“Karname” Mr Destructor ke

There was one “harkati” chap in our college days. Who I can’t forget and who’s humorous deals will remain with me forever. Would not like to name him to defame him, let’s call him Mr. Destructor. That was the e-mail id name I gave to him when I made an e-mail on his behalf.

The first incident I remember about him is when I was in dire need of calculator. I had earlier lost my calculator in chemistry lab. And now I didn’t have enough money to buy from market. At this point of time, Mr. Destructor came to my help. He said that he has a spare calculator and he can give it to me at the cost of Rs 100. That sounded a good deal to me. I instantly agreed to it. After two days he brought me the calculator. I was very happy that it was of same make. Then when he handed over to me, it was totally new as was my old calculator. And then when I opened it, on a side there was my signature, just like my previous calculator. And then I realize this is not any other calculator but the same. Mr. Destructor just sold me my own calculator. It took me two months from then to receive my money. It was dam hard to get money out from him.

The second incident: In third year most of our class was in IIT-Bombay on training. I was working with Prof Sharma. And my dear friend Mr. Destructor, with one more guy Mr. D was under Prof Pant. As always they didn’t complete any of the Prof’s assignment. So at last Prof realized that pecobian don’t do any good for nothing. So he started giving them his personal work. But here he made one of his greatest mistakes. He trusted Mr. Destructor to deposit Rs5000 in his account in a bank. Mr. Destructor as “harkati” as always didn’t deposited the money and instead brought it from Bombay as his earning. He cheated the Prof of IIT, and this Prof was friend with our HOD. After that Prof Pant made many attempt to get his money including writing to our HOD. And our HOD called Mr. Destructor again and again, but he never returned the money. I salute his courage. Prof. Pant never got his money.

Other incidents: His “karnama’s” can’t just end here. It will be a whole list. I remember them, references them to the college friends and we have a big laugh. I will mention those in the blog, sometime else. Right now I think it is enough for this blog. See ya next time.

Rupee Appreciation

The recent trends have shown that rupee has appreciated and it will continue to do so for some more time. But I believe that natural trend of fall and catch-up is not such a good idea for our economy.

Some facts that have contributed in appreciation of rupee are as follows:

1. Huge capital inflow into India from developed countries is increasing the demand for rupee.
2. The US economic slowdown, many economists including the former fed chairman Greenspan expect the US economy to falter in the coming period.
3. Interest rate differential - brings in foreign money.

So this large inflow of dollars into our country has appreciated the value of rupee. As more and more foreigners wants to invest in India, but are falling short of Rupee.

The impact will be that, with appreciated rupee, we will have our exports reduced and imports increased. The result will be beneficial for our oil imports and reducing the inflation, as it make’s the import cheaper. And congress Government can now save their face from the ire of common man, which had been witnessing a high inflation of prices. But on the contrary, our exports will be hit, which will now receive less dollars per export.

China with 9.5% growth annually relies heavily on its export. And so it has pegged its currency with US Dollars. While India is letting it run naturally with the flow in market. I think the time has come for the RBI to step in and correct the rupee value, to help the exports. And I feel that the letting the currency flow naturally is not good for our country. Our country should also tag the rupee value with dollars and so encourage the exports. If India has to grow at a fast pace, then it has to control its rupee value.

SEZ’s, Sardar Sarovar and Displacement

Some days back, Government made a limit to SEZ and restricted it to 5000 hectares maximum. As this is my blog so I am presenting my views. I have a mixed view on this, because the SEZ are obtained at the cost of land from poor farmers, who are, at last get’s displaced from their long native land.
Development has to be done. And for the country to have booming economy and socially secured society, some strata of society have to pay the price. And most people are with the idea that economy should improve at any cost. But what they miss in their view is displacement is not mere a movement from one place to other. The brunt of displacement is not shown in the media. It is only felt by the people who are getting displaced. Even if the Government pays 10% bonus etc, this price is too small for the farmer who has lived his whole life on that land, and has dreamt of his future with his kids on the same land. The displacement is not just a movement for them, but displacement is at the cost of there dreams. And dreams are worth more then what Government announces and provide to the farmers.
And so I am in totally support for the Arundhati roy and Medha Patkar movement on Sardar Sarover too. But then what about economy? Everyone agrees that the society has to pay price for development – “No pains, no gains”. So I think that Government has to make moves toward development, but with proper compensation. What government is offering to the poor at present is very less. Displacement is very harsh, so government should provide proper re-habilitation to them plus they should be compensated heavily. What Government is providing at present is too low for the cost of dreams of displaced families.

Greg Chappell's Resignation

Today’s big news was "Greg Chappell resigned from the post of coach of Indian cricket team". Adding one more controversy to his name, he mentioned that Senior players acts like Mafia in the team. This followed with the outburst from Tendulkar that he is deeply hurt from his comments because he is one of the senior member. I had a big disscussion on this issue with my coleague Santosh. The following are the excerpts from our disscussion.

Respecting Sachins seniority and his lifetime dedication to cricket, my point of view suggests Greg Chappel has not said any wrong. Our Indian cricket team do have a attitude problem. Especially senior players play very casually on the field. They play like they don’t have any responsibility of sentiments of cricket fans on the field. Let’s just compare the running between the wickets. The players from team like South Africa and NewZealand are if not scoring big sixes or fours, always are on the lookout for singles or doubles and try’s to take two where there is single and three where there is two. Our player like Ganguly runs 1 where there is 2 and 2 where there is 3. Not only in batting, even on the field, our Indian cricket team is afraid of getting their cloth’s dirty, like they will be scolded by their parents. Until our team does not have that killing spirit to win, it can’t win matches and tournaments. Only if our team will not get hurt by the comments from media but instead will start training more rigorously on the nets and field after getting defeated, will our team be able to win any big tournament. And their low quality Fielding and Batting attributes that the team has not been training well. And Greg Chappell is not the only default party but the team players attitude toward training is also questionable.

Flight Training

Been Nostalgic about the past, today I am going to write about my most memorable training time days.

Our batch was on flight training at IIT-Kanpur. Flight training is where we are flown in aircraft to note down its characteristics of flight. As always, nobody from our class had any special interest in studying. Specially our group consisting of me, Vasu, Ganja (Deepak), Shiv and Danny (Dayanand). Who were more interested in playing “teen patti” instead. We used to spend all our evening and nights in playing “teen patti”. We didn’t had any prize for the winner but a big punishment for the looser was assured. The looser used to get …..lets say “something inexplicably horrible” punishment or had to complete a dare.

First few days, everybody chose “the horrible” but never chose it twice because trust me it was horrible enough not to be disclosed here. The second time we three Ganja, me and Shiv were the looser’s and we chose to do the dare instead. First candidate was me and was given a dare toget a hug from the Chaunkidar. It was around 11:30 in the night and the chaunkidar was sleeping in sitting position on his chair. The rest of the group was watching intently through the windows. I slowly approached the chaunkidar and don’t know what came into my mind, I said “Chankidar bhayia aaj eid hai to mein aapke gale milna chahta hun”. As soon as the chaunkidar heard this, he understood that its an attack on his modesty and he stood up and showed me his “danda”. This was the most embarrassing moment in my life and I just ran back to my room as fast as I can. Everyone was laughing in the window. My dare was not complete. So mine and others dare was postponed to next days morning.

In the morning I was now given a dare to wear sleeveless sweater on sweat shirt and a baggy pyjama. Ganja was given the dare to give single sentence reply every time he is asked about anything; the reply was “Aja pyare pass hamare, kahen ghabrae”. And the most comedy dare was given to Shiv. Shiv was supposed to carry my big large Red suitcase for the whole day. Mind it, this suitcase was the biggest suitcase one can ever have and had a bright red colour. In the morning we three monkeys were ready to be the laughing stock of whole IIT. Nobody took much interest in my cloths as most of the IITians themselves wore such kind of cloths. But Shiv was the talk of the class and IIT, wherever we went. Many classmates asked him why he is carrying the suitcase. But he was not supposed to tell anyone. Even until today some of my classmates don’t know why he was carrying the suitcase that day. Then came the moment when IIT-Professor came to take our class. Our Shiv bhai came into the class with his big suitcase. We were all laughing onto him, the rest of the class started laughing too. Professor kept on watching, and our Shiv bhayia took the last seat of our class, and placed the suitcase on the chairs. After some time while taking our lecture, Professor at last asked Shiv “why is he moving around with suitcase”. Our bold Shiv said “aise hi”. Professor didn’t ask twice. Then we were taken on the ride to wind tunnels. Everyone was loaded onto the jeeps. Our Shiv bhai with his suitcase also joined in. He was sitting with girls and made them whole lot of uncomfortable while we kept on laughing. Then through the whole visit to the wind tunnels and various labs, our Shiv bhai continued his dare. On the other hand our Ganja was replying every question with his one sentence. He was supposed to answer every query by the single sentence. The rest of a class had gala time with him. Luckily he was not questioned by professor.

Remembering those days I still get to laugh sometime on those days of “Our mutual Bachpana” whenever I disscuss them with my friends.

There is a lot more to write about those training days. But I will like to finish this blog here. I will write about the rest sometime.

My First Bunk

After getting inspired by my cubicle mate Mr Sidharth Bedi I have started on my new adventure of BlogSpotting. In my first ever blog I am going to write about my most memorable adventure in 10^th class.

It was winters and a team from our school was going for a painting competition in Sector -17. Me and my Friend uptil then had gone to several painting competition but never ever won even a consolation prize. So my friend Amar and me thought that why don’t we utilize it in something that will be more entertaining rather then just participating in a competition and returning empty handed as always. So we decided that we will bunk away and watch a movie instead. But there was a problem, we were two and we had only one cycle. So Mr Amar showing his smartness took a cycle from a junior kid just for a short ride and we went on to see movie instead.

This was our first bunk from school .We saw the whole movie and thoroughly enjoyed. But after the movie when I returned home, I found the kid crying in my house to my dad that I and my friend took his cycle and went for movie. I don’t know why he went to my house instead of Amar’s, who took his cycle. But when things go wrong they go wrong in a way least expected by you. I somehow managed to convince my dad that I didn’t went for movie, but to the competition. It was very hard to convince dad, but with usage of some emotions I succeeded. I then sent that kid to my friend’s house. I slept happily as I was able to convince my dad that I did go for competition.

But luck had stored something else for us. The next morning, when I went to school, my class-mates told me that mine and my Friend Amar’s photo is on the front page of Chandigarh Newsline buying tickets. And more interestingly the caption of the story was-“Chandigarh lads prefer watching a movie instead of going to school”. What a way god has stored for us. Bunking school (although first time in our lifetime but who will believe) and caught buying tickets of movie. What a story it will make to my parents. This sounded as death alarm to me. Somehow our picture was not taken from right angle and also before the film my friend and I had interchanged jackets. But with the last evening incident with the kid, my dad would have acknowledged that these must be us, if he would have seen the photographs with a bit of interest.

Therefore I decided to remove all newspapers from his reach. As soon as I saw the picture I ran back home took the newspaper out and threw it in the waste. Then sometimes my dad used to visit school as he was General Secretary of school. So then we initiated another operation to remove Chandigarh Newsline from school premises too. We didn’t go to school prayer by telling the teacher that we are not feeling well and in the prayer time we smoothly carried out our operation. But the last thing beyond my reach was removal of newspaper from dad’s office. Now I can only pray. But pray does gets answered some time and my dad came as usual in the evening and didn’t said anything about it, which meant that he has not seen the photographs. So I sighed with relief that nothing happened.