You Can’t Complete Engineering...

You Can’t Complete Engineering...

Story of a struggle for the coveted Engineering degree!

A book by Atul R Thakare: At a Glance

Rajesh (they call him Raj) is an engineering student who wears his heart on sleeve. He is smitten by a practical girl Shalaka, who rejects him outright. Now he has a herculean task of proving himself by managing the messed up studies and his broken heart. On the same track are his batch-mates, Rakesh, Suhas, Manoj and Rahul.

Rakesh is mad about the college Nightingale Avanti, whereas Manoj falls for the beautiful daughter of professor Deokar. And Rahul is another Romeo in making with Sarita as his Juliet. Suhas is helping him out in his love affairs with his own search for a partner going on Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak.

How all these 'characters’ in themselves make it to the most coveted degree in engineering through their khadoos professors, social gatherings, University blunders and all other lochas. What is the twist in Rajesh's life? Do all of them successfully complete their engineering in the college YCCE, where the ex-students say You Can’t Complete Engineering.

Placements @ C-DAC - All izz well

C-DAC’s Advanced Computing Training School (ACTS) has always been the first choice of IT companies when it comes to recruiting Project ready manpower. This time also all the top blue-chip organizations marked their presence with increased pay packets at C-DAC’s Common Campus Placement Programme (CCPP). The CCPP organized by C-DAC saw a 30% hike in the salary packages of many companies this time, as compared to last batch. Hewlett Packard which offered Rs. 4 lakh/annum to the students of last batch is offering Rs.5 lakh/annum to this batch, whereas Rockwell Collins have also increased their salary package from Rs. 3.5 lakh/annum to Rs. 4.7 lakh/annum for this batch. Cavium Networks offered Rs. 6 lakh/annum which was the highest salary for this batch.

The CCPP for August 2010 batch started in the second week of February 2011 at Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. More than 700 students across the domains have been placed in various blue-chip companies till date. All top IT companies like Microsoft, HP, TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Nvidia, IBM, Cognizant, TATA Technologies, JOHN DEERE, HSBC, Honeywell, Persistent, 3DPLM, Cybage, JDA, Marvell, Nihilent, KPIT Cummins, Samsung, SEARS, Tech Mahindra, Fidelity, LSI, SAS, Cavium Networks and many more participated for the campus placements this time. C-DAC has also recruited some of the bright minds from ACTS for their R&D projects.

The CCPP provides a common platform for the companies to interview, select and recruit the aspiring students from ACTS for their IT projects. Over 800 students pursuing various courses at C-DAC ACTS like, Post Graduate Diploma in Advanced Computing (DAC), Diploma in VLSI Design (DVLSI), Post Graduate Diploma in Embedded Systems (DESD), Post Graduate Diploma in System Software Design (DSSD), Post Graduate Diploma in Geoinformatics (PG-DGI), Post-Graduate Diploma in Wireless and Mobile Computing (WiMC), Post Graduate Diploma in Health Informatics (PG-DHI), Post Graduate Diploma in Integrated VLSI and Embedded System Design (DIVESD) and Post Graduate Diploma in IT Infrastructure, Systems and Security (DITISS) are participating in this Common Campus Placement programme. These courses are generally preferred by Engineering and MCA/MCS/BCA/BCS Graduates.

Atul R Thakare

Placement Co-ordinator

C-DAC ACTS, Pune

3 IDIOTS : Vidhu, Raju and Aamir

Every Fire is followed by smoke, and that's what is happenning with 3 Idiots, the movie which has set up the bollywood or the Hindi Film industry on fire. The smoke is coming out of the writer Chetan Bhagat, whose popular novel Five Point Someone ( FPS) is the inspiration for this movie. But ironically the renowned writer wasn't duly credited by Raj Kumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra for the blockbuster 3 idiots. This is something for which our Hindi Film industry is famous (rather infamous). It's very difficult to understand why people who are already rich, famous and having goodwill do all such ill things despite getting all the rewards and recognition for their efforts. Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu vinod Chopra and Aamir Khan, all three of them are big names in Indian Film industry. Such cheating is not expected from them. But they have done it. Millions of people like me have read Chetan Bhagat's FPS , liked it, read it again and loved it. This is the novel which has made Chetan a YOUTH ICON and all his succeeding novels the bestsellers. He has the capability of turning the characters in the book into real ones in front of you. And that is the reason, we have seen the movie 3 idiots long back when we read FPS. Now as the makers of 3 idiots, Vidhu, Raju and Aamir are claiming that it is an original story and only ‘2%-5% inspired by the book’, then i feel really sorry to say that Vidhu, Raju and Aamir are really the 3 idiots who are spoiling the success of their film.

Of course when a book is made into a film, there are some changes made in the film taking the cinematic liberty, but that doesn't mean that if you make 30-40% change in the story then the story belongs to You. This can only be called as plagiarism, nothing else.

I hope that at least now, these 3 idiots should listen to their inner voice and thank Chetan in the credits for his story. As who have read the book and seen the movie find the film be an adaptation of Five Point Someone. The setting, characters, plotline, dramatic twists and turns, one-liners, theme, message – almost all aspects that make-up story are from FPS” . So the obvious question that comes in the mind of every FPS reader is that how much 3 idiots would have lost if they had credited the original writer for the film?


Atul Thakare
atulrt@gmail.com

What are we up to?

In the wake of Mumbai attack by terrorists, the common man in India is all set to think about where our country and we are moving. Though our security guards and police force defeated the terrorists within sixty hours, there is a series of paradox attached with this unfortunate event. We call our self as tech-savvy and term the world as a global village, we launch self-controlled satellite in space, trace a person in any part of the globe, but still we cannot gauge the exact strength of the terrorists attacking the commercial capital of our country. We still ask our police to use the 1947 manufactured guns and the 1857 manufactured bulletproof jackets to fight with the terrorists equipped with AK 47 rifles and latest weapons. But we won’t ask the same to be done with our politicians’ security. The (mostly corrupt?) politicians are equipped with all the XYZ plus security though they may or may not be in power, as if they are the nation’s most important property. Till date terrorists used to kill the common rather ordinary people in bomb blasts in trains, marketplaces, theatres and other public places. But this time they attacked the high profile hotel and thus the high-profile people. That is the reason all the high-profile ministers had to resign. If they do not, then the aam junta will make them step down in the coming election polls.

But the aam junta also seems to be habituated to these terrorists’ attacks. In big cities terrorists take innocent lives, whereas in villages farmers are ending their lives by committing suicides due to poverty. So what does this mean? Is the mankind slowly going to exhaust like the Dinosaurs? No wonder, Tsunamis, Hurricane Katrina and earthquakes are killing people like anything. Of course according to Indian culture this is Kalyug and it should end soon in order to Satyug to begin. Lot of astrologists have already predicted the end of world in 2013. But nobody can guarantee when the world is going to end. But it is for sure going to end in the near future. And we, the humans are helping it to end by our deeds. We, on one side expect humanity and peaceful behaviour from other (person, religion or state), and we only use violent methods against the other (again person, religion or state) when it comes to action from our side. So here, we ourselves are failing to understand, what are we up to?

We call ourselves as an Agro nation, but we don’t do anything to improve our agriculture scenario. Instead we are building skyscrapers and malls on the agricultural land. We are asking our children to go for Information Technology education just to work for MNCs and receive a fat pay cheque. All these MNCs are working for the G8 nations and none of the IT firm is interested in using Information Technology for improving our agriculture. And now when the US is facing recession due to its sunken free trade policies, our IT talents are facing the brunt of job cuts. It is the case with our states’ employment policies. Very few politicians are interested in generating employment for the people of their own state. TATA Motor’s Singur Plant for Nano, which is now moved to Gujarat, is the classic example of this phenomenon. But our politicians, instead of taking lesson from this, are showing their political prowess to prove how Mumbai is the property of all states. If the same politicians develop their own state or even their ward or constituency, for that matter, the people from that area would never go anywhere else to lead their lives. A guy like me would never leave Nagpur and work in Pune, if the job opportunities in Pune are available for me in my hometown, i.e. Nagpur. We always crib about the soaring flat rates or the traffic problem in Pune, Bangalore or Mumbai for that matter, but in this case, we fail to understand that there is enough space for development in our hometowns like Nagpur, Belgaun or Aurangabad. Just we have to move our politicians in that direction. But there is a minimal possibility that they will look at this big picture, ignoring their vested interests. Because they will understand only when the terrorists attack their office i.e.Parliament or their house. Only then their conscience will awake and they will ask themselves what are we up to?

Sarkar Raj Thackeray

“I don’t know who Raj Thackeray is?” This was the statement given the yesteryear’s actress and the current Rajyasabha MP Ms. Jaya Bachchan, when the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena aka MNS Chief Mr. Raj Thackeray attacked the Legendry actor Mr. Amitabh Bachchan for starting girls’ High school in the town of Allahabad instead of a town in Maharashtra. But now nobody can say that he or she doesn’t know Raj Thackeray, as Mr. Raj Thackeray has become a national figure after his arrest drama. Of course the media has played a vital role making him a person of national importance. But this Thackeray Junior has stirred the atmosphere not only in the state of Maharashtra but also the states like UP, Bihar and Haryana. Nobody will advocate the way MNS activists have beaten the Bihari students, but the issue of ignoring sons of soils in the railway recruitment process has awakened the people of Maharashtra against the government’s faulty administration. This made Raj Thackeray and MNS gain Marathi population’s sympathy. No wonder Raj Thackeray has become the successor of the ShivSena Supremo Bal Thackeray.

India is a democratic country, promoting the freedom to the residents of this country to roam in any part of India. This is what we call as unity in diversity. But to be honest, the natives of states like Bihar, themselves do not want to settle down in their hometowns due to many reasons. And Maharashtra is one state where there is a very conducive atmosphere for one to develop. And the most convenient and alluring thing for any Indian to settle down in Maharshtra is that, one doesn’t have to really learn the native language here. Outsiders can easily survive here with the knowledge of our National (or official?) language, i.e. Hindi. Moreover the people here are tolerable and welcoming to outsiders unlike many other states of our country. So a substantial amount of population from other states like Bihar,UP and southern states have settled in Mumbai and Maharashtra. But when the government jobs in railways in the state of Maharashtra were awarded to outsiders, the new Political party like MNS protested against this in a violent way. The same thing also happened a couple of years back when the “Marathi Hridaysamrat” (Marathi Heartthrob) Mr. Raj Thackeray was in Shivsena. But the government ignored those protests and now it took a violent turn. Though everybody says that the protests should have been done in a non-violent way, can anybody really think that by mere complaining the issue would have been addressed or looking at the discrimination done with sons of the soils, the candidates from other states would not have taken the exam? Of course not, as we are not living in a Ramrajya. And it so happened that all the poltical leaders in Bihar and UP, those who never come together for any constructive purpose, this time came together against Mr. Raj Thackeray only to make him popular.

The popularity (or hatred?) of Mr. Raj Thackeray compelled a youth Rahul Raj from Patna to take 15 passengers in a bus to hostage to reach Mr. Raj Thackeray. But unfortunately he could not reach Mr. Raj Thackeray and was killed by Mumbai Police in an encounter. Now politics is still being played on the youth’s death. Again all the political leaders in Bihar is propagating that Mr. Raj Thackeray is responsible for the youth’s death and the state govt. or Sarkar is supporting MNS and Mr. Raj Thackeray. But the simple question is that what do you expect police to do with a guy holding innocent people on gunpoint. Ofcourse this is a usual thing in states like Bihar, where guys easily get guns to kill their rivals without any police enquiry. And the strange thing is that the leaders from the same states are talking about law and order in Maharshtra. No wonder that the Sarkar is supporting Mr. Raj Thackeray making him Sarkar Raj Thackeray. And looking at the support to Mr. Raj Thackeray by marathi people, one never know when this MNS chief starts running the sarkar of Maharashtra.

Pune Traffic: A Real Case to Study

To begin with I want to say that every thing has two facets, its positive side as well as a negative one. Pune is not an exception to this. To be honest I was very happy to get transferred to Pune. Pune is called as the Oxford of the East. It is the fastest developing city in the world in last twenty years. Pune has got everything which a developed city should हवे. A Strategic location, Good Employment Opportunities, Big Corporate offices, Plush Malls, Hotels, Multiplexes and Housing Societies. But if something is missing the said list, then it’s surely Transport facility in the city. Actually there is no mistake of Government in this. Nobody thought that one day Pune will grow like this and all the narrow lanes in the “Peths” (marketplaces) will wreck such havoc for Traffic. And particularly when the city is having the highest number of two- wheelers in the country. But when it comes to traffic control the Traffic Police and the regulatory authorities are very slack. I have never seen any cop following any rider for violating the rules. Also there is no co-ordination between the Traffic Signals in the city. Even if you go straight on a road the chances of you getting the next signal is almost zero. It means you have to stop on every signal no matter whether you go straight or by turns. This angers the commuters due to which they get impatient resulting into breach of traffic rules.

The IT Revolution has improved the standard of living of an average Punekar. So in each home there is one four wheeler along with a substantial number of two wheelers. The driving habits of the Punekar is the same for two-wheeler as well as four- wheeler. People in Pune try to ride their four-wheelers from the narrowest road as if it is a bike. This is the reason we can see so many cars blocking the entire road. The Government thought that Fly-Overs will be the solution for this problem. But the Fly-Overs and their construction in turn has become another problem. One of the much hyped, celebrated and now infamous fly-overs in Pune, The University flyover has been under construction since the past 2 1/2 years!! So due to such constructions it take 5 wholesome minutes (& loads of carbon consumption in the process) for a normal person just to cross a road from one side to the other (University Circle, Pune). And one can see such constructions going on all over the city.

Now to tell my personal experiences:

1) My home is in one of the ’so-called’ better areas of Pune - Aundh, and is not more than 5 Kms away from my Office. Just imagine how much time it takes - by Bike - for me to come to office in rush hour - 10min, 20min, 30min...nah...its 45min!!!
2) How many traffic signals are there on my way to office from home - 7.
3) I stopped wearing my Fav. white shirt because it got a black-sooty color after just one drive around the city.
4) One of my friends’ family living in Pune has 5 members - each one with his/her own 2 wheeler. This is because Public transport in Pune is not that good.

Thus Pune Traffic is a Real case to study for the Business Schools.

TamilNadu Express

TAMILNADU EXPRESS

(This write up is not to hurt anyone’s feelings. It’s purely based on the inputs from the passengers traveling in TN Express. Readers are requested not to take it in wrong sense.)

And finally my Diwali vacations got over. For me, it didn’t only mean change of holidays into work, or rest into pressure but change from one culture into another different (rather indifferent for me) culture. I boarded the train from Nagpur (my hometown) to Chennai, where I work. The train was as usual, Tamilnadu Express. The speciality of this train is that it is the fastest train in its class and is known for its accurate timing (at least from Chennai to Nagpur). It goes from Delhi to Chennai and vice-versa. Generally we have to reserve the tickets in advance before a month or two for getting it confirmed. But during that time one of my friend Rahul who lives in Delhi booked the ticket for me, as he was also going to travel during that period to Chennai. That time, he was on training in Chennai in a Software company. And because of that, I was happy to get his company in the 17 hour journey. Otherwise Every time I am prepared to travel quietly, listening to songs on my cell phone, because if the co-passengers are from south (especially Tamilnadu) they won’t speak to others in train and if the same are from north i.e. U.P, Bihar etc. then they will go overboard by abusing Non-Hindi people.
But this time my co-passengers were from both north n souths. After I got into the train I and my friend were having a chat, that time one boy of our age was quietly watching us continuously. I told Rahul,

“He must be a Tamil guy, not knowing Hindi”

“May be”- Rahul replied.

“I don’t understand why Tamil people don’t want to speak in Hindi, even if they know the language?” I just said what was on my mind.

“Frankly speaking they are scared that one fine day Hindi will overshadow Tamil, and eventually their culture and their own Tamil Film Industry. Precisely, the same thing what happened to your Marathi Film Industry”-Rahul

I refuted, “You are wrong Rahul, I mean it’s not the case what you think. Marathi people only promoted Hindi film Industry. That is why the centre of Hindi film Industry is Mumbai. Do you know who the father of Indian Film Industry is? It’s Dadasaheb Falke, He is a Marathi person. The first ever film made in Indian cinema was a Marathi Film, RAJA HARISHCHANDRA. And he wanted to reach to wider audience so he remade the marathi films Kunku, Manus, Shejari etc. in Hindi. Now it was Marathi Filmmakers’ onus to make films in their language, but they were happy with the traditional jobs and theatre, so the opportunity was taken by Non-Marathi Film makers like Gurudutt, Raj Kapoor and others.”

‘Hey I didn’t mean to offend your people Atul. I know you have been a Film Journalist”, Rahul tried to make me cool.

“No it’s not about offending, but everybody is emotional about their culture, and being a film journalist, I share the same vision with filmmakers like V. Shantaram, Dadasaheb Falke n others. He and many other filmmakers lived the dream of educating the masses and creating social awareness in them through the highly penetrating Hindi Film Media. Marathi people are not parochial to think only about their own state or own language. It’s exactly opposite to what Kannada people did two years back. They banned new Hindi films for the first six weeks to get audience for kannada movies. But our Vision is Jai Hind, Jai Maharashtra, which means Nation First, not a state alone” I expressed.

The boy who was watching me and Rahul suddenly said, “Hey I never knew so much about Marathi Cinema, even though my mother tongue is Marathi”

“What! You are a marathi person??? Then how come your name is Sushanth, as I saw in the Reservation Chart, with that extra H?” my question.

“Hey I am born and brought up in Chennai, so it’s obvious that there will be the impact of Tamilnadu on everything. But I can speak and understand Marathi.” He explained.

“And what about Hindi?” Rahul asked anxiously.

“I can understand, also I can write to some extent, but I can’t speak fluently” –Sushanth answered hesitantly.

“This is the most common answer given by Tamil people, dude. But you know something, within six months the amount of tamil I have picked, my colleagues have not picked even 50% of Hindi as compared to that, whereas they are dealing with so many Hindi speaking people from their birth, only because of the insecurity.” Rahul

“I don’t think anybody is insecure of hindi overtaking Tamil and all, it’s a political gimmick, as every educated person know”-said Sushanth

Suddenly one uncle (His name was Ramkrishna) sitting beside sushanth, asked furiously, “But my question is when people in Tamilnadu are happy with Tamil and English then what is the need for Hindi in Chennai?”

Immediately Rahul replied, “Sir, Chennai is not only the capital of Tamilnadu but also a Metro city of our country named INDIA or Hindustan. And you asked why Hindi, because Constitution of India says Hindi to be the language of the secular state of India. I am a punjabi, you are a tamil and he is a marathi. So if we have to go by your logic then it’s very difficult to communicate with people from other states having different languages. And English is not going to help as 40% of our country is illiterate. And even in Chennai we can’t do only with English, I can give you so many examples, like Autowallas, waiters n all, nobody knows English well, only few words they can understand. Once I said the waiter that the tea is having more sugar. He added some more sugar in the tea, as he can understand only one word from my sentence, which is sugar, so he added it. It’s like that sir. That is why we have HINDI as a national language so that one doest have to learn other 32 languages whenever one shifts place for job or something like that.”

Sushanth was nodding his head as he agreed with Rahul and said, “That is the plight of Chennai man. See now I appeared for an exam which says Knowledge of Hindi and English is must. If I clear it and get a call I don’t know how will I clear the interview? The political parties can’t understand this na”

“What do you mean to say? We should undermine our language and learn other languages for getting jobs? Do you know how many persons sacrificed their lives in protests against Hindi?” One old man traveling with his wife suddenly expressed.

“I don’t know the number, but I know about the protests n all. But now the era has changed. What was right for preserving the language that time may not work now. If pakistan think about how many pak soldiers sacrificed their lives for conquering Kashmir, then they have every right to ask for Kashmir. But is it just??? Same thing is applicable to what a state like Tamilnadu or ULFA in Assam thinks. And by the way Tamilnadu may be the only state to learn English for getting jobs. Otherwise it’s very difficult to get jobs with tamil being the only known language.”

“But don’t you think our Tamil young guys are extremely well in English as compared to North?”-Old Man asked.

I took the opportunity to express, “I don’t think so. Which guys are good at English? Only the convent Educated, right? Then they are equally good in other parts of country. And I can’t understand why to an average Tamilian, the world is two dimensional? India for them only has 2 directions, north and south, there is no west or east India...they think Mumbai is in north India, and so is Kolkata, this is what a Tamilian girl told me herself. Whereas the fact is that Mumbai is West and Kolkata is East. And the convent Educated guys from these cities are equally good in English as Tamil guys”

Rahul Continued my point, “And Uncle, you mentioned about Tamilians’ fluency in English .I would say it is not english but TAMILish...have u ever heard these words like petrola, hundredaa, HechDFC… only tamilians have this peculiar accent. The only saving grace to this is that the convent educated guys don’t hesitate to speak English, just because there is no third language for them to speak.”

“No, but why should anybody force third language Hindi on us, when we are comfortable with two languages?”-Old Man’s question.

Sushanth jumped to express, “I don’t think, it’s about forcing uncle, but it’s about learning a language which 70% of the same country in which we live can communicate. And the whole resentment about Hindi is because an average tamilian, say like me, cannot communicate in Hindi, and a person from any other state in India except Tamilnadu is not supposed to know Tamil, as it is a regional language. All other states can have Hindi as a subject in schools, why can’t Tamilnadu have, simple reason, just to oppose, another reason for gaining votes. Just think, if your children learn the language in school, they will not find it difficult to survive anywhere in India. The people from Tamilnadu, who have stayed elsewhere in India, understand this point and they are enrolling their children in Hindi teaching schools. Why should a sane person be willing to restrict the growth prospects of their own children, just for the political reasons?

Before Sushanth finishes, suddenly Rahul asked Mr. Ramkrishnan,”Ok sir, you tell me now, as you said your elder brother stays in Delhi, doesn’t he understand the importance of Hindi?”

“Of Course, he has to. He is staying there only, but….”

I interrupted Ramkrishnan’s answer, “But he doesn’t want to tell this to an average tamilian, right? I think this is the truth. Because whenever I travel in TN Express, Tamilians who knows Hindi, will neither speak in tamil nor in hindi with their co-passengers, as if Hindi speaking is a sin for a Tamilian. But as soon as the train reaches Tamilnadu Border, i.e. Gummidipondi, they start speaking in Tamil in a louder voice to indicate that now we are in Tamilnadu and all the Hindi speaking people have to be quiet. But they won’t try accepting that if they are sitting from Delhi then almost all the time they have to accept Hindi as the mode of communication.”

“I am not that keen observer like Atul, but one thing I have seen is that because of such behavior of some Tamil people, rest of the India has a very bad image about Tamilians. I remember when my tamil friend Raja, who studied Hindi in his School came to Mumbai with me. He looks like a typical Tamilian, dark brown face with a Moustache. Once he was talking on phone in tamil near a tea Stall, and after the conversation was over, he ordered tea in Hindi. The Chaiwala was astonished that he knows such good Hindi and he told Raja that generally Tamilians are very ***** as they don’t want to speak Hindi. That day Raja witnessed that how much people hate the mother tongue obsession of tamilians. And Raja acknowledged that, it is due to the vested interest of Tamil Politicians. Actually he was astonished with the way people enjoying their life with a smile, in Mumbai. He told that in Tamilnadu the people are very conservative, even in smiling. They are more inclined towards saving money in Gold n all than to show off, that is why a person earning 50 thousand rupees will eat and wear the same thing as a person earning 5 thousand rupees do.” Rahul quipped.

“Now this is too much, you can’t force your lifestyle on everybody. South Indians have their own style of living and there is nothing wrong in that. Regarding teaching Hindi in schools, yes I also feel that my children should know Hindi so that they can shape their career anywhere in India or Abroad. Especially after seeing my brother’s sons I have decided to send my son to North, I mean out of Tamilnadu, for higher studies.”-Ramkrishnan shared his feelings.

“That is a very nice decision. Once your son comes out of Tamilnadu, he will understand another facet of India. It will help him not only in India but all over the world.”-Sushanth.

Suddenly the old man said, “Actually India is very much known in abroad also. My daughter is in U.S. only. Two months back I visited her place, that time her neighbor asked me, “
You are from India, is it? Yesterday only I watched a recent Indian movie, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, have you seen it there? It’s a Hindi movie.”

I said, “No, actually I can’t understand Hindi.”

That lady was shocked, she asked, “But Hindi is your Language only, isn’t it”

I did not know what to say, I said, “Yes, but I live in Tamilnadu, where they speak only Tamil and English”
So she asked, “So you are not living in proper India, is it?”

I refuted her statement and said that Tamilnadu is a state in India only, but somehow I could see that she was not satisfied with my answer.

That was the only time in my life, I felt I should have known hindi. But I don’t have any regret about not knowing it. Still as Sushanth said Govt. should be more open in these things, as day by day the world is coming closer.”

“Exactly! That is what we want to say uncle, We stay in the same country, share the same interests like movies, cricket, Game shows etc. but just because of language we are separated. Tamilians switch off the TV if the commentary starts in Hindi, I have seen this myself. They want to see Shahrukh in KBC, but they want it to be dubbed in Tamil, why? Just because they are not open to our National language. Again here the question is not whether Hindi is our National language or not, but the question is language more important than a united country?”- I iterated.

Sushanth started clapping after my so called ‘lecture’ and Rahul said, “Boss College college mein seminar dekar tu bahut achcha speaker ban gaya hai(You have become a good speaker by delivering seminars in colleges)”

The old man told Ramkrishnan, “Really everybody should think about it, like these young men”

By the time the discussion finished it was dinner time. After finishing the dinner everybody went to sleep. And when we got up in the morning our Tamilnadu Express had touched Tamilnadu, i.e Gummidipondi and within an hour it reached Chennai Central at 7 am sharp.

- Atul R. Thakare, Nagpur
atulrt@gmail.com