An Unexpected Adventure

PROLOGUE

I am standing in the middle of nowhere. I am alone… I am wondering… how can this possibly happen…its impossible…but yet it has happened and that is why I am here… I look ahead…no sign of light…just a trail which I had followed a few minutes back…running and screaming…but all in vain… I start walking back in the hope of finding my friends who are possibly half a kilometer away from me… There is silence, loneliness, and hopelessness…yet I have to reach them…to decide what to do next…After taking a few brisk steps, I find them… the look in their eyes is of exasperation…of an active volcano…which can erupt any instant and bury me alive…I see their eyes speaking to me…blaming me…cursing me…for what has happened…

I go in front of them with my head held…oh…oh…oh …wait…calm down…don’t think too much…no need to worry…nothing tragic has happened…we’ve just missed our college bus…that’s all…

Hence…I go in front of them with my head held high and smile on my face…and say… “Guyyyyys…this is awesome…!!! We are going to have an ADVENTURE tonight…we are walking down the remaining 8 km. to the college!!!”…and now their emotions have full intensity…cursing me…blaming me…shouting at me… and to defend myself I say…”It’s not my fault…it’s the driver who is to be blamed.”

The next bus starts from Ajmeri Gate at 9:00…and we are 2 km. away from Sisodia Garden…which means we have to wait for another 45 minutes to catch the next bus…and we are not sure even that bus will stop or not…and even if it stops…we will get no dinner in mess...

Hence we decide to walk down to the college and keep an eye for any 4-wheeler…car, bus, truck, tractor…anything…which can give us a ride and help us save our already exhausted bodies some energy…

FLASHBACK

Already exhausted…because we have come back from Choolgiri(the famous Jain Temple with a number of statues of all the 24 Jain Tirthankar) which is on a peak of the Aravallis…where we went via multiple staircases… and came back the same way… after which… we walked a bit more to reach the bus stop at Sisodia Garden… but had roughly 25 minutes… hence walked to the Ram Mandir a kilometre away and waited for the bus there…

The bus came… its headlight fell directly on my face …I waved for the bus to stop…so it was obvious that the bus would stop… but sometimes in life most obvious things do not happen…

The bus did not stop…there was a sudden adrenaline rush through my veins as I saw the bus going away…I shouted and ran after the bus...in fact we all ran…in the hope that…we’d be able to catch the bus on that free-from-traffic road… so we ran and ran…shouting and screaming at the top of our voices…very soon I realized that there was no one running beside me...I was running alone… but I had to stop the bus… so I gave it another shot…a final dash but all in vain and that is how I reach into my present state…

BACK TO PRESENT

So, at present…we are walking on this empty straight road… now what to do, while walking through this forest…its no mall or city centre that we may ogle at someone…it’s the quiet, silent, eerie jungle…in where we can only expect some predator ogling at us…fortunately that is not the case…or at least that is what I feel…

To make our moods lighter, one of my friends starts telling some really good PJs and we feel like killing him…anyways, he is successful in turning the atmosphere a bit better… and we start discussing similar events… in which some of our seniors got stuck in a situation similar to ours… and that is why we have a reason to believe that some 4-wheeler will give us a lift…

Vehicles come every now and then; however most of them come from the front... Whenever a vehicle comes from behind, we wave at it…but looking at a bunch of 4 guys on an empty road like this…no one will stop… because we are strangers… and general common sense implies that we may be robbers, looters or murderers…

Hence, we walk… A bike passes…a scooter goes past…we don’t wave at them… then a car comes…we wave…nothing happens… so we walk some more…this time an auto-rickshaw… but it is already hired… so we walk a bit more… a Wagon R comes… and fortunately it stops… the man in the car neatly dressed…seems to belong to a good family… he speaks softly and politely… we try to explain him our situation…he listens attentively and then says, “Actually we would have loved to give you a ride, but we are short of space… by the way could you tell us where is xyz(what name did he say… whatever… I don’t care)”, we don’t know…so he thanks us and leaves us… (Damn… he stopped only because he needed help…)

It is as if we have lost all hope… we will anyways reach the institute… but now no one has the strength to walk more...and my “Guys…this is awesome” reverberates in my ears…

In this situation, we need something … to relieve ourselves…to calm ourselves… we need some kind of reserve of energy … so that we can continue… I recall Andy Dufrene… “Hope is a good thing, may be the best of the things and no good thing ever dies…” and continue walking…

Now, we have reached the Keshav Vidyapeth which means institute is just 5 km. away… just 5 more… O God…do something…some miracle…please…

SUPERNATURAL INTERVENTION

At this instant, we look back and find a Maruti van coming from behind… we wave at it… but it doesn’t stop and continues moving…suddenly someone shouts…

“arey…mess wale bhaiya” and then we all shout in unison…

All of a sudden, we hear the screech of the brakes… we go there…and explain the situation to the mess wala bhaiya… but he seems reluctant…

He says “bhaiya… we have to buy some items… you continue walking…we will come back for you…”

Now this is utterly disgusting… seems completely impossible… why would he come back for us… and if he doesn’t have enough room…how will he give us a lift after getting more of whatever he has to purchase…

My hope turns into despair… but they promise they will come back… and a few minutes more prove that they fulfil their promise… we board the van filled with the stock of bread and eggs… and here goes our ride… our saviour mess wala bhaiya … we will be indebted to him for this ride…

Now smiles return on our faces… we look each other in eye… with contentment… all ill feelings vanish…it’s a feeling of victory that is spread on our face… I feel it… and so do my friends…we are all hungry… and now we’ll get good some food…

EPILOGUE

We enter the institute… no one stops us…the van goes straight takes the usual right turn…then goes on the road adjacent the girl’s hostel, and then takes a final right turn…to reach the back door of the mess…We thank the mess-wala-bhaiya… and go ahead … make a literal back-door entry…and have the most delicious dinner ever… simply because we are extremely tired and hungry and the dinner consists of aalu- puri…

A friend of ours is having dinner with us… and we tell him…about our adventure…he says… “oye wo log tum the kya… haan mujhe laga to tha… ki koi hai…par samajh nahi paaya”. And, again a surge of emotions…damn what the hell were you thinking then… should have at least stopped the bus…

(Acknowledgements: Thanks to Mimani, Manish and DB(deepak) for being a part of this experience…for our pics…visit my orkut profile…

This was getting too lengthy…hence many of the details have been skipped…so for more details… contact the three of them…or possibly go to the comments section…in case any one of them might have dropped in some of those details…Thanks for reading)

DREAMS…!!!

When you go to sleep, the chords of your mind detach themselves from this world and get attached with those of another world…you are unaware of the happenings around yourself… yet you feel you are conscious, but not in this world…in some other world… the dream world, the fantasy land, where sometimes you see beauty, adventure, fun and sometimes horrors and nightmares…

The most amazing feature of this new world is that… when you are in it…you don’t know that it’s unreal…everything seems more than real…

This reminds me the words of Morpheus in the Matrix:

If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain

And I like to believe this statement, because it arises many interesting philosophical debates…However, let’s discuss something practical…

Let’s come back to the real world, where while sleeping, we see a fantasy world…with certain features…

• Dreams are peculiar…
• They are unpredictable…
• They help you realize your most loved fantasies…and leave a smile on your face…
• They also let you experience your worst nightmares…
• All of us at one time or the other experience sudden falling down in a dream… and we feel that we actually fell from our beds…
• There are certain characters who remain passive in the dreams… its like… they are going with you everywhere in your dream…but are not doing anything

Another amazing feature…dreams spark new ideas, inventions and innovations…. there have been many famous dreams (actually, the dreams became famous because they were seen by famous people). To substantiate this point…

Mary Shelly, the author of Frankenstein, got the idea for her story from a dream. For more famous creations, ideas and discoveries credited to dreams

Kekulé gave the circular structure to solve the Benzene problem. This idea he got from his dream. In his own words:

"...I was sitting writing on my textbook, but the work did not progress; my thoughts were elsewhere. I turned my chair to the fire and dozed. Again the atoms were gamboling before my eyes. This time the smaller groups kept modestly in the background. My mental eye, rendered more acute by the repeated visions of the kind, could now distinguish larger structures of manifold conformation; long rows sometimes more closely fitted together all twining and twisting in snake-like motion. But look! What was that? One of the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes. As if by a flash of lightning I awoke; and this time also I spent the rest of the night in working out the consequences of the hypothesis."

Isn’t that interesting…??? So why should we not do the same thing… try remembering the dream you saw… and just jot it down on a piece of paper…

So, that is what I am doing here… I am narrating a dream of mine here…

It’s an amazing feeling to see a good dream… in my dreams I have played many characters which I love… I have been Harry Potter once… but that wasn’t much interesting… (This dream came years ago, after having finished my first Potter novel)

But then there was one… in which I was spider-man… o man… what a feeling… I could fly using the spider webs that came out of my wrists… and there were no villains … it was an awesome experience… (This dream came after I had seen Spider Man 2…)

In one dream, I was Sherlock Holmes and… what can I say… it was a fantastic dream… because I was arisen from my sleep only after I had solved the mystery of stolen jewels…

I feel these dreams depict a lot about what you think and what you like… so let me tell you… my analysis of a dream through this dream sequence…

I was driving a scooter… going somewhere with my mom… (In dreams, I am generally not aware of where I am going…)

Whenever I dream …. I find myself in 2 frames of camera or rather one can say…2 frames of reference… Sometimes the camera is focussed on me…(inertial frame) i.e., I see myself as walking, talking, moving around… as if I’m sitting in a theatre and watching a movie in which I’m an actor…At other times, I am not able to see myself…its like how we see ourselves in the real world…(non-inertial frame)

The frame of reference keeps changing… as far as I remember, I’ve never experienced any background score in the dreams… nor do I remember whether they are coloured or not… but what I know is… I see them and enjoy them…

So coming back to the dream… in the non-inertial frame of reference, I was driving a scooter…and then…stopped… because my mom asked me to do so… There was this local ‘thelewala’ standing by the roadside… I thought he was selling some 2^nd hand books… but I was astonished when my mom asked him to give 2 Dairy Milks…

However, I was happy …I was getting a dairy milk… but as I said… peculiar things happen in a dream… so my mom got 2 dairy milks- one big and one small…and unexpectedly she took the big one and kept it in her handbag and gave the smaller one to me…I was disappointed... but then…alright… what could I do…what ever is happening is happening… you are just a silent watcher in a dream…(unless you are a lucid dreamer, which most of us are not…)

Hence, I dropped my mom to one of her friend’s and was heading back…probably to my home… but this time on foot… (I don’t know what happened to the scooter) …

After walking a few more steps…I saw a person who smiled at me…I thought for a second… and then realised that he was my cousin’s husband… and as soon as that thought was received by my brain… out of nowhere, she too appeared in front of my eyes…

I greeted them… and they invited me to their home…

I said, ‘but, I didn’t know the way to reach there house’… (in fact I have never been to the place of this cousin of mine)…

and they said, ‘what are you talking about, this is our home.’ pointing to the building adjacent…‘you are standing right next to it and saying you don’t know where it is…come on… come on in…’

I don’t know from where I entered the building… it was as if the movie was forwarded…

I found myself instantly inside the building…… it was a cylindrical building in which I could see only the stairs… which were spiralling upwards… it reminded my of Harry Potter… my cousin was already ascending the stairs…so I took a step forward to start climbing the stairs… but damn…

There was a mad dog… making a strange sound… and seemed almost ready to attack me…

My cousin called out… ‘He’s just a mad dog… he won’t do anything…’

I said…how the hell is that possible … a mad dog … and won’t do anything…

I quickly started climbing up… and the dog came growling towards me… hence I started running on the stairs… as soon as the dog came near, I gave him a well calculated kick… he fell down… but within seconds he was back… I kicked him again… and he came back again … this time he was able to grab my arm with his teeth… somehow I got rid of him…possibly by a punch… but he seemed more determined every time he returned…

Upon reaching the top I was a bit relaxed … because I was close to the place where my cousin and her family members were chit-chatting…. But alas…what’s this… there was no door to the terrace… there was only an opening on the roof… I mean…I had to jump and use the power in my hands to reach the terrace… I wonder how my cousin reached there…

But I had to do it… and that too … quick… otherwise the dog was coming for me…somehow I managed…but before I could say something…my mom called out… ‘Wake up… wake up beta…’

I got up and….just smiled…

So, the analysis of this dream results in certain conclusions:

• I am a bit scared of dogs… I think about them everyday and that is why they came in my dreams… its because when I go for jogging…even when you are simply walking they can go mad and run after you…that usually happened…fortunately I’ve now developed a mechanism through which I can protect myself from them…..

• I love Dairy Milk a lot…so anyone who wants to gift me anything… can definitely give me the chocolate… J

Exploring the streets of Jaipur...

This article is related to road safety. But, it’s not a lecture one gets from his/her elders. Its something a youngster would like to lecture his/her elders.

But, before that… lets review a general scenario…

Suppose Mr. X has met with an accident and Mr. A, Mr. B and Mr. C are talking about him.

Mr. A: He is in severe pain. O God… help him.

Mr. B: yeah… life’s so unpredictable. He just left my place yesterday…completely fine at that moment…just a nick of time … and that’s where he is… poor creature lying on the bed…

Mr. C: I can guarantee you… half of these accidents would not happen… if these youngsters stop driving vehicles…

Mr. A in affirmation:

“O these youngsters! They don’t care about anything… what do they want…? they want bikes, bands and babes… (Although doesn’t sound quite a civilised word, the alliteration here has come beautifully…in fact these are not the words, an elderly person would generally use, but exaggeration just adds to the special effect… so go on)… they just want to fly on the roads… zoom their karizmas just for showing off… careless, arrogant, rash drivers…its because of them these incidents happen… and blah blah blah…..”

And this story continues for hours… with each elderly gentleman sharing his/her own experience…

This was something completely normal...something often heard... So lets come to something new... my views on this topic…my arguments against above mentioned generally prevalent belief…

But before that let’s look at some of the salient features of walled Jaipur city streets…. (The origin of this article is in fact the walled city of Jaipur)…

• Streets full of people on all kinds of vehicles… bicycles, cycle-rickshaws, scooters, bikes, cars and even buses…
• Streets filled with a lot of people…
• Streets filled with a lot of animals (esp. cows and dogs)
• Streets filled with a lot of pits including uncovered manholes … (the kids here have become smart…hence they don’t fall in them…and don’t attract any media or army attention…because of one does such a thing… plenty of other people have a similar option..)
• People like the music of horns… so even when the person is aware that the vehicle ahead of them cannot move unless, the vehicle ahead of that vehicle moves… they will turn on the music of horns…
• In Jaipur, it is believed that if a new driver can cross the Chandpole area without hitting or getting hit by someone… he is qualified to drive anywhere else in the world…

Then, there are certain rules people follow…and mind you… people in Jaipur take these rules very seriously…

People, who cross a street, follow one of these 2 rules…

• Directly run…without looking here and there… getting hurt is not your fault…. It’s the driver’s fault….
• Look here and there… walk straight…don’t stop in the middle of the road… just bring your palm in the front… show that to the drivers… and signal them to stop… like a traffic police does… and walk calmly…

People walking on footpath follow these rules…

• First rule is… never walk on footpath… walk on streets… footpaths are generally for the shopkeepers to display their products…
• Never hear the horns of the vehicles, while walking… we the walkers are the ones supposed to be on roads…In case you get hurt… don’t worry the crowd will always be with you…
• Only when someone shouts…’ arey mataji… zara side ho jao..’ or ‘uncleji…hato samne se…’ or ‘behre…sunayi nahi deta hai kya??’or ‘***** ***** ****’ then only move aside… otherwise the road is yours…the driver has to adjust his movement according to you…

In such circumstances…if a youngster hits someone…(Of course non intentionally), its his fault… why…?? …simple… because he is a youngster…

So, knowing this we youngsters drive very cautiously… One of my friends got himself injured in order to save a confused pedestrian...that too just at the speed of 20kmph…

Unfortunately… even then people don’t believe us… L …and we can’t do anything about it… We just hope… this message reached those who always take it for granted… accident implies a youngster…

My message:

Youngsters… don’t worry… hit anyone who bothers you while driving… in any case loss will be yours…(either you end up getting injured, while saving someone… or you end up a being called rash driver…)

Elderly people… beware…my message has reached the GenNext…!!!

J

A Boring Lecture...

The lines that follow were written in one of the lectures. My apologies to any professor who is reading this…because he/she may be the one in whose lecture I was writing this….so pardon me… and read on just for some fun and getting an insight into the mind of a bored student…

Sometimes sitting in a classroom can be really boring. In fact, annoying… I feel drowsy…reason being… the lecture going on right now does not contain the spices I relish…moreover I am unable to understand a single word…therefore for a change, I have to write something to pass my time, to reduce the mounting frustration and to convince myself that I am not wasting an hour.

Unfortunately, I am sitting in the first row and hence I don’t have a choice… choice to run out when the professor turns towards the board… (in fact not all professors can be tricked this way)… so no option…. can only write….

All right…let me do one thing….let me describe the scenario of this boring lecture…’BORING’ is a relative term…. Whatever I find boring may be interesting for others…and as I see …it is… especially for the girls, who are as usual writing down each and every word that sprouts from the teacher’s mouth. Sometimes, I imagine that one may find ‘please don’t talk…’ written in their notes… (he he he)…oh oh oh….pardon me ladies….pardon me…. I don’t wish to hurt or insult anyone of you and that’s true I might be needing your notes in the future….so I hope I’ll get a positive response…won’t I ?

The professor is teaching with full confidence as he is supposed to and trying his/her best to make us grasp the concepts…unaware of the fact that there is only a broadcast going on, which is not being heeded by insincere students like me…To add to this misunderstanding of the professor, there are some students who are although unable to grasp his/her words…but are saying “Yes sir/mam” in unison…whenever the professor asks questions like…”Is that all right?”, “You got my point?” , “Understood?”

The next attraction of the class is a dog, which was yawning a few moments ago and is asleep now… GRR…WAAAA……it is sleeping…I can’t…

Oh…oh… wait a minute…

Saved…Thank God!!!

Actually…moments ago… my neighbour had dropped his notebook on the floor which had distracted the teacher…I had to look up instantaneously in the professor’s eyes reassuring him/her that I was studying sincerely and understood whatever was being talked about…

Anyways…lets come back to the dog….its entry in the class was a bit dramatic…First of all, it entered the LT through the front door, not through a side door. Secondly, it continued to move towards the central stairs of the room without the professor realizing anything… Students made a bit of noise….someone joked, someone laughed but the whole time the professor was busy writing on the blackboard….Thirdly, while it was walking in , its expressions like that of an emperor moving in his castle…and you know what….he came…looked right...then left…and then calmly walked up the stairs pretending as if he was supposed to be there…The dignified DOG was walking on the red carpet…

Oh God….not again….

I feel like I’ll have to continuously play this “reassuring and convincing look” game with the professor, if I don’t want to get caught…

Last 10 minutes passed uneventfully….I could not write anything…because the teacher’s gaze was fixed on me…but now I am back to continue…

Hey look what’s going on the other side of the classroom….some of the guys are dozing off, which implies I am not the only one who is feeling bored….just one small difference…I am writing this…hence not letting my time go in vain…I hope this live account finds a place in the N^th Degree….that way my time would prove to be spent doing something worthwhile… (Thanks to literary committee...that didn't happen...)

Time passes slowly, when you wait for something….and even slower when that something doesn’t interest you….and that is what is happening right now…

10 minutes more........ I am waiting for the professor to depart…

5 minutes…. Come on come on…..please, please leave us…

2 minutes… Thank God… just in a nick of time he/she will be gone…

0 minutes…… yippee… the lecture is finished…time to go……

A small piece of advice-

“Don’t try writing such an account, it may prove fatal in case you are caught…”

To be earnest-

“Try to arise an interest and inquisitiveness while studying, so that, you don’t get a chance to write such an account.”

My first blog

Although the title sounds very simple...very formal.... but what would follow in the posts to come is going to be something interesting...

And people ... don't go by the URL "earnest-experiences"... its not going to be all that serious... in fact an amazing story is behind my using the word 'earnest'... for that probably one has to watch the movie"The Importance of Being Earnest"...

Anyways... its just a beginning of my accounts... it'd contain my experiences and some other stories which I'd like to share... and feel free to comment on my posts... I'd be more than happy to get some critics' views...

Finally, let me thank those who inspired me to start blogging... actually the credit goes to the literary committee of our institute... confused...???
Well, its simple....these people didn't publish my articles... so out of frustration I decided if no one publishes my articles... I am gonna do them myself.... :)

That's all for the first post...
First experience will come tomorrow... as today its the day of marketing....(at least one learns something by being in ecell)... hope you enjoy the journey on this explorer's boat....