While returning from a local grocery store, I noticed a man close to my dad’s age walking down the road that I was crossing. The road was quite a desolate one with a couple of lights illuminating a long stretch. What grabbed my attention was another man, shabbily dressed and dragging himself along the road, who was apparently hinting at needing some money from the former person. This might be a common sight in our country but the “beggar” here was 6 foot tall and did not look weak/needy at all. The elder person was evidently freaked out and decided to walk away briskly. The “beggar” followed with a determined pace. This made my heart skip a beat. Any sane person in this situation could extrapolate the chain of events and realize where it was heading. I stopped the bike and kept my eyes peeled at the duo till I could see them no more. The scene was that of an elderly gentleman in a formal attire (what I guess could be called an “easy catch” in this situation) brisk walking away from what looked like a determined stalker with malice on his mind. I stayed immobile in that lonely dark spot for 10 seconds before turning my bike around and heading towards the potential scene of disaster. I had no idea what I was going to do. My mind was blank. Zero thoughts. Zilch. Nil.

After taking the turn, it took a moment to spot the person but I was glad to see that he had managed to reach a well lit spot with people around. The follower was nowhere to be seen. Although the condition seemed to have been normalized, the adrenaline was still pumping in my blood and it was only now that I really felt the fear. If the situation had turned for the worst, would I have had the courage to step up and put myself in line to protect the victim? Or would I have just witnessed the tragedy as a passive observer, too terrified by the possibility of endangering myself? I honestly have no idea, but I wish I could have found out.

As one of the tracks by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones goes
I’m not a coward,
I’ve just never been tested
I’d like to think that if I was,
I would pass.

We hear of such incidents all the time. But I wonder how many of us could actually be strong enough to step up when needed. A man being mugged, woman being abused, weakling being beat up… would you be one of the few who’d move in to help or just another face in the crowd that looks at the show and walks away shaking his/her head? I don’t know if I would fail or pass the test, but I wish I could find out…

I want to talk about the little things… You know, the little things that creep into your mind every now and then, right before you shoo them away, until it pops back up a while later? The little things that make interesting small talk and also some of the most preposterous discussions. Here are a few that have crossed my mind in the last few days.

1 ) When you are talking 1-on-1 with someone, how exactly do you make eye contact? Do you stare into the left eye or the right??

Cause it’s not possible to look at both! If I have just ruined your life by making you conscious of this fact, I apologize (you may never again have a solo talk with someone without going fanatic midway). I’ve quibbled long over this and the matter is still up for debates.

2 ) If Jesus died and rose back from the death, all immortal and invulnerable, doesn’t that make him a zombie?

Dictionary.com defines a “zombie” as ‘a dead body that has been brought back to life by a supernatural force’. Sounds like Jesus to me! I’m not asking you to shoot his head off, mutilate him or send Alice after his sorry ass….. I’m only suggesting that it ain’t such a bad idea!

3 ) Why do so many guys with superpowers crib about wanting to be “normal”?!?!

Bunch of ungrateful deadbeat no-gooders! If I had super strength, a 6th sense, an uncanny knack of growing 6-pack abs overnight and the liberty to proudly swing across the city in tights, bad grades would be the least of my worries.

4 ) Why can’t we ever get the time at the first glance at our watch?

Is it only me or does everyone suffer from this sort of acute attention disorder? I glance at my watch, look up, wonder what the time is…. NO IDEA!
It may have something to do with the fact that I’m just trying to show the girl across the bench that I am busy and looking forward to something important, but surely grasping the time from a digital watch cannot be that tough?!

5 ) Does looking at a kid and thinking “She’s gonna be hot when she grows up..” count as pedophilia?

Umm… I rather not elaborate on this for fear of incarceration.

6 ) If you understood Morse code, wouldn’t tap dancers drive you nuts?

I don’t know about you but I’m pretty sure I’d be all “AAARRGGHHH!!!! I don’t get what you’re saying!!” Its gotta be either tap dancers or Morse code. You can’t have both in your life and stay a sane man.

7 ) Why is it possible for girls to act like boys and look cool but never vice versa?

In that context, why is it alright when girls dance together, hold hands or perform any activity that would be even unthinkable for boys, for fear of being tagged homosexual in a very no-kidding-you’re-a-fag kind of way? I long to see the day when girls would ask guys out as often as it happens the other way around, and guys could wear pink without being judged. That’s right, I’m a sucker for equality!

8 ) How come the expression “slim chance” means the same as “fat chance”?

This silly language has people going berserk! You fill in a form by filling it out and an alarm clock goes off by going on. When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible!! AAARRGGHHHH!

9 ) Of the people who watched Donnie Darko, can anyone honestly say that he/she knows what the fuck happened?!

Come on, be honest! You can seriously make sense of all that? And don’t you dare go all “artsy” on me! I understand that the movie isn’t for everybody. But it shocks me that every other action-flick-addicted-booty-loving-idiot tells me what an awesome movie it is. Surely, my artistic quotient can’t be THAT low!

10) Why is the cockpit called so?

Don’t want to get into the specifics since the question is kind of self explanatory… but interesting food for thought. Maybe it’s because that’s where all the action is! Or is it that only guys hang out in that area of the plane?

Let me know what you think.

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat that doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me,
And I shall spend my pension
on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals,
and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired,
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells,
And run my stick along the public railings,
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people’s gardens,
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat,
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go,
Or only bread and pickle for a week,
And hoard pens and pencils and beer mats
and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry,
And pay our rent and not swear in the street,
And set a good example for the children.
We will have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me
are not too shocked and surprised,
When suddenly I am old
and start to wear purple!

(‘Warning’ by Jenny Joseph)

I encounter, a little too often, people who wish to remain young forever. Those who wish to live the “best” part of their lives forever and ever. But how can something stay valuable if it’s available in such abundance? Isn’t it the very fact that the best is available in bits and pieces that makes it so precious? Surely there’s something that the lunatic inside you fancies.

I don’t have any qualms about aging. But what freaks me out is growing up.

I have been told by many, on a number of occasions, that I often act immature/crazy/childish/stupid/juvenile. Some have been in a positive light but most….well, not so positive. Others may perceive this in their own way, but I honestly consider this a compliment. Can you imagine not being able to enjoy the little things in life? The slapstick humour you throw around to keep the mood light and goofy? Or the crazy idiotic things you go through to get that satisfied grin on your face!

That's what I'm talking about!

Shaving my chest hair to form an “F” (a hairy one) and flaunt it, getting drunk and swimming in the college pool at 3 in the morning, sporting a new “radical” look, borrowing the carpenter’s power drill for a little “me-time”, screaming in a church, painting/scribbling random thoughts on your clean wall, walking 6-7 km back home as a result of lethargy to hitch a cab, playing superhero in my head while waiting for an interview, driving an hour to the airport with friends at 3 A.M to find the only open coffee place around with a good ambiance, getting caught in college with a stash of booze and bribing the authorities with the same booze, standing by your friends when your chances of saving a black eye looks really bleak, breaking a brand new guitar to know how it feels to be a rockstar & so on & so forth……..

Umm...Trendy makeover?

Hallowed be thy name, BIATCH!

My friends say that we’ll look back at our endeavours many years down the line and think of the old times. But that’s not nearly good enough! I say we should look back at them and try to top them! Granted, we may not be capable of similar feats then, but I wish I could be foolish enough to try.

Is it so wrong to want to be incarcerated just for the sake of experience? Or to walk up to a stranger on the street and tell them how lovely they look? I intend no malice. I only wish to enjoy the one shot I have at life. When was the last time you pulled off some random shit just for the heck of it? A prank call, a run in the rain, a bite of something inedible, whatever… Don’t take life, or yourself, too seriously. Shit happens. Deal with it. Move on. More shit will happen.

You don't say!

I have been compiling this list for quite some time now, and I believe I now have enough things to have a long enough to-do list. I shall update this page as and when I need to, for varying reasons like completing a task (will strike out the task as I do so), finding a task to be impractical (will remove it from the list in such an event) or finding a new one to add. The sole reason for me to publish this list on my blog is to motivate myself (and maybe others) to get out of my comfort zone and experience something I may be able to look back at, say 10 years from then, and tell an amazing story.

So here goes (the order of the tasks is not important) :

1) Fly in a hot-air balloon across a country

2) Learn wine appreciation

3) Complete a solo sky dive

4) Climb a 5000m mountain

5) Run a marathon

6) Fly in a fighter jet

7) Bungee jump from the world’s highest tower

8) Be a certified paraglider [Dec 2010 - Kamshet, India]

9) Be a certified scuba diver [some way through]

10) Take my parents on an extravagant vacation abroad

11) Stay awake for 72 hours straight

12) Travel into space

13) Learn how to sail

14) Speak to an audience of hundreds (or possibly thousands) of people

15) Appear on television [Jan 2008 - Kharagpur, India] (was featured on a local television as part of a feature on the campus placements of my college)

16) Dress up in a costume party [April 2011 - Kharagpur, India]

17) Travel to Antarctica

18) Get a tattoo [June 2010 - Shanghai, China]

19) Trek through a rainforest

20) Build a tree house and live a day in it

21) Learn to operate firearms

22) Learn at least two forms of dancing

23) Complete a triathlon

24) Bury a time capsule with key memoirs in a secret location,and open it after 10 years

25) Get arrested

26) Drive a Formula One car

27) Play the guitar live, to an audience

28) Walk into a store, break something expensive intentionally and pay for it

29) Ask 10 complete strangers (girls), on the same day, out for a date

30) Drive on the German autobahn at 200kmph

31) Witness Halley’s Comet in 2061

32) Watch THE BIG 4, live in concert

I’m sick and tired of hearing this question over and over again. If you ask me (which you probably won’t, but that won’t stop me), the answer lies within a simple question:

Are you a creationist or an evolutionist?

Yup, the answers are different based on what theory you believe in. If you think that’s blasphemy and that this riddle is not one to be solved, a simple analysis may make you think otherwise…

Let’s be pragmatic and think of how the chicken/egg came to be. If we back up a bit and imagine a world without the chicken/egg, a time where a more primitive form of the animal existed, we might be assisted in getting an insight to the problem. Suppose it is the animal X that led to the birth of the chicken. Since X is the immediate predecessor of the chicken, it would be safe to assume that it follows similar ways of reproduction as the chicken and hence, lays eggs. What’s vital now is to identify the point in time where the chicken/chicken egg originates. Notice that I shall now refer to the egg as chicken egg since we are now dealing with X as well.

This is where the tricky part comes in. The ambiguity arises in figuring out if the animal X turns to chicken first or the egg that it lays turns to chicken egg first.

1) EVOLUTIONISM

This is what I stick by. An animal does not transform into something else during its own lifetime. It does so over a period of time through evolution. So you can only say a new species has been originated (a very fine line to distinctly claim that) when the egg laid by its predecessor has been altered enough to give birth to the new species, say a chicken! This would suggest that X lays a chicken egg at some point in evolution which leads to the chicken. Hence, the answer is THE EGG!

2) CREATIONISM

This would suggest that the egg that X lays must ALWAYS be an X egg and that the only way for a chicken to come up would be for X to turn *POOF* into a chicken abruptly! It’s only from this point on that the eggs would be chicken eggs. So, from this perspective, THE CHICKEN came first. I know it’s not too convincing, but hey! Tell that to the child molesters!!

So there you go. One of life’s greatest mysteries solved and laid out before you.. YOU’RE WELCOME!

Welcome to the age of stupid. Tough things are getting easier and the easy stuff doesn’t even need to be done anymore. Sparkly vampires wrapped in flour are considered bad-ass and “reality shows” that hook celebrities to safety gear and calls them daring are considered cool. Paris Hilton’s dog rivals Obama in publicity. The average 15- to 24-year-old now spends about 8 minutes reading each day and anyone without an Ipod is considered from the stone age.

Omegle is one site that lets you talk to random strangers while staying anonymous. A good way to kill some time at others’ expense. I had a go at it a few times and the chat below is one of the examples of the kind of people you can meet. We tend to hang around sane people like ourselves but if we look at the whole world, its mind boggling to see how many people are way over the line of being called not-so-smart.

I was reading a few blogs about instances that made me want to just facepalm and go AAAAA!. There’s the mother who insists her child get a pair of glasses that are much too big for him, because he will “grow into them”, courses for people who are not smart enough to use their smartphones, a gay rights protestor holding up a sign that says “Homosexuals are Gay” & of course, GOD! (Didn’t think I’d leave out the best selling fictional character of all times, did you?!)

So often I’ve read how people blame the new age technologies or the internet for being the cause of the stupid era. I beg to differ. The world we live in is a global one. We now have the resources to limitless knowledge. Wether you use it to access porn or discovery, that’s upto you! We are force fed large doses of shows that promote mediocracy. Leave me alone you incompetent idiots. You’re killing my gray cells!! I didn’t really want to make this post regarding my take on why ‘Generation Y’ seems to be getting dumber by the day, so gonna leave you to think it over….

I’ve always said to my juniors, ” If you’re at IIT, don’t miss out on two things: ‘RD’ & ‘FT’ “. RD (short for RDC, which is short for ‘Rural Development Center’) refers to a virtually zero-workload course that hands out grades like they grew on trees, while FT (short for ‘Foreign Training’) is the opportunity of attaining an internship abroad, spending most of the time exploring rather than working. Since I must practice what I preach, I landed up in Shanghai for my 3rd & final internship (Yes, I’ve already taken up RD). Being interested in working for an automotive industry, I applied for an industrial training at auto-manufacturers and was lucky enough to land with Volkswagen (although my primary choice was Wolfsburg, not Shanghai).

Day 1 (May 22, 2010): I reach the airport and can’t find the person who is supposed to pick me up (Mr. Yu). Left my luggage in the corner and left to look for him. I returned within half a minute and VOILA!! No more luggage!! I’m thinking
A) Lol, and I thought India was bad!
B) How long was I gone for?
C) Where’s the guy who’s supposed to pick me up ?
D) AAAGGHH!!! WTF!! WHERE’S MY LUGGAGE!??!!
in that order.

So much for a walm welcome! Ran around looking for it but in vain. Found Mr. Yu finally and explained my situation. He searched along with me, then contacted the police, who checked the surveillance cameras and found a group of people scooting away with my stuff as soon as I left it! I was told they would try to track them down, and that I should be happy for atleast having my wallet and my passport with me. How could I be happy being a stranger with no belongings in a land where most of the people don’t even get what I’m saying! Long story short, the people with my luggage were tracked down by the license plates of the vehicle they left in (Surveillance cameras FTW!) and contacted. Turns out it was some douchebag tourist group that just took up all the luggage trolleys they could find around their people! Got my luggage within a day…KUDOS to Shanghai Airport Cops \m/ .

Day 3: My first day at work. My supervisor is a German guy who moved in from the main VW office in Wolfsburg recently, and boy, is he one hell-of-a-guy!! He laughs all the time and explains everything with so much passion and fun (Quote: “Sometimes we test them by overcharging them, but some of the batteries aren’t too happy about it & explode”) and he’s german for sure. He gives me hints and tips on partying and having fun here, explains the company goals and how they plan to take over a major share of the market with awesome passion, gives me a ride in his…..yeah, Volkswagen, and rides like a maniac with his ass on fire! I LOVE THIS GUY!

Day 4: My work is based on new energy and hybrid vehicles (ones that use both fuel and electricity). Not gonna bore you with the details. The weather continues to keep my happy. Temperature never goes above 23 and is windy some of the times. Socializing is a bitch, though. Other than the students and the people at work, the locals have no clue of wtf I’m saying. I have to point at stuff to buy them and yet they look at me like I’m standing naked, doing the hula dance.

Day 6: Chinese Television is just plain sad for foreigners! Not even a single English channel. Turns out the Chinese government has banned all non-Chinese channels and has made dish antennas that can catch international channels illegal!! That’s pure BS!! This was one of the many instances I found myself cursing the Chinese government during my stay. Even the locals loath the government and have repeatedly expressed their hatred for it to me.
Check out this Youtube vid I made in dedication to the Chinese television………

Day 8: One word: LOUD! That’s what Chinese are. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean that as an offensive statement. It’s just the way they are accustomed to. A phone conversation, a chat in a restaurant….whatever the case may be, you’ll see them shouting away to the point that it seems to be an argument rather than a conversation.
Moved into an international dorm today, which should help me with meeting new people. Made some German & American friends who are exchange students here for the semester. How they interact in the classes, let alone learn the courses offered, is beyond me.

Day 10: Checked out the main city today, including the famous “Bund” or as its known in Chinese, “Wai Tan”. In one mile, you can see fifty-two buildings of many architectural styles, such as Renaissance, Romanesque, Gothic, Beaux-Arts, Neo-Classical, Baroque, and Art Deco. Had company of a Chinese friend, Henry (his “English name” obviously), who was visiting Shanghai as well. A ferry ride along the river, a walk in the park and some snaps with a newly wed couple later, I decided to head back.

Day 13: Its surprisingly hard to find a huge person around here! Guess thats the effect the chinese cuisine has. Don’t get me wrong, it is great! It tastes wonderful but I guess its the fact that most of the stuff is steamed or boiled, that makes it so good for you. You’ll rarely find fried food here. If you see a fat Chinese, he’s probably been to the local KFC one too many times.

Day 15: Weekend#2!! The day started with me heading downtown to Shanghai Tattoo (http://www.shanghaitattoo.com/), to have a chat with Zhuo Dan Ting, one of the best tattoo artists in the country. Later met up with my friend Rong ( and not-so-surprisingly, she is often wrong, which is why we got lost in the subway on all the wrong trains :/ ) for a trip around the city. Had a great time with her, having traditional Chinese cuisine, and visiting Hongqiao (an art gallery, her idea…) and Dapuqiao, a commercial circle with very tight alleys , busy with foreigners and filled with restaurants, art shops etc.

Day 21: My boss leaves for Germany for a week on official business. The opportunity is too tempting, so I end up skipping work and on a trip to Beijing . A wonderful place and I must say, the great wall is REALLY GREAT! Was approached by random asian folks quite a few times who wanted to have a snap taken with me! Closest I’ll get to feeling like a celebrity I guess….. A 3 day stay at Beijing took care of Ming Tombs, The Great Wall, Forbidden City, Summer Palace and the Tiananmen Square. The nights were spent in my hotel bar getting to know new people and playing foosball. After all this time in China, the best time I had was while having drinks with my new friends from around the world and watching the first game of the FIFA World Cup 2010.

On my last day in Beijing, took a trip to the Donghua Yeshi Night market for feasting on delicacies such as scorpions, squids, frog legs, snakes etc. Ummmm…. OM NOM NOM NOM!! Check out the vid:
Was also approached by a bunch of hookers, inviting me for a “massage” xP

Day 28: Another weekend in Shanghai…. this one was quite a quiet one with me hanging with some friends and travelling to the People’s Square and Nanjing Road for passing some time. Great places to go shopping and check out one of the biggest commercial hubs in Shanghai. Turns out its one of the world’s busiest shopping streets. Later I head to a tattoo studio to talk to a tatt artist about some issues I’ve been having regarding my tatt design.

It saddens me to not be able to experience Shanghai at night since I hear the city is just stunning after dark. I live quite far from downtown, in order to be close to my workplace. So I’m never able to stay late in the city. I plan to rent a room in some hotel downtown for one of the weekends for a night city tour, night photography of this amazing city, and some clubbing at one of the many happening places here.

Day 35: This is THE DAY! The day I get inked!! But first I head to the Grand Mercure to meet my friend from college, Rohan, who is visiting China before starting work at Singapore a month later. Not due for my tatt appointment till noon, so decided to visit the Shanghai Zoo with my Chinese friend, Rong, for killing some time. But alas, fate had other plans! Lot of mishap on the subway where I found out the station I intended to use was closed for construction, the station for changing to another line was closed and being used via another one blah blah…. Was too late for the zoo so just spent some time with Rong at Zongshan Park and got to the Tattoo Studio after lunch.

After a little discussion with the artist and a few changes from my part to the design, we got down to it. Two and a half hours of needles piercing my upper arm like a sewing machine and finally was pleased with the outcome. My idea to create this design was for the tribal pattern to depict the the energy/forces running through us and the Yin Yang symbol (a.k.a Tai-Chi in Chinese) to show the balance between different aspects of everything. So basically the design denotes the balance necessary in life in everything we do which makes the things perfect.

Day 41: Got off work and got dressed for one hell of a night. Met up with my Australian friend Chen downtown at 2130. We met up with Paul (French) & Philip (Canadian) and had a few drinks before heading on to Murals for a crazy night. Got drunk, grooved with the girls, and woke up the next day in some hotel in the city with a bad headache. I leave a note for my other friends cause they are too stoned to be waking up anytime soon, and leave for my place. A hot bath and a nap later, I check my mail to find Chen talking about another party we should check out soon.

Later that night I catch the football game between Germany & Argentina with some of my Chinese friends, and damn!! Was that an ass whooping or what! 4-0 with Argentina! Deutschland is sure on fire this world cup… Maybe its time to bring up the issue of a raise with my boss xP

Day 49: And it ends….the football world cup ends with Spain taking the throne. Certainly not the kind of world cup everyone predicted. No Brazil, no Argentina, no Portugal, no France, no England……But fun nevertheless! On a side note, I was at H&M with Rong the other day and I looked at a few shirts to find this written : “Made in Bangladesh” and I’m like “WTF! They make stuff for the whole world but get their stuff from Bangladesh!?” (o.0)… Spent this weekend meeting my few close friends downtown, and having my last drinks and goodbyes with them, since this is going to be the last weekend for me in Shanghai city. Irrespective of what my overall experience in China may have been, I’m going to miss Rong & Amy after I head back.

Also bought a tripod from a photography heaven at Luban Road, after struggling through the 24/7 rains that Shanghai has suddenly started showering on me(which is how I ended up buying an overpriced umbrella from a smirking street vendor). Must say, it is quite a sight to see hundreds of Chinese hustle on the roads with their umbrellas. Tried my hands on a few night shots, but it may be a while before I get the hang of getting good night snaps. Looking forward to my Xi’An trip next weekend, which would put an end to my China sight-seeing spree.

Day 52: Quote of the day: “We try to design a strong interior cabin for the driver so that during a crash, it does not deform and hence, protects the driver. But since Chinese don’t wear seat-belts, it doesn’t matter cause after the crash they’re not in the cabin anyway..”
This was my boss’s colleague from ‘Accident Research’ who just came down for a day from Germany.

I’ve decided not to visit the World Expo. It’ll probably get me some raised eyebrows back home but I’m not interested in wasting my entire day standing in ridiculously long queues just to visit 3-4 pavilions of other countries, while being pushed and shoved around by swarms of Chinese people (speaking from experience of some of my friends)…. It just doesn’t make sense when there’s so much more that can be done instead!!

Day 59: Back from Xi’An. Must say that after witnessing Beijing, I didn’t find Xi’An as special as I hoped. Sure, the Terracotta warriors have a rich history and look magnificent, but when I saw everything that is around those statues for promoting them, it just seems like milking the hell out of a frail dying cow. Then came the Big Goose Pagoda, followed by a bike ride on the City Wall, which was the only real fun part here, unfortunately. I can’t help it but I’m just not a history buff.

Spent the night hanging out with some new friends I made at my hotel and the next day checking out the city and the Muslim Street. In case you couldn’t figure, its a street comprising mostly of muslim shops (SURPRISE SURPISE!) which range from eateries to souvenirs. That was it for Xi’An. I can conclude now that for those who want to witness the modern China, Shanghai is the place to be. If you fancy more for the China a few hundred years old but in a balance with the modern world, go to Beijing. For the ones who wish to experience a few thousand years old China, visit Xi’An, cause there are many parts there which have not been “modernized” yet, and this can really give you the feel which you might have expected before coming to China. Time to head back to Shanghai for my final week at work!

Day 64 (July 24, 2010): Hectic week. Was given the most important assignments at work during the last week. The fact that a hot new German trainee joined this week did not help speed up my task.

The final day wound up pretty well. Got some good work done and my boss surprised me by taking me and a couple of other colleagues working with us to a great place for a nice traditional Chinese lunch, at the end of which he thanked me for my contributions and gifted me with a Volkswagen Souvenir . One can only dream of having such a great guy for a superior. At the end of the day, I took a few snaps with them and parted ways.

I write this last part as my flight takes me home. Time to bid adieu to this unique country. The language can be an issue, the people are loud, the queues can be long, the goods may be duplicate ; but at the end of the day, the locals are immensely friendly and benevolent, the provinces beautiful with a rich culture and heritage, the cities vibrant with energy, the customs unique and intriguing, and the country ever so inviting…..

The innocent throw

Ever have those moments of reminiscence when you look back at something that happened so long ago, you could barely tell if it really was a memory or just a faded dream? I recently have given some thought to an incident that I doubt anyone else even recalls. Its one of the things that just sticks to your mind and doesnt let go of you, although it may mean nothing anymore to anyone.

It was one of the usual childhood days where every kid on the block is playing, running and having an innocently blissful time. 'Cricket' is the sport in my country (if you've got know clue about it, think of it as baseball but with just 1 batsman), other than football, that every kid grows up playing. It also happens to be the sport that I've grown to hate as a boring and slow game, but let's not get into that right now.

I'm 10 years old and its my turn to bat. The highlight of the game being the batting position, I am not in the mood to let it pass by quickly. I was never really good at sports. Sure have made attempts at improving my physique, but that mainly consisted of just running and gym. Sports, NEVER been my thing….I've tried plenty, but it seems pretty obvious that life has other plans for me.

Coming back to the matter at hand, I take my place and being the clutz that I am, I get bowled out on the first ball. Now I'M MAD! I don't give a damn about what's fair or not, I WANNA PLAY MORE!! As it turns out, its my brother's turn to bat (4 years elder). He runs after me and not so surprisingly, it wasn't much of a chase. Some snatching and laughing later, he walks away to show off his touch of sports (As you may have guessed, he's EXTREMELY SPORTY).

I refuse to accept defeat and decide to display how far I'm willing to go. I pick up a brick and aim for my brother!! Now, I may be 10 but I wasn't stupid (atleast that's what I thought). I wanna avoid his head, so I aim for his back and throw the brick at him. Now my brother sees me doing this and decides to go all Einstein. He figures I threw the brick at his head and ducks down (I later heard this theory from him ) and as a result he got what he was afraid off…. BAM!!

Going for the kill

THE BRICK!!

Mind the fact that what changes is not our inherent behaviour and personality, but the act that we decide to portray to others. While this may seem appropriate at the time, being rude to people who are rude to you, ignoring those who have done the same to you etc., the pitfall with such an action is in its tendency to change you in the long run. While you may intend to act in that manner only for a brief period, the deed done leaves an imprint on your personality, and the act comes out effortlessly later on. Before you realize it, the natural face you put up to new people you meet, transforms into an altered version of who you were, mixed with what you loath in others. You end up becoming what you hate!

On inquiring my mom in the past regarding why she often lets matter go, when we had the chance for getting back at someone who might have caused us trouble, I’ve often been answered with the same words “then what would distinguish us from them?”. I always considered that to be quite naive since the absence of action was always considered as weakness by me….. However, now that I look back, maybe it was wisdom that I mistook for naiveness.

But what I’d talk about is something that happened during my quest to reach the so-called Utopia. I was part of a crowd that believed in nothing but working like robots to do one thing and one thing only………CRAM! We were made to believe that those of us who could prove to be better than others were winners while the rest were mere mortals who could only hope to reach us. What kept us going was the constant reminder that if we toiled hard enough for 2 years, the rest of our lives would be a cake-walk.

The director of the institution, known only as ‘K.K’, kept boosting our morale. But his ways were different than conventional ones. He did not tell us that the goal was achievable with hard work. What he made us believe was that the goal was there so that we could go get it. He kept reminding us that we were way too good to be competing with the rest and tried hard to make us more confident that we should have been. One of the students’ parents paid K.K a visit, and explained to him that their son was acting cocky and was under the impression that he was already fit to write the exams that were to be faced an year later. The parents were worried that the overconfidence pumped into their children might be their downfall. K.K assured them that it would be their strengths….. He explained that coupled with the sheer pressure he would face in the coming months, his state of mind would drop from that of over-confidence, to confidence, and that would be the factor driving him to the finish line, compared to the others who would drop from confidence to inferiority.

It may sound ridiculous or utter bullshit, but I now feel that the trick might have worked. For I see now, that I am where many better than me failed to reach, not because I was more deserving or gifted. But because one man made me believe that I was God………which I was not.