My kids will do it differently...

Some years ago I was a kid and it was Christmas vacations for me and my friends from other schools. The day used to start with we cycling and jogging with out friends in the morning at about 7. Did it till we were hungry and came back home for a quick snack and off to play again. But now it is still Christmas and school children are nowhere to be seen but on Facebook. The essence of childhood lost; perhaps redefined!

Back then the only account I knew was a bank account and the word "mobile" was an adjective and not a noun. I first saw a mobile when I was in my 11th Std that to a Nokia 3310. Now people don't even know it existed and those who knew it know it is prehistoric now. Kids now have phone with GPRS and EGDE; almost 3G now!

Travelling from Mumbai to Pune used to take a gruelling 3hours without traffic that too. But now we have the expressway and it hardly take 2hours to cover those 195 Kms of best road in the country. Bandra-Worli sealink didnt even exist and we didnt know whats load shedding. Now we know what is load-shedding and its already history.

15 years back there we no private channels and only DD1/DD2; watching on TV sets that had no remote but a knob to change channels. I grew up watching Ramayan, Mahabharat and Mogli. Now we have at least 5 channels in each of the vernacular languages of India. Hockey and Cricket were the only games the country watched with great fervour. Dyan Chand, Dhanraj Pillai, Sachin and Ganguly were our Gods. Still the fervour has not subdued but we have taken new pride in following Saina Nehwal, Somdev, Narain Karthikeyan nad Force India. Petrol was 20Rs/Lit and call cost 15Rs/Min. Now petrol is 60Rs/Lit and STD call cost is 0.36Rs/Min. Inflation growing at a steady pace while cost of services falling. Has the harbinger of runaway-prices shown its face? No it has just indicated to us that we're living in a world where resources and we have been using things for our greed rather than need!

The time it took for the Radio to reach an audience of 50 Million was 38 years; TV 13 years; Internet 4 years; iPod 3 years and Facebook 2 years. More words have been added to the dictionary in the past 10 years than in the last 250 years. The amount of information a person comes across in a week of newspaper is more than what he would have come across  in 18th century. Times are changing really fast and so are the social norms. 20 years down the line Christmas trees will be there but will be made of holograms instead!! :P

Thru a journey called "Graduation"!

It started as a vague thought; never in the wildest of my dreams had I thought it would come true! But, here I was 1300Kms away 4m what I called home.

I still remember the baby steps I took towards my college, legs shivering with uncertainty and head spinning with the thought of being jailed up here for the next three years. As it was to happen the 1st three months were the toughest, both physically and mentally. The environment totally weird, the people alien, the food unappetising and the culture primitive. I had come to a place where things are seen from the narrowest of mindsets; where people seldom know more than a language; where movies are watched with more fervour than cricket and respect demanded rather than earned.

Time started to crawl; seconds seemed minutes; minutes seemed hours with a totally new world around me in totally unconducive surroundings. It was then that I realised that the best way to kill a person is to give all the time in the world and nothing to do! I still remember how I used to spend time calculating the RPM(rotations per minute) of the ceiling fan; noting the time it takes for the water to get filled in the overhead tank and watching the birds fly in and out of the room.

Then it started; my participation in the BARD Fest '08. Quiz, Debate and Speech were in which I represented my college. It was just the start of what was to become my solace and time-killer. I started spending more time in college culturals and less in hostel. Life seemed better; time seemed to fly. Roamed near and far for competitions and in a quest to prove that i could do something better with my time rather than kill it. In the meanwhile made friends dearer than I could ever make here. But, the real purpose of me coming to this place a.k.a studies was lost in the transition somewhere between Mumbai and Trichy.

After all this I see a silver lining. I've changed, for the better! Grown more mature and serious towards life. Got to know what family, friends and home mean. Met new people, learnt how to form new relations and the toughest part of keeping it together. Learnt the important lesson in life; to "Love people; use things" on the contrary to what most people do "Love things; use people"!

Two-n-half years and 5 semesters have passed since that fateful day and as I step in to the last semester of my graduation, I've come to realise that none of the analogies about this place have changed. Grown just a tad better. As I start rejoicing that my 3yr ordeal is about to get over in a matter of months, I take along with me some very beautiful memories of experiences, events and some special friends whom I was fortunate to make during my course of stay. The only regret being that I will be far away from them and will not be able to meet them as and when I wish. They had created for me a home away from home.

Overall a journey worth remembering with a few edits ofcourse :P