My Ticketless Valentine's Day!

My Valentine's day had to be good. It was displayed on my department notice board a week back. I had to give my project review on 14th Feb evening.

I don't remember myself doing many humanly activities in the past one week. I have been out of the hostel since last Friday, today being Friday again. And I don't remember which day before today I had taken a sleep of even 6 hrs. That was my condition in my project work. Nothing abnormal, just to tell those who don't have projects.

On the V-day (or D-day), I woke up at almost 10. Pretty early, considering I had slept after 5 in the night (Homo Sapiens call that time morning). I had to be ready for the review presentation which was supposed to be at 2.30 pm, so considering the time, I decided to study a little. My studies got over by 2.10 and I ran to the college with my teammates. We reached the college almost in time and met our examiner who told we had to present after 2 teams that were in queue.

We finally gave our review to our examiner who seemed not so interested in listening due to a lab session going simultaneously and the twenty minute review was soon over, the dial ready to strike 4.

Free from the review I had an ice cream and Daal-roti with my teammates and went to the hostel for a change. Around 5, I messaged my friend who had to leave for Chennai and told her that my review was after 5.30 and so I couldn't go with her to station (don't get confused, my review was over). She, somehow, said it was okay and I need not worry about her as she could go alone. But she wanted to meet me once before going if I had time.

I told I was busy setting laptop for the review and hardly had any time but still could find some (Wow! that's me). After a lot of yes-no-why-how-okays she came to meet me and was puzzled to see me coming from the wrong side (I had to come from college campus, not hostel) but still didn't get my lie. Later when she asked how was my prep I told my review was over and I was free to go with her. And she tried hard not to look angry.

Anyways, I love people getting angry with me, except a few I'm afraid of. I went to the station with her and kept saying sorry for telling lies (of course, to irritate more). Finally, when it was the time for the train to come I asked her to move in first as there was too much rush and it was tough for her to get in with the luggage. When she got in, I gave her the luggage but while trying to make way to go back I couldn't find a way in the crowd and was almost forced in. And thus I was in the train. So I kept on moving with the crowd thinking I could get down at the next door. And while I was still moving with the crowd in the train, it suddenly started moving. And within a few seconds I realized there was a difference between the electric trains and the diesel trains. Though i didn't know whether the train was electric or not, yet I could guess it was.

And after a few more seconds, I decided to leave myself to the fate. And i found there were hardly any problems, until i felt i didn't have the ticket. I was standing with my friend (who had a seat reserved) until i saw the ticket examiner (TTE as I've been listening since my childhood) and searched for a place to hide and found some place. (And I should tell u I have never in my life seen such good toilets in Indian Railways. NO drop of water on the floor, NO scribbling on walls.) Anyways, I somehow reached safe from the TTE to Arakonam, the next big station I knew, and jumped down from the train as soon as I got a chance.

Now I was safe from the TTE and completely innocent (if u r not caught, u r innocent) roaming on the roads of Arakonam. Then I cam back into the station from the way I could find and went to the ticket counter (and not inquiry) to ask for the next train for Katpadi. The guy there asked me for the money and gave me the ticket before those in line, along with the info that the train was almost there.

I got the ticket and reached the platform to know that the train had gone and the next train was after an hour and a half. I came outside the station and found an elderly person to whom I asked for how much I could get an auto for the bus stand. He told if I could speak Hindi and told me I could get one for almost rupees ten and the way to the bus stand. Within ten minutes, I was talking to second such local person who talked to me in Hindi at his own will, in Tamilnadu, a state where politicians claim Hindi to be 'hurting' people, telling me once again it was all about politics, be it Madras or Mumbai.

Anyways, I reached the bus stand and found a bus just ready to leave for Vellore. Fortunately the bus had enough space. Although after an hour and a half I was wondering how much more you can travel here for any amount of money compared to that in the Northern states of India. When I got down at the Vellore bus stand, I took a 5 rupee auto to Lalit Vihar and had a refreshing 32 rupees Daal-roti there.

Finally, I was back to my Project partner Anish's room at 12. My Valentine's day was over.

Hillarious!

I had seen Aarti on flash, on my computer. But I had not seen a whole multimedia presentation on Maa Saraswati ever before. It thrilled me, really.

Udayan, Utkarsh and a few more had told me they'd be arranging a Saraswati Pooja on the Basant Panchami, today, 12th Feb, at 5:30 pm in Channa Reddy Auditorium. Yesterday again I got a message from my friend Ankit that he'd be in arrangement of Pooja and I was invited. I told them both I'd try my best to come. I wasn't sure cause of my review scheduled for Thursday, 14th Feb.

At 5 when I was in campus it struck my mind that I could go to the Pooja, and sometime before 6, I was in front of the Auditorium where I saw a notice saying that the venue was changed to Gallery One in the Technology Tower. I reached there and saw that the Auditorium, rather lecture theatre was almost 80% filled. Interesting.

I sat down on a chair (mentioning as some people later didn't get even chairs) near my friend Amit (basketball champ) and waited for the program to start. And when it did, it was a thrilling experience. I was watching a multimedia presentation which told about the Goddess of knowledge, art and wisdom, Maa Saraswati and asked for her blessings.

After that, there were a few Mantras being chanted on the VLC player and the lamps were lit. The entire theater, which was overcrowded by now, stood up. Something I could never think of. I mean the overall experience was something different. It was telling me what the future of our mythology was. It told me that with the change in generation, current technology was merging with everything and our culture and rituals couldn't be kept away from them.

Later students offered flowers to Maa Saraswati's photo (not online this time!! actually i hope this will be online by the next year) and finally, there was a QUIZ!!!

A mythological quiz. Where the questions ranged from the Avatars of God Vishnu to the names of Hindi months.

Phew!!

Is there something that the Hindi Literary Association people have not done? Actually it wasn't officially an event from them but then we all knew who had arranged it all.

Last but not the least there was my junior Suby Anthony who was, for the first time in this college (as far as I can remember, and I think I'm not wrong), was seen in a salwar-kurta. A yellow-white one.

I didn't tell the notice had urged people to come in yellow, the day being Basant Panchmi when people wear yellow, as I was not in yellow (Sorry, I had not read the notice). But at least half of the people were in yellow.

So finally it was a "RANG DE BASANTI".

Any doubts?

No dream too big

Thanks Jaypee. (Happy? Ankit ji, Jaypee wale)

For this title of my blog. Actually I realized that, of the things that felt almost impossible to me at some stage, many have come true. In time, less or more, I have achieved many things.
It was class V when I got the first big target. When I was in yet-another-school-of-my-town and I had to get an admission in the sixth class of the town's best school, which conducted a test for the admission. According to the stats of that time, almost 650+ students used to take the exam and finally 240 students were taken. Though, there were 300 students by the admissions were over, courtesy Management Quota.

I took the exam and my coach assured my father that I will pass the test easily. And when the result was out, I was second on the merit list. I was surprised, though others were not that surprised I felt. To them it was just 'good' or 'very good'. But it was not unexpected like it was for me.

Then I entered the classrooms of the school and found myself among a whole new group of students. Almost all of them new to me, except a few who had been with me during the coaching, Mostly Achal and Saket. And then, there were half yearly exams of class VI, in which they used to show us the copies before giving the results. So after I had seen 4 copies, in the interval, I was thinking how it was happening that I was on top. I was a good student. I was always on top during my last school. I had studied this time too, but I didn't know I would top here. Though I expected to be somewhere near that, as a subconscious dream at least if not in conscious.
It was going normally, I was mostly on top, once on second position in my class, till class IX. Next year was board exam and I worked really hard. And I got 72%, something too low from my expectations. And probably that was when I stopped dreaming.

I think I did, but actually I never stopped dreaming. Just that I was not that affected by things after that. I took my XII exam, got first rank in my college, missed the merit list of board due to less marks in my one of the strongest subjects, Hindi (I still was the editor of the college magazine's Hindi subsection). But it didn't matter that much now. It wouldn't even if I would have got less marks. Though it never meant I stopped studying or became lazier. Because somebody inside was still dreaming.

And then there were exams I took during my XII year, and then my drop. And I worked hard again. Though not hard enough for the IITs. I don't know who inside me was not interested in going there. I was, of course. I was preparing for it. But somebody inside wasn't. And then the result of AIEEE was there. I had got 8321 rank. I thought I will be under 12000 only. But this good, it was a bit more than my dream this time. I had expected 10-12k. Though I missed my 'favorite' college by a difference of just 2 ranks at that too, I landed in VIT, Vellore, a college my mother didn't let me apply for separately.

2000 kms away from home, near Bangalore, where my didi lives, my cousin to be precise, who currently teaches in a top engineering college there. It was a dream come true again. Because those colleges of Noida, Ghaziabad and nearby areas were too real for me. I wanted to go to some different place. Something better, and for being better it should be far away too. And I got that.

I was a student from a Hindi medium throughout my school. I didn't (and don't) speak much English in college also as I don't like to. But my aim was CAT, the common admission test for MBA, from the very first year of my college, that started becoming showing signs of some ambiguity as I started coming near to getting a job. And soon I decided I'd take up the job and postpone MBA for two years. Later, though, on my friends' insistence, I changed back my mind but I didn't give it my complete attention, that it required I came to know after seeing my results, especially XAT and even SNAP.

MBA is today my unfulfilled dream, whereas TCS, as far as I see, is going to be a dream fulfilled. As I was somehow interested in getting placed in the TCS the first day I came to VIT.
But it's not always just about academics. There have been things that I thought were not possible. And still I worked to achieve them. And then they came in my routine. Be it talking to girls or seeing my name on Google. Well, being from a Hindi-medium-small-town-semi-government-boys-school, I hardly used to talk to any girls till the end of my first year in college, when one day my friend, Tyagi said I should be talking to girls otherwise it might trouble me in the future. And today I have very good friends among girls.

And the second, more recent and comparatively tougher dream was about the Google. I started using the net properly after coming to college only. The start was from essentials like mail and the addiction came from Orkut. But I always thought how could I have my name on Google, in second-third-fourth page at least, if not first.

Then I started blogging in September '07. And resultantly I could use some interesting keywords and find my blog on Google. But one day I found my name was there on number 64 in results when I googled 'Harshit Gupta'. It was the time when I knew I was near my dream and I decided to get my name as higher as possible. Time passed and one day I reached page 1 of Google, on searching Harshit Gupta. Today my name as keyword gives my name as eighth result on Google. And if I search Harshit Gupta Vellore, the first result is my page. So, though my voter ID card shows my name wrong, I have got an identity somewhere.

And that is what will inspire me to dream.