Wind Chimes..

Dainty wind chimes sway

Bringing musical warmth to me.

Cleansing my bleeding ears of

News from death and misery.

I lie soaking in endless joy

A torment relief recipe for free.

For music from wind chimes is

Indeed a great symphony.

Back and forth they go

As I languidly dream of love.

Sleepy eyes, tired mind and I

No longer hear its song.

Trees, waters and birds

Indulging, brimming with life.

Calm my thoughts, head, and I

Hear a faint melodic tune….

Wind chimes play along

Waking me from blissful sleep.

Awake or asleep let be, I cannot

Miss its amiable compassion.

Darkness

As darkness descends, I cry in agony

Grey skies look down upon me

Fear engulfs my little soul and I

Yell into darkness, hollow channels.

My screams transcend life and light,

No knight in shining armor saves me

I die alone, fragment by fragment.

Piece by piece my death unites.

A deep pain pierces my heart

Of the sights I cannot appreciate

For life blooming, trees swaying are

Gone, affairs of the past.

“Save me”, I implore in vain.

Dark fumes consume me, tear me apart.

Slowly, I relieve my fear, accept my fate

I die today but my fear dies with me.

Jobless? Who me?

DAY 1

8AM

30th August, 2012 was just another day. I woke up at around 8, took bath and  began to dress hurriedly. I picked out a random salwar kameez, swept through my hair and that's about it. I made sure I had my file , ID card, some certificates and good wishes from Amma before leaving

9.10AM

I usually reach college on time(sometimes I reach late...OK most of the time I'm late!!) . That day was no different.Oh did I tell you?Today was the day a reputed company was coming for campus recruitment.(nothing to get excited about, I was from Biotech and no placement aptitude test passes without C or C++ questions. Yawn!). Anyway, it was 9.15 and me and my friends ran towards our auditorium (AKA cow shed ). This cow shed should be given a little more credit alright.They improved upon it as much as they could. It looked decent now.

So there we were, waiting for this 'company fellows' to give their presentation and get it over with! 600 of us had gathered there for a comapny that would take 40-50 odd students.Humph!

Suddenly 4 people walked inside alongside our placement officer(PO). The latter ,our PO is seen as the biggest asset of our college.
(Make it quick with the presentation and test, we are sleepy).
Our PO formally introduced them ..(glorifying everybody). This was followed by the 'company fellows' talking to us and praising us so much that they used words like 'champions, heroes' etc. I couldn't care less.
After the presentation, they briefed us on the rounds that we had to battle as we went along. All in all there were 5 rounds; aptitude, group discussion, technical interview, paragraph writing and HR interview.

11.30AM
90 questions, 90 minutes (Okay, doable..but what about C, C++ questions???).
There were 4 sets of question papers and I got set D. I looked at the paper and a small ray of hope flickered .No C or C++ questions. Phew. Math, Logical reasoning and verbal. Now I had a chance (of clearing this first hurdle). Yes, it was not impossible now..

It was not very tough (at least for me). My 90 minutes were up..I submitted the paper and went to eat. My friends and I started discussing the paper.. we wanted to clear this. I mean if we couldn't clear this..what could we do? (after all, this had no computer questions as that was our excuse for previous exams!).

3.30PM
As I walked back to the classroom where my prospective career would be decided...I was nervous.I looked at my friends, they were shaky too. One guy walked in with a bunch of OMR sheets and started to read out names. Many names passed...no sign of mine. My vision was directed grimly at his lips, trying to conceive every syllable even before it came out as sound..
There it was..I could see it coming.. "Niimiiishaa", he said. I breathed heavily!!!

5PM

Now the first part was done. 7 of us from our department cleared the test (awesome!) and 150 odd students in total. Next round was group discussion (GD). Frankly, I was not fazed by this round because I knew I could rattle up something/anything and move on.
They divided us into many (many) groups. I was in group number 12. I waited patiently till my turn..trying to think of good points for any current affairs topic. At last they called us in..we were 10 of us. "Social networking sites, good/bad for youth'. Aah this I ll definitely clear I thought.
And I did.

6.30 PM (I think)

Since I cleared my GD I was next in line for technical interview. Technical, my foot. I knew nothing technical in anything except maybe in my field. Some lady called my name and I ran into a room that read 'Panel 4' (I think). There I was sitting in an interview room for the first time in my life!!I could not process my thoughts but I tried to remain as cool as possible.(I kept reminding myself that this was not the end of the world..but somewhere inside me I wanted to be 'victorious').
Let me tell you, apart from a very few basic 'C' questions she did not trouble me. She asked me about my projects and technicalities involved. I explained everything with utmost elaboration and diagrams.(Yes I overacted to impress her). I smiled and nodded at her so much that I felt a little dizzy afterwards.
But it was all worth it. It went well and I was happy.


7.30 PM

It was time for the results ..and 3 of us from my class cleared the interview along with 70 others. They wound up for the day and asked us to sleep over the fact that we had another round tomorrow. (paragraph writing was not elimination round)
Great !How Am I going to sleep?!

DAY 2

8 AM
I was ready by 8 AM today (Yes, I wore a suit that my friends had gifted me on my birthday..loved it). I reached college at around 9 and directly went to placement and training room.

10AM
Well, the 'company fellows' showed up by around 10 O'CLOCK.They did not waste much time in giving the topic for paragraph writing. 15 minutes and they collected the paper. I was pleased with what I wrote. It was decent, I thought.

11AM

One of the coordinators announced 10 names and asked us to go for HR interview, immediately. Like NOWW. (Yes I was the second to go in!!).

The interview was not technical, but it was the 'make or break' types.It was chilled out . The panelist made me read out my passage. He said a 'good' in the end (I'm sure he wasn't listening). He asked me if I was ready to relocate and I promptly said 'YES'. (it was like a reflex..anything he asked and I said 'Yes, of course, Why not Sir?').He asked me why I wanted this company only when I had other companies coming. I gave such a tactical answer for this..(I gave an imaginary pat on my back for my instant answer!) .If I reveal the answer, I ll have to reveal the company..Ping me on FB for this.

11.30 AM

I was done with all the rounds..what to do now? I called Dad, Mom and everyone and told them what happened. I was bored.12PM , 1PM, 2PM..no change in status. Yawn.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>Fast forward

7.PM (yes you read it right!)

After the 7 hour wait..finally the scenario started to change. Students were done with all rounds and results were in sight.HRs, leaving out the formal stuff started announcing THE names. 10-15 names passed..no sign of my name..(Damn they chucked out all Biotech people! Why did we join this branch?).

Suddenly..there it was..NIMISHA EP (I was so proud of my name that day).
What?? I got the job?Before this could sink in...he called out my friend's name. Yay two of us from Biotech. (\m/)
They took 55 of us that day, 55 'champions'.

This is how 30th and 31st August went from being really ordinary days to extra ordinary days in my life!!!(and for 54 other people).

PS : I would like to tell you that I rejected this offer recently, but I will hold this experience dearly as it was and will be my first real job experience!

The melancholy of Bollywood movies.

'Second half of the movies Rockstar and The Dirty Picture would make the worst movie ever.' I happened to hear this on  radio and it made me wonder.Why? What is the problem with the second half of Bollywood films? (There are movies with both the halves being hopeless, but let's not get into that now).

In India, superstars are made overnight. Today, the elite '100 crore club' is something every Bollywood hero aspires to see himself in. Indian/Bollywood movies are defined by the money they make and rarely by the content of the film. For instance 'Son of Sardar' and 'Bodyguard' were called sooper hits and praised by every viewer. I died watching one and  survived because I did not watch the other.

Heroine. How can Kareena Kapoor market 'Heroine' as her most expressive performance when the movie is full of stereotypes and artificiality?

Players. Enough has been said about this film but I'm forced to say a thing or two. Sonam Kapoor as a hacker and Bipasha Basu as an automotive engineer ? 'You've made fun of your film already, Sir.'

Is it  impossible to write a not so over-the-top screenplay? Are the screenplays contrived ? Why else would actors accept movies like they do? Why else would Akshay Kumar act in that alien movie and market it as if it were EPIC?All this goes beyond me.

Coming to some good cinema Bollywood has produced in the recent past..Barfi. Okay don't throw your footwear at me, I enjoyed it. I realize it was blatantly copied ,but the fact that I enjoyed the film cannot be taken away.

Kai Po Che.. well I did not thoroughly enjoy this film but it should be credited for being the first mainstream medium to showcase Gujarat riots. Kahaani..well it was a fine film. They tried to make the film real but I'm a little hard to impress I guess. I distinctly remember a scene where Vidya interacts with a couple of kids and that scene reminded me it wasn't as real.

I just remembered..SONGS. One main ingredient for success! 'Cocktail' - the songs were so catchy that the zero content script was forgiven. A certain percentage of viewers enjoyed the film too because of those well timed songs. Humph!

 I'm of the opinion that no song/actor/director should compromise the script.But who cares for my opinion.

Okay going back to whatI do best.Nothing.

Ciao.

Observations..

Just a while ago I made a trivial observation..I did not want to dismiss it because trivial observations can lead to ground breaking results(but not this time around). Anyway I realized I text messaged a friend of mine who stays not so far away. Well nothing new I know..but this got me thinking.I wondered about our heightened sense of dependency on technology. This dependency has become so deep rooted  in such a short span of time!

For fun's sake let us imagine our day with minimum technology .I know its hard, but let us give it a try.
So you wake up in the morning on a coir mattress ( say like the mattresses made in SSIs which are not heavily mechanized). You freshen up and then think of checking your Facebook page...oh wait!You do not have a computer, let alone internet.YAWN..a boring day already.Why don't you go outside and enjoy the nature around you?Sigh!What about a TV or a cell phone? No..that's absent too.
Well then you might as well go back to sleep.

Time for another observation..Recently I had a neighbour wishing me on my birthday(so sweet of her). Well the funny thing is she wished me through Facebook when she could just as easily have wished me in person. I agree a FB wish would save you the cost of a long distance call but wont a face to face wish have more warmth than a virtual message..?  Well I don't know anymore..because I too have been caught in the cobweb of the virtual world..where everything is unreally real. Its not a bad thing altogether, but sometimes it is nicer to meet people and keep the spirit of relationships alive.(bleh)

Yes there are times when I wish things would go back to being simple and straight like in the 90s.(but then Woody Allen showed that all of us did want to go back). So I should stop my observations (indeed trivial) and breathe all of it in!

The teacher in me..

Saturdays..

I'm looking forward to every Saturday..no not because it is a weekend, but because I get to meet some very interesting students.Yes, MY students.

A close friend of mine told be about Indian Literacy Project( ILP), a program which supports education and literacy projects in rural and remote areas across India.Their main objective I learnt was to be a 'catalyst' for 100% literacy in India. For this, college/school going children or youth in general could be the 'co factors'. This interested me greatly. If I could teach somebody/anybody of what little I know and if that would help the person..then there was nothing better.So we registered for the program and waited anxiously for the following Saturday.

On D Day, one Mr.Harish met us halfway and led the way. He is the man in charge of ILP in that area.A very genuine Harish brought us into this clean yet discolored room. I was fidgety because I did not know what to expect. Two minutes later, 40-50 children swamped the room with a biig thud.They were welcoming us with flashing smiles and wavy hands. I was thrilled to know that they were as excited as I was. Made me less nervous in a way. Harish introduced us to the children and briefed us on what we could do. He told us we could arrange activities, read stories to them..familiarize them with English words ..bottom line was to keep them engrossed.

I decided to begin by reintroducing myself.. I looked at their faces, glistening and happy. It was clear to me that they wanted to be here.No amount of laziness or force was behind their coming (it was unusual to me because that's not how I went to school). I asked them to tell their names, school and standard. There were students from 1st standard to 8th standard, all of them from Government schools. They admitted that Kannada was an easier medium of communication(in comparison with English I assumed).
We chatted for quite sometime and I got a vague idea as to what I could do.
After a while my friend suggested we make one big circle and ask random questions to each other. We began with 'Which is the capital of India, Karnataka' and the like. Then we moved into cricket and not surprisingly it struck a chord.The boys knew considerably well about cricket( the girls were a little clueless though). One particular boy Shreyas, he surprised us. He could name winners of the cricket world cup since the first tournament in 1975 to the present (with the year). Lovely, we thought! A while later, the tables turned..they took us on by asking us proverbs and 'kadamkadhas'  in Kannada and we did NOT know the answers. They lightly mocked us and we laughed too.With some more gibber jabber..we decided to call it a day. By waving a biig 'Tata'..we left. I could still hear their screams and cheers behind me. I thought next time I would be more prepared.

For the next Saturday, we prepared tiny chits with one English word written in it.So whichever word you pick, you make a sentence using the word. As usual they ran into the class on seeing us..and we began with no further delay. We told them what we had planned for the day and they had an expression which pretty much said 'Game on'. So one by one they picked up chits and made( tried to make) sentences. Some were so enthusiastic that they came for the second..third round. Later, we split the group into two and began reading stories to them. A boy named Narayana told me he knew many many words in English. I told him to write down as many as he knew. He did so and it was quite frankly a big list. He confessed that he could not speak English even though he knew all the alphabets and words(well English is a funny language). I felt an urge in me to help him..I told him I would do my best and guide him in that respect. I was also glad to see young girls, sitting along with theirs brothers and reading books. We read  a lot of books and stories to them..
My friend noticed some children getting restless.. so we ended things for the day. Before we left, they asked us if we could arrange a painting competition next week. They also wanted prizes..a pen for first, followed by a pencil and then an eraser. We agreed at once because this indicated that they liked us wanted us back with more to offer..

A big wave and we left..left with a sense of contentment and unconditional joy.

Kkkahani Khatam Kab Hogi?

Watching television serials has become a major part of the average Indian homemaker. An unending saga about Saree-clad women would almost always be the storyline.In the past month, I have had a terrible time watching episodes from a serial(from a well known channel) and I have to say these writers are more creative than science fiction writers! My question is how one can sit through every episode knowing very well that it is over hyped and exaggerated?!Some soaps bring mind numbing 'twists' like introducing a twin for every damn character!!

Ekta KKKapoor has already done enough damage with her KKkahanis. She has taken cinematic liberty to another level.Every serial of hers has a central character who is the epitome of love, goodness and all the likes, when in today's world survival is dictated by nerve and spine.So please wake up and smell the coffee, Mam!

In another one such brainless drama, a character falls into a coma. The doctor and a 'swami' suggest she marries as its the only way she can 'come back to life'. How preposterous can it get? A medical miracle of some sort would still be believable!Rural parts of the country which have access to these serials can fall prey to these situations and even go to the extent of mimicking them. Instead of using  television media to the advantage of projecting good sense and judgement, it is doing the exact opposite.

I  seriously hope and pray that a brand of healthy and sound serials are contrived by sensible writers, because our women(who are the targeted audience) deserve a lot more.