Cogito Ergo Sum

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 ...

The beginning of July marked the end of the torturous exams of engineering students. Vacations started and we were home for a month. Family, friends, old hangout spots and unlimited fun! Though my parents have moved to Mysore, my home is still in Shimoga! So, after finishing my exams and spending a few days with Mom and Dad, I landed in Shimoga. Everyone has friends, but none can match the friends from school. They've seen us grow up, they've grown up with us. People know me for what I am, but friends from school know why I am for what I am! I too have one set of such friends and this time, they planned something awesome to spend the holidays. A trip to a famous falls, a falls that had attracted many tourists in the recent past, thanks to the shooting of a superstar starring Bollywood flick, the Dudhsagar falls. The falls is on the border of Karnataka and Goa and has only one route, the Indian Railways. But, we had different plans. We decided to walk all the way, a distance o...

As the clock strikes 12, I get up from my table, yawning and suppress the overwhelming desire to get back to bed and doze off. But I definitely am not in a position to do that, all thanks to my old habit of procrastination. Having postponed writing my record to the the next week for 7 weeks in a row, I have landed myself in a do or die situation. Tonight's the deadline to finish it or I end up losing a big chunk of my marks in the finals. After writing for quite some time, I get up and decide to take a walk up on the hostel terrace. The cool breeze and the silence force me to think of what I have been through over the past week. In a duration of one week, I had spent an awesome evening with friends watching a live cricket match at the stadium. I had spent 2 sleepless nights writing my physics record, only to find out that I had repeated some experiments and had skipped the ones I had to actually write. And, I had deleted my best friend's name from my phone's contact list....

School.. You enter it with moist eyes and leave with the same. On the first day you are scared of the fact that you are going to stay away from the warmth of Mom and Dad. On the last, it is the fusillade of memories that you carry with you and the fact that you will never come back to that place again. X too has a bag of such memories from the last day of his schooling. His school had played a major role in shaping X. The library, the playground, the friendly teachers, the infinite number of opportunities and the list goes on! It was quite difficult for him to let go of all this and move on. After all, school days are the Golden Days of life, aren't they! Here, I'd like to particularly like to present the last day of his school life, the last working day. He'll cherish this day forever and ever. The boards were nearing and atmosphere was tense! The portions were long done and revisions were going on. Each passing day only brought all of them closer to what was dreade...

Every student wishes to have a teacher who is less of a teacher and more of a friend. Such teachers don't teach you the syllabus but they teach you the Art of Living. X was lucky to have one such teacher as his teacher. Not for one or two but 5 long years. She was his Social science teacher in the 6th grade and was pretty interested in listening to his stories about his experiences in the other end of the country. X being a talk-to-everyone kind of guy, had a lot to share and a lot to express. He had a lot to tell and she had the patience to listen to... What else was needed? Even though he shared a special bond with her, she was never partial with him. She never gave him the edge and made sure he got whatever he deserved. Neither over, nor under. She made sure he thrived if he underperformed and didn't let him feel complacent if he was the best of the lot. The tab was kept and the growth was under check. X and his Mom often had arguments and the depression made him obnoxi...

Deepawali is the festival of lights that is celebrated across the country with great enthusiasm. It marks the return of Lord Rama to his kingdom of Ayodhya and also the end of the vicious devil, Narakasura. 'Deepa's are lit in all homes and with growing years, several other lighting equipment have come into use. Kids love this festival as it involves the bursting of crackers, loud and colourful, adults rejoice meeting their friends and relatives and ultimately, everyone enjoys Deepawali. Like all kids, X too was pretty fond of Deepawali. The excitement of bursting the crackers with his friends, the gift sharing with friends and family, the long holidays from school... and the list goes on! Today, as he looks back, he has a million memories regarding the festival. Even though the memories were there in the corner of his mind, he never bothered to think about them until his good friend P, told him about her recollections of memories regarding Deepawali and that made him reme...