FRIENDS: HOW IT ALL STARTED

This post was supposed to be the first one on my blog. But I thought nobody would be interested to read, and hence I posted a crappy poem instead. Surprisingly, even that was appreciated by many people, the reason probably being that they didn't understand the first half and didn't dare to read the second. But like many other times, my dear friend Nishad (who happens to be a stud) has inspired me to do what I otherwise won't. Heck, this is my blog and I'd publish whatever I want to! So this is it guys. This is my tribute to the guys who are my
pillars of support (you've gotta be very strong to be one for me) in KGP. Get to know these guys, they are really great people.

Here is my CORE Group - comprising myself, akash, bond and nishad. We spend most of our time together and there are reasons aplenty for that. Here i go

1. AKASH AGARWAL (alias Halu)

He is the perfect computer freak, stuck in the right place ( IIT) but in the wrong department( metallurgy). Here's one guy who'd be perfectly happy to spend all his waking hours (if any) in front of the computer. I think all he sees in his wet dreams are microprocessors, and his worst nightmare is a system crash. The problem is, this guy knows everything. EVERYTHING!!!
He is a selfless guy. Bond and I have converted his room into a dharamshaala and his computer into a public access terminal, but still he gets worried when Bond doesn't sleep for a night or two, or when I have to sleep on the floor. He's never awake, he either sleeps or hallucinates. Sometimes he gets angry unnecessarily and becomes uncontrollable. But that rarely happens, thanks to his auto-halu mode (what? he's the inventor!). Our friendship had started in an NSS camp held in the middle of nowhere over a plate of hot rasgullas, and we guys (specially I) suffered a lot due to that camp, but I am still thankful that it was held. It gave me a friend for life.



2.KARTIK PRABHU (alias Kat, Bond, Prabhu, Phaedrus, God)

Once, God (the original one) looked down from up above and saw a place
called IIT Kharagpur. Here he saw guys (and only guys, girls are scarce and negligible) living in perfect harmony, which arose out of the knowledge that none were superior or inferior. All were certified intelligent. For once, God decided to do some mischief. So he created a person with a brain and skill-set equivalent to eight normal human beings, and sent him to IIT kharagpur with a name aptly suited (Prabhu). Since then, people have been lookin at him and thinking of drowning themselves in chullu bhar paani. So, he is super intelligent, very sharp, a quick learner, a good sketcher, a great dancer, and only he knows what all he can do. I personally feel that the only thing he doesn't do is playing golf, though if he is provided a read-and-learn golf manual for an hour or so, he can beat Tiger Woods. And I really don't know why he has chosen a dumb, good-for-nothing guy like me to be his friend, but I am all the more grateful for that.
Hey, and one more thing- he's a member of the United Atheist league, the United Atheist Alliance and the Allied Atheist Alliance too. And you can talk to him about anything, and expect a cool advice- that's KAT for me. Ah! If only he wasn't such a pighead!!! Ok, enough about prabhu. I have to write about others too. Just meet him- he's got more.



3. NISHAD KENKRE (alias Kenkre, Nish, Stud, Bachcha)

Here is a guy with superb time-management abilities. He seems to be having around 36 hours in a day. How else can u explain his active participation in so many activities? He's a Kshitij ( our techno-management festival) core team member,an athlete with a body to die for, a great singer, a good writer, a confident debater, a quintessential rapper, qualified JEE at the age of 16 with AIR 623, scores grades with an ease that should be banned... and the list goes on. But he is every bit the simple guy whom everybody likes and loves to be around. He is the one who gives me solace whenever I'm afraid of something. He's got amazing confidence, and he infuses some of it into the being of the ones around him too!!! Whether it be OP, or debate, or ETMS auditions, he has always stood by my side.
When we both first met, neither of us could have thought that we would become such great friends in such a short span of time. But that's what has happened. The 4 of us (me, Akash, Kat and him) spend most of our time together, and I seriously could not ask for a better group!


4. TAPAS SHRIVASTAVA ( alias SAPAT) ( Nishad's view on Tapas)

This is a heartfelt tribute to my dear friend Tapas, the 4th member of this group. He is the owner of this blog and i actually had to force this guy to let me write something on him in his own blog. Here i go in full-fledged filmi isshtyle (geeta pe haath rakh ke kasam and all...)

Tapas is by far the simplest person i have ever met. I have told this to him a hunderd times before, and for the 101st time, lemme say that at first sight he came across to me as very arrogant. But knowing him today, i feel like kicking myself in the ass. He is just the opposite of arrogance.Externally, he has this "shareef guy from a good khandaan" look. When you delve deep inside you will find that he has this uncanny ability to crack jokes on himself. The ease with which he criticizes his own body weight makes me think "how the hell can this guy do it so easily ?". He effortlessly accepts his weaknesses and you won't get to hear one word of self-praise from him. He really respects his family and friends.From him i have learnt that loving your friends is one thing and respecting them is another and he is a master at doing the latter .A hardcore family-guy, he makes me jealous for being this "top-class marriage material".This guy is also the most creative person i have come across.To begin with, he's an awesome singer ( whatever little musical skills i have , all credit to this guy for having inspired me). His writing skills are unparalleled. His write-ups often leave me rolling on the floor with laughter. His poems have the deepest of meanings and he comes up with the most beautiful and touching poetic lines in what seems like nanaoseconds. He cannot hurt anyone even if he tries to. He is your normal IITian who hates books, but when it comes to things that he loves doing, i can say without the least bit of exaggeration that no one can come close to working as hard as he does. He is the "baap" of networking and has the maximum number of friends that a person can possibly have. Finally, he holds our group ( me, bond, akash and himself) together... man i can go on and on ...but to draw to a close, lemme say tht Tapas is a person with a heart of gold and i wouldnt be half the person that i am without him as my friend. Thank you dost.

My dear friend - I Live For Thee


1. Himanshu Dhiman (Dhiman, Bhopali Jaat)

He is a simpleton- an innocent guy with a golden heart and a very childish nature. He confides in me every time he has something happening in life- whether it is good or bad. I dunno why, but I can understand whatever he is thinking just by loking at his face- that might be the depth of our friendship.

He enjoys the simple things in life- threw a party for getting selected in TDS (sigh!). And hence he manages to remain happy all the time. Here is one guy who very sweetly says TATA! when you are about to depart. And he looks after me. I have the feeling that as long as he is with me, I have nothing to worry about.

2. Apurva Gupta (Cake)

No, he's not a girl, contrary to whatever the spelling of the name suggests. He is actually Apurv. And from the very day of our meeting, he has amused me with his obsession for shiny things and posters. Not a single inch of his room used to be uncovered- he has posters all around.

He is also a talented guy. Robotix sub head, great singer, highly creative, and excels in anything that involves standing on the stage and speaking. He has no stage-fright at all. He is a blunt critic when he thinks you have done something that u could do better. But he always is ready to help u out in every way he can. He laughed and endured me even when me and Ramu were literally not allowing him access to his own computer. He is such a lovely friend to have... and I am really happy that he screwed his JEE... that's why he is a dual degree student. :) Ais Tais...




3. Prateek Varshney (PV, and all the expansions which have P for perverted)

We share the same birthdate, but you'd rarely find twp friends more different than us. He is a very simple person, much like a child who is clueless as to what to do. But he is a lovely person from the inside despite of whatever he does or talks (cant mention it in this space, I wanna keep my blog clean). And he'll assist you in whatever crazy thing you'd ever want to do(who knows it better than me?). But I'd love to be with him and be a part of his weirdness forever. YO PERVO VIRUS!!!


4. Vaibhav Sinha (Pappu, Pups, Tattu, Tats,.... ok enough!)

Pappu is a guy with a supppperb sense of humour. Very seldom will you get to see him talk something that doesn't bring a smile on your face. He is a very nice guy for company whenever you are goin out to eat something, specially chicken. He is a lovely friend whom I've grown close to in this semester. I won't write much... just one thing to conclude- PAPPU I LOVE YOU!!! (and I am straight!!!)


5.Rohan Singh (Ramu Kaka)

MAD MAN! Very high on CQ- this guy can make you tear your hair till you get bald. In first year, ramu, cake and I had a ball of a time, which I can never forget. Baaki iski ek photo dekhiye, sab samajh jaayenge.


6. Abhas Saroha (The kinky school boy)

Had his education in a boys school. Rest is for you to guess...

He is another God of the physics department- with a besetting obsession for anime. The Mr.Know-it-all of linux. Great fun to be with. Baaki pata chalne pe bataaoonga...

IITians... the PJ Gods

People say IITians are intelligent, geeky, nerdy, bookworms... u add the adjectives.

I think there is nothing called a typical IITian. But if there is something that is the most common among them,
it is the habit of cracking venumous PJ's (poor jokes- anybody who didn't even know the full form is
requested to stop reading-the content can be fatal). IITians learn to crack PJ's within a semester of their stay
here. And those who don't, develop an auto-halu mode(like my dear friend Akash has already done). Even I
couldn't endure PJ's when i first arrived here, but my level increased exponentially in this semster, and now
I am become a name- a name of reverence for other PJ lovers and a highly dreaded one amongst others. Now
I'm almost at par with the PJ Gods of our batch in IIT Kharagpur. Here are some of the PJ's that I remember
(with the crew). Hope you like them.

Characters: Me(Tapas Shrivastava)
Bond(Kartik Prabhu)
Abhas Saroha
Pappu/Tattu(Vaibhav Sinha)
Patrick(Prateek Patodi)
KT(Kaustubh Tripathi- God pf PJ's)
Cake(Apurv Gupta)
Ankit Singh Tawar.
Dash(Shishir Dash- our Hall president)

1. KT(In an electrical technology class):"Hostel is the daughter of tree and ostrich."
Saamanya junta:"How the hell?"
KT:"An ostrich has wings. Hostel also has wings. Ostrich cannot fly despite of having the wings. A hostel also can't. But an ostrich can move.
But a tree cannot move. A hostel also can't move."
2. A group of friends eating at Harry's. One of them was Ankit Tawar.
All of a sudden, he said,"There are a lot of english weights sitting here today."
We scratched our scalp hard, then asked him what he meant.
He replied calmly,"Look guys! What's the unit of weight in british system? Its the pound.
Pound is abbreviated as lb, and as u all can see, there are a lot of love birds sitting here today."

3. Pappu, Abhas and Bond eating at chilles.
Pappu:" The only PROM that I know of is programmable read only memory."

4. Me, Bond, Abhas and Pappu sitting at chilles.
Abhas:"Till yesterday, I didn't even know PV has a blog."
Me:"He has 2... mhollow and mstillhollow. I think the next one to come is 'mihollow?'. "
Pappu:" After that, we'll have a 'doyouthinkiamhollow'."
Abhas:"And then?"
Me:" Ki holo!!!(bangla, dude)"

5. Patrick:" Our instructor has done J2SE, J2EE, Matlab, JSP and xml in class. I know nothing!"
Me:" Even I know about some of these."
Bond:"How?"
Me:"We have a lab on matlab every thursday. And we have a chemical engg course where we keep on using phrases like-
Take xml of KMnO4....."

6. Pappu:"Will a virus remain a virus even after passing through a wormhole?"

7. Me:" I have no right to publish a blog. All of u write much better than me."
Bond:"Don't worry yaar. Hum kitna bhi likh lein, yaad rakhna ki sau sonaar ki aur ek lohaar ki."
Me:"K. I wanna be Iridium-aar then."

8. Whole of the gang eating at billoo's.
I told KT:"U know our G.sec. Technology? His pet dialog is 'I don't give a damn!'."
KT:"He doesn't give a dam(n)? I don't give a hydroelectric power station!!!"

9. My chat with Cake on Gtalk.
Cake: normal types
not bad
ppl r praising
me: bhai main kaunsa teri hburai kar raha hoon
3:48 AM Cake: haan theek hai.. main kaun sa bol raha hoon ki tu meri buraai kar raha hai
3:49 AM me: main to hamesha teri tareef karta hoon
aur aaj toone aisa samajh liya?
patthardil
me: sangdil
:(
Cake: buzdil.. shergil....
me: kargil
3:50 AM Cake: bulla ki jaanaa main kaun
me: fish ke gill
billoo ke bill
himalaya ki hill
chhohe ke bill
Cake: chai ki mill
me: nahin re
aate ki mill
jail ki swill
3:51 AM buddhe ki will
Cake: cancer ki pill
me: baithe reh... bilkul mat hil!!!!!!!!!!
:P
Cake: :(
3:53 AM Cake: nahi nahi abhi nahi abhi karo intzaar
sona hai mujhe... bistar hai bekaraar
pataa hai.. bekaar tha
chhod
me: chup ho ja chamaar
Cake: hehehe
me: maaroonga jote hazaar
Cake: sahi
me: joote*
karoonga aise aise waar
3:54 AM Cake: bas

me: tere pair ho jaayenge bekaar
aur haath ho jaayenge chaar
tu ban sakta hai star
agar mujhse nahin ki war
Cake: ab uch jyada ho hgaya
me: kal ke liye BOL mere yaar!!!!
3:55 AM Cake: ab grahan kijiye raatri kaa namaskaar
me: aur sun lo gaaliyan do-chaar
3:56 AM Cake: chup baith chotte-chamaar
me: insti mein hain na tera event yaar?
near the office of the registrar?
Cake: saalaa pata nahi kya kya hai bolta.. aur leta bhi nahi ek bhi dakaar!
me: us room number mein aata hai 1 aur 4
3:57 AM Cake: tere dimaag mein hai gandagi ka bhandaar
me: woh sab chhor
Cake: duniya mein machaa hai hahakaar
me: tere gaane mein kaun baja raha hai guitar?
3:58 AM bata na yaar?
10. Dash:" Hi Tapas. I heard you had a brain transplant?"
Me:"What?"
Dash:"Yup!"
Me:"Nothing as such. Why?"
Dash:"Somebody told me that you were gonna participate in What's the good word, but you have changed your mind."
11. Dash:"What will spectators say if lord Shiva came to dance in vortex(dance competition)?"
Junta:"Dunno. You tell."
Dash:"Abey yehi bolenge ki kya godly dancer hai!!!"

Okay! Enough now. I, Tapas Shrivastava, hereby declares that I am bored of wasting time. Now I'll go and study........
(FOR THE SLOW ONES OUT OF YOU WHO DIDN'T NOTICE, THIS WAS THE WORST PJ OF ALL THE ONES LISTED ABOVE!!!)

A CHIRKUT'S ATTEMPTS TO UNDERSTAND WOMEN..

They say that womes are from venus and men are from mars(normal version) / women are from venus and men are from a manhole situated on mars(women's version). Whatever the case, everyone atleast agrees upon two points:-
1. They are supposed to live at a planet's distance from each other, if not more.
2. None of them are supposed to be living on earth.

But this was not the case as we all can see. Male and female homo-sapiens have been living in a state of peaceful [ :P ] co-existence for millenia. And since the beginning, all men have been trying to understand the female of their species but all their efforts have failed miserably. This is so simply because no matter how simple it sounds, it is more difficult than erecting an equal-sized pyramid by the side of the bloody hugest one in Egypt. Infact, there are probably only two things that seem more difficult than this. They are(In increasing order of IMPROBABLILITY OF OCCURENCE):-
1. Earning enough in a lifetime to buy a 5,000 square feet bunglow in mumbai city.
2.Getting the insti diro to improve his accent into a conjecturable one(i bet he won't ever even give the APAAR-E-CHOO-NEE-TEE to anyone).

But everybody makes an attempt(not at the diro thing... anybody wud probably commit suicide rather than trying to understand what he says) to understand girls. Though the initiation step in any research(getting to know the subject well) is damn difficult in this case, because for this, we need to talk to girls. And in most cases(ok, atleast in mine), whenever i decide to talk to a girl and go in front of her, my tongue simply sticks to the dental roof and just refuses to let go. Finally I end up making a noice like I'm retarded or something(some girls have even remarked- poor guy! ). So you see, it's not easy. Hence I have to depend upon other people's knowledge in my thesis(which, in fact, is the case with every other thesis).

And though I know that I've failed in doing this, I've found out that the basic difference is that of outlook. I am listing some examples here:-

* If a girl comes up and talks to a guy, she is plainly interested in exchange of words and innocent conversation.
If a guy goes and talks to a girl, he's flirting.

* If a girl is looking at a guy from the corner of her eyes, she is analysing him/ trying to remember if she recognises him and has met him somewhere.
If a guy looks at a girl through the corner of his eyes, he is staring/ gazing/ eyeballing/ leeching.

* Suppose a girl and a guy are good friends.
While talking, if the guy says I love you(by the way, I think friends are supposed to love each. Isn't it) , he is trying to take the relationship to the next level/ taking undue advantage of the girl's friendship/ misinterpreting her jovial nature/ doesn't deserve to talk to the girl again.
If the girl says so, she loves him as a brother/ she values his friendship/ she is actually in love/ has said so simply out of pity for the guy/ it was just a slip of tongue.

* Suppose a guy and a girl are in love with each other.
If the girl doesn't propose, it's so because a girl is not supposed to do so. If she does, she is courageous/ gutsy/ (add other adjectives)....
If a guy proposes, he is insensitive/ it's not the right time/ it's an initial stage of the relationship. If he doesn't, he's Mr.No-Balls.

*If this guy gives the girl a gift, it is expensive/cheap/ impersonal/ irrelevant/ she simply doesn't like it. If he doesn't he's a cheap-o-saurus and values money more than the girl.
If a girl gives a gift, it's gotta be great. If she doesn't, it ain't the gift that matters, it's her feelings towards him that do.

And since I'm finishing off, the last distinction has to come now.
* Had a girl written this article about boys, it would have been 'a simple attempt by a glorious creation of the almighty to understand another wonderful creation', and the girl would have been 'a sweet female just exercising her right for expression and showing her curiosity over the highly interesting nature of human relations'.

But since I've written it, it is simply an insane good-for-nothing blog, andI'm an insensitive bugger, a disrespectful moron and a chauvinist pig!!!

YAAD

Phir se sama ne hawa ka aanchal lapeta
Phir se humne khyalon mein kisi ko baahon mein sameta,
Phir se dil ke darwaaze pe di kisi ne dastak,
Phir mere dil ke andar se ek aawaz aayi…..

Phir mere dil mein shayad deedar ki hasrat machal uthi,
Chalta hua yeh pal ruk gaya, rukti si dhadkan chal padi,
Phir se hui dil ko kisi se door hone ki chubhan,
Phir se mere dil mein kisi ki khairiyat ki fariyaad aayi….

Phir meri aankhon ne uski ek jhalak ka intezaar kiya,
Aur mere saaye ne bhi mujhe pehchanne se inkar kiya,
Phir usi imaarat ka khandhar aaya nazron mein meri,
Aur phir se zehen mein ek rishtey ki buniyaad aayi….

Phir baatein kayi man mein aayi, yaadon ne banai tasweerein,
Phir lafz zubaan pe atak gaye, nikle aansoo dheere-dheere,
Ghaavo ki mujhe aadat si thi, ghaavo se koi shikwa bhina tha,
Lekin ghaavo mein yeh tadap uske jaane ke baadaayi…..

Phir raat ho uthi satrangi, phir chamak uthe laakhon taare,
Phir armaano ne li karvat, phir jag uthe sapne saare,
Phir se yeh hosh hue gaayab, phir shayad aaj main bahak gaya,
Shayad phir khud ko bhool gaya, shayad phir uski yaad aayi…..
Shayad phir uski yaad aayi……..