Cogito Ergo Sum

A few nights ago, I got a notification from the Times of India app on my phone that the lead singer of the rock band Linkin Park had committed suicide. Amidst the preparations for my lab exams that were to take place the next day, it was quite difficult to assimilate the fact the very person whose voice had once introduced me to a new dimension of music, was no more. It was probably in 8 th or 9 th grade that I first listened to Linkin Park. A close friend of mine had been incessantly suggesting me to listen to Numb on YouTube and when I finally paid heed to his words, I was not disappointed. I am one of those kids who had been brought up listening to the melodies of Kishore Kumar and Mukesh. At that point, listening to a rock band seemed like a terrible idea. But, once I’d heard it while reading the lyrics, there was no going back. They were etched on my heart and soul for eternity. The songs that followed were equally good, equally mesmerizing and equally captiva

As the popular band Green Day puts it, It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right! I hope you had the time of your life!   Our trip to the Scotland of the Indian subcontinent, Kodagu, was something similar. It was full of unexpected encounters. While some were good, the others were disappointing. On the whole, the entire plan was another addition to the innumerable memories we have from our previous tours. Deciding the place and the dates turned out to be a major challenge in itself, keeping everyone's comfort zone in mind. With a few compromises here and there, the second weekend of July was set as the D-days. Locking the destination turned out to be a hurdle bigger than we'd imagined because most people were apprehensive about the rains. Letting nature decide our fates, we set off to Coorg on the decided dates. Off We Go! The journey to the destination started from three different places. While 3 people started off from Bengaluru,

The government of the state of Delhi recently implemented a new rule, that was run on a trial basis for the first 15 days of the month of January. This particular experiment has been criticised as well as commended by various sections of the society. Here's my analysis of the  Odd-Even Rule for the vehicles that was introduced to reduce the levels of pollution that have increased alarmingly in the past few years. According to the WHO survey in 2010, the Particulate Matter levels in Delhi were 286 and 153 for PM(10) and PM(2.5) respectively. The levels were 22 and 16 in London around the same time, according to the survey reports. When the same survey was conducted in December 2014 and January 2015, the PM(2.5) levels were found to be 225, whereas in Beijing it was 95. A major step had to be taken to reduce these pollution levels. During the last week of December 2015, the Odd Even rule for the vehicles of Delhi was suggested in the parliament. According to the rule, the vehicles

2015 ended on a happy note because most university exams ended by the last week of December. 2016 had to be given a flamboyant start. The plans and discussions for this had begun way back in November and by the time the first day of January had arrived, a conclusion was finally arrived at. The Wanderlusts of the 2014 batch of Sri Aurobindo PU College, Shimoga had ticked off Doodhsagar from their bucket list of places to travel to. The next destination decided was Tadiandmol, the highest peak in the Coorg district of Karnataka. Standing at 1,750m above the sea level, this particular peak was a major attraction because even though it stood that tall, the walk to the top was supposed to be an easy one, at least according to what we all read on the internet! So, it was decided that Tadiandmol was going to be the next place where we would go, we would see and we would conquer! On the chilly night of the first of January, 14 of them left the Shimoga Bus Stand in a hired Tempo Traveller

The third week of December brought a gush of cold winds with it. The second floor of the hostel felt like a freezer and the ground floor seemed like a warmer place to be! So, 10 of us were huddled up in our classmates' room on the ground floor, talking random stuff and discussing on every possible topic in the world! It was then that the topic of New Year celebrations came up. Thanks to our University, most of the people were destined to spend New Year's eve writing the last examination of the semester and spend New Year on the train/flight home. Only the students from Mechanical Engineering department were a little relieved as our exams ended a couple of days earlier. We had an unnecessary gap of around 6 days between 2 subjects. Someone came up with an idea of going on a short trip during one of these days. After finishing the most excruciating exam of the course, we were all geared up to trek to the top of Skandagiri Hill, a hill famous for its Sunrise Point and also fo

29/11, 2015 That's 3 days since the 7th anniversary of 26/11/2008. Those 60 hours in Mumbai that shook the whole country. The iconic Taj Hotel, the elegant Oberoi and the Nariman Point which were the major places under siege by the terrorists, were handled by the NSG, Mumbai Police and the Indian army. They came to India with an aim of killing over 2000 people and were successful in killing around 170 innocents. The country faced loss not just in terms of buildings death of civilians, it also witnessed the deaths of many brave and valiant officers of all departments of defense. I am not writing this article here to mention any statistics or numbers. I am writing this article to introspect, judge and understand our position. Today, we stand here. 8 years since the dreadful incident. How far have we come, as a society, as a country? Do we stand in a position where we can say that no country dare attack and kill the innocent, hardworking citizens of this country? I am not here to