Stupendously Sublime

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...

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...

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...

"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...

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...

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 ...

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 ...