Archive for the ‘School/College’ Category
Cult Movies: Down the memory lane
Cult movies is an altogether different phenomenon. Once in a while there comes a movie which is followed widely across the college campuses. You could see everyone humming the songs, enacting the dialogues and discussing it all over. They are not bound by the movie being a hit or a flop, good or bad. They are there on the merit of clicking with the youngistan, so to say. During my college days I came across a number of such cult movies, which were watched repeatedly, each time with as much excitement.
1. Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein: It was released during my school days. I remember everyone going, “Maddy..Maddy” The tiffs between Saif and Madhavan were legendary. The ever cute Reena Malhotra and the innocent and lovable Madhav Shastri were a treat to watch. When the car stopped in the middle of the night and Madhavan tried to explain to Dia, what was really on his mind. Superb. I came to know more about its cult status when I came to college. Regardless of it not being a hit, it was loved by one and all. At least across the colleges.
2. Haasil: Another of such movie which made a huge impact on an entire generation. One which made Irfan Khan a household name when he went like, “Kya Bhaiyya…pehchante ho na humein?” It went on to become a dialogue which replaced the hi’s n hello’s The arrogance of Ranvijay Singh, the politics of Gauri Shanker and the innocence of Aniruddha. A Gem. I don’t remember how many times have I watched this movie with my friends. What I remember is lip-synching each and every dialogue, having learned it by heart. “Vaayu ko ulta karte ho to kya banta hai? Yuva”, “Bolo Jai Bharat” and million of such superb dialogues is what made Haasil. A realistic account of college politics which struck the cord with the college Junta.
3. Gunda: This movie followed the theory that number line is circular, –∞ and +∞ do meet, just as -1 and +1 meet at 0. This movie was so bad that it became a favorite of millions. Every dialogue was like a short poetry and Kanti Shah knew how to make them lewd. “Mera naam hai bulla, main rakhta hoon kullaaa”, became an introductory dialogue. There were blog sites dedicated to Gunda. There were discussions as to the sequence of various scenes in the movie. The blogs that were initially started as satire helped in propelling the movie to the cult status. Did Shankar worked as a Coolie at the airport still remains one of the very many unanswered questions. There was even a bid to make it the highest ranked movie on imdb. It still has a respectable 8.4 rating despite an effort of sabotage. Thanks to the Gunda fans.
4. Dev. D: This recent take on Devdas, is what made me write this article. Will it become a cult movie? Now that I am no longer in college, I would never really know. But it seems to have all the ingredients. First of all the songs are bound to become the theme of every daaru party. The dialogues are superb too. “Jaa ke chad apne buddhe pe”, “Tumhein tumhari aukaat bata rahi hoon” and other such dialogues would easily find their place in the life of college going junta. Also there is no dearth of Dev’s and Paro’s. Going by the superb story, acting and direction, I have no doubt that it would be the next cult movie. I so miss to be in college right now!
Confusingly Chaotic
During the college farewell, a batch mate of mine asked, “So, where do you see yourself, 10 years from now?” I did what I do best, excuse myself with the sheepish smile. I never had to answer myself this question before. I mean I did schooling coz everybody do. There was no vision or so called planning that went into it. I went for JEE coz that’s what was “the hottest” at the given time. I opted for Computers for no other reason.
I remember a discussion with friends over dinner, “Why they opted for the particular engineering stream?” For most of them the criteria was Rank. I mean come ‘on, if 80 out of top 100 rankers (and more) are opting for Computer Science, that doesn’t mean all of them have such deep interest in it that they would have perished without it Or that the ones who didn’t get it were never interested in it. So let’s get one thing into perspective. What your interests are doesn’t matter during the cut throat competition in a developing world.
I took the job hoping to rise up the ladder along the normal path. As it was about to happen, the elastic snapped. The economic bubble burst and the condition of uncertainty in jobs might have led to the current thought process. Did I really want to be a software developer when I grew up? Was that my dream? If no then am I doing what I never wanted to, 5 days a week 9 hours a day, just to enjoy the weekends of my life. Has my life contracted to mere weekends?
This takes me back to the concept of civilized living. When was the concept of “work” proposed? Who proposed it? Why we followed it? We live on a spherical ball, don’t know where are we coming from, don’t know what’s inside the sphere, what’s outside the view. Just going on working through the week to enjoy the weekends. Working through our youth to enjoy the old age. Something doesn’t seem right. The concept seems flawed. It’s too mechanic, too un-human.
Maybe it’s this mechanics in our life that lead us to a peaceful timely death. Or the chaos would have had us much before.
College: A place to make friends
I completed my graduation recently and have taken up a job. The transition phase of life is as complicated as it is exciting. It’s not as if, I had to move for the first time. It’s just that the four years at college imparts stability and in that sense a settling feeling to life. Moving away from the cozy spaces of college to the material world is not as easy as it sounds. It’s not just the college and the hostel room you are leaving behind, it’s far more complicated than that.
At college you begin as a fresher, go through various facets of life, learn zillion things or as they say mature. During the first year you meet a lot of people. Slowly and steadily you find your own comfort space and the people who you are comfortable with. We call them friends. You live a lot of lives with them; you die a lot of deaths with them.
There are times when you are happy and you party with friends. There is time when you all plan a mischief and execute it nervously and then it becomes a routine. They are the people who, even if screw you, you share a laugh with them on your being screwed. The first time when you were holding a drink and you hands were shaking, there were friends who too had shaky hands but gave you a zillion fundas and spoiled you and got spoilt in return. You shared the first smoke with them and had GD over the first adult film you saw. They consoled you when you were down. They carried you on their shoulders when you a bit a too drunk. You shared each and every secret of your life with them. They were your teachers, they were your students. This can go on endlessly.
All of these are not things that one can just brush aside. They remain an integral part of memory which remains etched in forever. A lot has been written over friendship and a lot would be written in future. For me it’s one of the strongest relationships in life. There are times when it goes sour. But when you are in deep trouble you know that there are friends you can bank upon. This for me sums it up.
सायोनारा: अलविदा सैंट पीटर्स
My farewell speech 12 Std, St. Peters College Agra, 2003.
कुछ बीती बातों का छोड़ रहा हूँ फव्वारा,
सायोनारा|
दिल कि डायरी का है यह सार सारा,
सायोनारा|
इस कविता में अपनी पहचान ख़ुद से है करारा यह बेचारा,
सायोनारा|
सुबह घंटी बजने के ५ मिनट बाद नियमपूर्वक क्लास में है आरा,
सायोनारा|
बिना पास के साइकिल स्टैंड वाले को दस रुपये का किया इशारा,
सायोनारा|
बिन पॉलिश के जूतों और लंबे बालों को लिए क्लास में है घुसा जारा,
सायोनारा|
डायरी न लाने पर एक दोस्त के कवर व बाकी से पन्ने लेकर असेम्बली में जाने की जुगाड़ है बिठारा,
सायोनारा|
एडवर्ड सर की नजरों से बचने के लिए गंदे जूते पैंट से है घिसे जारा,
सायोनारा|
छोटे कद का होकर भी असेम्बली की लाइन में सबसे पीछे है लगा जारा,
सायोनारा|
प्रयेर के टाइम पे गर्लफ्रैंड के किस्से है सुनारा,
सायोनारा|
नेशनल ऐनथम के दौरान अटेंशन में नहीं खड़ा हुआ जारा,
सायोनारा|
‘गुड मोर्निंग टीचर’ को के.एल. सहगल के गीत की तरह है सुनारा,
सायोनारा|
पहले ही पिरिएड में टिफिन का लिया चटकारा,
सायोनारा|
चुपके से दूसरे कि बोतल से पानी है पिया जारा,
सायोनारा|
लीव ऐप्लीकेशन न लाने पर जल्दी से मम्मी-पापा का साइन है किया जारा,
सायोनारा|
बिना सिलेबस कि किताबों के भी नोविल्स के बोझ से बैग है फटा जारा,
सायोनारा|
बोरिंग लेक्चर के बीच नींद में डूबा जारा और पकड़े जाने पर घिसा पिटा राग सुनारा,
सायोनारा|
मॉरल साइंस के पिरिएड में फादर के संग ठहाके है लगारा,
सायोनारा|
इंगलिश के पिरिएड में में मैथ का काम है किया जारा,
सायोनारा|
मैथ का पिरिएड आने पर सिस्टर ऑफिस भागा जारा,
सायोनारा|
एग्जाम से पहले बैठकर महनत से फर्रे है बनारा,
सायोनारा|
टीचर के सिर को एरोप्लेन की लैंडिंग प्लेस है बनारा,
सायोनारा|
चुन-चुन कर दूसरों पे रबड़ में फंसाकर बुलेट है बर्सारा,
सायोनारा|
पंखे, ट्यूबलाईट और, बल्ब को चॉक का निशाना है बनारा,
सायोनारा|
तबियत ख़राब होने का बहाना बनाकर घर को भगा जारा,
सायोनारा|
फ़ुटबाल मैच में सामने वाले को धक्का देकर गिरारा और ख़ुद गिरने पर बाहर मिलने का न्योता देकर आरा,
सायोनारा|
जूनियर साइड में नल की लाइन पर जाकर छोटे बच्चों को है हड़कारा,
सायोनारा|
इंटरवल की घंटी बजने पर खिड़की से है कूदा जारा,
सायोनारा|
कैंटीन में ५ रुपये में दो पैटी लेकर अपनी बुद्धि को है इतरारा,
सायोनारा|
औरों की बर्थडे की ट्रीट खाकर अपनी बर्थडे के दिन स्कूल में न दिया नज़ारा,
सायोनारा|
एब्सेंट होने पर रोज नया बहाना बनरा,
सायोनारा|
कैंटीन की भीड़ में अपनी शक्ति का पूरा जोर दिखारा,
सायोनारा|
दूसरे के बर्गर के चिथड़े कर फूले नहीं समारा,
सायोनारा|
दो दोस्तों के बीच डब्लू.डब्लू.एफ करवाकर मंद-मंद मुस्करारा,
सायोनारा|
क्लास से बंक मारकर पूरे स्कूल में गश्त है लगारा,
सायोनारा|
पीछे बैठकर दोस्तों से गप्पें है लडारा,
सायोनारा|
एग्जाम में आगे वाले को आन्सर बताने के लिए पटारा और न बताने पर उसे भूखे शेर कि तरह है घूरे जारा,
सायोनारा|
केमिस्ट्री लैब में नाइट्रिक एसिड से घर की टकसाल के सारे सिक्के है चमकारा,
सायोनारा|
विभिन्न रसायनों को मिला सतरंगी चित्र है बनारा,
सायोनारा|
५ टी.टी और दो बीकर तोड़ने की गाथा गर्व से पूरी क्लास को है सुनारा,
सायोनारा|
फिजिक्स लैब में मरकरी कि गोलियाँ है बनरा,
सायोनारा|
वहाँ के इन्सटरूमंट्स तोड़कर, उनके पहले से टूटे होने कि ख़बर सच्चाई से टीचर को है सुनारा,
सायोनारा|
प्रोजक्ट टाइप करने के बहाने पूरा दिन कमप्यूटर लैब में ऐ.सी. के मजे है उड़ारा,
सायोनारा|
मक्खन लगाकर सब टीचर्स का बनना चाह रहा दुलारा और दूसरों के मक्खन लगाने को सहन नहीं कर पारा,
सायोनारा|
स्पोर्ट्स डे की शाम कॉरिडोर में बम्ब है छुड़ारा,
सायोनारा|
और भड़ाम की आवाज आने पर सीना फूलकर दुगना हुआ जारा,
सायोनारा|
एग्जाम टाइम में सब टीचर्स के पैर छूकर जारा,
सायोनारा|
सेकंड क्लास की सीड़ियों से “ग्रेट वाल पार आफ चाइना” के उस पार है झाँका जारा,
सायोनारा|
स्कूल के अन्दर आने के रास्ते में बड़ा गेट आते ही स्पीड धीमी कर मुंडी है घुमारा,
सायोनारा|
कम्बाइंड स्कूल सैलिब्रैशन के लिए १५ अगस्त का इंतज़ार है किया जारा,
सायोनारा|
इन सब को याद कर बड़ी मुश्किल से हूँ में अश्रुधारा को रोक पारा,
सायोनारा|
सैंट पीटर्स के गलियारों में दिल मेरा हारा,
सायोनारा|
यहाँ है सब टीचर्स का स्नेह और फादर मैथ्यू का प्यार बहुत सारा,
सायोनारा|
यहाँ है मानवता का फव्वारा,
सायोनारा|
यह है मार्गदर्शक हमारा,
सायोनारा|
येह है प्यार का गुलिस्तां हमारा,
सायोनारा|
आज इन सब चीजों को कर रहा हूँ में सायोनारा
सायोनारा, सायोनारा, सायोनारा…
…अलविदा सैंट पीटर्स…
Dreaming again 3: Friends For Sale
We had an unexpected break this Thursday. The lecture got cancelled (quite an anomaly!). Medical problem, I guess. It’s one hell of a problem in this side of the world, more so, if you are an outsider. I myself took time adjusting to the local weather, had to be medicated a couple of times. This takes me back a couple of years, when I snubbed the CMO, IITG. God! What a prig I was.
“…how to compute the probability…given the…we try to uncover the hidden part of the model…”
The nodding goes on as usual. Lata is sitting right in front of me or as they say I just came and sat right on the back of her. I tell you, I am losing charm in her overtime; her being married hasn’t helped much either. I think it’s finally over.
The Friends For Sale (FFS) application on Facebook is really making me crazy. When I meet someone new, I often find myself guessing how much he is worth.
“…we try to use optimality criterion to solve this problem as best as possible…”
Here comes champu and jj. Pucchu is not here yet. Today champu and I went to Prof. Ketaki. She is the instructor for our humanities course. It was about our presentation that is due.
“…model parameter is called the training sequence…”
Oops! Sir tried to peak into my writing.
I had one of the most satisfying talks with her. She sensed a bit of political sense in me from my mid-sem answer scripts. She talked about how not to lose sense of what we believe in and how we feel about it. “The whole world will try and take it away from you…but it’s so divine that it must be protected”. Her words are still ringing in my ears.
“…let N be the size of the code book. So we get the seq of vectors out of M diff. indexes”
Why is the attendance so low today? I can hardly count 15.
Where was I? Yes, champu. He is the sort of guy who keeps the group going. “Never let the fun die out”. Champu tried to peek into my diary. I gave him the finger.
“…to segment each of the word training sequence into stages and study the prob. Of the spectral vectors.”
God! I feel sleepy. It’s been 2 days now, I guess.
JJ and I finished working on a term paper recently. It dealt with DNA cryptography, such a novel idea. We have worked really hard on it. Hope it materializes.
It’s the purple suit and a brown hair clip today. Can’t I leave it already?
“…once the w-HMM’s recognition of an uttered unknown word is done using a solution to problem.. each word is modeled based upon the given test observation sequence…”
The FFS is engulfing like hell. I was just napping about it. God it’s great. I heard a remark about me sitting in this particular seat. I got the hint.
Champu sneezed, kido yawned while ld enjoyed the usual nap. FFS once again crossed my thoughts. Don’t call me crazy. If you think you don’t get addicted that easily, try it once.
Dreaming again 2: Profs, admin and acads
It’s raining outside, mildly though. We are all here, attending the lecture. It’s just the rain but I often wonder if even a natural calamity would give you a day off here at IIT! Classes need to be at the prescheduled time come what may.
Here, most of the administrative work is handled by the faculty. And going by the general feeling, these academicians often find it too hot to handle. Their performance speaks for it! But when it comes to acads, they are right up there. Lectures take place on time. Exams are never postponed. Labs and presentations progress smoothly. This leads to the obvious question: Why? Why the performance of dean acads is bound to be far better than that of dean establishment (say)? Wait a sec, why am I treading this path anyway?
What’s the chit-chat between praji and jj? I guess it’s about some Sodhi girl. Don’t they have something else to talk about? Let me fool around a bit. Ha! I just gathered Kumar Sir’s attention by sneezing. Sitting beside me they both were caught in the act.
“…If you have 100’s of occurrences of the same word…its unlikely unless you put the same data…the next need for using vector quantization properly…”
What a disturbance. Kumar Sir just glared at me while I was trying hard not to chuckle. As he dictates a lemma let me gather my thoughts. By the way what the hell is a Markov model?
Let me put a few words about praji. As the name suggests he is a sardar. I tell you this coz there is a legend related to it. In the very first year, a quadruplet became very famous. “praji, gd, nappy and dinky. Theirs were an eat-drink-sleep together kind of a gang, nicknamed “Sardar Chaukdi”. The fun lie in the fact that dinky’s full name is rahul shetty. I just teased praji about that Sodhi girl. He is frowning quiet bad.
JJ requires a special mention for he has surprised us all once again. He flew back today morning. All this after he got us convinced that he won’t be back anytime before two weeks. Sometimes I think he likes to fool around with people and surprise them just for the fun of it.
“…obeying the standard stochastic constraints where probability…called an observable Markov model…”
Gullu just cracked one on me. It’s becoming increasingly hard to control the laughter.
That left me wondering as to why the row sum, in a stochastic matrix, should always be equal to one.
Dreaming again
The music is very loud. The crowd is dancing in fun and frenzy. I can’t see much amidst the cigarette smoke, save the belly of my dance partner. What a unique belly button. Not round as all are, somewhat square as one may call it. Unique but stunning. No point hiding it, belly button is what turns me on the most. Suddenly the music has stopped. I can hear some humming. The belly button has moved away becoming round, making the belly flat and black.
Where was I? Oh! Yes, now I remember. Kumar Sirs lecture. Have I been day dreaming again, about yet another belly button? Oh my God! I have been.
“…where ar = The LPC’s of the reference and at will be the LPC of test…”
“What was all this junk”? Professor Kumar is trying his best to explain the concepts to us, but believe you me; I am getting none of it. Not that I am trying to. When I look around all I can see is 50 faces of people from Mars. I try to make a poker face, trying to save my emotions from spilling. Like I have any of them!
The guy sitting on my right, two rows ahead. I don’t know his name. He was one from the masters’ course. Why I or for that matter any of my bachelors’ colleague won’t know his name is a matter that I don’t want to rake up right now, but will take it up later.
So this guy, donning the thinnest nose I have ever seen is moving back and forth; trying to stay awake. What’s that outside the window? At a certain distance, I can see a dupatta, pink in colour. The more I try to focus, the more I can’t. The curtain in the room is trying hard to obstruct my view. No matter. I can still make up for the lost opportunity by using the power of my imagination. Alas! What am I turning into?
Enough of this monkey business. Let’s come back to the class room. Dada bond is sitting in the second row, extreme left, with his bag over his shoulder. Now that we have come to Dada bond, let me tell you why we call him bond. He is one of a kind. I remember during our first year at college when I was trying to grasp the basics of C. I still shiver to think of those days. At that time he used to hack our accounts. A lot of time his mail account was blocked by admin owing to unusual activities. That was the official reason though. Whatever, as usual he is with his bag on and jotting down each and every dot of chalk that Kumar Sir is making on the board. Why is he making all these notes in this last semester? It seems a bit unusual to me, but who cares.
Yes, I forgot to tell you, this is my last semester at college. 8th semester. 4 years have passed. I have always heard that time flows very fast. But it’s only when such moments arrive that you realize the gravity of the statement. It seems just like yesterday, when I first came to college. Now two months hence, I would be leaving all of this for a new place. But all these thoughts can wait, the lecture is important.
“…100 such values/sec will be streaming from source…we have to further do the analysis of the data by cepstral analysis…”
Sorry Pa! I can’t handle this at all. About Professor Kumar himself. He is one of the senior faculty members of CSE dept. Ah yes! I am in Computer Science Dept. This Kumar Sir is also one of a kind. His lecture may fall short of technical details but none that he speaks can be grammatically wrong. It all has to be articulated to the T. Current course, comes under his research interests. Thereby we are being subjected to two hours of agony or as they say double delight.
I am feeling bit like a goose. Coz while writing all this, I have to look once a while at the projector board and nod my head several times to imitate that I am following the lecture.
Well there is this lady in the class, the only one enrolled for this course (I really liked this line “in this course”, like the situation is any better otherwise). Let’s call her Lata. She is sitting just in front of me or better still I came and sat just behind her. She is the only one from Venus in the room.
Oh! Sir might have a hint that I am not following the lecture. Let me nod vigorously.
Back to Lata. I call her lady, coz she seems to be quite elder to us, having enrolled for a PhD. Now that I have come to her, let’s finish it off.
I first saw her in Preetam Sirs class. Preetam Sir, deserves special mention and I will come to him later in detail. I saw her and like we all here are, concentrated more on her than the lecture or the projector board. After these four years at a sex starved college, I am not shy anymore staring the opposite sex, if I see one. This went on for a week till I found out that she was married. Oh! One more of my infatuation breaks.
It’s hard for me to understand how one can continue studies even after marriage. Why deny those sweet moments of cuddling and love for such boring lectures. But I guess that’s my frustration speaking. Gaining knowledge is essence of life and can be done at any point in life. She is married but to still gaze at her like that? Maybe I see her as a ray of hope at the very end of the tunnel.
ArpitGarg's Weblog 