It's been a long time since I left my carbon footprint on the blogosphere (roughly 9 months, whoa!). So I thought, I'll write something on this virtual piece of the space time continuum. And for once, I attempt to write a serious article, a bit philosophical (if I may) in the hope that I'd be back here again, sooner than I think (hope so!)
The past few months have made me go through almost every kind of emotion I could ever experience - joy, anxiety, agony, dejection, schadenfreude, sympathy, exhilaration.. you name it, I bet it'd be there (not sure of Nirvana though :) ). Taught me a few lessons which I thought I must jot down for my own self, in no particular order. Most might seem cliched, but I believe that until I experience something personally, I'll never understand its true worth :
a) Time flies at a constant rate. Relativity accounts for the rest of what humans feel about it. Kipling must have understood this true worth ,when he wrote those immortal words. I wish I can do so myself. Or if dreams did come true, a time machine would do.
b) Life is like a cryptic crossword. Solving the clues one at a time gives more satisfaction than seeing the answers all at once. Maybe it's another way of looking at other cliched statements on the same subject, but I hope I can accept this part and continue ahead, rather than blaming everything on Murphy.
c) Smiling in times of crises is tougher than I thought. I respect those set of few people whom I've seen do so repeatedly, without the usage of psychidelic shit. I'll be quite happy to emulate them in this respect, if not as often (oh no, I dont want a calamity befalling me to try this out, but in general, would hope to do so)
d) The world respects you if you can do/ever did what you ask them to do. Until then it just listens to you until they're fed up of those 'blank' statements and retort back, to make you realize this truth, if one hasnt still. I thank a friend, who made me realize this quite recently and maybe this is one of the biggest lessons this sem (academic courses nothwithstanding).
e.1) You neednt lead the race at any point of time, but can still end up ahead of them all. Thank you Mr. Vettel for reminding me of a lesson which Mr. Raikonnen had already taught, but I seemed to have forgotten.
e.2) Play this innings like a test match. You might not be an SRT but Rahul 'The Wall' Dravid is still worth an option (no offence to Dravid, who along with Stephen Waugh, are my sources of inspiration, but at times, the eternal skeptic in me makes me wonder whether SRT is human at all.. ). Still not experienced the set of moments to fully justify my findings , but felt the same in bits and pieces, and hence decided to put it down to verify in the future.
f) Karma is a bitch. Not really, our actions are what we are. So if we behave like one, then cant blame Karma can we.. This is another big lesson learnt over the course of the last 3-4 months, out of a nightmare, I never thought I'd ever see in my life. Might be one of the most valuable lessons in my stay in this amazing place called IIT Madras. I still admit, it's a tough nut to crack but keeps me wary of the future, every passing moment.
g) Somehow, I've found the allegory of life and, the making of a piece of art, to be appealing. From my personal experience, no art work seems good until finished (and finished well that too :) ) , and uptil then speculations are always arife, internally or externally, as to how it'll come out to be. This is quite similar to what I've found in my experience while handling Sponsorship activities as well, but considering that it's a subset of life as such, might as well be treated as subset to move along.
h) Living in the present might be good, but reflection into the past is a must according to me. I mean it's a simple closed loop system (of which I detailed karma separately), and without a retrospection, somehow I've never had the courage to look into the future. What one looks for in the past is also a questionable issue, but suffice to say, to each his/her own.
Maybe, if I become famous one day, I could increase my revenues by writing a book on the above '8 Lessons of Life' or '8 things one needs to know in life', et al, adding to the already huge pile of these non-fiction stuff, which to my disbelief are at bestsellers!
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
24th February, 2010 A.D.
Well, titling this post with a date may seem stupid but considering that this date is historic in more than one sense, I'll continue with my 'stupidity'.
First things first : It proved the existence of God. One of the names of this God is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. People know me as a die-hard Dravid fan and I still am despite witnessing this magical knock of 200* against RSA at Gwalior. Maybe VISA should "adopt" Master Card's ad campaign with the following lines : " Buying a ticket for India vs RSA @ Gwalior : Rs. 500. Travelling charges from Chennai to Gwalior, to and fro : Rs. 6000. Food and India jersey for the match : Rs. 1300. Watching God perform magic : Priceless!" ... One of the ad taglines in today's (Feb 25) newspaper took this a little further stating " Sachin is the secret of India's energy! " (the ad was obviously by Boost). Well, I never did any of the costly things which Visa Power could buy me but preferred to watch this miracle from my hostel common room, which looked more like a stuffed pillow, with seemingly no space and yet being filled in with more people as time passed by and as Sachin neared his Double Ton. This experience was truly amazing, even beating the experience of watching India beat Pakistan in the T20 World Cup finals, from the same "venue". And this was something I just had to blog about, even beating my laziness!
Also, another interesting thing happened. One could call it a part of the social experiments I've been trying out over the past few months, of how people react to various stimuli and how much their actions seem to reveal about themselves. As it happened, I filed my nomination form for the post of Co-Curricular Affairs Secretary of IIT Madras the previous day (Feb 23rd) despite most people seeming to think that I was just joking about it. Well, I was serious about the joke I wanted to cause. And my! it seemed more like some kind of chaos theory developing around me. Never have I seen so many people united, against and pro my decision at the same time (trust me, it's always been a overwhelming majority for any side, for or against.. never 50-50). Insti politics is something I never wish to be a part of although I wouldn't mind observing how things shape up, considering it's worth a paper to publish if carried out in a scientific manner, with readings and all. Maybe I'm a bit late this time, but must attempt this stuff next year. Anyways, let's hope all these guys who claim to understand the dynamics of student council "politics" (for the lack of a better word as I haven't begun my GRE prep yet) are 'strategically' correct else I would feel that their decision to force me to withdraw my application would be gross injustice to a democratic right I fundamentally deserve. Oh wait a min : Wasn't I pro-dictatorship ? Oh screw it, I'm a sadistic hypocrite but whatever be the case, I must admit it was real fun to see the pained look on their faces after they realized that the "wolf story" I had informed everyone about was actually true. I've taken a couple of their photos as well for documentation purposes... in a hope to realize my dream of a publication :) Oh and yes, to clarify any doubts, the title of this post is also the date when this "social expt" officially ended. Hoping for some more opportunities to try out random experiments in an attempt to understand human psychology without having to do a PhD in the same!
PS : Mourinho's revenge on his former employers was also sweet! The date is referential to this incident as well, although nothing historic about it. Nothing great about Inter beating Chelsea; for me at least.
First things first : It proved the existence of God. One of the names of this God is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. People know me as a die-hard Dravid fan and I still am despite witnessing this magical knock of 200* against RSA at Gwalior. Maybe VISA should "adopt" Master Card's ad campaign with the following lines : " Buying a ticket for India vs RSA @ Gwalior : Rs. 500. Travelling charges from Chennai to Gwalior, to and fro : Rs. 6000. Food and India jersey for the match : Rs. 1300. Watching God perform magic : Priceless!" ... One of the ad taglines in today's (Feb 25) newspaper took this a little further stating " Sachin is the secret of India's energy! " (the ad was obviously by Boost). Well, I never did any of the costly things which Visa Power could buy me but preferred to watch this miracle from my hostel common room, which looked more like a stuffed pillow, with seemingly no space and yet being filled in with more people as time passed by and as Sachin neared his Double Ton. This experience was truly amazing, even beating the experience of watching India beat Pakistan in the T20 World Cup finals, from the same "venue". And this was something I just had to blog about, even beating my laziness!
Also, another interesting thing happened. One could call it a part of the social experiments I've been trying out over the past few months, of how people react to various stimuli and how much their actions seem to reveal about themselves. As it happened, I filed my nomination form for the post of Co-Curricular Affairs Secretary of IIT Madras the previous day (Feb 23rd) despite most people seeming to think that I was just joking about it. Well, I was serious about the joke I wanted to cause. And my! it seemed more like some kind of chaos theory developing around me. Never have I seen so many people united, against and pro my decision at the same time (trust me, it's always been a overwhelming majority for any side, for or against.. never 50-50). Insti politics is something I never wish to be a part of although I wouldn't mind observing how things shape up, considering it's worth a paper to publish if carried out in a scientific manner, with readings and all. Maybe I'm a bit late this time, but must attempt this stuff next year. Anyways, let's hope all these guys who claim to understand the dynamics of student council "politics" (for the lack of a better word as I haven't begun my GRE prep yet) are 'strategically' correct else I would feel that their decision to force me to withdraw my application would be gross injustice to a democratic right I fundamentally deserve. Oh wait a min : Wasn't I pro-dictatorship ? Oh screw it, I'm a sadistic hypocrite but whatever be the case, I must admit it was real fun to see the pained look on their faces after they realized that the "wolf story" I had informed everyone about was actually true. I've taken a couple of their photos as well for documentation purposes... in a hope to realize my dream of a publication :) Oh and yes, to clarify any doubts, the title of this post is also the date when this "social expt" officially ended. Hoping for some more opportunities to try out random experiments in an attempt to understand human psychology without having to do a PhD in the same!
PS : Mourinho's revenge on his former employers was also sweet! The date is referential to this incident as well, although nothing historic about it. Nothing great about Inter beating Chelsea; for me at least.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Bas ek aur!!
Well, Schroeter cricket has been yet again, another disappointing moment this season, but this time there was a difference. We played Alak last year in our 2nd group match and played them first up this time. Alak missed the services of their studdest bowler, DB. We missed (not sure if we missed or not) our last year's captain and sports sec in the team. In essence, we were really underdogs but we had a heart and passion to win, something which we lost halfway during our previous encounter thanks to certain misgivings. Cricket is something according to me where statistics cannot tell you why things happened but how they happened, in terms of the scorecard. Of course, it never gives the complete picture but I'll attempt to fill in the blanks wherever necessart. In summary, this is how it was :
Jam lost the toss and were put in to bat :
After 10 overs, 50/2
After 13 overs, 64/6!!
After 18 overs, 102/7 (thanks to a superb batting display in between by our captain this year, Sixty, playing his final schroeter match!)
After 20 overs, 111/8
Well, the question posed by the umpires to us was a valid one "Do you think you guys can defend 111 on this track ? " Frankly, we didnt know it ourself. All we knew was if we gave it our best, we were through to the leagues and would have definitely pulled off what other hostels might call an upset.
Begin Alak's batting :
5 overs : 31/0
9 overs :69/2
10 overs : 80/2 ( this was my only over in the match where my plan to get one of their best batsman out was foiled thanks to a dropped catch when most would agree it was a regulation catch! The guy went on to add another 17 runs after that and maybe he could be in a position to remark in Steve Waugh style "You've dropped the cup mate!")
16 overs : 104/5
18 overs : 109/7
18.5 overs : 112/9!!
The last 4 overs were rivetting to say the least, and the last over drama was comical from a non-biased sense of thinking. It was senseless batting, good captaincy and field sets, and barring the 5th ball of the 18th over, it was definitely good fielding where Alak batsmen committed harakiri. The 5th ball is an interesting thing to be noted : They need 2 runs to win of 8 balls, with one wicket in hand. The batsman played a shot to point-- non-striker calls for a run--fielder picks up and throws over the keeper from a peaceful place-- ball collected by backup who throws it to the bowler's end-- bowler is halfway down the pitch, and misses the ball, which misses the stumps by an inch, -- bowler's end backup fumbles-- Alak completes the second run and there goes the match which we could have won :( It just went on to show how teamwork and great fielding can have the probability of beating even the best of sides although bygones are bygones and I wont continue to discuss about it.
I blogged about this just because of the fact this was very close to my heart; was one of those cases when one was so near and yet so far, and this being cricket and me being a part of the team, I just could not digest this loss. My performance in the match of course was forgettable to say the least, and hopefully, we'll be back next year and even more hopefully, I would be in a position to write about our victory!
Jam lost the toss and were put in to bat :
After 10 overs, 50/2
After 13 overs, 64/6!!
After 18 overs, 102/7 (thanks to a superb batting display in between by our captain this year, Sixty, playing his final schroeter match!)
After 20 overs, 111/8
Well, the question posed by the umpires to us was a valid one "Do you think you guys can defend 111 on this track ? " Frankly, we didnt know it ourself. All we knew was if we gave it our best, we were through to the leagues and would have definitely pulled off what other hostels might call an upset.
Begin Alak's batting :
5 overs : 31/0
9 overs :69/2
10 overs : 80/2 ( this was my only over in the match where my plan to get one of their best batsman out was foiled thanks to a dropped catch when most would agree it was a regulation catch! The guy went on to add another 17 runs after that and maybe he could be in a position to remark in Steve Waugh style "You've dropped the cup mate!")
16 overs : 104/5
18 overs : 109/7
18.5 overs : 112/9!!
The last 4 overs were rivetting to say the least, and the last over drama was comical from a non-biased sense of thinking. It was senseless batting, good captaincy and field sets, and barring the 5th ball of the 18th over, it was definitely good fielding where Alak batsmen committed harakiri. The 5th ball is an interesting thing to be noted : They need 2 runs to win of 8 balls, with one wicket in hand. The batsman played a shot to point-- non-striker calls for a run--fielder picks up and throws over the keeper from a peaceful place-- ball collected by backup who throws it to the bowler's end-- bowler is halfway down the pitch, and misses the ball, which misses the stumps by an inch, -- bowler's end backup fumbles-- Alak completes the second run and there goes the match which we could have won :( It just went on to show how teamwork and great fielding can have the probability of beating even the best of sides although bygones are bygones and I wont continue to discuss about it.
I blogged about this just because of the fact this was very close to my heart; was one of those cases when one was so near and yet so far, and this being cricket and me being a part of the team, I just could not digest this loss. My performance in the match of course was forgettable to say the least, and hopefully, we'll be back next year and even more hopefully, I would be in a position to write about our victory!
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