You just got it wrong....

Things could have been entirely different if I did not do what I did but did exactly what I was expected to do. How? Let’s take a look:

• Two years back, if only I had overcome the urge of my fiddling fingers to darken those bubbles of the JEE OMR sheet which I shouldn’t have even thought of considering unless I were at least 80% sure, I could have been savoring the weary work load and filthy food, the IITs are generally so famous for. Or what could have been even better, I could have achieved a day’s fame in the newspapers soon after I had joined the hall of shame of those students who finally give up to these draining and strenuous tasks, leaving behind haunting memories for their room-mates and some really lamenting ones for their inconsolable parents.
• I could have avoided getting a ticket from the cop if only I had dismissed the idea of feeling the gentle touch of the rejuvenating breeze on my face and caged my head in a helmet instead.
• I could have been ‘committed’ to some insane and moronic airs of that cute girl if I had carried on the silly conversation she had begun, in turn, leading me far away from my cronies and making me iterate nothing but some false and fed-up praises of her looks and locks all day long.
• I could have continued my streak of being healthy and non-sick for some more seasons only if I had locked myself up in my room in place of going out and playing in the rain.
• I could have bagged the scholarship if had scored a handful more marks in the board examinations, which as a bonus, could have awarded me the anxiety of getting a C.G.P.A greater than 8.0 every semester and a fear of not getting the same.
• Further, I could have been a known face in the university if I had kowtowed to the ridiculous and dreadful demands of the so called seniors and served instantly at their beck and call.
• I could have been the owner of a Greek-God-like physique if only I had enjoyed the chaffy and fibrous diet for just a few more years, in spite of my frequent visits to some really royal restaurants and junk joints.

Hey presto! The scenario seems far better this way. So what if I achieved it by neglecting the whimpers of my wailing heart, bellows of my bare soul and puffs of my panting body? So what if I limited my thinking, clichéd my actions and frisked away the humorous intentions in this fray? At least, I proved myself to be right, socially and morally. At most, I generously donated a few years of my life to gloom and pity. But this doesn’t really matter. Does it?

Just give it a single thought, if only we were destined to follow the rules and regulations in a copy-book style, I guess the human brain would have been the least used part of the body and the human heart would have just pumped blood. We would have begun ‘born’ but ended up ‘manufactured’ one day, with the same old programs ‘burned’ in our brains to perform the desired activities in the desired sense. Creativity, innovation and novelty would soon have become a thing of the past, monotony and stereotypy soon replacing them thereby.  

I feel relieved and ‘human’ when I recall the above mentioned instances. It’s heartening to know that the situation is still not that bad. Human tendencies to go against the law have still not died down. The naughty flame is still alive. We generally are lured into doing those tasks which we have been asked not to do otherwise. That’s what keeps the courts buzzing and the authorities busy for most of the times. I would always fidget with the electric circuit boards at home, inserting and testing things of different materials and then turning the switch on to make sure that I guessed the conducting behavior of that species right and also to have an electrifying experience at times. I would find it just the right time to check my speeding skills when a cop spots me helmet-less.

Yes, it’s true that I don’t always end up on the winner’s side but I do have a satisfaction that I’ve at least converted my tendencies into actions and no one else except me is responsible for the results whatsoever.

Also, such ‘wrong activities’ provide an experience of which you can boast later on, thus proving your mettle. But more importantly, they give you an insight into the real life and prepare you for the battle ahead by making you stronger, not with success but with failures. A worldwide belief that wrong means lead to wrong ends is at many times wrong. Obviously I’m keeping myself confined to trivial wrongs, since I’m mature enough to differentiate between seemingly wrongs and real wrongs. Anyway, if  a kid were asked to write an article on “Failures are the real teachers”, then he could have easily grabbed 5 out of 10, if he had included some of the points mentioned in this ordinary piece, provided he had written in a beautiful hand, of course :p

Hence winding up, the next time things don’t work out the right way, give the wrong means a try, not always though. Wrong can be called a slightly distorted form of the right. It’s twisted. It’s inverted. And it’s convoluted. As a perk, it comes with an extra thrill, frisson and fright which are missing in an otherwise traditional way of achieving a particular goal. And not forgetting what a ‘hurt’ Johnny Cash once said,” I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel.”

So, try believing in wrong. Cash it. Spend it. Enjoy it. You’ll fall. Get up. Move on. Just remember that wrong ain’t always wrong. Unfold it to discover the right hidden inside. Doing right things the wrong way can hardly be a crime; but please don’t take me wrong: p

A thing I did this summer....

With our sweet summer break now barely lasting for a day or two, I think it’s just the right time to share a few things about a few activities I pursued over the last 40 days or so. But since I believe in the “one in hand is better than two in a bush” theory, it would better for me to focus solely on one of the many activities here. Another reason for the same could be that this particular activity requires somewhat special attention, keeping in mind the number of hours I devoted to it religiously. But no regrets, since I thoroughly enjoyed this long and regular performance, and in the end, happiness is what really matters.

Okay, no more rigmaroles now. I quickly pull off the curtains to introduce you to my very- old-but-lost-somewhere-in-the-middle-but-now-rediscovered love for the movies. Yes, I was a movie buff; lost out on my way somewhere in the past few years, owing to the hectic study schedules but OMG! Now I’m back again, seeking a redemption for the sin I committed in the past. And maybe I went a long way in this pursuit for salvation, since this summer, I was sanctified by some coveted classics, fulminating fantastics and some binding basics. One moment, I would jump out of my couch with thrill; the next, I would scream out with a shrill. The third moment, I would be on the verge of breaking down (I’m not kidding) or laughing my lungs out. The upcoming couple of seconds and minutes and hours would consist of innumerable permutations and combinations of the above mentioned rudimentary expressions, giving rise to emotions of a different kind. It’s actually one of the two reasons I prefer to watch movies all alone in my room, the other being my desire for a pin-drop silence.

Since I’m 19, I’m by default, young. And there’s no doubt that I’m attracted to movies with lots and lots of action and glitz and glamour. I’m blown away by the blitzkrieg, gratified by the guns and stunned by the stunts. I wait for the Mummy to rise again, pirates to die but feign and finally, Spiderman to do the villain down the drain. Clearly, I can’t miss out on the Joes and my Spartan bros. And then there are flicks featuring fast and furious speed demons, sci-fi thrillers and entertainment- quenchers; making me realize how tumultuous a task it could be to ‘secure’ a US president. Oh, did I forget to mention the mighty mutants?

Moving close to reason and rationalism, Sherlock Holmes is a treat….not only for the skeptics, mind you. The scenes set in ancient times, elegant lifestyles, graceful and chivalrous tongues….Lord, I love this stuff! Such movies give me a royal sense and above all, a mesmerizing two hours of some impeccable reasoning. Since now we’ve started talking of tongues, one of the many things I always look for in a movie is a strange accent, a weird slang or an archaic so magnificent; just because I like exploring new worlds and the ways they communicate to one another. Even some ordinary sets of English words are un-miss- able, when a French or an Italian speaks them and the amusing pronunciations bring a smile to my lips. Did I say ‘smiles’? It’s time to present Jim Carrey to you. Though I didn’t have much of him this summer, but he’s always been one of my favorites, mainly because his non-verbal communication which includes his goofy face and even goofier expressions. In the lighter section, Disney and Pixar movies are next, which make me dream and desire and achieve and aspire.

But my life lies in those two-hour streaks which take me a bit closer to the scenario of realism; which make me feel the sunny and shady parts of the human life; which take me through emotions, subtle and sweet and sour simultaneously. They may not be romantic. They may not be melodramatic either. They maybe a mix of each and every emotion, mankind is aware of till now. Judging them from a critic’s point of view, they require much more inputs and pains on part of the actors as compared to the action thrillers; since there are no cyborgs, no machines, no tools and no scientific tricks and techniques involved to divert the attention of the audience from the basics of acting. How convincingly the things begin, move on and come to an end; is a real challenge for the entire crew. When completed with paramount precision, they leave the audience with a tear in their eye, a gratitude in their heart and an ‘ahaa….’ in their mouth. And the sad ends, if exist, require even more hard work and clever depiction. Finally, the operas, the violins and the saxophones beacon out a grand end, making the people believe that they’ve just experienced a phenomenon.

I may have mentioned only some trivial names in this script. It was difficult for me to fit in all. But I do look forward to taste all kinds of stuff, when it comes to movies. A thing I still have is my non-viewing of the horror movies, for I don’t want to spend sleepless nights in my room, staring at the blank roof or waking up terrified at the slightest of the movements of the noisy door, taking it to be the arrival of a vampire looking for human blood. I’m not sure if I’ll get out of this phobia. Maybe I’ll give it a try one day.

But as for now, I love torrents, I love downloading, I love btjunkie and I love my friends who I turn to when I need some more delightful delicacies to watch. So, keep watching. Cheerio!

Intense irritation eradicated:)

RELIEF! It seems as if a thorn in my flesh has been removed. For quite some time now, I had been trying and trying hard to install the Intense Debate comments app on SYHO. Wonder why on earth...in fact why on Blogspot, I wasn't achieving success at all, even though my each and every step was just right, technically?!! I had almost given up. 

Then just tonight, I tried out the new templates launched lately by Blogspot. Finding some of them really beautiful, it took me no time to apply the most beautiful of them. And guess what..... this one came with the gift I had been longing for since long. Yup, I could see the Intense Debate window planted in my Heart,making the new design even more adorable!(for me at least)

The solution to this puzzle was indeed a trivial one.The earlier templates were not completely official, for I had downloaded them randomly and not to forget, unconsciously. And so the desired app was not going along well. But my unexpected-template-changing-act proved to be just the right remedy for this problem. 

Well,everything is in the best of health and spirits now and I expect the things to stay in the same form in the near future. 

As for now,you people can pour in easily with your comments....the things are fully functional:)

Hybridizing a newspaper and a blog

Ever since my childhood days, I’ve always had a fetish, a craze, a rage for perhaps the cheapest, the divinest, the godliest and the most frequently served service at my house- the Newspaper. Oh Yes! My voracious liking for the ‘Voice of the Nation’ began with me being awe-struck and at times amused by the ‘Picture(s) of the day’, the caption contests and the Garfield and Dennis the Menace series (Oh com’on, I was just too little to read on ‘heavier things’!). With more and more of reading some sense and reading the sensational, I switched over to the burning hot and burning red ‘front page’, before shifting to sporty columns and ultimately ending at the elite editorials, the ‘Comments’ and the ‘Think-overs’. I could still remember those hasty mornings, when I used to literally gulp down some disemboweling facts and figures with the glass of milk I emptied down to the full, unaware of the school bus which had already been delayed because of my hard-core habit.

Slowly and gradually, I was taken aback by some blooming blogs, bucketful buzzes and tickling tweets and found ‘My Space’ in the virtual world, only to savor a sudden down pour of some more novel ideas and exhilarating personal experiences and to relish a ‘Follower’s burden’! I wonder if any burden could ever be so amazing, so satisfying and so enchanting. On the whole, the older-but-still-in-use forms of fury (newspapers) with an electronic-touch lead to a power-packed YOU, verbally, intellectually and knowledgably.

Behold! Hope you like surprises for I might leave you with your jaws dropped down! There’s something which is as popular and old as a newspaper and as widespread as a blog. From the past few days, I’ve been noticing some strange scribblings. The most interesting part is that these writings are neither a part of any publication, nor a blog or not even a splog! Oh no-no! I’m not talking about the sacred writings on the historical walls, since those alien scripts are beyond my cerebral reach. I tend to remain on the simpler side here. Well, I’m talking about the scrabbles, the scratchings and the doodles devised by the common man, just to express his feelings, emotions, sorrows, miseries, happiness, elation or whatever comes to his mind, with the ’public walls’ serving the dual purpose of a canvas and an easel( Maybe, that’s why Facebook too has a ’Wall’). It’s actually a nice- little publication where you make a note and leave it ‘public’! Another fact is that you yourself are the reporter, writer, cartoonist and the editor of this publication. Plus you don’t have to worry about the regularity of the editions since you are not ‘officially’ engaged in such an activity. Write whenever some solid stuff strikes your skull. A vast writing space is waiting for you. You just need to escape your ‘future readers’ ’ eyes while writing. Isn’t that adventurous too? You might be thinking this is somewhat similar to the internet blogs. But these ‘Public blogs’, what I like to call them, are better since they are accessible and readable to those who don’t even know the A,B,C of computers….actually the C,C++ of computers, I should say.

Talking of my age, I’m surrounded with so many such blogs in my university. Whenever we’re having a boring lecture (Oh please! When don’t we have one?), out comes a writing tool and a public blogger is born. He with his ‘creativity’ runs this tool only to add to the beauty of the frail wooden desks. Every now and then I come across such inscriptions and some of them make me smile, some make me giggle while the others make me guffaw (No bad thoughts please). I can identify a potential-philosopher, a cool dude, a good-for-nothing fellow, a geek, a despo or a nerd from these writings…no need to give your profile information separately.

Getting out of the university, I can see some love stories engraved on the trees, where the names of the ‘creators’ are carefully contained within the boundaries of a heart-shaped structure, not to forget the Cupid’s arrow, dear. The lovers certainly seem to be ‘brave’ enough to screech a ‘heart’ on the heart of a silent biomass. But traditions and customs are made only to be improvised later on. Similarly, such activities of graffiti and street art, when given the aid of lustrous, glossy and shiny spray paints, attain a more modern and a gen-next look. The territorial extent of such blogs seems endless, taking in railway stations, bus terminals, planks, pillars, boulders, rocks and not even sparing the public toilets!(Best place to flush out your frustration.) 

I don’t know if you’re allured into becoming such a blogger after reading this, especially the ones who like to decorate themselves with the title, ‘anonymous’. I’d personally not recommend this kind of activity to anyone, which though having the pros of a newspaper and a blog has its own cons, the major being damage to public property. But one can’t deny that such kind of ‘media’ is really cheap. Even cheaper than a two rupee newspaper:p    

He left me....only to be frenzied some more!!

Strained relationships seldom last long, a thing I’ve learnt over the past years of my life. Those spits and spats, slurps and smacks, cricks and cracks; one day or the other overpower and ultimately extinguish the dying-to-die-out flames of failure. SWOOSH!! The game gets over. The boots are hanged. The knots are undone. Divergent paths are chosen. No more interference. No more disturbance. Nothing!

 My monotonous expressions point to the end of a unique relationship involving human and anti-human forms of life. As expected, the human form represents me, my self, my soul (Always safe to take the main lead and humiliate your-self to any extent you want to) and the anti-human form makes up for the mirage of mathematics.

Chronologically, my almost 20-year old association with mathematics ended on 22^nd May, 2010, at exactly 1200 hrs, when the itchy examiner (really itchy) snatched away the Optimization Techniques answer sheet from me. Clarifying to the non-non-medicals, OT, as we people ‘used to call’ this subject, is nothing but some more mathematics, presented to you in some more annoying and some more fretful form. Continuing after the disdainful act of the examiner, I felt an enormously heavy load being taken off my slowly-wearing-out shoulders. My long lasting battle with my greatest enemy ever had just ended. My life had just tasted LIFE. I’d now no longer be droning on the sad, somber and murderous melancholy of mathematics. I’d now no longer be: irked by the innumerable iterations, aroused by the awful algorithms and numbed by the noxious numbers. Heaven! Whoa!

But was it really a whoa-moment? Was it that heavenly?  Did it really deserve such a celebration? An elation? A jubilation? Not really! Sad but significant to mention here, I was not the one who ended up on the winning side. A grace-saving statement, if any, to quote would be that I ended up on the learning side. It seemed as if my unfathomable foe marched out of the battle-field with head high and leaving me with enough to cry after making sure that I had nothing more left in me to face him but a bruised body, a scarred soul and a pitiable panorama. The great Goliath glided away un-manned, un-chained, un-tamed, showering a few drops of mercy on me.

Bringing the past to the present, I remember falling down the wagon every now and then, struggling with crude concepts and eerie estimations. The algebra anguished me, vectors vandalized me, coordinate killed me and the ratios and proportions ruined me. Not leaving behind, geometry jeopardized my left-over chances of success. But ‘probability’ gave me some solace, just because I started with concentrating on the text book, but ended up tossing coins and rolling dices, just to get a better understanding of the topic! Practical approach?

Reaching the upper rungs of the ladder of gaining knowledge, the grudges got intense and professional. With engineering mathematics knocking at my doorstep, my nightmare confronted me in bits and parts, the first being Mathematics-I, followed closely by Mathematics-II. The two together appeared to me as a Hollywood movie series, where the sequel is all the more complex and complicated than the starter. The devastation seemed to be unending with some exclusive math, Numerical Analysis and OT still waiting for me. Each and every step of mine now shivered even more. Every minute now my heart missed a beat. But I treaded on somehow.

And now I stand here in the present, exhausted and intoxicated by the mere thoughts of a hefty past, expecting a brighter and a balanced future. A part of my mind says me to relax since I won’t be facing that old maniac anymore, not at least for the coming two years. Another part tells me to be even more cautious from now on, for we may meet again. Maybe my mental tormenter has given me some time to heal, some moments to mend myself. Maybe he’ll rip me off with even more strength and even more brutality the next time. A dilemma now dazzles me, if he’s set me free only to be caught again? Or he’s had enough of me? There’s also a possibility that the ‘time out’ may be an attempt to do me out of my wits, since I’d be thinking of his next move over and over again and become a bait to my own madness!

 Nevertheless, I hope to give him a tough competition at the next and final face-off. It may not be today, may not be even tomorrow. But a defeat still needs to be avenged. A debt awaits to be cleared. A calculation stalls to be solved.           

Acts in Waiting

With the sun sending out a clarion call loud and clear, signifying the termination of yet another tempting dreamy torrent, which might otherwise lead to a perilous procrastination, it’s time to let loose! It’s time to be a part of a seemingly inimical but still widely followed phenomenon all over the world, called LIFE. You never know what she’s got in for you today. She might surprise you with some sweet successes or humiliate you with forgettable failures. Curious by nature, as a typical human is, you are driven by a Pandora’s desire to find, relish and exploit this hidden treasure.

In this process of ‘discovery’, you might…in fact you’ll definitely encounter an uncountable number of people having different beliefs, mindsets, intellects and ethos. But out of this lot, there are only a few whose memories in our lives for long tend to stay...those who brighten our lives, otherwise grey…and those whom seeing we stately sway.

What’s actually the reason behind such revered reminisces? Why is it that we remember those godly-gleaming faces even though we don’t know their names (forget about the religion they belong to)? How come their mere thought makes us jump up with joy? Well, the thing can be as simple as an act of alchemy, an act of benignity or an act of co-operation, which those strange saviors performed for us one fine day. The thing can be even simpler as a day of their life, they gifted to us, just to make our lives bigger and better. And in return, these people had no complaints and no demands, since the ends they achieved by doing so were ultra-satisfying.

Numerous number of times, such acts await our arrival. We just need to distract ourselves (positively) from the tiring and unending journey and grab the opportunity with both hands to be included in the above mentioned ‘class of nobles’. These can truly make a life, a better life to liveJ

Retrospect your life, purify your soul,

Imagine a human with humanity as a whole.

Work life, shun sins, stop hating,

Just once try out these Acts in Waiting.

Lone Survivors

An utter wilderness enveloped in seething skies,      

A sultry silence crevicing into a scary size;     

A maverick malice hovering like a hound,

Not a drop to quench the thirsty ground.

The scene seemed so ugly and sad,

The death fires danced happy and glad.

Surviving in the ocean of blood and gore,

Daring death and bearing the furore;

Stood a fern, weak and frail,                               

Breathing in death with every inhale.

His boughs giving a tired glimpse,

His eyes a witness to an awful apocalypse.

A rage he suffered over the years,

Left his life in tatters and tears.

Deathly battles and sinful battalions,

Snatched from him, his beautiful companions.

Lonesome now, he ranted and raved,

Dreaming of the golden times he craved.

So insane the annihilation could be,

So hard a code to decipher it could be;

It could make you moan and make you cry,

It could give life to death and cause life to die;

And banish the earthlings into an evil exile,

Like the fern,

Leaving many a lone survivors to stand by.