2 States

"Love marriages around the world are simple:

Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. They get married.

In India, there a few more steps:

Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy.

Girl's family has to love boy. Boy's family has to love girl.

Girl's family has to love boy's family. Boy's family has to love girl's family.

Girl and boy still love each other. They get married."

These were the welcome lines by Chetan Bhagat in his new book "2 STATES". There was a sense of déjà vu when I read those lines, one that reminded me of umpteen indian movies. But the hearsay that it depicts the real life story of the author himself aroused widespread excitement and anticipation. I, like most of the people tried to grab that book as early as possible (which unfortunately couldn't happen :P). I managed to complete the book just two days back. It was a smooth read. Infact, this is the book I have read after a long gap of around 5 months. Like every trivial movie, the pair struggles to convince their families and the climax is also as expected with parents' loosening their stance and consenting to the marriage. But there is something more to just this trivia. The book showcases the maturity and commitment shown by these two IIM-A graduates in every walk of their life. It also potrays a slackened relationship between a father and a son and also how they just make it up in the end. It shows the agony of a young man and his repugnance towards the regional barriers and his dream of doing away with these discrimination on the basis of states(This disgust of Krish is intensified with their parents rejecting their marriage proposal for a simple reason that Krish and Ananya are from "two different states"). It was funfilled read. And Oh yes, The author did well in creating punjabi and tamil nadu ambience and what more I virtually lived in Ahmedabad, Chennai and Delhi for whole three hours!

I don't say it is an outstanding book, but you can consider it for a read when time permits.

...And I'm back!

It's been like ages since I wrote here. Writing is such a wonderful experience and I don't know how I lasted without writing for this long. Woo! These words sound like a passionate lover's confessions. Uh! Atleast the comparison was worth it. Into the last innings of engineering life, things haven't changed much except that there is a pressing need for introspection. "What did you learn these four years? What do you want become in life? Where do you want to see yourself in five years?" Sure, these are most trivial interview questions. Even if you are not certain as to what, why and when you could still get through in an interview by feigning someway out. Right now I feel it's high time I woke up to the truth and had a concrete plan for my career. Oh, I want to study further. OK.What next? End up in those so called "creamy corporate jobs"? For now, that seems an alluring option. But, there should be something more to just that. May be at some other point in time(which is very near), I need to do deeper introspection as I have some obvious and mundane things to do now (MBA exams, GD prep, Project etc etc..). At the moment I am slogging out with my btech project (Always thought this would be fun :-( ). After all, fours years of your college life is going to be reflected in your project report. Wish me good luck people!!!

And yes, I totally forgot. If there are resolutions I am going to make in the coming New Year(There a few resultions I am definitely going to make :P) - being faithful to writing is going to top the list!

It's 8 AM now and I have my project mate Swetha waiting for me so that together we could do some crazy things in the lab. :P

See you soon!

The era of e-greetings

With the ever increasing technological realms, the tentacles of communication are spreading as widely as never before making our lives more and more sophisticated. In this process, many facets of our day- to- day life have endured a vast change, out of which, one aspect seems to stand in a unique position. The advancements in communication technology have exorbitantly changed our perception towards "conveying wishes to our near and dear ones on any special occasion." Wishing our beloved ones on any occasion is common now and was also common in the past but the process of wishing i.e., “the greeting culture” has undergone metamorphosis. This fact is evident from our actions

                                  Delving deep into this... Dec 31st, the day on which the entire world sings unanimously to welcome the New Year, I was waiting for the clock to strike 12 so that I can start wishing my friends in a row through the magic gadgets “cell phone” and “computer”. “This year I am going to wish all my dear ones”, I thought. As soon as the clock stuck 12, I eagerly started calling my friends and the calls also started pouring in. This went on for about an hour and then I checked and re-checked the contacts on my cell phone to make sure I wished all my friends. But, that somehow didn’t my stop my excitement, which made me turn on my computer and start sending the “E-mail greetings”…This went on till I felt I reached everyone. Once I was done with wishing all my friends, I relaxed in my cozy chair. Then the tender silence settling after the new year  bash embraced me and diverted my thoughts and took me into the reminisce of my childhood, the sweetest part of anyone’s life. Slowly my thoughts dwelled on the New Year festivities in the past, which made me feel nostalgic. New Year extravaganza then began around five to ten days before the 1^st of January or even before. Well, this was mainly due to the remote access to the sophisticated and so called “wish passing” electronic devices like “mobile phone” and “computer”. The ways of greeting were different then… It used to be a lot more enterprising. It used to start right from purchasing the greeting cards or sometimes using your creativity to make one, gathering the postal addresses, affixing the stamps and posting them on time. It was an onus, but the fact that the fruits of our efforts go in the way of engrossing and enthralling our loved ones, always made the efforts worthy, which is almost extinct now. Next came the fantasy job…waiting for the greeting cards from your friends and relatives. This indeed was much interesting as much of time was spent anticipating everything right from the color of the greeting card to the sender and later on the adoring everything about the card. And above all, the experience of sending and receiving greetings left some cherishable memories. I, as a kid always reckoned New Year as “festival of greetings”. 

                                       “One fine day, I was opening a greeting card sent by my uncle, when the door bell rang. Another greeting card, thought I. I waited for my mom to open the door. Nobody was opening the door and the bell kept ringing.” It was only then I woke up to realize my thoughts transformed into dreams and now I am back to my senses. It was not the door bell, but it was my cell phone ringing. Well, “indeed another greeting- This time an electronic one”, smiled I. Then, I felt thankful to the gadget in my hand as it finally helped me achieve the objective of “greeting” all my kith and kin. I was satisfied.

                 In a sense, technology wins laurels for driving us effectively from colourful cards to electronic wishes, without creating a gap. We are still far away from bidding farewell and from forgetting the colours of the greeting cards. In spite of adoring the traditional greeting cards, we have welcomed the e-greetings culture greatly for only it can ease the time congestion created by the very same technology.