The Window Outside 

You’re like a dog who wants to be patted,

Every time the teacher or the master gets past you;

Crisp uniform, polished shoes and hair all matted,

A few words of praise – and there’s hardly anything you won’t do.

Doesn’t matter what you do as long as there’s flatter,

Class monitor – pedestal – no.1 – no.2 won’t do;

Doesn’t matter the air outside the window,

Victory inside’s still served on a platter!

Outside the window, the competition widens,

You think hard, work harder and get more guidance;

And yet, everyone seems to be better at something or the other,

And then slowly you realise that you have to win some and lose other.

You can’t win all races – you say to yourselves,

You get out of a few contests – even though you could have won;

Another’s victory doesn’t bother you – in fact the opposite,

‘Cause those are the races which you haven’t decided to run.

No longer you do you toil for all the flattering mouths – unlike the days of yore;

Praise still matters but where it comes from now matters even more!

The aNu

The Discovery of Electricity

In the year of 1821 at ANu,

Electron leader:
My dear friends, we will no longer remain under the clutches of our positive, heavy twin brothers. Let us dispel all the myths about the outer world Antariksh. Lets us muster up enough energy to leave and travel abroad.

Other Es:
Hear, Hear

(And the electrons muster up energy and stage a walk out in protest style in one line)

And we thought that Faraday discovered electricity/electron....

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At aNu,the ritualistic departing of the old to the CRO concentration camp was taken as a way of life. All the children were brought up to believe that they would have to compulsorily face death. However there were some dare – devils who refused to believe in this age old dictum and in the year, 1821 in the lab of Michael Faraday, they ventured out on their own to travel the outer world and meet their cousins. Some even married and never returned. Since then the fashion of traveling to places through long wires caught up. Not only was it pursued as a fun activity but also as an educational experience. Little did they know that the dare devilry of the brave few would lead to such a huge revolution and tourism movement now known to the outer world as 'electricity'

Also their was this heralded hierarchy that came down from years ago about the superiority of the positive and heavier twins. Story goes it that the proton's weight had increased exponentially because of the lack of exercise and now it had been too late. The proton could not even get up. Several differences existed even within the nucleus. Because of an unfortunate set of mutations, some of the protons were without charges, only contributing to the weight of the nucleus. Not only were these neutrons considered handicapped and powerless, they were subjugated by the more virile of the species. So much was the subjugation and oppression, the neutrons thought it in their luck not to have a charge. All attempts at research towards rectifying the mutation defect by the research community were vehemently discouraged and censored by the moral brigade. “How can they become one of us ? If God deems them to be so then they shall remain so..” , they used to say.

However there was one thing in common to both the twins: the wave training and particle contests. By changing the form from wave to the particle, they had to outwit the opponent. This ability to carry off both the wave and the particle characteristics came only after revolutions of training and tests.

It was a world with its own set of rules, strict and necessary:the ANu. Viewed from the top it looked like a solar system with the sun at the center and the planets revolving around it. But of course they didn't know it, for none had gone out of the system to see what it looked like. There were occasional clashes among warring factions leading to flashes of light now known as 'photon'. These skirmishes were due to reasons ranging from fight for a date to a fight to participate in reactions (both purely chemical and of the heart). But the most common reason was to get a chance to travel the antariksh ( the outer world) and return with spectacular pictures. But barring these few tensions, ANu was pretty peaceful.

There lived many electrons in the world all orbiting the nucleus tirelessly for the pull of the proton was too strong to let go of them. The electron in the outer orbits had grown old and their speed and agility was much lesser than the inner young ones. Also their ability to hold on to their paths was steadily on the decrease. Almost all the younger ones knew that sooner or later some of them will be taken away to the CRO concentration camp by giving them intolerable amount of photon snack.

All the oldies would be slowly speeded up by powerful magnetic and electric forces. The speed would reach extremely high levels only to be impeded by a wall screen where the electrons would bang.A pile of splinched bodies being the aftermath.Then the soul would depart leaving a trace of shine and brightness at the point of collision. A sign of the purity of the life that they lead.

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A History Class

At a History class reading in the aNu:

e1: And thus the late E24 was taken to the CRO concentration camp in the year 1989. It was revealed that the death was caused by over speeding and banging into a screen.

e2: All the police could find was a faint trace of light. People came to believe it as the purity of the life that he lead.

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The cold war between the inmates could be seen at the most bizarre of the places.

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Convenient Exclusion

(A placard put up in front of the tourism board says:)

Arranged tours to various atoms by our A1 electricity. Cheap and flexible rates.
ONLY FOR ELECTRONS

(A placard put up in front of the nucleus club says :)

New year party tonight in the nucleus. Unlimited fun guaranteed.
ELECTRONS BANNED

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I arrive by a bullock cart and not my bike. They run past me bare foot without a care in the world.

I remove my shoes and go out in the sun. I run. Not the run with measured steps and controlled breathing. I let my hands and legs loose and run like a child, an excited child. And then I pant. I ruffle my neatly styled hair and try to make it look disheveled. I try to aim a stone to the nearest mango hanging. I speak in a carefree manner and try to ape the accent. I play with the roped wooden top and meddle with marbles. I try not to be disgruntled with the slightest of the sweat dripping off my chin and with the slightest of dirt on my shorts. I forget cutlery and eat with my hands. I imagine that I have always done so. I try not to be silent and dignified. I shout with joy when playing. I put a towel around my neck and roam the village streets. I don't swim with carefully honed freestyle strokes in the river. Instead I let my body float in the water and dive off the rocks. I don't keep looking at my watch and keep track of time. I don't follow any deadlines. I don't keep any reminders. I sleep like a log and get up to the fresh rural air.

And when I am done, I come back and get back to what I am.

Great Thoughts

1. Nothing can be taught, everything can be learnt. That’s the first principle of complete education
2. If it could take an engineer like Archimedes so many years to unravel the principle of density, how can you expect a child to get the concepts clear at a tender age of 10?
3. Three sentences for getting success : Know more than the other, work more than the other, expect less than the other
4. You can be only yourselves. Everyone else is taken .

Tell me SIr....

Can you tell me Sir why do we not play everyday anymore like the good old days when at the stroke of 5, after the last half an hour of perfunctory studies, books were packed in a frantic hurry, bats were wielded like maces and a determination to be that evening's hero in the match prevailed? Can you tell me Sir why half an hour of Disney Hour on TV was much more fun than hours of TV and computer now? Tell me this also why kites no longer catch the eye, no longer the desire to fly them? The fun at school, teasing boys on girls and girls on boys. Why don't I understand how the fun of one samosa eaten in the school canteen refuses to be downplayed by the myriad succulent dishes tasted later? Those races with stick-beating the tires and running after them. Those pantomimes with cycles as buses and us donning the roles of conductors. Tell me sir where is the shine of the eye when not knowing what to do never irked the mind? Nor did the spectre of the future bear down upon? Why does that uncanny knack of being contented not present itself anymore? Tell me Sir, was it just a case of 'ignorance is bliss'? Sir, tell me, will you?

I Am Expecting......

"Expectations are an obstacle in the path of happiness", let lose some venerable XYZ. I cannot agree more. There dawns this crushing reality that almost all of the sadness is the off-shoot of expectations. As I start pondering, a tumultuous number of scenario flood my mind.

I got 80%, but alas I expected to get 85. I thought that such an arduous trek might lead us to a better scenery, not just some trees and bushes. Oh my, I thought that the class will get canceled. I guessed that this sport might be more fun but alas....and so go on many stories. As human beings we can never cleanse ourselves of expectations.

As opposed to this is the unparalleled, pure bliss of getting something unexpected. A class getting canceled when you have least expected it is like a gift from the God himself. A surprise party when you've never thought of it might just be the reason to cheer you up. The element of a pleasant surprise always takes an upper hand. It only takes a bit of restraint in expecting things to allow ourselves to be pleasantly surprised. Of course this again diverges to the debate of not expecting any fruit and keep on working.

Why are children almost always so happy ? Their mind is not cluttered with the myriad desires and experiences that adults have. Every experience is a new one for them. There is no benchmark to compare or weigh one result against another. You don't compare a sweet with another. A sweet is a sweet to be enjoyed in isolation.

But of course, an axiom single handedly never dictated life. Not expecting anything at all will take away the magnetic power of the goal that keeps us working. Mitigation of motivation will result in lower levels of enthusiasm. However we can enjoy small moments of life without expecting hills out of small events. Just get yourself pleasantly surprised on every turn of the way.

In a lighter vein, some circumstances can make even the most expecting hero starts wavering.

Nagalapuram Trek : Day-1

Went on a 2 day trek with the Chennai Tekking Club to Nagalapuram in Andhra Pradesh. The trek promised to be a larger and more difficult version of Tada. Taking a break from the normal route, this time the trek was planned from the western side of the mountain. The trail was supposed to be dry and all of us were advised to carry 4 liters of water. If only we knew that even 4 liters would prove less.

We left on Friday night at around 9. I was in Peter's (the head of CTC) Scorpio. The ride was quite good. Scorpio is quite a car when it comes to comfort and handling. After stopping in between for an hour and then resuming, we reached the base village at around 2.15 am. After getting a few hours' sleep in the school – premises, we started off at around 6.30 am with bags full of stuff. We reached the ever elusive base of the mountain after around an hour's walk. And then started the climb. The climb was quite easy in the beginning and everyone seemed to be in good spirits. We had breakfast at around 8.30 am and again started off with periodic stops for drinking water and glucose. As the time passed people started getting tired and the gap between the fit and the unfit people began to widen. Soon people were divided in batches with the first batch including Peter far ahead of us. After walking through the jungle for some time, we reached a dry stream and started following it which was monotonous and tiring because of the uneven land. After following a series of stream trails we hit upon quite a steep climb with barely any trees for hold. My 4 liters of water had got over by then. The steep climb was somehow completed after a series of rests. I guess we rested more than we trekked. Finally we got down the second hill and started following a river which was supposed to lead to a flowing stream. It was at this point that I started getting all weak and shaky. I was constantly loosing my balance and patience. After being helped by the cores at a point and after a 3 km climb, we sighted a stream. And what a feeling that was! All we could think about was drinking the flowing water. We followed upstream, climbed over a hill to avoid swimming and reached the 'rugby' pool at around 5.30 pm. Ah, what relief! After around 11 hrs of trekking we had reached the pool. The pool was awesome; calm and deep. No sooner had I reached the pool, I changed and dived in over-looking my exhaustion. After a meal of delicious Maggi and soup, we crashed nearby the stream. And what a sleep that was ! The sound of the insects, the flowing water could only add to the depth of the sleep. That was the end of the grueling first day. Will upload the photos soon.

Summer resolution

Am blogging after a long time. Had lacked both the inspiration and the time to do so.

Everyone has a new year resolution. I decided to have a resolution for the summer. This is the first time that I am staying in insti in summer, so why not make full use of it? One of my resolutions is to travel this summer as much as the body and time permits. Weekend is the ideal time for roaming around. Even after staying in Chennai for 3 years I realize that I hardly know that place. Places that I have visited this summer (mostly on weekends)

1. The City Center
2. Nagalapuram trek with CTC

Places that I plan to visit:

1. Tirupati
2. Bangalore - Mysore - Hassan
3. Periyar National part (bleak chance but worth a try)

And local areas in Chennai. Lets see how things turn out.

Band Names !

As we sat brain-storming for names for our band, the following list emerged :

1. Chaotic Order
2. Harmonic Pandemonium
3. Packname
4. Whatever
5. ..............

Finally harmonic Pandemonium was chosen

What ? Yenna ? Yenu ? Kaay ? Kya ?.....

Come Saarang, the whole institute is up and alive. There is a general aura of excited euphoria and anticipation. The peak of emotions are reached in the professional shows. Professional shows ranging from Tamil performers to Hindi singers.

I have found many a pass times in these moments where people are completely themselves,having shed the garb of pretension of being someone else. These shows bring out the true element in the students and for a neutral observer, there couldn't be a better experiment. And the conclusion that comes out is disturbing. Here's how :

It is a known fact that people react most positively to known or heard songs. This is true even if the new song is way better. Familiarity always takes a upper hand. People want something to sing by, something which they can predict. A known song offers all the experiences of singing and discovering a new change from the original song. And since familiarity is synonymous with language compatibility, people react differently to different languages. All is fine. Nothing is wrong in that. However the crux of the matter is how people react to songs of an unknown language. This scenario brings to the fore the attitudes, the notion that people harbor towards a language. And it is precisely this particular observation that is disturbing.

Having lived outside my native state all my life, I think I am qualified enough for an impartial take on this matter. There is nothing wrong in not enjoying a 'non-compatible-language' song. However in the Saarang pro-shows I have been witness to many a cases where people indulge in abusing and mockery of local languages. This raises the question of superiority of the national language. The question at hand is what is the need for a national language ? Is it something other than a common platform for interaction between various states ? (Some might argue that English does that job well)

Why this disdain for 'non-compatible' languages ? Why this unjustified intolerance in all walks of life ? Sometimes these circumstances force me into thinking that the multilingual culture of India is detrimental for national unity. Sometimes one truly craves for a single unified language. Sometimes I wish India had only one language.

Someday I hope that people will not squabble over petty things like languages like people from different countries. Someday....someday....

“ Let my country awake, Father....let my country awake...!”
_ R. Tagore

Odd Beats

Odd beats in any song are simply awesome! Sounds with beats which are multiples of 3 sound too good. Of course this is not to diminish the beauty of the simple and eternal 4 - beat genre. In fact odd beats interspersed in a song with the mundane even beats raise the melody to another euphoric level. And there is a hidden philosophical meaning in the previous statement.

A sudden spurt of odd beats makes you take notice of the song, in sharp contrast to the otherwise insignificant, ordinary pandemonium of even beats. Its after all a question of dominance of odd or even. Odd dominance is odd isn't it?

Took the plunge...

Ah..finally today went to the pool. It was unusually crowded for the start of the semester. I guess the closure of the pool for a fortnight made many people realize its existence. After many days junta were eager for the pool to open.These junta who otherwise wouldn't have cared. People waited with bated breath, the aura being like that of an unveiling of a statue. So in simple words the pool opened.

It felt nice to move your hands and legs inside the water after a long time. Strangely my body felt light even with the modicum of stamina left in me. All in all it was a good feeling after I came out of the pool.

To Resolve Or Not to Resolve....

Warning : The following post has the word " resolutions " repeating at a mind-boggling frequency.

Ya..happy new year to one and all..and the rest of the cliches present themselves. One eternally evading question, moreso the answer is, whether there remains any sense in making new year resolutions. Of course the answer varies from mind to mind. I am sure that each one of us have succumbed to the temptations of a resolution - free life as the year drags on from January to December. Each one of us are aware of our failed attempts to live by our resolutions. Failure comes only if we remember the resolutions that we so spiritedly chart out. Most people don't remember failing with their resolutions because they don't remember what the resolution was! So the question remains , gnawing our minds : to resolve or not to resolve.

As the new year comes by we look forward to resolutions with a new zeal. This is in spite of the knowledge that we have repeatedly failed in the past years to live by them, leave living, we don't remember what they are! However this knowledge hardly does its job of reducing the zeal (however modicum of it maybe) present in the people as they enter the new year.

Finally, sometimes we have to resolve not to resolve or resolve to resolve. After all, thats a worthy resolution, what say ?

Right From The Word ‘GO’!

An incomplete poem....

Right From The Word ‘GO’!

In a queue – marathon, permanent, on the trodden path;

Heads up, backs straight, bypassing a friend or a foe;

With a planned, analyzed, detailed and a calculated aftermath,

Right from the word ‘GO’!

Ah, a goal accomplished…but there is the next one,

And another, the next one - tiny wishes glow;

“Race, run….survive, rest not my son!”

Right from the word ‘GO’!

Can’t I rest or spend a moment alone?

“No lad, no one is. You’ll reach a low…!”

And the queue moves - without a hiss or a moan,

Right from the word ‘GO’!

will complete it later....

Nostalgic Festivities..

Ah...so there is a notice put up here announcing the change in holiday for Deepavali....and I suddenly realize " Oh..so Deepavali is coming...! " A bit of introspection ensued...

What do festivals mean for trapped inmates like us here.... ? Just a holiday ?...Or just a change in mess food (for all those "stay in room " guys..)..?....going down the memory lane, I remember old diwali days...all the relatives huddles together in cramped houses....crackers....new clothes....and most of all the succulent delicacies that used to be meticulously made with astounding rigor...! The karanjis , laddus, chakalis, mithais.....ah...what good times....!

And now....all we have is a monday holiday.....to be passed just like any other day with the mess food...!

thrills of second class travel...!!

I am just writing what I feel. Traveling in the ‘not so pleasant’ (for many plane and ac addicted minds) in the second class compartment in a train is surely an experience to cherish and relish. What with the alchemy of succulent dishes from the pantry, the vendors scurrying in an amusing frenzy, the cramped places for your luggage, the open window letting in the untamed breeze speaking of the pace; second class is a unique experience. Traveling in ac brings to mind an unwanted aura of sophistication; but 2^nd class? Not at all, you can be as “gavthi” as u want and let yourself free.

Who needs the curtains to remain secluded and aloof? The excitement of an approaching station relayed by the sudden change in sounds can never be felt in ac. Nor can you lean from the window and see the train when it is turning. Nor can you buy the delicacies from the window. The rhythmic “ ratatat” of the train seems to be presenting you with percussion beats for the songs in your mind. The shiny brown winding, twisting, intersecting tracks present an amusing picture. The playful separation of tracks heralds the arrival of a station. Also in the station you can never hear the announcer wishing you a happy journey if you are in an ac compartment. Nor there is any hustle and bustle creating a listless aura whereas in 2^nd class the world outside beckons you to myriad things. The occasional scent of soiled mud wafting through the windows speaks of recent rain raising your spirits. The sun rise, the sun set, the sudden change in air temperature produce a wondrous feeling lifting up chagrined minds. To sum up second class truly presents an experience full of thriving life in stark contrast to the ac compartments where you can “condition” yourself using the conditioned air.