First Liebster Award, Thanks Rajni

Quite often I came across "Liebster Award" related posts, to be honest I was a bit confused and never  even bothered to understand it. There are so many awesome bloggers and I feel myself a toddler out here. But Friday night when I received a comment from Rajni in one of my post, where she mentioned  "you have been nominated for the Liebster Award". I was little confused and immediately visited the mentioned URL. I was so much delighted to see my name, along with my blog link, in her list of nominated bloggers.  But what was that for? As it was a Friday night, so I didn't waste much time to understand that and thought to Goole it out later. In the next morning, I received one more similar kind of comment from Deepak. I had some idea that it would certainly be some kind of appreciation for my blog but I was totally blank. I opened the link that was mentioned in Deepak's comment. Wow!  I didn't have to google it any more, as Deepak explained it so perfectly in his post.  I got to know that Liebster Blog Award is basically a blogger to blogger award.  The award is usually given to upcoming new and deserving bloggers. OMG! I felt so honored and was really inspired to continue blogging

Right from my childhood, I was never a good reader and writing was simply out of context. But few months back, not very sure, why and how I started to write? Initially I started to post my shits in Facebook. I was very delighted to see few comments on my posts and those comments encouraged me to write more. Later  I started to post quite frequently in Facebook. Some of my friends and college seniors always appreciated me and encouraged me to write more. I would like to thank my good friend Diganta and two of my college seniors Paromita Ba and Pratibhu Da, who inspired me to start a blog of my own. I didn't have much idea about blogs and all, so I had to google a bit. After a few days, many of my school and college friends were very much surprised, when  I started my own blog and everyone wonder and  few of them even asked me "How cum all of a sudden you started to write now a days? What happened to you?"

I thank Rajni and Deepak from the core of my heart for nominating my blog for the award. Honestly, it means a lot to me. Now I am again little confused "since I got two nominations, do I have to write two posts or single post would be fine?" Since I got my first award from Rajni, I dedicate this post to her.

As per the rule, I must write 11 things about myself. OK, here they are:

1. I was born and brought up in Bongaigaon, a town is Assam

2. Sorry to say, but I am a true atheist, right from my childhood

3. I did my schooling from Kendriya Vidyalaya BRPL. But our school doesn't exist now a days, as few     years back it became DPS(Delhi Public School)

4. I did my engineering from Assam Engineering College(AEC), in Computer Science and Engineering

5. I enjoy Rock and Metal music

6. I like to travel to new exotic places

7. I am quite lazy and was never competitive throughout my entire life.

8. Presently I work for a company named Onmobile Global Ltd, as an Engineering Lead

9. I am a big fan of thriller movies and watched most of the Hollywood thrillers.

10. I am extremely cool kind of person and don't usually take unnecessary tension.

11. Presently I am some kind of settled in Bangalore and stay with my wife Anjali and our little angel Jia

My answers to Rajni's questions:

1.Your favorite flower?

Rose

2.Which period of Indian History do you like the most?

The golden age of the Maurya Empire

3.Your favorite woman Politician Indian or International/?

Mamta Didi, she keeps on entertaining

4.   Favorite Indian singer?

Kishore Kumar

5   Favorite Indian sports person

Tendulkar

5 .Favorite food item

Momo

6.  Favorite book

Haven't read any book since a long time. I read a few of the Sidney Sheldon books, during my school days. I remember during my college days, once I visited Delhi and finished one book in the train journey  from Guwahati to Delhi. The book was "Tell Me Your Dreams" by Sidney Sheldon.

7 What do you prefer to listen to  violin or sitar

violin

8. Favorite gazal singer

Not much into gazal but I like few of the Gulam Ali songs and particularly "chupke chupke, raat din..."

9  Do you have stage fright?

Yes

10 Do you prefer reading the news paper  to watching  news on Television?

Watching news on TV

11.Do you think blogging is very helpful in stress management ?

Yes

The bloggers I nominate for the award are:

1. Rama

    http://rama-ananth.blogspot.in/

2. Sonia

    http://intiativesonia.blogspot.in/

3. Ramya

    http://ramya-chitrana.blogspot.in/

4. Arumugam

    http://miraarvind.blogspot.in/

5. Tanya

    http://thankgodforlife.blogspot.in/

6. Jay

    http://road-to-sanitarium.blogspot.in/

7. Aparna

    http://ephemeralelysian.blogspot.in/

8. Rajni

    http://rajni-rajnigaqndha.blogspot.in/

9. Deepak

    http://theoriginalpoetry.blogspot.in/

10. Fida

    http://fida-sunshine.blogspot.in/

11. Meenakshi

   http://beyondwoman.blogspot.in/

My questionnaire for those I nominated:

1. Name your top 5 favorite movies.

2. Name your top 5 favorite actors

3. Mention 3 things which give you happiness

4. Give one reason to justify that you feel patriotic about your nation

5. One good thing you have done in life and you are still proud of  that. If no then simply answer as "I haven't done any such thing yet"

6. One mistake  you have committed and still regret for that. If no then simply answer as "I haven't committed any such mistake till now"

7. Describe briefly "one happiest moment of ur life which you still cherish"

8. One thing which you definitely don't want to miss "if you have the opportunity to become invisible for one whole day"

9. How many hours you usually spend in a week for reading/writing blogs?

10. How many hours of TV you watch daily

11. The reason you write?

Finally I would like to thank Rajni and Deepak,  one more time for recognizing me as a blogger. I don't know the rules properly, but for Deepak's nomination, I would write one more similar kind of post, as I don't want to miss the opportunity to nominate 11 more wonderful bloggers.

One Great Escape, Part-6

One Great Escape, Part-1

One Great Escape, Part-2

One Great Escape, Part-3

One Great Escape, Part-4

One Great Escape, Part-5

The situation was pathetic to survive out there, as it rained the whole night and they didn't have proper shelter.  Even though Parag Da already decided to escape from that place and he even had few opportunities, but he didn’t dare to escape at night. He didn’t have any idea about the region and it would have been a suicide to escape at night. He seriously thought to try out his luck in the morning. Nobody among them had a good sleep that night, except for those frequent one minute naps. Somehow the night passed and just before the dawn and before Parag Da could think of an escape, all the rebels were on their feet and were discussing among themselves. Two of them went in search for some essential materials like tents, also for their survival they had to arrange some food. In the early morning Parag Da had a clear view of the nearby river, down the hill. The river was neither very broad nor too deep and one could have easily crossed that and could have gone to the other side of the forest.  Once Parag Da had a proper view of the surrounding, he was more determined to escape from there.

Time passed by and in the afternoon the two guys returned with a pair of plastic tents and some boiled rice,  some burned potatoes and few boiled eggs. Parag Da thought “there must be a small village nearby”. Their leader decided to stay at the same place for few more days, till the situation become normal for them. After they had food, they spent some time to make their place of shelter a little comfortable. After they fixed the tents properly, suddenly the place turned into a heaven for a while, as the mosquitoes couldn't enter the camp and they no longer had  to get wet in the rain. Parag Da slept for few hours and was desperate to escape the next morning. He thought the best time to escape would be just before the dawn. 

It was a long night for Parag Da, perhaps his longest night ever. He regularly looked into his watch all through the night and at 3 AM, he mentally prepared himself, but even a small cough from any of the rebels, scarred him like hell.  At 4:30 AM, he could see some light outside and looked here and there. Everyone was sleeping and Parag Da saw a pistol nearby. Even though it was tempting for him, but he decided not to take that pistol with him. He started to make a move very calmly and was out of the camp. He had a plan and walked slowly for the first few meters. In case anyone would have caught him, he would have simply said that he had a nature’s call.

Within a few minutes, he was near the river bank and continued to walk for some more time. He went quite far and the camp was not visible from there. He thought he came much beyond the firing range of the rebels. He then started to run and kept running. He continued to run and was very happy to smell freedom. That moment the famous GNR song (originally by Bob Dylan) "Knock-knock-knocking on heaven's door” played loudly inside his head. He continued to run through the river bank,  downstream, without  any   break. After running for a couple of hours he met a man on the way. 

Even though he was quite relieved to see that man, but he was also a little scared, as the person could have been one of the NDFB rebels. He casually asked that person, if he knew any place nearby where he could make a phone call. The person replied that at a distance of 5-6 KM, there’s a tea estate named “Mahalaxmi Tea Estate” He said that there’s a phone in the office and he guided him the way to that tea estate. The name sounded little familiar to him and after some time, he started to run in that direction and didn't follow the river any longer. On the way he saw few more people but he couldn't trust anyone out there and particularly guys who looked little similar to the rebels.

He continued to run and after almost an hour, he was extremely happy to run through a tea garden. He asked a tea labor about the office and she showed him the way. After some time he was right in front of the office, but it was locked. Perhaps it was too early for the office to open and Parag Da had a look at his watch, it was 8:30 AM that time. Parag Da went inside the nearby bungalow, every tea estate have a typical bungalow, where usually the estate manager used to stay. But the manager was not there that moment and Parag Da had a chat with the watchman.

He briefly explained him about his abduction and how he escaped. The watchman immediately opened the office and Parag Da called his parents. His parents were so happy to hear his voice, as they knew about his abduction on the very first night night itself. Parag Da was quite surprised to know that no one asked for any sort of ransom from his parents. His parents said to him that few days back one lady called them and said that their son is under their custody and asked them to come at a particular place. His father was very confused as he didn't know the place, where they asked him to come.

After talking to his parents, Parag Da called his colleagues. His colleagues immediately contacted the army as the army camp was not very far from their place. Parag Da calmly waited in the bungalow and after a couple of hours, a few army vehicles along with his colleagues arrived there. The army took Parag Da with them and interrogated him the whole day. He had to explain his story several times, to different army officials, all throughout the day. Like us, the officials were not very excited to hear about his escape and they constantly asked him the same question "whether you really escaped or they themselves released you?" Finally the army released him in the evening.

After that incident, Parag Da had a pretty normal life. He is presently working for Indian Railways and  is posted in Assam. I would like to dedicate two songs to him and I am sure he could always relate to these songs, all throughout his life. The first one is the famous Iron Maiden track "Run to The Hills". When Parag Da, along with all the rebels were running up the hill to escape from the army, he remembered it that moment.When he escaped from the custody of the abductors and was running through the river bank. That moment the famous GNR song (originally by Bob Dylan) "Knock-knock-knocking on heaven's door" played loudly inside his head.

Image courtesy: google images

One Great Escape, Part-5

One Great Escape, Part-1

One Great Escape, Part-2

One Great Escape, Part-3

One Great Escape, Part-4

On his 12th day at the camp, Parag Da came to know that the leader, along with the other guy had planned to meet the higher authorities for the 3rd time. As usual, everyone had rice at 10 AM and immediately after they had their meal, the two guys left from there. Everything was quite cool and after a heavy meal, most of them were relaxing inside the camp, including our Parag Da. But after exactly 10 minutes, when those guys left from the camp,  all of a sudden everyone heard a series of gunshots. Within no time, the rebels collected all their weapons and one of them carried the medicines and started to run, up the hill. Parag Da noticed that all of them were damn scarred and they thought their colleagues must have died in the shootout.

After running for 15 minutes, suddenly someone saw their leader, down the hill. Both their colleagues were alive and were running in the same direction, up the hill. They waited for their leader and after a few minutes, their entire team was together. Their leader said to them that they had a close encounter with the army and in order to confuse them he fired a few rounds, so that they could escape from there. All the rebels were extremely surprised, as the army came so deep inside the forest. Without wasting much time, they simply started to run. Parag Da had a very hard time, as he didn’t have his shoes. He was so freaking scared and wondered “How the hell army would know that I am not one of the rebels? They would simply fire at all of us” 

Everyone continued to run for their lives and they ran for almost 3-4 hours, that too without any break. It rained quite heavily that afternoon and they continued to walk, the remaining day. When it started to get little darker, the rebels were little concerned about their shelter for the night. At 7 PM, they heard the sound of flowing water and could see the blurred view of a river, at some distance down the hill. They stopped at that place and started to prepare a temporary kind of shelter for them and it almost took 2 hours for that.

Their place of shelter was like a factory of mosquitoes and one of the guys advised Parag Da to be a little careful of the mosquitoes, as that place was highly prone to malaria. They neither had any food with them nor any mosquito nets. They only carried weapons and medicines with them and mostly malaria medicines. Two of the guys went in search of food and the remaining just waited out there. It was quite difficult to stay there, due to those mosquitoes. One of them had an idea and he somehow dried a wet piece of cloth and put some fire on it. The guy wanted to create some smoke and was successful in that. The intention was to disturb the mosquitoes but after sometime they themselves were very much disturbed with the irritating smoke. 

Life never had been so miserable for Parag Da, as he shivered in the rain and was literally starving. Sleeping was out of the question because of the mosquitoes but everyone managed a few minute naps, every now and then. At midnight, the guys who went in search of food, came back with boiled rice and some burned potatoes. They even bought a couple of big polythene sheets to survive the rain. After they had their food, everyone got busy with the mosquitoes for the rest of the night. Parag Da was horribly disturbed and he thought, he wouldn't survive much longer in that drastic condition. Also, the army could have come any moment to kill them all. He realized that there was no other option left for him and the only way out was to escape from there. But how? Something strange was going through his head. He had a limited knowledge about the geography of that region and the river down hill, gave him some sort of hope. Parag Da felt that the nearby river was not broad enough and it would definitely meet the mighty Brahmaputra at some place. He thought that if he could follow the river downstream, he would have a much better probability of his survival. For the first time he seriously thought to escape from the custody of the rebels and from that moment onward, he desperately waited for an opportunity.  

Image courtesy: google images

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