Glimpses of Arunachal

I was brought up in a place called Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh. Now, whether or not I like the place is an issue for another day but there is one thing that is unmistakable in Arunachal Pradesh- its scenic beauty. Every day, this State is first to witness sunrise in India hence it is also called 'the land of rising sun' and that’s how it gets its name- ‘Arunachal’. Like other Himalayan states, this state too is generously gifted in terms of Scenic beauty and hence has a large potential as a tourism hub. In fact the place could well be country’s signature in wild life tourism, adventure sports and most importantly- Hydro electricity. But why the promise in all these fields is still only a ‘promise’ and why any attempts towards fulfillment of this promise are thwarted is again a debate for another day.
What I’d like to share with you are a few stills of Arunachal Pradesh displaying God’s genius at aesthetic.
The photographer is not a professional and the pics have been taken using a cell camera… hence probably might not be awe inspiring (mind you, the place has potential to give awe inspiring stills). Also the photographer has a bias towards taking sunrise pics, he has clicked a lot of them so bear with me :P.
















PS: The photographer happens to be my brother and i'm publishing the pics without his permission... so i thought might as well acknowledge him :)

AGNEEPATH

I have this awesome poem collection by Shree Harivnsh Rai Bachachan- Meri Shrestha Rachnayein at my home. while going through it, i came across this most brilliant poem by the master poet... its a very motivating sort of a poem. i actually like to read it if i'm kind of in need of some inspiration. so here it goes.

अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ!
वृक्ष हों भले खड़े,
हों घने, हो बड़े,
एक पत्र छाह भी मांग मत, मांग मत, मांग मत!!
अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ!

तू न थकेगा कभी,
तू न थमेगा कभी,
तू न मुड़ेगा कभी,
कर शपथ, कर शपथ, कर शपथ!
अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ!

यह महान दृश्य है,
चल रहा मनुष्य है,
अश्रु -श्वेद- रक्त से लथपथ, लथपथ, लथपथ!
अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ!
---श्री हरिवंश राय बच्चन

down the one side lane...

Again I’m on the forbidden lane. Why does this happen to me? I saw her, didn’t feel a thing. She’s a Normal girl u see… just like any other girl u meet in Indian towns. Then I talked to her and I realized she’s not that normal after all… the girl has got brains(ok, I admit though with the fear of being called sexist- girls with brain is a rare species), she can talk and in fact can debate aggressively. And the moment I realized all this, I entered the forbidden lane. This lane has one way traffic and I have entered it. There seems to be no end to end to this lane and the possibilities of the lane being open for both side of traffic is nearly null. So basically I’m stuck. The lane is one way so I can’t take a U turn. Only hope is praying for the traffic to get open from the opposite side. But why did this happen. When I reached this lane there was a bold signboard- “One way Traffic” and still I entered. Why did I? Sometimes I feel, despite being seated in the driver’s seat I’m not the driver… the car is driving itself on its own. That’s the worst part… this car, which I’m supposed to be driver of, is acting on its own accord and I can’t decipher the algorithm on which it works. If I’m the driver I should be allowed to drive deciding which lane to enter and which not to. Ok let’s see… entering the lane was not my choice but the speed of the car was certainly my choice. Maybe I drove too fast; could have driven a little slow and after some time the traffic from the other side would have opened. But that was just not meant to be... god!! do something.


Too cryptic post eh? Didn’t get it? Don’t try… u won’t get it

मत कहो आकाश में कुहरा घना है

recently, while surfing the net i came across this poem... this is one of my favorite poems. hope you like it.

मत कहो आकाश में कुहरा घना है,
यह किसी की व्यक्तिगत आलोचना है.

सूर्य हमने भी नहीं देखा सुबह से,
क्या करोगे, सूर्य का क्या देखना है.

इस सड़क पर इस कदर कीचड बिछी है,
हर किसी का पांव घुटनो तक सना है.

पक्ष और प्रतिपक्ष संसद में मुखर है,
बात इतनी है की कोई पुल बना है.

रक्त वर्षों से नसों में खौलता,
आप कहते हैं क्षडिक उत्तेजना है?

हो गयी हर घाट पर पूरी व्यवस्था,
शौक से डूबे जिसे भी डूबना है.

दोस्तों अब मंच पर सुविधा नहीं है,
आजकल नेपथ्य में संभावाना है!!
-दुष्यंत कुमार

Three idiots- seriously?

This Christmas we had another Aamir Khan movie uplift the benchmarks for revenues generated by a movie to stratospheric heights. The immense success of this movie- 3 idiots, has not only left vidhu vinod chopra(producer), raj Kumar hirani(director) and Amir khan laughing their way to banks but also won them the much aspired critical acclaim. This movie has specially been popular among the youth and the songs “aall is well” and “give me some sunshine” have acquired the cult status of campus anthems. But let us see what this movie directly or indirectly surmises.
There is little doubt to the fact that three idiots is an amazing movie. But it is an “amazing movie”-full stop! Nothing more than that… you’ll get the worth of your money- go buy the ticket, spend two and a half enjoyable hours at the theater, laugh your posterior off and come back. For this movie I might suggest a statement from our campus lingo “dil pe lene ki zaroorat nahi hai”.
If you give it a proper thought, you’ll be able to see that the two biggest sins committed by this movie are- its tendency of stereotyping and its polar nature. Though different in nature, both the sins are interrelated.
The movie stereotypes the higher education system in India and pushes it to a pole where it is totally rubbish- there may be a lot of truth in that but it is not completely true. Indian economy has been one of the fastest growing economies in the last decade- no nation can sustain that growth rate of its economy with a completely hopeless system of higher education, there has to be something good in it. True, our education system doesn’t have a lot of room for originality of thought and creativity but it’s not as though it has none of it!! The fact that I am a part of this education system and still thinking on my free will to write this article is itself a proof enough that there is still a lot of room for creativity too- without descending to the level of being a complete academic disaster. And apart from all of this, one good thing about the Indian education system that u can’t deny is that it instills a good work ethic among the students. It makes the students understand that there is no shortcut to success and the only way to attain and retain excellence is hard work- whatever may be type of excellence u desire.
The movie is culprit of stereotyping the teachers as fanatic, heartless and impractical bunch of jokers through just one character- professor Viru S. What it fails to remind is that such caricatures may be one in a thousand. Any average teacher may be anything but he certainly does not have any iota of resemblance with the character of Viru S. Ask any educated Indian- he/she will tell u about at least one (if not four- five) teacher who, at some stage of his education motivated him and would be a source of inspiration for rest of his/her life. This proves we do have a substantial amount of good teachers. Yes, this substantial amount might not be enough, we may need many, and many more of such teachers but this fact doesn’t make every teacher a Viru Sahastrabuddhi. The glass is also half full my friend.
The polar nature of the movie is depicted by its characters:
Rancho- incredibly talented person who doesn’t study even a little and is topper.
Chatur- Cramming expert crams everything and everything in front of him and is second topper.
Raju- doesn’t study even a little, second last person of batch according to grades.
Farhaan- again doesn’t study and is last person of batch according to grades.
It says nothing about the average people. The people who are moderately talented put in a sufficient amount of hard work and get average grades. These people make majority and hence it is these people who run our economy.
The movie tries to establish that you should be naturally gifted in any field in order to pursue a career in it or study it. You should not study engineering unless you are as gifted as the character Rancho. In case you are not as gifted as rancho- go about doing things like wild life photography. This sends wrong message- wild life photography is not some sweet hobby which does not require hard work. No one is a born wild life photographer, though one may be extra ordinary talented in wild life photography but even he has to get a proper education in the subject in which you have to put an equal amount of hard work in order to make a good career. So it again boils down to that tedious routine of classes, exams, results, projects doesn’t it?
Some might say the underlying message of the movie is “everybody has his strengths” and pursue your strength. But everybody also has his standards. What if my personal strength is academics but because I am not as gifted as some Rancho of my class is and I can’t top. What should I do- commit suicide as a character, fed up of his principal does in the movie? The phrase “I Quit” from that particular suicide scene in the movie seems to have become quite fashionable these days- I saw it in the orkut display image of one of my juniors and in orkut tagline of another ones. It leaves me wondering are we so feeble, unmotivated and inspirationally bankrupt lot that we quit on life just because we don’t have the life going our way?
Similar to 3 idiots, a Marathi movie titled “shikshanaaka Aicha Gho” has been made and if you ask a Marathi speaking person for the meaning of the title, he’ll tell u that it literally means “shiksha ki maa ka” (screw the education system)!! Do we want the future of our country in hands of people who hate education?? Do we want our next generation to have this notion that our education system completely trash and deserves to be screwed?
I don’t claim that our education system is perfect. It sure is in need of urgent reforms to relieve the pressure and strain and help develop more multidimensional personalities. But then we have to be the change that we want to see; only complaining is not going to help. Why can’t we work out solutions for the shortcomings of our education system.
Also we have to aware that any change in the education system can’t be carried out overnight. Our HRD minister Mr. Kapil Sibal has carried out educational reforms for class 10 board exam- these reforms are indeed very visionary in nature and similar(or even more extensive) reforms might be needed at the intermediate and higher levels. The media might be much more constructive if it suggested some reforms. No change in the education system is going take place overnight it will come in its due course.
Criticism is welcome but it should be constructive. What these movies do is instill a thinking into children that anything that causes ‘stress’ is evil- it should either be attacked or not even be attempted.
This incredible popularity of the movie in campuses across the country depicts only one thing that the youth of our nation is in no mood to study. If we keep hyping the movies like 3 idiots as we are doing now- we might soon become intellectually bankrupt. The tales of India being a global giant in outsourcing IT services might become only a glorified part of Indian history. Let’s not let that happen!!

being at the wrong side of the table!!

Hi guys… I am sure if you happen to be reading this post, you might have appeared for a viva at some point of your life or other. If you are from my college; well then you know what a horrifying experience can these turn out to be. Most of us lesser mortals have by now understood the Pranjal’s law of Viva. Now let me introduce you to pranjal’s law of Viva. This law is like the first law of thermodynamics (energy can neither be created nor be destroyed) - everybody knew this but then suddenly someone came and said this is a law, big deal!

But anyways you all also may be very much aware of the Pranjal’s law of Viva but I hereby claim the credit of forming this law which states that “It is immaterial whether you prepare or not, if you are a lesser mortal appearing for a viva, you are invariably going to get screwed.”

And for your reference, “lesser mortal” in this law is defined as any student appearing for a viva who is not a fanatic psychopath doomed to be immersed in sordid melancholy of text books all his life. But considering this definition, your general perception may be that no nine pointer can be lesser mortal. But here I’d beg to differ with this general perception. U need not be a “fanatic psychopath doomed to be immersed in sordid melancholy of text books all his life” to be a nine pointer, sheer brilliance may also suffice. The grade sheets of a couple of nine pointers of my batch, whom I’m proud to say I know closely, are the testimony of this fact (I could give you the names if you asked for ‘em).

Anyways mathematically,

If you are x such that  x Є A, you are screwed.

A is a set defined as, A= U-F

And U and F are sets defined further as,

U= universal set of all the students appearing in viva

F= set of fanatic psychopaths doomed to be immersed in sordid melancholy of text books all        their life.

So people next time you screw your viva, just recall the “Pranjal’s law of Viva”, you may find some solace in the despair.

Disclaimer: My work does not account for the breed of people we call toady or more popularly known as arse licker. The Pranjal’s law of viva may be applied to everyone else.

 

PS: This law has been drafted on the basis of experimental observations made during my last three years at the wrong side of the table. And as you would have concluded from the taste of this law, those observations haven’t been very merry. And the fact that the sadist butchers at the other side found bliss in our state added insult to injury!! But that was when I had not formed the law. Now that I have formed the law, I too resonate in the bliss of the sadist butchers!! Because as they say- “pain is inevitable but suffering is optional!!”

Just a little thing mates

I’ve been itching to write this post since last 4-5 days but have not been able to owing to some unavoidable circumstances. Now that the euphoria has finally subsided, I can write peacefully. Now, now don’t go all ‘kahe ka euphoria kaise unavoidable circumastances’, i know how annoying it is when amateurs like me try to build suspense so I won’t hobble around and get directly to the topic!!
So the cause of this euphoria is that yours truly, yes yours truly Pranjal has got placed in Mahindra and Mahindra, FES!! Yeah I know I shouldn’t sound too much pleased with myself but I’m yet to discover another way of speaking this out :) … so bear with meJ.
So this post, I am going to tell you all about the whole selection procedure of Mahindra and Mahindra that they followed at my place- National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur and that they almost certainly follow at all other engineering colleges.
So the whole procedure started on the morning of 27th july about 9:15 am, with a PPT-pre placement talk.
It was at this ppt, we had our first look at the team that had come to select us for Mahindra and Mahindra. The team had three men and two ladies. Two of the men – Mr. Pramod Lamba and Mr. Sudhir were probably of same age- somewhere in mid fifties and third gentleman Mr. Adarsh choudhary was a bit younger somewhere in mid fourties. But the ladies- miss Ruchi Rawat and miss Soumya Bajpai, seemed stunningly young… I mean could have easily mistaken them for my batch mates had I not been absolutely sure that I know every girl in my batch at least by face!!
So it was miss Ruchi who initiated the ppt informing us completely about the selection procedure. She told us that she would be recruiting for both Mahindra and Swaraj division. Then Mr. Pramod, a short portly man got up and guided us on various aspects of Mahindra and Mahindra through the course of a presentation. The presentation was quite interesting, but I remember one thing told to us in the presentation quite clearly… Mahindra and Mahindra holds a total of 42% share of Indian market in FES(farming equipment sector). That piece of statistics swept me off my feet!! Boy, it is an agriculture based economy we are talking about and you have a 42%market share in the FES!! Anyways we were told that we will first have a written, then a group discussion round and then finally personal interview.
So immediately after the PPT we were addressed to assemble at the hall 222 for our written test.
Written test
Previously I had appeared in two companies (Ashok Leyland and Telcon) and could not even clear the written, so I was particularly anxious about clearing the written. I had studied pretty much the same that I had studied for previous two companies… production technology and ic engines.
The paper had two sections-
Aptitude (25questions) and
Technical (50 questions).
The time duration of the test was 75 minutes and there was no negative marking and no sectional cut off. The aptitude was pretty easy… it had questions like “a drum has two holes- one can empty it in 6 minutes and the other can in 9 minutes so how much time will both take to empty it”. Such questions, I take, should be a piece of cake for any average engineering student. I felt Only four questions, based on coding, were difficult which I could not solve and hence I guess marked them [no negative marking!!].
Then the technical portion was very tough- I only knew some 12-14 questions out of the 50 completely… so I had to resort to guessing a large chunk of the paper… though most of the guess work was done a bit intelligently, a little bit of wild guess was also involved.
Anyways at about 12:30 the written was over and we were free… so I came back, had my lunch and was preparing to sleep around 2:00pm as Rahul Bhardwaj came and told me that I had cleared the written. I was one of the 37(out of nearly 80) people to have qualified the written. Then I was told that I had my Group Discussion round at 4:30. I started preparing for the GD, then had bath, dressed in the formals (I had to borrow hrishikesh’s tie because I had not bought one!!) and reached the training and placement cell of my college.
Group discussion
The GD started 20 minutes earlier than its scheduled time. Anyways as we entered I was feeling very nervous. All the members of the HR team were seated there in the GD room. As we entered Mr. Lamba directed us to sit… and we all sat according to the roll numbers assigned to us… and then mr. Lamba and company asked few general questions to help us feel at ease with the GD room environ and calm down the nerves and that certainly helped. Anyways we were provided the topic- Indo-US nuclear deal. I had read a lot on the deal but that was well 7-8 months ago… we were given 2 minutes to think and prepare and so we did. And after two minutes bell rang to indicate the start of discussion I was the first one to speak… I spake, spake did I for one continuous minute when someone interrupted me and the discussion went on. After seven minutes the discussion ended and we all left the room.
The GD had gone well but I couldn’t be certain because two or three people in my group had spoken well. Anyways I came back and waited for the result and was not made to for long; for the result came with an hour and I had been called for the interview. Out of a total of 37 who had been selected for the GD, 18 had been called for interview. We were told that 6 people would be interviewed on 27th night itself and remaining 12 the next i.e. 28th and I was among the latter group of people. So I had one full night to prepare for the interview and I tried my best to study… I studied a little bit of IC engine but couldn’t study much… tried to study a little bit of industrial management and failed. So finally resorted to calling nidhi, my cousin who has this amazing ability to sooth your nerves even if you have a raging storm of nerves inside you. I can’t remember after talking to nidhi but certainly couldn’t study but yeah I kept the IC engine book OPEN in front of me to feel as if I were studying. And finally I decided to sleep at 2 and turned off the lights but again I couldn’t sleep until it was 3:30 and even when I slept o slept badly… got up early at 7.



The interview
In morning I got up, had bath and got ready by 9 am and left for the TAP cell by 10 am. I had heard that the interviewers are mainly asking HR questions so I framed up some questions in mind and tried to answer myself but again, failed. I had taken a book of industrial management with me; I tried to study that and again gave up. I was nervous like anything… I was trying to calm myself, but couldn’t. I tried to ward off all those horrible thoughts coming in the mind and this time I succeeded. I thought just what my dad had told me “zyada se zyada kya hoga?? Nahi lenge… koi maar to denge nahi!! Fir try karna” and that helped… my dad is a genius I reflected. Then out came (from the interview room) Gaurav Prateek who was scheduled just before me and it was my turn.
The bell rang and in went Pranjal Srivastava. I asked if I could come in and was asked to enter and then sit down. Then Mr. Lamba asked me “srivastva jeee… pehle ye bataiye kaha se hain ap??” I told them I am from azamgarh, UP. The panel laughed a bit, and asked me if I knew what azamgarh is famous for. O told them it is famous for literary personalities and scholars like moulana shibli nomani, kaifi aazmi and rahul sankrityayan and then also told them that lately it has been in news for bomb blast accused and other terrorist activities to which Mr. Sudhir(one of the panel members) told me that it was only famous for that(terrorists)!!
Anyways interview carried on and I was asked why should they take me only seeing that they had 18 options available and I told them the usual I was enthusiastic, have the attitude of a sportsperson and blah blah… which may be a bit cliché but is true. I made sure that I followed each quality that I claimed to have, with an example which revealed that quality. This answer I had prepared beforehand, so I felt I did a good job answering it. Many such questions followed but there are two questions I remember distinctly.
First one was if I wanted to go for higher studies. Miss Ruchi asked me if I would go for M.Tech, MBA or anything else. This question I had tried a lot prepare but could not decide on a binary (yes/no) answer. So I told them what I felt honestly. I told them that I want to progress in the company… I would work hard and expect promotion but if after a certain stage I feel that I am unable to climb up the ladder and an MBA has become essential to reach my goal I would go for MBA, but if I am satisfied with my job and progress I would continue to work. Then Mr. Sudhir said “but your father is a PhD !!” I told them that my dad saw himself in a teaching career so he went to higher studies and he had an interest in research so he did a PhD and that I saw myself in industry so I would opt for industry to which they seemed to be satisfied and I got a “good”.
Then the second stand out question was a hypothetical situation. Mr Lamba asked “suppose you are working really hard and still you have not been promoted for two years. What will you do?” “tricky one” I thought and again decided to go by instincts. I told them the honest thing that I’d do. I told them “sir, I would go back to the basics, try and diagnose the problem and then rectify it.” But Mr.Lamba intervened “no no! according to you, you are working really good” I then thought a bit and said “sir, if I am not being promoted, there has to be reason for it. In such a case, I’ll start doubting my credentials as that particulars post holder. Then I’ll go to my seniors responsible for promotion and try to discuss with them the problems in my work and that how can I be more productive company and get promoted” and again this seemed to satisfy them… again I got a “good” from Mr. Sudhir and I knew I had nailed it J.
The whole interview had only single technical question asked by Mr. Adarsh Choudhary.
He asked me which subject was my favorite. I told him IC engine. Then he laughed and said “why does everyone say IC engine??” I told him “I think it’s because it is pretty easy.” Then he said “ask me a question on IC engine” and I obliged by asking “what is the difference b/w a spark ignition and compression ignition engine?” and then he said “now answer this.” Feeling elated I promptly answered this question because anyone who has studied only the introduction chapter in any book on IC engine would answer this even in sleep. Miss soumya then asked ki what would happen if a diesel engine was fed with petrol. On this question I told a whole lot of engineering- petrol has high auto ignition temp which won’t be achieved hence no combustion would take place. So the chemical energy of fuel won’t be converted to mechanical energy and hence no work would be done rendering the whole practice quite useless!!
Now in final moments of interview Miss Ruchi asked me if I had any problems in travelling. Again I trusted my instinct and gave her the honest answer that I had no problems in travelling for 7-8 years now, that is until I get married but after I’m married it won’t be possible for me to travel that frequently!! Then Mr. Lamba asked “nothing in pipeline for marriage?” and I laughed and replied that I didn’t have any girl friend so nothing was there in pipeline. Again Miss Ruchi asked me if I was open to working anywhere and again my response was affirmative.
Then I was told that I could go… and I came out of interview hall feeling that I had put up good show and stood a real good chance to get the job. But even then I was a little bit skeptical.
And then they decided to give us the results for our interview and again I was nervous like anything. But then they gave the result and it turned out that Pranjal Srivastava had got the job, and I went on an exploration to search the heavens for levels of clouds beyond the cloud nine!!
And finally on this cool august night as I sit on the roof of my hostel, completing this post, I have a job!!

PS: This post was written some 8 days back and I have got an opportunity to post it today only because of the internet problem there at our hostel!!