Friday, August 26, 2005

Xerox - 200 Copies and 25 paise

Yesterday I visited my friends place to greet him on his B’day. The road seemed pretty familiar to me. And why not, it was a place where we used to spend our precious PL (preparation leave) hours to get the notes Xeroxed.

It used to be high time in November-December and again in April-May when our engineering exams approached. Gathering notes from friends, getting it Xeroxed and then starting the actual study was the typical scenario those days. The auto-riksha walas had a queue running parallel to those Bhagwan saman Xerox walas. There were and still are many Xerox shops lying adjacent to the each other, each running atleast 16 hours a day if not 18 hours. No wonder that the wait period while getting the job done used to check one’s patience.

The campaign and offers, which are a part of marketing business processes - that we study and implement today in our professional life, had a different form then and to our surprise they still exist with the statistics changed. A typical example of the offer was – 25 paise per copy provided you order for minimum 200 copies.

I really cherish these memories of the past. Today the experience of Print and Xerox in the Office eclipse those Xerox experiences. But then it’s unforgettable that these free and easily accessible sophisticated services, available at the click of a button, are available to us only because of the gyaan the Xerox sheets provided in our study phase.

I eagerly looked into the Xerox shops as I passed by and said – long live the Xerox community!

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

It's Dadra Nagar Haveli...

It was July and we, my friends and I, were dying to experience the much awaited event 'RuNamochan Bhet' - a kind of trip with underlying social objectives. It's an annual event in which we, the members of VSM, visit one of the remote centres of 'Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram' and do the needful as a part of our social duties. This time it was a place called Khanvel lying in the boundaries of Dadra Nagar Haveli.

People were busy playing maidani khel , Marathi word for 'outdoor games ', when my friend the man and me went out to the market, borrowing bicycles from those students, to get some vegetables and salards. The two-minute ride pleased us so as not to restrain from taking a small ride along the countryside. The roads were empty, unlike the ones in towns or cities, and had beautiful green fields alongside the pit-free roads with the field grass stretching over a long distance. The fresh breeze of air was adding to the content. The scenic beauty from the riverside pool was like the one we see in our textbooks. A perfect landscape!

It was fun interpreting the encoded language these students had discovered, and also had a traditional 'Garba' dance with them. We at one moment seemed to be living, rather enjoying life with all these pleasures coming our way.

Next day we had a visit to the Madhuban dam, built on the Daman Ganga river. The climate was just too romantic, with the man compiling a picture of things he would like to do if he and his female friend were together in such conditions. I advised him to get a boat, one with the rowing facility and get into the waters, which they would enjoy the most - analogous to what Hritik and Preity did in the song Chupke se sun... I am actually incapable of putting his feelings into words, but am sure that the man will forgive me for the same. Well, I have some different plans if at all I get a chance to come here again.

Was surprised to see an unknown Lion Safari out here. All in all, this place has many things to offer to an adventure-loving individual. Departed with plans to return to this 'typical' countryside location!