Monday morning; after a weekend of joint-stiffening, overextended sleeping, uncontrolled binging and a good-for-nothing existence I was getting back to the institute, armed and ready to do some research. Of course, I use the term loosely. I entered the gates; my bag felt reassuringly heavy, it had the five research papers my professor had asked me to go through over the last week. It was a sunny day and the smell of wet earth pervaded the campus; after all, the monsoons had arrived the day before. I walked along the tree lined road to my lab, awestruck by the majestic, century old Gulmohur trees, the sheer extent of which seemed to absorb the cacophony of the teeming city which I'd temporarily escaped. Birdsong replaced ear splitting horns and dried leaves crinkled under my feet. Nature still held her own here and the whole atmosphere seemed to clear my mind. It was like swiping your hand across a window fogged by a sudden downpour.
'Department of Physics', the words reminded me of why I was really here and smiling to myself, I entered the imposing building with its ornate wooden door and along the corridoor to my destination. Since I had come early, the hallways were still quiet but I enjoyed even that, a little bit of letting my mind wander and I would be transported to IISc circa 1910, when the structure of DNA was not known. I got to my lab and interrupted in the middle of another reverie, I took my shoes off, it was going to be another day...
____________________________________________________________________
Monday morning; after a heavenly weekend of utterly relaxing, undisturbed sleep, gorging on some fingerlicking good fried chicken (you guessed it) and overfed on the kind of high that only laziness can induce I was getting back to the institute, stressed and bent under the mental load of forced 'research'. I plodded through the gate, my leaden bag threatening to snap my shoulder bones any minute. Blame it on the tomes my professor had handed me under the pretext of background research. The sun showed no mercy and burned down like only the June sun can. But atleast it wasn't as bad as the previous night when the clouds conspired to catch me exposed on the road and drenched me from head to toe. The effects of the waterlogging were still there; it smelled like muck. I continued my sullen trot to the lab, even the old and gnarly Gulmohurs seemed to be sneering at me, shedding their dead appendages where I walked. I had escaped a concrete jungle only to enter a real one, replete with cackling crows and shrieking mynas. The 'sounds of nature' hurt my ears. My mind went into a frenzy of random thoughts. They were like the last thoughts of someone looking out the window of a car, only to see a truck hurtling towards it.
'Department of Physics', the words loomed ominously overhead. "Rubbing it in", the phrase got a whole new meaning in my life and with my anguished mind and broken shoulders, I stepped through the rotting old door and into the deserted corridors. Atleast I did not have to watch as the Ph.D. students ambled around making jokes about Ramachandran plots and Polyalanine models. Becoming like them was becoming the biggest deterrent in my dream (ha!) to get a doctorate degree. Fast-forward to the future; I pictured myself sitting at the desktop jabbing at the keyboard meaninglessly. The blast of cold air from the lab ended the nightmare, thankfully and I took my shoes off, it was going to be another day...
____________________________________________________________________
Don't always believe what you tell yourself. Never believe what others tell you.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
25 Things I Wish To Do Before I Can't Do Them
There are three major reasons for this post. In order of priority, here they are:
1. B would be very, very angry if I do this any later ;)
2. N has been waiting a long time for a new entry.
3. A third entry in a month is a huge personal achievement for me.
What is the purpose of life?
This post is not meant to be philosophical (the complete opposite, in fact). It's just a good introduction to what follows. Unless you're a believer in destiny, I guess most of you will agree with me that we live to dream and then do whatever it takes to fulfil them. Agreed, those 'dreams' are influenced by the opinions of others sometimes and our own shortcomings at other times. But there would be a general consensus that we would be happiest if we just did what we wanted and didn't care a damn about what others would think. And I'll stop right here because whatever I just wrote is best suited for a different entry altogether. The basic idea here is that all of us have the wildest of dreams and so do I... so here I am sharing those with you. So, as they come to mind, here are the *Read the title now*
(There'll be a wide spectrum of things... ranging from piece-of-cake to never-gonna-happen, so just bear with my fantasies and in the meanwhile, do some dreaming of your own. I guarantee it'll make you feel really good!)
1. B would be very, very angry if I do this any later ;)
2. N has been waiting a long time for a new entry.
3. A third entry in a month is a huge personal achievement for me.
What is the purpose of life?
This post is not meant to be philosophical (the complete opposite, in fact). It's just a good introduction to what follows. Unless you're a believer in destiny, I guess most of you will agree with me that we live to dream and then do whatever it takes to fulfil them. Agreed, those 'dreams' are influenced by the opinions of others sometimes and our own shortcomings at other times. But there would be a general consensus that we would be happiest if we just did what we wanted and didn't care a damn about what others would think. And I'll stop right here because whatever I just wrote is best suited for a different entry altogether. The basic idea here is that all of us have the wildest of dreams and so do I... so here I am sharing those with you. So, as they come to mind, here are the *Read the title now*
(There'll be a wide spectrum of things... ranging from piece-of-cake to never-gonna-happen, so just bear with my fantasies and in the meanwhile, do some dreaming of your own. I guarantee it'll make you feel really good!)
- Study at Harvard/MIT/Oxford.
- Be a National Geographic photographer. And since my career choices don't allow that, basically become really good at photography and do looooooooooots of wildlife shoots.
- Visit Alaska and see some live polar bear action.
- Feel the snow fall on my face.
- See the northern lights a.k.a. Aurora Borealis.
- Fly first class. (Beds passed off for seats, 5 course meals, wine lists and I've heard they serve different varieties of cheese after dinner!)
- Become fluent at atleast one foreign language.
- Live in the US for some period of time. That country has fascinated me for as long as I can remember and I have to experience that way of life once.
- Trek through Ladakh and Tibet. Walk along those deep blue, crystal clear, picture perfect lakes under huge azure skies.
- Watch the Soccer and Cricket world cup finals, especially if India is taking part. (In the latter of course! (I'm not that much of a dreamer))
- Complete 100 posts on blogger.
- Watch a bestseller at Broadway.
- A transatlantic cruise on the RMS Queen Mary 2.
- Visit each of India's bird hotspots and spot every one of the 1200+ bird species resident in the country.
- Bungee jumping! Here would be good ;)
- Learn how to eat crab. (I've heard it tastes very good but I've seen just how impossibly hard it is to eat)
- Read all the Tintins, Asterix, Archies and P.G. Wodehouse ever published.
- Swim in the sea. I've been to beaches many times but never had the guts to actually swim in the open sea. And I should add snorkeling with this point only.
- Discover/invent something great to do with genetics and become famous, of course!
- Spend an entire day watching Laurel and Hardy & Tom and Jerry.
- Get on the wrong side of law, just for kicks. And not get caught, of course.
- Watch Aerosmith live.
- Ride a roller coaster with those crazy loops and unbelievable drops.
- Visit the Great Wall of China and the pyramids of Egypt.
- And finally, to do half he things mentioned above, I'll need loads and loads of money!
So that completes my list. And in case you're wondering why I wrote this entry at all, it's because a fellow blogger had 'tagged' me. Which means she wrote a similar entry coz someone else tagged her and then she tagged her friends who had to make this list. So now that I have completed my list, I'd like to give other friends a chance to dream. So I tag:
Nitish, Shivani, Sunali, Abhimanyu (how about starting blogging dude?)
Friday, January 19, 2007
Salsa, Pictionary and Bonds
...is what this post will have to be because I decided I will write a new entry now and then. So here goes... First and foremost, I have to mention that this last week has been the best I ever spent at IITG. And there's plenty of reasons for that.
Considering that the week began on Saturday (I guess I have the liberty to choose that), it was Lohri/Makar Sakranti/Pongal that day and our college was all geared up with plenty of events. So we had kite-flying in the morning and though I didn't fly a single kite because I woke up really late(blame the chilly winter morning for that), it was fun to watch. We followed that up with cricket (and I was the best fielder...yaaaay! (before you take that seriously, please consider sarcasm is among my favorite hobbies)) So anyways, morning and afternoon well-spent, I attended the day's movie screening- Hyderabad Blues; not a great movie but nevertheless, anything to spend your time on the weekend. After this was a bonfire and some serious dancing. And for probably the first time in my life, I was actually dancing like nobody was watching. All my school friends know what a jerk I am at dancing so just take my word for it- I was having a blast! Not that it prevented me from feeling like my body was composed of various body parts stitched together for the next couple of days. I mean, I was actually climbing the stairs like an eighty year old man! So well, as you can guess, the day was a lot of fun but please don't think it stops here. After all this... we decided that another movie was in order so some seven of us made a beeline for a friend's room and watched a two hour long video (no stretch of imagination would allow me to call it a movie) called Jackass 2.
Come Sunday and the day started off as usual with extreme bouts of laziness. I don't know why, but it is absolutely impossible to get out of the blankets on a winter day unless a class is about to begin in the next fifteen minutes. So anyways, somehow or the other day the day was whiled away and then in the evening, I went for my first ever Salsa class. That's right, the salsa bug has bit me too, after so many of my friends in Delhi! It was great fun, except that a certain ratio was a bit skewed. (Man I'm good at euphemism!). But yeah, I picked up a couple of steps.
The rest of the week was spent doing other, random, stuff which included pictionary in class. Yeah, it is possible to play pictionary without the standard set of board and playing pegs. All you need is four people and you can start off in the way of dumb-charades. And when words include rectum, pimp, gynaecologist, among more decent (but nerve wracking) ones like Ivy League, transit, clueless, whitewash etc., then I don't need to explain what a perfect pastime this is.
Classes had started off as usual, but for a change this didn't seem to matter so much because my body has started accepting the senate hall chairs as an extension of bed. This also makes waking up in the morning a wee bit easier. But some classes are so interesting that I don't like to sleep in them. Sample this (BT101):
"The neighbouring nucleosides in RNA are joined together by (?)...together baaay (?)........JOINED TOGETHER BY???"
That was the prof speaking, by the way, and everyone was flummoxed because they expected something big... phosphodiester linkage at the very least. Which would explain the absence of any answer from the class (apart from the fact that half was busy dreaming). Anyway, here's the epilogue:
"Come on students...they are joined together by bonds."
Thanks a lot ma'am...we so didn't know that.
Considering that the week began on Saturday (I guess I have the liberty to choose that), it was Lohri/Makar Sakranti/Pongal that day and our college was all geared up with plenty of events. So we had kite-flying in the morning and though I didn't fly a single kite because I woke up really late(blame the chilly winter morning for that), it was fun to watch. We followed that up with cricket (and I was the best fielder...yaaaay! (before you take that seriously, please consider sarcasm is among my favorite hobbies)) So anyways, morning and afternoon well-spent, I attended the day's movie screening- Hyderabad Blues; not a great movie but nevertheless, anything to spend your time on the weekend. After this was a bonfire and some serious dancing. And for probably the first time in my life, I was actually dancing like nobody was watching. All my school friends know what a jerk I am at dancing so just take my word for it- I was having a blast! Not that it prevented me from feeling like my body was composed of various body parts stitched together for the next couple of days. I mean, I was actually climbing the stairs like an eighty year old man! So well, as you can guess, the day was a lot of fun but please don't think it stops here. After all this... we decided that another movie was in order so some seven of us made a beeline for a friend's room and watched a two hour long video (no stretch of imagination would allow me to call it a movie) called Jackass 2.
Come Sunday and the day started off as usual with extreme bouts of laziness. I don't know why, but it is absolutely impossible to get out of the blankets on a winter day unless a class is about to begin in the next fifteen minutes. So anyways, somehow or the other day the day was whiled away and then in the evening, I went for my first ever Salsa class. That's right, the salsa bug has bit me too, after so many of my friends in Delhi! It was great fun, except that a certain ratio was a bit skewed. (Man I'm good at euphemism!). But yeah, I picked up a couple of steps.
The rest of the week was spent doing other, random, stuff which included pictionary in class. Yeah, it is possible to play pictionary without the standard set of board and playing pegs. All you need is four people and you can start off in the way of dumb-charades. And when words include rectum, pimp, gynaecologist, among more decent (but nerve wracking) ones like Ivy League, transit, clueless, whitewash etc., then I don't need to explain what a perfect pastime this is.
Classes had started off as usual, but for a change this didn't seem to matter so much because my body has started accepting the senate hall chairs as an extension of bed. This also makes waking up in the morning a wee bit easier. But some classes are so interesting that I don't like to sleep in them. Sample this (BT101):
"The neighbouring nucleosides in RNA are joined together by (?)...together baaay (?)........JOINED TOGETHER BY???"
That was the prof speaking, by the way, and everyone was flummoxed because they expected something big... phosphodiester linkage at the very least. Which would explain the absence of any answer from the class (apart from the fact that half was busy dreaming). Anyway, here's the epilogue:
"Come on students...they are joined together by bonds."
Thanks a lot ma'am...we so didn't know that.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
I Am Not Dead
That, of course, was my blog speaking. Back to myself... to all those fans out there who've been waiting with bated breaths for this entry (I do allow myself a few bits of immodesty here and there, don't take it seriously :) so, I was saying that I would like to apologise for the delay and regret the inconvenience caused. (Yes, I've been spending a lot of time at airports lately) OK, I feel pretty disgusted myself that I ignored this blog so long. I had created it with a lot of enthusiasm so it's kind of surprising I only managed 3 entries in nearly two months. But now that I'm back with renewed vigour and fresh enthusiasm, I promise to give you guys new material more frequently...pakka!
In case some of you noticed that this first paragraph was too full of cliches.. don't worry. I haven't lost it or anything, it's just that when you're being genuinely sincere; it's best to keep it simple. So, hopefully I will manage to do what I just promised you five sentences ago.
The reintroduction is over and let me tell you what's been up with me lately. Right now I don't have any fun incidents to narrate so this will random. To begin with, my second semester is already into its second week and everything that's happened (mainly academically) till now makes me wonder with extremely strong emotions - WHY THE HELL WAS I SO HAPPY WHEN SEM 1 FINISHED??? Had I no idea what was going to come next? I thought I had bad teachers then, couldn't I see the labworthy specimens who were waiting for me this side of the winter break? But introspection is no use now and I must prepare myself mentally as well as physically (no, you're not reading The Awakening of Youth) for what lies ahead. And if Semester 2 were to come bundled in a box, it would probably have stuff like this written on it:
***FREE!!! FREE 40% upgrade on the amount of sleep guaranteed during the lectures!!!***
***EXTREME DHAMAKA!!! All professors now prefitted with DRONE GENERATORS in their voiceboxes… TWO WORDS and you’ll SLEEP LIKE A BABY!!! Dream on!!!***
***TRUST US… Each and every one of these instructors has been CAREFULLY SELECTED to ensure that NO MORE than 1% of the words spoken by them will be pronounced correctly!!!***
***MASTI OFFER… If despite our best efforts, you STAY AWAKE during the course of a lecture, you’ll be PLEASED to discover that they know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about their field!!***
GUARANTEE. If for any reason you are dissatisfied with any of the professors and happen to follow an entire hour of ANY lecture, we PROMISE that he/she will be PROMPTLY REPLACED.
So that’s what an IITG Semester2 Package would look like, in my opinion. And I’m not saying this without reason… like I said before, we have some real specimens of teachers to teach us this time. Sample this, “So if I put a chwis here..." Now through what stretch of imagination are we supposed to understand that he meant switch? You must be smiling (if you aren't, get yourself checked into a mental health facility) but this is what we need to face... And then there's the Computer Science professor. I feel sorry for him; actually he suffers from a very serious disorder wherein your eyelids remain permanently in shutdown mode (Believe me, he teaches with his eyes closed). And another associated complication of his affliction is that after every two sentences, he is forced to pause as if he's just told his wife that he has a child from another woman... And we're not supposed to go to sleep? And that 'guarantee' thing... apparently its true. We had this one good Biology instructor who could actually teach and today, his 'replacement' was there...I don't even want to go into descriptions. We've had enough for one entry!
But anyway, the purpose of this entry was mostly fun. It's not like I have any great expectations from the faculty. It's fairly common knowledge that most of the effort has got to be from your side. The teachers need to do one thing- tell us the syllabus. Just leave the rest to us!
OK.. I'm kind of having a mental block right now and can't think of anything else to write. So that's all for now.. Go ahead, comment!
In case some of you noticed that this first paragraph was too full of cliches.. don't worry. I haven't lost it or anything, it's just that when you're being genuinely sincere; it's best to keep it simple. So, hopefully I will manage to do what I just promised you five sentences ago.
The reintroduction is over and let me tell you what's been up with me lately. Right now I don't have any fun incidents to narrate so this will random. To begin with, my second semester is already into its second week and everything that's happened (mainly academically) till now makes me wonder with extremely strong emotions - WHY THE HELL WAS I SO HAPPY WHEN SEM 1 FINISHED??? Had I no idea what was going to come next? I thought I had bad teachers then, couldn't I see the labworthy specimens who were waiting for me this side of the winter break? But introspection is no use now and I must prepare myself mentally as well as physically (no, you're not reading The Awakening of Youth) for what lies ahead. And if Semester 2 were to come bundled in a box, it would probably have stuff like this written on it:
***FREE!!! FREE 40% upgrade on the amount of sleep guaranteed during the lectures!!!***
***EXTREME DHAMAKA!!! All professors now prefitted with DRONE GENERATORS in their voiceboxes… TWO WORDS and you’ll SLEEP LIKE A BABY!!! Dream on!!!***
***TRUST US… Each and every one of these instructors has been CAREFULLY SELECTED to ensure that NO MORE than 1% of the words spoken by them will be pronounced correctly!!!***
***MASTI OFFER… If despite our best efforts, you STAY AWAKE during the course of a lecture, you’ll be PLEASED to discover that they know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about their field!!***
GUARANTEE. If for any reason you are dissatisfied with any of the professors and happen to follow an entire hour of ANY lecture, we PROMISE that he/she will be PROMPTLY REPLACED.
So that’s what an IITG Semester2 Package would look like, in my opinion. And I’m not saying this without reason… like I said before, we have some real specimens of teachers to teach us this time. Sample this, “So if I put a chwis here..." Now through what stretch of imagination are we supposed to understand that he meant switch? You must be smiling (if you aren't, get yourself checked into a mental health facility) but this is what we need to face... And then there's the Computer Science professor. I feel sorry for him; actually he suffers from a very serious disorder wherein your eyelids remain permanently in shutdown mode (Believe me, he teaches with his eyes closed). And another associated complication of his affliction is that after every two sentences, he is forced to pause as if he's just told his wife that he has a child from another woman... And we're not supposed to go to sleep? And that 'guarantee' thing... apparently its true. We had this one good Biology instructor who could actually teach and today, his 'replacement' was there...I don't even want to go into descriptions. We've had enough for one entry!
But anyway, the purpose of this entry was mostly fun. It's not like I have any great expectations from the faculty. It's fairly common knowledge that most of the effort has got to be from your side. The teachers need to do one thing- tell us the syllabus. Just leave the rest to us!
OK.. I'm kind of having a mental block right now and can't think of anything else to write. So that's all for now.. Go ahead, comment!
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
New Age Trickery
*WARNING- This post is longish, so read when you have enough time on you!*
So..I'm back again, this time from Vaishno Devi. And though it was spiritually a very satisfying trip, the arduous up down journey of 12 km each way (yes, I travelled on foot the whole time) has made me aware of at least 50 new muscles in my legs that I never before new existed! Of course, my favorite activity these days is sitting in one place so I tend to forget the pain but come on, everyone needs to get up and then sit down again once in a while, right?
Ever since I came back, I'd been thinking of what to write in my next post. Yesterday, I got down to it and actually wrote a piece about the whole journey but it turned out to be so boring that I went to sleep while rereading it. So of course, couldn't let you guys read it. I wouldn't want the energetic youth of our country to waste their time sleeping at their desktops. But, then something so outrageously funny happened today that all my worries about the material for my next post vanished. So here goes...
I was out with friends (N and G) today at PVR Saket, to have lunch. Then, after having lunch I guess we thought we hadn't socialised enough so decided to catch whatever movie was on that time. Not a bad decision, because we watched an excellent movie (The Guardian)... even though the ending was extremely predictable (yes it was, N), the overall feel of the movie is good. In case you're wondering what's outrageously funny about that, I must mention I have a habit of digressing. Back to the incident... Most Delhiites reading this would aware that the Saket complex is notorious for beggars. I mean, I wish I had a buck for every time those little suckers have gone around clutching my jeans with their dirty hands. But anyways, today we witnessed a sudden transformation in the technique and, wonder of wonders, language used by them! Yes, don't bother your brains too much... I'm talking about a beggar asking for money in English.
There we were, the three of us deciding what to watch when out of nowhere, this middle aged lady (for those who know, she looked like Chanda with her hair tied back) comes up to us. She was obviously a beggar and habitually we just looked away waiting for her to start the regular bhookhi ko khaane ke liye kuch de de drama. OK, her opening sentence wasn't in English but it was definitely out of the ordinary, she says, "kya aap apni behen ke khane ke liye kuch de sakte hain?". We ignored her and didn't even look at her but enter her second line, "Please spare something, I haven't had anything since morning and am extremely hungry" and there we were staring at her like statues!! And all this was in a perfect accent, probably better than what many of you might hear in college. I almost said "Are you kidding me?" But things don't stop here... "You know I've got a fractured leg but still main ragad rahi aur logon se paisa maang rahi hoon." And after this much, my friend N is suitably impressed to hand her 10 bucks. And I have to mention that at that moment, N had only 20 bucks on him. Have you ever heard of anyone handing out half their wealth to a beggar! Beggar aunty is also suitably impressed with N and then she turns to me, "Come on beta, you also pool in something... mujhe roti khaani hai". I tell her that 10 bucks is more than enough to satisfy her appetite, but the hag had the nerve to tell me that it wasn't and remind me that her leg was broken. But I didn't give in and ignored beggar aunty long enough for her to go and amaze the effing blazes out of another couple with her perfect English. So we just stood there another couple of minutes and I lectured N on how this stupid attitude of his and not being able to say no would land him in big shit later in life. I rarely lecture, but this was a huge opportunity and I wasn't gonna miss it. That was the end of the matter.
But wait, enter scene 2. There we were again, this time having settled upon the movie when we see you-know-who ACTUALLY standing in line for a ticket, buying a ticket and then entering the hall with that ticket. And the three of us watched this entire sequence of events fixed to the ground and eyes wide open as if the pope himself had just walked by with Mallika Sherawat and Rakhi Sawant in his arms (and to make things even more unbelievable, make that MS and RS wearing full length saris). When we finally did manage to come out of that dazed state, you wont believe how we laughed at N. The fool had actually given ten bucks to that con woman so that she could buy a ticket and treat herself to a movie at pvr... The irony of it all! But in all fairness to N, the woman was attired like a beggar and it beats me how the security let her in.
Unfortunately, we didn't see her inside because N had full plans of making sure he got his money back. Though God knows how he would have done that... she'd probably have a dozen other excuses up her sleeve and all in English so N would have given in again in my opinion.
So any future Saket moviegoers.. you know who to look out for!
Footnotes:
1. I am not kidding.
2. We were not high on alcohol when these events occurred.
So..I'm back again, this time from Vaishno Devi. And though it was spiritually a very satisfying trip, the arduous up down journey of 12 km each way (yes, I travelled on foot the whole time) has made me aware of at least 50 new muscles in my legs that I never before new existed! Of course, my favorite activity these days is sitting in one place so I tend to forget the pain but come on, everyone needs to get up and then sit down again once in a while, right?
Ever since I came back, I'd been thinking of what to write in my next post. Yesterday, I got down to it and actually wrote a piece about the whole journey but it turned out to be so boring that I went to sleep while rereading it. So of course, couldn't let you guys read it. I wouldn't want the energetic youth of our country to waste their time sleeping at their desktops. But, then something so outrageously funny happened today that all my worries about the material for my next post vanished. So here goes...
I was out with friends (N and G) today at PVR Saket, to have lunch. Then, after having lunch I guess we thought we hadn't socialised enough so decided to catch whatever movie was on that time. Not a bad decision, because we watched an excellent movie (The Guardian)... even though the ending was extremely predictable (yes it was, N), the overall feel of the movie is good. In case you're wondering what's outrageously funny about that, I must mention I have a habit of digressing. Back to the incident... Most Delhiites reading this would aware that the Saket complex is notorious for beggars. I mean, I wish I had a buck for every time those little suckers have gone around clutching my jeans with their dirty hands. But anyways, today we witnessed a sudden transformation in the technique and, wonder of wonders, language used by them! Yes, don't bother your brains too much... I'm talking about a beggar asking for money in English.
There we were, the three of us deciding what to watch when out of nowhere, this middle aged lady (for those who know, she looked like Chanda with her hair tied back) comes up to us. She was obviously a beggar and habitually we just looked away waiting for her to start the regular bhookhi ko khaane ke liye kuch de de drama. OK, her opening sentence wasn't in English but it was definitely out of the ordinary, she says, "kya aap apni behen ke khane ke liye kuch de sakte hain?". We ignored her and didn't even look at her but enter her second line, "Please spare something, I haven't had anything since morning and am extremely hungry" and there we were staring at her like statues!! And all this was in a perfect accent, probably better than what many of you might hear in college. I almost said "Are you kidding me?" But things don't stop here... "You know I've got a fractured leg but still main ragad rahi aur logon se paisa maang rahi hoon." And after this much, my friend N is suitably impressed to hand her 10 bucks. And I have to mention that at that moment, N had only 20 bucks on him. Have you ever heard of anyone handing out half their wealth to a beggar! Beggar aunty is also suitably impressed with N and then she turns to me, "Come on beta, you also pool in something... mujhe roti khaani hai". I tell her that 10 bucks is more than enough to satisfy her appetite, but the hag had the nerve to tell me that it wasn't and remind me that her leg was broken. But I didn't give in and ignored beggar aunty long enough for her to go and amaze the effing blazes out of another couple with her perfect English. So we just stood there another couple of minutes and I lectured N on how this stupid attitude of his and not being able to say no would land him in big shit later in life. I rarely lecture, but this was a huge opportunity and I wasn't gonna miss it. That was the end of the matter.
But wait, enter scene 2. There we were again, this time having settled upon the movie when we see you-know-who ACTUALLY standing in line for a ticket, buying a ticket and then entering the hall with that ticket. And the three of us watched this entire sequence of events fixed to the ground and eyes wide open as if the pope himself had just walked by with Mallika Sherawat and Rakhi Sawant in his arms (and to make things even more unbelievable, make that MS and RS wearing full length saris). When we finally did manage to come out of that dazed state, you wont believe how we laughed at N. The fool had actually given ten bucks to that con woman so that she could buy a ticket and treat herself to a movie at pvr... The irony of it all! But in all fairness to N, the woman was attired like a beggar and it beats me how the security let her in.
Unfortunately, we didn't see her inside because N had full plans of making sure he got his money back. Though God knows how he would have done that... she'd probably have a dozen other excuses up her sleeve and all in English so N would have given in again in my opinion.
So any future Saket moviegoers.. you know who to look out for!
Footnotes:
1. I am not kidding.
2. We were not high on alcohol when these events occurred.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Sweet Home Alaknanda
I'm back! Not that too many people care or anything, but its a great opening line... And to those 5 people who read my blog and commented, thanks! Hopefully, this will continue. Meaning that I'll continue posting and you'll continue commenting... why did I spell that out?
OK, since all the formailities are done and over with, I'll actually give you something of substance. So I've been home for 4 days now and have wasted my time in such a pedestrian manner that if my anatomy had allowed me, I'd have kicked myself in the ass, with the tip of my feet. And this I would have done to tell myself...
"Look here Siddharth (kick) , you're in college now (kick) and that too in Guwahati... It's rarely going to ever get better than a month at home (kick)... absolutely tension free, no acads, no projects, no reports (kick kick kick) ... just you and home and family and friends... come second year, you'll be out interning (kick), ditto third year (kick) and then apping around in your final year (kick)... after that, Masters somewhere else and who knows after that? So get your lousy old self off the bed (kicks till I obey this command) and DO SOMETHING worthwhile !!!!"
But on a more sombre note, I've finally realised that home is no longer home as it used to be... to anyone who doesnt get the meaning of that statement, I'll just ask one question- Have you ever entered your house and actually made an effort to do something special, just because you know you wont be able to do that for another four months?
Did I make my point?
PS- @ Shivani, sorry this post was even less uplifting. But as regards your second request, 15 hrs of sleep a day mean I'm wide awake now!
@ anyone who doesnt know what alaknanda is-- its the name of the locality where I live
OK, since all the formailities are done and over with, I'll actually give you something of substance. So I've been home for 4 days now and have wasted my time in such a pedestrian manner that if my anatomy had allowed me, I'd have kicked myself in the ass, with the tip of my feet. And this I would have done to tell myself...
"Look here Siddharth (kick) , you're in college now (kick) and that too in Guwahati... It's rarely going to ever get better than a month at home (kick)... absolutely tension free, no acads, no projects, no reports (kick kick kick) ... just you and home and family and friends... come second year, you'll be out interning (kick), ditto third year (kick) and then apping around in your final year (kick)... after that, Masters somewhere else and who knows after that? So get your lousy old self off the bed (kicks till I obey this command) and DO SOMETHING worthwhile !!!!"
But on a more sombre note, I've finally realised that home is no longer home as it used to be... to anyone who doesnt get the meaning of that statement, I'll just ask one question- Have you ever entered your house and actually made an effort to do something special, just because you know you wont be able to do that for another four months?
Did I make my point?
PS- @ Shivani, sorry this post was even less uplifting. But as regards your second request, 15 hrs of sleep a day mean I'm wide awake now!
@ anyone who doesnt know what alaknanda is-- its the name of the locality where I live
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Birth of a Blog
Hello there all of you!
So today is the day (yet) another person starts to write (yet) another blog. Just another drop in the ocean? Probably, but this one is long due... I and a great friend of mine had promised to start writing blogs after we got out of school. So while she kept her part of the 'pact' and is now something of a pro at blogging, here I am starting one more than half a year later than I should have. But, better late than never. So here goes...
OK, first of all, you're obviously wondering why I call my blog Highway Star... no, I am neither a car freak nor a Deep Purple addict. Its just that its 4 in the morning right now (more about why I'm starting blogs at this unearthly hour) and I actually spent 20 minutes trying to think of a good title. So, anyways, nothing occured and since Highway Star was playing, I decided on it. Promise to change the title as soon as I can think of something cooler. By the way, in case you havent heard the song, go ahead and do, it has an awesome guitar and keyboard solo!
Now, today is a very special day. Because I have completed my first semester of college!! Just cant believe it because during the first couple of days in the hostel, I was so upset about having left home, I actually called my dad up and said I was coming back home no matter what happened and that IIT and an engineering degree could go to hell for all the goddamn universe... I was not going to live in this ****hole (thats what I'd have said if my dad was a teenager, but believe me, the essence was the same). So anyways, its really hard to believe I survived these four months. But I did, and learnt one of those things which everyone eventually learns.. 'you will adjust no matter what'. It could take a day, a week or a month but you WILL adjust and begin to enjoy it. And since I've told you this much, might as well let out another secret... its been bothering me for some time now- I'm not very excited about going back home.. somewhere deep in my mind, there's this constant feeling of just how outrageously fun the last 2 months have been and how I was enjoying myself so much. But, I guess its just the stupid way an acutely sleep deprived mind thinks ;) I havent slept (no kidding) in the last 24 hrs and slept only a couple of hours the day before that. And before I'm called an insomniac, let me say that I had my finals so sleep was the last thing on my mind.
So now that exams are finally done, I'm getting back to good ol' Delhi.. man, writing about it suddenly brought back the excitement! OK guys, ignore whatever was above! And since I have to leave at 5 in the morning, I thought the whatever (master? angel? giver? take your pick) of sleep could take another day off and then work extra time when I'm at home ;) So I spent most of today packing up my room (for some reason, the hostel authorities would like us to empty the rooms before we leave) prior to which I spent 2 hours looking for a carton in which I could dump all my stuff. But now I'm all done and the room is the way I first got it except for a laptop and the person in front of it.
I think thats enough blogging for the night.. I'll write again from Delhi now!
So today is the day (yet) another person starts to write (yet) another blog. Just another drop in the ocean? Probably, but this one is long due... I and a great friend of mine had promised to start writing blogs after we got out of school. So while she kept her part of the 'pact' and is now something of a pro at blogging, here I am starting one more than half a year later than I should have. But, better late than never. So here goes...
OK, first of all, you're obviously wondering why I call my blog Highway Star... no, I am neither a car freak nor a Deep Purple addict. Its just that its 4 in the morning right now (more about why I'm starting blogs at this unearthly hour) and I actually spent 20 minutes trying to think of a good title. So, anyways, nothing occured and since Highway Star was playing, I decided on it. Promise to change the title as soon as I can think of something cooler. By the way, in case you havent heard the song, go ahead and do, it has an awesome guitar and keyboard solo!
Now, today is a very special day. Because I have completed my first semester of college!! Just cant believe it because during the first couple of days in the hostel, I was so upset about having left home, I actually called my dad up and said I was coming back home no matter what happened and that IIT and an engineering degree could go to hell for all the goddamn universe... I was not going to live in this ****hole (thats what I'd have said if my dad was a teenager, but believe me, the essence was the same). So anyways, its really hard to believe I survived these four months. But I did, and learnt one of those things which everyone eventually learns.. 'you will adjust no matter what'. It could take a day, a week or a month but you WILL adjust and begin to enjoy it. And since I've told you this much, might as well let out another secret... its been bothering me for some time now- I'm not very excited about going back home.. somewhere deep in my mind, there's this constant feeling of just how outrageously fun the last 2 months have been and how I was enjoying myself so much. But, I guess its just the stupid way an acutely sleep deprived mind thinks ;) I havent slept (no kidding) in the last 24 hrs and slept only a couple of hours the day before that. And before I'm called an insomniac, let me say that I had my finals so sleep was the last thing on my mind.
So now that exams are finally done, I'm getting back to good ol' Delhi.. man, writing about it suddenly brought back the excitement! OK guys, ignore whatever was above! And since I have to leave at 5 in the morning, I thought the whatever (master? angel? giver? take your pick) of sleep could take another day off and then work extra time when I'm at home ;) So I spent most of today packing up my room (for some reason, the hostel authorities would like us to empty the rooms before we leave) prior to which I spent 2 hours looking for a carton in which I could dump all my stuff. But now I'm all done and the room is the way I first got it except for a laptop and the person in front of it.
I think thats enough blogging for the night.. I'll write again from Delhi now!
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