The Pushkar Trip!

I think it was awaited for long. The update for our trip to Pushkar. It was supposedly my first trip from GL along with my colleagues from the office. To make the matters more complicated, it was a trip with 11 foreigners and two Indians that is me and DJ. Everything started as per plan and we left in two cabs, one Qualis and another Scorpio. I along with Chie, Lynn, Vanessa, Lucie, John and Tatjana in Qualis, whereas DJ with Collin, Wagner, Annabel, Anne-Solene and Mai in Scorpio. It was around 22:45 hrs when we started from our office site on Friday, the 3rd of the month November.
All through the way, we had a journey full of talking, especially for me. As in the beginning, it was discussion with the Asia team and then it was chatting with the driver, just in order to prevent him from dozing off. Yeah, we had tea at various junctions on the way and also we did stop for smoking or taking a leak break. But eventually by 5:30 hrs on Saturday, the 4th, we had crossed Ajmer and we stopped on one of the plateau pass to have a glimpse of the sunrise.
We waited for half and hour and God! What a beautiful sight it was. With the orb of the day, we felt a new sense of energy flowing in us. Some of us like John and me went for some small time trekking, followed by Chie, Lucie and then Collin. We were about to start when we saw a big gang of monkeys coming down from some cave from the hill top. We moved without a delay.
On reaching Pushkar, we though took some time settling with luggage and accommodation, but we found a real nice place for food. It was just an economical restaurant with breakfast like pancakes and porridge on the menu. I think we had a full breakfast, which made me start dozing. After that everyone, except me, DJ and Annabel left for a camel ride. After saying them bye, all three of us went for some sand dune hunt. It was marvelous, the beauty of the place around, it seemed like we are onto the sets of some Western Hollywood movie and out of nowhere, Clint Eastwood will drop in saying hello with bang! bang!
It was a wild hunt as we found some strange looking fruits and vegetables among the shrubs. I feel sad for Anna as she was in floaters and had tough time walking in sand, though being a brave girl, she never complained. After wandering around that place for an hour or so, we were back to our small and dingy room, we had rented to keep luggage and spent some time plucking thorns from our trousers. As soon as I lay on bed, I slept. I think I had slept for a while and then suddenly we woke up and moved to see the market, the lake and the temple. The market, the lake, every place was crowded. Damn crowded! And while returning we were lucky, we bumped with the Camel Trip gang. They were escorted by some local guy from there, pretending to a guide and when I asked him to leave from there as I can take care of the team; he tried to get rough with me. Although, he realized soon, that we were one team, he went away. Later, we visited the lake again and some of us offered prayers in the lake too.
God! We were hungry and Tatjana was missing! We went on for her search and finally DJ found her. We all started returning and when we were back in the restaurant in half an hour, we were squeezed. We had almost all the Italian menu on the table, with some confusion of pasta, macroni and penni on the plate. But then, it was all fun. While the rest of the crew was cruising on the ship of the desert, they also found Mr. Marc Pickering, who had arrived after a long and gruesome bus journey. So, now the team of fourteen people decided to go to Gayatri Temple on the hill top. We walked hell lot, climbed like mountaineers and went to the Gayatri Temple. I could see the entire beautiful town from the hill top and it was one of the most beautiful sites I could imagine.
After climbing down, it was dusk and some of us again went for camel fair, while some left for watching circus or taking a ride on giant wheel. I went along with Anna, Mai and Anne-Solene for a giant wheel ride. That sent me nostalgic. I was on giant wheel after God knows, how many years and that gave me most cherishing memories of times. After that we started moving for our hotel and in the process, lost our way and then found it back. But the return walk ended on a bad note with DJ getting rough with some local lad, who was constantly passing comments on Anna, Mai and Anne-Solene. Anyways, we were back in the restaurant and after a long dinner on the table, we all started to pack up back. Everyone arrived and had their dinner. Later, we all waited for Marc till half past ten when he just called back to say he wont be coming and there, we were off for home!
All night drive again. All tired and exhausted after a wonderful and memorable trip.

Who's way is it anyway?

It is not expected from me. The long silence before publishing my next post. Yeah, am a busy person indeed, but nevertheless, am responsible too. So, it’s obvious that u might have been disappointed. Perhaps the things were not coming the right way…and it hasn’t yet….but I thought that I don’t have the right to keep people away from the present working scenario of an organization like the institute of ours…
It’s called transparency…for all those who have been working in any organization…this term is often used when the management wants to show that they have everything crystal clear in front of every one…every rule, every policy and every so called modus operandi. So, what we get? The usual delays in the process of implementing any idea? The so called paper work formality that makes us waits for the results?? I want to ask you one thing? How far the working or the operational strategy of our organization is differs from yours? Here, every bill that needs to be passed in terms of expenditures to me made anywhere has to go through 2 repeated levels of scrutiny. Indeed, I find it foolproof but do u think it’s wise enough to prevent those conmen from playing there games? The verification and the scrutiny procedure for any bill in this institution requires fair enough number of data proof to attached to it as a mark of rectification. But that just adds burden to the normal working of the surrounding, especially the students involved in it. The Dean of Student Affairs, the accounts section of the college, the audit cell, the Registrar, all are often indulged in finding out the loopholes in any progress made in the society or to the very procedure of it. But they seldom try to find out how they can make the working of the entire system as non-defective. Nor they ever bother to ask anyone. The re-imbursement policies of the institute and the complexities in making the advance payments for any work, leads to the lack of interest among the student to come forward for participation without any demand for any work of the institute. Students, because of this attitude of the institute, start asking for the certificates for their work, which seldom is required in one’s career. At the end, the liability always starts falling on the shoulders of final year students. The students of the first and second year keep on waiting for the time and opportunity to come and they realize it late that the certificates, which matter to them the most has actually least significance at the end.
Now, coming back to the management part, it has become the habit of management to undergo slow and delayed process for any response required from their side. They always blame the students for any irregularity, forgetting the fact that the students who work for organizing any event or managing any society in the society have to bear with the strict rules of 75% attendance. They indeed, have to take out time from their regular schedule for performing any extra-curricular activity. The habit of absenteeism during the working hour is prevalent deep in the institute like ours, which is supposedly a private one. The very act of non-believing students in the matters of accounts and money in the college often leads to dissatisfaction among working students and creates a gap between management and the students.
The requirement of the hour is to come out with some formal guidelines to be followed in every institute for it's rapid development in their academic as well as in non-academic fields.