The One After the Previous Random One (Not necessarily less random though)

Have you ever felt that annoying feeling when you know that there is something absolutely necessary and important that you just have to do... but just cannot for the life of you remember what it is ?? If you have then you know what I'm talking about. That's the exact same feeling I've been experiencing for the past three to four days. The only problem is that I know exactly what all i have to do... :(

There's the term paper i have to write by next week on a topic that I have no idea about. Come on, Molecular Modelling in Slag Design !! What do you think I am ?? Anywho, then there's the two lab reports and the extreeemely important class test on a subject that I am in danger of not passing because i have no clue what the guy teaches in class... Why can't they dumb it down for us a little ?? So thats a lot of work.. and here I am not doing anything about it. You know, its like a evil circle that you can't get out of. I feel so bad and gutted about the fact that I've done nothing yet that I go ahead and sulk for some more time and hence end up doing... guess what ..NOTHING !!! And now that I've rambled on for some time, I realize I have no idea what I want to write anyway...

Anyways, I've always wondered what possesses people to keep blogs ?? If you need to write and express yourself through it, then why not keep a diary ? If you just want to tell people your views on certain stuff, why not tell the guy next to you or a friend or someone.. why write it online?? Why do I keep posting sh!te sporadically ?? Theres this friend of mine who started to blog after I did but is now head and shouldrs above me in terms of frequency of posting and general advertising his blog... which I give him credit for but still makes me feel almost compelled to post something or the other. Guys help me out on this one.. why blog at all ??

By the way... today our mess was closed so we had to have dinner outside. Now why do I bring this up, you may ask... well a friend and I went to have dinner at a small restaurant called MidTown.  When we returned with our wallets considerably empty, we came across two guys.. one of whom had dinner at our hostel's canteen and another who had dinner in MS canteen... and guess how much it cost them ?? Rs 60 something in our canteen and Rs 100 something in MS !!!! My friend and I had BETTER food at a BETTER place and it cost us only Rs 55 per head !!! HAHA.. Dan, prusty, and others who had food there... IN YOUR FACE !!! IN YOUR FACE !!!

Totally random thoughts... or maybe not

Well, its been 4 months since i last posted anything so this one is probably more out of guilt than anything else. You know, a lot can happen in 4 months... A lot...

Anyway i was wondering what pain actually is... is it the knee you bruised or the hand you broke or is it something totally different ?? I've broken various bones in my body and even had to have an operation once just to set the bones correctly... and I can vividly recall the numbing pain that I experienced when the doctor removed the clamp from my bones without even giving anaesthesia (I've still not forgiven him, x( ... ). But no pain.. no physical pain, in my opinion, can compare to the wierd heavy feeling that persists inside of you when you feel, let's just say, betrayed by someone you trust. 

You know, its funny how a single incident or event can totally change a person and his/her behaviour. How a person can change almost overnight from being friendly and open to all to being cautious about who he considers to be a friend and whom he does not. Supposedly a friend will stand by you through thick and thin... through all the rough stuff, when you need support... 

And when that person fails to be there, thats when you feel betrayed. But then Time, the great healer, is the best medicine and slowly you forget and possibly forgive... actually you dont forget or forgive... you remember... :) and you feel angry...not at that person but at yourself for presuming too much... for letting that person close... for depending on that person... 

Thats when you start to evaluate... who is a good friend ? who is a TRUE friend ?  who is the person you can depend on to be there for you ? And suddenly you realize that you can't be sure of anyone or anything anymore... You re-evaluate your attitude and become more wary of people that you let in to your inner circle...

Maybe, in hindsight, such a setback (if i may call it that) is sometimes required... that sometimes you need to put a blade in fire to make it stronger... but hey whatever... 

I need to see the next episode of scrubs... two and a half men is the best comedy series thats going on now... blah blah blah... I don't really know what to write anymore... blah blah blah more pseudo intellectual crap....

Jesus and Mo

You know, a year ago, had anyone asked me what my favorite comic strip was..... Calvin and Hobbes i would have replied without batting an eyelid. Well, that was before i came across this totally amazing comic strip on the net called "Jesus and Mo"... which for me is as good as, if not better than, c&h any day.

for those who've not seen it as yet... this strip is a tongue in cheek look at two of the most dominant religions today- Islam and Christianity. The USP of the comic are its two spokesmen jesus and mo (yup prophet mohammed himself... as explained in the first comic, its not a depiction of the prophet, as that is not allowed, its just a body double that they are drawing :) )... using whom the cartoonist has a go at most of the contentious issues prevailing today and even those dealt with in the Koran and the bible. Equally important, i feet, are the comments posted by the viewers which will go quite a way in enhancing your knowledge about things written in the so-called holy books... these comments also help in both understanding the deeper meaning in each comic and appreciating the subtle innuendos made. With 'guest stars' like Moses and Ganesha joining in the fray once in a while...the strip makes for quite a pleasant read. Apart from Jesus and mo, the other important character in the strip is the barmaid, an atheist, whose presence adds a different view altogether... that of science whereas jesus and mo argue with her on most of her opinions....

The comic may seem to be a little pro-science and anti-religion, well that's just because it is pro science and anti-religion, ...so one needs to approach it with an open mind, if you are the highly religious sort that is. Take it in the right spirit, since no matter what your beliefs, Jesus and mo is a really funny offering. so have a look at it cuz, imho, its worth it
www.jesusandmo.net

till next time....

Catch 22 ........

right...what now?

I've been thinking [u do that a lot when u have no other work] lately and i realized that i could possibly just possibly occupy my time constructively... but by doing what? that remains the question... I'm into my umpteenth post now and i still have no idea where im heading... or for that matter where my blog is heading. while i ponder upon this and other important questions plaguing mankind today [like who ate the last MnM from the fridge?] ill just leave u guys with my views on a book i read recently.

catch 22 by joseph heller has been around for quite some time now and i was surprised it had taken me so much time to lay my hands on it. Well frankly, if you think highly of war and heroism in war.... this book will pretty much remove the scales from your eyes. The main character yossarian is caught up at the front while a war is being waged... and his main struggle is not to win the war or to be a hero but something more realistic... his main aim is to stay alive come what may... goddamn his country. As the book begins to grow on the reader so do the characters and i for one started identifying and empathizing with them and their emotions. well i dont want to disclose the story because that wouldnt be fair, but suffice to say that it gives us a glimpse of the lives and the mindsets of the poor guys at the battlefront who have to risk their lives fighting a war that was started by old geezers, farts and friggen politicians who remain safe and cooped up at their homes while young lives are wasted fighting their egotistical wars. personally im not one of ur emotional sissies who wets their handkerchiefs while reading a storybook but catch 22 is one book that really tugged at my heart and made me go through several emotions- anger, sadnees, helplessness etc. as u see the characters suffer one by one and kick the bucket.....

You know.... if im stranded on a deserted island and am allowed to keep only one book with me... this would be it. yeah, you will probably not find a bigger Wodehouse or Douglas Adams or for that matter, LOTR fan than me.... but Catch 22 is way above any of them.

For those who have read it- the part which affected me the most was the part when the poor chaplain is tortured because of the irving washington joke played by yossarian... followed by the part where kid sampson dies at the beach... they all die one by one except orr and yossarian. For those who havent read it... what are u waiting for? get out there and read it... if u cant get ur hands on a copy contact me for the ebook, but please do read it... u wont regret it.

of course if uve never read anything beyond tinkle and archies or for that matter enid blyton.... ummm forget it. others just go and read it and im sure most of u will not regret it.. most of u. This is a book that stays with you for a long long time.

Oh and while you are at it, you might want to see the movie 'A Clockwork Orange'. All I'll say is that its worth the watch. [:)]

TO DO OR NOT TO DO ....

I recently read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and I'd definitely recommend everyone to hear his lecture atleast once (its available on youtube). Anyway what struck me most, apart from the optimism and resilience shown by the guy, was the fact that he had a set of goals in mind which he had waned to accomplish and which, by the way, he did. That set me thinking... now what are the things that I absolutely definitely have to do once in my life ?? And guess what... I did come up with a list !!!
Without further ado, here's all the things I want to do in my life atleast once (as on this date that is)... Maybe sometime in the future if I draw a list.. it will be totally different but for now this is it...

• Go on a world tour
• Go to Wacken
• Watch the FIFA World Cup final in person
• Bunjee jumping
• Paragliding (done)
• Zorbing (done)
• THE BIG SECRET ONE WHICH I WON'T REVEAL.....
  

But then on a more immediate basis what I really need to do is get my 500gb Maxtor hard disk replaced. Yeah it crashed.. thanks Maxtor for your reliability... thankfully its in the warranty period. The only regret being that thanks to my hard disk crashing... not only have I lost around 450gb of data but I've also lost a whole season of ATOM ANT, 2 STUPID DOGS, WACKY RACES and ED, EDD AND EDDY and 2 seasons of METALOCALYPSE!!!!!! NOOOO !!!!! Now i'll have to download the whole thing again.. :(
I only wish there were some way in which to recover the data....

Ohh and before I forget, a big thank you to IIT Kharagpur for reopening on the 30th of December and so thoughtfully depriving me of the opportunity of spending the New Year with friends in Jamshedpur.
And to top off a string of bad news... its time for me to miss another kickass concert. This time the lucky band is Opeth , yes OPETH (!!!) , who are coming to Chennai (of all places) just when my college fest will be on... But, on a more optimistic note, ill see them when I go to Wacken anyway so its alright... :)

Death....

Well what with the terrorist attack on Mumbai and the results of my end semester examination due, it seemed that the world couldn't get any bleaker. But you know what? Fate has a cruel way of dealing with stuff... Just a few hours ago I got the news that an old schoolmate of mine passed away yesterday. Apparently he had a tumor that spread to the lungs... It just feels weird you know.. someone you know is gone.. just like that... I mean what happened to all the advances in medical science ?? Why couldn't they stop the bloody thing from spreading ??
Anyway while I'm cribbing, can someone tell me why oh WHY do our security forces still have to go into battle wearing World War II memorabilia ?? I salute the brave people.. the real heroes of the nation... the NSG, the ATS and the police squads which took the terrorists head on while still wielding 303 rifles and bulletproof vests that date back 1965. We are not a small and impoverished country... and we can definitely arm our troops with the best weapons available. Where was our intelligence when this happened ? How could they not know any of this ? This attack was planned way in advance as is apparent in the way that it was orchestrated... Maybe a revamp is needed of the whole system. Hopefully this will open the eyes of the USA and they'll stop helping Pakistan the way they are doing now. Maybe the Pakistan Govt is not directly linked to these attacks but we all know that vested interests in the ISI, the Pakistani army and the government are responsible for the flourishing of the terrorists camps in that country. Something needs to be done.. and its us, the common people, who need to step up and make sure our voices are heard. Look at all the lives that were lost. Its horrendous how anyone can commit such a dastardly act.. and the worst part is that all the terrorists were aged 18-28 !!
Now the future is in our hands... the youth of this nation... but the most terrifying thing is that these terrorists are of our age too. Agreed that there is a lot of ignorance prevailing in the previous generations but then you would expect our generation to know better wouldn't you? Why cant these people see that no matter what you believe in, no matter why you are angry, no matter what you need to say... killing innocent people is just not the way to go about it.
Anyway
Signing off with a heavy heart

In Memory of all the lives lost in Mumbai
and in memory of Kavan...
May your souls rest in peace....

Rewind >> more than a year ago...

You know what... a few days ago I remembered that I used to have another blog... so I thought why not check it out, see what i'd written earlier... Well this is what I'd written just after my JEE results were out, school was over (OVER!!) , and I was really really confused about a lot of stuff... seems such a long time ago... [sigh]

well.. its off to college for me. im off to this place called kharagpur..which is really famous for two things.. firstly, the iit and secondly for having the longest platform in the world... in a nutshell, quite a boring place by the looks of it... but hey, who knows? i may come to like it.. havent got much choice though considering ill be spending the next four years of my life there....

anyways this is the time when all ur friends go off to different places and you sorta lose touch with most of them ... so there is this partying and hanging out together sort of thing... (which is why im spending most of my time in the club)  who knows what the future holds in store..?? a lot of people tell you a lot of different things about this graduation... guess what you can do is listen to them and then promptly forget most of it... some guys are like "why dont you go to bombay", while others are "kharagpur is the best".. so basically noones of much help.. uve got to form ur own opinions..

this is the time when you are most confused about what awaits you and what decisions you should take.... but the most amazing thing seems to be the way the past two years just flew past.. man...you blink and its over kinda thing. it seems like yesterday when i first went to my coaching class..not to mention school.. hmm a lot of memories persist..gets sorta nostalgic remembering those times..

there was this guy, who along with me bunked every single economics period we had in the eleventh.... we got caught a lot but always managed to wriggle out with a good excuse.. then there was the time when along with two other guys i was pulled up for bunking assembly.... and thats just standard 11..... then quizzes debates and other activities that always provide you the opportunity of not going to class.. god im gonna miss loyola...

u know.. our school gets a lot of adverse publicity but we've always managed to pull through such rough phases and emerge stronger than before and no matter how much people try to malign the reputation of loyola.. no one ever succeeds.. thats what the strength of loyola is... no matter what people say they still want their wards to study in loyola... the fact of the matter is that loyoleans always carve out a place for themselves wherever they go... u can always recognise the loyolean in the crowd... i dunno how that is but thats the way it is...

Well its been almost two more years and reading this stuff made me go back to those days again and you know, those WERE the times I'll never forget... everything we were up to in school... 

And then I realised, almost two years have past since I've come to this place, KGP!!! Well I guess thats how time flies... before you know it most of life has just passed you by...

And thats when I realised what the most important part of life is, the thing I've been doing all these years, the thing I plan to do for the forseeable future :: MAARO PEACE... :)