Goodbye.

It's been a long time since the last post, and with good reason. I finally did take something seriously, my project work. But now it's all over, and I'm now, Aditya Sharma, B.Sc., M.Sc.!

Never in my wildest dreams a few years ago, had I ever imagined that I'd ever do a Masters, that too M.Sc. For me, it was something very high on the intellectual ladder, something which extremely brilliant people do, others just get a graduation and get a job. If I had only known better.............!!

It all seems surreal still, can't really fathom that a split-second decision made at the spur of the moment, could have led to all this - these two amazing years of my life spent in Pondicherry. My decision to do a Masters was a well-thought one, unlike the one regarding B.Sc. I just didn't want to remain only a graduate all my life. I know, not the best of reasons to get into higher education, but doing a M.Sc. at that point of time was an absolute must for me, an essential qualification that I HAD to obtain. But then again, Bioinformatics was never on my radar, and Pondicherry most definitely not!!!! I used to see scores of advertisements from dozens of Universities all over India, in The Hindu, everyday, many from the south of India. But never was I compelled to apply. And I have no clue what drove me to apply  for Pondicherry Central University. And also, what propelled me to change my original course of choice (Ecology) to Bioinformatics. It was a decision taken in a split-second, when a friend's mother was getting the application procedure for her done, and I was asked to decide on the spot whether I wanted it to be done for myself too. And I said YES!!!!

It feels weird to think what my life would have been, had I said no then. There are a multitude of possibilities, but I had said YES. And all the events which henceforth followed, such as giving two exams on the same day (TERI & PCU), extreme difficulty in finding the center for PCU, bioinfo exam, these two being the only two entrances I managed to clear, taking admission in TERI (where I always wanted to study, albeit in a different course than the one I was offered), then making up my mind to drop a year and withdrawing admission from TERI, and finally, getting a call letter from PCU on the very same day I ditched TERI. In retrospect, it reaffirmed my faith in the butterfly effect.

Initially the stay in Pondicherry was conceptualized as just a six-month long experience, to fulfill some fantasies, such as travelling alone, staying in a hostel, experiencing life away from home. I still can't pin-point when did I decide to stick it out for the long haul, and complete the course. But I do know for sure, it was this awesome bunch of 18 people I met here ( 2 later left), along with the scenic beauty of the place, and the jungle like nature of my new dwelling place, which compelled me to do so.

I had never realized how quickly time flies by, as I did in the past 2 years. These two years have gone by in a blink. Seems like it was just yesterday I left home. But, I also changed, a LOT, in this one day. A little older, a little wiser, a little more cynical, a lot more confident and comfortable in my own skin.

And now, as I type this blog post from my computer in my Lab, it strikes me that these are the last few hours I'm spending in this lab, which for the greater part of the last two years, has been my home (yup, the lab is where I spent more time, as compared to the hostel). It really is an unpleasant feeling when it strikes you that whatever you are indulging in, could be the last time you are doing it, whether u liked that thing or not. I have been plagued by this feeling for the last couple of weeks now, when every look at the beautiful shades in the sky during the daily ritual of the sun rising and setting, every chirp from one of the plethora of beautiful winged-creatures that abound here, every sight of each and every corner of the university bathed in a sea of spring -time yellow finery, every whiff of the refreshing sea breeze (except when it is accompanied with the stench of drying fish), every morsel of inedible, unfit-for-human-consumption food, every laugh and cup of tea shared with my friends, reminded me , that this could be the last one! And now, finally those last moments have actually arrived.


For almost the entire year gone by, I bitched and complained about each and everything I hate about this place. Till a few weeks back, I couldn't wait to get out of here. I still am relieved to a great extent, of being deprived of all those things that made me miserable. But, somehow, it's not accompanied with happiness. It's not a nice feeling now that the good I'm leaving behind strikes me as hard as the bad. There is just so much that I'm leaving behind - student life, hostel life, complete independence, awesome friends, super fast unrestricted internet connection, living in a jungle, awesome sunrises and awesome sunsets, always being near d beach.

Am I gonna miss all this? of course. Am I wary of the uncertainty that the future holds? YES. But I still look forward to the future, back to the familiarity of the place I love, Delhi, and my home, and keeping all the good of Pondicherry university meanwhile firmly with me. I may not be able to say with the utmost certainty that I'm happy or glad about it, but I definitely do not regret saying that YES!!

Delhi University: The road to DU.

After more than a month of oscillating between periods of extreme workaholism and utter wastage of time (the latter eclipsing the former in both frequency and duration), I have finally decided to get back to the instrument of my salvation. This is one of the rare occasions where the mind is brimming with topics to write about. But the past few weeks have been very nostalgic with regards to the years spent in Sri Venkateswara College, or lovingly called as "Venky", University of Delhi. And all thanks to Facebook, the glue holding so many people all over the world together with their near and dear ones. The trigger seemed to be the uploading some of the photographs from the good ol' days in Venky, along with conversations and chats with many of my fellow guinea pigs. So here's an attempt to capture the best and worst of those days, while they are still slightly fresh in my memory.

Unlike most ambitious kids nowadays, I had never given much thought to what I would wanna do with my life after school. Yes for sure, there was the standard dream of becoming a doctor, given a keen interest in biology and total disdain for engineering. I had coasted through my years in school with pretty good grades without much hard work. I guess, that proved to be my undoing. I just couldn't get myself to put in the effort required to clear the onerous entrance examinations to get into a medical school. Very casually, after the board exams of class 12th ended, I indulged in all the delights deprived to me during the Boards, actually there was just one, watching television. I would eventually pick up the books, for an hour or so, just before going to bed. To me, that was more than enough. As for joining one of the myriad coaching institutes mushrooming all over, grilling students into entrance-exam clearing machines, it was out of the question. Hell, I'm too good for that! I was ashamed of even taking tuition for maths in 11th and 12th grades, though gave in to my mother's insistence. But that was as far as I'd bend. I stood my ground and staunchly refused to take classes for Physics, Chemistry or Medical entrance exams. Needless to say, each and every entrance exam was a zor ka jhatka, jo kaafi zor se laga.......! Still I kept up the charade of preparing for these exams for the two months after board exams. By the time I had realized that I don't stand a chance of clearing any of them, at least that year, it was time for the madness that descends on Delhi annually, the Delhi University admissions! Every year, from June 1st to 15th, admission forms are up for sale for the 80 odd colleges and numerous other departments and institutes that constitute the great University of Delhi (DU). Lakhs of students from all over India grapple for 60,000 odd seats in these colleges. And then from 25th June to 15th July the admission mayhem begins. This is seriously, one of the most entertaining phases in the year on Indian news channels. Their coverage of the newbie school students taking their first steps out in the "real world", some with their over-protective parents haggling along, while others trying to make it on their own, makes for an entertaining watch! Fashion trends are keenly observed, and college rivalries are played out at their optimum. Student Unions get into the act of impressing and attracting new followers and voters, and offer various sops and "assistance". Its an exciting time all around, as it was for me, making rounds of the South and North Campuses, attending orientation programmes, buying forms, trying to decide on the most favorable course and college option. It helped that I had secured enough marks in 12th to score a decent college and course. Like many others who appear for the afore mentioned entrance exams for medical and engineering colleges casually in their first attempt, I had a PLAN B - which was, not to waste one year, take admission in DU, (also can be read as, block some other kid's seat), spend that one year sincerely preparing for these entrances, and cracking them next year. It seemed easy and simple enough. So I took admission in B.Sc. life sciences, at Sri Venkateswara College, a five minute bus ride away from my home. It was an easy enough choice on the college, but not so much on the course. Though I was not severely inflicted with Decidophobia at that time, I was still switching from Life sciences to botany to anthropology to geology to english to history to chemistry. But keeping in mind my Plan B, I went for Life sciences, thinking it would be ideal for my medical preparation. So after a horrifying interview at St. Stephens, I took admission in Venky, and thus became a part of the elite DU alumni.

Going through a phase of Writer's block..........if any one is checking that is...... :-D

Back to Pondy!!!

So after 3 weeks of sleeping, watching T.V., and GORGING on home food, woh manhoos ghadi aa hi gayi. It was time to go back to Pondy. So I embarked on this ominous 28 hour journey to Chennai with my friend. So far, we have taken this journey 6 times, and each time our moronic luck would put us in the company of some or the other kind of freaks in the train. This time was no exception. A 28 - 36 hour train journey itself is an ordeal, and the effect is amplified ten times if your co-passengers are annoying. All I wished for was a quiet, comfortable trip. But NO!!!!!! I had to be clubbed with a bunch of intrusive Haryanvi senior citizens, out on a pilgrimage. And it wasn't just those five who occupied the seats around us. It was a BIG, extended family - extended to the point that they themselves really didn't know much about some of the others. And they were spread throughout the train. However for some reason, they all chose to come and chit-chat in our seats for most of the trip!! So me and my friend, two poor, little, hapless chaps were surrounded by 4-5 aunty jis, (who all seemed to have a loud speaker built into their vocal cords) and an equal number of uncle jis, who had an opinion on each and everything in the world! But none of them were as much as thorn in my flesh as compared to their guru ji, the guy who was apparently the head of the family, and ran an ashram. My entire journey was spent in focusing all my energy towards ignoring and tolerating this guy and his bigoted pravachans (sermons)! And they all started their hobnobbing at 4 am in the morning! No wonder I had a splitting headache throughout the day. What is more, I gave up my lower berth to one of them, cause of her age, and took a middle berth. And how do they thank me? By unceremoniously kicking me out of the berth at 9 am (I had barely manage to fall asleep again after the rude 4 am wake up alarm), telling me that berth reservation is not valid throughout the day!!! Boy, that sure was an exercise in self-control!!! Later on in the day, one of the aunty jis insisted on dragging us into a conversation. After interrogating me about my entire family history in a manner that would put an FBI agent to shame, a marwari connection came up and all my hopes for a quite afternoon to recover from the headache went poof in the air! And my so called friend decided to make hay while the spotlight shone on me, and crawled into the upper berth for a nap. I was left alone to tackle her incessant queries. The only bleak, bright spot in this whole ordeal was that they took us for working professionals, and after being constantly mistaken for a school kid by people (and watching their jaws drop when they learn that I was pursuing my post - graduation), it was nice change to be considered your own age!

Anyway, the worst was yet to come. So we managed to survive the journey from hell and reach Chennai. We got out of the railway station, managed to avoid the thieves (read auto wallahs), cross the road and take a bus for the inter state bus terminal. All was fine. Bus was as usual crowded. No big deal. WE bought the tickets. Ours and for the luggage. I had the latter. A lot of pushing and shoving. I managed to get a seat. Actually, I was pushed into one. The bus terminal came. We got down. Police standing just out of the bus to greet us. "Ticket please". My friend shows the tickets and gets ready to leave. "Luggage ticket???". I put my hand in my pocket. "Oh crap!!!". I check all my pockets. "Oh Shit!!!". My friend looks bewildered. I say "Sir I think I dropped it in Bus". "---something in tamil I didn't understand-----". Then basically I turned all my pockets inside out a zillion times, looking for that magical bits of papers that will land us out of this soup. But I guess my pockets didn't have the ability to produce them. I must have lost the tickets amidst all the pushing and shoving. I thought I'll look in the bus, and ask the conductor to be our witness and tell these people that we did buy the ticket. And sure enough when I looked up, there were the taillights blinking and mocking me from a distance, as if saying "haha, ur screwed boy!!". Meanwhile, The man who kept shouting "no arguments, no arguments" at us, and simultaneously pretending that he didnt understand a word of english and whatever we were trying to tell him, now threatened to pick up our bags and keep it in his jeep if we didnt shell out Rs 1000/- as fine. My friend by now had gotten all hot and fired up, was ready to fight with them. I realized there was no way out other than paying the fine. And after all, it was kinda my fault, not being able to keep hold of two tiny pieces of paper. I was ready to pay the fine. Especially after the guy offered to be generous and only charge fine on 1 person, i.e. Rs 500. But my friend would have none of it. Finally I managed to convince him, and tell him it was my fault. Actually, After such a long train and bus journey, I was in no mood to take another trip in a jeep, and that too, to the Police station. Basically after a lot of bi-lingual (english and tamil) arguing, shouting, and turning in and out of pockets, I paid the Rs 500 fine, signed a paper and we were left off. But obviously not before a sizable crowd had accumulated, whispering in an alien language and pointing fingers at us, and made us feel like a couple of petty shameful criminals.

The next five minutes went in calming down my friend. A silent dinner followed. Then we got into a bus for Pondy. It was almost 11 in night. Bus started at 11:30. Now it was my turn to get silent. The combined effect of the humiliation just suffered, and the fact that I was back in this part of the world, away from home, away from my warm quilt, away from my beloved T.V., away from the delicious delhi winters, away from the wholesome ghar ka khaana, away from di n ma, took its toll on me and withdrew me into my silent reverie. My friend tried to cheer me up by telling obnoxious, bachpan waale PJs, and they kinda worked. We covered the three hour journey mostly in silence. And then we were there. Pondicherry University. At 3 am. Same as ever. And it felt like, I'm finally out of a dream, and back to reality. Back to what will be for the next 4 months more, my home.

What's happening down there!!!??

I mean Australia.......... A spate of fresh attacks on people of Indian origin has got the Indian media declaring war against Australia, while the Australian newspapers are busy lamenting the hysteria created by Indian media!! Our politicians find themselves incapable of doing anything other than issuing periodic, hollow threats to the Australian authorities. And even that is passe now. Now they have begun to tow the Australian Government's line, and calling upon the Indian media to exercise restrain in reporting. Within a week or so, a guy is killed, another burned alive, another set on fire, and another two guys attacked. A guy was actually beaten up by a bunch of locals on the beach yesterday!! And what's common between all of them? They are all of Indian origin. Doesn't take a genius to figure out that the attacks are racially motivated. But I guess even that is beyond the scope of the Australian authorities. In fact, they seem more keen on proving that the attacks are not racist, rather than on solving the cases, and putting the assailants behind the bars. Never seen such an extreme case of "living in denial". Hardly any progress has been made, in any of the cases which happened last year or even this year. They seem more concerned about the severe blow all this will cast on the Australian economy with the obvious loss of Indian students, rather than bringing the perpetrators to justice. One can only imagine what the families of the victims have gone through, and what the thousands of families with there kin in land of the ozz must be going through. And all we can do is hope that we have seen the last of such attacks.......!! :-/

The homecoming - Part II

So, my new year's eve, as I said earlier, was nothing special. I ended up channel surfing and watching a bit of each of those horrific New year specials. I was actually playing a game with myself, trying to adjudge the worst one. Expectantly, it was a tough competition, with no clear winner. It seemed like each of those channels were trying to outdo each other in mediocrity. What really bugged me was, do these program editors and directors think their audiences are fools??? Remember those days when programs like award shows, stage shows etc. were actually beamed live into your living rooms by the good ol' Doordarshan? Though the production value those days may not be have been as appealing as nowadays, and can be even considered tacky and sub-standard, it was still entertaining. And more importantly, truly LIVE. Nowadays, with all that jhintak light and sound effects, the shows may look better, but the feeling of watching a live show doesn't sink in. And they are not live. The whole thing just seems a facade, specifically done up for television. A couple of shots of the celebs in the audience are projected intermittently throughout the show. It's like Do they really think the people watching at home are dumb? They expect us to buy that the likes of Aishwarya rai, Amitabh Bachchan and other people in the audience sit throughout the 3-4 hours of the show in the same pose, with the same facial expression and laugh in exactly the same manner at each and every joke and/or performance? I mean, come on!!! But I guess it's just a part of the whole "The audiences are stupid, they'll lap up whatever we throw at them" attitude adopted by the entire television industry nowadays, whether its soaps, entertainment or news.

Amidst all this Great Indian T.V. tamasha craziness, the only constant is the good ol' Doordarashan. You can count on it, to always remain the same, and never change!!!! Star plus aired an event which was hitting the news since weeks before it was televised on the 31st, (cuz of the spicy encounter between ash n vivek), and to think, at the end, the anchors were trying so hard to make people believe that the are watching a live event, and it actually is 12 am on the 1st jan 2010, and wishing a happy new year, with fireworks n all the other drama!!! While our DD national, had those good ol' staged shows, with famous singers lip-syncing to their popular tracks, and with no intentions of making it look even remotely believable. They were dancing away to the tracks like they'd in a disco, while actually pretending to sing the songs live!! :-D The lighting, the stage and set design, the costumes, all were an instant flashback to the 80's and early 90's, the era where DD seems to be stuck in forever. In fact, travel shows which aired when I was in primary school are still airing!! And no, not new episodes! those same old episodes shot way back then!!!! Really Doordarshan does bring back a lot of fond memories of childhood.....and I'm sure not just for me...! But we'll talk about that some time later.........