we could see the snow capped Himalayas. We opted for a few photo shoots. Then we visited famous places like “Lover’s Point”, “Suicide Point”. Then we headed to the Nainital zoo in the evening. It was high enough to climb and to visit all the preserved life. At Nainital Zoo you will find some native high altitude species. We were fortunate enough to see snow leopards as they were awake and moving around behind the barricade. We saw a huge Bengal tiger “kunal”. Thank God it was behind the fence. We again went to the mall road that night to eat ice cream (shocking!). We went to the Naina devi temple & the 2nd day in Nainital over!
3rd was our last day at Nainital. We planned for another boating adventure. This time, we thought of paddling ourselves! Siddu & Shail paddled as I watched the beautiful Nainital city. We had our food in a small hotel. And then we were off to haldwani. We had to catch the late night train to Delhi. Ah! Nainital was fantastic! Here are some few lines from the song “Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin which will describe my trip!

Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream
I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been
To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen
They talk of days for which they sit and wait and all will be revealed..

Nainital!

Bucketlist

These are the 10 things I wanna do before my engineering ends..

1. To learn guitar.

2. To explore Karnataka with my friends.

3. Learn to swim!

4. Try Bungee jumping/trekking

5. To try & understand what Baseball & Rugby is all about.

6. Learn to ride a Bike!! [Yes! I dont know to ride a bike!]

7. To read atleast 1 novel every year!

8. To be a part of the cultural group of the college.

9. To take part in dance competition in the college! :p

10. To present papers at various college fests.

3rd Semester over!

I seriously don know why I left blogging after 2nd sem vacations..
I wasn’t busy in studying.. I was doing all the shitty things that students do when they enter an engineering colg. But later, the things started to change somewat!? Took part in the spring fest, had some ideas to do dramatics, but then there’s always a last minute change in our life; so we canceled it! Then came my b’day. Can never forget that day! I was thrashed by my friends like hell! Fuck ‘em! B’day hai yaar.. Koi Thrashing Competition nahi! The worst of the kicks was from varun. His woodlands shoes & his football ‘ishtyle’ kick nearly knocked me off!
Then there was our Industrial Tour. We had been to Tulsi Foundries which is in Sangli. Industrial visit is a jus a name.. For us it’s an enjoyment trip. We were in the industries for jus 1 hr!
After all the fun, fest & fachchagiri, it was time to study!
The subjects in the 3rd sem are core & basic subjects. I hate civil from the beginning & it haunted me in the 3rd sem too! End exams started from 29th of dec. Maths went well. Then came the New Year Party. We partied thro out the nyt at a frnds place. Chatted, watched movies & ate pastries! It was gr8 fun. The next 5 papers were kinda good. But I was not expecting 7.7 points! It was a shocker! I was expecting some 7 points.. And the big shock was even more to come when I got B grade in maths! How liberal the prof could hav been! But who’s complaining?!! It came out of the blue! But I was happy! 3rd sem ended & I was off to Nainital for vacations.