Tuesday, October 23, 2007
The Pole Theory
Negative multiplied by negative is positive but negative added to negative becomes more negative. So negative negative is not essentially positive.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Lazy cribbing
Another lazy post before I fall off. Seriously speaking I don't even know why have I sat down here, as I am just too tired and that too for no reason. Perhaps the Monday syndrome. If you are wondering what that is, you don't really need to do that as there is nothing like that. I just coined that term right now. And if someone is working, he will know what I am talking about.
It was an average day with average load, average results and an average mood. Just like not everyone is born to excel, days have their share of fate too. So if some days score a distinction, there are days which need some grace marks to pass through. Now those marks can be OH radicals for some, sinful passionate hard work for some, good music for some, wasteful blogging for some and reading some wasteful blog for some. You must have stopped wondering what is wrong with this guy, otherwise you would have stopped coming here.
An interesting thing to note is that in the heights of capitalism, I am not charged a paisa (an endangered species) for advertising my webpage on gtalk and orkut. But I am sure days are near when status message won't be for free or there will be some company sponsoring the same. Money has been taking man for a long ride, and it has just started. I used to hear from people about a common debate over rich getting richer and poor getting poorer, never making much sense of it, especially with all the globalization happening, banks opening up to public, the giant corporate houses coming up to do so much around us. But my small stint in the rural development sector tell me, that its a bunch of bullshit. The debate will continue to exist. The fact is that it is easier for people who have money to get more money and the ones who really need it, who have the fire, who want to break the shackles, who have the fire to become something on their own, they are shooed away at all these big banks who run hours of advertisements about caring for people. I understand for them it does not make business sense to lend 40-50k of rupees, but everything can't be business, right? And even if it has to, no business starts with a million. I might not be making much sense to you, but I have seen that pain in the eyes of people, and I can't sleep easily. And if I can't, why should you?
I still get three to four calls everyday for getting a personal loan of 2 lakhs in 2 days. Don't you?
It was an average day with average load, average results and an average mood. Just like not everyone is born to excel, days have their share of fate too. So if some days score a distinction, there are days which need some grace marks to pass through. Now those marks can be OH radicals for some, sinful passionate hard work for some, good music for some, wasteful blogging for some and reading some wasteful blog for some. You must have stopped wondering what is wrong with this guy, otherwise you would have stopped coming here.
An interesting thing to note is that in the heights of capitalism, I am not charged a paisa (an endangered species) for advertising my webpage on gtalk and orkut. But I am sure days are near when status message won't be for free or there will be some company sponsoring the same. Money has been taking man for a long ride, and it has just started. I used to hear from people about a common debate over rich getting richer and poor getting poorer, never making much sense of it, especially with all the globalization happening, banks opening up to public, the giant corporate houses coming up to do so much around us. But my small stint in the rural development sector tell me, that its a bunch of bullshit. The debate will continue to exist. The fact is that it is easier for people who have money to get more money and the ones who really need it, who have the fire, who want to break the shackles, who have the fire to become something on their own, they are shooed away at all these big banks who run hours of advertisements about caring for people. I understand for them it does not make business sense to lend 40-50k of rupees, but everything can't be business, right? And even if it has to, no business starts with a million. I might not be making much sense to you, but I have seen that pain in the eyes of people, and I can't sleep easily. And if I can't, why should you?
I still get three to four calls everyday for getting a personal loan of 2 lakhs in 2 days. Don't you?
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Of Chambal and the Stars
'Aisa toh mere sath kabhi nahi hua!!' I slept for more than 14 hours, and those who know me would or should know that actually thats pretty rare to happen. Anyway, this fact hardly makes a difference to anyone's life. So how has life been at your end? At my end its been pretty hectic to say the least, the only difference is that this time its by choice than by anything else.
I have been doing interesting things. My work, as expected, landed me up in Jhansi. But that was just to sleep. The work was out of Jhansi and in places like Orchha, Niwari, Tarichhar, etc, which I am sure you have never heard of. For the first time in my life, I saw rural India with such proximity. And on top of that, I celebrated my birthday roaming around in draught hit areas, meeting weird people with acute memory problems, seeing half filled orange coloured sealed coca cola bottles, eating jumbo sized gulab jamuns which are strangely called rasgullas, drinking hot chaai in big khullads, yelling at a half psychotic painter, almost drinking the sinful Bagpiper (Don't worry, I did not do it!!), seeing the largest number of matkas at one place at one moment of time (only second to IIT i guess!), and what not.
If that wasn't enough, my next day saw me had one ride of my life on an open truck. I was on the back side of it, which was open. We were going through a dark jungle in Madhya Pradesh, better known as Chambal. Yes you have guessed it right its the famous land of all the Dakus in bollywood. And what I heard from localites is that the bollywood hasn't done good justice to the area as it is actually far more dangerous than portrayed. Dacoits can actually come out of nowhere anytime on that highway and you are not left with a long list of options. So that was how it was. We were crossing through that jungle and it was pitch dark with a strong breeze. Nothing happened except the fact that I kept listening to all the infamous incidents of past and the long list of Do's and Don'ts if something was to happen.
The most fascinating part of the whole thing was that I could see so many stars in the sky. You have to take my word, if you have always seen the night sky living in a city, you haven't seen anything. There are millions of stars visible with our eyes, which are never seen, because of the the excess of light in cities. That was some breathtaking experience, sitting in an open truck, everyone around me asleep, my iPod on, and the milky sky..brilliant!
About what useful I learnt from my experience, people are same everywhere, even the topics of discussion do not change, cricket rules there too. Most of the people have the basic necessities primarily because of the fact that electricity for them is not a basic need. So even if it is there for a couple of hours they are happy. But there are problems which they do not realize like the sanitation, the education levels and a lot more. The only thing which pinched me in the trip was that I could see that light in so many young kids, that fire to become something, that passion to dream..and I knew most of them won't be able to do it, just because they neither have someone to show the path nor the resources to walk on that path. It is that thing I am really going to work upon. Even if ten students are able to make big out of those places, the most fascinating stars on my blurred sky will make their first appearance.
I have been doing interesting things. My work, as expected, landed me up in Jhansi. But that was just to sleep. The work was out of Jhansi and in places like Orchha, Niwari, Tarichhar, etc, which I am sure you have never heard of. For the first time in my life, I saw rural India with such proximity. And on top of that, I celebrated my birthday roaming around in draught hit areas, meeting weird people with acute memory problems, seeing half filled orange coloured sealed coca cola bottles, eating jumbo sized gulab jamuns which are strangely called rasgullas, drinking hot chaai in big khullads, yelling at a half psychotic painter, almost drinking the sinful Bagpiper (Don't worry, I did not do it!!), seeing the largest number of matkas at one place at one moment of time (only second to IIT i guess!), and what not.
If that wasn't enough, my next day saw me had one ride of my life on an open truck. I was on the back side of it, which was open. We were going through a dark jungle in Madhya Pradesh, better known as Chambal. Yes you have guessed it right its the famous land of all the Dakus in bollywood. And what I heard from localites is that the bollywood hasn't done good justice to the area as it is actually far more dangerous than portrayed. Dacoits can actually come out of nowhere anytime on that highway and you are not left with a long list of options. So that was how it was. We were crossing through that jungle and it was pitch dark with a strong breeze. Nothing happened except the fact that I kept listening to all the infamous incidents of past and the long list of Do's and Don'ts if something was to happen.
The most fascinating part of the whole thing was that I could see so many stars in the sky. You have to take my word, if you have always seen the night sky living in a city, you haven't seen anything. There are millions of stars visible with our eyes, which are never seen, because of the the excess of light in cities. That was some breathtaking experience, sitting in an open truck, everyone around me asleep, my iPod on, and the milky sky..brilliant!
About what useful I learnt from my experience, people are same everywhere, even the topics of discussion do not change, cricket rules there too. Most of the people have the basic necessities primarily because of the fact that electricity for them is not a basic need. So even if it is there for a couple of hours they are happy. But there are problems which they do not realize like the sanitation, the education levels and a lot more. The only thing which pinched me in the trip was that I could see that light in so many young kids, that fire to become something, that passion to dream..and I knew most of them won't be able to do it, just because they neither have someone to show the path nor the resources to walk on that path. It is that thing I am really going to work upon. Even if ten students are able to make big out of those places, the most fascinating stars on my blurred sky will make their first appearance.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
A teaser worth ignoring..
Although I have just 5 minutes with me before Miss Sleep takes me to bed, I want to pen something down as the urge to do it for sometime has just been too much. You can imagine that the urge has been that big that I can resist her seduction for a few more minutes. To put my last 4 days straight, its been an experience of a lifetime. I think I feel the same about every journey I endeavour upon. But this time there were some differences. One this journey was not born out of any random tripping adrenaline rush. Second it was an official trip, which are never meant to be fun anyway. Third, it was far less luxurious in the terms of facilities, mode of journey etc. compared to any of my previous travels. Finally, I was for the first time in my life actually visiting rural India. That makes it quite a list. How was it? Eye opening, Tiring and Loads and Loads of Fun!!
If by any chance you are interested in reading more about it, I plan to keyboard (not pen) it down very very soon. If you are not, I would do it anyway. So you are not really welcome, but if you still want to take the pain of visiting this page again, I won't shoo you away. I did not really invite you to read this too anyway (Check the title of this post before filing any complaints)
Till then, Keep Wandering!!
If by any chance you are interested in reading more about it, I plan to keyboard (not pen) it down very very soon. If you are not, I would do it anyway. So you are not really welcome, but if you still want to take the pain of visiting this page again, I won't shoo you away. I did not really invite you to read this too anyway (Check the title of this post before filing any complaints)
Till then, Keep Wandering!!
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