A Fight - Part two

“No response frr….” however the terrorist was interrupted by a shadow at the door, the terrorist moved out. Aaryan was so relieved, his wide open eyes were a bit mitigated at the sight. Countless thoughts ran through Aaryan’s mind; did the government respond, was the danger over, would we all be free and what is this place. “grr jsjdgrr” these words that came from outside though didn’t make much of a sense to Aaryan but he could surely say there was something wrong. Next moment he saw the second terrorist run towards his companions, the room was again unattended. Aaryan didn’t know how to react, he looked around and he could distinctly see horror on the tear-clad faces of other hostages. Was it a chance he had got to save himself thought Aaryan, but he could hardly move his hands. Having already witnessed a death in the very same room, it would have been foolish on his part to try anything. But could he succumb to death not even fighting once for himself. “I can’t give up” said Aaryan to himself, “but I can hardly move myself, there is not a single sharp object around either, damm” thought Aaryan. Aaryan had moved out from his mood of fear-only to frustration and anger. He wanted to do something, he didn’t want to give up but he could do nothing. The terrorists who had left the room just a few seconds back were very quite close enough to detect movements, so it would have alarmed them if Aaryan did something. With all his might Aaryan tried to slack the rope, tied to his hands, but it hardly made any difference. He was still on his knees as before but then he was the only one in the bright light area in front of the camera. “Ah” sighed as though something struck Aayan, he somehow managed to sit in the loop of his tied hands and the fight for his life had begun. The conversation among the terrorists exhibited discontent but Aaryan had a fight to fight, he was on his knees with his posterior over the tied rope and his hands tied to the rope. He pulled his hands towards his body with a tremendous pressure, at the same time he prayed for time, his hands were burning; the friction between the rope and his skin had caused his hands to bleed.

Within a minute a terrorist entered the room, Aaryan was still, on his knees, looked dejected. The terrorist was burning in rage, he turned on the camera and he pointed the gun onto Aaryan’s forehead as he spoke “We told you to free Juja but not to send military, we have spotted your uniformed men outside, you don’t take us seriously so now watch this kid die” As the terrorist spoke his eyes gave a horrifying look. Aaryan was scared but not more than before. The terrorist standing tall in front of knelling Aaryan had held his long rifle in his right hand. The barrel pointed firmly at Aaryan’s forehead, after the terrorist completed his speech over the camera, he supported the gun with his left palm and casually moved his index finger towards the trigger.

A bullet was shot. There were cries that resonated throughout the room, the hostages were petrified. They had then witnessed another gunshot, they felt sorry for Aaryan but more than that they were scared for themselves. But the room was not filled only with the cries of the hostages, there was some hustle going on in the bright light area. Aaryan wasn’t dead. He had managed to untie his hands and legs. He held the barrel of the rifle with his left hand pointing at the ceiling, within a fraction of a second from his knelling position Aaryan leaned back, supported his body with his right hand pushing the ground behind him and he let out a strong kick using his right leg. He had kicked the terrorist hard at his delicate point, the terrorist was surprised and had gone weak. Aaryan pulled the rifle towards him. Aaryan was flat on the floor with the rifle but completely under control and the terrorist collapsed down. Aaryan quickly stood tall and with his hands, that were painted red with blood, swung the rifle with all the strength he had against the terrorist’s helpless head. The terrorist didn’t move, the blow was strong, and Aaryan had taken down the terrorist. Though Aaryan had delayed his death, he didn’t look happy. His burning wrist and the fact that more terrorist were outside made Aaryan uneasy and distressed. The hostages were still crying for Aaryan, but the words “I am alright” soothed them all. Aaryan rushed towards Nilesh to untie him. They soon untied the rest. Obviously the terrorists weren’t dumb to not have realized that something went wrong in the room. But surprisingly no one entered the room. The hostages could hear distant firing.
“What the hell is happening outside!” exclaimed Gary
“Probably the officials saw through this camera what happened in this room, live, and the military has started its action” answered Aaryan.
“Oh my God” cried someone.
“They would kill us before the military got them” complained Gary.
“Ya, you are right. We can expect many terrorist in this room now.” As Aaryan said these words he sounded dejected.
“I think we should all sit quietly and wait”
“Wait for what Gary, wait for the terrorist to finish us all!” shouted Nilesh.
“But what else can we do, we are not military men” yelled Gary
“Nilesh is right, I have killed one terrorist and they would definitely not leave us. It time that we fight for ourselves till the military rescues us”
“Aaryan you have gone mad, none of us have ever fired any weapon, we are not even trained to fight , how can you even think of getting out alive? ” whined Gary.
“But we have no option left. It is do or die” said Aaryan with regret.
“Look this terrorist has a revolver and pistol tugged in plus some ammo” said Abhishek who had been examining the dead terrorist. “I am familiar with the basic mechanism of the working of a gun so maybe we could fire the weapons”

Five minutes had passed since Aaryan had killed the terrorist. Abhishek had given everyone an incompetent but sufficient description of the mechanism of the working of a gun. They all heard approaching footsteps, coming close to the door. By then, Aaryan had read the geography of the room; it was shabby, low roofed, without windows and rectangular (10 by 15’). Abhishek commanded everyone to stick to the rear walls and Aaryan to stand behind the door. Abhishek threw the pistol towards Nilesh and Abhishek stood with the revolver. Abhishek and Nilesh were standing together, pressed against the wall, exactly opposite to Aaryan. The door was closed, all three boys took a ready stance, the door opened and Abhishek and Nilesh each fired four rounds. “Bingo” yelled Nilesh, they had managed to shoot the two terrorists who collapsed at the door. The next moment Aaryan fired his rifle at the two half dead terrorist lying at the door. The young boys had managed to climb two steps towards their release. The body language of the terrorists clearly stated that they were unaware of the scene in the room and the others were busy handling the military attacking them from outside. Aaryan and a few others were familiar with the place. They were in the haunted “Giant fort”.

“Giant Fort” was a deserted place just outside the city. The fort was declared haunted because of the large number of reported unusual incidents. Despite it being declared haunted Aaryan and his friends had been to this place before. They had a good look at the internals then.

“Listen everybody, we are at the Giant Fort. Those of you who don’t know how this place looks, I will give a quick description” started off Aaryan amongst the heavy firing going on between the terrorists and the military. “This is a three storey wrecked fort, it is 100 meters wide and just some 25 meters alongside. When we had come here we had been only till the first floor, but the layout for the other floors mostly would be the same.” Aaryan had a slight peek outside, through the door, and continued “We are very close to the stairs and from what I can make out, right now we are on the third floor. There are two staircases and we are close to the left one and now it is to our immediate right.”
Gary interrupted Aaryan “But if we move out and if some terrorist spots us we would be killed”
Nilesh continued “But Gary, terrorists would anyway kill us all, so we have to move and give them some resistance. I know it isn’t easy but we have to do it.”
“Nilesh is right Gary, We should form two separate teams one for each stairs” said Abhishek.
“Ok then we should do it.” said Aaryan who tried to sound confident but couldn’t hide his fear “We now have three rifles, three pistols and two revolvers, from the looks of it, it doesn’t seem we are short of ammo too. Let’s form two teams, one follow Abhishek and the other follow me. I will take the farther stairs and Abhishek you take this nearer one”.
Weapons were distributed, Aaryan and Nilesh had a rifle and a pistol, Gary grabbed a revolver, Abhishek took a rifle and revolver.

There were 19 alive hostages in the room, some armed, many disarmed but all were scared. They had hardly got some two three minutes to plan their plan of action. They weren’t pro, not even at the level of amateurs but they had no other way, the only thing they could do was to fight, fight for their life. Aaryan opened the door completely and turned left and led the way, Gary, Natasha and seven others followed him. He looked around, the floor was surprising clear, Abhishek, Nilesh and others moved out, turned right and took the stairs immediately. Aaryan moved slowly towards the other end, the passage was very long with many rooms to his left. He asked others to follow him at a distance. He cautiously moved towards the other end. He checked the next room. “Wow, these are our cell phones, bags and wallets” said Gary who had moved in to check the room. Everybody moved inside this room, took their cell phones. Aaryan dialed the police helpline number; they gave him a passkey “Benjamin Franklin”, and asked him to be safe.

Almost everyone thought that staying in the room would be a wiser option, but Aaryan didn’t feel any good about the idea. Also he had to let Abhishek and his team know the passkey. “They shouldn’t be too far, can someone join his team?”
“I can” said a boy’s voice.
“Ok, they should be near the stairs and as we haven’t heard any gunshots coming from their direction it means they are safe” said Aaryan “Ok buddy, be careful and give him the message”
As the young lad stepped out, there were gunshots, Aaryan pulled him back.
“Oh my God, they are here” said Gary in a dejected voice.
“Did you see how many were there?” asked impatient Aaryan.
“No, the shots were from the other end, and I didn’t have a chance to turn back and look” said the lad.
“Ok then, I think, it is time to fight” replied Aaryan and as he spoke one could see a matured young leader in him. Before he could finish, Aaryan crouched, in front of the open door and with a quick movement moved his upper body outside the door with the rifle pointing towards the other end of the passage. Aaryan kept his finger on the trigger, he must have fired some 10 rounds and then he moved back inwards. He had no idea of whether he had shot anyone. He was inside the room again, “now what?” said Gary.
“Don’t know man, let me move out again.” As Aaryan said this other hostages didn’t seem to concord with the idea but Aaryan had to do it. The second time Aaryan wished to be more precise, he looked through the door, and he saw a pillar on the opposite wall. Aaryan thought if he could get there safe, he would have a better chance take down the terrorist but Aaryan knew the terrorist would have always had a better chance over Aaryan.
“Gary, as I move towards that wall you fire indiscriminately towards the other end”
Gary did what Aaryan said without any question, Aaryan didn’t hear any gunshots in reply, so he quickly moved towards the pillar. “BAM” there was a gunshot, the revolver from Gary’s hand was thrown back but Aryan had managed to take cover behind the pillar and aim at the terrorist. Aaryan’s inexperienced hands shot few bullets and Aaryan witnessed an ugly site. He had shot the terrorist in his head which blew off like a watermelon. The terrorist too fired back before he collapsed and one of the bullet grazed Aaryan’s Tshirt. He saw two terrorist lay dead on the floor, he had killed one before in the previous firing. Aaryan directed the young lad to move towards the other stairs to inform Abhishek and others about the passkey.

The passage now seemed clear but was horrifying, they moved room by room towards the other stairs picking up as much ammo and weapons they could on their way. They were almost there, they had reached the stairs, and the room where they had been held up was almost 100 meters away. Aaryan and others were near the stairs.
“I and Gary will move down first, if things are clear I will direct you guys to come down” said Aaryan.
Aaryan and Gary moved down, they were facing the second floor. They could see some part of the second floor passage, a closed door on the opposite wall, and the gunshots were a lot louder than before. Aaryan was at the edge of the stairs and the long passage, which ran 100 meters to his left, of the second floor. As soon as Aaryan stepped his foot on the passage, something landed right next to his foot.
“Grenade!!!, move back ” cried Gary who was far behind Aaryan but Aaryan was shocked, his eyes were wide open, and he was glued to the floor.

to be continued...

A Fight - Part One

“Damm I am late again” moaned Aaryan as the sound of the alarm echoed his bedroom. He stood up in a rush as the clock ticked nine. The neighborhood was quiet, sun was shining bright and the chilly weather of December was perfect which made the day very pleasant. But it was not that pleasant for Aaryan, he had an exam to take at ten and he was late as usual. Aaryan whined “Mom, why didn’t you wake me” as he put on a black Tshirt and denim jeans. It was quarter past eight already. Aaryan was frustrated, annoyed and angry. He grabbed the keys to his bike and left his home in a hurry.

Aaryan, 18 year old college boy, was thin, tall and had a fair complexion. He lived with his parents in the outskirts of a big city. He was the only son, though as many would think of Aaryan as a spoiled kid, Aaryan was shy, introvert but a very strong willed person. Though Aaryan was usually under confident, he was known for his strong determination. He studied science in the city’s best college-St. Peter’s College. St. Peter’s College was located at a prominent place of the city. The place usually is heavily crowded during college hours but quite sparse at other times.

Speeding on his bike, he managed to reach his college parking area at quarter to ten. He felt something odd while he parked his bike, he had a feeling of fear not because of the exam but of something to which he couldn’t find an answer. The feeling built on as he got nearer to the college building. He knew he had an exam to take in five minutes but instead of hurrying, his footsteps slowed down. The college gate wasn’t crowded as the students were seated in for the exam. His anxiety grew. The only thing Aaryan wanted, that very moment, was to turn back and go home just then a strong muscular arm covered Aaryan’s nose with a cloth. Already in a state of fear, Aaryan didn’t know how to react, he was panic struck, he tried to free himself but he felt dizzy and began to lose control over his body. Partially unconscious Aaryan felt two men dragging him. The bright sky was darkened in just few seconds as his eyes shut.

“kudh kdhj dsh odk aaaaa” hit Aaryan’s ears, he was coming back to consciousness. He could hear plenty of yelling and crying amongst a distinct conversation which made no sense to him. Aaryan was confused, “am I dreaming, ya this is a dream, wake up Aaryan, wake up” he kept saying to himself. But the situation was too real to be a dream. Aaryan tried to move his hands only to find those tied behind his back, he tried hard to open his eyes which he thought would get him out of this nightmare, only if it were one. Nothing helped, Aaryan was blindfolded, his hands and legs were tied tight. Aaryan was completely conscious but the dilemma was too complex to understand. The chaos he felt around him made it difficult for Aaryan to understand his situation. He was lying on a floor which definitely was covered with dirt, the screeches that echoed in the room made him realize that like him there were many caged in. “I am kidnapped!” cried out Aaryan, his voice sounded no different than the rest who were abducted. A terrible fear gripped Aaryan, he remembered the whole kidnapping sequence that happened on his way to college.

“Let me go home” someone next to Aaryan kept yelling but soon that voice was muted with a loud thud. Aaryan was still horrified with the whole incident, he wanted to go home, he was hungry but the only thing he could do was cry. The conversation which was going on changed its language, Aaryan heard a harsh, very low pitch voice scream in a strange accent “Shut up, all you cry babies, the next person who screams would be shot in the eye”. The warning was followed by three loud, scaring gun shots and there was complete silence. The very next moment that place witnessed zero decibel sound as though the place had been isolated for ages. Aaryan could listen to his own nervous breath, he could see nothing but darkness and the air gave him a feeling full of fear and trauma.

Aaryan had no sense of time; he had no idea of how many hours had he been lying unconscious, how far was he from his home. “Home” whispered his desperate voice, he missed his cozy bed, he missed his mom, his dad but he could do nothing, Nothing. Next moment he heard a door close amidst the silence. Aaryan knew there were others like him kidnapped but he did not dare to utter a word. He was dying to know where he was, who were with him and more than anything he wanted to be free. The long silence was broken by a grunting sound that Aaryan let out as a hint to initiate a conversation with someone around. Nobody dared to reply with a word but the silence was now gone and the room was filled with intelligible whispers. The absence of silence for a long time gave Aaryan some courage to hesitantly utter his stammering words “who is here”. Again there was no distinguishable reply.

“Where are we?” questioned a soft scared voice. Aaryan replied immediately “No idea, but the way things are I don’t think we are at a safe place”. “We don’t even know why we are here, does anyone have any idea?” mumbled Aaryan. No interruption for a long time eased the abductees and the room was full of whispers.. “Terrorists!” said a familiar voice to which Aaryan replied “Nilesh, is it you?”
“Yes, Aaryan?”
“Ya Nilesh it’s me, How come you are here?”
“I have no idea, I was walking towards college when something happened and the next moment I found myself lying here. I am really scared, my parents are not even rich so why am I here?”
“May be these terrorists are planning something big” said Aaryan.
Soon others joined the conversation and Aaryan realized that about ten to fifteen college students like him were kidnapped and none of them had any idea of who had kidnapped them. Among the abductees Aaryan knew Nilesh, Natasha, Abhishek and Gary. They all were his classmates. Others kidnapped were mostly from St Peters. The conversation eased some tension but every single person was horrified. Some cried, some kept mum and Aaryan was no exception, he cried, the fear of being killed had gripped him.

The recess was over, the door slammed open, roaring voices scared every heart. Aaryan could see the room being lit, through the blindfold, not a single soul dared to speak. Aaryan could hear that strange conversation again which did not make any sense to him but the tone intimidated him. There was a momentary silence but it was soon disturbed by some squeaky sound which gave a sense of some machine being installed. The very next moment the only words Aaryan could hear were “We have 20 hostages at our gunpoint, if you want their safety release out leader Juja”. Every hostage cried like a baby, Aaryan then realized that all of them were in a very serious trouble. The kidnappers were not small gangsters but were the terrorists of world’s most dreaded terrorist organization. Gunshots were heard again, scared screams resonated all over.
“Shut up or else be ready to die” shouted a terrorist in the typical accent.
“We give you an hour time to release Juja if you fail to do so we would shoot one hostage every hour and broadcast it live, the choice is yours”
Aaryan’s eyes were wide open but he could see nothing through the blind fold. Like Aaryan everyone was petrified, the fear of death had traumatized every hostage. Amongst the cries Aaryan heard someone struggle as though someone had taken charge and fought against those cruel terrorists. The very next moment Aaryan heard one gunshot followed by a scream which described the agony of the source. Someone was killed, one of them was actually shot dead. “Sit quiet, or else you all would be killed” ranted a devilish cruel voice.

Aaryan was stunned just as others in the room were, his heart beat so fast that he could actually feel his heart coming out of his lungs. One wouldn’t be surprised if I they found wet pants in such a situation. The brutal murder of a hostage had taken away the strength of all hostages and they lay on the dirt as a piece of log. Not one even had the strength to cry, Aaryan was petrified and the words “we would shoot one hostage every hour” kept marqueeing in his mind. “Not me, Not me” Aaryan said to himself. His thoughts were broken by the thud of the door. The terrorists had left the room.

Every frightened heart prayed for its safety, Aaryan was lost in his scary thoughts. He heard the same door slam open, it was more than an hour after the previous scene. Aaryan was shocked when a firm strong hand held a firm grip on his arm and pulled him towards it. Aaryan burst out into tears, he cried “No, No, for heaven’s sake leave me”. The hand forced him down on the floor and Aaryan found himself in the brightest area of the same room. Two fingers pulled away the blindfold from his face.

Aaryan could see his death in front of him. The room was scary, faces of other hostages scared him more. What scared him the most was the sight of two terrorists holding huge rifles. The terrorists were average build, their face was covered, their eyes had a sharp piercing look. Aaryan didn’t have the courage to look straight at those. “We have given you more than an hour and you still haven’t done anything to free Juja” Aaryan saw one of the terrorists talking at a camera which was being broadcast live. “We give you five minutes to respond, if you don’t we will shoot this kid right away” the terrorists said pointing his armed rifle at Aaryan’s head. Aaryan’s heart was in his mouth, he didn’t know what he could do. He was on his knees at the mercy of the terrorist. He pleaded “Don’t kill me, please don’t ” to which the terrorist kicked hard on his face.

Five minutes were over, a message came from outside the room, and Aaryan could see the terrorists readying themselves for the broadcast. The terrorists obviously didn’t get any positive reply from the government. Aaryan could do nothing but cry at his condition. The camera went live and the terrorist pointed the gun at Aaryan

To be continued…

Swine flu

Swine flu had been in the world news for a very long time. Hardly did I believe that it would take a flight to India. Today newspapers report the death toll which has been increasing at an exponential rate. People are worried; there is an outbreak of panic amongst the throng.

Well let us have a detailed look at some serious effects of swine flu
1. People not wearing masks tend to avoid people wearing them as if that poor chap would uncover his face and blast off on their face.

2. Some people are getting inspired by the mask wearers to wear one even after watching the health minister’s interview where that poor fellow tries to explain how useless masks are against swine influenza.

3. Two third of the population have their faces covered. Big prizes to guess who’s who :) Wow an awesome idea for the news channels to start an SMS contest to guess ‘Who’s behind the cover’!

4. There are a few who are shy enough to wear a mask so you find them covering up their nose with their fingers. I wonder do they imagine a honeybee for a swine flu virus! God someone please tell those idiots that millions of viruses could pass through the huge space between their fingers.

5. News channels are feeling safe. Hello! Safe not against the virus but from the trouble of hunting for some new masala.

6. All schools shut for a week. WOW! Exclaims my cousin, who is happy to have got a week-long vacation to try out all the latest pc games.

7. All colleges shut too. This is pretty much visible with a lot of jobless college students wasting time on stupid facebook quizzes. Well the studious ones are blessing the benefactor (virus) because of which they got seven whole days to study!

8. All government officials warned to be safe. Oh yea! So its party time for all our babus as they have been spoon-fed with a new excuse to shirk off their ‘work’.

9. A bad time for the government, they are being continuously nagged by the media to get a detailed report of their “measures”. Come on media it’s a virus not terrorists inside the TAJ! First get the babus at the government hospitals for their lax attitude.

10. Hospitals remind me of the sight of the long queues for admission in junior colleges.

11. Not to forget one major effect, Raviraj has a new article ready for his blog. Courtesy: Swine flu. :P

Be safe ;)

Front Breaks

All conventional bi-cycles have 2 breaks; rear and front. You control the former with your left hand and the latter with your right. All riders know the hazards of using the front breaks ineptly. What exactly happens is while the cycle is in motion, the cycle has a linear momentum in the direction of motion. The cycle would continue to move straight until its motion is inhibited by some external retarding force. If one applies the front breaks abruptly then front wheel of the cycle would be brought to rest. But the whole object (cycle) has a linear momentum. As in a cycle, the axis of rotation of the front wheel rarely in the same horizontal line as the centre of mass of the cycle (plus the rider), the linear momentum possessed by the cycle provides the necessary torque to lift the hind wheel of the cycle above the ground. If the weight of the cycle and the rider compensates the resulting torque the cycle remains affixed to the ground. However if the cycle has a very high linear momentum then the cycle would rotate, projecting the rider off his seat.

I hardly knew about this governing rotational dynamics while I was in the sixth standard, though had an idea of the consequences. I had always been a curious child and sought amusement in fiddling with all sorts of things-gadgets, cycle, skates etc. I had a sturdy cycle, the reason I annotate it as sturdy is because it sustained so many mutilations: courtesy - my reckless driving. Oh yes I was talking about the front breaks, I was almost lost in thoughts of my cycle. Well I was long curious about the seriousness of the consequences of applying front breaks to a racing cycle. I always wanted to witness the scene but I never got a chance to be a spectator of such an incident.

One evening I was alone on our playground riding cycle. I was really bored and wanted something exciting. There was no one around. I waited long for my friends. It seemed as though all my friends were secretly having a party time. I got tired of the ennui. As it is rightly said ‘An idle mind is the devil’s workshop’. Just then I got a divine inspiration to experience for myself the consequences of the above mentioned dynamics. I stretched myself a bit, rode the cycle up an incline near one end of the ground. I was determined to do it. I took position, with my left leg on the ground and my right leg on the right pedal. My hands had a tenacious hold on the handles. The cycle was leaning towards the left. I took a deep breath and forced my right leg on the pedal. Soon the leaning cycle gained speed and assumed an erect posture. I pedaled down the incline with great vigor. I wanted to take an optimum advantage of the decline. My legs pushed the pedals hard, soon the cycle gained a decent speed and now I was on the flat ground. I was unstoppable, I had made up my mind, and I kept accelerating on the vacant mud ground. My speed increased exponentially and I was about to reach the other end of the ground. I could feel the air brushing my face and hair. My fingers, of the right hand, took a subtle grip of the front break. I made a few quick calculations and waited for the right moment. I was speeding towards my calculated point of action. I tightened my grip on the break, I was determined to do it.

I pulled the break as hard as I could. The front tyre all of a sudden stopped its rotational motion and skid on the loose muddy ground. My linear momentum was definitely a lot greater than the effective weight of my cycle and me. I was thrown off the comfortable seat in air. The hind part of the cycle seemed to make an angle more than forty-five with the horizontal. I felt a strong push in the forward direction. Upon the release of the break the cycle seemed to drive itself some distance. Due to the absence of a deft rider like me, the cycle fell flat on the ground. I had been thrown in the air quite a distance and fell prostrate on the ground. Luckily my forearms guarded my face and I just suffered few contusions near my elbow and knee. Neither did I bleed nor did I tear my clothes. I quickly stood up and reached my cycle to find it “hale and hearty”, and that is the reason I annotated my cycle with the epithet-sturdy. I had done something exciting and was really enjoying the “fall” until I felt the pain of the bruises. It was now that I realized I did something really inane. I picked up my cycle and pulled it over to the parking area and locked it. By then I had a few friends come, to play cricket.

In short, it was an adventurous evening and I had learnt something; not “physics” but a lesson that do not put yourself in danger of this kind, the next time. :)

No title for this :(

It was 19th January, 2001. It was a Saturday and the clock read 4pm. I was watching a movie on doordarshan in my apartment, at Goregaon. Suddenly the phone rang, I rushed to pick it up. The caller inquired about a scooter with the number BLQ 3029, I kept him on hold and called my mom who was in the kitchen. I handed the phone to her and continued watching the movie insouciant about the call. The expression on my mother’s face plummeted down and I felt as if she was about to cry. Now the movie didn’t matter to me, I was more concerned about the part of conversation on the other side. My mother’s disconsolate voice told me that my dad had met with an accident and was in a local nursing home. I immediately burst out in tears while my mom noted some address. I could see my mom discombobulated; she hardly knew what to do next. The next moment I saw her move out with her purse ignorant about the cash she had in it. She knocked the next door and apprised our neighbor about the mishap. Soon our neighbor (uncle) and my mom left for the nursing home.

I was shocked, I didn’t know what to do, and I felt very lonely. I immediately called my uncle (relative) and told him about what just happened. I couldn’t restrain my tears and all bad thoughts started vexing me. Aunty (neighbour) tried to console me and gave me assurances of his recovery. Uncle came back in some time, he had my dad’s office bag and a bag of vegetables. He seemed to say something to aunty which definitely didn’t seem positive. The brown office bag was painted red, this was unsightly for a 11yr old kid. I was again in tears but aunty tried to pacify me again. Soon uncle rushed back. I came to know that my dad was being taken to Lilavati Hospital. I didn’t have a slightest cognizance of the seriousness of the situation.

Two long hours had gone now, I saw two khaki uniform men looking for our house. They were seated at our neighbour’s house. They had come there to explain the case, to us. They had a theory which seemed blatantly ridiculous especially after having a look at the scooter which was brought back home by uncle. They said that an auto-rickshaw bumped my dad because of which he fell down and dashed himself against a stationary stone. They bolstered this theory by stating that they found his hair near the stone. Ridiculous! My dad has wispy hair and there isn’t much to fall so that it remains conspicuous on the ground. This was clearly made up. Well I didn’t think much then. Our neighbor signed a paper and they left. The scooter didn’t have mote of scratch on it. No part of the scooter seemed to be bumped even by a cycle.

It was 7 30 now and my mom called me up to inform that my father’s CT scan reports were out and he is out of danger. This news palliated me and I felt much relived but still I wanted my dad to be home soon. I also learnt that my dad was sitting injured besides his parked scooter, on the highway, and profusely bleeding. Thanks to a gentleman- Ravi Gupta-who took my dad to the nearest nursing home and informed us. By now my relatives had reached the hospital and uncle (neighbor) had come back. I was told that my father was fine and his head injury was just less than a centimeter away from turning fatal.

My dad’s elder brother took me to his house. I stayed there that night, restless. The next day I went to the hospital to see almost all of the Achar family there, I was hoping to see my father but the hospital authorities denied me an entry saying they didn’t allow children in the ICU. There my mom told me that dad was conscious and was recuperating. I came back to my residence with my maternal grandmother.

My dad came back home in 4 days. He remained weak for weeks because of heavy loss of blood. The way my dad met with the accident was still a mystery. My dad didn’t remember anything about the accident. It was only in the ambulance-on the way to Lilavati- that he opened his eyes for a few minutes. That is all he remembers about the accident. He just suffered a head injury and the rest of his body was unscathed. Only a head injury with no scars on the scooter and the police coming up with an apocryphal theory made things quite suspicious.

We made our own assumptions-someone hit my father, on purpose, as a result of mistaken identity, something fell on my dad’s head from the flyover above. The latter seemed more convincing as the scooter was parked and he lay besides it injured. Probably some heavy object fell off from the flyover and hit my father, and this instantaneous blow made him park the scooter himself on the road side in supor. This could have been a reason why the police came up with the story. Well we still aren’t sure about what exactly happened.

Many days have now passed and this incident has made its way into the oblivion but it is still a mystery. Thanks to the gentleman because of whom we three are happily enjoying every moment now. God bless him and all who helped us then.

My fascination vs my laziness.

It is hard to describe me, I am very lazy but I work hard. I get easily fascinated by alluring things, but the fascination reaches the peak soon and then it is my laziness that wins the battle. I am very dedicated but I easily get diverted. One day I could work for 16hrs and the other day sleep for 16hrs. Things are quite capricious with me. In this peregrination of life, of 20yrs, I have witnessed so many such cases that I would need scads of paper to list them down.

To bolster my statement I would cite one example. I have never been in the habit of reading and writing, but during my vacations after the first year of engineering I got “fascinated” with the Harry Potter motif. Wasting no time, eager to read I downloaded all of the Harry Potter e-books. Before I continue I would like to clear one thing, I have never been in the habit of reading. I don’t have the patience to read paragraphs longer than half a page. While reading I get restless, I would be more interested to know what is happening on the road, I would probably start day dreaming about a movie I saw the previous night or maybe I would just move into the kitchen to gulp in something. If all these weren’t enough to hamper my reading I would switch on the television and watch a movie while I “read” the book. For those who don’t know me well and also for those who think they know me well, I would like to clear one fact today that the same happens with me whether I read a novel or a curriculum text. My ideal posture to read would be, lying on my cozy bed with the book just near my head so that it could serve me as a pillow incase I slept.

Coming back to the most widely read book, Harry Potter. I hardly knew anything about the theme of this book and the only thing I knew was that this book has attracted a lot of readers worldwide. While casually surfing on the web for some e-book, I came across Harry Potter-1 and for the sake of it I downloaded it and gave the first few pages a perfunctory look. Ah! What do I see; this book has all supernatural characters and talks a lot about MAGIC. I have always loved magic and supernatural stories. I remember, when I was a kid I never missed a single episode of Shaktimaan- the show had millions of fans. I always fantasized myself as some superhero with enormous power, and I enjoyed playing with those powers. So I guess now you understand how much I am fascinated by fiction. It is this penchant of mine, for fiction, that I read the first book, from the Harry Potter series, in 3 days with an average of 10hrs reading per day. Soon I downloaded all of the then available books in the series. I was very excited and I had almost forgotten the fact that I was lazy and I didn’t like reading. My zeal then, for reading the book was so high that I wasn’t disturbed by the road-side noises, by intermittent day dreams or even by the desire to eat. I was almost in the magical world and had become a part of the Hogwarts-the magic school. I memorized the spells and would defeat the most feared Lord Voldemort, of course, in my fantasies.

Soon after the first book I started off with the second and completed it though with a subdued interest. Now the villain, not Voldemort but my “laziness” woke up from its dormancy and casted spells of boredom on my reading. I started the third book, but this time the very same computer seat seemed uncomfortable. I got easily distracted by the hustle and bustle on the road, I got hungry very soon and could not concentrate well in my lectures at Hogwarts. Gradually my laziness gained strength and just after reading first few chapters of the third book I closed the adobe reader. Since then I haven’t read any novel. My laziness dominated my penchant for fiction.

This was just one example, of many, where my laziness took over my fascination. I have seen the same happen with my guitar, body-building, designing etc. Now what’s next? This blog?

My GRE experiece!

I secured 1350 (550 verbal and 800 quant) in GRE, a score that would seem low to many. The immediate reaction that I got from my friends was mere condolences coupled with a few wishes. Almost everyone thought that I was insatiate with the score. Well they were wrong to a great extent. One would have to look into my literary history before judging my score, 550 out of 800, in verbal.

I was quite aimless until my third year of engineering. I did not have a mote of idea about my future plans. However, things started becoming clear; I somehow managed to realize that I have a penchant for technical field over management. So there came a rickety decision; I somehow made a decision to get a postgraduate degree in CS. I went on with this decision of mine and joined the most reputed classes-IMFS.

The classes began sometime in September-08, I don’t exactly remember the day but the first lecture seemed quite encouraging though ostentatious. Frankly, I don’t remember what our professor told, but what I do remember is the professor scared the hell out of me. I came to know that GRE verbal was a 30 minute exam which comprised of questions like sentence completion, verbal analogy, antonyms and Reading Comprehension (capitalized on purpose!). Oh my god, just then I realized that I had a puny vocabulary and I was never good at reading. This was not enough; I was told that GRE has an essay section. The only thought that lingered was “this” is next to impossible. But I knew GRE has a Quant section and it was this thought that was no less than a panacea for me then.

Well, I never have been in the habit of reading and writing courtesy: my laziness. I have just read 3 novels in my 20 years of life and I boastfully admit this. I have always done a lot of introspection to get an answer to this question but I never got one, probably I am not a kind of person who likes to read. This has always posed a problem for me but not as big as the one I faced when I started my GRE preparation. In the incipient stage on my preparation I did not consider it to be a serious problem at all. I sought pleasure in disparaging my literary skills, in my friend circle, but I never meant it to that extent.

Enough of digressing, so the classes began in September and I attended the lectures with a lot of interest, to learn. I was given a few materials, by the classes, which included GRE flash cards (contains 30 boxes with over 4000 words collectively), few sheets on GRE preparation and scads of exercise sheets. I brought home all of those and obviously dumped them in my pile of mess. However with some “peer” pressure I made contrived efforts to kick off with the “words”. It was then that new words started finding place for them in my callow vocabulary. Words had become a hackneyed topic of discussion in my friend circle. Initially I managed to have fun and participate in the so called words game but gradually I found myself lagging behind. This is when I started realizing I might land up in a serious problem but did not, rather could not do much as many technical projects allured me during the same time, in January 09.

The classes were going on at the same time; professor would “solve” GRE papers in the class. We always began with solving SCs (Sentence Completions). There were 7 SCs on the first page of the sheet given to us. I would try to read them and understand them and then would somehow manage to tick 4 out of 7 questions only to realize that 2 out of those 4 are correct. I would say “oh I just got 2 correct” whereas my friend- Pranav Bhansali- would exclaim “oh! I messed up with two questions”. I always tried to figure out how he answered those question, and that too correctly. I wondered if he knew some magic but then a practical thought would convince me that he is gifted and I am not. My condition was no better in verbal analogy and antonyms. But I would again convince myself, that once I finish up with those flash cards I would be able to answer those questions. I just cannot forget to mention the daunting Read Comprehension questions; the professor gave just 2 minutes to read a page long excerpt and then expect to solve the following question. Obviously, I never got those questions right because I was never able to read the passage and even if I read it I would not understand it. Again I convinced myself saying this method of teaching is ridiculous overlooking the fact that my friend had no problem with the same. I always knew deep inside that I was in trouble but I disguised that feeling with some pompous assurances.

The same continued in all of the verbal sessions I attended. I don’t remember much of the classes but what I do remember is the professor saying “Don’t look down!” (Actually he would say this whenever any student looked into the exercise sheet and not at him.). I wondered, was it some kind of mantra that he always chanted while students solved the RCs. As you know by now, I would never understand the passage so answering those was beyond my scope and aggravating my condition was the professor’s sporadic chanting which never enabled me to get a question correct in RCs. I do not say the professor was not good, he was, but I wasn’t sharp enough.

All sessions ended by march 09, and I don’t think any of those helped me significantly. By then I had taken my GRE date -8th July, 2009. Since then I had been just counting the number of months and the number of boxes of words that I had completed. By this time I was far behind my friends, I had managed to just complete a handful of 9 boxes when compared to my friends who were racing with their 17th box. This is when I started getting fits of depression (my depression is of a very different kind, doesn’t last long). Words didn’t interest me, but I plodded through those and by May I completed 15 boxes! Well I need not mention my friends were almost at the finish line i.e. the 30th box. I knew 8th of July was nearing but I was waiting for my 6th Semester exams to get over. Well, the exams ended on 18th May and by then I had a ”plan” ready for myself for the GRE.

My vacation-though a misnomer- started from 19th and as expected my laziness attenuated the early effectiveness of my “plan”. However, in two to three days time I managed to get myself on track and also got hold of all the required GRE material. I started rushing with the words, tending to get a nebulous remembrance of the words. It was not until I wrote my first Big Book test, that I realized my condition in verbal was abysmal. Now the actual GRE preparation started. I now tried to analyze my weaknesses and muddled to find solutions. By the end of my analysis I realized that I lacked almost everything which was required for GRE verbal- fast and comprehensive reading, quick understanding of the sentence structure and not to forget, the words.

I knew I had a lot of time but I was apprehensive, I was not confident enough but there were intermittent inspirations coming from within. I didn’t know exactly what to do; should I do words, should I practice more or should I start reading novels, were the kind of questions that festered me. The same scoring pattern-15 to 18 questions incorrect out of 30- continued for a long time. My desultory attempts to improve hardly showed any signs of success. This is where my friends came to my rescue.

I was guided and provided with a methodical way by the 1590 girl-Abha Ajmera. Now my preparation seemed to be somewhat organized. It was now when I started actually doing the words properly and then practicing Big Book questions. I improved my techniques with the sincere help of my friend Praneet Mhatre. These two have taught me verbal as one would teach mathematics to a primary kid. I remember the day all “GRE” people met in college, these two friends of mine patiently taught me the underlying techniques for solving SCs. It was tougher than an uphill task, my obstinate brain didn’t seem to understand anything. As a last attempt, I was made to dictate my thoughts and they analyzed my thought process. It was only then they realized my problem which hurdled my way to the correct answers. Now there was some ray of hope, within an hour they extirpated my inability to solve SCs. Later, my diligent efforts towards SCs made me comfortable in getting most of the SC question correct. This was a remarkable milestone, consequently I managed to get 5 to 6 out of 7 SCs questions correct contrary to 1 or 2.

Then came a trough in my preparation, I couldn’t see the same results in analogies and especially RCs. My continued failure in RCs vexed me and gradually I started feeling feeble. I would call up Praneet to understand a few RCs but that just helped provincially and I just couldn’t get the right answers out of RCs by interpretation or by luck. With just less than a month left for GRE, I became reckless with my schedule and everything slowed down. I never felt so feckless in life before, this was something I never experienced before. Then came those 2 days where I was at my lowest, my confidence was shattered, nothing seemed to inspire me, even doing words became difficult. I corned all my GRE material and remained in that pensive mood for two days. Well I am too lazy to be in depressed mode for a long time. So finally the second night there was a thousand percent increase in my confidence level. Then there was no looking back.

GRE is a computer adaptive test(CAT) so students solve a lot of CATs before appearing for their actual exam. The same applies to me, I had installed a few tests- powerprep 2, priceton, Kaplan-on my pc. The scores I got were horrible. The first test I wrote was powerprep 2 and got a score of 410 in verbal. Well I wasn’t surprised but that did not encourage either. As weeks went by I wrote more tests and the scores never crossed 500. However, I have recorded 600+ scores in a few priceton tests courtesy: repetition of questions(RCs). I only got 600+ scores when the question in the paper were repeated, and whenever I attempted a “new” paper the score never crossed 500. Adding to my misery, Kaplan had an erratic pattern and the scores there were shameful. But at the same time my friends were discontent with their 700+ scores in GRE verbal.

Those days of depression passed and I was confident. I continued my practice, words and had to start with a new thing now, essays. I have always feared to write essays, I could never translate my thoughts to words. But GRE has an essay section in which we are required to write TWO essays! I started off with surfing the web for essay materials found many templates, guides etc for essays. This is when I wrote my first essay after my HSC, it was a painstaking task and I took more than an hour to complete it. GRE has two kinds of essays 1- Issue and 2- Argument. In the issue based essays we are required to present our views on the topic and in the argument based we have to criticize and find flaws in the argument. The former is allotted 45mins and the latter is allotted 30mins. Now with just two weeks left for my GRE I started writing one or two essays every day. This was a place where I could see improvement, thanks to my friends. My regular chatting, on the net, helped me with my typing speed, so the only bottleneck was in my cerebral area and not my fingers. As days passed I started enjoying writing essays; I experimented with the “new” words, I had learnt till now from the boxes. Things were getting good but RCs and analogies were still floundering.

I continued my preparation solving CATs and revising words. Now I just had a week left, Pranav took his GRE on the 1st of July. He got an awesome 1410, but the thing that worried me now was where I would land (1200s). He got a few non flash card words. I was hardly comfortable with the known words and I feared of getting an alien word in the exam. I did some RnD on the web and managed to get plenty of non flash card words that had come in GRE. Took a printout and kept going through it. I was getting tensed. I could very well predict my scores but I didn’t want to. I wanted a score of 700+ in verbal but my scoring pattern didn’t allow me to dream so high. I didn’t want to land up in 400s. It was not a feeling one would like to harbor in the last one week.

It was now when, I don’t know what but, something divine struck me. I stopped worrying about my marks. I was nonchalance to the thought of getting a poor score. I had 4 CATs with me and one week to go. I made a decent time-table for my last week’s preparation. The first CAT I wrote I got 500, needless to mention, I was disappointed. The main culprits- RCs and analogies- seemed to be enjoying my distress. But I didn’t lose heart, got hold of unused materials and solved as many analogies and antonyms as I could. Having dedicated one whole day to analogies and RCs I felt as though I could cross 600 in my next CAT. But things just didn’t get better; I just got 550 in verbal with many repeated questions. Now I forced myself not to get tensed and my so called jocose nature helped me with that. I didn’t have much time left, hardly 4 days in hand and two more CATs left. I practiced few question from here and there just to get everything right, but the fact is I don’t have an aptitude for literature and building one is not a child’s play and impossible in 4 days. GRE is mechanical in some ways, so I just wanted to master it but I just had 4 days. I did whatever I could.

I solved the other two CATs; scores were quite affected by repetition of the questions in the first one. In the second CAT that I solved, I just got 450 out of 800(1250/1600) and mind you getting 450 just two days before your exam is more than enough to shatter your confidence. But by now I had become inured to such scores. I didn’t bother to predict my scores, even if I did, I didn’t think over it. My tension seemed to have absconded to some place that I don’t know. My schedule had now become whimsical; revised words, wrote essays and solved questions with no direction. Probably I was keeping myself away from thinking about the exam. But yes, I wasn’t nervous at all.

Finally, I get up in the morning to see it is 8th of July. That was the D day. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel as if I was about to take an exam. But deep within, I knew that I had to fight it out. It was not a competition for me but a battle: a battle for survival. I wanted a score above 1400, but that seemed difficult with my problems with RC, I wanted me to get at least a decent score to get in to any university. Well, that morning the weather was inclement and that was my prime concern as I didn’t want to get wet. The test centre maintains a very low temperature; I packed a sweeter, wore a full black T-shirt and a thick blue jeans. I was in the best of my temperament neither did I panic nor did I get tensed. This does surprise me now, because I get butterflies in my stomach even while appearing for my college mid semester tests. Fortunately, nothing of that kind seemed to happen that day.

I reached the centre at 11 45 am for my exam scheduled at 1pm. I walked in to see the vacant room guarded by a watchman, who seemed to be quite friendly. I was made to fill up a form and given a locker for my stuffs. The watchman verified my identity and asked to me to empty my pockets. A candidate is not even allowed to keep a hand kerchief with him while he writes the exam. I wore my sweeter over my thick black T-shirt, locked my belongings and walked in. The lady there asked for my identity, verified my details and wished me belated happy birthday-I was stunned. I then realized that just about one and half weeks back it was my birthday. I signed a log, and smiled at the webcam for a pic. At 12 noon, I was accompanied to my cubicle after a short instruction session. I sat on my chair comfortably, just as I sit always on my computer chair. I could see the CAT interface on the 19” flat LCD monitor in front of me. I was given a scratch book with two sharpened Natraj pencils.

The lady left me with the computer, I felt the keyboard and the mouse. Still I didn’t get a feeling of fear or tension. I was in my coolest mind. I went through the mouse tutorials and few other tutorials just to get used to the ambience before I could start. It was cold but my attire kept me warm. The large ear muffs ensured that I wasn’t disturbed by even a pin drop. I kept traversing through the tutorials. While doing so I entered a boring research section, it was then I felt I was ready to write my first essay. I quickly skimped through the instructions and landed up at my issue based essay section. The topic was good enough for me to jot down points on my scratch book. I quickly started off and completed my essay with 10 minutes remaining on the clock. I did a proofreading before the time expired. Next was the argumentative section; again the same story as with the issue. Completed the argument essay and with that I completed the first part of the GRE yet I didn’t realize I was there to write an exam. Now I got a 10 minute break, I moved out, got fresh, came back to my cubicle and saw Praneet writing in his cubicle.

Now it was time to write the much dreaded section, verbal. Took the mouse in my confident hands and clicked to terminate the break and entered the verbal section. So there I was, writing the actual verbal section, but it didn’t seem to be quite different than those CATs, I had written so far. The paper began with an analogy, I felt confident but didn’t rush to answer questions. I read the questions with at most care to avoid committing any mistake. But the 10th question was an RC, oh did I not tell you that I am horrible at RCs! Well, I kept my cool, read the RC, tried to understand bits of it and answered the subsequent questions. I don’t know whether my answers were correct or no, but I made myself believe that yes they were the right ones. I got the second RC at the 15th question somehow answered those. Well, all of a sudden I realized I am yet to answer a big RCs and I just have 10 minutes left. Just then on the 21st question, I got a big RC on arts-the topic I hate. That was the only time when I lost my focus for a few seconds during my exam. Somehow tried to read the 80 line passage, not sure of what the passage exactly says, I started off with the questions. Now I had 6mins left to answer a total of 10 questions which included 4 questions of this passage. I made a practical decision then, just read the RC questions once and answered what I felt could have been the answer. It was here I rushed through, only to answer those following 6 questions correctly which I think, I did. Also fortunately for me the “words” were from the boxes. Having answered the last question I finished the verbal section.

Now it was time for some fun, the quant section. Well I haven’t talked about this section, frankly it doesn’t deserve anything more than a mere mentioning. This section was quite easy to get through. I patiently answered, it was now that I started thinking what would be my score in verbal? 400? 450? Oh my God! However I soon managed to curb these thoughts and continue with my quant section. I was at the last question and I was really getting impatient to see my verbal score: I just wanted to see it, didn’t worry about the range. I finished the quant section only to find a series of instructions and plenty of next-buttons to click. I made expedite mouse clicks to see my score. Finally I was there-after about 20 odd clicks, more than a month’s preparation, and lot of depressing situations. The 19” LCD screen told me I got 550 in verbal and 800 in quant. I was relieved and happy to not have stuck in the 400s. But at the very same moment I thought that the score was not near 1400. The former thought dominated, as against all odds I secured a decent score which could fetch me a seat in very good universities in the United States of America.

Soon I entered four universities there and made a quick exit. I opened the locker, took off my sweeter, loaded my pockets and took my cell. Until now I didn’t realize I had actually given the GRE paper. I informed my dad about the score and then texted the score to a few friends. I wasn’t unhappy at all but the condolences that I got made me think -“am I sad?” I took a rickshaw for home and on my way called up Praneet, who was writing his paper while I left, to know his score. He got a fantastic score of 1510. I reached home, kept getting few SMSes asking for my score. I replied. To assure myself about the score I did a lot of research on the importance of GRE score and my current status.

It was then I realized that I had completed my GRE. I loved the experience. It was of a different kind altogether. I feel as though I had been in a battle. But this has also made me realize of my weakness. This rant is not a justification for my low score, but this is something which evinces the fact that I have changed a bit. Forgive me, for this terse, I don’t mean to boast about anything but I am plainly expressing my feelings through a medium I have hardly used so far. I could have never thought of me writing a 4000 words rant on my GRE experience. I have tried to express to a great extent but still a lot remains unsaid. It makes me feel somewhat better but also puts me in an enigma when I try to figure out the cause and reasons for this weakness. I didn’t put in a lot of hard-work of the level, that was required, but I can say I tried.

GRE is over, leaving me with more than 4000 “words” and a great experience. It is up to me, what I do with these; I could nurture it and improve on my weakest frailty or else I could just run away from these and enjoy my strengths.

9th July, 2009.