Out of sight...

I love Vodafone's ZooZoo ads. Those funny looking white creatures speaking some alien language are very  cute. But just this evening, while I was watching one of their ads, it suddenly struck me how their predecessor has now been completely wiped out from our memories. The Hutch dog was incredibly adorable, and I absolutely loved it in the ads. Even the jingle, 'You and I....' was really hummable. But then Hutch changed to Vodafone and the cute dog got replaced with ZooZoos....
I guess that is how things go around usually. At one time, everything is perfect and you're on the top of the world, and the next instant things change, either for the better or for worse. Everything in life is very transient...very replaceable, I guess. If there's something good, then there will always be something better around. I had some friends in school whom I vowed to forever stay in touch with, but now the only contact between us is Facebook. I have a group of friends in college, and at this point of time when we're all nostalgic as it is the last month before we graduate, I wonder how many of will actually bother about the others a few years down. Most of us who are in romantic liaisons will probably find someone different; someone better to be with. Our choices change as the days pass. It absolutely amazes me to see how people find relationships and memories replaceable!!! An individual's own choice it surely is, but I still find it very...for want of a better word...frustrating. And it really upsets me to see how this the way most people are generally.
Every relationship- even failed ones, every memory-even unhappy ones, every person I've been closely associated with-even if not now, and every penetrating thought is deeply etched in my memory. None of them can ever be replaced by terming as an emotional baggage, because each one of them has its own rightful place; each one of them has taught me, and made me better in thought and in action. None of my friends can ever be replaced by new ones, because I believe, each one of them has been amazing enough to deserve a very special place. My choices, and likes cannot ever be replaced because I have harboured them for as long as I can remember. Of all the people who changed, and all the things that eventually did not turn out in my favour? Well, they can not just be replaced to make place for 'better' ones because they are a constant reminder. All I am trying to say is that I am very happy to remember and moreover value each of these things because when they happened, they did matter a lot to me. I know a lot of people will not agree with me on this (they never do), but then... it's just me... :-)
  

Engineers on the streets

D.C.E. got changed to D.T.U. and all hell broke loose. 

Last summer, the Delhi government decided to upgrade our Delhi College of Engineering to the Delhi Technological University, and ever since the decision materialised, there have been a series of discussions about the viability of the action and its repercussions, among the students as well as the faculty. The government decided to take this action to enable full autonomy to the administration in terms of course revision, hiring of teaching staff and general administrative work. But the students did not take kindly to this, and fearing the degradation of the brand name of the institution, appealed to the authorities to revoke the decision. However, after months of no action, the students and the faculty decided to take the issue in their own hands and show a more salient agitation and disapproval. It all started earlier this month with the students protesting on the roads outside the college, against the Vice-Chancellor, who was asked to step down, and the authorities to repeal the decision. The protests went on till late in the evenings and over the subsequent days spread to Jantar Mantar, C.P., and India Gate. The protest has, surprisingly received complete support from the entire student community, as can be seen by the complete no show of the students in the mid-terms examinations that were to be held last week. The entire college chose to sit in the blazing sun in Japanese Park near the college in silent protest rather than appear for the exams in security of the RAF. My stance, on the conversion, is not what I'm trying to highlight here, though. What I am actually impressed by is the most remarkable feature of the entire unrest, which was that at no point did the students resort to any form of violence to make themselves heard. It would have been very convenient to burn down buses outside the college, disrupt traffic, break things inside the campus or even physically attack people, but kudos to all who chose instead to have a peaceful and non-disruptive and moreover a civilised and Gandhian form of protest against the authorities. All the students participated in the protest out of their own free will and no incentives were offered to anyone to join the agitation. I was quite surprised at how everyone actually turned up for the protests about which they were informed through messages! Everyone participated out of genuine concern for the college and the fraternal feelings running through the entire student group; and this is extremely commendable, as is the way Ravi and his team pulled off the entire protest....great work people (sic)!!!

I am here...again!

I started blogging a year ago as well. Then I stopped in, I think, three days because I got bored, and also because I was in the hostel at that time, and had no regular access to the internet. But these days I am literally vella so I thought of giving this a shot again.
Quite a few of my friends write blogs and they make for very interesting reading. Mohit, is one of them and I can say that he is my latest inspiration. So, I think this time atleast I will be pretty regular with my posts and will not delete my blog, unless of course,  there aren't any people to read it, which I am hoping will not be the case.