happy birthday to me

It was midnight 12.00 am , 17th March, 2006 , and I was still sleeping when my friends woke me up by singing ‘happy birthday’ song in a very harsh though pleasant tone. In a moment I became 19.

I had returned from Bombay on 16 th, was tired and so I slept early.

My friends had brought the cake, I cut it and suddenly all of us jumped on the cake.

All my friends described me one by one and we had some good pictures taken.

Soon the party was over and we slept.

On 17 th morning I got two couriers.

One from Mom and Dad who had sent me a diary and a birthday card.

And another from Amrita who had sent me two birthday cards, and a chocolate box .I loved it very much.
I was sure about the card...but the great heart shaped chocolate box and the chocolate inside made me very happy.

My treat to my friends is due. And we are waiting for a holiday...

Rang Barse...

This year’s Holi was ok. Rather than playing myself much I observed others playing it.

I was in Mumbai with my uncle, aunt and a three year old cousin. She is very cute and charming.
Whenever she calls me ‘Subbu Bhaiya’, my heart fills with great love and pleasure.
She is such a nice baby. Her words, her expressions, her habit, her pronunciation and her childish questions one after another were really very cute.

I spend the four days vacation by watching TV, little shopping, walking in parks and reading.
I was reading ‘Life of Pi’ and I am happy that I completed it.
It’s really a nice fiction with a good and happy ending.

I returned to my college and came to know that the guys and gals out here had a dashing and naughty Holi.

Unfortunately, I missed it.
Anyways, Happy Holi.

“Believe it or not but ghosts exists and I can prove”

Usually, after dinner, all of we friends gather in somebody’s room and discuss any topic (studies, trips, campus life, girls, teachers, etc.). But on one unusual day the topic was about ghosts and spirits. I don’t know how it came up, but God it was damn memorable night!

Adi (what we call Aditya in short) narrated us many ghost stories, in fact he called them real life incident and he gave that touch by relating every story to his ancestors. Nobody knows whether they were real or fake, but they were truly shocking and scary. One after another, stories after stories, Oh God he has a great stock.

Govil (Ankit Govil) too started narrating the stories one after another as if trying to prove that he is no less than Adi. All others had very less to speak and so enjoyed listening to both of them.

A ghostly atmosphere was created. None was in a funny mood. We all were serious. And in this serious mood Lokesh innocently expressed his desire to call a spirit. “…are you drunk,…have you gone mad,…go to sleep…shut up f*****…”, were the things he had to hear by us. But he was serious.

At last I supported him. “Hey guys, cool down, Lokesh is not talking bullshit. I am sure that ghosts do come but it’s difficult and it requires lots of concentration”. Everyone was quite for a minute. None of us knew what to say. We just kept staring each other. The silence was broken by Reddy, ‘its okay, we can try”.


The main problem was whose ghost you are going to call. He should have died recently and he should be familiar to all who are going to call him. Don’t laugh, because we decided to call Amrish Puri’s (a well know Bollywood star who had died recently) spirit.

That night when everyone slept, we made a plan chit in Bhamri’s room. As we started, some of my friends left as they were afraid, I wont name them. The person who concentrated by keeping the finger on the bowl were me, Lokesh and Bhamri. Jaspreet, Pranjal and Ashok and Lokeshwar were sitting on the bed,

We started, for about 20 minutes we sat with our eyes closed thinking about Amrish Puri. I tried my best to think only about him, but it was difficult. When you close your eyes many things come in your mind. So nothing happened and we opened our eyes.

“Why didn’t it come?” asked Ashok. “Probably due to less concentration”, and as I said this I looked towards Lokesh and Bhamri. They said some other things too came in their mind while thinking about Amrish Puri,

And to worsen Pranjal said that he was afraid so he was thinking about God and reciting prayers in his mind.
So how come any spirit come, even if they want to?

Now when we look back, it seems quite funny. But I tell you, that night was quite frightening, at least for some and I have strong evidence for that.

This incident at least made us know who all are afraid by ghosts among us.

The Bet

“The person who studies continuously for maximum time, wins.”

And the conditions:
1. they cannot make any phone calls, of course they can receive.

2. can go to toilet if needed but should not take much time.

3. have to go for breakfast, lunch and dinner together.

4. cannot gossip with other friends.

5. cannot ask for doubts twice, within twenty minutes.

6. should not close his eyes and say that he is thinking something.

7. cannot stare outside by saying that he is thinking.

8. can give a break in unforeseen circumstances.

And in the beginning all of the participants have to give twenty rupees each, and the person winning will take away the whole amount.

I, Bhamri, Pranjal and Jaspreet dared to bet. Jaspreet gave up after 12 hours of study, Pranjal after 17 and at last I and Bhamri decided to stop studying together and share the prize money..

So we studied no more than 17 hours, yet got 20 Rs. each.


Another bet with Uday is really killing me. If I attend a class and he don’t then he will buy me a cold drink, and if he attends a class and I don’t then I have to pay for his cold drink. In case both of us attends a class or neither of us attends a class then no cold drinks. So every class costs us seven rupees.

Lets see how long it goes.

blood donation camp

I donated my precious 300ml of pure blood (B+).

have a look

Fashion Show

Today was the end of Zaphaer (intra college function). It concluded with treasure hunt, karaoke, dance competition, tale of two tunes and fashion show. So it was a very busy day.

There is nothing to mention about treasure hunt. My group didn’t win, but at least we came in the first forty teams.

Aditya is the hero of karaoke. All of we friends gathered in auditorium to cheer up Adi and group. They were awesome, really good. The song was ‘Channa Ve Ghar Aaja Ve…’. The only team which could have defeated us was GH3. Shaoni and group were too good. They were perfect, and in between we were confused if they are playing the original song.

But as usual the prizes were already fixed. Our hostel didn’t get even the third prize,

Same was the case with the dance competition, our hostel was awesome and all admitted it, yet we were not given any prize. Abhinav, a good friend of mine was also dancing and he was the best in his expressions and he danced very well. Soumya deep too showed his ‘jalwa’ on stage. Both of them performed well.

The last part of Zaphaer was the fashion show, and our hostel was the last to present it. All the participants were too good. We never expected that the competition will be so tough. The GH1 girls were definitely No.1.

From our hostel, me, Lokesh, Gaurav, Bhamri, Adi, Ashok, Dhruv, Soumyadeep, Avinash, Pranjal, Prannoy, and Punnet took part. Punnet did compering and rests all ramp walk.

I have decided the dresses. It was nothing special, I used what ever we had, and nothing on rent or new purchase. The presentation style was by Adi, he had done modeling before and he is well aware about it.

The tattoo expert, Jazzy, designed and painted awesome tattoos on Bhamri and Adi’s body. I painted Soumya’s t-shirt, and me and Lokesh painted the flag which was carried by Prannoy and Pranjal.

Ours was a nice presentation, yet we didn’t get any prize. I came to know that we were fourth, (ours was 59 points and the third was 61 and no one in between). This too was unfair in my point of view. Gh2 girls were not better than us, yet they got a prize. And the third prize winner ‘boy’s hostel 2’, they looked more like they are participating in a fancy dress competition.

Yet it was a great experience, we all enjoyed it. It was fun and I have few good memories to cherish later, in the form of some videos and photos.

But at least I got a third prize in ‘Sound of Silence’, in which one has to give his own dialogues for some movie clips.

Face painting

Days are going fine. Today was the face painting competition. It was exciting, although I didn’t get any prize. My model was Pranjal. Last night I had painted his face with poster colors, and made him look like a monster. This was just for practice but Pranjal had different plans.

At night, when the painting was completed, Pranjal thought of making someone afraid.

All of our friends were sleeping with their rooms locked. By chance Soumyadeep had left his door open. He was really unlucky. Pranjal slowly went to his room; Soumya was in sound sleep.

Pranjal opened Soumya’s both eyes forcefully, and then there was a huge cry. Oh God! It was pathetic. He literally cried and carried such expressions which we had never seen before. He was too much afraid. I interrupted other wise he would have fainted. This was crazy; Pranjal and I couldn’t control our laughter for hours.

The time was around 4a.m. We had one more theme to paint, but both of us were tired. So we slept. At 10a.m. we started again. This one was also good and we decided to finalize it for the competition.

The competition was organized in girls dining hall. On reaching there we came to know that any number of teams can participate form each hostel. Doesn’t matter, at least we were there. Then the next surprise, we were a given a theme there... Oh, what a shit! I didn’t know it was on the spot.

The theme was nature. Thank God it was not much difficult. I planned the concept and started painting. Every thing went fine.

While I was painting I heard some comments, may be from seniors, “At least this time juniors are going to win”, and may be pointing towards me. Some others too praised my face painting and said mine was the best. That of course brought a smile on both of ours face.

Everyone finished and then was the time to judge. I looked at the other participants. All were good and colorful. But I felt that we had a fairer chance, at least a third prize.

The respected judge judged too fast, she didn’t take even a minute. God! It was horrible. She didn’t even look at Pranjal for more than three seconds. Mind you three, not even four. Same was the case with others. There were no less then 10 contestant, and a minute? But she was the judge.

So the first second and the third prizes were announced and we were not there. We lost it.
Doesn’t matter much, I was happy as I had done well. May be the winners had done better.

Pranjal was bit frustrated, and said “It’s of no use, the prizes are already planned, it is fixed. There is nothing we can do about it”. “Alright, calm down.” said I; but I knew that it was unfair. You would have believed me if you were there.

At last what matters is that you participated, tried and you are happy.

the poster incident

This incident was a sudden idea. We planned it last night and executed it the very next day.

Bhamri, Uday and I were studying together in night. We had had our dinner at 8pm, so by midnight our stomach asked for some food. We were really hungry and there was nothing to eat, no Maggie, no soup, not even a biscuit packet!

We all got frustrated, and then Bhamri started telling about his friends life in IIT Delhi; they can come out of there hostel any time and there are 24 hrs cafeteria and ‘dhabaas’; and in our college we can’t come out from our hostel after 10:30p.m.(now its 11 pm) and even if it is allowed , whats’ the use? We don’t even have a 12 hrs cafeteria.

The campus was little boring that time which added up our frustration and we decided to protest.
We thought of making a poster, mentioning our problems and get it signed by as many students as possible.

So I made the poster. It looked attractive, and it had all our problems written with the important ones highlighted. In the beginning, Uday and Puneet were trying to understand us that nothing would change by this and the posters would be torn away by the teachers, but on seeing our determination they too joined us.

Next morning we went to many of our friends’ room and took their signatures, so that when we display the poster, it already had about 20 signatures.

The most common place for juniors as well as seniors is coffee shop. So at about 5a.m. we pasted the poster there, and below it 5-6 blank pages for getting it signed.

At about 8 in the morning, I, Bhamri and Uday were sitting at the coffee shop to see no body tore the poster.

The first one to see it was not a student, but Mr. Srinivas and Mrs. Meenal Kaushik, our thermodynamics and biology professors respectively. They noticed it and asked us who had put it. We raised our hand. They talked among themselves for a while and then discussed the points in the poster with us.

Srinivas Sir discouraged us, but our biology m’am agreed with some of our points. Soon the students started coming, all of them saw it, but none signed. May be they were getting late to there class. We too went to our class. When we returned we felt happy that there are some more signatures.

That day many teachers came there especially to see the poster. Srinivas Sir met me again in the cafeteria and he wished me best of luck. Some of the teachers were also supportive and were even willing to sign. The director of our college also came there to have a look at that poster.

The number of signatures increased as the day passed. But it was only juniors who had signed.

At the end of the day, we had nearly 400 signatures and 399 of them were of juniors. (It is a great number, in a total strength of nearly 1000 students.)

Next day we prepared a detailed report of our problem and thought of giving it to our Students Union President Master Hari Sudan, to pass it to the director. But the director himself called in for a meeting of all the juniors in lecture hall.


He is a very polite and good man; first of all he said that he was not involved in the campus for sometime as he was busy in arrangements for Prime Minister’s visit. So he was sorry for that.

Then he started telling about the poster.

He said that the poster was very nice and attractive, and he had no problem with the problems we mentioned. The only problem he had was with the way we put it. He said the concerned one should have come directly to him and said their problems.

He talked about it for some time and he said that he is not at all angry. And to promise that he will look into the matter seriously, he then and there it self changed the hostel timing form 10.30 pm to 11.00 pm.
We were happy;

Puneet read out the detailed draft in front of all and later handed it to the director.

There was also an open discussion about the problems between the students and the teachers.

Of course the seniors were not happy. But we talked to them, and made them understand that it was not to show that they are not doing anything but it was for our rights and after all they are the one whom we are going to follow.

So this was of course a daring step taken by Bhamri, Uday, Puneet and me along with other friends.

And I assure that all the demands and the problems were genuine and necessary to lead a normal college life.