Analysis of LTA

What used to be one of the time pass during boring lectures in college?
For us mechies (and I am sure for many many others), one of the Lecture Time Activities (LTA) was Paper Ball Bombing – done usually by the back benchers. It included:

1. Precision Bombing – Targets were generally of 3 categories:
   
   
   
   • One who got irritated by such things. Of course how in the world can you leave such a target alone
     
     
   • Who had the reputation of hitting back. This was to start world wars- mostly between 3rd and 5th rows. What better ways for a time pass than being involved in a World War.
     
     
   • Teachers – Not exactly Teachers but Teacher’s Area – going beyond the first benches. Sometimes this was to add thrill and excitement to the proceedings.(Yes, even world wars can get boring at times). At other times, it was accidental. It happens during a war – sometimes civilian areas get hit by off target missiles. Once, one such thrilling shot had landed quite close and prompted the ‘not so adept at English’ teacher to say “Who put this paper here??”
     Put???? Some body tell her we are not in Olympics playing Shot Put here. This is a Damn Bloody War going on here!!!
     OK.OK . This Olympic Shot Put thing is a bad PJ..
     
   
   
2. Carpet Bombing - This involved throwing several small paper balls in air which landed all over the class, quite often leading to mayhem as everyone, including the third world countries.. I mean the first benchers.. were armed now.
   One reason for this was to show it to the world (the class) that back benchers are still the super powers.
   Second reason, to start wars between smaller nations.
   And of course world wars were always the favorites.
   Some times some dare devils in front also attempted carpet bombing on the super powers. The response varied.
   
   
   
   • It could be taking out the enemy completely by precision bombing so that he could not raise his head for another 10 lectures.
     
     
   • Or it could be again a start of Big War.
     
   
   An interesting amendment to the carpet bombing once took place during Holi. Half the class had been immersed in the vibrant colors of the festival while many who had shied away were sitting clean. In fact it was due to them that the class had not been mass bunked. So these clean people had to be taken to the cleaners.
   Hence, it was the yellow, blue, green and red colors of life those were used to carpet bomb the whole class. But this unusual warfare had resulted in some big time casualties for the Super Powers - by the teacher of course... but who wants to be sitting all colored up in the class ??
   

What Future may Hold for such LTA's with Technology so rampant in Colleges
Paper balls from the era of vasco-da-gama...
Bas naam le ke fire karo...and it hits the target
(refer Andaz Apna Apna)

Thanks to Fleiger for bringing to my notice an important weapon which I completely missed out - Chalks... They were the Tomahawk missiles - guaranteed accuracy as almost all of the superpowers were also very good cricketers..They were many times the decisive factors in deciding the war and unlike real expensive missiles, came free of cost...

'Photo' Stat

Recently I have written quite a bit on college days and how times have changed now. The main reason has been my cousin brother who has joined my alma mater this year.
So constant interaction with him keeps me updated on the happenings in the college.
From Anuj I came to know about the serious intrusion of Information Technology in the lives of Pecobians.
And recently I also came to know how mobiles are being used to their full potential.
Exam time was quite often socializing time - almost whole of the college was to be found at one place – Photostat shop. A God sent messenger was there in every class. He used to make notes through out the semester and provide his notebook for copying one day before exam. It was a boom time for the owners of those copier machines. But now times are changing. These days with mobile cameras, what is the need to get the notes, go to the shop, wait in the queue, get Photostat, and spend a hefty percentage of your pocket money? This is chill age dude!!
Get the notes, take out the 2 MP camera, click photographs of notes, transfer to your laptop and if needed make an e-book out of it. And maybe go ahead and put this eBook on your website/blog. The rest of the class will be more thankful to you than the poor chap who painstakingly wrote the notes in first place.
If this all sounds far fetched, see the images below. The source for these images and the idea which is mentioned above is my brother who as you can well imagine has sessionals starting soon.

P.S: While I was writing this, many more things came to mind which I had initially included in this post but later realized that they need a separate post so coming soon will be “Analysis of LTA”

Nature Speaks..

Some amazing faces of nature, captured beautifully by Ram during a trip which we 5 school friends took to Kasauli. Trying to lent voice to the nature here.
(The credit of the basic idea of this blog also goes to Ram ji)

Where There is a Will, there is a Way

There are mountains to climb and hardships to endure.. the important thing is to keep the faith



The poison flowing on to the tree - sucking the life out of it.
(Note the difference in color of the victim tree and others around it)
The fight between the Green and Grey continues


Human Nature - One never stops once he has achieved something - after climbing one peak, he looks for other, higher peaks. They look beautiful from far. Once on it, may be you feel more cold



How often in Life do you find yourself in such a situation - which way to go - difficult to decide



Among the hills, the greenery, the lovely weather, the onset of spring stands a lonely, deserted, sad tree - trying to analyze where he went wrong

Rajdhani

The Power Houses - North and South Blocks

It was a conscious decision to take a metro ride so I asked the auto wallah to take a detour to the nearest metro station instead going directly to ISBT(Delhi’s Inter state Bus Stand). The nearest metro station happened to be Central Secretariat. At an intersection the road on the left looked very familiar and so did the buildings at the end of the road. Another semicircular building hid behind trees in the north-west direction. I have never had a chance to see the power hub of India at close quarters and this was an opportunity not to be missed.
So I started moving on the familiar road I had seen earlier – the one which we see every 26th January – Rajpath.
The two colossal structures – South Block and North Block, looming large ahead.
To the right was the Parliament House.


The Parliament House - looks just like we see in TV :)

I clicked some photos. And as I turned around to come back – there was the India Gate standing distinctly far down the road.


India Gate down the Rajpath
Amazingly when I told one of my friends about this, the prompt question was “you must be thinking of RDB!!!”. Well, Miss T, either you can read minds or I am obsessed about RDB and everyone knows it.. because that was the first thought the came to my mind – the masti ki pathshala song where they circle the India Gate.
I walked some 2 - 3 kilometers to reach the famous 42 meter high monument with names of all the Indian WW 1 and Afghan War martyrs inscribed on it.


The Majestic India Gate
It was a transformation from the history to the future – the Metro trains. As soon as you step on to the stairs going down to the underground station (there are many stations on ground level too but I experienced the underground one), you are into a different world altogether. Sparkling clean floors & platforms, close circuit cameras all around, automatic gates and of course the metro train itself. It is a different world down there. But as soon as you step off the stairs again and enter ISBT - it is the normal story again – filth, garbage all over. The metro was host to all – literate and illiterate so the argument that it is the uneducated ones who are responsible for all the filth is wrong. If one sees cleanliness, he is motivated to maintain it and feels ashamed at spoiling it. I hope the metro effect spreads everywhere.

The Voice

From the airs above
Came a voice
It was known and familiar
Of someone friendly and similar

It was in trance
And it was normal
It was excited
And it was calm
It was dreamy
Yet very real

It had the passion
Of a raging ocean
Along with the softness
Of a cuddly cushion
It was overwhelming
And engulfing..

It cannot differentiate between night and day
And somehow makes you feel the same way
Like a V8 under the hood
That makes everyone around feel good..

“O main koi pitti hai”, asked DJ
3 cheers to the voice with BJ



P.S: Interpreting the exact meanings behind this piece will be difficult..or I must say impossible for anyone

That Thing called Time

As you move down the empty road..
The wind shivers you up, down to the spine…
Just Solitude to give you company
You can see that thing fly by your side - That thing called Time..

Not a soul stirs around ..
No one cares as you go by..not even a whine
Just trembling leaves to give you company..
You can see that thing fly by your side - That thing called Time..


No one to give you second look..
To think of you and to say you are mine.
Just the memories to give you company
And You can see that thing fly by your side - That thing called Time..

Some patience and desperation..
You Hope for its support - for some sign..
You want it to stop and give you company
But still you can see that thing fly by your side – That thing called Time


Photo: Chandigarh - Panchkula road on a rainy night

Turbulent Times

A mosquito trapped between the two walls of the airplane window. It died later during the flight

It was an interesting flight by Air Deccan to Pune this Wednesday. Yes, the name Air Deccan itself rouses a variety of feelings – generally on the negative side. It is often associated with Delays, cheap tickets. Moreover, there are no seat numbers assigned so all hell breaks lose when it is announced Passengers traveling by Air Deccan flight DN-XXXX to XXXX are requested to proceed to boarding through Gate no. 1. Add to it, the air hostesses asking for money for every bottle of water you take (Sir, do you have change.. c’mon at least keep the change with you).
All this many of us I had experienced earlier but there were 2 new things added to the list this time. Not that the above all didn’t happen. To start off the flight was 3 hours late!! As a result I had to sit around 5 hours at the airport (Though it didn’t break the 6 hour record I have set – Deccan again). To add to the pain, Sachin hit a century on that fine day. Next, I was amongst the firsts in the line to board the plane but as luck would have it, the tag on my hand baggage fell off somewhere and I had to go to through the security check again !!!
On board, I got the last aisle seat and that resulted in me chancing upon an acerbic fight between the ever smiling air hostesses. After serving, as the 2 of them went to the back of the plane, one of them – the senior most (Miss S) on the crew literally took her junior(Miss J) to the cleaners. Reason? During their serving, as S was busy minting money from the passengers, J had asked for some coke(which was kept on S’s side). But after asking 5 times (acc to J in the discussion), when S didn’t hear, J had to raise her voice and this enraged S. She was offended in the way J spoke to her in front of the passengers. I don’t think any of the passengers even noticed that. But at least 1 of them was now hearing on to this fight now. All for the impressions!!
Next came the tough one – Turbulence. As the plane shook violently, I experienced what turbulence is for the first time. It was similar to the feeling when you are coming down on a giant wheel with that strange feeling in the tummy. As we put on the belts, a couple of people (one of them my neighbor) vomited indicating that it was real bad. Thankfully, it ended after a few minutes. It was a rather uneventful ride to the small but beautiful Pune airport after that. Some blog had to come out of the trip. And Air Deccan helped in giving something to write about. Thank you Air Deccan.