Fate and Serendipity!!

Long long time!! as i return to my blog, not because i had nothing to share, but because i had no words or patience to write. Continuing from the last blog, with words like Belief in BITS... I finally landed with a job in Wells Fargo. I just remember the lines that took me through the two rounds of the interview where they selected 5 out of 70. The strangest part was that I have to mention my sidie's name again in this blog entry.. Yes he was the best performer in that interview and we both cleared it. Coming back to the punch line.. "I have already sat for 9 interviews. This is my 10th interview and I am confident of clearing it. If you want a confident man in your firm. Take Me". If i had boasted something of this sort in my 1st year, I would have got a great deal of ragging, m sure from my batch itself..

But words are words.. u never know how different impact they leave on different people.
The final verdict... I had a job dated 4th April,2008. And then... as usual.. u get a thing and you dont respect it.. I ditched Wells Fargo.. Prashant.. well last week he enjoyed his first salary.. and yes i greeted him all the very best for his life.. and that this was just one great step to be followed by many alike.

So, the story of shift from job to another frontier is what takes up the next portion of the job. The entry I suppose is set to be so big that I wanted to give links to other pages.... that coz of my lazyness i dont want to finish in a single go... But yes.. this entry would be completed.. without fail..

As they say.. truth is stranger than fiction.. probably we will come forward with this sentence more than once!! But the reference as well as the impact would be different.

It was 6th June.. and with delays... I had just enough time to apply fr visa and give the interview.. to finally get it and fly to US. God when made us... didnt want us to learn what satisfaction is.. And we delay this learning to the next step in life... everytime..
I had everything then... I had a job in Wells Fargo.. and a job almost certain in Oracle. Life is so predictable.. and the verdict being a good life ahead... (me thinks!!) . And then the Indiana Bloomington I-20 came.. that I had to collect in Delhi.. My first journey towards final destination started here. Train got delayed by 12hrs in Patna.. and I took a general ticket for another train.. that eventually got me to Delhi... 12hrs late.. plus the comfort of the general class.

I was in Delhi for 15 days. Backdrop of the story shall be reveled later.. coz I dont want to get predicatable as I write this down. Watever.. after 15 days..I returned back to home. !!
We go back to 1st June.. That day I got a mail from Purdue telling me to confirm if I wanted an RAship in College of Technology, Purdue.... and I reluctantly said yes to it.. just in time.. coz some how I was more convinced that IUB was a better destination. with MS CS , then Purdue with a degree MS in Technology. Purdue said about half time assistantship and I had no clue what that meant. and thought I still need to give half the fees!!

So, after I returned to home from Delhi, around 18th June.. I had to just wait for Purdue I-20.. coz by that time i was sure I would give my Visa interview for Purdue, with my sister convincing me everyday about importance of brand name. I was more concerned about a cheaper university. Finally both thought process ended to the same result... PURDUE.

Next run to Delhi was by the end of June again with a general ticket ....coz time was important. This time the general compartments were full packed.. and I got to sleeper.. ended in getting some place just near one entrance of the coach also paying fine for the first time. This was to file the Visa fees. Each trip to Delhi was important then.. coz of more important reasons.

The return journey had the same fate.. ended up travelling for 24hrs for a journey that in ideal conditions should take 14hours. There are two stories being plotted against the time axis. I am describing the one that relates to just going for MS... the other more important story atleast deserves another blog post. I keep writing it.. coz I would need to take reference of this post as I write another one.

Day 17th July... Visa interview was fixed, again Delhi!!

I took a gap of some 10 days coz i had to figure out the finances I need to show in interview.. With no clue of how things happen.. and with no relation to edulix, or orkut.. or any other group.. I was sitting in a small township in Bihar... trying to figure out how to get loan sanctioned.. My father being in bank was always a plus.

Reached Delhi on 16th.. Just before my interview, my sister called me up telling that her sources confirm about a lady, who interviews there who is suffering with DontApproveVisaTrauma.
In the interview each of us are given a token. There were two rows for F1 visa interview. The odd numbered were going to THE lady and the evens were going to a safer zone. I was '63' !

At '55' the lady's window closed for a 10min break. And when it reopened.. the even were the sufferers. I was still '63'. The man at the other window helped me saying Purdue is a great place.. and confirmed my Visa.

Delhi was finally done with!! Next destination was Kanpur.. for getting my Passport with Visa. I got my Visa delivered in Kanpur Bluedart Office before time. and hence again a general travel in IRailways. Somehow everytime I was taking a step to going abroad.. my heart sank... (there were good reasons to it.. but i am to be blamed for all). Kanpur confirmed by departure to USA.

My last journey was to Nagpur between 1st and 4th August.. Went to Delhi one last time to board my flight. to Birmingham, Alabama, my sister's place... and finally to West lafayette, Indiana, US on 12th August,2009.


We have reached the end of a chapter. But the most important question has still not been answered!! Question : Why this blog afterall?
Answer: There are few things in life you cannot decide for yourself. For those decisions there is an external force behind you. Things become bigger than trivial when that force is 'Divine' . There are several arguments to it. When the world was gloomy with no jobs in campus.. and me desperately needing an admit for MS..I got my 4 admits clicked in April. When I received an admit from Purdue... first, they did not gave me funding.. I reluctantly put YES on a form that asked if you are coming to Purdue.. That reluctant event.. was driving by Force. Next when I lost hope with money... I got the RAship... and Purdue became the automatic choice.. Visa interview.. the flip in odd and even.. got me working.. and finally.. my most important asset .. lost faith in me. There were various incidents.. when till the end moment just toiling left no open road..but some Force... got things in the direction, IT wanted me to move... ... and I have moved on...... from Pilani to Purdue.. and from India to Indiana......

In BITS we Believe!!!

Just 4 months back, towards the Brand Factory, me and my sidie.. were plying in an auto, we talked of few things... which meant the least to us then..... but irony...... is wat makes small things big enough to be accomodated in a blog....(at least).

My sidie said.... " Look... I will ask my manager to consider this six months internship as part of experience and pay me atleast 5.5lakhs per year...and then probably I will consider getting into the firm else the world is full of options. I replied: "Actually, even i think you must get good work also, See my company.. it will pay me 8 lkh.. but how does that work out when you have to do the same thing day in day out."

So that was just one part... To continue with the day in day out... the only thing we did was to find fault in the present job.........(ok ok ...internship it was..). But both of us were lucky to have the best teams. And that was the only consideration why my firm was such a place to be visited every day.

4 months down the line, we stand at the starting of febraury... to be very very honest... to both of us, our firms in all way.. are the best places to be into.. Irony is.. we are in our campus.. with our internships over... and struggling...

We again go back some 20 days.. 19th january. Well that was the day our campus placements began. A list of about 33 companies.. we estimated that on an average each company will take 6-7 ppl, enough to accomodate all computer science and information systems students. Ok... now from 8lkh i had compromised to 5-6 lakhs... and I dont know about prashant.. my sidie.. but he would have been very happy with the same package. Companies came ... went... took 1 by 5th of what we expected.

Everything was worth sitting for. Its consultany...no issues.. if it pays.. and pays well... its a very very good firm. Then came THE company. Paying 2.9lkh per year.... That time I thought I was very clever and used to go for every aptitude test, for the sake of practice. Anyways not a big deal. We all learn from our mistakes..
That time I went with all flukes.. and came back slept. Night 1 am sidie calls... tells I got selected and have to come over for GD.
We compromised on it.. decided not to blabber.. and once thrown out.. we will come back ..to sleep.

In GD, I was cracking jokes and prashant was only entertaining those.Another wingie, rahul was telling stories we never heard of. Destiny.... he went back and we both got selected.
Next morning there were already 3 interviews scheduled for me. From morning 7:30am.. I went into for THE company's interview. Good explanations about salary being low were only good, but not sufficient.. and plus the bonus of few (hardly)technical questions... made it a serious issue when there was only HR round left.
prashant.. got a chance to inaugarate his suit.. came happy after the interview saying that he talked for 5 min. and the interview lasted 30 min. And we both got selected for the final HR interview.

Good thing .. we got 2 days for the HR interview... There was a compromise made. I got out of THE company. and prashant got into.. a 2.9 firm.
Its almost 1 week now .. after that event. Now, we have very few companies in hand... and hardly any paying more than 2.9. and the journey from 5.5 to 2.9 and from 8 to 2.9 has left just few words in hand.... but still with the hope...
... In BITS we believe.....

But, the element of surprise of course to all.... have given ppl (in this campus), inspiration to write better GTalk status messages. Of course... i came out of the routine... Faith typo things... not because... that has gone out of my life.. but because that has become such an ingredient in daily living.. that it doesnt need a status message to be conveyed....

The positive part is.. we still have 3 months in campus.. and somehow... everyone feels not everyone will be placed this semester.. but everyone feels he will get placed....
with the wish that the second notion comes true.... the senti sem continues.................................

Dark Night

A very normal day, no hard work, dizzy morning, lazy noon and sleepy evening. The only good discovery made was a Kolkata Mess, who could cook good north indian food. (its proving to be an underscored discovery now.. :) ).
Night 8:30pm, after had my dinner, i took a bus to the Railway station. And the most hopeless thing was to wait for a train which was early in the morning five. The most logical explanation to this thing was, being alone you fear of not waking up and getting an auto at 3 o clock might cost you being plundered :) .

So the last bus took me somehow to the railway station at 10:45pm. Whole night and me with my now integral body part, my blue bag, were very sure of staying the whole night @ railway station.

Till 11:10 i was just searching for some seat. Finally when i got one but who wants to be at rest in the fast moving world. I got up and my seat lost. 11:45pm . Till now i had searched through all the possible kiosks on the station and the various information they could show. The LCD screens also had only advertisements and train info to show. I somehow jerked my fone FM connector hard enough that it also broke down. So, the only good idea was to explore around.
I found one kiosk where in you needed to enter the number which was supposed to be smsd to you, to get a platform ticket. Good thing: It was a touch screen, Bad thing : It didnt work. God gives indications..he gave one. I already sent in for the sms. This was a 3 bucks loss.

At 11:50 the police started dangling there lathis where ever they wanted and the government gave you two choices to make either get out of the entrance hall or go into the platform. But the fate gave you only one option as no kiosks were operative to render a platform ticket and obviously no human appearance was behind the platform ticket window at 12 am.

I have a strong feeling these police men are giving good training how to make people fear them by just dangling the lathis. It would be a strength of 200 people and just one lathi. Guess what ... who won :)

So, we all were out of station. 3 gates of the entrance hall were jammed by the row of chairs.. and no one could enter.. Reason... i could guess was they wanted to clean it up. Okay, point taken we people of India, on Independence Day could have that much patience...

While i struggled to make my way out.. i found a man laying on the stair. he got up and disappeared in the darkness. While earlier, i paved my way into the station, i saw him, but now he was different because he left back at least half a liter of blood tainting the floor there.. Somehow avoiding it i came out.

Hope is a big thing.. and the bigger thing is u always hope and it just does'nt clicks. Night just went more romantic with little rain. By 12:30 am it just started pouring. A shelter outside the building which accommodates for vehicles to drop passengers, and could hardly make place for was now taking care of a crowd of nearly 200, who had their local trains early in the morning.
And yes 2-3 dogs too, after all it was their permanent place to give them shelter from rain.
But these people were good and atleast better than me. They had their arrangements. Almost everyone dragged out their sheets and laid down. I went to the periphery and that was were i had to remain.
The adjoining food court closed down. Inside also the entrance hall lights got dimmer, and with that the hope that the entrance bars would be removed drooped down.
I opened my wallet to find 3 5 rupees coin, 2 10 rupees note and a useless 100 rupee note and an HDFC plastic idiot, which would just not help tonite.

Somehow i realized that there was one operational kisok which worked on coins inside the left most entrance of the hall. So, here was the hunt for 3 one rupee coin. But who has the change when you really need it.
Chai.. Chai.. Coffee.. .. this is hope.
A five rupees coffee. In return the 4th five rupee coin. No use.

Ok its now 1:30 and only 4 hrs to go for train.. This is Optimism.

GRE and staircase.. The link ?? me :)
This staircase was near to the ambition, the working Platform ticket kiosk. And far off from the blood stained stair. Here i match all the girls in my campus or now in office of getting a really weird feeling when we see blood....but its ok.Nothing wrong.

So, GRE prepration.. was cooler, that could be the best thing to do then. its raining.. and the watch has just stopped..it doesnt want to move.. every time i used to see, i could just see an increment of 1 min. Hard night. No motion. half of the people around asleep. There were 6 people around on three steps to heaven doors, including me. 3 of those 5 were asleep. one of them was trying to other was as awake as i was. So around an hr of gre thing and i wanted another tea. this was another vendor the tea glass was small and so was the price. hurry.. sure to get a change. Rs 3. gave the 5 rupee coin. still no luck u had 2 rupee coin back to you..
Still its ok . 3 teas will make it to 3 coins atleast and logically that shud work..
Sometime back another fellow joined us. He was probably a rickshaw puller, who was wet and felt cold. He removed his cap and there he kept a polythene to cover his head from the rain. He tried to sit at one place but trembled a lot. Then he took the polythene from the head and tried to put his feet in that, to counter a bit of chill. i dont know if he really could do that. Then the place next to him got empty. and he laid down and sleep took him over. Now his snoring and the rain.. those were the only two songs.

Back to work,it was already 2:45am. Some more GRE and atleat 2 cups of tea for i needed 3 coins to enter the heaven. 3 coins. meaning of small things is much more than being 'small'.
Ok so now at 3:15 we have 3 coins. But what, a man tried to cross the fence and 2 policeman approched him. Before he could say something he got a slap from havaldar. May be his hand was itchy. The man reacted and blasted the havaldar by saying he was in railways.. and 'tell me ur name' and all things happened. The blasting of havaldar sounded good to many auto pullers and others who thought this was their revenge for something which was common to all of them. The two policemen realized this and took the man to a corner.. which was away from sight of most.
It was 4 and now few more people joined in with luggage . Means time for some train. Cool.. finally a neighbour of mine. said they will open the gates in 5 min. Things just got set and yes the doors were unfriezed.
Now i started trying with the 3 two rupee coins in the machine.. but it was the only honest thing there. it just didnt accept a two rupee coin.. Hopeless..
but by 4:30 counters opened up and the most valuble possession a platform ticket.. and i was on 1st platform . The world became a beautiful place now. i had to celebrate . i did it with a veg puff.. its ok even if i knew it was made in the night. .but its ok sometimes.

Now rain, clouds morning and waiting.. and waiting and waiting. .

The good news is.. waiting pays.. and it paid for me too. at the end it was all good when it was around at 7:10am. ...

i felt my life was better somehow.. u dont learn to value things before u really feel their value. .

GOoDark Night..

Beautiful Msg!!

Last day a Fwd msg popped from my mail box. And i could find something very Beautiful in that. The message is as follows:

•Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room one man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation. Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window. The man in the other bed began to live for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside...The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake.
Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by.Although the other man couldn't hear the band - he could see it. In his mind's eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words. Days and weeks passed. One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away. As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was
comfortable, she left him alone.Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window.The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.She said, "Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you."

Re discovery!!

Long time.... i returned.. to write.. may be the Happyness part came after a long time. But this time the realization goes even stronger...Adversity makes things so easy to learn. All these days confusions had crept into me.. The sole motivation for live was missing.. Everything was so difficult to link to things which would probably make me successful. (success may have different meanings to different people... ), but again it changes from time to time. Actually, realized that success is to retain what i have, whom i love and all. 

Most important things in life go unnoticed while they are with us. We know when they have already left. Repentence may always not be of help, but Realization may be of help. Seeing things through different approaches, makes the biggest of all differences. It did for me. The things which i made... which were destroyed... can be build again by me, in much better ways... pre-requisite is confidence.. after all Tough times will never last, Tough Men would do that... 

Happyness, comes to us in different ways... its all about Realization... 

Thats the total Re-discovery.. for me... atleast :)

Perception Matters!!

A normal saturday morning.
Its 8:10am!! U missed the tutorial. U wanted to finish a coding assignment and then after 1 1/2 hr of effort U still find Urself to be still at the very beginning of the problem. Somehow frustration creeps in, U take Ur quilt and lie wrapped on the bed... Afternoon U wake up and feel abstemious, take a very little food. try again with the code... and again lose...to it.
Evening U are burdened with some set of 20 research papers by a professor with some deadline to come up with a presentation...
Thoughts of the Maths Paper marks which U screwed up properly and whose marks were being awaited by others and not U obviously!!(...anticipation)
U take dinner and then again sleep!!
Then U wake up again in Night!! Thanks to wingies!! They take U to SAC and then to the All Night Canteen (ANC) and then a Cartoon Movie.. U learn there that its U only who stand in Ur way!! Thats perception- its Ur thinking about Urself!!...

Then its 1am and a new day!! Sunday!
Forgetting the gone things is intelligence!! and now the promising new day comes up!!
Thankfully things are not that permanent in life!!
And each day could be better than the last one..

Today started with another assignment..U realize the last assignment u did, u got stuck at everypoint and eventually got to know whats not the right path...
Then U admire Ur courage to try out that for the whole day...

Again, U find U r not alone.... nobody has finished it yet!!
And who cares again to read all 20 sets of reserch paper!! After all its just another course, just another prof and just another presentation!! And again U r 5 people group and not alone to do it all!!

And about the Maths Test!! Its just the first test afterall.. the sem is still much to go for... and even if U lose grade ... how will it affect Ur life some 1 year after...( NOT AT ALL)!!

So its all perception...
Pursue the happYness and it will never come to U..
leave it all, and happYness just comes to U.. to say
U r not alone...
Its all about Ur perception... its always with U!!

The Y in HappYness!!

Lets start things on a 'happY' note... thinking of things which make me happy..

Chilling mornings and my alarm which had been snozzed before that a million times just tells me that its 8:01am i know i am already late to class, and there are at least 59more minutes of sleep. Thats happiness!!!

The wing cricket with the stress ball and stump!! a six ! that is happiness!!

An Ave+ in a Maths course!! thats happiness!!

82 wishes on a birthday!! thats happiness!!

Meet your girlfriend every time in the railway stations!! thats happiness!!

Mom telling bring me a cardigan like the one you brought last time!! thats happiness

And finding food at 1am in wingies room... thats happiness!!

and And... Creating my first Blog !! --thats HappYness!!

'I' cant be happy alone....
therefore the Y!!

Tell me Y ur reason of happYness!! :)

afterall happYness rocks!!