The Train Journey that Changed Destiny - Part 3

Note: A moment of loud noise to say "In your face!" to the Pakis. The Jihadis they have been so diligently promoting came back to bite pakistani cricket in the ass. Great going guys! On a more serious note, I am happy all the Sri Lankan players are safe and what happened in Lahore is a despicable, cowardly act. Targeting Cricketers??!! Common guys!

".....Wake up!! Wake up!!...." Ishant woke up with a start. He sat up and looked at his watch, it was 5 A.M. "Ishant! Are you up yet? would you like some coffee?" It was some time before he realized what was happening. He had reached Chennai yesterday morning and spent the day at with his grandparents. There, he had met up with his mother and late that night, they had taken the train to Kumbakonam. "Gosh! Feels like I have been in a train forever!" thought Ishant "Thankfully, it will all be over soon, I can take a look at KIT, reject it outright & hop on the train to Chennai tonight." ".....Are you even listening to me, Ishant", suddenly he realized his mother had been talking to him all this while. "Yes mom, what do you need?"
Mom: "Ishant, we will reach Kumbakonam station anytime now. I asked the T.T.E and he told me that the train was on time. Why don't you climb down and help me with the bags?"
With a sign, Ishant started to climb down from his berth......

A few minutes later, they were off the train and out of the station looking for a hotel where they could freshen up. A couple of fights with the attendant later, Ishant's mom settled on Hotel Thalaiva. A quick shower followed a short nap, Ishant was ready for breakfast. He said "Mom, why don't we have breakfast at Ananda Bhavan, its right across the road." "I saw a temple along the way, lets go and pray there first before we get something to eat" his mother replied.

A quick visit to the temple and a sumptuous breakfast later, they both were at the Kumbakonam Bus Stand waiting for a bus, although KIT was 'in Kumbakonam', the campus was located 40 minutes from the city center. A really crowded bus came by and they hopped on hoping to find a place to sit. Once inside the bus, Ishant handed some money to the conductor and asked for KIT. "KIT? I dont know any KIT, I think you are on the wrong bus." replied the conductor. Ishant explained that KIT was an engineering college, "Ohh...you mean KCE..." said the conductor and handed Ishant a couple of tickets while muttering "everybody wants a fancy name these days...". Ishant looked out of the window and all he could see was arid land interspersed with a few paddy fields. Slowly his eyes started closing....

Ishant woke up with a bone-jolting jerk. Startled, he looked to see if he could catch a glimpse of the conductor, the bus was almost empty by now. Having spotted the conductor, he walked up and found out that KIT was 2 stops later. He looked out of the window only to see arid land all the way in the distance on both sides of the road, "Man! How do students even study in this place, No hangouts, no malls, not even a movie theatre! I'm sure the only people who study here are the country bums." he thought to himself and chuckled. His thoughts drifted to life in Delhi and how he would bunk classes in college and hang out with his friends and roam the city, just like his brother had done." "KCE..." he heard the conductor yell and suddenly to his right, surrouned by acres of arid land was this collection of small buildings with a couple more under construction. "This sure is a desert" he thought to himself....

Ishant and his mother headed inside the KIT campus and entered the first building they could spot. A couple of girls asked to look at Ishant's ranking letter and crossed off his name in the sheet they had. "You are in the 11 A.M to 2 P.M session" one of them said, "It should be starting anytime soon, why don't you go upstairs and take a seat in the large auditorium to your right." Once inside the auditorium Ishant noticed that students were called in batches of 12. He wondered where they were taking those students. Right at the front of the auditorium, he saw a white screen onto which was projected all the branches and the number of seats remaining in each branch. "Wow! no seats left in Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE) or Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE)" he thought. "Who cares about those branches anyway, I'm only here for Bio-Technology." Ishant had talked with his mother at length the previous evening, she had told him how Biotech presented him with much more opportunities than chemical engineering. She had also reminded him that KIT had two other biology related branches, namely Bioengineering and Bioinformatics. His mother's words had struck a chord with Ishant somewhere, "besides, I did do better at biology than at math. I can always take this seat first and reject it later, when i find a seat in Delhi." he had thought to himself. "Rank 600 to 611" He heard someone shout out at the front of the room. Completely unaware of his mother's presence, he got up and started walking up to the man, when he quickly glanced at the screen, there were still 3 seats left in biotechnology. The group of 12 was taken to another room, where they were split into groups of 4, 600 to 603; 604 to 607;608 to 611. Ishant looked at his ranking and saw he was ranked 611. The first set of 4 were directed to a computer terminal each where they selected a branch of their choice. When 600 to 603 finished, Ishant saw that there were still 3 biotech seats left. The second batch of 4 finished and he could see there was still 1 seat left. "This is getting tense" he thought as he was being directed to a computer terminal. As he sat in front of the computer, he involuntarily said " Ishant, rank 611, I want Biotechnology". The attendant tapped away at the computer for a minute before looking up and saying "Ishant....."

The Train Journey that Changed Destiny - Part 2

Note: Thanks for the great response guys. Now I know that at least someone reads the nonsense I write. I finally managed to submit my ethics write-up (A course requirement!) and I can finally get back to my story.

Suddenly, the phone rang, Ishant answered "Hello?, Hello?" He could barely hear anything, "Damn it!" he thought "There is no cell phone reception outside of Delhi" realizing that the train was past the outskirts of the city. Suddenly the phone came to life again, this time he could hear the person at the other end, "Hello Ishant! Are you on the train? Did your ticket get confirmed?" It was a few seconds before he realized who was at the other end "Hello Mom! Yes, I am on the train. My ticket was confirmed and the T.T.E just allotted me a berth."
Mom: "I am on my way to the station myself, I should be in Chennai tomorrow. I hope you remembered to bring our tickets to Kumbakonam"
Ishant: "Yes mom, I did!"
Mom: "So, this is an excellent opportunity for you to find out how the counselling process works. Besides, I am not sure you will be offered a seat, considering you are ranked 600 on the priority list"

Ishant: "Mom, I am not really looking to move out of Delhi. I don't care much for Kumbakonam anyway! So, How is your work coming along, in Mumbai?"

Mom: "That reminds me, I was talking to one of my colleagues today about KIT (Kumbakonam Institute of Technology), he tells me that it is an excellent place to study. Besides, he is a Bio-Technology graduate himself and he tells me there is not much difference between Chemical Engineering and Bio-Technology. What do you think of Biotech for a career option? It seems to be the in thing these days."

Ishant: "Mom! There is no way I am doing my engineering at KIT, the only reason I agreed to even travel to Kumbakonam is so I could spend some time with Grandpa and you sweetened the deal by promising to take me to a couple of temples near Kumbakonam."

Mom: "OK! OK! Nobody is asking you to join KIT yet. Considering your marks, I would probably have to pay them a hefty donation to give you a seat. There are many other options to choose from such as....."

Suddenly, there was silence at the other end. Ishant realized that he had lost reception again. He looked at the time, it was 10:55 P.M. He decided to settle down on his berth for a night of much needed sleep. "Hopefully" he thought, "I will be back to Delhi by the end of this week and I can finalize my college admissions and settle into college life. Travelling all the way to Kumbakonam just to have a look at the counselling process is such a drag". With these thoughts in mind, he slowly drifted off to sleep.

The Train Journey that changed Destiny....

Note: All characters are fictional and any similarity to any persons living or dead is not intended and completely co-incidental ;)

He was waiting at the station when he heard the announcement over the PA system, "Train no.6044, delhi to chennai, Rajdhani express will leave in 5 minutes." "Damn!" he thought, "another 40 hours on a train heading to this little town he had never even heard of".
Ishant had finished his HSC exams a couple of months ago. He had been wondering what to do once his results were declared, his mother had often mentioned that there was a severe lack of chemists in industry and a B.Sc. in chemistry would not be such a bad idea. He wasn't sure chemistry was really his forte, but then what had ever been his forte?
The train had slowly started pulling out of the station and he could see the large swathe of humanity go past him. An hour into the journey, a T.T.E came by and asked to look for his ticket. Digging into his pockets, Ishant found the ticket wrapped around a piece of paper. As he was handing out the ticket to the T.T.E, he slowly straightened out the paper he now held in his hand. He could recognize it anywhere, it was a list he had made while trying to figure out what he wanted to do.
Going over the list again, he decided on a choice, "Chemical Engineering! yes! that would be it, thats the only thing that doesnt scare me". He had applied to a few colleges in and around Delhi and he wasn't sure if he would get an admit at all. This insecurity was the reason he was on this train, an application he had submitted a week ago had come through. He could still remember the day he had sent out this application, it was 2 days before the submission deadline had expired, he had sent out the application by Speed Post hoping India Post wouldn't screw up. He did not know what to expect, would he get a call from this college? would he even be considered? Should he even take it up?
Suddenly, the phone rang, Ishant answered "Hello?, Hello?".....

Will we ever 'Halla Bol'?

I just finished watching Halla Bol, its a lovely hindi film starring Ajav Devgan, Vidya Balan and Pankaj Kapoor. The movie is loosely based on the famous Jessica Lall murder case and raises some very valid issues in society today. The movie, in itself, has a very strong screenplay that is backed by some awesome direction and strong acting by the lead protagonists.

One of the things that this movie got me thinking about is how we, the youth of India busy ourselves with chasing the quintessential dream of making money (often in IT) that we forget our social responsibilities. How often have we turned a blind eye to the goondaism in our immediate surroundings? How often have we bribed the government 'babu' to move things along than to go by the law? How often have we complained incessantly about bad roads, intermittent electricity, severe lack of planning by a civic body, and others? How many of us have really done anything to make a difference? I know of a couple of people in my family who don't vote because "My vote will not change things at the ground level". If we don't go out and cast our democratic right to vote, do we still have the right to be an arm-chair critic about the M.L.A/M.P we never elected?

During my B.Tech, I briefly heard of a party called Lok Paritran, founded by 5 'crazy' IIT students. The party decided to take political bigwigs head on in an electoral battle, I am not sure if it actually managed to win any seats, but it is definitely taking a step in the right direction. If we, the youth of India can create corporate heavyweights, I'm pretty sure we can manage a couple of reasonably honest politicians. I don't expect a politician to be completely honest (or even an avatar of harishchandra for that matter!), (s)he can be corrupt and I wont complain as long as (s)he fulfills the basic electoral promises.

This brings me to the last question that I have been wanting to ask for years. I have often had friends tell me about dreams of lucrative careers in engineering/medicine/management but never (not once!) have I had anyone tell me that they would take up politics, bring a number of like-minded sincere honest people together and try to change the system. Why is it that we (the youth) are content writing computer programs (or answering support calls) to rake in the moolah but unwilling to partly shoulder the responsibility for a new social order? Are we truly spineless? or do we just don't love our country enough?

As I wind up my entry today, my question to you: Would you be willing to join Lok paritran in its fight to uproot this plague that affects our country? I know I would (Provided I have some like-minded people to guide me through the dirty waters of politics) Would be great to have a few other responses.

Another step forward

For the uninitiated, I am doing my Ph.D in Molecular Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (for all future references known as UTHSCSA - pronounced Uteska). As soon as I started my first day here in August 2007, I was told I will be facing a comprehensive exam at the end of the year, an exam that will decide the fate of my future. My TAs filled me with horror stories of the exam being like death bingo with the faculty being potrayed as blood-thirsty wolves.
Here I was, almost 9 months since Aug. '07, the first student of my batch to walk into the 'death bingo room'. Soon I was called in and the faculty seemed most genial and helpful, making me feel comfortable with the easiest of questions. Nervous as I was, I made the tiniest of mistakes and they latched on to it like a pack of hungry wolves who haven't eaten in a year! Only then did I realize that I would have to literally measure every word I utter as each technical term I speak fuels a question in the minds of the faculty members sitting in front of me.
By the time I finished, I had been through 10 questions, 8 of which I managed to answer perfectly well, 1 that I really should have known and 1 that I really struggled through (and later found that no-one in the faculty knew the answer to that question either!).
Later in the evening, all my fears were put to rest and the results indicated that I had indeed made it through the first hurdle towards my Ph.D.
P.S: I have started working towards my Ph.D. thesis under my mentor, Dr. Yanfen Hu, who is a lovely polite lady. Hats off to her for being a wonderful teacher

Orienting to Grad School

I have been in the US for almost 3 weeks now. Getting used to the american way of life is very easy, its just about doing things opposite to the way we do them in India. Light switches are to be flicked up, not down; people drive on the right side of the road instead of the left...It is all upside down!

Life in Grad School always starts with orientation. Orientation (like the way it was for me) is mostly about attending boring faculty presentations where they use scientific jargon to the hilt to impress you with the research prowess of their labs not realising that most of the terms in their presentation mean as much a course in advanced english to a chinese student.

The rest of orientation meanders along, with the department chairs giving sermons on the importance of dedication in grad school and perseverence as an essential attribute in reasearch. Once you are sound asleep, they have sessions on handling stress, seeking counselling and some tips on study skills.

By the time the orientation comes to an end on friday, all you want to do is start classes and find out what the big deal about grad school is...I am hoping I will figure it out starting monday!

Us of A

After a month of preparations, making lists and last minute frantic packing, I was finally at Mumbai CSI airport. I was on my way to the big apple, the land of dreams, off to get myself education, and a head-start in life. My immediately family saw me off at the airport and I headed towards immigration with mixed emotions. After a brief wait at the departure terminal, I was boarded into the flight that would take me to Paris. The flight took off as scheduled at 0215 and I, almost immediately fell into blissful sleep. When I woke up about 7 hours later, breakfast was being served aboard the aircraft. I launched into a quick heavy meal consisting of a piece of buttered bread, some paneer, cooked omlette style served with bread tempered with corriander leaves. The crew quickly cleared the empty trays and minutes later the captain announced that we would land at Paris Charles De Gaulle airport in quarter of an hour. The flight finally landed at Paris at 0735 local time, 40 minutes before scheduled arrival. The gates were quickly docked against the airplane doors and we embarked to find a couple of french immigration officials who examined our passport, visa and boarding passes of the connecting flight. The signboards at the airport quickly lead me to a large waiting area with a 20ft long LCD screen flashing the time and departure gate of all flights arriving and departing from that particular terminal. A helpful airport official took a look at my boarding pass and directed me to security check for my flight to Houston.
The officer at security check said 'bon jour' and I replied with a 'hello', she reminded me that I was in France and wen on to teach me 'bon jour', 'oui', 'merci' and 'bon voyage'. My hand baggage was x-rayed and the officer at the x-ray machine thought my box of lemon pickle was actually hair gel! Having walked through security, I was given directions to my departure gate. The whole 2E arrival and departure terminal has over 72 gates. It has a large shopping arena and an even bigger waiting arena! The waiting arena has a number of playstation 3 terminals that sony has set up for free, there are number of computer terminals that let you access the internet for a fee of 5 euros/hr. The airport has a large glass facade that allows plenty of sun light to stream in. There are a large number of coffee shops placed close to the waiting arena. I walked up to one of them and asked for a cappuccino. As the my coffee was being brewed, I chatted up with the guy. He didn't know much english and I didn't know any french, but we managed to talk about the weather and the rather deserted looking terminal. We quickly became acquaintances and he asked me to come by if I needed water (a bottle of water costs 3.7 euros at the airport). I had 7 hours to kill and I walked around to find a desolated place, away from the sun, to sit down & relax in. I plugged in my mp3 player and picked up the copy of reader's digest I was carrying. I read till I finished the reader's digest. The time was now 1130, I was hungry and sleepy. I quickly removed the paranthas my mother had lovingly packed and gobbled them up with a dash of lemon pickle. I was too apprehensive to catch some sleep at the airport, though loads of waiting passengers were sleeping. The airport has long sofas that let you lie down & sleep! I kept walking up and down the terminal each time I felt drowsy. I finally heard the announcement calling for passengers to board the flight to Houston.
Once through the line and into my flight, I quickly settled down hoping to go to sleep right away and make up for all the sleep I couldn't get at Paris airport. However, the crew decided to keep the windows open till they finished serving a light meal and my co-passenger, who happened to be carrying caviar kept getting up every half hour to get ice for storing his caviar. I finally got so frustrated, I asked him to take my seat on the aisle and jumped into his window seat, within minutes I was leaning on the window and enjoying much needed sleep. When I finally woke up, we were an hour from landing and instructions were being issued on how to fill up the customs forms. After circling around the airport waiting for a landing slot, we finally landed at 1935 local time. It took me a few minutes to get through immigration. I walked to baggage claim, collected my bags. I was directed to surprise baggage inspection. The officer asked me if I had 'jeera' or 'mirchi powder' in my bag. I lied with a no and he couldn't find any. After he cleared all my bags, I walked out into fresh american air!!

P.S: This blog is too long for me to re-read and look for typo or grammatical errors, forgive me for any!