Achievement
Saturday 28 April, 2007
Yippee!!


"Finally the sweat and toil of three years has paid off! "


These are the words that reverberated in the air as one hundred and eighty students appeared for their final project viva today, completing the final lap of the race that we set out to win, three years back.
Three years of non-stop CAMs, TEMs, submissions, demos, seminars, lab file completions, not to forget the harsh Vellore Sun and Idly, rasam with curd. The latter may still continue in the lives of most of the batch, placed mostly in Bangalore and Chennai.. But who minds that, now that VIT is out of our lives? ;-) Plus I have warmed up to the idea of steaming hot Idlis and a hot cuppa coffee being a decent Breakfast dish as also the goodness of curd rice as a gentle soothing lunch in the sweltering Southern heat.
I still remember the first time I came to Vellore. The first sight was a man in the station lifting his Lungi into a mini skirt.. The second scene was a group of Auto drivers (later on renamed as Annas), shouting only two words "CMCaa?" and "VITaa?"! So we chose the best bargain amongst the half shouting "VITaa". The next scene was the auto's horn (more precisely, the "bhopu") blaring away its rubber belly to glory.. all the way to VIT. At 2 AM in the morning!
What came next can only be described as something out of a movie set.
From gigantic Technology towers to shiny black roads to the railways chugging their way through in between the campus.. It was going to be quite a surreal experience, I believed. And so it turned out to be. From the first day on, when I was told to open the EZ drive. I tried and tried, but EZ: just wouldn’t run! Psst.. a voice near me advised.. Try only the last letter. I did, and it worked! I exchanged my first wink . Since that day there’s been no looking back. When asked the spelling of my name "m-u-n-m-u-n" never worked. So I resorted to "yum-yoo-yen-yet yanother yum-yoo-yen", as naturally as I had gotten accustomed to curd rice in my life. Well, I didn’t have much of an option.Roti became pappad and pappad became Roti. Sambhar replaced Daal and buttermilk became my new energy drink. Two glasses of that, and I was ready to tackle Microprocessors (in second semester), Analysis of algorithms and design (in fourth semester) and Computer Graphics (in fifth semester). The bickering, the buttering, the betting and the bitching. Been there, seen it all. The only relief was the cool gang of friends I made there.

VIT Picassaed



We would sit in the last bench and look at people fight for the first,
We would watch people haggling for half a mark and grew wise about insanity and thirst
We would see the boy and the girl talk in semi-darkness and blush when someone came
And then we saw the girl breaking the boy’s heart when the fruitful moment came.
I guess Love’s just a game. For those who have no shame.
We saw the class getting divided into unequal groups of those who weren’t placed and those who were.
There were dreams that we all had seen together. But, which for them had only brought dejection.
And then we saw the morbid days of people avoiding glances and helplessness and rejection.

We saw friends ditch friends: nonchalantly and without any chagrin
Sweet memories and salty tears: both present at the funeral of friendship, killed and left to bleed in the bin of accumulated sin.

But somehow, we have endured it all and come out fresh and wise.
With friends I can rely on, all my life.

Those were the days when each day weaved magic into our lives.
The chuckles, the roars of laughter, adding music to the youthful years of College life.
And though they shall come back no more, the memories shall always be..
Que sera sera.. whatever will be, will be…

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posted by Munmun at 6:15 pm | Permalink 17 comments
Moi DNA
 
posted by Munmun at 6:02 pm | Permalink 0 comments
Life
Friday 20 April, 2007


LIFE, believe, is not a dream,
So dark as sages say;
Oft a little morning rain
Foretells a pleasant day:
Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,
But these are transient all;
If the shower will make the roses bloom,
Oh, why lament its fall?
Rapidly, merrily,
Life's sunny hours flit by,
Gratefully, cheerily,
Enjoy them as they fly.
What though death at times steps in,
And calls our Best away?
What though Sorrow seems to win,
O'er hope a heavy sway?
Yet Hope again elastic springs,
Unconquered, though she fell,
Still buoyant are her golden wings,
Still strong to bear us well.
Manfuly, fearlessly,
The day of trial bear,
For gloriously, victoriously,
Can courage quell dispair!



-Charlotte Brontë

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posted by Munmun at 1:29 pm | Permalink 2 comments
Angelic beauty
Wednesday 4 April, 2007


She wiped her tears on the end of her torn dupatta. Her long eyelashes closed in one last time jutting out the last tear and it trickled down from the corner of her eyes, down her cherubic face onto her wrinkled salwar , creating a small black pool, which faded away quickly, absorbed by the worn-out cotton dress and all that remained was a thin grayish line one minute later, a grim reminder of her trysts of eight long hours. Four hundred and eighty minutes of torturous struggle against the beast, clawing at her with its long dirt-filled fingernails, painted a bright red,
She opened her eyes and smiled.
She was free! It was over. At least for today.
She got up from the floor where she had lain for long, getting back her energy and sanity. The pink Lucknawi chikan salwar-suit she wore clung to her, among beads of perspiration which had formed on her body as a result of her tryst of the morning. As she got up, her long tresses followed her up, like an enchanted snake.
Looking at herself in the small mirror which hung by the door side, below the little lamp, her only source of light, in that dark building, she saw only one thing: Determination. That shocked her. Determination had never been her forte. She had always been a shy and diminutive girl, who wanted to be a Teacher one day at the Primary school, at the end of the road where she lived with her laborer parents, huddled inside one of the many jhuggis of JJ colony. That was seven years ago. Time had taken her to places, which she never knew existed.. The darkness of her experiences quelling all hopes of her securing a life for herself ever again. The scars of the last seven years had marred her life irrevocably.. And yet the light which shone in those proud eyes could not be mistaken for anything else than a strong determination for survival. And inadvertently, her tear-stricken face broke into a smile as radiant as the glow of the morning sun..

As she purged herself under the tap water and applied the attar of roses over her svelte frame, she sang on…

“ Only for today I shall live like a Queen,
Only for today I shall lose myself in the beauty
of the flowers and the bees..
And sway to the music of life, undisturbed, pristine
Que sera sera, Whatever will be, will be.. ”

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posted by Munmun at 11:44 am | Permalink 7 comments
My Favourite Ghazhal
Monday 2 April, 2007
Aaj jaane ki zidd na karo


This is one of my favourite Ghazals sung by Malika-e-Ghazal, Farida Khanum. I searched the Internet, but could not find both the lyrics and the song at one place. But now all Farida Khanum fans can 'sweetlimesoda' it and sing on and on :-)
Due to differences in trasliterations, I would urge the readers to use Internet Explorer , to view the Hindi words, as they were meant to be.


आज जाने की जिद ना करो (३)
यूँही पहलू में बैठे रहो (२)
आज जाने की जिद ना करो
हाय मर जायेंगे, हम तो लुट जायेंगे
ऐसी बातें किया ना करो
आज जाने की जिद ना करो (२)
हाय मर जायेंगे, हम तो लुट जायेंगे
ऐसी बातें किया ना करो
आज जाने की जिद ना करो


तुम ही सोचो ज़रा, कयूँ ना रोके तुम्हे
जान जाती है जब उठ के जाते हो तुम (२)
तुमको अपनी क़सम जान-ए-जान
बात इतनी मेरी मान लो
आज जाने की जिद ना करो
यूँही पहलू में बैठे रहो (२)
आज जाने की जिद ना करो
हाय मर जायेंगे, हम तो लुट जायेंगे
ऐसी बातें किया ना करो
आज जाने की जिद ना करो


वक़्त कि क़ैद में जिन्दगी है मगर (२)
चन्द घड़ियाँ येही हैं जो आज़ाद हैं (२)
इनको खोकर मेरी जान-ए-जान
उम्र भर ना तरसते रहो
आज जाने कि जिद ना करो
हाय मर जायेंगे, हम तो लुट जायेंगे
ऐसी बातें किया ना करो
आज जाने की जिद ना करो


कितना मासूम रंगीन है यह समां
हुस्न और इश्क कि आज मैंराज है (२)
कल कि किसको खबर जान-ए-जान
रोक लो आज की रात को
आज जाने की जिद ना करो
यूँही पहलू में बैठे रहो (२)
आज जाने की जिद ना करो
हाय मर जायेंगे, हम तो लुट जायेंगे
ऐसी बातें किया ना करो
आज जाने की जिद ना करो


To sing along click here:




More on Farida Khanum Farida Khanum

Song courtsey http://gupshup.org

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posted by Munmun at 7:32 pm | Permalink 11 comments