Test Report

"11 baj gaye!!"
"kya hua?"
"TEST!!!"
"Oh... Sorry Dude, I forgot totally...", my roommate was apologetic.
"Baaki sab kab gaye?"
I was out of bed and in my jeans in just this much of conversation.
"Don't know.."
"Kya kya le jana hai?"
"Take a pencil, and eraser, here they are. And pen and Identity card."
"Ya, kept them."

And I was out, for the test that was imperative for the job I had got in TCS. Now it was 11:10 almost and I was asking the invigilator to allow me as it was important for my job. Finally, he made a call and I was seated in a room with M.Tech. students. I was told I would not be given any extra time.

I really did not need extra time. I needed nothing more than the permission to take the test. And I took my seat.

Thus the test started. Questions were mostly on basics. I kept on seeing my watch and answering. I didn't even know how much time was remaining but had an idea that it would be around an hour, atleast. Soon i came to know there was an hour and half remaining. There were 120 questions on the paper. I was going more than one question a minute attempting every question, irrespective of how many of them I knew. At the time I had 45 minutes remaining, I had the same number of questions remaining.

Finally, the paper ended at 12:15 when in the room of almost 60, almost ten were still there. I gave my paper to the invigilator, and thanked him, came out, directly to my room. When I saw my cell, I saw two 'all the best' messages for the test. I couldn't do anything more than read them and delete.

Will My Candidiate win this time?

It was the Indian Idol (first one), when the series started. I supported Amit Sana. Cause according to me, he sang better than Abhijeet Sawant. And Amit lost.

Then I happened to support Karunya from the very first time I saw him, in his piano round. Because generally I don't get to see all these shows in the hostels. I find wherever its possible to find them, though. The guy reached the finals. But lost there to some Sandeep Acharya who hasn't probably sung a single song in a movie.

Then there were two shows going parallel. In fact three, of which, the two ended earlier. The two were Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and the Indian Idol 3. I loved Saregamapa and was a Big Fan of Amanat since the day I heard his Mitwaa, though I had liked many of his songs earlier also. But Mitwaa he sang had a real substance in it. It was one song that I found better than the original, and surprisingly for me, Farha Khan also said the same. Though I am not a fan of hers, when she said so, I liked it of course.

But as it goes, Amanat also lost.

And on the other end, there was a winner called Prashant in the Indian Idol 3, the guy I expected to be out in the second round. Just because at that time he was not at all doing what others were doing, prepare. The guy was simply tensed, having problems with his partner.

Emon, the guy I hoped would be out soon, as all my favorites were, was out as the 2nd runner up.

Now starts the story of the Voice of India. I never used to watch the show, as I used to see Saregamapa even if I got some chance to find TV in the hostel. But one day, when I was in Bangalore at my cousin's home, while surfing channels, I just liked a Sardar guy singing a song beautifully. I simply loved the way he sang. I don't remember the song, but from that time I kept some track of the VoI too, though I lost track more than I kept it.

Finally, it was the time of final when I came to know that the Sardar guy, Ishmeet, was in the finals. I was happy that I wasn't wrong in thinking the guy was great. Then I found the other guy in the finals was Harshit.

Oops! Harshit!!

Well, I liked the way he sang, but not that much. Most of the times Harshit sang and I saw, I felt he took some time to pick up the soul of the song, noticed for the first time in Hare Krishna Hare Raam. And then, he looked playing tricks at times. Eventually, I didn't like the guy and kept on to Ishmeet only, as he has been singing really good since the first day I thought.

And then, yesterday I saw the current results, before every break, which came as:

South zone: Harshit 73%, Ishmeet 27%,
West zone: Harshit 70+, Ishmeet 20+, (forgot exact figures)
East zone: Harshit 70%, Ishmeet 30%,

So after three breaks, I was sure my candidate is going to lose again, until I found the power of north. The North zone figures said, Harshit 40% and Ishmeet 60%. Adding up to a final figure of 49% for Harshit and 51% for Ishmeet.

First of all, it was surprising to see that North's difference of 20% was able to cover up all the 40+ %age difference of the rest of India.

Secondly, it will be surprising if a candidate I support wins.

I hope, this time.....

Languages

How many languages I know??
Well, seriously, some 3. Hindi, English and some HTML.

But if I start counting all I have some acquaintance with, I'll come to know that I know a number of languages. The number goes in 2 digits for sure. Lets start counting.
English, C, C++, Hindi, HTML, Urdu, Java, Sanskrit, Tamil, French, Assembly language, Bengali, Gujarati, C# and used to try some Kannada as well.
Well, the story seems interesting to me. And pretty much unbelievable to people. That I come to know when I see their reactions.

I started learning Hindi at home. From a newspaper called Amar Ujala, I learned the first letter of Hindi 'a'. (It sounds nearly the same as the English 'a') Started English too at home, and of course did them properly when joined school at an age of 3. Then came the third language of my life. Urdu. It was an optional in my school and mostly members of Muslim community used to study Urdu. Thus, I was reading 3 languages at an age of 3, while in Kindergarten.

The 4th one took an entry in std II. With Sanskrit, I started 4 languages at a time. I myself do not know how I used to do that. But I know I never felt it very difficult. Then, after 3 yrs, I left the school, to join a high school (with +2), and left Urdu too.

But in 7 yrs, I had got enough not to be forgotten easily and I still can read Urdu somehow, having completely left it 11 yrs ago. Here came a large gap and I lived with a knowledge of 4 languages which seemed like an achievement at school. After completing my +2 in 2003, I left for coaching so that i could get into some good engineering college. In kota. Kota is a place famous for that. Those who have lived there know about the Kota life of course. Nothing new of course, in terms of languages.

And after the one yr coaching, I went to DA-IICT in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. That was a turning point. Gujarati was a language which looked a lot like Hindi. So I started trying. As a result, during my 2 day trip, I didn't get the college, but got something new. A language. And a confidence. That I could learn a script without any books, even in two days.

After those 2 days I landed in Bangalore (now Bengaluru), Karnataka. The language of the place is Kannada. And nearly everything that is owned by the government displays Kannada. I started trying again and got some letters of Kannada soon. No books again! This time I was delighted with my achievement as it was not that easy. Kannada was a tough language for me compared to Gujarati as didn't look like Hindi from any corner. 15 days later I joined VIT, in vellore, Tamilnadu.

The local language, Tamil, was something I tried and tried and tried. But it seemed nothing went right. I could not get even 3 letters in the first one month. But I wasn't lost. I was pretty much determined that I would get this too. In fact, once a friend of mine, Apoorv, who has been living here since birth, and speaks some Tamil too, challenged me saying that he couldn't learn the language in 17 yrs. I asked for a yr's time. And voila! When I gave my job interview, I knew Tamil, at least enough to convince my interviewer that I knew the script. In fact I had learnt a lot of it in just 7-8 months.

And all this happens without any books. Some of my friends ask, how? Here, I'll answer, after a break. :)

Be-Sure-Gama

This is my big big world. And here is my experience of the be-sure-gama which took place last Sunday, September 9th.

It was a singing competition, organised by some of my friends, on the tracks of sa re ga ma pa which is being aired on the Zee TV nowadays. The major difference being that we had only besuras and were determined not to have any person with any experience in singing. I was the only one who had once sung on the stage and mind it, I wasn't a contestant. I was a judge.

Well, the plans boasted of a great competition and it turned out to be the same, when the final round came, cause the contestants were looking pretty tensed by the time.

In all we had 7 contestants one of which was our host, Ambuj. The other 6 contestants were Anuj, Ashaf, Devanshu, DD, Manohar, and Sandeep. The 3 judges were Abhishek, Aritra and me, Harshit. The contest had three rounds. In the first round, 2 contestants, Sandeep and Ashaf were eliminated. In the second round, again 2 contestants, Ambuj and DD got eliminated. In the final round, we had 3 contestants, among which, one, Manohar was really an unexpected candidate who had sung an exceptionally well (at our level) 'suno na suno na sunlo na' and surprised nearly all by reaching the finals.

Thus, in the finals, we had three contestants, Anuj, Devanshu, and Manohar. Coincidentally, these three were the people who were the hosts too. In the last round, judges wanted the contestants to sing the types they had not touched yet. So, Devanshu, who had sung a high pitched Rabba(Musafir) and I love u o sayyoni (Aap ka Suroor) was made to sing a lighter 'Kuch saal pehle' from Yaadein. Anuj, having sung two light numbers took 'O Sathi re' (Muqaddar ka Sikandar). And Manohar chose a difficult, 'Tu hi meri Shab hai'.

The end turned out to be pretty tough and the final round ended with a difference of just one mark between the winner and the runner up while there were 3 judges difference of less than half mark per judge!!) Telling us how tough a competition was it. The final winner was Anuj.

After all the contestants, judges were asked to give performances. Aritra presented a sweet 'Raat Kali ek khwaab mein aayi' and won hearts. Abhishek went a step ahead by presenting his own beautiful Ghazal. I sang 'Bin tere kya hai jeena' from 'Woh Lamhe' to end the program.

And now, all said and done, I m thinking that if here, where we have hardly any interest in winning and cannot think of taking music seriously, the environment gets this serious, what might be happening at the national level talent-hunt programs such as Indian Idol and Sa re ga ma pa??