ID15

It has been more than 15 years since I had attended any independence day functions. Yesterday I received the mailer from Indian high commission informing that a fucntion will be held by high commission with flag hoisting and all that goes with it. I was just toying with the idea to go and see what it would be like as the old school memories had been rekindled. Then in the night another expat friend called up asking if I want to be up at 7 and go for the function( a real big deal these days). Independence for India is a day of mourning for Bangladesh ( at least for one political section these days) in the memory of brutal killing of Sheikh Mujib (fondly known as Bangbandhu). Interestingly his political party had called for half day strike this morning thus making 3 minutes drive to the Indian High Commission ground a 10 minute rickshaw ride ( Dhaka becomes rickshaw paradise on the days of strike as they are the only vehicle with license to ply ).

It was interesting to see national flag hoisting and singing of national anthem, we had just barely made to it after our long winding search for the Indian High Commission grounds ( yes we are not as prominent embassy as some might imagine given our common history). Indian high commissioner then told us that she would read President of India's address to the nation, being a first timer I thought why she cant make her own speech but then it is maybe required for a by the book ceremony. I dont know if people in India still tune to, address to nation by president anymore in this day and age of saas bahu dramas, myself hasnt done that in ages ( boy aged I have ). After listening to the speech I must say that in the history of all the democracies in the world, I dare say first time, we have a president who is so tuned to the modern times and has the right thought arsenal to suggest some reasonable blueprnit for future of the nation. But alas he can only make suggestions and has no power to see them implemented ( maybe I underestimate power of suggestion, I havent had success with it as yet). To say the least his speech was informative and practical and most of all one could say for sure that it was written by himself as well( unlike so many other presidents before).

Amidst all this the thing I remembered most was "Boondi Ke Laddoo"!! ( alas it was missing from the "Alpahaar" offered by Indian Embassy). This was mainstay of almost all my schools' independence day functions. When I was living in school hostel, we were so unsatisfied with the limited quantities on offer that some would take it upon themselves to make the stuff in the room. This was I guess our first steps in learning of entrepreneurship and partnerships. More often than not these endeavours ended up in sour experiences ( not literally). We discovered that after going thru the process of making the stuff one didnt feel the craving as we had imagined or experienced before. Then the sharing of the produce would lead to unhappy endings of partnerships, resulting into tools of the enterprise being literally broken into pieces. Still... those were the best days of my life... ( thanks for to Bryan Adams to make those words so popular).

Rehash

There was this nice post on Rambling Monolgues which inspired me to recount my similar experience ( years back )... since monolguist did bestow the comment with a smile i thought it would be worthy of rehashing and sharing with a few of you who by some cosmic coinicidence land on my blog every once in a while...

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this reminded me of my funny experiences in second year engg. as usual me and my friend did a night out for the midterm..we mugged the whole stuff and were pretty cocky to crack this one..
we were standing outside the class at 9.50 in the morning and were surprised to see everyone seated and bent over on their answer papers with serious looking madam hovering over the proceedings. my friend and me were kinda frozen in shock with sudden realization like rip van winkle. my friend didnt have the courgae to walk in and check if the exam had started early or we were late... so i took it upon me to walk in and dare the embarassment. i walked in and asked madam if can have answer sheet. madam looked at me and said "additional answer sheet ??"
(actually test had started at 9 whereas we two had given ourselves 1 hour extra time thinking it was at 10) i just smiled and beat the retreat and sat in canteen with friend, drowning sorrows in tea and samosa, waiting for the rest of the class to emerge from test and complete our day's misery :)