Category: Others Page 5 of 6

Let us connect..

On December 31, 2012

It’s been very hectic, so much so that I have not even been updating my fb status regarding all the “happening” things that I’m currently doing. And if you have known me for the last 4-5 years and are in some way or the other connected with me over there, would definitely understand, it’s a pretty rare sight.

I believe that there are only two instances when a social network addict (as some say to me) doesn’t make his presence on the walls or timelines; it’s the extreme ends of his mood. Either he is too happy and involved with something that he is not finding time to write on these virtual walls or he is saddened by some event, that there is no inclination to do anything, forget “denting/painting” any walls. Oops!! Denting-painting, wrong choice of words and my father is not even the president!!!

Anyway, I wanted to say something before I started writing this post. But, don’t know I simply forgot what I intended to. So, by the time I recollect what I actually wanted to tell. I’ll just blabber something random.

Random. Well, randomness se yaad aaya, It’s about to end. No, not the world.( which was the longest running rumor of all time). Just this 2012 is about to give way to 2013 in a few days of time. Time flew fast, as always.

On the personal front, from being an eid ka chand in college during the start of 2012 to be compulsorily made to attend 70-minute lectures daily. From waiting for salary to asking parents to sending money, from watching almost every new release in theatres to choosing which all to watch in a month, from being somebody to nobody, from this to that a lot changed. Even I changed, a lot.

Anyway, I finally remembered what I wanted to say or rather talk about. It was about connectivity.

Well, when it comes to me, I always try to maintain a connection with everyoneI may have come across at any point of time. Of course, I am not at all successful in doing that very efficiently but I do try. Coming of age, social networking has been one of the most prominent tools in order to achieve that. Although call rates have reduced drastically, yet making calls to everyone has not been a regular thing.

When one updates a status or posts a tweet, it is like letting the people know all at once about what you are up to. Twitter asks “what’s happening “, Facebook asks, “what’s on your mind?” , before you update your status. While answering that, you are letting yourself get connected with the others. Letting them all know what you are up to, all at once. Yes, many have reservations regarding the necessity of using technology like this. The “privacy” issue is always there. But what is that one thing which does not have its own set of merits and demerits??

A like, a comment, a retweet, a favorite or even a simple “ 🙂 “ anytime helps maintain this connection. Day-to-day lives involve us to remain confined in a single place or with a set group of people, but with a scroll down the wall lets us know as to what is happening with our old circle of friends and be in sync with the things happening in their lives.

So, just a little time out to check them out, in order to maintain the Connect, isn’t that bad right?? Eh??

6 long months…

By farooq

On December 18, 2012

In Others

7.00AM!! An early start to the day (by my established standards), I woke up to find the bathroom already occupied. Looked around to find one of other guy in the room was still sleeping. Sat there on my bed itself, waiting for my turn, deep into thoughts about what all was going to come from today onwards. With this initiation of thoughts, the “early-morning-formalities” continued followed by namaz and then the day started and a new journey.

Well, that was exactly 6 months back. 18^th june.

Wish I could use, “time flies fast” here. But, I just cannot. It seems pretty long ago. 6 months in itself is long. 220 days!! 5280 hours!!! 316800 minutes!! 19008000 seconds!!! It’s effing that long.

From running a 10k marathon to playing a amazing-race kinda game to late night coffees to food hunting post-midnight. All of this could happen because of me being here and yes, I loved them all.

And today, after two trimesters!! 13 papers!! Numerous lectures and interactions, Events, fests and competitions, if I had to just ask one question to myself, as to what I have learnt. The biggest of them has been to understand myself. Myself, the complicated one. My flaws, misjudgments, strengths and weaknesses. Also, understood that this was just an initiation of my realization process, there’s still more to find out.

During this long stay over here (yes, I’ll stress on that long, for a long-long time), there were many events that made me learn (sadly, books are not part of it).The people of this college being the ones from whom the actual learning process happened. There were learning from what they said, and what they didn’t. Learning from what they thought about me and how that in turn influenced changing my perceptions towards them, learning from adjusting with them by seeing how they do the same. There was learning as to how people even change with course of time, how just for the sake of girls they change. How there are people who selflessly help you, how some are selfish too. How getting low marks, change their attitude, how some get a joke, some don’t. How things change from one culture to another, from one language to another. How bad food can be made, how money doesn’t last post the first week after you take it out from your account, how to manage without water before going to class, how breakfast just goes out of your schedule, how different festivals bring about a sense of happiness and bonhomie, and many such how’s and their answers.

Even how some insensitive people even post “blogs” regarding cultural differences out there on public platforms!! Seriously, how idiotic ? 🙂

Waise blog se yaad aaya, been blogging quite a lot. So much so, that people keep telling. “Dude!! Stop writing”,” yaar, ye kyun nahi likhta blog me”, “ab ise bhi mat likh dena”, “firse ?” and some also had nice encouraging words too.

I know, I am not one of the best in terms of writing out here, yet the one saying, I’ve always followed “the only way to improve your writing is, to write more”.

Learning, yes. Learning again.

There are many changes that I can notice in myself. Per se, there’s this new found optimism. Optimism, that everything happens for good. What has happened is for the good and what is going to take place in future will also be good (in sha ALLAH). Understanding, things I didn’t use to before and many such things in my long-list of learning from these 6 months, 6 Long months actually.

With practice, I have become quite a good dhobi too and can wash two full buckets of clothes in one go. Although, there’s too much to learn In terms of how to make them look clean too.

Academically, well don’t have anything to brag about. But yes, have learnt to put in hard work and devote time to studies.

Right now, I’m just 1/3^rd of an MBA. A whole lot of things to look forward to, new experiences, new friends and new beginnings. Forgetting things, which doesn’t matter and keeping focus on the ones which does. Ending the ends, and starting new trends.

Its happiness all around XIME, every face looks just so happy. Bidding goodbyes and New Year wishes is to be seen everywhere. Even I’ve finished packing my bags and not to mention just how happy I am. 🙂

Happy holidays. 🙂

Getting NASHty

By farooq

On November 16, 2012

In Others

Roaming around in one of the crowded inner markets of Bangalore, I found it too difficult to get through, especially with a vehicle to escort with me, which was more of a problem than actually helping ease it. God bless those poor ones who had to make their cars penetrate the confusing and crowded markets, where getting lost is not a big deal at all.

The dictionary would describe markets as a place where buyer and sellers interact to exchange the possession of goods or services by either transfer of a good (as in a barter system) or the equivalent of the good (currency notes/gold, etc). In marketing terms, a market is nothing but a collection of consumers.

Leaving the definitions aside, a market is one of the most happening places in any city. Shops swarm every nook and corner meeting the eye. One thing that is similar in all sorts of market is, similar shops (as in selling the same product) clustered in one lane. And so it’s not a surprise when you have electronic lane, paranthe wali gali, kasai mohalla etc like places in many parts of the country.

But why they have to be there all in one place?

Won’t it affect their businesses with increased competition??

The consumer will have numerous options to go ahead and randomly go to a shop. Then why follow this pattern??

Let’s just take a little help from what John Nash in answering this question. Who is John Nash? You can read it here.

I’ll just try to keep it simple by imagining you to think of a market with just two shops, selling the same product. For e.g., say cold drink. Now, this market is in the middle of a big city and people can come and go from both ends. If suppose Mr. X starts his business by putting up his stall near one end of the market space, he is sure to gain most of the customers from that end, but the customer staying at the other end would find it tasking to go all the way to the other end. Suppose to capture the customers from the other end, Mr. Y puts up another stall selling cold drinks to the other end, and then people of the other end will visit his stall to thirst their throats with colas. This way Mr. X loses out to Mr. Y many of his customers from the other end. But then, Mr. X decides to shift his shop to the middle of the market so as to get the market share that it lost to Mr. Y. Of course, he would definitely end up increasing the whole share. But seeing this, Mr. Y would also shift his shop from one end to the middle, almost next to Mr. X. This way both end up being adjacent to each other, by finding equilibrium point to maximize their sales.

Now, just use the example above to think of a market place where most of the shops are placed in almost in the same lane. John Nash devised this concept and it is called, “Nash equilibrium”, which is defined as “a pair of strategies (a*, b*) in a two-player game such that a* is an optimal strategy for A against b* and b* is an optimal strategy for B against A*.

So, the next time you visit any electronic lane or a paranthe wali gali, you can remember Nash and his equilibrium concept to know, why it is so.

Poda…

By farooq

On November 3, 2012

In Others

Have you ever been in a room where people are speaking some language, which you just don’t understand ??? Then, Read on. Else, you have been really lucky!!

They come, they talk, they laugh and of course they just don’t give a damn to your existence. You are like that unwanted stuff that is hampering their “very important conversation ” that is so important that it can only be spoken in their regional language.

This is not something which is faced not just by me but many of the people who are not from down-south face it. Some face it, some ignore it and some move ahead to some other group. They all just start hanging out with other non-southies, but some like me perish for not forcefully joining a “group”. A south-indian working up in the north might also be feeling the same, condition being, he should be alone. if, he finds even one like him. he can make a group with that too.

Going to a place where people speak a different language than what you do, is not at all new for me. From a person who has been brought up in Jamshedpur and then going to the odia speaking-Odisha was very much new for me. But, what i loved was that, people over there actually helped me to learn it, as well as make me be a part of their own group. By the time, i boarded the train to come to bangalore, i can proudly speak Odia.

Miss that.

I am sure, all of that is never going to happen over here. I have tried. Tried out many things.

From telling them directly, “Dude, English please” (i’ve lost count of how many times I might have used this line), to even trying out some words or the others just so to start the learning process.Nothing works. Ironically, one of the first words i learnt was “poda” which means “Go away!!” .

Empathy is that one thing i had been trying to inculcate in me. But sometimes, you just can’t clap from one hand. Right ??

The culture that we like to portray is of “unity in diversity” (at least, that’s how ideally we all “think”), but do we care enough to let others understand our varied cultures?? Cultural diversity doesn’t just come into play while celebrating festivals, it is more than that. It is what you portray of a culture that people Look up to.

If your message is to let people know that the acceptance is only for people who know your language, then Congratulations your message has been registered!!!!!!

Likes, Comments, Retweets, Follow, block, tags- the things that matter.

By farooq

On September 22, 2012

In Others

Wake up in the morning –> search for your phone (under the pillow or to the table beside you) –> unlock it with the speed of lightening –> check for messages, mentions, notifications, likes, facebook, twitter –> and now the day starts, Good morning world :).

This is the age of social network!!!! Where, the morning starts with twittering (ironically not by the chirping of birds :)).

There was a green revolution, then sometime later a white revolution, internet revolution and wagaira wagaira. Each of the generation gets itself associated with some sort of tag along with it. The one thing, (if I may not call it a revolution as such) is the phenomenon of Social networking, which is what our generation is associated with. The era, where one has more “friends” in the virtual world then in the real. Wherever one sees, can find people FBing or tweeting. From making friends and connecting with the old ones, this has also become a platform for people to raise their voice regarding every other issue concerning the economy, world and themselves.

Every pic that has been captured where you look even a little decent (the definition of “little” of course changes for women 😛 ) is there on facebook. Every place that has been visited has to be checked in via foursquare. Every little thing you do gets tweeted. Some YouTube it, some tweet it, some pin it and no matter what. Everyone is On it.

The story of social networking does not end there, it actually starts.

Once a pic/post/video is updated, every comment or like, every retweet or mention, makes the story go forward. Our social-network-happiness-quotient is directly proportional with the increase in each of these activities. There is also a give and take relationship prevalent too, you like, I like.

Remember those Orkut days?? When the number of “scraps” used to define your status and half of your time used to get spent on adding friends from your friend’s friend-lists. Every cute picture or names used to make the arrow of the mouse go towards the “add as a friend” button. Everyone knew as to who visited your profile and so one had to extra careful. Not much is different in facebook too, the only fact was that the “stalking-frequency” is on the higher side as no one knows as to who visited the profile.

When one writes a blog, the exciting part, after completing it, is to see how many people actually read the stuff. Even when people give their feedback, whether they like it or not, gives the writer the encouragement to continue writing (now you know what to do after reading this 😛 ).

Most of the things that we do are done with the purpose of getting noticed and appreciated. People sometimes go overboard in doing this, yet each of us in some form or the other love to display our achievements. Social networking has also become somewhat like this, i.e. sharing your achievements for getting appreciation. It’s good to do things to get appreciated, but as they say, “too much of anything is bad” and hence overdoing this in both the worlds (real and virtual) calls for a slowdown. What is to be appreciated will get its due, if it’s worth it. One just has to wait. Some “intellectual users” even tag others in their pics so as to make sure that one just cannot ignore to “like” their posts/pics. They even make it a point to invite you to use the very “interesting” games/apps. Where in the real world will you find such lovely friends like these? (Seriously? 🙂 )

Too much philosophy, eh??

Well, that’s what some elitist-social-networking-gurus will tell you (yes, there are elites everywhere). The over-doers are termed Wannabes or despos or attention seekers (the twitterati has another term for all this, Orkutiyas). The thing is that each of these elites have also went through all this, but what’s gone is gone, now it’s all a different ball game for them.

So, what’s the way forward???

There is only one thing that should always be followed, “Never fake yourself”. If you really feel like sharing whatever you like, you do. If you like using one social network over the other, you do. Don’t get buoyed by other’s thoughts and actions and never blindly follow “trend”. Whether it’s the social network or the real, be just YOU!!!!

Blogger and WordPress-Both on the same page

By farooq

On September 18, 2012

In Others

Hello all, I’ve reposted all my previous blogs from Blogger and WordPress.com to this current platform where you’re reading this.

But why I chose WordPress over Blogger?

Here are few reasons:

Easy to customize and make the blog my own
Availability of some amazing themes (many are free)
An active WordPress Community to help
An easier transition from a WordPress hosted website to a self-hosted website

If you ask me, I’ll recommend you to start off with WordPress instead of Blogger. But at the end, it is still your call.

Anyways, It’s a pleasure to have you here on ReveringThoughts. You taking time out to read this means a lot to me.

What all you can read on the Blog?

Here’s a list:

Something there for everybody, right? That’s partly the idea.

Do let me know in the comments about your ‘Revering thoughts’ on mine. Here’s what some other readers thought of Revering Thoughts: Feedback link here. Add your own to the comments and we’ll add it to the main page!

Cheers!

Room no.24

By farooq

On September 18, 2012

In Others

It’s my 18^th day in this room and I am content with its ambiance and also people with whom I share all of this, my Roomies. Our room is located on the second floor of the hostel building, the Wi-Fi router of this floor is just above the main door and is just next to the water purifier kept for the whole of second floor. The other door opens up to our balcony which gives us a good view of the lavish green surroundings as well as the neighboring corporate companies where we might just end up working someday. Also, our balcony is the favorite spot for the cool winds that blow around this part of Bangalore and no matter which time of the day, you go out there, the wind will accompany you. Kind of like the hutch ad days, “wherever you go, we follow you” .

The balcony is also a place where we dry up all our clothes after washing them. And yes, I have started washing clothes which happens to be one of the many good things that I learnt after coming to room no. 24. So, all in all, its location is a very big plus and maybe that is the reason for its awesomeness.

On this 18^th day of my stay in room no.24, I can definitely say that my roomies are my good friends in this college and being my roommates they are a notch higher than that as well. Both of them come from totally different cultures as compared to me and so there is always this element of getting to know something new about them, their culture and their language ( the last one is really tough 😛 ) . One, Manu john, is from Kerala and the other, Mithun Johnson, is from Tamil nadu. Both of them are engineers, unlike me, and Mithun also has some work experience up his sleeves. Manu is always seen with his laptop doing one thing or the other while our “Marathon-man” Mithun is always seen running, sometimes in the gym and sometime in the football field. Thanks to him, I’ve again started going to gym (another good thing that has happened with me after I came to room no.24 😛 ). We are the last one who check out of the hostel gates in the morning and no matter at what time we sleep or wake up, we do the same as each of us wait for the other to get ready.

There are problems too, we still don’t have our cupboard locks, one of the fans doesn’t work, whenever someone uses the bathroom in the third floor there is a leakage, etc. But there are problems everywhere in every point of time and in everyone’s life but how you cope up with them turns you into a strong person.(yeah, turning philosophical too 🙂 ) On the back of our front door, there is a signature of three of our seniors who stayed in this very room, with a caption “Amazing life” written down there.

I’ve wondered each day, will our life will be the same once we finish our stay in this room? I just wish for the best. It’s not just about this room that adds awesomeness to our life but also all the people in this second floor who happen to be a part of our life now. Being a pseudo-optimist, I think all will be well in the coming year and there will be another caption in the door of room no. 24 by us.

Audi-week

By farooq

On September 18, 2012

In Others

It’s been more than one week since my life at Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship (XIME) started. A new chapter in the not-so-happening life of a fellow, who aims to be somebody from nobody. One word that can simply describe this week and all its happening is that its “Tiring” and no doubt that for each of us this has been one hell of a week and getting accustomed to timings is taking a while. And most importantly, the Audi-week was quite a task for me.

It was on 17th June that almost all of us arrived at the hostel as directed by the authorities and were allotted rooms as per our “Roll no!!!!!!!”, I came only in the evening and my roomies had arrived before me, but only their baggage were to be seen. I went out to different rooms to try and meet people whom I knew from the Facebook group where almost each of us interacted quite regularly. Virtual and real world are two different spheres and I was getting a proof of that. People with whom you had interacted felt quite at a loss of words while some were very friendly. Day passed, got settled in my room and then came the next day where our orientation program started. It was a week long program where various dignified speakers and industry experts were expected to grace the occasion. The food was better than expected and would only say that it was quite decent, although Coffee was pathetic.

It was told beforehand that “some” of the speakers might not be good orators but we are supposed to cope with it and be patient. As it turned out, most of us almost got to learn the course “how to sleep with your eyes open”. Some of them even ended up dozing off for a few seconds ( at least I did). Won’t say that all the sessions were the same, out of the 20 lectures (yes 20!!!!!!), majority of them gave us a new perspective of various things that infused some vague sort of understanding about the management world and how to kick-start our career in the correct manner so as to reach our goals with the right attitude. We were even given some basic Orientation Gyaan on some subjects like Accounting, Economics or Quantitative techniques as per our preference. We even had a 70-min class to explain the “rules and regulations” that we had to follow!!!!

Most of the students, be it the work experienced or the fresh out of college fellows from engineering and non-engineering backgrounds, all shared a common thing in that auditorium, finding it hard to adjust ( another reason was the chairs, which was giving our asses a hard time). A whole week in the same place sitting according to our “Roll no.!!!”. Teasing each other and trying to let our minds wander was some of the medicines that helped us stay away from sleep.

Finally, we overcame all of it and now our classes have even started, but yeah, the sleeping effects of the “Audi-Week” continues. . .

My Crescent, My School

By farooq

On September 18, 2012

In Others

This post is dated May 18, 2012

MY CRESCENT, MY SCHOOL

It’s been almost two days, since the first Re-union party at our Crescent school and still it is taking a bit of time to sink in that many things have changed over the last 5 years or so. The last time we were at the school 5 years back and the one that we visited two days back is in it has a stark contrast. It feels so pleasing to see the various developmental works in school. Before I proceed to give the whole development stats, I would like to refresh you of the Crescent school that it was 18 years back when I joined and changes that took place over the time that I was associated with it.

Our school was founded in 1975 and it’s almost in its 38^th year of existence. 38 years is almost four decades!!!! This English medium school would be a money earning tree by now, if the founders of this school had wanted to. No English medium school would have the kind of fee structure as to what Crescent school students pay. It is very much affordable for almost all the families living in Azad Nagar area which is dominated with low income group families. And this has been the vision and aim of the founders of our school, Late Mr. Shamim Ahmed and Mrs. Eva Ahmed to provide quality education to people of all groups. The vision with which they gave shape to this school is slowly gaining shape now in the hands of their daughter Dr. Shazia Ahmed.

My first memory of Crescent school is when I was admitted in Mini –Nursery at the age of 3, and as is customary, it was very difficult for my grandpa to let go off a crying baby for hours in the school. But, they had to, and I needed too. Throwing away a lot of tantrums and crying my vocals out, I would sit in the classroom. With time, the crying baby was pacified by the teachers and A-B-C-D… would then be infused in my little head. Tiffin would get finished even before teacher’s signaled for us to eat it. All those “Put-Your-Head-Down-And-Sit” session acted as the perfect time to commit that crime of treating ourselves with tiffin. Mini-nursery, Nursery, L.Kg, U.Kg, each of it followed one after another. Learning new things in each of the classes we moved class after class. Sport’s day and Annual day used to bring a whole lot of practice sessions, doing those “Do-the-Boogie-Woogie”, participating in various races, but never actually winning it, yet taking huge pleasure in participating in them. Getting promoted to class-1 came along with many more things, you were not just scared of your teacher’s but also your monitors who would write names of students who used to talk in class in the teacher’s absence and when the teacher would come around, those names used to enjoy a small treatment in the hands of the teacher or her evil stick. Bidding goodbye to the morning session came with the good news that we are now going to be big boys of Day-session and you no more had to sacrifice your sleep.

Day session was like being promoted to a whole new level, where you get to be with the big boys. You were made part of one of the four houses, i.e., Red, Blue, Green & Yellow. You had your assembly with all the other classes where you get to maintain cleanliness and discipline. One new thing also was, starting to write with pens instead of pencils. There were various house competitions taking place at regular intervals and it was so great to be a part of all those and win some of it. It was this time that clearly, carved out the creativity in me. Teacher’s day was another huge celebration, and each class participated in a big way. In our first year in class 4 we staged a play called “Aladdin and the Magic lamp” where I played Aladdin. Many did appreciate it and we were even asked to repeat it in the Annual function, the very next year. Two years, we even staged Qawallis and on one occasion danced on some popular bollywood number too, which was so unusual for me (I’m a terrible dancer, to cut it short ) . Sports now had another addition for us, Charlie Chaplin drill. Not just practicing and performing it was fun but also the preparation of the Hat was interesting, getting that perfect shape used to take hours. Other drills included African dance. Where we got dressed as African tribal’s and even dumb bell drills too.

Day session was full of activities, sometimes this and sometimes that. Being in school was fun and rarely used to be as compared to the morning session where we used to search for excuses in the morning. There was a sense of competition too here and I suppose that propelled us to be good in our ranks too. Result was awaited like nothing else and to see your name in that list where the top3 ranks were written for each class was amazing. Each class brought about many more memories for us that are still etched in our hearts. Getting scolded for not doing your homework on time, of not covering your copies and books, of talking too much, not polishing your shoes or not washing them on Saturdays (and then using chalk to rescue you out), writing 1000 times various impositions, (“I will not talk in the class, I will bring this copy daily, blah blah.. “), and many more things. There were good things too, like being one of the few who did their homework and sit back in the class while others sit down on the floor doing theirs( esp. English grammar homework by Miccu teacher), getting a round of applause when answering a question, when no one did, being made an example for a class for something, etc .

13 years were spent and then on one fine day, it all ended after finishing our matriculation examination. There were many things that one learnt in all these years, not necessarily every experience was good, but even the bad ones taught us many important things. There were partiality sometime, there were useless expenses, you got scolded for no particular reason, and the things alike. But, looking back those entire things do not matter much, what matters is what we learnt in the due process. We began to respect elders, value friendship, become aware, and it all helped in shaping up the personality that we all now possess. School life has ended and it’s been more than 5 years. Yet, all the things that we learnt in the due process have been more than helpful in gaining the kind of impact that was required to make us from no one to someone.

The school, at present, is being developed in a far better way. The things that were missing can now be located and I’ve heard even more changes are expected straight from the horse’s mouth. There is rewards system being implemented for the teachers for encouraging them even more. The whole school has been painted in attractive colors to provide a wonderful environment to the students to learn. The water arrangements have been perfected and so does the assembly ground. It’s a good feeling altogether to see your school in such bright light, and I do hope Inshallah, that it may reach even more new heights.

From Azad Basti to Jatni

By farooq

On September 18, 2012

In Others

It’s been 5 years. 5 years since I moved from my Azad basti to a place, Jatni. Two places which are different in almost every possible way. Geographically speaking, one is in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand while the other is near Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Takes a 7-hour journey by train for you to reach Khurda road railway station, coming out of which, you get to be at jatni.

One the one hand, Azad basti is one place that is just the liveliest place, where no matter what time of the day it is, you will notice people in markets, in their addas, in their shops, in mosques, in various moth watering bakeries and food joints (mostly serving kebabs and niharis and almost all non-veg items), morning starts off with puri , jalebis and halwa at kalkatiya hotel( kolkata’s distant cousin :P) and for evening there is Munki chaat, various sharbat stalls are there to beat the heat too. You have your family, where you can throw “n” number of tantrums and yet not feel bad about it, stay out late at night enjoying the company of your crazy friends whom you can totally depend upon with all your secrets and fantasies and what not.

Azad basti, officially Azad nagar, has a strong Muslim-population, and surrounded with Sikhs on one side and Christians and Hindus on the other side, is where I grew up and which continues to be the place where my family lives. The reason of ghetto-formations is the three communal riots that this place has witnessed. Although, it is very much communally peaceful now and you would rarely find any incidents of violence among the different communities. Yet, you find RAF deputed on almost every street in times like Ram Navami and Muharram as a precautionary measure. Of course, incidents of fighting in between the various criminal groups are a regular occurrence in the steel city which sometimes has effects on our Azad basti too.

While, on the other hand there is jatni. A place, which is calm, no matter which business you do, you end up having holidays almost regularly due to strict market union dictats, addas (or khattis as they are called in odia) are regulated due to strong patrolling vehicles, of course there are places where it doesn’t have much of an effect, still they are comparatively reduced. You will hardly find any good non-veg food joint, apart from the fast food places, promising “chinise” or “chainees” delicacies, all clustered in one small street, where you often wonder whether the meat is halal or not. Of course, in terms of vegetarian food it does throw up a few extra options, but for a person like me, who has grown up eating kebabs and bheja fries, the veggy options are nothing more than ghaans phoons.

Talking about religion and culture, it’s a whole mix of people from the native Odias, the telugus, to Marwari, and some Muslims here and there. The issue of Sunni-Wahabi sect conflict is clearly visible, which is annoying.

Friends, well everyone is a friend here, you get to meet many people with whom you end up having a good time and also very cooperative, yet you sometimes miss that feeling of a friend on whom you can totally depend upon for anything under the sun.

The place is always peaceful, although you find some sort of a weird vibe from members of other communities towards Muslims. When you step out on Friday, in your traditional kurta pyajama, there are more people putting an eye on you than they would do normally back home. Forget about wearing them on almost every other day back at home and no one will even bother. Not to miss voices which think of you as a Pakistani and you should be going back there!!!! To tell you an instance, you get wished on 14th off August for your “Independence day”. And add to that you being thought off as a Pakistani supporter whenever a cricket match is being played between India and Pakistan or being playfully called jihaadi, or Al-qaida and all. Being a minority has its own share of issues attached with it. I do miss your family, but luckily have my Badi ammi’s (my mom’s elder sis). It’s good to have your family back, minus throwing tantrums. My 5 years would have been difficult if it wasn’t for them.

So, if one asks me which place I would prefer and which is that place that has a strong hand in making me the kind of person who I am? You would think of all the negative things that I wrote about the second place that I went to. Rather, it is the opposite. Jatni, as a place has truly transformed me into a Man. A man with strong determination and independence who does not bother what others have to think of him, which is really tough to put in practice. The one person, who is now optimistic about life and knows how to handle them as well. It has made me realize my true potential as a person and made me more systematic than I really was, more disciplined than I was, more mature than I was and definitely more understanding than I was.

I don’t know, if I would have been what I am, if I had stayed back in Azad basti, but as far as change in me is concerned. It surely is something that is huge. I might, In sha Allah, be moving to Bangalore in a month’s time but the impact that both of these places have had on me will always remain intact in giving a defined perspective.