Too Optimistic, You think!?

Two posts in two days, I rock man! Basically, I am jobless, rather I should say, running away from job. So, I better make use of it and engage myself in the holy blogging world…lol.

[How can High Definition Television Advertisements, help the makers achieve what they want to. People watching ordinary TV (me included) cannot feel what HDTV has to offer, even though they show it to us on a big screen in the Ad and people who have HDTV anyway would not want to buy another one.]

Anyway, I was blessed with one more brilliant idea(!) today to which my roommate has paid attention for half a minute. Hence, to make myself heard, I preferred to turn to the blogging world. Now, here’s my idea:

How about we have a Carpool/bike share day, say in the city of Hyderabad for one day.

It’s just a simple idea. Just ask people to consciously make attempts to Carpool or share bike ride to work for one day. It could be a kind of government promoted activity. Spend some amount in advertising it and denote one day every year for this day. Probably, pick the day after the New Year (could be Ugadi, Telugu New Year). Just tell the people the advantage of having one less car on the roads and make them spend that extra minute waiting for their colleague or spend that extra mile to pick their child up rather than having a denoted car/auto for him/her. I definitely know it’s a cool idea much would depend on how it is publicized. Of course, no special reason to pick Hyderabad, I would be more happy to see it happen across all the cities in India.

One day of encouragement could go a long way. Realizing its benefits, people might want to take it up more frequently, Companies could insist more on the issue and probably it could also play a role in influencing the housing decisions of new joiners in the companies. Too optimistic, you think!?

See this also

Comeback Article: From the Northern Hemisphere

Hello Friends, folks and fans!

It took a while for me to get to reality after the overwhelming response to my previous blog. I was busy reading the fan mail. Please don’t look at the ‘dull’ comments section: there were many people who buzzed me on Gtalk to share the views on blog, Of course, I would like them to comment it on the blog so that I find the comments section a bit more exciting! (It is kind of weird to blame my readers for, I strongly know the consequences) Anyway, a lot of good things have happened since the last post and It would be a blatant lie for me to say that I did not have time to blog. (While on this point-of-excuse-for-not-blogging, It seems to be a common phenomenon with most of the bloggers who have started blogging 2-3 years ago when it became really popular.) But definitely, there was a certain time for 2-3 months in the past one year, when blogging seemed to be the last activity I would pursue. And later, I got used to it.

Now, I am in the United States of America. It’s been quite a while, in fact, exactly five months. It’s just been five months and hence it is too early for me to become nostalgic about everything back home although I sometimes imagine what it would have been if I stayed back in India….reading the Hindu paper and drinking the filter Coffee!

Discursive, Adj :

1.	passing aimlessly from one subject to another; digressive; rambling.

2.	proceeding by reasoning or argument rather than intuition.

(Yeah, while on this issue of the Hindu, off late I am reading a lot of criticism about the way the newspaper is showing uncharacteristic favoritism towards communists. Well, I hope that it is not true. All I have access to is, it’s lousy website where news is dumped in a corner with a vague flashing pattern going now and then. Although, With some effort I could get to the editorial section and read about the Russian IT revolution, Praveen swami’s concern for Glaciers melting in J&K, and a typical Nirmal-Sekhar article – More knowledgeable and enjoyable than the junky Google news. Felt reassured and don’t know what the fuss is all about! Clearly evident was the Chinese Obsession, though!)

Pick a sheet of paper, imagine that to be the map of USA and sprinkle some water on it with your finger tips. Carefully, mark all the wet points on the paper, which is where I have at least one cousin. Consequently, all through my childhood, I heard many stories about this country, in fact, so many that I felt that I already knew much of it before actually seeing it.

Fundamentally, Americans are very proud of their society. (This might also be true with few other countries, including France and England.) Before I go any further, it is very crucial to note that in US, social behavior of individuals is not affected by the kind of work that each individual is associated with. Many of us may feel that courtesy would follow currency, but it need not be! Well, anyway, more about US society later.

The hottest topic in US television right now (apart from weather and sports, of course) is the race to President. My views:

Reason number 12 why Clinton should not be the next US president: If she gets elected, and gets re-elected after five years, only two families would have ruled US for 3 decades. Well, who cares what I have to say. I cannot vote even if I wanted to, but still the presidential debates deeply interest me. After all, their tax structures, health care plans and foreign policies are relevant to me.

Well, she almost cried and consequently won the New Hampshire caucus, and probably that’s the comeback which might fetch her the democratic nomination. From the face of it, it appears to me that there is little difference among the policies of all the democratic candidates and that is why the debates have lacked the punch one would have wanted. But, Obama’s take on the policy structure that provides healthcare to all the people looks genuine to me. But again, as I said before, not much difference among all the other candidates. I became a big fan of Obama, he somehow makes me feel that he is the most genuine guy among the lot. I am ill-informed about the GOP candidates but with the little I read about them, Mitt Romney seemed fresh, energetic and sensible.

The whole point is this: How did Bush come through all this? Wasn’t he involved in all these debates before his race or is it just like the same drama back home where the words spoken don’t mean much. Well, I remember reading a spurious article which said that he managed these debates through a secret microphone. Anyway, the economy is staring at a possible Recession, Half of the world hates America, Oil prices are soaring, a grand welcome to the new Mr. President.

“It is easy to be the American President. Just find the army and point an area to shoot.” Homer Simpson

This is one of my best articles... Pointlessly touching all topics and wasting your not-so-valuable time. Yay!

The Smile that was...

To me, blogging never became a habit. Over the past two weeks, this is my third desperate attempt to write something. For various reasons, it never took off. The topic of farewell-iitm-life is kept for the best of the emotional moods and narrating-btp-woes is a wantedly avoided topic where as the deadline of lit-soc creative writing has discouraged me to attempt a rather very interesting limerick about ‘your-major’. This so-called one paragraph threshold has played a major role in eschewing my blog-update. Let’s see how this one goes.

I was always confused at the audience that I would target for my blog. Now that, I would shun my publicity-shyness and paste this link in my Gtalk, I am at least clear about my potential readers. Dear new readers, welcome to the most frequently updated blog in the whole world. I suggest you scroll down and read some of the older didactics because, as of now, I really do not know what I am going to blabber on.

Generally, I resort to blogging, or at least the act of it, when something strikes my heart, good or bad. Something similar happened today(written 10 days back!) and I feel that I can put my experience in a fresh perspective and of course, the world needs it. J

IIT Madras celebrated its 48^th institute day today and by far, it is the best function that I have ever attended in my life in iitm till now, slightly exaggerated, but what the heck,(!)!It is my own perspective… Two people made it a memorable day for me and that’s what I am going to blog on.

There were best alumnus awards and there were institute blues that were awarded to the most successful students of our batch. It was inspiring to hear the entire alumnus speak and a gush of passion ran through the audience when each of the alumni dedicated their awards to their memorable professors at iit Madras. I enjoyed it not knowing that best was yet to come. There was an award for the best young faculty awarded to Dr. Kamakoti of Computer Science department and as soon as he went on to the dais, a small girl sitting beside me jumped to her feet and started shouting “appa, appa”. Her mother was thoroughly enjoying the moment and dint care to stop this little girl from shouting aloud and the vibrant face, innocent smile and admiring looks of the girl, conveyed a strong statement. I am sure she does not know what that award means to her father nor can she remember this evening later in the life. A lucky girl, I should say, for having a role model in her own house! Regular readers of Hindu open page would comprehend this train of thought, lack of role models for Indian youth. Anyway, that is a topic in itself.

Then, there was this decent looking chap, who went on to take an award for best academic record in a particular semester and again, to my left his parents were sitting and they immediately called the little girl and told her with a sense of pride, “that’s my boy.” It was again nice to watch…

I desperately want to get back to blogging. Although this blog is not crap, neither is it pointless. Hope you agree. This is for the records. From now on, blog will be updated every month. Dear readers (Gtalk friends), if you enjoy reading my blog, keep buzzing me till I update it monthly. Thanks.

Is Simplicity a Virtue?

While describing a personality an inevitable characteristic that will creep up is the way he/she handles his/her life. Nowadays, we have started branding people as ‘simple’ with out knowing much about their personal background. Simplicity does not just lie in the way we dress ourselves but it lies in the way how we present ourselves to the world. For example, I would not reckon Gandhiji as simple just because he was wearing a dhoti through out his life. He commands respect and reverence through his belief in a scrupulous, unpretentious and truthful means of life that he successfully demonstrated. Probably, it is irrelevant to bring Gandhiji into the present day scenario of simplicity because Gandhiji had to do what he did. He wouldn’t have been successful in involving masses in the revolution if he himself chose to live in costly houses and roam around in cars.
At this stage, I would like you to know what prompted me to choose this topic. It was an article in Hindu that I read couple of days back in the open page which mentions about the lack of idols for today’s Indian youth. There is a great dearth of personalities in India who stand for a specific virtue. They win beauty contests saying they want to follow Mother Teresa, only to involve themselves in the item numbers of bollywood. They fight among themselves on the issues of holding posts which fetch them profits, when everyone knows that the very post they were elected to by the public has become a relentless source of revenue. Enemies now, friends today, promises for coalition for tomorrow and god alone knows what would happen next.( This is in particular reference to the Tamilnadu politics which makes me feel sick because neither can I distinguish each of the party’s name nor can I associate them with their respective allies.)
Right then, coming back to the topic, (enough of digression and didactism. Of course, you are here to experience it), when I make this point about simplicity, I very well know that I cannot give you any example of a person who looks pompous in his appearance and yet leads a simple life. These two personalities may not go together but it is my strong belief that I will encounter a person who is a perfect blend of both these qualities. To reinforce my point in a much straightforward way, to judge simplicity of a person in modern day’s context, I hardly care about how a person is dressed or how big his house is or how many cars he owns. I am only bothered about his/her personality, their inherent beliefs, their truthfulness and their behavior and it’s relevance to the position that they enjoy in the society. If this piece makes you understand what I intend to convey, kudos to me. If not, I have, once again, successfully and effectively wasted your time, kudos to me.

While you were sleeping

Yes! it is just seven days into the month of February and irrespective of what i scribble here , my Feb Archive is going to survive. Anyway,I always like the first paragraph to deal with the issue of the post and would direct this one to do the same. As i was washing my clothes, the most hated mundane activity in my life which demands nothing more than a pair of hands, a brush and a lot of patience , it suddenly struck to me that i've neglected this area of inhabitance for a while and decided to saunter through it for the sake of my ardent readers. But what do i post about?Saarang.

Trivial trivia:Saarang is the cultural festival of our college and please refrain from concluding that this post is all about the review of how Saarang Rocked this year with enticing professional shows , amusing literary events and flamboyant exhibition of art. Among one of the competetions held during Saarang was the Creative writing contest and this is what i created.

The topic given(around -- 200 words) -- "While you were sleeping… "

While you were sleeping, I traveled far and wide. I slipped into a state of euphoria when long-forgotten memories of the past flashed before my eyes - My nursery teacher, Guileless smile of my childhood friend , my school ,my first crush, my academic triumph, my joys , my sorrows & my life. It was like an odyssey back into the roots of my existence. It reminded me of the times when I used to enjoy the smallest pleasures of life and find unfathomable source of inspiration from self-evaluation.
It is then, that you came into my life and embedded frivolous thoughts of conquering the world. Ever since, We have worked very hard, challenging the boundaries of physical turmoil, suffering from all forms of tensions that life can offer, abstaining ourselves from pursuing happiness but in this process, missing the very essence of life. Even after possessing all the riches of the world, it always seemed to me that we are in need of something that would make our life more complete and more happy. It would be preposterous to ignore such occasional insinuations from one's mind about the displeasure in the moments of triumph. A man is a sculptor of his own destiny and self-conquest is both the beginning and terminating point. Lack of self control triggers avaricious desires and quixotic goals which seem to lead to a path of happiness. This is how you were born and 'I' ceased to exist.
This is the real me. I am glad that I could bring this out while you are asleep. I wonder if I could make 'you' sleep forever.

ME,MASOCHISM AND NARCISSISM

Some sufferings are inevitable, some are enjoyable (!) and many others are accidental. But ever thought of pains that arise out of a systematic planning, flawless execution much to the pleasure of the pain-bearer. If you think I am alluding to the antics of a masochist, this post will disprove that line of thought.

It was ten in the morning. I was alone in there. Of course, ten in the morning is quite early considering that Christmas partying is still hanging in the air around. But then, this is the guileless city of Visakhapatnam where people prefer family to wild partying, where still western style of socializing is not widely popular, or simply, where late night parties are rare. (I have given myself freedom from digressing from current issues by choosing an apt heading for my blog but i will try to provide occasional insinuations to the current topic of purpose).Right then, I was alone in there.( this sentence is cleverly repeated to get the reader back into a speculative mood….oh but now I think I spoiled it again….).All sorts of doubts started sprouting in my mind….Is he credible? Is it bearable? Is it popular?

So, the moment has arrived. I entered the room. It was a big chamber with around eight transparent partitions and a lot of sophisticated equipment. “Certainly, a state-of-art ache inducing facility in Visakhapatnam”. But to my surprise,there were already people inside the Chamber. There was a row of supine bodies, oblivion minds and tense nerves but failed to realise that I would soon join them.

He was really fast. The torch-bearer, glove-wearer, equipment holder seemed to be an acumen of amputation.He was playfully paining my fellow insane brothers and was approching me fast.Five….four…three…two…one….and my share of luck arrived. He examined me and quickly realised the gravity of situation and suggested that there were two kinds of long-term pain inducing strategies that could be adopted. One is an Indian technique which would be less time consuming and also less effective. Another one is an internationally followed version, although costly,the results are known to be more reliable and the pain is sustainable.

Second option seemed more sensible, killing blow first. No sooner that I conveyed my response in affirmative, he was on his job. "The best way to accomplish our mission is by amputating FOUR of your body parts and….” I did not, actually could not, hear the statements that followed because i knew that there is no looking back now and had to acquiesce to his plans. Four of my intricate, inner integral parts have to be sacrificed but all this had to be done for the pious aim of target achievement.. “Do whatever you want, I want results of highest international standards” , I informed him.

“Two in the morning, two in the evening, some finishing work and other tips for pain sustenance- tomorrow”, he chalked out the plan and he showed that he was a stickler of perfection by executing it with immaculate precision of pain causing.Everything went according to the plan, payment requirements fulfilled; he promised that he will take utmost care for the suffering to be prevalent for eight to ten months, provided I visit him monthly once.

Discipline, dedication and devotion is necessary to fulfill any goal. I realized this within ten days of this experience and now in this state of aphasia, I once again pledge that I would continue to abstain from any sensual pleasures like eating pizzas and all and would be professionally puritanical in brushing my teeth twice a day.

Yes!, if you did not guess until now, I was at the dentist and the driving force was narcissistic pleasure than anything else.

link

COUPLE OF OLD ONE'S

There are two reasons for keeping my blog inactive......one obviously is my slackness towards blogging and the other is that i want all my readers to read my first blog.But life has to move on and so should my blog.i will post my two articles which have been published in two magazines of my institute.

( This is a poem written for the" Fourth estate" magazine and therefore many informal and IITM lingo terms are used. please bear with that. Also, this incident has happened truly and happened truly to me during saarang 2004. Bear with this childish poem..........)

A PAGE FROM THE DIARY OF A GUILTY VOLUNTEER…………..

I came to IIT,

In search of beauty

But to my pity,

No one was pretty.

The nature around is a big gain;

The acads here are a real pain.

Frustrated,

I wanted to become a seer,

But in the end became a volunteer.

Yes, saarang is fast approaching,

And I quickly needed coaching

To guide me through the choice of volship,

That will further ensure a coordship.

“Becoming a GA vol is Ghor Aparadh,

Working for ambience

Will lead to ambulance,

Go to hospi coord

And you will be reserving a hospital bed:”

These words as sharp as sword,

Were spoken by the fourth estate coord.

Excited about the grub coupons

I tried to make my pen do gimmicks,

Ended up using hazaar fight,

Unable to withstand seniors might.

Then I realized, to bask in its glory,

Someone needed to be extraordinary.

Disappointed.

Yet I slowly started to “love life”

But the fourth estate saarang special came as a knife—

On its back page was my name,

Giving me undeserved fame.

At last, I was a saarang volunteer

Gaining nothing, loosing everything,

I was a saarang volunteer.

(This article was published in magazine "contour2005" which is a IITM civil depatment magazine.once again bear with the IITM references made.........)

IT’S ALL THE SAME.

Early in the morning I arrived at the main gate of the campus of IIT Madras. I was given a warm welcome by the security personnel holding an instrument which I thought was a computer aided electronic friskometer(!). Within a flash of a second it scanned all my belongings and the following results were displayed on the screen:-

ITEM ---- SEARCH RESULTS

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ---NEGATIVE

ANTHRAX POWDER ---- NEGATIVE

GUNS ‘N’ ROSES ------ NEGATIVE

“Guns and Roses! Would roses ever lead to any chaos? ” was my spontaneous reaction.

The security personnel replied in a casual but CLEAR ENGLISH –

“ Roses are colorful but the thorns are harmful, sir.”

Shocked with his poetic genius, I asked him to guide me to the hostel of My cousin. After feeding in the necessary particulars into the computer, there came the display-

Cross GC and a mile

Hostel’s name is NILE.

And then

Room no; one two three

This info is for free

( This is what happens if the Dean is an ardent fan of poetry. )

Anyway, there is a surprise, not only in literature of it but also in its content.

HOSTEL NILE!

“Yes sir, hostel Nile. You read it correct. We ran out of names of all significant Indian rivers and therefore, had to start picking foreign names.

Slowly absorbing all these poetic shocks, I could reach the hostel Nile, but to my disappointment I found no one there except for this boy.

Myself: where have all the people gone, so early in the morning?

Boy: All of them are in the LIBRARY.

Seeing my stunned face he continued…do you know where library is?

M: yes, of course…, it is somewhere near the Sharavathi hostel, right?

B(slightly irritated):that is not how we describe our library.

He started leading me to the library and while on the way,

B: The library of IIT Madras is the biggest one in Asia consisting of two big palatial buildings each five floors high, constructed in four different phases. The top of the building is at a height of 17 metres above the sea level and the latitude of the building is……………………..went on and on until we reached the destination.

M: ok, but tell me why so early in the morning?

B: The LIBFEST is going on.

M: oh my goodness! Now what’s that about?

B: this is a fiercely competed intra college meet where events like Spot-the-book, hide and seek are unique and stand out for themselves.

WAIT A MINUTE! Am I in our very own IITM? Many pearls have been added to its crown ever since it is established. Growing technological inputs,

Scientific research and many such factors have cemented its position as one of the premier institutes of technology.

But Did IITM really change? When I see a student running around with a floppy diskette desperate to get a print out just few seconds before the dead line of submission, or when I see non-stop burning of candles during the Quiz week in the hostels, the nostalgia of this place would rush into my veins. IT’S ALL THE SAME……... The Lingo of IITM, the intra hostel rivalries, the student body election or whatever, it’s all been the same whether in 1960 or today in 2020.

MY FIRST BLOG

This is my first blog. The feeling that anything i write here is so close to the entire world scares me. I wanted to create a blog from a long time but something pulled me back. Ironically, now when I start doing this i am not in good spirits. How insane is it to sit before a set of emotionless articles interconnected with a bunch of wires and scribble arbitrarily just few hours after knowing that someone who loved you the most has passed away.
I dedicate my first blog to this great lady who definitely deserves much more than this.........
She was born in the month of July in 1918 in a remote village in Andhra pradesh(India).India was in the shackles of Great Britain. British rule proved detrimental to the society depriving the rural children from getting a good formal school education. And it is uncommon to send a girl to near by town for any education. So, the immediate option was to lsend a girl away after performing her marraige.So,At the age of 15 she was married to a man,but he was much older than her. Moreover,He was a widower and had a son. But still she was considered lucky because he was a very respectable and a noble Jamindaar.

Her next phase of life was that of a typical housewife . Look after all the needs of the house and household people and “cook”. Yes, cooking was one relentless activity that used to go on because these words of her husband used to ring in her years”Any person who comes to our house must eat satisfactorily and only then will I eat”.....Days passed by..... Soon she was pregnant and gave birth to a girl .May be it was either the lack of awareness or for the want of a boy ,she became pregnant very frequently giving birth to five girls (one boy was born dead) in a row and finally giving birth to two boys.

The long journey laid ahead.Her roles began to multiply in number. As a step mother, as a mother of children of various ages,as a devoted wife and as an active member in the joint family……...extreme hardwork.Not getting carried away by her husband’s extreme generosity, she started looking into the future and realized the need of the hour is to save something for the better future of her children.Little she knew that this thought of hers would sustain the family. The worse was to come soon. Her step son got married ( to lady X,say) andhe started taking over the burden of the family. Unfortunately, all of a sudden he passed away of tuberculosis (reportedly).This is the time around which India just got its Independence and the Judicial system was not yet well established. This made it easy for the lady X and their parents to wage a legal war and snatch all the property that this family possessed......(obviously through unfair ways). But the worse was yet to come. At the age of 52 ,unable to withstand a sudden financial loss, her husband died of a heart attack just before the marriage of their eldest daughter……..

At the age of 34,just loosing her husband and was without a male support to a family with girls aged 16,14,12,8,7 years and boys 2 years and 6 months old ,only a lady of steel nerves and unparalleled courage can survive. In the years to follow it was hard work coupled withmental strength and great managerial skills she came through the difficult times.Some major setbacks she suffered after that…….

• Just when the eldest daughter became old enough to stand on her feet and earn something for the family, the unexpected happened. She suffered from Cholera and soon died.
• Another major incident which shows the empathizing attitude of this lady is to give away her elder son to another woman (who is a close relative to their family) when the latter pleaded her to give her a support in her old age (and thereby carryon their surname)in the form of a son. Just when eldest son of family was coming good, he was sent away only because she knew the fate of a family without a male support. (Although, after that her son remained as close to his mother as before, till this date)

What happened from those trying times till today is history which can be best narrated only by her. But one incident would stand in my memory for ever.When suggested by someone, about sending her twobys to a village nearby to do some agricultural work and thus add some revenue to the family in the process, she, rather than getting tempted for the short term gain, visualised the long-term damage that would occur to her children’s career. Had she agreed to that offer, may be, I would have been a farmer’s son in a remote village, but certainly not leading a comfortable life as I am now.

Yes, I am one of those lucky grandchildren she has had, in fact, the youngest of all . Today at the age of 87,when she embarked on her holy passage to heaven, She should be proud of all the Diaspora of her family living all across the world .

I dedicate this article to this great lady, MY grandmother, who is the most exemplary lady that I have (/would) ever seen(/see).

May her soul rest in peace………..

PUNCHLINE: Women, I always thought, are more powerful than men.