Little stuff

In a couple of days, it will be a week since I stepped 'back' into my college campus after a pretty fulfilling summer holiday. The first day sucked. Then, it was all back to the normal...the coffee, the desperation, the frustration, the uncontrollable laughter, the leg pulling, pushing, new faces, not so new faces...blah....blah...annd...blah... Okay stop!
I still get the feeling that nothing is happening. The only thing I have done newly is getting myself some company for my evening runs. That's an upside..currently, the only exciting thing(or anything coming close to an exciting thing) that there is.
That girl!! She still ignores me. Just for a change,I try to ignore her too, and partially succeed.... or whatever that means. I happened to have the pleasure of crossing the 1000th page of a book for the second time in my life... Just that the last seven pages of the ruddy book still make me feel guilty for leaving them unread. The fear of getting a cold after running in the rain jumped out of my closed window after I ran in the rain a d did not get a cold. Thankfully, I didn't have to pay anything to the hostel authorities for repairing my windows...
What else?? I feel my mind is rusting out. It feels like a block of cast iron. Hmm...I don't need dumbbells while squatting anymore. As usual, I am over-analyzing my situations. If there is something called a 'Anxiety-due-to-inability-of-creating-humorous-string-of-words-caused-by-inexplicable-circumstances Syndrome', that is exactly what I am suffering from. I am also quite sure that I am going to excuse myself to the washroom for a leak after re-reading this post for errors, for the single reason of looking in the mirror(if there is one in the washroom) and BANGING my head on the nearest wall, for writing this post. I also do realize that if ever I run out of ideas(the thoughts of which wake me up in the middle of my lectures...) I shall remain blank for the remaining time I have on this planet as the contents of this post were the intended contents of the  last-resort-post.. Upside? I will have to think for new content for my last-resort-post. Downside?? I will have to think for new content for that bloody last-resort-post .....again!!!! 

The one

There are times when my imagination wants to take a walk in the park. Just that sometimes, the imagination part........seems too real.

Look carefully. It won't take you an instant to recognize the walk. Now how does one do a catwalk without doing a catwalk? However it may be done, this walk that you may see will be what comes closest. As she moves closer,you see, her arms swing in a rather languid manner. But somehow, it makes her seem to move faster than she actually is moving. There isn't much movement about the hips, neither sway, nor rotation. It kind of explains the 'not-so-in-a-hurry' manner in her movement, yet exudes some kind of athletic finesse,further accentuated by her slender contours.
There isn't anything about her hair that will be of any use to marketers of hair-care products, until unless they plan to sell you curls. But not the curls that get you to cry over a bad-hair day.
In a way,everything about her belongs to the 'not-too-loud' category of features....'Subtle' seems to hit the spot in my search for adjectives. 
Mind you, there isn't a thing about this sight that has any element borrowed from conventional dictionaries of beauty by a long shot. Nothing to droll over(Yuk!)
Moving on to the face...something very ordinarily extraordinary. Not the one to catch your glance, but the one that has the 'sticking factor' to it. The image gets 'saved'. Although I am yet to see a big wide smile on that face,whatever it might look like,will not be any less than a mesmerizing sight. Something very surprising(rather strange) is the fact that more emotions get conveyed a lot more from her eyebrows than the eyes.
Thankfully a change over how many have gone about mulling over someone's eyes for centuries..
It all looks like a lioness...not out for a hunt... Just for a stroll...Like my imagination... or may be reality..

Cost of value

It'll be a while before we will get the full hang of the monetary system all around us.(Apologies for using big words)
Thing is, I am slightly extra touchy about cash. It must be my upbringing, my grandfather's strict adherence to 'not spending more than required' philosophy and a few more things, which I am.... currently.... unable to recollect. Both my parents work in the commercial sector. My father relentlessly instructs me to go through the news paper. Although he never does tell me to be much concerned about the economics stuff 'that emphatically' (probably because I start pestering him with questions on terms and things that fly right over my head like a jet plane), I look it up any way. I actually got a thing for prices of commodities like metals,currencies...and more of yak-nonsense about the writer later....

Few things struck me very hard recently.
I woke up this morning, a couple of days ago on a pretty high note( Ċ ). [Ċ is a 'Sa', or 'Do' in the musical scale. The dot on top indicates a higher pitch of the normal scale.]
That was all that was high about the day. And it came plummeting down like a MiG 21...
My mom told me to get some bread. She told me that if the shop had eggs, I buy a dozen. I ended up buying a dozen loaves of bread.....Jokes apart..
And yeah. She also told me to get milk. Here's the trouble. There's something called M.R.P. on all products. We all know the expansion of the term, hence I let it be. Now, no shop keeper gets to sell his stuff above the M.R.P. I go to buy milk. On the packet, the mentioned M.R.P. is Rs. 16. The shopkeeper asked for Rs. 17. I was like 'What the....'. I had 3 packets of milk to purchase. The fellow was adamant,and I was short on time. So I payed the extra 3 bucks and walked off. I hated myself for the time I have known myself ever since.
For most of us reading this, reading this, one may think " 3 buck?? Huh?? The fellow is a miser!! Cry-baby!"
Maybe you are right. Jussst mayyyybe. Or not so. For the fortunate ones,whom we are lucky to count ourselves in, that extra buck might not count, whereas it should!! I happened to have the fortune/misfortune of hearing these stories where a few not-so-fortunate parents muster every penny and dime to do their bet at giving their children the 'luxury' of milk. I don't like sounding like a social worker, but as an example of such a situation, look at our own Olympian Sushil Kumar. The guy's family had been in financial distress. His father was himself a wrestler. He gave up because the family couldn't support the demands of two wrestlers. In such a situation, that one buck that I decided to part with for the sake of convenience will matter. The example I took was something that came out into public. What about the ones that didn't? And when one among us decides to pay as per the seller's whim, he gets a chance to throw his weight around others. Maybe who are not so fortunate as I was to get away with it.

One thing very common is the usual association of price to value of a commodity. A might-not-be-exact example is "Oh!! The iPhone costs 40-odd grand!! It is very valuable!!" Those who buy it,..... Ahh, forget it! Thing is, they purchase the thing, go about flaunting it, then overtly worrying about it...then somewhere, a newer version comes in,and brings along with it 'insecurity'!!
I have seen this one case. This bloke is obsessed with brands. He went about buying an Android phone. Yes, aspirations are good, even better if you have the capacity to fulfill them. But if it blinds you, what's the point? So this chap and another one were upto downloading some song or something. The other fellow was about to download the song. This 'brand-y' fellow said: "अरे! मेरे फ़ोन से डाउनलोड कर लो , Android है, जल्दी डाउनलोड हो जाएगा "(Download the song from my Android phone, It'll be faster) The few of us who heard it...we were like "Hmm....".
We all love branded stuff! I very openly announce my 'thing' for brands.
I have my own story. Ever since I was a kid, I have been a big fan of shoes. Not so about getting the 'Jordan collection' or something, but I like the ads shoe companies bring out(Loved Zigtech!!)
When I was a kid, my dad kept from buying me the branded shoes(I actually thank him for it). He said that since I was growing, the extra money wouldn't be worth it. It was and sounded perfectly logical. But once, when I was about....12 or something, he let my shoe budget exceed a grand. I remember, it was a navy blue Nike!! And how I fell in love with it. Another reason why(I realized this a lot later) he kept from buying me the expensive stuff was to help me appreciate the difference in quality. How that Nike felt less than half the weight of the conventional ones I'd worn till then. My successive shoes that I purchased luckily were bought using the bonus coupons that my dad used to get as 'credit card reward points'...(more on that later!!) But the graph of my shoe price was sneaking higher every time. I had almost decided that I would progressively increase my shoe's budget. Then I got into running. Nothing professional, but I sort of took it as my birthright to get myself expensive shoes, specially since I didn't demand for much else.
Thankfully, someone threw a stone at me. It had a word embossed on it. It hit me on my head pretty hard. The embossed word turned out to be 'minimalism'. So with this stamp on my head, enlightenment struck me....without doing Yoga!!
I figured that the stuff that the branded fellows sold,the same stuff, if you searched enough, you could get for a third/lesser the price. Downsizing... something many around me saw as lowering one's standards, I just saw the upside. Yes, the status factor may go right out of the window. But who gives? As long as it keeps me running happily, what else??
Discounts, Privilege Cards, Special Combo OFFER!!, Sale, SEASON END SALE!! BALLS!!!
The ways sellers have figured out to trick the buyer into buying more stuff freak you out. Most of these schemes can be avoided pretty easily. I personally cannot claim that I have escaped all the tricks myself, but I am hoping I have,specially after looking around for stuff,de-cluttering my available options and doing all such fancy things...
These schemes,more often than not(if my observation is correct by far) catches those who aren't specific about the thing they are looking for. Hence 30% on purchase of one sounds worse than 40% on purchase of two(specially if one went about looking just for one.) Such things take you by surprise,specially with too many choices at hand. That is another thing that has come to the limelight...Choice. Lesser you have, easier to choose.
Season-end sales.... Goodness!! Ladies!!! Why would anyone sell their stuff for 50-60 % off??? True that this might be the best time to stock up the wardrobes, but why pile up stuff that was originally worth 40% of it's price?? Okay, after reading this one, many will curse me for not getting sleep after their recent SALE-binge.... Moving on...
Credit cards-The folks who devised this system were smart. They are so blatant about the amount of money they make that they actually 'incentivise' expensive purchase. I don't realize why, but folks are happy with the 'customer bonus points' or many such gimmicks they get as an added 'benefit'.
I'll (hopefully)soon have to wade through the same quick-sand as many of these folks are. Why 'hopefully'?? you say?
भाई साहब/देवीजी !! नौकरी आप दिलाएंगे ??(Dude/Lady, You're going to employ me??)
Now... If this gets read by some future employer, who by mistakenly decided to employ me in  the first place....even he'll change his mind....
Now I see what studying engineering does to you......

Marine run

I have this thing for going long distances on foot....a bit faster than brisk walking...
I went to Marine drive for a run. For those who know the place, I do not need to tell you why I like this place. For those who don't....

Yeah..THAT!!
It is HANDS-DOWN the best place in the whole of Mumbai...Definitely of the best places I have seen in this short life of mine. Annnd it comes with an added advantage. A HUGE!! LONNNNG (3 km) footpath to run your heart out(okay....eventually, it becomes short).
There's anothier thing about it. It is measured for every 100 meters. There is this granite slab on the floor that has the distance engraved on it from either end of the 3 km....And you are pretty unlikely to notice that if you just go for a stroll...
First time I went here, I jussst could finish a to-and-fro thing on this stretch. Then slowly, I eventually hit the 10k mark recently. This time,when I ran this place.....I kind of got bored.
Yeah, the sun setting by your side, waves of the sea paint a beautiful picture and stuff and whats. But it got boring...not tiring..BORING!!
I wondered why....and eventually, I had a 'EUREKA' moment.
I was getting bored of constantly being reminded that I had done 200......600....1300....2500 meters. And even if you do not intentionally read the so called '100meterstones' which came 16 times before a Milestone, each time I passed a .....stone, it was intrinsically doing the math. Yes, a bit of math won't hurt but it became a bit of an obstruction.
The last time I did a 10k,it was slightly different. I knew I'd done 10 k after I came back and checked the whole thing on google. That day,10k felt pretty not-so-killer-as-I-thought. Probably it was because I wasn't bothered with/by the distance.
There are upsides,though, of measured pavements.... You know you haven't overdone it/know when you have..You don't need google.... You can run specific distances like a 100m sprint or something like that,which usually is rather difficult.
I still feel I can't put the feeling in words why going to-and-fro on a beautiful strip of land is something I do not fancy(few reasons may be obvious)...
I guess I need a new location.

The little ones.

Everything goes fine till the time, they are trained to be afraid! Those bouncy things look like little white rabbits, huffing and puffing around. And thing about them is that they personify innocence, whether they pop out of a cows, lion, giraffe or a lady.

Little monsters...puke and shit producing factories(w all are the former...fine!!) The only thing I feel bad for are the ones who have to clean up later... Sorry mom!

Good thing about these creatures is that they RUN before they can walk,the moment they get a chance. Okay all this 'kidding' is because of this thing I saw while in a train.

This kid was about 4-5, probably first day in school after a long vacation, completely psyched out, travelling with his father. The father, I guess, went to school to pick up the kid. On the way back,the father sat, looking rather tired after the whole day. In front of him, the kid was telling all about his day. From the looks of it, the kid's day had just started. The father pretended to be hearing all the yapping...frankly, he was napping! 

If you observe kids, the come at you in bursts of energy!! Pulse Ultra-violet radiation kinds. The way the describe their experiences, irrespective of whether or not someone is hearing what they are saying or not, they bloody well just go ON, ON ANNND ON!!! Their excitement has no bounds! Their energy is so bloody infectious!! I was seeing this little fellow....his eyes growing big with every moment!! He was literally bouncing on the seat, telling something like "Daddy!! Daddy!! You know?? Some JKL fellow is a complete jerk!! You know what he did??  He did this, he said that!! He did a handstand on the bathroom commode!! Even I want to do a handstand on the bathroom commode!!" Okay, the commode part was complete shit... but they are so persistent!!

I have a kid-sister..okay, she's 4 years younger to me...so she isn't exactly a 'kid', but whatever!! She's still a kid in my head. Surprisingly enough, she kind of respect me....It's like a baby elephant, once tied to the tree in it's childhood,when it can't move the tree, thinks for an entire lifetime that it can't let itself loose, even though it an snap the tree in half, with the smallest jerks.

Anyways, my sister is this very exuberant  and lively thing!! The excitement I saw in the kid from the train, my sister is 4 times the age, but still remains chirpy as ever!! 

Thing with kids is that your mood sways with their's.. Quite frankly, they personify the life most of us covet!

But you see, something goes awfully wrong in some time, down the line. We become civilized. We start watching NEWS. And all work and more of Arnab Goswami (and the likes),makes Jack and Jill very dull people. 

Then they go up a hill to fetch a pail of water...

And return with a daughter...   

In our nation, I don't see why, everything goes down the hill after the daughter. Why?? What good is the garden without flowers?? We already have too many bees!! What do people want?? Bee-stings??

Coming back to the bunnies!!

A saw this small cartoon video about this small kid who looks at a tree, contemplating to climb it. He  slips here and there, falls somewhere, but eventually makes the climb. He grows up. Somewhere,he's told that what he is shooting for is too much. After repeatedly being told that, he loses heart. The kid in him goes mute. Then the guy gets his strings pulled from every side possible by all the Toms, 'Dicks', and Jimmys'...(let's chuck Harry for a change...). Then family follows suit. Then, his own kids pop out. More complications. His dreams look like the light at the end of the tunnel. Just that with every passing day, the journey from his end to the other  seems more and more longer and daunting. Then, what I see mostly nowadays, he gives up. And this saddens me. It actually scares me,more than saddening me. But then, there are the one-offs'. They restore your faith in miracles and the sound of the heart. They are still the kids, at least inside. And they make the whole thing worth looking forward to. 

'They' also make me sound like an octogenarian. Bloody hell!! I should believe my father when he says "You're still a kid!!". Pappa!! You're right!!

The pink elephant.

For a change, let's forget the bees and the flowers. I have never seen a novel come to life before. That is, up till now. Sadly, it is philosophical.
I have no clue as to how, the entire humanity has come down to this. Frankly, I have a doubt that I overdosed on Ayn Rand. But the thing is that anything, might as well be the most obvious of trivialities, if it involves anyone to take a stand, we collectively have somehow managed to condemn it. If not condemned, most people concerned with the situation cower under some authoritative umbrella. Let's take a very common scenario...or the one that came to my mind first, honestly...
Teacher: "The chapter(say...umm...Laws of motion) is over. Those of you who want a revision test on the topic, raise your hands."
Students: Mute..... No hands up...
Teacher: "Those of you who don't want the revision test,please raise your hands."
Students: Mute..... No hands up........(again)
Yes! I totally agree with the futility of the above example, but then, that isn't too far from what I want to suggest.
Another one...this one is THE most epic one...
A kid goes to a mother and asks.."Mamma!! Mamma!! How did I come into this world?? "
Mother: "Kiddo, we prayed, prayed and prayed more to god to bring you into this world...And then... you kind of...err....just popped out."
Yeah... Prayed and prayed....to God...Hmmm....
If the kid asked that question to the grandmother, she'd have preferred to get her lights knocked out to answering the question.
Okay,the kid  here is not 4 okay? That would really screw up the whole point of all the 'praying'...
In one day, I saw parts of an old, but very prominent case of our nation[Yes,there are too many  cases pending in the courts of the nation that may be a  lot graver] ,and then a recent debate on an issue that came to 'light'...
The case being Jessica Lal's murder
The recent issue being the Snowden-revelation.
The case first- Over a hundred people see the incident. Less than 10 testify. No one wants to get their hands dirty. United we stand, divided we fall...Balls!.. specially as no one is willing to stand.
An incident it seems, is more likely to come out in public in presence of few people,instead of a huge crowd. Not because the crowd is insensitive to injustice. In case of a crowd, most members of a crowd thing that
1) It's not their job to be too concerned
2)Someone else will stand up among them
And everyone thinks some 'that person' will speak up. End result? No one speaks up, mostly.
One more reason(this is more of my gut feeling) All lack the balls! Since in a crowd, you can't pick up anyone and start questioning, their safety lies in their collective cowardice. And someone's family, as a result, goes through hell, while trying to seek justice.

As for the 'Snowden' case, I write this after watching a heated debate on why's and what's of rights and wrongs of the whole online/offline gig, I have too many aspects swimming in my head.
And anyone with a better understanding of any of the following, feel free to opine...
1) Edward(Firstly, I feel sorry for everyone with this name...Somehow, in all public appearances, this person always takes a lot of beating...Take Edward Cullen for instance...Moving on..) put his all at stake to tell 'us' about U.S. spying on 'us'(again) via internet.
Firstly, for 'us' as such, who post photos on Facebook, share and pass comments, 'Tweet' around and do all the remaining treadmill acrobatics online, buy stuff via 'Cash on delivery' options, all of this means nothing. The worst thing is that someone will star on 'Emotional Atyachaar's 7th/8th season for cheating on their spouse. Seriously?
Those who can be in harm's way are the ones who have a lot of financial transactions/businesses on the web...a Black Swan,but why not consider the possibility?
This is more or less what may concern the public
2) The internet is, technically U.S. property. They quite single handedly made it. So technically, they know the loops and the holes in it. So if anyone cries about having a global 'Memorandum od Understanding' about the policy concerning terms and usage of the internet, he/she should stop bullshitting. Why would anyone with a better hand agree to let go of his/her advantage in the name of 'general public good' ??
In our case, there isn't a dearth of brilliant minds who can turn things around. They don't see the upside of staying back in here after seeing better prospects outside...maybe not for long, but still. And hence, they end up playing from the other side. So instead of making a hue and cry for the situation like a kid crying because the other guy is stronger, hitting the gym seems to be a better option. It never was, isn't, and never will be a level ground.
3) This is for the general contempt for all who cower behind authority to remain in their 'good  books'. If a country's representative cowers behind the interest of a stronger nation's opinion, to seemingly 'protect' inter-national co-operation and negotiations, well, the guy has no spine. Yes, I may not have the complete picture while saying this. But opinions are most welcome!
4) And one country taking upon itself, the burden of global security onto it's own shoulder?? As a matter of fact, anyone claiming his/her intent as 'public good'... is lying!!
There's this book called 'Atlas Shrugged'. It is probably, the most painful thing to go through, right behind Heart attack and Child labor on the 'PAIN' scale. Somehow, this complete scene looks like a frame from this book.
Almost forgot!! Someone must be checking this thing out!! As if they(all of the bandwagon) didn't do so before we were enlightened!!

Today's Word

It is time to spread the word..and the word is ONSLAUGHT!!
It is absolute bombardment on the human senses! The other day, I just started taking driving  lessons...in spite of having a license to kill.... a)by driving fellow humans crazy....and b) by driving over them(for now...) what I realized was the amount of information one has to receive and process while driving a vehicle from all possible directions... Yeah,it slowly becomes second nature, so-on and forth, but for now, it looks scary.
Somewhere 6-8 months ago, I remember, I was sitting in a lecture. Suddenly, a reading worm bit me...On my bum!! I actually started reading for a very different reason,which was anything, but to develop it as a hobby. But books have a way of their own. They told me to get lost....in them.THAT!! is the difference between a BOOK...and a girl. Damn! I so shouldn't have written that last line(see how I smartly didn't CAPITALIZE the word 'girl'?? I just capitalized on my chance of reading... smart huh??) Okay!! Coming back to books, I noticed this restlessness in me long before the bug-to-bum incident. It's happened(and still happens) usually in a book store/library or any such place filled with books. The confusion is out of what to read? What to buy?? How many to buy???
Complete overload!!!! I buy two,regret not buying the other 6... Who told that our kind behaves rationally? There have been books on the irrational behavior of man!!
Again, there's an onslaught on your senses by your own mind.....pulling and tugging you from all sides.
I have been in and out of a lot of shopping malls in the last couple of months. Nothing unusual for the fortunate ones. But there is something I noticed rather recently. It is commonplace in a surrounding such as a mall..This, I call 'PSYCHEDELIC ONSLAUGHT!!' The manner that colours shoot at you from every corner of one's field of vision almost feels like optical asphyxiation! It actually takes a while to get used to the setting. Annnd then, all the psychology the manufacturer has put into the product starts to take it's toll on you in a good way(for the manufacturer, anyway). It was obviously intended.
Thing is that(as per personal experience) our eyes are attracted to colors. It is while typing the last line that I realized our fascination for rainbows. Remember? as kids? It was like something to boast about..at least for my friends..."You know?? I saw a rainbow!!" It's not that it wasn't something for me to boast about... The first one I saw was when I turned 19... You see what happens when a 19 year old goes about announcing he witnessing a rainbow??
I'll tell you...
Me: "Dude!! Dude!! I saw a rainbow yesterday!!"
Friend(the Dude..) : "Get a life man!! Ho old  are you?? 4??"
Me: Forever lonely...
I am just fortunate that the above incident didn't happen with a girl.. Actually it is unfortunate that it didn't happen with a girl...they seem to be a bit more sensitive to rainbow-ish things.. ORRR maybe not. Forget it...
There's another thing that has been widely talked upon. CHOICE. I am a fan of Malcolm Gladwell and of people(very few of whom I know about) who look at stuff that many a times goes unnoticed.
Apart from many of the things that we have successfully managed to get backwards,choice is one of them.
If given a choice between choosing between 3 varieties of um.... say flavored...chewing gums(Dirty mind!!) and 7 varieties of chewing gum i.e. you are either asked to choose between 3 flavours/7 flavors at any time, we inadvertently opt to choose to opt from the 7 flavors. But there's a trick. It turns out that deciding to choose from 7 flavors is a lot more frustrating than to do the same from 3 choices. So more options, more ways to happiness turns out to be wrong..
As for the 'ONSLAUGHT' aspect of Choice is when we look at something like the 'Cereal isle' of a shopping mall. "20-25 years ago,there was barely a single rack for breakfast cereals. Now,as the word goes,there's an isle dedicated to cereals. What to pick?What to leave?  Muesli? Corn Flakes?? Special K(For the ladies..)Wheat bran?Your brain? My brain? Aaarrrrggggghhhhh!!!!!!!!
Let's just gulp coffee and take off in the morning!! Nescafe or Bru??