Books You Must READ before you DIE... !!! (Part 1)

Hi...
Through my readings and observations and all those nonsensical thoughts i have come to one conclusion ....
You need to have an insight into your true-self in life.. No not to screw.. Its not that I am talking of some reincarnation of some of your earlier life or any Spirituo-pseudo-Intellectuo concept !!

It helps us to live calmly.. coordially.. consciously with reverance to the environment.

For that i would suggest you some books you must read according to me before you die. !!

Its starts something like this...
BOOK 1 -- THE LOVE STORY (1970)
This book by Erich Wolf Segal is a classic in its way. The author brings about an emotional, sensitive and yet a very straight forward story. It has been cultured on the 75mm screen several times in diff forms including in Bollywood. But i would suggest reading the book. Brings out the feel much more.
"Love means never having to say you're sorry." This is the famous dialogue from the novel.

So why am i suggesting this book?? The author hasnt paid me for publicity, neither am i doing some boasting about my reading habits.

"For Love is the Beginning of Knowledge as Fire is of light.. "

21st Century Girl. Does such a specimen exist !!!

“Hey friends look, My God, she really looks so pretty…. !! "She Blushes..."”
20 Years ago..
“Hey man just look at her, she’s damn sexy!!! "She walks on ... confidently"”
Now..
That’s the difference today about gals and girls.

Let me say something about today’s young woman. She wears Tshirts, shorts, shirts and fashionable clothes alongside dresses and sarees. If there is a Sita then also a Sally, If Gayatri can weave clothes for a living, there is also a gayatri who can walk on the ramp. There is a sheetal studying for JEE classes late nights and at the same time there is Himadri going out along with two boys at the same time. Today we have role models like Kiran Bedi, Sonia Gandhi, Indira Gandhi as power women. But we also applaud the girl in school who stood up against child marriage. We support those victims of inhumanity who stand up for justice.We cheer Sania and Sharapova alongside Sachin and Federer. She is a teacher, a politician, an actress, sportswomen, a bureaucrat, an administrator, a ceo and a housewife. Women make or mar organizations or Governments as we see in US or India or anywhere.

You see them in temples as well as puffing hookahs, from hosting a cultural event to being a highlight in a reality show, from reciting hymns to slang words, from mehndi to tattoos and body piercing, the girl today has evolved. They have started thinking different from their ancestors. I asked a female friend of mine about her take on what or who is the woman to search or give an example of, she gave a nice reply, “I think the common "woman" the one who walks on the streets are the ones to look up to....”. They have modified the saying “The responsibility of a man is to lead his family and that of woman to form it.”

I remember seeing the cartoon “The Powerpuff girls”, where the fate and well being of the town was in the hands of 3 small girls with superhuman powers. It gave an stupendous example of girl power and free thinking of the society towards girls. The movie “Chak de!” shows a real time situation with the girls, the system and the belief of people towards them. But we also see the courage and determination of new generation throughout. I believe its not about the transformation that has been but the realization of potential and the way the society looks towards them that has given them confidence.

My sister two years younger to me has left home to study out of station because she wanted to opt for humanities as a career option. Sonali, a girl in B.Com college performs regular drama shows and also travels abroad for seasonal shows alongwith the troop as she loves this art. 'Khabar Lahariya' is a fortnightly newspaper and news channel in chitrakoot district of UP run by few domestic self empowered women. This area like many areas suffers from caste system, epidemics, low literacy, etc. They travel across the jungle, sometimes political unstable areas and many times at the dead of night. This has and will prove to be as an inspiration for all. These are but of the many examples what today’s girl stand for. In the Indian outsourcing statistics, presently the number of girls opting to pursue higher studies outside is increasing annually by more than 10%. Recently in Patan in Gujarat a very big scandal on sexual abuse on girls was splashed. The victims came out bravely against the injustice done.
Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no
one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes." They will say, "Women don't
have what it takes.
-- Clare Boothe Luce

Today’s girl is free, from the social bondages, she not only thinks of the marriage at the roads end. She looks up to the sky to fly, to take up the challenge thrown by the nation. Today she is draped into the multiethnic role of society, she is a polymath and a polytheist. She provokes the male, dares him in almost all disciplines.
Finally I conclude by quoting,
“A girls mouth, winter rain and market forces are never to be trusted. But whether you like it or not times have come that they will control our lives.
Girls were and will be the root cause of all problems, but times have come when they have started solving them.
From experience you conclude one and the only thing about girls, you just cant ignore them ”

A Night before an Exam

“The Consequences of Boiler Corrosion are:- 1…”, as I am scanning through my chem. notes in my room, on the very important eve of chemistry 2^nd internal exam, the partially closed door suddenly opens and in comes a handsome, neatly shaven, 5ft 10 inches, brown-black haired ‘Anuj’. He is the very much talked about stud of my division and excels in almost everything he does. So as he entered, he fired on, “Hey tomorrow’s chem. paper na? What’s the course?”. Well…..Almost .. I thought again.

So I welcome the dear reader to an almost wonderless and a disoriented experience of a night before the examination.

Exams in our college are one of the most exciting phases of the curriculum. Well not because they are an evaluation of our study and grade us into our cgpa (That’s Bullshit!!). But because they are symbolized by the weirdest of experiences and fun filled nights. Among the many things are night long studies, exam hysteric sms’ing, last moment copying of notes, querring for important questions to all the toppers of the class, night time teas, midnight basketball and table tennis, no baths for the entire stretch, multiple alarms and over that not waking up in time when all ring at the same time. So let me continue with the story about the night before an all imp chem. exam.

I had started my studying at 5 in the evening. After chem. I had physics the next day (assume it). I still had Corrosion, Pollution and Drugs left along with physics revision. I continued with the studies. I had dinner later in the very lively mess where the food was precarious as usual. I remember the dialogue of Himesh Reshammiya in his super flop movie when I think of the mess food. “Come lets witness the agonies and ecstasies of being in a mess.”. Suddenly, Mitesh comes there. Well for those of you who don’t have any idea who mitesh is, let me enlighten you. He is a 5ft 6’ bespectacled boy who is serial brilliant mugger (sbm) . But he irritates me like hell. Comes to my room every now and then to ask me about how much I have studied, whether to ask the course or to explain some weird topic from Albania!! Trust me, he makes Karan Thappar and Oprah winfrey look saintly. So here he was ready to fry me to death. Thankfully he came and apporoached my roomie and I was saved. Well after lot of endurance and concentration from me I could manage to finish almost all major topics by 11 pm.

It has been said that India is a fair of 12 billion people with diverse values, ambitions and culture. The case of our hostels is no different apart from the fact that there are 150 guys clubbed together under one roof. It is a proven fact that the hostel never sleeps whether it be day or night. People come from all over the nation with different eating, sleeping and staying habits. But its chaotic sometimes. My roomie puts on his music when I am not used to it while studying. One of my other roomie wakes up 4 in the morning and studies.

Now almost midnight I realized I didn’t know one topic in the subject. One should never bunk the classes I thought, but suddenly from some part of my brain there was an instantaneous answer as if to say its better to sleep in the room then in the class. It was that void feeling of nothingness when there is supposed to be a very big thing. The diff. is that the titanic was going to sink that time and rose had left the ship instead of coming back. Poor me!! I had some big doubts in reactions and numericals. So I went out in search of my friend who could explain me that part. By the time I learned it, midnight gong had gone off. There was some movement upstairs and within seconds there was an announcement that it was Manmohan’s and Praveen’s Birthday that day. Well their birthday matters to less than half of the people there and even half of the remaining half actually care to wish on any other day. But it was the eve of the exam. Contrasting as one may feel, people from all blocks came down within moments of the announcement to give their wishes. Hey I forgot to mention how we wish the birthday boy. We give him GPL. So it was actually the exam frustapa that pushed all to come. Imagine being kicked by 150 people and that too any number of times. Atleast we made sure that they never forget it in their lifetime. Praveen on the other side turned out to be extra smart. He had escaped from the hostel just few minutes before the announcement. After the enthusiasts were done with manmohan, someone suddenly spoke out sachin’s name. No one had actually noticed him to be there till then. Sachin who was adjusting his slippers suddenly realized that almost a 100 faces turned towards him in a flash. He was shell shocked, that feeling which harry potter has when his name comes out of the goblet, just couldn’t believe his luck! How he must have imagined his name would not have been sachin. The rest as they say is history. But I do remember him cursing all on the top of voice and threatening to personally kill them painfully but I doubt anyone would have heard it. All of us happily and merrily returned to our rooms. We had got a great piece of entertainment.

Back in the room I scanned the notes again and revised the portion. It was me and adi studying together, listening to songs, chatting our time alongwith the study. Eventually I completed the revision at 3 am in the morning which I should have done it 1 am ideally. Well I felt quite hungry then, considering the fact that I had studied 6-7 hours sitting in a room and straining my neuro cells to the brink (and also the fact that I gave a few kicks to sachin ! ). So I thought about going to ‘chamunda ’. It is a night or rather early morning time roadside Indian café near the station where generally our college students go after 2.30 if they are hungry. The amazing thing which non collegians would find striking is probably our sense of timing!! So eventually me and adi mustered a scooty from a hostelite and found ourselves eating there after 15 min. I precisely remember feeling drowsy only after drinking 4 teas and adi pointed out to at 4.30 a.m. in the morning that it was now time we go to bed otherwise the ‘arse’ which was to be burnt the next day would not be in time to get up at all. One more interesting thing is that I told almost everyone I meet in block to wake me up. In the morning I woke up at 7.45 when the exam would start at 8.30. And the best part is that as soon I woke up, I started cursing all present there. Later I came to know that I had woken up at 6.30 in the morning, washed my face and started reading. In a few minutes I was back to flirting with a girl in my dreams. Well that night had assured me one thing and that was I would never underestimate the night before my exam……

Theorems of Uncertainty ...

George Bush has said, “One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is ‘to be prepared’ ”.

Well so much for him and his speeches.

Tell me what’s the relation between English, making a robot and mess food??

Well I hope I didn’t get you into any serious thinking but certainly you would be thinking about robots flying about after eating dinner with you. Well if not then continue reading.
Sherlock Holmes used to say (not to me but in the books), “Elementary, my dear Watson, Elementary!!”. I really loved his books. The way he solves that case of five orange pips is extraordinary… but I think we would better talk about it later.

I suppose most of us would have seen the movie TZP. One of characters that intrigued me was the English teacher. How beautifully and artistically he sang the poem explaining the grammar!!! I still have those words ringing in my ears. I immediately remembered my English madam in school. Wait a sec. Don’t think she was young or slim, hair locks open or moving about with a makeup or that she used to come with violins being played in the background. She was a Mrs. D’souza type and not a Miss Lily. She used to narrate the stories by herself and the words she used to use still remain Greek and Latin to most of us. She used to enter the class as a king does in his court, with strong winds blowing from all sides. We who would be tigers till then would suddenly turn into goats, each trying to hide him behind the other. Games would be played and lunch taken in her period. Well that would explain why my English has gone to the dogs. I also remember the lovely prof. in the serial ‘That’s so Raven’ where he used to spit while ‘ssspeeeaking’. The students used to wear masks to avoid his really fruitful lectures. But that’s a diff. affair. Eventually the result was my Teacher went out to get an award for her contribution by the CBSE and I got 76 marks in English in boards.

Jawaharlal Nehru once said-“The Measure of development of the country is how well its Technologically advanced.”.
Well I don’t need to tell what and where is ‘Drishti’ in our college. Over the years it has transformed itself into a leading association or I may say a place to commune on weirdest of ideas. One fine afternoon in the month of September I decided to pay my first visit there. I compared my feelings to the feelings of ‘Jack’ when he boards the Titanic. Actually i meant to take part in an event named Nexus. I, along with my friends worked there tirelessly for 10 days or so and eventually came about to make the bot. It was a very nice morning on the day of the competition, clear skies and perfect stage to have a ball as Richie benaud used to describe. Early in the morning we decided to test the bot and working of the lifting arm as well as give a makeup to the piece of art. Now the competition was to start at 8.30 am and we at 7.00 am realized that the arm wasn’t working properly. It struggled to lift itself and was vibrating half way. It was like choking and pleading us not to kill it. Eventually we had to mercy on it, not for the sake of its pleading but our position. The rest as they say is ‘Forgotten History’. That day would go down as one of the most important ones till now, not because we failed but we eventually laughed at the end at our inexperience. As someone had termed the Appolo13 mission as “A Successful failure” I felt even proud of it. But the titanic had sunk.
That day I saw which direction my country is heading with people like me.

There is a very nice PJ which goes on like this:

There is a YELLOW elephant. How would you kill it???

Simple…… You will kill it with a yellow elephant killing gun.

This would drain out any colour on your friends face. But if It doesn’t continue…..

How do kill a Blue Elephant?????

Choke it, strangle it ….. Its colour will change to yellow and now kill it with a yellow elephant gun.

But I think if you give the elephant our mess food and tell it to eat it will itself turn yellow. Yes, you most often don’t have that feeling which ‘Pooh’ used to have when he saw Honey. Most of the days you can’t differentiate the carrots from the tomatoes in the sabji but you will then feel cheated when you will come to know that neither of the two is in it. Its like telling Rakhi Sawant to keep quite!!! But I must confess I can’t forget the feasts I have had here. ‘The feeling Scooby Doo gets when he sees a Scooby snack!’ But those days come once week, that too if the chef is in good mood. So we have but no option other than accept the food.
But that still brings us back to the question. What’s the relation between the three? Well I wont give a direct answer but only say this much…

“College main Gaali aur Shaadi ke baad saali

Delhi main baarish aur jhaat pe kharish

Indian Sports aur state High courts

Apni Rajniti aur Mumbai as a city

Meri English ki taal, Robot ka haal aur

Mess ki dal ” ka koi bharosa nahin.

I Dream to Fly ....

Most gulls don't bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight—how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight. More than anything else, Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly.—

Richard Bach, 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull'

I see a young 18 year old lad, rimless specs, blackish skin, height of 5 ft 8” ,his weight would never have crossed 55 kg in his really happening lifetime ( As if it really was happening !!!! ), I presume his whole body could have been compressed to fit into my junk trunk. He would walk as if there is this ‘Shaggy’ from Scooby Doo walking, although his ht wasn’t as the latter’s. But one very notable thing about this Indian bloke was that he always showed a sign of self esteem and high confidence his body stimuli.

Do I hear someone say this person is Vishwa??

Well as most of you lovely readers don’t know who he is and I admit he has hardly in his lifetime done a single important job, I will throw some light on him. Vishwa Talati is 18 years old, comes from Ahmedabad. He is presently in Miami. But I think the hitch in his biodata is that how come a person like Vishwa (a dumb king!! ) be in a place like Miami?

I believe there is a plane for everyone. It depends on us whether we fly it or are we mere passengers in someone else’s flight. This is what I believe when I now see Vishwa. Flying a Boeing 737 simulator for the very first time at the age of 18 and that too first hand experience of flying at 60 kts (nautical miles per hr ) with only a trainer sitting besides you in the pitch black place eating out your head and ready to chop you and your head off for a single mistake when you are trying to land the big momma without any engine from around 2500 ft up in the sky !!!!

“ v got d prmission n now v r on d runway...in my mind praying 2 God dat v take off immediately.....i was lukin outside d window still rowlin n rowlin n den aftr attainin d speed pul d yoke n den at higher speed it goes up....pppphheewwww atlast v take off....climbin at 1000ft per min.....in 30 secs v were at 500 ft so now its tym 2 take a rite turn as it is d traffic pattern....n now climbin 2 1000ft as soon as v reach a certain distance bout half a mile agen take a lft turn so now v r alignd parallel 2 runway n as soon as v reach half d runway v start descendin n den wen v r bout a certain distance take a right turn agen n den half a mile behind d runway n on proper glide slope n den wen at 100 gt above ground v start flaring....n yes dis was my 1st takeoff n landing.... ”

I have quoted here his first full flight training experience. He was on top of the world after this experience as he talked to me that day. He is in Panam International flying school doing his CPL training (Commercial Pilot License). He is due to be there for 6-8 months to complete his course and have an experience of 250 flying hours. But that’s easily said than done. Staying alone in a place where you get frozen food to eat, no friends or family, and a place that is situated in wilderness. But at the same time you know that if you crack this from head to tail it surely is going to be the best bet in your life, earning 2-3 lakhs min. per month and at the same time going around the world with you at the top.

One cannot look at the sea without wishing for the wings of a swallow

When Vishwa was yet to leave for his Dream role, we friends would never leave an opportunity to tease him and taunt his ideas for he was thinking of a mammoth thing, boasting about his ideas. But it takes huge amount of investment and heart to firstly to think about this. You are risking your lives and career online and finally you are in a situation where you have nothing in your hands and no option other than going down the Hole and wait for Wonderland to appear.
Vishwa is now 2 months old there, learning all he can and wants to about his love of aircrafts. He eats food made by himself, or mostly frozen Pizza’s. In his pastime he sits on his Lappy and interacts with one and all, whether it be me, our other friends, his parents, his G.F, a Pilot from any other airways or even the sexy and beautiful air hostesses there.

"flying is d 2nd mst thrillin thng known 2 mankind...landing is d 1st" as Vish says.

Actually i really used to wonder how the pilots who use to fly would be ? I mean their body languages and attitude. But since following Vishwa's experiances i have really been looking them with awe and frankly speaking the Air hostesses are my favourite.( No offence to vishwa....).

But really its been a long journey for me and vishwa or rather i should now say vishwa and me. I know this blood sucking person from 13 years and God knows how many days, but seeing him evolve through the passage of time and experiance has been a treasure to me. I remember the fragile and expressive boy and now i know the everconfident,dare devil AVIATOR !!!!

“Only as high as I reach can I grow,

Only as far as I seek can I go,

Only as deep as I look can I see,

Only as much as I dream can I be.”

This my friend is for you !!!

PS : Friends this is my point of view about this person and flying. You may follow the link below to contact him.

http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=63231925718735457