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Monday, June 13, 2011

Changing Moments

Life's changing yet again. Till now I was a student, and now it's time for me to turn into a professional.Well, I am joining Juniper Networks India as an Engineer 1 in July, 2011. Life's changing yet again!

Today when I reached office, I couldn't find any place to sit first of all. Well, my place had been moved! I was at a loss as to where to go to find my new place! I started roaming around the floor, with a faint idea to ask one of my colleagues whether she knew where I have been moved to! And then I found it. A cubicle for me :) :) :) Well, that puts an end to my sitting in a conference room with a bunch of other people (some of whom kept shouting all through the day)! Now here are my days of peace lying in front of me. And Preethi's cabin is just across from mine, just as we wanted! Awesomeness in itself!

Well, it's time to change my status from studying to working. Don't know how this change will be, but keeping my fingers crossed under the table. :) One good thing is I will be joining a place I know and will be working with people whom I know and who are most wonderful! That is the best thing about Juniper, here everyone is so friendly and helping (just as I told the HR who came to interview me at my college)! If one has any doubt, any small problem, everyone would give enough time to take you out of that trouble. I hope life would be just great here, with lots of work at office, and lots of studies at home! I love a busy life, and I'm getting into a super-busy one!

Another great thing about this company is that people recognize your work very well! They are always praising you in the highest terms, if you have been able to produce some good results! This is highly inspiring! I am really happy to join this company. I am ready to work hard, but I am equally gratified that my work will be recognized. :)

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Mahabharata - Kaliprasanna Singha

Well, since I came over to Bangalore, my passion for reading books has been revived. I am back to my happy self, sitting in a nook with an author's masterpiece in my hand. And they have started regaining their lost position as my best friends! 

And here I am, back to my mad passion of buying every book ever printed. Well, that's a slight exaggeration, I guess! But yes, whenever I get bored, and have nothing to do, I surf the Internet to find if there is just another book lying around the corner, waiting for me to get my hands on them. I can't resist this extreme urge of buying a book most of the time. If given a chance, I will just go and browse through a bookstore any day. I've found a new avenue to acquire books these days - the awesome sites on the Net. It started with e-bay, and has expanded to flipkart (they've got a nice collection), boimela.in (a good one for Bengali books, though they charge for shipping) and infibeam.

It was while surfing through flipkart that I first discovered that Bengali books are also available there. I was just browsing through the Bengali selections, when I discovered they're selling Mahabharata authored by Kaliprasanna Singha. Well, most might not have heard about it (though those who have studied from West Bengal board with Bengali as first language should  have). It is a translation of the original Sanskrit Mahabharata by Vedavyas into Bengali by Kaliprasanna Singha. It is still considered as one of the most authentic translations of the great epic. I was undoubtedly very excited to see this book available. It is available in two volumes, the first costing Rs. 350 and the second costing Rs. 400. Well, it is really a nominal cost seeing the size of the book (about 1100 pages for the first volume). I happily ordered the first volume, and somehow restrained myself from ordering the second volume too. I made a mental note that I will buy the second volume once I have finished the first. There is after all no point buying a book if I am not reading it, especially since there is not much space left to keep books in my PG.

I didn't go to office today on the context of fever. And what should happen, but I received the book delivered to my doorstep the very same morning I bunked office! Now that is called luck! I forgot all about sickness, and started exploring the book. It is really huge, and even before I started reading it, I had this awesome idea of writing whatever I read on this blog, so that those who don't know Bengali or Sanskrit, might still be able to know the entire epic. I don't know how far I will be successful in this scheme, or whether it'll fail like all my similar schemes. But still, it's sure worth a try!

Till now, I have read only through the introduction and the foreword (that contained some Sanskrit verses that I had no idea meant what!). I have just started with the first part - Adiparba (Adiparv). It seems to have even a paragraph on how the world was formed, something similar to Genesis in the Bible, I guess. It is sometimes wonderful to realize how all the religious texts are so similar, in fact same actually in their meanings and messages!

I will start with the actual retelling of the Mahabharata sometime later. I will create a separate blog for that. The entire project will be posted at www.mahabharata-kaushanim.blogspot.com .

But right now, let me get back to my addiction towards books, and what I realized only recently. When I was buying all these books, it was then that I realized that books actually cost so less! Imagine a dress, even a normal T-shirt costs about Rs. 200, even in Big Bazar. One can get most of the books below that range. This 1100-page book cost me Rs. 350 only. It's really very affordable. And look at the amount of information and knowledge they contain. Even story books give us so much pleasure! Like my Dad was saying today, a book gives us company whenever we need it. A few years after you have read a book, you can take it up again and just turn the pages, and experience the amount of joy it gives you. The smell of old books, as well as new ones is just beyond my capability of explaining! I love these books and can curl up with them anytime! 

Really, books are one of the greatest sources of pleasure for me. And since I have recently been hooked up with ancient myths, Mahabharata seems a perfect place to start! After all, I've always wanted to know the true story, with all its anecdotes and interludes! I want to know it all!! And I am a very very happy person today! :-)

Friday, May 20, 2011

In Search of Silence

Sitting alone in a big conference room, with no one around, is a state of utter peace. Well, it lets the mind flow, where usually the mind is jammed by people talking and speaking on phone and shouting to each other. It is very difficult to concentrate sometimes even with the simple sounds of mouse clicks nearby. Sometimes complete silence comes as a bliss. Well, I am blessed with such a silence for the past 15 minutes. 

Even if it is only temporary, the peace is indescribable. Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and only heard your own breathing? No other sound anywhere? The peace of that night is what I want for a single day. No sounds, and I am left alone with myself. What peace, what bliss! 

Sometime I just want to sleep. Sleep till I can sleep no more. Sleep as if there is no duty to perform, no time table to follow, no appointments to keep. And when I wake up, it is still a lazy holiday, when I can roll in the bed as long as I want to. I make sure I get these holidays once in a while. Still, I sometimes get very bored by the sheer monotony of life. Doing the same things everyday, and even then there is some dissatisfaction somewhere. There is the need for peace, for some break in the monotony. The peace of silence becomes very necessary in such times. 

Silence has a magic of its own. Just give yourself a moment of silence, and see what your mind is capable of conjuring. You will see palaces grander than those of Arabian Nights being built up, and there is the vast meadow of green thoughts right before you. The mind turns creative and builds around itself. I love that silence, when I can think whatever I want. When I can just laze about. That lazy peace is so very very necessary, especially these days. Give me a break!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

And so... I Ramble On (a note on the 4 MKUSteers)

Inspired by the comments on my last post, I just felt like rambling on.. :) Thanks to my very best friends, The 4 MKUSteers... That's 3, leaving me.. ;) So, let me write something about us...

MKUS stands for Merin, Kaushani, Ujjwal and Shreya.. Our small group was formed due to our attachment to IE-E&C, Manipal. That's where we got to know each other so well. But it developed into something more than knowing each other last semester. It all started with a dinner plan, that was to be followed by a regular text of: "Where to have dinner tonight?" We became the dinner pals, and then lunch pals, and then general meal pals :) It was more than meals, though! It was endless amount of fun! It turned into meaningless jokes, hearty laughs, long walks, emotional blackmails for accompanying to movies (sorry, boys ;)), chatting on and on and on, and finally stupid (and  not so stupid) plans about opening our own company! Life was fun at Manipal all throughout.. But it turned into super-fun during the last semester. 

So here's an account of all four of us:

Merin: My bestest friend ever! And the person I'm closest to. :) He and Ujjwal are the geeks of the team. And believe me, the way they behave similarly, I have named them "Twins separated at the Mela"! Merin is too good in whatever he does. Seriously, he is one guy who is good at studies, electronics, writing, singing, playing guitar, playing football, playing TT, all at the same time (did I miss out something??) !! And he's also superb at cracking PJ's.

Kaushani: That's me, and what can I say about myself? Except that I'm the least geeky of them all!

Ujjwal: That's the second geek of the group! And he's another PJ cracker! I absolutely love his poems ;).. Beware of him when he drinks! Or you'd be tortured by his poetic senses.. Only joking! He's one of the nicest guys I've seen. And he's too good in electronics! :) Oh and one more thing, keep a bit of distance when he and Merin are together! Or you'd be in the middle of a torment of discussions that you'll have great difficulty in understanding!! They're super geeks, guys!! But super fun too :D

Shreya: She's one of the sweetest girls I've met. We find respite in each other when the boys start their geeky discussions! :P We make quite a team in pulling the boys' legs. She's another Harry Potter fan, and I remember how we blackmailed the boys into accompanying us for the movie! She's a real Brainy girl, and her notes saved us all during the exams! She's one of the greatest friends I've made in my college life! And Shreya, how's your Spiderman Grass doing? I hope you've taken good care of your pet! ;) 

It has been a great fortune to make such friends! And I hope we remain the bestest friends forever!! :)

-Kaushani

A New Start

Shifted to Bangalore!! Interning at Juniper.. And am writing disjointed sentences.

Well, it's the last semester of my B.E. and I have to do a project this sem. I've joined Juniper. It's a new beginning, and life has started changing. Even though I have tried to cling back to everything that was so familiar, it is really of no use. My daily routine has become:
  1. Get up at about 8 in the morning and get ready for office.
  2. Go to office at about 9.
  3. Work, chat, study.
  4. Have lunch.
  5. Work, chat, study again!
  6. Come back to my PG at about 6 in the evening.
  7. Sit with my laptop, try to study a bit, but usually that's of no use.
  8. Have dinner.
  9. Sleep.
Kinda boring na?

Found out a bus route to my office today. Finding out new stuff. But apart from the time at office, life is really boring. I guess I'll start writing here a bit, so that I can talk my heart out :)

~ Kaushani