A letter to my best friend Venkat

This is the letter I've written to my another bestie Venkat, whom we call 'Venkhan'. I printed this on to a letter card and sent him before he left to Kuwait for his job. We are one hell of a crazy combination. His wavelength matches with mine. And the letter follows..

My Bestie, Venkhan!

I want to take the time to tell you how very important you are in my life. It’s hard sometimes to say these things in person, even to a best friend, so I’m taking help of this letter to convey my feeling to you.

How do I put into words how much you mean to me? How could a single letter possibly explain all the cherished moments of the past four years? Well, let me try my level best.

I still remember the day when I first came to your room in Chaitanyapuri, to complete my English record. You secured your spot in my list of best friends on the very day. From that day we have shared a lot of funny instances, the night studies before every semester exams, the coding technique for remembering the answers, the jokes we cracked on the PP Harsha, the chicken and drink parties, the tour and what not? Our practice of crossing 30 pages in the exams was a huge click, cheers!! You made me forget my parents sometimes. I love the feeling that we think the same way, like we are born to be friends forever. We have almost same dreams and views in life. We discovered studies are not the only thing in our lives. We even laughed at the smallest things (Do you remember the EDC class in 2nd year?).

Unlike our other friends, we both are rough and tough and aggressive in nature. You know my moods very well. You never got mad at me when I was extremely stupid and irritated you. Whatever I do or say is only to generate some fun around but not to hurt anyone, because most satisfying moment for me is when I make everyone smile and laugh. In the same way I started teasing about your love story and “Khanum”, because you can’t be best friends without insulting each other. You even had your first beer with me on August 4 2012 on friendship day, remember? Now don’t blame me for you drinking it, idiot. Being with you makes me laugh and gives me more energy than I actually have. We have had good times in these four years; I wish they just keep continuing. I wish we get back to the good old days.

The last one year was a very tough period in my life. The thought of all of us getting separated really pissed me off. But we have to accept the reality. Thank you for bearing an idiot like me for these four years. Thank you for all the tasty chicken you cooked. Thank you for teaching me M1 on the night before the exam. Thank you for standing by me in the tough times. You are going to a different country now and we are not going to see each other for a quite some period. No matter where life takes us, you will always be the one someone I can trust and always be a part of me.

It is getting late, so I will stop. This letter is a lot shorter than I would like it to be. There is so much that I want to and could say, but I don’t want to bore you with a lengthy boring letter because I know about you. I know we will see each other again; we travel the world in future.

All the best, Hope to see you soon (may be in your marriage). 

Thank you for reading, I mean it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Satya Venkata Mohan

Due to time constraint, I've used some common lines in both of my letters to my friends. 

A letter to my best friend Harsha

This is the letter I have written to my best friend Sri harsha Bolisetti, before he was leaving to Canada to pursue his masters degree. I printed this on to a purple color, A4 letter card and then laminated it. This was the idea I got just before 2 days he was leaving India. It was difficult for me to find me those letter cards, later I ran over to many printing shops to get my letter printed on to that letter card. Every and every printing shop I went to, denied printing on that card, fearing the thickness of the card would cease the printer from working. I finally thought of getting it printed on to a bond paper. Before that, I just gave one shot by begging the concerned person to print it on the card I have purchased, by explaining its prominence and the love for my friend. In the excitement of accomplishing the task, I felt overjoyed and left my pen drive at the shop itself, which was later recollected by my brother. Whatever, I finally did it.

This letter was much shorter than I would like it to be but for some reason I don't want it to be more than one page. So I scripted some of my feelings for my friend, who is also my bro. Following is the letter..

Dearest bro-who-is-not-really-my-bro-but-still-feels-like-it,

I want to take the time to tell you how very important you are in my life. It’s hard sometimes to say these things in person, even to a best friend. So I’m taking help of this letter to convey my feelings to you. How do I put into words how much you mean to me? How could a single letter possibly explain all the cherished moments of our friendship? Well, let me try my level best. Lend me your eyes and heart for this. You know I’m capable of writing endless stories for ‘n’ number of pages. Don’t worry this one will be crisp and just one page.

I have no clue where to start so maybe I will start with what I wanted to say long ago. You know, I have sound number of friends. Making, everyone, friends is food for my inner self. Because friends are the biggest treasure anyone can ever have. This was one of the very few things I have learnt in my life. But you stand out tall among all of them. I still remember the day when we first met, literally, walking on the cliff to our college. You were sipping a coke tin and I along with some other classmates thought you were showing off. That was the fresher’s day, I guess. Whatever, as the time passed by, we both bonded like cement and water (Ignore the examples). We both are a huge click!

We had fun together. You and me teased each other and smile at each other. Unlike my other friends, you were completely different, in fact special. Being with you makes me laugh and gives me more energy. You are innocent and gullible. That’s what I love about you. You know each and everything about me, you know my moods very well. I remember how we stayed all night in my house to complete some stupid crap records. I remember the 19 gifts you brought to me at the midnight on my 19th birthday. That trip to NITW was fun and remarkable. I mocked you every single second, for fun sake. Hope you understand. In fact we can’t become best friends without insulting each other. Whatever I do is to generate a small amount of fun around us, because most satisfying moment for me is when I make everyone smile. You also gave me one reason to remember you on my every birthday. (Recall what you did on my 21st birthday night). Idiot, now don’t blame me for you becoming a drunkard. You irritated me like hell; I loved it. Suddenly you are leaving me in a middle way, who will, from now, annoy me and whom should I tease. I will miss you sorely. No one could ever fill your boots in my life. I literally cried typing this letter. Bastard, you made me cry after 8 years. 

Let me take this opportunity to help you with some of my thoughts. Always remember, life is all about people and relationships not big buildings and job titles. Don’t make friends depending on their status. You’re not your job, you are not how much money you have in your bank a/c, you are not the car you drive, and you are not the contents of your wallet, so discover who you really are. You are one hurry burry person, who gets tensed for every small issue. Seriously, life is better when you decide not to care about it. Take it easy! One life, live it. You've achieved what you've dreamed for. You are going to where you desperately needed to go. I’m sure you will achieve big in your life. If someone asks me what hard work and dedication is (fuck Steve Jobs and Bill Gates etc), I will show you.

Thank you for being there when I needed you. Thank you for all the night birthday cakes. Thank you for talking to me no matter what time of day it is. Thank you for bearing an idiot like me, you were never mad at me. Like I said I don't know how to thank you enough. The last one year of our UG was a very tough period in my life. I know we all will get separated. But we have to accept the reality.

Even if we live a thousand lives, I will always pick you as my beloved best friend. I will always be there for you as you are there for me. You are a true friend. I know we will see each other again; we travel the world in future. The idea of our firm will come true one day.

All my love and some more. I meant every word of this letter. 

                                                                                                                         Satya Venkata Mohan

Angelic species called mothers

Mothers! They seem to defy every rational or logical conclusion that I have drawn about human behaviour in general. It's almost as if they don't belong to the same species as the rest of us.

For one, I believe that every relationship in today's generation is a give-get transaction, not necessarily material. And still there are times when I can't understand why my mother gives me so much when I seem to be giving very little in return. Starting from the financial support, right up to the back massage when I am tired, to the comforting hug when I am scared and the hot cup of tea when I am studying for an exam, my mother has always been the giver in our relationship. There are times when she saved me from my dad, by pacifying him. I am twenty-one, and she still makes sure that I've had my breakfast on time. I know I am always in her prayers, and she makes it a point to call me even when she's on a trip, however inconvenient it might be. 

It's incredible the way she knows exactly what is happening in my life, as she spends a lot of hours everyday with me. For no reason, I call her name and ask her to come to me. That is a some kind of fun to me. She knows what I want, when I have cried... it's hard... no, almost impossible to keep a secret from her. I mean I can always tell a white lie here, and hide some facts there, but at the end of the day, I know she knows; and she knows I know she knows. Even though I am a douche bag , she was never angry to me. Neither she spoke hard words nor did she raised her hand to beat me up. 

She's been my best friend, confidante, role model, caretaker, teacher. She's the only one person I know who will give up the leg piece in the chicken for me. Seriously, who does that? 

Obviously, I am grateful for having a person like her in my life. It scare me when I think about working in some other place, leaving my mother back in my home. I can't imagine I can succeed in doing that. Generally I am man with very few emotions, apart from being attached with my mother. I can make friends quickly and I keep up healthy relations with them. Whatever, all those still can't replace my attachment with my mother. Most of my friends confirm I am funny and praise my sense of humour. To say, all that credit goes to my mother. She taught me how to laugh, seriously. I am very much addicted to her pranks, trust me they are too damn good. She always wear that beautiful smile on her beautiful face. I am very glad that I've never seen a tear rolling down her cheeks, except in the sad occasion of my grand pa's demise. She never taught me how to live a life, she just lived hers and let me acknowledge it. I now possess that one outstanding credential of being strong and smiling in tough situations of life. I am very proud to have a mother like her. I am a momma's kid.

Best films of 2012

These are the series of films, which are released this year, that caught a word from me

• The Dark Knight Rises: What better than this, to start the list? A lot of credit goes to the Batman Begins and The Dark Knight for setting it up nicely for an amazing, perfect end to the trilogy. It was one of the greatest pieces of cinema I have ever seen. I'm not just saying this as a normal audience member who enjoys a good movie or two, but I am saying this as a man who has experienced the delights of hundreds of films. This movie was one of the best. The soundtrack (especially the Bane chant) definitely added a very special edge, to the total film experience. Movie is a Don't call yourself a filmy geek, if you miss this one. Lastly, Christopher Nolan, you are the dude. 

• Lincoln: Finally a high quality history movie about early history of USA. I strongly believe that both americans should watch it very carefully to understand what is United States. And the rest of the world (like my country for example - India) to understand what the president looks like, what is meant by the term GOVERNMENT. And what is the social duty of ordinary citizens. Seating at home while the country is ruled by the fucking criminals is certainly not fulfilling the civil duty. Daniel Day-Lewis presents another Oscar-caliber performance. Every scene with Lincoln is fascinating and the movie entertains. 

                             

• Skyfall: Daniel Craig makes 007 his own in this very British Bond adventure – perhaps the best in the series' 50-year history. Skyfall triumphantly reinvents 007 in one of the best Bonds ever. This is a full-blooded, joyous, intelligent celebration of a beloved cultural icon, with Daniel Craig taking full possession of a role he previously played unconvincingly. I don't know what I expected in Bond No. 23, but certainly not an experience this invigorating. Eventually, It's been a long time since I enjoyed a Bond movie so much. 

                                           

• Avengers: You are ready to see this movie. No need for origin stories or an explanation of powers. This movie dives into action and shows you the heroes. Its totally worth watching...If you are an action freak and love superhero stories i will definitely recommend Avengers. Not only action and animation is awesome but Director and story writer were able to give justice to all the heroes. Though I feel a little bias was shown towards Ironman who stands out in the end. His witty lines are just amazing. Hulk smash is one to watch repeatedly. 

 

• Cloud Atlas: Epic movie, BEST cinematography, incredible script. I loved it! I think the editing was amazing because the stories were tied very well together. The makeup and prosthetics might not be perfect but you need to use your imagination and it has it's charm. I found this movie to be a great epic about humanity and high quality entertainment. 

                                   

• Gangs of Wasseypur: It goes beyond the normal scope of cinema, it was based out of real conditions of lives of people in MP,Bihar and Bengal post Independence. This movie goes on to depict a way of life that represents India and is not exaggerated one bit. There is also a certain amount of comic style narration to such a serious topic. Kudos to Anurag Kashyap for bringing movie capturing real India, not like chocolate movies showing only urban life targeting mall going generation. 

                                       

• Kahaani: is a mouth watering treat for any movie lover. Right from the very beginning till the end the tight narrative keeps the viewer on his toes without any hiccups whatsoever. Despite a contrived culmination in the climax, this was a gripping, thriller with memorable performances from each member. No exaggeration in saying vidya played her role beautifully fantastic. All the new faces in the movie added extra edge to her performance. 10 on 10 for Vidya Balan. 

                                             

My facebook page

Facebook, the most popular social networking website in the world. Deep down every facebook user have a dark past and it is called as ORKUT. Obviously every facebook user is an orkut immigrant, including me. We all love facebook, don't we? In fact we are proud of ourselves, for being a facebook user. Like everyone, i too spent many hours sitting in front of this site, clicking on the home button always. We know it terminates our valuable time, and still can't avoid this stuff. Few people i know must be offered a job by Zuckerberg some day or the other. They spend almost every minute of their active hours on that particular day. I'm pretty sure, they will kill me if i mention their names here. People dive in here and probably they won't find their way back. JAM, why am i saying all these things? I, actually am not criticizing these people rather i am just throwing some light on the facebook virality. Take no offence guys.

Besides its cons, FB also have its pros, provided if we use it in the right manner. As i mentioned in my bio, I am a MS aspirant and hence bound to take GRE. I was under coaching period during march-may 2012. As this is post in not about my preparation, i don't wanna discuss about my prep. My good & close friend Sri Harsha, who started his coaching ahead of me used to give me tips. It was his idea, actually, to start a facebook page regarding the vocabulary section. This is to help ourselves by remembering the words, as the main motto of the page is posting five GRE words everyday. To be guileless, we never set up a target to reach certain number of likes. It was just a selfish hypothesis then. We hardly promoted the page even. Don't know how, slowly the page was caught up with regular users. This made us work towards the development of the page. My friend, the actual founder of the page along with me equally bolstered the page with our ingenious ideas. Apart from five daily ideas, we started sharing some articles, useful information regarding test. In that particular period of time, we were happy that we found some fellow mates to exchange our views, through the page. Few more days like this and our page went viral at light speed, many questions, many compliments and yeah many valuable suggestions, leading to many productive thoughts. People even contributed with their encouragement. We, the admins learned very much from most of them. And then we never looked back, never maintained it lethargically. We thought of more new ideas to help our fans (i meant the people who liked our page). There were chronical posts everyday. Let anything may happen, we have decided not to commercialize the page. It should remain as it was in the first day, just a candid non profit page. Without all the people who liked our page page, today it would not be such a huge hit. I hereby, contribute my gracious regards to all people who stood with us. We promise to keep the standards and never let your expectations down.

This is the outcome- Our facebook page

Bio

On the recall of my past, i was raised by my grand parents as my dad suffered a lot of transfers. Being the first boy child in my grandpa's (mom's dad) family, he gifted me with this big name called 'Satya venkata Mohan' (still baffling to recognize my first and middle names). Apart from the name, they provided everything I wanted and wished. To be frank, I was raised in a lofty environment as if I were their own son. Days passed and soon this'screw-you-kid' age has arrived in my life. I meant the schooling age. I was thrown into the school at the age of four, like all the other kids. I guess, school is the most hated place by any kid in this world and teachers their biggest tormentors. Almost two years passed in school and still I was not used to it, always wanted my grandma to sit beside me in the class room, crying everyday like hell. In fact i was regularly irregular searching for some silly reasons to evade school. I knew this story happens in everyone's life but after all it is my blog, so i couldn't resist myself from sharing the story. Besides this, my grandpa used to be in an illusion, thinking i would become a doctor. Yes, one of the predictor said my grandpa that i will turn into a doctor in my future, so he kept on dreaming and I never really disturbed him. After all in India there are only two options for any child, either to become an engineer or a doctor. And the predictor cashed my grandpa with the latter one. My success story continued for few more years and I was completely a spoilt brat. Like for every summer vacations, that year too had my father's visit to me. Guess what happened, my dad went nuts at my grade sheet(4th standard as per my ken) seeing those measly figures(almost F in every subject). I am too small to catch his feelings then, but pretty sure that grade sheet has taken him to the darker side of the moon. Obviously this made my dad to take me with him.

After the transition, I was raised militarily by my dad. Bound to study for suggested time daily. Done something, which I haven't all these days. Unlike my dad, my mom hardly cared about my studies. She always used to feed me, feed me and feed me more. She is loving, caring, funny and jovial, pacifying dad when i messed up something, offering money for my mango bites. Of course which mother is not? That is why boys are always mom's kids. Something is missing in the whole story, yes my brother, a younger one. The one i used to fight with, for tv remote, for my MRF bat (actually his). Slowly started doing good in studies, obtained respectable grades and that satiated my dad.

Life went good and I was then addicted to SACHIN TENDULKAR and cricket. Spent tonnes of hours in grounds, daily. At one point, i too wanted to become a cricketer then. Of course, the then aim remained for a short time. But, seriously I am mad at cricket. There are some sundays where I was completely in grounds, the entire day. Whatever, my every sunday must end with the telugu comic weekly serial "AMRUTHAM". This is awesome stuff, I tell you. No one I knew till now hated this one.

Nothing much has happened until my 10th standard, where i turned more studious under my dad's training and obtained 86% in it. Even though they are not a kind of marks scored by a studious guy but remember I am talking about myself. My dad was a bit relieved and then I started pretending as if i am really working hard under my dad's ultra vision. Joined for 11th and no change in life, more cricket, loaded with more laziness and yes one day batting before exams. Being a sachin fanatic, I didn't find any difficulties in one day batting. Then the 12th standard, the period of  re-transition. The period in which i was turned to a scumbag again. The teen age, "go have some fun buddhu" I kicked my self. I turned more social and gregarious. The radius of my friends circle enlarged and it was difficult for my studies to find enough space in that vicious circle. Messed up big time with studies but made good friends for life. Got a rank, which almost looked like a telephone number, in the engineering entrance.

After joining engineering, I kind of realized something new about life. I wanted to do some serious studying this time. Always tried to maintain good grades and I kinda managed to do that (credits to one day batting). Had fun all along the semester and the caught up with books just before exams. Till then, I didn't really visited temples, but if I did, I made sure I visited just before my results. I was fantasized by the holly action films. Watched every single flick, released in the period. College taught the importance of friendship. Made many friends in the grad life too. Got to know how people will change time to time, at the same time met people who were helpful always. Gone through many crests and troughs. Made myself mentally strong, just as strong as diamond. Apart from these there was a lot more in engineering., more bunking, more fun, more boozing too. Since I was an abiding back bencher, always found enough time to dream. On the contradictory, I was an introvert with girls. Never found myself comfortable with girls and i never gave a hoot about that, I used to be like that. Above all friends liked my cool attitude, especially towards exams, as I am the one who always says exams don't need preparation. I was kinda, not interested in studying rather I am interested in writing, person. People liked it and some of them showed interest taking tips from me. Made myself a philanthropist and a humour bug, always wanted to make people smile. I think that attitude earned me friends in bulk, Whatever, i am happy with that. Habituated to take what life gives us, no expectations and no regrets. It was in the penultimate of my graduation I started thinking about my future and eventually decided to go abroad for my masters. Probably not immediately after my graduation, but a year later. Working towards it, I am struggling in life to get a life. Having gained some interest in blogging, I wish to become a part time columnist, apart from whatever the profession I do.

GRE downloads

This post is stitched with some study aids for GRE (both Verbal&Quants). So make full use of it. The list goes like this

• ETS official Guide 2nd edition 

          2nd edition OG

• ETS's powerprep II software for a GRE diagnostic test. (Most Important) 

         Powerprep

• Princeton GRE Review Book + 1014 New GRE Questions from Princeton Review 

          1014 Ques, Review book
     

• Barrons Revised GRE 19th edition (Scanned Version) 

          Barron's 19th edition

• Nova GRE Math Bible 

          Math bible

• Vocabulary tests for GMAT, GRE, TOEFL 

          Tests

• Online vocabulary Flash Cards. 

          Flash cards

• Barron's flash card 

          Barron's cards

• Soft copy of BigBook (4 RC & SC)+ Nova (4 Maths) 

          Big book

• Reading Comprehension (RC) Practice. 

          RC

• Barron's flash card practice (4759 words) 

         Quizlet cards

• LEARN VOCABULARY WITH VIDEOS, APP for IPHONE 

         IPhone app

• Kaplan Math Workout 

         Math workbook