Pee India Pee!

How many times have you seen ugly looking wall, a potential toilet for the passers-by, painted with even uglier paint that says, "Gadhe ke puut, yahan na muut" (Son of a donkey, don't pee here. By the way sounds more intriguing in Hindi)? Uncountable, Right?

I can't help but to think do we people really have a weak bladder? Or India has a scarcity of 'Public Washrooms'? Or the time taken by heavy traffic defeats the average time for which a man can hold his liquid together?

I am not one among the people who stains (public) wall for free but looking at their miserable conditions, I bet there must be many.

What kind of a place serves as a perfect spot to save your bladder from bursting itself out of pressure of a liquid nitrogenous waste? The answer is blatantly present everywhere. A relatively deserted place, out of the focus of eyes looking straight, a few complementary dogs, ill-structured shops and houses that are constituting the wall and few fellow people already doing what you intend to do manifesting the legitimacy of the act at that place. The corners are as preferred as lower seats in a typical sleeper coach of Indians trains but the catch is, you can never be sure of getting it. Although there is no rule book or any law defining where the people can or can't pee, few have taken a stand condemning atrocities against wall that has by no stretch meant for public use. The clear example was in the very first paragraph. One more common example is "Look, a donkey is peeing..." Ironically, the paint itself make the wall dirtier and hardly does this paint pay any dividend. 29% of the males in India are illiterate so whatever written on the wall hardly makes any sense to them. So, they end up peeing on that very same spot where these golden words are inscribed.

Let's talk about the other 71%. Many of them do not actually prefer using these unofficial public toilets. May be because derogatory remarks painted on the wall, may be but very unlikely a concern for degrading beauty of city. However, the nature of this 71% of literate population is highly unpredictable.

This problem lies at the heart of poor infrastructure if some planners are to be believed. But the entire picture is different. I live in Jaipur that is boasts of many public washrooms. Due to absence of any mechanism that would predict how likely a man is to pee at a certain place renders it impossible to construct these washrooms through a perfect planned way but still these are good in numbers. The only catch that contributes to catch-22 of the people is the amount they need to pay for using these washrooms. For a man, who fights for every crumb of bread, paying Rs. 1 for getting rid of a waste is a waste. Even it occurs to the relatively affluent once that why to pay when we can have our way for free. Aesthetes pay the price but who cares!

No politician promises, let alone changing the status quo, to make his city beautiful. It would be too hard for me to expect that people are going to change. They will keep spitting, keep peeing. But, if there can be petrol pump every kilometer there can be free washrooms as well complemented with an awareness program.

My fellow people! hold on a bit, drive slow but not that slow which will compel you to search a 'relatively deserted place', and Pee with pride at your home.            

College Story: An End to this Endless Saga

In my previous installment of college story, I had left you all (in case you have had read) at 7th semester of my Engineering and also promised you to bring one last part of this havoc.
You can read all these here:

College Story (Part 1)
College Story (Part-2)
College Story (Part-3)
College Story (Part-4)
College Story (Part-5)
College Story (Part-6)
College Story (Part-7)
College Story (Part-8)
College Story (Part-9)

Well, here I am with the last installment which is arriving after the departure of almost every colleague from the last year of my college.

After getting rid of all 7th semester's exams, it was time for 'much-awaited' 8th semester. This last semester makes us realize that these 3-4 month are going to mark your last days in college. Also, this semester had just four easy subjects to clear in order to move out into a more crueler world. However, the glimpses of the cruelty had already knocked the college's door. Placements! It is a race for you to grab an apple when hundreds of other students just like howling hungry dogs, who have waited all four years to eat the flesh, are standing to do the same. These placement times can give you worst of nightmares, can dump your confidence to the rags, or can land you on the moon, on a single day.

It would not have been surprising for me if I were shown the exit gates at some technical company's interview but all my confidence got gutted when I was thrown out from very first round of a BPO company. Although, not only me, but all my friends were enjoying the same pleasure of getting knocked out in first obstacle itself.

Worse was still to follow; \another mail from Sujit Mukherjee (our TPO who seems like the only man who has seen Dinosaurs evolving and disappearing) appeared in my Yahoo inbox. Another non-technical company (Shree Ram Finance) was on verge to take students and give them a title of "Placed". I was too desperate to get a hold this time. Speaking in English at the time of interview was concerning me this time as I had experienced a let-down at previous occasion where all I need is to introduce myself.

The guy, who was giving the presentation, was proved to be a source of inspiration. Not because of his inspiring words, but because of his own skills, as hardly he had spoken a single correct English sentence during the presentation and I thought if he could get a place in this company, everybody sitting in the room can.

This time, self-introduction or preliminary interview wasn't the first round but an aptitude test. I had 45 minutes in my pocket to solve 100 easy question, an easy task I thought. The timer went on so did I but it is timer which won the race. I was solving 76th question before the screen disappeared; I was out of the game again. It was seeming like even dolphins may have better IQ than mine. For those who have selected in the round, needed to be appear for an Interview, the next day.

Life makes you see the steepest of curves. Steeper the cliff from which you are going down, greater the momentum you gain to climb its upper side.

The same day (when I failed to clear first round of Shree Ram) in evening, one of my friend sent me a mail about another recruitment drive which was supposed to commence at a consultancy institute. With a very little juice left in me, I somehow edited my CV once again and read the company's profile. The next day, many of my friends were appearing for final round of Shree Ram and I was sitting for a new and fresh start.

Time for the first round and for me this round was like fighting at frontier, barehanded. Luckily, I made it to list this time. 2nd round was Group Discussion. There were 10 other in my GD batch who accompanied me for this round and time that was allotted was just 3 minutes. Topic had been fired and a boy initiated the discussion as if he had been made to serve his thoughts at gun-point. He went on until interrupted by another girl. She went on with her jumbled sentences and let others to make meaning out of those. I was the third to take the hold of torch. I tried to be calm and straightforward with my points and, Hureeeeee! I was among the best of 2 who got selected for the interview.

My confidence was sky-high and thus screwing the interview was out of question. Finally, I was placed, at 3.1 lakh package, way better than Shree Ram which was offering 2.2 lakh. Had I been selected at first round of Shree Ram, I wouldn't have appeared for the company I got placed into with better package. That day I believed, God do everything with a purpose.

The days became better all-of-sudden. Well wishes from all the relatives, happy faces of parents, and self-confidence, all poured in at once. I was definitely climbing the upper side of the curve.        

Events to follow were quite interesting including the batch party where unbelievably everything went as per plan. Party was scheduled at Area 51, which is a lounge. It was coming out to be around Rs. 350 per head and minimum 30 students were required. Making at least 30 unsocial animals of IT, the party once by making them pay 350 seemed to be a tedious task. But the response came out as if the whole IT class was really feeling sorry for parting out.

On the decided day of batch party we all met and danced like how well we know each other. However, in reality, exchanging files and assignments was the only source of communication among different groups which had somehow formed and remained intact till that batch party.

College gave us a surprise too by organizing a convocation, first time for any batch passing out from GIT. Convocation went well in parts. I got the tag of boy with 'leadership qualities', however I have had never been even a monitor of my class. Ceremony ended with a 'samosa' which we had got as snacks. So after spending four years in college, all we got is "ALOO" and a certificate which was tied with a ribbon giving us a feeling of a degree. Yes we got a graduate's apron too, but we need to give it back so that the next day the same apron could be worn by other would-be graduates. Photos got clicked, smiles were exchanged and samosas were gulped.

This was the end and this is the end. These four years will remain memorable in form of words of College Stories and every time I will read it, I cherish these moments. No matter how bad these posts may go, I have always been honest with whatever I have written throughout. Without considering the reviews I kept on writing College Story one after other, I hope all these went not that bad.

Au Revoir!!!!