A month and a half at office

15th Aug 2008: A month and a half at office

The eventful period with some crazy thing happened during this period. Here you go…

Here at work end, life was also going smoothly as of light work during training period. I’ve made some good friends. Some of them were from IIT whom I’ve met first time during the interview and next time on first day of our orientation in the company.

On that day we reached a little early in the office and in the orientation room there were some other people were also sitting there, all of them were fresher except one, Rohit. About 30-35 yr old, he was experienced and like us he was a new joinee to the company. We were thinking that he’s someone senior from the company only and just sitting there to observe our body language, our behavior or so, someone like a psychologist. After sitting there with us for some time Rohit walked out of the room. The moment he went out a murmur started among us about whom he was. Everyone was citing their opinion and after about a couple of minutes or so he returned with the coffee, and there was a pin drop silence in the room.

After about a minute or so one of us (Prakash) opened his mouth and shot the question.

Prakash: Are you from HR? When orientation is going to start?
Rohit: I don’t know. I’m just like you, the new joinee in the company and waiting for orientation to start.

Prakash: Hahahaha. Don’t tell lie.
Rohit: Arre, why should I lie? It’s mine first day too.

Prakash: Hahaha you must be kidding, the way you were observing us says a lot.
Rohit: Hahaha, what do you expect, cant I look at you guys… fresh ones out from the college, entering the work life.

Prakash: Yes that’s why you were observing our behavior as how we’ll behave in the company in future.
Rohit: What should I say now…


And he walked out of the room. And came back only with a HR personnel, to start orientation. She then tell us to introduce ourselves and the time when Rohit introduced himself, he looked at Prakash’s side and focused on the line "I’m the new joinee here". And that was the time when Prakash’s face was worth watching, and we all were laughing, but being a jolly person he too joined us in our laugh.


------

Then after a few days there was some issue regarding our first salary. As HR wasn't taking any action on our request so we all stormed to the COO’s room regarding unacceptability of the condition as we weren't informed about that during our recruitment etc...


With such incidents and meeting new people we didn't even realize how this time has passed, some of us have left while many are still here.
Lets see where life will take us in future.

Generally...

11th Aug 2008

It’s been one month since that discussion with bhaiya. During first week whenever we talked, we weren’t able to discuss anything besides those questions. But after a few days things came back on the track. We started having our normal discussion

Dinner With Bhaiya

July 12,2008: Dinner with Bhaiya

The dinner was a casual one…. He started with normal questions like…

How long we have known each other?
How and when we met?

...…
And then moved to some serious questions like

How long we’ve been dating?
What did we know about each other?
Were we serious or just fooling around?
What did we think about our future? Together or as Individual?

.....

and lots of such questions asking for details about us and our so called "RELATIONSHIP".....

We started to answer the questions in quite comfortable manner but once the cross questioning about seriousness of our relationship started we were lost. We thought that we were pretty serious about our relationship but as the questions started we ended up as confused as we were lost in maze…

After giving us so many questions to think about, bhaiya changed the topic to some other general stuff and about the day before, how we spent it. In the end after dropping bhaiya to home when I was going back to drop Sia to her room we were silent and it was kinda uncomfortable as there was some heaviness due to those unanswered questions.

Meanwhile I dropped her back, and I went to bus stand to purchase the ticket as weekend is ending and I’ve to go back for the job. And hence the most eventful and exciting weekend with one amazing and other confusing day was over.

Someone was patting on the window

its 12th July 2008 morning

Someone was patting on the window... and it was embarrassing situation for us...
Without saying a word we silently moved in the house, told her to sit in the drawing room and he told me to come to other room. The moment I closed the door, he threw away a lot of questions towards me.

......
What the hell is this??
Who is she??
What were you doing here??
What you did yesterday??
Why were you in the car??
Where were you since early morning??
Why didn’t you picked up my call??
......

And before I spoke anything he opened up a shocking new for me…… He said…
"Your dad will reach here in about an hour. In a short while he will know what are you doing these days… Perfect situation where he will know about everything and that too when no one will speak any word… Your actions will speak louder than your words… Great job Pranjal… Great!!!!"

I just shivered with the news...

I pleaded him to not to tell anyone about this, first listen to me as what had happened and then decide as what to do. He agreed to listen to us and then in short I gave him details about everything from her b’day celebration, to our small trips, to our cooking dinner in the kitchen and the power cut at night and finally how come we ended up sleeping in the car. Seeing the mess in two rooms, a little bit dirty kitchen, and clean dishes near sink, no power in the house, he finally believed us (Later I found out that he had been in somewhat similar situation).

He then told Sia to go and change quickly as it was only about half an hour left for my dad to come back. He told me to drop her back to her place and get the bread and milk, and then at gate he told Sia to go and take rest at home and not to make any plans in evening with friends as we will be having dinner together. And there was another shock for me on this statement, as firstly I was not aware that my dad was coming and then now he invited her for dinner with my dad being here.

Ohh God... Dunno whats there in Bhaiya’s mind.... Meri to watt lagne wali hai...
I dropped her back to her place and the moment I came back I found my dad was unloading his bag from the auto rickshaw.

Later during the day I found out that my dad was going to purchase some material for the shop, Jaipur was just one of the stops, and he will be leaving by 4 p.m. train. I was a little bit relieved but was still thinking about what will happen at dinner, why he called her for dinner.

But the night wasn’t over yet...

But the night wasn’t over yet....

But the night wasn’t over yet...

Not all plans work as we wish them to. As generally in every fairy tale there is some villain, this isn’t any fairy tale but we were neither an exception.
We did sleep at around 1.15, but got up again by 2.30. There was just a loud bang and power was gone. Both of us got up due to that bang, went out and found that there was short circuit in the nearby transformer. We went back to our beds, but then I came out after rolling over the bed for about 15-20 mins. No power and high humidity killed me, I was unable to sleep. I knocked lightly at her room just to check if she was sleeping or not. There wasn’t any response. I went upstairs to terrace and found out that she was strolling there. WOW… She looked beautiful under the cloudy sky in dim moon light. It was complete dark and silent not even the rustling of trees as the air was still, but as of still air there were a few mosquitoes. On only way to get rid of them was to walk continuously and use hands every couple of minutes to shoo them away. We tried to walk but were too tired to walk for long. I suggested going out for a long drive, she agreed. So around 3.15 we went out for a drive on NH 8 towards Delhi… After driving for about 15-20 mins I felt like sleeping, perhaps my eyes were closed just for a couple of seconds and were suddenly open with her scream, “Sho!!!!!! dekh kar…”. I was about to bump the car into the truck moving ahead… Luckily I applied break and we just managed to avoid that accident. After this I was wide awake, but still she insisted to take the driving seat. I said NO and we took a U-turn from next cut and stop by the nearest dhaba/restaurant where I washed my face. At around 4 we were back to our home. The transformer wasn’t up yet and the air was still, so we decided to switch on the AC and take an hour nap in the car only.

Morning 6 O’clock

Someone was patting on the window door. I opened my eyes and found Bhaiya to be standing there… with a question mark expression on his face.

Without even realizing that she was on adjacent seat, I said Hi Bhaiya.
In order to check the time I checked the cell found out that it was not my cell, my cell was in the room, it was her cell and the moment I realized that she was right beside me sitting wearing one of my night suits.. I was wide awake...

It’s her B’day again..... 3

Continued from: The Last post

Now it was only 7.30 and we started feeling hungry, we thought of having her favorite Pav Bhaji at a nearby shop but as no one was at home so we decided to cook Pav Bhaji at home, and had Gol-gappes there.

Bhaiya was out for his business related work and bhabhi was at her parents’s place, so the whole place was mine till next morning when bhaiya was supposed to came back. After having Gol Gappes around 8.15 we were at home with Pavs and were chopping vegetables for the bhaji. At the same time I put on some soft romantic songs on the home theater system as background music for our evening. With some cuddling, some teasing we didn’t realize how time passed and our Pav Bhaji was ready. We brought everything out there in the dining room and settled in front of the TV and started her favorite movie "Maine Pyaar Kiya". And the Murphy’s Law struck, state power suppliers didn’t like it and there was a power cut. So we put one the movie DVD on the laptop, lit some candles and had our Candle Light Pav Bhaji Dinner. WOW a lovely, soft and romantic dinner, and above all my Sho can cook, and not just cook but indeed she is an awesome cook. 15-20 minutes after dinner when we were done with cleaning the kitchen and were done with removing all evidences of our presence, the power was back. But by then we ditched our plan to watching the movie. We moved up the terrace, and had a walk up there with our hands in hand.

Even after a whole day together and even though we ran out of topics but didn’t get tired of talking. We were chit chatting nonstop without even any topic and after every few minutes we come up with "aur batao" or "kuch bol na, chup kyo hai... kya bolu... Kuch bhi... Kuch nahi hai... accha ye bata..." and all that...

We didn’t even realize that it was 1 am in the night and her PG would have been closed by now. We decided to take some rest. I gave her a set of my lower and a t-shirt to change into and relax. I kissed her Good Night, told her to sleep in the guest room while I slept in the bhaiya - bhabhi's room. She thanked me with return kiss to make her birthday a most special day for her.

Now I just hope that as decided bhaiya should call me in the morning so that I can drop Sia on my way to pick him up from station.

Good Night!!!!!!

It’s her B’day again..... 2

Continued from Last post…

Me: Nothing!!!!!
Me: Now tell me, where should we go next? It’s so lovely out there with clouds and gentle breeze. Tell me where we should go…
She: I don’t know. I’m all yours take me wherever you want to go.
Me: Ok!! Let’s go to Amer Fort.
She: Amer??? Are we going just to touch the fort as with Autos strike we are left only with option of buses, with that by the time we will reach there it will be closing time. Suggest some other place.
Me: We’ll be there in about 40-45 mins.
She: How come? Will we fly to there?
Me: Yup with myself as the pilot of my Santro :).
She: What!! You have car, you never told me so.
Me: Ohho!! This is Bhaiya’s car and bhaiya and bhabhi both are out of town so it’s all mine :). So are we going or just standing here and talking.
She: Ohhh sure driver, let’s go… :P
We went to the car. There were some papers on non driving seat.
She: What’s all this mess on the seat?
Me: Sorry Sho, may be some bhaiya’s stuff, just throw everything on the backseat and take the seat.
While she was putting everything on back seat she found a packet with her name written on it.
She: Whats this?
Me: I don’t know why don’t you just open and check it. :)
She: (After opening it) whaaaaaaattttt!!! You remembered it????
Me: Yes Sweetheart.

During our first date at new years when we went out for shopping we selected a dark orange colored suit for her. She tried and it was looking fabulous in her. We decided to buy it but unfortunately the only piece available in her size was defective one (that she tried). Last week when I was roaming around in one of the malls in Gurgaon, I saw a dummy on display wearing the same suit the same brand store. After enquiring a little I found her size so I brought it for her as a birthday gift :).

She: Before Amer let’s first go to my room. I want to wear it today only.
Me: In front of me… great… infact why go to your room change it here only. It’s dark out here in the basement and no one’s around. So you can wear it here only. :)
She: Oye, Shut up!! And let’s go.

Parked outside her room, and as I was just opening my mouth to take yawn she said "Shut up!! Just wait here and I’ll be back in a couple of mins." It’s time for me to get surprised. After 10 mins she came out looking absolutely stunning in that suit. Within 10 mins from western gal wearing Capri, Tee and sports shoes, she was completely changed to a traditional Indian gal with salwar suit, bindi and all other matching accessories. How Come???

I sat there staring at her for a minute or so before she punched me and told me to drive.

Next we went to Amer Fort. By the time we reached there it was almost 3.00 pm. After roaming around for a while looking at different parts of the fort we decided to look for a secluded place away from general area where we can sit and talk without getting disturbed by others. We found one such cliff, the stairs to reach there were messy and a little bit slippery so people generally didn’t climb up there, but we did. Although she slipped once but didn’t lose balance as we were holding hands. The view from there was fabulous. In old times this cliff was perhaps used to keep an eye on downhill activities. A person sitting at that point can see all the paths that lead towards the fort but it was so well hidden that no one from other side can actually see person sitting here.

Here we started talking about our daily routine, my new job, office, environment there, new friend circle, then about her final year, studies, final year project etc stuff. In all these talks we didn’t even realized how it became 5 pm in the evening, the closing time. We still had some more time to spend so we left the fort in order to look for some other place where we could sit and continue with our talks. We decided to go to Birla Mandir, a temple with greenery around it, a calm and soothing green place. There we sat in the garden and continued with our talks. The topic moved from us as individuals to us as together. This was our third date and was as extraordinary as our first two dates were. We talked and laughed about how uncomfortable when we first met and then how we became so comfortable by the end of the day. How our friendship grew and we came so close to each other that I decided to take calculated but a big and crazy risk in going with her by the train where I almost missed my actual train, and then this one, with a B’day full of surprises.

To be continued …
We are going to my home...

It’s her B’day again.

11th July 08

Last year’s fight was just stupidity and this time we didn’t had any fight as this time we didn’t discussed the gift, reason being I myself had thought of something that could be a perfect gift for her.

I casually wished her B’day at night. As other calls were waiting so we cut short our talk and decided to talk in the evening. In morning around 9, I send her a bouquet of orchids, lilies and roses from flower shop and with a B’day card. Besides the card there was just a little note, "For your gift please visit Archie’s Gallery in Crystal Mall at 11.30 am." She reached there and she called me and asked where her gift was? She even talked to shop’s manager and didn’t found anything out there in her name. I said how it is possible, then after a while I found out that there are 2 malls in Jaipur that starts with Crystal, Crystal Palm and Crystal Court. I was aware only of Crystal Court Mall (where we watched Ghajini) and she was at Crystal Palm (nearer to place she lived). I told her to immediately go to Crystal Court Mall as someone was waiting for her with the gift. A little bit furious but excited she left for Crystal Court. After reaching at Archies in Crystal Court she asked to cashier at counter for the gift or any concerned information. He gave the gift to her. It was a talking teddy with a short message, “Heyyy Lovely Baby, Many-many happy returns of the day, and I promise that this is gonna be best b’day so far for my Sho. You know how? Wellllll just wait and watch sweetheart… and guess who is behind you honey…::)”

When she was listening, at the last sentence I just came from behind and closed her eyes. She turned round and kinda screamed my name and hugged me in surprise. And all of sudden we became focus of attention in the shop with other people started staring at us and we suddenly realized that, blushed and left the place together hand in hand, after thanking cashier for his support. :)

It was already half past 12 so we decided to have lunch there at Pizza Hut outlet only. After having lunch, I signaled the waiter to clean the table and to bring the cake. He brought it, it was not actually a cake rather there were three brownies in a plate covered up with Vanilla IceCream as icing and chocolate sauce and a couple more sauces as dressing on (so called) cake with a candle. Seeing this she was just stunned!!! After a few seconds I changed my seat and sat beside her to bring her back to senses, she cut the cake, we had it and she was completely overwhelmed with tiny tears in her eyes. She controlled her emotions, didn’t say anything, just gave me a smile and we came out after paying.

Sia: First the B’day card and my favorite orchids in the morning, then a cute little talking teddy, then you here in front of me and then this brownie cum cake. So many surprises, you are going to kill me with these surprises. Now what’s next?
Me: Nothing!! I prefer you to be hale and hearty, so no more surprises. Ok?? Happy??
She: Ohho Sho bura maan gaye? I didn’t mean that.
Me: (Laughing) Sho Sweetheart do you really think that if I have some surprise for you and I will miss that lovely expression… hahaha :)).
She: Youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Me: Love you!!!
She: What!!!!!!!!!!!
Me: Nothing.
She: You said something.
Me: Nothing!!!!!
Me: Now tell me, where should we go next? It’s so lovely out there with clouds and gentle breeze. Tell me where we should go…
She: I don’t know. I’m all yours take me wherever you want to.
Me: Ok!! Let’s go to Amer Fort.

To be continued…

The first day at the job

1st July 08

Quite exciting day, big office, complete new environment, lots of new people, it’s now time to create a new ‘office’ friend circle.
Let’s see how things will go?
How work will be?
Will it be interesting or not??
Are people here helpful or no??

...and there are lots and lots of question that will be answered in coming days. Let’s hope there will be favorable answer to all of them.

The adventurous journey

12th May

Goshhhh!!!! What a journey it was!!

Her uncle left, we adjusted our stuff and then started talking, unlike last time we were comfortable in others presence this time but still we were a little bit uncomfortable as of other people in our compartment especially the elderly couple who were keep on staring at us. They were more of skeptic as in presence of her uncle she pretended like she didn’t know me but the moment we lost sight of her uncle we started talking. After a while we decided to ignore them and after getting ignored they also stopped staring, by this time we just had a formal hi, hello and we reached Mathura.

At Mathura our train didn’t move for about 15 mins as against 5 mins of regular stoppage, I came out and found that our train engine had some problems and due to unavailability of another engine our train had to wait till the engine came from some other station. Rather than sitting and waiting in coach I asked Sia to come out and we roamed around on the station only. Luckily it rained that day to weather was cool and although there was humidity but it was comfortable out there. After about an hour wait our train was ready to leave.

Here once a train becomes late, it gets on delayed in order to keep other trains on schedule. 1 hr late at Mathura became 2 hr by Gwalior and 3 hr by the time it reached Bhopal. Rather than reaching at 12 the train reached Bhopal at 3 a.m. We didn’t mind this delay as this just gave us 3 more hours to talk, we talked about almost every possible thing that we could talk about and whenever ran short of some topic we get back to the topic of our New Years Date and it leads to a new topic. During one of those discussions I’ve asked her to be my girlfriend, she told that she will think about and tell me.

At 3 am the train reached the deserted Bhopal station she came out to station to bid me good bye.

Sia: Bbye Sho, will miss you.
Me: Will miss you too!!! And Sho, a new name for me??
Sia: Well Pranjal is too long so here is a new nick name for you. Sho, short and sweet name for my Shona.
Me: Good so let’s call each other Sho :).
(The train whistled.)
Sia: Great, will miss you sho…


And we hugged goodbye, at the same moment she kissed at my cheek and ran back towards her coach, I was stunned standing there smiling and looking her as she was standing at the coach’s gate, smiling and waving goodbye. After 5 mins I came back to my senses and realized that I was alone at platform and after a little bit enquiry I found out that I missed my train to Ujjain by 1 hr, and the next one was in the morning. I couldn’t afford to take that train, so I went to bus stand and enquired for next bus either to Ujjain or to Dewas (so as to catch intercity exp for Indore). After waiting for about half an hour around 4 am, a bus came for Ujjain. I boarded that bus, and immediately fell asleep.

I slept for about three hours and at around 7, I got up with a good morning SMS from Sia. She woke up as all other people in her compartment woke up and there was noise by vendors. We then chatted for a couple of hours and mostly talked about last night. Also as the time was passing on, I was becoming more anxious as it was 8.30 and Ujjain was nowhere near. Finally around 9.50 I reached Ujjain bus stand after completing 4 hr journey in almost 6 hrs, courtesy flat tire and then traffic jam on highway. 9.50 it was arrival time for the train at station with 10 mins halt and the railway station was also about 10 mins away from bus stand, I immediately ran towards Railway Station with the hope to catch the train and found out that the train was about 15 mins late, it was about to enter station. I thanked God and Indian Railways for my delayed train. I was never been so happy with a late train.
I boarded the train, took my berth (I already had my reserved ticket) and slept. I didn’t realize when the train reached Indore. My brother came in the coach and woke me up. I found out that whole compartment was empty and outside at platform my parents were laughing at me.

Ahhhh a tiresome but an amazing journey with even astonishing luck, the adjacent berths, the three extra hours in train, a new girlfriend, her kiss, the extended bus journey, the delayed train and then finally parents to receive at station.

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time to leave

9th May 08

A journey called College life @IIT is over. People were excited for new life as well as were sad coz hostel life ended. There was a heavy environment at hostel. After being done with final project presentation on 7th lots of people left the hostel by now, Binnu and Bach left yesterday, Montu today, and I’m sitting in my train.

I was supposed to leave yesterday but as Sia was leaving today so I postponed my program by a day with some lame excuse. I’m now sitting in my train waiting for Sia to turn up so that we can start our journey. She is also going home by train. I didn’t understand why she decided to have 2 and half days in train when she can easily take a 2 and half hr flight to Chennai and then go to her home from there.

Neways the day I got that she had 9th May’s ticket I too booked a ticket for the same train and luckily we got adjacent berths. And she is here with her uncle and 7 yr old cousin. She said silent “hi” to me with a smile when her uncle was busy with her luggage, might be her cousin caught us but he was too young to pay any attention. hehehe.

Now I’m just waiting for her uncle to go (perhaps she too ;) ). And he is leaving, and now m closing you dear diary, next entry may be in couple of days whenever I will have time :).

Till then bbye.
:)

Back to hostel

24th March 2008

A wonderful trip, there at Manali we met a travel agent and booked some adventure sports tour for us. On second day of our trip we went the Gulaba, luckily there was a good snowfall previous night so Gulaba was lush white. There we tried to ski without falling but we weren’t able to. We just happened to fall off after every few seconds or moving a few feet. There we enjoyed a lot by skiing, sliding and rolling on the snow, throwing snow balls at each other.

Next day we decided to go for some other sports like Rock Climbing, Rappelling, and River Crossing via rope. There were a few nervous moments like the one during rappelling when we were on the edge of rock and have to descend, or the one when during river crossing the rope begin to tremble.

For the last day we planned to go for Rafting, but it got canceled as of snowfall in low lying areas like Kullu and Manali.

That’s how our trip ended and only thing that we missed upon was Paragliding which was too expensive and rafting which didn’t happened due to bad weather.

Time for a trip with friends

20th March 2008,

After tiring days of managing regular classes, final project, the tests and interviews for the job it’s now time to relax, to relax with friends on trip to Manali. It’s our mid semester break, and along with three other friends I’m in Manali. After about 16 hrs of traveling we reached Manali at around 2 pm, went to hotel, rested for a while, got ready, roamed around in market, and did some local sightseeing and visited Hidimba Temple.

Got the job

21st Feb

Finally I got the job with a KPO in NCR

WOW!! A Double celebration day, happy moment that comes exactly on one of my best friend Binn’s B’day. It’s going to be a party night, tonight. So relaxed, as I was only person left to get placed in my friend circle and now our tentative trip during coming mid-sem break is back on table. Earlier I was so nervous that for our tentative trip I put forth a condition that if I stay jobless by then I won’t go.

All evening I tried calling Sia, but was unable to reach as of some network problems. Now friends are banging on the door, so it’s time to go and celebrate.

Back to the hostel

3rd Jan

Back to the hostel and job interviews started again. By now almost 20% of our batch got placed, and now number of bigshot offerings are depleting fast, most of us are getting anxious about the job but still we ‘jobless’ are hopeful that we’ll get a good offer and on time.

Finally we met...

1st Jan 2008

Yesterday in evening I called her and told her that we can meet today and decided to meet at Bus Stand at 11. It was quite a weird experience for me as for the first time I was going to meet a girl in person. Although I was a little bit comfortable as I know her, although we talked a lot but still I had some Goosebumps about how this will turn out. Neways I reached there at 10:55 and waited for her. She came sharp at 11 and we met. Finally!!!!

Finally we met for the first time on New Year’s Day and hoping to meet her more often. From bus stand we directly went to watch “GHAJINI”. It was a good bollywood version of Memento, with simplified plot, a love story, a public figure villain with many punks, special effects and bollywood tadka of songs and dance sequences.

After watching the movie we went out to have had some food at Mc D’s as it was only familiar food outlet in the mall (except Pizza Hut). There at Mc D we sat for almost a couple of hours, chit-chatting while we had a couple of burgers, some fries and soft drinks. Later we realized that one of the housekeeping staff was continuously staring at us whenever she came around so finally we left.....

After moving out from Mc D we did some shopping and ended up buying a jean for her and a sweatshirt for me. By now it was almost evening and it was time to drop her back to her place. On our way back we stopped by an Ice Cream parlor where shared a Triple Sunday Ice-cream, and this is how our special day ended.

WOW!!! What a day!!!!! Initially in morning when we first met I found her a little bit uncomfortable, but as the day passed specially after the movie she became more and more comfortable..... and by the end of day we didn’t even realized how our ran away in Mc D and while shopping……

WOW!!! A perfect start to new year....

No luck with placement yet

30th Dec 2007

No luck with placement yet. Today I am going to Jaipur to celebrate New Year with bhaiya, bhabhi and their one month old baby Avni, as no companies for me during next 3 days. Next test/interview is scheduled on 3rd Jan. I also called Sia and informed her about my Jaipur trip and asked for any possibilities for us to meet. She was excited after hearing about the possibility but at the same time I just told her to stay calm as of our past missed chances and even I was not sure if I will take time out to meet her or not.

.

Placement season starting tomorrow

20th Dec 2007

I’m back to hostel to, placement season going to start tomorrow. First test/interview tomorrow!!! About 500+ batchmates with dreams about their future, with hopes that they will soon get placed with some of the biggest names in industry, with hopes that they will soon be out and excel in this competitive world full of cut throat competition.

Some of us will be placed tomorrow. The party season is gonna begin with lots of booze and cocktail parties and dancing and chilling out. But that’s from tomorrow, today almost everyone is nervous, having goose bumps and is eagerly waiting to get placed ASAP so that he/she can relax, stay calm in this anxious situation, can celebrate their selection…

She came.... and she left

16th Nov 2007

:( and she is gone…
On 13th she called me at that time I was in lab working on my project, giving it a finishing touch.

She: “Can you come and meet me today or tomorrow?”
Me: “I can’t, you know I’m very busy in my project.”
She: “Okay!! As you are busy and don’t have time to meet me so do I go to Alwar to meet my uncle?”

(I thought that she will go meet everyone at Alwar and come back after a couple of days.)

Me: Sure Go ahead!!!!
She: Ok!!! (And she hung up….)

……………..........................................…

And I was too much into my project that I didn’t even realize that she was sad when she hung up…
Today when I called her….

Me: Hi Sia…. How are you? What’s going on?
She: Hi, m fine! What about you? How’s your project presentation?
Me: That went really well. So, this is it, when we are gonna meet? Are you back to Delhi or when you gonna come back???
She: No, Pranjal looks like this was not the time to meet. We were so close but didn’t get a chance… I don’t think that we will ever get another such chance to meet. … I’m not in Delhi… I told you that I was going back via Alwar… and now I’m back in Jaipur

(My heart sank in deep…… Do I have to wait more to meet this gal??? Will it ever happen??)

Me: Whaaaaaaaaattttttt???????
She: Yes, I came to Delhi only for you and you didn’t have time to come and meet me. You yourself told me to go to Alwar and didn’t even say me to stop for a couple of days… You know, that day you disappoint me so much that I cried for about half an hour………
Me (freaking out): Errr WWWWHHHHHAAAAATTTT??????

Me: When did I say you to go back to Jaipur? I was under impression that as I was busy for a couple of days with my project work so you can go to Alwar and come back by today so that you won’t get bored in Delhi and you can also meet your uncle in Alwar. I thought that after you come back we can spend some time together.
She: I told you clearly that you don’t have time to meet so I’m going to Alwar and from there I will go to Jaipur.

Me: NOOOOOOOO!!!!! You didn’t!!!!!!
She: Yes, I did!!!!!!

......And so the conversation went on where we tried to convince each other that he/she was wrong………

Sia is coming to delhi

12th Nov 2007

It’s her Diwali break
And today she is coming to Delhi at her uncle’s place in order to spend some time there and also to meet me. Wow after a couple of unsuccessful events I guess the time has come when we will finally meet for the first time. Just waiting for the moment when we will meet for the first time. With semester ending and I being busy with my projects end sem presentation due this Thursday (15th).
Although I know that she has her vacations till 20th, I just hope that she will stay at least till this weekend so that we can take out some time to meet.

Happy B’day Honey

11th July 2007

Happy B’day Honey!!!!

And I am really very very sorry…. I know you are a little bit upset about the way we talked yesterday night. But Sia, What could I do… you’ve denied to accept the book that I’ve brought specially for you as gift, your favorite one and you denied just because I said something stupid about buying the book…… You denied and said that if I had some issues buying the book then you won’t accept it and will send it back with the same courier delivery man. I got angry and said that if you don’t accept, then I’ll burn that book... and Sia I’m really glad that you finally accepted to have it.

I’m really sorry Sia for my behavior yesterday. I hope I haven’t spoiled your b’day and just hope that you are fine by now and HAPPY B’DAY ONCE again Sia.

The summer internship

6th June 2007

Another year ended about a month ago, and now I’m doing my summer internship at IAF Depot @Tughlaqabad …… initially I tried to get internship in IAF’s Jaipur campus so as to meet Sia and have some nice time with her. But later after discussion with Sia I dropped the idea coz at the same time she had summer vacations and now she is at her home with her parents and won’t be coming back before mid July…. And by that time my internship would be over. So I decided to have my internship here at Tughlaqabad with a couple of my other friends so that whenever we feel bored we can go back to IIT where some other friends were staying and doing their internship in Delhi only.

Finally today I’ve got my gift

24th Apr 2007

Finally today I’ve got my gift. :)

It was a card, a large beautiful handmade B’day card specially prepared for me. Actually she asked me what I would like as a B'day gift and I told her to make a card (compeltely prepared by herself) as b'day gift to me, and I didn’t expect that it would be so, soo, soooo beautiful. It was wonderful and awesome and I love that card a looooooot.

Here is the card, made of hand made paper with lots of paper flowers on it pen and the message written in so beautiful writing that anyone would envy her for her hand writing....

WOW!!! I would say that she is really gifted.... such a beautiful card, such a beautiful writing, she is really an artist.

What I've known from her roommate when we talked last time is that she had spent almost a week thinking about the card design then paper cutting, appropriate content to put in card and in all other things that were required in working on the card..... God, I just love that card and the artist.

22nd Apr 2007

Happy B’day to me once again!!!!

And what the timing!!!
I’m at my home and besides lots of calls from friends and family I got a call from hostel where a courier guy waiting for me at reception to deliver some courier. As I was at home I told him to come on coming Tuesday so that I will collect my courier in person when I will be back in hostel. I knew what it was and I was surprised for her timing, it was very much perfect, a B’day gift for me right on my b’day.

5th Jan 2007

Neways I mentioned same story to Sia in the mail, I gave her details about my new year along with my tentative plan to meet her and how my new year had passed. In her reply she told that her weekend was also similar to mine one as in she spent her new year with her relatives, they roam around in Jaipur and coincidentally like me they also got bored with the same movie in similar time show. Besides this she was quite surprised with my plan but also a lil bit sad as we had missed our chance to meet. Now it’s left for next time…
Let’s hope next time will come soon…

4th Jan 2007

Back to pavilion for the 2nd semester of our third year with the hopes that this will be better than earlier ones.
I was among first ones to reach hostel even though surprisingly everyone was aware of eunuch episode. With the help of technology the news had spread like fire in woods. Everyone was enjoying what had been our tragedy. Someone had rightly said, “Someone’s tragedy is someone else’s comedy”. Meanwhile yeah it was once in a life time experience that hopefully no one wants to relive it again. Hehehe.

Let the new semester begin...

1st Jan 2007

As always my plan was canceled :(. The plan was to meet Sia for the first time on New Year’s Day. She was there in Jaipur and as of holidays she didn’t have any classes so it was kinda perfect for us to meet. But the plan canceled because Bhaiya-Bhabhi and some other relatives came to Indore to celebrate New Year with us, and I didn’t had any excuse or chance to go to Jaipur.

Well, neways I wished her new year at 12, she was at her relative’s place. It was surprisingly a good New Year celebration as of the family gathering but I was a little bit disappointed. Although I was somewhat happy also as she wasn’t aware of my probable plan so she won’t be disappointed. This try didn’t even get a chance to see day light, let’s see when we have another chance to met.

Today I missed her too much as I dreamed of spending this day with her but that didn't happened. I missed her a lot especially at the time when we all went to watch the movie “I SEE YOU”, we would have been watching this together in Jaipur. Wow it was such a wonderful movie that taught us a lesson. A lesson, if you are going to watch a movie it’s always better to have some beforehand idea about it. The movie was so boring that in movie hall we all started our own discussion about what to do next. And no one told us to be quite as the hall was almost empty with people sparsely occupying the seats.

Overall the day was good (besides movie) but perhaps it could have been better had I been with Sia.

23rd Dec 2006

Yesterday I came back from the trip of life time. Wow! What a trip, started with an astonishing experience within a couple hours in Goa Express to Pune. A few eunuchs came over to our compartment and asked us for money, we denied and after a couple of mins of argument one of them raised up his/her/it’s clothes. And at the same moment (perhaps :P) everyone’s eyes were closed and all of sudden atmosphere gone crazy. And finally after the situation we stopped arguing with them and just gave them some money and told them to go. Humph!! That was really stupefying start to the trip, or I would say once in a life time experience as I believe no one in our group wants to relive that experience :P.

After that there wasn’t any such annoying event happened during the trip. It was a wonderful trip where we’ve also been Essel World in Mumbai after bunking on one of the days of our Industrial trip in Pune. Besides this all the beaches in Goa, be it Cave Lossim or Vagator (DCH Point) or Colva or Baagha or Miramar, all were awesome. Another highlight of the trip was that we didn’t have had any industry to visit in Goa, although there were plan to visit Kingfisher but it was cancelled so 3 days in Goa were full of fun and roaming around.

Back to home, have had some plans for coming few days before next semester. Let’s see how things will turn out.

8th Dec 2006

After a short home trip, I came back to the hostel as we had today’s reservation in “Goa Express” to Pune for our industrial trip. Around 11:30, I came online in order to check my emails and there I found Sia as online. She came online to check her mail after her last paper and coincidentally I too was online at the same time and we chatted for the first time.

After about an hour she left as she had to go and pack her all stuff and deposit all her stuff with hostel warden before leaving for the holidays. Our chat was mainly centered about our exams (mainly hers as I’ve already mentioned mine exam details in mail before going home), then mine excitement for the trip. She was excited for the holidays but parallelly a little bit sad as despite having almost a month holiday she wasn’t going her home. Rather, she had to go to her uncle’s home as her parents also had plans for visit Jaipur after a few days as of some family function.

4th Dec 2006

Majors are over and it’s time for a quick trip to home and then come back and for our so called “INDUSTRIAL” trip to Pune and Goa. 12 days trip to roam around in some other part of country and to visit some of the well known industries in Pune. I was wondering which industry we would be visiting in Goa. Tourism industry or hospitality industry visit for engineering students? The trip sounded interesting and everyone was too enthusiastic for the trip as for most of us it was our first trip with friends rather than being with family.

Although during our trip we won’t have any access to internet, I would say that I would miss our almost daily mails. But it was okay as Sia also has her winter breaks from 9th Dec – 3rd Jan, so rare chances of any mail communications.

25th Nov 2006

My fear, well it was just a fear.

She was some real personality, last week I took her number (9*143****1) and today we talked on phone for the first time. It was so natural that we didn’t felt as we were talking for the first time. We talked for almost half an hour discussing about college, environment, friend circle, and all that. It was an endless talk but after half an hour our chit chat was interrupted when battery of my cell phone got discharged.

After a long-long time I’ve really enjoyed talking to someone, someone my friend yet someone unknown to me. Although it was just a simple talk but quite refreshing.

Majors are also nearing by, but no such fears as this semester was one on the coolest semester we have had so far. The courses were so cool and we were so confident that especially during exam time we played basketball during nights, generally 11-12 O'clock. No one to interrupt our game as it was exam time and everyone were generally in their room mugging up for the exam next day.

8th Nov 2006

After exchanging mails for almost every day during last 3 months we became good friends. Messengers (Yahoo, Gtalk) were blocked in her College Net Lab so our communication was though mails only. I would say we become something like email friend a new age version of so called letter friends who know each other only through their email ids. That’s all possible because of technology so we were in regular touch even though living more than 300 kms away from each other. Being student and having free access to internet helped in grooming our friendship, as despite having classes we always got some time to check mails and reply back.

She was a perfect stranger, kinda one I was searching for and with whom I can talk about a lot of things but I was cautious this time. Things were going on at fast pace as in someone got me registered to receive forwards and then I got friendship request and now I found a person whom I was searching last year. I had a feeling that someone might be making fun of my feelings as last year we saw similar case with my friend. That time one of my hostelmates (Ajju) played a prank on one of my friends (Babu). Ajju knew the Babu’s chat id with he logged in on chat room and one day Ajju logged in with some girly name (Anushka) and started talking to the Babu. This had been going on for a few days they started chatting sometimes for hour or two and even Babu missed some of his classes (whenever Ajju didn’t have any classes in that slot).

After 3-4 weeks of almost daily chats they decided to meet during IITDs cultural fest Rendezvous. She asked him to arrange 3 passes (for her friends also) for a music night by Euphoria band. He asked for her number but she said that she didn’t have any phone as of now. So they fixed up where they will be meeting and how to identify each other. He tried to arrange passes with the help of some seniors but managed only 2, so he stood in the queue under the sun for almost an hour in order to get the passes.

In the evening when he was waiting for Anushka and her friends to come and there comes Ajju with his friends and simply asked whether he was waiting for Anushka and open up the entire prank that was being played during last month. This was the topic to laugh in hostel for entire year. Although Babu was light hearted man so he laughed off and enjoyed the fun of the moment. But had someone played with my feelings regarding Neha I don’t know what I could have done.

That’s the reason why I haven’t started opening up with Sia, although she seemed quite a real person pursuing her BBA from a college in Jaipur, and similar to all girls liked dancing, singing, painting and chit chatting. I just hope, just hope that she is a real person.

5th Sept 2006

Sia, a bubbly girl who was studying in a college in Jaipur had her family roots from Rajasthan only. But she was staying in college hostel as her parents shifted to Kerala as of some good business opportunities down south.

She is just awesome…… just keep on saying something… From her mails she seemed as a nonstop chatter box… You wrote about one thing she asked for three..... keep on saying "mei baatuni nahi hu..." She, like never ran out of questions and queries and a million of things to discuss and to talk about…… I would say she was a perfect friend for someone like me who seldom speak and in contrast to her who just went on and on and on.... like others she always pushed me to speak up but she also opened up a topic for conversation over which I could say something or discuss something…. I really like her and enjoyed talking to her….. She was a perfect stranger, with whom I can talk about anything and everything perhaps without even thinking whether I am right or wrong.

16th August 2006

Writing here after almost 3 years, in my next attempt for IIT I’ve finally made it to ‘OUR’ dream IITs and now I am one of the IIT Delhite. The first two years passed away without any surprises. Pehla saal tumhari yaado mei hi beeta… aisa koi din nahi nikla jab tumhari yaad na aayi ho :( . Here in IIT I made some wonderful friends Binnu, Montu, Baccha were a few of them. In IIT only these three people knows about the Neha things and were very supportive to me about all that had happened. These people helped me in my studies and cheered me up whenever I felt sad.

Here in IIT like almost 99% of the guys I too tried to log into chat rooms. The purpose for me was different as others logged in to try for a girlfriend but I logged in to find a friend without caring whether it’s him or her. I just need an unknown person who can listen to me and with whom I can share all my sorrows and felt relax. It really helps to share things and best part of sharing with unknown is that it won’t come back to you in any way. I knew I was looking for an impossible existence but deep inside I had hope that there must exist someone like that. But I was wrong, as if you say “HI” to someone immediate reply came as “Hi, ASL please…” (ASL – Age Sex Living). And when I replied back I didn’t even get a good bye, just ignored by them. People out there were just selfish and I think 95% of those in chat rooms were probably some Guy with the hopes to find a girl or I would say a prospective girlfriend (that’s what they thought of). Worse was the case on social networking sites like Orkut or Facebook. I was just fad up of these things and didn’t even log in for few days at stretch as where wasn’t anyone whom I can talk online.

Life changed after a couple of week ago when I’ve started receiving some funny mails from a group. It was actually one of mine idiot friends who got me registered to that group. After receiving the mails for a few days from the group I had also contributed in form of a couple of funny mails that I got from my friends. Within next 2-3 days of dropping those mails I’ve received a lot of friend requests similar to.

. hiiiiiiiiiiiii
. I am XYZ
. I wanna know abt. u.
. actually i wanna friendship with u.
. if u are intrested then replyyyyyy..
. byeeeee

And in return I replied the mail

. Hi XYZ,
. Always interested in friendship
. Myself Pranjal form Indore, studying at IIT Delhi.
. What else you want to know.
. Tell me sumthing about you too :)
. Pranjal

And so on the mail continues, 70-80 % of people didn’t reply after first set of mails. And after 3 rounds of mails there was only one person who was still replying… SIA

Consolidated list of season 1 posts

Here is the consolidated list (in chronological order) of all the posts that were part of season one of Pranjal's Diary when he was preparing for his IIT JEE.

• 22nd Apr 2001
• 15th July 2001
• 16rd Nov, 2001: A couple of days after diwali
• 15th Dec 2001
• 22th Dec 2001
• 12th Jan 2002
• 21st Feb 2002
• 15th March 2002
• 25th March 2002
• 22nd April 2002
• 30th April 2002
• 1st May 2002
• 7th August 2002
• 22nd Feb 2003
• 19th April 2003
• 20th April 2003
• 2nd June 2003
• 4th June 2003

Thanks for your responses to this post.
I will soon publishing posts for next season where Pranjal enters IIT....