Happy New Year

Another year has gone by. A year which at one time seemed too long to come to an end.

And then all of a sudden it simply rushed away.

2011 has been eventful for me in so many reasons. From professional front to Friend's circle to personal front... in every sense. Sometimes it was overwhelming joy, and at times it was as painful as seeing yourself die! It made me feel younger, almost like a teenager. And at the same time it made me aware of responsibilities, helped me rediscover myself, made myself more matured human being.

Everyday is a lesson to learn, a test for all individuals. I don't really know whether I have passed in all these tests. I do not bother to know.

All I know is that I am a much more complete person now. More than ever.

As they say, and probably rightly so, always look forward in your life, never stay in the past. But for once, I wish could go back to the start of the year!

Good bye 2011!! I will miss you !! :(

And welcome 2012. :)

Wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year! :) :)

Nirupam

Flash Back

"Aye, tor college er naam ta banglay bol"?

It was Friday, 6th August. I was going home after a long time (ok, 4 months not that long, but still...). And that too after a busy week with loads of work. I was really really tired. Somehow I managed to board Uttarbanga Epress from Sealdah station
As soon as the train started moving, I felt drowsy. Fortunately the seat I reserved was in the upper berth. I was releived by the thought that at least no one would disturb me. So I quickly completed my usual dinner with fruit cake-snacks-water and went up. And within minutes, I was in a deep slumber. I didnt know how long I slept, all on a sudden I heard a bunch of question being thrown to somebody, like the one mentioned earlier. And it sounded so much familiar to me!
A: "Jalpaiguri Sarkari Karigori Mahavidyalaya"
Q: "Ore na..e to besh bangla jane!"
Q: "Tor rank kato?"
A: "Baro sho pochattur"
Q: "Baro sho pochattur ta abar ki?"
Q: "Ami to barosho pochattur bole kono rank hoy kina jani na"
Q: "Tor extra curricular activities bol?"
Q: "Jah baba..eto puro boba hoye gelo re.."
Q: "Akhoni ei aboshtha..akhono to intake e hoy ni tor..kaal ki korbi?? Hahaha"
Q: "Aye, amra ki toke ragging korchhi?"
A: "Na" (reluctantly)
Q: "Tahole amra ki korchhi?"
Q: "Tui amar saathe chol"
A: "Kothay?"
Q: "Kothay abar? Amar berth e, pasher compartment e"
Q: "Are baba bhoy pachchis keno? Amra toke marbo na"

It didn't take much time for me to realize what was going on :) And that reminded me I was in the same position 10 years back. Fortunately, I didn't have to encounter seniors on my journey to the college itself. It seemed, I was watching a video, a flash back of 10 years. I was feeling both excited and at the same time a bit sad as well. Excited, coz it reminded me of the good old days once more. And sad, because it has been 10 years! But nothing much has been changed, really. The same questions, the same kind of replies ("Bobar kono shotru nei" :P ).
I started enjoying the "interaction" so much that I forgot all of my tiredness and sleep. In fact I was about to get down and join them,(Of course I could, being an Alumni!) Then I resisted myself. Let them enjoy what they are doing. These are the moments they will cherish forever. Just like us. Even after 10 long years, we could not forget a single moment of those glorious years. And neither we will. To all of my college mates, I can just say:
Thank you. Thanks for making those 4 years so precious for me.
Happy 10th Anniversary!

The massacre and the aftermath

First and foremost, my deep condolence to the families of all the victims in last friday's Jnaneswari disaster in Sardiha, West Bengal. REST IN PEACE ALL WHOSE LIFE HAD COME TO AN ABRUPT END. I pray to the almighty that the ones still suffering injuries get well soon.
It is not that we have not seen a passenger train getting caught in an accident before. In fact we are quite familiar with that, mostly because of the poor infrastructure, shortage of manpower (yes, Indian Railways have almost 1 Lac of vaccancies at this moment including all posts) and everly increasing number of trains.
But definitely we have not seen an accident of this magnitude in last 10 years or so. The last one I remember was the Gaisal disaster back in 1999 when almost 300 people were killed in a head on collision.
But even then politics was not involved as much as this time. And I am very very frustated because of that. Instead of agreeing to the fact that it is our cumulative failure to help protect passenger security, the local political parties are trying to blame others. Tussle over the investigating agency -CID or CBI (Link ), conspiracy theories and obviousy, the civic polls..all making headlines. Four days have passed by, and we still do not know who are behind this massacre. And probably we never will. Worse, amidst all these, it seems we even forgot that there are some ill fated people, still outside the various hospitals, waiting for the dead bodies of their beloved one.
For god's sake, cant we stop politicising everything that comes our way and act a little bit more sense?

Happy New Year

Hi Guys!!!
Just a few hours before welcoming the new dawn of 2010. But simply I can't wait anymore! So many events due to happen this year. Football World Cup , T20 World Cup(yet again!), Winter Olympics...and if you think you have enough of sports, 2010 Formula One season will have one Mr. Schumacher coming out of his retirement to enthrill the crowd again! I am not a big fan of him, but certainly his comeback is good for the sport.

Wishing you all a very very great year ahead! :)
Happy New Year 2010!!

Cheers
Nirupam

3 Idiots -- My View

I had already left my college when I first heard of 5 Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat, and it took me a while to read the book. I was so impressed with the storyline that when I heard of a film being made based on it, I initially thought I would never watch it. Just because I did not want to see the essence of the story being raped. Then I told to myself, "You should trust Amir, he won't let it down!"
And thank god, I did watch the movie last saturday!

For those who did not watch the movie, it is based on a typical residential engineering college, where everything is determined on how much marks you got, not how much do you know. It involves the lives of three friends, their journey through the four years of the course.

This is not the first film after all being made on college life. But definitely it is the first one where I could relate so many memories of my own. After all I had studied Electrical Engineering from Jalpaiguri Govt. Engg. College (JGEC), a purely residential one. The firts few scenes of the movie depicts a small portion of ragging that normally happens in engg coleges. Believe me, in our case it was much worse! We had to even INVERSE all (JGEC public, I don't need to ellaborate this! ). And we could not even dare to think of counter-attacking the seniors! If you try to do so, you are DEAD!

Like one of the characters, Raju Rastogi, I too had the fear of loosing out in the race. I was from a lower middle class family background, always used to stand first in my class, I always was the preffered student for my class teachers. Then after joining the college, suddenly everything gets changed, nobody knows you there and worse, it hardly matters to the professors whether you are actually learning or not! And of course at the end of the semester marks will matter! But I am really grateful to the almighty that I found a group of people having same wavelength as mine! Since the first day of my hostel life, they have always been supporting me during every phase of my life. And I feel really proud to say that almost six years have gone by since we left college, and still we share the same bonding we used to during the college days.

Definitely it is not that 3I does not have any failings, but the merits of the fils smply outweighs those.
And last but not the least, hats off to Amir, Sharmaan, Madhaban, Rajkumar Hirani for giving us such a nice X-MAS and new year present.

P.S. If you still did not find the time to watch the movie, go the earliest! :)


Cheers
Nirupam

SimPpLex...

Hi Guys...A very very warm welcome to my site. To those who are finding SimPpLex a bit complex, here I am with some of hints..I am very sure though that most of you guys will not need any more help..but if any of you feel you want some...you can post here. Just a little word..dont act as spoilers as that goes against the spirit of the game.

Happy Quizzing
Love,
Nirupam