The trip to the valley.....

HI everyone….its been a long time since u heard a story about anni since he got lost in his neighborhood. This time its different and on a larger scale…the stakes are high and anni had finished his 6^th sem exams. Sadly according to him, he had scored ‘low’ in exams compared to his class mates. However, people at home were really happy about his scores and had actually allowed him to goto BADRINATH with us, myself and ani. Cool right…..yeah I know. Badrinath is in the state of Uttaraanchal, Gahrwal Himalayas. This was the experience of lifetime for us and we learned real real important lessons from our adventure(it was really). It was August 18^th, 2010.

“Anni…be careful…don’t kid yourself when you goto Ganga riverrrrrr….”, these were the words we heard from anni’s parents when the Karnataka express started to roll its wheels at the Bangalore City railway station. We had booked our to and fro tickets a month ago to Delhi on the Karnataka express and from Delhi to Haridwar on the Mussorie passenger. We couldn’t believe that our parents had allowed the three of us to goto Uttaranchal. The plan devised at home in front of our parents was that we would go to Haridwar and from there, goto Badrinath stay there for maximum of 2 nights, get back to Delhi and to Bangalore from there, after the usual trip to Agra and Mathura everyone takes. The plan stayed undisturbed until we reached Bhopal, where we were joined by another group of guys going to Badrinath. “Is this your first time to the Himalayas?”, asked one of those guys. “Yeah….and we are excited as hell…what about your’s sir??”, asked Anni. “Well we have been to the Gahrwal 6 times before….we actually want to visit all the piligrimages there….this might be our last time…and we are heading to Badrinath this time….and yess, we are excited”,explained the commuter. “Where all have you people been before in the Himalayas”,I asked. “Well….as he said, we have been there 6 times before and we have been to… Kedarnath, Bhyundar,Bhyundar again, Gangotri, Yamunotri and Hrishikesh alone coz the weather was brutal that season and we couldn’t go further”, explained another guy from the group. “They seemed to be really interested in bhyundar”, I thought. Apparently Ani was also thinking the same thing and he asked “Whats so so special at bhyundar, is it a tourist spot or something??”. “Ofcourse it’s a tourist spot, it’s the beautiful place ive been to in my life and im sure icant find any place better than that on this planet my boy”, said an elderly person from the group. This was the moment where everything started to fall in place to make our trip memorable and life threatning at the same time.

It was 10 in the night when the tales about this place Bhyundar started to unfold. It was also called THE VALLEY OF FLOWERS, mystic right….We really found it hard to believe that there is a valley which has almost every species of flower in it. That too a valley full of it….unbelievable. That night….i still remember, none of us three could sleep. Leave apart that the train was wobbling like a cradle set in some sort of ‘jerk’ mode, it was this incredible oppurtunity in front us to goto Bhyundar. Ani was frequently looking at both of us searching for some ‘So Bhyundar it is!!!’ looks . Finally at 3 am in the morning Ani broke the ice, “Hey , I know you guys are afraid to break the code, but lets goto Bhyundar…We have been to Badrinath with our parents. Lets do something different this time!!!Im sure we cant go to Himalayas together for a very very long time after this one!!!”. “Yeah, I second ani”,Anni seconded. I had no choice, really, I saw no other options open, including the obvious option of going to Badrinath as planned. The name valley of flowers had sink in soooo much into me that, everything else sounded inferior to that. I know its crazy….but that’s how I felt…thanks to those 7^th time going himalayan freaks. The next day, we replanned our schedule with a great amount of help from those people who inspired us to do that. We planned to start our journey from Haridwar to Valley of flowers from 22^nd august, stay there for 3 nights and return to Delhi by 28^th morning and catch our return journey train the same evening. We gave up the Delhi darshan and the Agra-Mathura trip which bought us an extra day. We would cancel the return ticket from Haridwar to Delhi and thought taking a bus back to Delhi from Haridwar, which would again buy us some time. The plan was ready by that night, fully foolproof. We very well knew that nothing should go wrong in our plan, as people at our homes were unaware of anything about this. That’s what we ‘PLANNED’.

We reached Delhi on 20^th morning, took rest in the station itself as we needed to save some money for our unexpected adventure. We boarded the Mussorie passenger at 8:00pm the same night and reached Haridwar the next morning at 6:30. We really needed to take bath, we hadnt taken bath since almost 3 days. So, we stayed in Hotel International, which resembled absolutely nothing international, for couple of hours.Then, we went to the Ganages to have bath. It was truly awesome, the water was totally cold, icould feel my heart throbbing rather than beating. It was literally like the water taken out from a refrigerator but sweeter. It was the first glimpse of Himalayan treat awaiting for us. I can never forget that river bath I had. I wish there was a Ganga river in Bangalore. I know its far more impossible than wanting a 10.00 cgpa in your grade card. So, we enjoyed to our fullest in the Ganges and headed back to ‘international hotel’ . After having lunch, we went to see Haridwar, the Harki-pouri, Chandi devi the calm fields nearby were just magnificent for city boys like us. This was the kind of break we were craving for. Life become so stress free when you come to these places. You can really experience the 24hrs in a day, unlike in Bangalore or anyother city where relativity has its upper hand. Okay I maybe wrong with the physics, but in short LIFE ROCKS IN HARIDWAR…..Our next destination was the valley of flowers….little did we know what was in store for us….little did we know the consequences of our hectic schedule…unaware and totally not bothered about anything other than bhyundar, we started our journey towars the mighty Hiamalayas………

To be continued………

A FADE OF THE DARK........

“Byeeeeeeeee anni.....see you tomorrow”,yelled akash, one of anni’s classmates. “Yeah, tata....bring my classwork tomorrowwwww.....”, anni shouted back, waving his hand. It was an ideal Thursday afternoon when you are kind of relieved that the next day would be your last working day in the week. Anni, had come back from school and it was around 3 p.m. He was in his 3^rd grade. Anni’s house had been shifted to yelahanka, a satellite town to Bangalore. The locality was perfect for someone like him, wide roads to cycle around, huge empty sites to play cricket, funny friends to play with etcetc. There were two college going sisters next to anni’s place, whom he thought were going to make it big in badminton as he saw them do nothing other than play shuttle badminton. They had decided to goto a newly constructed Ganesha temple in that locality. As usual, anni had nothing to do with his studies until his father or brother came back. “Hi....do u mind if i joined you girls to the temple?.....even i have a bicycle....i ride it really fast...”, anni thought he impressed them with his bicycle thing. “Okay....kid...you can, but you have to stay with us....we are going to our friend’s house first and then to the temple...we might be late when we return”, said one of them. “AAhh....its fine im a big boy and im used to being late”, anni said with absolute cool. The sisters giggled at his over acting and said,”Okay boss...you can come, but inform your mom that u’ll be back at 7p.m”. Anni felt a little discomfort at those words, 7p.m was too late for him and he knew that. Still, he thought going to a temple wouldn’t make his parents mad at him even if he was that “late”. “Maa...im going to ganesha temple with those badminton champs next door, and ill be back in an hour”, anni yelled out checking the chains of his bicycle. “Okay, but be back soon, please don’t get scoldings from dad even today”, anni’s mom said. So, the three of them started to the temple.

It seemed that, the badminton sisters ‘ main motto was to goto their friend’s place and chat like mad. Their friend’s house was really far from anni’s place and he knew he shouldn’t have joined them. They went through narrow cross roads, wide deserted roads, really crowded streets etc and finally they had arrived at the ‘friend’s’ place. Their friend was really weird according to anni, the chat was taking place outside the house, none were invited into the house. The discussion was mainly based on some supposedly supercool incident where a guy from their class had invited them to his birthday party. Anni, was cycling little rounds infront of their house. He was extremely tensed at the thought of time. It was 6p.m already. Finally, the discussion got over with indecisive conclusions about what present should be given to that boy of their class. Their next heading was the temple.

The temple was in middle of nowhere according to anni, as he had no clue about the routes he was taken through. They reached the temple and it was 6:30 p.m. As soon as they entered the temple it started raining moderately, and the badminton sisters decided to leave immediately. Anni was relieved, as it was already tooooooooo late for him. The sisters resorted to some shortcut they knew to reach home quickly, and the route was through a slum area. They were peddling real fast, and anni was in no way upto them. Anni thought that first thing he would do after going home was to practice cycling, invite the badminton sisters for a race and beat them by some margin. The rain got heavier and heavier with every few seconds. The moment came which anni dreaded the most,when suddenly he lost sight of the sisters. This was a disastrous development, as he had no clue of the route back to home. He kept on cycling and in reality he had been cycling in a direction which would in no way take him home. Anni, felt a mixture of emotions when he realised how late he was. Tears started rolling down his face. He cycled for 30minutes and reached some dark deserted wide road.The scene was pitch black, there were no buildings, no sign of any traffic, it was like some abandoned highway. There were tall grasses on both the sides of the road. The rain was hitting him like bullets, as he paced his way through. All kinds of unwanted thoughts were occurring to anni. He thought of himself being driven over by some vehicle, or someone kidnapping him and torturing him to death etcetc. The fear of being late to home was by no doubt replaced by fear of being alone in that area. He cursed the badminton sisters as much as he could. When he had lost all hopes, someone called, “oooooyyyyeee”, from behind him. Anni was so relieved that someone other than him was there at that place.

A middle aged person came up, slightly drunk, and asked anni, “What on earth are you doing here kid”. “I don’t know, i got lost when i was on my way back home, please can you help me?”, anni pleaded. Anni didn’t know that, the person whom he was talking to was a well known antisocial element of Bangalore. The bad guy grinned at anni and said, “ofcourse ill help you if you do what i say”, “yesyes, ill do whatever you say”, said anni. They walked together in silence for about 30minutes. Anni still had his bicycle. Anni felt his insides doing somersault when he realised that people at home would be nerve crackingly tensed. They came to a partly constructed apartment, where anni could see a fire lit.The sight of fire made him realise how cold he felt, he was shivering like mad. They went in and the warmth anni expected, from both fire and the people inside, never showed up. The people inside were totally drunk and playing cards. “AAAYYYEEE.....bring me some beer....”, ordered one of them to anni. Anni was shocked to hear that. He went inside a room which was stuffed with alcoholic products. “Lets, keep this kid with us”,”nonono, lets get rid of this kid...ihavent killed anyone till now, let me do this”,”the kid looks good lets keep him, might come handy for begging purposes”........Anni heard these when he was searching for the beer bottles. He was dumbstruck. He felt his body go numb. He knew he couldn’t afford to cry out loud. Tears were rolling out of his eyes at fast rate, he felt his face shudder with fear, his head was searing with pain. Very slowly and very carefully, anni started slipping out of the building. It was easy as the building was hollowish kind of. One of the bad guys spotted anni and shouted, “oooooyyyyeeee....im gonna kill uuuuuuuu.....”. They started chasing him, but this time he was quicker as he had his bicycle with him. The drunkards fell back(as they were drunk). Anni was peddling with all his might.He heard someone else panting hard other than him. He noticed that, the bad guys had sent a dog after him as their substitute. The dog looked as though it had been starving for food from a week and anni was a perfect prey.If it had not been for anni’s constant cycling practice evry evening, he would have surely fainted. The strain on his legs were enormous, both his body and mind were tired beyond all measures. The supposedly pleasant Thursday evening had turned into a nightmare.

Back at anni’s place, the tension in his family was at its peak. His mom was sobbing for having permitting him to go to the temple. The badminton sisters were being reprimanded massively by their parents. Anni’s father and brother had gone for rounds to search thrice and had found no clue about anni’s whereabouts. It was already 9:30 p.m. The rain didn’t even seem to calm down, on the contrary it was building up slowly. One of the other neighbours had come over to give anni’s mother some moral support. The atmosphere was gray and electric at the same time.

The hungry dog, never ceased to reduce its pace. As the road was wide, anni could peddle with some unknown confidence which every driver experiences. He remembered every great personality he could and about their hardwork and peddled still quicker. The dog started falling back slowly, like a Honda f1 in a straight sector against Mclaren Mercedes. When anni thought every thing was back to square one of the original problem of being lost, the cycle chain slipped on the gear and it gave away. Anni hit his knee to the front bar so hard that, for an instant he thought his leg had broken apart into two pieces. He fell on the road scratching his arms and legs. His skin tore away instantly as he was exposed to water for so long. The dog caught up within seconds. Anni could barely open his eyes but could feel a bright light some distance away, and within 2 or 3 seconds, he heard an ear shattering crash and the dog screaming. The dog’s scream died down. Anni, felt it with his eyes closed. The dog had died. A speeding truck had run over both his bicycle and the dog.

Anni opened his eyes very slowly with a searing pain in his knees. He saw the dog squashed, in the dark. He felt sorry for the dog had to die so unceremoniously. His bicycle was in no way recognisable. The rain had calmed down. Now his main aim was to get back. The newly found relief gave anni an enormous amount of will power and confidence. He walked limping, in a direction which his intuition had chosen to. The time was about 10:15 p.m. It really didn’t bother him. He had been through situations where none of school going kids could even dream of. He imagined he would be in newspapers the next morning with title, ‘Bravery comes in small sizes also’ or something like that. As he was walking, he saw a cow which he instantly recognised. It used to be at corner of the street where he lived. He instantly knew that, he could get beck home if he stayed with it.

So, he started going along with the cow in the dark. The rain had almost stopped. Anni felt a great sense of achievement. The cow would stop for grazing very often, but that didn’t bother anni. After about half an hour, he was about 1000 yards from his house and he found his brother coming searching for him. Anni ran with all his might towards his brother and started crying out loud. It was all safe at last. When he returned home, he narrated everything, how he lost the badminton sisters, how he ran into a drunkard, the truck accident and everything else. He was praised for his bravery specially by his mom. He was like a hero of the night.

The happiest moment occurred to anni when his dad promised him a new bicycle and he was advised to skip his school the next day, which meant three days of holidays. As regarding the race with the badminton sisters, it didn’t take place. But till anni got a new bicycle, he was allowed to use any of their two bicycles.....

SURPRISE, its KANNADA!!!!!!!!!!

Tick, tick.......tick, tick......tick, tick.....the clock was ticking the last few minutes of what seemed to be an eventful hour....”Everyone tie up your papers, its almost time”, said a high pitched voice from the corner of the room, which seemed colder than the Siberian winter . It was Monday,11^th of March Yes.... anni was writing 1 of his final exams and this one is in his 2^nd grade.

“Hey anni want to join me, im going to the ground to play cricket”, said vikram, a tall boy, with curly hair and girlish voice, who was in his 3^rd grade. Most of the schoolkids had finished their exams and were busy hosting cricket tournaments, kabaddi tournaments, running race events and few other stuff. “I love to come but, maneli bidalla , i have 3 more exams left”, i said. Its perhaps the most painful thought that other kids have finished their exams and u have not. Vikram said, “Ask your dad once and tell me, ill be waiting here”, i said, “ but don’t stay here if i don’t come out within 3minutes, else u might get real scoldings for disturbing me”.

It was Saturday 9^th march, 10 a.m. and my father was reading the business section in The Indian Express, there was some issue regarding the finance minister gobbling huge amounts of money in a software scandal (ok, i don’t remember properly). “Appa, ill ask u something and u shudnt get angry”, i said. He didn’t seem to be interested in my proposal and i repeatedly said that for 3 times, finally, “OKAY, let me first hear what you have to say, and what on earth are you doing .....roaming around with your exams on Monday????”, my father said. NO, i wasn’t wasting time, i was reading from past half an hour i thought. “ Can i goto play cricket to the ground for just half an hour???please, ill read the entire day after coming back”, i said, with adrenaline pumping so hard that i had almost took my bat and started swinging it. “Shut up and stop being crazy, now go and study for Mondays exam, what do you have on Monday???”, my dad said. “ please, ive been studying from half an hour and i want a break”, i said. “Mucchu baayi, what have you studied in just half an hour, and with those hot wheels cars around you, you will definitely score very low if your attitude is like this”, and i started crying loud enough so that vikram could get the signal. He indeed got the signal. “What exam do you have on Monday, bring your classwork ill ask questions from that”, my father said. I couldn’t imagine why i did all this, and in the end all i got was an invite(not really an invite) from my dad to the questionnaire session. There were these three exams left, kannada, social studies and moral science. The last one was considered to be a cakewalk even by a nursery kid.

I saw the timetable and inferred that i had social studies for Monday. The subject most schoolkids dreaded, and i was no exception. So i took the classwork to my dad and he started asking questions from the first. I really screwed up that session, i couldn’t answer any question properly. Again, i got real hard scoldings from every1 in the house and went back to study. I tried to study as much as i could. Somehow , completed half the portions by 7 o clock in the evening, by the time my brother came back from college. “Annnnniiiiiiii, aayteno odidduuu” , my dad called. "Man, i want to live in a hostel during exam days" , i thought. “ Yes, its almost done, give me 5 more minutes”, i screamed. The 5 more minutes was just for the mental preparation to face the questions. The interview with my dad went fine, and it was around 9:30 p.m. “Saaku anni odiddu, oota maadi malko”, my mom said. I was very happy at this proposal and accepted it with gratitude :D. The next morning and noon were mostly spent on revising the 1^st half and preparing for the second half of the subject. It was awful and painful. How much should a kid study???Preparation for social studies got over by 6 p.m. and i was given some free time. I wondered how many matches would my friends play everyday, how many kulfis they eat and such stuff. I thought i would be free for the entire evening, but guess what, “anni, read for the next exam, you have to do well in kannada this time, last time you got through very marginally,remember??”, my brother called me in. I am innocent, i have done nothing wrong.....Okay, kannada it was, i read some 6 chapters like a story book (most of them were stories). Finally, i had food and slept peacefully. The exam beared no pressure on me, it was the preparations and interview sessions with my father that sent chill waves down my spine. The exam was at nine ‘o’ clock in the morning, and i got prepared with all the materials required for the exam including the hall ticket. My brother dropped me to school at 8:30, and when i went in i got the biggest shock of my life. Everyone was preparing for kannada, shit, im doomed, ill fail, oh my GOD save me were the thoughts running in my head. I had prepared for the wrong exam, it appears that i had seen the timetable for the midterm exam when my dad had asked. During such intense moments solitude is your best partner. I tried to cover the tears trickling down my face but couldn’t. Its a big surprise for a 2^nd grade kid to handle. I went to the exam hall as quickly as possible without talking with anyone.

Everyone settled down and i was muttering every prayer i could remember. Even then i was half heartedly expecting social studies paper to be distributed. I got my question paper and it was kannada indeed. The exam was for 1 hour. First i wrote everything i could remember from the notes. By the end of half an hour, i had attempted for around 20 marks. “Holy crap, my dad was right, i am going to get awful score and even possibly be detained”, i thought. Again the fear caught on me, and i started answering stupidly to every question. I remembered very hard the stuff that i had read the previous night. I really thanked my brother in my mind then for making me read kannada. For the questions that carried lot of marks, i created my own stories and wrote whatever i could ....atleast to fill the paper. The thought of being detained for 1 year made my sweat glands go bonkers, i was sweating as though playing a 50 over match in Zimbabwe.

Tick, tick.......tick, tick......tick, tick.....the clock was ticking the last few minutes of what seemed to be an eventful hour....”Everyone tie up your papers, its almost time”, said a high pitched, cold voice from the corner of the room, which seemed colder than the Siberian winter . It was the invigilator. I tied up the papers, and was confident that i would make it to 3^rd grade. Triiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnggggggggg......it was over finally. I had written an exam without actually preparing for it. Its like winning a gold medal in Olympics for me. I came back home and narrated the whole incident at home and i wanted some appreciation. No , i was called careless, irresponsible, idiot etc etc. It didn’t seem to affect me because, i was on top of the world that day, and moreover my preparations for social studies were over, yipppiiieee. I had a day holiday for social studies. For my heroic effort regarding kannada exam, i was made to read moral science also, in case i was again wrong with the time table. Can u imagine it, i was preparing for an exam which was considered a cakewalk even by the nursery kids with social studies the next day!!!!!!!!

P.S: Anni got through 2^nd grade with bare minimum marks in kannada but awesome score in social studies. :D

ANNI winds his clock.....

Hi all, this time it’s a blog about anni’s wandering thoughts about the past.....it’s his narration this time and please bear if he over narrates some things.....Okay here it goes......

PS: This blog might be a bit boring.....its like a karan johar version of anni......just a kind of precaution. :)

CLASS nursery to 5^rd grade:

This was perhaps THE happiest time in my life. I stayed in a small town called Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. There were absolutely no worries about anything other than the small stuff like losing a game of cricket or hide and seek etc. Back then i always imagined how it would be when i was 19 or 20 years of age and it seemed so nice and awesome from that far back in time. Every small event around seemed so observable and sensible, like an old lady carrying a pot of water, a middle aged man talking about his work on phone, a butterfly trapped in my house and me opening a window to let it go etc etc. I had friends who were mostly hindi speaking so even i learnt hindi so well that i usually forgot kannada words. I came to Bangalore for my 1^st grade and joined assumption school.Dont ask me why the school had that name. Everything looked sooooo strange here initially. Firstly i didn’t know to write in kannada properly and secondly people in this part of the country seemed to be really not straight forward as i observed back then. The prospect of being in school for the whole day was nightmarish. I still remember those horrible starting days at school. There was this teacher at school who used to handle social studies and she really really used to strike terror in my heart. I remember myself crying sooo many times when she took her scale to threaten us little kids when ‘TALKING’......It was a treat everyday to come home when school got over, coz all i used to do was play around with my brother. Arrival of Saturday was the bonus of the week, and arrival of Monday was equally painful.The only prospect of boredom was completing the ‘CLASSWORK’ and arrival of Monday. Now, i cant believe how much of fun it was. So that was it till 5^th grade in assumption school.

CLASS 6^th grade to 10^th grade:

For my 6^th standard schooling i got into vani school(cbse). This part of the schooling was equally awesome and unforgettable. Ours was the first batch for 6^th grade and there were around 14students in class. The awesome part was we didn’t have text books for 4 months. Sooooo we used to sit along with 5^th grade students and sleep most of the time or play some games like book cricket, narrate some horror stories to each other and get nervous unnecessarily etcetc. The teachers here were truely good because none of them used to get mad at students for petty stuff like not bringing pencil, rubber, class work etc, and it was exactly what i needed, no text books, no classes and lenient teachers....immaturity at its best. Finally the text books arrived and guess what after about 2months Dr.Rajkumar gets kidnapped by veerappan. It was a yipppie for every school kid......u got holidays for more than a month due to some strikes going on across the state, again immaturity at its best :D. So, 6^th grade got over with inerasable memories in my head. For 7^th standard i got into vani(icse). The class which i got into seemed to have a lot of big brains ( one of them is currently in iitm), and i felt absolutely at sea when i saw the textbooks. I mean they had 3books for science can u believe it....atleast for me it was unbearable. I never got decent score there especially in science and math coz usually everything went over my head. I remember doing a bit decently in hindi as ihad that background. The friends i made in 7^th grade were awesome and still are :P . Next phase: i couldn’t bear with the course pressure in icse...so got shifted to state syllabus in the same school and remained there till end of schooling. 8^th and 9^th were mostly spent in writing classworks, trying to be the class leader, bench leader, switch leader and such trivial posts and more importantly trying to impress the teachers. Everybody had computer in their houses by then (its different that i had it when i was in 5^th grade :P), and exchanging game cds was a big time business back then. There was this NCC program at school and it was nothing more than torturing urself with stupid exercises voluntarily. But again it was awesome as the whole friends’ circle had volunteered :D . 10^th standard was mostly about writing tests, exams, collecting question papers of previous years’ both in college and in tuition. Students were hell bent upon memorizing everything they could find (including page numbers hehe). It was repeatedly told to us that this was the ‘TURNING POINT’ in ur lives. I really don’t know that i turned properly or not :D .Every student tried to get 100pc in every test or exam. There were scores like 615/625......not mine though....... those who scored such high marks were treated with lot of respect and humility.....even i did that......i considered myself to be lucky if such people talked to me.....i was under such an unbelievable illusion....schooling got over and yes it was time for college now.....finally i was into college......iwas finally going to college which i used to imagine when i was in my lkg and ukg......woooow.....everything seemed so beautiful.......

The PREUNIVERSITY life:

As you would know when a child comes out of schooling the thing he/she really wants after his PU is to get into IIT(atleast in metropolitan cities). I wasn’t any exception......igot into this institute ACE to get myself prepared for JEE. Truth be told, i was literally dumbstruck when isaw the volume of the course.....a physics/chemistry/math book for 11^th grade cbse guys was around 1200 pages......my GOD....i was only used to by hearting stuff from a 100 pages book........it was a real hard time for me at that institute initially but i got used to it as i had no other options......it was like gymming your brain to be something like aamir khan in ghajini.....iwent to this sardar patel pu college and it was a really good college, with friendly friends, friendly ‘LECTURERS’ etc :D . I just couldnot continue with JEE preparation in my second year and ihad to leave that and joined a PU tuition. I felt like a coward soldier running back home after realizing the mammoth opposition. So, i was again back byhearting everything i could.....finally managed to get a decent score and decent rank in CET but a horrible rank in AIEEE and remained unranked in JEE(not a surprise). Again the 2^nd PU examination was considered to be another ‘TURNING POINT’ in a student’s life.....this time im really skeptical about that turn....ithink i just turned a bit too much......

ENGINEERING MY LIFE AHEAD:

My ukg dreams had really come true.....i was 18 and it was not at all exciting as i had presumed....this is currently the sucky part of my jurny......1year of my engineering went by as i made new friends and got to know what it really takes to be an engineer. I had the most ego shattering experiences after coming to this course. All the confidence that was nurtured from the end of 10^th grade has been washed away and all that is left is utter confusion. I think this is the case of many students right now....it gets really difficult when u see ur real face in the mirror.....u cant stand that u r nothing but a goof in the technical ocean or ocean of science or watever......its all part of growing up and u gotta beat that thought and define urself......life never ceases to surprise us and its a surprise indeed....ok i don’t know wat i just said, but plz consider it to be remotely philosophical.... :D. I think the actual journey has started now and its really amazing to see that u are still at ground zero after all these days. All those turning points led me to this starting point......wow......it sounds so filmy.....okay more of my stories in next blog......bye....

Confessions of a real tired mind......

Hi all...finally a blog after a very very very long interval of time....the reasons are obvious, 3rd semester classes are going on in full swing. But anni is sick of the amplitude and frequency of the swing. This blog is about his 2nd year expereince so far....

NOTE: The characters appearing in this blog are veryveryvery unique(their uniqueness deserves the adjective), real and existent.... names are modified to protect their uniqueness....happy reading...

Anni was on his laptop, not playing FIFA but studying electromagnetics for his upcoming quiz.

ME: Hi man....watsup? its been really long time talking to you...
Anni: Oh...hi macchaaa...we have a quiz next week....so was just going through some quiz related stuff...

ME: Hows your college going on? How are the subjects?Interesting huh!!I have a lot to talk to you today....keep your quiz preparation aside for some time...
Anni: Macchaa...im fed up of this college man...they are squeezing the life out of me under the pretence of autonomy....

Anni: We have these tests and quizzes once in every two weeks...they dont even give choices man....like uve to read everything..im really bored of this monotonous life....

ME: But the subjects are interresting alwa??

Anni: Yeah the subjects might have been interesting if handled properly. There is this course called network analysis which is really taught by Prof.NA...and our math course is only linear algebra.
And...we have digital design, analog circuits, electromagnetics and instrumentation.....
ME: WOW math sounds cool...

Anni: Yeah sounds cool...but the lecturers themselves arent sure of the concepts dude....half the class time gets wasted in some trash discussion on questions like, "is R2 a subspace of R3?"...they have kept MIT's linear algebra syllabus...all they do in class is try to mimic gilbert strang's lectures....

ME: What about analog circuits?what do u have in that?semiconductor physics?
Anni: hahahahhaha....no semiconductor physics and all dude...we just have some transistor applications, their frequency response and other such application layer aspects. And unfortunately the course is handled by a really boring lecturer Lec.AEC...analog circuits class is 'analogous' to history class. THE most boring hour in our time table. Each minute seems like an hour in that class....relativity at its best.... :D

ME: Okay...what about electromagnetics, instrumentation and digital design???i have heard that electromagnetics is really interesting and mind boggling....

Anni: Shut up man....i dont know where you hear all these weird stuff...electromagnetics is handled like a calculus tutorial class for us...you know, just giving some problems involving all those integral theorems, divergence etcetc . In electromagnetics class, ican bet 90pc of the class wont know what they are talking (unless its other than the subject). Coming to digital...this subject is more of method based. There are innumerable terms to remember. There are set methods by which you have to solve a given problem. Again, as the complexity of the problem increaes you will be lost in those tiny details of the procedures used for solving rather than the totality of the problem and what it is depicting.

By the end of this anni was impressed by himself. Whenever he talks like this he imagines himself to be some professor and magnifies the gravity of the topic vary much.

Anni: I really dont want to talk about instrumentation. I would blame the guy who included instrumentation in the syllabus. It includes most of digital and analog stuff that we are yet to learn and that makes subject obviously looks lousy right now.

By now, i had to be impressed by his supposed to be problems. So i couldnt help acknowledging him.

ME: That was quite a description about the courses you have. So, finally its only circuit theory that has seemed to be interesting???
Anni: Yeah you can say that....

ME: So...how are bus facilities for your college now??have they improved now or what???
Anni: Duuuuuuudddddeeeee.....iget tired just by thinking of bus travel to the college....its amazingly horrible....

ME: Oh...it would be comfortable if you leave the house a bit early... :)
Anni: First you get up before 8 mate...hahahahha

Anni: The bus facility has worsened in the morning. They have removed
couple of usual buses and introduced volvo buses which icant afford on a daily basis. Mindless goofs.

ME: Firstly get up early, secondly stop complaining and do your work, dont be stupid.

I was just pulling his leg. He got irritated.
Anni: Its you who started all this Mr. I was doing my work. Now would you please get out and dont disturb me.
ME: hahahha...cool down...carry on with that calculus tutorial equivalent stuff that you were doing....ALL THE BEST

So, this was my little interview session with anni. More of anni and his tales in next blog......

ANNI v/s studies....

Hi everyone. Anni had been to RRI for almost 1 month to do some project. It seems that he hasnt been successful. We were just talking how things went on there.....

This time even i had joined anni playing some game called FIFA 08....he was obviously defeating me in the game...
Me: Awrite....can we stop playing this??icant score even a single goal.....the game is sick....
Anni: HA!!!!playing games its not as easy as u think mate....u need to give it all u have...

This guy was just crazy about games. He used to shout, scream, whistle, curse the game designer, and do all sorts of things while playing, especially FIFA. The match got over and i lost..
0-6......

Me: So, whatsup with your RRI project?any progress?.....wat r u actually doing?
Anni: Dude....do not start that topic....i aint gonna discuss anything about that...
Me: Why maga???what happened??u were so excited about the project....weren't u?
Anni: Yeah....i was...but it wasn't....it was too monotonous....
Me: The hubris of the defeated...HAHAHA.....
Anni: Shut up...will u..u just sit here at home and watch some crap reality shows...
Anni, would surely hit me if i teased him even a little more.
Me: OKoK iam sorry...what did u do all these days?

Anni didnt want to share anything, but surprisingly he responded
Anni: Dude....the place is filled with people who are passionate about STUDIES!!!!!!
Me: OHO....u expected the professors there would be passionate about playing FIFA????
Anni: Hey....u came here to tease me or what???if thats the case, go n watch TV...ur favourite program "SAREGAMAPA 2007" is about to start.....
His eyes were wet. I thought, ok let me not tease him anymore.......
Me: Im sorry....continue...
Anni: Dude....what wud u do after your lunch???like if u had to go to some library after your lunch...
Me: Read some magazine, newspaper, novel etc.....why???
Anni: U kno what??in that place people read books like "DIFFERENTIAL GEOMETRY", "MANY BODY QUANTUM GRAVITY","INSIDE THE FFT BLACK BOX" as though they are magazines man.....cant they play for a while or something?
Anni's expression while naming those books was like Mr.Weasley's when harry said 'voldemort' for the first time in front of him.

Me: So what?let them read...whats ur problem?u read whatever you want....
Anni: As if i wud get whatever i want....
Me: Boss...iasked you about your project...not the people there..
Anni: Oh...ok...I DID NO PROJECT...
Me: Why?? u were doing some modulation stuff right?
Anni: NO....iwasnt...man u seriously think ican write modulation programs in matlab???come on idont have any prerequisites for that.....
Anni relied more on the prerequisites factor rather than trying to study without them.
Me: Ok agreed....ushud have studied them.....HA...u dont have time for games when will u study them?

Anni: Stop criticising me ok....you goto RRI one day and then let me see your "ZEAL" to study....man u take a bus from here....that bus...uffff...the whole of bangalore would be in that..get down at sadashivnagar and walk for almost 1.5kms to that place...at around 3pm u wud get a call from ur friend asking u to come for cricket....u surely cant deny such an invitation.....the ground is about 3kms from there....u have no buses to the ground.....walk under the hot sun....play cricket till 6:00pm...walk to the nearest bus stop which is another 1.5kms from the ground...get back to house at 7:15pm....annddddd u STUDY?????don't forget its your holidays...

Me: if i were u i wouldnt go to play.....
Anni: Oh yeah genius....icant do that....icant play even when in college....and u expect me not to play in holidays.....no wonder you are so good at sports.....
Me: Awrite Mr.Allrounder.....
Anni was really happy with himself for defeating me in conversation.

Me: U dint tell me about your 'project' thingy...u were given the task on the very first day right?
Anni: HAHA.....nothing....u kno what happened on first day?
Anni: I went to his office. He was busy talking with some other professor about GOK(God Only Knows) stuff. After waiting there for more than 30mins, he called me in. He was very warm kind of person. Asked me what all i had in first year, and he asked me what iwas interested.
Me: Hmmmm....
Anni: I told him iwas interested in thermodynamics and mechanics. hahaha, he was expecting something like signal processing, analog circuits. He asked me whether iwas in mechanical or in telecommn.I told him that the electronics we had till now was not interesting, so ididn't know much about electronics.
Anni was enjoying his own dramatic narration.

Anni: He asked me my syllabus. Seeing that, he told that i can do some real-time demonstrations of signal processing on matlab.
Me: ahahhahaha......i can guess your response...u would have said "yes sir yes sir" and repenting after that eh!!!
Anni: Exactly.....i was very excited about this word 'real-time'........
Now both of us were laughing.

Anni: Later i found out that u needed to be really good at fourier transforms to do analog modulation....i picked up a book called fourier transforms and its applications.....in the very first chapter the book used the concept of boundedness.....idont kno even that.....ipick another book called single variable calculus...read about boundedness.....came back.....and there was something called dirchlet's conditions, absolute integrability etcetc.........it got boring....and the 'real time' programming was many parsecs away from me......

Me: Okay......what were u reporting to your guide?
Anni: Some program related to analog modulation that i found on internet......he would ask me some questions like: does it agree with any index?did you plot for 6million points? phew.....my answers were just yes or no s.....all guesses.....
Anni: He would ask me to bring some specific example....when i gave it....he wud say 'this is too specific. why dont you generalize it?'........

Me: Ok...
Anni: One day....when i showed him a nice amplitude modulation demonstration.....he told me to add white noise and fourier transform that and try to frequency modulate it......hahahahhaha.....man it seriously sounded greek to me. I told him idont kno any of those stuff......idont even know fourier transforms....he said: ok kid....study fourier transforms, amplitude modulation and frequency modulation. And he went out of station for 2weeks.......sadhya....

Me: Wokay...did you study them?
Anni: I tried studying but even that started boring....specially fourier transforms...uffff....ihate fourier....
Me: Bidappa.....everything is boring to you other than playing games and cricket.....
Anni: Whoa!!!!!u speak to me as if u are doing ur B.S. at stanford.....stop acting like I-Am-the-next-feynman.........
Me: Shut up......im goin for a walk....coming?

This is how we are, all our conversations end very abruptly, with no conclusions. Arguing with anni is indeed real fun, he turns desperate to win over you.......try it out if u meet him.....

Walk the talk show with Dr.Anni.....

Dr.Anni is a professor in electrical sciences dept. at California Institute of Technology. He has come to Bangalore to have an overview of the quality of education provided. This blog is Dr.Anni's views on the education system.

Me: Hello Dr.Anni......welcome to our show
Anni: Hello...thank u...its my pleasure..

Me: Sir, how was ur trip here at India?
Anni: Oh...it was wonderful... iwas very lucky,people i met were really hospitable....
Me: So, what do u think about education provided here?
Anni: I have observed the preuniversity and the high school education......ihave not done an exhaustive
research on this.....but still ican confidently say that ive covered most of them...........
Anni: Generally, after the 10th grade board exams, most of the students have the dream of entering the IITs .The competition is so tough that getting an acceptance from these institutes
can be comparable winning a robotics competition at CALTECH or MIT. Many students get a sense of inferiority complex due to this massive competition.
Me: Yes sir, i fully agree with you. These kids struggle very hard to get in to IITs.

Anni: I was really surprised when i was told that, of the total students taking up the IIT-JEE only 3% make it thru.
Anni: I went through the syllabus for JEE. Its just too voluminous. U need to be mentally prepared for such type of studies right from when u r in 7th or 8th grade. U cant prepare for JEE as u do for board exams....students find the difficulty in this area....they tend to remember rather than arriving at the result logically....
Me: So, whats ur point sir? u think kids are forced into this?
Anni: Not exactly....if a kid after his 10th grade is sent for coaching, he needs to put a lot of effort and his chances of making it through is 2 out of 100.His confidence level must be really high....else he might end up screwing even the board exams......
Me: So, u think kids must not be pressurized to get ito iit.

Anni: No, you got me wrong there. What im saying is, develop the art of learning from young age....it helps u later to crack these competitive exams very easily...... why do u waste time in your school days learning the same methods of solving quadratic equation, the same gravitational problems in physics?Why dont you learn something more?like.......... if u r done with quadratic equations, goto cubic, quartic, if u r done with learning how engines work, start with the thermodynamics of that.....

Anni: They would rather prefer doin 500 problems of the same kind where no use of head, brain or mind is required.. :D

Anni: And u kno why this is happening. Students are so dependent on their memory. Ive seen students mugging up math problems from their texts as nothing other than textual questions are asked in their exams. Its horrible.....
Anni: All i want to say is, kids are made to live in a very protected environment(academically)in their schools. Let them explore the beauty of science and maths. Ull see a phenomenal difference in their attitude when they grow up.
Me: Exactly, sir. Even ive seen school kids who get frightened at the sight of books like calculus, linear algebra etc...
Anni: Once that fear is removed from their mind, their is no stopping them.
Me: How about pre-university education?

Anni: Yes, now lets come to preuniv. level......
Anni: Education at preuniversity level is quite decent. Even though the depth covered in each topic is not extraordinary, i feel students will defenitely be in their comfort zones regarding the syllabus.
Anni: Most of the students in metropolitan cities like bangalore, goto IIT-JEE coaching. They initially feel that its out of reach, however, the quality of students in those centres make them compete and they get adjusted.....
Me: Ok...

Anni: This is what iwas refering earlier...a student feels that clearing JEE is out of his reach mainly because he is not exposed to that kind of intensive learning earlier in his school.
Me: Absolutely, i get your point.
Anni: I wanted to mention another aspect that i noticed in PU colleges.
Me: By all means....its your show

Anni: Its very good that students have practical classes as a part of their curriculum. But, i feel that students must be left free to use their thinking and logic to get the results.
Me: Isnt that the case?
Anni: No, never......the student is given a lab manual, in which the aim, the principle, the procedure etcetc is given.....including the result........
Me: Ok...isnt it organized?
Anni: It is organized but its hampering the creativity within you....let me give u an example...

Anni: I was observing a physics practical class in progress. They were performing an experiment to determine the spring constant of some given spring. The method given in the book was somehting like this>>>Load the spring with a given weight and note down the extension of the spring from its undisturbed position. Repeat it with different wieghts and equate the force due to spring to the weight hung on it and get the spring constant value.
Me:Sounds good....

Anni: I saw student asking whether he could use the change in potential energy principle for the wieght and get the spring constant. Guess what the instructor tells him..
Me: Yeah thats a gud idea??
Anni: Hahaha....i would be the happiest person if that was the reply. Instead, he was reprimanded for disturbing the class.
Anni: The method suggested could be lame but still we should appreciate that the guy is thinking.... look this is what happens if the system is too rigid.
Me: Umean to say their should be no instructors for practical sessions?
Anni: No, there shouldnt be any if its killing some one else's idea.......
Me: I agree with you...
Anni: Well, this is all what i wanted to say about the high school and preuniversity education here........thank you once again for inviting me to this show...
Me: Its our pleasure to have u on this show sir......thank you.....