Dedicated to my friends..

I know it pains to leave,

a friendship so strong and deep,

but treasured those moments will be,

of sorrow and glee.

Four years we dwelt here,

in a place away from our home,

four years we lived together,

to make for us a new home.

Now is the time to move on,

the time we waited for so long,

drawing near, we fear,

how will we live alone.

Remember, then, that it is you,

who changed our lives, so true,

Whereever you go, it is you,

who can outshine the successful few.

The Ghost of a Ship

Sail the sailors through the mist,

Ahoy! I see a ship adrift,

called the voice from the crow,

It stands still, ignoring the tidal flow.

Change the course,

the captain commanded,

Let us see and save,

what can be founded.

The ship rolled through the dividing ocean,

bouncing on the waves.

As it approached the stagnant vessel,

crew could see its sails.

Tattered and weathered,

like fresh from a storm,

The ship could do nothing more

but float on its own.

The sailors feared now,

for they had heard of such a ship,

one that floats in these waters,

though none but ghosts live on it.

So they moved away,

as fast as they could,

snatching the last hope of survival,

for die, the ghosts would.

The following lines were added later:

Thus once more the ship was seen,

it was told,

the ghosts ever more fiercer,

and the wood stale and old.

The sailors in these waters,

now numbered very few,

no ship would help another,

it was said there were ghosts anew.

Arunangshu Chattopadhya

Arunangshu or, as he likes to be called, AC has been a good friend to me from the day we met. We have had several courses together and studying for exams together builds a sort of camaraderie that is hard to replicate. I have always known AC for a man who strives to excel in what he does. He is not content to be an average guy. He does not accept defeat easily. He is a team leader, a movie buff, an excellent writer, a wannabe politician, ...... He has so many interests, so many hobbies, so many facets to his life that I cannot help but wonder what will this guy do in future? He, himself, has outlined so many career paths which include more educational qualifications that I won't be surprised to see him studying LLB 10 years down the line.

Above all these qualities, he is a great friend. However, I don't like him while playing AOE. He will always build his colony behind my back :D.

Alok 'Senti' 'Sanyam' Tommy

Alok 'Senti' 'Sanyam' 'Tommy'.. the name this guy earned when we were in our first year. All the parts of this name signify something about him. Of course, this name was earned after the incident which has been wonderfully described by Ashank. So, I will give you a complete description of this name.

'Senti'- This has nothing to do with the fact that Alok is a very sentimental person. So what if he can emotionally blackmail you. So what if he will get emotional when he thinks he is responsible for your sadness. We named him 'Senti' because we wanted to.

'Sanyam'- This has nothing to do with the preachings of Alok to exercise patience. It could never be related to the incident which Ashank described when Alok went on to exercise patience. We named him 'Sanyam' because we wanted to.

'Tommy'- We named him tommy because we wanted to.

Saurabh Chawdhary

Saurabhc aka Saucy aka Ketchup is a very shy guy. Sometimes even more than me but do not let him fool you for once. This guy is a maths genius. Atleast thats what he tells us. Saucy is a cube freak. He is credited with making the Indian Open Rubik's Cube (IORC) possible. The event is just an example of his ability to take initiatives. He is also an avid blogger. You can sometimes see blogs with just one line in them and sometimes blogs encompassing 4-5 paragraphs.

What the hell! Is this a recommendation letter? No. So let me spill the beans. Having been educated in an all-boys school, Saucy has a certain amount of trouble in hitting off with the fairer sex. There has been only one girl in his life and alas, in an unfortunate case of dost dost na raha, pyar pyar na raha, Saucy lost the only girl who came into his life. Lately, after the break-up(need a better word here, cheating? ;) ), Saucy has been bugged by the beatles. "Hey Dude" has now been replaced by "Hey Jude" in his life. I have also been observing certain acts of violence from him. I was at the recieving end of 'one tight slap' from him and now know better to maintain distance. Therefore, I would request girls to come into his life and save us from the Judes and the slaps.

Jitendra Kumar

This guy from Allahabad is one of the very few persons I know who can cross language barriers very easily. Well, this guy knows how to talk to girls. He is the Casanova and I am jealous of him :). Jitu, as we like to call him, is a guy who thinks from the heart. I have known him to travel in a train just because he knew someone else was going to be in the same train. I don't think I would ever be able to do that and that is what makes him different. He, unlike most of us, does not think on a situation in terms of loss/gain. If something is going to make him feel better (or make a girl feel better ;) ) he will do it. There are various other talents that this guy has. He is a remarkable artist. He can make sketches that look better than a photograph. He is quite a good singer too. Needless to say, all of these talents go a long way in helping his original talent ;). Wishing you good luck being a Casanova ;).

Vatsheel Singh

Vatsheel Singh: azamgarh ka don. Vatsheel is a person with a cool demeanour. He has only one care in the world: Cricket. If I had not known him better, I would have mistaken him to be a cricketer. He does not know a thing about playing, as I have proved so many a times. Still he likes to think of himself as a very good cricketer. We usually allow him to think of himself as good because we know how much he likes cricket and this man would be devastated if he knew the truth.

Apart from cricket, there is place for little else in his life but whatever little he does, Vatsheel is always good at it. The thing that he likes the most is bulla. May it be on cricket (his favourite topic), politics, business or even the issue of dhobi; No bulla is ever complete without him (better to say it never starts without him). Overall, this man helps in managing your time. When you feel you have time to spare, feel free to go to him. He will discuss such things with you, you'll suddenly remember all the various deadlines you have to meet :D. The interesting topics (girls) are taboo while he is around. You'll be lucky if you get a comment on girls out of him and his 'personal' life still remains a mystery to me.

Shadab Anwer

Shadab Anwer, jisne duniya dekhi hai, is the punchbag of our wing. If you feel frustrated go and beat him. You feel like writing something bad for him, write this testimonial. He has been and shall always be there to motivate us when we feel down kyunki isne duniya dekhi hai. I came to know him mainly because he was the bravest of us all and had the courage to go to Health Centre and he returned, barely alive. Thus he came to be known amongst us as Shadab, jisne HC dekha hai.

When I first saw Shadab, I could tell isne duniya dekhi hai and I was always wary of talking to him and rightly so. Whenever you talk to this guy remember he is as cunning and as decietful as a fox but that does not discount the fact that he is a great friend. Still, take precautions ;).

I have known Shadab and recognize him for his many skills; above all his nautanki. He is a great actor and employs this skill quite often. He is also one for living life on the edge. He made a stunning jump straight up in the air while playing badminton once and landed on all fours. That jump earned him the nickname langda :D. Whatever you may say about him, the greatest quality that this guy possesses is that he will do anything to prove you wrong and that is what I admire in him. This guy is a fighter (plays CS :D ). He worked against all odds to cover a semester drop and with extra-curricular activities that not many here can think of. Wish you good luck in all your future endeavours.

Ankur Saxena

Guruji, as people love to call Ankur, is a friend, philosopher and guide in true sense. He is guru because loves to point out your shortcomings. He loves to upbraid you for failing to achieve the difficult tasks. He loves to advice you on your weaknesses and above all he loves to see you succeed. That is the way I have known him since my first year. Of course, I did not like this nagging know-it-all (he does resemble Hermione Granger, not physically :)) at first. Although when we realized (like Harry and Ron :) ) that he always has our best interests at heart, we called him guruji.

Guru is also a sprinter. He has won a gold medal in 100m sprint (in some local tournament :P) but he has never been able put that talent to use. I mean, he doesn't try to tease girls and then run when girls' brother or father gives him chase. Of course, it does not have anything to do with the fact that Guru can run only 100m and he would die of exhaustion after that. Its just that he is not interested in making a girlfriend right now :D.

A notice to all the girls: This guy is being approached by some notorious elements of male community. So hurry, while the stock lasts.

Lava Agarwal

I met Lava on the first day of our orientation. It was not coincidence which brought us together because as the seating arrangement was alphabetical, we were destined to be seated together during our first week together. However, coincidence did bring us to the same wing- B-Bot, Hall 2. Since then I have come to know Lava as a studious person who is quite oriented towards his goals. What I, and most of others, had not suspected of Lava was that he was a Ladies' man. I still remember many of us would crack jokes on Lava's feminine qualities but they don't realize Lava has turned the joke on them :D. Apart from his serious side, Lava displays some funny attributes too. Ask him the name of an actor and he would straightaway answer - Amitabh Bachchan. Ask him name of another one - you won't get any answer. That was Lava two years back. He had recently made it a point to watch every hindi movie (and I mean 'every' :) ). Lava's singing has also been a topic of discussion. Some think he doesn't remember the music of the song thats why he sings the way he does, others believe there is more to Lava than meets the eye and he is all the time creating new music for us to listen. Sadly, Lava does not consider us worthy of his singing and I have heard his melody only once :( . Wish you would sing for us :) .