Those of you who know me would definitely know which snakes I’m talking about here and they’re definitely not the slimy, slithering creatures that scare the living daylights out of me. For the uninitiated, I’m talking about Snake II, classified into Classic and Campaign, the game that along with Nokia 1100, is on the verge of extinction. Or at least the charm of the black & white Snakes seems to have been lost with the advent of the newer, fancy phones…
I am addicted to Snakes…in the true sense of the meaning of the word ‘addict’. I’ve been hooked onto Snakes for almost 5 years now & although the initial euphoria of beating high scores has died away, the addiction refuses to let go of me. The sight of my phone lying around peacefully, undisturbed, simply bothers me. It doesn’t matter if I’m reading, ‘studying’, trying to sleep or am doing nothing; playing Snakes has been incorporated so soundly into my activities, it’s like advertisements in media.
And why do I play Snakes?
The rational explanation that my consciousness initially offered was that it gives me a break from whatever I am doing (if I’m doing anything i.e.). But after some more probing, my sub-consciousness sheepishly admitted that it’s just an excuse for doing nothing. I’ve already waxed eloquent on my ‘eagerness’ to jump into any sort of action, but sometimes amidst the chaos in my life, the 5 minutes I spend playing the petty game is all the time I get to myself in the entire day. The entire process is so perfunctory; it’s as good as staring into space.
So what did I do before there was Snakes?
I stared into space, like everyone else… It’s just that with the passage of time, idleness has become too luxurious an enterprise to be afforded. Because with idleness comes gultiness(sic). And the gultiness is as good as a dementor!
And now when I have to use one of the ‘fancy phones’ back at home, it seems so alien; it gives me the feeling you get when you look into an empty room hoping to find someone who’s been long gone.
It’s funny how we console ourselves for doing things we are too embarrassed to admit under an array of pretexts. I’m clinging onto my cell phone under the pretext of living in a hostel (and it does make perfect sense because nobody in his right mind would steal my phone!). But to think of it, it’s just an illusion I’ve created for myself; and it’s good while it lasts! Even though I don’t know what I’ll do when I get a new phone, I will eventually get one. And like all things in life, this chapter of my life too will blend into another one. Because life isn’t always about holding on; sometimes it’s about letting go. It’s how you gather memories over the years…
Else we’d never have any memories…
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Saturday, December 15, 2007
My Daddy’s Biiigggg Car :)
Today I went for a ride in our new Honda City :) Yeah, I can’t stop smiling… and by force of habit, I can’t stop my thoughts from straying to the past.
As a ten-year old, I remember gazing at the Maruti Esteems and the Fords, wondering what it was like to be inside one. I was actually silly enough to count the number of ‘big’ cars I encountered whenever I stepped out of the house. My brother and I actually managed to fit ourselves on our Bajaj, with dad driving and mom clinging onto one of us! Through rain and sunshine, we depended on our scooter to get us anywhere and everywhere and it rarely let us down.
As a kid, the plump packets of chips and tidbits were totally and completely out of reach; in fact after a point of time, I didn’t even bother trying my luck asking for one. Clothes were those that had been passed down from generations and generations of cousin brothers, and mainly my own brother… and it took me a really long time to figure out why the t-shirts I wore looked different from the ones the other girls wore. Right up to college, I’d never even dreamt of having a cell phone at my disposal, let alone a laptop.
A lot has changed; the scooter eventually gave way to a Maruti 800, which later made way for an Esteem. Somewhere along the way, a new scooter and my Scooty joined in and now we’re celebrating the latest entry which doesn’t really fit into our garage. Our living room’s no longer the football ground where 3 kids (dad included) tossed around a bottle-cap. It’s more like a museum now with objects from all over the place. Our dear old 486 PC has been replaced by a sleek HP Pavilion.
And as these little alterations, mere ripples in our lives, come together to form an ocean of change, I wonder if the change has really penetrated the surface to touch what we really are. We’re still the same people we were 10 years ago, we still love each other, we still can’t do without friends, still listen to the radio, and still miss each other…
>> and having lingered on for too long on this post, I can’t think of suitable ending, though I was basically trying to say price tags shouldn’t determine what we are and that we shouldn’t lose touch with ourselves.. I’ll try completing it later sometime…
And as I beg your leave, this poor, unintelligent soul begs forgiveness! Divine patrons absolve my sin or I shall drown in my own remorse… drown… helpless, guilty, lost, forlorn…
Oh Lord, Oh Lord!!
As a ten-year old, I remember gazing at the Maruti Esteems and the Fords, wondering what it was like to be inside one. I was actually silly enough to count the number of ‘big’ cars I encountered whenever I stepped out of the house. My brother and I actually managed to fit ourselves on our Bajaj, with dad driving and mom clinging onto one of us! Through rain and sunshine, we depended on our scooter to get us anywhere and everywhere and it rarely let us down.
As a kid, the plump packets of chips and tidbits were totally and completely out of reach; in fact after a point of time, I didn’t even bother trying my luck asking for one. Clothes were those that had been passed down from generations and generations of cousin brothers, and mainly my own brother… and it took me a really long time to figure out why the t-shirts I wore looked different from the ones the other girls wore. Right up to college, I’d never even dreamt of having a cell phone at my disposal, let alone a laptop.
A lot has changed; the scooter eventually gave way to a Maruti 800, which later made way for an Esteem. Somewhere along the way, a new scooter and my Scooty joined in and now we’re celebrating the latest entry which doesn’t really fit into our garage. Our living room’s no longer the football ground where 3 kids (dad included) tossed around a bottle-cap. It’s more like a museum now with objects from all over the place. Our dear old 486 PC has been replaced by a sleek HP Pavilion.
And as these little alterations, mere ripples in our lives, come together to form an ocean of change, I wonder if the change has really penetrated the surface to touch what we really are. We’re still the same people we were 10 years ago, we still love each other, we still can’t do without friends, still listen to the radio, and still miss each other…
>> and having lingered on for too long on this post, I can’t think of suitable ending, though I was basically trying to say price tags shouldn’t determine what we are and that we shouldn’t lose touch with ourselves.. I’ll try completing it later sometime…
And as I beg your leave, this poor, unintelligent soul begs forgiveness! Divine patrons absolve my sin or I shall drown in my own remorse… drown… helpless, guilty, lost, forlorn…
Oh Lord, Oh Lord!!
Friday, December 14, 2007
Inertia
2:00 AM (gawking at the monitor at home)
Inertia is a non-quantifiable property of matter by which it remains at rest or in uniform motion in the same straight line unless acted upon by some external force.
Newton when he established this wonderful principle would have been so overjoyed if he’d had the good fortune (:D) of meeting me! I landed on this chair 3 hrs ago with the intention of wrapping up my work (not that I had any!) in an hour at max. It so happened, my ever-so-reliable broadband connection refused to work up the magic and I spent some time playin “tumblebugs”, in the hope that it’ll start working sometime.Work it did, ultimately... and the next two hours were spent ingeniously doing nothing!
And I’ll be most obliged to give you a brief account of the ‘complexity’ of the situation.An hour after I was done with ploughing through a legion of accounts, my brain began the usual debate over whether I should call it quits or while around a bit longer. I could almost imagine the “good-me” and the “bad-me” pondering over the issue, ponder because both the 'me's were way too overcome with lethargy to have the ardor to argue. The good-me continued to whine about how late it was getting, as it supported its arguments with graphic memories of a livid mom, lousy days and a mocking clock. On the other hand the bad-me appeared to be doodling listlessly on some imaginary table saying nothing. The mere sight of her screamed out in my head “the bed is soooo faaar awaayyyyyy, I’ll die a million deaths before I ever get there! You can’t just go off to sleep, you have to shut down the PC, switch off the light, brush your teeth… And where will you sleep?!? Who’ll clear all the clutter?!” I thus spent another hour, an indolent, purposeless wanderer on the colossal planet of the Internet, waiting to be taken where my sleeping destiny beckons (I have my doubts on that one, but anyways…)
And now I have successfully spent another hour jotting down this pointless post in the futile search of some inspiration to get me out of my chair. In fact, even my chair has started protesting now..
I have therefore reached the conclusion that when Murphy adopted me, Inertia too was a part of the family I was adopted into. She has ever since protected me from any kind of stimulus that’ll throw me into “active mode”. And I, like a committed disciple have proved myself worthy of her blessings. My worthiness shows when I keep walking even if I have to take a turn, when I keep sitting in some room even though I can’t keep my eyes open, when I keep playing Snakes in spite of having a zillion things to do, when I keep sitting in my bed in spite of being awfully late for college…
And it is showing now…
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
The Graveyard Shift
“saturation region…”, “12.54”, “infinity”, “Lorentz pri….” Zzzzz…….
“Yes, Miss Samant, do you enjoy maths?” ZAP!!
“Sirrr..??! Yes, sir..” (Whew..)
Every morning, the dismal ordeal begins with our despotic gurus making their entry one after the other, as they fill the lecture hall with their ghoulish chanting. 10 minutes into the lecture, you feel like Calvin taking off on his journey into outer space, fighting the sadistic advocates of education. Except that in this case, the entire atmosphere is so somber, it seems more like a trip to the graveyard than outer space :-S
Any attempt to catch up with the proceedings of the class is met with blank stares from fellow zombies (if lucky!), as they gently nudge you back into your alien world with the “how-dumb-can-you-be” look. A few more minutes, and the world of the dead gets segregated into two:
(i) the living-dead (read ‘rendered lifeless due to excessive studying’)
(ii) the brain-dead (read ‘dumb mortals clinging on to hopes of surviving on extra-curriculars’)
An insight into the psyche of the first category reveals no theory is too *convoluted to be comprehended and no query is out of bounds for them. And as their steady drone of answers reverberates through the class, the second-category members feel themselves being steadily sucked into the black hole of incomprehension, to a point of no-return (not that u can come back from black-holes, just a silly attempt to play around with Stephen Hawking’s theory counter that of Einstein :D).
And thus continues the graveyard shift till the daylight arrives (the ‘daylight’ for the brain-dead is end of college) and the living-dead crawl back into their coffins, nestled there till its time for another shift…
>> * the use of convoluted here is not out of the necessity to use a synonym of ‘complex’ but as a tribute to the principle of ‘convolution’ as all communication engg. students will (hopefully) agree, is by far the worst ‘theory’ we’ve ever experienced in the course of communication 0:-)
“Yes, Miss Samant, do you enjoy maths?” ZAP!!
“Sirrr..??! Yes, sir..” (Whew..)
Every morning, the dismal ordeal begins with our despotic gurus making their entry one after the other, as they fill the lecture hall with their ghoulish chanting. 10 minutes into the lecture, you feel like Calvin taking off on his journey into outer space, fighting the sadistic advocates of education. Except that in this case, the entire atmosphere is so somber, it seems more like a trip to the graveyard than outer space :-S
Any attempt to catch up with the proceedings of the class is met with blank stares from fellow zombies (if lucky!), as they gently nudge you back into your alien world with the “how-dumb-can-you-be” look. A few more minutes, and the world of the dead gets segregated into two:
(i) the living-dead (read ‘rendered lifeless due to excessive studying’)
(ii) the brain-dead (read ‘dumb mortals clinging on to hopes of surviving on extra-curriculars’)
An insight into the psyche of the first category reveals no theory is too *convoluted to be comprehended and no query is out of bounds for them. And as their steady drone of answers reverberates through the class, the second-category members feel themselves being steadily sucked into the black hole of incomprehension, to a point of no-return (not that u can come back from black-holes, just a silly attempt to play around with Stephen Hawking’s theory counter that of Einstein :D).
And thus continues the graveyard shift till the daylight arrives (the ‘daylight’ for the brain-dead is end of college) and the living-dead crawl back into their coffins, nestled there till its time for another shift…
>> * the use of convoluted here is not out of the necessity to use a synonym of ‘complex’ but as a tribute to the principle of ‘convolution’ as all communication engg. students will (hopefully) agree, is by far the worst ‘theory’ we’ve ever experienced in the course of communication 0:-)
When something has to go wrong…
8:00 PM (Applied Power Electronics Lab – IITB)
This is probably the most bizarre place or time to jot down a post, but then joblessness and lack of ardor can do funny things to you :-S Today is the second-last day of my summer training and I have made all plans of doing a Houdini tomorrow evening, so ideally speaking I should be giving finishing touches to my project work… so I wish! Over the years I have actually come to realize that when I was born, Murphy was really bored, so he decided to adopt me as his blessed angel… By which I mean, every time I venture out to do something (regardless of importance in this case), Murphy and his law hound me till I actually start thinking of dedicating a temple to him (hoping that’ll keep him happy for the rest of ‘my’ life). In fact, if you look at me carefully, you’ll see this tiny figure jumping on my head (with joy, when things don’t work out for me). Yes! That is Murphy… So if you ever think life has been good to you, and is not challenging enough, you might want to come and shake hands with this lousy li’l rogue and shake him off my tail
Now, coming to the point, this arbit piece of prose is actually the result of a certain component of my circuit refusing to work, because of which I can’t go ahead with my work. And I sit here waiting for my poor perpetually-tied-for-time senior to officially send me off for the day and I sincerely hope that happens before I faint with hunger.
As I said, today’s the second-last day of my training… So today morning when I woke up (i.e. 10:30 am, in case you have any earthly, preconceived notions about morning hours) I had all plans of slogging it out, cutting short my lunch-break and get my hardware up and running. Murphy didn’t sleep too well last night it seems, so today when I reached the lab, full of resolve and brimming with energy, he shooed Electricity away… And so Electricity went stomping off (in quite a rage, I must say) and I didn’t actually mind given the state of my growling stomach and sleepy-for-no-reason eyes. As it turned out, Electricity was too angry to come back on its scheduled time i.e. 3 pm and Murphy, obviously had no intentions of calling it back. Basically, I spent the next 2 hours eating people’s heads and their phone bills, guzzling a coffee and waiting for the pesky Electricity.
Finally, Electricity arrived in all it’s glory, all charged and refreshed after a 5-hour break. And, one hour into my work, I realize there is no way I can get the abysmal component to work (basically Murphy needed something to entertain him after Electricity was back). I have now spend 2 hours waiting for my send off, prolifically utilizing my time playing FreeCell till my eyes threatened to spring out of their sockets and subsequently I chose to scribble (electronically :D) this post instead.
It’s actually quite an interesting sight if u see… The M.Tech. people have their presentations coming up. It’s like this bunch of people running after Time, stumbling and falling to catch up with it; while I drag myself aimlessly and wait for Time to catch up with me, but its just way far behind. And now, I have reached my wit’s end (not that I have too much of it) so I’m planning to go and give Time one good whack and stomp away like Electricity did :D
PS. The post wasn’t meant to sound like an Enid Blyton story but its just my state of mind talking. And in situations like these, you tend not to have too much respect for time and electricity :D
Finally, any grievances against the disrespect of time and electricity should be duly taken care of by Murphy and I should not be held responsible for any of the comments made above 0:-)
This is probably the most bizarre place or time to jot down a post, but then joblessness and lack of ardor can do funny things to you :-S Today is the second-last day of my summer training and I have made all plans of doing a Houdini tomorrow evening, so ideally speaking I should be giving finishing touches to my project work… so I wish! Over the years I have actually come to realize that when I was born, Murphy was really bored, so he decided to adopt me as his blessed angel… By which I mean, every time I venture out to do something (regardless of importance in this case), Murphy and his law hound me till I actually start thinking of dedicating a temple to him (hoping that’ll keep him happy for the rest of ‘my’ life). In fact, if you look at me carefully, you’ll see this tiny figure jumping on my head (with joy, when things don’t work out for me). Yes! That is Murphy… So if you ever think life has been good to you, and is not challenging enough, you might want to come and shake hands with this lousy li’l rogue and shake him off my tail
Now, coming to the point, this arbit piece of prose is actually the result of a certain component of my circuit refusing to work, because of which I can’t go ahead with my work. And I sit here waiting for my poor perpetually-tied-for-time senior to officially send me off for the day and I sincerely hope that happens before I faint with hunger.
As I said, today’s the second-last day of my training… So today morning when I woke up (i.e. 10:30 am, in case you have any earthly, preconceived notions about morning hours) I had all plans of slogging it out, cutting short my lunch-break and get my hardware up and running. Murphy didn’t sleep too well last night it seems, so today when I reached the lab, full of resolve and brimming with energy, he shooed Electricity away… And so Electricity went stomping off (in quite a rage, I must say) and I didn’t actually mind given the state of my growling stomach and sleepy-for-no-reason eyes. As it turned out, Electricity was too angry to come back on its scheduled time i.e. 3 pm and Murphy, obviously had no intentions of calling it back. Basically, I spent the next 2 hours eating people’s heads and their phone bills, guzzling a coffee and waiting for the pesky Electricity.
Finally, Electricity arrived in all it’s glory, all charged and refreshed after a 5-hour break. And, one hour into my work, I realize there is no way I can get the abysmal component to work (basically Murphy needed something to entertain him after Electricity was back). I have now spend 2 hours waiting for my send off, prolifically utilizing my time playing FreeCell till my eyes threatened to spring out of their sockets and subsequently I chose to scribble (electronically :D) this post instead.
It’s actually quite an interesting sight if u see… The M.Tech. people have their presentations coming up. It’s like this bunch of people running after Time, stumbling and falling to catch up with it; while I drag myself aimlessly and wait for Time to catch up with me, but its just way far behind. And now, I have reached my wit’s end (not that I have too much of it) so I’m planning to go and give Time one good whack and stomp away like Electricity did :D
PS. The post wasn’t meant to sound like an Enid Blyton story but its just my state of mind talking. And in situations like these, you tend not to have too much respect for time and electricity :D
Finally, any grievances against the disrespect of time and electricity should be duly taken care of by Murphy and I should not be held responsible for any of the comments made above 0:-)
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Reflections in Time...
Have you ever wanted time to stand still and wait for you to soak up the moment? And before you know, the moment's gone and all you're left with are shards of a mirror that reflect the time gone by…
Every time you venture out to a new place, the overpowering yearning to hold on to the people & the good times, always overshadows the promise of the future. There are times when everything around you is so beautiful, you don't want the memory to fade even from the edges. Times when a song will touch your heart in a way you never imagined, and instances that bring in a deluge of emotions so strong, they threaten to shatter the barricade of your composure. And those small gestures and silly moments make every passing day so special, it leaves you incapable of comprehending the significance each day holds in our life.
As time passes, this yearning becomes so strong, it infuses into you this benumbing fear of losing what you have. Then you reach a point in your life where you realize that life is so wonderful; if you just value what it has to offer, the good times will never leave you. Every second appreciated is a celebration of life. And somewhere along the way you learn to build your roads on today, even though you know that futures have a way of falling down mid-flight. And so, you learn, and you learn, and with every goodbye you learn…
Every time you venture out to a new place, the overpowering yearning to hold on to the people & the good times, always overshadows the promise of the future. There are times when everything around you is so beautiful, you don't want the memory to fade even from the edges. Times when a song will touch your heart in a way you never imagined, and instances that bring in a deluge of emotions so strong, they threaten to shatter the barricade of your composure. And those small gestures and silly moments make every passing day so special, it leaves you incapable of comprehending the significance each day holds in our life.
As time passes, this yearning becomes so strong, it infuses into you this benumbing fear of losing what you have. Then you reach a point in your life where you realize that life is so wonderful; if you just value what it has to offer, the good times will never leave you. Every second appreciated is a celebration of life. And somewhere along the way you learn to build your roads on today, even though you know that futures have a way of falling down mid-flight. And so, you learn, and you learn, and with every goodbye you learn…