So convenient it has become for us to blame the politicians for the terror attacks in Mumbai on July 13th, that we ourselves aren’t bothered about it and have within 48 hrs of the horror switched over to praising the movie “ZNMD” on Facebook – Anyone wanting to reply with “Indians shall remain undeterred by such heinous acts of crime” or “That’s the Mumbai spirit”?

The point is that if we can so quickly become oblivious to such issues of national importance, what right do we have to question our politicians at a later date? Is it not a hypocritical behavior on our part to raise a hue and cry for a few days and then leave the rest to the politicians and the police force and then when the cases do not get resolved for years together, create another uproar, call for fasts, attract the media and make a fool of the country in front of the whole world?

Many might argue that this is anyways the best the common man can do. True, but just for a moment try to recall the last time the whole country had united and had cheered for a team that detected and defused a series of bombs before the potentially disastrous mishap. It is human nature to have a desire for getting praised for an exceptional achievement. And it is the same human nature that will pay heed to criticism by someone only if that someone had ever acknowledged its effort.

In my view, when you and I will never want to see our peers getting injured or killed, it has to be the same for the politicians as well (in fact more so in their case since it is their “job”). Let us give them some breathing space, for it has been as shocking an incident for them as it has been for us. Let us contemplate for a few seconds before making a remark, not just in this case but for all the events that will pass by in the future.

I am trying to make a sense of why I wrote all that I did above. Some might call it a confused state, but then I wonder that with so much happening around us, isn’t it obvious to get mad? I mean I try to imagine how  our grandparents have lived. Ladies listening to AIR and maybe watching Doordarshan at home along with their daily chores of work, and gents spending a 8 to 5 time in office, calling home sometimes in between from their fixed landline connections. We know that things happened at that time, and continue to happen now as well. But what disturbs me is the convoluted life we live now. We have the power of Google where it takes less than a minute to know everything about anything, and we have mobile phones that don’t let us disconnect from our friends in the US. But, then, has it been able to satisfy all of us? I believe that the craving has gotten wilder, and the stress levels are only increasing. The work appears to be infinite and the horizon is far from being visible.

Why can’t we choose to live a simple life. I mean what will happen if earned a little lesser, if US didn’t want to be the boss of the world, India and Pakistan kept aside their egos and reached a consensus on the Kashmir issue and Qaddafi finally called it a day, became a citizen of his country and allowed democracy to peacefully lead the country from here on. Wouldn’t it be a simpler and a far more peaceful life? To me, the objective of life is unclear and I even fail to understand all the insanity around me. As someone puts it, “We have been hurled on the face of the Earth and we do what we do because we have nothing better to do”.

Now, the very first point that knocks my mind is the date April 10. Looking at it, the whole mess seems like a setup. I say so because the IIMs had announced the date April 11 long back in July 2007 itself. Our politicians very well knew that had they delayed the verdict by a single more day, they would have lost the chance to enforce the reservation from this session itself, so they tactically set the date of verdict on April 10.

All right then, the reservation is in place. But there is a twist to the tale, that the “Creamy Layer” of the OBCs is excluded from its benefit (Some politicians like Anbumani Ramadoss and Sitaram Yechury have a problem with this too!). And the SC’s verdict defines it as those people having an income of less than Rs. 2.5 lakhs per annum (for those working, otherwise the parents’ income is considered). There is another statement, that the graduates are capable enough to stand on their feet and so do not deserve the benefit of the OBC reservation. In other words, they also constitute the Creamy Layer. This implies that the institutes which offer post-graduation programmes like the IIMs do not come under purview of the OBC reservation. But, our “dear” Arjun Singh says that the matter is very clear and the reservation is applicable to the IIMs also!

So then, let us suppose that Arjun Singh is right. That would mean that now the IIMs would have to segregate the creamy layer OBCs from the other OBCs, which would require relevant income statements from the candidates implying a delay of atleast 2 weeks. But that’s not all! The SC’s verdict has also defined the guidelines which fix the cut-offs for the OBCs depending upon the cut-offs of the General category students. That means another headache for the IIMs because they will now have to go through the list of the OBCs again. And God forbid, if they are not able to find enough eligible OBC candidates who they have already interviewed, the IIMs might have to conduct some fresh GD/PI sessions. Prof. Pankaj Chandra, the director of IIMB hasn’t ruled out this possibility!

However, there is another statement which mentions that the unfilled OBC seats would be filled up by the General category students. This will definitely avoid the circumstance of conducting the GD/PI sessions again. But because of this statement, I have failed to understand the concept of “reservation”. What does this statement mean? Doesn’t this have a loophole? Consider this: If I were the director of an IIM, I would have raised the cut-off of the OBCs by suitably adjusting the cut-off of the General category thereby reducing the no. of OBCs in the batch. In a nut shell, in such a case, I would have paved the way for picking up the best of the lot from both the categories. Clearly, this should not be the case!

What I presented here are not the only problems. Just for instance, consider this that the private institutions have already announced their results and have given a deadline for the confirmation of the offers made by them. Clearly, this is not delighting news for the students who had applied to these institutions as well. Now, they will have to unnecessarily shell out extra money (which typically is in multiples of Rs. 25,000) just to secure their seats. The concentration levels of the candidates are dipping at the work place, anxieties are on a rise and insomnia has already set in. Clearly, the delay is having a cascading effect.

In a nut shell then, everything seems to be in chaos. The IIMs still haven’t received any directions from the MHRD, and everyone including the responsible authorities is confused as of now. I am not against reservation, especially the OBC reservation because anyways they were competing with the General category students before also, and were still making into the institutions of national importance. What I mourn about is the stupidity of our politicians, their every action aimed only at the vote banks (especially now that the elections are just around the corner) and their incapability to foresee the repercussion of their actions. And then the sad part is that they mourn about “Brain Drain”.

In conclusion, I just can’t help myself but laugh at the statement made by Arjun Singh after the verdict, “I have been vindicated”. Hail India, Hail Indian Politics!

All these questions struck me while I was watching a video on ‘Weird Dismissals in Cricket’. Why were those dismissals so ‘rare’ that the creator of the video could manage just 10 of them from the data of the last 20 years? One may assert that humans are prudent, and avoid committing the mistakes they suffered from in the past. But, are humans really that perfect? Why is it that the Australians always end up winning each one of their cricket matches, and when some other country, like recently India, defeats them in a game or two, the whole world sings songs of appraisal? Doesn’t that defeat the concept of being ‘perfect’? Or would you suggest that the humans are not yet perfectly ‘perfect’?

So, what is that force? It has to be something! The world just can’t be a mere co-incidence, for God’s sake! Did I just remember God? So, is he the force behind all this? But who is he? Or is he ‘she’? I reckon that ‘God’ is just a hypothetical creation by some great philosophers in the past, the very thought of ‘whom’ and the faith in ‘whom’ makes us psychologically strong. So, as per me, God doesn’t actually exist, but is rather an imagined concept embedded somewhere in our subconscious. But then, on the flip side, there doesn’t seem to exist an alternate theory which brings everything in order. Am I questioning the atheists? Perhaps not, I am just asking them to justify what they don’t believe in. Or am I also questioning the belief of theists by asking them the ‘definition of God’? Which side are you on? Or are you an agnostic who believes in God?

may 10, 1230 hrs, the zürich central train station.. had just got down from a train coming from the zürich airport..

i had no idea which direction i was supposed to take to catch the tram no. 3.. so i started roaming on the platform in search of help.. tried asking many ppl, but cudnt gather much solace..

the platform i had got down was one of the many parallel platforms of the station… on the either side of the station, there was a road running parallel to these platforms… and at regular intervals, there were many roads perpendicular to these roads, further penetrating the lush green and beautiful city of Zürich (also known as the world’s smallest metropolitan!).. the scenery was breathtaking!.. just adjacent to the station was the amazing Zürich lake over which many bridges were built to facilitate the movement of the pedestrians and vehicles… in the heart of the city, the lake wasn’t very wide but its green colour, its crystal clear water and the swans riding over it simply made my day!

but, i was still lost trying to figure out which direction to take… as i was wandering, i saw a tram coming towards the train station from a far off distance along one of the perpendicular roads i had mentioned before… for a moment, i cudnt think where it was heading, but as it approached the station, it turned to its right, just before the road adjacent to the station… and halted at one of the glass chambers i had been noticing all this while.. it was then that i had realized that those were actually the tram stops..

but just before the tram turned, i noticed the number on it read ’3′!!.. on noticing this, many thoughts occurred in my mind.. firstly, i wanted to beat all those who couldn’t even tell me that the tram stop was so near the station … secondly, i was happy to finally have found my tram .. but thirdly, (courtesy: our beloved indian rail system), i thot that this was the only tram i wud have the chance to catch in the hours to come! .. (again, it was later that i realized that frequency was once in every 15 mins)..

thinking of the last point, i rushed towards the tram stop with my luggage… to reach it, i had to cross the busy road separating me from it.. it was then that i realized that there was a left hand drive in Switzerland and all the traffic rules were completely different from that in India.. simply implying that i wasn’t sure how to cross the road!.. neways, i just went by the roadside and stood behind a lady who apparently, had to cross the road too… she was standing at a zebra crossing and when the pedestrian light turned green, she moved and so did i (so simple! i felt like hitting myself for not being able to notice such a simple process… but no my friends, there was much more to crossing the roads, sth which wud definitely amaze u… will share it wid u sometime later)…

so i crossed the road and ran towards the tram.. by that time, all the ppl had already boarded the tram and all those who had to get down had gotten down… all the gates of the tram were closed and being unsure abt the process involved in boarding a tram, i speculated that i had lost my chance of getting on it… i had imagined that the gates open for a certain time when ppl cud move in and out, and again close when the time was up!… but no, i was wrong… there was a button on each gate which had to be pressed to open the gates… i didnt know abt it then, but somebody from inside the tram saw me standing outside and pressed the button from the inside… … the gate opened and i happily moved in wid two boulders still riding on my shoulders… i thanked the person who had helped me .. and again, took out my piece of paper and showed it to him.. .. he confirmed that i was on the right track and the stop ‘klusplatz’ was that tram’s last stop..

happily and slightly smugly, i sat on one of the seats and anxiously waited for the last stop.. the tram stopped at many stops in between (5 to be precise ) and gradually took me away from the heart of the city towards the residential area… soon the tram stopped at ‘klusplatz‘ and i got down.. the time was abt 1330 hrs…

my next target was to catch one of the bus nos. 747, 753, 786 or 34.. but this time i was lucky.. i didnt have to find the bus stop… the stop ‘klusplatz’ was a common stop for both the buses and the trams.. so when i got down the tram, the bus no. 34 was already at the stop waiting for its passengers… relieved to note this, i boarded the bus and now started imagining my room, which i was soon going to rent..

i got down from the bus at my destined location, ‘loorenstrasse’… and my task was to walk some 300 metres in north-easterly direction to reach the L-shaped building.. seemed easy on paper, but i had no idea which direction was north-east! (and talking scientifically, i didnt even know the angle between the north and the east! .. yeah, a PJ!)… neways, i arbitrarily started walking in one of the directions and met a lady somewhere down the lane.. i showed her the piece of paper, and asked for 74, loorenstrasse… she had no clue abt it, but she started searching up and down the lane just to figure where no. 74 was located! (i tell u, the swiss ppl are really humble and extremely helpful!! )..

while she was still searching (and i was standing at the same spot), another guy passed by me.. this guy looked Indian to me and was wearing goggles… i asked him abt my destination and his first question was: r u an Indian? .. i replied yes and that was my first interaction wid an Indian in Switzerland.. we introduced ourselves to each other and i came to know that the guy was ‘Vaibhav’… he told me that he was residing in the same hostel as mine and gave me the directions.. i thanked him and he continued his journey.. after this conversation, the lady came to me and said, i m sorry i cudnt locate 74 for u.. the attitude of the lady really touched me… i told her that i had got the directions and whole-heartedly thanked her for trying to help me… she smiled and moved on..

so finally i reached my destination at around 1400 hrs… i was very happy to have finally made it… and the room that i had rented delighted me even more!.. all this was turning out to be a great learning experience and i had already got to know a lot about the city where i was about to spend another 75 days… these events promised me an eventful stay in Switzerland… that ‘piece of paper’, which almost defined my fate was also a part of this adventure..

i can never forget may 10, 2007… i had a roller coaster ride on this day, starting from Delhi, 0040 hrs to Paris, 0630 hrs to Zürich, 1030 hrs to my residence, 1400 hrs… a lot more happened on this day including my first visit to my office, but i shall describe all that sometime later (this narration of mine reminds me of the tv show ’24′ which describes every hour round the clock, and ie y i want to continue, but coz i think i m running out of space now [and ur (in)valuable time], i’ll defer the next episode )…

because of a lot of stuff which was going on before i left for switzerland i didnt really care (or so to say find time) to trace my route from the airport till my ‘hard-earned’ residence.. (yeah, it was hard-earned, i’ll tell ya guys later on y)… the only hopes i had was my friend ‘gb’ who i cudnt meet and a piece of paper which had some 3 lines written on it which narrated the route which was to be followed… this piece was written in a hurry from a website and one of my friends ‘trg’ had written it for me..

so dere i was, all lost.. but to my rescue was this Colonel from India whom i had met at the Paris airport… we had landed together in Zürich and he was not new to this place.. he guided me thru the procedures of the airport (immigration clearance and all) and i was out of the airport soon… then he guided me towards the ‘information centre’ and then bid me a goodbye as there was a taxi waiting for him (apparently, he was a big shot!)… so i headed towards the counter…

not knowing nething, i just explained the lady there abt my situation, and showed her the tattered piece of paper i was carrying.. by the way, the paper read:

“take a train from the airport till the central. from there take tram no. 3 till ‘klusplatz’. from there take either of the bus nos. 747, 753, 786 or 34 till the stop ‘loorenstrasse’. after getting down there, walk in the north-easterly direction for abt 300 metres till u c an old ‘L’ shaped builiding”

so this is all i had… seemed easy on the paper, but was really tough… read on, u wud know…

the lady at the counter read this piece and directed me towards the train station which was connected with the airport… i went there along wid my huge briefcase and a stuffed hand bag totaling over 40 kgs… luckily, i cud take the trolley till the station (i realized it later that i cud actually take it till the train! very different from india? well, welcome to the world of the developed countries and wait for more!! ).. i approached a counter at the station and gave the dude there my piece of paper…

he asked for CHF 12 (swiss francs, the currency of switzerland… conversion abt INR 420, yeah i had this bad habit of converting everything to INR).. not knowing nething, i asked him wat was the fare for? he told me that the ticket he was abt to issue was a day pass with which i cud use any mode of tranportation including the train, the trams and the buses!! i was excited to hear this and handed him requisite amount of dollars… after handing over the ticket he told me that the next train to zürich central was in abt 4 mins! i got nervous thinking of that as my only chance of getting to the central as soon as possible speculating (as in india) that the next train wud be arnd 5-6 later… (it was only later that i realized that the frequency was 2 per hour, and not like 4 per day!)…

so i got down the escalator and reached my platform… i still had my trolley wid me.. i unloaded my stuff from it, and added my trolley to a neat row of the same at one of the ends… it was a basement, like a curved tunnel with only 2 tracks on either side of the platform.. (to reach the other platforms, one was supposed to get down some other escalator)… my train arrived some 1-2 mins later bustling its way out of the unseen track of the tunnel… it was a double decker blue train and its front end was just like the nose of an aircraft… at this point, i felt gud… it halted and i somehow came to know that it wud not stop for more than a minute… so i rushed towards one of its gates, this time with both my baggages in my hands… and tried to board it the indian style! … but looking at the others, i realized that it was a custom to allow the ppl to get down first… so i followed and soon boarded the train safely…

it was a different scene inside the train… i had entered a foyer and the seats were behind a glass door which was apparently closed… i cud c the ppl on the other side but had no clue how to reach them coz the gate separating us didnt have ne handles!… but coz i was tired and i had no idea how long the journey wud be i tried to get past the door… and to my surprise, as soon as i reached it, it opened automatically! .. so i first pushed my luggage thru it and then i entered.. the seats were distributed in groups of 4 all facing each other… i looked for an empty one and found a group on which only man was sitting… he was all formally dressed and it seemed he was heading to his office… i sat dere and tried to adjust the two heavy pieces of luggage i was carrying…

i introduced myself to this person, and again explained him my situation wid the piece of paper… he told me that i was on the right track and the central was not more than 10 mins far… i was definitely relieved to hear it … soon the man indicated that my station had arrived and i got down on the platform no. 3 at the central…. this place was very crowded as opposed to the airport and the train station which were very quite wid hardly ne ppl around… here i cud c ppl from all over the world and cud even notice a few asians around..

but it seemed as if my journey had just started… it was a huge place wid around 54 platforms, and i had no clue from where i was supposed to get the tram no. 3…. so i started wandering wid two boulders in my hands and the tattered piece of paper which had seen me reach till this point… i tried to get help from the ppl arnd, but it seemed i looked too shabby by that time, and the ppl were not really getting me… neways, i continued wid my journey looking for someone who seemed to know english and cud help me…….

to be continued….

as u r reading this, just look around… may be behind ur CPU or ur laptop… look at the wall in front of u… and may be at one of the terminals embedded in it… now did u get wat i was talking abt?.. no, i m not referring to the electric wires connecting ur computer with the electric board, which in turn connects u to an electricity distribution centre somewhere nearby… i was talking abt an entity more involved… the wire which connects u to the world, the internet cable!!

i m thoroughly surprised to realize that when at one moment i m connected to the world and i can chat wid any of my friends around the globe, the next moment just by unplugging this cable, i m not connected even within my campus, let alone the whole world!! and the mere simplicity with which v can contact anyone anywhere on the earth amazes me! the first time i had contacted many ppl in different countries was when i was applying for an internship, and i thank this wonderful invention, a simple yet complex medium of transporting data, which ultimately saw me in Switzerland for the summers!

i realized all this when once my cable had broken down… i know how desperate i had become to get a replacement asap… i had wandered all over my hostel is search of an extra cable.. on finding none, i rushed to the city on the very same day just to get this master-piece… and now i m again connected to u…. hope u all got the essence of wat i m trying to say, and i just hope that u do have a replacement wid u in case someday something goes wrong…

…“yes sir, u were supposed to be on this flight, but i m afraid, ur flight has already left!!”…

so dere i was standing in an alien land and without even a visa to enter it… as she was speaking, i started counting the money i was carrying.. i had some 1500 dollars, so buying the next ticket was not a problem.. but all this seemed to be a very bad start.. i had no idea how much the ticket wud cost, but watever the amount, this was a disappointing start… i decided not to inform my parents about it….

i was standing the at sub-terminal 47A.. she had stopped talking… i didnt know wat to do… i thot of taking another shot.. i had decided that if nothing works out, i wud buy another ticket to zürich and explain everything to my prof and then try to extract the extra money involved from him … (u c intern is all abt saving money and spending it on roaming ).. all these thots occurred to me during the 3-4 seconds of silence shared by both of us..

nevertheless i started again, “mam, i m a student from india and i m heading to zürich for a summer internship programme, i m not in a position to buy another ticket to zürich… “…

“sir, but dere’s nothing i can do now”…

“but, wat is my fault in it?? i had taken a connecting flight to zürich from delhi via paris.. how was i supposed to know that i wud miss my next flight??..

“sir, i can not help u, y dont u go to the sub-terminal 56 and ask the lady sitting over dere”…

“yeah right, so i m now supposed to wander here and dere for help”, i thot… i thanked her, and headed towards 56..

i went dere and stood in a q… amidst all the confusion, i had completely forgotten that i was in a new world, a world which v used to adore sitting in our hostel rooms and looking at thru our monitors.. .. so dere i was, suddenly in a new mood, trying to glance at the hot girls around.. dere was a girl in front of me, and soon behind me too… i felt really gud, especially after coming from an iit!! (where dere is a dearth of girls!! ).. now, i was not feeling bad abt missing my flight, i saw this as an opportunity to spend some more time in Paris, though only at the airport… the floor was full of ppl wid new ppl appearing from the arrival gates and the old ones disappearing thru the departure gates… i cud also c some Indians here and dere… this terminal alone was huge and i tried to imagine the scale of management used to manage this delicate monster…

soon, it was my turn… i was addressed by a young lady sitting at the counter… i explained her my situation… she asked for my boarding pass, examined it and said, “sir, the next flight to zürich is at 0945 hrs, abt 2 hrs from now… is it fine wid u?”.. “fine wid me!”, i thot… wat more cud have possibly gone wrong now.. i continued, “plz book me for the next flight, i want to leave asap”… so she started working and soon came up wid another boarding pass, and tore my old one.. accompanying this new boarding pass was another slip of paper, which i cudnt recognize in the first glance… she handed all this to me… at this time, my purse was in my hand, and i asked her, “how much?”… she politely said, “sir, urs was a connecting flight, and the delay of the flight from delhi was not ur fault, so it is our duty to ensure that u reach ur destination, zürich, safely.. so no charges for u sir.”… “!!!!!!!”…. woohooooo….. i was on cloud nine when i heard this!! i cudnt believe my ears!! the boarding pass was already in my hand, so the only thot running in my mind at that time was to run away from her b4 she remembered nething else, and asked for money.. … i whole-heartedly thanked her, and left the counter!! i was very happy, and the situation seemed all the more fun!! i now decided to call my parents and tell them everything..

all this time, i was being watched by an old man who looked Indian to me.. he was standing two places behind me.. when i got my boarding pass, i looked at him, and thot of waiting for him.. when he came out, v introduced each other and he turned out to be a retired Colonel.. he told me that he was a frequent flyer and cases such as mine were common instances… in fact, he was on the same flight as mine and he was heading to zürich as well… at this point, i felt safe and guarded by a fellow Indian and an experienced man… we chatted throughout the rest of the journey…. and v shared a lot of experiences, and i also learnt abt his daughter pursuing engg at DCE.. .. (but all this will be taken up later on)…

dere is a lot more that had happened on the very same day… like i had asked my friend ‘gb’ to wait for me at the zürich airport to pick me up… but coz of all this, i cudnt meet him that day and i was completely lost on my way to my residence from the zürich airport.. ‘gb’ was of course pissed off waiting for me at the airport but soon sympathized wid my situation.. …

many more events took place on that day, which promised me that this life-time trip to Switzerland was going to awesome.. … thinking of this, i switched off my table lamp and went off to sleep, looking fwd to a fresh day when i wud start my work…

may 10, 0040 hrs… i had boarded the Air France flight to Paris… yes, i was supposed to go via Paris.. so dere i was about to take off for my second international flight… i felt very gud, for it was the first time i was travelling alone over such a large distance… i felt smug abt the fact that it was all because of my efforts… ..

the seat arrangement of the flight was 2-4-2 ie 2 seats-an aisle-4 seats-an aisle-another pair of seats… i was sitting on a pair of 2.. (sadly so because it gave me less opportunity to interact).. i was the first one to occupy the pair… i adjusted myself and tightened my seat belt.. and then started looking at all the passengers passing-by my seat anxiously waiting for my partner imagining it to a hot girl.. .. the wait was over after about 5 minutes and i was accompanied by a gentleman… disappointed, i remembered that it was 0050 and decided to go to sleep…

__:__ hrs… had no idea wat time it was.. i was woken up from my nap by a French hostess and was given some snacks to eat… i woke up with a jolt, happily relished the salad and the French toast and then fell to sleep again.. it was then that i had noticed how gentlemanly the person sitting besides me was.. the difference in the conditions of his and my plate suggested everything… it seemed to me as if he was a frequent flyer…

some 0700 hrs… i woke up and found my partner was still asleep… i took out my brush and headed to the toilet.. the breakfast was waiting for me when i returned.. my partner had already started.. this time, i had made a pledge that i wud keep my plate cleaner than his… i tried but succumbed.. i guess he was noticing too, but i think he just chuckled… neways, i finished my bf and felt happy to be sitting dere heading to Paris…

i continued to sit and look at some magazines lying around.. also glancing at the pretty French hostesses moving up and down the aisle at the commands of the tiny buttons controlled by the passengers.. unfortunately none of them was young and all seemed quite experienced… to me, they seemed around 28-30… but they were very polite… i loved every instance of conversing with them…

at around 0915, an announcement was made that the flight had entered Paris and would land soon… immediately i started looking out of the window in the hope of catching a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, speculating it as my only chance to actually see it on that trip coz i didnt have a Schengen visa, implying that I could not move out of Switzerland… but sadly, i cudnt c nething..

at 0930, we hit the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris… the gates were opened and v entered the gigantic airport… mind u, it had 6 terminals wid over 54 sub-terminals in each!.. there was a chill in the air, and on inquiring i came to know that it was around 5-6 degrees… now imagine someone coming from Delhi in May and suddenly landing in Paris at 5 degrees in a thin shirt and a pair of jeans…. yes, i felt the same way but that didnt bother me much, i was only looking fwd to the rest of my journey…

i think i had to change my terminal from A to F for my next flight to Zürich, my actual destination… the time now was 0645 hrs.. (i had entered a new time zone.. )… my next flight was at 0720 hrs… when i entered the terminal A, dere was a screen displaying the schedules of the flights… as i hurried through it, i tried to locate my next flight… the status said boarding!!!… a chill ran down my spine and i was suddenly nervous as i was still very far from actually boarding the flight….

i continued, in fact ran… dere is a bus service to change the terminals.. in fact, thats the only way of doing so… to my surprise, the bus had not yet arrived on the terminal A and i had to wait for very long b4 the bus actually arrived… but i still had hope coz i speculated that the boarding would be open for some more time and that i wud be able to make it thru… after reaching the terminal F, i figured out that i had to walk.. after walking for abt 5 mins, i finally reached a check-point: a security check… i had thot that it wudnt be applicable for me as i was coming directly from one of the flights, but i was wrong… i had to stand in the q and wait for my turn… my turn came after 5 mins, and i headed towards a black guy.. he looked kind and looking at my student-like docile face, decided not to check me.. i was very happy and thot that now i wud make it… but no dere was more…

after the security check , the checking of hand bags was done… i met a fat guy sitting on a counter.. i tried to pass thru him pretending to be unaware but he stopped me… i thot he wud pass me quickly, but no, he was not one of those types… he sat dere in tranquility, without bothering about the hurry the other person might be in… he poked his hand thru my stuff for a long time, and just when i had thot that it wud be over, he came out wid a few masala packets… it was then that i had already bid a good-bye to my flight, but somewhere i was still hopeful… i explained him wat they were, using all possible kinds of gestures and synonyms, and tried to convince him that it was not some sort of sugar… he was finally convinced and i hurried thru the security check… but no, it wasnt over yet…

i realized that i had only entered the terminal F… my next target was to find which sub-terminal i was supposed to go to catch my next flight… as soon as i had passed thru the security check, i had entered a huge space, it felt as if i had entered a football ground with two floors and i was standing on the first… dere was a massive glass dome above this ground, and i truly felt lost… not knowing where to go, i wandered helplessly trying to seek help from ppl who seemed to know only French.. neways, i went up to the second floor thru an escalator and found some sub-terminals dere.. i was relieved to finally find these… i ran to look at one of the large screens to know where i had to go… i found the flight but to my utter surprise, the status now read boarding closed!!!

i was broken.. i checked my watch, it was around 0715 hrs and the closure of the boarding made sense to me.. but, still hopeful i ran towards the gate i was supposed to board from… a pretty lady was standing dere chaining the entrance to the gate, i ran to her and told her that i was supposed to be on the flight too… she looked at my boarding pass, and said, “yes sir, u were supposed to be on this flight, but i m afraid, ur flight has already left!!”…

to be continued….

may be this is the stage where everyone feels the same way… or may be this is the testing time… my seniors would know…

the system hasn’t changed and this is what infuriates me… according to me, the system sucks… i c it just as an endeavour to make the students aware of every god damn thing without any logical proof of y v do so!… y the hell do v study the proofs of 0+0=0 is unknown to everyone, even to the professors as i speculate… teach the students of india everything and then bask in the glory of the fact that v r in demand everywhere… this system only kills one interests by imposing unreasonable laws…

i write this out of anger for all that i have seen here… although at the same time i m thankful too because i have learnt a lot, but mind u not much in wat i was supposed to… i have learnt how to survive in this stinking ‘society’ and how to find loopholes in the system and manage to do myriad of other activities, activities which interest me and r not imposed on me…

probably nothing seems clear as of now.. as Steve Jobs said, “it is possible to join the dots backwards only”… i take this as an inspiration and just choose to move ahead without questioning much…