BANG BANGED KHABBA, KHABBA BANGED BANG

Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang
Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang
Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang
Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang
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Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang

Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang
Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang
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Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang

Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang
Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang
Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang
Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang
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Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang

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Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang
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Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang

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Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang

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Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang
Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang
Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang
Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang
Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang
Bang banged Khabba, Khabba banged Bang

Epilogue

Finally, here it is…. The END of my first year in IITM. And don’t worry, I am not going to say that “it seems like it was just yesterday when I stepped into the most prestigious institute of the country” and all that crap…..For me, it’s been one of the most exciting (naah), illuminating (not at all!!!) and truly ‘electrifying’ (let me think…) times of my life. Actually, it was worth every day, every hour, every minute, every second that I spent here. And, here it is as to why.

Location: Seniors Wing, Sharav, IITM

Time: 1:00 a.m.

Intros, intros and more intros and still ended up without a nick. Intra hostel competitions (Ended up winning JAM without uttering anything ), midnight birthday parties(Wishing strangers for that one piece of chocolate fantasy), freshie night practice(Chunariyaa….), Swine Flu( Thats Chunariyaa again!!!!) and finally Shaastra. Ditched it for guess what??? Physics midsem which in turn ditched me!!!! Before long, we (Sabah, Meghana, Himaja and me, of course) were roaming in a swanky Maruti SX4 in the by lanes of T Nagar to shop for our ‘Great Creation’, The ARROW (Check out my photo album in FacebookJ and okay, the car was Himaja’s uncle’s!!)

ID project I night out: Watching MTV and gorging on Maggi ‘Cuppa’ Noodles at 5 a.m. in the morning.

ID Project I Day: Running with Sabah’s Chunni so that she follows us because we were late!!!!

My first official night out in the service of my hostel was the night before Choreo Nite. Wasn’t very painful considering that for I couldn’t get up from my bed for the next three days (Dusshera Holiday!!!).  Meanwhile, drams happened. By twist of fate, I landed up in Godav’s team instead of Sharav’s team. But the good news is that Sharav put fourth and Godav put none . Had an awesome experience especially when I almost broke Nirmal’s nose by slamming a wooden door unto his face . Soon after, we found ourselves staring at the problem sheet ID PROJECT Part II. (This time we shopped in Adyar on foot. Buying brooms while sitting in a SX4 doesn’t look good!)

ID Project II night out: Sabah and Meghana dancing on Westlife songs (It was just that I was too irrtirated to make fun of themL)

ID Project II Day: Wading through floods of muddy water since there was no ‘bridge’ to BSB.

Project over. Race began. Race to mug, gobble and vomit out everything in the end sem papers. Five Four Three Two One……..Baroda, I am back!!!

Live life as if there’s no tomorrow in next five days…… The charisma of Saraang at its crescendo as soon as the next semester came knocking at the door. Beauty parlours, saloons, malls, you can find our dear fellow mates everywhere. Saarang Freshie orientation-Was made to dance which was surprisingly liked by Junta. Took up security volship just for the heck of it (and for free tickets to proshows, of course!!).

5 days of peace and then back to quizzes, Mid Sems, then quizzes again!!! In between N number of festivals: Pongal, Holi, Ugadi etc etc. Sneharaj presentations followed by fundae sessions and bedtime stories of her seniors. Midnight Birthdays of Meghana, Himaja, Pranitha, Chaitra, Meghana K…….Finally, April brought respite for AP and TN people…Good Friday holidays.

This was followed by the hostel nights: Sharav rocked (Gulab Jamun won hearts!!), Saras was OK (ice cream sucked big time!!), Alak was satisfactory (no roti, no ice cream-who is new mess sec??). Hostel treats for choreo and creative writing (Thank you Adithi and Akila J). PMT Project in IE Lab (Thanks to the AC, it k kept the smoke issued from the N number of blown op amps under control!!!). Last but not the least, the End Sems patiently waited for their prey who again unwillingly ‘programmed ‘themselves to mug, gobble and vomit out. Almost. I mean, we still need to throw up for one last CS paper. And after that, peace and happiness will prevail. Baroda, I am coming…..

Some insignificant but invaluable instances:

1. Pranitha’s epic “Cheppu Cheppu” when we whisper to each other in front of her.

2. Himaja’s God level PJ’s.

3. Karthik’s pizza making dance at Sharav hostel night.

4. Chandrasekhar’s irritating OBMAX response.

5. Sabah’s even more irritating “I SCREWED UP” response and getting the highest afterwards.

6. Himaja putting board pins to fix cardboards.

7. Madhavi crying just because she didn’t have the key to her room and her books were locked   inside.

8. My letterpals (Love you Ananya and Rini)

9. Karthik’s photoshoot with Elec girls at Elec Night.

10. Sumedha, Kunal, Sireesha and Saptarshi for their SMSes (You helped me pain Vodafone!!!)

I am writing this note not for sake of writing something or wanting people to comment, like, unlike, hate etc. I just want to thank all those people who have made such amazing times possible and special for me.

I always thought I simply landed in IITM. There were moments when I seriously thought that IITB should have been priority (Since It’s nearer to where I stay, except that IITM rocks!!). But I now I feel that I was always destined to be here in this awesome place, to be among such wonderful people and witness some of the best moments of my life. Thank you everyone, who has made my first year in insti worth remembering and worth putting down in words.

- Sohini Sarkar

Monkey Mania!

When I entered this campus , I was delighted to see the monkeys and their cute little babies.It was so adorable and I was so excited hoping to see some ” cute ” circus style monkeys . Little did I expect that these cute looking devils would make my life a nightmare for the next four years of my life. Initially monkeys barging into the rooms and stealing food or bottles of water , was just ignored and we learnt to be careful . But soon, I started observing the intelligence of these cunning creatures. And that my god , makes me feel , that probably I’m not even as smart as them . Even worse, I am not exactly the courageous type. Its strange that a monkey can affect you psychologically and make you go paranoid at times. Basically , this extremely funny incident happened in the first semester. What crowded rooms , with four people cramped up , and so much baggage . Phew . And the fans in my room actually were practically not there, so I was up early at 4 am or 5 am staring at the ceiling , dreaming about my “home sweet home”

One such sad night ( or rather morning ) , I was rolling from one side to another , caught in some arbit dreams … I had placed an apple by my table before sleeping. However the monkey crisis was making me feel so worried . I always felt the monkeys would steal away my apple  , even more, eat it in front of me and walk away like a successful con thief. And I guess that affected me subconsciously. I was dreaming , that a huge monkey with a pink face was sitting behind me , on my table, munching on my apple ( which looked juicy enough that I dreamt about it ) and the very thought scared me and I woke up , my back totally drenched in sweat. My room mate Divya was awake , at 5 am , doing I dont know what. I somehow KNEW THERE WAS A MONKEY BEHIND ME. Like Ross Geller puts it : ” UNAGI IS A STATE OF TOTAL AWARENESS.ONLY BY ACHIEVING TRUE UNAGI CAN YOU BE PREPARED FOR ANY DANGER THAT MAY BEFALL YOU ” and Oh Boy ! Unagi Here comes ! I chanted to myself and looked at my room mate with deep fear. I heard a rude screech , and my room mate who could actually see the monkey , ( it was behind my head ) screamed ” OH MY GOD “  in such a terrifying way that I got it confirmed that the monkey was behind me. Being the scardy cat, instead of fighting it like a brave warrior, I wrapped my blanket over myself and jumped to the next bed where my other room mate Aishwarya was peacefully sleeping. One look on my face, it was all Slow motion flying of me towards her bed screaming ” MONKEY IN THE ROOMMMMMM ” and the three of us scrambled out of the room , locking the room from outside. ( which was such a stupid thing to do ,because now the monkey could peacefully raid our room ) . My two room mates ran to the nearest room and banged on their door . I somehow was beyond control in hysteria. With my blanket flying like crazy , I ran continuously , past each room , completing the entire floor . It was scary , considering how pale I looked and how creepy it is to find a black clothed pale person running like a maniac in the corridor. As I completed my round , my roomies had gone inside a nearby room and I joined them and babbled on hysterically ” That evil monkey …Its eating my apple , sitting on my table.Oh god , how are we going to chase it away . I knew it. I knew the monkey was coming tonight. ” It was 5:30 am.My room mates listened silently .  One of them went downstairs to call the security lady to chase away the monkey . Its a shame my fourth roomie was missing since she is quite courageous with monkeys   The lady on duty was so very rude that she refused to come to help us out. And then we braced ourselves and decided to chase the monkey ourselves. We opened the door , and the sound was still there… We looked under the beds and under the tables and every small place , a monkey could hide. But the monkey was nowhere :O Then the sound came again and to my utter shame and embarassment we realised its some sort of insect , behind our cupboard !!! We could not spot it , but it sounded so similar to the sounds the monkeys make when they are angry and I turned to Divya and asked “  Did You actually see a monkey ??? ” And she was like ” Noooo But That sound. It was so scary ” That I agree, But Her ” OH MY GOD ” was so horrifyingly realistic that we resorted to such stupidity. It is shameful to post this incident here, but I made most of my friends , at the mess and Tiffanys narrating this hilarious incident Its amazing to see how much these brown furry monsters can make you suffer

Another adventurous day in the hostel would be Sumedha’s Wrestling. Sumedha, ( *bows down in deep admiration* ) is basically a monkey fighter. Its quite a contrast compared to most of us girls , who scream when we see a monkey . Sumedha had got dry fruits and ladoos from home. One fine day , a monkey came into her room and began to raid it. Oh man she saw red at once , and valiantly chased it away !! Even that , is okay , one of the monkeys stole her dry fruits box and was on its escape… Oh this girl ! She would never give up !! Determined and persevering girl that she is , she went up to the monkey and grabbed the other side of the box. They wrestled for a minute or so , both unwilling to give up their most prized possession , and finally ” HUMAN TURNED VICTORIOUS” And Sumedha , her face glowing with sucess returned to her room , with her prize !!!  But Hey Mr. Monkey , I still give you credit for putting tremendous fight

The monkeys are true iitians in many aspects. For one, these ” almost human” :O creatures, knock on doors , pretending to be humans , and try to enter rooms, which is pretty mindblowing Early in the mornings , as I go to my favorite place near Sumedha’s room , I can see monkeys , knocking on doors , or pushing them slightly to check if they are unlocked. Some of them like to walk on the clothes line , the little ones like playing with the clothes. Once I observed that a guy carried a water bottle. One of the monkeys rushed towards him roaring. This guy was amused by the monkey . And threw the bottle to his friend. The monkey rushed towards him .The guy passed it on to another. And I was like W.O.W. What a coward I must be. Look at these guys playing ” MONKEY MONKEY ” with a monkey . Aww rather , Now I realise why the game has its name. Anyway it was incredibly funny watching the monkey in our state And I must say a sadistic shot of pleasure shot through my body

Another incident to prove that I am a coward was during one of those days I woke up late and was rushing to class.It was 8:45 am and I was near the stairs. 10 monkeys were sitting there and some were relaxing, some were playing and basically it was a cute sight but nevertheless a nightmare for me. This girl Sirisha, walked upto me and said ” oh dont worry , I will help you out. Dont look at the monkeys’ eyes. They can see your fear. Just look at the stairs and walk, they wont do anything to you. ” I was awed ” hey wow , thats pretty neat. How did you figure that out ??? ” and she was like ” ohh I am into wildlife camps and stuff ” I was impressed and decided to try out her technique. But I was just walking and a monkey’s tail was one inch away from my feet. In the fear of stamping it  and it pouncing on me, I stuck to the extreme side of the walls , sliding down slowly. I did not notice the nail there and got my dress  ripped on the topside. I was so distressed , because I could not change without crossing the monkey group upstairs and I was late too .I just fixed my dress temporarily for that class and rushed to my class late, and cussing at the stupid monkey which ruined my Monday

So basically, I have had quite an adventure with these troublesome monkeys and my paranoia and I must say , that no matter how aweful these monkeys turn out to be , I ended up making my best friends discussing ” monkey mania” and I had so much fun doing that too ! So all the sharavites , Be sure to catch some monkey action ( oops) and have a few sweet but hilarious memories to cherish for your whole life !!!

- Shruthy Suresh

Unsung Heroes

When I was preparing for my NTSE interview, my school had invited the head of Russian department of MS University to guide the selected students for personal interview and presentation. After the mandatory introduction, he asked each of us about our parents. When I told him that my mother is a housewife and not a working woman, he defensively replied,” It is a very wrong perception that housewives are not working women. In fact they are the ones who keep the factory known as home running. They are not housewives but homemakers.” How relevant were his words in today’s scenario where the male dominated society has started accepting and respecting working women.

There is no doubt about the fact that women have finally arrived and they are set to leave a mark in the so called man’s domain. But that does not mean that we overlook the importance of those women who have chosen to restrict themselves to four walls after marriage or those who have brushed aside their own ambitions for the sake of their families.  A 9 to 5 corporate job or a lucrative profession should not be the only criterion to judge a woman’s capability. If you are working, you have to juggle between home and family. But life is not bliss for those who stay at home. Even they have to be on their toes 24×7 to cater to the various needs of the individuals of the family. It becomes even more difficult if the family happens to be a joint family. Even the maid servant who cleans our house is no less than a working woman who works to earn a living for her family.

On the eve of Woman’s day, various institutes felicitate their women employees. TV Channels show interviews of those women who have excelled in their respective fields. But let us not forget those hundreds and thousands of women who may never have stepped out of their homes but have made the lives of others a paradise. They are truly the unsung heroes.

- Sohini Sarkar

Hello World, again!

Sharav evokes different ideas in different people. Just a mundane place that offers some room to a random group of people coming from different states and sometimes different nationalities is surely not one of them. It’s a place to share your joy, your laughter and one which never fails to lend you a shoulder to cry on and get over those occasional heartbreaks and disappointments. The bonding that takes place among the Sharavites over those infinite late night mugging (Bestest bonding happens here ) and wing fart sessions ,hostel nights, Dandiya (The ex-Saarang core by the same name is not going to make a guest appearance) ,Frankie and other special nights, Diwali, Holi ,Onam (Simply awesome menu in mess that day ) etc transcends all the cultural and language barriers making life at Sharav one helluva rollercoaster ride (Trust us, it’s better than the one at Wonderland! )

How does the idea of having a common platform to share and preserve this Sharav spirit sound like? A platform to share your thoughts with your co-Sharavites.To introduce Sharav as you perceive it, to the inquisitive to-be Sharavites. To cultivate a healthy interaction between the seniors and juniors. That which is truly Sharav in essence and conveys everything that Sharav stands for. A platform to share our victories, our setbacks, our events, our daredevilry, our inane gossip about the rest of the insti and our laid back take on world. Here, this blog is intended to be that platform.Constant and periodic doses of enthusiasm of Sharavites is all that takes to keep it alive.

Wish us all happy bonding and sharing while blogging!

- Sushmitha

My First Day at IIT Madras

This excerpt, wherein I have expressed myself out with full vigour and enthusiasm (enthu), is entirely dedicated to my batch mates. When I was outside the campus, I was feeling relaxed and as I was nearing it (tata, cya, happy thoughts), my stomach was giving a lurch. Whenever I used to catch the glimpse of any senior or someone pretending to be senior (some smart freshies ) I used to tell myself, “Damn! What on earth is gonna happen now??” My parents were consoling me without knowing what exactly my fears were and shouting instructions at a driver to turn right or was it left where the Sharav hostel is located? Finally, we reached my second home with a beautiful lady’s picture engraved on the wall signifying the pretty residents of this vivacious hostel. I, along with my father, got all the registrations done with. Occasionally, having a talk or two with some immediate seniors made me more tensed and uncomfortable within.

Thereafter, I made my way to the never ending staircase (got used to it now) and to my room. It was a dusty, dirty to the core room that made me feel sick at the very first sight (thankfully, it’s clean now). That reminds me of a poem that I read in English in my tenth grade…

It was about some Albatross

Some lines go like this:

Water water everywhere

Not a single drop to drink

I alter it as…

Dust dust everywhere

And not enough air to breathe in

And then, buying stuff from Gurunath (Guru) and some measurements were taken to stitch dresses for the workshop (is there a lingo for workshop? I wonder…)

Later on, standing behind the long queue(so long, with the heels beneath my feet were becoming sleeker and sleeker due to the snail like movement of the queue.) nevertheless, I got my SBI account opened up and was happy to have so much bucks(“$”) with me and me alone.

There after in the night, my parents left for my hometown and I was left alone in my room (my roomie didn’t report yaar!) but I was in high spirits, however to meet my yesteryears school friends (a handpicked few).

And then, last but still the least, being a little more adventurous than my friends, went and searched for the common room and TV room and was surprised to meet a few seniors.

But that didn’t make me to say ‘about turn’, I rather went inside and sat in one of the couches to watch TV (Huh! Couldn’t even see what was going on) as a fourth year senior (a pretty hot girl) pounced over us “Put your intro!” We hesitated but I started giving my intro, she interrupted, “Don’t smile” (What a digression man!) Give me a proper intro…and was off explaining about the way it is to be said (her voice was too soft to be audible) but nonetheless, I could gather what she said and heaved a sigh of relief when my job was done. But I kept ogling at her serene nature and her pretty coaxing tone. …but she never told her name (too smart!!)

And then, ends my day, my first day in this intellectually stimulating campus. Sleeping alone, but the most interesting thing that happened was I didn’t feel scarred…I feel scared generally even if someone sleeping beside me has already left for their dreamy journey leaving me alone in the vast darkness. Strange though it was, I felt satisfied and slept peacefully.

- Sunita Patra

How cool is that?!

Have you noticed kids who play in and around our hostel in the evenings? They are fairly good at sports, especially badminton. And, here’s the best part! When asked about where they got the exposure and the practice, they replied that it was because of the time spent in our hostel. Not their school, not at home but at our hostel! How cool is that?

- Leela

We blog.

Achtung! The Sharav blog is here.

Sounds captivating, doesn’t it?

It’s an honour to set up the Sharav Blog. Let’s strive to make this blog another feather in Sharav’s cap. What say?

Feel free to send in posts to sharav.litsoc@gmail.com.

Suggestions are welcome.