4/09/2010

Pune !!!!

This story starts when a friend of mine posted a youtube video of a song sung by Avhdoot Gupte. People who are from Maharashtra will know him well and for those who dont, he is a pop singer who has sund songs like "pori zara halu halu chaal" and "tujhe dekh ke meri madhubala" . This particular song which my friend posted on facebook is called "kande pohe".
Well the story is not about him, but what he represents- Maharashtra and in particular "Pune".

When I left Pune, I told my friends that I would never miss the place and that I shall be the most happiest person to get away from there. But now I realize I really miss pune. I have spent the maximum part of my life in Pune. I cherish the wonderful time that I spent there.

During my bachelor, I used to stay in a private hostel around a 15 minute walk from the college (It actually takes only 5 mins to the gate and the extra time to reach the department. The college campus is so damn huge !!!!! ). Our exams (in the second and fourth sem) generally used to be at 2 pm and my room mate and I used to walk in the scorching heat to the College. It was her idea to take an umbrella with us to protect us from the sun burns. Besides the sun there used to be a breeze that always managed to fold our umbrellas and make us late to the college.

I have lived in Pune for 6 years and in that time I have changed hostels/pg's like 8 times ... oooo I didnt realize it was that many times. Each place was in a different locality and each place had a different impact on my life .....
The best were my stay at the hostel during graduation and during post graduation. In both places guys were strictly not allowed !!!!

During my graduation, there was a strict rule that there would be no food in the mess on sunday night. So you have to go out and eat. The road on which we used to stay, called the F.C. road, is very famous for its restaurants. People from all over Pune come here during weekends to spend time with their loved ones. Some used to come looking for someone to hook up with. There used to be a bunch of guys from NDA (clean shaven, well dressed and their hair cut! I love the haircut) who used to look for girls whom they can take as dates to the NDA ball which is a pretty prestigious affair. There was food, booze and good music. The only thing missing were girls (very few girls chose a career in defense) and they came searching for them.

And then we used to have a lot of birthday parties. We used to play loud music at 12 in the night during the parties and the hostel warden would kick us off to bed... literally !!!! Our group of 10 was well known (not for the good !!!!). After a while these birthday parties got so tiring that we decided not to have it any more !!!!

My post grad hostel was far far worse than my grad hostel. But well we got used to that too. I have this really nice habit (annoyin to some it may seem ). Suppose Im in a really kool mood, and my room mates are talkin (in hindi), then I start singing a song which involves some or a few of the words used by them. During exams, when I have just worked out some lengthy calculations in qft or am satisfied with the amount of studies, I get into one of these moods. My room mates used to kick me out of the room ... What lovely days !!!


I miss Pune a lot ... the people who were there with me, the infinite number of crushes (i dont get to see any good guys here :( ), break ups and make ups with friends, the gurudwara, the cold coffee (at durga...), the pani puri (at canal road, or at KNP), the restaurants, the food (even though i hate every maharashtrian dish except khichdi, kadi, bhagar, poha, pav bhaji, thalpeeth, and a few more), the aayapan temples, the treks, the fights, the shopping with my room mate, ABC ohh the list is endless !!!

4/08/2010

Independence !

My random thought process led to the topic of discussion. It all started with a clutcher, and by the end of it I remembered an incident where my friends told me that they are totally dependent on their parents for buying some of their personal stuff. Lets stray away from the details of what that stuff were and focus on the point, "Independence". Then I started thinking what is it in the first place. It is that which lets you make decisions of your own.


In most of the foreign countries children leave the parents after a certain age (in most cases it is after high school). In India the case is quite different as you will see. If you are a girl, your parents will support you till you get married after which your so called husband will support you. And if you are a boy, then your parents will support you, till the time you start supporting them (This trend is changing, but it will take centuries to reach the final state.) Parents will take all the decisions for you. They will tell you which field is apt for you which is miles away from your capabilities. They will take decisions for you in such a way that you will feel there are no other options, what they are "suggesting" is the best solution. In fact you will feel there could be no other solution. In the end you will be made to believe that it was your solution all along !!!!!! This is the reason why people are not able to make good decisions. They are not even able to get their priorities right.

It is very important to be able to make your own decisions. You may not make the right decisions always, but you will never blame anyone else for the wrong decisions. You get to learn from the mistakes you make. You get to know how to handle your life your way. You get to know how good you are at managing.


I realize that I cannot live a life where I was bound to something or someone (no offense). I appreciate it as a lot of what I am comes from this independence.

4/02/2010

Holidays

Generally in matscience its very difficult to get a holiday. Why? 
1) In a year there are only 8 festive holidays.
2)Some profs miss the regular classes due to their children's illness and so take extra classes on saturday and sunday.
3) There is generally a non trivial assignment that we need to submit and so the whole day goes off, workin out the assignment.
I think these are sufficient to explain my point.
So by mistake if we get a holiday on which we are actually free then what we do is sleep the whole morning, go directly for lunch and then lazily start studyin ... But nowadays when we have lectures in the mornin and I need to get up by 9 ( atleast) to attend class at 9:30 I dont feel like getting up. And if once in a blue moon when I get a holiday, I get up at 8 and start workin like a machine. Strange !!!!

Old is Gold!

Today I was listenin to some old songs- some sung by kishore and I realized how happy some songs can make you. I mean these songs are way before my time, but still I wonder without even watchin the movies, how do I know the lyrics of some of the songs? Strange aint it! Now when I go about watchin the movies, I feel they are really absurd! But the songs still linger in my mind!
         Our marriages as in tamil marriages generally go on for three days. Why suddenly this talk about marriages?? I will come to that in a moment. The main event of the marriage when the groom ties the mangal sutra on the brides neck generally happens on the second day in the morning. The second day afternoon, there is a session in which the bride and the groom play a game with coconuts and some chips (appalam in tamil). During this session, there is a music round when the family members of both sides sing and have a gala time. This is generally a sad time for the bride's side because after this officially the bride is sent off to the groom's place forever. The family members generally rehearse for this the previous night. All age old senti songs for the bride's send off (bidaai we say in hindi) are sung. Since our family listen to both hindi and tamil songs one gets to hear them practice both. Some of my relatives cant sing well but they have a very good collection of songs. I love this part of our marriages and thats when I realized this - this part of the marriage session is how I know the lyrics opf some of the age old songs that i frequently used in antakshari.

The songs that are sung nowadays do not have that feel to them. The lyrics are much more vulgar and definitely not smooth. I am not claiming that old songs are very pure. For example the other day my office mate played one of akshay kumars' song called "Zeher hai ki pyaar hai" and I had an expression on my face that said what the heck was going on in the 90's. One who has seen and heard the song would share my reaction. So the movies did go through a period which now seems absurd! all the same there are some  old songs worth treasuring and that really rejuvenate your existence.

Say what you want!

I was going thro' the blog of my friend today and I was amazed at how wonderfully he put his thoughts into words. It was just too good. I really suck at sayin exactly what I want to say. Most often I am misjudged. I always wonder why. When I start analyzing what I have said it doesn't seem to me that I have said something to offend people.  A friend of mine once informed me that in field of research, it is really important to convey your point to absolute precision. Like once I was discussing lagrangian formulation and I wanted to say that if I change the Lagrangian by a total derivative term that vanishes at the boundary, then the equations of motion do not change. But somehow I ended up implyin that the action remains invariant due to this. See how totally different the two statements are. In my mind its absolutely clear what I want to say. But the process of measurement (sayin it) leads to a delta function block in my throat and I end up sayin crap! To rectify this process I have started to think before sayin what I want, try to put it correctly and then say it. But by the time I say it, the moment has passed and I end up silent as the lambs.