It's me

Mid way through the 1st Trim

2009-09-30T06:32:00.000-07:00

The first reality check for us came in the form of mid terms. Once in every 3 months, we, budding managers are super cooked by the end term exams. So going by that logic, you can say mid terms are the process to make us half boiled.

What a better way to start the torture than with Accounts and Economics. Trust me, none of the two subjects makes any logical sense at all, at least to engineers. The preparation part was a learning experience for me. In simple terms it involved getting hold of the guru of any subject, and sitting in front of him/her and trying to understand what he/she will cover by just flipping through the pages. That will comprise 70% of the syllabus, out of which you will understand 50% and finally retain 30%. No wonder the paid managers could not prevent or even foresee the global turndown.

Accounts examination wasn’t much productive but for a term coined by the Hulk----Anand, thanks to Garvita. Meet Garvita, the cute girl from Madhya Pradesh, with exceptionally talented singing prowess and equally deadly dancing skills. Generally MP-ites are known for their “shudh Hindi”, but Garvita’s Hindi is full of “apan-tu.” She’s the only working SR of Stats. Garvita was sitting grim-faced on the second day of the exam. Anand asked “What happened?” “I don’t know. My Accounts went horrible. I did such things that…………..” “….that no Accountant would have dared to do, right?”----Anand continued “but that’s okay. This is known as creative accounting. No many people can do that.” So all you aspiring/budding managers, who are destined to face the Accountancy blues-------don’t feel bad if your balance sheet doesn’t tally.

O.B., O.M. and Stats went rather unceremoniously. While the last two are somewhat tangible, O.B. is complete rubbish. With n number of theories, it tries to help future H.R. managers to deal with probable work place problems. But what it effectively becomes is problem itself. I hope Venkat, Surma and Shomna don’t read this, or else I am dead. We have no idea why they want to take H.R. as specialization, but the good thing is we know whom to forward our CVs to, five years hence. Meet Venky, the pseudo Mumbai-ite who doesn’t know Marathi. He has the uncanny habit of keeping his hand in his pocket while speaking. Simple it may sound, but it can cost you dear, ask him. His voice is the loudest in the class, and that no doubt gives him the edge to his already superb style of speech. Surma, the Bengali girl who’s not at all comfortable with her mother tongue is an awesome orator. She’s the HAM ( half a minute ) champion of her college. She was with me in my GD panel. Take it from me, nobody could afford to open one’s mouth when she spoke. She spoke in short bursts of 30 seconds ( now I know why ), and made no nonsense of that time. She’s also a prospective year topper. Watch out this space to find out if she really does that. Shomna, the lass from Kuwait, is a very good friend of mine. Always smiling, she’s an anti-vegeterian. She will either have non-veg for dinner or will skip it altogether, of course giving exam time the discount, when she’s too busy to go out for her regular course dinner. She’s shares a Tom-n-Jerry relation with Jassi. Meet Jaspreet---- “barey paji” as we call him. With a deadly physic and a deadlier sense of humour, he sets the class on his own tune whenever he takes the centre stage. He also has another nickname “pseudo Sardar”. He’s from Bangalore, and from the same company like Shomna, which is in the news for all the wrong reasons. Shomna says everyone in the Bangalore branch knew Jassi. So you can well make out what a dynamite he’s, and not pocket size,mind you !!

I.T. examination was very happening. Firstly there was the confusion----we all thought I.T. mid term exam will have 5 % weightage, and gave the exam JLT (not JIT mind you). Later on we learnt like any other exam, it has 25-30 % weightage. But by then, the damage had already been done. But we remember this examination for a completely different reason. Midway through the examination, came the announcement that the last exam, Marketing would be postponed indefinitely, due to Maharashtra Government order owing to Swine Flu scare

The slump which the airlines industry was facing was recovered within a matter of hours, for sure.By the next morning, 90 % of the hostel was empty. My roomie, the Nanha Pahelwan ( who now has a new name Pinku, don’t ask me why ) advised me to watch the twin movies “28 Days Later” and “28 Weeks Later” to get a real feel of living alone. Trust me listing to him was the most stupid decision on my part. The mess which is over crowded during lunch and dinner times in regular course was like a deserted place. But the good side of it was people like me, who preferred to stay back, enjoyed a private suite for a week or so.By the time the much coveted break gave way to the Marketing exam and regular classes, the exam feel was gone. But I loved the Marketing exam. It was like a story writing competition, reminding me of my old days. The best part in Marketing is there’s no correct or wrong approach. Every approach is perfect as long as you justify it, and once you are in an MBA course justification is not an issue, specially with the 3 Gs with you.

I won’t go into the details of the varied reactions once the answer scripts were shown. Just the highlights---- I got more than 60 % in Accounts, but flunked badly in O.M. My roomie Sayan got 57 out of 60 in Stats. Madhumita got an astonishing 40 out of 50 in Marketing, with 25 out of 30 in the Case Study alone. Last but not the least----Gautam got the highest in Accounts. Now why is that special? Because he’s a techie with no commerce background. He’s a state level cricket player and an excellent guitarist as well. Well as I said our class has no dearth of talent.

Benefits of Smoking

2009-08-18T01:26:00.000-07:00

This article was composed by me for my college magazine. For obvious reasons, it was not accepted. So all you sutta lovers...enjoy

Statutory Warning: Cigarette Smoking is Injurious to Health

Smoking is bad for you. Anyone who has watched TV or gone to health class knows this. But everyone also knows that cheeseburgers are bad for you and continue to scarf them down. The benefits of cheeseburgers are obvious: delicious, juicy, hearty taste. What are the benefits of smoking? All you hear about all day is why you shouldn't smoke, and how bad it is for your health. Then why is everyone smoking in the first place, and how do smokers come up with thousands of reasons not to quit.

The dangers of smoking cigarettes are often greatly exaggerated while the benefits are downplayed. Now, smoking cigarettes is certainly bad for you physically overall, but the threat of diseases such as lung cancer or emphysema are made out to be worse than they actually are. Surprisingly, the tobacco plant appears to have more to offer our bodies than a guarantee of certain death. Although the health benefits of smoking are far outweighed by the many very dire risks, tobacco may provide alternative relief or prevention for some diseases in certain individuals.

The most fascinating and widely recognized health benefit of smoking is its ability to seemingly alleviate symptoms of mental illnesses, including anxiety and schizophrenia. The treatment of schizophrenia isn't the only positive effect that nicotine has on the brain. A series of very interesting studies from multiple academic sources confirms that the risk of Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease is surprisingly higher in non-smokers than in smokers. Compared to people who had never smoked and were considered to have ''normal'' Parkinson's disease risk, former smokers had a 22-percent lower risk of Parkinson's disease and current smokers had a 73-percent lower risk. But as Evan L. Thacker from Harvard School of Public Health puts it, ''it is not our intent to promote smoking as a protective measure against Parkinson's disease, obviously smoking has a multitude of negative consequences. Rather, we did this study to try to encourage other scientists...to consider the possibility that neuro-protective chemicals may be present in tobacco leaves.''

The University of Melbourne confirmed the claims made by many smokers that tobacco itself is a strong appetite suppressant, and many use it to self-treat compulsive overeating disorders or obesity. Many smokers experience weight loss and decreased appetite after they begin smoking.

Cigarette smoking has also been linked to a decrease in risk of certain inflammatory disorders, since nicotine itself appears to be an anti-inflammatory agent. The department of gastroenterology at the University Hospital of Wales conducted a number of in-vitro studies to confirm and explain the decreased risk in ulcerative colitis (a potentially severe digestive disorder) in individuals who smoke cigarettes. Perhaps most shockingly, tobacco smoke's anti-inflammatory effects may actually provide some benefits to children who are exposed to secondhand smoke. While this is certainly not worth at-home experimentation, one astonishing study conducted in Sweden observed two generations of Swedish children and found that the children of smokers had lower rates of allergic rhinitis, allergic asthma, atopic eczema, and food allergies.

For lung cancer specifically, as long as you quit smoking before your cells turn cancerous, then you are basically in no danger. Once you quit smoking it takes only three days for the cilia in your respiratory system to start regenerating and in turn the cilia once again start to protect your lungs from harmful pollutants. The cilia normally return to their full functioning capacity about six months after quitting smoking. This shows that the effect that smoking has on your body is largely reversible, assuming that you quit before you actually have malignant cancer cells.

A study printed in 2001 by Michael Houlihan showed that smoking cigarettes, or more specifically the nicotine in cigarettes, has a positive effect on short-term memory. A "denicotinized" cigarette and a "nicotine-yielding" cigarette were used to show the difference between the amount of nicotine ingested and the effect on short-term memory. This study basically showed that smoking shortens response time and it also positively affects event-related potentials. The response time was more greatly affected so, this shows that nicotine shortens response time by affecting response-related processes.

Although all of these benefits can only be reaped after you quit smoking, as long as you do that in a timely manner, you should be fine. Here are some facts from past U.S. Surgeon General's Reports: Less than five days after quitting smoking it will be noticeably easier to breathe because the lungs can now hold more air. One year after quitting the risk of heart disease is reduced to one-half of the risk of a continuing smoker. Five years after quitting, the risk of a stroke is equal to that of a nonsmoker. Ten years after quitting the lung cancer death rate is half of that of continuing smokers. There was a man who smoked unfiltered cigarettes for twenty years before quitting. Now, his lungs look as healthy as those of someone who had never smoked in his life. So enjoy smoking now; just be sure to quit before too late, so as not to miss out on the wonderful regenerative qualities of the human body.

Impressions----Part Two

2009-08-17T23:58:00.000-07:00

Now the fun part started. We were divided into groups of six. I had with me Pory of my section, Hari and Neha of B section and Vivek and Priyanka of IB. The fun part also consisted of two parts. First part was "Pehchaan Kaun", where we were given six roll numbers of the seniors (two each from sections A and B and two from IB). We had to find out who they were and then prepare power point presentations on them. Trust me this was very easy. The seniors were very co-operative in divulging information about their batch mates, some so private that we couldn't put those on the slides.Now the second part, and it was really tough. Each group was given either of four events---- musical skit, dance , fashion show and sell hell. We got dance. Before getting into the details of how pathetic our performance was, let me introduce my team mates.

Meet Pory, the sweet and chubby girl from Delhi. She speaks very little in the class and the first words she uttered were "Oh no ! Dance?" Meet Hari, the shy and reserved guy from Chennai. He didn't even have one Hindi track on his laptop, so you can well imagine what dancing to Hindi tracks would mean. Meet Neha, the most sporting of the six of us. I thought, "thank God, we have a choreographer amongst us". Meet Priyanka, the always-so-serious girl from Delhi. And lastly Vivek. "Unless you searched for us, I would had never gone on and try to find out my group mates", that was Vivek for you and me. And to complete the icing on the cake there was me, who hadn't ever danced in public. So I guess the ambiance is created perfectly for you to guess the pain our seniors had to undergo watching us on stage.

Our rehearsals were fun. Never, except on the eve of the occasion, did all six of us practise together. Oh I forgot to tell you, the tracks were selected by seniors. Each group was given an item number, a mujrah and a typical Bollywood number. We had Kajra Re, Dil Cheez and Rain is Falling. To my surprise Hari picked up the steps ever so smoothly. Lesson learnt ---- never judge by external factors. Neha really turned out to be the commander-in-charge. With two sessions of heavy practise, the second being on the morning of the Impressions, we were more or less ready to get boo-ed.

The show was really awesome. Thankfully we were not the first dancing group . Preity people were the unlucky ones. Meet Preity, the tom boy of our class . She plays basketball and even rides bikes. Her team mate was Rasna, as her friends call her. I owe her a lot for encouraging me to pick up blogging again. Their performance was greeted with loud cheers, which gave us some confidence to go up and perform. We went on the stage and did what Vivek termed as "shaadi dance" for three minutes. But thanks to our rehearsal, it wasn't as bad as it had threatened to be. We were welcomed back down with hand shakes, not sure if they were for winding up our performance soon. Among the other dancers Manthan, Ayushi, Gargi and the deadly combo of Wilma-Varun were superb.

Manthan one of the four musketeers of B section, the others being Handa, Kaushik and Dron. All four of them along with Ayushi and Rasna form the core group of B section. Whenever we speak about masti in B section, this is the group which comes to mind first. Ayushi, the vibrant energy pack of B section was teamed up with the battery of our A section Gargi. Their performance was bound to be electric. Wilma is a live wire of section A. The most bubbly girl was teamed up with Varun, the serious IT chap of the same section. But the duo rocked on the salsa beats. Oh yes, it'll be injustice if I don't mention my roomie Sid's performance on the dance floor. After all it won him an entire song dedicated to him---- Pappu can't dance sala.
Gauraav was given "size zero condom" in sell hell. The poor soul who couldn't say clearly what his sell hell topic was a week ago, was awesome on stage. No doubt his group won the sell hell and no surprises regarding the winner of dance competition as well. It was Preity-Rasna group.

The fashion show was an eye candy for many a reason. Ritica-Upada people won it. Both of them are the little kids of our section, yet to be graduated officially.

The musical skit was won by Dron-Shaleen-Ankita-Khushboo people. Meet Ankita, the Miss Breganza of the skit. This Rajasthan girl was my friend from even before I joined SIMSR. Khushboo is the girl from IB. But the star of the skit was Dron undoubtedly. Their topic was also unique "Dil,Daru aur Nari....Sabpe Parey Bhari". Dron was the poor soul who first lost his heart to this Miss Breganza, got beaten up by fellow oglers, and eventually lost Breganza too.

The winners got T shirts and the losers.......well nothing.All in all, a fun filled occasion, ushering in the promise of an even bigger Freshers' Welcome sometime soon.

Impressions-----Part One

2009-08-17T21:27:00.000-07:00

If Induction seemed like an endless Sahara, Impressions was definitely the oasis, or so it seemed. We had heard a lot about Impressions at SIMSR. It's not the official Freshers' Welcome, but as they say it is the ice breaker between the seniors and us.

When the seniors came and explained to us what this whole process is going to be like, we were taken aback to say the least. They said it will comprise two parts. First the serious part, in which we had to find our buddies, take the assignment(s) from them and submit it(those) to them within a week. Well finding our buddies was easy. Let me explain what this buddy system is. We all have our roll numbers. Now if my roll number is 12, my buddy will be the senior whose roll number was 12 last year. Purnima took the responsibility to go to the office and ask for last year's attendance sheet and the office bearers were kind enough to oblige her. Phew, we had our buddies. Now the difficult part, get the assignment they give you, done.

My buddy, Anand, was a sweet and extremely co-operative guy from my hometown itself. But as they say appearance is always deceptive. He smiled sweetly over the glass of tea and told me, "go to the library, find the Asian Case of Journals 2008 issue. On page 73, there's a case study, that's your assignment". As if doing the case study wasn't enough, I had to go and search a few thousand books first.

Somehow I managed to get hold of the journal but what was that? The case was a 20 page long one. I had no clue what and how to write. The obvious things like googling and finding out whether any other batch mate had got the same assignment soon turned futile. Trust me, for someone like me who comes from an engineering background, studying after a gap of four years takes some effort. The table lamp which the hostel authority gave us on day one found some use at last. Somehow, to my amazement even, I ended the assignment. I was over the moon with my valued inputs as to what the Korean CEO should had done to check the plummeting sales figures.

My exuberance soon died down like the effervescence of a Coke bottle, when Anand returned my assignment with comments which were, well, not the best, to put it politely. The policies which sounded logical a night ago, were rubbished by him, and I could only stare at the pages which would had made Prakash Karat happy. Anyways, I got my desired ticket for the fun filled second part of the Impressions, thanks to Anand's signature on my submitted report.

SIMSR----The Intro

2009-08-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

When someone told me , "you'll learn more in hostel than in classroom", it didn't make much sense to me.But trust me, one and a half months down the line, I know what he meant.Let me start the story named SIMSR. I'll keep on introducing the characters as and when they come. All characters in this story are real. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely intentional.

Meet my first roomie Sayan. He's of Type B(thanks Preity Rawat),the most laid back person I have ever seen. But a gem of a student, and why not? He's from JU after all.His favourite pass time is sleeping and I guess drinking.

My second roomie Siddharth, the Nanha Pahelwaan. He's a master coder. Hang on, he's not a boring engineer for God's sake. He has his unique style of creating codes taking initials. Let me give an example. IT is used in Banking, Inventory, Gaming, Railways, Airlines, Telecoms, Hotels, Education, Financial Institutions, Insurance.So he came up with the code BIG RAT HEFI. Sometimes he forgets the key to the codes and runs to Sushovan for remembering the same.

Meet Sushovan, Steve as we call him. He's taller than a couple of girls in class. But don't go by his height.He's a master in Karate and Krav Maga. But alas,that didn't come to much use that day in front of Anand.

Meet Anand,the Nigerian as Monika Khanna calls him. He has got loads of names.Hulk,Daisy (look at the contrast),Flip master,and the list goes on. The strongest guy of our batch, Anand dominates by his sheer brutal physical presence.If only someone can give him competition it's Shaleen .

Shaleen, the body builder. There's a story that Siddharth was once asked by Shaleen to pass on weights in the gym. Poor Siddharth was unable to lift those weights even. Sid has his explanation that he was too tired after gymming, but trust his version at your own risk.

It was a dull Friday coming to a close. Thanks to our strange routine, our only Operations class was over before noon. Though sleeping is a good way of killing time, when you see friends from Mumbai and Pune going to their homes, you can't sleep peacefully. Siddharth was busy "keeping himself updated" with the proceedings of the class with Steve, and I, was doing what I was best at, making use of g talk and IP messenger. When we were slowly closing down on our activities for the day, in walked PD.

PD, or Priyadarsh is the prankster of our batch. I was talking about learning from hostel,well lesson number 1----never leave your laptop open with you being logged in your e mail account and/or IP messenger. I am sure Sushovan will second me. But he's a genius in designing and a fantastic speaker.

"Wassup Chaman log?"----PD at his usual best."Nothing just glancing through today's notes", Siddharth replied. "Oh living virus is also here?", PD refered to Sushovan. There's enough reason to call him that. Whichever laptop he has touched, it has been screwed badly. So we have concluded he's a physical virus. "You know something PD, Steve has a fan ---- Avani Rachh". Sushovan looked at me and in no time delivered a kick right to my left rib. Whether it was Krav Maga or Karate, it made no difference as the pain is what mattered. "Oh man, your future is screwed. It's good you have fan following amidst faculty as well, but I guess you deserved someone better than Avani Rachh",PD was in full mood then. "Imagine you and Avani running on the beach with the back ground score of La La La of Sagar.""I guess the only difference will be that we'll run in the same direction."

The next Sunday we faced the Mumbai showers for the first time. Most of our friends were out. Sushovan had gone to his Krav Maga class in Dadar. Sonali and Madhumita had gone for shopping, and Gauraav had gone to his friend's place.

Madhumita and Sonali the two inseparable souls of SIMSR. They come from the same city of Delhi, they share the same room (with Harshita) and the same bench too. Madhumita is very famous in SIMSR because of her tongue. If you ever come across this lass, don't miss any of her words while she speaks in her Boston-meets-Bandra accent.Then you have Sonali, the kid of our section. She is yet to receive her graduation certificate and it shows. And lastly let me introduce the future netaji Gauraav. No there's no spelling mistake, that's how he spells his name. This guy has got loads of experience in life and the best part is he's very humble. As the CR of our class, at the end of every period he unfailingly comes up with an announcement in his unique style-----with both hands in the air and shouting at the top of his squeaking voice "HOLD ON."

DG had warned us for Mumbai rains earlier. But we took it lightly I guess. With only two-three hours of rain,the local train service was called off. Everyone in the hostel was calling up friends to know their whereabouts. Steve's phone was out-of-reach, Gauraav had reached Dadar and Madhumita-Sonali were, well, somewhere in between, even they didn't know the place.The main problem was the 10:30 deadline. At around 10:15 in walked Gauraav. Learnt an useful lesson from him which I have used till date many a time with good effect. He said , "When I couldn't find any rickshaw willing to go, I got hold of one, got on it without asking, and said CHALO. Only after 2-3 minutes did I tell him where I had to go". Trust me, it might sound unimportant, but this lesson is of prime importance in Mumbai.

Sushovan came back 20 minutes later. The poor soul he is, he got drowned till his chest and walked with his bag held over his head for quite sometime before he somehow managed to get hold of a rickshaw. Thank you God for the height. Madhumita-Sonali were the last to reach the hostel. Later they claimed it was an interesting episode for them, though I doubt, because since then they have never gone out for a shopping trip.

A SWEET TALE

2007-06-22T02:28:00.000-07:00

Shekhar is in a dejected mood today,well everyone of his friends is,there's nothing new in
that,and why not?Today is the last day of class XII.A good thick bunch of friends would be
separated after today.Shekhar is going for an engineering course,Niladri will be the doctor,so will Palash and Satyaki.To give Shekhar company there will be Sourish and Aveek.Among the
girls(they called them secret seven for their all time hush-hush gossiping),Amrita,Pritha and
Anasua will go for engineering,Ananya,Poulomi and Moumi will go for medical and standing apart from the crowd Nandini will go for Physics Honours.Well she's always like this,unique and
extremely unpredictable.When all went for Kuch Kuch Hota Hai,she liked to skip the party and
read Bankim,and when everyone gobbled up their text books more vigorously than their Sidney Sheldons,she would go for a trecking tour to the Purulia Hills.Friends called her "pagli" but that
made her standout tall and straight.

Teachers called their gang "Unholy 13".A bunch of Hooligans,that they were,they always took
everyone by storm by their sheer presence.From breaking the faculty room glass to knocking on the door from outside,when the pricipal was taking class,and running away,they were the real pranksters.Shekhar smiled,as he was shaving,as he recollected,when Madhumita ma'm made him stand out,how all the other twelve refused to stay in the class.Result----an obvious mass guardian-teacher-student interaction session and there how all thirteen chirped their protests as though Shekhar was the was next to Jesus,and that chaos when.......well the list is unending.From the nursery till XII they have stuck together as a group.Shekhar remembered how they convinced Anasua's father why statistics is better than biology as an additional subject.It took almost three hours and finally he wasnt convinced,but gave up disgusted.Nevertheless their goal was fulfilled and the next day party at Bedouin had to be sponsored by Anasua herself.

The best thing about them is time didnt dig its dirty claws in their relationship,the various physical and mental changes were quite sportingly welcomed by others.How they bullied Satyaki as his moustache didnt come out in time and then........."Bunty,won't u get late?"It was his mother calling him by his pet-name.Quickly Shekhar came back to reality and hurriedly shaved and rushed school.

On his way he kept on thinking,among all of them he never had a bias on anyone,or did he?Nandini was not only his first friend in school life but his neighbour too.He remembered how they shared the same seat in the school bus and also in the classroom,and whenever her father came home from his voyage,it meant a month of free ride to the school in Nandini's ambassador car.Shekhar loved his marine engineer uncle not only for the car-ride,but also for the chocolates he bought for him.He used to pile on the chocolates in front of both of them on his day of return and told them to choose from the lot.Initially Shekhar was shy to allow Nandini to pick.But when all the big and colourful chocolate-bars slowly went into her share,he pounced on and chaos reigned supreme.Neither uncle nor aunty interfered even if anybody started crying.Sometimes uncle would even record it on his handycam.

Those were the days.Everything was going on fine till a distant ISD call from France ruined their family.Uncle's ship went down in a sea-storm and several including uncle went missing.Still today the search is on but they have more or less accepted the destiny's curse.That changed the whole life of Nandini.Overnight she became atleast five years more matured than the remaining pack.The playful,jovial Nandini was lost somewhere in the ocean deeps with his beloved father.Well,was it out of sheer sympathy that Shekhar was developing a soft corner for her.Noway as class III wasn't an age to understand these emotions.Shekhar remembered he had gone to their house on hearing about the mishap and gave her a packet of potato chips to cheer her up.So,no it wasn't sympathy.Actually what Shekhar liked most about her was the time she spent with him.It wasnt love from her side either,its the proximity of the two houses that made the extra time available for the two young hearts to stick together.Shekhar used to do the maths and english homework and give the copy to her,and she in turn gave the bengali homework copy.He remembered the thrashing they got in class VI for making the same mistake in Maths,but it didn't bring in the rift he dreaded of,in their friendship.Shekhar trusted her a lot,told her all the darkest secrets in his life to which she never yawned.She instead used her little grey matter to give him advices which in most cases were not the best(to put it softly).But still what Shekhar liked were the eyes of her when she listened to him.The wide spread eyes reflected the inner interest that made Shekhar surprised for the amount of time she had for him.We,the mortal human beings,always want to have someone who has all the time in the world for us alone,isn't it?

But the loveliest moments Shekhar remembered to have had shared with her were of class
IX.Shekhar was down with malaria just a month before the half-yearly exams.Everyday she came with either a chocolate or potato chips or flower and ofcourse,the classwork copies of all the subjects.She made him understand as far as she could and completed her homework in front of her so that he didn't miss that either.Then the same drama started everyday,his parents
wouldn't leave her unless she had the dinner to which she opposed and after a lot of fake anger
and persuation,she finally gave in,and Shekhar's father accompanied her home.While Shekhar
understood it wasnt possible for the other eleven to give him that much time but his heart
refused to listen to his brain.

Shekhar went upstairs and shouted "Are you done with?I'm ready.Hurry up!",and there she was clad in a white sari with red border,her wet hair kissing her back,and the small red spot on her forehead completed the figure,which Shekhar took a few seconds to recognize."What are you staring at?Lets go."Shekhar came back from his trance and clearly stated "Wow,you look
great,whats up?Which fool is your target today?""You-------now let's get going",Shekhar was
spell-bound and followed her orders as though he was the loyal slave of this goddess for
ages."Mom,we are going",she shouted.Aunty came and as both of them touched her feet she
blessed both of them simultaneously,as she always did.The taxi was an easy-pick.On their
way,she talked about the past days,how she'll miss he school and her friends.To this Shekhar
exclaimed,"And me?""Aren't you included in my friends?"Shekhar suffered a setback.She's quite right.Then why is he thinking on that line.Why?Why?

They stepped down and walked towards the school.This part Shekhar hated the most.All the guys stared at his Nandini as though they had never ever seen a woman in their long lifetime.And this Nandini too,does she need to say "hi" to each and everyone?Can't she ignore them.Well she's always like this,ever-friendly,but a typical no-nonsense woman.What a thrashing Jyotirmoy got when he dared propose her.Neither did she shout nor slap nor go to any teacher,but her firm words were stronger than any of the above said actions.That's the woman Shekhar craved for,the ideal one who could balance all fronts equally.But why is he having this feeling today?"What's up?Lets move",Nandini pulled him by his wrist.

In the seminar hall,the full pack was waiting.As soon as they reached there the usual chaos
started.Snapshots,handshakes all over the place,and amongst them,a tiny soul floating on like
the paper boat in a flooded street,his lady love was busy with the others while he wanted her to
be beside him more than he had ever done."Hi Shekhar",it was Shreya.Their roll numbers were
consecutive in XI and XII,and Shekhar could never forget the help he received from her during
the four terminal exams.After every result,he would utter the same old words "I'll never ever
forget your help in my lifetime,had it not been for you.....",to which Shreya would laugh out loud
and say "Plz stop it.In no way you are like the filmy heroes.So better be yourself and give me a
treat of cold drink whenever you find yourself free from any of those common excuses of yours for not having money".But today he was in no mood to talk to her.Just a few formal greetings,a cold hug and some old stuff like "You are looking so pretty today" to which the obvious reply was "Stop flirting with me please" and that was the end.

Photos were taken of all groups and when the turn came for the "Unholy Thirteen" to face the
camera there was shrill and shouts of all kinds.Shekhar stood quietly on the right top row among the boys,but as luck would have it,the cameraman,Shubhro that is,was such a dumbo,that he
couldn't get them in one frame."Hey Shekhar,you come in front",he shouted.Ananya and Moumi almost dragged him in the forward barely giving him time to move on his own.He sat in front,next the girls,some held his ear,some his nose,some his hair,and lastly the other six boys.After the photo session as Shekhar sat up,Nandini came upto him and said "Trust me,I didn't pull anything."Needless,isn't it?Did I ask her?"--------Shekhar thought,but the simplicity and innocense in her voice touched his heart to the root.

At last it was the food-time.The packets were distributed and everyone slowly settled
down.Shekhar preferred to sit alone all by himself.He just uncovered the packet when he got a
gentle pat on his back.He turned around and to his surprise it was Nandini."What's wrong with
you?I'm watching from the morning that you are not the usual Shekhar you are""You are
watching me?""Not spying on you,just watching buddy,anyways that's not the point.The point is
what's wrong with you?Come on you can share with me.I promise I won't tell anyone.""Nothing of that sort,actually.......""Oh please Shekhar,no formalities,start straight away.""Nandini,actually what I meant to say is that.........""Nandini please come here",it was Anindita."Excuse me just for a minute,ok?In the meantime be ready with what you have to say.I'm coming just now",saying so Nandini left.

Shekhar munched his food and thought what a folly he was going to commit.Almost
fifteen years of friendship would have been blown away in a fraction of a second by a single
mistake of his.At least Nandini talks to him now and he could live his entire lifetime just hearing
her sweet words,far better than being an erosional fool and giving it all away in one sway.

"Yaa tell me",Nandini returned."What happened?""Sayantan and Urmi had quarelled again.So
silly isn't it?They themselves know very well that they can't live without each ohter,still they
quarrel at the minutest opportunity.""So you played the Cupid?""Stop it Shekhar,I just did it as I didn't want another scene to be created today atleast,anyways you continue,why are you so
grim-faced?"Oh God,why does this girl never forgets anything,Shekhar thought to himself and
started,"I was thinking that all of us would be sticking together only you would be taking a
different course.Why don't you........""Shekhar we had enough discussion on this and secondly
you can't help it.You need to move on in life.As we were taught,nothing is permanent but
change.Right?""But won't you miss me?""Of course I'll.Why won't I?Even you'll miss me.Isn't
it?""Please God,don't put my emotions to this vigorous test,I'm holding on to the brink with extreme difficulty,please don't push me further",Shekhar murmured."Shekhar this habbit of yours to whisper to your own self is an extremely bad habbit.Either say it aloud or keep quiet.Bye,I'm leaving.""Hey stop stop,I was just pulling your leg",Shekhar quickly recovered himself,in the same manner he had been doing for so many years,"Ofcourse I"ll miss you,I was just thinking who would listen to my trash when you won't be there.Tell me one thing,why would you like to study Physics anyway?""I want to be like......""Yaa yaa I know,Partha-sir,right?""Whats the harm in it?Why do you people always look doown on him like that?""He thinks himself to be Buddha II,the new social reformer,why what's the need?Let the professors be from other schools.We are meant to be engineers and doctors.""That's what other students think about us.We don't have it in us to become professors and scholars.That's why I want to prove them wrong.""But why do you have to prove anything to anybody?We know you are and what you are.""But the whole world doesn't.Shekhar take it easy.Ok fine,a teacher will be needed to teach all the children of my doctor and engineer friends.Isn't it?That's what I'm doing to ensure our friendship remains forever.""Exactly,and how you are doing it?By isolating yourself from the whole group!Fine""Please don't be angry Shekhar,but I have my own goals.Everyone has.Please understand.""Of course,I've never ever won against you in argument.How can I expect the tables to be turned on the last day?""Wow,you look damn handsome when you are angry",saying so she burst out into a pure spree of laughter.Shekhar kept looking at her-------so pretty,so fresh just like a fountain flowing fast down the mountain slopes."Hey stop glaring,I'm not Adrita that I'll be frightened off."Shekhar remembered in class II,Adrita had picked up a sandwich from Shekhar's tiffin-box as soon as he opened it.Shekhar just stared at her with big eyes for a few seconds and she kept it back,went back to her place and started crying.Adrita went away to Ahmedabad when they were in class VI.Amazing,isn't it?Shekhar had long forgotten the incident,but Nandini!It seems she just can't forget anything about him."Hey Nandini",this was Somsuvra."Coming",she shouted."Wait,I'm coming back soon",she whispered to Shekhar.

It seemed to Shekhar that the minutes were passing by too quickly.At least that's what his wrist-watch suggested.According to him it was hardly two hours that they had come but the watch already showed it was quarter to six.

The day,he had waited for so long to come,came and went away too.The crowd was already thin by now,those who remained still were at the last phase----exchanging phone numbers and hand shakes and hugs,some even cried,some warned others never to forget to keep in touch,some took it easy as they would meet again soon.

Amidst this,Shekhar was watching Nandini.She was with her "Secret Seven" bunch,doing what they were best at----that same old hush hush thing followed by loud roars of laughter.Shekhar hated this very much but today even this act seemed to be so very soothing to feast upon with his eyes.Again the "Unholy Thirteen" united,hugged each other.Nandini gave him a light hug and said,"we'll keep on meeting in the streets right?""Why,won't you allow me in?""Only if you have time to come",and then she smiled again."Where are you going?",Shekhar asked."What's wrong with you?Today's Amartya Sir's tution.Everytime I go there in Atreyee's car.How did u
forget?Hmmmm I can very well understand what the situation will be like later.Ok bye!"

And she went away.Shekhar watched her taking her tiny footsteps which slowly but surely took
her away from him.He prayed to God----Oh God,please in every race of life,in any field,just make this girl a winner.Just like she's moving ever so confidently and steadily so ahead of all of us,just
ensure she keeps doing that in whichever path she trudges.

Shekhar kept on looking till she disappeared into the car.The black window of the car prohibited Shekhar to get a final glimpse of his sweetheart.The car sped away leaving behind white smoke of burnt petrol and dust,in which several images kept coming in front of Shekhar,from chocolates to mathematics homework,from tiffin sharing to her walking upto him today morning in a sari,all the pictures just refused to fade away.Shekhar didn't want that either.Many wanted to accompany him but he gave some excuse or the other to them and chose to tread the long way back home alone.