talk about adverntures...

adventures... ha!!! when my aunt first told me about Devprayag - the place where Bhagirathi and Alaknanda join to form the Ganga; i formed the mental image of some flat land and we are on the river banks. then started our journey to Devprayag, which lies enroute to Bhadrinath. it was a proper hilly terrain ride with bends and views (n some sick stops ;) ). the river below snaking through... the hills were completely covered and greeeeen.the road was bumpy and bad. finally after around 5 hrs we reached Devprayag.

Devprayag is a small village situated on both sides of the river. the village is on the hill sides with houses close to each other one on top of the other, as if to shelter each other from the cold and the weather elements. the road goes through one level and to reach any other place you have to walk and climb steep high steps ( unacceptable if normal standards of rise of stairs are considered). there is a cable bridge that connects the two sides over the river Bhagirathi. there are a couple of temples there... but one is at the confluence point. you can go down to the river and at the triangular point you can wash your feet, take a bath or what ever else. the small temple there gives "aarti" to the river every morning and evening. so this is Devprayag.

now our adventure. we got rooms on the opposite side of the confluence which gives us the vintage view of the whole thing. we then crossed over the bridge to go to the other side. halfway through a strong wind started blowing... on the other side we had to walk have blinded by all the dust that was getting into our eyes. the roadside shops pulled their shutters low. we walked down the steep steps to the confluence, and the water was freezing... by the time we got there heavy clouds started comin up and the whole climate was aweeeeeeeesomeeee.... absolutely perfect! at the side where Bhagirathi comes there were some fish; dad and brothers tried to catch them by luring them closer with fish food. didn't work.

by the time we started back it started raining. we were right at the middle of the bridge when it started beatin down on us. my brother and i stood there for a while enjoying the wind, the bridge rockin and the rain... the Bhagirathi flows with more force and thunder, and it was right below us. we reached the rooms to find that there was no electricity. we survived on candle light. the moon was also heavenly... walked up for a paratha dinner. he actually cuts this hugeee slice of amul butter and puts it on your paratha. you have to smear it all over. but even yet it is a big slice.

next morning we could clearly see the confluence. the muddy Alaknanda and the clear green Bhagirathi. after a breakfast of some more parathas we started back... fresh and ready for rafting. 15kms frm Devpryag our car broke down, right next to a road side shop. the driver hitched a ride back to get a "mistri" while we waited. an hour later though we got a lift from a bus and travelled 20kms to Byasi standing. once at Byasi we found this guy who said he will organise our rafting but that we needed to go 6kms to that point. we had lunch and waited for the drive he was to arrange. it ended up being a pick up truck from the camp.

we drove down to the camp, us kids behind with the luggage and the elders stuffed in. it was an interesting ride. then we had to walk down to the river, through a steep path. the sand was white and shiny, with boulders at the riverside. we sat playin in the rocks till we started rafting. the rafting was damn fun. though i would prefer the rafting in the Beas river any day, this one had its charms too. in the placid and calm stretches he let us get into the river and drift along, he allowed us to do that at one rapid also. that was FUN! the rowing was fun then, but isn't now! (my arms and my palms ache :( )

when we reached the camp we camp to know that our car was fine and could be trace. so again we started off... hungry and waitin to hit the bed. 6 kms from Rishikesh our car broke down again. same trouble, something to do with the axle. we sat there on the roadside. me on a small drum kind of thing filled with concrete, some kind of road barrier. i was looking down to the river, to my right was Rishikesh, the famous Lakshman jhula faintly visible, and the moon was rising to my right, my back to the road. just sat there for around 45mins i think. enjoying the romance of the situation. the moon climbed higher, almost full and a reddish tint around it. Rishikesh began to light up with the reflections in the river and then evening aarti to the river Ganges. ah it was wonderful. the faint thunder of the river down below, the honking of the cars, and the family talking all around me.

we were picked up by another car of the same taxi service, which happened to be in Rishikesh. the wonderful thing was that he was with an army brigadier then, so had a red lamp on the car top. he brought us home to Roorkee in record time, whooshing across continuously, running in and out through the heavvvvvvy traffic, taking by passes and what not... whew we were finally home at 9:45pm. me ready to crash with no energy to go out for dinner, ended up with a mango dinner :P .

so that was it... i know it is a long story. it was an interesting one. would i want to go though it again? yeah, indeed!!! my India is the only country where there are temples for rivers, and which get special services everyday. it is the same country that sinks all its sins in them, and pollutes them with all our excess discharges. it is in this same country that an Arkapalli exists, poor with lack of water to achieve anything; and then there is a Devprayag with so much water that they don't know what to do with it, and are still poor. oh there is so much work to be done here. my INDIA... there is so much to it. so many things to see and discover and understand. this place never ceases to amaze and mesmerise. my INDIA greatest!

bharat darshan

my mom calls my Arkapalli visits my Bharat darshan. well in many ways it is the most apt thing to call it. every time i go i end up seeing new angles to things. i had gone to Arkapalli last weekend to attend a marriage there. on the way to Arkapalli Anurag and i were talking and he said " I'm just thinking about how funny things are. you sit and think about your room. how it should be what all you should have; i think that if i only have a room to myself its enough. a person in these areas would think if i only had a proper room for my whole family." I've always always wondered who makes these differences? who decides who gets what and who lives how? if we are all the same... then how come such not-so-subtle and distinct differences exist?

the wedding... well it was an interesting event, as with everything else in India, the ceremony was different from the various wedding ceremonies i have seen so far. nothing ever occurs in t he same way throughout India. we couldn't have lunch there. the crowd was... my friends decided that they couldn't stand it all. for us... it was an alien atmosphere. things are so different there. so different from the world we are used to. why does life become cruder as you go down the social ladder? lives become cruder, their worlds go cruder.

then on the way back... we had to travel a stretch through a 7 seater auto. another girl and i were sitting at the rear facing the back. there were some people on bikes who kept following us for a while (i slept off soon and so didn't know how long!). what is it with men? is this all there is to their field of view? no, I'm not blaming them all. but every now and then i come across some specimen, or some incident and i cant help but... scream out at the whole lot! get a life!!!

there was more to our journey that day. we caught a bus at kalwakurthi. as the bus started entering the depot people ran to it and hung from its windows to reserve a seat by throwing kerchiefs in. hot and hungry and sleepy we got in and found seats and sat down. at the next stop all of us were woken up the crowd that got in. for a long time there was non stop bickering and shouting. then there was this one lady who kept pushing into my friend's seat and then kept glaring at her throughout the journey. people always grudge other people their comfort. seems like the biggest failing of human life.

things... are confusing to me as always... i try to analyze ever scene in the film of my life and end up confused and disoriented. reading a lot of Richard Bach now. and his school of thought is very very comforting for me... all i can say is "life is an illusion". everything is illusions. its just how you decide to play it.

"The world
is your exercise-book, the pages
on which you do your sums.
Its not reality,
although you can express reality
there if you wish.
You are also
free to write nonsense,
or lies, or to tear
the pages."

-ILLUSIONS
Richard Bach

acads...

i spoke to a school teacher of mine today. Mrs. Jayashree... the moment you look at her you know that that is what you want to be when you grow up. the amount of grace, beauty and kindness she portrays is unexplainable. she has been one of the major influences in my life. she was the one who first commended my writing skills. so of course i wont ever forget that. many a times we would stop her in the corridor and begin a conversation that would cover all topics from politics, history, poetry and what not... thank you Mrs.Jayashree for all that you have brought into my life! they dont make teachers like her anymore. its the old school... and oh so valuable! i pity the new generation for their loss... i really do.

i have also spent some time with a schoolmate of mine. she was a kid then, 4th class, when i passed out of school. she told me that my school now had an iit foundation course and students were being forced to join it. i felt awful. i was thinking that my school will forever remain those old world heavens. but the grind has crossed the convent walls also. will they never leave? i myself went to a foundation course. i don't regret it, but that wasn't in school. school was our learning paradise. in St.Ann's i grew as a person, all around, all sectors. the acads never pressurized me. i studied and played at the same time. i understand that as time goes on the stress starts acting on younger and younger kids. its stupid! I'm sure no one who has been through this grind will ever recommend it to someone else.

then again... i am of the group that believes in all round development. i believe in reading books, developing arts, wasting time over extra curriculars... i think at the end of the day these matter. not just your acad excellence... yes acads matter. they definitely do. but not to the extent of forgetting everything else. marks never made sense to me( okay i confess was near the top at school... never worked with that aim though). which was perhaps why i never made it into an IIT. i still believe in studying at my pace, on my terms. i study and understand things my way. i cant survive in a corporate college and get lost in the crowd.

i don't see why our new generation, our brilliant new minds should be sent through this torture. i know loads of students who have gone through the grind, and they hate every bit of it. they promise themselves that never again! but it just doesn't happen... this damn society will get to them. it will... no matter what! what is it that it wants in the end? there are loads of the best minds in our country who are squashed in this game and end up in death. suicides in IITs. suicides, everywhere, anywhere, during exams. does it make sense? LIFE... to be thrown off for a mark sheet? shame on you society! it is you just you who is driving us crazy! we cant keep up to your expectations. give us some breathing space. some space to live...

in 'the bridge across forever' richard bach says "anyone desperate enough for suicide should be desperate enough for creative extremes to solve problems: elope at midnight, stow away on the boat to New Zealand and start over, do what they always wanted to do but were afraid to try." all you pals who wanna give up on life... please think about for a moment. is it worth it? its your life buddy... no matter what the others say and expect. you are the mastery of your destiny. what ever the problem... it will be okay... you can work it out. even if all seems lost today... there is another tomorrow. please think about it. failure isn't the end of the world. it could always mean a new beginning and you have to be able to make that new start...

NIRMAAN '07

if i don't write about NIRMAAN '07 I'll be missing out something in my life. NIRMAAN '07 has been an unforgettable phase of college life. but before i come to NIRMAAN i have to talk about the days before it all. the year has been absolutely rocking and packed so far. i actually started off with the alumni meet function on dec 30th. i learnt a lot that day... a lot. for the first time i faced a really really crazy crowd... standing up before them was a little scary. i got through and ended up having a lot of fun at college... the best part was staying back till almost 11:00 and the beautiful beautiful sight of my college building all decked up. i LOVE the main building of my college.

then came the week at arkapalli... that was another learning experience. this time too i was up before people, but a different crowd altogether. trying to teach the students in telugu... concepts that i learnt in English (ages back it seems now!). arkapalli camp will be a never to be forgotten adventure. coming back from arkapalli i had to go to IITB for the techfest. this was yet another learning experience. this time i was down on the ground observing, making mental notes and learning. i came back from IIT with a urge to do better and better... the sky moved up... the limits and boundaries changed and altered. the world became much more challenging and much more exciting.

then after a brief interlude with books, i got my fingers and hands and everything into NIRMAAN '07. in spite of my strict resolutions about not being involved i couldn't keep away. neither then then nor later did i imagine that NIRMAAN '07 would make a such a change in my life. the week that contained NIRMAAN was filled to the core... complete physical exhaustion, mental saturation an extreme hunger... we had them all. with loads of masti, laughter and to my surprise... dancing!!!

NIRMAAN '07 didn't go according to the schedule. many things that were planned didn't show up, what did weren't perfectly executed (near perfection isn't perfection). for a someone looking at everything with a critical eye it was probably a slight mess. but i have to admit i am damn glad that it was only a 'slight' mess. i shudder even now when i think of the near disasters we avoided. but for all that NIRMAAN was great... simply great.

I'm damn proud to be able to say that i was an event manager at NIRMAAN'07 (program coordinator according to the souvenir - thank you ramesh!!!). NIRMAAN wasn't perfect but it was ours. completely conceived and carried out by ourselves... given the resources and time i think we did very very well. the Total station workshop was a hit (thank goodness!!!) , AAVISHKAR was another bigggg hit. i don't think we ourselves imagined it would turn out to be such a wonderful event. i will never forget the silent look of achievement on the faces of the team as they saw the participants struggle to build the bridges. the autocad design contest wasn't a biggg hit but it was something new... the guest lecture by prof.P Rao was aweeeesomeee as always...

though the paper presentations werent up to the mark... just as expected. everything went off pretty well. my alpha sudokus, jayanth's crosswords, sweta and satya's quiz, sweta's family finding, rohit and naresh's AAVISHKAR testing stand.... we all had our bits of work and our bits of glory. shravs and her registration desk, kiran and his certis, vamshi and spandy's tambola and lucky 7 requests... pandu's journalists, ravi nayak and his dances, sanjay and his cam, murali and maya!!! surekha, sujay and mallesham and their queries, murali and meena and their masti... ohhhhh i have so many many many memories... prof.ravande kishore... working under him, was great.

we created history at OU... the girls getting up to dance at a cultural event... that too with no akward situations coming up. the masti on the main steps on the last day. UNFORGETTABLE... seriously i never felt that such moments could come up at OU. no one minded anything. and for an amazing amount of time... we forgot one thing that OU is great at reminding - "we were girls and they were boys..." of how i love my college!!! i LOVE my life at OUCE. with all its obstacles, all its troubles and all its challenges. i am a part of it now, and i am so PROUD of that fact.

at the end of the day... after the crazy valedictory function - ramesh your speech... i know i wrote it out for you... but people he didn't read it at all!!! (our HOD B.N.Reddy??? :-) )the night on the steps... i had an acute feeling of depression. NIRMAAN was a passion that filled our entire beings those 3 days. once it had all been drained out... the emptiness seemed maddening. but the feeling of satisfaction of a job well done... could have been a little better (as always!!!) . OUR NIRMAAN was a hit!!! it really was... in spite of all the wrong starts and with every possible thing going wrong... YES!!! it was a hit...

NIRMAAN taught me a lot about responsibility, planing and execution. It also gave me the confidence that i can handle somethings.thanks a lotttt Ramesh... for giving me a free hand, for pushing me on, for believing in me!!! i am more comfortable on the stage now ( but i still don't know what one is supposed to speak when one is up there for a cultural event... how do u anchor it properly???) i MISSSSSS NIRMAAN very very much. after NIRMAAN '06 i made new relationships and broke some old ones... and i thoughts things couldn't get better. NIRMAAN '07 changed all that. Things got bigger and better... and yes some more new relationships starting off... next year at the same time i will tell u how they turn out!!!

SPRUHA - the awakening

just about a month after my first visit to Arkapalli i am a part of a group called SPRUHA - the awakening. Anurag, Sudeep, Sinu, and i have started SPRUHA. we have carefully chosen our team for Arkapalli and we are now 8 people. we don't want to spread out of proportions too soon. we are being very careful about that aspect. SPRUHA is being funded by the college(Osmania University - college of engineering) as of now. we do plan to look for other sources also.

SPRUHA is just back from a one week camp at Arkapalli. we stayed there for a week. we held holiday classes for the children. we taught them english, helped in math and sciences, performed experiments, made them perform experiments, made learning as much fun as possible. i wonder if we ourselves ever thought of learning as fun, but we sure do now. teaching in telugu wasn't that easy. but the kids helped us along when we got stuck. we talked about our lives, our world. we talked about the opportunities the world has in store for them. we spoke about general awareness. there we around 60 students. some of us went and spoke to the parents of the childreen who dropped out of school.
most of them asked the same question - " if we send them to school not work how will we survive?" we really couldn't answer that question. that was surely discouraging. but there were also some parents who were really happy that we came and were telling the kids about what they could do with their lives.

some of us conducted a survey of the village with the sarpanch's permission, and help. we now have a map of the pipelines in the village, 'coz we intend to give them technical help in the long run. we know many of the children by name and sight. we know the most promising of the lot. we know a few of the problems they face in their lives. we know what their wants are, we know what their dreams are. we also know that half their lives are bleak. especially when i go stand in front of them and tell them that they are less to none, and we are equals. i feel that i have had an unfair advantage, an advantage we are working hard to erase.

our next plan is to conduct a parent teacher meet in the village. the villagers know us now, have seen or rather stared at us as we walked along. we spoke to some of them, and some more of them have heard about us. we had some intermediate students in class. they were home on vacation, and they came to us with doubts in specific subjects. English... was one thing
they all were keen on learning. but how much can we really teach in a week??? how much can they grasp in that same one week?

along with the parent teacher camp we are conducting a health check up for the children. we are just entering the village. but the more time we spend there, the more is our desire to help them. outside the village at a distance of 3 km or so are located some "tandas". lambadi tribes live there. Anurag and i went there on the last day. there are hardly 20 houses there, but they have a single roomed primary school with 2 teachers. the older ones come to Arkaplli for their education. the response we got there was amazing. they weren't properly informed, so they didn't turn up for the classes. they regretted it a lot. so did we. wish we went there on the first day!

the 7th class is our star class. the most enthu-d class. its a pleasure being with those kids. if we can do something for that lot we will all be happy. how can i forget Khatam Raju, the 4th class kid, who sits and corrects 6th class students??? thats is one kid we really have to do something for. we so badly want to provide him with a chance to make something of himself. the last day we had a response session. one girl, suhasini, studying intermediate in Hyderabad, got up and said "i also want to pursue engineering. then i will also get my friends and come back and do something for my village." thats when we realized... yes we could achieve something. 1 week - SPRUHA "and miles to go before i sleep, and miles to go before i sleep."

inspire

Today I met 2 guys Sushanth and Ashwin. They are from inspire. They have formed inspire. Inspire is a group that is working for a social cause. Inspire is working for the upliftment of the under privileged in India. Inspire is working to improve the education delivered in government schools. Inspire aims to be a common platform for the many small social service groups actively working now, in their own small ways.

For me this was a part of the process I had begun hardly 2 weeks back. When I first thought about working for education upliftment... and sinu suggested arkapalli... and going there... till I actually started finding out what the situation there was... I never really thought that this idea would be such a long term plan. Yes, eventually sometime down the lane this was the work I was gonna do. But it wasn’t some thing I was gonna commit to now. I mean I didn’t think it possible. Now I am glad that it is possible. 'Coz the sooner I can get to put a helping hand in... The faster the work is done. The more the work done.

There is so much to do... as Sushant said "India is in negative now. We need loads to be done, by loads of ppl... to get it to zero first of all". As a country on the outsides we r trying to appear all glittering. Well perhaps we do have some glitter in the terms of the potential we have inside. We have tremendous potential. Oh so much... there is so much we can do for our INDIA. My INDIA, your INDIA... OUR INDIA. When we really sit down and ponder over it ... it hardly needs any time at all. We don’t have to stand up and revolutionize the world. We just have to silently put in a helping hand. Infact we really don’t have to do much else than do whatever we do properly.

Sushant spoke a lot about value education. Yes that is oh so important. But when you are fighting for basic survival how can u really make sure you are fighting fair??? How do you care to treat someone good when you know he won’t really show you the same kindness??? I know that it can be done. But then there also cases where the situation is so difficult that in the pure madness of basic survival best people loose their moral souls. If one talks about value education... we need to first start in the city itself. We have to start in our very homes and classrooms.

What inspire is doing, what we wanna do... it is not an easy process. It is not a today, this week process. It is not a candle flame...it should be a forest fire. Inspire says "make India glow". Only entire INDIA can make INDIA glow. We want this fire to keep on burning. Not something that we start and leave to die out. We start in hope that more fuel is added. But yes, we start in hope that we will burn completely and thoroughly. Oh... there is so much to do. I just can’t help sigh out when I think of that. I’m happy now. I’m so happy coz I am busy. Happy coz my brain is filled and running... with useful info, not trash!!! Perhaps this is my destiny. Perhaps not. But this is where my road lies now. I have made my choice, and I know some how that

"I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference" - robert frost

INDIA - my INDIA....

yesterday i had quite an extrodinary adventure... i journeyed to India - the real India. all my life i was dreaming about this journey and i finally made it yesterday. i went to a village "arkapalli", mehaboobnagar district, andhra pradesh, india. a village around 60 - 70km from hyderabad. 10km from a very busy road, that can be covered only in a 7-seater auto. what i found there was quite unexpected.

life there is still how it was ages back. i dont know how many of them are aware that what i am doing right now is even possible at all. medical relief is still given out of a doc's home, with medicines that are stocked on a small table. scholl is still some place children ought to go to... but there is absolutely no compulsion what so ever. the one important reason to send the kiddos to school happens to be the mid-day meal, the "guddu(egg)" being highlighted days. a village which has cell-phones but works by the great clock in the sky, and the day ends at 5-6pm when the sun goes to bed.

i had gone there along with some classmates. one of them studied in that village. one day last week we were all wondering what is it that we can do for the world around us. all we had now was time and education. then that guy got up and told us about his village. the village which has both primary and high schools but where students never know what they are actually studying for. where students didnt know what they is there to be learnt and known out there in the world.
for the first time i yesterday i understood why there were reservations for the backward people in my country. i never thought i would sit and urge a person eligible for reservation to make use of it. i did it yesterady and simultaneously made a mental not to know more about reservations. yes i do support reservations now. i know that they are being mis-used just as any other previlage given to a population which has some educated and illeterate people. people unaware of their rights will never be able to use them. people who dont know what is due to them will never be able to make use of all the special offers the government wishes to hand out to them in a sliver platter.

i learnt a lot yesterday... i now understand what the faults in democracy are. i understand what poverty is.i understand that sitting at home safe and sound we can never really comment on the any issues... not reservation, not policies. i understand that INDIA is shining only in the cities and the known world. but inside there is just darkness... a darkness none of these politicians have been able to banish. i understand what is that i really have in life. i appreciate what i have and i know that somehow it is all mine with a responsibility. i cant help but feel that what ever that i have is of no consequence unless i am able to add a smile in this world. knowledge is power!!! that was the motto of my house group at school. how i appreciate that now!!! it is just this little thing that seems to hold half my country back...

where there is no awareness, no knowledge, no understanding... when there is no real fire within you how do you excell??? there has to be something that drives everyone. for us here it has always been very easy. especially so when everything is at hand. when it isnt and there is nothin pushing you forward where will the revolution start??? we are not starting a revolution... we are just spreading some of the light we have in our lives. we are lighting some more lamps to make sure INDIA will keep shining!!!