There's nothing official about it !!

It was in the evening that i decided to munch some snacks after sitting before the "Intelligent Box"(Copyright: Shankar - All rights reserved) for almost the entire day. Now for those who dont have a taste of corporate life let me tell what it likes to be in your cubicle. Well, the lessons begin with the word cubicle. The cubicle certainly lives upto its name, a structure that binds you for most of your time with the unseen tethers. It comprises of three major components,

1.The intelligent box
2.books,books and more books...(STRICTLY technical)
3.A telephone

Now that a cubicle is familiar to you, let me get along with what kind off stuff that we guys do with the intelligent box. The intelligent box is not so intelligent as we would like it to be. It throws up all kinds of wierd stuff when you least expect them. But hey, theres more to it than we can imagine, but i exclude it because it is out of scope of this blog. In short, it creates more trouble than it solves. Well, i am being a bit too cynical with my perception,coz ultimately the intelligent box does what we say. But to hell with it !!

As we move out of the cubicle, there is a cafetaria which is the centre of all our "pet pooja", the dispensers and the snacks counter are really inviting especially when we are new entrants. The cafetaria- therein lies the reacreative bundles. The cafetaria can be a real bother to just one sect of people, the ones who sit next to it. They have to exert maximum restraint on themselves to buckle the escape velocity. Ok, lets get on with it. As we move out, we reach the final destination. Now dont start speculating, it another cafetaria :D nevertheless its bigger and is high above all other things. Oh ! and i meant that literally !! It lies in the top floor and so has the top priority :). Now comes the purpose of my narrative. Where was I ?? Oh yes.. munchin snacks. To be very frank, munching snacks in the cafetaria is rewarding in itself. The best part is that we get to notice a lot of people and their vivid activites.

That portion again is beyond the scope of this blog(too many people u see!!). Today was an exceptional day since it was raining and it seldom rains the way that makes rain enjoyable. I was talking to my friends admist snacks that i noticed how pleasant the climate was. There were mild droplets of rain, just the right quantity that one sees in a spray painting. This was one moment where i enjoyed wearing glasses. The way these droplets arrange themselves on your spectacles is really awesome. I wonder at people who remove thier specs when it rains for this was one reare occassion when the spectacles live upto their name! It was kind of irresistable for me to abstian from going out under the open sky. Of course, i was wearing my specs too :P.. There was a mild breeze that was playing around slightly curving the path of the droplets to a pleasant acute.

Our canteen as i metnioned lies on the terrace which was characterized by many outgrowths that would form the strength for any futuristic spurs that might occur to the building. Despite the iron protrusions they seemed to attract many a people to sit on it, though uncomfortably. Strange as it seems, the very same people complain about a broken handle or a loosened strand of fibre of the cushion in thier cubicles. I sat on them thinking of many things that happened in the past few days. I could feel like i was living both the past and the present. I was extremely aware of what was happening around me, at the same time I was intensely in my past. As these thoughts were going on, another faction of myself was looking at these two factions, wondering how fast the mind races. Almost an entire week of the past went through in a flash of a time !

It might seem unbelievable for most of you, and you might tend to think these as a mere figment of my imagination. But there has been many a times when i had felt that i had already experienced what i was experiencing at that moment. Well, it could be my imagination at work..well, i sat watching the rain splutter against my face. The clouds above were pale dark in texture and moving at an amazingly fast pace. It made me reaslise the incapabilities of human senses. Our sense organs are extremely gullible and fragile without our ability to think and reason. Yes, the thinking potential, the raw rationale, is what that drives the human. The raw rationale is the one which made the human invent the wheel, it made him create spokes and hub instead of a solid disk. The rationale is what told him of his weakness and strengths !!

A song of high disruptive nature woke me from my stream of thoughts. Aw !! it was my own mobile ringing and for the first time in my life i hated Metallica. I lazily flopped open my panel only to see my appointment being made to the intelligent box. And i felt a tinge of sadness and awe when the time panel showed that the entire time i had spent was less than 5 minutes. I decided to blog this at the earliest opportunity.Of course there's nothing official about it.....

Shifting fundas !!

Man has three basic necessities in life which are indispensible, Food , clothing and shelter. And things can go real bad when u lack the third of these essentials, more so if you are a bachelor. My quest for the first, made me move out to a new city and the third was the culprit. When you move to a new city, there are many an intriguing factors that play havoc in your hedonistic activities. Language being one of the most tough ones to handle. I landed in the "city of jalebis" ! No not because of the delicacies, but because of the language script that the place uses. The AD boards that i saw on my entry in to city bore a complex look with lots of curves shaped in a intricate mix of slashes. They were an exact replica of jalebis torn into random pieces, with the sole purpose of obfuscation.

That was the first experience of hopelesness that twinged in my mind and which was to stay put for many days to come. Having had a taste of the native tongue and the script, I had given up hope on any attempts to learn it. But to my genuine surprise, Nationalistic flavor permeating through the cross section came to my rescue and Hindi was no less used than jalebis in the city. My benevolent providers had provided me with a wonderful accomodation for two weeks and I was determined to enjoy that under all circumstances.

"Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder", I realised how true the statement was during the first weeks of my relocation. The third essential need that i was talking of just back was the top priority thing in my mind, coz the first two were provided by my benefactors. And so we (Never do things alone ! My folks say !! :P ) went out in the search of a shelter. A big city must have big things to offer, so the people say. But that was just a prevarication of facts or a clever obfuscation. The delusion was soon cleared once we set out in search of flats.

We went into one of the apartments very close to my area of interest(I am a techie for heavens sake !! :D ) and fumbled for the watchman around the place. Oh ! and I finally found him sleeping in a corner. That's at least one situation which corresponds to movies. Well after a couple of minutes of altercation we managed to find out that all that the guy made out was that we were bachelors. From that point on he repeated the mantra "Emi ledu" invariably for all the questions that followed. I later found out that these people here had a well formed and unbreachable network intricately placed with brokers and watchmen at key points which ensured that they had a regular income out of newbies to the city. Having found the key to success, we found a flat which suited our purpose.

With all these fundas under my experience armoury, I went about to purchasing things needed to kick off a humanly life in my newly found flat. That my dear friends,I tell you, isn't an easy task. Well, being an engineer has its own advantages and disadvantages, I could organize a list of items that a common, responsible householder (thats me !!) might need. Now being an engineer, I managed to reconcile the list with another responsible householder and finally ended up with the list of belongings that we really need. I would have liked to put up that list in this blog, but it would seem too much of a wierdo, so I have decided against it. But as a gist, it was the most wierd kind of list that i ve ever seen. The ones who want the list can mail me and i shall be more than glad to share the wierdness !! Oh and to top up this effort we finally managed to end up in our flat forgetting to buy a lock to lock up our treasures. Blah ! blah blah !! well lemme stop the crap because that updates my current position.. and going by my nature and natural goofness i am bound to produce many such stints !! :D

Exam blues,greens and oranges.....

"Humph !!" i said with anguish, making my way out of the exam hall. I was feeling a bit uncomfortable, but i wasnt half as worse i was,half hour ago. I silently made a resolve not too fool around for the next examination at the least. The entire world knows the strength of those resolutions made just after the completion of an examination. I am an ordinary person, and my resolve was just as similar. It is an iterative process that goes on with unfailing regularity. "Dei machi, vaa oru cold coffee adikalam" was all that was needed to dissolve my resolve. Off i went to the Coffee shop (guys,not the barrista !!) to drench my throat with a cold coffee. It was drizzling, and there are days when you wish that u were washed away by a current of water. And the drizzling helped the feeling to get stronger. I looked up the sky, hoping to see God who had committed the unpardonable crime of setting a tough question paper.

On the way, i could see a person smile, i never ever realised that simle can cause such jittery in a person. We sat sipping our coffee (a hot coffee converted to cold thanks to a fan ), a financial crisis acting as a catalyst for this transformation. If at all silence could act as a mode of communication, it was on that day. We were all able to sense each others anxiety with amazing alacrity. I decided to break the ice, and started to talk " guys... ", when they unanimously stared at me. Man !! if only looks could kill, I would have been a dead duck !!! I reverted back to my sanyasi pose sulkily sippin my cup. On our way back our frustration transformed to anger on seeing the smiling face of "Mr.expert in saponification". That guy really pissed me off !!!

We walked with an un(usual) silence that invariably followed any(every) examination. We managed to park ourselves in our usual feelings "spot",a tree-shade which was our temple of confession. Finally,one of us said, "what is our next exam ?". Everyone of us gave the negative nod, though each of us knew very well what and when our next exam was. It was our own stupid way to reconcile to the reality. If at all any piece of paper can rule 8 lives, it was the damn question paper... Each of us had a unique excuse for flunking, Out of portion(ie those which we didnt study), the clocks in exam hall ran at an unearthly rate(no time),the cursed temporary amnesia (we forgot what we studied), optical illusion AKA mirage (read the question wrong),electronic disorientation(calulator failure),tool diruption (A broken nib) and temporal lobe misinterpretations. But we guys werent the hopeless ones who repeated the same mistakes in succession. Our mistakes went in a perfect cyclic order. Never did we fall a prey to sussman anamoly.

After an hour of such so-called retrospection, we finally make up a decision to study for the next examination. The attempt comes to a sudden halt as one of our intellectuals suggested a solution to the problem that hung dauntingly before us. "A paper moderation". Then begins the hunt for the "Mr. saponifier", the biggest man hunt the world has ever witnessed. And Mr.saponifier is a mean customer. He locks himself up with his books in the most obscure places of the insti, with the intention of consuming the book in entirety. Finally we fished him out and put forth(portended) our proposal. After masquerading him with our suggestions, we set him forth on his mission to convince the resective staff. The result of this operation "Temperate" is the most obvious, the answer sheets are due to be corrected by imports from other insti !!!

Providence proves to be the culprit. This extraneous operation subsumes time to such an extent that we wished Mr.Einstein was wrong. We wished hopelessly that time travel was indeed possible. Midnight gong strikes, indicating that there remained exactly 12 hours for our next cold coffee. We started crammin for our next exam, holding every piece of charm that we could conceive of. Night rolls on to day and sunlight fills the room with light and our hearts with consternation and apprehensions. Our scanning of the books had managed to bring sufficient knowledge, knowledge that we were yet again out on a hopeless errand. After a breakfast-less session with books, we make our way through to exam hall, our fingers devoid of its nails. The question papers are yet again on our hands, which better served as napkins to our sweat-soaked hands. All that we could do was to look through the paned window, which unfailingly reinstated the principle of scattering of light,throwing out its spectrum with admirable mix of blue,green and orange......

Of Prima Donnas and Politics.....

People might wonder whats wrong with me as i am churning out more public issues and contemporary topics. I am quite wondering about that myself. So its no point trying to judge whats up with me. But yeah ! one should definitely think about what's happening in our country today. I am not being lopsided or attacking a particular personality. It's more about ourselves that i am speaking about. And the topic is something that all we youngsters should not merely be thinking about, but also act. And my title indicates all about that i am going to say.


As i mentioned about it before, it is not an attack on any particular individual or political parties, but a mere analysis of our involvement in our nation's interest. Politics has been phasing almost all sectors of day to day life. This is acclaimed by almost everybody around so I need not specify its importance. And it's also true that politics is being dominated by the cine sector. The eminent actors who idolise themselves in the people find it an easy entrance into politics and fame. So what the hell does bother u ??? thats what u would be asking now.... well i can list it out....

-> How can a sector which requires high degrees of education and intelligence, be dominated by actors and not by scholars ?

-> How can politicians stand the test of time dominating this long ?

-> What difference would it make if the field was any different ?



I am certainly not going to provide answers for these as I dont think i am quite experienced enough to do that. I am just going to provide my perspective. The first one is what perplexes me as it only requires common sense to make out that point. Persons who can hardly communicate in the Lingua Franca, can they contrieve anything that is worthwhile. Of course there can be exceptions and geniuses who can work that way. But is it something that we can leave it to a such an chance and hope that it works out ??? think guys. Imagine people from IIM's and IIT's and other such intitutions as ministers and members of the parliament. No longer will it be humiliating to watch the parliamentary session over a tv :-). No longer will DoorDarshan be required to put up ADs as frequently as they do now.... Guys, if that sounded funny, i can tell u it is not as funny as it seems. We are paying through our noses for a day that they spend at the parliament. It's time that we thought about this factor. Bring erudite people into politics.

The second question is the one that puzzles me the most. How could the Prima Donnas dominate this field so long ?? One possiblity could be because they are the ones that the masses look upto for identifying qualities that they can only dream of. Little do
they understand that the cinematic image the mummers create are just a mere figment of imagination. Already being a public figure they find an easy entrance into politics. If I were a President ( I am already one in my dreams !! )then i would have a special course on politics in all colleges and only Politics graduates could enter into polls. That too after AIPEE (all india politicians entrance exams)... :D Well that remains a fantasy, at least in the near future.



There have been many such initiatives by people who want to reform our politics, but they have neither been encouraged nor noticed. These thoughts of mine are not restricted to me alone.. It's been spoken about these days and there are a few organisations that are definitely going to come up with such a motive soon enough. I am still having the strong belief that more educated the politicians are the better will be their governance.. I also believe that the day is not very far and a time will come when politicians will be PhD s.


Exercising franchise will mean much more to me that day, much more than getting an indelibe ink mark on my index finger indicating yet another five year period passing off monotonically into perpetuity......

An elegy for the diminishing spirit

It is indeed with a heavy heart that i am writing this post. Despite of a busy schedule that i am supposed to follow, i had to rake up some time for this particular post. As u might have guessed this is not going to be one of the comical interludes that i am going to write about. It's about something recent that had pained me to the core. No i wouldnt blame anyone for this, it is a collective blame.



Now this is a question that one has to answer truthfully. Do you happen to recognize this person ???
.
.
.
.
No.. isnt it ? except for quzzing purposes not many know this person. To hell with the suspense !!! He is Samaresh Jung,of India who has been named as the winner of the David Dixon Award for the most outstanding athlete of the Commonwealth Games.

During the Games, Jung won two individual gold in the Men’s 10m Air Pistol and Men’s 50m Pistol, as well as three team gold, one team silver, and one individual bronze. He also set three new Games records.The David Dixon Award is named after the former Honorary Secretary of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) and is the first of its kind for a multi-sport event.All of the 71 competing nations and territories were asked to nominated one athlete for the award. All athletes are eligible regardless of their medal tallies.

The medal honours performance at the Games, fair play, and overall contribution to their team’s participation at the Games.CGF President, Mike Fennell, said he was delighted that Samaresh Jung had won the second David Dixon Award.

"Jung is a remarkable athlete, who competed brilliantly in Melbourne, establishing a range of new benchmarks for his sport, and is an athlete the whole Commonwealth can be truly proud of,” said Fennell.

Samaresh Jung’s wife Anuja also competed, winning gold in the Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions event.

After such a splendid performance in the games, He is hardly reognised.. why ?? Lack of publicity from the media. He is certainly not a media hound, but is it fair enough to let his heroics go down the drain. Imagine if he had been in US, he would have been driven right away into the White house for dinner with the President. In India, his name appears in some god forsaken corner of the papers, while actors rock the front page. Who the hell cares if they are jailed or not ? what difference does it make ?? but unfortunately these tit bits sail through amongst people as hot-cakes. Imagine Samaresh being forgotten while some stupid cine actor is being hailed for wearing a fancy cloth or for cutting ribbons for a sponsor !!!

Guys, this is the sad state of affairs today. When are the Indian media going to act fair and bring true heroes to limelight ?? All they have managed to achieve is to get people scorn at Indian sportsmen for not achieving in Olympics !! How the hell do u expect them to achieve when they are not given the proper incentives. The media is what i would again blame this for. They have been very unfair towards anything except for cricket and football. They have chosen to be commercial ignoring the primary ethics. Had they chosen to eulogise such herculean performances, i have no doubts that a man like Samaresh would be idolised in a couple of days after such a show of marksmanship.

It is but natural that this blog comes out with agony and sarcasm aimed at those those who failed to recognise such a splendid performance. Such a propensity for disregarding such splendid acts is what makes me feel bad. This post is a direct result of that agony.....

An elegy for the dimishing spirit of appreciating excellence.......

Abhi jiska dil na pighla , Dil nahi woh pathar hai.....
jo isko samajh na paayae, woh bekar zindgaani hai......