Beyond Central Tendencies

There are people, and then, there are 'THE PEOPLE'. As not-so-different the two might sound, there happens to be an earth of difference between the two clans.
The former conform, they fit in. If there is any discrepancy creeping into their order, they simply iron it out as a fault. It's like how Joker says, "Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos."
The main motive is to fit every body, mind you, not everybody, into the same mold/die. So whatever comes out, if anything meaningful comes out, looks like a product off an assembly line.
Without a doubt, these words, or at least words conveying the same meaning have been used a thousand time, more so recently. But pretty surely, plagiarism is one of my last concerns for now.
What is a bit more disturbing is that if, let us for example, take rubble as an analogy to humans. It is a bit awkward, but let us stick to " for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return", just to make the comparison of man to rubble a bit more digestible.
So, if we plan to separate dust on the basis of it's size, we use sieves with different sizes of holes on each sieve. Then we stack the sieves, one on top of the other, in decreasing order of sieve size, put all the rubble onto the stack of sieves, give it all a good shake, not a stir. And Voila! We have all the rubble sorted as per their size. All fine, all good. Until someone tries to push big chunks of rubble through the sieve meant for small sized rubble.
Surprise! Surprise! It won't go through. So what's the next step?
Let's force things through anyways.

The problem with normalcy is that we see everything through black-and-white cameras. The colors just get filtered. The point here? The point is that many times, we miss the point.
Okay. So, there is this guy X. X can't do something all the Ys' and Zs' can do. So let's tattoo X's forehead with the word 'FAILURE'. Convenient. Isn't it?

How easily, we put qualities that we are unable to see at face value, into the list for qualities that aren't supposed to matter.
Maybe the tone here is a bit too cynical, but the way we go, in general, pushing the big rocks through the small sieve will  not solve anything. It surely hasn't so far. It certainly won't, not because it hasn't earlier, but because we are attacking the wrong problem.
The upside to the whole situation is that the more we try to push the big rock through th small sieve, the more is the chance that we'll end up seeing the sieve falling apart.

Squeezing it out

It was about 6:50 am when a friend came asking my room-mate to join him for a run. It had been a while that I'd been up. So I decided to join these two folks for a morning sweat-session.
My room-mate had been itching to take his new scooter, that he'd got from his brother, out for a little 'test ride'. So we were off.
Very usual morning, very bright, perfect lighting. It never makes you want to stop.
We reached the ground. The grass had fresh dew on it, sparkling in the morning sun. Our rounds began. One round, the second, the third.. Yeah, I know that the fourth won't come before the third, but then anyways.

There's something about going round and round that makes things very...mundane. Specially on flat tracks. It ain't a means to an end, besides, it doesn't have an end. Sure, there's a beginning point and you encounter that point a dozen-or-so times before you start wondering what on earth are you doing, going round and round. In Hindi, the word for this feeling is घनचक्क (Pronounced as Ghanchakkar). And I don't like that word particularly.

I like hilly terrain. All the ups and downs, the badly laid roads, they go a long way in making the whole sweating job more exciting. Either that, or a straight road, pointing at the horizon, not giving you a clue as to where you are going. Something like this,

But by the way, doing 'rounds' is no easy thing. It is indeed very difficult to motivate yourself, and keep yourself motivated while doing something boring.
So, by the time we finished covered the ground 4 times, I was done doing 'rounds'.
And I didn't want to sap the other two of their motivation. So I left the place for another trail which is a hilly type of a trail. I go there often, when I feel bored. It's got a few really dirty climbs that really kill you. It all went fine, just that for some reason, I felt very slow.
Sometimes, there are things that occupy your thoughts without you knowing what they are, but they don't fail in making you feel heavy nevertheless.. Probably there were too many things that were gushing in all-at-a-time while I was at my ground pounding. So taking a break from civilization looked like a good call. Enter 'The Trail', the same place I mentioned, where I go when I get really bored. It's a typical hilly countryside place. Unlike the usual, where if you are running, there will be people staring at you like you are a bloody alien. On the other hand, this trail of mine, it doesn't make you feel like you are on Mars, just allows you to breathe some fresh air.
The 'Agenda for the day' was to not stop, no matter what, till I had gone the distance I had in mind, specially after understanding that legs weren't going to move any faster. At least that was one thing I was happy about, for having stuck to.
I came back to my room, got rid of my socks. Goodness,  they could kill a man! The stench! Now, comes the good part. I went to the washroom, pulled my shirt off, and did something I had been wanting to do for a while. I wrung my shirt, squeezing out as much of my sweat out of my shirt as possible. Wow! It looked like a freaking waterfall! I wanted to do this, specially after watching this movie called 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag', where the lead fellow, did something similar to fill up buckets with his sweat. There was this voice inside my head, almost in a taunting tone, saying "Yeah, man! You'r getting there!!"
It felt good though. 

Good

There's a lot of rant on what we need,
Listen carefully, pay some heed.
It's good to feel sad, so we can appreciate happiness,
And so it is to feel agitated, to enjoy inner peace.
It's nice to read a line over and over again,
To enjoy the 'Ahha!' moment after you're through with it.
It may not be easy to know where you lack,
At least, you have a head start with what needs to be done.
It's good to be nagged for something by somebody,
It keeps a track of your commitments.
If no one's criticizing, you're definitely on the wrong track.
It feels good to remember your father scold you,
Although, only after you realize, he did so for your own good.
It's good to hurt your close ones.
It makes you value them more after you're done.
It's good to realize that you can go no further,
And still carry on.
It's good for someone to tell you that it's impossible.
You have a new cause to tell them that it isn't.
It feels good to be perverse.
Even better is if you are assured to stay that you'll stay that way to your grave.
It's good to be an out-lier, if you can, in your own way,
No reason for this one though.
It's good to take the wrong side.
You always get the bigger picture.
It's good to have someone ahead,
It makes you want to do better.
It's good to have someone closing in from behind,
It makes you want to hold out that wee-bit longer.
It's good to disagree.
So, let's agree to disagree.
It's good to be selfish.
It is always better to not regret for compromising yourself.
It's good to feel an empty wallet.
It teaches you the value of desperation and hard earned money.
It's good to stand outnumbered.
You feel stronger.
Peace isn't good.
It makes you weak.
Fighting is good.
It tells you exactly how strong your ties are.
Losing is good.
It makes you want to win.
Jealousy in good.
The struggle to go uphill,
is necessary to feel the tantalizing taste of going downhill.
Ram is good, So is Ravana.
So as black, as is white.
Why did all this come up?
I was having my lunch today. A few friends and I were discussing festivals. I for one, don't have a good idea about the dates for every festival by-heart. I'm just happy to get a holiday as and when these days come by. Now, who doesn't enjoy a holiday?
Suddenly, Diwali came up in our talks. And one of us chanted that cliched line "Diwali is the celebration of the victory of good over evil.". Yeah?? Seriously? I frankly got pissed-off. How can we be so definitely sure of the 'good' and 'evil' part? I mean, how did anyone benefit from that fight? Was there loss on only one side?
As it is, from what appears to be the very beginning of mankind, we have been living with biases. Right is the 'Dexter', left isn't, because we wash our backsides with the left hand, that is, in most cases. So the rule doesn't apply for those who use their right hand to wash their backs?
As Michael Jackson sang, "It doesn't matter if you're black or white".

It worked.

This is one instance where the phrase "Trust me!" is going to sound obsolete at the end of this page.

The whole sequence of things may sound a bit inconvenient for a morning routine, but the feeling at the end of it is worth the effort.

Just to top off the cake's icing with a little red cherry, a little morning sweat would go a long way.

After all the sweaty part, if anyone bothers to go through that part anyway, just find a place where there's a lot of sunlight, the morning-8 o'clock type sunlight. Stand under the beacon of sunlight. Close your eyes, and just feel your heartbeat. Let the sunlight wash you. Rather, feel yourself drown in it. Don't think a lot. If the heavy-sweating part of the routine has been taken care of, you probably wouldn't want to think about anything at this point.If luck favors, you might just get goosebumps. Feel the mellow heat on your eye lids. That reddish glow... The warmth. 

There's just one inherent trouble with this. You don't want to get out of it! But beyond a point, you'll not have a problem letting go of the feeling, not because it is getting hot, or anything. The experience will stay with you, long after you've left the scene. Its like a good piece of fine dark chocolate. I have to thank a lot of things to have been fortunate enough to get a taste of something as divine as that, besides having the tongue capable enough to appreciate it.  

Open your eyes. For a second, everything will have a grey-ish-blue tinge to it. THAT is one thing that makes the whole thing so completely worth doing every morning. 

Rise and shine!
Again, I'll say it just for the heck of it. TRUST ME! It works.

Wolo molo wonder!

Yupp!! Today's a rare one. For a change, things haven't, proverbially so called, HIT THE SPOT, but, today, looks like the spot just increased it's radius.

Usually, this is how things start.

I am being chased by the hound of Baskervilles. I am running as hard as I can to keep my backside from falling into the hound's mouth. Then, there's this guy somewhere behind, on a horseback, whirling his lasso, aiming for my head. I don't know the scene exactly behind me. I guess I am drunk at this point. I can hear a whirling sound...which in my mind is the lasso. I hear this panting sound, accompanied by ferocious grunts..which in my imagination, should be the bloody hound. And, if I am not mistaken, I hear the taps of the horse's hoof. Mind you, that's the only sound, that of the hoof, that sounds pleasant... It sounds athletic. The remaining sounds remind you of some sort of frantic desperation.... Even your own breath. Oh! I almost forgot. A nuclear explosion is happening in my chest, each time my heart is beating.

All of a sudden, I just feel this 'thing' falling in front of my eye. It feels like a blink. But I didn't blink! The next thing I feel is a hard tug around my neck. For a second, I see the entire chain of events that is about to follow any moment. THEN...I feel the jerk around my neck.

I throw my hands in front to escape whatever it is behind me. I sit propped up on my bed, eyes wide open, heartbeat shooting through the roof, and my hands straight ahead of me, like a zombie.

I look around. Two of my room mates are staring at me. Apparently, I made a loud noise, while in the process of getting into my 'sitting-zombie' position.

That is how it usually begins..Exaggerations aside, obviously.

The start today wasn't different.

Okay. I look out of the window. Ah! Bright and shiny! For some reason, the phrase 'rise and shine' appears on this red neon sign inside my head. The blinking type neon sign. It looks more like an emergency SOS call.

A standard thought haunts me again. "Oh my goodness!! There's so much to do in life! And the day passes away like the wind! How will I do all that I want, and must?"Mom and dad must be thinking, Oh, what must our son be doing? He's just got another year-and-a-half of merrymaking in college! How, rather what will the fellow do after that?". I forcibly chuck the thoughts aside.

I performed all the morning rituals to purge myself. Then I headed out. Again, it was nice and shiny. There's something about the morning sun, no matter how hard hitting it is, that makes you feel very cozy in your clothes. I wash my hands in the sun's light. I felt this warmth on my palms...this slow heat. I could stand there literally the whole day. I almost ended up doing something like that.

I got late for the class in the process. Nothing special for the next two hours, except for the fact that I was able to grasp what was being explained. My friend, Jenifer was doing the explaining the whole thing. It was good.. I don't know why I am saying what I am about to say, but she's a good person to have for a friend, this girl Jenifer.

Lunch time! Yaaay!!! It's a Friday! Chicken!!!!! Yeah, so that's over. Then what? Oh ya, then the day's main attraction! First steps into forming a club in the college! TEDxNITCalicut's the name. Now there's something exciting! It seems like a dream taking shape. Another club, the Music Club,  I wanted to be inside, looks like an elusive dream. Chuck it... Not exactly. Any ways, moving on.

There's something about about waiting for people to turn up, that is extremely irritating. You feel a complete loss of control over your life! Specially f you are waiting for some permission of sorts.

You see, there's a permission for everything. Permission for running, for not running, for standing still, going to take a leak (remember class 4, 5, 6 or 7? Or for that matter, even now?). Thankfully, I was along with my mate, Nayan. He's like the stable(mentally) one among the two of us.

It ass sounds pretty vague. The whole thing. I mean, everything sounds so abstract. Looks as though someone gave bottles of colored water into a kid's hand and left him to his/her devices. Obviously, the kid knew how to open the bottles.

So, now it's back to the room. It's about 3. Middle of the day. Some looking into books was in order.  That was that. Then, the Phantom of the Opera looked short enough to finish in 15 minutes.

Poor guy, the Phantom. All he wanted was a lady to love him and be his wife. A lady did start to love him. Okay, she didn't exactly fall for his yellow face with black holes for eyes. But she somehow loved him and agreed to love him, and wed him(Wow! Now, I guess anybody stands a chance!!).. Sounds like a contract. Nice. I mean, for the Phantom. So what does he do, after the lady agrees to wed him? He leaves her to the guy she loves. And suicides. Arsehole! So the whole thing was an experiment.

Aim:To figure out if a lady could love the Phantom.

 Procedure:

1-Get hold of a girl who wants to sing.

2-Make her famous.

3-As she'll feel indebted to you for your deeds, she wants to repay you.

4-So you tell the lady to show you some love, despite the fact that you are hell-as ugly!(Oh! Did I mention, that a prerequisite for the experiment is that you need to be ugly as hell??)

5- If the girl disagrees, catch the guy, the girl likes, and threaten to kill him.

6-If the girl still disagrees,

6.a) Bad for the guy you caught

6.b) You may just have caught the wrong guy, so again, Bad for the guy you caught.

6.c) If the girl agrees, leave the girl and the guy to do their thing. Tell her it was a joke. Firstly, she'll kill you. But who gives a shit anyway? You already had plans to suicide after the guy and girl left the stage.

Sad shit!

A message to the Phantom: Dude, did you have the brains stuck up the wrong place??? Huh?

I look through another course book. Head out for a run. Come back , having happily hit my target, in spite of a 3 day bout of laziness. Then I sit down to gather my day onto a page. And Woalah! I just got over with about 1100 words! Phew! Must have been a long day! At least I am thankful that a few more hours remain.

And I got this new ear worm today. Ghulmil-Ghulmil Launda!!

Gone perfectly wrong!

We are all in the search of perfection. The perfect job, the perfect partner, roommate, car, bike and in short, life. There are although, very tricky forces on the playing field. And they are all overweight. And hence the phrase 'level grounds' go right down the commode. Okay, let me stop crying in the first place, about how unfair things are, or can be.

It was a perfect day until it began. As usual, by the time anything began, it was 5 in the evening. So thumbs up to that. There are days when you think that things are all fine, and then PLONK!! Gone! POOF!

So it all starts with running around. Let me talk like an Englishman for a change by talking about the weather. It wasn't the brightest. I mean, It wasn't as bright as it was 15 minutes ago. Cloudy and stuff. So you see, the weather screwed the things up!!

But my partner and I went running anyways. Nature's elements! I tell you!

Now, who the HELL is whistling the 'Godfather' tune in the corridor!!???? Bloody hell!! No! It's "Balloday 'ell"... We are trying to be British. Forgot?

Okay, so the weather was screwed up, I mistakenly thought that I was in a mood for a run, and so many other things. Oh! Almost forgot! My partner was on a roll. I mean, his speed and stuff was propelling him a lot forward than  mine was propelling me! Brilliant. There is ONE more thing. Okay, this is a bit of a 'private emotion problem' kind of a thing. More than emotion, it's more like 'private Motion problem' kind of a thing, you see. Hope that was suggestive enough. I mean, you didn't really expect me to say that I was having 'Down-loading' issues, now, did you? Wow! Man, I should get into Stand-up comedy!! You see, I like standing. I just don't like being left standing.. Any ways, bad jokes aside, let's come back to the RUN.

So today, in the very beginning, my partner was like "Let's take it easy today." See?? See?? It's like the whole world was conspiring against me from the very beginning!! Hell to you! And before that? A crow downloaded... Now THAT is the only time in my life where I didn't have to wait for a download. Did I mention that I was under the crow? Ah!! Now you see.... I mean, Don't you?

Yeah, enough digression. So running running, strangely, I didn't feel like it any more. Hmm... That's what I call 'magical realization'! And then it was like tumbling Domino's. Now herein lies the problem. The domino's didn't take more than 30 minutes to fall. At least if they had, things would have been a lot more 'free'. So there comes an incline! Yessss!!! I love inclines... Specially the 'going-up'/climbing ones. Things that move in all their glory down-hill or on flat grounds, they wither away at the sight of an upward slope. Good for me... Thankfully, this climb was the only time in the entire day where I felt like a warrior(a.k.a myself). Ooooooh!! I so love to put myself on a pedestal! So I was playing 'Catching up'. I caught up to an extent. And then the slope got over... Hmmm.... I don't know why though, I couldn't push  myself today as I usually can. So End of the slope. I was like... "What the hell!". The end was close. I could see my buddy right up ahead, and then for some inexplicable reason, I stopped 50 meters before finish line. Now here's the funny part.

She appeared. Exactly when I felt things could go wrong no more. If you have seen the movie Inception, you remember Leonardo's wife turning up at exactly the perfectly wrong time. Now my 'She' just happened to have done that today.I usually light up at her sight. But not today!!! Helll!!!!!!!

I am just happy that she smiled. Although now, I feel that I should have gone into overdrive mode on the slope, beaten my partner on our race to the finish line, crossed the imaginary red ribbon first and gone and given her a hug, maybe a peck on her cheek(Okay, maybe not that..I mean you can only ask so much, you see...although you never know.) and shouted, "Yo! Adrian! We did it!!".

Alas...

You see, It happens. Shit happens!

THE MAN!

We are a civilized society. Or so, we are told. Good, Excellent! Isn't it brilliant that we are a civilized society? Seriously! When was the last time.....Err... No! No! Wait! Wait! Wait! I guess I need to change my stand on this whole topic running inside my head. It happens like this sometimes. The(my) mind takes U-turns on things.

So where were we? Yeah, Civil society.

As very vividly mentioned in this movie called 'School of rock', there's always 'THE MAN' in everything going right or wrong. Chucking the movie aside, let's concentrate on THE MAN. It's always been THE MAN. It's always for THE MAN. It's always been of THE MAN. And as long as the above is true, everyone is very happy, as nobody really has to do anything. THE MAN will take care of it all! Man/Woman, this is boring.

By th way, something that has always troubled me is that, why do we say “Hey, Man!”, and not “Hey, Woman”, (okay, only while talking to the ladies). Or is 'man' a general term? Meaning, do we generalize woman as a subset of man? Wo-Man? You get it? You get it? Besides that being true, whoever uses the expression 'Hey, Woman!' is sure to be some trend-setter of sorts. Good for who ever it is.

So, , THE MAN. Our indecisiveness stems from whom? If your answer is 'THE MAN', please go and give yourself a pat on the back!Who stops you from fixing a problem in your immediate surroundings?Your options? You want options? Okay.... We all know the options anyways. Here they are, anyways..

A. THE MAN

B. THE MAN

C. THE MAN

D. THE MAN

Your answer? Correct! E is the right answer!!

Now, what if there was no MAN? How about 'There IS no MAN!'

How easily, we thwart anything that comes our way, waiting for instructions from THE MAN?

Imagine this. You are in a place, where you have been told to leave your footwear outside the premises of this place in order to help maintain the place clean. Now, this guy walks into this place 'LIKE A BOSS' with his footwear on. Most people in this place notice this 'boss'. Now, we all know that the chance of anyone telling the guy to go out, remove his footwear and then step back in, is frankly, remote. Why? Why bother? Someone will! ENTER................................................................THE MAN. THE MAN will always be present in every scene where no one else dares to, unless someone dares to.

He is like the person who maintains the status quo. Specially when things aren't going our way, or the way it should, as per preference.

Quite frankly, and more so thankfully, many among us are capable of filtering out the noises of THE MAN and cutting straight to the chase. We have, in most cases witnessed these fellow beings, specially when things hit us in a big way., be it floods, storms or any calamity. They don't pledge their obedience to THE MAN. Nor do they indulge in discussions over issues over which they can't do much about, fighting to prove their intellectual superiority.

And then comes the saying, 'We are special because we can empathize with a fellow mind.' Now, there is no point in wanting to slap the fellows who say this , nor in wanting to ask them if they have read the mind of all animals/learned the languages that animals speak, to so blatantly make such claims.

Fair enough, We all can fell empathy. So then what? Huh? So WHAT? What's the point of all the empathy that we can feel on the planet, where, when it comes to doing, we wait for THE MAN? 

Juggle balls?

So now, when you home alone, and you feel scared that someone's around, when no one is, look to your left, look to your right. Look behind. Look under the bed, in the shower, behind the curtains and all the nooks and crannies. Just do me a favor. Just don't look up. He doesn't like being seen.

At this point, the teacher asks her most favorite question. “So kids, moral of the story?” All the kids shout in unison, all in their squeaky little voices.. “Keep calm, look up, and show THE MAN the finger!" Look at the times we live in! Even our imagination, kindergarten kids know which finger to show THE MAN!