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Showing posts from 2010

The relevance of ragging: Another ode to JUIT

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Let me start off by saying that, i comment on the real essence of ragging, not that mental and physical torture that masqueraded as ragging throughout medical and engineering colleges, which i actually abhor and think that society is better without it. Now, onwards, ragging my trusty internet connection says is "the practice in educational institutions in India and Sri Lanka that involves existing students baiting or bullying new students" and yes the issue is calcitrant in the indian education system, we hear of deaths and suicides, true abslutely true, some students who don't deserve to be called humans, do indulge in such practices, but not all and somehow somewhere we are worse off without ragging. Now that the politicaly correct stance is out of the way, i will just like to put a few pointers as to how and why, I being ragged helped me. I too went to an engineering college (most of those who read this will know) and like every single one of the freshers, i was scared

The Donkey-Horse Argument

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Talking today with my most revered and respected senior (tongue firmly in cheek), "His Lordship". It was a weird talk to say the least, it started with him telling me that koko was the name of a monkey that was sent into space, i'm really sorry Kangkan but man that koko name is pretty catchy, but i digress, the fact is that he told me that a mule is born when a donkey and mare (female horse), "do it" (i kid you not this is what he said) and that he could not fathom the reason why a mare would agree or would be willing to do something like that, the point being that if a donkey has a chance with a mare, then it speaks of hope for our kind, you know the not so supermodel's, the average joe's of this world, the ordinary guy. The chance that the ordinary guy might get the chance to be with a woman, who is in another league, and this got me thinking, if 6's date 6's and 9's date 9's, why would this anomaly happen, why would a 9 date the prover

I wish i Could fly...

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Another haze of smoke clears from my face as i drag another lungful from the hokaah in front of me, i taste something delicious and look around to pass it to someone else, and all i see is strangers from a strange land, suddenly i realize i'm not in kansas anymore. These faces smile, joke and laugh, their eyes full of mirth, and i'm a stranger in their midst. I strain my eyes to see a familiar face, to see someone who is not an empty shell of existence, my gaze passes from face to face and i realise that i'm executing an exercise in futility, i break into sweat and in a most "inceptionesque" way wonder how i had gotten there, sadly it was not a dream and i had to live that moment for what it was. My sweat peppers my forehead despite the air-conditioning, i want to run from that place screaming at the top of my voice just to feel myself again, to convince myself that it is not a dream, but i control the panic and leave the smoke box to gather a precious few breaths

The pyre of Raphael, The rise of the Zen...

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"I have gone from the pyre of denethor, to the ashes flowing in time, from which shall rise The Zen.....this is my tao....this is my destiny....."- occasionaly Raphael, majorly The Zen There comes a time in the life of everyone, where a major upheaval or change completely shifts your view of the world. This change is almost like viewing another spectrum, like a blue or red shift on the doppler, like the rose tinted glasses on your nose have been replaced by a murkier brown, enough similies....like black and white has had more grey shoved into it.....(well maybe just one more for old times sake) The carefree wanderings and trust fostered over years, beautiful relationships wrought in gold, love given unabated, attention showered magnificently...that was the birth of Raphael. The will of fire passed down from the elders of a sublime tradition, then we became the inheritors of that will, to be passed on to the next generation, till we became the ethers and the elders of the hall

I hate awkward silences... :)

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Silence rains down, like blood in an apocalypse, the poor mortal fears for his sanity, hiding in the vacant expression that he now portrays, looking at the equally vacant far-off expressions on the face of his companions, are they thinking the same, wonders the mortal, and then one of them looks at the mortal and says "did you say something?", "ummm, no" replies the mortal. Silence rains down again, like blood in an apocalypse. Suddenly a voice breaks the bloody silence "Agla station Rajeev Chowk hai, blue line par jaane waale yaatri daayin taraf se utrein" Yes, my friends the above scene was not cut from a hitchcock movie, it was pure and simple awkwardness of 4 strangers, pushed together by fate, and traveling together because of convenience. The ice is hard as ever, all the niceties have been discussed, families have been discussed, personal lives have been discussed (till that permissible level). Yet the 4 are strangers, different, from different backg

The Good and the Critical

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There is an oft repeated cliche "change is the only constant" and as is the case with all cliches, it is very true and i hate the sound of it. This change is a part of all our lives, the petrol prices, inflation, newer moral sensibilities, technology. You walk on the road and you will be assaulted by change from all corners and directions, the newer car model, a "baraat" band blasting away new hits, the newest fashion worn by the chic upper class and aped by the not so chic middle class. This juggernaut won't be slowed in an age of information overload. As a lazy sunday moved along i engrossed myself in the feature story of today's Hindustan Times, Men of India, it is a great insight into the psyche of the urban indian male from sex to career and changing equations in the relationships between men and women. This came at a time when i was thinking a lot about the potential of arranged marriages over love marriages. The single most damning PRO in the case of

The Lunacy Unites (As Quoted by Saurabh Bose)

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It has been another green period in my life, getting admission into a college that most have been congratulating me about (the jury is still out on this fact), i have been working hard and this i say without any modesty whatsoever because i have worked hard at my job, but i also have to say that I have partied pretty hard too, the main reason behind this is, Kava living so close to my office and Hundoo living with him we have been partying almost every night to the annoyance of my mother, which she states very unequivocally. But i have been escaping the wrath of my mum's superior logic, by some expert evasion tactics, i feel proud to have inculcated within me. I have been enjoying the money i have earned, so yeah it is a green patch in my life, and with the batch junior to me passing out, yeah folks it has been a whole year since me and my batch left JUIT, we have been having a lot of online presence of the passed out batch, this is to be expected that they are really missing the

The Jester's view...

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Entertain me, said the King and so the jester did, entertain the crowd, and so the jester did, entertain the princess, and so the jester did, entertain the queen, and so the jester did... till the day, a new jester came and took his place, and the old jester was lost, into the shadows, his heart filled with sorrow and pain. The sorrow became too much, and it turned to anger, the anger became too much and it turned into cynicism, and the cynical jester armed with the experience of pain came back, and he taunted, and poked holes in big egos, regaled the king with stories from the personal lives of his courtiers. till a plan was hatched to silence the jester once and for all, and the assassin climbed to the jester's room to find him waiting... waiting and wanting.....wanting death....wanting to die....and he said "i lived for everyone, and when everyone was through i was alone, i was the best, and now i'm just one of the rest, used and thrown again and again, till i can't

The Hand that Rocks the Cradle

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Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions… M.K. Gandhi. Then the father of the nation goes on to say that we will feel our doubts melt away, profound thoughts of a great man, and relevant more so today than any other time, I read a statistic a few months ago that in the world 28 million people commit suicide every year, that is about one person killing himself every 30 seconds, that means by the time I finish this article about a 100 people would have been dead. Yes, that would be a tragedy won’t it, this reminds me of another quote,”Death of a person is a tragedy, death of a hundred, a statistic” and that is what our country has been reduced to, statistics, here are some, from 1997 to 2008 199,13

The anatomy of Failure: Raphael

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My CV reads "Success is the ability to go from one failure to the next with equal amount of enthusiasm." This was said by Winston Churchill a flawed, war mongering leader but one who shepherded Great Britain through the most destructive war of the Modern Era, if it were not for his never give a shit attitude, Britain would have crumbled. This is what i think, motivation when only for oneself, is brittle and transient (obviously my opinion) but the motivation that comes from a task that is bigger than any one person, that several people depend on it, that motivation is lasting, a soldier's life and his will to fight erodes slowly, and all the nationalistic pride is left on the backburner, but the fire to fight comes from those who are fighting next to him, the soldier fights for his brother, who would gladly take a bullet to spare his life, and he knows that if the time comes he would do the same, this is the passion and motivation that is lasting, personal gain and succes

The Reflection of Genius...

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This is an entry after 1 and a half months, it has been a tumultuous 45 days with a lot of exhilarating feelings, a little heart break, a lot of naughtiness, and a feeling of content no my friends i'm not speaking of the IPL, though i would love to slam the naked marketing and advertising bandwagon, but i won't, March has been the month that has seen me work, and work, and work, and then when i'm out of it, work some more. Though according to my manager(boss) what we are doing is not really work until we spend days in office. yeah right! This virtual mountain of work, it is virtual, has made me realize that when you deliver people expect more, and then you deliver more then the expectation moves exponentially, it is not until you disappoint somebody, that the level of expectation regains some sort of sanity, and this brings me to my topic, what is genius... It could be a 16 year old walking in on a cricket field against some of the most hostile fast bowlers in the world, it

A Little ray of love....

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This is a budding writer who refuses to acknowledge her talent, has a blog, but i end up posting for her, so please read, a real gem is here....... Raghvi: Me and my sister Medhavi had gone out yesterday... right after parking my scooty, both of us started off for our destination, a few feet away at the gate of the parking we heard a loud yelp of a dog. When we turned around we saw that a dog was trying to reach us, he had hurt his leg and it seemed he was in excruciating pain, though there was no external injury, he tried to stop a guy by showing him his leg, silently asking for help, but the cyclist got scared and ran away, then i went up to the dog and patted the dogs head once, he stopped crying and then i started caressing his head and even hugged him.....after a minute or so, he put his hurt leg down...me and my sister tried to make him walk and he walked away painlessly, We were amazed at what had happened. All he needed was a moment of love. it stole his pain, maybe even his lo

Aarambh hai prachanda...

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In a post i had asked what is the difference between the king and the horse, if they had the same amount of power, skill, and intelligence, the answer was very simple, the instinct to rule, the instinct to crush all opposition with extreme prejudice and to prove without doubt that the king is the one who rules, unquestioned and unchallenged. The horse is the one that lacks this sort of instinct and thus in every battle it merely becomes a tool for the king to use, and not the ruler itself. Why am i saying this... well 1. Because i want to, and 2. Because i have been thinking about the world of power, it is very alluring and murky to say the least. The quest for power is a path walked by many but nobody succeeds in getting to the end, there is no destination, just like there is no true perfection, there is no absolute power. THERE IS ONLY THE ETERNAL QUEST OF POWER . "Might is right" that is a saying and also a topic i was given to evaluate my GD skills, and obviously i was f

So Hard.

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This is a simple spontaneous post written from my office (i work now), I was having a conversation with gera babu, about idealism (yes, again) , he was talking about smiling a lot, and also to challenge yourself and a lot of motivational things, and me, well if you know me barely, then you might know that i hate anything remotely preachy, but when i gave him a piece of my mind, his answer startled me, he said that this was not for everyone, it was to lift his friends who felt lost, i assure you i'm not one of those lost people, but what disturbed me was the lack of sympathy that i felt for these guys, and this put me in a contemplative mood, hence the post, that why didn't i feel any sort of empathy or sympathy for the people who are struggling with their lives, why didn't i feel the least bit sorry for the people who are existing, am i the proverbial tin-man, who doesn't have a heart, no that doesn't feel right, i feel sorry for beggars all the time and for victim

The new TV: Misery

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Today, as i sat watching my mother's serials, i call it her serials because she is the one who watches them and i am forced to watch them, she uses some reverse reasoning like; because i'm eating i will watch my own show and the very same condition does not apply to me i.e her son. But i argue in futility, she uses her finely honed and masterful supreme logic (read emotional blackmail), and i end up watching whatever she is watching, but i don't give up at the outset, i try to make her watching those, inherently maddening programs, a most distsateful experience i'm at hand with all the sarcasm i can muster, so much so that, dinner becomes a contest between two ideologies, one is the world wise aura of a middle aged teacher who can make any student quiver in his/her respective boots, the other is the noveu independent battle hardened professional who wants his tv time. The effect is usually volatile but, i assure you no food has been flung, so far. But this post is not

The Delusion of Eloquence

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This title has been very well thought-out, and after much deliberation and pondering, i have decided that in the joy of a new decade beginning i will start a new blog, not on blogger but rather on facebook, (it saves you the trouble of coming to my page and i can get passing comments too), though i absolutely detest doing anything creative on facebook, for reasons i will never say, i have decided that this will be the title of my FB blog, and everything here will be sarcastic or an angry rant, or maybe some tongue in cheek humour, but that is a long ways off, i am writing this today because i want to fulfil the purpose of the title, for which it was first thought of. Phew, FINALLY, to the point this is a post dedicated to all those who "think" they are profound and deep and philosophical, it is precisely why i have titled this post the Delusion of Eloquence, and this has been in part, pardon, completely been inspired by the that abominable and insipid site FACEBOOK, that has