IS IT INDEPENDENCE?
By: - SUMAN SASTRY(copyright)

This year Independence Day was on a Monday. I don’t know if it was significant for any one but it was for us hard working students. We had got a long break after so many days. Saturday was a half day, Sunday’s an official holiday and Monday was I-day. You should have seen the glow on the face of students on Friday evening as our celebrations had already started in the boy’s hostel. Friday and Saturday were filled up with watching movies, gossiping, surfing the net, reading Dan Brown and playing LAN games like Counter Strike and Condition Zero. Getting a golden opportunity, many students decided to visit their parents. All in all the two days were tiresome and Sunday too was a day of outing and marketing. When we all returned on Sunday evening, it was time for a long, and I mean a very long sleep filled with wonderful dreams.
“Oh! What’s the sound?” I asked my roommate. He was as fast asleep as I was a second before. Now as I was partly awake and filled with anger I could hear the persistent knocking on the door. Rising sun’s warm rays fell on my sleepy face. I yelled “go to hell!” and pulled up the sheet over myself again. I don’t know if God was happy with me or what but the knocking had stopped. But like a thunder on a silent night, the knock disturbed my sleep some time later. Controlling my sleep and anger I went drowsily to the door. I felt that my opening of the door was taking eternity. What patient and persistent the person on the other side of door must be? I thought. There was our hostel caretaker standing outside eagerly about to tell me something. “Dress up immediately. Get down as fast as you can.” These were the two lines he uttered. He had to repeat these for the 50 rooms in our hostel. And so he was in a hurry. I was in a state of shock and he had left before I could ask him why. I found someone staring at me with red eyes when I turned back. It was my now wide awake roommate. He had heard the dreadful two lines. I took my brush and toothpaste reluctantly and got into the common bathroom. It was getting slowly filled up with students in the same shocked state as I was in. The funny thing was that all were staring at each other in search of answers. But none had any. We had read a notice the day before that there was a marathon run from a B-school to a Tribal School. And suddenly the fact came before us like a spark of light in a dark room. “Will they make us run the marathon race?” was the million dollar question in all our analytical minds. As we had no other option we all got dressed, but slowly, praying that the race be cancelled before we reach there. But God’s plan for us was something different. When we reached at the hostel gates we found a college bus waiting to swallow us. There was no chance for us to escape ‘the punishment’.
The crammed up bus reached the starting point of the race. There were some other sleepy faces standing there waiting for their friend convicts to arrive so that all could face the sentence simultaneously. Each of us were handed a plastic national flag which we could neither throw nor destroy due to immense respect for our country. After, all the B.Tech hostels were empty, the race began. Half of the students suddenly got excited, I don’t know why, and began to run, the rest followed semi running and semi walking. One thing was clear that the destination was not near. After walking a tiring forty-five minutes the destination showed up at a distance. Standing there like the guards of hell were two members of the management, commanding us to run through the school gates to impress the small innocent tribal school children. But we were happy that it was the end and so gathering up whatever remaining strength we had, we ran the last 25 meters of our marathon race. We were received by loud applause and a standing ovation as if we had conquered the Mount Everest. Honestly, it made us happy and lessened the anger we had against our college management. After the flag hoisting ceremony and distribution of breakfast packets we were dropped back at our hostel by the same crammed bus. The rest of the day we were fast asleep on our beds thinking how nice it would have been if all of this was just a nightmare.
I felt that in between these events the real meaning of independence was lost. We had no independence to make our own decisions. There was no independence in thought and actions. We felt like we were slaves again, not of any foreigners but of our very own people. But we gained a lot from this marathon run. First we got to know the fact that we had no stamina and we had to seriously build it and second we got to know that there exists a tribal school nearby having poor tribal children who have suffered a lot in the past and are trying hard to make a place for themselves in this hypo critic society. What an Independence Day!!

**** DEATH ****

The word itself causes us to shiver,
The fear of it makes us weaker,
There’s nothing more darker.
What’s more better
Than death, death and death.

Death spreads calmness
Death never discriminates
It’s what even fear fears
What’s more inevitable
Than death, death and death.

It’s very sad
That death’s considered bad
Let’s leave it to the experienced
And answer, what’s more truer
Than death, death and death.


By: - Suman Sastry.(COPYRIGHT)

Decision to be up to date

I attended a seminar on microsoft .net today and realized that I know very little about the developing technologies. I decided then and there that I must spend more time on learning a lot about new technologies and developements. Man has an ability to learn from his surroundings constantly and to update his knowledge database throughout his life. But most of the men don't use this ability and I don't want to be among them.
As I am preparing to be an electronics enggineer I need to be up to date on what is going on in the technology world.
Hope I am successful in getting more knowledge and creative abilities to survive in this competitive world.

My first article

I was inspired into blogging by my dear friend P.Umakant Senapati and I am grateful to him for this. This is the first article I am writing that will be posted on the internet, so I am excited and happy. Actually I am searching for words as I am afraid how this article might be.
But I believe the words that come from heart are true and that one doesn't have to fear to express them. So this is from my heart.
I hope my articles will be interesting and more than anything, they will make you think. Because I believe in the saying ' I think, therefore I am '.
Life is short and we have no time to dwell in the past or to worry about the future. If we correct the way we live in the present, we can ensure for a fabulous future. Present time is the time we have got to improve ourselves, to enjoy ourselves and to learn. Life is uncertain and I am sure no one will oppose it. Because no one knows what will happen in the future.
I hope anyone who reads this article will decide to live in the present and will decide not to worry about problems but try to solve them using all the resources he/she has.