The Earthquake Experience

Tuesday, April 16,2013, 16:15 IST: I was in office reading on Wikipedia about Mario Video Game. Suddenly realized shaking of floor but thought as if someone walking on the wooden floor as usual. But then someone inquired as you also feeling tremors? Then I realized it is not somebody walking, it is EARTHQUAKE! Every-time we experience Earthquake in office, the thought comes in our mind with speed of light, that dude, we are on 15th floor. The thought of being on 15th floor is more scary then earthquake itself.

I felt that whole building was slightly shaking, I looked at the nearby building and saw everything shaking. The building was shaking like see-saw but it was not funny at all. Everybody on the floor were puzzled trying to take in what's happening.  I quickly grapped my cellphone and car keys and put them in pocket , the shaking kept going harder and harder.

The only thing we could hear was panicking of people. In my mind, I told myself not to panic, stay calm but inside it was fear. Once I heard people shouting lets move, we started leaving the floor. We walked out of the office. We saw huge crowd on the staircase but there was no option but to walk downstairs with the snail's speed. People were saying, move fast but we knew it will only bring in more panic. We realized, the building is still shaking. We keep looking downstairs as how many floors still left. After reaching downstairs, a sense of relief came to mind and body. I looked up and saw 16 floor building standing tall like a God who as if very proudly saying, "Look I have saved you". I thanked God.


It was a horrible nightmare which is happening too frequently now. Everytime, I go through it, I pray to God, please don't repeat it again

An earthquake can happen anywhere on this planet. It's not a feeling that you have everyday. For me it changes some of my priorities.

From a Boy to Man

When does time come when people started treating you as a man and not as a boy anymore. Does age matter? Completing 30 years makes you man? or after marriage? Since, I will be completing my 30 years in a month and few days, this question started knocking my mind. Most of us will say that age doesn't matter. You become man when you start handling greater responsibilities, take decisions, etc. I agree to that.

It is that time of your life when you realize that you are alone and you have to deal with the problems yourself. Family is there, but its you who need to take risks and trust your instincts.

We always want to remain as a boy but time will automatically shifts our personality from a boy to a man not because of age but with our traits. You don't realize when you start behaving like a man. So I guess the time has come for me to take few important decisions and handle greater responsibilities. Its only a coincidence that I am completing 30 years at the same time. Whatever I have learned till now, its time to implement that in my life. Though the learning is endless but the basic concepts of life has been learned.

I am Nothing!

Once I have gone to my family doctor's clinic for some general cold or fever that I don't remember now. This is about 1 year old incident. As I was telling the doctor my my condition, a small boy came in the clinic alone. He was bleeding from his leg and asked compounder "How much for a bandage". Compounder told him 20 Rupees. By looking at his wound, I knew he was in great pain but his expressions do not look like he is feeling pain. He stood there for a while then left.

I was busy telling my condition to doctor but somehow also looking at this boy. At that time I could not react but after sometime I realized that I could have helped him but did not respond at that time.

After finishing my appointment with the doctor, I rushed out to see if I could find him but he had vanished by then.

Today after almost 1 year, I may have contributed towards various investment schemes or may have given some amount for the deprived and poor but those 20 Rupees are still heavy on my mind. A little delay and hesitation and most importantly, the tendency to weigh the pros and cons while donating keeps us in doldrums.

Here I wish to convey that we spend few hundreds and some times few thousands towards cakes, flowers, candles some wasteful clothes during sale etc. which are of very little use later but when it come to donating such meagre amounts, we take a long time to decide whether it is for the right cause, or the person is genuine or we are not being taken for a ride or even wondering whether he will take it in the tight spirit etc. etc. Yes, cases of cheating are there but do follow your instinct and act fast.

That was the day I realized that we are Nothing if we can not give a thing !

School Memories

There are few activities which I think we all have done in our school times. At that time it was considered as quite a big issue. But now when we think about it, we miss those days. Here is the list of few of them:

• During Diwali, taking "Bijli Bombs" to school and burst them in toilets then run away.H
• Having empty pockets (without money) but lots of guts.
• After school, watching Cartoon Network (Swat Cats, The Mask, The Flintstones).
• Making Aeroplanes of copy pages and throwing them on girls.
• Throwing chalks on each other and pretending of not doing it.
• Writing kids' names on the whiteboard as monitor while the teacher was away. Then putting ticks next to repeat offenders.
• The evergreen and ever used phrase 'pin drop silence'.
• Distributing chocolates/toffees to the entire class on your birthday and only giving your best friend more than one.
• Discussing Steve Austin's stunner, Triple H's pedigree and The Rock's people's elbow.
• Singing National Anthem daily.
• Playing Cricket with a Paper Ball as ball and Writing Pad as Bat.
• When keeping your eyes open during prayers was the ultimate offense.
• Pen fights on the desks.
• Passing chits to a friend while a lecture is going on.
• Eating lunch of friends before recess.
• Copying sheets during exams.
• Hating those who asks for extra sheet during exams.
• Sharing jokes in free periods.
• Asking parents for money to eat "chola kulchas" or "churan".

There are many more which I cannot recall right now.

Firstrain Runners

It's going to be a big day for Firstrain runners.....the day Airtel Delhi Half Marathon (30th September 2012) http://www.procamrunning.in/adhm/! There is a record 16 of us + 1 mystery runner (can you guess???) who are going to take part in this marathon. We are going to attempt to run 21.097 kms without dying or suffering serious injury. While our level of fitness is MUCH below the professional athletes who are running, we're still very much inspired and enthused to participate in the marathon. Over the last two months, we have been following the news stories, Facebook posts, etc related to a Half Marathon. We are talking to each other about the training, exercises and experiences. Most of the runners have only one question in mind- "Will I be able to complete the race?".    The Firsrain India office official trainer AjaySharma is giving all the valuable tips and preparing us hard by organizing fitness sessions.

Due to the rainy season and not so proper parks or roads that you find in Delhi and Gurgaon, one quickly become frustrated during half marathon training with how hard it is to plan out and run with directions in order to achieve a certain distance. But spirit of Half Marathon pushing us to participate even if we are not fully fit or practiced. In 2011, 3 people from Firstrain participated in half marathon and this time the number has increased to an impressive 17!   Thanks to KD and few others who have really motivated people take part in the marathon.

There are some serious runners among the lot like Sanjay Shankar and Narender Kumar who already dry ran the marathon- hats off to their achievement! There is one mystery runner who is going to surprise us during race day itself. Sorry folks, you will have to wait until 30th September to find out about him/her.  Three of us from previous year will try to improve the timings.

First time runners after completing the race will surely going to enjoy and  cherish the moment when they finish it. This is going to be a big adventure for all the runners. Only 9 days to go before race day! I wish everyone the best of luck, the main thing is to enjoy the race and have fun.

Following people from Firstrain are participating in Half Marathon. Will they able to finish the race in 3 hours? You are welcome to comment. 

1. Vipul Goyal
2. Priyankar Shrivastava
3. Rajiv Arora
4. Rohit Goyal
5. Aparna Gupta
6. Sanjay Shankar
7. Varun Dixit
8. Mohammad Atthar
9. Abhinandan Bora
10.Binay Mohanty
11.Ansuman Mishra
12.Nilendu Gupta
13.Ankush Nagpal
14.Kushagra Deep
15.Gaurav Khera
16.Narender Kumar
17.MYSTERY RUNNER