The Key

Prenote:

The following post has the potential to enervate you in case, you are an impatient person.

There is one thing I like about my cellular device, the text messages. Oh come on! I like anything that inspires me. Not earlier than two days ago, I received an insightful text message forward… and here it is , verbatim.

Who do you think should be a world leader among these three?

Mr. A-He had friendship with bad politicians, consults astrologers, has two wives, a chain smoker, drinks eight to ten times a day.

Mr.B- He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps till noon, used opium in college and drinks whisky every evening.

Mr.C He is a decorated war hero, a vegetarian, doesn’t smoke, drinks an occasional beer and never cheated on his wife.

You would want Mr. C to be the leader

But

Mr.A was Franklin Roosevelt!

Mr.B was Winston Churchill!

And

Mr.C was Adolf Hitler

Strange but true.

Man’s innate hunger for power and influence, domination is insatiable. But the hunger for knowledge may go ephemeral once his plates are filled. Any field of knowledge can be in common terms coined as SCIENCE-the awareness of how the world around us works. To be at the forefront of any field, yes …experience and knowledge are the keys. But there is yet another finer and refined commodity that reigns supreme-Imagination.

Formal Education can preach us how to think straight within the strict borders of a particular body of knowledge.But it is only when the fire of imagination is stoked that inventors are born. Knowledge springs out of stimulated imagination as a mirrored response to one’s craving or desire. Knowledge has boundaries but imagination is boundless. In the vast realm of imagination, you are the king and you are the servant. You Don’t have to play the game by the rules. One can venture into any pursuit being ridiculously creative.

Tomorrow’s technology can subvert today’s. But we can never deny that technology has stemmed from science, which in turn has stemmed from persistent imagination. Roosevelt or Churchill could not rule, if they were imprisoned by their shortcomings. Edison could imagine thousand ways to accomplish the needful, lucky enough to have his eureka moment at last.

At the heart of imagination, resides genius.

If Necessity is the mother of Invention, I would dogmatize Imagination is its great grandmother.

WE, THE SCREENAGERS

I have got to log onto Facebook. Wait! Let me tweet first. No! it’s been one full day since I hit my orkut profile. Oh! Am I busy?

One of the biggest technology addictions has drugged my brain superlatively that I don’t keep track of mortal time anymore….! Why is my life revolving around the computer screen doing nothing but (facebook)ing and Orkutting? Should I call it the era of social networking?

As any social human being would rightly say, Social Networking is a great tool that creates a virtual space for friends. It would help you find your old friends and make new friends. It can also help you chat with friends all across the world. FACEBOOK of all,has enraptured the youth and captivated their minds.

But on the flip side ,when I see some of my friends so involved into their profiles over the mobile phones, right in the middle of the class lecture, it makes me ponder over it freshly again. Facebook has now gained enough fame and attention from the student community also, superseding the lawful books collecting dust on their shelves. Somehow, everybody around me loves to update their status messagesevery minute with something catchy and wait endlessly for reactions. When it becomes obsessively compulsive as such, wherein every soul is uploading photos, and giving instantaneous crazy status updates on competition, it loses it’s lusture. Being hunched over the laptop for hours may look good, but gradually the novelty dwindles. Moreover, despite being networked with pals all day, why do we still struggle with feelings of loneliness? Is it because we don’t have too many REAL friends? Are we so different from our real-selves when in front of the computer screens? We put most of our time and energy into it, and yet, to no avail? Are we prioritizing our online presence more than our real life presence?

I feel it is safe to maintain that minimal distance, even between the closest of relationships ,lest we all know that familiarity breeds contempt. Let us not turn so over-extrovert that we exhibit every phase of our life, every thought and every action. Life wouldn’t be interesting that way. Because even the stars would not have twinkled if they were very near to us!

PS: These words have churned out from the inspiration derived from Asha Choudhary

God's Own Country

I barely managed to convince myself to join the excursion organized by fellow friends to Kerala. That it was the final year of my undergraduate studies and I don’t venture to distant lands often - must harvest this opportunity ,was what appealed the most to me. Travelling and trekking being two of my most cherished passions, something inside me was calling out an ultimatum-not to miss it. So, I acceded.

Our encroachment into kerala began on the rainy evening of 18^th September 2010 on a bus named Asian Travels. We travelled for almost 24 hours to reach our first destination-Munnar. Both the bus and its driver could not contain our excitement , the noise, screams and antakshari sessions. So they did expedite in reaching the destination.

Travelling from the bottom of the hill to the acme, we could feel the temperature dropping slowly as we ascended every feet. We went for a brief walk along the misty roads that night exploiting every opportunity to capture ourselves and the sceneries with our camera lens. The next Morning was a very special morning as it gave me all that I expected from kerala in a single shot. We explored the length and breadth of Munnar in jeeps listening to some Tamil and Malayalam songs ( I could not discern their meaning but it was fun watching my tamil and mallu friends singing aloud ). All the mountains were clad with a blanket of tea plantations. I metamorphasized into a fanatical person when I saw the limpid streams dancing and sliding from the cloud masked mountain tops. After going through all the avid places of Munnar, we ended up telling each other fervidly-“ Macha, I am going to marry a mallu girl and settle off here!” . Ha! What a timely wish!

Munnar holds a very special place for me ,not just because it was a new land , but that was the only place so far where I said to myself-“ I am gonna come here a million more times!”. The tea plantations are so abound there that it made me sit back and think that the whole world drinks tea that grows in Kerala. The whole world breathes the oxygen from Kerala. It’s the kind of a feeling that you get when all the sceneries and wallpapers on your desktop materialize into realness and are calling out for you for a warm stay in their bosom.

The second day we reached “Lake Heaven Island Resorts”( do you catch the name?:)) at Alappi ( Allapuzha) at 12:15 am in the morning. After sleeping for a mere three hours, I went peddling over the waters near the resort, also went boating listening to the Malayalam poems of the boat owner. It was the first picture perfect resort that i ever stayed in.

We all returned after a brief sojourn, each one of us with jocund moods ,depositing some happiness in each other’s memories. I was, for most obvious reasons pleased with myself for at least making a half hearted decision to travel to Kerala, lest I would have missed the best days in close proximity with nature. My physical body is back to Bangalore, but my inner self is still there in Kerala , lingering in the abyss of serenity.

Dear newly weds, heed my words. Nature’s greatest temptations are slumbering in a land called Kerala. If you are googling your brains for honeymoon spots, then choose no other place than Kerala (Munnar,Alappi,Thekady and Wayanad). I promise you won’t regret.

Dear techies going bald over the daily workload, if you care for yourself, take a week’s break and venture into Kerala. Let your lungs drink deeply the fresh air from the lush mountains and let your mind know what peace means.

And my dearest fellow youth , craving for some adventure? Begin “Mission Kerala”. It is nature at its resplendent best!

Railing along Relationships

It is my steadfast resolve now, not to switch on the TV, until late afternoons. Watching regional NEWS channels early in the mornings has become seemingly akin to refraining myself from a good start for the day.

I sat glued to the TV last night watching Red Alert- a show reporting crimes in the city. I declined to sleep, wondering as to where do such shows get enough substance to muster, that they have made it to the list of daily shows on TV. This very (un)fortunate morning, the TV screen exhibited a ghastly frame of a man killed by his own friends, in greed of his money. Furthermore, the daily newspapers are very firmly nurturing a ritual of reporting crimes such as a husband/wife murdering his/her spouse. That apart, romances have spoilt, people are growing perfidious, and marriages are broken. The forts built on friendships this day are collapsing at the stroke of next sunrise.

I now try to delve deep to the very roots anticipating a reason for crime rates that are looming large in the social and personal lives with friends and family. Unequivocally, the answer struck, like it always does when I have my usual dose of tea. Perhaps the answers to the most profound questions are the simplest ones, per se. My sure shot answer is the absence of LOVE. The only virtue that has remained sublime to this day and will remain that way forever is love-the mother of all good virtues. Only we are moving away from it. It is surely the foundation of any happy relationship. As most of us are aware, it would be inane on our parts to mistake love as a righteous property belonging only to those celebrating Valentine’s Day. It is as much a rightful property to those who celebrate Father’s day, Mother’s day, Friendship day and Teachers day (you can add on to the list!). Love has as many editions as the Encyclopedia and as many versions as the World History. Perhaps even more. It is part of every human’s pristine dreams even without his knowledge.

At this point, I confide that I haven’t read the celebrated love stories like that of Romeo and Juliet. So, I am not ware of Shakespearean version of love. Yet, I feel the urge to disclose my understanding and analysis on this virtue- which has moved the world.

Love in any relationship is not just giving. It is judicious withholding as well. It is judicious arguing, struggling, confronting, urging, pushing and pulling in addition to comforting. And it just comes back to you in precise proportions to the amount you give. We all work to achieve and realize our dreams in life, be it material or something higher than that. Any such achievement is empty, if it slips away without your loved ones acknowledging it. A person denied of any form of love, would die an early death, being a loner. Without love, we are just lumps of blood, bones and muscles walking the planet in vain. What say you?

The entire thesis on love is flawed if I do not quote Mr. Scott.M.Peck, one of the famed psychologists. “Love is not the very same as dependency. Dependency may appear to be love because it is a force that causes people to fiercely attach themselves to one another. But in actuality, it is not love. It is a form of antilove. It seeks to receive rather than to give. It works to trap and constrict rather than liberate. Ultimately it destroys rather than build relationships”. How very true!

So, if you ever see people merely depending upon you, help them judiciously out of humanitarian values. But if they use you or misuse you in any form, throw them to the sharks!

Perhaps, there is more to it. Perhaps I have just seen a drop from an entire ocean called love. Albeit, my hands were itching to vent it outJ

PS: If this post has played its part in enlightening you, then I accept cash, cheque and DD as a token of …………………………………………………………..loouuvve!

SMACK THAT!

Prenote:

This post goes out for the South Indian youth , with due respect to their individual taste of music.

Even if you have a bad voice, never mind. Sing your heart out,even if it reminds people of a pregnant goat!

I have a faint remembrance of reading somewhere that music plucks the strings of our heart, and everytime i sing, i prove it right. My taste in music roots back to M.S.Subbalakshmi's renowned Venkatesha Suprabhatam(VS). Now, i am not surprised if anybody comments that i am a shithead for having called VS, my taste of music. I am apathetic to such comments from others. Nevertheless, I cant help it. I grew up with keerthans and devotional carnatic songs being called "music" at home.

Keerthans are the compositions of eminent devotees of lord Vishnu, namely Purandaradasa, Kanakadasa and Vadiraja. Purandaradasa was the first composer to include morals on ordinary daily life in song compositions. For all the enormous influence that he had on carnatic music, musicologists call him "Sangeetha Pitamaha". Based on one of Kanakadasa's compositions, it is interpreted that after he got severely injured in a war, and was miraculously saved, he quit his profession as a warrior and devoted his life on composing music and literature with philosophy explained in common man's language. I feel that their erudition on the Almighty and the life of a common man is astounding because of its simplicity.

In a performance centered world as ours , we do not have time to fraternize with our own brothers or sisters, let alone neighbors and relatives; pray to god, be it even for a few minutes; take a walk in the woods; to really stay connected with our inner-selves. Amidst such a scenario, i do not think music would serve its purpose if it just gave you some adrenaline to dance a few random steps in a disco. There is more to it. Music is attributed to have healing powers. It is gateway from the earth to the heavens.

I have been observant enough to see people avert the carnatic songs , just because such songs are not fashionable. As Indians, we are happier with western artists like Eminem even if we cannot understand half of their songs , when they hit our ears for the first time.

For me, keerthans have given some of my best moments of ecstasy, alleviated my sorrows, apart from inducing devotion towards god. Do try them. It would even give some room to nourish the moribund spirituality within us.

" We are not human beings with spiritual experiences,

We are spiritual beings with human experiences."

-Kahlil Gibran

Does that ring a bell? :)

The Moving Universities

Someone has rightly said" When life f***ks you hard, if you cant withstand it, learn to enjoy it!", though i do not recall the exact words. I would rather regard such statements as excerpts of my personal modern GITA.(Kiran,why are your words almost always syrupy?)

The Management Gurus have always been screaming out "Everybody faces difficulties and challenges in this world. And in trying to overcome such challenges, we emerge out a different person altogether, depending upon the way we think. A pessimist rules out all the growth tendencies and an optimist uses every challenge for his advantage.( I am not sermonising here to anybody, since i consider myself imperfect for that).

I pursued my high school education at Poorna Prajna High School, Sadashivnagar, placed 17 kms away from home.My parents did offer to pay for a school van, but i persuaded them not to; and to this day, i aint know the reason.

In 1997 BMTC was formed as the result of a split of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, in the context of the city's expansion.The Bangalore Transport Service(BTS) became Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation and the colour scheme was changed from red to a blue and white combination.BMTC remains a division of KSRTC. And i had to cross paths with it, ulteriorly multiplying my sorrows.

Expecting a great day ahead, a high school boy named Kiran, enters the city bus every morning to travel to school. Upon reaching his stop, he gets down from the bus to find his tie missing, shirt completely tucked out, hair style messed up and half dead already, cursing his fate. Nevertheless, i am flattered to think that i have been an optimist unconsciously, as i have rambled on this earth from being a child to an adult.

Being the so called " most affordable" means of travel in bangalore, the BMTC buses are most crowded in the peak hours( beginning and closing time of offices, schools and colleges). From a construction worker to a techie, from a primary school kid to a graduate, all depend on these buses. After an year experience of travel in these buses, i helplessly submitted to my fate. I do not know about the rest of the multitude who have tasted this kind of travel, but i have, for some concrete reasons, learnt much from it, as i have from my formal education.

1. The avilability of seats is as rare as the rains in Sahara. For over 90% of my painful, yet enlightening journey in these buses, i have been deprived of a seat.

LESSON1: The early bird gets the seeds.

2. If the person seated gives a slightest jerk or even stretches his arms, a gang of men pounce at his seat thinking that the person is going to vacate his seat.

LESSON2: Always place yourself nearest to your goal( here, a comfotable journey). SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.

3.My first hand experience speaks of such instances, where i have been offered seats on the laps of young ladies when i was a kid.

LESSON3: Childhood has its own gifts. Enjoy all of them, for you may never get it back.

4.Learning how to pay the conductor is an acquired skill, because if you pay him more instead of the correct change, you may be deceived . CONDUCTORS and CONMEN- there are very few nuances between the two.

LESSON4:Managing money is an acquired skill. Do not make yourself gullible.

I sometimes wonder what if i had Harry's Broomstick or Edward's vampire powers to run to places. But isn’t that the difference between fact and fiction?

Muft ka gyaan

How many of you have blamed yourselves, after some frustration or breakdown in life saying" i knew this would happen" ? I have, millions of times.....
The inner voice in us keeps murmuring many times, when we make a wrong choice in life. It appeals to us, not to take unworthy directions. But the tragedy, is that its murmurs fade amidst the rife disturbances in life and we move away from it, without patience. Our attention becomes perennially riveted to the external world. Our negligence to our own self then leads to inner turbulence, deppression, unrest and anger.
Of late, it has dawned upon me, that the least we can do to maintain some peace in life is to listen to our inner voice. It is the voice straight from heart and not from the analytic mind. A faithful friend and a well wisher too.
And after some obedience to your inner voice, you will never be the same.

INCHES

After reading this post:
* if you are a student of an autonomous engineering college, you will be left with no choice but to admit " It is really the small things that make a big difference in life".
* if you are a student of VTU, do let me know how you feel.
If you are neither, simply read on...

The results of my sixth semester exams are two days away and mine heart beat is ticking away, amplifying every next one. My dreams every night, are haunted by ghostly spirits called "inches" mocking at me with "CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!"

To a reader who is absolutely unaware of the grading system in most Autonomous colleges, here are some defining rules-
1. The evaluation scheme is most ridiculously called CIE(Continuous Internal Evaluation) while most of us actually believe, it is (Continuous involvement with Exorcists!)
2. There are two important terms that illlustrate your performance
a.SGP( Semester Grade Point)
b.CGP( Cumulative or Average Grade Point).
3.Your Grade points are decided by 50 marks of CIE +50 marks of SEE( semester end exam).


Every year , come the results day and i see two extremes of human social behaviour.
Number one: This is the one favoured by inches, indicating the person has most likely won the battle. The symptoms are wide beaming eyes and huge graceful smiles. I call this 'peak behaviour'.
Number two: The one betrayed by inches and has a most characteristic "what-the-fuck" look on face. I call this 'peak behaviour' again.

Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting you the most awaited star of our discussion...
" INCH"

INCH= sum total of difference of peak-to-peak behaviours.

An inch takes birth from any of the following crazy,rib-tickling aspects of grading.
1. In a 100 marks paper, a score of 74 is given a B grade and a 75, an A grade. SHIT!
2. An 89 is an A grade and a 90 is given S grade.MORE SHIT!

I am forced to say these are the "cutting edge" differences that really slaughter hopes.

I have no clue absolutely who invented the grading scheme in order to blame him or reprimand him. But then i can only meekly say" It sets our backs on fire sometimes".

Messiah

Sometimes when i get moody in life, i will be my most original self,free from all influences of the material world. It brings me back those memories of some precious moments that have shaped my personality.
When the people who have really understood you to the fullest and inspired you are far from you, already part of the past, there is nothing left, but their footsteps to follow and their memories to cherish.
I now sit warmly on the couch, sipping my favourite self made tea, thinking of those times, feeling every bit comfortable and light on the inside.
The rj on the radio had invited the listeners to send in a kickass definition of life, half an hour ago. And after such chain of thoughts, i was lead into thinking " Life is all about the good memories that you make out of it...the bad ones dont matter at the end of the day.."