Some Fond Memories...

Ek tha engineering college, tha Somaiya jiska naam,
Hasi-khushi padhna yahi tha waha ke students ka kaam.

Wahi ki EXTC branch me padhte the ye namune sabhi
Dhyanse suniyega sab, kahani to shuru hui hai abhi-abhi.

Mai aur Sarika 1st benchpe baitha karte the
Hamare alawa sirf Neeta Suman lectures ko suna karte the

Jaha fan ki hawa pahuche Rekha-Dipti waha baitha karte the
Chahe dus baje ho ya baara, lecture ke bich bindhast khaya karte the.

Unke piche baithke Ami-Shalu n Averil SM ko saha karti thi
Ami-Shalu likhneme to Averil sochneme dang raha karti thi

Lecture me professor aaye ya na aaye, Arun jarur aata tha
D’mello ka to aadha waqt library mehi jata tha

Ek that Shot Shanker jo apnihi (GRE ki) duniya me rahta tha
Ek tha Chatu jo har baat ko haste hue kahta tha

Kaustubh n Mani KR ke lecture me kabhi dhyanhi nahi de paye the
Par WN me highest marks inhi donoke aaye the

SM ke lecture me Pandene sincerely sums kiye the
Lekin SM ne term work me use marks kam diye the

Dombivali me rahke bhi Akshay waqt se pehle aata tha
Aur dombivali me rahke Vijay shayad hi 9.30 se pehle pahuch pata tha

Har DCOM practs me Venky naye puzzles diya karta tha
Har din ke last lecture me Nadu ek apple khaya karta tha

Submission karib aate hi assignments badha karte the
Us tension me Ram ke gaane saath diya karte the

Koi ek like assignment to copy sab log kiya karte the
Koi ek ho present to bhi proxies se column bhara karte the

Beet gaye wo pyare din, sirf yaadoka silsila rah gaya
Chaha to tha waqt ko thame rakhna,
par wo to haatose paani ki tarah bah gaya

Alag ho chuki hi raahe par dosti abhi bhi barkarar hai,
Yaad karenge wo yaade jis din milenge hum…
Ab to hume sirf us din ka intejar hai…

-shubhada

Things we learn...

A man remains student for his entire life. And it’s very very true. Almost every moment in our life we learn one thing or other. Sometimes we don’t realize what we have learnt a moment before but some amount of learning goes into our brains. With plenty of free time in hand and mind working at the optimum speed I’m trying to revisit some of these learning moments.
It must have happened with you all too. When you badly want something to happen, it may not just happen that way. It often happens with me. And I say that God must have turned on the inverter circuit before accepting input from me.

What I have learnt: Be careful while asking for something to happen. You never know when the inverter is on. So play safe.

Sometimes you just wish something and you may not expect it to happen…but it happens. (Inverter is off. Or the wish is as minute as noise signal to go unprocessed through inverter.)
What I have learnt: wishes may come true. So no harm in expecting something. If you are too confused whether to expect something to happen or not then leave it to god. He has designed the circuit. He knows it better which signal to process at what time.

We come across a trivial problem in life. It can be anything ranging from mistake in a mark sheet, boss taking credit for our work to not receiving calls/mails from friends. We may react in loud manner. Coz the problem is too small to look at and we link it to many different things and make it big and confusing. So we waste a lot of energy in understanding the problem, reacting over it and then leaving it unsolved.
What I have learnt: no need to put on the analytical thinking caps for trivial issues. Some things happen for no or negligible reasons. Why waste energy in finding the cause which seldom exists. Sometimes its better to ‘Let go’ and ‘Move on’.

Now comes the big problem. These are the problems to which we have seen people around us reacting in different normal manners. But when it takes place in our life we tend to react differently. This problem is too big to have standardized solution. It can be anything ranging from failures in studies, loss in business to failed relationship. When all others react to these problems in expected manner you may simply chose to react differently. Why? For no reason. Big problems may not move you as much as small problems. You remain calm and quiet, think about how to deal with it and start implementing the solution. It demands u to be more practical else you may end up being affected way too much with it.
What I have learnt: That’s the key to success. Be practical while solving big problems. Think wisely. If the problem is too big to have impact on your life you just can’t handle it carelessly. Being calm and composed is the demand of the situation. These are the situations where we learn maximum from our mistakes. If we don’t then we keep repeating the mistakes and landing in trouble. So take a deep breath and conquer the problem.

At the end of the day we know that we keep asking for something or other to God which may not get fulfilled. We wish for something and it may just come true. We make fuss of small problems. And we may remain unperturbed in a big problem. But what matters is what we learn from all these situations.

It’s human to do mistakes. You learn a lot from them. And if you don’t then you keep committing them again and again.

India Vs America

We had this interesting thread on our reply-all chain mails regarding industry oriented research and where does India stand wrt that. And I ended up writing all this in response to mails by my friends kauti, viju and amol. After finishing it I thought I should put it on the blog and discuss it with other friends too. So here I'am...

"I agree with u Amol when u say every research in industry oriented. and if its not then it can not survive. So ultimately its industry which shud initiate this research thing.

Now cut to India...

Yes we are service oriented. Services form a considerable chunk in our GDP. And there is nothing wrong in being a services oriented nation. As far as R&D is concerened that can still happen...provided there is a suitable environment for it. By environment i mean political, social, economincal and technological...to add few dimensions let there be ecological and legal too. Something which we call PESTEL … we say that Indian corporates are not putting money in R&D. Their R&D budgets are low and they are not filing for patents. But why? There has to be some reason behind it.

Look at it this way. Indian financial markets are still not matured enough. We do have dependency on global capital markets and to be specific on dollars. Yes we are an emerging market but with scarce capital. And R&D seems a distant dream till the time we become capital rich nation. R&D expenses do not form a major chunk in balance sheets of our corporates because there is no guarantee that the results will be fruitful. All the big companies like intel, apple n so an can indulge in R&D activities because they themselves are capital rich companies and belong to the capital richest nation USA. Our Indian companies are still finding it hard to remain unaffected from global cues. Then research is certainly not on their list as research is not going to solve their current problems of capital scarcity.

Moving on to chandrayan and other such missions…yes it’s a show-off but a much needed one. It’s a way to demonstrate our knowledge, our strength and our competency. As an Indian even I feel that why to fund such huge projects from our pockets. How is it going to help a poor to earn bread & butter anyway? But when such projects happen it attracts a lot of attention. This gives rise to synergy extension and knowledge sharing. We are no more dependent on other countries to launch our satellites. That has cut down the cost of communications considerably. And we can say it’s a result of competency gained from our so many other projects which may not have impacted common man’s life directly. Yes there has to be some cap on the amount of money we spend on it. That’s why we have budgets and elections.

Research does improve our standard of living and more importantly our standard of technology. It provides competitive advantage to a country. But what’s the use if we cant sustain it. We are a country of 1.15 billion and our per capita income is still not attractive enough. So before moving on to industry oriented research we have to build a strong base. Our industries should become more powerful to dispense money from their pockets towards research. For that they should have strong balance sheets with huge capitals and profits. They will earn profit if there is demand for their products and services. The demand will be there if there is more disposable income with the customer. There will be a higher amount of disposable income if salaries are high. Salaries will be high if the skills demonstrated are good. Skills will be good if proper education and training facilities are available. So we come to basic need of high quality education and learning facilities. GOI is putting money in ambitious infrastructure projects which will help in facilitating flow of know-hows and in turn strengthening industries.

So with all this we can say that yes, we are on right track. So what if our industries are not putting money in research now. They will do it once they get enriched with capital and get the suitable environment. We are the 2nd largest growing economy and we are capable of turning the table around. With n-deal on cards its interesting to see how we will be using it to the best in our interest. "

Yaari Dosti...

Watching ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ and thinking about my FRIENDS. Looking back at the journey of life I am recollecting some moments when I met my friends. And thinking how my perception for friendship has changed over the time.

In kindergarten I used to think that everyone who cries when I start crying is my friend. Then as years passed, I started thinking that my classmates with whom I go to school, play and spend most of my time with are my friends. I still remember I was in 2nd standard when I first called my friend on her landline number. And I told my mom “look even I have a friend whom I can call on her number.” Later as days passed I started looking at my friends as safe lockers in which I can keep ‘secrets’. And with this came the expectations… Expectations of guarding the secrets… Expectations of keeping the trust. In school days when competition started becoming stiffer, friends gave some lighter moments. With them I started sharing my success and failures. With this came the emotional attachment. I lost touch with many of my schoolmates later. And few of them I am still in touch are my dear friends now.

Later in college days, I met people having similar goals, objectives and I realized that it is easier to get the comfort level with people if we have something in common with them. It may be the hobbies, interests or lifestyle. So I started looking at my friends as people who look at life in somewhat similar way as I do. Over the period of time I realized that friendship sans expectations has a long way to go. Now whether it is possible to keep this relation away from expectations is still a doubtful question. But one can definitely decrease the burden by removing some expectations.

I know my perception about the friendship will undergo some more changes in upcoming times. And I hope it will change for better. This one relation has taught me a lot. I have learnt to adjust. I have learnt to accept people around me as they are. So now I look at my friends as people with whom I can be myself… These are the people who are there for me in my good n bad times and who let me be with them in their good/bad times… Even though we are close to each other we never enter each other’s private space beyond certain limit.

I must say…having such wonderful people in life makes life worthwhile.

विरोधाभास

दिवसानंतर रात्र येणे हा तर जगाचा नियम आहे

सुखदु:खाच्या खेळातही हा नियम कायम आहे

काही वाईट होत असेल तर आपण चांगल्याची वाट पाहतो

आणि चांगले होत असताना उगाचच वाईट शंका घेत रहातो

जे आपले नाही त्याचीच ओढ जास्त असते

आणि ते कधीतरी मिळेल ही अपेक्षाही रास्त असते

म्हणूनच माणूस मृगाजळाच्या कल्पनेत रमतो

आणि मग विरोधाभासाचा हा खेळ त्याला हळूहळू जमतो

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पाऊलखुणा

त्या रस्त्यावर फारशी वर्दळ नव्हती. दूर दूर पर्यंत कोणी दिसत नव्हतं. मागे वळून बघितले तर थोड्या पाऊलखुणा होत्या. पण त्यासुद्धा माझ्याच. डोक्यात विचार आला...कधीपासून चालते आहे मी ? मग अन्धुकसं आठवलं..

एकटीनेच सुरुवात केली होती मी. पहिले काही दिवस फार छान गेले.प्रवास फार चांगला वाटत होता. लांबचा पल्ला गाठायचा होता म्हणून जोमाने चालले होते. मग थोडा थकवा जाणवला. आधारासाठी आजुबाजुला पाहिले..पण कोणी दिसले नाही. म्हंटले ठीक आहे...थोड़े अजुन पुढे जाऊ...मग मात्र फार गळल्यासारखं वाटलं. सोबतीला कोणी असेल तर किती बरं होईल असं वाटू लागलं. सावली तरी मिळावी अशी फार इच्छा होती. कुठेतरी दिसलीही सावली.. पण जवळ जाऊन पाहीलं तर फक्त आभास होता. थोडी हिरमुसले...अचानक खूप थकवा जाणवला. असं वाटलं मी पुढे जाउच शकत नाही...आणि मनात विचार आला...की मी का मदत शोधतेय? मला फक्त मीच मदत करू शकते...ज्या वाटेवर माझ्याशिवाय कोणीच नाही तिथे मी दुसरं कोणी येइल आणि मला मदत करेल ही अपेक्षाच किती पोकळ होती. चूक कळून चुकली होती. मग सुरू झाला ती सुधारण्याचा प्रयत्न. थोडे जड गेले आधी. मग हळू हळू सूर गवसला. पायात बळ आल्याच जाणवलं. आणि प्रवास पुन्हा जोमाने सुरु झाला.

कोणीतरी बोलाल्याचे आठवते... The journey is more beautiful than the destination... त्याचाच अनुभव घेतेय.सावल्या दिसतात अधून मधून...पण मी हसते आणि पुढे जाते...आभासामागे पळणे सोडलेय आता...रस्ता तोच आहे...एकाकी..शांत...पण मी एकटी नाही आता... सोबतीला आहेत माझ्या पाऊलखुणा...