Kalpataru and beyond...

February 18th
The week long annual fest of IIFM, Bhopal called Kalpataru concluded yesterday night. Kalpataru stands for a mythological tree which is supposed to give us desired luck and fortune . Every year it is conducted in the month of February when the senior batch is about to graduate. The event is confined to the IIFM fraternity only making it a totally internal event. This week long event includes literary, cultural, sports, and adventure sports events in addition to final day skits and mandatory chief guest speech (can not help it).
In the race of medals and trophies were the teams and individuals from both junior and senior batches. But juniors as usual had the upper hand and outperformed us on various counts.
The concluding part of the week long festival is a cultural programme and high dinner. In this there is a tradition of performing skits by both the batches in addition to solo performances. This year our performance sent fumes across the higher echelons. Coming fortnight is the last one of our stay here at IIFM. A lot of planning has gone in to it to make these some of the most memorable days .End semester exams are near but hardly people care about it…come what may. Field trip to Sanchi, Thanksgiving party to faculty , farewell party by juniors and a trip to “Pachmarhi” are some of the things on card as of now. If time permits “Khajuraho” might as well be considered. Moreover, my other engagements are so important to attend that I am really not able to pay attention to these in a manner I would have otherwise done. So now the countdown begins…Fifteen….

The team adventure!!!

Friday : 7:30 a.m.

This was the second time my alarm watch rang continuously (Rangat teri julfon ki ghataon ne udai…hehehe…the tone which is waking me up for the last three years).Still forty five minutes remained for the adventure club activity “MISSION IMPOSSIBLE” to start. For the last two days I was working hard to get ten good members for my team to compete in this event. Finally got twelve of them (with two players in contingency) the night before the event. Average weight of the members well above 75 Kgs and all rustic seniors baring a few. We were still very positive about our chances out of sheer enthusiasm and earlier adventure sports experience. Finally I woke up and made a round to the rooms of my team mates in the hostel to get them ready...and it is not difficult to guess what happened. All of them were sleeping like a father whose daughter has been married yesterday. Funny things apart, only one of my team mates from the girl’s hostel was on time waiting for us to come. The game started half an hour late due to non arrival of our team members. Number of players in each team was now reduced to eight with total number of teams being three. We had to catch a terrorist on the basis of several clues and a Google earth photograph with good resolution of our campus and the trail given in that. All the teams had different paths and clues. Since our campus is very big and full of trees, shrubs, rocky terrain making such trail was not very difficult at all. At some stage or another we had to do trekking, Rappelling, Rope walking and commando net crossing. So we can say the game was meant for the people having mind with courage. By the time we exhausted all our clues traveling through the most difficult terrain in IIFM… (Scars are still visible on our hands) apparently it was late. But we were clueless…we were traveling at a good pace and were fairly motivated to win the cash prize and watch “EKLAVYA” with it…he he. This time we were doing rope walking on the ropes tied to two trees at a height of 20 feet… Eighty per cent of us were supposed to do that…But alas…the terrorist got caught by the first team and there was this sound of enthusiasm, triumph and valour …so we lost. Our heart sank for the moment but there was nothing that could be done now. We had tried our best. All of us…Six guys and two gals…But still we were very keen on doing rappelling and other activities (At least I was coz it might as well be the last opportunity for me …once off from campus it is really tough for people like me to plan such thing).I had some earlier experience in rope walking and rappelling …so it was totally a cakewalk this time…but jumping from your institute building has its own fun.
Truly speaking the game was “Mission impossible” for us. Many thanks to club adventure and Dhananjoy for organizing such a fabulous event. Hope I get other such opportunities in future…

Placement Party @ IIFM

The Residency…as they call it…venue for our placement party was full of managers oozing oomph….excited with their future career ahead and what not...prospects of getting something to take memories back home at the end of their two years here in Bhopal was looking brighter today. Party started with usual stuffs like mimicry, shows, acting performed by juniors. It took an hour ...Side by side taste buds were also being taken care of with all sort of appetizers n snacks ;).8 p.m. and it was time to fire the dance floor…for a change nobody was coming forth this time to initiate. And know what… four of us (including me...) were first to jump in to it and do some muscle twisting high power dance. As happens with any crowd…within 5 minutes...the whole hall was on the toes dancing to the tunes of Musicians ranging from Bryan Adams ,Dr. Alban , Himesh Reshamiya, Pritam to Sukhbir, Babbu man, Amar Arshi,Veronica n many more…It continued for next four hours…sometime songs being repeated… with a short break for dinner...Food was delicious although number of dishes were limited…but who eats all of ’em anyways…Mid way came “Sutta song”…grooving all the B schools in India for the last two years as a popular chart buster n the hall was hazy smoky…for the people like us (non smokers) life became a little difficult…but even we are accustomed to it now……and at 11-55 p.m. ends our show with “Summer of 69”…..bbye guys ..see you next in the farewell party…till then rock on!

n the memories fail to fade….
Stop bugging me stop bothering me
Stop bugging me stop forcing me
Stop fighting me stop yelling me
It's my life
It's my life….

The withdrawal syndrome…

Today, Time – 9:42 am: A scene in the chamber of one of our senior professors…
Two guys after attending the first class enter in to the cabin and ask the professor whether he is done with the work asked for, yesterday evening. He tells that two minor modifications to the mail being sent is required and further asks for some more details. First guy (in the picture…above) looks for the pen (hiding for ages in the pocket due to non usage) in the upper pocket of shirt…n hey…here comes a white tiny thin stuff….cigarette…oh my god! And the professor is struck bound! What the hell is that…are these guys using this for writing these days…? The guy too is remembering when did a pen find a place in his pocket last time? Second guy (me) now helps him with a pen (Padhoo ya na padhoo…pen jaroor rakhta hoon dude..).And thus ends the story.
This type of situation is not very uncommon in our campus these days…lots of similar things are taking place…rather unnoticed coz most of us are in the same boat. Is it after effect of placements or two years of rigour (really…!) which is finally taking tolls? Views differ...but general feedback is that both the factors are contributing to the situation. We are completing the whole circle in a month but with different outlook to life…we came empty handed…and preparing to fly off with loads of memories…Long live IIFM!!!

No more guest lectures of this kind please!

..Yeah and here comes the much talked and even more hated news from IIFM Campus…He called it “The Law of Reciprocation”. Consider two very important aspects in our practical life (1) What I am required to deliever and (2) What I deserve to get. There is always some deviation in the end result on both the counts…its inherent… its obvious.
It’s a scene from one of our guest lectures…hehe...no offence intended…n guys with shabby eyes deprived of full night sleep for countless days are looking with shabby, baggy eyes at the orator…sometimes wondering whether their watches have stopped working in this vacuumized Over Head Transmission (OHT…I owe this term to my best friend ).Ninety minutes have gone and still he continues (was scheduled for only forty minutes)…we have even increased the frequency and magnitude of our suggesting claps …so that he gets some hint…but no way…he is too preoccupied to see or listen all these. Now is the time people start fainting and napping and for people like me (I do not have this royal habit…although have tried it many times…but in vain).And the whole conference room is filled with the anesthesia… but stars don’t care.Tic..tic..tic…tic..;-(
Finally he calls it a quit and our endless wait is over …we try gather all our energy (Is there anything remaining? ) to run to the hostel ASAP…but caught in the crowd having same intentions...hehehe…somehow we get out of the back door and resurface in the heaven ‘THE HOSTEL”. Thus ends the ordeal of a typical guest lecture…but again…do we have any choice but to attend these. Hope we will have plenty of it after second march .So ending with what we say here at IIFM even in worst of the situations…Enjoy!!!

For someone important...

...watching your silence…parlance
Reminds me at times
My bewildering insignificance
sustained signs
questions unanswered ,eternal
idle as unattended tuckahoes
………….little do I know
to uncheck happenings,
probably unsullied ow
lingering long, slow
Still like a fresh bow
But I confess..........
to the light of hope, joy
Of my mergence...
To your chimes,
ringing and flavours original
engraved, I wait for you
My tomorrow!!