Learning English Blog - Pravin

Final Encounter

Pravin Pravin — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 11:04:58 +0000

Thanks a lot Catherine for the wishes, it has really paid off. Indian Team has finally won the world cup 2011. It was nail biting match and the result was welcome with great applause and fire crackers by cheerful audience.
It has been really a great moment for Indian team as well as for whole India that finally we were able to break the jinx by thrashing Srilanka in Final encounter. Superb......... Each one from the team became so emotional that it was become hard to them to believe that they have really won the world cup. It was a very emotional moment for everyone on the field as well as off the field.

]]>I don't want to describe the match in detail as many of you may not be able to digest the technical terms and may not be able to feel the gravity which I would like to convey. But since this was the world cup match, everyone can understand the importance. So, finally one and half month drama ended with a smile on every Indian. Being a ardent fan of Sachin Tendulakar (one of the Best Cricket in the world)
I am very happy for him as this was his last world cup and it was his last chance to touch that glittering and most Coveted trophy. And he did it in style scoring second highest runs in the tournament.

This is all about the team and then really drama started when the frenzied crowed gathers on the streets, waving the flags of India high in the air, cheering loudly to their possible voice... India...India..... On 2nd April after 11 pm it was traffic jam all over the city. And I was among them to become a cause for that traffic Jam...People were seen with flags around them, some of them carrying the replica of world cup trophy,
Wearing the T-shirt of Indian Team, some are just busy in polluting the environment (by fire cracking) to which nobody complained of. Police were busy in controlling the untamed mob. Phew.....Believe me; I have never witnessed something like this
before , it was much louder much entertaining and so much exciting than any other event that would have happen till that since my birth.
Three cheers to India.....Hip Hip Hooray ..Hip Hip Hooray ..Hip Hip Hooray

Waiting for a lottery...

Pravin Pravin — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:06:18 +0000

I am so unhappy that even after getting such a good opportunity to write on this
community, I failed to use it to fullest because of some teeny-weeny nuisance,as I was
on site for last 15 days for some project related work and I could hardly find any time
to write. In addition there was not good enough reception of signal to access the internet,
still somehow I maintain the tempo by replying and then by posting some blogs.
Now something I would like to mention is about marriage. As you already know that arranged marriages are very much a part of Asian culture. And India doesn't belong to an exception. Actually every now and then whenever I have discussion with my friends, one of them will surely ask me about my marriage plan, when I am getting married. And I always reply to them saying that next year for sure. And I don't know when that year will come as I have so many personal obligations and some other education plan as well. So
personally I don't want that marriage should become a hindrance to my plan. But I can't hold it for a long time as I am already 27, and in India for men 27 is perfect age to get married, maximum is 30. Otherwise you know it becomes really difficult to get the bride of your choice.

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And you know, nowadays even girls have their own demand. Recently I heard from one of my friend, who is also looking for a girl, that girl expect their husband to earn comparatively more, also he should have his flat, should be well settled. So if someone is looking for a bride who is good looking as well as having a good job in her kitty, then Groom also has to be at Par, may be above the par. In simple word I can say I have to appear for one more exam, to get the beautiful wife. But you know it's really fascinating. Once you are married, you can have a very good social life.

On every good occasion, festival, her relatives will call you for a dinner or so,
and they will treat you with lot of respect, and many more interesting things, same is applicable for girl. Many a times my friend ask what do you feel about Arrange marriage against love marriage. To which I simply says that 'one who really enjoy adventure should go for arranged marriage'. It may sound little funny, but it's true. Ok, let me explain you. See, in case of love marriage you simply get to know about her well before marriage, so once you understand her very well you go for marriage. So it's you who is responsible for the consequences and you are liable for every thing and you can't blame anyone except yourself. On the other hand you won't get that much amount of time in case of arranged marriage. It's just a matter of 4-5 meetings and you arrive at the decision of marriage, I mean whether to marry or not, then engagement programs, and after a gap of 2-3 months you go for marriage. (The gap between your engagement and marriage is really memorable days as it really gives you a leverage to know her very well and since you know that you are going to marry her, it becomes really romantic days when you talk to her, sometimes you can go out with her...oh my god, it's really nice moment)
Anyways, I haven't experience those moments yet, but at the moment I can simply imagine about it. Ok, so this is the only amount of time you will get to know her. May not be sufficient enough to know her (better to say girl) well, and then after marriage you may have to face up to some surprises, which is why I prefer to call it as a adventure. Hope you all got my point. Otherwise I am neither against love marriage nor against arrange marriage. It's all a matter of choice. In either case you will become a victim of suicidal case. Oh, man I am sorry, I was just kidding. One more thing I forgot to mention about the celebration, I mean they way whole wedding ceremony is arranged. Believe me, it's really interesting, Groom will mount on horse and then along with band procession he will proceed towards the wedding place from his house, there are so many rituals. If by any means if any one of you happen to be there in India, then do inform me, I will be your guide for that ceremony.

Finally I just want to say that if you are going for love marriage then do ensure everything goes on good note because I have witness many of the cases where parents are not in agreement with the son/daughter and finally romantic love dominates parental love. I really hate that when just for the sake of girl, people go against their parent. But in case of arranged marriage if you find a good match then it's a lottery, and I am still waiting for that lottery....

Re:Past habits

Pravin Pravin — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 18:14:04 +0000

Hi Catherine,
I was expecting you to be telling some of yours childhood stories , but anyways now it's my turn as I have been assigned with that homework
Regarding my childhood days, I can hardly remember the things when I was knee high to a grasshopper. But now, after experiencing so many things, I mean college, competition, job, I can surely say that those were the golden days, when you didn't have to be wary about these things, simply keep on enjoying the life as it comes, do the things the way you want, roam around wherever you want, behave as silly as you can as you
may not be very well aware of what does good behavior (when I say good it really means good and matured... :)) mean, so I am pretty sure that If someone gives me the power to go back to the past, I would opt for my childhood days.

]]>I prefer to tell you the story about my first Childish crush. Actually I was 8 yr old and I was very much attracted by one girl who was my classmate then. And daily around 5 or 6 o clock in evening I use to take my bicycle, and would ride in front of her house in an expectation to see her and sometimes I was lucky to have her glimpse in balcony of her house.

What's more, she use to saw me from there, those were really a happy moments for me. One day she and her small sister tried to tease me, and being a childish I got irritated, somewhat happy as well, and then suddenly I park my bicycle and entered into her house and went directly to balcony. Then we started teasing each other and had some fun and I started to come down the stairs after a while, and then I realized that her grandfather was there in hall reading a newspaper. It became a troublesome situation to me, I thought that her parents would scold me and beat me up, so I asked her for help. It was all childish drama, even today when I remember that incident I never stops myself from laughing. Ok, then she started insisting her grandfather to go to sleep saying that he must have been very tired and should go to sleep. Her grandfather was surprised to hear that but to my surprised they really went inside the bedroom to go to sleep. And somehow, better to say successfully I escaped from that troublesome situation. Then also I never stopped riding in front of her house but never ever dare to enter into her house.
As it happens, that was my 'first Crush' experience, Hope you have enjoyed reading this one.

RE: Forts and hippies

Pravin Pravin — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 17:45:20 +0000

.Hi Catherine,

Yes, I had been to Goa two years before along with my friends . And it was real fun. We stayed there for almost 2 days. Evry morning we use to go to beach and swing by restuarent to take the breakfast and lie down on wet sand staring at the sky until it;s noon. Then we would start our expedition to explore Goa, to explore good wine/beer shop, to explore a good beach (as there are many beaches.).

]]>During night we would go to pub. That's how we spent our days at Goa. Overall If you want me to rate the destination , i would go for 4 out of 5. Not very very good neither so bad. But particularly saying it has got very good atmosphere and natural beauty.

And one more thing i forgot to mention is tasty sea food. I would recommend you to visit the place during the month of December as they celebrate GOA festival in this month. And yes atleast just to justify the truthness of mixed report that you have received from your friend about GOA you need to visit the place.

And here is my answer to the homework:

Answer:..do Visit, Coastal side of Maharashtra state, where you will find some of the great forts which were conquered by ''The Great Chattrapati Shivaji"

state of education in India...

Pravin Pravin — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:27:09 +0000

Hi Again,

This time I just wanted to talk about education system in India. Overall it is of good quality. But only concern is regarding access to that education. If you go to any of the metro city, an education, in some of the institute has everything Necessary to build the overall personality of the candidate. At the same time if you go to village, then you will hardly find a quality education. There, teacher will only consider it as a routine job, and nobody cares about for the improvement of student's aptitude. By the time one becomes ready for graduation he/she use to manage to gather some information about good colleges and university to pursue higher education. In some of the villages teachers remain busy in making duplicate students data just to get enough funds for the school and keep the school running as in villages many of the families doesn't give much of the importance to the education as it need to be.

]]> But In overall, competition is very high if you want to get an admission into the top colleges of India. Two of the well known exams in India are IIT-JEE (entrance exam for IIT (Indian Institute of Technology)) and CAT (entrance exam for IIM (Indian Institute of management)). One can appear for the first one after higher secondary education to pursue an engineering study (graduation) and second one i.e. CAT is for post graduate diploma in management. In my case I was not aware of the first exam (again the story of small town and lack of proper guidance), but I appeared for the second one and i didn't qualify for the next round because of my low score in entrance test :(....
Now there are 11 IIMs in India, 4 are introduced this year only. And yes, IIM Ahemadabad is 11th best business school in the world having second best salary figure after LSB.

And the competition is so high that, every year around 0.3 million students compete for those 1000 seats available in IIMs. Same is the case for IIT exams. There are other exams as well i.e. for medical and other courses but I am not really aware of it.
Overall mindset of Indian family is they want their child to do either engineering or medical.
Apart from these exams many of the students appear for IAS (Indian Administrative Services) exams, which again witness a very tough competition. Every year there use to be a cut throat competition for each available seat. This is all regarding competitive exams.
If we talk about grass root level, then there are many social organization like, Lead India and NGOs and save the children organization which contribute to improve the awareness of education among the poor and needy children who becomes the victim of
Child labor otherwise. If we talk about the statistics then there is really a need of lot of improvements in education, as the number of people who are not having access to a good education is very high compared to the handful of people who gets high quality education.
But since the induction of IT/software related job things have change a lot and mindset of people are changing a lot and now in my own SMALL town you will find at least one engineer in 7-8 families.
Anyways that's all from my side. I think this is kind of topic which really needs a two way interaction to discuss upon. Waiting for your comments for the same.

Re: Moghul Highlights

Pravin Pravin — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:02:12 +0000

Hi Catherine,

First of all I would like to thank you very much for appreciating some of my sentences, it has really encouraged me a lot. And thanks for correcting me as well.

It's realy nice to know that you have been to India. I hope you must be having a good memories of your visit to India. And yes, next time by any means if you are happen to be there in India, then do Visit, Coastal side of Maharashtra state, where you will find some of the great fort which was conquered by 'The Great Chattrapati Shivaji", previously those were ruled by Nijamshah. My favourite one is 'Murud Janjira' fort, located amidst the sea, not far from the beach (approximately 1 Km away from beach). You will also find places full of natural beauty, and yes you can also visit Goa .

Now it's time to do some homework. Please find below the answers for the Homework.

1) In (I feel 'Interested in' is the correct expression)
2) About
3) As
4) With /to ( I am little bit confuse about this one)
5) Into ( I feel that even "about" will suit here)
6) To
7) By
*) Of

Thank you.

Dahi Handi

Pravin Pravin — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 04:28:09 +0000

Hi All,

Sorry for being little bit late in posting new blog. Today I am going to give you some glimpse of the festival which is very much famous in Maharashtra (one of the state/Province in India). Since I belong to Maharashtra state, I am quite excited about this festival as it's been largely celebrated here only. Actually i belong to a small town, Hinganghat, which is 800 km away from Pune as well as from Mumbai. At present I am leaving in Pune. And I am very happy to be here in Pune, as it's very cool city compared to Mumbai, where life is very fast. You need to be always on your toes if you are leaving in Mumbai. Ok, let's switch back to our festival discussion, Dahi Handi; yeah it's a local name for the festival. Where, 'Dahi' means curd and 'Handi' means pot

]]> 'Dahi Handi' is celebrated on very next day of Lord Krishna's birth anniversary which will fall somewhere between the month of Aug and September (and yes every year it doesn't come on the same date). The celebration is nothing but the enactment of Lord Krishna's stealing of curd along with his friend's from the clay pot which would lie suspended from the ceiling of Home.

In a similar fashion a clay pot filled with curd will be hung 30-50 ft above the ground using rope. And there will be number of teams who will be participating to do the task, where each team will form a human pyramid to reach that height and break the pot and it requires a lot of courage and zeal as it's not the Pride of the team which is at stake but also the reward. And finally whoever does that will be awarded with a Trophy along with a cash Prize. As I remember last year the prize for one of the 'Dahi Handi' was a hopping 75 lakh ($ 750000). And as I know the cash prize is directly proportional to the height from where the pot is suspended, if it's hung at higher height then reward has to be on higher side. And the team which was awarded $ 750000 had broken the pot hung at a height of around 50 ft. Even the girls use to be member of some of the team. Dahi Handi is celebrated with great pomp and vigor each year.

So, if by chance if you come to India during the month of Aug/September, then do check about the event, and if you are happen to be there, then really you are lucky enough to witness the event. In next blog I will come back with some more interesting things...till then enjoy reading this one and yes keep on posting your comment as it really inspire me to write another one.

Hello From India

Pravin Pravin — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 20:16:18 +0000

Hi Everybody,
Truly speaking I am very much delighted for getting an opportunity to interact with you all. As I remember I have been blogging for last 3-4 months, but I used to interact mostly with my local friends and even the gossip and some other related things written on the blogs are also restricted/known to few people only. And this time I am elocuating in front of a huge crowd (who are all surfing at different coordinates of the planet at this time), with an only intention to share some of the good things about me, and about my lovely country INDIA.

]]>I am very lucky to be blogging in this month because during these days if you go and stand in any corner of India, I bet you will hear something about Cricket, and which is why I will be having lot more to share with you.

Yes, this time "Cricket world cup" has been hosted by India along with Srilanka and Bangladesh. And being born and brought up in a cricket frantic country, I would be an exception if I won't talk about Cricket. So, sorry guys and gals if you are not at all interested in the game as you need to put up with me for nonce. And If someone ask me to say something about cricket then I would only be saying "Cricket is religion and Sachin is God". I will surely dedicate one of the upcoming blog for this one.

Sachin...Sachin....

As of now I am very much curious to know your views about India, because I am very much sure that there might be hardly any country left on the planet where Indians are not staying, honestly speaking I am not at all exaggerating anything over here, but the fact is that I have myself did a research before posting the comment. The idea behind telling this is that somehow somewhere you must have been interacted with Indian, so you might have been told about India by him/her.

Mysore Palace

So just wanted to post a simple question to all my blog readers that how fascinated are you about India? Your replies are most welcome as it will be very valuable to me while sharing information about my country.