My last day at Barcalys.

These pics are of my last day at Barclays Capital. I had given a presentation on my internship to Shaun Taylor , Director Ecommerce and FIX Dev/Conn and my team. Everyone was pleased. I had also received a job offer in the same team.So I was also very happy.

Evening at Salua

Cock fight @ Salua

The winterJAVA workshop.........memories

Last winter, I conducted a workshop on JAVA that I christened ‘ The WinterJAVA Workshop’. The workshop was all success - it included thirty 2^nd year students, two 3^rd year students and 2 Research Scholars from IIT Kharagpur. The participants also included a Railway Officer, two ladies who came from DVC and two ladies from SALUA. The workshop made my purse richer by 15-16k. And the experience and the confidence that I obtained was overwhelming. My students were more than satisfied.

It all started like this – I had promised some 2^nd year students of R.K Hall (for non-KGPian R.K Hall is my hostel ,I am the General Secretary, Technology of R.K. Hall) that I would teach them JAVA in winter. So accordingly I put up a notice in R.K. Hall mentioning that I would like to teach JAVA to interested students who would like to stay back in the winter vacation. I expected some 5-6 guys but the number was much larger. News spread to other Halls of residences and I started receiving requests to include students from other Halls as well. So I decided to include students of other hall as well. I also decided to charge Rs.500 per student . This would ensure that both I and my students would be sincere during the workshop. I put up a website in which people could register for this workshop. I put up fresh notices in all Halls(except S.N. Hall of course ).

Now space was a problem. Where would I find a room that can accommodate 30-40 people , that can station some computers for practical purposes, have blackboard for teaching, have chairs for students and so on ? Hijli high School was a option but it had many problems attached with it. It would cost me much and would be far away for my students. In the meantime I received a request from one of the KRAIG heads (Kharagpur Robotics Society) to include this workshop as a part of the KRAIG winter workshop . I readily agreed as this would provide me with everything I wanted- classroom, computers, projectors , etc. But eventually their were some problems and I had to do away with this idea.

In the meantime registrations were pouring and I did not know where to accommodate so many people. I could not call off the workshop as people had already booked their tickets accordingly . I took help from one Mr. Alok Saran – a native of Kharagpur who lives just outside the IIT Campus . He owns a Coaching Institute – ‘CAREER LAUNCH’ for preparing students for IIT-JEE. He promised me a classroom where I could conduct my classes. I had earlier helped Mr. Saran in many ways and he was obliged to me for that.

I asked people to pay the fees before the classes started. But very few did. All wanted to test me before they made their purses lighter by 500 bucks . This made me worried. What if I could not come up to their expectations? I became nervous . I never had gone on stage to speak something ,and now I was supposed to teach some 30-40 students for four hours everyday. And teaching IITians was not a joke.

I was really nervous. I started my preparations . I prepared some slides. I prepared my dialogues, anecdotes for the first day. It took me a lot of time.

The first day-I reached a bit early. Though I seemed inexperienced and nervous for the first 15 minutes, I gained confidence after that and all seemed a piece of cake from then onwards. I would entertain m students with jokes, give real –life examples for all that I taught. They seemed interested for they asked questions. I made sure they understood everything by asking them questions. I made people come up to the black board to solve problems. The classes were of four hours duration, with a 15 min. break . During the break we used to move to the balcony .People used to crowd around me and ask me to narrate my experiences. They used to listen to me with utmost interest as if I was some Nobel laureate or someone of the sort. For the first time in my life-I felt that I was someone .I felt confident.

Students seemed highly satisfied as all of them attended classes for all the 15 days (Though skipping classes is the second nature of an IITian ). All of them paid me as well in 2-3 days. This showed that I had come up to their expectations. I also took 2 surprise tests in which most of them performed well. I regularly collected feedback from the students. Most of them gave me 90+/100.

I took classes for 13 days though I had promised 15. This was because I fell sick and also had to prepare for an interview with Barclays Capital, Singapore. I promised to make up for the missed classes after the vacation.

Finally the workshop came to a close. All were happy as they were going home. I was happy –I had been selected by Barclays Capital . Also I was richer by 15k. I donated 1k to the Gopali Ashram, paid the rent for the classroom to Mr. Alok Saran, sent 6k to my parents and the pocketed the rest.[:D]

The Vagabond

The Vagabond

Give to me the life I love, Let the lave go by me, Give the jolly heaven above And the byway nigh me. Bed in the bush with stars to see, Bread I dip in the river - There's the life for a man like me, There's the life for ever. Let the blow fall soon or late, Let what will be o'er me; Give the face of earth around And the road before me. Wealth I seek not, hope nor love, Nor a friend to know me; All I seek, the heaven above And the road below me. Or let autumn fall on me Where afield I linger, Silencing the bird on tree, Biting the blue finger. White as meal the frosty field - Warm the fireside haven - Not to autumn will I yield, Not to winter even! Let the blow fall soon or late, Let what will be o'er me; Give the face of earth around, And the road before me. Wealth I ask not, hope nor love, Nor a friend to know me; All I ask, the heaven above And the road below me. -----------Robert Louis Stevenson

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi...............

Its a winter morning .The winter vacations are on and I sit in a chair outside my room in my balcony and "doing nothing".......

People ask why I stay back in the hostel during vacations rather than go home and enjoy with family and friends. I reply--"to do nothing”. Leaning back on my chair, with just a banian and shorts, I wonder. I don't know what .

My room is on the third floor and I look down on the garden.....and I find two cute puppies fighting over a piece of plastic. They run here and there, jump over each other, kick each other and roll over on the grass with fun and frolic. I envy them. I wish..............I were one of them, could roll over in the mud without feeling guilty, could fight with them ,could run where I could without caring about anything else on this world. I wish I could forget --assignments, exams, submissions, grades, CGPA, internship, job and a hell lot of things that bug me.

A bird in the nearby tree starts singing. I wish I were a bird. I wish I could fly. Far away on the road I can see a pretty girl… I wish she were mine. Suddenly the phone rings and I pick it up to find that the grades of ‘CAOS’ had been declared and that the Prof. had given me a ‘D’ and that would further bring down my CGPA. A fighter plane shoots over the sky from the Kalaikunda Air Force Runway. I wish it would drop a bomb over this place.

The morning’s mood has been spoilt. I pick up my ‘Hero Champion’—my old, faithful, powerful bicycle that has been my partner for more than 8 years. We two were partners even in a dangerous road accident during the ‘Super Cyclone’ that hit Orissa 7-8 years ago. I will write more about that accident in another post. I consider my bicycle no less than Rana Pratap’s Chetak. My ‘Hero Champion’ has been to everywhere around KGP within a diameter of 80 kms.The traveling spirit in me is always awake and every other opportunity sets me get going ---sometimes alone and sometimes with someone who has a similar temperament. So where should I go today ?? A few kms ride on the National Highway would be good-I think enough to lighten up my mind. Many a times whenever I feel frustrated or lonely ,I find a new friend –the road .The roads speak—if you can hear.

A few minutes of travel takes you to a crossroad from where you get four directions---the first leads to Bombay ,the second to Calcutta, the third to Midnapore and the fourth back to KGP .Unable to decide where to go, I park my bicycle and myself on the crossroad. Trucks, buses, jeeps and cars speed by. Truck drivers slow down their vehicles and ask if I needed a lift. A van carrying a military office and his bodyguards stops to enquire if I belonged to Lashkar –e-toeba gang or some other gang. I show them my I-card and they leave-convinced that I am no terrorist. Vehicles come and speed by ,but I sit on the crossroad ,thinking…………….if I were a truck-driver, if I were a military officer, if I were a terrorist…..... Far away I can see a farmer ploughing his field while his wife waits with food that she has brought from home. And I wish I were a farmer…………….

I wish…………I wish…………..I wish…………. I wishhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh………

"Hazaaron khwaishein aisi
ki har khwaish pe dum nikle
Bahut nikle mere armaan
lekin phir bhi kam nikle"

- Mirza Ghalib

Hey guys,hope you all liked this post of mine. This was my first blog post . More posts later.I am not that much imaginative or abstract as you might have guessed after reading this post. But just a bit. If you have any similar feelings do let me know. If you are in KGP and you would like to go on a cycle ride with me ……..do buzz me. We wont be sitting on crossroads, I promise. I have been to many interesting places here in KGP. So you will have full fun. Do leave your comments.