The Beas Kund Story...

The Beas Kund Story...

'There is no WiFi in the mountains, but i am sure you would find a better connection.' With every trek, the roots of this thought goes deeper and deeper in me. I don't know why but ever since i started trekking, the only thoughts in my mind are 'Where to go next?'. Beas Kund trek was my third trek and that too within an year of my first trek.

It all began in the month of March 2017 when a random conference call between me and 4 of my college buddies turned out to be a 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara' moment for us where all of us took a pledge that we would do something adventurous every year. And with that, i pitched with them the idea of trekking in the Himalayas which was accepted without any second thoughts. I did some research on the internet and found out that the Beas Kund trek would easily fit in with the number of days available with us. Finally we booked the Beas Kund trek in April 2017 and our trek dates were 13-15 May 2017. We booked the trek with Bikat Adventures as they are one of the best in this field and  the experience i had with my previous treks with them was fantastic.

We had booked the Himachal Pradesh government Volvo bus from Delhi to Manali. Our bus departed exactly at the scheduled departure time of 6 PM. The seats were comfortable keeping in mind the 14 hour long journey that was ahead of us. As usual, when your college friends meet, the fun is never ending. 

Volvo to Manali

We enjoyed the bus ride with the antakshari's and the dumb charades. By then we had reached Ambala. Our bus took a halt there for the dinner. When you are right at the doorway to Punjab, the only thing you would want to have is the delicious Shahi Paneer and Dal Makhani with the buttery Naan. 

Waiting for our dinner

And when you have all these super tasty and super heavy dinner, you are bound to doze off. This is what happened to us and we woke up the very next day when Manali was some 20 Kms away from us. The bus took exactly 13.5 hours from Delhi to reach Manali.

We reached Manali and rented a room near to the Mall Road to freshen up and have a bath. We reached the reporting point of our trek exactly at our reporting time of 10 AM and introduced ourselves. We got introduced to our Trek Leader named Virendra and our local guide named Sunil. The quick introduction was followed by a heavy breakfast of hot Aloo Paranthas and creamy Curd. Post the breakfast, we were taken to Solang Nala from where the trek would begin. Now this Solang Nala is a very beautiful and serene valley which is home to a number of adventure activities like paragliding and Trekking etc. The view of Solang Nala was amazing with the para-gliders enjoying up in the air.

Para-gliding in progress

We started trekking and reached a village called Dhundi by the afternoon. As soon as we reached Dhundi, it started raining and our trek leader decided to pitch our tents there itself. We learnt how to pitch the tents and pitched our own tents thereafter. We quickly went inside our tents as it was still pouring. The view from inside was breath taking. We had the 7 sisters mountain range right in front of our eyes. And as soon as we settled in, we were served hot and steaming Maggi noodles in our tents. The rain finally stopped pouring and everyone was out of their tent. We had hot tomato soup and went for an acclimatization walk a few hundred feet above our camping site. We collected pieces of wood during the walk in order to have a bonfire in the night. 

Our team collecting fire wood

As we returned from the walk, we had hot tea/coffee and Pasta as our evening snacks which was followed with an exercise session to relax the body muscles. With the bonfire lit up, everyone gathered around it for some fun games. We had our dinner at 8 PM which was a fantastic combination of delicious Dal, Roti, Mix Veg, Rice, Salad and the best of all, Halwa. We had our briefing session post the dinner where our trek leader informed to us that since ours was the first batch of the season to Beas Kund and the second camp site of Bakarthatch being packed with snow, we had to summit Beas Kund the next day itself. He also made it a point that all of us should get up at 5 in the morning and depart by 7 AM in order to complete the summit. With the thought of a challenging day ahead, we went to our tent and slept.

Relaxing in the tents.

The night view of the seven sisters

We woke up sharp at 5 AM and got ready for the challenging day ahead. Our trek leader ensured that we did yoga in the morning in order to be ready for the summit. We had our breakfast and collected the packed lunch from the kitchen staff and departed from our camp site. We had to cross the snow bridges at 3 places. The hike was fantastic with the scenery getting more beautiful with every step we moved. Finally, we reached Bakarthatch at 10:00 AM. Our local guide made it a point that if we reach Beas Kund by 12 PM, it would be the best, otherwise we would have to return from in between as the climate changes very rapidly in the mountains, especially after the noon time. With that fear of missing out on Beas Kund, we moved swiftly towards the summit.

 Our batch on the way to Beas Kund

The Beas River and the seven sisters

 Bakarthatch was full of snow and the view of the glacier was breathtaking. We slowly and gradually crossed the glacier and climbed the steepest of the trekking trails to Beas Kund. We took almost an hour to cross this steep stretch and finally, Beas Kund was only a few hundred meters away.

The glacier with Bakarthatch visible in the background

 Walking on the glacier

Finally we reached Beas Kund exactly at 12 PM. We were feeling ecstatic. It was drizzling and Beas Kund was in front of us. We took a lot of photos and selfies and had our lunch there at the summit. As it was drizzling, our trek leader and guide made sure we packed all our stuff and started the return journey soon as the weather might turn rough. 

Somewhere near Beas Kund

We started our return journey back to the base camp but all was not over yet. On the way, we played a lot in the snow and the feeling was amazing. On the way back, we found two girls from some other group stranded on the way. Our trek leader asked them if we could help and they asked if they could descend down to the base camp with us. Our trek leader readily agreed and we were on our way to the base camp again. On the way, while we were crossing the snow bridge, the bridge collapsed. We had to jump the river now to cross to the other side of the bridge. Finally after collecting dried wood from the forest for the bonfire and reached back to the base by 4 PM.

Walking on the snow bridge

As soon as we reached, our trek leader ensured that we did all the muscle relaxing exercises so that we would not suffer from cramps. After the energizer session, we had hot tea and coffee along with pakodas for snacks. This was followed with sweet corn soup and then the dinner. All of us together watched Bahubali 2 on the trek leader's tablet and Bluetooth speakers. After the movie we lit up the bonfire and shared our life experiences with each other. This was a very enjoyable moment.

The Bonfire 

The next morning we woke up a bit late at 7 PM and got ready for our departure back to Manali. We had an amazing breakfast and started trekking towards Solang Nala. We bid adieu to our kitchen and support staff who were very helpful. If these guys would not have been there, we would not have completed our trek successfully. We took some group photographs of the batch and left Dhundi for Solang Nala.

Our batch bidding adieu to Dhundi

We reached Manali by 1 PM and had our lunch. We relaxed in a hotel room and left for Delhi in the night. During the entire journey back to journey, we had only two thought in our minds. 

1. "Couldn't we stay in Dhundi for a few more days?".

2. Where next?

Credits:

- Bikat Adventures for my 3rd of many 'yet to be done' treks

A Voyage to Lakshadweep Islands

I always wanted to write about my journeys to various places, but because there are many, i chose to write this one as it is the best vacation i have ever been on till now .(Hope i write another blog about a different location soon ;) )

15th March 2005- 

My dad was already on a 3 month long deputation to Lakshadweep. He had been there for more than a month now and we all wanted to meet him as soon as it was possible. We had planned to go there in may but a phone call from dad changed everything. He asked us to book our tickets for 20th march as the monsoon season of May brings life in lakshadweep to a standstill. And march being a pleasant weather month was the best time to visit the emerald islands. We had to get the LTC (Leave Travel Concession) approved from my dad's work place. He being out of town meant that we did the job of getting it approved. It was solely not possible to get the LTC sanctioned in 4 days. It took me and my mom carrying our file from one department to another and somehow it was approved in 4 days itself. I guess that was a record time for a central government office to sanction this :D .

We had our tickets booked for 20th march (Delhi - Kochi). Tickets for the connecting flight from Kochi to Agatti were not available so we had our ship tickets booked as well for 22nd March. I was excited as it was my first journey by air but i had not guessed that this journey would turn out to be a complete travel package.

20th March 2005-

Indian Airlines flight IC 165 was scheduled for departure at 0800 hrs. I was too excited to be at the airport and travel by an airplane. I woke up at 3 AM in the morning without any alarm bells, switched ON the water heater and woke up my mom, brother and grandmother. At 0500 hrs, we had a cab waiting for us outside. Loaded the luggage and headed straight to the IGI Airport. We reached Terminal 1A and the view was amazing. A Boeing 747-400 was on landing approach just as we entered the terminal parking space. The view was Majestic. We entered the departure terminal. We were new to the airport proceedings so inquired about the procedure to check in. By 6 am we had everything done ranging from the X-Ray scans to the  Baggage Verification. The terminal was awesome (As per Indian Standards that too in 2005 :P ). I and my younger brother were curious to know how actually a plane took off and how it landed. We stood watching the jets for the entire two hours. We then boarded our flight to Kochi. It was an Airbus 320. Read all the safety procedures carefully and finally, the flight took off... It was a hopping flight to Kochi via Mumbai. We reached Kochi at 12:30 PM. The first thing we did was to remove our sweaters. It was moderate cold in delhi and hot in kochi.

We collected all the baggage and heard a gentleman asking people who were to go to lakshadweep. My mom rushed to the man and told him that we wanted to go to lakshadweep but we were not having tickets. My mom asked for Captain Ashok Chaudhary as my dad knew him and had asked us to meet him as he was the pilot of the flight from kochi to agatti. He then said, "Chaalo Mhara Saathe" (Come along with me) in marwari. We followed him to the ticket counter but no tickets were available as it was a special flight. Normally the Kochi-Agatti flight leaves at 09:30 AM from Kochi but the aircraft was due for repairs so it was unavailable for the next 5-6 days, hence the authorities decided to conduct another sortie. Tickets were not available so we had given up hope but after some time, there was a good news. We got tickets to Agatti. You may wonder how we managed to get it. There were some foreigners who were to go to agatti. The pilot himself convinced them to stay a few more days in kochi so the foreign passengers had their tickets cancelled and we managed to get those seats. The flight was delayed by half an hour as the pilot was with us trying to get us seats :D

The aircraft was a Dornier Do 228  (14 seater aircraft) which used two propellers. I was imagining those scenes in the cartoons when the propeller stopped functioning :D Somehow, an hour passed and we were at Agatti Island. The view was breathtaking. Light blue waters and white sand beaches. Clear blue sky and tall green coconut trees. I had never imagined lakshadweep to be so mesmerizing. We now were to head over to Kavaratti Islands, the administrative capital of Lakshadweep Islands. A Pawan Hans Helicopter was to ferry us to the place. Kavaratti does not have an airstrip. We boarded the chopper and headed to kavaratti. The copter ride was the best. It was just like a ride at an amusement park. On approaching kavaratti, i saw the island covered entirely by coconut trees. Just after we landed i rushed to see my dad and hugged him tightly. We were off the the State Guest House and took some rest.

That day i traveled in an airbus 320 jet, a small 14 seater dornier and a helicopter. Within 10 hours, we had used 3 different modes of air travel. The day came to an end with dad pampering me and my brother with lots of love. It was a wonderful day.

1. Cockpit View (Dornier)
2. Dornier Do 288
3. Pawan Hans Helicopter

1. Cycling @ kavaratti
2. Glass Bottomed Boat Ride
3. Playing TT

Agatti Aerodrome

1. View of Bangaram approaching
2. Kayaking @ Bangaram
3. Our Hut @ Bangaram

21st March 2005 - 3rd April 2005 :-

The State Guest House was a wonderful property situated just next to the administration offices and the Sports Club. We were allotted Tinakkara and Chetlat rooms. Rooms were named after various islands in  Lakshadweep. These were the best 15 days ever spent. The daily routine was to wake up at 6 and rush to the nearby sports club to play table tennis. We came back at 8 and slept for 2 hours. By that time, my dad was off to work. We had breakfast, got ready for the day and went for a stroll around the island. Kavaratti, the capital is a very small island with an area of 4 Sq. Km. Afternoons were mostly spent doing Snorkeling / Cycling / Watching TV. At sharp 5 PM, me and my brother used to go again to the sports club for TT.  In the evening, we used to stroll around the island's market places and other local attractions like the Jetty etc. It was an awesome time spent. The weather was fantastic and the experience of being an islander was good.

One evening, after the coral watching session through a glass bottomed boat, we decided to go upto the coral reef for a reef walk. The sea was rough that day and the boats were too narrow. After reaching half the distance, we decided to return back as the sunset was approaching and some of us had sea sickness.

Occasional visits to the Aquarium and local restaurants were great. I ordered a Samosa at some beach side restaurant and asked the vendor whether they were Vegetarian. He told me that these were Fish Samosa. One could not even imagine a Samosa filled with Fish.

Lakshadweep has a culture of its own. More than 90% population follow islam. What happens there at time time of wedding is exactly opposite to our culture. There, the groom brings all the dowry and is given the vidaai. :D


3rd April 2005 - 5th April 2005 (Trip to Bangaram Islands)

The time went off quickly. We now had a trip planned to Bangaram Islands. This island is the best island to visit. We decided to go there by Ship. MV Bharat Seema was anchored a mile away from the kavaratti coast. We took a small boat and boarded the ship. It was HUGE. the 3 hour long journey to Agatti Islands went off quickly. The Bangaram Islands Resort Boat was there to ferry us to Bangaram. When i saw bangaram for the first time, i fell in love with it. It still is one of the best islands in the world. If there is a heaven at an island, its Bangaram for sure. We stayed there for 2 days and did all the water games again like Snorkeling, Kayaking, Glass Bottomed Boat ride etc. These two days went off with a blink of an eye.

We boarded the same boat and planned to go to agatti to catch our flight which was scheduled for the next day. But something was in store for us. The weather turned bad and within 15-20 minutes, we were back at the shore of bangaram. Since my dad was on deputation to lakshadweep, a chopper was sent over to rescue us. We flew to agatti and reached there safely. Took a nap and were up on our feet exploring Agatti. Agatti feels somewhat boring after visiting Bangaram. We all were very tired and took rest.

Back to where we belong - 

The next day, we were to board our flight to Kochi. The same old rickety Dornier was there. I was a little emotional at that time coz my dad had to stay there for a month more and we were leaving for home. Finally, he left for kavaratti and we were off to kochi. In the middle of the flight, the captain was chit chatting with us as he kept the plane at autopilot. He came to me and asked me to sit on his seat in the cockpit. I quickly went over to his seat and felt what a pilot feels while flying an airplane. I was the pilot now :D :D . The co-pilot gave me some chocolates and told me about various indicators like airspeed, altimeter and horizon indicator. I spent some 10-15 minutes in the cockpit. People sitting at the back asked me not to touch any controls else the plane will crash. I was back on my seat after some time. Landed at Kochi airport and had a day's halt in kochi. Visited the city and various historical places there. Kochi is a good city. We then took the next day flight back to mumbai to spend  some nice time with my Nanaji and Naniji. After a couple of days, we came back to delhi. It was the best trip ever.

Why was this the best trip? Thats because the modes of transport ranged from kayak to a small fishing boat to a trawler to a big ship to an airbus A320, a dornier, A helicopter ride. You cant get these many modes in a single trip and that is why this was a special one.

Hope you liked this. Keep reading..

The Tale of TCS Campus Recruitment

A month before 11th october 2011 -

We had a formal announcement that Tata consultancy Services will be coming to our college on 11th October 2011. There was a huge excitement about it. First company visiting campus for placements. There was some kind of a positive energy everywhere in college. Everyone preparing for the campus selections; solving quant, data interpretation, english,  logical reasoning and having group discussions. The environment was truly awesome. Also , it was our last year in college so everyone was happily sad. :P. Everyone was gearing up for the TCS recruitment battle by learning obscure word which would act as a deterrence from being rejected. 

The Aptitude Exam -

The  preparations for the exam had begun as soon as the last semester began. Everyone had a QUANTS/LR book in hand every time. I guess they took it in the toilets as well. :D :P . Everyone was gearing up for it. We got study material from various placement websites and solved aptitude questions which were asked in other colleges of India when TCS visited their colleges. What everyone found out was the pattern of questions were the same.Every college got the same pattern questions. Only the values were changed. And in some cases, the values matched too. It was a joyous moment for everyone. Everyone started MEMORIZING answers. Many of them even admitted that they had memorized them coz they were unable to solve the same question with different set of values :D

The day of exam ( 11th October 2011) -

I reached college at 7:30. I was really tensed with the exam coz i knew this was the only chance i have. I had a BACK (KT) in a subject known as Digital Logic Design. TCS somehow allowed 2 backs. I knew that no other company would do it so i had to go for it with a full throttle. My turn for the exam came up at 3 pm. Till then , i just revised and revised the stuff i had studied. When the exam began, everyone had the same set of questions we had already studied. Only the data was changed. It was an easy job to solve those questions but the competition was tough as everyone knew these questions and many of us had to be eliminated through this exam.

Finally, in the evening, while i was returning after a game of cricket, i received a call from my friend Ashish Kashyap. He informed me that i have been selected in the Aptitude exam and my HR and technical interview were scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at 3 pm. 137 people were selected for the next round out of 300.It was a joyous moment. I went to a nearby hanuman temple (saat peepli as ajmer ppl call it) and offered my prayers and begged for a job with tcs.

I then rushed to a nearby ATM, took out cash and went straight to a stationary shop; bought all the necessary stuff for the interviews lined up for the next day. I rushed to my room and started preparing for the PI.

HR Interview and Technical Interview - 12th October 2011

I was not confident that i would clear the aptitude exam, so i had studied nothing for the HR and technical interviews. I concentrated on the Aptitude part  so as to at least clear the first hurdle. I was confident with the HR/Managerial part as i had participated in many group discussions and was no longer an introvert/shy person as i used to be when i had joined college. The only problem was the technical interview. I knew and i still know that i am not that good at technical stuff. But somehow i had to clear it. Read all the technical books one by one and somehow managed to read the basics of everything . It was 2 pm by then. Went for a shave. It was my first Shave :P  . Had a nice warm bath and dressed for the interviews. As soon i reached college, the tcs management was already there. They informed us about the life and benefits of TCS and told us about our pay package. Then began the interviews. After a 10 hour long wait; Yes, a 10 HOUR LONG WAIT, i was called for my technical interview. What did i do in these 10 hours????? I just sang for myself. For 10 hours i just sang. Roaming in the college corridor, and whenever a friend used to come out of the interview room, we inquired about the questions being asked by the panelist and who was forwarding and who was rejecting the applications. 

There was a panelist (nicknamed SARDAR as he was a Sikh)  who was rejecting almost all the applications. He had interview about 20-25 people and forwarded applications of only 3-4 people. We named it as REJECTION ROOM. Thankfully, my interview was scheduled in another room with a different panelist.

10 minutes prior to my tech. interview - 

Sardar came into the room where i was supposed to give my interview and took out 4 application forms and asked the coordinator to announce that these guys had to go to him for their interviews. I was among those 4 guys. As soon as i heard my name in the sardar panelist room, I GAVE UP. I gave up because 2 of my best friends went to the same room and gave their interviews but they were rejected despite their technical knowledge being far more widespread than me. I had totally lost all hopes of selection. Phushp Jadoun and Mohit Sharma asked me not to worry and gave me confidence by saying that "Yaar jo hona hai hoga, tu apna best de, tera selection pakka hai". I just went up into the room with full confidence and started my technical interview. I introduced myself and chit chatted with the panelist for sometime before the technical part came up.

First question -  Draw a flow chart of Bubble sort algorithm. Oh My God.... So Easy!!! i did it quickly and drew the flow chart with an example to explain him. Then came some other tough questions. All required to draw flow charts and i did them with ease. But the last question which i don't remember was wrong. I had missed an important step in an algorithm and that was it. My interview was over. I was asked to go to the HR interview room. I dint believe i was called for the next round. I had cleared the technical round and that too SARDAR took the interview. OMG, it was like i had won the world war :D :D :D 

HR interview -

  A nice middle aged man was waiting for me. He took a look at my CV and commented "Oh you play badminton, cricket, table tennis. Thats good. Tell me the names of 5 Indian badminton players :D :D"....... somehow, my TV Viewing habit helped me. I named 7 badminton players playing for India :D :D. Then came the question "What is DRS!!!" I was like, oh it has to be something from the CV. Then i told him everything about the Decision Referral System used in cricket. Then came the toughest part . He asked me to ACT and Perform. YUP.... He gave me a situation "Suppose you have spent 10 years in TCS and you have to sell a product by TCS to a customer, how would you do that. Imagine me as a customer and you as a TCS project manager". I was convincing him and he was not getting convinced at all. It took me 20 minutes to convince him and that was the end of the interview.

It was 1 am by then. I was one of the last people to get interviewed. I took my bike and drove to a nearby dhaba with friends and had aloo parantha and reached my room at 3AM. How to sleep :D, it was the results day. Somehow, i managed to sleep for 2 hours and woke up at 5 am. Chit chatted with my landlord and prayed to god that please help me get this job. I reached college at 8 and tried to get the results out but the result was with the TPO and was to be disclosed at 1 pm. It was a long wait. At 1 pm, a list came up with students that were selected in TCS. I asked someone to checkup my name. He quickly browsed the list and informed my that i have not been selected. I was depressed :( .... felt like crying. But before doing that i thought of checking the list on my own to be double sure about it. When i saw the list, my name was there, placed at 8th position. I was really Jumping off my feet now. A quick call to everyone in the family made it an icing on the cake. It was truly a special moment. Every thing seemed so good. Next day, all the selected students offered sweets to our faculty and hope to those not selected. 

Cant forget this day- 13th October 2011....

Musical Me

I am very fond of Music.Its everywhere around me.or in other words i can say that i cant exist without music.A minute of it can make me feel fresh again.I play the keyboard,mandolian,Guitar,Harmonium.I think its a VERY VERY GOOD thing if one is into music.Lemme now drive u back into my childhood



I was in class 2nd and my bro aditya was in K.G that time when my parents got a casio SA-41 for us.Aditya wanted to play casio and my parents got one.I clearly remember the day wen we went to Gaffar Market in Karol Bagh to purchase the casio.We had Chole Bhature at Kishan's and purchased the casio from a sardarji's shops(Gaffar is full of refugee Sardars).We went back to home and discovered that the adapter was faulty.We went back to the shop n got a new adapter for it.My brother started playing the keyboard and all he could do was to play the different sounds the casio produced like that of the ambulance and the airplane etc. he did learn a bit of the leads part but was no longer interested in it.The casio was a waste of money untill i started playing it.I dint know that i had something for music in me until i played the casio.I played it for the first time and my parents were amused to know that i could play the casio without even learning it.i dont know how it happened but the tones and beats were in me from my birth(thanx mom for listening to kishor kumar and all before my birth :P).I started playing the casio at home.I was in 3rd standard now and had to select an S.U.P.W subject.i took Instrumental music in it and gradually i was included in the school orchestra.i was in 4th then.the same old SA-41 was doing its job.i was then selected as the head of the orchestra fo our annual day celebrations at SIRI fort Audi and we were to perform before the vice president of India.Now the SA-41 was outdated and i needed a nice pro keyboard.The school arranged for it somehow and we performed.We received a great round of applause from the audience.it was a job well done.i was gaining recognition in school.I m a fairly good actor too...though i dont mention it anywhere but i am.Done many plays and skits and won awards and certificated for it.i was in 8th by now.we had to shift to a new place in Delhi and that meant i had to change my School.I was going to miss my school now.I took admission in The Air Force School,Delhi.As i was new to it,i was not kind of open there.it took time.again,as a new student,i had to choose an S.U.P.W subject.there was just a single vacancy in the Dance section and i hate to dance.i went up to the head of the dept. and made my request for granting me instrumental music as my supw subject.the head was our instrumental teacher only.She asked me to play different tunes on the harmonium and i played them with ease.bingo!!I was in.I played harmonium in this school as there was no casio in the school.I participated in all the annual day fests of the school and was in the orchestra.But after 10th,wen i was in 11th,i wanted to concentrate more on studies.I dint want to go for the practice for annual day and i dint want to participate.But there was something else in store for me.I received a call from the head and my teacher at my home to come for practice.She spoke to my Dad about it and i had to go there for practicing.I participated in the event and it was the most memorable one.There was an inter school jugalbandi competition in our school which was won by me and my partner on tabla ,Momin Mishra.It was great.Then Again came a turn in my musical life.My bro got a mandolian for him has it was being taught to them.he used it just 7 times and again it was left to rust out.I took it up,cleaned it and started playing it.From that day i gathered an intrest in string instruments.I played the mandolian for an year or so but then i had to my hostel.i was in college now.I wanted to learn to play guitar.i wanted to play gutar as it was in fashion and i loved its sound and the thing that one can sing along while playing it.i wanted to get a guitar as soon as possible.it was 4th march 2010 when i first got my guitar.it was my birthday and that was the reason i was able to get a guitar.i am in the learning phases and have performed at a couple of places in ajmer itself.i have an acoustic guitar but i have a feel for rock and metal music so i want an electric guitar as soon as possible.Also,i want to try out something new in metal.that is to play classical indian ragas in metal effect.i think it will be a great thing for music and for our youngsters to know indian classical music in the genre they like the most.i however dont know when i will be getting my electric guitar.Probabily after my graduation when i would have no time to play it :P but i will be getting it for sure.



Note : i have not taken any professional coaching in my life in the music field.


Thanks for bearing it ;)\have fun.Take care

TechFests!!!

Guys,i am back....I had my 5th Sem exams so i was not able to post anything here.
Hope u guys will keep reading my stuff.

In this post,i will be writing about the techfests i attended.

1. PANACHE 2008,Vivekanand Institute Of Engineering and Technology,Jaipur 21st Dec 08 to 24th Dec 08

My first every techfest was Panache 2008 which was held at VIT,jaipur.it felt good to be outside campus in another college representing my college....a sense of pride was there in me as ECA is a reputed college.....we had to take part in the Paper presentation.We presented a paper on wind turbine but failed to win any prize.and we had plans to take part in dance too.....we won a 2nd prize in group dance n 1st in solo.it was all great.we called our proctor sir n told him that his prediction of us not winning anything was not correct.We were jumping all  around,pouring cold drinks on each other and were as wild as 1 could not think of.my first tractor ride was frm the vit campus to skit campus here as we were accomodated in another college's hostel.the trip was highly successful and this raised our confidence level.I along with Ujjwal Singh,Vijay Soni,Vipul agarwal,Dilip meena and Amar mudgal went there.it was great fun at VIT though many things following it were not good.I fell ill and Ujjwal met wid a serious accident.He had stiched on his forehead,scalp,n fractures in the wrist but he played counter strike wid us wid his fractured wrist :P.

2. TARANGINI 2009,Engineering College,Ajmer

it was april,i dont exactly remember the dates.My college was organising a techfest.its was all fun this time too.i think ppl who miss these kinds of events are jerks.i took part in counter strike event and we won 1st prize in it.during tarangini,ratings for each girl had doubled :P.those who got a 4 on 10 now got an 8 by boys ;).Well,tarangini 09 was great.

3. Eureka 2009,MBM Engg. College,jodhpur

Our basic aim here was to participate in a robotics workshop by EFY,but we took part in other events as well.i won 1st prize in need for speed most wanted and an year's subscription of EFY mag. for the best innovative idea.we stayed in a youth hostel and it was the best techfest i had ever visited.Ajmer sucks at facilities and food,so we were loving every moment of it.My band performed "Socha hai" from rock on but we were not able to woo the audience coz we were not ready and not experienced.It was definately a stage for us to perform and bind our band togeather.i think this was the moment our band was formed and i think its one of the best bands in ajmer compared to the quality of instruments we hav got. We went to McD n CCD and njoyed a lot.

4. Tarangini 2010

Our college organised this from 27th march 10 to 29th march 10.It was full of events from both technical and cultural fields.I took part in GD as i think it is the best possible was to express ur things n to improv ur language skills.I reached the finals for the event but was not able to make it to the top.Counter strike was definately the edge within us and we won it again for the second time.I had decided earlier that i wud take part in many events in tarangini but i had a sore throat and i had just bought my guitar on 4th march so,i was not able to perform andthing though we made it to the finals of the ad mania but luck did not favour us.My aim was just to participate.Tarangini was gr8 as it was in our own college

5. Neuron 2010,MNIT,Jaipur

How can i forget this fest.My 3rd Sem result was declared in the middle of it.I remember i was at my bua's place on day to of the fest and then at 11 pm at night yash called me and told me about the result that has been declared.I checked but the site was jammed and failed to load.I then called back yash and enquired about the result of other friends and i was shocked to knw that many ppl had failed in the exam.i just prayed to god about my result and at dat very moment,i got a call back from yash.The conversation was as follows

Yash : "Haan yaar,tera result mil gaya,....Tension naa le,TU PAAS HAI";

Vishal : Sahi bata yaar,Mazaak mat karna.Tere muh me Ghee Shakkar yaar.Back toh nahi hai naa kisi me??

Yash : nahi hai bhai

Vishal : sahi hai yar,chal,percentage ko mar goli.60 ke upar hai naa.....

yash : haan re 60 ke upar hai.

Vishal : chal badhiya hai.


It was the best moments to knw that i had passed despite the result being very very bad.I however did not win any prizes here but it was special indeed.Being at MNIT was a nice experience and i came to knw how a techfest of such a large scale is managed...We will be organising Tarangini this year and we needed ideas for it which i think we there wud have been no one better than mnit in providing it.

Will post more stuff here later as we have our practicals tomorrow.hope u stay in the best of health.

Bye,
-Vishal

PS : ignore any grammatical or spelling mistakes plz. i am not checking this before posting as i hav to prepare for my viva tomorrow

EXTREMELY SORRY

Guys........i will be writing down here after my exams.......
Will not be expressing anything on facebook from now on......
bye

What i think

I dont know why people interfere in each other's thinking and life.I have been meeting many people in my college life who think that what they think is right and everyone else is just fooling around knowing nothing.
Let me tell u,I am very much fond of POLITICS.I think its very important for each one of us to know what is happening in our country,how the government is functioning.Who is doing what for the country.I think its kind of necessary to be updated about this section of knowledge too.
We had many debates in our hostel about all this political stuff and about various incidences in that time that happened.Most of them were initiated by me as i wanted to know what other people thought about it.Let me clearly tell you,i am a very secular person.I think people are of two types,one GOOD and the other BAD.A person's religion has NO PLACE in my heart.
But my thoughts did not match up with some of my hostel mates.They thought that hindus were the best lot of people and muslims were bad and they should not be included in our society.They thought that all the terrorist attacks in the world are carries out by muslims which i think many of u also think the same.No my friends,the ajmer blasts were carries out by a section of hindu extremists.RSS,Bajrang Dal,VHP etc are all Hindu extreamist groups though they dont clearly disclose this unlike those groups of muslims.
I sometimes like Ajmer a lot.I have not seen such a secular place in my life before.There are Hindus,Christians,sikhs,sindhis,muslims,jews in ajmer and each religion is duly respected by everyone.

So,what all happens in a college life????People think that they are mature enough to do anything they like.I too think the same but there are both a positive side and a negative side to it.Some people in my hostel started smoking and drinking liquor.Gradually it spread in the whole hostel.I was also called sometimes for this but i clearly asked them not to do so again.I have a resolution in place for me that i will never smoke and drink liquor in my life.whatever happens,i will not do it unless it is completely necessary.
Some guys in my college think that smoking makes a guy a dude.They think that if you smoke,u are more stylish and are therefore studs.I think if u think urself as a dude or a stud then u are one.Smoking cant make u a stud.It is the "KARMA" that u do,that KARMA makes u a stud.

SOME CHANGES IN ME (effects of the college life)

-  i have started caring about my life.i dont take any unwanted risks more that can endanger my life.
   Like ,i drive slow.People often say "Saala Fattu Hai Tu Toh", but it doesnt matter to me.Whenever,i am a pillion to someone,i make sure that the rider is moving slow.I am not afraid of speed but i think that my life is at risk.Having faced an accident in my college life made myself overprotective.Also,seeing many youngsters being killed in road accidents in ajmer made me like this.

-  i earlier used to tell my friends to read english newspapers everyday in order to improve their language skills.I asked them not to smoke and drink.I changed the thinking of some of the guys in the hostel regarding dowry.Many of them used to say that "BAS EK BAAR SHADI HO GAI NAA,FIR DEKHNA,GHAR KE AAGE SCORPIO HOGI AUR BAHUT SAARA CASH MILEGA".Once i heard this,i thought that someone must be joking about it but then i realised that they were serious about it.I gave a lecture to all of them regarding the dowry thing.Some people understood it some dint.I have made myself clear that i will not accept any kind of dowry or anything in my marriage.So,now the change is that i have stopped tell all my friends about what they shud do and what they shud not do.I think i was making a fool of myself asking them to do things which i felt were right.





Well,its enough for today,

P.S : Dear readers,i am absolutely frank at this blog space.

Thanks for reading the post.
Urs
-VRS