A musical hangover

Last evening was the craziest in months...its Riviera'09! celebrating the 25th year of VITU. The best part of the 1st day of this fest is the musical pot-pourri. In one day, u simply get a taste of different types of music. Sometimes u tend to miss some because there ain't enough time to catch up with all of them.

12.30 PM: Prelims of HEADBANGER'S KALL. College bands especially from south(I wonder why they never call any1 4rm north!) did their gig. Some of them were really sad to the core. There was this one girl vocalist band and they made us listen a torturous version of "Zombie". Trust me sister, u better stick to classical music! 

The worse part is my favorite drummer was missing. Last year he enthralled the crowd with his superb drumming plus leading the vocals.

4.10 PM: Finals of HEADBANGER'S KALL: Madhouse shook the entire crowd with their innovative Arabic fusion. Followed by the powerful chinese rock. Hi5 to Pritam on vocals! E-Flat too amazed us with their Indian fusion. At the same time, Touchwood was a great disappointment. Their music was way too bleak and had strains of pop in it. Sadly that was the inhouse band and they were awesomely shitty. Finally towards the end, there was this band(ummm....greyshack?!?! Dont rem d name) who thrashed the crowd. Now this is what the stage was meant for. They had the style, the guts and some real hardcore music. My neck almost snaped and my ears went deaf after their performance. They did justice to that event.

7.45 PM: RAGHU DIXIT PROJECT: They did the opening of the evening extravaganza. Beautiful original piece of work. My personal favorites "I still love you" and "Smoking". But the crowd response was too low. Thats what happens when you perform in a total diverse crowd. Many of them were not familiar to that music and many of them didn't even bother to listen. Many of them couldn't even even make out whether he was singing in Hindi, English or Kannada. Result: More boo-s than yay-s!

9.20 PM: VISHAL-SHEKHAR:The crowd loves dhin-chak and they delivered it. For the next 3 hours the stage was on fire. They sang their top bollywood numbers and the whole crowed screamed,danced and jumped. And then there were the inbetween repartees which just added to the onstage magic. Crazy numbers like "Dil dance maare" to romantic ballads like "Suno na" simply entralled the crowd. Even songs like "Allah ke bande" and "Tu aashiqui hain" captured our hearts. Hard stuff like "Dil haara" drove the crowd to frenzy! The duo gave us a night to remember. My personal favorite was "Desi girl" which they played in the end. What A NIGHT!

It was after midnight when we returned to hostel. My neck, throat, head, legs.....gone baby gone! I woke up today with a headache and a very hazy mind....cluttered with music. What a hangover!

Chasing Dreams and Butterflies- Part 1

This is the story of a girl called Red who loves chasing Yellow butterflies. Red lives in the Green mountains which touches the Blue skies. This was her world. It was her dream was to catch all the Yellow butterflies and make them into a beautiful ladder, so that she could climb high up the Blue skies. Now these butterflies lived in the White valley. Red had no idea where this valley was. All she knew was that she needed those butterflies. Thus began her journey of chasing dreams and butterflies....

My Industrial Visit

Thats my class....more or less :P(in the CPCL township)

Finally the chemical batch ’09 went for the much pending industrial visit. And it was fun. Actually, FUN. The 10 hrs journey to Chennai Petro Chemical Limited was really tiresome. Initially I was really skeptical about taking the trip for my batch was infamous troublemakers in the entire school. But I was wrong. The entire 36hrs that I spent with my class was amazing. Never in 4 years I had so much fun. And it would be really unfair to tell about my trip in just one post. Lets ‘fractionate’ the trip to the refining industry and back, into 3 ‘cuts’ :P

Cut 1: it all started with a “Jo bole so nihal..” around 11pm. With top numbers blaring from the speakers, the bus “floor” was on fire. Our class Pappu (Devansh) was all in mood to prove that he can really dance ;) Few of them joined him in what looked more like jumping than dancing. Along with the hootings, it was just a warm up. Dreading a disaster, I simply looked out of the window and turned on my player. Didn’t realize when I dozed off but on waking up, found the dance session was over. It was past 1 am and this time something else was on cards – Antakshiri. Now this was too good to miss for typical “driver collection” songs were being sung. I joined Pappu and Bansal’s team. It was more of shouting and having fun then singing. It began with just few of us but then the entire bus was crooning expect the 8 other girls of my class. Now Megha and Afrin were on vomiting spree and the rest 6 were sleeping?!?!?!
It was past 3am when we were all exhausted of songs and energy. Even our throats hurt. Finally the two faculty members there asked us to shut up and let them sleep. So when the lights went off, Bansal’s “Chutkule” session started. Anand has an awesome gift of gab. Each joke killed us with laughter and ended with us shouting “Encore! Encore!”
Slept around 5.30 am only to wake up to the sound of Mote(Mohit) clicking pictures of the rising sun and the sleeping beauties..lol
We reached CPCL township around 7am and after a 2 hr break we started for the refinery. Now what we learned there was doubtable for when the presentation started, we all dozed off in the ac conference hall. The tour of the plant was awesome though. Finally I got 2 see the “stripper” of chemical plants (btw,it’s a gas/liquid stripping column ;)). By midday it was really hot and after lunch in the plant canteen, we hurried back to our bus which was like a furnace. We then started for the second part of the journey : the BEACH.

Surving Life and Love

Lately I have been noticing that people come to me asking for advice on relationships.. I mean its ironical 'coz I am the last person to know about relationships...lol.. And these people are my friends so I m in a fix. I mean what do I say to a girl whoz been dumped recently and now hates men.. ?!?! Even though I am a feminist at heart,paint my toenails pink n black and listen 2 rock only....that doesn't mean I am a man-hater. I love my dad, my bro and my dear BFFs (Sid n Chey) and do believe that there are few good men still left.
My pathetic advice 2 her on being indifferent to the entire situation was received with a sigh. I realised she expected something more filmy like calling her ex names, or planning something evil to trouble him until he is sorry etc. etc. But that was old ME. I just don't believe in such extremes anymore. I have fallen so many times and picked myself up that now I welcome and acknowledge the presence of setbacks in life. And so when I couldn't give my friend any better advice, I just made her listen to Let It Be and let John,Paul,Ringo and George teach her this imprtant lesson on life and love.

When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.

And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree,
there will be an answer, let it be.
For though they may be parted there is still a chance that they will see,
there will be an answer. let it be.

Let it be, let it be, .....

And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light, that shines on me,
shine until tomorrow, let it be.
I wake up to the sound of music, mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be. Let it be, let it be, .....

Job Vs. Business

Today 1075 of my batch mates got placed in TCS out of 1400 something who cleared the prelims. All for a package of Rs. 3.15 lacs per annunm. I wasn’t one of them. Infact I didn’t even register for PAT centre. Meaning, I m not applying for any on-campus jobs. For I want to start my own business. I would rather work for myself than for some corporate. Also, I believe my ability and creativity weighs much more than 3.15 lacs.
I don’t know yet what business I will venture into. Many of my friends and relatives call me a “fool” for my rash decision. After all, we are a part of the great Indian middle class. Maybe I m a fool, and I m hungry for being “someone who made a difference”. Every year India produces around 3 lakhs of engineers out of which a mere .5-.2% starts their own business. Starting a business is not easy and sadly India lacks the spirit of entrepreneurialism. The majority of the youth settles for an 8-2-8 job. We spend and spend, but production is negligible.
Ironically, half of the American economy is boosted by the millions of small scale industries of the country (now we know why the Indians get these much coveted software jobs!!). No doubt USA’s “one-door” policy has helped many startups to turn into successful businesses compared to the “snakes-and- ladders” industrial policy of the Indian government. Also, I blame the education system of the country. Its creating nothing but generations after generations of cheap labors. They make zombies outta us and train us 24x7 to get jobs. Its really unfortunate to see great minds go waste.
But a new wave of entrepreneurs is surfacing lately. They are young and passionate professionals who run their own business instead of joining the corporate bandwagon. They are the Young Turks of India. CNBC has very efficiently showcased these young achievers whose innovative ideas have given them the right place in the market. For India to rise into a Superpower, we need more of these Young Turks who will turn into Business Titans and eventually be Multinational Giants.

Life is like that

Every evening after my 2 hrs of swimming session, I just come back home hungry as a hippo. Now swimming has done wonders to my appetite and also I m gradually overcoming my fear of drowning. Yesterday was my 4th day of training and I completed 2 laps. I feel great! I guess I m no longer afraid of water.
By the time I came out of the pool, it was 8pm. Already hungry and tired, and to add to my woes, it started raining and there was a power-cut. My 20 mins of leisure night-walk to home turned into a frenzied run for dry shelter. In my hurry to take a shortcut, I climbed a 6 feet wall, only to slip, fall and chip my nail. Now I was tired, hungry and bruised. I think I cursed everything for ruining my evening...from the rain to the algae growing on that wall.
Little did I know that something else awaits me at home. Something that worked like a panacea to my Pandora's box. Papa cooked dinner of pork and rice...it was fantastic!! When he cooks, its more of an art than cooking. And he always says that his secret ingredient is LOVE.The pork curry was like a symphony of flavors. Four of us had an amazing candlelight dinner( Thank you, ASEB!) with the amazing pitter-patter of the rain outside. A memorable ending to my twisted evening.