MH03-AA-1447

This is one interesting encounter with a rickshaw-waala(henceforth mentioned as RW). It’s long so read at peace, it is long but nice!

Near vikhroli station: Like always no rickshaw agreed for a ride to IITB. It was almost 15 minutes and I was tired of stopping them and seeing their face turn into some weird shape and without even uttering a word keep moving as if I was asking for a free ride. Then from nowhere a rickshaw arrives and he agrees. I was delighted, relaxed and titillated. Moments after settling in, I asked him -

ZM: Aap iit ke andar tak chaloge naa?
RW: IIT??!! (confused) mujhe lagaa yahan vikhroli mein kahin!
ZM: (WTF!)
RW: mera kya. ek aur bhaada mil gaya hai, chal lete hai warna mujhe yeh saamaan kahin pahoochaana tha, lekin ab yahaan rakhna pad raha hai.. khair abhi 8 hee bajey hai, baad mein chala jaaunga
ZM: (normal human courtesy dikhaate hue) arey toh saamaan yahaan peeche rakh do, koi dikkat nahi..
RW: nahi nahi – yeh bahut zaroori hai! koie leke chala gaya toh – maa ke haath ka khaana hai – UP se aaya hai – kandivli jaake laana padaa – Kandivli tak jaana pada 250 types ka bhaada laga aur aate waqt ek ko kam paiso mein vikhroli lete aaya – kya karoon jaana toh tha hee – maa ke haath khaana jo hai – ab jo yahaan milta hai woh wahaan nahi milta and jo wahaan milta hai woh yahaan kabhi nahi mil sakta..!!
ZM: haan itna toh banta hai (Initially, I was like why is he talking to me…I never asked him anything but then the heaviness and sincerity with which he said made a difference. It got me into thinking! Taking a right turn heading towards HN. There I had it, the road was filled with insane numbers, there I was all-alone, amidst the traffic or not?! Somewhere, I knew this journey wont be boring :p
RW: I prefer staying behind a BEST bus in such a traffic – it’s spacious you see :p
ZW: hmmm…
(He said some more things about day-to-day traffic, blah blah..)
(By now, I was sure that this RW was a loquacious guy with an opinion on almost all things around, mostly logical!)

[I had nothing to say or do so casually peeped out and I saw 2 girls 1 boy (:p) seated in the adjacent rick, one of the two was talking on phone and the other two I think was the couple(yes it is not what you are thinking :p). The two started making out mildly :p and I accidentally saw them, not like i wanted to see what was going. It was stupidly weird. Realising I saw them, they started staring at me and hugged each other, still looking at me. I immediately shifted to the other side of the rick and said...]

ZM: yaar yeh rickshaw waaleaate kyun nahi IIT – bhaada toh milta hai traffic hua toh bhi (just to forget what just happened)
RW: Arey mazaa nahi aata yaar chalaane mein–lagta hai galaa ghot ke chala rahey hai, gaadi ki ********* jaati hai — haath dard karne lag jaate hai and stuff (He kept on blabbering).
(Then he said something I will never forget–)
RW: Apne haath hee dekh lo, kitne tight banaye hai -
ZM: kya??
RW: arey apne haath, fir aankh lelo, peecha ka ang lelo, naak, kaan, dimaag – sab tight rehta hai….infact kamar ke neeche ka bhi dekh lo sab tight rehta hai (I was not sure, where he was going and what he wanted to say!!!) Kuch bhi lelo, sab tight banaya hai – bas yeh kamar ke upar ka 6×6 inch ka area loose banaya hai uparwaale ne. Yeh tight karte karte zindagi bitaa dete hai hum. Subah tight karo – shaam ko fir loose and shaam ko tight karo, subah fir loose – chalte rehta hai and ek din hum mar jaate hai wahin jo loose pet leke aaye the wahin leke chale jaate hai baaki sab yahin reh jaata hai!

ZM: (Arrived at the IIT main gate, I said…) “Student”
RW: kya bola aapne?
ZM: “student”
RW: accha “student” bolo toh kisi ko bhi andar aane de dete hai kya?
ZM: haan aisa hee samjho..(mild laughter)
RW: aapko yahaan admission kaise mila? merit list mein aaye honge!
ZM: nahi ek entrance exam hota hai, usme select hoke (and stuff..!)
RW: toh job toh lag hee jaati hogi??
ZM: nahi aaj kal market down hai thoda…(and uttered something disinterestedly)
RW: (Then he saw a girl and suddenly interrupted me) yahaan bhi reservation hota hai?
ZM: nahi nahi, hota hai lekin ladkiyon ke liye nahi hota (kaash hota :p)
RW: aapki shaadi ho gayi kya?
ZM: arey nahi yaar…abhi toh padh raha hoon..abhi kahaan.

I reached Hostel 3 gate. The meter read 50Rs. which was slightly higher than the normal but that was because of the traffic mainly but overall I was glad and refreshed by this discussion. I thought I will definitely blog about this guy.

So I ran back after entering the hostel to maybe ask him his name for the title of this post, but the rick had left and all i could see was MH03-AA-1447. So be it.

yeah :P

We chat online a lot everyday and while doing so we sometimes come across some new words, phrases or analogies we are unaware of(say from a movie you haven’t seen or something like that) etc. We don’t quite know what the other person is trying to convey! But suppose the other person is someone whom you cannot ask for explanation for whatever reasons — self pride and reputation mainly being the reasons — you try to sometimes google or ask some other friend or just try to skip that part. Sometimes the other person(is so smart) actually finds out you have no clue and there you go! Back to square one with less reputation, permanently.

Now here’s a simple way out. Just say – “yeah ” in such cases.

Case 1: Suppose the other person said something which actually meant – “Go, remove your clothes and run naked in your hostel”. As you have no clue as to what the other person just said – you just reply back – yeah Now in this case, definitely he will take it you got it and you are trying to be sarcastic or funny by agreeing to it.

Case 2: Suppose the other person is a girl your are checking out and what she said meant – “Lets make out!” Well now as you are completely dumb and you didn’t get what she meant, you might be losing an opportunity or worse losing her(yeah because she thinks you are dumb) forever. Well, the wise thing to do here is to utter those 6 characters yeah Also depending on the mood of conversation(hope you know what’s going on else gimme her number and you sit back and read my blog) use the correct smiley…Maybe if the discussion going on is not so funny use instead of

It is very crucial here to understand the role smileys play, specially “:P” – it adds a negative effect to yes and you mean both “yes” and “no” at the same time, giving the handle back to the other person who involuntarily makes a choice for you.

PS: Whoever you are, whatever you do, Please don’t try this offline
PS2: Yes, I have used this myself some times.
PS3: Well if you are really curious as to what the other person meant, go ahead be honest, ask what it means and never read my blog again..

Freedom

When someone commits a crime(official one), he is undoubtedly incarcerated. Why imprisonment? I mean there could be “n” number of other things that could be done. But since the ancient times, the Romans, the Greeks, the Hebrews, the Persians, the Egyptians, etc. most civilizations believed in physical involuntary confinement. Over the years, this basic ground idea of punishment hasn’t quite changed except for the rules guiding them.

People discovered it long ago, that freedom is one thing everyone craves for and if that be taken away, there is nothing left but misery. Prison constraints physical movement which will definitely stop many more movements, your thinking will shrink, your outlook will shrink, you will be unaware of too much, etc. There are many ways in which ones freedom is destroyed, prison being the blatant choice(for me).

On the other hand one has to work for fixed hours per day, do regular stuff, cook food, attend lectures, complete excel sheets, etc. What if any of these is against your will? At this very point of time, I would want to get out and go away for a month do things according to my whims and fancies, but I cannot(I would rather some day down the line). Don’t you think this is imprisonment but milder? Well, when there is this person who has the freedom to do what he wants, what if he chooses to do nothing to chooses to disregard freedom?

yahaan ke hum sikander..

the incorrect publicity, the sine wave, the adorable pebble, the return of the king, the good end – beginning of it all, the hoping ant, the fear of something, the obscure tribulation, the day dreamer, the late realization, the confused dissembler, the selfish humans, the city of gold, the deep desire, the closed book, the concerned siblings, the excessive emotions, the lovable rogue, the consecutive loss, the white font group, the hardcore analysis, the anticipated squander, the optimistic investment, the new venture, the truth seeker, the curious need, the reprehensible comprehension, the return to innocence, the lonely wanderer, the thirsty ideas, the logic behind, the fortune teller, the unexpected words, the energy barrier, the accomplished dream, the optimistic pessimist, the marvelous creativity, the winning amateurs, the clean connect, the jealous lover, the stupid misunderstandings, the smiling perfectionist, the avid helper, the sincere past, the fanatic group, the blurred destiny, the speaking eyes, the hard worker, the fixed paragraph, the unconventional wisdom, the logical superstitions, the prime numbers, the serious urge, the sincere request.

yahaan ke hum sikander…

Taking modulus of your emotions!

I came across this thought, as to how different the world would be if all we felt was the modulus of our feelings(Thanks to Goyal). Suppose you are a mediocre in some field. Well getting back to Goyal, some days back he received a FR(fail and repeat) grade in some course and obviously its a matter of depression for most sane people and the ones who don’t give reasons. Some days later, he gets AA in a project which was not at all expected and we had a good laugh.

Both incidents were equally intense on the emotion scale but with opposite signs(though we remain sad more than happy…come on we are less satisfied…we the modern era people…we want too much..) So what if whatever the feeling be we just feel the modulus of it. We always feel happy whatever the situation be! Hence will we love to super sad or have really bad blows, have rejections? Will there be people who would want to stay near zero or you doubt such people will exist? I mean people either want to be very happy and satisfied as we are now but things are weird and good on the sad side too…! Will people want to be sad?

Will the discontinuity at zero matter?

PS: I could have complicated the theory by taking it to n-dimensions rather than just talking about the Argand plane as here!

Blank paper! Amazing you!

Great exercise for one and all! Follow it as I write, might sound foolish but just do it.
So we start by lying down….Lie down absolutely anywhere but sufficient place needed. Then you stretch out your arms wide open and legs too in a relaxed way. Then with your eyes shut try to forget about various parts and this is the most difficult part but you will know what to do when you do it and except your mind; obviously you use your brain to forget!

Once you think you are into this with deep breathing though not necessary as this might also act as a disturbance. Note: This is no YOGA! Continuing…You are 5 minutes into this exercise/act and all you have is your mind. Now sit in a roller-coaster-safari-ride where you are alone in the car with ups and downs, turns and twists. Try to concentrate on yourself as the third person and ride is getting dangerous with more and more steep turns. Then try to immediately think of absolutely anything related to you or not related, what you want or do not want, any word that comes to your mind. While thinking have a pen and a blank paper big enough in your hand; your eyes are still closed.

It might be an awkward position to write in but its just fine; you still do not have your other parts; but your hands moving and you just write whatever comes to your mind; think in the most weirdest way; rather do not think about your life’s positioning but think about anything, and be honest to write what you think, however on the page; complete sentence, broken lines, words, pictures, a story, banana, black, songs, great things, sadness, a beggar along the roadside naked and shivering, you almost about to get drowned, you with aamir khan having dinner, dogs, cats, music, girls, beer, how you cracked jee, aoe, snakes, dinosaurs,etc……just let it go on. Do it till you want to, and you can in between be seated so that you can write well but remember your eyes must be closed, see for yourself how amazing you are! How well you think! How great our mind is!

A montage!

PS: Do post a snapshot of your blank papers somewhere! Life is….

Astrology – Why not believe in it?

I have asked many – “Do you believe in horoscopes?” And almost certainly, there is a sudden blatant smile followed by very similar answers viz. “No”, “scope(IITB lingo for saying not at all)”, “nahi yaar”, “paagal hai kya?”,”yeah little bit” etc..etc.. Most people I have asked cannot perceive themselves believing in such a non-scientific, non-logical, completely random stuff.

Everyone at some points of life wants/wanted to know things ahead, wants to know his/her/someone else’s future, and many more other facts about life and living. But God has not given us any tool to discover such things(or has he?) We pretty much live in the “present”.

Astrology bases its findings on the movement of celestial bodies gives us a way to predict future, it involves much math and is then correlated with traits and nature of various features associated with various planets and so on…So, astrology is a function, a tool, which when given various input, outputs life. Science which claims to have done a lot cannot predict future, but something which is non-scientific(not sure) can quite accurately!!

Many a times people started of with trying it out, but the astrologers they followed did not forecast correctly and they lost faith as it was never correct. But i followed a great astrologer – Marjorie Orr. Her column used to come in Mid Day many years back when i was trying out. But now i regularly take a look at her website. Also a tip to use, never check your daily forecast or base your faith on it; rather read the monthly forecasts by Marjorie Orr. It will blow your mind when you will come to know how correct it is. Also she mentions some important dates for a month which will definitely be days that will make some difference!!

See for yourself and follow because there have to be some way things can be answered, astrology teaches us one. I may be wrong, but this is open debate, you are invited

My 2008 top 13 list :)

Here is the list of 13 official and mentionable important things that happened to me or witnessed by me in the year 2008 that made a difference!

1. Techfest 2008, successfully organized (web and gaming zone, the experience was just amazing..will always cherish the TF memories)
2. Intern @ Chaupaati – Good exposure, fundae and awesome people – Zishaan, Gera, Kashyap, Rane, etc.
3. Trip to Goa (8-12th December) – 1st official bike accident (my parents do not know about it, so if u happen to meet them STFU ) but was a good trip! Also cheers to Tanna.
4. Hit my lowest spi ever in 7th sem!
5. The cute girl in pink top(in Mood indigo) and Ensiferrum(Finnish Death Metal Band live @ MI)
6. Came across perl! (during my intern)
7. Working @ TRI – good level of work, learning and responsibility!!
8. Discovered ‘gym’ in late July – thanks to Mouli
9. Started Webvulture blog to share my daily technical encounters
10. MSc Chemistry Seminar on beating the diffraction limit of light Actually liked the entire field of research and how great the technique NSOM is// and also the Eco project
11. Ankit Goyal got placed :O (Also Extremely happy for Gudi, Ramdas and Akhil – great jobs and all other placed junta)
12. One night at “The Orchid” playing poker and amazing food
13. Witnessed the greatest of economic recession, thanks to USA

Seriously people, go make your own 2008, 2009 lists. Helps you know yourself!

Contact me if you would want to know more about any of these especially 4,6 and 10 Why would you!!

The Wishing Well

The Wishing Well
Great poem by Mary Carpio…

There are many wishing wells
with many coins tossed in
Many a wish has been made
with enormous hope within

Everyday as coins are tossed
in wishing wells everywhere
It’s the hope you have inside
grants your wish if it’s there

So if you toss a coin today
know hope’s the answer key
No matter if it’s done alone
or if it’s done publicly

To humanize is amazing!

Totally bored to death, I thought of accompanying my friend Tilak to HN CCD and get some fresh air. While in the midst of our discussion it started raining heavily. We completed our drinks and payed our bills(yes, Tilak still owes some 75 bucks to me ).
Then we realized that I was the only one carrying umbrella..huh…And after joining every penny in our pockets the sum total was Rs. 12.50/- which was surely not enough to pay the rickshaw fare(in case you dint know )
“So lets wait!” I exclaimed. Luckily the rains slowed down quite a bit and the drizzly drops were bearable. So we set out on foot to our destination, our respective hostels.

I was quite exhausted and we dint have much to talk about after the long talk at CCD. After 5 minutes or so it had completely stopped raining but we still experienced some drops falling on us because of the tree leaves shedding water droplets. Tilak suddenly, with a very matured, serious and interrogative look said – “If now(just after rains stopped) we walk under trees we are sure to experience tiny constant water drops but under the open sky we won’t. This case is perfectly opposite to the case when its raining! When its raining you tend to walk under a tree for obvious reasons – to not wet yourselves completely.”

Trying to grasp, i paused for a minute and was totally amazed at his thoughts. Then he asked me to humanize this fact. As in he wanted me to come up with some humanly example related to this. I came up with this example rather analogy –

“The open sky is like the entire world, the trees are like our ‘many friends’ and the rains are the problems and troubles we face all the time during our life. When in trouble we try to approach our friends. Our friends try to help us like trees do by stopping the rain flow to a great extent. But if it is raining heavily and our troubles are too much our regular ‘many friends’ may not be in a position to help us. On the contrary, there exist very close friends; here analogous to us carrying an umbrella. No matter how bad the rains are our umbrella will always be with us and protect us to the maximum extent from the rains. Such are some very close friends. And when it has just stopped raining your troubles end but there is still some minute disturbances from your many friends who might remind you of some bad times and try to consolidate you by reminding Seriously, bad times reminder is exactly analogous to every big drop falling from the trees after rains! Do ponder for a while…”

Tilak listened carefully to my analogy and then said, “I feel it would be better if I used a windsheeter instead of an umbrella.” “All hail Mr. Tilak!”