C for College

College .. The word itself is so nostalgic.. we have so many memories attached with it .. I sometimes think of the time and seem to get lost in the huge ocean of memories , makes we want to go back in time to those days, Its been ages since I have left college but the stuff we did , the memories, the history we made .. each time I remember one such episode it lightens me up.. I have that twinkle in the eye, that energy , rush of blood which goes missing otherwise in the normal day to day routine that we call LIFE.

We have left college in search of new adventures, new roads, new ambitions.. but I for one still remember those days.. the 5 year of my life that I spent in college. The friends I made , the way we became friends , the silly things we did , the attitude, The no nonsense way , giving two hoots to life as if we were unbeatable.. nothing could touch us .. Not even KARNAIL SINGH the SHO of sector 11 police station.. 🙂

Or the taunts and abusive language of RAJ KUMAR the new SHO of sector 11 police station.. Going back the very next day to college and almost beating up the same guy because of whom we were taken to police station.

Parents almost going nuts coming to know.. My dad almost threw me out of the house, when he found we had been rounded up and locked up, My grandfather I admire him so much, he stood by me and gave my bail.

The last night looking at the books for next days exams, having your friends stand outside the window to help you with answers and Ravjote singh my Friend standing in the exam hall asking the teacher to Allow me to Cheat.. 🙂

Not attending any classes then having to run after teachers to get the lectures sorted.. MR AGGARWAL my physics teacher swearing No matter what he will not sort them.. then the scheming of stopping the postman on way to college to get the roll numbers .. trying to Patao the clerk to get the roll number.

Come diwali the burning of crackers in Mr GAUBA’s class.. Attaching it to a slow burning thing and 15-20 minutes into the lecture DHAAAAAAMMMMMM and Mr GAUBA (my chemistry professor) .. God bless him.. trying to be philosophical about it trying psychology on us, saying its the bad spirits or demons who are doing this.. and we students are so good ..

Sitting for hours in canteen, asking the guy to get tea and if ask for money throw a cup , and his saying ok ok leave it give it next month , then when he came next month , taking his book of accounts , slashing the days which had most money “IS DIN TO HUM COLLEGE AYE HI NAHIN”… (we did not come to college this day) a bill of 200 Rs slashed to 100 then give him rs 50 “BAAKI AGLE MAHINE MAIN ADJUST” (rest adjust next month)… and when it came to get NO dues signed he trying to be funny, cause it was his time then..

Standing at the gates, any girl passing she is mine.. blah blah trying to find ways to impress girls.. sometimes end up picking a fight.. beating up a guy thinking it would impress girls .. NO LUCK.. 😦

Sitting in canteen and someone coming running “PANGA HO GAYA”.. without asking what , just running for it, shouting “BABBAR” , “CHERRY” ,  “RAVI“, “ONKAR“, “BEDI“, “HANDLE”  come on and they in turn coming folding there shirt arms up to elbows..

End of year Standing in Queue to get the Roll numbers only to find out that I cant get the Roll number as I have Lectures shortage in almost every subject.

Going to Punjabi Mam, she was so beautiful who smiles when I ask “Mam Lecture poore kar deo Please” (Mam please complete my lectures).. awww blesss she did ..

Then walking to English Teacher Mr. Nijhawan who I find out today of all the days When I go home in evening sitting with my DAD.. They are class mate’s…  “OH £$%£”..  what do I do now, Dad will know and it will be chaos.. Phewwww he smiled, did not say a word.

Next day I went to him, I only had to say “Sir”..

“Tun dasiya nahin tun Mann da munda hain”.. (you did not say you are Mann’s son) .. He completed all my lectures, you see  I was good in english and represented college few times

Going to another professor who for some reason was having a bad day, “Jo karna hai kar le ” .. (do what you want to ) .. Not Poora Karoing (could not find the english word he he he ) .. your lectures .. and I have 75 short..

Ravjote Walks in the Lecture Room, “Oh sir , Kar deo poore .. Tuhada ki jaanda ” .. (sir please do, whats it to you) ..

He refuses, what was worst was 1st year students are having their practicals and it had to be all GIRLS.. The silly girls burst out laughing on hearing Ravi..  Which makes the professor more mad..

“Iske lecture poore nahin karne “.. Not completing this guys lectures .. he says pointing to me …

Ah well I tried the good way ..

Finding a way how to get roll numbers .. Get hold of a guy who is responsible of posting Roll numbers to college from the university .   don’t need to go to the other Two teachers  🙂  sorteddddddd

End of year Viva Exam , my Physics lecturer asking Am I sure I am a student of that class , He has not seen me the whole year in any of the lectures.

Sector 11 Inspector who is known for talking with his DANDA, He would without any reason beat up students or who he did not like.. He is walking through the college Suddenly a Voice echoes

“Karnail Singh Kuteeee” …  (karnail singh you dog)….

Pin drop silence .. sudden hustle bustle .. corridor empty …

finding myself in LT1 (lecture theatre).. with  Onkar panting and exciting he says .. “I said it“.. bloody hell .. first reaction is to slap him .. then having a hearty laugh.

 

I have so many memories of those years , If I start writing it will take years to put all of them down.. Those were the good old days , beautiful days..

Wordless Wednesday (57) – Here I come

It is Hard to Climb the Concrete Walls

Can you See me

Wordless Wednesday (56) :- W- WOW

Noticed the beautiful morning , while boarding my flight to Chandigarh.. WOW when you look at the SKY..

Linking this to ABC Wednesday.

Week 6:-The city you live in

52 weeks of Gratitude .. Week 5 Says the title is “The city you live in”

I am not very sure with the topic here, because to me the current city I live in will never be as beautiful as to the CITY I am From, yes I have made my home in the city I live in currently but they do say home is where the heart is and my heart has always been in CHANDIGARH (the city beautiful), the moment I think of it I go on this nostalgic trip and why not almost all my youth was spent on the roads and by lanes of the beautiful city.

The first planned city to have been built-in india after independence, when i close my eyes all i can see are the beautiful roads covered with golden leaves especially as summer is coming. My heart jumps in excitement each time someone talks about this city, I have some beautiful memories. I did my schooling from a different city and in my 11th class I came back to Chandigarh, Took admission in Govt college for men and rest as they say is History. College .. The word itself is so nostalgic.. we have so many memories attached with it .. I sometimes think of the time and seem to get lost in the huge ocean of memories , makes we want to go back in time to those days, Its been ages since I have left college but the stuff we did , the memories, the history we made .. each time I remember one such episode it lightens me up.. I have that twinkle in the eye, that energy , rush of blood which goes missing otherwise in the normal day-to-day routine that we call LIFE.

I have now left college and the CITY in search of new adventures, new roads, new ambitions.. but I still remember those days.. the 5 year of my life that I spent in college. The friends I made , the way we became friends , the silly things we did , the attitude, The no-nonsense way , giving two hoots to life as if we were unbeatable.. nothing could touch us .. Not even KARNAIL SINGH the SHO of sector 11 police station.. 🙂

Chandigarh in those days was the “THE CITY” to be in, because of proper shopping centres , cafe’s, cinema halls, People from everywhere in the country would come to see the city, The gardens it had, Every now and then some sort of concert would be organised in the open places. The first ever Rock concert I went in my life was in the Chandigarh, I remember it was an english Concert and a Group had come from Bangalore, That was the first time I had heard the song “Tarzan Boy” 🙂 .. I know I have taken many of the readers long time backwards, we danced to that song all night long. Being nearer to Punjab it was quite common to have one of the Punjabi singers every now and then performing in the city.

Rose festival was the much awaited festival that was held in Rose garden all the beautiful girls of the city would come and we boys as usual behind them trying to impress them little did we know than that , That was not a way to impress a girl.

The rock garden another attraction that would attract so many in those days I am not sure how it is doing now, but then it was a meeting point for everyone, Sukhna lake was one place that I have a lot of memories , I use to go running early morning every-day, Sadly now I hear due to silting the water is not that deep anymore.

My best friends , the people who would smilingly stand shoulder to shoulder with me were introduced to me in this city, Babbar, Cherry,Ravi,vikram,Sood All of us became such good friends, I am so full of gratitude to the City Chandigarh because it was a stepping stone for me to come to where I am, Maybe if I had not come to this city after my 10th class I would not be here where I am now, but then who knows..

The famous Gedi route the road between the College for men and Girls, so much time was spent on that particular stretch of road. The beautiful girls who also obviously wanted to look at the boys walking up and down, and us on our vehicles trying to impress some, sadly the only things that happened was the wasting of petrol.

I am sure I can go on and on with so many memories , Experiences I have had in MY CITY, I can definitely say that I am who i am because of the city Chandigarh too.

I have some photographs of the city that I would love to share with everyone ..

Chandigarh Roads ..

Chandigarh

Night time.. Left here and third house 🙂

Home is at End of the Road

View

July Photo A Day 2014 challenge :- Day 6 is here , it seems I am on the roll .. two days in a row .. yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 🙂 getting there .. getting there .. slow and steady .. I think I am too old thats why it is taking time to warm up. The engine is starting slowly he he he he.

Right day 6 , the topic says “View” What can you see from where you are? Share it.

This is again going to be cheating as I dont have a pic of the view where I am, but I have some pics of places I have been to so here are some of the places.

Home is at End of the Road

Mirror Mirror who is beautiful

July Photo A Day 2014 challenge :- Day 3 -( MATCH)

Right now that the whole day has almost gone by, I have finally found something to post even though it was because of Smita, from whose blog i took the idea .. so todays Topic is MATCH..

The topic says Match (Find a match, be it the fire kind or something that matches).. I first thought burn a matchstick and take a Pic but then I cheated 🙂 he he he so here it is..

What do you think —

Does this

A Small Collection

Glenfidditch (My Favourite)

MATCH

This

Chandigarh club

or

British National Dish Chicken Tikka Masalla – My home

Thursday Challenge (52):-TRAIL

Thursday Challenge :TRAIL (Trail, paths, roads, sidewalks, streets,…)

It seems all I am doing is putting Picture blogs, But I promise I will write a stupid article soon .. Please don’t hate me for that, Some of the pics have been taken by friends and I have taken their permission to put here.

The road to Manali

New bypass at Pinjore to Shimla

Chandigarh

The Path to god’s House

Bypass to Shimla..

Chandigarh Roads ..

The City Beautiful

I did another post on Roads Thursday Challenge (22) :- Roads in 2011.. which has some more pics of my city
… Reminds me of the favourite song

Country roads .. take me Home ..
To the place I belong …
I hear a voice in the morning how she calls me
The radio reminds me of my home far away
Drivin’ down the road I get the feelin’

That I should been home yesterday yesterday
TAKE ME HOME

Holi – The festival of colours

After more than a decade , I finally got to be in a situation where I could be in India , in my home city at precisely the same moment when the festival of holi was to be celebrated, My Mama ji’s (maternal Uncle) daughter was getting married and she had managed to get me to promise her that I will be there in Punjab. The wedding was to be on 19th march in my Nana (maternal Grandfather) house, which is 5-6 hours from Chandigarh and if you go at my speed it could be done in 4 hours 30 minutes.. Since she was also going from Uk along with her Fiancée we all had only a few days to manage everything.

The ladies sangeet was to be on 16th and my flight to reach Chandigarh was on 15th and holi was on 17th , 18th was to be the day when girls side go to the boy’s side for the Shagun ceremony which was again to be in a village nearer to Amritsar, again a 5-6 hours journey, it was going to be a hectic schedule. My friends knew I was going to come and everyone was Like I had to make sure I would be with them on HOLI, so much so that some suggested to miss everything and be there, emails-phone calls , exchanged which involved a lot of swearing , shouting , but then it was fun thinking about it now.

So the journey began I landed at chandigarh airport to find my best matey Babbar at the airport, what I had not realised was he was not alone , a few others too turned up.. Cherry came, Sunjeet turned up from ambala, and my cousin Noni too turned up.

Fun time started from the airport itself, I had planned that I will leave by 3pm but one thing led to the other only to start for my village about 6pm in evening, the moment I left the city disaster struck, typical with me, things never go to plan , the rear tyre burst, “OH NO”, opened the boot to look for the spare to only find that the spare was also punctured, Not a good start at all.Thankfully there was a gentleman coming from the other side on his bike who gave Me and My punctured tyre a Lift, to a nearby village, I knocked on a house of the guy who fixes punctures stayed. He was kind enough to open and do the needful, after getting all that sorted I started off once again towards my village.

Thankfully nothing un-towards happened on the way other than the amount of phonecalls I was getting from my relatives , as according to them I was supposed to have reached home by 7pm NOT Started towards home at 7pm , One good thing happened the traffic seemed to ease out at night, which was good for me to get used to driving in India after so many many years soon I was back into INDIA MODE, zooming in and out, giving two hoots to the traffic coming from the right or the Red light on the way . The main roads were very good but as I went off the main road , it was chaos the BADAL Akali Govt. In all their wisdom suddenly decided to dug up all the village connecting roads , have their contractors put the raw material on the sides.. Election Gimmicks I guess to get votes, I was not happy god know how many times I abused these Govt officials.

Anyway to cut the Story short because this is supposed to be an article on the 17th March , I reached home about 2am, the bed had been laid for me , I met everyone , talked for a bit and off to Zzzzzzzz land. Next day we got busy in doing some work, the ladies sangeet started, and my phone would not stop ringing because everyone at Chandigarh was asking When am I starting, I had with lot of persuasion managed to make all my relatives aunty’s and uncles agree to the fact that I have to return.. The fun carried on till about 11pm where everyone started to pack up, and go to sleep , since the function was in the village it was just a family affair , come 11 pm I sat in my car and Zooomed back to Chandigarh, Reached Babbar’s house at approximately 4-5am in the morning. I was so damn tired I went to sleep ..

Early morning I was woken up to the sound of HORNSSSSSSSsss – LOUD MUSIC – TRUMPETS etc, kids were running around on the road outside, neighbours were putting color on each other It felt so fresh, I walked out of the house to be bombarded with Colour .. Rest of my friends started turning up , I was meeting them after more than a decade, everyone had changed so much, a few had got married , a few had become parents , some had lost their hair , It was fantabulos.

Whoever came to the house was targeted with color – water anything that came to hand

That is me filling the Bucket and making sure I put it all over Babbar .. 🙂

and he in return joined the kids to make sure , he has his revenge on ladies .. boooooooooooooo too him 🙂

We decided to go uphill for a picnic, The ladies did a wonderful job I must say with all the food, we men were responsible for the DRINKS 🙂 , started towards Morni hills on the way saw a lot of people enjoying the festival especially these girls , who were standing from inside the sunroof, singing their head off , drinking too which made them go louder and louder, but I guess the idea was to enjoy, they were surly enjoying, we enjoyed just watching them 🙂

Drove for sometime in the hills singing , dancing , on way found a little stream of water running , so stopped for our picnic, the kids in the group were having fun with me as their english chachu, couple of them were seeing me for the first time , so I guess they were all Ga Ga of a foreign returned Chachu.. they started to play with me

I also joined them in the fun and took them on in the battle of the Water …

When I was unable to control them , I had to do the MAN THING.. I had to take LAW in my hands and MAN-HANDLE the kids into submission and I WON.. yooooooooooooooooo hooooooooooooooo , bring it on… KIDDO’s

yess , I took each one of them and dunked them in that stream MUUUU HA HA HA HA HA HA .. Bad chachu I guess

Food time came, ladies had prepared some delicious food, for the Foreign returned, making sure there was not much spices etc, as it was only my second day in india,I did not want to get sick , But saying that by then so much alcohol had gone inside that it would have been pretty Safe to eat anything .. as I am sure you all know that “Darooo peene se PEt ke saare Kide mar jaate hain”.. 🙂 he he he .. don’t ask me to translate that in English , it wont be funny then 🙂 .. but just for those who don’t understand hindi (Drinking Alcohol, kills all the germs in the stomach), see not funny at all ..

Food time

The Long walk back to the parked cars ..

The Whole gang well almost as a few left to find another place uphill to have coffee ..

Ended up on top of a hill where I in my tipsy mood had fun with the kids ..

HAPPY HOLI Guys, how did you celebrate yourssss…

Funny.. Me thinking what I could- Part II

As promised in my previous article Me thinking what I could(click if you haven’t read it), If I am in my house feeling bored Sitting on my suite thinking

3. I thought I will go out to a pub meet some people, have a drink or two.. But hold on its Monday and too early to go to the pub (well for me it is its only 11AM in morning).. so I don’t think I would have found anyone in the pub.

Now on other hand If it was in my hometown.. I knew exactly what I would have done.. started my bike, MUM- I will be back in a minute or so .. (The Minute is this case finishes after 60 seconds but the SOOOOOOO continues tick tock tick tock ).. She would have said something , but the roar of the engine (I have a enfield) would have drowned the sound, ride to sector XX, take the left turn reach a house in middle , park the bike, open the gate , walk into the doorway, go to back of house, open the iron door, turn right , open another door into my friend sukhvir’s bedroom. ( he works on a night shift on monday and tuesday)

“Oh haan Mann, ki haal ”   – “hello Mann – How are you”
“theek thak, university chaliye” – “All right, Lets go to University” I would reply

No second thoughts..

He would get up, tie his turban, off we go.. Baba sehgal has been advertising his new brand of whiskey RITZ ( i am talking of 1990’s 3 or 4 )..and its the in thing, so on way we stop at THEKA, one half of Ritz, in the pocket it goes, ride to the sector 16, right in front of the cricket stadium a Juice wala is standing , we have a ACCOUNT with him.. he makes half a jug of orange juice with ice, we empty the half into it .. two big glasses
GULP GULP… and off we ride to the UNI..

The fresh air starts to do the trick, by the time we reach UNI gates we are a bit tipsy.. Go to law department, well behind the law department the canteen guy makes us fresh Samose and channa.. we have that .. soon a few others turn up.. and ITS A MEHFIL…

NOW GO ON BEAT THAT ……I can go into a friend’s house, without calling him first telling him I am on way, I don’t have to knock or ring the bell, telling who it is outside.. JUST walk in…

If Aunty is there then its good news cause then we get a nice cup of DUDH PATTI– (tea leaves in milk) with nice lovely sweet juicy Rusks.. and uncle ji would be working in this little kitchen garden, calling me showing me the lovely Carrots, cabbages , Spring onions , raddishes..

Hai bai mann ki haal chal hai  (Mann, How are you doing)

sab theek thak uncle, sat sri akal (All well Uncle, Regards)

and he would bless me with a few blessing hmmmmmmmmmm

Sadly in all these years , Uncle is no more But I know I will get the same love in that house always ..

UK SUCKS BIG TIME When it comes to relations-fun times ………

Moment of Madness :- TAG

I have had a very adventurous life and have done a lot of stupid things in life and here they are.

1. Around 1992 or sometime then, One of my friends was getting married in a Punjab and around that time terrorism was still little bit left, Pillion riding was banned, so we went on our own bikes, reached the venue it was a late night wedding, enjoyed a lot had lots to drink, were all tipsy, someone decided let’s go back.. So off we went. On way back there was a roundabout on a GT road, usually you go around left, for some reason it was decided we go around the right side. As we did that OH MY GOD…

God knows from where these Punjab Police Commandoes came, we could hear the click click of the rifles getting cocked… Get down… On the floor… It was scary… DAMN… We became sober in a second.

Thank god we were not shot, we had to plead the officer, show him our flying I-Cards to convince we were just playing around. They made us sit there for an hour before letting us go.

2. Final year exams, one of my friends decided to steal a empty answer sheet, so it could be used for cheating in the exam, I and Ravi my best friend went to the examination hall sat on the very first desks, next to the door… as the invigilator placed the answer sheet on first desk, Ravi got up, ran clutching the sheets, I ran after him, the teacher behind us shouting catch catch.. I was running after Ravi to make sure no one comes near because if caught this is a criminal offence and could be rusticated from university.  It is funny now thinking of it as Did the teacher not realise that even I have not returned back to the classroom.

3. On a nice Sunday morning four of us decided to go for a walk in the jungle (picture)  behind sukhna lake in Chandigarh, No one knew the way, obviously we got lost, whatever food, water we had finished, tired in middle of the afternoon we reached a lake, for some odd reason it was decided to swim through it rather than go around it, Sunil a friend was asked if he knew how to swim, he said yes..

There we go, took our clothes off put them in a carrier bag, In we went…we were half way in when there was a big splash, Sunil had run and jumped inside.. He went in, then his head popped up… and again down… OMG he had lied to us… we dashed towards him, Now Sunil is a 6ft 3 inches tall Big guy, Power lifting is his hobby I mean he is HUGE, I got hold of him he grabbed me , almost dragged me in with him. I somehow managed to get free.

Luckily there was this tree , sunil held on to it for dear life. The other two had come, I swam out, We took off our turbans, tied them up , threw it inside and pulled him out of water, a funny thing before that happened we asked Sunil to jump back in water and let go of the tree and we will pull him out, he replies “NO I am fine here “.. he he he he

He would have died that day. Later we met a villager he told us “Sahib Woh to das haathi Dob hai”. Meaning it’s as deep as ten elephants standing on top of each other.

4. Second year in college, we thought we were the bosses of college by then, One day instead of going straight to college I went to my friend Babbar’s house to go together with him, another mate Pummy was already there, as I entered they were pleased “oh good bikram you are here, we have a fight in university”, silly me didn’t even ask what it was, We went to our college to get hold of rest of the people.

I and one friend planned to go to uni to have a recce, to see what was going on, as we entered uni, next to the Gandhi Bhavan we saw a Big MOB, 100+, tall Strong, Sikh men standing. I looked like a kid in front of them, we did not take any notice of the guys at that time,  One of the guys in them was my Chachu’s(uncle)  best friend, I stopped to say hello to him, as we talked I asked him what are they doing as they studied in Punjabi university Patiala, his words were some idiots have threatened and challenged us to meet up here for a fight, OH MY GOD.. then it hit me ..

Then I realised they were the guys with whom Pummy had picked a fight. We were only at most 8 or 10 guys they were it seemed 100+. Never felt so alone in life, I quickly told him it’s us people who they were waiting for, I made up a story that I had asked my chachu to come too, so his friend said why, what’s the need since I was the nephew no need to fight, a compromise was reached. It was decided to get Pummy so he can shake hands on it, This guy got his car asked us to sit to drop us at our college gate, Believe me when I sat in the back seat I could see BATONS, SWORDS, HOCKEY STICKS, various other stuff.

I thanked god I saw this guy otherwise we would have got beaten black and blue that day.

5. A funny moment of madness, GT ROAD, Punjab, NCC Vayu sainik Camp held in Patiala, middle of the night someone decided we should run away from camp go for a walk, many of us got together, eloped into the night.

On to the road ANOTHER BRILLIANT idea struck someone lets walk naked on the main highway… Now imagine a group of boys, Naked, walking on the Grand Truck with cars blaring horns… the truck drivers using their dippers to full effect… We did that for a laugh but now it seems to be a moment of madness.

So lets hear what you guys have been up to , I would love to hear about them all. Ok here are the rules those who take it up make sure you tag it to 5 people.  That way We can have fun reading a few nice stories and re living those times , for even if they were moments of madness I bet now that you think of them they put a smile on your face.

Do leave a Url link in comments section so i can read tooo Please.

Have a great week ahead …