Friend

What do we need friends for? They are someone who know you better than any one else, at times even better than you, yourself. Friends are some one who might help you fight the strongest of the troubles and that too with an ease.

In the time of need, you can cry on their shoulders and will definitely feel better. They would always suggest you a solution out of your problems.

I too have a lot of friends, many good ones, many close ones, and heck a long lot, with whom I hang around and have a blast.
I am open to a few, those who know my real self and what exactly I am.

I have 4-5 very good friends who know me exactly how I am.
But, there is a boy, whom I consider a little special, (special among the best ones) with whom I have cried, laughed, enjoyed and shared every single problem of my life, however, big or small.

He has always been with me in all my ups and downs. He has always lent me a shoulder to put my head on and spill out everything.

When ever I am down, I call him, knowing that he will surely solve my problem. The time has separated us and there are distances between our locations on the earth, but that has never effected our closeness. Whenever, I have a crush for some one, I seek his advice; when ever he used to have, he seeked mine. (Now, the stud has his own special one. Lucky Chap..!! )

I remember when I used to spend hours at his place during our school days, discussing my problems. It was always me, who was in a problem.
I was always the misery bringer in our case and he was the one to help both of us to come out with a solution.

If, i could not study during exams, I called him to help me. He made me study.

If ever I was down, he uplifted me.

Today, we live in different cities and still, he helps me in every scene of my life.
Be it motivational, be it career, be it academic, be it sports, be it personal affairs.

Despite of all this, he still says, "Call me anytime. I'll come".

I know, I should thank you for all this, but I won't. Today is his birthday. I can't give him anything, as I am too small in front of his greatness. You're the best.

I have just tried to express myself a little for you. I'm lucky to have you as my friend. Thanks for always supporting me. Be with me always.

Happy Birthday Rohit.

Candies and Lollies 1

A few days back my maternal aunts and my mom decided to give a visit to my cousin's place in Lucknow. My cousin has a sweet daughter i.e. my niece. Her name is Anu. She is around 3 years of age. As is very customary, all the women started to play with the little girl.
While, they were seeing some family photographs and while encountering one of my pictures, my mom asked Anu, "Do you know who is this?"

"Arey, this is Arpit mama" , she replied.

Meanwhile, while my mom was thinking of applauding her correct answer, she immediately continued,

"Arey aapka Beta, itna bhi nahi jaanti".

29th August

29th August, 2009: You may wonder what is the speciality of making an entry with the topic as the date. But, those who are unfamiliar with this date, should feel pity on themselves of being unknown of the importance of the day.


This day is commonly known as the National Sports Day in India. Now, many people will think that what is so great about this day. And being the National Sports Day, there must be many sports and games being played all over the country in the schools, colleges etc.
But, almost all will be unknown of the fact the this day is the Birthday of the Wonderman of Hockey Major Dhyan Chand. He was born on 29th August 1905.


He was the legendary hockey player and played at the Cenral Forward of the Indian National Team. He is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players till date.
He was awarded Padma Bhushan in 1956 which is the third highest Civilian Honor in the country.

He was primarily known as Major Dhyan Singh but he was then awarded with a title of Chand (or MOON) by his coach, who was impressed by his extra ordinary skills with the Hockey Stick.


He won 3 Olympic Golds for India in 1928 Amsterdam, 1932 Los Angeles and 1936 Berlin.


After his mesmerizing performance at the Berlin Olympics, legend has it that after seeing him play , the then dictator of Germany, Adolf Hitler offered Dhyan Chand, a Major in the British Indian Army, German citizenship and a higher army post. But the true patriot, the prolific striker politely turned his offer down.


He was admired and feared by his opponents, who felt that the ball got stuck to his stick when he played. Many times during the play his stick was objected and was checked by the opponents and officials who suspected that it contained some illegal stuff that caused the ball to adher with the stick, but all in vain. They found nothing. It was the magic of Dhyan Chand, his extra ordinary skills with the piece of timber, that caused the ball to move as he desired, on the turf.


Residents of Vienna, Austria honoured him by setting up a statue of him with four hands and four sticks, depicting his control and mastery over the ball.
One of his famous statues stands at the National Stadium in New Delhi near the India Gate. The National Stadium was an honor to the legendary player who died finally in 1979.

Chrome Unleashed..!!

I recently came across this video made by Google Japan. This was made a couple of months back to promote the Chrome market.

A Journey..!!!

5th June 2009:: 3pm: The session at the college got over. The engineering had completed and now it was the time to leave the place. I arrived at the bus stand in Kanpur to board a bus for Lucknow, as I always get my train to home reserved, from Lucknow.
I reached Lucknow at 7pm and was waiting for my friend Rohit to pick me up from the bus stand. My right hand was injured so it wasn't possible for me to go on by myself. He tested my patience again, as usual and arrived about more than half an hour late.

He arrived at 7:30.

"Now what should we do?", I asked him, "It would get late if we go to your hostel and come back. Most of the time would be spent in commuting".

"Let's hang out at some place and after having dinner , thereafter we shall go to the railway station", he said.

"Okay".

We then, went to Sahara Ganj. We headed straight to the Food Court on the 3rd floor, as the both of us were damn hungry. But reaching there itself wouldn't have filled up our bellies. There was no room to sit, all the seats were already occupied.
We had to wait for around 15 minutes before we could get a vacant seat to seat ourselves.





After munching a lot there from the choices of McDonalds and Dominos and chatting, we left for the railway station at 10 pm. My train was scheduled to depart at 11pm.
It took a little more than half an hour to reach the railway station. After getting the platform tickets for him and getting through the enquiry for the platform number, we finally reached the platform at 11 pm. The train had just arrived. We rushed in and i searched my berth. It was an upper one. I looked around, it was extremely crowded.

God knows, why does it get so crowded on the days I choose to travel.

Then, after bidding bye and all, Rohit left as the train had started to crawl.

I got up on my berth and sat down on it. There was a girl in front of me on the side-upper berth staring at me and smiling.
"What happened?", I asked her.
"Nothing.", she said and lowered her face away from me.

"Am I looking wierd or is there something on my face", I asked myself. I checked my face and it was okay. I couldn't make out why was she smiling.

I laid down on my seat and kept thinking why was she smiling. I couldn't make out anything.
I then noticed the girl's face again by looking at her. She was a very beautiful face. A very well craved face, full of innocence. Every feature on the face was perfect. "She must be around 18", I tried to figure out by myself.

Meanwhile, I realized that the weather was extremely hot and humid and I was feeling uncomfortable to sleep. I again sat up and watched her. She was now talking to her family who were in the next 9-set of seats. As I sat, she glanced at me, and again got busy with what she was engaged in.
I kept fiddling with my mobile and kept awake as it was too hot for me to sleep.
My watch ticked 1 am. It had been nearly a couple of hours since I was sitting and could't sleep. I looked at the girl again and she was awake too. Again, I noticed she was looking at me.

"Ain't you feeling sleepy", I asked her.
"Nopes", she replied with immense politeness and a voice full of affection.

I was startled. But I again told myself, "She must not be more than 18. Lot younger than me".

I again laid down and tried to sleep. Well, thinking about the same thing, i felt asleep.

Suddenly, there was lot of hue and cry in the coach. A big hullabaloo made me awake. I looked at my watch, it was 3 am. I looked in front of myself. The girl was still sitting, awake.
I sat up and saw that it was raining heavily outside. The weather had turned quite cold and that was why I had been enjoying a nice nap. All the passengers were creating a mess because the rain water had seeped inside the coach through the windows and people were busy putting up their stuffs to keep it away from the water.







My sleep was gone in an instant because of that weather.

I settled myself and looked at the girl again. She was still looking so innocent and beautiful as hell.
I drew a little in front of my berth to have a full view of the coach and was enjoying the mess the people were through because of the rain.

"So, you don't sleep at nights in the trains?", I asked her.

"No I enjoy being awake and enjoy the journey.", she said.

"Hmm.. Right. Earlier the weather was too hot to sleep and now it is too pleasant to enjoy rather than sleep", I said and she nodded in full agreement.

After this short conversation, I again looked at the other people in the compartment.

"What is your name?", SHE ASKED ME.

Whoops.!!! She started the questionnaire now.

"Arpit", I replied. "What's yours?", I fired back one.

"Shivani", she said.

"Hmm.. so are you some college student or a school student?", I asked.

What a decent time to interview such a sweet looking girl.

"Yeah, I go to a school.", she said.

"Which class?"

"8th standard."

She was too young. Very very young in age.

"So, you people are going for your vacations?", I asked her.

"Yeah", she said, "We are going to Meerut to our aunt for the vacations".

"So, you people live in Lucknow?", I asked.

"Yeah".

"Which place?".

"Gomti Nagar".

"Hmm.. Nice place", I said. and then we sat talking for about an hour.

I had developed a caring and an elderly feeling for her by the time we were chatting. It was nice to talk to a younger gal on the train.

After talking for that long, I again started to feel a bit sleepy. But she was still as fresh as an early morning rose.
I told her that I need to sleep and then I lied down again.

My eyes opened at 7:15 am. The train was stationed at Meerut City. I popped up and immediately looked at that gal, but she was there. I sat up, she saw me.

"Won't you people get down here?", I asked her.

"At Meerut Cant.", she said.

"Okay", I said.

I again lied down. The train moved after some time and reached Meerut Cant.

I was awake but I didn't get up. I didn't want such a sweet kid to go away from me. Strange though.

I kept myself lying down. The train halted and that kid got up from her berth. I turned my head in that direction and she said to me, "Byeeee..!!".

"Bye", I said too, waving the broken wrist of mine.

She was gone in a minute with her family and I again lied down and slept as it was again 2 more hours for me to reach Saharanpur.

Google and Facebook Massacre

Do you know Aaron Greenspan ? Perhaps, not. He is the guy who claimed recently that he invented Facebook and his batch mate Mark Zukerberg, the so called inventor of Facebook (current CEO of Facebook) stole his idea while being at Harvard. Greenspan claims that he was apparently hit by the idea while doing a project called Housing System – a set of online resources for Harvard students.
Greenspan also wrote a book titled Authoritas: One Student’s Harvard Admissions and the Founding of the Facebook Era.
This blog post by me, is not on the topic what Greenspan claims or not, rather it is on an act by Google coming hand-in-hand along with Facebook to suppress the guy. Greenspan also sued Google at the United States jurisdiction and actually ended up winning $761 in the case. It is surely not a life changing amount of money but a quixotic endeavour.
Coming to Greenspan’s recent tryst with the giant Google – the story is far more interesting.
It all began when Greenspan decided to subscribe to Google Adwords service in the hope of popularizing his book via Google search ads. He wanted his ad to be thrown up anytime if someone ran a search that included the word ‘Facebook’.
Google couldn’t allow this because Facebook is a trademark registered to Facebook. So, Greenspan filed a petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office claiming prior use of the word and even going back to the old slug match of accusing Zukerberg of fraud. The plea is still pending, but Greenspan believes that Facebook lobbied Google to implement the ban.
The story doesn’t end here. Greenspan in the meantime signed up for AdSense, to be able to post ads on his own website. When people click on such ads Google works its series of arcane algorithms and deposits a sum into the AdSense holder’s account. Greenspan was able to use this service for his website for a while when until Google arbitrarily discontinued his account.
He was given a standard automated response on his account page which said his membership in the program “posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers.” (Holy Mother of God.!!! Google plays with everyone. They banned my account as well. But, I can’t file any petition at the US jurisdiction.)
Now, this treatment is usually meted out to miscreants indulging in clicking fraud – which involves installing AdSense on an empty site that gets lot of traffic for some reason. The result is that the website gets a very high click- through rate from people with not much interest in the topics but just clicking the ads to exit the site.
Whether he was involved in click fraud is not clear but Google didn’t offer Greenspan any explanations for axing his account and besides all of his communication with the search company went unanswered. I should mention that Google has a clause in its terms of service by which it reserves a right to cancel AdSense members account for “any reason”. When Greenspan was after all able to reach the real person at Google in one of his attempts he was told “there is no one I’d be able to transfer you to.”… ,says Greenspan on Huffingtonpost.com.
Finally, fully frustrated Greenspan filed a civil small claims case at the Santa Clara County courthouse for $721 – the amount accrued to his AdSense account before it got canned. At the hearing, Google apparently sent over a paralegal, who refused to divulge the reason for the termination of his account and rested its entire claim on the fact that “Google’s terms of service specified that the company could terminate accounts for any reason” .
According to Greenspan, the judge wasn’t impressed and even went so far as to ask the paralegal “But you could not terminate my account because of the color of my eyes, could you? I have brown eyes. You couldn’t terminate my account because of that.”
The judge eventually threw the case out and according to Greenspan, asked Google to pay his $721 plus another $40 in court fees.
The few points that are important are the underlying issues that this description throws up.

Firstly, that Google’s terms of service are arbitrary.
Secondly, if Greenspan’s website was thrown up automatically (same as mine), as possible fraud by the application of an investigative algorithm, Google’s detection system is flawed because moral intentions cannot be understood by mathematical analysis.
Third, as Greenspan argues - “terminating accounts for ‘posing significant risk’ just when they started to earn significant amount of money seemed like a great way for Google to cut accounting liabilities in a difficult economic climate”. (Recession effect, you know)
And lastly, none of this can be put under the scanner as AdWords and AdSense have limited reporting capabilities.

The gathering belief the world over is that Google and its affiliated companies are becoming some sort of an unapproachable shadowy cartel.

But apart from that, this incident even has the undertones of the two biggies Facebook and Google, coming together to quash the little guy.

Exam Time...!!

I see out of my window, peeping. All I could see is the hot air blowing; called LOO in the local dialect. I look back at my computer whose GPU is groaning at me because of excess workload that it has to do these days following my absence from the college.
I throw a frustrated look at my study table and see the books piled up, ready to be studied. But the weather and the absolute ZERO inside my head, made me again fall back on the bed.
Again it is the exam time for the engineers. We have to study again desperately. But the only relaxing and soothing thing is that it is our last semester. The final time o study as of what is called the STUDYING PERIOD.
This semester was a lot different from the other semesters that we have had so far, to be precise 7 in number. We were allowed to bunk any number of classes, uptil now. But in this semester, only the SATAN knows what happened to our college management that the attendance was made compulsory with monetary penalty, and that too was quite high.
My personal record of attendance which was: always lower than 60% was broken in this semester. I too had to attend all the classes since 12th February till date. Never in my whole academic life, have I been regular for such a long duration without a single bunk or absence from the class. It was a real pain in the ass for me at least and surely for many others too.
I laid back after getting a good look at the LOO, and fearing the heat strokes. I tried to plan my studying schedule again but all in vain. I kept thinking that we have been the most regular in the college and still we know the least, when syllabus is compared. Since my first semester, we attended least classes and studied on our own when the exams approached. Our conscious became so guilt-filled that we had to study and got well prepared before the exam time.
But now, in this semester, we continuously attended a hell lot of classes and our teachers taught us with a hell lot of patience and time. Still, not a single student knows anything.
We sat in the classes everyday with half closed eyes.. eye-lids batting half way down the way and brain cells in an OFF position and we returned all exhausted. There was a feeling everyday while returning “Today we studied a lot.” But, actually all were nil.
The whole semester has passed and now when the exam time is right at hand. The gongs are blowing just above the ear-level; I am tensed about what will happen in these final semester exams…
I keep staring at the ceiling in a dazed horror of exams. May be I am getting a kinda exam phobic.
And watching the movie of previous 3 years in the college inside my neural canvas, I again slept, as usual.

Dating 16 Years..!!!

10th April ’09: Today I took a day off from the college and didn’t go. The last 2 months were extremely hectic due to the college. We had to go everyday else were fined monetarily. So, today I got ill, to have a holiday and rest. All my life I have never been so regular for 2 months, without taking a day off.
I got up at 7 am, because of everyday’s habit of going college, when we have to rush out latest by 8am. Then realizing that I am not going college today I again slept at 8. After that I got up 11. Hmm… pretty long time since I have had such a nice and sound sleep.
I got up, pinched myself; Yeah.. I really was in my bed away from the college. Holy Heavens, I was so happy.
Then, I did all the stuffs including the breakfast till 12 noon.
After that I sat wondering what to do? Had nothing to do. So, I got up and cleaned my study table and scheduled my studies as our finals start from 5th May.
Then, I lied down planning what to do next.
I was planning my schedule and then I noticed that only a little of college life is left.
The time to transit from the student age to a grown up has arrived.
I recall my days when we had to leave our school life and enter into the college phase. I was so sad, then. But there was an assurance that we shall all meet at least every 2 or 3 months when we go home in our holidays. But, now the conditions are different.
I recall all those days with Rohit, Prashant, Pankaj, Harsh, Anshul, Saksham, Priyank, Ankit, Siddharth, Sanyam, Gaurav, Nikhil, Gurkeerat, Anant, Shubham, Naveen and a hell lot of others. The entire nuisance that we used to make, all the fun that we had during our school time. But then we all separated.
But we continued our bond in the time when we went home in our vacations every 2-3 months. We talked on phone and did everything. The time during the college was also soothing. We met every couple of months and did all fun. Even more that what we did during school days. We were easy in touch and continued our bondage well.
It was a lot easy for me to bunk my college for a couple of days and board a bus to Lucknow to meet Rohit.
It was too easy to extend my vacations just to hang out with Pankaj or Prashant for a few more days in Saharanpur.
I miss our long long drives till the notch of Dehradun in the evening with Saksham.
I miss the late night treats at Chandralok and Meridian by Shishir Bhaiya that Gurkeerat and I always forced Bhaiya for.
I miss going to Hot-Breads with Nikhil every day after our P.K.Bansal Sir’s classes.
The long long walks with Anant into the deep down unexplored areas of Taharpur.
I miss my trip to the river-side by the canal with Pankaj and the photo-sessions that we had there. The trips to Chuneti to our school in the night having a packet of Chips with Anshul, Siddhharth & Pankaj.
I miss the Bluff sessions at Harsh’s place.
I miss the strolling with Priyank in Mission Compound.
The late night walks with Sidhharth through out the roads of Avas Vikas.
I miss the time that I spent at Rohit’s place all day long discussing about our Important Stuffs.
But now the big transition phase has arrived.
Our B.Tech is ending. We shall go to different parts of the country or may be the globe. No one knows the destiny of any one. We shall be physically parted away. Now, we won’t be able to meet as frequently as we have done uptil now.
After we all start our respective jobs or post-graduations, it might turn into years or a little more or less to see each other.
In the evening I was talking with a batch mate and we were discussing the ending college days. The other person was too sad that I myself went into a deep thinking.
Well, I don’t have any attachments with my college nor do I have any one great whom I would miss. But, I am thinking about all my dear friends since my school days, who have always stood by me in all the ups and downs of the life uptil now.
I never really had thought that a stage would come that I would be missing my friends so terribly. But this was my mental situation today. I kept thinking this all day long and am still in state of dilemma about this.
Our such loving days spent with friends will never return. Gone are those wonderful days. Gone with the Wind. But we will always cherish those amazing days in our souls.

Over grown babies…!!

20th March ’09: I’m sitting in my classroom waiting for the bell to ring and the first lecture to start. At 9:30, the bell rang and the teacher entered the class. Suddenly, I felt a sting inside my head followed by a severe head-ache. I put my head down and when the teacher asked me what it was, I replied that I wasn’t feeling well. A classmate touches my hand and says that I have a terrible fever too. I sat silently in the class for 2 lectures. After the second lecture the CSE co-coordinator asked me to go back because of my fever.
I came back to my room at 12 noon. Feeling unwell, I slept after having some medicine. I kept sleeping for 2 hours, when my project partner calls me at 2, whether we should work on our project that day or not.
I got up. Feeling a little refreshed, I asked him to come and we started working on our project. We worked on Microsoft IDE for around 3 hours. At 5, he left.
Immediately then, the electricity went off due to a power failure. I cursed the KESCO. India is working well in all departments except improving its infrastructure.
Then, trying to grasp some fresh air, I asked my room partner Priyank to accompany me for a walk. The weather was a little cool due to the over cast clouds.
We walked in the neighbourhood for around half an hour. After that, I again saw that the electricity is still not back. I again cursed the KESCO.
Then, the two of us sat in the park near our flat. There was quite a happening season inside the park. There were a few boys playing cricket and 2 small girls playing on the swings. There were few other elderly people out for their evening walk.
We two sat on a bench chatting watching the kids playing on the swing and he guys’ cricket.
Suddenly, my attention was diverted towards those 2 kids. Those two girls were around 7-8 years of age. One was dressed in blue and the other was in pink.
The girl in pink was a lot cuter than the other one. (Plump, what do I mean by this..!!!)
The girls started to fight among themselves. The fight was in English. (Huh.. Schools are forcing kids to over grow, out of them. )
“Hey, let’s go that swing”, the girl in blue said.
“No, I won’t come”, the kid in pink replied.
“Come, na!”
“No, I won’t.”
“Fine, I’m going.”
“Ok, go!”
“Don’t talk to me.”
Seeing this kid- fight between those two girls, the guys who were playing around started to tease the girl in blue.
She got irritated and said, “I can’t see you people.”
“But, we can see you fighting with your friend”, said one f the guys trying to be over smart with the small kid.
Immediately then, the girl in pink came to the rescue of her friend. She came by the girl in blue, and looked at the boys.
“I am so sexy. See me.”, yelled the girl in pink, at the boys and walked out of the park with her friend.
Everyone was stunned. The guys, the elderly people walking in the park, the women roaming and chatting about their households, and the two of us, all were awe struck.
Everybody walked that small girl in pink walking away with her friend out of the park.
The people, who were thinking those girls to be small kids, were now shut blunt by a girl of 7-8 years of age.
I stared to think what struck the girl’s mind to speak such a thing.
Does she even know the meaning of what she has shouted.???

1 night @ my room

5th February 2009: It was around 5pm. I was sleeping, which is the only thing that I have excelled through during my engineering. Suddenly, my sleep was interrupted by ‘korbo lorbo jeetbo re’, which is my mobile’s ring tone, which is also the theme song of Saurav Ganguly led Knight Riders cricket Team.
I saw the screen, it was flashing Pankaj’s name. ‘Can’t even let me sleep soundly’, echoed somewhere inside my head.
“Hello”, I picked the call clumsily.
“Hi.. What were you doing?”, answered the caller.
“Hmm.. obviously, what you can make out of my voice. I was sleeping. Anyways, yeah, say what is it.?”
“Hmm.. Aur kuch to hota nahi tere se, sone ke alawa”, he replied, “Anyways, tell me are you free on 9th February?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“I am coming to Kanpur on 9th and shall stay overnight. I have to attend a marriage in Lucknow on 11th, so just wanted to meet you”.
“Hmm.. Let me see. 9th is Monday and 10th Tuesday. Sure. Come I shall bunk my college and we will have a blast.”
“Ok done. Bye”.
“Bye.”

9th February 2009: My watch was ticking 8 pm. I rang Pankaj, “Where are you?”.
“Just reached Railway Station, on platform 5”.
“Fine. Wait there. I shall be there in 2 minutes. I am on platform 1”.
I rushed to platform 5 and quickly found him. After all, my pair of eyes, behind the pair of fiber eyes works quite efficiently.
“Hi. How was the journey?”, I asked.
“Great. Lost my Apple iPod somewhere in the train”.
“Fantastic. This couldn’t have been better. And stop calling that stupid mp3 player your Apple iPod.”
We then went to a restaurant and had some dinner. The cuisine was our common favorite -> Butter Chicken. After having an overdose of the stuffs, we made the payment and we left for my room.
It was nearing 10 pm now. In half an hour both of us were at my room.
“Chal, now let’s make our self comfortable and let me show you what I have brought exclusively for you.”, said Pankaj.
“Hmm… take it out.”, I asked him, setting the bed for both of us.
Within 5 more minutes, we were in our quilts and he held his ream of writings and some photographs, which he had brought to show me.
Then we started to discuss his writings and the stuffs. It had a description about Kalpana. Now don’t expect me to write who Kalpana is. Better contact Pankaj and ask him. ;)
He also showed me the photos of his college group and his buddies, with a detailed description of each. He masters the art of making description.
The clock was now showing 1 am.
But who cares. After all, we are engineers.
“Aren’t you tired?”, I asked him.
“Hmm.. It is better to talk than sleep right now. We have met after a long time.”
And our experienced talks continued till 4 am. I remember till this instant, after that I have no idea when the two of us slept.

Next morning: “Uth be, 9 baj gaya”, I kicked him, “Gosh, quickly get ready.”
“Yup. We have to go to IIT to meet Sanyam too, and then I have to leave in the afternoon.”, he said.
“So, get up na.”
We were ready in half an hour and were munching our breakfast in no time.
At 10 am, we left for IIT from my room and reached there in another 30 minutes. We reached Sanyam’s room and he was waiting for us as I had already informed him about our arrival.
“Where is my book?”, Sanyam threw a question right in my face as I entered his room.
“Shit, I forgot again.”, I replied.
I had to give him a book entitled “Anything for you ma’am” by Tushar Raheja. He is quite desperate to read it, after he completed Chetan Bhagat. These IITians have no work other than writing exaggerated stories. After all how such a trail of co-incidences can follow. I seriously doubt.
“Next time. Promise”, said I.
“Leave it, have this chocolate”, Pankaj offered a chocolate to Sanyam.
“Good, now you offer chocolates to guys also. ”, said I, followed by a burst of laughter by all three.
Then, we spent nearly 2 hours at Sanyam’s room searcing to a video by Corrs, but in vain and it was now time for Pankaj to leave.
After, both Pankaj and Sanyam bid adieu to each other we left from there back. We had some lunch at another restaurant and then back to my room.
Next, at around 2 pm, we left from my room towards the bus stand as now Pankaj had to board a bus to Lucknow. I dropped him at the bus stand and then after bidding bye to each other, I left back for my room and he stepped inside the bus.
I was returning back with a helmet on my head and some nice thoughts of the last 16 hours inside my head.
Really, I miss my friends. But, now life will keep us further away, as time passes, but our hearts will be drawn closer.

The Unexpected

It was a winter evening. I was at home enjoying my vacations. My watch was ticking 5 pm. I took my car and went out as I had an appointment with a doctor. My flu was bad.
I sat in the driving seat, had to go alone, slid the key in the key hole and switched the engine on. The car started with a usual hum. I geared it and moved.
As I reached the main road out of the lane, I saw a friend of mine standing with a little sweet girl. The girl must be around 6-7 years of age. I stopped by my friend and asked him, who the kid was. He replied, “She is my Uncle’s daughter. Can you leave her at the Court Crossroads?”
“Sure”, said I. Then, after having a little chat with my friend, I left, as I was getting late for the doctor.
I took the girl with me, and asked her to sit in the seat next to me. She was an amazing kid. She was outstandingly beautiful with immense innocence on her face. I haven’t seen any such a cute kid all my life. I asked her name. “I don’t know”, she replied. I was shocked to hear such an answer from her. My friend’s known person, and at an age of around 7 years she must at least know her name.
Till then, I had reached the Court Crossroads and I asked the girl to get down and where did she have to go now?
“I had to go to Patel Chowk”, she replied. “What? But your Rahul bhaiya said you have to go to Court Crossroads”, I asked her in surprise.
“Who is Rahul bhaiya?”
“Kiddo the guy with whom you were standing when I picked you up.”
“I don’t know him. I met him right there.”
“Whoa. What is that?”, I asked myself. “What is this? Aren’t you his uncle’s daughter?”, I asked her.
“Nope.”
I rang my friend Rahul to I asked him who the girl is. My head was gazing in a turn moil as to what was happening. I had least idea. The phone was out of range. Now, I wasn’t surprised at this. After such a long trail of strange events, this was bound to happen.
“So, fine. Now, tell me who are you? Where are you parents and where do you live? ”, I asked the girl.
“I am an orphan and I live at an orphanage called Krishna Orphanage at the Patel Chowk.”, she replied.
‘Holy Heavens.!!!!!! Such a beautiful creation of the Almighty lives in an orphanage and still she has her natural glow and a face that could keep any human spell bounded. If the other living forms of life other than humans can feel the beauty of God, then they too must be left captivated by a single look at that kid.’
I was thinking as to what should I do now? I ask her to sit back in the car and I started to drive not knowing where to head. I was still not completely in my senses as to what has happened in just an hour.
“Fine. Listen kiddo, Patel Chowk is bit far from here. So let me complete my appointment with the doctor, and then I’ll take you there”.
“Ok. As you say.”
I left the girl in the car and bought her a burger presuming she might be hungry. “Have this kiddo, till I come back.”, I said giving her the burger and then I went into the doctor’s clinic.
Waiting for my turn, I rang my friend again. This time the call connected.
“Hello?”, said an unfamiliar voice. “Rahul, is it you?”, I asked. “No, wrong number”, and the call was hung up.
“What the hell Is this happening”, my head ache was soaring badly uptil now.
After having the diagnosis done with the doctor, I went to the parking to my car. And to my horrors, the car’s window panes were broken, and the girl was nowhere. I looked around, but there was no one.
The degree of my amazement went high up.
I immediately drove to Patel Chowk at a ravishing speed, and started to inquire about the Krishna Orphanage, but there was no such orphanage to be found. Infact, the whole area had not even a single orphanage. The amazement degree went further high up.
I sat back in my car with my head down on the steering wheel, trying to fix things up running through the neurons inside my brain and correlate the things, but all in vain. I didn’t draw anything out.
“Arpit, Arpit. Get up.”, I heard a hoarse voice.
“Arpit. Uth be. Jogging par nahi chalna kya…”, I got up. I looked around. I had been dreaming. I looked at my table clock. It was 6 am. My room partner was calling me, for the morning jog.
I quickly brushed, answered the call of the nature and got ready in the track suit.
We left for our morning task, but I was constantly thinking about my dream.

Google inspired from Microsoft :)

I found this picture while surfing on the internet. This one looks damn funny. :)