Mr. Q is my room-mate. Initially, he was gleefully happy when I asked him if I could post something about him and his exploits. But then, he wondered aloud what would happen if his wife stumbles across my blog some day, and maybe this post in particular. I'd spare you the details, but suffice it to say that after some amount of coaxing (read promises of celebrity status), he has agreed to let me use Mr. Q instead of his full name.
Every night, we get our net connection at 10:00 p.m. (because of our Iqara Night Angel plan). After that, after I check mails, blogs, university application status and forums, etc. for about half an hour, and then Mr. Q takes the hotseat. The other day, I was standing beside him while he was online, chatting. He picked an id that looked like one of a gal from a chat room, and then sent a PM. The conversation went like this:
- Hi, 23/m/mumbai here... wanna chat?
- (reply) Hi... I am from mumbai, but right now I am in Dubai
- (Mr Q) I love Dubai !
Now, this was too much for me. Let alone Mr. Q, I can vouch that probably none in his near family have ever been to Dubai. So how come he loves Dubai? He replied, "You know nothing about girls". After that, I was privileged to a few of his tips about how to get girls to reply, how to follow up relations with them... how to talk mushy gushy, and all that. And it all came down to very simple things.
Lesson One: Whichever place that girl belongs to, you have to profess your undying love for that place. He said that if the girl had said Dhaka instead of Dubai, then he loves Dhaka, if Lahore then Lahore... you name it, and he loves it. If the girl lives at Delhi but misses Kolkata dearly, then Mr. Q has lived in Kolkata for 8 full years. Add to that the fact that he knows a few Bengali sentences, and he can make himself a real cuddly-baby kind-a person at the expense of the Bengali language being murdered by his phrases and sentences. Aah, you should see him talking to me in loud broken and erratic Bengali at some office party just because he knows that the girl who has come and stood next to me while she looks the other way is a Bengali (or so he knows)!
Lesson Two: Her name is really sweet and cute, always. I am not sure when (or how), but I think I remember him telling somebody at the other end of the phone that her name is a melodious name (!!??), one that conveys a very pleasant personality (huh... that was the first time they even talked!!). Never mind. "Whenever you call", he says, "make sure you keep reminding her that her voice is sweet and luscous... even melodious!!". Girls apparently are very pleased to hear that. And add to that the low-pitched whisper he employs while he does that mawkim talking, the dimmed lights in the room with the night-lamp and the lights from the window creating a demured atmosphere; he lies inclined on the bed on his back with a pillow clutched under the arm, murmuring into the phone --- you get the picture. And they talk for hours together.
Lesson Three: If she sends you her picture, don't forget to go wow even if you mistook it for the latest horror movie poster. Mr. Q advises that the dress she wears in the pic has to be a perfect fit (you must say that, that is). Also, if in in the picture there is a garden or someplace, you must say that she looks like the jewel in the crown. If she happens to send a pic that has her friend beside her, make sure you ask after her, but do not compare them. You never know, you can even get the other girl's number as well! I can put in a word here that going by his record as I have seen him over the last 18 months, he usually gets one gal, and then two-three of her friends fall in line pretty soon. *sigh*
After listening to all this, I had just one comment: "What the crrrap!!". I am sure some people who think like me will agree. But I know that some others who find themselves more like Mr. Q will find the above just the tip of the iceberg. And for those who are still undecided, meet either of us and we'll explain.
To end this, let me tell you the next line of the conversation that had started above:
- Hi, 23/m/mumbai here... wanna chat?
- (reply) Hi... I am from mumbai, but right now I am in Dubai
- (Mr Q) I love Dubai !
[continued]
- (the girl says) Oh.. I also quite like this place
I am sure you can imagine the rest of the conversation :)
Monday, December 26, 2005
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Secular Rethink- Part III (concluded)
[This, dear readers, is the last in a series of posts of my article. Bear with me, something up close and personal will be coming up soon]
A big step towards creating communal harmony will be appealing to the people via the mass media --- the movies. We must take a lesson from the Hollywood movies, and learn how America is portrayed in them. The image of the unknown is crafted very carefully in there, and that is what we too need to try and achieve. Blatant altruism and partisan movies will not work… it will become more of a laughing matter. The message has to be subtle, depicting the power of unity, of integrity, and most importantly, depicting the fact that no religion asks us to kill. The message that needs to be put across is that God does not need you to protect His honour.
Another problem that needs to be addressed is poverty. We have to feed the stomach first, before feeding the minds. To an ordinary Indian, everyday necessity is too hideous to allow him to think of anything else. We, the educated class, can indulge in the luxury of dreaming of 'religious harmony' because everyday necessity is not so hideous for us. The dream cannot be realized unless it is a collective dream. And to turn it into a collective dream we have to ensure that the fire of hunger has been doused before we plant the seed of education. Otherwise the fire will engulf the seed.
Finally, let us have some positive moves from the government as well. We do not want any reservations based on the religion of a person, because that maligns the community. When I see that someone is privileged just because he has been ‘branded’ as something, I develop distrust. Or maybe better still, just because I am branded as something else, I am denied something, the distrust or hatred is even worse. Vote bank politics can cause havoc which is not apparent on the surface, but manifests itself when the dam breaks. Let us prevent the deluge from happening and dry the water off in the sunshine. What finally comes off this endeavor is going to be decided by the pragmatic steps that are taken, how much responsibility people assume, and of course, how much spiritually enriched we are able to become, following the religion we swear by.
To conclude, let us think what would have happened if the two friends in the story we quoted earlier had been really educated, that is, educated ethically. We might have seen them furious about people who instigate such riots, furious about all clerics and everybody who calls himself a religious after having blood on his hands. We might have seen them praying to God that people should think as they do, that people should be ‘secular’ in the true sense of the term. We would have had two fresh recruits into the ranks of the Citizens for Peace.
[Just a last word... your comments are welcome, but please don't leave Yahoo offliners... more often than not they are lost as I close them quick. You can post here as anonymous]
A big step towards creating communal harmony will be appealing to the people via the mass media --- the movies. We must take a lesson from the Hollywood movies, and learn how America is portrayed in them. The image of the unknown is crafted very carefully in there, and that is what we too need to try and achieve. Blatant altruism and partisan movies will not work… it will become more of a laughing matter. The message has to be subtle, depicting the power of unity, of integrity, and most importantly, depicting the fact that no religion asks us to kill. The message that needs to be put across is that God does not need you to protect His honour.
Another problem that needs to be addressed is poverty. We have to feed the stomach first, before feeding the minds. To an ordinary Indian, everyday necessity is too hideous to allow him to think of anything else. We, the educated class, can indulge in the luxury of dreaming of 'religious harmony' because everyday necessity is not so hideous for us. The dream cannot be realized unless it is a collective dream. And to turn it into a collective dream we have to ensure that the fire of hunger has been doused before we plant the seed of education. Otherwise the fire will engulf the seed.
Finally, let us have some positive moves from the government as well. We do not want any reservations based on the religion of a person, because that maligns the community. When I see that someone is privileged just because he has been ‘branded’ as something, I develop distrust. Or maybe better still, just because I am branded as something else, I am denied something, the distrust or hatred is even worse. Vote bank politics can cause havoc which is not apparent on the surface, but manifests itself when the dam breaks. Let us prevent the deluge from happening and dry the water off in the sunshine. What finally comes off this endeavor is going to be decided by the pragmatic steps that are taken, how much responsibility people assume, and of course, how much spiritually enriched we are able to become, following the religion we swear by.
To conclude, let us think what would have happened if the two friends in the story we quoted earlier had been really educated, that is, educated ethically. We might have seen them furious about people who instigate such riots, furious about all clerics and everybody who calls himself a religious after having blood on his hands. We might have seen them praying to God that people should think as they do, that people should be ‘secular’ in the true sense of the term. We would have had two fresh recruits into the ranks of the Citizens for Peace.
[Just a last word... your comments are welcome, but please don't leave Yahoo offliners... more often than not they are lost as I close them quick. You can post here as anonymous]
Monday, December 19, 2005
Secular Rethink - Part II
[continued from the previous post]
There is yet another problem. Our fathers still wince at the thought of having to share their bottles of water with a co-passenger who might be from a different community. That, broadly, is the reason it were the big cities more than the rural areas that witnessed the most widespread riots in the recent past. The bigotry is entrenched. No amount of reasoning can change that. The solution lies not in changing for the better the minds of the older generation. It lies in bringing the younger generation up in another mould. For us, thirst dictates the buying of a bottle of water; we don’t stop to think what community the bottle-vendor is from. It is the young minds that can be moulded into the sublimity of secularism while retaining the impressions of their own respective religions. The old and hardened minds can be beaten to pieces; you cannot change them.
Sometimes it is just plain ignorance, or sometimes it is just the low self-confidence we have on ourselves. We just need a reason. Never mind how remotely connected that reason may be. It is reason enough for the mind that there exists a reason. Moreover, there is the feeling of being wronged which was carefully implanted, nurtured and then when finally sprouted the tree of evil within the heart, the man is perfectly ripe for being sent into the fray. The fanatic comes in and torches houses, rapes women, butchers other men, and then he thinks he has redeemed his hurt pride and revenged his ancestors. He never knows that he is just adding fuel to fire, that he has become precisely the same monster which he detested and wanted to kill. He never sees the mirror --- there is too much light for him to be able to see anything.
The Solution:
The solution has been there, all the time, staring us in the face, shouting from rooftops, and pointing out the way. Simply put, it is education. When people learn, they begin to think. I do not imply that one who has had no formal education has no intelligence whatsoever, but education definitely triggers thought processes, opens doors, and makes us more rational. Perhaps the greatest boon of education is that it gives a freedom to interpret the world around us in our own way. If you are educated, you can draw your own conclusions, and don’t need someone to tell you what to think. In doing this, the new, liberated and rational individual is born. Education from the grass-roots to the very top will be the path to enlightenment. Such education should comprise of broad, logical implementation of patterns so that one might draw his conclusions, which must be unbiased. The new liberated, rational individual to be born needs such education -- not the ordinary education -- but patterned, cultivated education. The syllabus right from the school must tutor the child to draw his own conclusions, and then support them by his own logic. Only then it will be the path to enlightenment. When people like you, who are reading this article, or like me, who thought this up, form the majority of the vote-bank, petty communal politics and theatricals will no longer hold fort.
The young mind needs to be taught that it is never ‘they’ and ‘us’. Ignorance is the root cause of all this strife. People tend to believe in all the stories about ‘them’ --- how they torture everyone around, how they have corrupt morals, how they stink, how they act; these ‘they’ people are always portrayed as the embodiment of evil, since we always need to reassure ourselves that we are the good guys. And such instigations succeed because of ignorance. There is an inherent fear among all humans of the unknown, which again stems from ignorance. As a first step in the process, let us use the known mediums of bonding people. Let there be cricket matches between teams comprised of people from all communities, and not between the communities. Let there be group efforts such as theatres, plays, etc with people from all communities. In short, let people know each other. Let the fear and prejudices be broken, and cock-and-bull stories about ‘them’ be questioned and disputed. Let people from all communities invite “the others” into their own local festivals, into social events like gatherings, marriages, etc. The day a small hand goes up in a crowd which is being asked to be cautious about them, and when that hand asks ‘why’, the objective will be achieved.
[to be concluded...]
There is yet another problem. Our fathers still wince at the thought of having to share their bottles of water with a co-passenger who might be from a different community. That, broadly, is the reason it were the big cities more than the rural areas that witnessed the most widespread riots in the recent past. The bigotry is entrenched. No amount of reasoning can change that. The solution lies not in changing for the better the minds of the older generation. It lies in bringing the younger generation up in another mould. For us, thirst dictates the buying of a bottle of water; we don’t stop to think what community the bottle-vendor is from. It is the young minds that can be moulded into the sublimity of secularism while retaining the impressions of their own respective religions. The old and hardened minds can be beaten to pieces; you cannot change them.
Sometimes it is just plain ignorance, or sometimes it is just the low self-confidence we have on ourselves. We just need a reason. Never mind how remotely connected that reason may be. It is reason enough for the mind that there exists a reason. Moreover, there is the feeling of being wronged which was carefully implanted, nurtured and then when finally sprouted the tree of evil within the heart, the man is perfectly ripe for being sent into the fray. The fanatic comes in and torches houses, rapes women, butchers other men, and then he thinks he has redeemed his hurt pride and revenged his ancestors. He never knows that he is just adding fuel to fire, that he has become precisely the same monster which he detested and wanted to kill. He never sees the mirror --- there is too much light for him to be able to see anything.
The Solution:
The solution has been there, all the time, staring us in the face, shouting from rooftops, and pointing out the way. Simply put, it is education. When people learn, they begin to think. I do not imply that one who has had no formal education has no intelligence whatsoever, but education definitely triggers thought processes, opens doors, and makes us more rational. Perhaps the greatest boon of education is that it gives a freedom to interpret the world around us in our own way. If you are educated, you can draw your own conclusions, and don’t need someone to tell you what to think. In doing this, the new, liberated and rational individual is born. Education from the grass-roots to the very top will be the path to enlightenment. Such education should comprise of broad, logical implementation of patterns so that one might draw his conclusions, which must be unbiased. The new liberated, rational individual to be born needs such education -- not the ordinary education -- but patterned, cultivated education. The syllabus right from the school must tutor the child to draw his own conclusions, and then support them by his own logic. Only then it will be the path to enlightenment. When people like you, who are reading this article, or like me, who thought this up, form the majority of the vote-bank, petty communal politics and theatricals will no longer hold fort.
The young mind needs to be taught that it is never ‘they’ and ‘us’. Ignorance is the root cause of all this strife. People tend to believe in all the stories about ‘them’ --- how they torture everyone around, how they have corrupt morals, how they stink, how they act; these ‘they’ people are always portrayed as the embodiment of evil, since we always need to reassure ourselves that we are the good guys. And such instigations succeed because of ignorance. There is an inherent fear among all humans of the unknown, which again stems from ignorance. As a first step in the process, let us use the known mediums of bonding people. Let there be cricket matches between teams comprised of people from all communities, and not between the communities. Let there be group efforts such as theatres, plays, etc with people from all communities. In short, let people know each other. Let the fear and prejudices be broken, and cock-and-bull stories about ‘them’ be questioned and disputed. Let people from all communities invite “the others” into their own local festivals, into social events like gatherings, marriages, etc. The day a small hand goes up in a crowd which is being asked to be cautious about them, and when that hand asks ‘why’, the objective will be achieved.
[to be concluded...]
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Secular Rethink- Part I
This post is part of an essay I wrote for a newspaper competition. Unfortunately, this wasn't published :( So I decided to post it here. Since the real post is an essay, I will spare yo uthe torture and post this in 3-4 parts so that you may juse feel like reading through :)
When I was a child, I had read a little story. It was of two friends, who went to attend a small get-together. They were the best of friends, and preferred each others company to the general hullabaloo of the party. After they settled themselves comfortably in a corner, they started playing cards, while listening to a radio broadcast. All was well until the radio news came on and announced that there had been an outbreak of ‘religious’ riots at some remote corner of the country. The two friends started an argument, abused, hit, and then finally stabbed each other, all within the span of a minute. When it all ended, the others in the room just saw two buddies dying in a pool of their own blood; two people who were the best of friends until a minute ago, and who suddenly tore each others heart out without the slightest rethink. The question, which they asked and which we still ask, is “WHY?”
The Problem:
Before we delve deeper into what needs to be done to build a more secular world, let us first try and understand the problems. Ask any person on the road, “Tell me a quotation which teaches morality”, and you can compile a book by the sheer variety of answers you’ll get. But then, why don’t people realize that when they go to slaughter other humans? Something, somewhere down the line has gone wrong. People rally around the names of their gods when they are out to kill others, and then pride themselves as though they are heroes. People who can chant the sublimity of some holy book will swear by it when they vow to kill others. I believe that if we realize the root of this phenomenon, we will get to know the solution as well.
As we can very well see, there are enough didactics to fill entire libraries. But what we lack perhaps is an understanding of their meaning. We all know them literally, but it is not here in our heart. We have not yet absorbed them emotionally or assimilated them spiritually… they just stand as a statistic in our quest for intellectual appreciation. People get inured to the terms like ‘loss of human life’, ‘bloodbath’, etc. Children write good essays and win prizes at school, reams of editorials are filled up, grisly images of mutilated bodies or burning houses fill the leading page picture of dailies, and politicians find it the most effective election campaign. But then, when the time for implementing them comes in real life, we shy away. The child suddenly discovers, among the many lessons of ‘growing up’, that religion is not just about loving God and praying to Him, but it also entails being cautious of the ‘other’ people. He learns that he has been branded as though he belongs to just one locality, one caste, one state, one religion. He has to wear it, either on his sleeve or on his back… there is no escape.
If you observe a flock of sheep (or men, for that matter), you can find out easily that they do not want to think for themselves. If one of them rushes to a stream, the others will. If one of them jumps off a cliff, the others will. It is always easy to follow, since you do not have to think for yourself. You enjoy the fruits, or at least are promised to, the only condition being that you must follow without question. And everybody happily does so. If you happen to catch one person from a mob which is torching a house and ask him why he is doing that, the first reaction from him may be a “you-must-be-really-dumb-to-ask-such-a-self-evident-question” stare. Then you will typically get an answer that talks the same talk which he was told last morning for pre-battleground prep-talk by his leader. If you quiz him further, you are reduced to the answer of “I lost XX and YY due to them”. And when you finally ask how he thinks ‘they’ are solely responsible for his woes and how he seeks to alleviate them by torching the house, you are cut to pieces.
[to be continued...]
When I was a child, I had read a little story. It was of two friends, who went to attend a small get-together. They were the best of friends, and preferred each others company to the general hullabaloo of the party. After they settled themselves comfortably in a corner, they started playing cards, while listening to a radio broadcast. All was well until the radio news came on and announced that there had been an outbreak of ‘religious’ riots at some remote corner of the country. The two friends started an argument, abused, hit, and then finally stabbed each other, all within the span of a minute. When it all ended, the others in the room just saw two buddies dying in a pool of their own blood; two people who were the best of friends until a minute ago, and who suddenly tore each others heart out without the slightest rethink. The question, which they asked and which we still ask, is “WHY?”
The Problem:
Before we delve deeper into what needs to be done to build a more secular world, let us first try and understand the problems. Ask any person on the road, “Tell me a quotation which teaches morality”, and you can compile a book by the sheer variety of answers you’ll get. But then, why don’t people realize that when they go to slaughter other humans? Something, somewhere down the line has gone wrong. People rally around the names of their gods when they are out to kill others, and then pride themselves as though they are heroes. People who can chant the sublimity of some holy book will swear by it when they vow to kill others. I believe that if we realize the root of this phenomenon, we will get to know the solution as well.
As we can very well see, there are enough didactics to fill entire libraries. But what we lack perhaps is an understanding of their meaning. We all know them literally, but it is not here in our heart. We have not yet absorbed them emotionally or assimilated them spiritually… they just stand as a statistic in our quest for intellectual appreciation. People get inured to the terms like ‘loss of human life’, ‘bloodbath’, etc. Children write good essays and win prizes at school, reams of editorials are filled up, grisly images of mutilated bodies or burning houses fill the leading page picture of dailies, and politicians find it the most effective election campaign. But then, when the time for implementing them comes in real life, we shy away. The child suddenly discovers, among the many lessons of ‘growing up’, that religion is not just about loving God and praying to Him, but it also entails being cautious of the ‘other’ people. He learns that he has been branded as though he belongs to just one locality, one caste, one state, one religion. He has to wear it, either on his sleeve or on his back… there is no escape.
If you observe a flock of sheep (or men, for that matter), you can find out easily that they do not want to think for themselves. If one of them rushes to a stream, the others will. If one of them jumps off a cliff, the others will. It is always easy to follow, since you do not have to think for yourself. You enjoy the fruits, or at least are promised to, the only condition being that you must follow without question. And everybody happily does so. If you happen to catch one person from a mob which is torching a house and ask him why he is doing that, the first reaction from him may be a “you-must-be-really-dumb-to-ask-such-a-self-evident-question” stare. Then you will typically get an answer that talks the same talk which he was told last morning for pre-battleground prep-talk by his leader. If you quiz him further, you are reduced to the answer of “I lost XX and YY due to them”. And when you finally ask how he thinks ‘they’ are solely responsible for his woes and how he seeks to alleviate them by torching the house, you are cut to pieces.
[to be continued...]
Friday, December 16, 2005
Ripley's Believe It Or Not -- I passed the AGRE :)
Yes, dear readers, I got my AGRE scores today. Got a 740 out of 900 (I think), which is in the 54th percentile of the test-takers. In case you are confused with the figures, this is a mediocre score, neither a good one nor a bad one. Consequently, this neither boosts nor defiles my profile.
Now, how do I feel? Imagine you jumped off a diving board into a swimming pool full off people. You are stuck upside down, can't get straight, can't go further down. The only thing you can thank God for is that your nose is still quite further away from the water. I feel exactly like that now... scores neither good enough to clinch something, still knawing at me for those 150$, and and they are not bad as well. Will send 6 more application packets within Monday, and then wait and watch.
By the way, some more good news coming up from my side, including a post about a particular girl. That got you interested, didn' t it? :)
Now, how do I feel? Imagine you jumped off a diving board into a swimming pool full off people. You are stuck upside down, can't get straight, can't go further down. The only thing you can thank God for is that your nose is still quite further away from the water. I feel exactly like that now... scores neither good enough to clinch something, still knawing at me for those 150$, and and they are not bad as well. Will send 6 more application packets within Monday, and then wait and watch.
By the way, some more good news coming up from my side, including a post about a particular girl. That got you interested, didn' t it? :)
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Diving through the clouds
Imagine you are alone, at the top of a cliff. You have toiled hard to come here, and feel ineffably happy to be here. You feel that the effort was worth it. Stare around. Wonder at the open skies, the bright distant horizon disappearing in the clouds, and the slight chill in the breeze gliding across you. You feel almost like raising your hand and touching the heavens.
But you are not there for the magic touch. You are present there because you want to dive. No, you are not suicidal. Instead, lets say that you want to talk to the winds. Now look down, and all you see below are clouds. White misty clouds forming a carpet of the most exquisite texture you have seen. The light and shades form a kaleidoscope of celestial colour, all glittering and shimmering in frozen morning delight of the sunshine. You take the plunge.
Now you are sailing. Sailing as the wind sings past you. You watch enchanted as the mist blurs the difference between dreams and reality. The feeling of being engulfed in a heavenly light, and falling open-armed through a sea of white for eternity has taken over. But then you are reminded... reminded of what you may find below. It might be the ocean of the elixir of life. Or, it might be bare hard rock --- frozen solid. You had toiled for days to melt the rock below and create the sea. It has been you whose efforts should have borne fruit by now, and turned that stretch of death and destruction to a life of bliss. But now, as you fall through the whiteness, you know that it is either the life till eternity or a very sudden death, only you don't know which. How will you feel?
That is exactly how I feel now. I had toiled hard for my general GRE test. And did enjoy my moment on the cliff, after my score. And then I took the plunge, for my subject GRE in Computer Sscience. The scores are out. But I cannot get them, thanks to a grand goof-up by HSBC and their credit cards. I will come to know them in a few days, but it feels strange now. I know that my scores are out, others have come across with a good score and some bad scores, but scores, nonetheless. And I cannot even finalise my list of universities without this info. I feel like a kid sitting in front of a cookie jar in a dark room. I don't know if there are cookies or poisoned tartars inside, and I cannot find out till the light comes on.
But you are not there for the magic touch. You are present there because you want to dive. No, you are not suicidal. Instead, lets say that you want to talk to the winds. Now look down, and all you see below are clouds. White misty clouds forming a carpet of the most exquisite texture you have seen. The light and shades form a kaleidoscope of celestial colour, all glittering and shimmering in frozen morning delight of the sunshine. You take the plunge.
Now you are sailing. Sailing as the wind sings past you. You watch enchanted as the mist blurs the difference between dreams and reality. The feeling of being engulfed in a heavenly light, and falling open-armed through a sea of white for eternity has taken over. But then you are reminded... reminded of what you may find below. It might be the ocean of the elixir of life. Or, it might be bare hard rock --- frozen solid. You had toiled for days to melt the rock below and create the sea. It has been you whose efforts should have borne fruit by now, and turned that stretch of death and destruction to a life of bliss. But now, as you fall through the whiteness, you know that it is either the life till eternity or a very sudden death, only you don't know which. How will you feel?
That is exactly how I feel now. I had toiled hard for my general GRE test. And did enjoy my moment on the cliff, after my score. And then I took the plunge, for my subject GRE in Computer Sscience. The scores are out. But I cannot get them, thanks to a grand goof-up by HSBC and their credit cards. I will come to know them in a few days, but it feels strange now. I know that my scores are out, others have come across with a good score and some bad scores, but scores, nonetheless. And I cannot even finalise my list of universities without this info. I feel like a kid sitting in front of a cookie jar in a dark room. I don't know if there are cookies or poisoned tartars inside, and I cannot find out till the light comes on.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
My article published!!
My article gets published on Linux For You!! :)
The article, in brief, is about games on Linux. As the editor sums it up,
"• The Penguin at Play!
While gaming isn’t exactly the forte of the Linux operating system, there are scores of great games available for the platform that are sure to keep you absorbed for hours. "
Well, if you do read it, tell me how much inclined you felt to go check out a few games on Linux.
The article, in brief, is about games on Linux. As the editor sums it up,
"• The Penguin at Play!
While gaming isn’t exactly the forte of the Linux operating system, there are scores of great games available for the platform that are sure to keep you absorbed for hours. "
Well, if you do read it, tell me how much inclined you felt to go check out a few games on Linux.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Shuddering sunshine
This post is actually meant to be read only after you have read this, on sunshine's blog. I suggest you do that first. Now this post is, I suppose, is what the 'teenaged' boy should be thinking all this while... and I am trying to give you a view from the other side of the fence, that is.
"Ahh... there she comes. Yeah-yeah, she calls herself sunshine, but I guess jumping shadow would be a better name for her. Anytime, when you see her tantrums, her fights with classmates, or even you imagine how she walks, the first idea that comes to your mind is a female version of Fido-dido from 7'up. Bungling-bubbling-sweet-screaming-lanky shadow of a girl. And guess what, she used to be the source of my daily dose of laughter when I was alive. I used to wait in this corridoor... and stand like a statue, waiting for her to pass. Sometimes, I used to pass her at the gate, sometimes I followed her to the rooms... and had to try really hard to suppress my laughter while my eyes gleamed with the pleasure of anticipation. I guess she caught me smiling at times and staring at her; and like most girls, she imagined that I was shy to go up to her and speak. Wonder what she would have thought if she had found me in peals of laughter after that.
Yes, I used to be alive. Now I am dead. How did I die? Well, actually saw her running one day. And that was too much for me. I laughed and laughed. And kept laughing. Laughed till I could breathe no more. Then I again imagined her running... and well, choked. :(
But I do not regret that happening. You see, she is back here. Ahh... she seems to have seen me and stopped in her tracks. He-he... look at her --- she looks stunned. Lets play some tricks, shall we? ;) I whisper in her ear. She looks around, surprised! Little does she know that when we ghosts speak, you cannot hear it in your ear but you hear it in your head. Ok, lets blow a little breeze. Oh-hoho-ho... look at her as she frantically turns around and tries to find me. Almost looks like a dog chasing its tail :) Whew... this is turning out to be more fun than what it started with!!
Now a really wicked idea is grabbing me >:)) So can we have a 'little' laugh? Of course... nobody wants to miss a chance like that. Do you think ghosts can die? Ummm... I don't think so. But we can find out. Shall we? So here we go. In I go into her head and scream, "goooo-eeyyyy!!!". Whoa! She scampers off like a singed cat [ROFL]. Mu-haha aahaa.. she is running once again. Oh, look at her. She ignores everyone else in the corridoor who turns to give her a what-just-happened look. Oh... she runs once again! And I laugh... laugh, laugh, laugh... but I cannot die any more. Ha-ha ha... I will wait here everyday for her to come by again!! Bloooo... ha ha haa..... ha ha ha ha ha.....
"Ahh... there she comes. Yeah-yeah, she calls herself sunshine, but I guess jumping shadow would be a better name for her. Anytime, when you see her tantrums, her fights with classmates, or even you imagine how she walks, the first idea that comes to your mind is a female version of Fido-dido from 7'up. Bungling-bubbling-sweet-screaming-lanky shadow of a girl. And guess what, she used to be the source of my daily dose of laughter when I was alive. I used to wait in this corridoor... and stand like a statue, waiting for her to pass. Sometimes, I used to pass her at the gate, sometimes I followed her to the rooms... and had to try really hard to suppress my laughter while my eyes gleamed with the pleasure of anticipation. I guess she caught me smiling at times and staring at her; and like most girls, she imagined that I was shy to go up to her and speak. Wonder what she would have thought if she had found me in peals of laughter after that.
Yes, I used to be alive. Now I am dead. How did I die? Well, actually saw her running one day. And that was too much for me. I laughed and laughed. And kept laughing. Laughed till I could breathe no more. Then I again imagined her running... and well, choked. :(
But I do not regret that happening. You see, she is back here. Ahh... she seems to have seen me and stopped in her tracks. He-he... look at her --- she looks stunned. Lets play some tricks, shall we? ;) I whisper in her ear. She looks around, surprised! Little does she know that when we ghosts speak, you cannot hear it in your ear but you hear it in your head. Ok, lets blow a little breeze. Oh-hoho-ho... look at her as she frantically turns around and tries to find me. Almost looks like a dog chasing its tail :) Whew... this is turning out to be more fun than what it started with!!
Now a really wicked idea is grabbing me >:)) So can we have a 'little' laugh? Of course... nobody wants to miss a chance like that. Do you think ghosts can die? Ummm... I don't think so. But we can find out. Shall we? So here we go. In I go into her head and scream, "goooo-eeyyyy!!!". Whoa! She scampers off like a singed cat [ROFL]. Mu-haha aahaa.. she is running once again. Oh, look at her. She ignores everyone else in the corridoor who turns to give her a what-just-happened look. Oh... she runs once again! And I laugh... laugh, laugh, laugh... but I cannot die any more. Ha-ha ha... I will wait here everyday for her to come by again!! Bloooo... ha ha haa..... ha ha ha ha ha.....
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Will you sign on a sealed envelope?
Last night, I was going through the recommendation letters that I have got from my professors at the college. Actually, I was sorting them into different application packets for the 10 different places I am applying to. And then I remembered something.
The first time I had gone there, I had got my recommendation letters in envelopes and had them sealed. Later, I came to know that you also needed a signature across the flap of the envelope to prove its authenticity. So I was off, last weekend, to my college, to get signatures across the flaps.
Now, as you might understand, I reached my professors with 10 envelopes, each of them duly sealed, but bearing no other mark of identification or proof about the contents within. I had also bought extra envelopes so that I may get the letters out, put them in the new envelopes, seal them and have their signatures on them. To my amazement, they asked me not to open them, and just put their signatures on the envelopes. I was stumped... I mean, I could as well have got their signature on a sealed envelope containing anything written on the inside, or they could have contained even some narcotics, anything! Personally, in their shoes I don't think I would have done that. I would've asked the student to put the letters in the new envelopes, and then signed, etc. because the affair would neither be costly nor time-consuming, just plain playing safe. But well, they did not give this a second thought.
I have been really humbled by this. Humbled by the trust and belief they place on me. I know that my four years of engineering have not gone waste. I have earned the trust and good will of these people. I know that they will sustain me in the future.
The first time I had gone there, I had got my recommendation letters in envelopes and had them sealed. Later, I came to know that you also needed a signature across the flap of the envelope to prove its authenticity. So I was off, last weekend, to my college, to get signatures across the flaps.
Now, as you might understand, I reached my professors with 10 envelopes, each of them duly sealed, but bearing no other mark of identification or proof about the contents within. I had also bought extra envelopes so that I may get the letters out, put them in the new envelopes, seal them and have their signatures on them. To my amazement, they asked me not to open them, and just put their signatures on the envelopes. I was stumped... I mean, I could as well have got their signature on a sealed envelope containing anything written on the inside, or they could have contained even some narcotics, anything! Personally, in their shoes I don't think I would have done that. I would've asked the student to put the letters in the new envelopes, and then signed, etc. because the affair would neither be costly nor time-consuming, just plain playing safe. But well, they did not give this a second thought.
I have been really humbled by this. Humbled by the trust and belief they place on me. I know that my four years of engineering have not gone waste. I have earned the trust and good will of these people. I know that they will sustain me in the future.
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