Path and End

"We love you and not your marks" My parents said when Iwas unable to write an exam due to illness. So important is the quote in today's competitive world. Its necessary to realize the life beyond studies or work.I always joke that scientists never have a wife or a girlfriend so that they can divert all their time to research purpose. In reality there are stories of great scientists who confined there existence within the boundaries of labs or universities for years together. The great discoveries were made at the expense of their personal life.

When you stay focused you obviously don't have a second life.But when you are 'forced to focus' things get a bit awry. This very dilemma makes life dull,unidimensional. The ever rising competition demands more and more from the individual. Of a majority of discussions with my friends CGPA,placements and a series of never ending worries are always a part. I am not denying the importance of these worries but what I want to emphasize is that sometimes you need to change your vision. If you are moving on the path that you chose for yourself,wait for a moment,watch what all is there around,understand that there is much more than mere walking,get refreshed and then again start walking.There will definitely be some difference between the two walks.

Unusual Ideas

During End semesters your mind is forced to think in a specific direction. But as human tendency goes, more you press yourself into the state of orderedness, more vulnerable you are to get into a state of disorder. I am experiencing it presently. Here are some unconventional but interesting ideas.

a) Type on a notepad while listening to your favorite English song its lyrics (Or any English speech or something similar)This has two great benefits-

1) Your typing speed will increase a lot

2) Your English listening capacity will develop.

b) Style of writing your phone number and email address:

340 m/sec: ********* (Your phone number)

60 WPM : abc@xyz.com
(WPM-Words per minute)

I would love to hear any other interesting way!

Sunday

I was there at the Soumyadeep's room sitting in front of his laptop.He uses "Google desktop" which has many interesting features like calendar,CPU usage,memory status etc.But the most catchy thing was the "To Do" list.(For a 9.5+ guy you would surely expect things like doing maths assignments,reading Mechanics of solids,completing lab journals etc!)

I started recalling the last time when I planned to do something and successfully achieved the target.I've read a nice statement,

People don't plan to fail,but they fail to plan

Its been almost 4 years since I am planning for the effective utillization of my sundays.(And this is the 4th successive year of failure!)

The program starts from saturday night-I sleep early so that my Sun'day' should not get spoilt.
Sunday morning-I wake up early,feel fresh,"Thank God! I am not late,hopefully I would be able to make the most of my time"
Somehow I manage to doing some crappy things till the lunch(anything other than what I had planned)
Lunch-The most beautiful diet of the week.You obviously cant have less at that day.Meals till the full mark!
Post lunch-Its not a bad idea to have a "power nap"
(Power nap concept-Rest for the conservation of energy for the productive tasks post-nap)
zzzz-till 4-5 PM...
5 PM-Time for some evening snack!
Eventually its time for the dinner(Both in Kota and Pilani the dinner timings are quite earlier than the usual 9/10 PM)
Finally when I burp,I realize that all the plans,all the hopes are gone with the burp!(Also with the sleep and the food too!!)
At last when its night..All the 'hardwork' done in the daytime is now showing its signs and I am too sleepy to carry on with the studies.

I don't ask for any lifelong planning nor I ask for any structured paths for my future,but anybody,"please chalk out a good and an executable plan for my Sundays & the way to execute it successfully!"

Escapism

In childhood I had some really weird ideas about the calamities like Earthquake or flash floods etc.I even used to think about an imaginary sky high tower that would be sufficient to accomodate my family and me in case of any high-end contingency. Now when I have grown up,such kiddish thinking makes me laugh but at the same time it makes me ponder about one of the most crucial facets of human nature-Escapism.

Going to the roots of Escapism,I figured out a few things that may promote the tendency to get away. There can be a few kinds of Escapism.

• Escapism with respect to stakes.
  

Escapist Tendency-Unwillingness for taking risks-Fear of getting unsuccessful-The lack of self-belief.
Lack of self belief can be due to many factors,the discusssion of which is not relevant here.

• Escape from responsibilities
  

Quite frequently the tendency may also be driven by lazyness.

• Escapism in human life or relations.
  

Take a remote control of TV and start surfing the news channels in particular. Most of them would depict the gloomy scenario of the society.
Its not surprising if you would wish to switch to something that's not unpleasent.

Another example is about frankness.If you are an Escapist you would let something happen which may not be appropriate.The reluctance to oppose may be due to
a) Desire of clash-free atmosphere.
b) Self-centered nature.
c) Lack of courage.

Its difficult to entirely put down the Escapist tendency.Some times its advisable to be an escapist rather than be a aggressor to save your time and efforts. High risk-high returns may be a well known principle but what matters is the question "What is at stake?". Golden mean between these two should be achieved according to the situation demand.

In my personal example I took nearly 18 years to confess that "I act as an escapist in many situations". I hope hereafter things can change. Because I could have easily "Escaped" this thinking process! But I didn't!

Connectivity

The title might be misleading here. One may think of connectivity with respect to mobile or Internet.But I have a completely different context. I was listening to Sandip Khare's poems.(Sandip Khare is a famous Marathi Poet.His Programme "Aaushyawar Bolu kahi" is quite a hit in Maharashtra) Sandip Khare has got a large Fan community amongst which youth form most of the part. The language is easy to understand. Real life situations are beautifully described in an emotional manner.

In my opinion the reason for the large youth followers is the title of the article "Connectivity".Although the language,the style or the beauty of the poetry have their own credit but what matters a lot is that the youth can connect themselves to those poems.It is quite possible for many of the fans to put themselves in many of the poems. They can relate themselves to the situations.I have numerous examples in this regard.

The phenomenal success of "Rang De Basanti" can be another example. The avant garde concept Bhagat Singh in Jeans was really a hit. The reason still remains the same. The earlier image of Bhagat singh was difficult to relate with for the youth. But the feel "anyone amongst us can contribute to the nation by some way" was the major achievement of the film. What mattered the most was "connectivity".

Some more Examples:

• The initial success of "K" Sops-House wives could connect themselves with the characters of the serials.
• Highly successful Amitabh Bachhan in the 70's or 80's. Average Indian audience was able to relate themselves with the"Young angry man"
• The Mac-Donald's in India have some kind of Tikka as their largest selling entity. Call it the Indianization of Mac-Donald's or the business trick or whatever you may wish,my interest remains the connectivity of average Indian customer with the Menu Card. Its easy to connect with names such as Tikka-Samosa etc etc than some unknown foreign names.

The morale of the story :If you have an idea which people can connect themselves with,chances are high that it will click.

Role model path Vs Pioneer Path

I want to draw parallels between two paths for success.Although these are not the only ways to fetch success.

First one is the way where you have some role model who inspires you for the act which you have been doing.Another one is the path where you are the first one (or the only one at that time) to opt for it. Its the success achieved by the role model in the past grabs the attention of the followers of the same path. Engineering your own way requires a lot of original thinking,vision and the patience to take the task to the finish mark.The amount of original thinking may differ in both the paths,pioneer path needs more. "Gurukanth Desai" from film "Guru"is an ideal example of the pioneer path star. Without any assistance from the surrounding atmosphere Desai became the greatest industrialist of the country.He didn't have any godfather to guide him en route.

The experiences,the challenges,the skill to handle suddenly arisen and unexpected problems make the path difficult if you are the lone and the first traveller of the path. Each stumbling block along the path has a certain element of surprise and varying potential of risk in it. It needs enormous self belief to trace your own path and to defy the existing pathways. It takes a copernicus to wreck the contemporary believes and stand on own point. The courage behind the firm stand is the product of self belief which comes from correct work basics and right approach.

Even if you have a role model whose ways you can mimic,there can be situations where the problems faced by you and your role model might be different. At many stages you have to be original and contemplation becomes a necessity.

The glory fetched after the successful completion will obviously differ. Its actually the indicator of the hardships faced.

Its not always possible to define your own way,it depends upon the nature of the person taking up the job. To pioneer your path needs a lot of courage where as following the footsteps has reduced risk in it.A person playing safe might choose the later one where as a courageous person would go for the earlier. In my opinion the glory factor might be the tempting reason to prefer the pioneer path over the role model path.

Random Thoughts

Ever wondered whats so special to be human and to live human life? Its because humans have emotions,they can understand emotions-their own as well as others. Joy,sorrow,anger,love-each one has its impact on the human life. Each one rules the heart.

I listened to aniket's poems yesterday. They touched my heart. Beautifully written,each line,each word has meaning that conveys the maturity of thinking. The optimism in the writing was another striking feature. There wasnt any shade of sorrow,the grief of a broken heart,things that are normally found in most of the poems nowadays. If he permits i will surely post them on my blog.

Humans carry an indispensable thing with them which we call past tense! You can't do anything to your past but it can do a myriad things in your life. Past memories can be inspiring,they can be depressing,at times they can be embarassing,many times they can be useful,they can be like a beaconing light for the future path. It ultimately depends on us as how we see towards our past. I have wonderful memories of my school life. The careless days,never ending sporting enthusiasm, the fun with the friends...The slap on the face and the pat on the back had equally important impression for the good future! Those friends still form the closest group of friends and those memories still occupy the best part of memory..

Each phase of human life has its own importance.Each phase lays down the foundation for the next life.

There is a certain degree of randomness in the thoughts today. I would probably never make my blog look like a diary.Sometimes it may be coherent, sometimes incoherent.But ultimately its the flow of thoughts that matters.Thats why this is "Den of thoughts!"

Preparation Leave

When I am at the beginning of my two and a half month Long holidays and busy preparing to make out the most of it, some of my good pals are busy preparing for their exams in a duration called as "Preparation leave".
An interesting phenomenon, Preparation leave is supposed to be the duration in which students should take the time to understand the things in their own way and prepare themselves for the battle! While at BITS we don’t get any sort of preparation leaves (Although we take out a free week & bunking all the way!) so in a way it’s a new concept for me.
I tried to have a pool of opinions on this issue. I got two distinct and contrary sets of opinions on the PL issue. The first set supported the cause of PLs and strongly justified it. Another (The more interesting one!) response actually amazed me a lot! My friend (Vaibhav) described PLs in a best manner--"The time during which you assemble the study material which you are going to use before the exam at night!” This response echoed the engineer feeling a lot! And it best described the student mentality in one shot! Kudos Vaibhav!
I can’t prevent myself to extend this topic to the real life situation! The question that immediately crops up to the mind is "Do we have a real life analogue of PL's??" Can we have any preparation break to console a friend having a broken heart or a shattered dream! We obviously cant have any PL when you do a blunder that can have quite a large damage potential and people start firing you questions! There can be many more situations in which you have to prepare yourself for the unexpected situation without any time lag. In all such scenarios spontaneity holds the key. No PLs out there!
For all those guys who are having a (Good or bad Depending on them!) time in their PLs, Whatever the result of this stupid discussion you will have to make the most of your PLs. All the best!!

Similarities

My friend soumyadeep ( A wannabe writer ) always tries to find out something similar in between anything and human beings. So this one is dedicated to Ghosh babu!

My post lengths are not too large. This has something similar to my walking style - Slow, small and careful steps.

My blog has a sober appearance.Again, I hate things that are too gaudy..

Dude,its too difficult for me to point out more similarities. Would you bring out some more please??

Underdogs

A cricket match of Australia and New Zealand always reminds me of this topic.Underdogs has always been a interesting topic for me. Its always interesting to watch underdogs doing something that is out of ordinary and something that they are not expected to do.There is always a psychological side attached to this issue. A human being will always try for his status bar to be raised and his prestige level to shoot to new highs. But when you are teased and underrated, a burning desire fires up your soul and drives you to push it to the limit. I have experienced this feeling a number of times and I must say its really a nice one.

What we have seen until is somewhat similar like traversing a graph from zero to its peak. But this is where the story has a serious point. When underdogs start defeating the favourites its the start of their ascendancy. Continuing in the same manner they start becoming favourites. But beware! At the same time some another underdog may come and topple their post. This cycle is endless.

This topic is very much related to the basic principle of life. Not everyday is your day. Life is more like a curve of sine. There will be ups and downs,there will be highs and lows. But at the end of the day those who have a strong belief on themselves and those who respond to their strong inner voice are the ones who fetch the glory.

Machine vs human

The topic of computer games reminds me of a phenomenon in chemistry. Its called as "umpolung".I used to be a big critic of computer game earlier but not now!. I have developed a good interest in gaming now.

Besides my gaming interest i have something rather interesting to share with you. For the first time in my life i played real football on the field.( I used to play in the school but with tiny plastic ball and without offsides!!) Just after completing a kick off in FIFA 07 ( An EA sports computer football game) i went on the field to play the real stuff.. It was just like comparing the computer and human. Its so easy on the computer to just click a key and to manipulate the passes, the free kicks, the formation and a lot more things. When it comes to the real ground playing it becomes a complex, multidimensional problem! I can remember my biology teacher saying that people all over the world are putting their best to make a robot ( ultimately a computer aided machine) which can play football with humans. But even after pouring trillions of dollars they might not succeed. The topic is just not just about playing football. It is indeed a vast topic which needs a lot of attention. You can have a machine which can serve you round the clock satisfying all your needs but i bet you cant create a mother with machines which will ask you whether you had your lunch or not..

The message is pretty clear- Its up to the humans to decide as to what extent machines should become a part of their life.

Stupidity in Cinema

I am talking about the Hindi movies before a decade or two(or even before it). There used to be some typical symptoms to recognize that "yes! Its a Hindi flick!" Some of them i quote here..

• The heroine's typical shout when someone tries to catch her- Bachao!! (a small kid would nearly die listening to such a dreadful shout!). Bhagwan ke liye chod do...Maine kya bigada hai tumhara...
• Police had fantastic role. They always came late and take out their hat in the honour of someone who's dead. One typical dialogue- Kanun ke haat bahut lambe hai...or kanun ko apne haath me mat lo!! Now who's going to hold whom?
  
• There is one thing that i used to notice a lot. When a director wants to show the scene of night why the hell he has to shoot it in the day time with Grey shades?? Cant he film it at night?
• The background music would be a punishment. Excessive use of violin during a sad situation would make the situation more grave. Some typical background tracks were floating in the market and were repeatedly used.
• Another fact that you would notice is about the climax. The climax in nearly all the movies would be at a neutral place and it would be a action sequence most of the time(which the hero would win obviously!) I don't know what was the logic behind..

The list can be endless. I am no critic but this are the observations from a common man's point of view. I even don't want to rate them poor. There are some timeless movies which no modern movie can compete with. Many of the above things are avoided today by the aid of technology. Finally you are left with the option of enjoying the stupidity!

Change

This is a rather weird thought. Its about the desire to bring about some change in someone's behaviour and the mindset to accept the change. We are not always ready to accept the change in someone's behaviour. I will rather elucidate this with some example.
A person wishes that his wife who never socializes or resricts herself to the four walls of the home should start participating in some kind of activity that will bring her out. He insists her to do something other than normal housekeeping. As a result she indulges herself in some sort of task.But here is where the whole story begins. The extent to which he asks her to come out of the home, he should get into the house by the same extent. This level of understanding is not so common.The essence is that when we are trying to bring about some change we should put ourselves in to the post-change situation first and make up our mind accordingly. This will help a lot to adapt into the situation easily.

Orkut Mania

Its a wave thats catching almost everyone and everywhere.How can i remain on the back seat? One of my good old pals introduced me to the world of orkut. I found it quite interesting and the race of scraps and friends got started. It was quite amazing to be on touch with scores of people at the same time. I catched quite a good pace of scraps. Orkut plus google keep on introducing new things that keeps your interest alive. But i guess too many people on orkut has let many irregularities creep in. The unspoken decency is not maintained and some anti social factors are making the matters worse. Another interesting fact that i notice is about the Testimonial stuff. A testimonial should be independent of time and place. e.g." i met him here few days ago"... Now does this statement make any sense for a third person reading the testimonial? Also testimonial and "about me" are copies of each others many times. You have to rate the person as per his inner qualities and not by his external or superficial traits. Although i don't claim myself to be a great testimonial writer but these are the few things that make the testimonial attractive for a third person..

A R Rahman (All Rave Rahman)

Aah! Thats a topic that i love the most! A R Rahman is more than just a music director. At the time when indian film music was in the desperate need of some revoultionary change, Rahman marked his presence and gosh!! He went on to win National awardfor his debut project 'Roja'. There are many aspects of my love for Rahman. The first and the most important is the way he changed the traditional setup of Indian Film music. It needs a lot of talent and daring to change the current trend and introduce something off-track. Secondly, he can take you to the ecstaties of romance or the fierce battlefield with equal ease. You just dont remain in this world when you are listening to him. He unlike some other composers has not left the base of traditional indian music which is so important in today's age of remixes. Rahman knows exactly who fits in for a particular composition and how to take out the best from someone, even if its Lata didi or Shreya Ghoshal. Another important aspect about his carrer is his presence at the international stage. In my opinion rahman is one of the few distinguished indians who have the ability to face the international competition ably. I idolize him for the same reason. If you have the talent and you are ready to give your best no level of competition can prove tough for you. So two lines which can describe rahman the best...

There are many who rave the God
But there are few whom the gods rave

Today's Variable-Alpha

Its really surprising to see myself writing a blog. The person who does not let anyone get a slight hint of what is on the mind, opening up his heart in such an open space is really astonishing. But as they say there is always a first time for everything, this is no exception. Some of my friends opine that writing a blog is like writing a diary. Never in my life i maintained a diary. I am more a musical guy than a thoughtful writer. I like to play with chords and beats rather than words. So it will be quite interesting(for me atleast!) to see how this project works!