Again a trip home, again lots of time to contemplate about everything. Although this time my reverie was broken intermittently by Three Men in a Boat and Nature in her full glory after the monsoons.
I could go on rambling about the serenity of cranes wading through emerald green paddy fields, the sharpness of the features of an absolutely perfect blue-green kingfisher on a telegraph pole. But then again these things are better expressed by a poet or a photographer.
Ah! The book. I think hype killed the book for me. Hype and the British sense of humour which somehow escapes me completely. Otherwise it is quite a decent read(people might feel that I have grossly underrated the book, but the again, to each his own)
Ya the point of this blog is not to give an account of the trip from Bhubaneswar to Kgp on Dhauli express(I'll write about it when its time to say goodbye to Kgp and I make my final Dhauli Express trip). The point is detailed in the following paragraphs.
Just as I had settled down with my book, a teenage guy(first of all it surprises me that I'm not one of them anymore!) opened a Elements of Co-ordinate Geometry by S.L.Loney and started underlining certain sections of it. It wasn't difficult for me to understand his motivation for doing so, so I smiled to myself and buried my face in the book(something tells me the build up I've made up might well end up disappointing the reader so please drop any expectations of a particularly fitting ending). Soon light conversation followed, initiated by him, and soon inevitably. much to my resistance. it came out that I was indeed an IITian. To which he asked "which batch" and lowering my voice a wee bit I said "I appeared JEE in 2001". The guy rolled up his eyes and said "that's five years ago!". On which I did a slight mental calculation, when I came to Kgp, this guy would have been in class 7. Class 7!!! Can you imagine that. Class 7 for God's sake. I don't have words to express how I felt. Except that I never felt older in my whole life. Thats it, don't say I dissapointed you , you had been warned.
Aug 29, 2005
Aug 27, 2005
Lots of yada yada...
Isn't it sad in a way that we all might end our life doing nothing more than a little bit for our own personal self, not affecting one more person truly.
Is then society just the sum total of selfish acts coming together? Isn't economics the study of selfish acts. Is that the final aim of all attempts at knowledge?
But then how do you go about defining virtue. Is there one standard one can adhere to. Or is it the all pervasive Christian values of love, compassion, courage, honesty, work and perseverance so deeply ingrained in our minds, that our subconscious gives us that nice feeling when you carry out any of these acts. Is our conscience nothing better than Pavlov's dog, salivating at the right stimulus just because its been trained to do so.
Or are we indeed connected, by our conscience, to something divine, connected to that fixed point about which everything rotates. Is there such a point. Or are we without a reference at all, moving about in a random manner, lacking any fixed concepts, values or knowledge.
We'll never know.
Is then society just the sum total of selfish acts coming together? Isn't economics the study of selfish acts. Is that the final aim of all attempts at knowledge?
But then how do you go about defining virtue. Is there one standard one can adhere to. Or is it the all pervasive Christian values of love, compassion, courage, honesty, work and perseverance so deeply ingrained in our minds, that our subconscious gives us that nice feeling when you carry out any of these acts. Is our conscience nothing better than Pavlov's dog, salivating at the right stimulus just because its been trained to do so.
Or are we indeed connected, by our conscience, to something divine, connected to that fixed point about which everything rotates. Is there such a point. Or are we without a reference at all, moving about in a random manner, lacking any fixed concepts, values or knowledge.
We'll never know.
Aug 22, 2005
Have you ever...
...got that feeling where you are utterly low but don't know why? Me including a few around me suddenly seem to be overcome by this certain emotional disorder.
The only thing that I feel will give me satisfaction is to hear the world tear apart into two. Or to take you hands and bang it very hard on something very delicate and expensive.
Prozac anyone?
The only thing that I feel will give me satisfaction is to hear the world tear apart into two. Or to take you hands and bang it very hard on something very delicate and expensive.
Prozac anyone?
Aug 21, 2005
Nostalgia
One called us "13 itne sahi log", others said we spread 'ism', even more said we acted 'exclusive'.
But it was one long happy journey filled with highs and not too infrequently lows as well, but DFE somehow weathered it all and stood as one unit until the end.
This blog is inspired by Suvro's account of his last few days in Kgp. The strings of nostalgia had been plucked for quite a few days, but reading his blog really brought back memories rushing.
What really moved me was ETMS(Eastern Tech. Music Society)'s Foundation Day production. I was sitting in a corner and as I looked at the other end of the Netaji Auditorium, there was a group of about ten or twelve, dancing away no matter what the song. Be it "Ae hasina zulfo waali" or even " Abhi na jao chod kar", it didn't matter, what mattered was throwing your arms wildly about and making strange expressions. That was so what me and my wingies would have been doing. Let me mention that we are all horrible dancers, all we do is strange gyrations that would perhaps be more suitable somewhere a bit more private. This obviously much to the embarrassment of those around, but then again we never cared about what others thought.
If I think really hard, I seem to recollect that there were a few people I hadn't interacted with much, even in my second year, say Arnav or Jha or Dhingra, these people being from the D block. But my brain refuses to accept that we were anything less intimate than what we are now. How can we forget the times the whole wing stood by each other, then again how can we forget the times we had our spats and arguments.
And what about the fact that for some strange reason we would acquire a new addiction just before the mid sem and end sem exams, NFS, ZUMA, 29, the first two lasting a sem each while the latter,much to my disgust, continued its stronghold for one full year (and more, it continued into convo night as well!!).
Another thing that I'll always miss, whenever I would come back into the hall, as I would walk past C block and come within view of my wing, you could make out the whole wing outside sitting on the bed and railing, everyone talking at the same time, it was like an incessant cacophony that made sense only if you contributed to it. You could make out the people( you couldn't see them because the wing tubelights were always needing replacement), Jha the tallest silhouette, Suvro next to him, with a mop of hair, giggling away at something, Puneet fidgeting wildly, obviously not agreeing to anything that's being said, Buddha jumping wildly in a corner, yes, that meant a girl's name had just been mentioned. Harsh communicating with his now famous hand gestures, and Tripathi's pate reflecting back whatever little light there would be. And the moment they would see me(or anyone who's returning), there would be a grand outflow of expletives, the uninitiated might take offence, but that was the way we showed love and to hell with the uninitiated.
These people have now left DFE and in all probability they'll never be here together again. Never would a sequence of events take place that was possible only when these 13 people got together.
I don't regret the passage of time, I am just admiring all that happened and musing about all that could have happened. This is a lesson for those who believe that all good things don't end. They do. And all you can do is look back, smile and move on.
But it was one long happy journey filled with highs and not too infrequently lows as well, but DFE somehow weathered it all and stood as one unit until the end.
This blog is inspired by Suvro's account of his last few days in Kgp. The strings of nostalgia had been plucked for quite a few days, but reading his blog really brought back memories rushing.
What really moved me was ETMS(Eastern Tech. Music Society)'s Foundation Day production. I was sitting in a corner and as I looked at the other end of the Netaji Auditorium, there was a group of about ten or twelve, dancing away no matter what the song. Be it "Ae hasina zulfo waali" or even " Abhi na jao chod kar", it didn't matter, what mattered was throwing your arms wildly about and making strange expressions. That was so what me and my wingies would have been doing. Let me mention that we are all horrible dancers, all we do is strange gyrations that would perhaps be more suitable somewhere a bit more private. This obviously much to the embarrassment of those around, but then again we never cared about what others thought.
If I think really hard, I seem to recollect that there were a few people I hadn't interacted with much, even in my second year, say Arnav or Jha or Dhingra, these people being from the D block. But my brain refuses to accept that we were anything less intimate than what we are now. How can we forget the times the whole wing stood by each other, then again how can we forget the times we had our spats and arguments.
And what about the fact that for some strange reason we would acquire a new addiction just before the mid sem and end sem exams, NFS, ZUMA, 29, the first two lasting a sem each while the latter,much to my disgust, continued its stronghold for one full year (and more, it continued into convo night as well!!).
Another thing that I'll always miss, whenever I would come back into the hall, as I would walk past C block and come within view of my wing, you could make out the whole wing outside sitting on the bed and railing, everyone talking at the same time, it was like an incessant cacophony that made sense only if you contributed to it. You could make out the people( you couldn't see them because the wing tubelights were always needing replacement), Jha the tallest silhouette, Suvro next to him, with a mop of hair, giggling away at something, Puneet fidgeting wildly, obviously not agreeing to anything that's being said, Buddha jumping wildly in a corner, yes, that meant a girl's name had just been mentioned. Harsh communicating with his now famous hand gestures, and Tripathi's pate reflecting back whatever little light there would be. And the moment they would see me(or anyone who's returning), there would be a grand outflow of expletives, the uninitiated might take offence, but that was the way we showed love and to hell with the uninitiated.
These people have now left DFE and in all probability they'll never be here together again. Never would a sequence of events take place that was possible only when these 13 people got together.
I don't regret the passage of time, I am just admiring all that happened and musing about all that could have happened. This is a lesson for those who believe that all good things don't end. They do. And all you can do is look back, smile and move on.
Aug 11, 2005
Kahani Poori philmi hai
Positions vacant for mining engineers capable of doing that in under 3 months with a team strength of 10 members.
Skills required: Must be good at disguises and have the combined strength to carry 3 tonnes of banknotes.
Place of posting: Brazil
Remunerations: ₤38 million.
details
Kehdo ki yeh jhooth hai....
One in 25 dads 'not the real father'
August 11, 2005
ONE in 25 fathers could unknowingly be raising another man's child, British scientists have said.
Researchers at Liverpool's John Moores University examined the findings of dozens of studies, published over the past 54 years, on cases of paternal discrepancy - where a man is proved not to be the biological father of his child.
More
Somehow I get the feeling that the above figures for India, while not being that high , would still would surprise us all. What say you?
Or would you go ..."Oh no! such things in apna Bharat, never, never."
August 11, 2005
ONE in 25 fathers could unknowingly be raising another man's child, British scientists have said.
Researchers at Liverpool's John Moores University examined the findings of dozens of studies, published over the past 54 years, on cases of paternal discrepancy - where a man is proved not to be the biological father of his child.
More
Somehow I get the feeling that the above figures for India, while not being that high , would still would surprise us all. What say you?
Or would you go ..."Oh no! such things in apna Bharat, never, never."
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