End of a journey, beginning of memories

The apprehension at the beginning of the journey, the anxiety before the journey begins and thus sometimes refraining from entering the journey itself. These reactions are so common whenever we try to venture into new things in life. For the time we experience it, we never find any sort of joy in such things and always wish that the journey gets over as soon as possible for the "better future" prospects awaiting us.
    Still, as we say the true value of things are only realized in two cases: before we get it and after we loose it.In the same way any experience in our lives are valued in two cases: before we are about to experience and after we experience. What remains after is the memories. Memories are the elements of life which form a link between the present and the past and a lot has been spoken about it. This time though i would like to share with all my readers how my memories are, having reached the periphery of this four year long engineering journey. I would focus on the first two and the last two semesters while writing(start and the end).
    To start with, I was a pretty reserved guy, if you would have asked me in my FE(First year of engineering), probably I would have been shy enough to voice my opinions and never started blogging. There were a few people I would hang out with, we had lots of fun, exploring new places. For me probably this was the phase where I started going out to the fullest.It's not that i never had a set of friends before or places were in scarcity but then this is the phase called "college days" where such outings reached its peak. The first semester was mostly spent in speaking to people and getting to know them.  I had made acquaintances but things never reached a level of friendship. Generally first semester is really stressful considering the grand transition to studying everything in a matter of 2 months previously done in a year or so. This semester passed by soon and the first war was waged on November 30,2010(i meant semester one exams..:p). We fought a month long battle which came to an end on December 29. It is said "if the end is good everything is good" and we missed on this pleasure too(the last paper being disastrous for many) .
   A fresh start for semester 2 was the need of the hour. This is what I exactly got. Now that some acquaintances turned into friends, we started to go out and started "bunking" and hanging out, playing and enjoying. A semester comprises of roughly 3 months and during this course, I hardly studied anything and sometimes my folks often wondered this radical change(all the studies came in the last month). My reply would be just as simple "There is time and I will make up". Things had just settled and i was getting into a mode for which the coming 3 years of my life would be spent. Thus, semester 2 was an semester which gave me an  idea of how this journey would be. By this time I can say i had fit in the shoes and got adjusted to this life. Some of the good moments which are worth remembering are our trip to juhu, and some inordinately wonderful moments with all my buddies. This semester ended with all of us going to Juhu which was the tip of the iceberg(MV wisdom).
      Once getting used to all this, I began to enjoy engineering, it had become a routine for me to study for a month and to enjoy the rest of the time. I will always remember the time i spent playing carom at the hostel in our college. A guy named Anand who resided there would arrange for our gameplay. I along with friends named Amit, Aadesh, Akshay,Bhushan,Bhavin,Fahim would all go there and have "striking" time on the carom board.  Sometimes, while they played, I would be reading some or the other book totally engrossed in that.
    The next checkpoint is the Industrial visit which I have already described in the article titled "The legendary trip".  After this trip my bond with some people got stronger. So in the following semester, we all would gather, have discussions and in this way i got an opportunity to speak with many people with whom i had never opened up much. Needless to mention, I got to know some more good souls out there.
    Semester 7, was the semester of a lot of work. All got busy in a race to get placed. Myriad number of companies coming to our campus and recruiting people. This was a deciding semester for us, since the efforts we put for all the preceding 3 years was about to bear  fruits. It was also a semester of disappointment for many since they couldn't make it. This is where a friend's importance was realised. We were all always mentally supporting the people and reassuring them of their own capability. I am happy that today they are placed. One memorable thing about this semester is the garba night where I danced to the music. I learnt a few steps, which was a great thing for me since I would always refrain from dancing.
  Lastly, coming to the VIII semester, the final one. The beginning of  end was in a  way the beginning for me. Since this was the last semester, bonding between people increased even more now that people knew that the end was not far away. Let me tell you, its a terrible sensation when you have a good time knowing that things are going to end soon.  I sometimes feel why hadn't I or why they did not open up with me being in the same course and class. I consider this semester as the semester of parties and enjoying one's heart out keeping in mind the "end" which was nearby. The end which was expected to arrive but wasn't expected to be so painful. Just yesterday we had our farewell and officially, yesterday was the last day of our college where we could meet our friends.Frankly,  I don't think our emotions developed in these four years would ever separate us apart come what may. There are some relationships which distances can never separate because of the bond called emotions.
     When we look from a larger perspective, 4 years is not much in a lifespan of about 60-70 years.What counts the most is the time and age in which these years were spent and this is what makes it stand apart from our school and junior college days. I learnt so many things here personally and professionally. I would also like to state that during this journey, some pastures were red and not everything was green. Such times made me strong and ready for the unforgiving outer world composed of mortals who just think about themselves.
   If I made a list of what all I will miss about this place, it would itself turn out to be an article. Through this medium I would like to thank all those who were with me in this 4 year long journey.
 Bhushan, the train journeys I have had with you; we got to know each other so well in these journey's ; sharing each other's problems and thus strengthening our friendship bond. Fahim, for the long talks after college;;who is also my my project co-member with whom I have had so many fights, good moments and a wonderful time. Amit, the person I could pretty much relate to and whom I had so many talks with;you are really good at heart brother, keep it up. Bhumika,a lady who thinks deep and has a sound intuition. Anvi, who is more into sitcoms(I will surely watch scandal..:p).Aadesh, the cricketer who was the captain of our college team , will always remember the pranks you played with me and also our short and sweet game of greeting each other in regular intervals.Chirag, the shrewd guy who I believed knew the ways to handle things to produce exact result, be it work,business or personal relationships, you will be missed man..:).Mangirish, the MBA,MS talks and the car journey's after exams. Aakansha, a person who sings well, have had so many singing sessions with you.will remember all this.Milind, the code master and Bhavesh, a funny guy who would turn out to be a prankster of the highest extent, the master of sarcasm, will miss you..Shiv(Bantaay), I will miss the morning walks with you; the talks we often had which turned out to be so productive and deep.Some other brother-like and sister like people with whom interactions were short and sweet...the list goes on...

    If I could ever see you all in my life at one place and at one time, I would be the last person on this earth to miss this opportunity.Guys, it's too early to be so emotional but this is what I feel frankly.
Time goes on and nothing is permanent, so unfortunately, have to bid adieu to you all from this platform. I hope you all do well in life and one fine day we could meet at a place and recreate our class to put life to all the memories we will henceforth carry from this stage.It is the End of this journey and beginning of memories...

Shallowness

               
            /**I welcome one of my friends to co-author this article with me**/
I believe Shallowness is the greatest suffering of the day. With advancements in science and other arenas, we are also advancing in becoming shallow in our thoughts. By shallow I mean having thoughts, principles based on something immaterial.
      Deep emotions, deep thoughts have rarefied these days. I mean when I see the world around me which is so manipulative, a place where the concepts of FWB (Friends with Benefits), I find one thing; shallowness. We are apparently running behind some or the other thing without knowing the reason why we crave for it. Lets take up one example, majority of us run for money; justified. Till we get adequate money that excitement and ecstasy is always there. As soon as we get the money, we feel, now what??
Shallowness lies in the thought that since majority of the people are behind something, we also run behind the same thing also called as herd mentality. Some of the common scenarios of herd mentality is taking up a course just because of its popularity,  buying a thing just because someone else has bought it.
     The world is a strange place, laden with people from all sorts. Shallowness doesn't have to be restricted to higher concepts but to also lines of thoughts such as these:
Scenario: In engineering, we have 8 semesters and on an average 6 subjects per semester. Scoring marks is the sole purpose of many of the people here. Well that isn't any problem because all of us would like to score good grades. The problem arises when grades are the sole purpose and people resort to rote learning. According to me, the aim must be learning and applying and if one learns, scores follow automatically. In a way I would term this as shallowness because no purpose is served by hosting rich scorecards alone with a poor mind.
  To run behind the results without knowing the base of things can be said to be shallowness. In every article of mine, I have spoken about relationships. This article is no exception. "Beauty" is such a terrible Maya it leads to shallowness.We, many a times do not judge the person's inner beauty but only the outer one, visible which can be artificially obtained these days. Isn't it shallow guys?? I think we need to change our thinking regarding this.
Shallowness is a terrible thing, one can say since it never makes the person realize the consequences on time . I have in the past also spoken about karma and how a person pays for it. Often, one can find people indulging themselves into crooked ways to achieve something and this leads to the path of being shallow. Its one thing that causes immense suffering but only after the human has settled down in relief that his motive was accomplished..over the surface, it seems that his/her intentions were sorted and taken care of by being shallow..and that person who has been shallow will continue to live in blissful peace on the job being done.He/she will always have the feeling of being complacent though he/she was being shallow but, this shallowness is such a silent predator, like the very-feared heart attack, that it strikes the person who had been shallow in the past, all of a sudden..a bolt from nowhere..and that is when all the suffering starts..the guilt conscience first completely shoots down one's morale..then self degradation, owing to the past where one had handsomely exhibited to oneself how low one can stoop on morals and ethics to achieve that lame and sometimes ridiculous motive which one had, This guilt first starts to creep in and misery compounds. One thing leads to the other and eventually, one fine day the person who has been shallow will be ready to lay bare and sacrifice his/her life as well to atone for his/her sins. We can clearly see how shallowness gradually leads to one's destruction eventually.

 On a lighter note now, One more aspect of shallowness is in our line of thought: "If I cannot go ahead, bring the other one down to my level." One must realize that bringing others down doesn't compensate for the fact that you have not gone ahead in life. Such people are sadistic people,selfish people who can only think about themselves and their happiness.Happiness for such people is coded with a if else statement...let me also write the pseudo code:
   if(I achieve)
{Then I am happy}
else if(others arent able to achieve)
{Then i am happy}
else
{I am sad}



Hilarious..right?? Remember one thing, that never fall prey to such thoughts which are shallow. Even the core of the earth is 6.5k  kms away from the surface and that is where the processes are taking place...isn't that deep enough?? Shun shallowness and embrace deep,powered and directed thoughts.


-CO-AUTHORED BY SHIV NAIR