Festivity and the Fading Charm

My last post readers would have definitely understood my interest for Durga Puja . I had been waiting for this season since 1 year. Last year I could not visit my hometown – Dhanbad for Durga Puja where I enjoyed it since my childhood for 21 years. And suddenly on the 22^nd year I could not attend it because of my job. This seriously depressed me and I decided to save holidays at any cost to visit my homeplace for Durga Puja. I did so successfully. But what hurt me was the charm of Durga Puja celebrations being faded.

I could simply think sitting with two of my old friends who were similarly determined to visit this year. What came out of our discussion were myriad things ranging from people migrating from their homes, monotone and price rise. Puja pandal used to be a place where we could meet up friends, have long discussions on schools, colleges, fun, crushes,have love-at-first-sights (some of them even leading to a long term relationships). But this time all I could observe were things going for the sake of tradition. There were some elderly people who were carrying on the Puja ceremony with a dull energy. The most eerie feeling comes when some acquaintances and old friends who have settled in the same place are now married and more surprisingly are having kids. They have definitely joined a different league. You can’t crack jokes with them!! The crowd was sparser at the Pandal. The ice-cream and the panipuri chat shops which used to be at high demand were not flooded with customers. All these deeply saddened the festive charm of Durga Puja.

                                But the best part comes when I could really feel a bit satisfied was seeing the crowd shed tears for Goddess Durga on the Immersion of the idol. The 4-day affair of Puja gives new friends, new experiences and most importantly the feeling of change in us. Goddess Durga in her presence makes everyone feel special. People still have faith. People still have the attachment with the Festive spirit. The tears trickling down the cheeks while immersing the idol and the chant of “Jai Durga” divulge the emotion.I could sense the pain on my heart which is similar to something close to you being taken away and that's inevitable. At the end of the day - some things cant be the same. Things change, People bound to change and Priorities should change.

Durga Puja, Bengal and Indian Railways

A blog post after nearly 2 years.
Its Durga Puja and the luckiest thing one can have during this time is an A/C class ticket in railways to home. Yes I had one – though that was booked 120 days before the journey right at 8 am, but the moment you see even the Sleeper class packed like match boxes with sticks and an A/C Confirmed ticket in your hand, that feeling is awesome. As soon as I got in the bogie I could see that one of the most revered trains in South India – Coromondal Express was bearing a deserted look inside. Though I was initially a bit disappointed but thanks to the attendee who looked after it immediately. Durga Puja and Bengal form a best combo for festivity. As soon as the train smears into Bengal, I could smell the festive aroma. Getting down at Howrah is very special for me. All my childhood memories of travel through Howrah reel in front of my eyes. The liveliness of Howrah attracts me a lot. Literally, one can spend hours watching at the constantly running crowd of Howrah. Here, crowd never reduces; it just gives a message – “Keep Moving on”. I was wondering how all trains are jam packed and people with all pain are travelling just to reach home and enjoy with their beloved, the blessings of Maa Durga. Everyone looked tired but the eagerness to reach home flashed in their eyes and this was the same case with me. All the feeling of happiness in returning to home was intensified with the vigour I could sense on my way. Though I didn’t have the opportunity to visit Kolkata during Durga Puja, the glimpse of the festive mood itself was reverberating.
Wishing everyone a Very Happy Dussehra, Vijaya Dasami and Shubho Bijoya.

My tour to Queensland Amusement Park, Chennai

We were planning to visit Queensland, Chennai from the third weekend of my internship and it got successful at the seventh or last weekend of it. Anyhow, we successfully executed the plan. This was really a thrilling and a nice experience. We decided to start from our guest house at around 8.30 am. But when four engineering students are going together there has to be late and yes we were. We started at around 9.30 and as we reached our dining table we found that the cook was absent that day. Now we had to get our breakfast in some restaurant which was really very difficult to find in a town like that - Ranipet. But good luck was on our side and we got it.

Finally we boarded a bus to Chennai that dropped us directly to Queensland. This entire one-and-a-half hour journey, we (me, pramodt, manohar and abhinav) discussed about roads in India, jobs in Tamil Nadu, industries in Sriperumbudur (this town is an industrial town which was on our way to Queensland) and Rajiv Gandhi. You may be thinking why on earth they discussed about Rajiv Gandhi on their Queensland journey. Well, guys let me remind you of Sriperumbudur – the place where Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. The place is now his Samadhi and a large Indian flag keeps fluttering there which may make you raise your hand for salute – I did. This place was now a tourist attraction in that small industrial town. Many major companies like Nokia, Motorola, Saint Gobain, Borg-Wagner, Hyundai, Caparo had their industries set up there. Here I and pramodt were amazed by the huge Hyundai Company. We both thought the same thing at the same time. We would love to work in Hyundai at such a place which is just 45 mins drive from Chennai. And then finally we reached Queensland. Aah..!!
Entering into it we found the ticket counters. Rs.350/- per head was the entry ticket fare. Then we went on and tried to get into the maximum rides we could. The first one was the Free-fall tower which would take us to a height and then leave immediately. Then we went on to many other thrilling rides. Then in the second-half of the day, I and Pramodt went into the water theme park inside Queensland only. We enjoyed around 2 hours there. The sad part was that we couldn’t take pics there. Now after all these, we went to the Rope-Way Car. Though we had a splendid view of the park from the sky or rather in a mechanical engineers’ language – THE TOP VIEW but this ride was the best for couples. You can understand why…
Finally it was now the returning time. Nothing special in it. Caught bus to Poonnamalle and then returned to Arcot, then Ranipet and to our Guest House.

Mahabalipuram Tour

I wrote about my journey to Kalpakkam in my last post. In Kalpakkam, I stayed at my friend’s house. There, we all planned to visit Mahabalipuram the next day evening. We started off at 4 pm in Rahul’s cars from his house. We were 4 (me, rahul, Chandra and srinu) in number, all in our three-fourths(bermudas). Finally we left Anupuram and headed towards Mahabalipuram. Here I should mention about Rahul’s driving which was really good or rather better than what I expected. We went through the road called ECR. I earlier read somewhere on the internet that this specific road is best for nature buffs. Well as we went through the road, it proved itself. Again prior to my Mahabalipuram trip it rained heavily in Anupuram at around 3pm. So the weather was nice with slight sunlight. “This had to be an ultimate visit” I mumbled to myself. The cool breeze made my creative self to come out and started finding words to describe the nature. This is the essence of nature.
We reached Mahabalipuram. I could hear the roars of the waves at the beach. Mahabalipuram was famous for its Shore temple. If we go a bit factual this place is listed on the world heritage sites being famous for monolithic stone temples. We walked into the Shore temple premises. I was amazed to see such a historic temple standing just beside the sea. It is said that there were 7 temples like the one standing now but all got submerged into the sea some centuries back. . I would like to bring to your notice that this place was also one of the places seriously affected during the Tsunami which hit Tamil Nadu. Tsunami caused the dislocation of some of the temple parts which were later brought into their places when found. The temple was completely carved out of only one stone and so is called ‘Monolithic’. Such a standing beauty beside the sea mesmerized me. We went into the temple and found that it was under renovation and anyways our purpose of visit was served. I did some photography of the temple and then went to the beach. There was a huge rush of the people there. The beauty of the beach was so ravishing that it could spellbind anyone. We walked along the shore with waves hitting our feet only. We enjoyed that. Now we moved back to our car while on the way I saw some shops which sold bangles, bags, wrist bands...Our next destination was Arjuna’s Penace and the Lighthouse. By the time we reached there, we found that the gate was closed. On enquiry with the local people, we got to know that we could jump over the fence and go inside. We tried and went inside. Here, I saw a stone…no…no, a boulder which was standing still on a slippery rock and I was told that many body-builders from across the country were called to destabilize the rock but none could do that. Even the mighty Tsunami couldn’t do any harm to that. That was the history of that ‘Boulder’. Now we went to the lighthouse where we saw how the lighthouse in olden days used to be with a contrasting modern one beside it only. All along the path I could see caves and ‘Mantralayas’ which were used in the olden days. Then we headed to a Venkateswara temple nearby as it was Saturday. We visited the temple and went back to our den by 8.30pm.

Now that was a truly memorable evening. The most unforgettable part was the beach which has always been the most satisfying spot of enjoyment for me. This place specially the beach and the caves gave me an idea of writing a book on my tour to Tamil Nadu but then it sparkled to me that people may misinterpret that book as a tourist guide and would only abuse me if they find this kind of description. So, I immediately dropped that idea and thought of writing this post on my blog. I would like to thank Rahul, his bro and his friend Srinu for such a wonderful evening.

My Journey from Ranipet to Kalpakkam

Friday is a day (in a 5-day-a-week work) when our mind is busy thinking of the weekend to come next and so was mine. After my office work-time was over I was very excited about the trip to Kalpakkam and quickly boarded the bus to my guest house and then I packed all the necessary items into the bag and started off. I had to go through Kanchipuram then Chengalpattu and then to Kalpakkam.
I took the bus from my guest house (ESI) to Muthu Kadi (the nearest bus stand from where I can board buses for long distances). I asked the nearby people about the bus to Kanchipuram in Tamil (P.S. I don’t know to speak Tamil but tried to). “Kanchipuram bus enga?” This I tried to learn which I still don’t know whether it is correct or not but it worked. My job was done. A lady who understood that I didn’t know Tamil asked if I knew Hindi and then advised me to go to the other side of the bus stand and ask a person who would be shouting the names of the places to go. Here I saw a short person who was constantly doing the same thing as indicated by the lady. I thought of asking this person about the bus. Well, he answered with his sign language to wait and was speaking – “Vellore, Katpadi…Vellore,Katpadi”. I understood. The bus that was standing was bound to vellore and katpadi but my bus was still to come. Now I asked a person in my broken accent of Tamil and swallowing the last words of the sentence as which number bus would go to Kanchipuram. He answered me 156 in ‘English’. Then, came the bus to Kanchipuram. I quickly boarded the bus along with the heavy rush. I luckily got a seat and then enquired a person sitting beside me, “what time it would take to reach Kanchipuram?” He said “This bus would take one and half-an-hour.” Then I understood why people were rushing into the bus. The bus conductor came and I took the tickets for Kanchipuram which costedme around Rs.13. Well, now the journey went well as I had to sit for 1.5 hours without any job but to look out of the window. A point to be noted that the weather was truly awesome as rain had fallen that evening. So I was literally happy at my heart enjoying the nature’s blessings. Then I reached Kanchipuram.
I was told by my friend Rahul to board the bus for Chengalpattu or direct bus to Kalpakkam that meant the bus no 157. Now I was pretty confident that I wouldn’t get the direct bus and so happened. I boarded the bus for Chengalpattu and did the same thing again. But this time the answer was forty to fifty minutes and I didn’t get a window seat also. This person whom I had asked about the time was also going to Kalpakkam, so he said that he would help me to reach Kalpakkam.
Forty minutes past we got down the bus at Chengalpattu and waited for bus number 108 which goes to Kalpakkam. Now this was to be the last bus (the last segment) I had to board to reach Kalpakkam. I took a seat which I luckily got though and called up Rahul who asked me to call when I would reach Thirukulakundram (sorry if the name is spelt wrong, I interpreted it so). Now the problem was how would I know if that specified place had come. Again my mind started working and it recollected all the Tamil words it had in its memory and sent me a status message of “No proper words for the situation”. Now my creative mind started working on sign language and successfully it conveyed to the person sitting next to me who specified clearly that “Only Tamil!” He also answered in his signs that he would get down at Thirukulakundram. I was happy and I started listening to my mp3 player. In the mean time I forgot that I hadn’t taken any ticket and suddenly the bus stopped. The person beside me got down. I realized that it was time for me to call Rahul. I did so as the bus headed to Anupuram (one of the township of Kalpakkam Nuclear plant) . Then as a very decent and responsible citizen of India, I raised my hand and said that I didn’t have a ticket. The bus conductor started to blabber something in Tamil. I said – “ennaku tamil teriyadu…” Now again he started to say something in Tamil which I felt had some aggression in it. Everyone in the bus started to glare or rather look at me as if I was any culprit who killed the driver and the bus has stopped. To confirm I looked diagonally to the outside of the window and I found that the bus was running which meant the driver was safe. Now the conductor gave me the ticket and asked me to pay the money on the ticket. Well, the good news was that he didn’t fine me for that. I tried to decode what the bus conductor said and understood that he said “This guy doesn’t know Tamil but knows how to say I don’t know Tamil in the same language” I couldn’t react but learnt a lesson that never say you don’t know the language in the same language. It can be really very dangerous.
Finally Anupuram came and got down and I saw Rahul waiting for me in his Hyundai Santro. Aah…!!! I reached Kalpakkam and Rahul took me to his home. This was about my journey from Ranipet to Kalpakkam. This journey was only for 3.5 hours but was one of the interesting journeys I ever had.

Paucity of life Vs Audacity of hope

I was busy on Facebook the last evening when my eyes suddenly got sight of a post by one of my friends – Anant Utkarsh. He posted some pictures under a heading – ‘Paucity of life Vs Audacity of hope’. Well, I was really very upset seeing those pictures as I had a feeling inside me that why should we be sad of something or why should we be depressed for something. We hear many people attempting suicide the other day due to some reasons which in context of them are very heavy but if compared to these are very little or in fact of no point. It was not like I haven’t seen those pictures before. I had a presentation of those pictures which held a thought that we should not waste our food, clothes, shelter which is gifted to us but we do not acknowledge. After seeing those pictures I felt like I am very lucky to have all sorts of happiness with me. I have been provided a nice shelter, good food and no lack of anything and moreover I have parents who are constantly taking care of me, my health and my needs and providing them to their best. I had a very sincere thought that we should see the plight of these people and not only try to help them but also try to induce in ourselves that whatever we have should be respected and we should feel grateful to the god for providing us with all necessary items. So please guys forgive for a very serious thing in my post and start thanking god for wverything we have and whenever you feel low think of someone who is deprived of the thing you have got and get satisfied because a well wisher once said to me…”At some point of time you have to be satisfied with whatever you get…”

1st day of Internship

I woke up early (early according to my schedule at 7 am) and got ready for my internship’s 1st day at ArcelorMittal Dhamm Processing Pvt. Ltd.(AMDP). Today we had the company bus starting from the Guest House itself. So, we got into it and after reaching here we found that the company had its own canteen and everyone was heading for the breakfast. As we had already taken our breakfast at the Guest House, we ignored that (thanks to Velu, our cook at Guest House). After our entry to the company, we were briefed about the safety instructions by the Head HR, AMDP and then we started our very tiresome task of waiting for Mr. Devjeet Chowdhary, Production Head, AMDP. Well we waited till lunch, then had our lunch and then again back on to our already going-on task of waiting till 3.30 pm. Finally this person got some time from his busy schedule of meetings and showed us or rather gave us the permission to enter into the shop-floor where actually the company work was going on. Now we were excited for this and were waiting for this moment from morning 9. Then we were told that we would be getting our project title or theme in a few days. After this we sat with the HR for around 1 hour and had a very fine discussion…hmm…fine, no we can’t say it a fine discussion but one that ranged from production to recruitment, expansion to subsidiaries, bla, bla and bla which finally ended up at our accommodation at the Guest House. Now we were even promised a separate cabin with internet connection from the next to next day. So, a very good point to celebrate…By now was the time for leaving. It was around 5.30 and the company bus was to leave at 5.45. So we quickly rushed to the bus stop and caught it on time. Thus we were back to our Guest House and so my first day at internship ended.