the e^xponential stress

A few days back, I met an old friend from school days who inquired about the recent book titles that I read. "Sadly I don't get to read much," I said disappointingly showing him the book I am reading- 'Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman'. Actually, we both are kind of regular readers. During my school and engineering days, I used to read a lot of books, even won an award from school which was 'Avid Reader Of The School.' But my interest in books has kind of faded and my friend reads more books than I do. I don't feel like reading much. In 2016, I read only 3-4 books and around a similar number of books this year. One thing that is responsible for the lesser number is my changing interests, I prefer to read little heavy books these days which require me to read their chapters again and again to understand...I have been reading books on Buddhism, Psychology, and so on...Ph.D. in Behavioral Science is something that has been in my mind for some ti...

Another blast from the past from 2013. Did this for younger brother for his English lit assignment in school. The poem - The Tale of Melon City by Vikram Seth is one of the chapters assigned in CBSE's Class 11th curriculum. Another comic strip which I did for my brother-  Lord Ullin's Daughter

The gentle traveller in my barn, Spinning an adventurous yarn. Of the pains she bore, And the experiences she scored. Her eyes were big in excitement, I was surprised with enlightenment. She started with the fun, And how she reached moon and the sun. Things didn't go well in her life, A horrible person rejected her as wife. Memories made her eyes wet, Yet the brave lady did not fret. Didn't let a single tear fall, Stood up high and tall. Gazed deep at the moon, Shouted laughter and started to drool. She then spoke of her experiences around the world, Of praises she got and criticism people hurled. We walked on the grass towards her bike, Her pains seemed heavier and rucksack was light. She smiled and sat on the saddle, Waved back while she paddled. She added another chapter to my life, A new lesson and a new light.

Jaipur Sky After Rains Clouds are dark, Sun rays left a mark, Time for joy of a new start, And for a voyage I am about to embark. Climbing up the hills, Freezing weather giving the chills, I want to be the first to experience the rains, Jump higher, and shout the laughter in the terrain.

Blast from the past... Mother and son conversation, not mine btw :p Father and son conversation (silent conversations), again, not mine :p

Blast from the past...

Blast from the past...

A blast from the past...Did this storyboard in 2010 for my brother's holiday homework when he was in 9th standard. Lord Ullin's Daughter was part of English Literature course (CBSE) in school during my time as well as during my brother's time. This was an amazing poem, still close to my heart. A true love story with an unfortunate end. But, I am different :D I don't like sad endings, though they exist. I gave the poem a comic touch and transformed it, and as you would see in the sketch, my brother's teacher also wrote, "You have transformed it." You can read the poem here

Truth holds no meaning if can't be spoken, Success can't be ensued if efforts are broken. Truth can hurt because words are harsh, We can fall because the path is marsh. Life's a voyage through an upstream flow, Heart endures the pain yet we smile with a glow.

The sky was clear The clouds were white Horizon was near Mind was light It rained happiness Eyes were cheerful Legs were dancing Weather was blossomful Birds were romancing It rained happiness Breeze was cool Grass had dew Wanted to drool Life was new It rained happiness

I walked I jumped I went up to the base I jogged I ran I sped up my pace I reached I topped Yet I lost the race Feat in hand Couldn't celebrate Efforts a waste I sat I cried Bitter was the taste God director Life surprise Destiny a maze

A quick one, wrote this yesterday post midnight :D Everything can't be bought, Every man should be taught. Every rule can't be broken, She is not a possession to be taken. Don't misunderstand, She's not a helping hand. She's an independent kite, Not a slave as your wife. She simply can't be impressed, No matter how well you get dressed. To hit the dart in the center, You have to find her heart and enter. You can't win her with your money, Nor with your love and words like 'my honey.' Give her respect and pay heed, Not only affection but attention also she needs. You've responsibility and so does she, Men should also compromise as nothing comes for free. Leaving her parents shouldn't be a boundation, Weights should be equal for a great foundation.

Finally, I gave up my Nokia, thanks to Microsoft who didn't take care of its customers and rising need of internet and apps in India after demonetization.  RIP Lumia!  I have bought a smartphone otherwise known as Android phone...Now, I am figuring out how to use it :( Alongside reading 'Family Wisdom', my 5th title of Robin Sharma. This book has deeply moved me, probably my second best read after Alchemist. I read Leadership Wisdom two years ago but that didn't have that magic! Family Wisdom is even better than its prequel, Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.  Family Wisdom is a must read!   Anyway, like every year, I wrote this rhyme on new year eve.  Break the doors which stop you, From opening a chapter that's new. Break the barriers which prevent you, From experiencing sunrise and the dew. Move ahead but not start a new life, Forget the wrongs, cherish all the rights. You are beautiful and so is your life, Leave the string and fly as an independent...

And here's my third Hindi poem!! Wrote this at 2:30am last night. हाथ नहीं किसी के आउ, हवा नहीं तूफ़ान हूं मैं। कितना भी कोई रोके टोके, अपने ही रास्ते जाऊँगा। है ताकत तो करो सामना, तुम्हे कुचल बढ़ जाऊंगा। जितना भी तुम पास आओ, गले नहीं लगाऊंगा। छूने की कोशिश करी तो, चूर चूर कर जाऊंगा। इतना मैं बुरा ना था पहले, उस चोट ने ऐसा बना दिया। घायल किया गंभीरता से ऐसा, होश में मुझे ला दिया। बन के मैं शीतल हवा, लहराता घूमता फिरता था। गरजती बिजली से फिर हुआ सामना, हौसला मेरा जड़ दिया। बादल ऐसा गरजाया उसने, पानी मुझे कर दिया। जो दबता है आधा, दबा उसे देते हैं। शराफत जो दिखाए ज़्यादा, बेज़ुबां उसे कर देते हैं। ठान ली थी उस दिन से, हवा नहीं तूफ़ान हूं मैं। कदमो की आहट नहीं, शेर की दहाड़ हूं मैं।

People select one from amongst themselves to lead all. Following the culture of giving respect and godly status to elders, they 'make' him God. They worship him like they worship 'actual' God. And if anyone who doesn't believe in their ideologies and raises voice against the wrongdoings, he is termed as anti-national, Muslim and charged for sedition and blasphemy even if he belongs to the same religion they preach! And in case, you think I am in favour of a particular party, you are wrong. I was once. Not anymore. I have realized all are same. I'm a NOTA guy.

Here's my second poem in Hindi :D I'm finding it fun to write in Hindi though it's little difficult than writing in English. Btw, this post goes online on '16th December', the movie I love to watch again and again because of Milind Soman who is always a treat to watch <3  रास्ता कितना भी कठिन हो, समय कितना भी जटिल हो, मेहनत और लगन सच्ची हो, सब आसान है। हिम्मत भले ही टूट जाये, कदम भले ही रुक जाये, ठान ली अगर एक बार जाने की, पहुचना आसान है। किस्मत बेशक रूठी हो, मंज़िल बेशक झूटी हो, दिल से मांगो अगर उसे, पाना आसान है। लड़क लड़क के चलना पड़े, ऊंचा पहाड़ चढ़ना पड़े, निष्चय अगर कर लिया एक बार, सफलता आसान है। पहुच गए एक बार ऊपर, मंज़िल का एहसास किया छूकर, हासिल भले ही ना वो हमे, संभलना आसान है। रास्ता सब सिखा देता है, हिम्मत बड़ी दिला देता है, आंसू भले गिर जाये रोकर, जीना आसान है।

The balcony, the window, and the evenings, Get me back that time, Less of sad dawns, more of bright sunshine. Cheerful sunsets, memorable books, On my building's terrace, Bring me back the memories to embrace. When books were the best friends, And the fear of future not in mind, Oh, Lord! Send me back and rewind the time.

Dealing directly with clients is fun :D But, sometimes when things get boring and redundant every week, one loses the excitement :( So, during one such call with a client, I started sketching a car though I sketch a lot of things these days. Currently, I am trying to make myself better with women portraits :D and human illustrations. Anyway, so during this call, I sketched with pen and coloured it with the only colouring tool available at my desk, a board marker. This car is my favourite sketch that I did at Infy Bangalore.

Ever wondered what a friend really means? I have always had a few people whom I have called friends, maybe 4 or 5 friends in a total of two and a half decades! But as I grew up, the definition of friends evolved. The 4-5 people in my life whom I called friends qualified to be called as best friends which gave room for a few more people to be called as friends :) So, this gave me a diplomatic excuse for not calling everyone a friend. Every classmate then became a friend while a few important personalities in my life enjoyed the privilege to be on my best friends list. No one cared by the way...Lol! But, yes, I have always had a small circle. Remember, I mentioned introversion in my previous post? Friends from personal life and friends on virtual Facebook life were the same or less. But, somehow, IIT and the time changed me. My circle of friends became bigger while the circle of best friends accommodated a few (2-3) more friends. It's the game of hierarchy actually, Stranger > A...

This post has been pending for years now. Ever since I finished post-graduation, I have got little more time for myself, time to read books again and enjoy the solitude. This article is going to cover my experiences with GDs (Group Discussions) and how I dealt with them. Not sure if this can qualify to be a tutorial post of "How to nail GDs?" or "How introverts can speak in GDs?" I'm a person who doesn't speak much, and when there's a group chat, I don't like to talk at all! I like to be in solitude. In short, I'm an introvert. Therefore, Group Discussion is a parameter that can't filter out persons like me for a job during the placement/selection process. Whether Group Discussion is a correct parameter to select candidates or not is a different topic and I won't talk about it. During my engineering, I sat for almost ten GDs (all were not for placements-some were practice GDs while some were with friends) and the funny part is tha...

[This rhyme is quite old, was penned on 6/8/13. Wrote this a day before Promises To Keep . A pretty silly, romantic and long! Umm!] How beautiful is she! Like splendid monsoon coupled with a cup of tea. Her locks are moving down my face, Like sea breeze moving in haste. Her eyes are deep that they pull me in, Whirling the gyroscope of love, into a spin. She's gorgeous in her pink top, My eyes are not blinking and my heartbeat stopped. She makes me lay in her lap, With more intimacy and little gap. She flickers her fingers through my hair, Staring at me with a desperate glare. Her eyes enchant the story of bliss, Tempting me to plant on her forehead, a lovely kiss. She wants me to say something fair, I responded- I'll be there; to keep you happy is all I care. When she's singing, she's the best, Like nightingale's sound from the nest. She is whistling songs on the way, I wish to hear them throughout the day. He...

The money you earn and the money you spend, Nothing is left when life comes to an end. The anger you display, the revenge you seek, Happiness is what you desire when life is about to end. Do what your heart tells you to do, So you do not regret for anything when life comes to an end. You should forgive, you should forget, sour relationships you need to mend, So you cherish all the people when your life comes to an end. Express your love when your heart paces, Tell her before your voice freezes, This time won't be back, when life will come to an end.

Three Ds can capsize your life emotionally. What you DESIRE. What you DESERVE. And what's in your DESTINY. Although I'm a firm believer of TheSecret's LawOfAttraction, I place Destiny above all.

Today's is the new year eve. Though I was supposed to put up my poem today but...let it be! Anyway, today I mark it as the end of the worst and most hectic semester of my life. June'15 to Dec'15. Salute to Life! I call this semester worst not because some bad events occurred (there were no bad events as such) but because it was the most laborious time I ever had in my acad period. I have never been so much sleep deprived my whole life. Three days without sleep! Four days with 3hrs of sleep! Two days without sleeping had become so common that it used to happen every week! My body begged for sleep but I couldn't help it. Neither could I go to home every 2nd week like I used to go earlier. There were just too many things which kept me busy- major project, portfolio, placements, maruti workshop and miscellaneous stress causing events. To sum up, I slept for only 3-4 hours a day on an average these six months. And of course it brought more trouble; took toll on my health...

362 digital frames with an effort of 24 hours and somehow I still don't feel satisfied despite it being my first attempt. Perhaps it's monotonous. :p After making the first car with more than 72 frames, I realized that I can't put all Maruti cars in the video, so I ended up putting the 3 iconic cars from MSIL (Yeah! I had planned of putting all cars). This assignment was really tiring! But the music is kinda stupid hehe :D 

In order to send works to a company, I made my portfolio in just a day. That means, one year of M.Des work compiled and composed in one day :D Despite several rechecks, I didn't notice the silly spelling mistake :( Unfortunately that blunder went to the company.  Not only this, I had uploaded this portfolio on SlideShare, which resulted in 125 views within the same day from around the world except India (my own country). The funny part was, portfolio was trending there, lol and to add more fun, two UX magazines (from Japan and America) who liked my work had also tweeted the link of my portfolio :p Anyway, first professional portfolio, first blunder, first lesson. Up for it!

Although it's quite late to upload these papers, I'm sharing the documents because till date, there ain't any previous year papers of NID Postgraduate Program available online. NID PGDPD DAT QUESTION PAPER 2013   NID PRODUCT DESIGN QUESTION PAPER 2013 NID TRANSPORTATION AND AUTOMOBILE DESIGN QUESTION PAPER 2013 I hope these help in understanding NID's thinking methodology. Though, one should not trust on the pattern of the paper because it keeps changing. Will upload 2014 paper as well. ________________________________ I gave this exam on 19th January 2013 and I still remember the day. The morning of exam day, I discovered that I was way too unwell, fever was so high that I couldn't walk and was almost fainted. I wanted to give exam because this was the exam which could fulfill my dream of becoming what I strived for. So, with the suggestion of my parents and myself being unable to lift even a leg, I decided to stay at home a...

This is an update to the previous post:  Purpose Of Life I really don't understand the concept of people celebrating their own birthdays though I've got really no problem with that and why would I have a problem either? I have not done anything remarkable after being born. Anyway, I believe, birthdays are always special for the parents and the people around who love the person who was born on the day. Birthdays mark the day of a child entering in the parents' world. It's the day for them to cherish, it marks the anniversary of their love for each other and the offspring which brought the contentment in their lives. So, I feel extremely odd when people around me ask for my birth-date so they could wish me on the day; I don't know how to react when people wish me with 'happy birthday' except for saying 'thank you.' I've got few relatives, few former colleagues of my mom, a few neighbours (old and new) and as I mentioned earlier: 3-4 frien...

An old post from the diary, Today Sravani and Kavita, two of my best friends in class gave a surprise visit to my hostel. So, we decided to go for a bicycle trip from Boys' Hostel to the Girls' Hostel and started to discuss our project's progress. And as we started to paddle, the street lights went off probably due to some electricity issue. On the way, down the slope, just before the hospital, I noticed a boy walking in the middle of the road where cars were dangerously passing with just a little distance from his sides. He was holding his cellphone with flash pointing onto the road. I found it really strange. I passed by his side while observing closely. He was looking on the road with the flashlight. But what caught my attention was that he was not walking straight, little left then little right but still in the middle of the road. I stopped. "What happened?" Sravani asked. "Why he is walking in the middle of the road?" I said ...

The Exponential Stress is on high...The combination of 'IIT tag' and a 'Masters degree' is very stressful combination. Where is the full stop man!

I always thought that my blog is either being read by silent intruders who come to look for the cartoons redirected by google or by the visitors redirected from my online portfolios, websites and my friend's blog where a few of my articles are published. But, in the last one month, surprisingly I have been asked by many people (I mean my readers) that why don't I write these days. Well, I love to write my experiences and poems but my priorities have changed a bit. I am not able to manage my time well enough to do the writing with academics. I have got at least three articles and three poems pending and the funny part is that the article from my engineering days due to which the blog was started hasn't been published yet :p I was supposed to put one poem on 1st Jan'15 but I just couldn't give the final edit :( and six months have passed since then.  Last Note: The blog is alive and I'll keep writing. 

[Wrote this article for a school friend, Siddharth; and tried my hands on the so-called 'modern articles!' ] School life is something every one of us can relate to... 1) We become part of the cattle race without knowing where it is leading to. and later realize... 2) We dream something... and something else happens... 3) Lessons and formulas learned hardly turn out to be useful. 4) We do get influenced by seniors who tell us what is right and what is... 5) We learn multi-tasking in the school itself. 6) We get cheerful about every small thing. 7)  And we do get disappointed as well. 8)  Sharing lunch with friends become a part of life. even when we grow up... 9) Friends are what we earn for a lifetime. and when we meet them after a long time... 10)  And when we become an alumnus of the very same school...

Rest in peace, RK Laxman, sir. It's really sad to know about your demise! You have been my biggest inspiration for sketching since childhood. Here are, few of my sketches which I did in maths notebook in school, around 10 years ago.

I'm fed up with a person posting comments on my every post and promoting his firm. 

2014 is almost over. Here's the first sketch I drew this year.

Writing after a long time... Kanpur! An awesome experience because it taught me a few lessons and I blew panel members' heads off (rhetorically). I was second-last on the second day, i.e 10th May 2014. My turn came at around 5 or 5:30 pm though as per list sequence, my turn should have got over by afternoon. It took almost an entire day for the process since the reporting time was 9 am. Unlike other design schools, they didn't take any aptitude tests. The wait for the interview felt really long for me since I didn't have breakfast because there wasn't any; the hostel they allocated, Hall V, didn't have any mess or canteen nor did they provide the candidates with any bedding so it was quite obvious for me to get a little temperamental. But the wait for the interview cooled me down gradually. And, I entered the room with great calm and composure. I entered and greeted with 'good afternoon' and they were like, 'yeah! yeah! talkin...