Mumbai attacks was our mistake..

Today, I feel like a Mumbaikar. Yes, you read it correctly. I feel like a Mumbaikar even though I have never lived there. And every other person in this world, whose heart is mourning the death of the brave soldiers and policemen, is a Mumbaikar today. Just like we all were Americans on 9/11, Londoners on 7/7 and Spanish on 11/3. I don’t give a damn of what Raj Thackeray is going to do if he gets to know that I am proudly calling myself a Mumbaikar, even though I am not one. He doesn’t even care for the North Indian and South Indian, I am sorry, Indian soldiers who have died saving Mumbai. Where was this protector of Maratha Manoos and his followers when Mumbai was burning? He didn’t even visit the spot. Taj Hotel, with which many people identify Mumbai was under attack. Where was Mr.Raj Thackeray when there was an attack on Mumbai’s Identity? We all know the answer, in the comforts of his home, maybe strategizing how to attack Amitabh Bachchan again.

Our country’s politician will right now be busy discussing how to attack the government with the help of Mumbai attacks. But never during these three days, we heard of an all party meeting were they could make policies to tackle it next time. All NSG commandos are deployed in New Delhi and are sent to the spot when required. Why are they stationed in New Delhi? Why not dispersed throughout the country? Is it to protect our useless politicians? Our government was busy pointing finger at our neighboring country saying they logistically support the terrorist. What were they expecting? That the neighboring country’s Premier would say “Yes!! We did it”? For how long are we going to suffer? We didn’t learn even after Parliament attack, Akshardham and the recent serial blasts throughout the country. It’s not the fault of our neighboring country, but our own since we do nothing for each time they harm us. When will our power hungry political parties really think and work for the betterment of the country?

They are not the only ones to be blamed, we too are the culprits. It's time to be self critical. We are the ones who choose them. We waste our voting power every five years and sometimes earlier than that too. For a long time, no party has won with majority. They always form an alliance and then stake their claim. All they want is power. They are hungry for it and we do nothing about it. But yes, we always are brave to say “What can we do about it?” I say we can do everything about it. Just don’t caste your vote in the next election, and if you do, then caste an invalid one. Do you really think any of them are worth our vote? I feel this is the only way they will learn. Else we will continue to loose our brave and honest soldiers, whom we badly need. It’s high time we learn from our previous mistakes and give our politicians a chance to learn a lesson too. I have never casted my vote for this reason. I request you to think before you vote too. Because it’s the only weapon we ordinary men have to fight every issue that we are facing today. Remember, we can’t afford to loose another Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte, Vijay Salaskar and Sandeep Unnikrishnan.

Guys, there can be no conclusion to this blog. It can end only on what you think after reading it. But more than that, I hope it ends with you doing something about it.

It’s you who can bring a day when none of our fellow countrymen would complain about our country being a sad place to live. Work towards giving yourself a chance to say Jai Hind, when you would really mean it.

Be a Proud Indian, forever.

Truth or Dare (Trip Day 3)

“The happiness of reaching bungalow showed on my face as it was time for our TRIP NIGHT OUT.” The happiness sure did fade a little after some time. We were already told that there would be no camp fire, on top of that, some of the girls complained they were too tired and didn’t wish to stay up. To add to my misery, even boys started complaining about the tiring day we had today. Somehow, I got the support of few good men and women (Mukunda, Vivek, Bhupendra, Vinay, Shilpa and Apoorva). Since we were few, we decided on spending night by playing cards. It was either bluff or lucky seven. I had fun playing and teaching rookies tricks of the game. We had Lakshmi and Shyamala as spectators for sometime who later went to bed. When we got bored of playing, we started talking. We decided on telling each other about what is good and what is bad in them. For e.g. : I was told that I have a very good sense of humour, I have a different perspective of situations every time, very helpful, etc, etc. but on the other side, I trouble and irritate a lot too. When this discussion had started, the girls (Shilpa and Apoorva) had already gone to sleep. So, we jotted down their good and bad points too. Later, cricket and our future were the hot topics. It was 1:00 a.m when Mukunda and Vinay too hit the sack, leaving me, Vivek and Bhupendra. We went out for a while to breathe some fresh air. Later after coming back, we again started chatting. Now, I don’t exactly remember what we spoke about, but I can assure that everything that we spoke was nonsense, trying to kill time. In the midst of all these, I got time to click some photos of my sleeping friends. While I was doing all this, I observe daylight. It was 6:00a.m. After sometime, everybody was awake. One by one, everybody was ready to leave for Yana too. Shyamala and Padmini took long time to get ready (I don’t blame them). Poor Vinay was dying to freshen up but the washroom was always engaged (don’t know how he managed to behave normally at that point of time). With all this problems on our head, we finally managed to leave Yallapur at around 8:30. We had packed some food for the afternoon too.

The journey to Yana was as good as the one to Yallapur was. I was busy enjoying the view outside, with some friends giving me company. Some ruined their journey by playing cards, talking on phone for hours, sleeping, etc. We reached Yana at 10:30 a.m. The place is famous for a single rock cliff placed in the middle of the jungle. A temple of Lord Shiva is situated below the rocks with 10-11 bee hives on top of the cliff. We had to walk 3k.m to reach the rocks. Everybody showed enthusiasm initially, which turned to glum a little later. People complained of leg pain, tiredness, even headache as though I can treat them. All I told them was either you have to walk or wait in the jungle for us. The statement made them walk faster. We reached the rocks, visited the temple and rested for sometime. Some of them were hungry and wished to have their lunch, but the majority decided on reaching the bus first. On the way back, I had only Priyanka and Apoorva for company. I learnt one thing from the journey way back with Apoorva and Priyanka that sometimes opposites do not attract. We reached to bus in record 20 min. however, others (except Bhupendra and Vivek who had reached before us) took a long time to reach. We waited near a petty shop. To reach that shop, one must jump across drainage, made to drain rain water. It was totally dry since it was summer season. While 5 of a certain group were trying to cross it, I realized that only 4 came on the other side. On investigating the matter, we found that Asif had fallen down. It was not all that big drain that he would fall in it. After all, Shyamala managed to cross, why couldn’t Asif? The only reason I could give was he must have done something wrong at the Yana temple. Frankly, I don’t blame him, because he hardly goes temples and doesn’t know the protocols of many rituals. However, after all of us assembled near the petty shop, we got on the bus and left for Murudeshwar – our last trip destination.

On the way, we stopped to have our lunch. Not all of us were hungry, may be because of the tiring trekking at Yana. But we forced ourselves to eat cause Murudeshwar was and I had told that we are not going to stop anywhere on the way. However, Shilpa still decided not to eat, she complained that she was too tired too move her hands towards the plate. At this moment, my friendly neighborhood (because she was sitting next to me) Apoorva volunteered to hand feed Shilpa. Problem was solved. I finished my lunch early and with nothing to do, I grab my camera and shoot a video of my friends eating. It’s funny to see how people behave while they are eating. They are too conscious and don’t want to be in front of camera. So much so that Lakshmi tried to hide herself behind Mitesh, which was I feel was a pretty desperate (and stupid to some extent) move to avoid the camera. Later on, I concentrated on shooting Apoorva feeding Shilpa. The love I felt from this sisterly act was too much for me to handle. It was very emotional. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing (even while I am typing this).

With everybody’s stomach full, we moved on towards Murudeshwar. With no sleep last night, and a good meal after a tiring walk often induces sleep in humans, and sometimes in me too. I went into deep sleep, unaware of the outer world and its plots against me. I was told the news of me sleeping was too good news for Shyamala. She had all plots against me since I troubled her whenever she was sleeping and she always requested me to sleep while traveling since she wanted to take my snaps. Finally she got a chance and she didn’t miss it. In her excitement, she forgot that she wasn’t taking snaps, but shooting video. Later when I woke up, I see that we had halted and we had not yet reached Murudeshwar. On asking Mukunda, he told me that driver was a bit tired and he wanted to rest for a while. I observed that some of my friends were missing too. Mukunda told me that THE GANG (headed by Shyamala with her followers – Lakshmi, Padmini, Mitesh, Vivek and Asif) were also in the hotel eating. It was fine because we had halted anyways. I went to wash my face since I was feeling sleepy, but didn’t want to sleep. Vivek came out after sometime and sat next to me. A little later, driver too turns up but there was no trace of THE GANG. We waited for fifteen minutes after which I asked Vivek about what they were doing. He told me that they had ordered Pav Bhaji ( an Indian snack consisting of bun roasted in butter along with a mixed vegetable curry made by using spices, enjoyed only when very hot) and were waiting for it. PAV BHAJI!!!!! It was around 40° C there, hot enough to boil eggs without the help of heating instruments. Who would even think of eating PAV BHAJI in this hot weather? This was too hot to handle. I decided that its time to teach them a lesson. I told all my friends that when THE GANG returns, we will tell them that Murudeshwar trip is cancelled and we are heading towards Bangalore. Our driver too agreed to take part in this. When THE GANG arrived and were told about this, they thought it was a joke initially. But we acted so well that they were convinced after sometime. They pleaded a lot that we go Murudeshwar. Mitesh even proposed that we stay overnight with all expenses to be paid by him (what a brave thing to do when your wallet is running out of money). But we told him that this was impossible since Vinay and Vivek had their presentations due on Tuesday and we couldn’t waste time staying. THE GANG was pretty disappointed with this. They knew this was my entire plan. Shyamala and Padmini threw really nasty looks at me, as though they wanted to throw me out of the bus and go Murudeshwar. Meanwhile when I asked Shyamala to give me her camera, she was so pissed that she told me that she lost her camera, not realizing that it was in her own hand. I was enjoying every moment of me. THE GANG cursing me was indirect compliments on my acting abilities. It was only when we actually reached Murudeshwar that I saw THE GANG smiling. Shyamala was so happy that she started beating me (beating is actually an overrated word. Onlookers would call it a pat on the back, but the intention categorizes it into beating). We changed quickly and dived into the salty water in no time. I, Bhupendra and Asif were the only people to go farthest into the sea. We went so far into the sea that in stead of waves pushing us back towards the shore, the sea was pulling us towards it. Asif and Bhupendra panicked to such an extent that Bhupendra forgot he knows swimming. I told them to relax and push themselves backwards with each wave coming towards us. We finally reach the shores. There is nothing much to tell about our beach activities since all of us always do same kind of stuffs on a beach. However, there was one change in Asif’s activities. Instead of floating like a crocodile, he was diving around like a dolphin this time. After a nice time on the beach, we were facing difficulties in finding out a place to bath with fresh water. It took a while to solve this problem, after which we all headed towards the temple to catch a glimpse of god. Somewhere, our group got divided (no points for guessing that one of the groups was THE GANG). We had decided that after the temple visit, we would all meet at Hotel Kamat for dinner. But it was too crowded. We decided on eating at a nearby resort. It looked costly but after all this was the last dinner of out trip. We waited for THE GANG, only to be informed later that they were eating at a hotel near the temple and would not join us.

We took a good fifteen minutes to decide whether we should eat in the garden, or inside the hall. After much thought, we decided on the hall and went inside. We ordered food and requested the waiter to serve us fast. But he told us that it would take minimum fifteen minutes to serve. Our jaws dropped, but we had no options. While getting bored, one of us saw an empty bottle in Mukunda’s hand and proposed playing truth or dare (A game where a bottle is spun. The person pointed by the bottle when it stops has to do something daring, or tell us true information. A silly game if you are getting jacked royally.). I don’t remember about who was asked to do what. All I remember that Mukunda was made to bow down ten times, Shilpa was asked to jump in the middle of the hall 10 times, Sahana was asked to run around the hall, we made Sherin to propose Bhupendra, Bhupendra was asked to give Sherin a positive reply, Priyanka, Apoorva and Vinay opted for truth. Last but not the least (in terms of funny acts), I opted for dare and I was asked to dance with any girl present in the hall. It was Priyanka’s idea. I thought I will dance with her, but she gave me life threatening looks. I could see Sahana sitting next to her. Without thinking too much, I asked Sahana for a dance. She agreed. It was a scene out of Beauty and The Beast (Except for that The Beast resembled a Panda more and he didn’t know to dance either.). No matter what, I enjoyed it because I know I will never get a chance to dance with another girl again in my life (How opportunistic of me).

Later while going back towards our van, Sahana told me that I am very bad at dancing and I didn’t know how to ask a girl either (things that I knew). On this some people offered me help on teaching all kinds of manners and behaviors while with a girl. I told them I would ask for it when I need it. When we got back to the van and told THE GANG about how we enjoyed our dinner, they felt sad for missing it. We decided to continue the game while traveling to keep them happy. Asif was made to dance topless, Vivek was asked to blast Shilpa since she dumped him, Shyamala was made to flirt with Mitesh (poor girl), Padmini was asked to propose me (poorer girl), Shilpa was made to walk as though she was pregnant, Lakshmi was asked to cat walk (however, some of them had other acts to give her). We continued our game for long, long enough to confuse me when I am trying to remember it now. Once we stopped the game, most of us, including me fell asleep, only to be awakened by dogs, who were barking on some of the girls who ventured out into the bushes when the van was halted. After laughing on that for sometime, we all went back to sleep.

Next day morning, we had a light breakfast after which we tried to keep the environment lively inside the van with dumb charades, antakshari, etc. We reached Bangalore at afternoon. We dropped everyone one by one, with me being the last person to get down. I throw my bag down and lie on my bed once I reached home. Long before, I was told that pulling even half of the class for a trip is next to impossible. Everybody thought I am the last person to be trusted upon to do this. But after all these months coming back from the trip, I can shout at the top of my voice that I DID IT…..

P.S: I thank all those who made impossible possible by their presence on the trip. I thank Lakshmi’s mom for being with us on the trip. I thank Apoorva’s dad for arranging our accommodation at Yallapur I thank Padmini for coming on this trip and bearing me throughout the trip. I thank all those who were sitting at the back and wasting their time playing cards. I thank Apoorva for speaking over the phone for hours. I thank Mitesh for taking care of all the girls present in the trip, even though he was not asked. I thank Mukunda and Vinay for their support and assistance in arranging this trip. Last but not the least, I thank Sahana for the dance. I thank all my friends for the funny moments they gave me to share on this blog. I thank you all.

TRIP- Day Two

Now the first day of the trip going great, we anticipated a better second day. We were not disappointed. It was planned to leave Dandeli at six in the morning for Ellapur. But as they say, you are definitely not on a fun trip if you get ready on time. Everybody woke up at six (scheduled leaving time). Boys hurried in getting ready. Asif is known among boys for taking his own sweet time in the bathroom. So if one of us was getting ready inside the bathroom, then the other one of us is guarding it making sure Asif doesn’t enter the bathroom. Our mission was accomplished. Anyways, our adventures for second day started at around 8:00a.m (reason was Asif of course and Shyamala’s slow eating habits too. Thank you guys). We left Dandeli with rafting on our mind. Few of us promised ourselves that we would come back for rafting. And this promise was not meant for breaking. The journey to Ellapur was majestic in terms of view outside vehicle’s window. Our driver told us that we can spot few animals. I felt that even though the road had a boulevard of woods surrounding it, but they didn’t look all that dense to have animals in it. Just as I was thinking about this, Priyanka shouted ELEPHANTS (both of us were sitting at front, near driver). I had a big cheerful smile on my face for just one second, cause the next second I realize that what was Elephants for Priyanka, turned out to be buffalos for me. She apologized for her bad ability to sight animals, but I got a chance to pull her leg and I did so all through the journey. We didn’t spot any other kind of animal except for Homo sapiens (humans) for the rest of the journey. We reached Ellapur in two hours time.

Our stay was arranged for at a jungle inspection bungalow by Apoorva’s dad (Thank You Uncle). We wasted no time in keeping our luggage as we were running short of time. But even after many precautions that were taken, we lost a good amount of time in finishing our breakfast. Within one hour time, we were off to our first destination, Sathoddi falls. It was 20 k.m away from Ellapur. Half the journey had very bad roads with Pradhan Mantri Gram Yojna boards placed beside it, assuring good roads. But as we had to pass through jungles, the view outside was good. Only few of us were bothered about the view outside, as most of them had other modes of entertainment (sleep, cards, etc., which in my opinion are the best way of ruining your ultimate fun on a trip). However, I was given some amount of information about the place by Vinay as it was his home district. We reached our destination in no time. From the place of parking, we were supposed to walk approximately 3 k.m. We got dispersed on the way to falls as all had different pace of walking. After half an hour of walk, we could hear water falling. And five minutes later, we could see it too. Between the places where you could view the falls and the place where the falls were actually located had lots of big rocks. So if you wish to reach the falls for a hard hitting bath, you had to climb those rocks. Moreover, at places where you had to walk on the ground with water level being up to the knees, the ground was very slippery. Thus, holding each others hands and walking stabilized the whole unit and ensured everyone was dry until reaching the falls.

Whenever a person goes to a natural water place, his animal instincts takes over his conscious human part of the brain. That was the case with most of us (except for me who is already a certified animal under human skin). So, I could see everybody playing in water like crush going kids play in a bath tub with their rubber ducks. The falls had less water since it was summer time with no question of raining. But water was falling on us with great velocity as potential energy stored at higher level was being converted to kinetic energy with the accelerated motion due to earth’s gravitational attraction. In short, it was painful standing below the water falls. But what’s the fun in going back dry? So we all decided to bear the pain. All of us had also spent some time at the place where water gets collected after falling. Some of us were checking on how long we can hold our breath under water. I stood second most of the time because Sahana stood first every time. The secret behind her winning formula was Baba Ramdev’s yogic breathing techniques, which helps in holding breath for a longer time. Getting bored of playing this, we started pulling legs in the water, causing the victim to submerge into it. Since water was just thoracic deep, there was no question of drowning. This was the moment when my animal instincts took over. I pulled each and every ones legs in water, making them scared for their life and scared of me too. Everyone had an eye on me later, ensuring that when I move, they move in the opposite direction, to avoid me. However, none of them could drown me though. In fact, at one point of time, four to five people tried to drown me in vain. We moved out when everybody was tired of playing. We went back climbing all those rocks once again. This time, I had Priyanka and Vivek for company. I and Vivek were all fine in clearing those hurdles, but Priyanka had faced a scary incident of rock climbing, so was a bit hesitant. We spent extra ten minutes on each rock, teaching Priyanka how to go about it and were to keep her foot. At one point, I lost my cool and yelled at her too. All for a good cause. We had our lunch packed and we had it as soon as we reached plains. On the way to plains, I saw Asif floating like a crocodile in still water (he almost hit a rock) and Shyamala getting herself cleaned by Padmini as though she was a buffalo (you know how milkman cleans his buffalo, pushing water on her body with his hands. That was really funny. She posed like a buffalo too). The temperature was high due to which our clothes dried fast while we were eating. Me, Vinay, Mukunda, Bhupendra, Sahana, Shilpa and Sherin spent some more time beside the river on the pretext of getting water. The view was lovely, something out of a romantic Tamil movie song. After sometime, we were off to our second destination, Jainkullugudda.

It was a two hour journey from Sathoddi falls, through the jungles. It was a hilltop with a beautiful view of the jungle below. We didn’t do much there except taking photographs. Some of them were at their creative best, trying to take their photos in a pose which would depict them as though holding the sun on their palm (in vain). My creativity made me, Mukunda and Vinay pose……… well, I can’t describe it here (because, school going kids too would read this). We wanted some group photos too. So we asked other tourist group to click it for us. But, they made their wives to sit with us too (don’t know why?). Somehow, we succeeded in getting a snap of our group ONLY. We were there until sunset, which was time for us to go back to Ellapur. Some of the guys had decided to not to sleep tonight. So, I thought it would be better if I sleep on the return journey. Moreover, since most of them were angry with me for troubling them all day, keeping my silence was a sensible, life saving idea.

We reached inspection bungalow and all of us were given a certain amount of DO WHATEVER YOU WANT moments before dinner. We had planned for a campfire but it was cancelled due to unavoidable reasons. I spent my time talking to all the people there (details cannot be disclosed as I have forgotten them). When it was dinner time, we were told that the only decent hotel that provides dinner was 3 k.m away. Some of us decided on walking to the hotel and we did so, later being joined by the rest. Even though the food was pathetic and servicing was painstakingly long, we relished on everything that was kept on the table. We took 2 hours approx. to finish our dinner. We had to walk back to the bungalow too, but it was fine as I had some energy after dinner to walk. I had Apoorva for company. We got so busy talking on our way back, that we got lost our way twice. We were last to reach the bungalow, safe and sound. The happiness of reaching bungalow showed on my face as it was time for our TRIP NIGHT OUT.

to be continued…..

Trip DAY ONE

All right, I won’t speak about the hardships I faced while arranging this trip. I won’t talk about the mental trauma I went through while asking every girl of my class to come on this trip. Because after coming back, I feel every pain, trauma and hardship was worth it.

They say when good things are about to happen, then it starts with difficulties. And when best things are about to happen, it starts with impossible. For me, things were next to impossible.

Everyone feels that I was one of those guys who arranged and made sure at least half the class is on the bus. But frankly speaking, I didn’t arrange anything. None of us arranged anything. Looking at the fact that there were many people interested in coming, I didn’t want to cancel everything by saying that we are not able to arrange a hotel for stay. I thought that we should go ahead no matter what. After all, if we had no place to stay, we could use the bus. And if girls had a problem with that, we could go back to Bangalore and tell at home that we had been to a long drive (very long in fact!!!). But thank god, he had other plans for us.

My share of fun started as soon as I boarded the bus. I am not much used to being serious, but I was doing a serious job of making sure everybody is on the bus with lot of fun. It started with me stopping the bus at places where others could board the bus, this made me the conductor (that’s what the girls were calling me), except for Sahana who went a step further thinking I was the driver speaking to her over the phone. The journey was long and everybody was pulling their blanket, but not me. I was taking snaps of those who were sleeping, making them conscious and awake at the same time.

We reached Dandeli at 11:00 a.m., halting at just 2 places on the way. Now was the time when I made a little serious face. We enquired at one of the hotels for rooms and to my luck, rooms were available. We didn’t loose a second and got the rooms. We spent quite a lot of time in deciding what are we going to do in Dandeli in just one day. After lot of debating, we decided on rafting. Everything was looked after by Vinay and we were on our way after lunch.

Rafting is 2 hours of mind boggling, body aching and soul stirring, death calling fun. For fat guys like me, its money worth cause chances of you falling into the rapids is high (100% in fact). Even after training, I fell in the rapids twice. When I came back onto the raft after my first free fall, I apologized Priyanka for all those minutes that I spent irritating her and promised god that I wouldn’t trouble anybody again (remember, promises are meant to be broken). And then again, I fall in one of the rapids. I can exactly explain how I felt both the times I fell. The first moment was of panic, the next moment was for prayers and the third moment, you realize that you aren’t sinking, so it of happiness and fun. The second time, we were going against the water flow which was a little more difficult. The first time going against the flow made me realize how powerful Mother Nature is. I felt her power right on my face with water gushing on it. I felt I was sinking even though I was way above water level (I would like to mention Sahana’s expression when she was feeling the same force of Mother Nature). It was the fifth instance of going against the rapids that I fell again. This time it was for a longer duration. It was a kind of fun that I won’t find anywhere else, other than hanging onto the raft ropes when going against the rapids. Our trainer was all keen to pull me up, but I was not at all interested and told him to pull me after we reach still water. Finally, our rafting adventure ends and I was the only guy who got more than his money’s worth.

On our way to rafting spot, we were singing bhajans to please the almighty, but on our way back, we were tired enough to not to speak much, except for Apoorva who cracked some really bad jokes (she needs lot of training). On reaching hotel, we had a small debate again on whether should we move on to our next destination, or halt at Dandeli for the night. We decided on the latter. Dinner took a lot of our precious time. Everybody planned to hit the sack after dinner. I tried to pull all of them for a game of Q&A. some of them missed out even then. The person whose name would be picked was supposed to answer whatever asked. In my honest and truthful opinion, the game plan flopped like Tashan. To be critical about my plan, it flopped because most of the players were half asleep and much of the time was spent by me and Mitesh arguing over why I lost weight. Nevertheless, one should never cry if his efforts fail, its time to be happy thinking that you atleast tried.

Finally, the game ended and all were on their way to their rooms. But the night didn’t end for some of the boys (Me, Bhupendra, Vivek and Vinay). We spent another one and half hour talking and talking and talking. Then they gave up too, leaving me alone. I spent some time lying down, waiting for any kind of sleep to fall on my eyes.

To be continued…….

Statuary Warning: Rafting can be injurious to health. Faint hearted and pregnant ladies, don’t even think about it.

P.S: I have planned to blog about each day of my trip. So, keep watching this space everyday for the next coming days. The fun has just started.

As usual, I again request you to post your comments if you read this. They are my source of inspiration that pushes me to keep writing. PLEASE, do post your comments.

The Quiz

“First things first, I need to collect the copies of bio pharma notes and hand over the originals to Lumina”, I said to myself when I woke up. When I came out of my room, my brother reminded me that there’s India v/s Sri Lanka coming up. I checked the score. Sri Lanka were bowled out for 179. What a better way to start a day. I got ready and left for college. On the way, I picked up the notes. I didn’t wear my watch, so didn’t know the time. Industrial Management was our second class today. So, when I entered class, I see teacher is already there. I asked permission to get in which she denied. Even though I left the class without saying anything, I cursed her whole heartedly for letting me inside. I had 55 minutes to kill now, with no mode of time pass. I was waiting outside the class, just then I met Asif. He informs me that this is the first hour going on right now, second hour is yet to start. I give a big sigh of relief. When teacher comes outside the class, I apologize to her. She wondered why. I couldn’t give her the exact reason, so I ran away from the scene.

The next class was pretty boring. I was trying very hard to keep my eyes open. Just then, my H.O.D (who was taking the class also), told me that the quiz competition (which was postponed first) will be held today and we have to report at 1.30. My reaction was WHAT???. I got scared since I wasn’t prepared for it. It was a big surprise for me. As I was trying to come out of this scary moment, I was told by my H.O.D that my partner has not turned up for college today. GREAT. Now I have to look for a partner also. I had to choose my partner from my class itself and the response was good. Three people volunteered to be my partner. I didn’t wanted Dilip to join me. I told them that if my partner (Name : Mukunda) doesn’t turn up, then I will pick one of them. But to my luck, Mukunda out of nowhere turns up. I informed him about the quiz and he too gave a pretty expected reaction. Then we mutually agreed that since we were not left with much time to prepare, we won’t prepare. At this very moment, I realize that one of my class mate, Amrita, had left her helmet in class. Whole class was seated at EDUSAT room to have a look at some visuals. I felt an itching sensation in my hand. I hide her helmet in one of the class cupboards and then leave for EDUSAT room. After the third hour, it was bio pharma class up next. It’s a pretty boring class. Actually, to me all classes are boring. I chuck from class giving an excuse that I have to prepare for the quiz competition. I head towards canteen where I met some of my friends from other department. I spoke to them for a while and when it was time for the class to get over, I go back to class. Its lunch break now and I was waiting for Mukunda to finish his lunch. In the meantime, Amrita asks Mitesh if he has seen her helmet. YES. Now was the time when my hard work pays off. I troubled her for few minutes, showing her different places where her helmet could be. It was only when Mukunda tells me it was time for quiz, I hand over her helmet to her warning her not to leave it again like that.

We reach auditorium minutes before the stipulated time. One of the organizers asked us to be seated in the audience. Once called for, we were supposed to take our seats on the stage. We didn’t have to wait for long. We were asked to introduce ourselves with name, department and hobbies to be listed. The microphones were not functioning properly. One of the contestants introduced himself thrice, as if giving an introduction to introduction. I was busy discussing with Mukunda regarding what to be listed as our hobbies. At that point, I realize that the environment was pretty tensed. I am scared of such an environment. My mind ceases to work if left in such a place. I thought it was time to lighten up this environment. So, when I was handed the microphone, I said “God afternoon everybody, my name is Ashish Bhuwania from final year, department of Bio Technology. My hobbies are reading novels and EATING.” Next I hear everybody in the auditorium laughing. I too felt a bit comfortable after that.

Now, it came down to some serious business. We had no expectations of winning the competition, so took it easy. The first round rules were simple. We were asked multiple choice questions, each team were given five questions. Passing of questions was allowed. We did pretty well in this round. Bottom two teams were eliminated and we were standing third on points tally. NOT BAD, NOT BAD AT ALL.

It was the second round where we stood out. We were given categories to choose from and then questions relating to these categories will be asked. However, while choosing, you had to select a number and the corresponding category would be your choice. It made the round a little tricky. The quiz master also added that the question will be passed to audience if the contestants don’t answer them. It was a no passing round. Audience member giving the right answer would be given a goody pack. As the round started, one of the group was given space and universe. The first question asked to them was who discovered the moons of Jupiter. To my amazement, they didn’t know the answer. When there time ran out, I automatically raise my hand. Quiz Master informs me that no points would be awarded if I give the correct answer. “But will I get the goody?” I asked. The quiz master replies “Yes.” I didn’t waste a moment and shouted “Galelio.” It was correct and I was given the goody pack. The Quiz Master handed over the goody saying “Sine you said you hobby was eating, this is for you.” From then, every question unanswered by the other groups were answered by me. “Which boxer’s ears were bitten by Mike Tyson?”, “Which Indian is the president of Pepsi Co. Global?”, “Who is the only Indian women grand master?”. I knew them all. The Quiz Master while handing over one of the big goodies said “I hope they are not meant for eating.” and while handing over the pens (which were one of the goodies I won) reminded me that they were meant for writing. At the end of this round I already had six goody packs with me. However, the categories we got were difficult ones for us (Computers and Business). We could answer only few of the questions and were certain that we would be eliminated this time. But I was pretty happy with the number of goody packs I had won. Too bad for Mukunda, he didn’t win anything. Two teams were supposed to get eliminated after this round and we were certain that we were one of those teams.

We were ready to leave the stage, when the scores were announced. We realize that we were not in the bottom two. At this moment, we were dumbstruck. We had five points more from the next team which made us one of the top four teams. I have no words to express how I felt at this time. The final round was the rapid fire round. We did pretty bad in this round. We got very difficult questions. We could answer only one of the questions. I felt the questions asked to other teams were easy since I knew the answers. If only those questions were asked to us. If only goodies were distributed in this round also. But everything doesn’t fall in the order as we wish them to. We ended up being third runner-up the event. We ended up being the crowd’s favourites though. They cheered for us even though we didn’t belong to their department (we didn’t feel bad for no one coming from our class to cheer us, since we ourselves were hopeless about the results. But Mitesh and Asif do turn up at the final round were we failed miserably), they congratulated us for fighting till the very end (I don’t know where we fought. We were just enjoying there.), many asked me about how many goodies I had won. We also spoke to Quiz Master, he too congratulated us for a good show and I thanked him for the goodies. Just then I see there’s no one congratulating the winners, no one speaking to them. Where on the other hand, we were meeting people on our way out congratulating us for being the finalists and for the goodies (I don’t know why everybody was concerned about my goodies). The competition was fun, I enjoyed it thoroughly, we considered ourselves as underdogs. So, reaching the final round was a sort of achievement for me. But then before leaving the auditorium, when looking at the number of people interested in us rather than the winners, I felt that we may not have won the trophy, but we had won hearts. Hearts of those who were laughing at my silly moves, hearts of those who cheered whenever I won a goody and hearts of those who thought we were better than the winners. All in all, we had won hearts of many people. A voice from inside told me “Blesses of people matter more in life than the materialistic trophies. You have won blessings today. Well Done!!!”

P.S: If one of my class mates reads this, then I request you to give Mukunda a little of moral support. He is still sad about losing the competition. HOW MATERIALISTIC.

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