Spontaneity

Sometimes, I get this nagging feeling. I would call it an obsessive need to write disorder. I will have multiple ideas swarming in my head but I wouldn’t be able to group all of them into one central theme. This would stop me from dumping all those thoughts in the form of a blog post. People say just start writing, ideas will fall into place automatically. After few interrupted starts, I decided to give it a shot. This is when I realized, I was doing something spontaneous! 

Spontaneity, the art of making instantaneous decisions. This is something, which I can never hope to accomplish. The decisions I am talking about are not those life-changing ones. These are the ones whose outcome might just make you happy, it could range between asking a girl out to booking tickets for a trekking trip in the middle of the semester. If I had just stopped analyzing and gone with the flow, I might have been a happier person by now. Starting from today, i.e. writing a blog post without bothering about it having a proper conclusion, I hope spontaneity becomes an integral part of my character.:) 

-To making instantaneous choices:) - Oh yay! it actually has a proper conclusion=D

- Forgive me if the post has some grammatical mistakes. (Wrote it in a hurry:P)

Monster in the glass - A 'could have been perfect' love story

Her hair flowing like a waterfall, 

So shiny and distracting that it made me fall. 

As i sat down and looked in front, 

Love tunes started ringing in my mind 

Such was her radiance in which I was lost  

that the mirror behind her left me aghast. 

It said, 

Go to sleep you little fool, 

She deserves more than your drool. (Literal translation for jollu =p in a desperate attempt to make things rhyme) 

Just an another day, just an other guy, 

But this one was different and his eyes couldn't lie. 

They were brown and nervous and he looked so shy, 

But one look was enough to catch my eye. 

When I looked at him, he closed his eyes, 

leaving me alone with the monster in the glass.  

- Ah, a post after a long time! :)

Leap of faith

The height seemed scary,
The path seemed thorny,

The effort required seemed mercurial,
But everything seemed very trivial.

It made us take the blind leap,
Holding onto just a pair of hands.

Hands that were old but strong. Hands that would never let go.

Ps- inspired when seeing a kid jumping 5 stairs at a time when holding onto his fathers hand :) near the mrt. :)

Ninja Bug

Before the hunt – narrator1

It would be like just another day in my life, or so I thought. I was up early (surprisingly) with the elders. The elders, the sole breadwinners for our small family of hundred; yes, we were small compared to our neighbors. I spied them huddled together peering into blueprints. Life had been tough for the past few days, too much poison in the air (Screw those giants!).  If not for the experience of the elders in navigating around poison, everyone in my family would have died and we would have lost our home to neighbors. The huddle subsided, and the leader of the elders emerged. “We are ready, your majesty.” He bowed. My father gave a curt nod. The leader fell back and started final preparations for the food hunt.

A feeling of imminent doom took over me as I headed back to the king’s lodging. I did not notice that the shutter was slightly ajar as I entered and the last thing I remember was a wet feeling near my head before blacking out.

Someone, break the routine! – narrator2

“DING! DING!”

I woke up abruptly, feeling slightly disoriented. What was that sound? 

As I came back to my senses, I realized it was my phone. I looked at it with eagerness, hoping that it would be a Saturday.

0500 AM, 11/5/2012, FRIDAY, showed the phone, Blah! It is mocking me.  

I took all of my bathing accessories and trudged half-heartedly to the shower. What I saw inside, made my blood boil!

Ants can’t fly – narrator1

The first thing I felt was itching all over my body. It felt as if I was swimming inside hot water. For few moments, the presence of ants around distracted my senses. I have never felt guilty about eating ants, though they were my distant cousins. Ants are stupid, tiny and a disgrace to our ancestors (no wings, u see?).

I tried to look around to take stock of my surroundings and what I saw made my blood freeze (Yes, amidst all the itching.). I had seen enough of elders’ maps to know that I was in the no-go zone or in other words the heater zone! (Screw those giants again, for the inane requirement to pour hot water on themselves every morning.) I had to leave this place, immediately! To my horror, my wings were stuck to my back.

That is when the blow struck. I think it was from a rough, orange, spongy boulder like thing (probably a giant’s towel. I forgot what I learnt in giant studies, okay? Being a prince, you have other worthwhile things to bother about than giant education!)

Inevitable death – narrator1

I could sense that the giant was happy that he had killed me (he went on with his business as if I had never existed). That he had gotten rid of a ‘pest’ as the giants call it.

I was falling and was almost losing consciousness. Involuntarily, my wings opened up. I used them to slow down my fall.

I barely got few minutes of respite before the onslaught started again, with water. This time, I knew that it was my end. I tried to run away, but giants never stop until they taste death of a pest. (“They hate you and they will kill you.” My Giant education teacher’s voice ran echoed in my head.)

Get of my leg! – narrator2

“Die!” I shouted inside my head as I poured multiple handfuls of hot water on it.

I have always felt weird about killing pests. It makes me feel cruel, when I treat them with so much insignificance. It makes me imagine a same treatment given to humans from someone more superior, and taller. However, things were different today. I was moody, sleepy and going for the kill.

Eventually after I made the bug fall on its back, I stopped. (The most important thing I learnt about insects from my father, “An insect on its back is as good as dead.”)

Little did I know about ‘ninja’ insects! Immediately after I got back to my shower, I felt something creeping on my leg!

The end? – narrator1

He made the same mistake every other human does. An insect on its back is not as good as dead! Researchers amongst our elders had found ways to stand up from that position.

I had no idea why I pounced on him. Maybe something tripped, inside my brain. Only when I came onto his legs did I realize that I had flown into my own death. I closed my eyes, waiting for the bone-crushing blow.

To my surprise, he just pushed me away and continued with his water onslaught. It was almost as if he wanted to push me away rather than delivering the killing blow. However, he overdid the onslaught.

I fell on my back again and the force of water was so much this time that I could not use the elder techniques to come up.

“Please kill me now!” I thought to myself and I waited.

Next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital back in our home. Maybe, not all giants are bad.

Authors note:

Narrator 1 was the prince of his family of bugs. Using an insider, the neighboring families kidnapped the prince and tried to put the blame on the elders, In order to create trouble within his family. Narrator 1 ended up being revered as the only bug that has faced a giant and had survived to tell the tales in his family.

Narrator 2 had a deep philosophical thought process in his ride to work that morning, where he contemplated whether to stop killing insects altogether. However, he just ended up writing a story about it in his blog. And that’s me =D  


PS- The second chapter title is courtesy a certain "this" person's gtalk status:P

---

Imprinted

Imprinted images,

Flashes of memories,

From a distant past

Times spent together,

That went unnoticed

Times spent apart,

That were dosed with happiness

Times spent together,

Working on (cribbing over)odd jobs

Whose values were never learnt

Not until now

Imprinted images,

Flashes of memories,

From times long gone,

Times, that will never come back.

-          The irony of life (You never realise someone’s value when they are around.)

Curiosity

“Find something which makes you happy!” that was the thought, which was running through his head during a long walk with music for company. Few days back, he had heard of a plan from a friend about her future. It involved her embracing things that made her happy. His jubilation to her news was mixed with a tinge of jealousy. He had no idea as to what inspires or interests him. In the end of his walk, he figured it out.”

One can hear so many quotes on curiosity, but the best is undoubtedly, “Curiosity is the mother of all inventions.” For me, curiosity is much more than that. In fact, it is how I have formed most of my close relationships. There has not been a day when something or someone in this world has not interested me. Nor has there been a day when I have not said the word ‘interesting’ genuinely (without using it as a sly technique to continue a conversation).

My curiosity has helped me to form friendships with amazing people (who are actually not at all creeped out by my curiosity level). It has helped me to learn the art of growing into liking things. The sheer happiness I get from learning something, which I have been curious about matches only with the thought of yummy food. In the future, whatever I do and whomever I am with, as long as my life remains interesting and I remain curious, won’t I be happy? =)

-From a person on a path to discovery.

--After quite sometime. =)

Cricket

The recent Hundredth hundred by Sachin deserved a blo post, so here it goes

After the Bangladesh match where Sachin scored his hundredth hundred, I felt that I had attained inner peace! (At least with respect to Cricket! :P ) Reason being the fact that I have already seen everything that is there to be seen in Cricket. All those records, which I thought were unattainable during my childhood, stand broken now. Here is a list of few memorable moments, which I have witnessed.

1. India wont he ODI world cup.

2. A single country dominated the world of cricket for a span of almost 20 years.

3. Australia and South Africa in Johannesburg (2007), need I say more?

4. Lara's amazing 400 odd in a test match.

5. Yuvraj Singh's six sixes of Stuart Broad in a T20.

6. The most thrilling tied match ever in the 1999 World Cup Semi-finals (Australia vs South Africa, again)

7. Sachin scored a 200 in an ODI against South AFrica!

8. Sehwag bettered that score against West Indies. (219 :) )

9. Sehwag, 309, India vs Pakistan, Multan. (You know what I mean right?)

10. Players were axed due to the Match fixing menace.

11. Anil Kumble became the only Indian to take all the ten wickets in a test innings.

12. Sachin Tendulkar crossed 10000 runs in ODI's and tests. (And he has not stopped yet)

13. Sachin scored hundred hundred's in International Cricket. :D

14. People got more than 500 wickets in a single format of the game

15. India won a match following on, (Kolkata, VVS Laxman 281)

All this and much more were the reasons why I believe I was born in the right period of Cricket :D

PS- Might not sound like the way I usually write :(

Purpose

I have always looked for a reason to live in this world. For me, anything and everything we do should have a purpose. Similarly, shouldn’t there be a purpose for us to live? Won’t we feel lost without a purpose to fulfil?

Often, when I throw this question at my friends I receive different responses. Some say, there need not be a purpose for us to live (which is far beyond my comprehension to be honest.). Few say, all we want in life is to be happy, which is a bit too abstract to be a goal. Eventually, I decided that the whole purpose of life is finding the purpose itself! If you think of it that way, somehow it portrays life as unfair. Would it have been better if we were born with a purpose branded in our head? Is the path to discovering the purpose the most adventurous one we will take in our life?

Whatever be the case, I hope that I figure out why I am living for soon rather than figuring out what I lived for moments before I die.

Cleaning my Room

After a long time, (almost a month, I think.) I decided that my room had become a toxic dump of hair and other unidentifiable objects and particles. Therefore, I took the bold step of cleaning my room at exactly 12am few days back, without considering the fact that I had just roamed around with a heavy bag on my shoulders all around the IT fair.

After I started cleaning, it turned out that cleaning my room was not going to be a job, which can end in an hour, and I had to give up, but it irked me to do so. This was surprising, I hate perfectionists and I have always been proud of the fact that I am not one. However, this incident proved that I have always been a perfectionist myself.

Eventually, I concluded that most of us are hypocrites in one way or another. I have always had this thought that perfectionists are viewed as weirdo’s by the society, which led me to be an anti-perfectionist activist. (My own term: P) Now I realise I have just disguised myself to be accepted as a non-weirdo, which is stupidity.

- From a perfectionist at heart. =D

Luck

Perspective 1:

“Wherever he turned, there were rejections. Some were from places, which no one had ever heard of, some from places, which people would actually want to work at. He felt like a failure, particularly when everyone around him managed to land up with multiple appointments while he did not even have an interview. In fact, it went to such an extent that he thought of the prospects of being a garbage man!” (No offense to garbage men =P)

Perspective 2:

“Everyone around him had this one thought, “Get a job before this semester!” while he was not even looking for a job. However, one fine day a random application gets him one. He is ecstatic. Others around him, stop and rejoice with him for a moment and continue their search.”

After experiencing both the perspectives within a period of a year, I cannot stop but wonder the effect of chance and luck in our everyday life. I used to think that some people are born lucky and only good things happen to them. As they say, “Experiences make a man.” (Do they say it? or am I saying it? :^) )My experience has thought me that luck is not a characteristic that people are born with. It is more of an entity that strikes you at unexpected and sometimes inappropriate times. And when it strikes, it makes you feel like you are in heaven (If it exists =P).

So to all those people who think that they are unlucky and only misfortune and doom follow them (Blame fantasy novels for this line) think again, maybe luck is just waiting around the corner for an inelastic collision =).

-From a person who has lost the thought that he is not lucky.

PS – When two bodies collide in-elastically, they stick together.

PPS – Forgive the nerdy mokke, no more mokke’s from now =(.

Anger

Anger, cold hard anger, crept inside him. It shattered his famed resistance against it, with one hard blow. Once inside, it spread throughout his body and took control of his senses. Slowly it brought back related incidents of the past and mocked him for being mum even after so many repetitions of the same incident. He lost his calm and little did he know why he lost the fight with anger that easily, but the damage was done and he had to mop it up later.

I have always wondered if anger needs to be a necessary emotion in humans. After all, it just creates hatred amongst people. History proves it (Hitler?) and I am quite sure everyone would have experienced this emotion more often than the amount required in life. At that moment, even though the reason for our anger might seem very important, if we compare it to the scale of the universe, it becomes nano-sized and extremely unimportant. Therefore, we should all learn to be less angry and be happier. J

-From a human whose tolerance has increased further today. =D

Our Brain

Travelling alone makes you wonder about so many aspects of life. Today was no different, the MRT ride back home after HSB dinner (Thank you brother! :D) which included paneer biriyani, 14 idli, Badam Halwa…

Oh, before I get side tracked and start writing about the awesomeness of food (which needs a special write up), let us get back to the MRT ride. So the MRT ride back home was no different. Yesterday was my first ever all-nighter since I started university and at the end of it, the only thing I could do was appreciate the capacity of the human brain. Without sleep for more than 24 hours, I am still able to write this blog post without a single sign of sleep on my eyes.

We subject our brain to so much physical and emotional stress every day. However, not many cases of a burst brain exist. (I know, sounds idiotic. But you get what I mean right?). Our brain is this amazing powerhouse, storehouse, which can adapt and improvise to any situation you throw at it.

However, I feel we never give it the amount of respect it deserves and keep unnecessary worries inside! So let us forget our worries and shout “All Hail the Brain!”.

-From a human who has started to respect his brain more!

Different Types of People

There are three kinds of people. The ones, who never work, yet succeed in their ventures. There are those who can succeed in their ventures if they work harder but they never do. There are those who give up even before they start working. Finally, there are those who never know when to give up.

History praises them as heroes and repeatedly stresses on the fact that it is only they, who will achieve greater heights. Being a person who belongs to that category, I think it is the worst place one can ever belong too!

We (last category people) put in more work than anyone in the world, some look up to us (We the roll-models); some look down on us (We are nerds). Our mountainous ego might never allow us to give up on a venture and ask for help and we never identify the difference between a lost cause and a possible “epic” fight.

This should change.

-From a stubborn last category stalwart

A Visit to the Temple

A visit to the temple always gets me into a philosophical mood. Usually, it imbibes within me an air of superiority and makes me feel above the mere mortals who visit temples (Read- Evil genius mastermind. >:D). The miniscule theist in me, tries to shun away these thought by imagining childhood dreams of god punishing us and a possible “eye poking” session by him or her tonight (Read- Saami kanna kuthum (Tamil)). However, today I made it a point to think of something else apart from these random thoughts.

When I was pondering over all this, I could not help observe the different types of people who visit temples. Usually, they are families in which the father may or may not believe in god, the mother is the traditional Indian woman(Read- you see them roaming around in many temples in India), children are more interested in running around and making noise than actually wonder why they visit a temple. Sometimes, they are students who remember the existence of a higher entity just before exam results but don’t really care rest of the time. And rarely, very rarely do you see individuals like me sitting alone and pondering over their lives or waiting for the prasdam vandi (Food offerings to God.) to arrive.

One common thread that runs through everyone in a temple (including me) is hope. For some, it’s a hope that there is a powerful higher entity capable of accomplishing whatever he wants to, might be able to them. For some, it’s a hope that visiting the temple everyday might please that higher entity to grant their wishes. For the rare cases like me, it’s a hope that this period of introspection into my own life would reveal something new and exciting.

Eventually, I decided to let go of the superior feeling I mentioned about whenever I visit temples. Because, I realise “temple visits” are just a way for humanity to maintain the trace of hope they have on the prospects of success in their lives. It is just that different people express it in different ways. =D

-From a matured agonist, who doesn’t think he is better than theist’s anymore! =D

An imagination

A young NRI earning a lakh per month wants to invest in India. He explores his possibilities. After weighing the various possibilities, which included risking it on the stock market and investing in gold, he decides to jump into occupying the empty lands in a supposedly developing place in the outskirts of his city.

His upbringing was one that was of righteousness and imbibed within him, a love for his country. He grew up by learning about corruption and watching movies that explored various perspectives on handling corruption. He tries to apply all the “supposed” values he learnt as a kid and wants to carry out the plot buying procedure in a legal way. (Read- Completely white money.)

His parents, whom he learnt to idolise for their sincerity ever since he was a kid, warn him against it indicating threatens by goons who would not profit if there are transactions in white money. (Read- Complicated hi-tech economics, which I obviously did not understand.) His parents ask him, “When the whole world is doing it, why not you?” The NRI eventually decides to hold steadfast to his morals and decides to postpone his investments, amidst loud protests from his parents.

My thoughts: We all are hypocrites, one way or another. We talk of being against corruption, we enjoy movies, which have the “social” message about the ill effects of black money, throughout our life, we learn to love our country and think of doing anything to give back to it. However, when it comes down to each individual person’s actions, the concept of country takes a back seat. That is how the world runs, and that is how it has been running until now and that is how it will run in the future too (Read- The NRI will eventually let go off his morals and start accumulating black money.) If that is the case, why do we even learn morals, values? Is all the learning and the love for the country a waste?

-An imagination from a confused, future NRI

Happy Birthday too MEE!

Yes, today is my birthday. November 18, 1991 is also my birthday! If you start thinking why I have two birthdays, thats where the concept of star birthdays comes in to play.

Putting it simply, I was born when the moon was passing a particular star during its elliptical path around the earth. But setting aside the technicalities, let me jump to the reason for this post.

We all celebrate our birthdays. In fact, Hindus like me celebrate two birthdays (More birthdays, more sweets ;) getttit?:P). Every time I cut a cake during my date of birth or drink payasam during my star birthday ;) I cant help but ask myself, what is the point in celebrating this particular day. Did I achieve something great the previous year to make myself happy now? Or is it just a mere way in which your friends show that they are always there for you?

Every year, apart from the physical maturity that comes with age, mentally I still feel like how I was 3 years back. Nothing has changed, no apple falling on my head, no sudden enlightenment when I am 20 which would make me a responsible adult.

So the question is, I am 20, but have I grown up?

People

People, I see people every day and I try to analyse everything about them, from the way they look and amuse myself with the results I get. This is definitely not me considering myself as cool as Sherlock Holmes in detective skills! (or maybe it is :P)

Everyone I see, spy or stare at them so much so as to creep them out always seem to have some purpose for that moment. It varies between something as silly as peeing to something as complicated as building the fusion reactor. However, when on streets, no one seems to loiter aimlessly without anything to think about.

During these periods I cannot stop comparing myself with them and feeling happy about where I am placed in my life. While a random person’s purpose would just be to marry when he is 23 and start a family at 25, I had simulation, higher studies and mnc’s to think about!

This just gave me one more reason to see why life is unfair. For all you know it, that random person would be much more talented than I would and would deserve a better purpose in his life. However, just my position in the society and the opportunities that were presented makes my purpose sound cooler.

Embracing Fears

Water, cold water, the very thought of dipping my head inside it or being splashed by it for even a second sends shivers down my spine. I can’t even, think about learning swimming, as I would need 20 minutes to be settled inside water. So what should I do, when I am faced with the possibility of floating in water as deep as 20 feet? The sane part of me screamed, “Run away! Run away!” but the insane part reminded me of the quote “Only thing we have to fear is, fear itself.”

The debate between the sane and the insane part of my mind raged for a period of three minutes after which the insane part won. After so much deliberation, I jumped into the water and started floating (with a life jacket). However, nothing that I expected happened. I did not magically lose the fear of water, I did not revolt against getting back into the boat from the water, and rather I was the first one who was begging to get back. Embracing my fears solved nothing, I am still as scared or perhaps even more scared of cold water.

So apart from embracing fears, there is some other factor, which myself and everyone else is missing here. If only we could find this factor, we can possibly learn how to overcome fears at an instant.

We the Bankrupt People

We the bankrupt people, the ones for whom the word walletrupt should be invented. We may not have more than 20 dollars in our wallets and 500 dollars in our banks yet, we know how to sustain with that margin. We occasionally borrow, grudgingly. Yet, we keep track of all our expenses.

Be it the possibility of a single digit account balance or a growing educational loan, we can still have fun. We always hope that someone transfers 1000 dollars to our accounts by mistake and even check the account statements for such impossibilities to happen! When diffusing into us, money always seems to have a higher outward flux.

This is to all the people who are perennially bankrupt and unfortunately surrounded by financially secure kids. Situations always change, and so will ours! Take all the bankruptcy pressure as a valuable experience which can help when you earn in the future

A Concoction for a perfect night!

Though the title sounds extremely shady, tonight was the best night this semester! =D. It started with a visit to try the quizzinos sub and the soup, which made me lose faith in subway completely. The supposed “Midnight in Paris” (funny movie) outing ended up as a “Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy” (Serious movie) outing.

The night continued with the climbing down nine levels of stairs and running through somerset to catch the last train! Then started the final walking marathon from lakeside to NTU through the trail of food courts (Ice milo love :”) ) and 7-elevens and ended with fanta from can 11 vending machine!

Oh who would forget walking through the shady jalan bahar exit! =D

The Work Philosophy

Imagine a cup of water. We hold it for a minute; the water level remains the same. We hold it for an hour, the water level is the same but our hands start aching. Imagine holding it for a day (No one would do that, I know! =P) there is a high chance that your hands might be paralyzed.

We all can relate to this situation, if we compare it with work, worries and many other things. If we keep on holding onto it, it just starts paining and the level never reduces. If we put it down every few hours and take it up again, the pain is less though the work is still there.

Moral of the story? Never think of work, when you are having fun. Work will always be there; when it is quite difficult to find time to have fun, why should we waste time worrying about work again?