Indian Rupee Slained – An Investigation

 [Dear Readers,  I publish here a little different stuff than my usual. Definitely, I will continue other stories which I have not completed so far. But, as of now, I present this. Hope you enjoy. I would love to have a discussion too over this article. Happy reading !]

In 2006, when I was in United states for my summer internship, every day I would wish, ‘May the exchange rate (rupees per dollar) increase!’ Of course, I was earning in dollars, therefore like a self centred moron, I wanted to get more rupees after coming back to India. That time I never cared about Indian economy and exchange rate never increased, now I care, so exchange rate never stops increasing.

If I just take a look at the rupees' performance against dollar starting from the year when I was in US i.e. 2006, statistics tells that it started from 45 INR / USD in 2006, kept going down to 39 INR/USD in 2008 and then picked it up from here to reach 50 INR/USD in 2009. Though it further started declining in 2010 and returned back to 45 INR/USD in early 2011 thus relieving Indian economists a bit but pretty soon it again started building up since then and as we know rupee reached its all time low, 56.40 INR/USD in recent days. This means now we have to spend 56.40 INR to buy one dollar while it was 45 INR to buy one dollar in 2006. Clearly, rupee has lost its value against the dollar or in other words, rupee has depreciated.

So, why did Indian currency depreciate against dollar? This was my first question to myself. I began my investigation. The very basic principle of economics operates here too which says ‘If the demand of something is higher than supply its value appreciates and vice versa’. So, if the demand of a particular currency decreases, its value depreciates. 

Now my objective was narrowed down to figure out the factors causing increase in demand of dollars vis-a-vis factors causing decrease in demand of Indian rupee.

So, here I present the major culprits:

•  Affection for Dollar – The first thing I discovered was that the dollar is the most accepted currency. Why is that? Derivative instruments are available in plenty to hedge the dollar exchange rates hence it is considered to be the best currency to do business. Most of the people consider dollar as the safest currency and this sentiment reflects the exceptional liquidity of markets in dollars. Hence, any negative movement in the market lead people to accumulate dollars. Due to the crisis in Europe, large banks and financial institutions started selling euro and bought dollars thus making dollar stronger against other currencies. Amidst the uncertainty in global market, demand of dollar has gone up. If we go little more deep, we’ll find out that the extraordinary stability in US treasury securities has developed a faith in dollar to a certain extent.

It may interest you to know that Warren Buffet too likes dollar than most of the other currencies.

•  Current Account Deficit in India - When the total import of a country exceeds its exports, the phenomenon is termed as current account deficit and the country is like a debtor to rest of the world. India is in a state of current account deficit. Now when the import of the country is higher then to maintain the equilibrium, the currency of the country has to depreciate.

If export is more then the buyers will demand for more Indian Rupee to purchase these export goods leading to appreciation of Indian rupee but current situation is just reverse.

• Economic Slowdown – When a foreign investor invests in India, he has to purchase Indian rupee to make investment in a particular market segment which again leads to higher demand for rupee and hence its appreciation. FIIs (Foreign Institutional Investors) have made considerable investment in Indian stock markets. But currently, influential world (mainly Europe) is facing recession, so they are pulling their investments out from India which again causes Indian currency depreciation.

It further leads to a vicious circle. If currency depreciates, FIIs may end up making losses in the stock market and hence it will act as a deterrent for FIIs to invest more in Indian market which in turn will cause further rupee depreciation.

           

• Indian Policy – Economic policy of India also plays an important role. Policy should encourage more FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) which is not the case in India. Though government apparently tried to do something and announced FDI in retail but had to hold back amidst huge pressure from both opposition and allies.

Apart from these, there are some other reasons too such as corruption, pro-longed inflation, scams, rising oil prices etc., though as a matter of fact, they are interrelated too.

Major Impact

• Rise in fiscal deficit. Fiscal deficit is a situation which arises when government's total expenditures exceed the revenue that it generates. 
• Rupee depreciation will cause all imported products to be more expensive for us.  Oil which is imported has already increased its price. Due to the increase in oil prices, transportation cost of goods will increase and that will be charged from the consumers only.

•  Companies with foreign debt will be heavily impacted as they will have to repay their loans in dollar.

• Travelling and studying overseas will become more expensive.

• It is good news for Indian exporters such as IT sectors as they will earn more.

Truth is stranger than the fiction

[Friends, giving a break to my previous series of blogs, I am presenting this.]

This is an incident which happened just a week ago. My friend Amrish got in such a situation which can really be a great script for a movie.

It all happened just one night before his wedding. 

That night his house was full of guests. Everybody was waiting to witness that moment impatiently. In one corner, aged people could be spotted discussing about the preparations of the wedding. In another corner, some girls were too busy with their girly talks and most of their talks was about the kind of dresses they were planning to put on. A few old ladies were trying to dictate the correct manner of the rituals to the middle aged ladies. And kids, they were totally busy in playing and running around. Happiness was in the air and the atmosphere was fully prepared to greet the new bride.

 Amrish wanted to meet her fiancé Richa that night. Amrish called Richa.

Richa picks up the call.

“Hey, how are you? I want to meet you right now,” said Amrish.

“Like right now. Really. It is 9:00 pm. Are you serious? By the way, what is the matter?” said Richa from the other end.

“Yeah, absolutely. Come, I can’t talk about it on the phone.” Amrish replied.

“Ok. Let me ask my mom and see if she allows me. I’ll call you back,” She said and hung up.

After 15 minutes Richa calls Amrish.

“Fine. I’ll come down. Mom was little worried and asked me to return as soon as possible,” she told Amrish.

“Ok. It won’t take much time. Just come over. Nehru Bridge sharp 11:00 pm. I’ll be there.”Amrish decided the time and place.

“Ok” she agreed and hung up.

11:00 pm. Nehru bridge. The bridge wasn’t so illuminated with dim street lights. Cold breeze could be felt due to the Sabarmati river flowing under the bridge.

Standing over the river Sabarmati, Amrish was eagerly waiting for Richa. Soon, he saw a Ford car with bright light approaching him which stopped by him at the next moment. And then Richa came out of the car.

“Hey Amrish! How are you? Why have you called me here at this point of time?”She asked anxiously.

“I am glad you came. Tomorrow, we are going to get married....” Amrish said and paused in between.

“Yes. And I am so excited about that. But is there any problem?”She asked sensing something.

“Richa, before I say anything, I want you to be calm and listen to me carefully whatever I am gonna say. Ok ?” Amrish said.

“Now you are increasing my heart beats, ok. Tell me what you have in your mind” Richa requested

“Richa, you should know something more about me. I mean to say....” He again paused but this time he had another reason to pause.

Both of them could behold a bunch of 8-10 people coming towards them. These people were actually running. And one person who seemed to belong to that mob, was running much faster that rest of them. Amrish got little terrified and so was Richa. It was 11:00 pm and almost no body was there on the bridge. The mob was coming closer and closer.Amrish assumed that the mob must be full of miscreants who want to harm them.

Sensing the danger, Amrish screamed, “Richa, Let’s get into the car.”

She understood and rushed inside.

The mob was coming closer. Amrish took the driving seat and put the key in the hole and ignited the engine..

That one person, who was running faster than others had something in his hand, came very close to the car. So close that the gap between him and car’s headlight was less than 5 meters. Rest of them were behind him.

Sensing the danger, Amrish put his car in the reverse gear, pressed accelerator, stopped and then again in 1^st gear, accelerated more, turned his wheels right, 2^nd gear , 3^rd gear, pressed accelerator harder and boom! He lost his control and smashed the car against the barrier along the bridge.

Next, when he opened his eyes, he found himself at a hospital surrounded by his kith and kins. He had survived numerous injuries. This evening was supposed to be the best day of his life. All these kith and kins were to see him getting married. But it was not destined to be. Richa had also some severe injuries. Only thing which was sort of a reliever was that both of them were out of danger now. This is how this young couple ended up having their wedding night in the hospital.

On the same day local newspaper published, “On the Nehru Bridge, angry mob beat a criminal brutally who was allegedly involved in shoplifting.”

Another portion of the same newspaper also said,”A car lost control and smashed against the barriers on the Nehru bridge. Reasons are not known yet. Severely injured victims have been admitted to SAL Hospital at Drive-in road.”

Shit happens again and again (part-2)

[Recap: Mitika was one of my best friends. In Nov 2004,  due to some misunderstanding, our friendship saw a phase of distrust which is described in my last blog.]

After the last incident in November 2004, I waited for some more time. As they say, time is the best healer; it worked same for our friendship. After a gap of few months, we again started chatting on internet and phone frequently. Also, once in a while she used to come to my campus. That’s how it seemed things were getting better between us two.

She used to discuss various things regarding her career, life and other matters. I used to feel proud that she valued my advice so much and even sometimes she also used to give some good advice. That’s how a connection was developed between both of us.

In short, one and half years after the Incident-1, which was somewhere around mid of 2006, it looked like  the things were again back to normal.

Incident-2
February-2007 ............

19 February of 2007 will always be a memorable day for me because this day my elder sister was going to get married. So, being her only brother, I was super excited. This was also my last year of graduation.

Since, my sister is everything to me; I wanted to contribute as much as I could do to make it the best wedding ever. I was trying to look after the arrangements as much as I could do. Shopping, preparing list of invitees, getting invitation card printed, arranging stay for the guests were some of the activities where I was totally instrumental.

Finally, the auspicious day arrived and my sister got married in a grand ceremony with great pomp and show.  Many of my friends and their parents also joined the party.

After the wedding day, everyone was relaxed and so was I.  Finishing all the post wedding responsibilities, I came back to my campus. I had been away for more than one week at a stretch.

That evening after the dinner, I was not feeling like doing anything or studying, though my exams were approaching. I was just lying on my bed and was deeply into the thoughts of weddings and various events which took place before and after the wedding.

In the meantime, somebody knocked.

“Come in, it’s open,” I said in a loud voice so that the person behind the door could listen.

“Praveen sir, you have a phone call downstairs,” The telephone attendant informed me by pushing his head through the door and keeping rest of the body out.

“Tell him that I have got a cell phone and my number is 9415440562. Ask him to call me on this no.,” I almost ordered him. This cell phone was given to me by my elder sister around one month ago as she got a new one.

“But it is she not he.” He smiled.

“Whoever. Go and tell what I just told you,” I was little uneasy on his smile.
        

Just 5 minutes after he was gone, I got a call on my cell phone. It was some number, which looked little familiar.

“Hello, Praveen” that feminine voice said.

“Hello” I said.

“What yaar, now you have got a new cell phone so you will forget your old friends, right? ” She said.

“Of course not, Mitika. Why do you say that? And also that is a not a new phone. Anyways, tell me how are you? It has been more than 20 days since we talked” I said as I recognised her voice.

“Yeah.  All because of you. In the last week I tried to call you 3-4 times but everytime your telephone attendant used to tell that your room is locked.”She explained.

“Oh, you don’t know. I was not in the campus. I was so busy with my sister’s wedding. You know it was great wedding. So many guests, so many arrangements. I was so enthusiastically doing whatever I could do since it was Didi’s wedding. It was great fun. So many relatives, I saw together after a long time. Also many of my friends could make it to the wedding. Their presence just augmented to the fun part. You know it was the first experience for me and I totally enjoyed it along with my friends.” I told her with my excitement overflowing.

“Ok, I get it. You were busy in your sister’s wedding alongwith your friends. Great, good to hear that. You must be tired now. Get some rest. I gotta go, by the way.” She said and this time her voice was totally dry with no interest in talking to me further.

“You going, what happened. Just now you called and we haven’t talked enough...” I asked.

“Nothing, just some work. Talk later, bye.” She said and didn’t wait for my ‘bye’ and hung up.

Wondering what was wrong with her, the moment I put my cell phone in my pocket, it just flashed in my mind the reason of this sudden change in her behaviour. I realized that I had committed a mistake rather a blunder. I realised that I had forgotten to invite her in my sister’s wedding. Damn it!

“How could I just forget to invite her? She is one of my best friends. How did it really happen? I am just a jerk,” I cursed myself.

“I will tell her that it was because I am the only brother of my sister so I had loads of work hence it just slipped from my mind. May be I can tell her that I went to her home but nobody was at her home to receive the invitation card. Or I can tell her that not many friends could make it to the wedding, only few neighbhours came as all of it happened so fast. Or I can tell her that it wasn’t a grand ceremony, only a small gatherings of some close relatives. “I was just exploring all the options which could possibly convince her why I could not invite her in the wedding.

Finally, I figured out some excuse and decided to call her and tell her the reason why I could not invite her. I decided to call her the next day and explain the thing.

Next day, it was 9:30 pm and I was just flipping my cellphone with little nervousness. I was planning to call her but I was little scared with the thought ‘what if she won’t buy my excuse.’

Anyways, gathering all the courage, I called her. I was fully prepared to pour in front of her whatever story I could develop.Suddenly, caller tune of her phone discontinued and I heard “Hello” . It was some mature voice.

“Hello Aunty. This is Praveen. Can I talk to Mitika if you don’t mind?” I asked politely.

“Haan Beta, of course you can. Why would I mind? Wait, let me call her,” she said and called her in a loud voice.

“Beta, she is coming. By the way, is everything fine? Today, Mitika looked little sad. Is there any problem with her? Do you have any idea, Beta?” She asked.

“Yeah aunty, everything is fine. But if you feel so, I will talk to her and will surely try to find out the reason of her sadness. Don’t worry aunty,” I said but on the same time I was really ashamed of me as I totally knew the reason and I was the culprit.

“Ok Beta, she came. Talk to her. Take care. Good bye,” She said and went away after handing the receiver to Mitika.

“Hi Mitika, how are you?” I asked in a voice as if nothing happened.

“Do you really care?” She replied. And with this statement, a bomb was dropped.

“Yeah, yeah, of course. What do you mean...” My voice was stumbling.

“Look Praveen, you are a great guy and of course I do not intend to teach you anything. But only thing I wanna say is that if you call somebody your friend or probably your best friend then that person gets a right to share your joy and grief both. She will be the happiest person accompanying you in your happiness. This is called friendship...” She explained. This time her voice was very calm and sad.

“But...” I tried to interrupt so that I could put across my clarification but couldn’t succeed as she had something more to say.

“And you know what it hurts when you get to know.... Well, leave it.” She didn’t complete her sentence.

“But..” I again tried.

“Ok fine, I’ll call you later. Gotta go.” She said.

“No, but...”I tried again but figured out that the line was disconnected.

I thought to call her again but could not gather the courage this time. I thought she would call once she would get over with all these things. But I was wrong, she never called.

It’s not that I didn’t try from my side. I called her couple of times but everytime one of her family members would pick the phone and told me that she was not at the home.

So, was this the end of our friendship? Maybe.... (To be continued)

Shit happens again and again

In our lives, sometimes, some sequence of events lead to serious misunderstandings.
How serious…. I tell you a story.

I have a friend, Mitika. We are or maybe I should say that we used to be good friends. I met her when I was in the first year of my college life at IIT Kanpur. Since then we share this relationship of friendship. Just for the clarity, she wasn’t from my college. She was from some other engineering college in Kanpur. Good height, slim, fair and sharp features. I met her when she came to my campus for her project work in the summer of 2004. We totally liked each other’s company as one thing was common between us; both of us were hard-working or at least she used to think so about me :) But yes this girl was really a very hardworking, intelligent and of course I have already had described her beauty.

This girl is very special to me. Why? Not because of her beauty and other qualities but because of the fact that despite all my efforts, every time something happens which shakes the trust between two of us. I would like to start with the first incident.

Incident-1

November 2004

I was in the 2nd year of my college. At IIT Kanpur, we used to have inter-collegiate cultural festival known as Antaragni. It was a grand fest where students from all over the country used to participate.

Few days before this fest at around 5:30 pm, the telephone attendant came running to me when I was in my room in a semi-sleepy condition after a hectic day.
“Praveen ji, you have a call. Guess, some lady is there” he said
“Is she my mom?” I asked.
“She didn’t tell me but I guess she was younger” he said.
“Really”. I said. Now my eyes were wide opened
I rushed to attend that call.
"Hello" I said.
"Hello, oh you came. Hope I am not disturbing you" she said.
"No, of course not. I was just sitting in my room doing nothing and just yawning. Good that you called. But who is this, by the way?" I said.
"Hey you forgot me, this is Mitika. How can you not recognize my voice this time?" she said.
“Oh I am so sorry. I told you I was in semi-sleepy mode. That’s why I could not figure out. Now, I am awake. Totally” I put my point forward.
"Ok. So, tell me why did you call me" I asked her.
"Can't I just call you without any reason?" she said little irritated.
"Yeah, why not. Of course you can" I said pacifying my previous statement.
"I just called you to ask you that how are you doing these days" she said softly.
"That's so nice of you. Thank you. I am good. How are you?" I said swiftly.
"I am good. Actually Praveen..." she said and stopped and I could figure out little hesitation in her voice this time.
"Yeah, tell me" I tried to help her.
"I have heard that next week this grand fest Antaragni is going to take place at your college. And I have heard a lot about this fest. Lots of colleges from all over the country participate, lots of grand events are organized, some celebrities are also invited etc. etc." she continued yapping for the next 15 minutes.
"That's right" I said after I realized that she was done.
"So I was wondering if you can take me to this fest this time, if it is okay with you" she said in a single breath.
I wasn’t expecting this. ‘No’, ‘yes’, ‘not this time’, ‘why not’, ‘this fest is not so great’, ‘this fest is really awesome and you should really see it’ etc. etc. thoughts came to my mind simultaneously. Seriously I did not know what to say.

"Ok fine. You can come. No problem at all" It just came out of my mouth, I don’t know how.

“Oh really, I can come. I am so happy. You know I was thinking how to ask you. But thanks a lot. Ok then, I’ll see you there.” she said in a voice filled with joy.

“Sure, see you then. Bye” I said and disconnected the phone.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do that but since I promised her so I decided to show her some good events in the cultural fest.

Antaragni was going to kick off on the Thursday of the next week. I had the list of the events which were going to take place in that fest. After having a look at that list, I figured out that the 3rd day of the fest which was Saturday had the most exciting events. So, I decided to ask Mitika to come on Saturday of the next week.

Next week came rather Wednesday of the next week came. Mitika was also waiting for my phone call. So after my classes in the evening, I called her from a telephone booth beside my hostel.
“Hi Praveen, I was waiting for your call.” she said happily.
“Ok. I called you up to inform you that you should come to my campus on Saturday as many exciting events are lined up that day” I said
“Ok. Sure. I will. By the way, which color dress should I wear ?” she asked in a very excited voice.
“Oh, I really don’t have much idea about these things. Put on whatever suits you more” I replied.
“Praveen, you are so….By the way, what time on Saturday?”She asked.
“I’ll give you a call on Friday evening or Saturday morning to confirm the time. Ok. Bye for now” I said and disconnected the phone.

I had listed down all the good events where Iwanted to take her. Some of them were the mime show of ‘The Dramatics’, the fashion show “Ritambhara” and the “Sonu Nigam” live performance . So, everything was well planned from my side.

Friday came. It was 10 pm and I was about to inform Mitika to come to campus next morning at around 11 am. But at that moment telephone attendant of my hostel came to me and informed me that I had a phone call from my home. My mom informed me that my grandfather was seriously ill and wanted to see me. She asked me to come to the hospital in the morning which was in the Kanpur city and far from the campus. And she also wanted me to stay there in the hospital. My mom knew that it was fest time in my college so I would be able to come without disturbing my studies.

Now this situation was really a tough one. I had my commitment with my friend and now this family matter which has always been a priority for me.
Anyways, I decided to go see my grandfather. Now the Goliath task was to ask Mitika not to come. Of course, I could just tell her the real problem but there was a possibility that she might think it to be a false excuse so that I would not have to take her to the fest. Somehow, I convinced myself that I would call her in the morning and explain the situation. She would definitely understand.

In the morning, I called her up. With great excitement she picked up the phone.
“Hey, Praveen. I was just sitting near the phone waiting for your call. You know what I have selected to put on, a purple blue dress with matching designer ear-rings and matching sandals. Great, isn’t it? So, when should I come to your campus? ” she said innocently.
I was really feeling bad as I was going to break her heart. However, I decided to tell her everything. In the meantime, I pictured her in the purple dress in my mind.

“Mitika actually I am sorry that I cannot ask you to come to my campus” I said with a low voice.
“Why? Why not?” she was puzzled
“Because my grandfather is seriously ill and I am just going to see him in the hospital. So I myself will not be in the campus. I am feeling bad while I say this. But this is the truth. I am sorry” I told her in an almost begging voice.
“Oh really, this is sad. I was so looking forward to it. But..it’s Ok. You go ahead. Go and take a good care of him” she said and disconnected the phone.

After this she did not call me for next two months. Later from her friend, I got to know that she was not convinced by the reason I told her for not taking her to Antaragni. Instead she was of the opinion that I made an excuse. Her friend also informed me that she had specially purchased that purple dress only for the fest. This was the first incident which had shaken the faith in our friendship for the very first time. And after this for another three months she did not call. Even I tried to keep our friendship alive by calling her twice but her cold response always indicated that warmth in our friendship was gone. (To be continued....)

A Beautiful Conversation

Disclaimer : Dear Readers, this blog entry really contains some hardcore technical terms. So if you are not getting some of these or any of these, please ask me. Happy reading :)

This is an interesting conversation I wanna present which took place between two individuals. Girl was from arts background and the boy was from technical background, actually an engineer.

So, this girl Rashmi wanted to explain to this boy Sanjeev about the depth of her love. As Sanjeev was an engineer and on the top hopelessly studious, she decided to use some technical language to express her feelings towards Sanjeev. So, she used google and tried to learn some technical and mathematical terms. Working hard with this for a week, she finally decided to put her feelings in front of Sanjeev. So, let’s find out the degree of the success she achieved in her mission

So, the scene starts like this.

Sanjeev is sitting on a bench in a park close to Rashmi’s college. Again and again he keeps staring at his wrist-watch.

After a wait of 30 minutes, Rashmi shows up. She was looking terrific in her half sleeve pink top with skin tight blue jeans. She was also carrying a big handbag whose colour was going perfectly with her attire. With a lovely smile she sat on the left of Sanjeev.

“So late?” Sanjeev seemed little annoyed.

“Yeah, actually, I was just trying to put on something great so that I can impress you.” Rashmi replied with an innocent smile.

“Okay , fine. But why are you wearing bangles in each of your ears?” Sanjeev asked with curiosity and holding his hypermetropia spects closer to his face.

“No stupid, these are ear-rings. Haven’t you seen them before? Actress Raveena Tandon was so famous for such ear-rings, you know.” She mentioned.

“Ok. I understand. Now tell me why have you asked me to come here?” He asked.

“Sanjeev, you are so in hurry, directly jumping to the point. Don’t you like this weather, park, kids and people all around? Can we just talk about them?” Rashmi requested.

“Nope” Sanjeev replied in a flat negation.

“Ok, fine, as you wish, I’ll go directly to the point. Sanjeev, I think I love you.” Rashmi poured all her emotion with this last statement.

“Oh, ok. You ‘think’ so. It means it is just a ‘hypothesis’.” Sanjeev replied killing all the emotions which Rashmi has just exhibited.

So, now, Rashmi realized that this is the time when she should use the knowledge she has acquired in a course of one week to make Sanjeev understand the gravity of her love.

So accordingly, she said, “No, Sanjeev, seriously, my love is as true as Newton’s law”

“That means I am forced to assume it, right. Because laws and axioms cannot be proved. So, you kinda trying to impose a fact on me that you love me and on the basis of that imposition you want me to say that I love you too. No, I cannot buy this. Sorry, you need to prove it.” Sanjeev said in his flawless technical language.

“No, really, Sanjeev. I mean it. Actually, I don’t know how to prove it right now but one thing I would want you to know is that as the time will pass you will realize truthfulness of my love. All I can say is that even if you do not understand my love at the moment, I will wait. I will wait for you, like for thousands of Light Years, what you call in your technical language” Rashmi said with a hope that this statement will certainly put some emotion in Sanjeev’s heart.

“Oh well. Rashmi, as a matter of fact, ‘Light Year’ is a unit of distance. A ‘light year’ is basically the distance travelled by the light in one year. It is not the unit of time.” Sanjeev again explained with no care for her feelings.

“Sanjeev, you are not getting me exactly. I want to tell you that my love will always be the same no matter what. It is like e^x which always remains the same either you differentiate it or integrate it. Do you understand?” She tried again.

“In that context, I would want you to please specify ‘x’ because if this ‘x’ is the no. of days left in my life then I am afraid that your love will decrease exponentially.” He said.

“Sanjeev, it seems all of my efforts are going in vain. Fine, you don’t wanna believe me, don’t believe me but you know what my love is pure, very pure. If you allow me I will shower my love on you the way moon showers its light to beautify the planet earth and whole earth gets immersed in the milky light.” Rashmi again tried to convince him.

“That means you will first gather love from somebody then shower that love on me. How ridiculous is that. Because as the science suggests, moon is first illuminated with sun’s light and then in the night it showers that light on the planet earth. God, are you really going to do that.” Sanjeev again presented his logic.

Rashmi had given up and just wanted to leave. She was apparently crying. And when she was about to leave, Sanjeev stopped her.

“Hey, are you leaving?” he asked

“Yes” she said sobbing.

“Are you done?” he asked

“Yes” she said.

“Ok fine. But before you leave I wanna say something” Sanjeev said.

“What now? You have already said so much.” Rashmi said in a low voice.

“Yeah. Actually, yesterday, I was just thinking about you and I wanted to ask you something. You know this electron and positron when combine together they become inseparable. Would you like to be an integrated part of my life in that way? And also this combination produces gamma rays, so can we have our kids also in that manner?” Sanjeev said in one go.

“Oh my god! Oh my god! Are you asking me to be your life partner forever? Yeah, of course, I am ready, more than ready” Rashmi was wonderstruck with such awesome technical delivery from Sanjeev.

“Am I really asking you to be my life partner? I don’t know. May be.” Sanjeev replied.

“Stupid, I was trying to express my love for you for last one hour. But you didn’t get it, dumbo. And you have already planned our future together with kids. I am so happy, Sanjeev.” Rashmi was so exuberant.

“May be you should have tried some better way to express. You should learn something from me. See, how nicely I communicated my thoughts to you with the help of a simple example.” Sanjeev bragged.

“Simple, yeah, very simple” Rashmi said to herself.

When a NIFTian reached IIT....

I have a friend of mine. He graduated from NIFT, Gandhinagar. Our graduation year was same. In 2007, he graduated from NIFT and I from my engineering college. Well he is not the same person whom I talked about in one of my earlier posts. His name is... what is his real name.. gosh... I don’t know. The truth is that he used to be called by a nick-name which is actually a slang in hindi. That slang has been cropped in the last and twisted with such cuteness that all of us totally enjoy calling him by this name. Since it won’t be very decent to use that nick-name here as many of you may feel offended, so I would like to refer him by a combination of special characters.. let’s say.. “@$$”.

@$$ is a guy with a charming personality, enough to impress some girl. And in the college days, I have heard a lot about his numerous affairs. But after college, we were not much in contact.

So the day before yesterday I was having this tele-conversation with this guy and it was really interesting so I thought to share some part of that conversation.

It starts like this.

It was 8:45 pm. I was in my office busy with some project work. Suddenly my phone rang. It was some unknown number.

“Whose number is this?” I said to myself.

Wondering, I picked up the call.

“Hello, what’s up bro?” A little familiar voice asked from the other side.

I was trying to recall whose voice was that.

“Hi, I am fine. Your voice sounds familiar, but sorry, I am not able to recollect you” I said.

“I am @$$. You forgot me. How could ya? Seems you have become rich and successful and that’s why forgot your old friends” he said pulling my leg.

“Oh! Shut up. It just took a while otherwise I knew it’s you...bloody @$$” I said and giggled.

“So tell me what’s up there at your end. It has been so long since we talked. Where are you right now?” I added.

“I am good. You know what I am at your alma mater, IIT Kanpur” he said.

“Oh really, you are. What the hell are you doing there?” I asked with curiosity.

“I am an enrolled full time student here.” He replied.

“Stop kidding me. You designer jerk! What would you do in my technical institute? Tell me the truth. Why are you there?” I didn’t believe the fact of him being a student there.

“Dude, this is the truth. I cleared CEED exam and now pursuing M. Des. here at IIT Kanpur.” He cleared my doubt.

M. Des is basically Master of Design programme which is offered at IITs.

“Oh, wow. It is wonderful. You must be a proud person studying there at IITK.” I said.

“Yeah, proud, totally, except there is hell out here.” He said in an undermining voice.

“I know, because of academic pressure,it is really hell. I remember my 4 years. They were killing” I supported his view going back to the time of my college

“No, academic is fine. I have other problem with this institute” he said.

“Really, what?” I asked

“Dude there is almost no girls here.” He said.

I laughed a lot upon hearing this.

“No, seriously, negligible girls. How did you survive your four years I am surprised. When I was in NIFT, we had a total strength of 30 in my department of Accessory Design. Out of 30, 23 were girls. We used to get company all the time. Eating with girls, studying with girls, playing with girls and movies with girls etc. etc. But here it is a total desert.

Dude, it was my first class at IITK. I reached early before the commencement of the lecture. I chose to sit on the second row from the back. Slowly students were coming and they were filling the vacant seats. I was like this: 1 dude, 2 dude, 3^rd dude, 4^th dude. After 10^th dude, I thought that now atleast a dudette would show up. But no, I wasn’t that lucky. I kept counting them 15^th dude, 16^th dude... 29^th dude. 30^th person entered the room, slim and wearing jeans and t-shirt. That person had long hairs and was looking towards the floor so that her hairs were covering her face. From the back I thought that finally here enters my most awaited chick. Soon she looked up to find a vacant seat and what I could see that this person was a he and not a she and that too with a good moustache. It was my desperate eyes and mind which pictured him to be a woman.

And by the time, lecture was about to start, it was confirmed that this batch had no girl. When I was on the verge of losing hope...entered a girl. She had extreme fair complexion and looked stunning in her blue jeans and crimson red full sleeve tee. Though she looked little studious, she was the hottest girl for me on the planet. So, now I was wondering where was she gonna take her seat.

She moved. But she didn’t move towards the class rather she moved towards the dais and started rubbing the blackboard with a duster. Damn it! She was the instructor of the class. God was being so brute to me. Well then I just tried to concentrate on the lecture while cursing my fate on the same time.

Somehow, I was trying to deal with the given conditions at IITK. One day on the notice board, I read a notice that they were going to organise a discotheque in the campus and entry was free. So, the evening came and I went to the disc. I entered the disc, hoping to have some fun that night.

In the NIFT, disc used to be full of girls and boys in a proportion of 50:50. And here it wasn’t even 5:95. Well, I saw that there were two girls dancing in one of the corners there. They were good looking too. So, I decided to approach them. Gradually, with my cliché talks, I came close to one of the girls. And we decided to go out of the disc and just have a walk in the campus. This was the first time I was feeling so good. We were having a lot of stupid conversation. We also had some coffee together.

But it was not really the beginning of something great because while having the last sip of my coffee, I was about to ask her a question which was going to devastate me again.

I asked her “So Tanushree, what courses are you enrolled in here at IITK?”

“No, no, no. I am not a student here. I am the daughter of Dr. Ragmohan Reddy. I came from US just yesterday. And I got to know about this discotheque today only so I came here with my friend.” She poured a lot of information.

And, after this I decided not to meet her again.” After saying all this @$$ took a long pause.

“Dude, what’s wrong with you? You got this great girl and now you decided not to meet her. Why?” I asked @$$ to know the reason and also to break the silence

“Why. I tell you. Praveen, I never met this girl but I knew this girl already, even most of the boys in campus know this girl. Because Dr. Ragmohan Reddy has only one daughter and you know what Dr. Ragmohan Reddy is the present Director of IITK. And on the top of that we know that her only daughter was married to a millionaire in US just a month ago.” He said it all in a single breath.

“Oh boy, this is a real disaster. @$$, you are totally screwed.” I sympathized with him and on the same time I could not stop my laughter which burst out abruptly.