just a lucky bastard

I drove a lot today. Four hours straight. Probably not a big figure for regular drivers, but it was my first such venture.

It was just my new car celebration; the buddy hormone that made us go on a trip. Me and my buddies; I feel so confident when I am with them. We just took off after the practical to nowhere. We went to sector-4 for no reason, McD there. The original plan we decided, while casually blurting out earlier, was to visit India Gate. Nice. We decided: lets do it.

Nitin got his GPS up and running. Google plotted a map for us from sector 4 to India Gate and we got going. Roads and traffic and red lights and loud music; girls driving past us, stupid brawls between puneet and pawan for fm stations; narrow escapes from hitting other cars; and from them hitting us. It was crazy. We lost our way many times; took many detours, it was fun.

By the time we got around India Gate, the darkness had fallen. Arguments on which turn to take made my driving even more rough; often creating a JAM behind me as I tried taking a left turn from middle of the road. The traffic had swollen. My shoulders were paining. But we got there finally; it was beautiful. I was visiting there after like 10 years or something and it was the first time for Pawan. :) Puneet and Prabhash got drunk. (in the picture) Huh!! They went in the jhadiyan there and did stupid things before the couples getting intimate in the darkness. Lol! I salute to their liveliness and lets-do-it attitude.


What I realized was that there were many situations where my car could have easily met an accident. I just felt lucky. I left my car unlocked at the India Gate parking lot. I felt so stupid when I realized this when we came back. I can correlate this with other things that happened to me. My job at InfoEdge, for example: I had just come back from Mumbai that night. I was checking my Gmail and came to know about this company coming the next day and I said "OK, just because I registered before..", I sat for the written test. It got through. "Really?", I was surprised. Then the interviews, not the most excellent of all times but I got through that even. "Shit!", I thought and in no time, the guy announced my selection. Others felt cheated, I remember. I totally agreed with them.

I guess, I am just a lucky bastard; who got away most of the time. I feel evil to hope that it stays that way. Amen.

effin admit card

I was just casually sitting in front of my computer, doing "nothing". It had been a long day. I needed peace.

And then my dad came into the picture, "tumhara CAT h naa kal?" (you have the CAT exam tomorrow, right?). And I was like.. "yeah?.... whoaa.." So I have my CAT exam tomorrow and its 11PM and I check the iim website for details AND exam starts tomro at 10 AND I realize, I should have taken a print out of my admit card AND no shop will open tomorrow before 10. WTF!!

My effin' admit card. WHYY MEE! So tomorrow, I won't have a chance to take a print of my admit card and I was pretty much sure, I won't give the exam. Fine with me; who's interested anyway. But then, dad will go berserk and hence the necessity to find an alternative. I look for options.

Option 1: My cousin,who lives in dwarka has a printer. I can probably use theirs early morning and then shoot for the exam center.
Option 2: My old printer, now eating dust, can be taken out of the junk and tried upon. Highly unlikely, as its been 3 years since it collapsed and refused to print.
Option 3: Hostel rocks. A friend of mine has a printer. I can wake him up at 7 ( and that's pretty much the time, he goes to sleep) and use his printer.
Option 4:"Really roopam, Are you that a nerd? Take it easy, braw!!"

Nice. I have a list of options now. Step1 done. Option 4, I love you, man. Option1, the most logical considering, all the lecture my dad just gave me. ("You are so fcking lazy and careless. You don't even know you have an exam tomorrow. The whole family's legacy is now broken. Just stick with your girlfriend, talk with her all night and stop your studies. Why do you even live in my house. You've got a job anyway. Ouch, that hurts.

Ok. So I wanted to try Option2, which I did with no success. Option 3 is plan B, but can I get up that early? Oh who cares, I am going to sleep.

Yaawwwnn. Good morning. :) Such a nice day. But, hey, I have an exam today.. and hey, I don't have the admit card. EF! I rushed to my cousin's. It was 8:45 when I got there. And snap, even that printer is broken. Miscommunication can be so evil sometimes. :(  I apologized for the bother I implicated to them and hurried back to Uttam Nagar. I did'nt even knew the address of my center.

My dad called up again, he told me he'll be meeting me at the metro station. Its was 9:15, my exam starts at 10 and the reporting time was 8:30, a good 45 minutes already past. So I was riding with my dad, searching for a cybercafe in the locality. My dad was angry. An idea struck up and I called a guy-i-knew who had the same center as I did. Even he was just waking up and and told me it is somewhere in "Sector D, Pankha Road" in a tone of  ("Please don't disturb me."). Ok dude.

So we rushed there and were riding in random directions. We still didn't have the exact address. And riding and riding and riding, and then I cried.. "papa, papa... ek min ruko". And then I rushed across the street, to the black glass doors and the caught the guy just starting his computers, in my savior "Cyber Cafe". Aaawwww man!

I opened my gmail, downloaded the admit card, took a print out. Rushed back to my dad waiting across the street; we had the exact address and came to the center at 10:05. Cool! The invigilator guy thankfully let me in. And then the morning I had just survived felt like a story.

Random

Cool!
It feels great to blog again. Meanwhile I have been stuck with many involvements that were eating too much time. Finally I've successfully pushed myself to open blogger.com and write a new post. And whoa!!

Things have changed. Blogger is brand new. All tidy and organized. I like it too much. All soft colors, neat and new features. Good work Google. :)

I was thinking on what to write on and then I saw another blog whose author apparently faced the same commotion. The post titled "Random", just said about what happened in the author's life when she was away. And I thought, "thankyou ma'am"!

So, whats been going on?
A lot. I've been stuck with my placements, and after that the mid semester exams. It all has been such a haze. When I was not doing what I was doing, I literally was lost on why I was doing what I was doing. And yeah, I got placed. As charsi aptly commented, "Mr. Aricent!! Hmm.". I was a little downhearted, when mum and dad weren't that excited. And as the legends say "satisfaction is but, a mirage". I was happy though. But being human sucks, (am sorry salman khan). Its just the whole bunch of human emotions, I have to live with. With more companies coming, offering better packages, I am tempted. My friends trying again, makes me feel like left behind. Where's my peace?! Humans will always be imperfect and satisfaction will always be a mirage. ( : a personal dogma, open for discussion. heh. )

Talking about being psycho, now I can almost entirely believe that. Something's wrong with me. May be I have gone something like, aware-psycho. My brain is all fucked up. I don't want to make this post depressing for the reader, hence I'll skip this. Also I've been listening to a LOT of post rock. GIAA, Explosions in the sky, If tress could talk, Mogwai. Awesome stuff. Thanks to ritvik and last.fm. I am so addicted.

Whats else been going on! lemme think..

Yeah. Web Dev. My possible future. I have been involved with a couple of projects. www.thewedbells.com/site  is a wedding planner website I am making with my mentor, Gaurav sir at mlabs. And then there is lifeahead, the startup by "charsi" helping students in SAT prep. Nice, challenging projects, I loved them. I also want to improve my efficiency and the tools I use. Web is evolving so fast. I want to look at examples and learn, what are the new way of doing things. Amazing creativity one sees now a days, websites are more dynamic and easy to maintain. This is definitely where I want my future to be.

Oh, so much more to say. I'll better break it down into separate posts.

..

This has become frustrating. All the placements blues have turned from darkness to depressing. The sudden wave of companies has hit my normal peaceful and productive life and has completely destroyed it. All I do now is sit at home, checking my gmail, trying to study C and trying to figure out why I couldn't make it to the last company.

My Dad told me yesterday, that "tumharey pair do naav par hain" (You are stuck between two sides.) By which he meant that I, although doing my undergrad in Electronics, am trying for a software job. For the later, I have bleak chances, as I'll be competing with the best-in-class COE/IT comrades. Many of whom I know and are very good friends of mine. The reason my conscience tells me: that I dont have interest in electronics, and I always have been inclined to computers. Am a bit of coder too. This feels like.. I cannot conceive a term; like an alien world; like a dead walk; like numb; like I am drowning. Competitions scare me. I'll always been more productive in a non-competitive environment.

So, one thing I have realized, it requires both skill and luck to make it across. I've sat for two companies so far. Adobe and Directi; both of them A++ grade companies and offering very promising pay packages. I couldn't get through in either. Lack of skill is definitely one reason, I need to work on that. I need some luck too. Next up is Winshuttle. Let's see.

Hope the depression does not take away the best from within me.

getting to know myself

I have been going to driving classes recently. I always was of the opinion that I was born to travel. I like travelling. Although sometimes I miss home terribly, but I have the general tendency to prefer living outside as much as possible.

I have traveled outstation without letting my parents know. I have traveled really far, all alone. I have often found myself in trouble. Sometimes out of money, out of sleep. But I have enjoyed it. I have always believed that travelling broadens our thinking and perception. But my health problems have somehow weakened me physically. I now think twice before even going to CP. This feels handicapped.

But I really like driving. I am far from perfect right now, but I know I can get better and be a really good driver someday. I have even imagine myself taking up the job of a driver someday. Duh. Engineering, that is taught to us, seems like a dead end. Exploring the world feels a better future for me. :)

Wait, No. I like coding and computers also. I also, in some part of my conscience, want to be a programmer. Web Designer to be precise. I like it. It's frustrating at times and even bad for health. All the shoulder pain and red eyes and hours sitting on a chair, staring at the monitor, which stares back; it feels crazy.

God help me.