Laughter it really is the best medicine

London London Statue !!!

Now i was supposed to make my nursery classmates come out of their awkward stupor. I didn't know what to do so I started laughing, I laughed till my eyes started to water and to my relief one of the kids joined me and I won. Since then laughter became my goto action when i didn't know what to do.

I used to spend a lot of my time after school watching T.V so i was physically weak back then (still am). This  led to a lot of name calling and jeering which still follows me today. I was very disappointed when it started, then i realized since i don't have a choice i might as well enjoy my ride. So have been a complete geek from school, have been teased a lot but i enjoyed every single moment of it. A few months back, I realized that people weren't the only ones who were taking a laugh at my life. A little retrospection led me to see that  my life is more or less a sitcom for celestial beings.

Here are some funny things that i have been through

• I wanted to learn karate and my mom put me to art class. (Explains why i got bullied so much)
• The cable would go off whenever the season finale for any cartoon i watched for months would approach. (Even the second time)
• I hate travelling while my family thinks travelling is synonymous with holidays. (My brother had motion sickness ..connect the dots)
• I have had just one crush and it was at basketball camp as a kid. Even before i could say hi the camp was over and i never saw her again. (Explains why i suck at basketball)
• I spent most of my time slogging for physics and it was my worst subject in boards (Besides hindi ..duh)
• I used to resemble a teacher in my entrance exam coaching center so it was really uncomfortable even to step into class at times 😛 ( People still call me as junior GKR (teacher))
• I added 20 marks to every subject in my12th  preboards and told my parents. Seeing this, they were convinced that i would fail my 12th (Imagine my plight, those were some uncomfortable months :P)
• I was deeply in love with game development and couldn't get the branch of my choice in my coll (T.V addiction) , I tried again after excelling in  first year but alas (FIFA and it didn't open)
• The profs in college  removed all the love i hoped to have towards mechanical engineering. (They made the cool subjects uncool 😛 ) 
• I had the worst permutation of prof and team leader (workaholics) for my major project while i wanted to chill. (This is some past life crap only) 
• MS was my one chance to set my messed up life right (apparently not 😦 )
• In Noida, my colleagues tell me that  there was a guy that looked like me and they chucked him out  (A sinister voice in my head said see the pattern kid)

After that paradigm shift i started to imagine background laughter when tragic things would happen and this would help me focus on the problem at hand and give some solace. I thought back to one of my early nicks for inspiration, I was called as Zandos girlfriend because i wouldn't fight back and I spent a lot of time with Zando. If that made people's life slightly better, I chose to do it with a smile and held no grudges. Extrapolating this to the gods, I used to watch some sitcoms after work and that would help me relax so maybe laughing at me would make their lives better as well. So i decided to  be the protagonist then and laugh with them as much as possible. I hope to make the classics.

The main reason I feel that way is because of compassion. It is  one of the 5 secrets of Kung Fu ( Kungfu panda secrets of the furious five ) and the most powerful Jedi attribute (i read a lot of Star Wars). Compassion can  be understood by thinking that every single entity is you brought up under different circumstances and separated by space time. Basically if a your teacher yells at you, it is because you are capable of yelling put under those circumstances. If people try to cheat you they do it because you would have chosen to do the same put in their shoes. Thinking like this removes most of my negative feelings towards anybody (Except dentists, they are crazy). Apart from a few bumps my life has been Awesome and laughing at those bumps reminds me to control my speed and improves the value of the smooth road that i take for granted.

 "There is no passion, there is serenity" is a part of the jedi code (Its also a part of Buddhas teachings). The root cause for most of the funny incidents above is passion. Classified into passion for arts, cartoons, solitude, companionship, subjects, college, learning, company and home. The universe tried to tell me repeatedly that it is wrong to get carried away with passion but i didn't listen and payed the price. In simple terms if you carry nothing nobody can steal anything from you and according to Murphy's laws the more you like it, the harder it is to protect. When you lose something you are passionate about you feel then pain and use it to hate the world.I chose to live a life in harmony with others (even if i never socialize). Frankly, I was unable to see the thin line that distinguishes passion and craziness. Travelling without passion is like travelling without that heavy golden chainmail which you cherish so much. Which will help your reach your  goals faster and make you more flexible. I believe that it's harder to let go than to hold on to anything so i chose to let go of everything (even the basketball female :P), it was very very hard initially but thinking back i feel it was one of the best decisions i took. i was consumed so much by some that it took months and still have after effects from some of them. The lesser things in your room the easier it is to clean and easier to maintain… similarly with your life. 

Wrapping up what i learnt

1) Sucks to be me 

2) In one universe you are a dentist so don't hate them or anybody else

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3) You can laugh with the gods when they laugh at you  

4) Choose compassion over passion it dosen't weigh you down

     

Regards

Vikram Kamath

My Crystal Onyx

       In my ninth grade I was introduced by a friend as an "average student good at math and computers". I was infuriated then that he called me "average". I spent my childhood watching cartoons so I guess I put myself in the shoes of the seemingly average protagonist who eventually ends up saving the world. 

       Two years later I joined (*forced to join) an entrance exam coaching center and that happened to  fuel that thought. We were told that we were an elite group of students who are being trained to take on the toughest exam in the world. The center took most of my time but I didn't care about it as long as I could allocate enough to watch cartoons everyday (My needs are simple). I loved hanging out with friends and solving tough problems.  During this time I started developing games and i fell in love with programming. 

       There was  a dark phase to this stage where I learnt a very good lesson. Due to by bad performance, I had been pushed to the retention list in the beginning of second year. This was really depressing as I had been clinging to the fact that my life was awesome because I was a part of this coaching center. It seemed like giving up your super powers and continuing living life as peter parker . To make matters worse I had performed horribly in my chemistry paper in college and I was supposed to get my parents in college too (It had never happened before). That whole week was hell, I  played jedi academy (my favorite game) while listening to music and thinking of a solution every evening. The situation seemed very bleak.

       It usually helps to speak to a friend so I went to seek help from a school friend. We were supposed to rendezvous on our school sports day at the pavilion . Sadly he didn't turn up 😦 (I know all this would have been really funny if It weren't happening to me :P). I needed a miracle to pull me out of this one.

       Our school had 6 houses(groups) back then

• Red Richard 
• Orange Oldham
• Blue Butrick
• Turquoise Tousaint 
• Purple Phifer
• White Weston 

       My house (Oldham) won that year to cheer me up a little,  I sat waiting for my brother to come back so I could go back and burn some steam by playing that game. The final event was the alumni talk. The head of the Alumni Association said a small quote  "Boys… Its nice to be important but its more important to be nice". It made me think, I had always  wanted to be important/special more than how nice i was to people. Frankly, I had considered them to be mutually exclusive. Maybe i should consider working towards being nice than dwelling on how special I am. 

        Our school band closes with the "Abide with me". I instinctively stood up and let the melancholy kick in as I knew I had to face the music after this song. As I was looking at the entire ground from the pavilion, there was a thin long cloud on the sky which was tinted red the sky was an odd amalgam of blue, purple and orange (near the sun) and a green balloon stuck to the huge Ashoka trees outside school. Once I noticed the colors, it seemed that the spirits of these houses where there with me and another glimpse at the sky made me feel that the thin red cloud is our school flag (red and blue)  fluttering in the sky.

       I used to watch a series called Pokemon as a kid. The Crystal Onyx is supposed to be a creature made of glass that would show up occasionally and its beauty would inspire any artist. People would go in search of this rare creature for inspiration. As far as i can remember, this event is the closest thing i had to a Crystal Onyx. This  magical moment wouldn't have occurred if it weren't for all the bad things that preceded it. This moment taught me not to give up hope no matter how bleak the situation seems and believe in a little magic.  

       I told my mom it was a a general Parents Teachers meeting at college (white lie), luckily i had aced math so my class(math) teacher convinced my mom that i would do just fine in the boards. About the coaching center, there was a test again for the lower 450 of the 600 at the coaching center  and I hit 6th. So i wasn't kicked out.   From then on i kept my rank below in double digits with the entire group out of paranoia and pretty soon everything was normal. 

       The mistake I made was that I  let myself feel  above average when there is no such distinction. We all are people of varying talents like our fingers on an open palm but seem the same when they converge. Every average person is capable of  above average things which a little inspiration.

To wrap it all up

1) Cheaters never prosper does not apply to coaching centers (damn them!)

2) Chemistry is weird subject

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3) Believing in a little magic is all the motivation you need to see the greener side of life

Have a nice day

The Obstacle

       One evening back in college, I  found myself doing the only physical activity i do .. Swimming!!!. I really enjoy the water, but I am not a very good swimmer. I usually complete a few laps and passively try to improve my speed (apparently not hard enough :P). I barely found people my own pace, either they would zoom past in bursts or move like a motor boat making me eat their dust.   

       One day Neptune shined brightly on me and i was able to find a guy who swam equally as fast as I did. It was unsettling, I would kick and pull as hard as I could splashing water all over the place or I would barely float forward huffing and puffing but the guy would still be right next to me (or left depending on the direction). He would get an advantage near the edges  as i don't like to kick the walls but It would be normalized  by the dividing rope midway as he would pause to lift the it over him while i swam under it. It seemed as though we could never be for certain who was better.

     The 45 min batch was about to end and I was stubborn not to get that extra momentum by kicking the walls just to beat him. I also  realized that i was swimming much slower than how I normally would and I couldn't help  ponder what was wrong today. I wasn't tired nor had I come late. The only difference was Mr X who for some reason was slowing me down.

     One thing I was doing differently was that with every stroke I kept comparing myself with him. Feeling that slight jubilation when I was ahead and a slight adrenalin rush when I was behind. At some point i decided that I  had enough excitement so I chose to ignore him and started swimming by looking forward.  The results were pretty amazing, I zoomed passed him only to realize that I was the one holding myself back. My urge to compete had reduced my speed drastically so I could appear to best him. I had forgotten my main goal, finishing my laps in the limited time we had

Well, I learnt few things that day….

   I need to seek professional help w.r.t my swimming

   Looking forward definetly improves your streamline compared to the dude on the right

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   Can't help me feel that maybe its the same with respect to everything we do, The urge to compete is in our blood so many a times we subconsciously hold our-self back to have some competition and a good way to  come by this is to let go of our minor joys with every battle and focus on the war.

Have a nice day 🙂 

The Correct Answer

         One of the joys of my schooling days was getting evaluated. I enjoyed the excitement that lingered during the post exam period.

•  The elite students eagerly waiting their triumph
• Rivals hoping for a comeback
• The ambitious hoping to climb up the smartness ladder 
• The fear of being punished to spend your evenings in a grumpy old ladys house (A.K.A tuition)

         I loved the atmosphere, it was like getting a present. There were a few bumps though..

         In my seventh grade, my science teacher seemed  biased towards awarding marks to her pet student. All the students could touch 70s at the maximum but the pet would be in  the 90s. My dad assumed that i was lying about this (though my lies usually have aliens in them). It kept happening throughout the year in tests, mid term and exams. The joy of anticipation of getting papers was completely replaced by the dread of the science paper.

         I really hoped my dad would understand, more and more after every exam but alas he did not succumb. I wished for the teacher to change by seeing the children weep and dread when she came with her bundle of papers but  even she never did. I kept asking everybody for a solution but nobody came up with a comprehensive one. 

         One day, when the teacher’s pet was absent, I had a look at his answer paper. His answers were neatly written and  there were no unwanted scratches or scribbles. I also noticed that his answers were to the point and he wrote them in his own words . My answers on the other hand had a lot of scratches, they weren’t neat and seemed like an awkward amalgam of textbook sentences and my own. We both were trying to convey the same thing. I just wanted to get good marks in science so my parents wouldn’t put me to tuition so I had taken my eyes of the goal (learning)

          A close friend of mine always tells me “I cannot change others, I can only change myself”. I was always hoping for the science teacher/dad to change while I suffered and blamed them for not having empathy. Each of us have our own sphere of influence, a group of people whom we can exert our will. It is usually limited but we can grow it if we choose. The teacher’s pet had done it by answering neatly, asking questions in class etc .. gradually he gained  her confidence and she eventually began to view him as a student worthy of good marks. He had grown his sphere of influence to engulf her. He had learnt to view this as a challenge and not as a problem like I had

         Before I conclude I have a question “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”( a quote i found here answeringoliver.com). Most of us answer it like how I did, with a few scratches, scribbles and with an odd combination of text book (experiences) and our own inputs. I feel the answer is supposed to be like how the teachers pet wrote it.. Neat, free flowing and giving an impression that you have understood the textbooks (here what your experiences teach you). I had  a lot of time to prepare for my science paper and Its duration was set but it is not the same for my question. We may be unplugged from the matrix anytime or the Mayans may be right about woeld ending in 2012, so answer well. You won’t get another booklet so make the best of your time 🙂 

         I did mange to improve slightly in the final exam (reached 80 😛 ) but what I truly learnt was that

• Some Teachers are crazy (back then)
• Changing myself will solve most of my problems as I can’t change others (a few years later)
• I have just one life and I need to live it and not breathe it away (Now!)

        Happy New Year , Have a great year ahead

Cutting your Nails

      I had a small proverb in my second grade 

“For want of a nail the shoe was lost.

For want of a shoe the horse was lost.

For want of a horse the rider was lost.

For want of a rider the battle was lost.

For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.”

      The proverb tells us about how minor details can change the fate of a major event and this made me think a little….

      A close friend of mine was leaving for the states and he came to visit me  in a hurry. We spoke briefly and he left. I watched him go standing at my gate and  waited for the melancholy to kick in . He surprised me by stopping the car and raising his hand. A small gesture like that changed that moment completely. What was supposed to be a very sad moment turned it into one of the best goodbyes of my life.  

      A couple of friends had come to Delhi and they squeezed me in their busy schedule. They knew that I had no geographical,social  knowledge of Noida and would need their help even to get to the rendezvous point. There was a huge traffic jam and they were stuck for hours, but they still chose to come. We only got an hour together but the fact that they chose to come in-spite of the odds mentioned above  made it seem priceless

      As per human nature we tend to remember the bad things people do to us more than the good. I have been named “Munday” from my friends translating from Kannda to a scape goat due to the innumerable practical jokes that people played(play) on me. Instead of remembering every prank, I remember all the good moments, the time when they helped me when I was sick, the proxies i got when I overslept etc.. To exemplify this, I fall towards the gestures that need not have been there at some points but people chose them.I am trying to emphasize  that the glass is half full .To enjoy it in greater detail look at all the graduations that are filled. It will make your sip a lot more satisfying.

      “We perceive the world the way we are not the way it is “. Our view of the world is distorted, we see it through a pair of dusty glasses. The dust signifies our stereotypes, shortcomings and experiences. Through  small gestures that people make, we can see what we want to see and in time clear the dust by focusing on them

      I found another perspective to this proverb, it says want everywhere. When I was a kid my dad used to tell me “Whatever you like the most son, you must give it off  to others”. Honestly,  I could not digest that fact until a few years ago. Over the years, I realized this through my various obsessions

      Pokemon Tazos: These are collectibles you get with chips packets. I went berserk and started  buying chips  with/without telling parents, lying to friends (obviously they need not know the shop where you get rare tazos), hustling (Well if some people were ignorant about the rules of the trade, what could I do ?) and  fighting ( when the going gets tough ..) . I guess you get a whole new perspective of me now .. this is what a small  obsession can do to a student with 100% attendance.   

      Android Phone:  I was crazy about buying an awesome Android phone a few months ago… eagerly waiting to get more money,  fantasizing about developing Android apps. I kept constantly looking at every major e-commerce site for promising deals and hoping for discount coupons. Then, during the pinnacle of my finances, I had just enough money needed to buy it and then I thought again.. “Dude , this is your first salary and you want to spend all the dough on yourself ?. Do I actually need the phone ?. Will it make my life better ? “. My parents have slogged(still slogging) most of their lives for me and seeing features like dual camera, Android 2.2 can take all those thoughts away.. It is the same way the nail influences the battle, small things really affect you if you dwell too much on them and I realized that it was not worth it. My dad was right, I understood what he meant all those years ago. This would never stop, phone to a mac-book, mac-book to err…(I cant think beyond this 😛 ). So for the first time I followed my Dads’ advice and got him  an Android tablet. It felt great to do so and i realized that no phone would have given me that kind of pleasure (Galaxy Nexus would give a good competition) 

      These Obsessions are sort of like  the light at the end of a never ending tunnel and few  rays of light in any opening  will seem like the end. When we get there, we see that there is one more opening in the far end.  The only way to escape the darkness is to turn back and learn to let go.

 I would like to sum up by saying that

 

• Ebay is awesome for some great deals on android phones
• If you have Pokemon tazos I am still willing to trade

and yeah ..

Dwelling on small things in the wrong way make you loose sight of what is important to you,  and dwelling in the right way can change the way we perceive things and in time life .

Have a Great Day 🙂 

 

 

 

Food for thought , Why I am a Vegan

As a kid, I was really put out of place when my friends asked me about my diet. As a tradition, I have to wear a sacred thread clearly indicating that I am a Brahmin. As a general norm Brahmins are supposed to be completely vegan. My culture comes from a coastal side so fish is a part of our staple diet. It would take a lot of convincing to make people believe that I am not a rogue who completely discards my religion :).. that wasn’t cool back then . I was introduced to fish,eggs and chicken early and I had made peace with the fact that its just another form of food, like a different variety and I was cool with it.

 

About five years back, I was in a state of unrest mentally concerned about the meaning of life(Aren’t we all). I was concerned that my time on this Earth is limited to a few decades (lifespan wise) and I had no way to extend it. I felt it was not fair, theres no meaning.. we come alone and we go alone and there seems no purpose at all. I was angry, scared and totally confused. To make it worse, I had a small debate with a friend of mine justifying me being a non vegetarian. Though I won that debate, it made me think more about my diet. I did not like the fact that once a month, I used to eat animals which were once very much alive. Thinking more, I realized that the plants, I eat were very much alive before they were served to me. The seeds, the roots were consumed much before they were allowed to grow. How is this fair? What did they do to me?

 

Then, there were germs, microorganisms which I had not considered, just to survive, my body has to make do by killing a hundreds of these germs and it did not matter how many seeds, birdies, fishes I consumed. The death toll would be the same. Now, I faced with a bigger problem, I had to take life upon every breath. I did want to live long but not like this. I had been bullied by a lot by people as a kid but I did not want to hurt them ( not badly …just kidding :P) and now I was killing some random microorganism which had inflicted lesser pain on me. My question for the meaning of life changed from “Why is my span limited” to “Why am I subjected to take lives for no reason” …. If there exists a God , He sees all life as one and the same … He would see zillions of shiny lights out there and some constantly fading , consumed by others and some asking him some pointless desires. He would judge me no different that a serial killer. Of all the number of lifeforms, I have killed, why was I chosen to be the killer and not the victim. What gives me the right to be here and not the germ I just killed? Am I living my life better than any germ would have lived if we swapped places.. A real brain teaser, I should say 😀 …..

 

It was Christmas time that year and my parents had left me and my cousin at home. My younger brother had bought a couple of birds and had left them in our care.. I was watching a Movie (Star Wars : I think). At every interval, I used to check on the birds to see whether they were eating. After the movie, I see that one bird is not moving ……… On a closer glance, its foot had got stuck in the cage and it had died due to the cold I feel. Since, We were looking from above, we could not make out until it was too late. I felt really sad about my negligence and felt a lot of remorse for my actions. Coincidently my cousin got us chicken fried rice that day, It just felt weird that I felt a lot of remorse of those birds but not for these….

 

 

That Night, after hours of pondering, I was able to answer my brain teaser. The reason, I was chosen to live over all other creatures that I had to kill is that, I have to be the best influence I can be among the lot. If I am not now, I have to strive to be with the next breath I take , with time it gets worse, I kill a lot more microorganisms as I grow so I have to keep getting better and better. I pictured my life as a domino, We are placed and we have to fall eventually. My fall signifies my influence on others lives. The question is which direction to I fall?. If I choose the wrong direction, I fall alone (come alone,go alone concept) . On the other hand, if I choose the angle(vision) , direction(goal) and force(enthusiasm) right.. I could trigger a chain reaction and be the best I should be and make up for all the lives that I have taken/will take. We all have a role in this magical realm called earth. We can either trigger a reaction or choose forth to carry the momentum given to us by others and propagate it in the best way we can. A huge number of times, I have felt life is too overwhelming (though my problems are small compared to yours) but I know I am a breath away from my motivation to comeback harder and keep on fighting.

 

The next day, I chose not have non veg food solely because given a choice , I would not have chosen non veg as a part of my food in my early days. Its not that my parents imposed upon me the diet (My moms side is vegetarian) . They were pretty cool with my decision and did not ask a lot of questions (I really appreciate that). Nature is funny, I gradually saw the smell which I found intoxicating turn to repulsive and pungent over the few years. Honestly , I did not tell about this phenomenon to anybody but my mother somehow knew I had gotten repulsive to the smell (very spooky in a nice way) . The hardest to avoid are the delicious foreign chocolates which people get from time to time 😦 . Though, I did have cake in college sometimes (Not always to avoid the awkwardness of me refusing on a birthday party :P) . I never had/have anything against eating non veg or favor a person who is a vegetarian. I don’t consider myself any different from the way I was a few years back. Its great to choose your life and be able to answer as to what keeps you ticking

 

Have a great day 😀

 

Part of My Ego

`Time for the emotionally scarring backstory ` – Heinz Doofenshmirtz ,Phineas and ferb

It was a stormy night in Mysore 18 years ago ..I dont know whether I have improved but, I was a BRAT back then …. I had seen an advertisement on TV that with 5 milky bars you get a toy truck free .. Obviously I fell for it , totally enticed by imagining me playing with it … My dad came back very very tired from work and I started my tantrums …my dad kept his cool for a while by ignoring me and then finally knowing that i wont stop , he went out in the rain and got that truck for me ..we just had a scooter back then and he was fully drenched ..When I got that truck, it didn’t seem like I what I wanted ..I was just enticed by the fact that I had a desire for something .. getting it just purged away and the excitement didn’t last anymore ..(Obviously, I didn’t think so much ..I was 3 …I just played with the toy till it broke)..I used to do that a lot and give a hard time for my parents, I dont know why but I realized now why I freak-out by evil /ghost children when I
can watch paranormal and moderately gory scenes on my series list .After all these years, I have the courage to do the hardest thing, forgive myself Well, I am bigger now and can almost fully resist toys(except beyblades and pokemon tazos) ..I am a very lazy guy, I can barely walk a KM without collapsing.. My dad decided to go to this temple called Shabari Mala a two years back.. I had been pestering him for a laptop and we were supposed to rendezvous at my grandparents house which was near my college and after the trip, I would be going back with a laptop m/ ..Honestly I wasn’t excited about going, I mean ..A temple where miracles happen,..they have movie on it ..Thousands of people go there yearly etc (isn’t that the case with almost every famous temple)..I was told that the journey was tough and my mom even told me to take care of my Dad (i was confused ..its the other way round all the time)

The uniforms of this temple were pretty crazy, we were supposed to wear black and go bare foot ..(I am a neat freak and I hate getting dirty so it was extra hard for me ).. weirdly the barefoot journey started from my native-place ..(we were bending the rules ..you have to walk barefoot and sleep on the floor for a month ) .. Being extra shy, I could not fathom the thought of what people would think seeing me like this, what if somebody from college saw me dressed like this ..I would be ridiculed..what would I answer?..somehow I stayed sane by cursing how unsanitary it was to walk barefoot on the train station, road ( and all the good things that come with it 😦 )..I wasn’t even in a bad mood that, I was going out of my sanctuary( I am an indoors kind of guy) ..As per schedule we reached by train at 3 in the morning and from there it was a 3 hr journey by bus to the top ..We ran and caught seats and I remember , I was sitting next to a fat person ..I don’t have anything a
gainst anybody but it turned was really bad to be sitting next to a heavy guy when the bus winds through the hill , during a wrong turn you find yourself being crushed by the next guy and for me it was horrible, I don’t get sick during bus journeys but it was hell , I was too sleepy to do anything, just as my consciousnesses would drift away to the void, the bus would turn and all the air would be blown away from my lungs Each person is given a necklace of some sort which signifies that you are bound to this austere life .. During that moment of ummm ..euphemism would be getting screwed ..My concentration, went to the necklace .. I was aware of it around my neck and then slowly my entire concentration was on its movement and he occasional blows didn’t seem to bother me ..I don’t know whether it was because the turns got narrower or I was too sleepy or I just dreamt it ..but it was truly magical ..After having a chilly bath, (I am used to swimming in cold water but this was very very cold even for me) ..As a customary we are supposed to take an offering to the Gods , and we are supposed to carry it on our heads throughout the journey(Yes, staring from my grandparents place 🙂 ) ..giving me that extra weird feeling as to what people may think For a lazy guy who roams in slippers all day and stays indoors all the time ..The journey was hard, I could not walk barefooted ..It did not help that there were people chanting as they walked , at some-point even decided this is ridiculous and that weight that kept nagging me as to what pl may think kept voicing in my head and as I walked, I realized it was my ego ..I considered my self bigger than what I was feeling right now, I had started thinking I was too big to do all this….Nothing to do with any of my abilities, qualification or upbringing ..it was just me that chose not to do this ..Then I saw my dad ..The dude is 30 years older than me . and if he clears all his loan in a few years..he would be pretty well to do in life ..If he doesn’t consider it low to do follow these customs, why cant I ? Actually I realized he has more reasons not to do so than me ..That was it ..I just considered it as a trek with my dad and walked along and we made it all the way to the top and guess what ? ..It started raining when we returned ..I didn’t realize it then but I guess it was a payback for what I did to my dad 16 years ago

When I came back , I opened my new laptop and it had the words “Ego” written on the cover what a strange coincidence 🙂 . I am writing this bog post right now from that and am wearing a shirt with Ego written on it..I did a little research and came to know that walking bare foot helps circulation throughout the body and is very healthy. Monotonous chanting really clears a part of the mind that stores temporary thoughts and unprocessed trains to fully clear our mind and give us better focus (Hinduism is not all blind faith 😛 ).. I have been told by people that I have less desires (my mom even complains about it ) considering how I was as a kid, I guess its a result of good parenting and watching Star Wars Movies a lot ..Thank you Dad for being such a good parent and am really sorry I gave you such a hard time as a kid and I even give a hard time sometime now. It was really compassionate for never laying a hand on me till this day though I deserve it Happy Birthday Dad you were and always will be a my superhero. I thought of buying you a greeting card, I guess this will be a little unique . I really hope you like it

A Memorable Train Journey

A long time ago in a city far far away … there was a fest called shastra (actually , it still goes on ). A group from our college decided to go and experiment with their non techincal skills at the annual Technical festival at IIT Madras. I dont know what came over me but even I decided to go to CHENNAI …

I really describe myself as “More of an indoors kind of of guy” , “Stay at home son” so it was/is a BIG thing for me.( I cant believe I am in Noida 😛 away from home) . Anyways , I got into the train and I kind of dozed off while going . When I woke up , the passengers by were speaking to me in a another touge and reading books from some cryptic languge (Yes I was in Tamil Nadu …they really LOVE their culture #respect) .. Luckily a friend of mine found me on the train and saved me from getting lost and I was with my NITK herd in foreign land .. I stuck with my herd the entire time and made it through my stay and really enjoyed my visit After a few days of basking the place with my presence, I decided it was time to move to greater heights in the deccan plateau( Ok … I was home sick ) ., So me and my friends Sangy and NK decided to hitch hike the local train on a sunday morning to leave to bangaore and stay a day before we leave to college. The general idea ws that the morning train (at 7:15am ) has a lot of free seats and we can easily get seats ( I didnt have a ticket also).

The plan was to get up at 4 .( it was ) ..we got up at 4:45 because the power went out ..we woke and rushed to the bathrooms , I come back from my cold water bath and Sangy calls me up saying that he has lost his ring worth 6k I look around faiiling to find it and I wake up shetty and tell him to keep a lookout for a Gold ring and rush to checkout of the place ..The kids at the hospi desks were too sleepy ( who in the right mind would check out at 5) .. the hospi kid took me all the way to third floor with my mattress to tick a slip that was there in his hand..(I have done crazier things when I was sleepy) .. Then went to the bus stop . Speaking to a nearby guard we came to know that the bus was due at 6:00 ..we had about 15 mins and we came across some deer straying away towards the hostel blocks after a little laughs of me running away from the deer, we were joined by a duo set of to Andra Pradesh . At 6:00 when the bus did not come , the duo left and it looked very bleak for us. Then thanks to some quick thinking we decided to go to another bus stop at 6:10 ..we paused a little to admire the black buck that we spotted on the way and to our luck we reached just in time to catch the bus at the next station and we boarded the bus to reach the gates of IIT Chennai at 6:25 . phew … The local train was supposedly at 6:20 and 6:40 so we waited at the station for about 10 mins to see train rush past us without stopping.. a local told us that it was the 6:20 train delayed ( it takes 20 mins to reach the main station so if the train comes at 7:00 and we reach at 7:20, we will miss the train to bangalore scheduled to leave at 7:15) ..God must have sympathized with our our tension and the train came at 6:50 ..we reached the main station at 7:10 ..and thanks to murphhys laws I was stuck in a queue for the ticket ..gradually my turn came and to add to our tension the dude at the counter starts to count his tickets ( I dont know what its about me 😛 …ppl just ignore me when I go to buy/engage in a conversation ).. after a few WTFs ..the guy gives me the ticket and NK starts running .. thinking that the train is about to leave and I follow sangy in the funny way I run( I have been told) .. Due to my clumsiness my ticket flies away and the woman sweeping it , sweeps it off a few meters from where it landed ..after a few funny postures of skidding and jostling, I somehow catch up with the guys and we are in a crammed compartement next to a toilet .. we decided we deserve better and shifted compartments just in time and the train leaves.. As we organized for our six hour stand, we saw that my ticket was printed at 7:14 for the 7:15 train 🙂 .. Somehow we made it through , we got a seat which we satin tuens…Standing in bangalore buses had given me a lot of exposure to this and I didn’t have a problem at all m/ .. I reached home and put all my clothes into the washing machine and by a very rare coincidence a cousin of mine was there at home and she said I dropped something on the floor and gave me ring and after giving her the puzzled look and a few seconds of thinking I realized it was Sangys ring and I called him .immediately .He was like, I just told my paren
ts that I lost the ring This was one of the few times I left my college 😛 . I had a lot of fun and it was a hell of an experience. It was 3 years back and I hope I have described the events properly.. One thing I realize, now is that there were thousands of things that we could have done differently and not panicked.. when it seemed like the only way, i can think of ten different ways of getting things done. The situation did not require that much tension from me .. I guess every situation I am in now is the same ( I need not take as much tension as I am taking now ) . I am a lot wiser( compared to how I was 3 years back) but I don’t think I have as much fun as I had back then.. put into an equivalent scenario, I ‘d probably get more tensed than find solutions ..I guess, I had forgotten to live in the moment. They say every moment is special , recollecting this incident has helped me realize that .. In a strange sense..everything seemed to happen just when it was need and not when we expected it to happen, it was really magical ..makes me wonder whether its the same with life in general, I guess it is Have a Nice Day

Yin Yang Parabola

“A parabola is the intersection of a right circular conical surface and a plane parallel to a generating straight line of that surface”. If you saw cartoon network tonight, they were showing “Ramayan , the Legend of Prince Ram” . I really liked the animation and story-line (much better than most movies they put these days :P). As a kid I spent my weekends watching “Sri Krishna” in the morning with my dad. At that time, I really liked the animations they put fo
r the arrows and loved the war strategies played by both parties. I missed the main point that the whole religion my family follows is based on the virtues preached by that show . Well one minuscule detail I remember is that when God kills bad dudes , they go to heaven….hmmmm…. that cant be right …

So, when the awesomely animated Ravan is killed by Ram he goes to heaven ?? ..but the general rule is that villains go to hell and dont get the girl ( ..from “Megamind”). Ok assuming thats true, then the Good people in Hindu mythology went to heaven (“Pralhad”, “Sudama”) … I am talking about VIP seats btw .. These two are the extreme points of a parabola.. Being extreme gets you places , if you are near the center, you are no where eh?

coming to Yin -Yang now , Yin represents good and Yang represents bad ..the main concept is positive and negative poles are forever balancing each other and each sees the other as negative… didn’t get it? Its like the moon and the ocean ..the moon (white ) keeps circling the ocean(black) perpetually. E.g. Night and day , without which there would be no life ..(well atleast our kind of life). Good and Evil perform an eternal struggle providing the sole means of existence . If you were a wrestling fan, when you were a kid , the show would get interesting if the favorite wrestler lost once in a while and another wrestler equally matching his strength would be there to thrash talk and beat the hell out of him 😛

So, to make it interesting _____(God,Lucifer,Matrix whatever you believe ) has introduced murphys laws or entropy . Strong willed,dedicated and hardworking people (Not ppl like me ) righteously tend to achieve something in their temporary life to influence the world and since things keep going wrong.. There is always a challenge, so the wrung/hurdles keep on coming :P. It is these footsteps that mark the success not reaching a point X .. I was wondering … if there were no evil , there would be no value for good . Would we value life, if there was no death? ,Value summer holidays if there was no school.. Value the TV show, if there were no ads or season breaks? Consider Jack the Ripper —->He was a serial killer who killed whores in London in 1900 ..He brutally murdered women in the streets of London (Kind of like “Red John” from “mentalist”) . didn’t he stop prostitution (OK .. he hindered it) so in a way he did a really good thing for London right? ..Take Osama Bin Laden , lets assume he was the one behind 9/11 attacks .. hasn’t he made our cities much safer, w.r.t to terrorism? isn’t it due to him that the US has geared up against terrorism war. I mean by accepting to Annas proposals the government has claimed that its corrupt, leading to even more anarchy and more questions. I am not saying that I support Jack the Ripper, Osamas cause and disapprove of Annas.. Each deed has its consequences, spurring its negative to bring balance and to bring an impact to this world we need to be at the top of what we do.

Its not a simple Yin-Yang parabola ..its a Paraboloid .. There is no good and bad, there’s smart and stupid, joy and sadness, fast and slow . An attribute and its counter .. the only way we can influenceo this world is to reach up and go all the way to the top from our point now.. when I was a kid( i still am ) in a school chapel , I was told that whatever you do , do it for God. If you are a thief be the best thief in the world, if you are the kindest saint be the kindest of them all ,being in between as I see now is a waste of our precious gift called life . This sums up what i want to say today and from my Bangalore stay for a few months . Hope I have to time to do this in the next phase of my life

A Bugs Life

Two Things that have come to bangalore thanks to the monsoon are cold and the weather..

I observed a few things because of that , Firstly ..I does not help to stay in a white room when its so cold.. I dont remember whether I did it but I wanted to ma

ke a pun w.r.t my living conditions one day when I had forgotten the good night and sweater (I stay in room meant for tenants for free, Thanks to generous parents 😛 ) , then I peeked out of my window once and saw a man sleeping just outside the neighbors door ..Obviously it gets way colder outside , more bugs and the dogs make quite a racket .. Then I started looking at the things that I had .. 1) A room with the color I love 2) Privacy to think 🙂 3) Few Good friends whom I can count on ….
….
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m) Very little $ ..enough to get gifts for my family …
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n) Beter internet speed than college The list really made me really happy , I had every thing that I needed.. I was worried about the little stuff that caused me discomfort and I ignored the Huge list that was gifted to me by __________ (u can fill it up as Matrix, God , Lucifer ..whatever fills the moral part of your homo sapien gene).. It can easily be applied to a lot of things in life ..More like seeing that the glass if full rather than observing that the meniscus is concave and trying to fill that void 😛

Secondly Caterpillars ….BUGS CREEP ME OUT . My Vocabulary gets really creative when my lights go off when I idle in front of the comp (I did that to save energy) . I freak out because there are too many caterpillars in the room .. Its human nature to fear things that we dont understand.. In my case I am deadlocked between killing and touching it (which causes terrible itching 😦 ). The catch about these bugs is that they undergo metamorphosis..The scientific names for these bugs is Lymantria obfuscata (The indian gypsy moth).. The same analogy can be applied to our lives. There are so many ppl in around us that seem ugly, like the caterpillar; all they do is move around eat and grow in their own ugly way and given time, they emerge into beautiful creatures(butterflies,moths) and ppl with cameras worth thousands of rupees take pics of them and upload them on magazines, books posters etc . What I learnt is to not to judge a book by its cover and give room for people to ven
ture out. If we dont change, we dont evolve and if we dont evolve ..we end up like dinosaurs—>in the museum. To change for the better the initial stages need to be worse

These two events have opened up my mind towards looking at things differently. If you have had the patience to read till here , I hope they done the same to you ..if not just remember not to touch those “itch” bugs “Let yourself be open and life will be easier.” ~Buddha