The beginning......

It has been observed in the numerous episodes of Star Trek that uncharted roads either invite catastrophe or create memorable rendezvous. 15^th June 2005 was one such day when the paths of fresh recruits from premier Engineering colleges of India found place in a small conference room called Saphire those days.  It was a nicely assembled mosaic from IIT D, IIT R, IT-BHU, NIT Kurukshetra and MNIT Allahabad. But before I proceed further I would like to take a small detour as the date 15^th June was initially fixed on 4^th July 2005.

I was supposed to join Baypackets (a Silicon Valley startup with Noida based development centre) on 4^th July 2005 along with my fellow batch mates from IT BHU – Divya Alok Agrawal (CS&E 2005) and Ravish Sunny (EC 2005). My final semester ended in early may and I was enjoying some time off from college life and before starting my career. But destiny had decided something else. In first week of June, my mother got a call from HR Manager Baypackets, Miss Shikha Verma (now Bhatia, an extremely professional and humble personality, and a good friend)) requesting to prepone the joining date from 4^th July to 15^th June.  All that my mother could understand was the word Neeraj despite of best effort by Shikha. My mother suspected something fishy between myself and Shikha, later my father took the call and he understood that it was about Baypackets. I will never forgive Shikha for this preponement as she prevented my participation in the celebration of my sister’s birthday. Now my sister shares her birthday with start of my career.

As expected of me, I reached office almost 30 minutes before reporting time of 9:00 AM. Vijay ji (Office helper) was the first person I saw in office. Few minutes later I saw Sonojoum Abhishek (a friend from Manipur) sitting on opposite sofa. Few minutes later the whole office heard the cacophonous sound of 5 member strong NIT K gang led by Prashant Kumar. Sandeep Chouhan (IIT R) completed our 100% attendance. At 9:00 AM, I saw a smartly dressed lady and I thought her to be Shikha but she was Shubhra (another fresh recruit who joined few weeks ahead along with an IIT D grad). Shikha took us to the Saphire conference room where we had our first interaction with corporate world.

The music of zara zara song (RHTDM) still gives me a lot of joy along with similar stories from my newly friends. I still remember saying that when asked about the aim of my life “to decipher Indus Valley script”, what an arrogant fellow I was! That day I made very good friends and the friendship continues till today with more warmth and more faith.  

Since the day I started preparing for Civil Services, I can recall not paying even a single penny even after having numerous dinners at the most expensive restaurants, the last being at Radisson (late May 2015). I am really lucky to have found friends like Prashant, Mukesh, Suresh and Deepak. One can make friends at any time and at any age the only thing required is honest intention.

After 10 years we all have changed a lot; we have aged and have become bald or semi-bald, some are married and some (only one) still bachelors. May the rest of our lives give much more joy and success and may our friendship endure all challenges and catastrophe. Let the beginning continue to evolve in a great story.

Book Review [105] : Breaking India - Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines

I have never read such a seminal book on the work of evangelical organizations operating in India; i have never read such a detailed book full of references and data on the threats to the Union of India. No where one can find the sophisticated designs of evangelical organizations. Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines is a wonderfully written book by Rajiv Malhotra and Aravindam Neelakandan. When one of my friends recommended this book last year i rejected the book as some right wing humbug. This month i got some time at my disposal and i decided to give it to the book and to my surprise this is not a right wing humbug. The stories, data and references are well stocked and this book is not against any religion but against the designs of some foreign organizations backed by generous donors and supported by in-house supporters in dangerous plan to balkanize India. These organizations first create fissures in our society and then deepen those fissures; the case of Aryan (outsiders) vs Dravidians (indigenous), the myth of St. Thomas and Afro-Dalit concepts are some of those fissures.

The Tamil movement has been appropriated to an extent by these evangelical organizations and the rich Sanskrit literature of ancient Tamil Nadu and Vedic/Hindu references in Sangam poetry have been maligned and St. Thomas has been credited for giving Tamil Nadu the devotional movement, Tamil language and religion. The Hamitic myth of Bible is being used to describe the Dravidian and African "civilizations" while North Indians are being labelled as barbaric invaders who destroyed and enslaved Dravidians.

India has never banned any religion in her 2500 years (at least) of written history. If Indians willingly want to convert to any religion then no force on earth can stop it but this willingness should not be coerced by force, fraud or money.

Its a must read book and every Indian should read it irrespective of faith and caste. 

Highly recommended (10/10)