Friday, October 30, 2009

Ruminations on the years gone by

"The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones" : William Shakespeare.

A fictional piece intended to raise raw emotions in a mob inclined on forgetting the treachery enacted in the corridors of power of Rome. Like everything written by Shakespeare, you can interpret these exhibits of superhuman wizardry over words to suit you needs. I too indulged in the same. There are moments in our life that make us inexplicably happy, makes us want to scream in joy loud enough to snap our vocal chords so that those joyous screams get mortalized as the last sound vibe emanating from out mundane existence.

As i enact those moments in my conscious and sub conscious minds, i cannot fail to appreciate the single thread that binds those moments together is the element of surprise. There is no such thing as a pleasant surprise.

The earliest such surprise that my Alzheimer free brain can think of dates back to the early nineties- 1994 to be precise- I was in class three. Had not achieved much till then. was a mediocre at school who somehow managed to get a double promotion. Was the opposite of being an athlete. My only claim to fame probably was that I was the cutest person in the co-ed school. We had a 10 minutes break after two classes. My cheeks used to ache after that. In fact one of my teacher remarked that i am only fair guy in my class much to the displeasure of a few of my classmates. So coming to the pleasant surprise. I was asked by one of our neighbours to go and watch a quiz competition. The quiz was open to students up to class 8. So, I went. I thing led to another and I found myself participating in a team with another guy from class five. The quiz was a written one. So, the results were not declared immediately. Guess what we were third by getting five out of 30 questions right :D. The winner had around 20 questions right. But boy my joy knew no bounds !!!That certificate remains the most wrinkled piece of paper I still treasure. I got many a certificates after that but that one remains special.

Next surprise fast forwards my life to 2002. I was in Assam then- upper Assam. I just heard of IIT a year back and wanted to get in. But nobody I knew any of the interiors of any of the IITs. I had a row with my best friend that year. So, had spent the better part of the year trying to find out how to get into IIT. For a reality check, I though I should give NTSE exam. I was a student of the state board and the scholastic part of the NTSE was from CBSE board. And like JEE, nobody I knew had cleared NTSE. Anyways I gave the exam. I had no faith in the way our answer scripts were going to be corrected in class 10th boards. This lack of faith was vindicated when my entire school was awarded 66 in English. I gave NTSE so that I can back my claim that my state board sux in evaluation. On the day I was leaving for Delhi to apply for schools, I read the paper. The paper had my name. I was fourth in the state. prelims of NTSE So, I left for Delhi armed with evidence that my state board sux. Moreover, our state had a reputation for declaring results late rather late.


My life in kgp revolved around extra acads- kshitj, tech gc ,placement committee work and alumni cell- necessarily in that order :D. When I joined kshitj or ktj as we affectionately call it. It was not so big as it is today. I was primarily involved in events in Ktj but the biggest surprise came in spons. Me and chuha went to Delhi for our DP trip. DP as in Durga Puja-- this trip is the time when we go out wiht a begging bowl to organize the fest that has become a phenomenon now. The year before the entire member team had collected around 20 k. Not even a single penny came from Delhi. Me and chuha were given target of 20 k from Delhi. By that time our entire member team had collected 2k from one months worth of calling. With modest hopes, I landed in Delhi and within an hr of my reaching Delhi, i started cannibalizing SF(:D)- the cult fest our bigger brother back then. By afternoon I had 8 k. Chuha had arrived by then, we then decided to meet one alum who was not so inclined on giving us money. I dont know what struck me but i started talking to him about an ad. Chuha was getting frustrated by my side thinking we lost the money - why will someone sponsor us after hearing the nonsense i was blabbering. But I was in the midst of a Midas touch then and he backed me adding a few more nonsensical sentences.When I had finished, we got a cheque of 15 k. We had achieved our trips target in one day. We somehow held our nerves for a few moments and once beyond the visible range of Mr. Subhash Kalia - we indulged in mad celebrations. We got many more sponsorship deals - probably bigger in volume but first time surprise tastes sweet.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

The heroes of a defective piece

On of the most nonsensical things, I do is that of browsing through the long list of status messages of my long list of g talk friends. One of these messages pertained to George Bernard Shaw or GBS as he is popularly known. He was one of my childhood heroes not because I was a great fan of his writing or his wit of which i came to know much later. Someone told me he had migraine that was it. I have always had migraine for as long as i can remember. As my flatmate (Sam) says, I am a defective piece in whom God packed a multitude of maladies and bestowed the in-flinching determination to tide over them. Sometimes I feel like GOD must really be liking the daily colossal battles between my mind and the body and that of my body with my body. In those dark moments as i searched for a wall to bang my head or a hammer to hit my forehead, names such as GBS inspired me to carry on. Although, i did break a few cricket bats and walls, my skull was apparently strong enough to withstand the barrage of assaults. Those strategic hits to my head were not out of frustration or despondence but they were temporary retrieve from the throbbing pain that was wrecking my head. A painful distraction from the chronic pain that was killing me within and yet not allowing me to die.


Another name that has been in the news of late is Wasim Akram. He was a great bowler, a great person but above all he was a great fighter. He was a diabetic. For the infinitely small number of readers of my blog who don't know about it- I am a 23 year old diabetic - who was diagnosed with this killer at the age of 21. But I have been a devotee of Akram for much longer. As many of you might be knowing , you are usually born with diabetes,as the child of a diabetic father and diabetic mother and grandson of a diabetic grandfather, I knew of this eventuality long before the actual diagnosis. Periodically my father used to not do so well with his health and used to bitch a bit a bout the disease. To cheer him up, I used to talk about Akram. I idolize Akram for all those talk i had with my father. When i was diagnosed, my parents were in tears. My father did not cry in front of me but I knew he did. As for my mother, she suspected i got it even before the doctors told her so all the rivers in the world were flowing from her eyes. I was the only one least affected, at least I had to pretend to . So, I started one of the essays on Akram.

On a lighter note, I am now desperately looking for the hero who would inspire me to win my other fight - win over the heart of my current crush or become a playboy.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

beauty and sexy

In the twilight of my teenage years, sexy had an devilish forbidden tinge to the emotions and reactions evoked. But beauty was always beautiful, always good, always heavenly, always worshiped.

That brings out the question before me today what is beautiful and who is sexy. Even this very question has in it a few threads of the fabric on which i shall attempt to answer this question to myself.Rather it is probably my flawed interpretations that results in the based use of the words who and what. This gangotric bias means i search for abstract beauty and material sexiness.

Thanks to the lots of page 3, we often come across rankings of the most beautiful and sexy personalities, actress, celebrities and even first ladies. now what is that makes Hema Malini or a Megan Fox beautiful in the eyes of the scribes.The truth is I don't know.One documentary i saw in my kgp days tries to answer this question in terms of mathematical ratios, the host who is the new Q of james bond franchise compared the ratios of his own face and that of Liz hurley :D.

But I am still not convinced, I have five sense organs and a mind that dreams and dreams a lot. The only guiding light I acknowledge as light is the statement by keats "A thing of beauty is joy forever". Joy that can enter your hearts through eyes,ears,touch,nose, tongue and even lazy ruminations of the days gone by.Since Keats had no words for sexy, I shall stick to the mathematical definition of sexy or as sheldon told abt his sister in big bang theory "having the right amount in right places". This may be sexist post, but it is intensely personal n hence contains a guys perspective.

This is more of a monologue to me counting the infinite number of reasons as to why i feel ******* is the most beautiful person I have ever met in my life. Since my liking for her is destined to go unrequited, I have made a zillion attempts to like someone else to declare some as more beautiful, but i guess I am the hitler of 1944 fighting on two doomed fronts. For those of who dont know who ******* is, it will stay that way but I guess a bulk of the people who read my blabber know who she is. Unfortunately she no longer reads my blog I guess. As regards to things photographs are probably the most beautiful things man can make and corals and Arunachal the second most beautiful things God can make.

Talking about sexy, it has a very mundane connotations, at least for me, I may find my worst enemy to be sexy but I don't think they will ever be beautiful, a person for whom I will risk my life. I don't think i am selfless enough to say I like someone more than me, but probably things and persons I consider beautiful would precede me on my only escape ladder. I guess the post has already turned out to be long enough, so i try to put toppers of my sexy list.
********** (Don't ask me why I don't know )
Jessica Alba
Megan Fox
lamborgini
concorde

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Threat to not so original and original research


Students are poor.At least not rich enough to afford many things based on money they earn.So they (I was a part of this common noun till six months back), resort to wiki. Hence political vendetta like above really puts a question mark on innovative research carried out by some of the officially brightest brains in india

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Law of averages and Instant Karma

My favorite TV series is house m.d.

I have had several reasons for liking it for the past year and a half as i compresses six(and counting) seasons of entertainment in these months. It will not be an overstatement to say that my pathological suspicion about the quality of any three hour long marathon coming from bollywood has more to do with TV series than any Hollywood blockbuster. For just like bollywood, every Hollywood movie has one theme, some great evil strikes and some American guy(or the occasional Brit Commodore Bond) saves the world doing stunts that would put Mithun at his inglorious worst to same. Yet, I am an Engineer(at least my degree says so :)) hence I find myself marveling at the technical briliance. This is not to say that Hollywood movies are not great, I saw the dark knight -five minutes-travelling 120 kms to the nearest multiplex. Even back home, we have had works like Taare Zameen Pe, Black, Jhonny Gaddar and the likes. But good movies are usually an aberration than anything else.

Talking about my favorite House M.D. (and for people who do not think my show is the best- I really like Boston Legal, HIMYM,Big Bang,Prison Break and the rest abd I hate South Park and Friends) , it satisfies my craving for comedy,mystery, digital lust(Lisa Cuddy rocks!!). Also for the bulk of months,I have galloping the sound bytes and visual kilobytes, the tv series closely mirrored life. I was diagonised with diabetes, some results (actually almost all) interpreted it as type 1, but one doctor said it might be 2, he conjured a test which told that there is possibility of type 2. So, like House usually does, the doctor put me on some mixed therapy for a year,if the therapy succeeded, it meant I had type 2 (MTV :D) mind it type 1 treatment for type 2 can be fatal.

But there are so many reasons (many of them emanating from the fact that you just like) for liking something or someone. For that matter, although incongruous,there can be a single reason for disliking or not disliking something or someone (one of them being you like something/someone too much to spare any of you hormones to dislike). So, why do I like House, its funny, it gives hope, it celebrates brilliance, it celebrates the innate goodness in every person, its protagonists are flawed persons. Above, it trusts the intelligence of the viewers, it does not enforce any particular point of view.This week's episode was one such example. Like in every other episode a random dialogue triggers House's enlightenment yet it leaves it blank whether karma does have role.

Now as to why I am writing my first blog on a tv-series,I watch almost everyday. Some part of me wants to believe in law of averages. Maybe I have had the better share of luck throughout of life, but my skewed and screwed arithmetic always says that till now, I have frequently brushed the ugly side of luck. When I look at the obviously incorrect (or maybe correct) numbers(nothing to do with the tv series), I just hope and get a positive vibe for the one thing( or person) I so dearly like.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Why Obama can and I cant

Well when we thought winning presidency for a black was difficult, and elevated "yes we can" to the higher pedestal of inspiring quotes. It seems Obama can do a lot more things none of which includes things like killing reviving economy,creating jobs,combating illness that kills people. He can kill scores of people and then win a noble peace prize.

He can give grant to terrorists to kill innocents, kill innocents, dance like w*** to the Chinese tunes, partake in the death of democracy in afghanistan, do nothing about Myanmar, try to arrest development of developing nations under the garb of environmental and other labour issues.Yes, he can, yes he can

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Inglorious Basterd

Many a golden replicas of the famous lady whose name has been mysteriously hidden by my beloved wikipedia - which, in fact goes on to say, she is a famous he :D- lie in the possession of artistic giants that dwell on the untold human sufferings of the second world war. So, I had serious difficulty in accepting this pigment of imagination. Having said this, I reiterate that I remain a devoted fan of wikipedia and shall continue to ignore these glitches.

I intend to make this post a short and precise affair. Inglorious basterd was a glorious celebration of human creativity and artistic prowess. The climax was too great. It was just too awesome. It portrays the actors as human, selfish persons who can do anything to survive not as saints and demons. Yet you cant help feeling pity for some and contempt for others. One digression I liked about this movie was the liberal use of creative liberty be it the spelling or the plotline. All in all a great take on alternative reality that many would wish was real

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Wake Up Sid

After a lot of initial hesitations, I picked up the courage to watch the first day show of a hindimovie. After movies like kambakht ishq, you cant help getting scared. Nevertheless, even gundacan be enjoyed with friends.(Correction: gunda is a cult movie, even drona can be watched with friends). So, I went to the theatres with no expectations whatsoever. This is probably the best thing to do before every movie or rather almost every day of your life. Having no positive expectations makes your life sound like a musical composition drained of all forms of melancholy notes. Unfortunately, I still got a few expectations and hence get upset and disappointed a few times.

Coming to the movie, there are things I liked and things I did not. Something, I am usually incapable of doing. I either like something/one or I just plainly hate them. Things I hated, its neither easy nor cheap to set up an apartment. We are three IITians and it broke our back to set up our small flat @ Hyderabad. I cant imagine the cost of setting up and renting a sea facing apartment @ Mumbai. I just could not palate this part of the movie.

Things I liked: music especially the song iktara, the audience, some of the girls were hot really hot, as Nitin Goyal put it I was gasping for breath as a smoking hot beauty in red top and black skirt passed by.Another thing I liked was the lack of melodrama. Also there were elements of nostalgia. I am not the son of a super rich dad, but I am the only son of my parents and I was(rather am) a spoilt kid. When you are single child, you have a different relationship with your parents, they are your sibling cum parents. So, I have had a lot of fights @ home, I have left home umpteen number of times. So, the home fights and reconciliation though predictable were a bit touchy for me and probably, I was the only guy in the theatre to shed a few drops of tear.