you are as good as your last haircut!

There's a snippet of funny quotes in the top left corner of my blog.
Today it read, "You are as good as your last hair cut"
Considering, that i went bald yesterday, how good am i???
:-D

Sad but True!

April 20, 2007. 1545 IST.

I get ready to go to attend an extra class.
But for a change, i am not cribbing about the extra class. The professor asks us to go to the air-conditioned seminar hall, a soothing thought in the killing summer.

I encourage a few souls to attend the lecture, making them remember, this is the last lecture of college life!
I go there, sit in the hall. Start listening to the lecture, but was soon disinterested, as usual. So, my eyes roam around the class. The sinking feeling of departing from all these fellow classmates two weeks from now, sets in. With a slightly heavy heart, i stare at a few faces. The same faces i saw four years ago.....


Four years ago, when i entered the first lecture, sceptical and unsure (exactly as one of my teachers described me later, not that i still ain't), not knowing what to expect, but here i sit now, admist the same faces, heartfelt.

I cribbed about everything in the college, the rooms, the system, the exams, the teachers, the classmates, everyone and everything! And as the day nears, my heart goes heavier and heavier, for this very room, these very classmates.

Sad that i have to, but i have to, as i move on to another day, another morning, where i will have to make another set of friends, till one day comes, when i say goodbye to even them.......

Life's sad at times, but is still to be lived......

Duty!!!

My tryst with the Bhagavad Gita continues, gradually.
Slowly and steadily, i read those verses and their meanings.
Trying to read those and get "cleansed".
:-)

The source of the Bhagavad Gita, they say, were the words spoken by Lord Krishna to his disciple Arjuna, to give him the mental strength to fight the battle against his own clan comprising of his near and dear ones.

In this particular verse which i read , 2:15, to be exact, Krishna tries to tell Arjuna that sometimes you have to break the bonds with your family, for the higher duty/goal. The ties in the materialastic world shouldn't hold you from attaining the higher goal.

Here, an example of Lord Chaitanya is quoted, who, at the age of 24, leaves his old mother, his young wife and children, to feed for themselves, and he goes to attain the "spiritual bliss".

But, this proved to be a little uncomfortable for me.
He did break the ties with the materialastic world for the spiritual attainment, understood, but, didn't he shun his basic duty?
The basic duty of taking care of his old mother, who had brought him up throughout his life.
That of taking care of his wife and children, for whom, he was the only support.

What's the point in attaining a higher goal, if you fail at the basics?
What's the point of attaining the spiritual bliss if you left other people, leave the ones around around you, in total abyss?

Which is exactly the duty, the "higher one" or the "lower one"?

CHANGE

I reached the Surat railway station from my home by the early morning train as I have been doing on a few weekends of the last four years. I get out of the railway station, and am swarmed by a group of auto drivers, a normal sight, them trying to poach you for the maximum amount of money they can. The firs autowaala came to me “Sir kidhar jaana hain? Kribhco, L&T, Reliance?”

I was left baffled by the question. Usually, they used to guess it right, all these three years, they used to guess it correctly, SVR, they used to say (a “colloquial” term for the SVNIT, Surat). What happened, how were they considering me as a professional at these companies instead of the student at “aapdu svr”?

My clothes didn't tell it for sure..... a pair of faded jeans and a t shirt are definitely not what the executives roam around in.
Have the four years of college life done it to me finally?

Do I no more look like a student?
Have I lost the so called innocence?
The four years of college life, showed me many things.
Many firsts, many lasts, many lessons learned, a lot taken from the past four years.

The first slap on your face during the ragging period, the first slap given during the ragging period, the first puff of smoke (and I swear my last), the first sip of alcohol in the dying days of these four years. It’s all changed a lot.

An introvert, who never really had any friends, who never really spoke out, who was shy of girls, by the time he completed the 12th grade, was totally different now!

Now he was almost an extrovert, though still the introvert's hidden somewhere deep within. Now he speaks out and lashes out at each and every small thing.
Girls! Now, they are after him!! No don’t get me that ways…

They are after him, because he abuses them left right and center, accuse the girls!

There have been stray cases, I don’t deny.
Well, respect is ought to be earned, that doesn’t come by virtue of just being of the sex you are of, argue I; I don’t abuse all of them, always, do I?
i give immense respect to the ones, whom i feel, deserve it, be it a girl, a guy, a professor or even a beggar.

One more change that i notice in myself is that, I no more can act nice, either I am nice, or I am not!
Some things change for good, some for bad; I dunno how to classify the above!

So have many things!
But does it really show to outsiders?
Even a rank outsider like an autorickshaw vaala can even recognize it!

Life has changed and so has my perspective towards it.

Dream!

Oh My God!
Not Again!

A lot said about it in the earlier posts, what's he upto now?

Why did I refrain from dreaming?
The reason being, if they break, you seem hurt.

And now i carry some dreams, which sure will break.

What's my dream?

A borderless world!

Huh.... Enough joking!

Where did i get such a senseless dream from?
A so called educational tour which showed me the hurt in the eyes of few Tibetans, having no place to call their home. Sure, they do live in India, albeit as refugees! Then was a case of two countries blowing trumpets (literally), trying to show their strength, hiding their failures.
Then, came a couple of war movies based in africa and rest of the world.
A Perfect reciepe, for the dream??

They say, the days when cruel monarchs ruled over the land are long gone!
Its a democracy now, and i have been brought up in the largest democracy in the world!

But isn't democracy a kind of organised monarchy?

You select your ruler, but they still rule, don't they?

One of the major reasons, why monarchy was thought to be bad, was because, they divided land into pieces and fought wars for them. Wasting human life, time and money.

What's the difference now?
We still fight wars, we still waste immense amount of money on wars and lives are almost unaccounted for.

India, the largest democracy in the world, has more budgetary allocation for defence than health and education combined!

Just imagine how much money we could utilise for better purposes, if there were no borders!
Why do we draw borders?
Why can't the white skinned, dark skinned, brown skinned all be together!

Why is it necessary for there to the existence of countries?
Humans exist, isnt that more than enough?

We have the "United" States of America, why can't we have United States of Earth, instead?
The "unity" should extend, Shouldn't It?

India is said to be a Secular republic, but still almost 80% of the population comprises of a particular religion!
Ditto is the case with almost all countries, whether, they be fundamentally secular or not!

I guess the comfort theory does work, though in a larger context, here!

People would be more comfortable with the other people who might look like them, talk like them, and probably worship the same God as them!!!!

Blood definitely, is thicker than water!

And still i dare to dream!