Bonded Forever!

“All good things must come to an end”…rightly said, isn’t it? It feels weird to think I won’t be going to college any more...the college to which I am greatly indebted. And I bluntly aver that I’m hating it! Can I have an extra one year with all my friends?...just one year more pleaseeee!!!! I wanted to thank my friends...and found this a perfect place to do so. As I sit to pen down my thoughts, a strange, deep feeling of nostalgia insinuates my heart along with a sudden fear of losing my friends, my so lovely, wonderful friends! I feel being carried away back to the memory lane, where I can picture all those loving memories and glorious, long hour spent in the company of my classmates, busmates, friends and teachers…wish I could chronicle each one of them, weave every incident on a paper, and you’d know why would I be missing my friends!
Phew!! How terribly fast the time flies! It seems it was but yesterday that I joined this college, started off the lectures with a new zeal and vigour, promising myself that I’d be the best engineer! (okay not the best…but a good one, yes!). And now it’s time to bid adieu. It is difficult to express how much am I going to miss my college life. I can’t give words to what I’d feel when someday I’ll think of these wonder years, with just one wish on my mind: Sarim, please invent a time travel machine so that I could travel all the way back to my college and my friends! ! ( I chose my friend ,Sarim, for this difficult job because I’m sure if there’s anybody who can do this…its him!) These four years have been the most hectic, yet surprisingly wonderful four years of life! Who wouldn’t want to have a life filled with fun, food and frolic! I’d always remember how we played silly pranks on each other, and how we perfected the art of persuading teachers not to take the tutorial classes and the lectures! When it came to mass bunks, no class could ever beat us! Proof?? We bunked our mid-semester lab exam and that too on the first year of our B.Tech career! And I clearly remember all my friends, including me, sitting proudly on the stairs of NANDGAON, with heads high, and dupattas fluttering in the air, exhibiting ourselve as winning warriors, after the bunk. What days! Another part of what I’ll be missing are the treats and the outings! We used to have all kinds of treats-the birthday treats, the achievement treats, and even those ‘faaltu..just yunhi” treats! It was fun!
It is not easy to bid adieu to a place and people you have been this close to during the most important years of your life. As I say goodbye, I thank everybody responsible to make me what I am today. I thank all my teachers, especially Saloni ma’am for her constant guidance, for she was the one I considered to be my elder sister, my all-time favourite! I’d never forget Maheshwari Sir for the way he used to smile, Geeta ma’am for her antaksharies and her so very good aim with chalks, Vandana ma’am for the perfect way she handled the class as a course co-ordinator and as a friend to all, Haseeb sir for his goodness, Amit sir for his graceful walk, neat dressing and his style of talking, Tiwari sir for his brains, Sandhya ma’am for the way she conducted the tutorial quizzes, Satyaveer sir for his so calm attitude and his way of speaking...i loved it! I’d always miss all those who taught me and even those who didn’t but are in a way responsible to mould me into a good engineer, and a good human.
I guess I need to grow my heart ten times its size to say bye to all my loving friends, the reasons behind all my fun, the people who made this journey so very easy and memorable. Thank you Sarim, my bestest buddy, for I dread even the thought of imagining college without you. A special thanks to a very special friend, Monish, for being by my side whenever I needed him. I never can express how thankful I am for his company, for cheering me up whenever I was low, and for being my pillar of support. A perfect example of a best friend, not only a friend to me but to all. If you ever are in need, just give him a call! Heyy, this rhymes!
And of course, thanks to all my fair ladies! Beena, Sonali, Neha Kardam, Nidhi, Neha Singh…thank you all for the wonderful friendship we shared. I love you girls! I really owe a lot to Beena, for I fail to figure out what would I have had done in the quizzes without her help! She was our news reporter, our message girl! Queries regarding any quiz date or syllabus, or anything on the college notice board, ask her! She even was responsible for the stationery department…providing us with pens almost every day! Sonali, another of my dearest friend, will always remain a darling to me! Slightly hot tempered, she is the one always ready to help, striking a perfect balance between maturity and childhood. Speaking of her, I picturise a fun loving girl, always ready for outings and adventures! I really admire her for her courage and her deterministic ways. I’ll remember her always as a true friend, someone I’d like to count upon whenever in need. Talking of Neha Kardam, she is a lady in herself, exuberating all forms of emotions...all in excess! Her face speaks! I never can forget the way her face moulds up every time to give the perfect set of expressions you can ever see! She is an epitome of an innocent girl trying her level best to grow up! If ever you are upset and you need to pour your heart without bothering you’d be thought of being wrong, go to her. Trust her, she wouldn’t leak out your secrets, and neither would think anything ill about you. Thank you Neha for being a wonderful listener. I also give a big thank you note to Nidhi, another of my pretty ladies! She has been a strong girl throughout, ummm… a little emotional, but yes, the one good thing about her is, she takes criticism from friends in a positive manner. I adore her for that! Songs from ‘Akon’ would always remind me of you, Nidhi. I also can never forget you Neha Singh, for I’ve never seen a girl as carefree as you! And your temper, Gosh!! I can bet not even the boiler’s temperature in those NTPC power generation plants could beat or even match yours when you are angry! Thank you girls for handling a difficult girl as me, and always pampering me like a baby! Thank you for forgiving and ignoring my mistakes. You girls rock!! I’ll miss you for I know I never can get such friends ever
I’ll mention another two of my friends, Ankita and Disha, who have been a pillar of support for me. I’ll remember Ankita as a perfect lady, with a caring heart, a girl who would readily give away her shawl to a needy, for old woman on a merciless, cold night, and brave the harsh and chilly winds herself. She describes the character of a determined, young girl, set out to find her niche in this world, or to make one if she needs so. She inspires me in a variety of ways to be strong for myself. I admire her spotless, clean ways, and her beautiful mind. You would fall in love with her handwriting if you happen to see it, each word out of her pen is so beautifully framed, so wonderfully spaced, that even a printer, I bet, would strive to achieve such perfection. She is one of your kind, a true friend and a true person. Disha, on the other hand, is opposite poles to Ankita if you compare their ways! She is a bomb blast!!Our bodyguard to be exact! A bombastic personality, she loves to be around people, to shout and enjoy! She pretty well knows how to have fun and how to twist things her way! In short, she is a cheerful, yet don’t-mess-with-me kind of a girl!! When she’s near you, you’d better put on the best of your behaviour, for if you try to annoy her, you must know how to pray well! She is a dear friend, always ready to fight for us! Now that all the three of us are going to work for TCS together, we’ve decided to give Disha an extra job, to fight for extra food in the mess, and to be our voice when we need to quarrel to have our way! I’ve also seen the softer side of her... adoring the lovely puppies on the college field or crying like a baby when upset.

Thank you Gaurav, for being a true friend when I needed one, for your comments during lectures that made the boring lectures endurable, and also for being my lab partner most of the time, Naveen, for your joyous ways, Apurva, for being a cheerful and lively guy,a good friend and a caring brother, Poorva, for countless reasons, Nitishree, for your co-operative and understanding ways, Munmun and Aditya, for your ‘once upon a time’ friendships, Mansi, knowing you is a reason enough to be thankful, and you are good in your own ways, Neha Prakash, for being a caring friend. Thanks to my entire class, for they were my family in college. Himanshu, I can never forget your hair, Rachit sir, your business magazines, Prateek sir, your writing, Anshul sir, your casual attitude, Haider, your ways, Avinash, I can never forget calling you Bapu, Alok, for the entertainment during quizzes, Aditya Singh, for being a good human, and thanks to all the others in my class. I extent a warm thank you to all those who have not been mentioned, but are my dear friends from other streams, Ankita, Disha, Achla, Sandeep, Asad, Rajput, Sumit, Rishabh, Shahnawaz and all others , and thank you all my juniors, Saba, Amir, Shivangi, Nidhi, and the whole gang, my busmates...Ritu, Kuldeep, Aishwarya, Gaurav, Ved, Ashwini,everybody! And a BIG thanks to the Grobotics Club and all its members, Sarim, Shashwat, Syed, Meera, and all the others for some way or the other, I enjoyed knowing about all the happenings of the club!
I’ll miss you all. But here’s telling that we are bonded forever…sealed with the glue of friendship! The four years that I’ve spent here, as a student and as a friend, no matter how distant they become in memory, shall forever be safe, forever authentic. I might not meet you all, but I have preserved the fond memories of you people in the attics, refrigerators, and pickle bottles of my mind and heart, the best place to keep them safe! As I end this note, the one line that lingers in my mind and I want to share with you is from Daphne Du Maurier ( from the book, ‘Rebecca’),
“If only there could be an invention that bottled up memories, and it never got stale and never got broken, and when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked and it would be like living the moment all over again….”
Thank you and good luck all of you for a wonderful, bright future!
Take care. :)

Of fairy tales!

When I was a kid, I used to love fairytales and all of those adorable characters from Enid Blyton books! They fascinated me...the idea of fairies, godmothers, Cinderella, gypsies, nymphs, pigmies..., Malory towers, St. Clare’s, wishing Jug...‘hop, skip and jump’ still hold a special place in my heart!! Among the very happy memories of my childhood, the times I spent reading them is definitely the happiest thing I can recall! I can never forget waiting for my father to return whenever he used to go out of town...because I knew he’d get back a story book for me! And my mother still tells me how she used to make me do my homework tempting me with a fairytale in return! And it really is sad to see that the children today have no time for all this. They are missing out on the happiest times of their lives and it pains to think when they grow up, all the memories that they’d have of childhood would be a heavy bag that made their shoulders droop, endless hours with books trying to mug up things, a mother running around the house with a bowl of porridge, and the happiest memories would be when they were in a game parlour. And I fear the next generation children would follow the mores of these. I am not against teaching, obviously NO!, but yes, I do not like the way children slog the whole day long trying to get the best grades in the class under the pressure of parents, and I do not appreciate on what they are trading for all this. They are trading the best times of their lives, the best days when these stories actually mould up a child’s fantasies; they are losing their innocence.
Anyhow, I guess I was dragged in the wrong direction for this definitely was not what I wanted to discuss in this blog! I wrote a fairytale some days back for a friend of mine to cheer him up...and I am glad it worked! :) I’d like to share this story with you people, and hope it brings back some pleasant memories and relieve you of all the stress...for a fairytale does help me lift up my spirits! :)

Have you ever heard about a place called ‘Heaven’? A beautiful place it is, I tell you! They say it is an abode of angels and fairies, nymphs and mermaids, and of all the lovely things you can ever imagine! You get everything there, from wishing trees to dream wells! Girls who are good to their mothers and little boys, who never quarrel with their brothers, live there happily. The sun shines all day long showering the place with warmth, love and smiles and you never have even a tinge of darkness and grief there. People there never make faces and never groan or complain. You have cream fountains that adorn the chocolate houses (you even have houses made of biscuit and wafers with furniture made of candies!). The pleasing aroma of vibrant flowers, the spectacular glow of the colourful rainbows, happy songs of playful children, lovers waiting with red roses for their beloveds on benches made of twigs and lilies, and mesmerizing, melodious music which fills the air, makes the aura all the more beautiful! I had once a friend who even talked about a magnificent castle in heaven, where God resides on his mighty throne. All the fairies and nymphs wait patiently at the doors of the castle, to be dispersed so as to attend to God’s commands. When you wish for anything on earth, your wish burns like a candle in that castle. And when it is granted, it melts into a cloud and floats in the sky! God has his favourite people in heaven and he himself takes care of them!
Once upon a time in a faraway land, there once lived a beautiful princess who longed to go to this place, ‘Heaven’. When she was a little girl, she loved listening to stories of heaven from her Grandma. Her Grandma told her of how one day, a brave, young prince would come galloping on a horse, would kiss her softly, and take her away with him to heaven! But for that, she would have to be patient and good. Her mother taught her to be courteous to elders, and to smile gently to everybody. And this made her loved by all! She was good to everybody around her. She took out time to help the needy as she felt their pain, she even read out stories to the old as they went to sleep, she was very caring and obedient, and this made her the favourite princess among all! The blessings she saw in their eyes were what kindled her heart for them and made her happy! Every night before going to sleep she used to pray to God, asking him to send her prince to her.
She didn’t have much of friends, because the children she played with laughed at her when she told them of her prince. They were not like her. They didn’t know of love or any heaven. And this annoyed her! She was different. She lived in a fantasy world, with dreams of her prince, and her heaven. She made friends with the butterflies in her palace garden, the fish of her pond, the birds on the trees, the little toad which lived by the pond, and her sweet cat which she rescued from the clutches of a gnawing, angry dog. She sang to them songs of her love, songs that one day her prince would sing to her! And they all danced to her tunes! Every morning, as the cuckoo clock struck seven, the princess would get up from bed, stroll down to her garden, and spend endless time with these friends of hers, laugh, dance and play. As uncle moon rose up in the sky bidding farewell to the sun for another half day, she used to go back to her palace, kiss her mom and her dad goodnight, pray to God, and then she would spring to her bed, hugging her grandma tightly and sleep hearing to another of her prince stories. Days passed and she grew up, waiting for that prince.
On her 18th birthday, her mother held a big party for her. All the people in the kingdom were invited. There was loud music, gracefully clad ladies, handsome gentlemen, and good food. Every guest was properly catered to, and people were spell bound with a party as grand as that. People around her were enjoying in merriment, but she was sad. Today, she was not with her friends in the garden. She couldn’t talk of her prince to anybody. She smiled, but only as a sign of courtesy. All the while she thought of how her friends must have had gone to sleep by now. She took a glance at her mother, and found her busy with the guests. She slipped away from the party to the garden, to look for her friends. The butterflies had gone. She kneeled over to the pond and called to the fish. Alas, the fish too was asleep. Then she whispered to the birds, the toad, and the cat, but all in vain. There was nobody. She was all alone. She ran away out of her palace, in the fields across the street to find solace in the darkness out there, she kept running until she was very, very tired. She stopped, and knelt down on the green, soft grass under the sky. She hung her head, and as she tried to close her eyes, tears rolled down her cheeks like pearls. She was crying! She hid her face in her palms and cried all the more. Behind her sobs, she felt something else, the warm breath of somebody! She opened her eyes to see a handsome young prince, kneeling down with her, raising his hands towards her with fingers clutched tight. She looked at him in wonder, as if mystified with the look in his eyes and radiance on his face. As she continued staring in his eyes, unable to take the gaze off him, he slowly released his fingers, and opened his hands. She saw, to her amazement, all the tears she had shed that night on his palm. As another tear tried to find its way through her cheeks, the prince slowly bent over her, kissed away her tear, softly and lovingly. She realized that her prince had come to take her away! This was her prince! She was overjoyed and she jumped with happiness! The prince held her up in his arms and made her sit on his lovely white horse, with him sitting behind her, and they galloped away to heaven!

I really hope u enjoyed reading! :)
Take care.

Spare me the honour, please!

Hey guys, I’m here discussing a real serious problem I face practically every day with a hope I’d get some sensible solutions. What is it with me and people that they just cannot help bumping into me, I fail to understand! Every turn I take, I have to have a collision with some XYZ...and it is frantically annoying, let me tell you!! I just don’t know why people have to take my way, and that too at the same nick of time! And let me add that there’s nothing wrong with my gait...mind u! It is absolutely straight...ummm...okay, with a few swings and cross, close strides...but that is nothing to do with me in particular, I mean that is the way every charming woman would choose to walk, including me! And thanks heaven, God has blessed me with a pair of beautiful eyes that still have the gift of sight.

Don’t go far thinking of my intentions...if you’ve stepped into that court, come back and don’t rack your brains on that side of the story! I have pretty clear intentions...ONLY to walk to my destined path...and NOT bump into strangers (even if they are drop-dead handsome...I’d rather choose a much respectable lady-like approach, and wouldn’t stoop as low as bumping into them!) So you get the point...I bluntly refuse to be blamed for this issue. I am not an accomplice, I just happen to meet unwelcomed strangers bumping into me every now and then.

Well well well, that is enough of a story (umm...doesn’t actually qualifies to be a story, but...!) I won’t belabor it now, just wanted to share my grief with all of you, so that if you happen to pass by me, please be extra cautious NOT to bump into me. And if you still do, give me the highest accolade for the “the-girl-always-colliding-with-people-and-saying-I’m-sorry “( I am sorry, not because I really am sorry, I am FURIOUS!...just that I cannot overlook my basic manners!)

I hope you’d come up with something to help me not to get this dreading award!! Spare me the honour...please!