Four Days ... My experience

The four days are over and now as I begin to sift through the exact happenings of those four days,  I start to feel those days taught me a lot of "life" lessons.

But before I begin, I happen to recollect one of the reasons given out by one of my fellow coordinator in
Techfest for not working in Mood Indigo. He said that MI had no place in a technical institution where the main priority of students should be "tech".  This remark is plain childish and I will endeavor to prove it in my blog.

Working as a coordinator had put a lot of responsibility on my shoulders. The event completely rest on the work of the coordinators of the event. The "CG" was just a sort of guiding light for the coordinators of the event and was the nominal head of the event in a particular department.

So, What all I had to face this Mood Indigo ?

Tantrums of people around me (and my tantrums as well …. ) :

It's day 1 and the RJ is supposed to arrive at 10.30 in the morning. It would have been fine if she would have come just half an hour late. But, 4 o'clock in the afternoon ! Now, this is punctuality in spite of being reminded at least a thousand times.

So, what do you do as a coordinator ?

Take the mike in your hand, stand on the stage and be the new RJ….

I would call that leading from the front …

The plus point : My speaking skills just saved the day and I proved an equal competitor to the RJ (according to the CG's)… .Also not to forget are my fellow hosts, my good friends who helped the event out equally and quite literally saved the day for all of us.

Tantrum 2 : " Mujhe T-shirt chahiye, uske bad hi mein kaam karunga"

The first year students hold you ransom because they didn't get a MI t-shirt …. You are in a fix … What do you do ? 

I somehow did manage to get some work out of them after a lot of promises and a few food coupons…. But, some freshmen just don't get the point… I'm just a coordinator and not the OC … I cannot shower all the goodies upon them in return for some work …

Tantrum 3 : T-shirts … T-shirts …..and more T-shirts ...

I don’t need to describe much to my fellow coordinators….  Everyone wanted to get their hands on one … They used to pester me and my colleagues with their requests and harrowed us like tiny little ants …

Favors : " Yaar , tu coordie hai … mujhe concert mein direct entry dila dena … puhleazzzz"

Some favors would be fine… In fact, I love to give it to people whom I'm friends with … But after some favors, suddenly everyone's expectations are raised. People feel I'll get them anywhere they want to go.

This is simply impossible and unreasonable to expect …

What I learnt this MI ?

Adobe Photoshop : Undoubtedly, my biggest "learn" was Photoshop … I can now design stuff on it ! ...

I finally learnt Photoshop to design posters for the events I was handling and a member of …

People managing skills : Managing organizers , RJ's , CG's , friend favors , participants …. The list will not end but you get the point, right?

Event Execution : How to execute a project given to you ? Right from the publicity to the exact questions in each round, everything needs to be perfect. I realized the need for each and every part.  How important it is to have everything under your control …

Friends : If it wouldn’t have been my friends, everything would have probably crumbled… Kudos to everyone !

Creativity : It is essential to be as creative as possible … Flawless execution is fine … but people cherish creative and unique ideas even if parts of it didn't go off according to plan …

Also , none of this would have been possible without my friends….. Right from the first year students who had faith in our events to my fellow coordinators whose role was the most crucial pillar of any event … CG's who made it all possible and gave us hopes …

So, the final answer to my fellow "Techfest" coordinator …..

It doesn't matter whether you work for MI, Techfest , E-Cell … do sports at Inter- IIT … be a debate punter …. Be anything or nothing ….

What matters is whether you have the right "life" skills to help you in any project you take up anywhere in life …

MI has taught me these skills … It might be techfest, e-cell  etc  for you ….

More Importantly , You must learn it !

The Last Chapter

I had to write a story on the above picture.

This is what I produced in a little under two hours

It got a special mention ...

Read it !

theLastChapter

Kolkata …My experiences

 

  

  I do not live in Kolkata. Yet, I get nostalgic about the charms of this city. The city's past still lives in its streets, hand in hand with the city's future. Among all the city's I have been to and lived in, Kolkata is the only city I can cite which has managed to pacify its past and its future. Citizens of Kolkata are the rare few who probably can a verse from "Gitanjali" and can simultaneously describe the batting exploits of the city's favorite son, Sourav Ganguly with zeal and passion.   

   My connection with this city began during my schooldays when I first  visited the city with my family. We explored all of the major tourist spots of the city. At that time, I could only see the dilapidated buildings with archaic construction and roads resembling more like the surface of Mars. Somehow I felt the city had never left its past. But, My second visit actually made me rediscover the city.

    I was an year older and I got an opportunity to visit the city for a competition. This time I had come here with my school teacher and one of my friends. Our four day visit brought me face to face with the heart of the city.

   We had just arrived in the city after a tiring train journey across India. The sky had cast a grey shadow over the city when we disembarked from the train. After that, We took a yellow taxi which took a whooping three hours to reach the hotel. Nothing was going good for us and we decided to take a break. We went to the city's shopping hub and decided to indulge in a whole lot of window shopping. I stopped at one peculiar shop, admiring the toy handicrafts from rural Bengal. In the matter of minutes, I looked around to find my teacher and friend had vanished.

    I was lost in the middle of the busiest markets in Kolkata. Till that time I had heard of "getting lost" only in stories and movies. It soon started pouring down and my clothes got drenched in the rain. Yet, Unlike those stories, I did not start crying immediately. I looked out for my teacher in the crowd and searched for directions. I could not find them. I couldn't even understand where I was as all the signboards in the area were written in Bengali. I was dejected and finally started to cry.

   My shrieks drew the attention of people around me. They asked me various questions but I was hysterical and gave no replies. But, one person from the crowd seemed to recognize me. He immediately grabbed my hand and took me to his shop. He was the owner of the toy handicraft shop I was looking at. He said he would get my teacher as soon as possible and disappeared into the crowds.

   I grew less hysterical and looked around the shop. The handicrafts in his shop catered only to kids. An hour passed by with much ease inside the shop and I saw my teacher entering the shop with the shopkeeper, all drenched. My teacher started to cry on seeing me. I explained to her how helpful the shopkeeper was to me. She turned to the shopkeeper and started thanking him profusely. The shopkeeper told her how even he had a son in a village in interior Bengal and the toys in his shop were actually made by him for his son. I had reminded him of his son and that had actually moved him to help me. 

   Neil Gaiman 's Sandman Series has a part called the "Tale of two cities", which is a modern adaptation of the tale of two cities and it brings to the foreground the "Soul" of the city. I can definitely say this for Kolkata, the city with a soul in these "soulless" ages …. 

    

The HP Story

          Almost all entrepreneurs associate their journey with starting from a garage. The hardships and struggles faced by an average entrepreneur is perfectly epitomized by the concept of a garage. So, Who started the whole idea of starting from the quintessential "garage" ? Though it's exact origins might be difficult to pinpoint, but arguably, the pioneers of this idea were the founders of HP, the true beginners of Silicon Valley. They have done it all and had arrived the earliest in Silicon Valley.

         HP needs no introduction. Its one of the world's largest information technology companies in the world, whose operations range from personal computing devices to printers. With net revenue clocking $126.3 billion in 2010, HP was the first IT company in the world to cross the $ 100 billion barrier. It features on the 11th on the Fortune 500 list and first among companies belonging to its sector.

         The journey of HP can be traced back to 1934 when Bill Hewlett and David Packard graduated in electrical engineering from Stanford University. While Bill  remained at Stanford, preparing for graduate work at MIT, David moved to Schenectady, New York and started work with GE. Bill soon leaves for MIT, only to return back to Palo Alto, California in 1936. Soon, Dr. Frederick Terman, a professor at Stanford University, persuaded the two to come back and encouraged them to start up their own companies. His efforts as a mentor to HP and other companies in the neighborhood,  earned him the title of "Father of Silicon Valley". David took a leave of absence from his employer GE and along with his wife Lucile, travelled back to California, to "make a run for it" in business.

         While David returned from New York, Bill took the time in finding a perfect location to start their operations from. At that time, Palo Alto was a typical neighborhood with none of its technology companies which exist today. Bill zeroed in on a house in Addison Avenue, which had a garage and a shed in its backyard. Bill found it to be the ideal location for the start-up and referred to the choice as "A-number-1", which meant the highest desirable location. As David arrived with his wife, he moved into the house and Bill, unmarried at that time chose to stay in the shed, which he used as a bunkhouse. They decide to start operations in the garage and used the living room as their meeting hall. At the time of origin, the only had $538 in their pockets to begin with.

          Bill soon found his partner in Flora and both the wives started working full time in nearby Stanford University. It was mainly their income which funded the initial growth of the enterprise. The company started with products like a diathermy machine, harmonica tuners and other items which bear no resemblance to its current product line. Their initial assignments were more in search for money, rather than anything else. Their crowning glory came with the 200A audio oscillator, which redefined the company's future and funded them in the early days. Their oscillators were even used in the sound production of the Disney Movie, "Fantasia". Thus began the entrepreneurial journey of HP.

          But, Packard and Hewlett's partnership became permanent only on January 1st, 1939.In 1940, they came up with the name "HP" after a coin toss. They had thought of either Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett and decided to shortlist one after a toss. Even though Packard won the toss, he liked the way "Hewlett-Packard" sounded, so they went with that. HP's operations soon started to blossom a it outgrew the garage on 367 Addison Avenue and shifted into a rented office in a nearby locale. The electronics products made by HP were first rate and eagerly embraced by companies and individuals nearby. 

 

          The days of World War II brought with itself prosperity and HP primarily worked towards electronic and radio components. Innovation in their products brought HP to the top among its competitors and the company continued its steady growth. HP's emphasis on new products and inventions soon paved the way for the company getting listed on the stock markets. The 50s, after the war, was boom time for Silicon Valley and American Tech Companies. This paved the way for HP breaking into the Fortune 500 in early sixties.   The rest is history, as they say.

         

 The HP Way

         Prevalent Management philosophy during those times put the company's responsibility only to the shareholders.  HP broke away from this tradition and adopted a  groundbreaking  management technique which puts employee and their well being in the forefront and welfare of humanity as one of its core ideology. This management philosophy is popularly termed as "The HP Way" and was even called crazy during those days . In recent years, several tech companies from the Silicon Valley are associated with such an open philosophy which draws its origins from the forward thinking founders of HP. This kind of commitment to workers has resulted in loyalty and stability for the company.

HP Today

           Today, HP serves as an inspiration to millions of individuals across the world who want to start-up.  The HP garage is officially recognized as the "The Birthplace of the Silicon Valley". Bill Hewlett and David Packard's dream of starting up and "making a run for it" has now transformed into a multi-billion dollar enterprise which features among the top companies in the world. HP was the "Google" of yesteryears and continues to reinvent itself as time moves on and in its path serving as a role-model for   millions of people.  

         

 

Nocturnal Creatures

     


         Inside the hostels of the IIT's reside nocturnal creatures, making even the mighty bat feel puny. The circadian rhythm for such species follows an unusual pattern, which amazes earthlings and infuriates the set of people who call themselves "professors". Their activities are privy only to members of their own set and very few people outside their own. Even if you are unaware of their nightly adventures (or may not be so), you would surely have some sort of clue of what they might be doing. I call them "IITians", as many of you might call them. But, after reading this, if you start revering them, feel free to call them "God/Stud/Machau".

         So, why does this species arise in the most unusual of places, IITs ? Some people call it pure luck, others say its an act of defiance to the whole education system. But, my background as a would-be Energy Engineer, puts the blame squarely on the lighting followed in each room, which disobeys all rules of energy efficiency and also affects the sleeping pattern of an innocent, frustrated hostel-mate. This reminds me of another fictional conversation an IITian had with one of his school friends over Facebook (or the telephone ... I don't remember...). This conversation, effectively summarizes sentiments and situations on both the sides.

XYZ : Hey IITian, Howdy !!

IITian : Away stupid Non-IITian.. I do not talk to Earthlings

XYZ  : Please do not do this... Did you forget our good times in school... How we used to play on the swing

IITian : The only "good times" , I remember are the ones imprinted on the Kingfisher beer.

XYZ: How has my best friend transformed over the years ! He talks of beer instead of marks

IITian : I'm very sorry, but this is highly incorrect. I also talk about girls, guitar and other cool stuff....

XYZ : How do you even get time to think of these things in the sanctum sanctorum of Indian educational institutions.

IITian: Dude ! Seriously .... What are the nights for !!! .. We rock during the nights....

XYZ : Though it seems awfully wonderful... but isn't it your job to study and build bridges etc in India...

IITian : You need to get a life ... Build bridges !!!... I am sure to get a finance job in one of the MNCs... after that I'll officially mint money !!.... Also, We do study.... but usually a night before the exams ...
all-nighters are so popular around here ....

XYZ : Studying the night before the exam was my job ... weren't you supposed to study 15 days before?

IITian : Things change around us ... We change with them....

XYZ : I surely do wish you best of luck .... and god bless the IIT's ...

IITian : Seriously, Get a life !!! .. Shooo .....

        So, what happens behind the gold encrusted gates of these sacred institutions is mostly a mystery for the average onlooker, who just view it in awe. Even if my article would have given you the ugliest side of IIT, surely do understand that most of the students you will find here are the brightest kids in the country and prodigies in their own right. Yet, Some of them, distraught with happenings around them, do turn to such activities and would disrepute the institution and more importantly, their own self-esteem. I purely present myself as a mirror to the outside world which plays no role in the perception of objects. It merely reflects what it sees.

Disclaimer : I apologize to anyone who might be affronted after reading the article.

( If any IITian feels I have been rather judgmental on the lighting system in hostel rooms, feel free to spam me with research papers.)


          

The Race

                       It was my tenth attempt and I failed to complete it, yet again. It's always a struggle after the fifth kilometer. I am sure the number "five" has jinxed each of my attempts. I still cannot forget my fifth attempt. While running the first kilometer, I fell and fractured my fingers. It was rather unfortunate and from that day on I have come to the conclusion that I have been jinxed by the number. My coaches have told me to forget the number five and start practicing a little more. They have been with me even after all my failures and never lost faith in me. Year on year, I practice more and more and decide to complete the race this time around. But, I never lose hope and will be trying to complete the race, next time around. Also, I have figured out the reason for my loss. It is the number five !

                        My parents have advised me to leave this mindless adventure of mine and instead concentrate on passing the graduation exam. Even I would agree with my parents if ten years back, I would have completed the seven-kilometer race. Now, completing the race has become an obsession. If exams come in my way of completing the race, I would happily sacrifice them for the race.

                        Am I a mindless freak, out to prove a point to no one?  Let me first explain my reasons. The past ten years, I haven't failed a single exam. I have reached the final year of my graduation and I have been an obedient student and son. This race was only meant to be a hobby. But, After the first attempt, one of my friend told me I cannot complete the race. Now, I do not call him a friend.

                       My stubbornness has earned me the nickname, " The Mule". But, Never think I run like a mule. I run like a leopard, chasing a deer in the middle of Serengeti. Now, I have three months left for my eleventh-attempt. I hope to finish it this time around like my friends. I have always wished I had legs like my friends. By the way, running with artificial limbs isn't as easy as you think !

  "You're not disabled by the disabilities you have, you are able by the abilities you have."


                      

Yeh Mountaineering Institute hai !

               

                       
                             I have to confess, I'm not a very physically fit person. I'm not obese or underweight but I'm just not as fit as an athlete. In the past one month, things have changed quite considerably. I'm now much fitter, slimmer, stronger and to a large extent, darker. Attending Mountaineering School has changed me, quite  considerably. One of my teachers at the institute rightly said, " Yeh Mountaineering Institute hai, Yahan se aap badl ke jaoge " ( This is a mountaineering institute, you will change when you leave ). I have to agree with my teacher at the institute. I have changed considerably and now I look at things in a new light.

                       There were forty-eight of us from IIT-Bombay. Some of us were as fit as a fiddle while some of us couldn't run five hundred meters without stopping at least five times. Now, I can say with confidence, we all can trek at least ten kilometer in a day on a hilly road with a twenty-five kilo rucksack on our backs. Mountaineering is not easy. It is a tough man's job ( or woman ...). So,Who made us 'Shaktiman' in one month ? It has to be our instructors and our grueling schedule which included getting up at five in the morning and many more shocking things.

                       The  forty-eight IITians were joined by students from Thapar college of Engineering, Patiala to make the total around sixty-six. None of us had any previous background in the field of mountaineering. Nonetheless, in the twenty six days that passed, we had done most of the things a mountaineer does. The most difficult part in all these days has to be our toilet at the base camp. I can count at least five stories related to our toilet at the base camp. Also, I forget to mention, we never had a toilet at base camp. Keep Guessing what we did !!

 My next part includes the stories of our one-month self discovery....

Keep waiting !

Time Travel

 ( This might be my first article for a magazine (a children's magazine) .... My first ever published article  !!!)
 

               

                     From Star trek’s “Warp Drive” to the “DeLorean time machine” in Back to the future, time travel has always been a fantasy in the minds of the curious. Some scientists have shrugged it off as fiction, only possible in movies, but no one knows for sure whether time travel will be possible. Time travel currently exists as a mere conjecture. So, will it be possible to go into the past and greet the ancient Egyptians? Have we reached a stage where we can develop a time machine, like in the movies or will it only be a distant dream for people like us, in the coming centuries? Let us look into the various technologies imagined by many futurists and scientists across the world.

                     Firstly, we need to understand how time itself works. Does it pass at the same speed everywhere or does it slow at some parts of the universe? Well, time is, frankly speaking, a very complex phenomenon. Time is the fourth dimension of the universe. But, unlike the other dimensions of the universe, you can only travel in one direction in time (the forward direction). But, the fascinating part is yet to come. It slows down near objects of very heavy mass. By heavy mass, I don’t mean a fat person or even a whale; instead I refer to a mass as heavy as the sun. Also, believe it or not, time will slow down in a vehicle when the speed of your vehicle nears that of light. These theories, no doubt fascinating, have been discovered by the genius physicist, Dr. Albert Einstein. Actually, we must thank Einstein for even raising a possibility of time travel.

                       So, what do I mean by “slow down” near a heavy mass or in a fast moving vehicle? I simply mean, if you circle around a very heavy mass, even heavier than the sun, or travel almost at the speed of light, time will be slower for you than the rest of the universe. For example, if I move at 99.99 % of the speed of light for a minute, the world might have gone ahead by an hour, by the time your one-minute journey is over.  By now, you might have guessed how I’ll travel into the future. It will be by travelling fast. But is it possible for me to go at the speed of light? Remember, Einstein had also said that nothing in the universe can exceed the speed of light. You still can go near that limit, but it will cost you enormous amounts of energy.  One of the ways of going that fast will be “Warp drives”. Warp drive essentially imagines contracting space ahead of you and expanding it behind you, making you go ahead (Alcubierre Warp drive).

                        So, this is how going into the future might be possible. But, when it would eventually happen, is an open question. Still, we haven’t talked about the most challenging part of time travel. This will be going into the past. Going into the past has one huge set of problems. This is called paradoxes. Imagine a situation where a mad scientist goes into the past with a gun to kill himself! He arrives in the past, with the gun, and when he sees his own self, he shoots him. What do you think, will the scientist be murdered by his own self from the future or such a situation is impossible to occur? This is a paradoxical question, which scientists have not answered yet and which also opens up the realms of parallel universe, a phenomenon existing only in Star Trek.

                      The area of time travel only exists in the imagination of humans. Theories on time travel currently reside mainly in comics and movies. Science has still not entered a phase where we can control time. Yet, looking into the past we realize humans have never bowed down to impossibilities. If we can conquer the skies with our jets, some day, we will also be able to conquer time and explore the universe, in a way we only dreamed about.              

How to survive freshman year .. Written by a Sophomore

          Before you start reading this, if you are a would-be freshman, do not go ahead. I urge you to make your own mistakes and carve your own path. 

              All the others (Though, I am sure no would-be freshman would have heeded to my request), let me tell you what is the recipe for success in freshman year. Freshman year would be something unlike what you previously experienced in your life. Now, the whole key to success(or survival) in your freshman year will be your definition of success. 

             If success to you means academic success, go ahead study hard and get those marks. If you are more inclined to stuff outside the sphere of academics, go ahead and do it. Well, but the hard part will be the balance. Living in a hostel means your parents will not help you in this balance, unlike in school days. You will have to find a way to sneak your way through this path. My advice will be, academics is numero uno. 

               The first week (or, should I say the first month ... or even a semester for some people) will introduce all of you'll to the various clubs and activities of this place and you might find yourself making a RC car and practicing dance moves (the SALSA Workshop!!) all at the same time. But, the happiness you might have after reading this might be short-lived if you do all the things together. I suggest, be on the look out for the first few months, experience the different activities and then choose your area which you'd want to do the next four or five years.  Believe me ... If you don't do this, you'll be the ones complaining to me after a year. 

                So, this is what I think about the activities in here and how you should go about managing stuff...

Written for all the freshmen ... ending up at IIT-Bombay ... 

Tell me .. what you'd like to hear from me next ...

              

5 Things we learn from the Indian team:

I don't think people need to be informed about the victory. So, Lets get down to business:

1) We all do mistakes but we need to move on after it ...:  Sreesanth playing in the final ... Yet, we won the match .. an achievement, by any standards !

2) A leader leads from the front: Dhoni has redefined the word "leader". The fall of three wickets was not an event enough to deter him.

3) Learn to respect the senior: It was amply clear... The victory was dedicated to a veteran of world cups, god of cricket .. Sachin Tendulkar .. Need I say any more ..

4) A women can never save the match, whatever she does: Don't be confused ... I'm talking about the lone Mah'e'la of the match...(Please don't bash me for this sad piece of writing)

5) (Last of all .. saved for the last) A Tsunami is a collection of small waves: No team member is small .... be it the substitutes or the player who never plays in the entire tournament except the last one... Everyone has a role to play ... Be it Piyush Chawla (For the drinks... Jokes apart !!) or Nehra ... Everyone makes a difference ...

INDO – PAK MATCHES: LET THE MATCH BE LIGHTED!!

                 I was probably one of the very few people who could predict wickets before seeing the ball being bowled. No, I had not colluded with the either of the teams to throw their wickets on my instructions. This actually meant that, before the cheer from my laptop’s speakers entered my ears, the hurrah of my hostel mates had already made it. For this I blame, ESPN for their delay in transmission of video feed over the net. 

 

                To get the root of my problem, my predictions were really a result of my tough luck. I was stuck in my room, trying to juggle two activities, simultaneously. What I failed to take into account is the fact that India Pakistan matches are always (NOTE: ALWAYS) decided, right into the final over! My liking for cricket had successfully surpassed my love-hate relationship with my project for the spring semester. Nevertheless, let me get to the point of my diary entry.

             
                An Indo-Pak cricket match is the one match made in hell. It isn’t smooth for any parties involved in the affair. No one is safe, neither the teams, nor the spectators who would go to such an extent as to devoting almost half a day in commenting on “Indo-Pak cricket match” facebook status (statuses .. to be precise). Not to forget the slew of facebook requests which flooded my inbox, asking me to join the call of “Bharat Bandh” on the 30^th of March. I vividly remember the beating my friend received on facebook for daring to suggest that Pakistan can possibly win this world cup match. My sudden desperate urges to log onto facebook had also witnessed an all-time low because of this world cup match! Surely, this match had something in it which could shake even the most laidback of fans.

              

             Let’s not even dare to forget the torments which the minds of every single player on both the sides, might be facing. I can actually empathise with the players on both the sides. Imagine playing on foreign soil, with the Prime Minister of your country in the VIP box, watching your every move. You would surely be excused to feel that in case of a mishap, your citizenship is under threat! With the Indo-Pak cricket match becoming another playground for foreign diplomacy, the situation is surely going to worsen in the coming years.

             

            Meanwhile, I just wish that ESPN resolves this issue of delay of internet video feed and which will stop me from predicting match results. This would indeed be a big relief!

Sunset times

                               

                                On a beach, at sunset time, when the wind blows into your face, you are sure to become nostalgic. You remember the days of yore when you ran around in the glistening evening sand on a beach, carefree of the world around you. Those times were times when you felt the castle you made will stand forever in time, untouched by the tides of the sea. Feeling the sea winds, caressing your wrinkled face is surely a good sensation for a person like me. But, Who am I? The answer to this can be given by none.

                                My life has been spent in cleaning the floors in a foreign destination. A strong urge had always swept in me to meet my kids, at home. But, my hands had been tied. I could never go back to my home again. The starkest reminder of home would always be the landing of the Air India flight at noon, everyday.  Before I confuse you further, let me make some facts known. I am the afternoon shift cleaner at Terminal 4 at the Ataturk Airport, Istanbul. My home is faraway in a small lagoon in the quiet city of Alleppey in India.

                              I always wished my sins can be purged in the same way the machine I used killed the bacteria on the shiny floors of the airport. But, Had I done any wrong? I had done everything I could for my family. I committed the act which I felt was right, right according to me. An act of rage is usually  succeeded by contrition, but that day, the blood on my hands showed no remorse. How could I have not done anything when the moneylender came home to demand his unlawful share of money? I still vividly remember how I climbed in haste onto the boat for Turkey,that night and behind me were my kids and my wife. They were ready to come with me to Turkey, but I couldn’t have taken them to an unknown country with unknown people. It had to be my destiny from here on. My hands were wet while climbing onto the boat, wet from wiping the tears on my wife’s face. At that moment, I couldn't distinguish between her tears. Had they been born out of the rage she saw that night or because I was leaving them? Yet, The one thing that I was sure of was the love she had for my kids and the care she would take in my absence. But, Was this the last time, that I’ll see my wife and kids? It couldn’t have been so. After years in exile, I decided to leave Turkey, once and for all.

                                The sunset can be a very satisfying scene if you are with your loved ones. The image of the glistening sand on the beach will hang back in my memories for the few days, left in my life. But the most satiating sight had to be the kids playing in front of me on the beach. They were carefree of the world around them. Building castles and wishing they could last an eternity. Those kids are my grandchildren.                                   

                

( A honest effort to put together a story ... If you like it .. comment.. If you don't...comment)