The end!!! or a new beginning?????????????

At this moment i feel really awkward writing this post.... may be b'cos its been almost a couple of months since my last post .. or may be cos i still havent found anything interesting to tell.. yet here i m taking a plunge to write something that may just blow you out..u may have to read it twice to make out what i have written and at the end of it.... this may be my worst post of all or my best.....thats for u decide...!!!...hmmm,.. wait.. am i confused or what!! thats exactly the emotion i m going thro right now... tomorrow is the last day of my engineering... i have my final project demo at 8 am and what am i doing at 1.00 in the morning lying in my room and writing this utter nonsense..??? absolute stupidity .. isnt it!!! but thats how i am... if something comes to my mind...i will put my heart and soul into it... there s no way one can stop me from doing it no matter how unimportant or irrelevant it may be... just as it is now!!!.. at this point i may have even erased the entire post.. shut my laptop and gone off to bed... but no... there s still something thats drawing me into writing this blog..... may be its the anxiety, exitement or the emotion of this being the last day of my graduation.. i had to pen down this sentiment that i am going through right now..so that when i look back down the years i realize how badly i miss all the special friends(some who have been my buddies for a long time now and some new but really special additions) with whom i have shared these 4 glorious years...and who have also made me realize how special i am...!!!

Just to mention... the last month and a half has been "THE MOST" amazing and awesome period of my college life---- the class trip being the most exiting of them all.... it all happend just like that... and before v realized v had the time of our lives..... what followed it was even more special.... coming to terms that v had become such good friends !!!!... some may feel its all too late with only a month to complete college...but v shared so many special moments that will remain with us forever....!!!!!!

CHEERS to all my "FRIENDS" who have been part of the memorable moments that have made 4 years of my life truly special and cherishable for lifetime!!!! Long live our friendship!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

here i go.. ending this post just as wierdly as i had started it....!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me,My blog and IPL..!!!

Why blogging??? i think many have this question?? even i wondered why do people blog.?? but i got the answer when my brother started blogging... there are some emotions,expressions and opinions within us which cannot be spoken out... they can only be written.. and i feel writing is the best form of expression. For those who are not the best speakers(like me) but have loads of things to say blogging is a best platform!!!..its ur place... and u can wrtie just about anything that comes to your heart...thats the significance of the url of my blog.... many may complain thats a long "sentence" for an url but i cudnt have thought of a better name than that.... so what ever i ll be writing will be straight from my heart.... no second thoughts about that!!!!.. to be honest even i didnt know i can write so well before i took to blogging..... what with my own fan base waiting for a new post from me!!! there are just a handful of people who read my blogs though... not bad for a beginner i must say!!

hmmm enough of self praise i guess ..talking about other things.....

it was good to visit bangalore last weekend after almost a year... enjoyed the trip even if it was only for 2 days ..i had been there for the ISRO written test but it was more about relaxing and getting a change than about the test itself....

also time s good to enjoy a bit of IPL.... interesting season i must say (even though rain played a dampner for some of the important clashes) cos the points table seems to be overturned (not for RCB though)with deccan chargers and mumbai indians on top and CSK and rajastan royals in the bottom half of the table..i had decided that i will support RCB this season even though they didnt fair well last time...what with new additions peterson and ryder(in great form coming into this season) . i didnt expect them to win but atleast hoped them to give a tough fight and my expectation went up further with their win in the first match against defending champions and doing it convincingly and rahul in great form as well. but that was it!!! They went sliding down after that back to their position at the bottom of the table.. but i ll still be supporting RCB... cant ignore the regionalism  u see!!!...i reckon they didnt even have the luck of rain washing out  any of their matches so that they cud have shared the points as well as the last position with CSK!!!!!!!! but that was not to be.... hoping for them to fair better atleast in the second half of the season !!!

last but not the least it s a peasure to see all the senior players giving the youngsters a run for their money... who ever told T20 is a young man's game???? be it Sachin,Rahul, kumble,warne,gilly,hayden,murli,gibbs,jayasurya........oh god they are having a blast aren't they...!!! some of them were even dropped from the ODI and T20 squads for their respective countries.. and now they are proving a thing or two with their game..... are you watching Mr.Dhoni...???

P.S: i found it really hard to give a title to this post....thats because i started writing something and ended up with something else..........any suggestions.....????

.....Aashini.

hmmm… it took a fairly long time to continue….the reason is that I was busy with the project work..so here goes the rest of the story…

After the beautiful Sunday our next pit stop was two days later at the Missionaries of Charity which is a home for the disabled and old aged. Initially it was bit disturbing for some of us because we had never seen such people so closely before… but as the time passed we almost forgot the difference between them and us… that's the magic -- you forget your worries because u realize that ur problems are nothing when compared to their’s … … you almost lose yourself…at the same time u also you feel how blessed you are!! A special mention to those taking care of these people with so much endurance and without a hint of annoyance… they have dedicated their entire life for the service of these people and all they believe in is the principle of Mother Theresa “unconditional love and service for the mankind”.

The next day was even more heart warming and a real eye-opener of sorts..… here we met kids who had amazing grasping powers and great level of skill.. they were so easily breaking the tiles(marshal arts),hitting wonderful cricket shots,and dancing beautifully….but the Irony is that they can neither hear us nor talk to us… Yes..it was a visit to the Deaf and Dumb school with around 50 boys… They were in NO WAY lesser talented or knowledgeable when juxtaposed with any other normal kid of their age… in fact they were even better!! Their disability is not at all a hinderance to them by any means… their dancing was exemplary even though they couldn’t hear the music…!!! and their synchronization was immaculate!!.It is to be seen to be believed.The best part was playing a cricket match along with them…. oh god that was so much fun and at the same time a truly satisfying experience of spending some valuable time with those kids.

All that these people expect from us is to be treated like equals and never to be looked down upon…. they require a sense of belonging in this world!!For that to happen people like us have to come forward… and lend a helping hand.So this program will not stop here…It is just the beginning… some of us are planning to visit these places often and do our bit by sharing knowledge and spending some time with them.

A big THANK U to everyone who have supported this cause either directly or indirectly and helped us in making it grand SUCCESS!!!!!

After this each one us have a great sense of satisfaction.. of having done something for a good cause which when we look back now we feel truly PROUD of….!!
Really.. these days have been one of the most beautiful experiences of our lives...the one's that we will cherish forever...

i think i don need to say more... the video says it all...this was made by some of my friends which is a compilation of pictures taken at all the places we visited...it sums up our entire experience!!!!

Aashini.....

oh God !! what a fantastic fortnight it was !! probably one of the busiest days of my life in college ..or should i say the most satisfying and memorable one. before i tell what its about... i would like to share one of the beautiful quotes i came across--

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”-- Rabindranath Tagore

And I realized how true this was in every sense of the word… and I can assure that most my friends also do.

It all started over a casual chat in our college canteen about 20 days ago.I reminded my friends of how we had planned a charity program (to donate some useful things to the less privileged) in the last sem but couldn’t do it because of lack of time. Then one of my friends said “What if we couldn’t do it then let’s do it in this sem”. Another one commented “ya.. It’s a good idea”. “Come on girls lets go to the HOD now and take his permission” said yet another.(What an idea.. sirjee!!). But we couldn’t get to meet our HOD that day so it was postponed by another day. Anyways we were sure that he wouldn’t be objecting the good work and it was merely a formailty.

So the next morning we were off to the missionaries of charity, bellary to enquire about their needs and what best we, as students, can give them.This visit moved us so much that what was just a thought until then had turned into a determination that-YES we will do it come what may!! After that we got the much needed permission from our HOD and Principal and then we happened to share our thought we one of our lecturers and she was very much impressed by it and lended her full support to the cause .so that was just the right kind of support and inspiration we needed to move forward.The next step was to give a name to this cause….. and we named it “AASHINI”(which means lighting).by the time I realized we also finished preparing banners to create awareness about the program. ,… all this in a single day!!!

We planned to start it in the next coming week itself but because of our college fest had to postpone it by another week. So a week later we shared the thought with all classes and lecturers in our Dept. (it was just limited to our branch-CSE) and we asked them to give their contribution in the form of money, clothes etc.The contributions that started to come from the next day itself continued to flow in for 2 weeks.Infact the response was so huge that we had to find other places in the city where we can contribute.And we found 2 other places—Balmandir (Govt.Boys juvenile home) and Govt Deaf and dumb school.

From the contributions we got in the first week we visited the balmandir.there were about 50 boys who came from poor families and some with single parent.we gave them drawing books, sketchpens, sports kit etc.. and the smile on their faces said it all. Also the kind of talent the kids exhibited was amazing.That was the day each one of us realized the JOY of Giving. ‘Giving’ doesn’t merely mean materials, it also the means giving your support , knowledge ,love and sparing some time for them.

Now this was just the Beginning…...

to be continued………..

Going.. Going.. gone..!!!

I am in a confused state right now.. whether to be sad that IPL-2 will not be held in India or to be happy that atleast the tournament is actually going to take place this year after the much speculation and drama about the dates of matches clashing with the elections.It is really a shame that a country with a population of around a billion people and the largest democracy of the world cannot handle a cricket tournament and elections at the same time!!Todays decision comes as a slap in the face of the govt as IPL board clearly blamed the Govt's attitude for the decision to shift the tournament out of India and as a cricket loving nation even most of the people will have the same opinion and whether it is played in India or abroad they will not stop watching cricket for anything, not even elections.But looking from the perspective of our police and security forces they will certainly be relieved with this decision.Also logically speaking, the elections take place only for 5 days in the entire country where as the IPL will be played for over 50 days only in 8 places so i think they could have easily managed the two.
Now that the decision has been taken,lets look at the positive side of things .The craze for IPL will not decreased by any means--what if people cannot go to the ground they will certainly be glued to their television. Also Indians are in every corner of the world so the stadiums will surely be jam packed whether its played in SA,England or Australia. This will also bring the league closer to international audience.So whether its in India or not... the fact that it is taking place is a great news for fans like me. So looking forward to another exiciting season of IPL2.

Batting at its best!!!

Born in a cricket/sports crazy family and being a cricket lover myself i had no doubt that my next blog would be nothing but CRICKET.And what better time to catch up with some exciting cricket than now while there are neither any good movies nor any other interesting stuff on tv...( with all the news channels being caught with election fever and covering all useless stories about our dirty politics).But as always cricket didnt disappoint.It was a splendid victory for India- winning one day series in NZ after 41 years!!!(it may have happend a week back but i didnt have time to post a blog then...but as they say, better late than never..isnt it?)
Thankfully all were D/N matches or else it would have been very difficult to get up 3.30 am to watch the match. It was a fantastic batting display by Indians(except for the last match of course).It was a treat to watch the maestro-Sachin Tendulkar score his 46th ODI hundred and i thought it was one of his "BEST" innings.How i wished he scored a 200!! but that was not to be..:(
Not to forget yet another blistering innings by Viru.(100 in 60 balls!!!)man that was simply out of the world!!..poor NZ bowlers..:)..McCullum was injured so he didn't keep wickets that day.. instead he was in the out field and for me the best description of Sehwag's innings came from a commentator who remarked(when the ball was most of time finding McCullum)that it was better for McCullum with that injury to keep wickets than field as the ball was hardly crossing the bat and reaching the wicket keeper!! Another man u can't afford forget--our captain cool MSD... he's the Mr.Consistent of our team.. as cool and as smart as ever!!
Today Sachin has scored yet another 100 this time around in tests... and a quite contrast innings i should say compared to his ODI 100 last week.and i think all that talk of his retirement is really senseless. i wonder why the media is so much behind his retirement when he's scoring centuries at will??i think they are desperately waiting for a news piece to carry a debate and cash-in on sms polls!!Today in the post-match PC a guy asked him "what do u feel about the crowd giving a standing ovation every time you walk in to bat or get out?" and he wittily replied "probably they are thinking it will be my last series" which means he definitely doesn't think so... he still has the hunger and passion for the game.. he's enjoying the game to the tee ... it was evident when he was laughing as he walked off the ground after getting out by playing a weird shot today.He also dedicated his century to the tiger conservation campaign... now where did that come from??
This team is known to spring surprises.. what about selecting Munaf patel when everyone had written him off specially after the thrashing he received in 3rd ODI!!!. and as usual Dhoni's choice was justified when munaf took 3 wickets in 1st innings!sure... this team really has some MAGIC.To add more to NZ bowler's despair Zaheer Khan scored yet another Half Century!! but his celebration was as if he had made a 100..:)and the entire team came running out of the dressing room to cheer him... that s the best thing about this team they enjoy each other's success.
It is also so nice to see our batsmen "walking" after getting out... last week it was yuvraj and today it was MSD...trying to make the umpire's job a lot more easier i guess:)..
hmmm that's all for now.... waiting for India to win this test and also the series.. which would be after nearly 32 years...!!!

Beginning of the End

Now.. wondering what the title suggests...??Its just an indication that it is the beginning of the final semester of my glorious engineering days. In fact before i realized its already a month into 8th sem and that is what i fear even the next few months will be gone in wink.it will all be gone in a few months time.. friends,classes,movies,bunking,notes,internals,exams,lectures,projects etc etc..How i wish it continued for few more years.I think most of us have this feeling---when you are about to end your studies,your desire to learn more increases...because all that you have been doing up till now in your life is just study,study and study... from nursery to school to college...so you start wondering can you do any other thing in this world?? Also the world outside college looks scary... the uncertainty is lurking...its in your face.... you don know where you will be and what you ll land up doing.. so you just want the time to stop right here ,right now... but it will not and that's reality... you have to live with it and be up for the challenges of life.... right? So now i am trying to enjoy the rest of my time in college to the fullest. I just finished up with my seminar and internals.. so i now have a lot of time to enjoy until the next internals which means these will be the moments i ll have to spend with utmost happiness and satisfaction so that i can cherish them forever...

Cheers...!!!!!!