Fasten your seat belt because this journey is gonna be fun…

The day I landed in Pune I witnessed just rain, rain and heavy rain. I imagined what else I can expect from this well known city. It’s now that I have found answers to my question…

My posting at Infosys, Pune was the only reason that brought me to this tech savvy city of Maharashtra. With lots of IT parks/companies, Pune is undoubtedly the India’s top IT hub (after Bangalore). The city is filled with smart & stylish IT professionals working in some or other IT company like Infosys, Accenture, Wipro, IBM, TCS, Cognizant, Adobe. You name a company you will find it in some or other part of this city.

I began my journey in Pune from the Infosys campus in Hinjewadi IT Park. Believe me I was dumbfound when I saw this beautiful campus for the first time and felt excited that I would be working here. Now, if you go 8-10 kms towards the city, you will find a special class of people known as ‘IT Professional’. The 80% population of the area is working youth. You go on any road you will find people, guys n girls; with bags on back coming late from offices, going early to offices, roaming on bikes.. Obsessed with internet such from movie tickets to pizzas everything they order online. Sometimes I wonder where the old people and families in this country are. Are old people endangered species of human race ?

Well if you are convinced pune is only about IT race, think again. Just go few more kms towards the city you will find another wonderful race.. a little more stylish, a little more young. That’s the typical ‘College Crowd’. Pune has as many no. of colleges as IT companies. It’s an education hub with students migrated from all across the country… some in search of true education… some in search of independence.. some in search of girlfriends/boyfriends… and some to enjoy the nightlife full of discs and pubs. Well thanks to the college crowd that add more charm to this busy and fast moving city.

Like other metro capitals (Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai) it has malls, pubs, discs, restaurants, shopping centers, recreational clubs, spa centers and endless things that can serve you on weekends. Among the major and popular hangout zones are FC Road, MG Road, KP Road, Kalayani Nagar. The most unique and surprising thing about FC Road is that you will always find girls and boys walking hand in hand, hugging on roads.. group of college gang… sexy girls in minimal size outfits… boys with their bikes. Life on this road is far beyond the social stigmas and Indian culture which can hardly be found in cities like Delhi. On the other hand, KP Road is one stop destination for discs, pubs, restaurants, foreign cafe.. lavish celebrations & parties with high standard spending. Nightlife is awesome especially on weekends

However, if you are thinking to explore the corners of the city; high end segments of cars like BMW, Mercedes, Audi with special number plates on roads will make you curious. On the other hand, the public transport will put you on back seat. Bus services in the city are horrible.. with limited buses… overloaded crowd such that on boarding the bus you will pat your back. If by chance, you happen to be on bus.. the next moment you will realize that bus may breakdown in next few seconds. The city also has autos with good service but their sky rocket prices will make your pockets empty. So if you are planning to go for outing; reserve enough cash for transportation. The best option for everyday commuters is by company/college buses. Ohh.. I forgot to mention; the total no. of buses belonging to Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant are more than the no. of buses run by the government. This city really needs a Metro system with more priority than any other city.

Another important thing that I noticed about this city is that despite celebrating festival like Ganesh Chatutrthi, Navratre, Diwali… the city lacks social bonding. Though people come out in large numbers to celebrate and enjoy; yet they don’t know about each other, interactions are less. The youth of the city knows the meaning of love yet there are more breakups.. lust outclasses the emotions.  People don’t know who their neighbors are. No one cares for others, people mind their own business. This mentality is good but not appreciable. This is where Pune needs to learn from other cities.

After experiencing, shor in the city one can take an off to Lonavala/Kahnadala which is beautiful and peaceful place just 60 kms from the city and will rejuvenate you mind, body and soul. One can also stop at famous religious place ‘shirdi’ that is only an overnight journey from the city. Mumbai, Goa are also not far away.. you just need to pack up your bags.

This is all what I learnt, experienced and explored about Pune in past three months. My wonderful journey full of new discoveries, excitements and thrills continues…

Can you imagine some girls are so talented that they can run on treadmill for 15 minutes while talking to their boyfriends simultaneously ? Few of them can even hold phone on one hand and a dumble on other.. though after a count of 10 they switch.

We all know that girls are the most talkative creatures in this world. But do we know how much they love their phones and their calls ? While boarding/deboarding the bus they are so busy in their talks that later they find they are in wrong bus or have got down at wrong stop.

In food courts, while having food, standing in queues, drinking water they are on calls. I don’t understand are they going to miss important meetings or they are gonna have break up if they don’t talk Few days back, I saw a girl just ahead of me in a queue taking food. She had a handbag, one small clutch, a cell phone in one hand and plate on the other. While taking the food the plate got heavier. In a moment, the small clutch and cell phone were in one of the columns of her plate with daal, curd, chapati and rice. I couldn’t stop my laughter but some how managed to kept it low. She gave me a quick glance and moved quickly because may she realized that there was no place for salad

Are modern girls getting too much tech savvy ? Believe me friends there is no place in this world where girls don’t mix their activities with their talks

In office cubicles, while typing on workstations, while getting coffee, in buses, while crossing roads, while eating, sleeping, writing… girls are getting crazy and crazy. But who cares, these girls are the source of income for mobile operators. Let it go till girls are happy, their callers are happy and most important the people around them watching them get a good time pass and some interesting stuff to write and talk about !!

Author: Chetan Bhagat

My rating: 3/5

Finally, another Chetan Bhagat novel hits the market. This time it’s stylish, attractive in terms of cover page design, one of the reason that forced me to purchase this book. The next thing was a brief introduction on back cover – ‘Once upon a time, in small town India, there lived two intelligent boys . One wanted to use his intelligence to make money. One wanted to use his intelligence to start a revolution. The problem was, they both loved the same girl.’ Within seconds of reading the last line I grabbed the novel.

The novel begins from a naughty classroom mischief by a 5th class boy named Gopal who ate half of the chocolate cake from tiffin of classmate Aarti. The girl cries, boy is punished, apologizes for eating half cake… soon become the best friends. Another classmate Raghav is their mutual friend. Story goes on…

After 8 years, since Gopal and Aarti became friends. Their bonding grows, mutual attraction.. love type stuffs increases (only love type, not really love). Dating on boat in river Ganga in the holy town of Varanasi, description of evening prayers on ghats, temple rituals adds glory and soft touch to this story.

This is Chetan Bhagat’s novel… how can IIT’s, engineering be skipped. Next few chapters touches upon the race (not Formula 1) to crack IIT and AIEEE exam. Gopal and Raghav, with goal to become engineers get ready for the crazy exams. From coaching to exam, results to second attempts, kota city as a coaching hub.. life during IIT preparation and lot more. I bet, you read this you will have a detailed knowledge of how and where to crack entrance examinations. Some of you might even crack without coaching classes.. the books goes into that much detail. Lol

Gopal fianlly gives up as he is not able to find a good engineering college even after the second attempt. Whereas Raghav cracks the IIT-JEE and lands up in IIT-BHU. Aarti on the other hand wishes to become an air hostess, joins a hospitality course. Now, Raghav and Aarti are much more close to each other than Aarti & Gopal were Confused.. read on the book. You will get to know why and how ?

Next, the life takes a turn for Gopal, suffering from financial crises and not able to get into a private engineering college, he opens his own college. Raghav, on the other hand, rejects job offer from Infosys and joins Danik newspaper as a passion. I know, this sounds crazy and insane.. for all hows and whys go through the book !!

Overall, ‘Revolution 2020 is a good read. But don’t expect too much. The best part is it shows how a girl can screw your life what a girl feels, how she changes in just few seconds, her unpredictable nature.. then comes serious stuffs .. corruption.. money..power !!

At the end, you will at least learn how to crack engineering entrance exams and how to deal with girls For this wonderful teaching, I give credit to Mr. Chetan Bhagat. Last, but most important find out where and with whom is Aarti

Happy Reading !!

When I look at past I smile,
when I look at present I celebrate,
but when I look at future I see tears in my eyes…

I wonder how the four years passed,
how life became fun, fearless and free.
how new souls touched upon.

I thank u for the beautiful and everlasting memories.
Thank u guys n gals.. some short ones and some really tall
for writing splendid pages in my book.
I will really miss u buddies and sweat-hearts.

It’s the little things that count,
my first bunk n first proxy,
pointers and projects,
batch and batch-mates,
late night movies and maggis,
long chats and messages,
birthday parties and cake fights,
first peg n leg piece,
the first crush(s) and the first love.
It wouldn’t have been possible without u.

Thanks for beautiful friendship
and for sharing, caring and loving.
Thanks for unforgettable moments,
sparkling days and nights.

I wish we always stay in touch online and offline
wherever we are…

Let us keep our mobiles ringing,
wall posts moving.

Let’s better take care of each other,
in whatever mood we may be,
howsoever busy we may be.

Let’s keep creating great stories..Wish u success !!
Besta Luck !!

How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.

Magic moments from my college life that I shared with you !!

Jab We Met – 1st year

First day at the campus went with fear of ragging (though it literaly didn’t happen) and surprises because very hour brought something new. I had hostel room with a known friend and that was something good. It was for the first time I was away from home, living in hostel… I was excited but sad. Terribly missed my school and friends. Soon was given an unique identitiy as enrollment no. which threw me in batch popularly known as ’2A’ ( our cse section was divided in 5 batches). Making friends was fun and difficult as I hardly knew anyone. And there were just 3 girls in my batch. Sem 1 passed studying subjects, understanding and adjusting to examination patterns, making new friends…

Then sem 2 brought new ideas and changes. It was for the first time went online on orkut… friends list kept growing and growing as aquitances became to be familiar and many became friends. Real fun had just began… days passed by attending lectures, chatting online, creepy scraps (orkut was at its peak), eating out in cafes, leisure time, cultural fest. Mass bunking was also witnessed… it was new for me as I didn’t bunk in my school days. It had one red letter day too… when I made first proxy in maths class and made it perfectly well… though my heartbeat stopped for a moment.

As we know life can’t always go smooth… Physics classes and specifically physics lab really sucked. Pending experiments and experiments that sometimes I thought were really of no use for cse guys took out every nerve… calculations were getting worse. But with my lab partner, together learnt the art of handling them. Some labs were really interesting, computer labs were enjoyable; electronics lab was way beyond awesome… thanks to our group of four students. Had a lots of gossips, fun, mischiefs with them… and sometimes were at the verge of being thrown out because of some funny creatures :D

I also remember my first b’day in college… running away, playing hide and seek, b’day bumps… it was amazing. First year was something that took me away from my personality; made me open and more talkative and friendly that many of my school friends weren’t able to believe. At last it ended well and with a good pointer.

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai – 2nd year

Second year went a lot more smoother… academics was at its best… bond of friendship grew stronger. Physics and maths were the worst hit areas… all weird topics… non-sense derivations. This was the time 2A batch made its presence felt all over… with highest no. of mass bunks made history. Yet it was the best in class. It had best toppers and back-holders, smokers and drinkers, best CS and AOE players, best sports person, some funny some serious, some dominant some timid… few flatterers and many with experience of DISCOs… 2A batch had its own style and fascination that will be admired forever. It was also the period when facebook overshadowed orkut… when more girls became friends… crushes kept rising.

Next was Sem 4, what I called, the turning point of my life and which rapidly changed my profile… I got entry into the editorial board as a designer. Some seniors became very good friends… my creative designing and innovation touched many. Another event that added glow to my life was sudden love for blogging… With some super natural powers I wrote a fictious love story ( A Date to Remember ) which was loved by my friends… the no. of hits went in 3 digits per day. Later I even got it legally copyrighted… because for me, it was more than a love story. This was just the begining of a new phase and I knew something more was awaited, but didn’t know what.

Vaah Life Ho To Aisi – 3rd year

In just one line 3yr year was a blast, the best part of my life… dreams were almost turning into reality. Even the campus was rocking with strikes, full day bunks… it was more like a freedom struggle. In my free time, now I watched movies and studied less.

My love for designing, blogging and databases became more profound. With the onset of sem 6 I became Oracle Certified DBA and had designed some of the best stuffs. Soon I was also given the task of heading the editorial board in the absence of seniors. This was one of the most difficult challenges in my life but the most motivating and interesting. With my team, finally we were able to deliver the best magazine ever published. Celebrations were awesome (I’m afraid to disclose it).

Then, the best of best; I got the chance to represent Jaypee Group at India Today Conclave 2010 that was all about international celebrities, limelight, astonishing experience… met many renowned celebrities like Ranbir Kapoor, Asin, James Cameron, Chris Huges, many more… even got autographs. The dream didn’t end here… even got a photograph with Salman Rushdie in a national newspaper. Enjoyed the lavished lifestyle, multi-cusine food, page 3 audience and even made some good friends on the three day trip.

As it is said by someone, you can’t always be wining. A good balance of winning and losing is imporatant. It was now time to lose something. Like sensex my pointer crashed severly.

Dil Maange More – 4th year

After 3 years of college I was no more a studious geek… in first year I used to withhold mass bunks but now I supported. Got more spoiled. This time India Today Youth Summit was a true delight… with Katrina Kaif just few meters away.

Though less classes were going as per schedule… the fear of studies, placements, MBA exams became horrifying. Project labs and presentations were order of the day. Every where only R.S. Aggarwal’s logic reasoning and quant books were seen. Those really serious about MBA were solving every single page of CL books. Girls were crazier than boys.

Then it was turn of most important day Infy placement day. With some nervousness and high hopes went for it. On night of that day, after clearing written exam and delivering a good interview felt a sigh of relief. Late night, I also had a pre-placement party with my friends. Infy was followed by Accenture… written was a simple walk and interview was amazing and easy (was lucky enough to have good panels). Finally, I found myself placed in Infy for which I had opted for. Infy placement brought more fun in life and brought smiles as final year project was dropped, sem 8 was shrinked to 30 days… and most adorable part was joining 5 months before garduation. Sem 8 was coined as InfySem was all about celebrations, parties, bunks, recollecting beautiful days and clicking pictures… and at last heartdly saying goodbye with tears in eyes.

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna

These four years that seemed too long at begining went so fast. They were magical. I ‘ll miss those amazing moments, sweet friends, beautiful campus, unlimited freedom, the joy of lectures and bunks, gazing and discussing about girls, the first peg with friends… late night maggi parties, staying awake full nights to complete assignments and projects… the fun in classrooms n labs, some cool fights, beautiful days and nights; last n most important all the endless gossips and mischiefs.

Time spent with each one of you will always remain in my heart forever !!

Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending.

Cheers & Besta Luck !!

Friends let’s share some beautiful moments or events of our college life. Feel free to write (comment tab is on top)… so that we can always smile when we read them

I know it won’t be easy, but it might be fun, inspiring, awesome and wonderful. Therefore I’m promising to make use of The DailyPost, and the community of other bloggers with similiar goals, to help me along the way, including asking for help when I need it and encouraging others when I can.

If you already read my blog, I hope you’ll encourage me with comments and likes, and good will along the way.

Signed,

Ankit Gogia

A mega collage on a wall with an area of 29700 cm sq made in just 3 months

Newspapers used – The Times of India, The Hindu, The Economic Times

Get ready to drive your way through the Street…

U r gonna love the Straight View, find surprises in the Sky View and enjoy the Sea View !!

Sections –

1. What The World Is Reading -> Global, Tech Tonic, Music, Cinema, Sports, Relationships, Travel, Books …

2. Times Life -> Soul Curry, O-Zone, God & I, Body Basics, Life …

|<|———- What The World Is Reading ———-|>|

Straight View

Left View

Right View

Corner View

|^|———- Times Life ———-|^|

You Gonna Love It

Sky View

Sea View

This is what I did whenever I used to get bored in Semester 7 in my hostel room at the campus. Cutting some catchy clippings and pictures from newspapers and turning them into a collage

Holidays can neither be created not destroyed but can change form i.e. can be postponed or preponed under different circumstances.  

- Ankit Gogia

Note: This law is partially applicable to existing national and festive holidays. It excludes emergency services. Only valid for official holidays not personal leaves.

Proof:

Part 1 – Holidays cannot be created

Statement 1: To avoid inconvenience to participants and reduce traffic on roads all school and colleges are closed due to CWG Delhi 2010.

=> Holidays during 3 Oct 2010 to 14 Oct 2010

But school and colleges are very smarts.

So they have reduced the winter and autumn vacations and made Saturdays working. Many have also kept extra hours to compensate the lost time for studies.

=> Holidays are reduced from  previously scheduled ones and are kept for reason of CWG.

=> No extra holiday was created for CWG. Small amount of hours were collected from other days that make up CWG holidays.

Hence Proved.

Statement 2: It’s too cold today… intense fog with chilly waves. Schools closed.

=> Fun filled day for students… getting up late enjying sleeping in quilts. No school.

=> Studies lost due to closing of schools and working days need to be equated.

So, what to do ????

Simple cut the winter vacations and make it very short.

=> Holidays that was due for winter vacations have been given before in lieu of intense cold wave.

=> No additional holidays was created but it changed form (in terms of date)

Hence Proved

Statement 3: Due to voting in the state all schools, colleges and offices are off.

=> People who were supposed to work and study, have been given time to caste their vote. Though many of them won’t even care to do so.

But, no work was done in offices…organisations suffered loss in terms of money, time, etc —— A

From A, government and organisation decided to cancel a weekend holiday or no. Of holidays allowed.

=> Saturday was declared as working day and many private companies have also reduced the permisible holidays by 1 day.

=> 1 holiday was witnessd on voting day but 1 holiday was also reduced.

=> No. Of holidays did not change.  Change =0

This implies, Holiday changed form. No new holiday was created.

Hence Proved

Part 2 –  Holidays cannot be destroyed

Let, us assume the one of the national holiday.

=> All schools, offices and organisations are closed (except emergency services like police and doctors)

=> No work shall be done. A complete off.

=> Holiday cannot be used for working purpose.

Thus, the holiday cannot be destroyed.

From part 1 and part 2, we proved the law of Conservation of Holidays !!

I was missing you and left this space to write something about you….

but you know now I am not missing you and will never. Go to Hell