things move on...

today was a day of reunion and separation...
i met up with a few of my school class mates... it was nice to catch up... more people were expected to turn up but due to reasons of their own, not many came... i had met them 6 months before as well...
i had a decent time... the fact that we still meet as often as possible is comforting... that people are willing to make an effort to stay in touch...

in the evening i met up with another friend of mine... a decade old friendship... he is leaving town and moving to Mumbai due to his job... we met up for just about an hour... we just talked about the regular stuff... it was one of the best evenings... we both were trying to capture the time in our own individual ways... the fact was never stated but was in the essence of every spoken word... it finally dawned on both of us that we will be miles apart from now on...
without a doubt we'll stay in touch...

from the trio of the decade old friendships, the first one left town earlier this month... that was the point when i realised that things and people have to move on...
because of the long time span, i had started taking things for granted... i had assumed that things wont change... though subconciously i always knew better... but still...

i agree with all those who say that the world is shrinking, distances are getting lesser and places & people are getting closer... u can always stay in touch, and all the other stuff... but i still feel the sadness when such close friends move apart, though only geographically... ofcourse i am happy for each of them as they are moving forward in their life...

the bottom line is... i will miss them... though i'll stay "connected", but will still miss their presence in an inexplicable way...
they will get busy with things, and so will i... i might not think about them all that often... but certain things will always remind me of the past times...

i cherish my past memories and look forward to those in the future...

strong outside, reinforced inside

i was approaching a towering mountain... it looked immobile and unbreakable...
ofcourse i was progressing in a car on a road made on the same mountain...
still it seemed as if the core of the mountain would be rock solid...

i soon reached the place where a hydro-electric power project was under construction... the flow of the river between the mountains had be diverted for the construction purpose... and when desired it will be allowed to follow its original path...
the dam which will hold large quantities of river water could be seen in its entire form...

following the path which the stored water will be taking for electricity generation, i entered the mountain... through a tunnel passing right through it... this tunnel gave way to the network of tunnels through which the water will be flowing in a few months time...
the core of the mountain had been shaped as required... and the tunnels once filled with water, will always remain so...

next i entered the hub of all the action... the portion inside the mountain where the turbine and the generator were being installed... the machinery really dwarfed me... i walked through the rotor and stator parts, on top of the turbine guide vanes, below the runner, around the casing...
the entire scenario was simply bewildering...

the amount and intensity of the events occuring within the giant mountain was unfathomable to a passing glance... but the interior showcased the magnificence of human mind...

this project was spread in a mere stretch of 4 kms and when operational will be producing only 126 MW of electricity... a small project compared to others in operation...!


the next day i had the chance to visit an operational diversion dam... it has been beautifully made... the vast expanse and depth of the water in the reservoir took my breath away and scared the hell out of me in the same instant...!
couldn't even imagine what would happen to me if i fell in it...

traversed the entire depth of the dam, saw the water fall and the rainbow it generated as a result...

wind

sitting on a swing surrounded by the mountains in the dead of the night, i heard the calls of the wind... calls which are overpowered by the city i live in... i realised that it sounds just like a river gushing down a mountain(which was audible as well in the background)...
the first thought was... my desire to fly away to where ever it might take me...
soon the gentle breeze grew into a mighty storm lashing out... from being comforting it progressed to being frightening...hence the next thought was... will i be able to fly a plane in this storm...?
nature can prove its extreme strength or become furious any moment it decides to... its unrivalled might always scares me...
the sound of a rare bike passing by was comforting at this moment when i was being enveloped by darkness and its windy companion...
the possiblities of nature and civilization harmoniously co-existing flashed through my mind... the thought of experienceing the same in a city was heartening...

trees were responding to it in a varying manner... some bent in front of it, some embraced it & rejoiced and some resisted it, of which a few survived & some didn't...
gradually it started engulfing me and all i could think of was to become one with it...

nature is what makes this planet a livable place... it is what earth is proud of... it is what we all should save and preserve not for us or for the overstated excuse of welfare of the future generations... but for just what it is.. nothing more, nothing less... just for being natural...!

a break

I was out of town for 5 days.. returned just a few hours ago...
went to chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh... in HP, went to Pandoh and Kullu...couldn't check out Rohtang pass and a few adjoining places due to shortage of time...
the best parts were... the weather in Pandoh; the 2 dams i saw - an operational dam in pandoh and another in final stages of its construction; river rafting; n a bit of driving...

the detailed stuff will be posted in a while as i gather my scattered thoughts n bring them back to the real world...

things that happen...

I joined Maruti for my training on 10th june.
the day started on a pleasant note as i had a nice company & nice music was being played as well on my way to gurgaon ... reached about 5 minutes late, so my friend who dropped me to maruti was a bit tensed...
anyways, i asked him to relax & once i went him i told him that nothing had begun yet, & not even till 11 o'clock(reporting time was 10 am)...

there after the joining formalities were performed & the uniform was given...then came the awaited hour... the lunch time ! it was good as usual...

there after an extremely boring session on safety was held... the instructor kept drifting to various other completely irrelevant things throughout... all in all, he was simply unbearable...!

as the day was coming to a close, the shutdown break was announced... everyone was cheering but there was a twist in it for me...
i was told to wait along with a friend of mine after everyone left...
the reason was... we were to report to the Engineering(EN) department immediately...
we were a little surprised... but we knew someone there so assumed we were to go & meet that person...
but it wasn't so..

so we checked again as to who were we supposed to report to in the EN dept.. it was someone we had never heard about...so now we were "really" surprised n anxious as well...

anyways, we picked our way to the EN dept., & met with the person in question...
he gave us an intro of the entire EN dept, which consists of a number of sub-depts & the function performed by each of them...

then we heard what we were kind of anticipating now... We had been assigned the EN dept for our training project...!!
we were to "actually" work in this dept... the most important & sacred place in the entire plant...!

we were not given our projects then, but will be given on 20th when we rejoin after the shutdown break... it'll most probably be a project in the vehicle testing dept...

as i left the building later, alot of things went through my mind... but the most pronounced thought was... just HOW did this come to happen..??
it was totally unexpected & out of the blue...
still havent been able to figure out how the depts are assigned to all the trainees...
but one thing that i am sure of... this cant be a mere coincidence...! that just doesn't make sense...
there has to be someone who was kind enough to let me in in that dept.

sure am excited to be working there... but curious as hell to unravel this small mystery...

all i can do now is to wait till 20th when the actual project is given to me & i get to meet my project guide... that might give me some clue & help me out a bit...

first job

I've got my first job...
TCS came to my college for on-campus placements... i appeared for it and got myself a job.. bas yun hi...!
it wasn't planned or i wasnt too keen on it either... initially got involved as the student co-ordinator of the so-called placement cell of my college... so was working things out for TCS...

on the day of their online test, i gave it just for the heck of it... sat for abt 2 hrs, answered a few CAT-like questions, had a nice time, got through it n left...
next day, the 3 stage interview process started... was supposed to go through a technical n 2 HR interviews, with elimination possible at any stage...
had to wait the entire day to appear for the first one itself..!
my tech was taken by 2 mech engineers... but it was anything but a tech interview...! the panel asked me all sorts of HR questions.. about myself, my hobbies, strenghts n stuff... finally they asked me about the subjects i had taken up till date and a question or two related to them...
as soon as i walked out, i was called for the HR, which meant that my tech went decently well coz many a people were either called after a delay or not called at all..
so my HR begins... and once again a major part of it was more like wat a tech is expected to be...! the HR exec started with my school and college background, the reason for me to switch my field, my awareness about TCS, etc.... then it progressed to mathematical questions, stuff related to software languages and application softwares i was familiar with, to explanation of a 4-stroke and a 2-stroke engine and related stuff... so overall, even HR was kinda ok... my guess was that the impression i had left was of a person who is just kinda drifting into the company by default(no points for guessing if its the truth or not..!)...
so wasn't really expecting to be called for the final HR interview.. but my guess wasn't on the mark...
within a minute of me walking out of the first HR, i was summoned for the final HR...
so in i walk for it to be greeted by the same person who had made a presentation about TCS at the start of the day... and with whom i had a decent conversation for about half an hour before the presentation began...
the final part took no more than 5 minutes... and it was conducted like a light breeze...
in a nutshell, after doing nothing for more than 6 hours(could have called it chilling out, except for delhi summers!), i was done with all my interviews within a time span of 45 minutes...!
at the end of it all, i kinda knew i was through... and the same was confirmed by 7pm..

now came the time of anybody and everybody congratulating me... and sure enough, i accepted them all...
ofcourse its a nice feeling to get a job in the very first attempt i made, with still an year of college left...and i am happy about that... but still not sure if i will actually join it after my graduation...
confused about a few more things(as always!)...

as of now, just looking forward to my industrial internship starting from today itself... things would've been perfect if it wasn't so far away from my place and i wouldn't have to face the ordeal of making it through the delhi and gurgaon traffic everyday...

but then such is life..! predictably unpredictable..