Corona Virus & Travel Industry

Corona has affected everyone in this globe except Mother Nature. Everyone is falling sick but Nature is healing day by day reason being everyone is at home. But this healing seems inversely proportional to tourism sector as corona has put a complete break in its operations. It’s a fact that tourism is the first one to get affected and will be the last one to recover from this pandemic.

Lockdown looked the only solution as there is no vaccination of Corona but even after the vaccination (Hope it comes soon) curbs on business travel are likely to stay, even in the medium to long-term, leading companies across India. Corporates will be more conscious of travel spends, especially where technology can be effectively utilised instead. I guess slowly corporates are moving towards to virtual meetings like Skype, Zoom rather than personal meetings. Why to spend money in flights when you can have a face to face interaction through video calling? Subsequently Business travel will decrease significantly. Already Zoom meetings have become the norm. Corporate advisories are out in most multinationals negating travel unless its very important. A significant proportion of companies are actively seeking both to reduce business travel and to cut the number of employees commuting even to the workplace,. Things are not looking good.

Tourism may look inwards, be more domestic directed. Thankfully, traditional domestic travel destinations like Himachal, Ladakh, Goa, Uttarkhand, Andamans, even Pondicherry have remained largely inert to the virus. So much of the honeymoon and holiday traffic may stay within India. Which is surely a silver lining in another wise gloomy scenario. Unfortunately, Kerala and the Golden Triangle of Delhi/Agra/Jaipur are pretty badly impacted. But in a disaster situation, as they say, whatever gets saved from the inferno is a bonus. So we should focus more on domestic now as domestic is something big in future.

Mother Nature will triumph again in all likelihood, nature and wildlife will be preferred over monuments and history in the months ahead. So, the hills, the sea resorts, wild life reserves and slightly isolated locations will win over crowded favourites of yore. This may benefit all the camping and outdoor brands of ITC Hotels, Taj and Oberoi. And AirBnB accommodations, and homestays. 

So the gist is simple. Considering international tourism is badly affected , every Indian should focus on promoting Indian destinations... let’s hope for the best and all the best to everyone.

Hoping everyone will uncover their masks soon and inhale the fresh air once again by travelling to new destinations. Stay safe and save tourism.

Atheism- Not so religious

Being atheist is not at all not believing in God. Atheist is someone who finds logic in everything.

Born in an Uttrakhand Brahmin family, I was raised Hindu. As per my mother she must had done some sins in her previous birth, that I turned out to be an Atheist. As I grew up and became more educated I became an atheist.

Being an atheist in India can be very perplexing. You will find umpteen religions, hundreds of prayers, crores of gods, and millions of controversies surrounding us. And if you talk about me, I know only Gayatri Mantra and Hanuman Chalisa and that's all what I whisper in my head when I have to pretend to pray irrespective of the fact whether I am in a temple or mosque.  As an atheist you might not be interested in all the rituals and traditions but surely you will be interested in the holidays. Atheists like me get heartbroken when they come to know that any religious festival is falling on Sunday and at the same time you are more likely to get euphoric after knowing that a particular festival is falling on Friday which means long weekend. Holidays know no religion as Holiday is just a holiday.

Well, in my opinion religion is also related to dance and food. Festival celebrations are really hard to resist whether its Ganpati Dance, delicious food during Eid, Diwali etc. Being an atheist has nothing to do with the celebrations. You just can’t ignore the lit up streets during festivals. No matter you are theist or atheist you will definitely go for shopping in those decorated streets during Navratre or Diwali period.

With time I guess, I have adapted my belief system as per my convenience. I visit Gurudwara with my wife which is near to my house because I really love the Halwa they distribute as prasad. I also visit Hanuman Temple with my father on monthly basis to distribute foods to beggars and eat Kachauri there. I am not different from religious and political leaders who use religious festivals for their own benefit or comfort. 

To be honest this profound attitude does cause a bit of tension at home at times. Diwali and Kanjak for instance, are fraught with arguments. My parents look forward to waking up early, bathing, dressing up in all their finery, and performing puja, while I prefer waking up late in the afternoon, sitting idle all day. Subsequently I am also expected to participate in the Puja ceremony.  I am supposed  to wear a clean kurta (preferably) and stand with folded hands. I am also supposed to give chorus while they are chanting prayers. Moreover when I don’t give chorus then I start clapping furiously.

May be this atheism phenomenon is a generation stuff as younger generation has become more pragmatic and has started believing in any sort of god lesser than ever before. As per theists viewpoints, it  could be another epidemic, a world full of people who don’t believe in god but won’t mind  enjoying their luxurious benefits such as holidays, food , celebrations etc.

At last I want to say that atheism doesn’t mean to reject the religion outright. All you need to be moral without being religious. Being an atheist you are not prohibited to use “God Bless you” as a blessing. You can use it. 😊

Odds of Odd Even

So finally Odd-Even rule on private vehicles was launched on 1^st January 2016. As per this rule cars’ numbers ending at 1,3,5,7 and 9 will run on Odd days and cars’ numbers ending  at 2,4,6 and 8 will run on even days. Delhi which has become a Gas chamber due to pollution actually needed something to curb pollution but will this Odd even formula will get the expected success? However I really wants this to be successful but following factors can contribute towards its failure.

To start with, Major pollution sources in Delhi aren’t clear yet. Construction, Factories, Trucks coming during midnight are one of them. Ironically, none of these will be covered in the odd-even plan. Without a clear estimate of how much private vehicles contribute to Delhi’s pollution, making half of them sit idle at all times seems like an ill-conceived idea.

Next, we just don’t have the enough traffic police manpower to track adherence. Odd even supporters may believe that people will be good. However, if we were good people, all of India’s schemes would have worked. There will be legal ways around the scheme (buy another car for the number plate, often an old, second hand, more polluting one) or illegal ways (fake an emergency certificate, bribe the cop, take a chance, switch the number plate). After the initial euphoria and media trials around the scheme dies, Delhiites will figure out a way to get their cars on the road.

For those who follow the rules, they will end up burdening the already choked public transport system even more. Autos will either not be available, or will overcharge. Metros, already packed, will become worse. Delhi doesn’t have public transport like Paris and Singapore (where such measures were applied, albeit only on a temporary basis).

Some supporters of this are giving examples of Beijing wherein this kind of formula has already got success and they keep on trying it at regular intervals. But please note that, Beijing is not a democracy, and the plan fits into what an authoritarian state would do. In democratic India we must think a hundred times before we steal our people’s freedom. Hence comparison of both cities is irrational.

Solutions do exist. The long-term solution is to create more world-class cities like Delhi, to avoid large influx of people coming to Delhi for jobs etc. Delhi also needs a much better public transport system. In the short term, we can restructure offices with lower taxes to have different work hours, which will balance out the traffic and make it move faster. As per a study, st car stuck in a traffic jam pollutes much more than a car that quickly finishes its journey. We can also raise taxes on purchase of new cars (or limit their numbers) Taxi sharing apps must be endorsed on a large scale so that they can go a long way in reducing cars on the roads.

AAP deserves credit for trying to do something about Delhi’s pollution. Delhi deserves better air but it also deserves more sensible solutions to achieve the same.

Unforgettable trip to Patal Bhuvaneshwar

We left Naintal and moved towards Patal Bhuvaneshwar around 7 AM, refreshed because of unforgettable experience of Nainital. There are two ways to go to Patal Bhuvaneshwar. The normal and shorter route is to turn towards Almora and cross Bare Chhina, Shera Ghat and by-passing Beri Nag, we reached Patal Bhuvaneshwar.

We stayed at a beautiful resort called Sailasha Resort which is 3 KMs away from the patal bhuvaneshwar cave. After spending a night there, we left for the caves next morning around 8 AM.

We parked our car outside the temple and walked around 200 meters to reach the caves and here were the ASI boards which informed us of their importance. Meanwhile we were also told by shopkeepers of that area that we are not allowed to take cameras and mobile phones inside the caves.

Once we reached the entrance of the caves, all we could see was an open gate with a big bell and it was slightly disappointing for me to start the journey of the cave .It certainly wasn’t an impressive sight, and I wondered what we were doing here. Meanwhile, we were approached by a guard who told us that we have to hand over our cameras at the entrance and pay the entrance charges at a small cabin which we had ignored.  We approached towards the cabin and I had a look at that small cabin. Lot of phones and cameras were there and yes there were no lockers to put them. The lone person sitting in the cabin told us that he would take care of them, and that we should also hire a guide, since otherwise we would not understand anything about the caves. He took our details like name, address and all and we left with the guide to explore the caves.

We stepped into the collapsible door after being frisked by the an old guard, and suddenly, I felt myself entering a different world! It was immediately apparent why the place was called ‘Patal’ Bhuvaneshwar – just the sight of the tiny tunnel-like cave leading downwards made me feel I was entering the bowels of the earth – the nether world or ‘Patal’ as it is called in Indian mythology! It’s a pity photography is not allowed inside, for I am sure I could have taken better photographs of the place than those which they sell outside. At least I would have shots of the tunnel and the rough steps, some cut into the stone, and some simply boulders placed at strategic positions for grip and ease. To be honest, initially when I started going down , I wanted to give up as I was too scared to enter the caves. All I thought that what will happen if an earthquake will come and all of us will be buried inside the caves. Even then, I barely managed the descent  by holding on to the chains provided and chanting  Bum Bum Bholey and Har Har Mahadev again and again. We had to crawl through a few sections, and even slide along at times! Our descent came to an abrupt halt after about 5-7 minutes, and I found myself on a ledge from where we had to go down by stairs. Even that wasn’t easy for me as I had to took help of a man to jump and when I did I saw the most pulchritudinous scene of my life. I was awestruck by the beauty of the cave. I turned around with a gasp to see that subterranean cave, one which could easily hold around 50 people. It was cold inside and surprisingly my fear of earthquake was gone by the time. The first image I saw was an outgrowth from the stone wall, which, at first glance reminded me of the hood of a snake! At once I realized the importance and the interest the cave holds in the mind of the Hindu tourist, for here was a place where it was so easy to relate to the stories we have heard in our childhood and been brought up on. The stone j had a suggestion of curve, and to my mind, it immediately conjured up an image of a snake – SheshNaag no doubt! No wonder people turned up here in large numbers! A minute later, I was proved right when our guide began his lecture telling us about this being the inside of SheshNaag. He pointed to a series of bumps on the surface, and told us that these were the ribs of SheshNaag. While my rational mind could see the association of ideas, I found myself appreciating not just the beauty of nature which had created such a place, but also the imagination which led to it being idolized and eulogized. I again had a look at those ‘ribs’. That formation was approximately at the centre of the cave/tunnel throughout and did, indeed look like ribs. I really wish I had some pictures of them. For those readers who are interested, here is the history/legend of the cave – this cave has apparently existed since the beginning of time, and has been the abode of gods and goddesses. It has remained closed to humans except for certain instances in every age/yuga. It first opened to one of the ancestors of Lord Ram in the Treta Yuga, when he was fleeing from a demon, and Lord Shiva granted him darshan here. He also informed the king that the cave opened for him only because of his need and his worth. The cave opened again in the next Yuga when the Pandavas passed by on their way to the Himalayas, and they are believed to have rested here for a while. It closed again, only to be opened for Adi Shankaracharya in the present age, who asked for the cave to be kept open for the upliftment of humankind. Of course, the legend also says that this cave has four gates, one each for truth, righteousness, duty and nirvana/moksha. Of these, only one remains open now, the one for duty, since that’s all one can do in this age of sinfulness. So it really does not matter if the cave is opened in this age. Also, the cave is believed to be an indicator of the Yuga, and its progress, and is believed to indicate the end of the Yuga. It will be destroyed along with the world at the end of this age, and will again be formed in the new cycle of life, or so goes the legend. Getting back inside the cave, our guide took us through the various formations of stalactites and stalagmites, each representing to the believer, some form of the lord. We passed by Ganesha in his original form, waiting for the elephant’s head to be fixed on his neck, while the Brahma Kamal (lotus of Brahma) dripped nectar on him, keeping him alive. We passed through Vasuki and Takshak, the two great snakes, Patal Devi, the guardian of the netherworld, the swan of Lord Brahma, cursed for trying to sip the holy water, his head turned away from the bowl of water he was supposed to be guarding, the Kalpavriksha, the wish fulfilling tree, the thousand legs of Airavat, the elephant of Indra, the Parijat tree, the tree from the heavens, and many many more. But this cave surely belongs to lord Shiva because lot many shapes resemble to him or related to him. Firstly, to me, this seems just like the kind of place the lord with no attachments would love to be in! Secondly every small projection from the ground resembles the lingam, the form we pray to Him in. Further emphasizing this are the drops of water which fall perennially on these small lingams, yet do not collect and stagnate as they do at most places. Moving further we saw the impression of famous Shiv Jata to  hold the flow of river Ganges. How easy it is to believe in the stories of the descent of the Ganga, especially when you see, just at one place, standing out against the black surface of the rock, white streaks aplenty, in bunches, resembling hair, with water cascading down them, filling a small pool with clear water. Trust me the entire scene was tasting sweet and heavenly. As I write these words I wish I could show you the cave as I saw it through my eyes – not through the eyes of those who are just concerned with making it a place of pilgrimage, for here is a place which is truly spiritual! I wish we could learn to appreciate the beauty of nature more, and try to keep the beauty of the place intact, learning how to keep it clean and unspoilt, the way it has remained over centuries without any help from us! I wish people would learn to pray with their hearts rather than with flowers and incense, water and milk, for I can see the place becoming as crowded as any other temple, easily accessible as it is by road! I shudder to think what will happen when hordes of people descend on this place and desecrate it with filth that they leave behind. As of today, in spite of advertisements and even a website, the caves are still their natural self, apart from a few human and inevitable changes. I can only pray to the lord to take care of the place he has cared for over the ages, and not allow us to spoil his work and his presence! I did buy a set of photographs at the cave, but have not uploaded them yet, since the photos can be seen on the temple website which also has lots of other details. This post is not as much about the structures in the cave, but about the feelings they induced in me. If you are interested, please do go through their website and see all their photographs and details. Patal Bhuvaneshwar is located in the Pithorgarh district of Uttarakhand, 91 Kms from the city of Pithorgarh and 177 Kms from Kathgodam. The journey from Nainital will take around 6 hours.

First encounter with Shivani

Red sweater, black jeans ,fair complexion, long hair….. Hey I am not talking about some red riding hood..it was me getting ready for a party. No doubt I was looking good and to confirm it, I checked myself 135 times in the mirror. After my narcissism was over I left my house for the party. Well it was a birthday party  of my student shikha’s 5 year old brother. There was a jaagran(goddess worship) also. I should mention here that I was a chemistry tutor for two years and because of that goodwill I earned during tuition days I am still getting invited by them, even for the BIRTHDAY PARTIES.I reached the venue at 9 PM and after reaching, my fingers ran on to my mobile and dialed a number.‘hey, hi where are you?’, I asked.‘Hi bhaiya, have you reached?’, shikha replied from the other side.‘yes but where are you’, I asked. I was looking here and there trying to locate her.‘right behind you’, shikha replied. She was standing right behind me in a blue suit and was looking good.I congratulated her on her brother’s birthday and I feel it’s the party gesture to congratulate the host because if you don’t do it, you won’t get the cake. So no need to mention here that soon I got the cake- the chocolate one.‘give me 5 mins and till then you enjoy your cake’, she smirked at me and left.I had a look at the arrangement at the party venue. There were statues of Goddess Durga lined up to get worshipped later on after the dinner. There were some aunties sitting on chairs, gossiping as usual. Some of them were wearing gold pendants bigger than Olympic gold medals. After observing the worship place I moved on towards the dinner area. Soon I was joined by my two old students Himanshu and Prashant. Here I should mention that I was complimented by himanshu on my looks which means I was actually looking good.We moved towards the dinner area which held around 200 people. Most of the women were standing at the chaat corner enjoying chaat as if it’s the first time they were having it. I simply don’t understand the abnormality in women’s behavior while eating chaat or spicy food. Can’t they have it normally without jumping and slurping? I had some snacks while discussing trivial talks with my two students.‘so are you enjoying ?’, shikha said to me. She was back and this time with nishu (her friend and my student also)‘yeah, absolutely and you know me that I don’t get bored as only thing I need to have is at least one person standing or sitting next to me, so that he can listen to my blah blah’, I said pointing towards prashant and himanshu.‘yes we know bhaiya’, nishu said and we all started laughing.I winked at shikha and asked her to come along with me for some time alone. She agreed as we have a good bonding apart from a teacher-student relationship.‘so you must have invited your lot of friends here’, I asked her. I asked this question to her as I saw very good faces in the party with good assets. I had a devil’s smile at my face while asking this question to her.‘yes all my school mates and college mates are here. Why did you ask?’, she asked. Perhaps she understood my intentions but girls are like this only. They pretend to be unaware all the time.‘well I saw some good girls out here and I was hoping to get introduced to them through you’, I replied. The devil’s smile was becoming bigger and bigger.‘don’t worry bhaiya. i know what you want and I will introduce you to them’, She replied and we started laughing like we are terrorists about to execute a conspiracy, but the only difference in our terrorism was that our weapons were shikha’s references and my looks and targets were all girls infact good girls.‘ok but let’s have some food as I am getting ravenous now’, I said and called nishu also.We entered the main dining area. It was even more crowded with aunties and girls than the chaat area. I  even thought of asking shikha that whether she has invited whole colony of hers in the party. I dropped the idea of asking that silly question as I was more interested in food at that point of time. I took some food in a plate and started discussing our conspiracy with shikha and nishu.Soon after deciding with whom I want to get introduced and finishing my food I went with shikha to get introduced to her friends. If I remember exactly the first girl I was introduced by shikha was her best friend and she was double of my size. I didn’t say anything to shikha as she was her best friend. I am good at heart and I don’t hurt people and if I do, its purely intentional and people who know me are comfortable with it.I was introduced to a few more girls after that by shikha but they were out of my league and they were not the girls I was looking for. Actually I should mention here I was just doing time pass with shikha by asking her to introduce me to her friends as there was nothing else to do in the party and it was completely innocuous also.We reached the chaat area again and this time shikha said to me something by waving to a girl.‘hey wanna get introduced to shivani’, shikha said waving out to a girl. I could not see her face as her back was towards me. The only thing I could see was her long hair and her magenta colour suit.‘ya but not right now as she is with her friends and it doesn’t look nice. By the way who is she?’, I asked shikha.  I was still not able to see her face.‘ok, well she is shivani and she is my cab mate doing MCA from greater noida’, shikha said almost giving her complete bio data as if I am an employer looking for prospective MCAs.I took a few steps ahead to see her face and that could have been the last thing I remembered from that moment had I had a weak heart. I had passed out for a few seconds for sure. I almost skipped my few heart beats or may be it had just stopped beating altogether. I was almost imploded. She was breathtakingly beautiful or I would rather say unrealistically beautiful.She was so hard to describe. Those limpid constantly wet brown eyes  seem like as if they were screaming for love. She had big eyes of a month old baby, big and screaming for attention. A perfectly drafted nose, flawless light red lips and a fair complexion that would even put photoshop to shame.Soon shikha left as she was supposed to sit in the POOJA and I was left standing alone in the party venue by her. But my condition was hard to explain as I just couldn’t look beyond her face but I had to look here and there to make her realize that I was not looking at her. Normally I could have said million things to anyone but my senses had still not recovered from that temporary paralysis she had just subjected me to. I was trying hard not to make eye to eye contact and stay alive simultaneously.Though I was looking good but to check myself I went to washroom and saw myself in the mirror and came back to the worship venue. She was sitting with her friends on the couch and I guess she was also looking at me. ( well I should mention here that she was also looking at me and she confessed this thing in our first meeting but full description of that meeting will be published in my next blog).I called my friend on phone as I was getting bored and I started walking in front of her to get noticed by her. Though I was talking to my friend on phone but mentally I wanted to talk to her, sit with her. I sat on the couch next to her couch and I saw her and If I remember our eyes met and that was the moment I can’t forget till date. I am not a writer but that one eye encounter has made me write this blog.‘What happened? Why are you not speaking?’, my friend shouted on phone. I almost forgot that I was on phone courtesy that eyes encounter which lasted around 3-4 seconds I guess.‘ohh, nothing, I will talk to you later’, I said to him and hung up as the whole idea behind talking to my friend was to get noticed by shivani.I checked my watch and it was 11:30 and day after tomorrow I had my exam. So unwillingly I stood up to leave and I again had a look at her and I saw her and I immediately I turned my face away from her. I guess I was scared and I simply don’t know the reason of that.I said good bye to shikha by waving my hand as she was busy in POOJA and wasn’t able to come to me. Shikha replied in the same gesture and I started walking to leave the venue. I had several thoughts running to my mind about shivani while leaving the venue. ‘should I turn back to see her once again?, what she will be thinking about me?, but those thoughts remained thoughts only as I left the venue leaving all of my thoughts and her thoughts also in that night of darkness. But now there is no more darkness as we both are in LOVE. OMG  I really love her. LOVE YOU SHIVANI. 

one day at NSB

“Let me read you suckers” Himanshu shouted.(Though he said these words in Hindi along with his Hindi absurds which goes with him wherever he goes but I think its not suitable to include those B and C words of him in my story).

You guys should also read and especially you Sanjay, Himanshu yelled at me, this time even louder.

‘ its okay’, I said.

‘No its not Okayyyyyyy’, Himanshu said (his okay lasted around 5 seconds). ‘Both of you now please be quiet, it’s our exam and you can resume your stupid talks post exam’.

We kept quiet or I should say we tried to be quiet as nobody takes himanshu seriously.

(well it was our second last exam of MBA 3^rd sem and it was TQM( Total Quality Management). As usual we all were going to our college in our cab. We used to be six persons but now the number has reduced to four because of our rift with two female cab mates. ( hey readers don’t get excited with the female word, there was nothing feminine in them. In fact they were girls only on biological terms). Anyways , now the persons left in our cab are Himanshu . two brothers (Chetanya and Ekansh) and me (Sanjay).

We reached college at 9:35 AM and exam was scheduled to take place at 10:00 AM. We saw a group of students standing outside the college and protesting against the college. We ignored them and deboarded the cab just outside the college. We escaped them as we were in car otherwise if we would have been walking , they would have stopped us.

‘What happened guard saab’, Chetanya asked one of the guards.

‘Nothing serious you guys go on and study’, Guard replied. He was looking worried

‘its none of our business, we have only 20 minutes left in exam. Its useless to spare time on this stuff and I guess we should study without wasting much time’, Ekansh said. He is a mugger. He doesn’t stop reading until the last second before exam. I don’t like this habit.But no doubt he is intelligent.

‘Yes he is right’, himanshu said.

We went to library and took our places to study. Library ambience was as usual silent. A few students were already there trying to cram the book. I could see tension on their faces.

We started studying like if we won’t study, the college will take out all our body parts and we will be bankrupted in terms of body parts.

After a period of long 5 minutes, as expected I lost my patience and I lifted my head upwards to see what others were doing. Not surprisingly, all of them were studying except me. Ekansh and Himanshu were as usual mugging hard. Chetanya was trying to make a balance between books and boobs. He is fucking fond of boobs. He wants to squeeze them, press them, outline them etc.

‘What’s going around in the college today? Do you know anything?’, I asked Chetanya.

‘I don’t know ,may be Himanshu knows about it. He said.

‘how the fuck I would know about this’, himanshu retorted.

‘Oh! You don’t know, then may be your dad knows about it. Call him to find out’, chetanya said and smirked at me.

‘Fuck you’, Himanshu said.

‘I think we should go and find out the matter. It seems it has something to do with our exam’, I suggested.

‘No, we are studying. Both Ekansh and Himanshu echoed together.

‘As if it was unexpected to hear no from you muggers’, I replied.

‘you wanna come chetanya’, I asked.

‘Nah yaar you carry on I don’t feel like going outside and I think you should not go also’, He said.

‘Thanks for the suggestion but I can go alone also’, I said and left the library.

Several thoughts came to my mind while leaving the library. “what is with this protest?” “Will today’s exam take place or not?” “ Will our college visit will be wasted as we pay heavily to cab for each college visit?”. I looked at my watch, it was 09:50 AM. I saw some familiar faces outside the canteen. I rushed to them.

‘hey wassup guys. What’s happening in the college? Do you know?’, I asked them.

‘Arrey this was expected dude. Its because of the 2^nd sem result and 80% of the students have flunked in one or two subjects’, He replied.

‘This is insane yaar, can’t they do lenient marking?’, I said

‘That’s why protest seems rational, and today’s exam is postponed’, He said.

‘That’s great news and thanks for the information’, I said and left for the library.

‘hey guys got to tell you something very interesting’, I said. I was back in library.

‘what happened?’, Chetanya asked.

‘Well I have a good news and a bad news. Which should I tell you first’, I said

‘Don’t act childish and make it fast yaar’, Himanshu said.

‘Relax boy, relax’, I gave himanshu a pat and continued.

‘ Well good news is that exam is postponed for some hours and bad news is that our 2^nd Sem result is out and 80% of the students have failed in one or two subjects’. I said

‘You better be serious’, Himanshu said. He was looking scared.

‘ Results are at the notice board. So we can confirm the news also’, I suggested.

‘I don’t want to check my result before exam’, ekansh said. He thinks it can affect his exam performance.

‘Cmon! Exam is postponed yaar’, I said loudly. It was loud enough to attract some of the studious faces. Even the librarian stared at me like I have done an unforgivable sin.

I acted like if it wasn’t me who was talking and simulated to study.

After 2 minutes I again asked my friends to check out the result. I whispered this time to ensure not to grab the librarian’s attention.

We reached the notice board at 10:00 AM. Though there was no official announcement of the deferral of the exam but it was for sure postponed courtesy the protest. We saw some students glued to the notice board and checking their result. Their worried faces increased our tension. We slowly walked towards the notice board.

‘I flunked in statistics’, Himanshu said after checking his result. He was looking somewhat relieved. I guess he expected 2-3 back papers.

Unfortunately Ekansh and Chetanya also flunked in Statistics. I checked mine and I was clear in all subjects though I got very bad marks.

Now I hate this situation when you have cleared all subjects but your friends flunked in one or two. Its tough for you to decide whether to enjoy your result our be mournful at your friends’ failure. I really hate this situation.

Fortunately I didn’t need to be mournful or console my friends as they found that they were fail in internals which is not a big issue in NSB. In fact NSB itself is not a big issue.

So practically we all were pass. We went to lawn after checking our result

It wasn’t a usual sight during exam in the NSB lawn. Normally you could see some students mugging hard in the lawn before exam but it was completely opposite that day. Students were normally chatting around as if exam was not at all scheduled to happen. We even saw some of the faculty members in the lawn but they were looking worried. It was completely opposite as during exam students are worried and faculty is happy but that day was different.

We moved ahead and saw college dean standing near the college entrance along with some faculty members and guards. Even he was looking worried as he might not expected such an agitation from the college students. We moved further to find out the matter and what I saw was completely unexpected and I understood why dean and faculty members were looking shocked.

A large number of students of our college were at the college entrance. It was quite a weird site watching them and shouting like paid followers of a local politician. They walked up to gate but stopped barely inches away from the entrance gate as guards closed the doors.

‘This is the height yaar. Are they wannabe managers?’, I said sarcastically.

‘very true. I mean I can’t even imagine myself doing all this stuff. I can’t even think about being a part of any protest and shout like this’, Ekansh said.

Ekansh was right and he made a sense also. However protest was for our interest but I feel there are other ways also to solve problems like low marks. This was insane. I thought

‘Let’s go to canteen’, Chetanya said.

‘No! I feel we should go to library as tomorrow is our IBE exam and if exam is postponed for some hours today then we won’t be having time to read IBE at home’, Himanshu suggested.

Eureka! For the very first time in his life himanshu made sense but his logic lasted only 10 seconds as ekansh reminded us that we don’t have IBE syllabus. So we dropped the idea of studying IBE and moved to canteen.

Our canteen is even worse than our college. In fact it is just a place to eat while sitting. Being a student of Delhi University I have a different definition of canteen and NSB canteen is far away from my definition. It was like a Delhi University canteen is robbed. It has some plastic chairs and tables in tow rows which are in “anytime fall” condition. A part of one row is reserved for the college staff. The whitewashed walls are keep on making the attire of NSB students white by constantly shedding its white color. As far as roof is concerned, it is a concrete grey tin which allows tiny droplets of rain water during rain. However college authority have tried to ameliorate the condition of canteen by placing two LCDs but it always show some crap stuff. If I talk about food, its like the boring kitchen staff don’t care whether the food is served to prisoners or future managers.

We sat in canteen after finding a suitable place. It was already 10:20 AM and the exam time was still uncertain.

The situation outside the college was getting worst by time. Students were really looking very angry on college management.

My cell phone rang. It was Akhil, my friend. I picked up the call.

‘hello! Where are you bhai?’, he asked.

‘where I could be? I am in hell*’, I replied. (*hell=NSB)

‘come outside we are in Heaven’, he replied in same context.

‘I can’t come as the doors are closed. By the way what is happening outside’, I said.

‘we are protesting against the college management’ what else?’, he replied.

‘arrey that is visible but for what?’, I asked Irately.

‘Why you don’t know?’, he asked.

‘no yaar. tell me’, I said. I was losing patience.

‘nothing yaar. what the fuck NSB management thinks of itself? I mean they have already fucked us by giving us admission and they are not fucking satisfied with this, they have again fucked us by giving us fucking low marks’, He said angrily. Akhil has a habit of using fuck word even when it is unnecessary.

‘so what are the demands?’, I asked like as if I was NSB management.

‘our demands are very simple and rational too. The only thing we are asking is to give us good marks. Fellow college MBA students are getting better marks than us and if we will not be placed by college then at least we can try off campus on the basis of good marks’, he said. Akhil sounded rational. I mean the hope of getting placed with good package from our NSB is like hoping against hope. Good marks can at least allow us to apply for good companies off campus.

‘you guys have made a good move. College management should be taught a lesson. Enough with their autocracy’, I said and almost joined the protest though on phone.

‘you come outside bhai’, he requested.

Have you lost your brains? Its not a fort having secret exits. It has only one entrance cum exit which is closed courtesy you guys and guards. I am trapped and can’t come outside’, I said sarcastically. I am very good in making sarcastic comments.

‘Oh! Anyways , I will hang up now. Bye’, akhil said.

‘ok if anything new happens, let me know about that’, I said and hung up.

‘What happened?’, chetanya asked.

I told him everything akhil told me about the protest.

‘but what about the exams of today and tomorrow? Any news about exams’, ekansh said.

He was looking worried. I wonder why he was thinking about exams. I mean its very rare to get exams postponed. We should enjoy it rather worrying about it.

‘sorry…. No news about exams but I will try to find out’, I said and smiled.

I stood up to leave the canteen. Chetanya joined me this time.

We passed through the corridors and we saw a few faculty members standing.

‘be careful, they are throwing stones’, usha mam warned us.

I sort of ignored her comment as I was looking at her ass. Its bigger than mine and chetanya’s combined.

We reached C-block. I looked around to find some familiar faces for some trivial talks like exams. Of course exam is a trivial talk.

‘that’s Kalindi na’, chetanya asked. I could see lust in his eyes when he looks at her.

‘yes…. So?’, I said.

Chetanya smirked at me and started ogling at Kalindi.

‘Sanjay, don’t go near the college entrance’, someone called me from the back. Voice seemed familiar to me.

I turned back and found the most pissed off faculty of NSB. It was Sridevi mam. She can irritate even a dead body.

‘don’t go near the college entrance and be inside the college’, she said again as if I missed her last time.

‘why?’, I asked.

I don’t know why I said “why” that time but I felt good when I argue with her. It gives me pleasure in annoying her.

‘It seems you have a habit of asking “why” every time’, she said derisively.

‘yes I have it since birth’, I replied and started walking away.

I saw her as I walked away. She was looking more pissed off. I felt good.

‘why do you have to talk like this to her? She is a faculty member’, Chetanya scolded me.

‘I don’t care whether she is a faculty or not. I don’t like her’, I said.

‘nobody likes her, but still you need not to be that much witty to irritate a faculty member’, chetanya said.

‘Got it sir. Now let’s go’, I said and placed my arms around his shoulders.

We reached canteen and joined Ekansh and Himanshu again. Soon we were instructed to go to library as the protesting students were getting more violent with the time. We had to rush to library.

It was the weirdest scene in the library at that moment. I mean libraries are known for their pin drop silence, but unlike its reputation library on that day seemed no less than a chaotic canteen. Even the bags were allowed inside the library. I even thought of stealing a book from library. We found a place and placed our butts there.

My phone rang again. Unlike the normal situation not even a single head turned to me. Even the librarian avoided the ring tone and kept himself busy in his computer. I wonder what he does on computer throughout his working hours. Perhaps he watches porn.

‘hi sameer’, I said after picking up call. It was rare to talk on phone in a library.

‘,where are you?’, he asked.

‘I am in library’, I replied.

‘arrey bhai, I came early in the morning. That’s why I am inside the college. Otherwise who the fuck wants to be inside the NSB confines’, I said sardonically. It was good to abuse in library. I was on a roll.

‘ohh! That’s true. Anyways now I will hang up. If you get any information about the reschedule of exams then let me know about that. Bye’, Sameer said.

‘For sure’, I replied and hung up.

Soon the library was locked as the protesting students were trying to enter the library. They had already broken the college entrance. Somebody said the students inside the college are not safe as the protesting students were threatening to beat them for not being a part of the protest.’

We spent another half an hour in library.

‘please pay attention here’, one of the students said after entering the library. Library was unlocked too.

‘listen to this, its very important’, he again said this time even louder.

‘exams of today and tomorrow have been postponed for an uncertain period and all of you students are supposed to stay inside the college for some time as its not safe to go outside the college. If anyone wants to go, then he or she will go on their own risk’, he said and repeated this three times.

‘We should go home now’, Ekansh said. He was relieved now as exams were postponed officially.

‘its 11:30 AM now’, I said after showing him my sonata watch.

‘I know the time dude. But what the hell we will do here now as even exams have also been postponed officially’, Ekansh said.

‘yeah that’s right. But somebody will explain me how the heck we will get out of here’, I said.

‘there must be a way. I mean there must be another way other than college entrance to get out of college. But for that we need to get out of the library’, Ekansh said.

‘ok’, I said and we all moved out.

We went to the parking area to find an exit. I felt like as if we all were incarcerated in an old fort and were looking to find a secret exit. We checked every place of the college to get rid of the NSB confines at that moment. In all this we literally explored new places in NSB where we were never been to. We also thought of climbing the fence but soon dropped the idea as the fence was high and had glasses laid over it.