Mom and Me

Gun is the most confused invention of mankind. No one knows why it’s been created, is it for murder or for protection. No one can justify, if the purpose of its mere existence is to save any life or to take. When you have the gun in your hand you will feel the power within but when you face it, you will feel helpless. No matter how much power you have in this world, you will feel it’s not enough. Same happened to the most influential person of the city Bhanu Pratap Singh when two of us had put the gun on his face.

“Nikitesh Verma, someone came to visit you” The voice was loud and clear.

I followed the guard to the unfamiliar corridors of prison towards the visiting area. This is the first time someone came to visit me, so I was curious. On my way, I found both my friend's looked towards me from their respective cells, I ignored them.

What caught my attention while walking was few prisoners standing with some other policemen; all of them were staring towards me. Their body language ensured that they were telling some tales about me. One of the policemen glared towards me and pointed his finger to my direction. It felt awkward to me but since no one ever came to visit me till date, so I wonder if this is kind of regular scene for someone who walks toward the visitor cell, for the first time.

We walked through a dark alley of the prison and then the guard took me in front of a door. He pushed the double door for me. When I went inside, he closed the door behind me. This cell is bigger than my cell in prison only difference it has thick chain linked fence than the iron bars. Although there is another cell which has bars similar to my cell and bigger than this one, separated by a gap of around 4 feet. The person who is visiting can come closest to the bar and the prisoner can walk up to chain linked fence and both will be separated by 4 feet. I always heard there are some Visiting Cells and Visiting Rooms in Prison, today I know why.

The door of visiting room opened and a lady walked in. I got surprised to find the person who came to visit me. Me with a surprised look said, “Mom you came to visit me at prison!!! I thought, like everyone you also abandoned me”

She comes closer towards the bar tried to touch my hand which I stretched from the fence, smiled and said “I can never abandon you; you are still the apple of my eyes”. She paused for a moment and said “I know you like apples so I bring some for you, but those policemen on the gate had actually taken all of them. They said for security reasons no eatables allowed.” She tried her best to finish this sentence with her beautiful smile.

I know, that smile is the desperate attempt to hide her tears, anger, frustrations, sadness and fear about me.  I smiled back. There are too many emotions in my mind too and just one face to hide them. We both are trying hard, not to reveal the correct emotions. I must keep the conversation rolling, to stop revealing the correct one.

Me: Does dad knows you came here?

Mom: He don’t need to.

Me: I always want you to come and at the same time I always prayed to god that you should never come here for a visit. I don’t want you to see me like this, in this dress, behind the bar. Like all other prayers, god didn’t answer this one too. You gathered courage and Dad even don’t know about it. Does sis know?

She just nodded her head while looking toward her own feet. She raised her head back and said.

Mom: Believe in God, he will definitely answer your prayers some day. Life is all about what we believe. Like they believe you are guilty and I believe you are innocent.

I exhaled a deep breath after hearing this. I looked at her, I found her totally changed since the last time I had seen her.

Me: In these few days you got leaner and aged like many years. You actually did makeup today so that you can hide your dark spots below your eyes. You now have gray hairs which were missing when we last met. Even the dress you are wearing became so loose; I remember to present this dress and it was perfect at that time. What are you doing to yourself? I believe neither you are eating nor sleeping.

She replied spontaneously.

Mom: I am trying my best to get you out of here and I already found a good lawyer for the same.

Me: Do not waste your money on lawyers. I was involved in killing of the most influential person. They will ensure fair trial will never happen. Even the other party will have the fear; if any of us speaks then they will be in trouble. Every day I fear that this will be my last day and I will never able to see you again.

The tears started rolling out from both of our cheeks. I am able to restrict the drops to one or two, but my mom started crying. Wish I could have done something to stop that. If at least, my hands could have reached out fully to wipe out her tears.  Then she said these words while still crying.

Mom: I pray to god every day for your long life. I believe in God, he will definitely answer my prayers soon.

Me: I believe in god too. I also have faith in your belief but the things don’t work always the way we wanted. You know, I wanted to become a Charter Accountant. I did everything right to become one, but I have chosen some wrong friends. I know every one of you warned me about them, I never listened to any of you. I constantly argued with all of you about this friendship I have. What so ever is happening now, I did it to myself; god can’t do anything to change that.

Mom: Please do not blame yourself. It was just a coincidence. You were just at a wrong place at wrong time.

Me: Nothing was a coincidence. I believe you do not know the whole story. The night before that incidence, Aman and Vikash did tell me they will come to my home in the morning for something and asked me to keep my car ready. I was ready after that lovely breakfast you cooked. Vikash wants to drive so I gave him the car key.

He drove it to nearby Joggers Park and instructed me to accompany Aman into the park. I was confused but never questioned his intentions because he was my best friend at that time. We started walking and Aman handed over a monkey cap to me to wear it as a mask. It felt awkward to me and I refused to wear that one. He then wears that as a mask and started walking towards the location where Bhanu Pratap is doing some free hand exercises. I just started following Aman’s speed and directions. He went close to Bhanu, took out a gun and showed it on his face. That moment I can see the most powerful person of the city was standing still, helpless and shocked so also was am I at that moment. I was speechless to find this sudden change of scenario. He pulled the trigger and shoots him just between the eyes. Everyone around us started running towards Bhanu Pratap Singh, who dropped dead in front of me.  I do not know what to do next, when the whole world around me was full of chaos, running and shouting I felt it just soundless.  Aman dragged me by my neck and collar towards the car which Vikas drove to the nearby location. I was too stiff to run; everyone around there was looking towards me. Vikash drove really fast and we are out of the scene within the moment.

You see, there were no coincidences on that day. I just didn’t see it coming. The only coincidence happened that day was unknowingly you cooked my favourite breakfast, which was the last thing I ever eaten from your hand till date.

My mom was still sobbing. She tried to stretch her arms toward me with a gesture to console me. I wish the gaps between the rooms were not 4 feet. I always love when she put her fingers through my hair but this time it’s a distant possibility due to the gap between visiting cell and the room.

Mom: I wish those guards would have allowed me the food, at least the fruits. I also had couple of spoons in front of them to prove nothing is inside the food, but they still didn’t allowed it.

Me: Mom please stop crying, in this world so corrupted someone will definitely enjoy your food, even if it’s not me. In this prison only a life can go waste, food will never go waste.

I said this with a smirk on my face.

Mom: There are times in your childhood when you can’t speak a single word, don’t know how to act but I know what you want to say. I was always able to figure out what you meant by that cry or that gibberish word you spoke. Today you have grown so much that you are beyond my understanding. I can’t understand your gestures anymore. I do not know what wrong I did. Wish I could go back and correct something.

Me: Nothing is your fault mom. You did the best you can. You always did the correct thing, it’s just I never realized. When I became fugitive with them after that incident it’s you who asked me to come back and surrender since I didn’t do anything and reveal the correct story to police. This also helped police to nab Aman and Vikash. Soon all the peoples who are involved in this crime, indirectly will also be behind this bar.

Mom: After that incident, there was no trace of you. Who so ever was present at the park, on the spot, had seen your face. Your friends have used your dad’s car, for that murder. Police traced that and took your dad into custody. They started giving trouble to the whole family. Me and your sister are been questioned almost every day. They have put a constable outside our house. He will tease your sis whenever get a chance. It’s when your call our neighbor one fine day, I suggested you to surrender. 
I have to keep my family intact. Your dad became moody and petulant after this incidence. If you or any of your friends surrender then only your Dad will have the chances to be released from those charges. I do not have any choice, but I do make your life risky. I know, I am a bad mom.

Me: Stop blaming yourself; there may be many bad sons out there but there are no bad mothers. I am also trying my best to stop blaming myself. I am recovering from the betrayal I received. Whenever I felt like not eating I imagine that you are here to feed me.  When I can’t sleep I imagine the lullaby you used to sing in my childhood. I am able to eat and sleep now. It’s happens because I imagine your presence in my mind. If my absence is troubling you then imagine my presence and you will able to sleep peacefully. This will get rid of your dark lines below your eyes. You will able to recover your health. I wish Dad and Anjali would have came here today to meet me. Next time try to convince and bring them too.

Suddenly the door from my behind opened and two men wearing mask grabbed me by my neck and started dragging me towards the door.

While they were dragging me forcefully I shouted with all my voice I have “Tell Dad I loved him. Tell Anjali I missed her, she is the greatest sis I ever had.” 

Then one of them tried to put hand on my mouth, I somehow managed to shout “I love you Mom”.

“Nikit….” She shouted desperately “My Son.”  I can see her panicked “Where are you taking him?”

They haven’t taken me farther. They just took me outside the door closed the door in front of me. They forced me to lie down on my face.

I didn’t realised while coming from that door, there is a gap through which I can still see things of visiting room. I am able see her from distance. She is trying fanatically to look beyond that door. Due to the darkness at my end, I am sure she can’t see me anymore.

I heard a heavy voice from that visitor room saying to my mother “It’s time. You have to go now”. She was now feeling Antsy and shouted “My son, they have taken him. He is innocent”. Then that heavy voice replied “Calm down madam. Your son will be fine”.

When one of those masked man trying he best to not get me up, from the corner of my eyes I can see the other man is now pointing a gun with silencer toward my back. In no time he fired a bullet on my spine.

I didn’t felt anything for a second, then I started feeling the extreme pain and it’s too difficult for me to breathe. In that very moment, I thought what will happen to my mom after my death? Will they spare my family? What will happen when my dad will know about my mom’s visit to me today? 
Wish I could at least say sorry to her for all the sufferings I caused to my family.

In that desperate moment between my life and death I put all my strength to turn my head towards the gap in that door. I can see my mom crying and murmuring something. I guess, I can lip read that. She is saying “Believe in God, he will definitely answer your prayers”.

I am feeling exhausted, so much that I am breathing blood now in place of air and few  more and then some more till I heard a lullaby in my ear. It’s the same lullaby I always imagine whenever I feel hard to sleep.  I feel my eyelids gone heavy. I guess, somehow my body and mind recognized, it’s time to sleep. Rather a very long and deep sleep.

©Tapas Majumdar, Not for reproduction without Author's permission.

Unknown Lessons From Mahabharata - Part I

Lesson I - Dream positive for your next generation. It’s worth it.

We all know about this story of Mahabharata, but we never realized it in this way. This is the moral of the complete story of Mahabharata. This may be a wrong analysis, many of you may not agree, but it’s worth believing in this way. Will also do some scientific analysis here.

The longest chapter in Mahabharata is the Aadi Parva, with so many plots and subplots the actual story of Mahabharata took off when king Shantanu wants to marry Satyavati, but she mentioned her condition that only Her blood will rule Hastinapur (In original story it’s her father who placed this condition).

Scientifically the ambition was only Satyawati’s Genes should rule Hastinapur. So is that dream got fulfilled? We all know what happened. She had two sons Chitrangada and Vichitravirya. One died young and other one died without any children.

Then Satyawati’s another son before marriage, Ved Vyas came into the picture and somehow her blood ruled Hastinapur in next generation too i.e. Dhritarashtra, Pandu, and Vidur. So what happened after the end of Mahabharata or post-Kurukshetra war? 

Yudhistir became the king of Hastinapur. Yudhistir being the Mantra Prasad of God does not have any Satyawati’s genes. In short, the whole Kurukshetra war actually triggered by someone seen an ambition few generations back. Even if Satyawati or her father did not cause any harm or did anything morally wrong still by the end of the epic Satyawati’s blood did not able to rule Hastinapur.

If you look on the flip side of this story, Dhritarashtra had exact same ambition that his blood will rule Hastinapur and did many evils to achieve it. In the end his all next generation perished. Probably this is how it ends when you have an ambition for your next generation and do some evil to meet it. Then why Satyawati or Her father’s ambition received the same fate? They didn’t plan or did anything wrong to achieve it? If you say about Bhisma pratigya, then Devabrata or Bhishma took that of own and no one forced him to do that.

Are there any differences between Dhritarstra’s Ambition and Satyawati’s ambition? As per what we all know there is no difference at all, then good and evil received same fate here. Then what about the most popular lesson of Mahabharata, Dharma will win over Adharma by any means? A food for thought.

Here is the twist to the tale and to understand this we need to go back to the birth of Satyawati. The father of Satyawati who actually placed the condition of marriage in front of king Shantanu was not her real or biological father. Satyawati was actually the daughter of a Chedi king Uparicara- Vasu. She was born with her twin brother. Her twin brother been kept by the King and Satyawati was given to fisherman or to the father we know originally. Now her twin brother actually founded the Matsya kingdom.

Now come back to the original context, Yudhistir (Who don’t have any Genes of Satyawati) was succeeded by Parikshit (Son of Abhimanyu) as a king of Hastinapur, which actually has the last reference of King of Hastinapur in Mahabharata and concludes Mahabharata. All stories of Parikshit’s next generation are actually part of different literature's and not of Mahabharata. If you still can’t guess where I am heading to then here is the complete moral of the story.

Satyawati’s twin brother carried same blood (similar genes) of Satyawati and founded the Matsya Kingdom. The blood or genes passes to some next generations and King Virata from Matsya kingdom got introduced in Mahabharata.

Virata’s daughter Uttara got married to Abhimanyu and Parikshit born or got introduced in Mahabharata. Since Parikshit was the person who ruled Hastinapur. Somewhere someway Parikshit was also carrying Satyawati’s blood as Uttara was an heir of the Matsya Kingdom which was actually founded by Satyawati’s twin brother. Indirectly Satyawati's blood ruled Hastinapur, that she desired at first place. So here also good and evil did not receive the same fate. To check the complete hierarchy Click Here.

Dhritashtra was alive to see his ambition diminished whereas Satyawati’s ambition got fulfilled even if she was not alive to see this. So the moral in my own word will be if you see an ambition for your next generation and don’t take any wrong way to achieve that in your whole life to fulfill, it will surely succeed someday, even if it’s beyond your life span.

If you don’t agree to this morale then if you go to the history of Indian independence way back Rani Lakshmi Bai dreamt that her son and grandson will live in independence (Her son was not even a year at that time, correct me if I am wrong). She may not able to see that day but today we are living in independence just because someone dreamt about it many generations ago. There are many people’s like this who have seen these dreams at that time for their next generation and they have not seen that dream fulfilled in their generation but their genes are reaping the benefit now.

So if we want something for our next generation, say a corruption free India then dream about it and try to achieve it without any wrong or evil means in our lifespan. We never know, if in this or next or some generations in future this will definitely be true, as history never tell any lie. Another food for thought.

Will continue this series for some other unknown lessons in Mahabharata soon.


©Tapas Majumdar

Yuga's In Hindu Mythology

In Hindu mythology, there will be multiple stories for same context. One such thing is the order of Yuga’s as per mythology. Questions like why yuga’s are divided into such a way or why Dwapar yuga comes after Treta yuga whereas two (Dwapar) should come before three (Treta) are some of the common questions related to Yuga’s. So here are three stories which depict the same logic.

Story 1 – Among all the stories about Yuga’s, this one is the most famous one to describe the order of Yugas and its name as per mythology.

Lord Brahma is considered as the creator of this universe, earth, and life. When Lord Brahma created the Universe, the Earth (Bhoomi) approached him in the form of a cow. She told him that she needed guidance on how to help and maintain the balance between good and evil. Lord Brahma told her that with each passing Yuga, the dominance of Evil would gradually increase compare to its previous Yuga.

Brahma said Satyuga would be the Golden age of man when good would overpower evil and Mother Earth (Bhoomi Devi) would stand proudly on her all four feet.

In Treta yuga (The Yuga of Three), the power of Evil would be more profound and the burden of evil would cause her to lose one leg.  Hence, the earth standing on three feet symbolizes Treta Yuga. As mentioned earlier Treta means three.

In Dwapar Yuga where Dwapar literally translates to two feet, the earth would bear more burdens of Evil and be forced to stand on two feet.

Kali Yuga is the time when evil reaches its peak and gains a human-like form as the demon Kali who chops off the Mother Earth’s remaining two feet. This also describes the precarious position of the world where good and evil are so deeply intermingled that it is impossible to separate the two.

Story 2 – This one is another explanation of the order of all Yugas which is based on the time scale.

The life span of the earth is divided into 10,000 parts called Charan and 1 Charana = 432,000 solar years.

So one Charana = 432,000 years.

Now the order and time span of Yugas are mentioned below

Satya Yuga      = 4 Charana  (4*432,000) years

Treta Yuga      = 3 Charana (3*432,000) years

Dwapar Yuga  = 2 Charana (2*432,000) years

Kali Yuga         =   Charana (1*432,000) years

Dwapar is twice the length of Kali and Treta is thrice its length. Due to this order Dwapar Yuga comes after Treta Yuga.

Story 3 - In this story, like other stories justify about the Treta comes before Dwapar yuga too, but it tells the other side that initially it Dwaparyuga was planned to occur before Treta Yuga. It’s a famous story happened during Satyayuga although it's a not so famous story about the order of Yuga’s.

During Satyuga, a beautiful woman named Ahilya was married to a famous saint, Shri Gautam Rishi. Lord Brahma had given Ahilaya’s hand to Gautam Rishi because of his rich knowledge and pious character. Ahilya was very beautiful and was among the most attractive women in the universe at that time.

Lord Indra was very much attracted towards Ahilya and have wrong desires about her. Indra thought of an evil plan. Every morning, Gautam Rishi got up before dawn and went to the lake away from his Ashram to take the bath. Indra thought it’s the best opportunity to go in the Gautam Rishi’s Ashram as Ahilya would be alone. Indra disguised himself like Gautam Rishi and went inside the Ashram. Ahilya could not recognize that it was the Indra under the guise of Gautam Rishi.

Indra had the physical relationship with Ahilya and one day while he was back to his original form Gautam Rishi saw him going out of his Hut in Ashram. Seeing Indra coming out from the hut he lost temper. He immediately went inside and blamed Ahilya and without listening a word of her cursed her that she will turn into a stone. The power of Gautam Rishi’s words was so powerful that Ahilya immediately turned into stone.

Narada muni who was aware of this entire thing explained everything to Gautam Rishi. How she was fooled by Indra’s deception and asked Gautam Rishi to get rid her from the punishment. Listening to the other side of the story, Gautam Rishi melted and said that he cannot take the curse back, but he assured that during Treta Yuga, when Lord Rama (Vishnu’s Avtaar), will come and touch her with his feet, she will be back into life from the lifeless stone. Listening to this solution of Gautam Rishi, Narada said that presently it is Satya Yuga going on and it will take thousands of years to complete. Thereafter, Dwapar Yuga will come which will take million more years to finish and after that Treta Yuga will begin. It will be very long for her to remain as a stone for such a long period of time.

It is said that, hearing to the pain poor Ahilya may go through, Gautam Rishi changed the ordering of the Yugas. With his power, he rotated the time span as such that Treta Yuga came before Dwapar Yuga. He did this so that Ahilya could get relieved from the curse as soon as possible.

I will add more stories whenever I find one, let me know if you find another story which depicts the theory of four Yuga's                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Coincidences In Mahabharata

Mahabharata is the epic with lots of coincidences. Those coincidences actually make the stories and substories interesting. I have tried to list down some of those coincidences here, from the many co-incidences. As usual, starting with the most to least popular ones.

1. Karna, who was disowned by Kunti after his birth by putting him in a basket and float him in the river. Coincidentally been found and raised by the Charioteer of the same kingdom whose King later Married Kunti.
2. Pandava, who do not want to reveal themselves tried many ways to escape Draupadi's Sayamvar but destiny took them to watch that competition as Brahmins. Even when the stage comes up that Karna can actually win that Sayamwar competition Draupadi rejects him. That makes no Kshatriya can win the competition so eventually all Brahmins are asked to participate in the competition and, as they say, the rest is history.
3. Gandhari got pregnant first but coincidentally Kunti gave birth to the first child for Hastinapur of that generation, which causes the logical conflict of Throne in Mahabharata.
4. In some of the versions it's told that as per astrology, the Day Duryodhana born is not considered as good day as he had born with bad omen, coincidentally Bheema and Yuyutsu also born on the same day and became good human being as compared to Duryodhna.
5. King Shantanu was the youngest among three sons of Pratipa, and as per rule he should never become King of Hastinapur. His oldest brother Devapi suffered from Leprosy and later become a hermit. His older brother Bahlika abandoned Hastinapur and started ruling his maternal uncles Kingdom. These incidences not only ensure that no one except him will rule Hastinapur and the whole Mahabharata begins. To check the complete hierarchy Click Here.

©Tapas Majumdar

How To Guide - To Find Internship In India

Recently I was receiving lots of requests regarding how to find internships in India and aboard. Over the years, I have seen these findings in India which prompt me to write this article about finding the internship. In terms of internships out of India, will write about it some other time. Let me know if this ever helped you or not.

Getting any internship is kind of knocking the right door at a right time. So to do that you should know how to knock, which door to knock and when to knock the door. Confused? To simplify this let me explain what I meant to say here.

How To Knock - Most of the battle of getting an internship will be won, if you know how to apply for the internships i.e. How to Knock. Apart from a resume to showcase your knowledge and grades there are few skills needed to make this thing to reality.

The most important thing which is needed here is the network. The network of peoples whom you know directly or indirectly, who are working in various companies, those who works in relevant fields of yours, where you are looking for your internship. So chalk down the list of such peoples and ask for this internship favor directly. The chances are some will have something relevant for you or they will provide some different sources which will be relevant to the internship you are looking out for. 

The networking can be from peoples in your batch, senior batch, college professors, neighbors, relatives, other than college friends, any friend of friends, internet friends, acquaintances etc. I am sure if you chalk down that list it will be at least 50-100 peoples and from that if 5-10 really helped you out then chances are you may get at least 1-2 internships and that's what you need.

Now if you don't have any network, although that will be an excuse but if that's true or you are too shy to approach anyone then don't worry, there is solution to this kind of problems too. There are many websites which provide information about internships across India, so you should register to those websites and apply to those organizations. Some of these websites are http://internshala.com/ and http://www.letsintern.com/.  There are many Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts which are been created for this purpose to help peoples with no direct networks. Find them and get involved to know the information relevant to your desired internships. Keep checking on the official website of the organizations, many of them list the intern requirements there but most of them got quickly filled by internal reference within the organization so having someone who can approach the right person internally is also needed.

Even if you have tried through networking approach, I will recommend you to try this online approach too and this will increase your probability of getting internships.

Which Door to Knock - If you have planned and executed the first point properly you will be already aware by this time, which companies are actually accepting interns. This means first step will also give you answer which door to knock.

It will be better to categorize all the organizations at your end in respect of easy to get in, to the toughest one to get the internships based on the skill-sets and resources you have. Usually getting internship at small startups may be the toughest as they may need someone who are ready to work from first day of internship with no or minimum training, although at the same time if you can fit to that requirement with your technical skills then it will be easiest to crack. Similarly getting the internship to a big organization may be tough if you do not have right reference internally but if you have then it may be a cake walk for you.

Keep your eyes and ear open about internship recruitment's nearby to your place you are currently in. There may be many which don't list out there requirements but if you approach them you will surprise to find yourself getting an internship very easily. Apart from many small startups there may be big or midsize training institutes like NIIT, Aptech etc. in nearby community who may need peoples but don't advertise their need and will be happy to give you internship, if you approach them at right time.

Even if you have approached all organizations nearby your community, still don't loose heart if some or many don't accept your requests. Also there is no point in getting dejected by approaching every organization when truth is only some accepts the internships, that's why you need to keep your eyes and ears open through your sources about all the requirements nearby.

When to Knock The Door - This is applicable only for an internship. Some organization accepts only for summer internships, some for winter, some for both and some at any specific month of the year. When an organization going to accept for an internship will be the key for your preparation and also knowing the right opportunity in advance. In this case too the work you do at first step may give you some idea about various organizations. Which is important to set your own expectations.

The above steps will help you in getting the internship but there is no end of the world if you don't receive any internship and your friend or someone else does. You can utilize that time of internship for self-improvement and prepare yourself for the bigger challenge of on or off campus recruitment.

What should you prepare at your end for the internship? Before or after you get that.

• Groom Yourself Properly - No bathing, No shaving, No brushing your teeth and No sleep with sore red eyes and you can still attend your lectures and college but not applicable once you join an organization, even as an intern. So change yourself accordingly.
• Communication Skills - Some company may communicate internally in their local languages, but that does not mean you should assume that's how all organization works. So enhance your communication skills as much you can, it will be always helpful.
• Technical Skills - There is no guarantee you are going to get the work on the technical skills you have, but able to answer some of the basic questions on the skills you projected in your resume will always helpful.
• Semester Grades - If you have good grades it will always show that you as sincere about your study and course you are in. This does impact positively on the people's at the other side of the table. Although this may not be the must have for every organization and internships but it always be nice to have.
•  Aptitude Skills - If you have good skills on this then it will help you not only in internships but also in future recruitment's. If you can polish this skills whenever you have time, it will not cause you any harm.
• Organizational Process - This will applicable once you got the internship or been called for any interview for the internship. Learn the process the organization follows. Knowing how things work in that organization or any organization will always give you the right edge over others.

Hopefully, these steps will help you not only getting the internship you are eyeing for but also in succeeding beyond that.  

Extremely Short Stories - Part II

This is the continuation of the series Extremely Short Stories - Part I where most of the stories are N word challenges. Where N stands for the number of words. This time it will be N line or sentences stories. The stories of one, two, three and four lines are mentioned below.


Stories In One Line
Their path crossed and eyes met and they can’t take out the eyes from each other, probably this is a love at first sight while they unaware of a bomb ticking nearby, to explode.

Every day while going to the office I find a woman begging with her child in the sad face, today I found her begging alone with tears in her eyes.

He is the best spy of the country, turned out to be the double agent who sold his own country secrets to the enemies.

His car’s tire stuck in snow for quite some time now, being frustrated with no help around he started crying, and a creature monitoring all of this via binocular started smiling.



Stories In Two Lines
Dear Diary,
Today my bad luck crossed its limit, I wonder what I should do to end this miserable life?
“Come to me”, the diary wrote back with a smiley.

I aimed through the riffle’s eyepiece with determination, she whispered in my ears “This is your last chance to prove, don’t forget we were always partner in crime, and you owe me this one because I saved you last time”.
I pulled the trigger and target destroyed, my sister jumped with ecstasy and hugged me tightly as I am able to win that soft toy for her as she was asking for it since we came to this fair.

Stories In Three Lines
He took me in his arms and looked at me with a mysterious smile and kissed me.
Grabbed my arms with his mouth, bite it hard and then dislocate it, and dropped me mercilessly.
While lying on the floor helplessly I saw him come towards me again and this time he grabbed another toy lying next to me and bite it the same way earlier to soothe his growing milk teeth.

Stories In Four Lines
In my sleep, I heard a loud noise of breaking something and I thought someone must have intruded in my house.
I woke up hurriedly and realize I am lying at a different place and the thought strikes me “Ohh No, Not again” I should not have sleep walk and intrude someone else house.
Suddenly the lights of that room turned on and I tried my best to hide and found few peoples are robbing someone’s valuables and then I can able to see that someone’s face, he looks exactly like me.
One of those people find some notes from my duplicate’s pocket and read one loudly “This person has Alzheimer’s if found please take him to ...Blah Blah place” and then another one said “It means he will not remember why we killed him up at the first place” and all of them laughed hysterically.

I know he doesn’t love me so I begged not to, but he dragged me forcefully and fasten me tightly against that machine.
I prayed to the god to save me this time when it dragged me high slowly, then he raised both his hand and turned towards me and said “now be ready to die”.
I tried to run and stop this machine but can’t and I know this machine is going to kill me and before that it shook me like hell, turned me upside down and at last in full speed take me towards the thick Iron pole and before it can hit to that pole a whole lot of light flashes in front of me and I closed my eyes as much as I can.
Now I am at the moment where it seems whole world stopped in front of me, the blood is running fast through my veins and then I opened my eyes gradually and realize this ride on this machine named “Roller Coaster” was not bad at all.

In the fight for life and death at local Arena, he glanced the whole stadium but can’t locate her she always appeared to cheer him up, his only supporter but today she is missing.
He received massive blows on his head and ears from that deadly opponent; lying on the floor dejected and lost ability to hear anything he knows that only last few of his breaths left and this fight will finally end up in a moment.
He then heard a clear voice, this time a male voice and he was able to recognize that voice, it’s his inner voice asking him not to die, not to quit, asking him to fight and kill the opponent as he had strangled his wife to death else she would have been in this arena to cheer him up.
With a heavy heart he listened to that voice and a tear came out of his eyes, then his heart stopped for that moment and he closed his eyes, in another moment he opened his eyes with full determination.

Note: Many of these stories were part of my answers to N line stories at Quora and some are original specific for this website.


©Tapas Majumdar, Not for reproduction without Author's permission.

Will India able to Win 2015 ICC World Cup, in Cricket?

When I wrote last time about India in the world cup, it was 2007 and India failed miserably in league matches and went back home. This time they are brilliant and defending their title of 2011. Will India become third-time world champions in Cricket? Let’s analyze.

India already won all the six league matches and ready to take their first knockout match tomorrow with Bangladesh. To win this world cup, India need to make 9 victories in a row, there is no escape from that now. So will they able to hold their champions title of 2011 in 2015 too?

With a great team comes great results and only India and New Zealand had shown their true potentials. The game will be turned when knockout stage (Quarterfinal, semifinal and final) will start. The team which will perform on that particular day will move to the next stage. It’s as simple as that.

The only thing that can stop India in this 2015 world cup will be "The Law of Average". In Cricket, every team or player got catch up with this one and there is no escape. If that shows up in Knockout stage then all hard work will be gone.

India had already won 6 matches in a row. This is the case before the start of aforementioned knockout stage. Then it will be 3 knockout matches and if statistics to be believed in last one year (2014-15), India had won seven matches in a row, only once. Remember, this is the closest team combination which is playing in this world cup too.

If you compare it from 2011 to 2015, till date (Last four year including, world cup) then India have won 7 matches in a row four times and only once eight matches in a row. The eight matches in a row, winning streak is shown below.

 We cannot consider four years statistic for this case as the team India had changed a lot since then, still this will do contribute as Law of average for India.

You can check the whole four years statistics here.
India Team records | ESPN Cricinfo

so as a personal conclusion, India needs to better their continuous winning streaks this time to win the world cup. I believe they will very easily make to Semifinals and may be finals too but winning will be dependent on that day performance and also on many other factors, including this one. 

Remember 2003 team world cup winning streaks? And how they performed in final. Whole team performed poorly and looked out of place, was that Law of Average, for that Indian team? Remember India's lost to South Africa in 2011 world cup, which actually did the magic to Law of Averages. You can agree or disagree regarding the theory of "The Law Of Averages" but you can't ignore it in Cricket.

©Tapas Majumdar

How To Guide - To Tell Stupidest Being Late Reasons

You have an early morning class or a meeting to catch up. You reach to class or office late, what will be your reasons. Above all what will be your reasons which will sound stupid or bull shit but may be true. There will be many popular ones. Like Heavy Traffic, Alarm didn't went off and Tire got flat are universal tried and tested reasons for coming late. There will be many more genuine and stupid reasons too but when a boss or teacher do not want to hear anything then hardly any of them works. 

When in any case coming late will be punishable offense, Then why not try some crazy and stupid ones but with some creativity involved in it. Mentioned below are the one in categories. These are the reasons that can be used for coming late for class. You can apply them for work too with slight and necessary modifications. Although Disclaimer would be, try them at your own risk.

Superhero Reasons

• Was saving the world from <aliens> last night, didn't realized I worked overtime.
• I was on time, but just before entering the class I realized I forgot to remove my superhero underwear which I wear over my pant. To unlock that I need to go back to the secured location and do that. Its a time consuming process unlike any other normal underwear.
• It's too much Air Traffic and the city is filled with bad constructions too. No safety guaranteed, if my web will stick to any of the buildings fine or I will fall down. With all this, I can no longer fly like a Spider-man. So I traveled by road this time, hence late.

Vampire Reasons

• I always come on time at night classes. I just got shifted to the day classes, due to the count of students had significantly gone down of that class. I work whole night and then coming on time to a morning class is not my cup of blood...oops...Tea.
• Was at dentist office to sharpen my tooth and accidentally checked on him, about how good he did that job. It took time to cleared that mess at his office.

Celebrity Reasons

• Sorry I am late, as I got stuck into signing autographs and satisfying paparazzi's at college gate.
• I forgot to change my watch back to <Indian Standard Time> after returning from <Hollywood>, last weekend.
• My <chauffeur> didn't got up early.
• Traffic got stuck because of me.

Stupid Reasons For Early Morning Classes

• I was sleepwalking from hostel and entered a different class than this one. Just realized that mistake and came to rectify.
• It took really good amount of time to untangle the knot of my Pajama. You will not allow someone in class with Pajama on, so it was kind of necessity for this day.
• My Alarm started at correct time but doesn't goes off, when I hit the snooze button. It took me extra hour to fix the alarm to go off completely.
• I had a nice dream tonight that you died, so no class today. It took time within sleep to find the difference between dream and reality, hence late. 

Things written inside <> can be replaced by anything else of your choice.

©Tapas Majumdar

Extremely Short Stories - Part I

Stories In Two Sentences

Dear Diary,

Today is a very important day of my life, Last year same day I lost my legs in an accident when I was on my way for final selection of players to represent my country in Olympics track and field events. All hope is not lost yet, they said with some good practice soon I will able to represent my country in Paralympics, it’s just till then I have to bear the cost of all my treatments.

Mom!!! When will Dad come back, now I have become a good boy too? His mom said “Very Soon” and that moment glanced to the hanging picture frame of her deceased husband and wonder what lie she will tell next.


Stories In 18 Words

They died for their love, to meet in heaven. Unfortunately, their Karma took one of them to hell.

They agreed for the duel, and died. She, once loved by both and now conquered by none, smiled.

Stories In 15 Words

Today, I met him. My friend, who my Parents said was imaginary in my childhood.

I heard about the man who killed me yesterday, his soul is reaching hell tonight.

Stories In 8 Words

What will you have, Tea or Coffee? 

"Blood".

They struggled hard to become the strangers, forever.

What you expect from life? 

Nothing, Just Love.

Stories In 7 Words

The End is The New Beginning, Recursively.

Daily Status Of Vikramaditya: Carrying Betal...Again
(Inspired from Vikram Betal Indian Mythological Stories)

I lost inside the jungle, named city.

All these stories I had originally wrote in my Quora answers for respective question categories.

©Tapas Majumdar, Not for reproduction without Author's permission.

10 Best Bollywood Movies Of 2014

2014 is now over and it’s time to judge the best movies of that year. So who will going to judge that, it will be yours truly? Hence, my choice of best movies of 2014 from all the movies released last year will be:

Ranking	The Chosen One	Show Me....Details	Phata Poster
1.	Haider	I assume this will be voted unanimously among best movie of this year. The closest competitors may be Queen or PK.
2.	Queen	A movie that redefined storytelling and also a welcome change from hero dominated industry and this is the core reason to place it above the third choice.
3.	PK	This nanga punga dost delivered magic, with all the controversies and release issues will place it as third best movie of the year. I know it’s a hard choice between second and third place.
4.	2 States	A movie from bestselling novel with all ingredients that Bollywood movies are famous for.
5.	Highway	The story of Veera and Mahabir was very well written and directed. A must watch for this year.
6.	Mary Kom	A biopic which becomes the first Hindi film to be to be screened on the opening night of the Toronto International Film Festival, do worth a mention here including the review or acceptance it received after its release. Even choreographers in Gujarat had incorporated "Mary Kom" punching-style in Garba for Navaratri this year.
7.	Ek Villain	It’s high in this order because of the song, music, melody, dialogues and performances. Whereas the script and story is also not that bad and probably one of the highest earned movie among most of the movies in this list.
8.	Finding Fanny	A movie with cast as Naseeruddin Shah and Pankaj Kapur can't go much wrong and it did received many critical acclaims to be in this list.
9.	Bhoothnath Returns	Story of Bhoothnath played by Amitabh Bachchan at his age of 70+ years do need a mention in this list along with the child artist Parth who naturally fit into his character. This is definitely a must watch movie for children and adult alike.
10.	Khoobsurat	This is a Disney product and they did what they do the best, to churn out a happy go lucky movie. You can't do much and only enjoy this movie with your "Maa Ka Phone Aaya". You know what I mean.

Mentioned below are the ones which missed the mark, eventually there are place for only 10. Here the respective roles are played by unknown or not so known actors and people still liked those movies. It’s definitely the victory of cinema as a whole. Included them as they were the underdog releases of this year and still performed best to their potential. Also the movie Youngistan can be remembered for last performance by the legend Farooq Sheikh. 

Some of the money minting machine at box office, like Bang Bang, Kick and Happy New Year which also released last year would have found a place in this list too but I tried to find a genuine list in terms of Quality not Quantity.

Let me know if you agreed to this list or not.

©Tapas Majumdar