There is no if else in Fate

Like most other persons I have a few hard beliefs. Some are ingrained by seeing and being among people like my religious identity, some formed by my keen sense of observation and analysis. I would not say keen coz that means something very good and sharp sort of thing where you have an analytical output of every situation. Just a little more than others I feel. Now that I am writing this I found the word, the correct adjective. Deep! I think bit deeper than most. I tend to see, look and observe people and situations including myself and amuse myself with my own musings…. Wow! I never thought of this before. I am my own muse! Perhaps this is the reason I don’t feel lonely ever.


At office I see everyone asking others if they wanna go to lunch together, take coffee breaks together and all that. They seem to feel awkward if they have to sit by themselves and have lunch. me? I see the watch, consult my stomach and I am off to cafeteria. Anyone wants to come with me, great! No one is coming even better! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate people. I just like to observe and form strange opinions and write little essays in my head about them. I tend to stay alone away from a group without ever feeling even remotely lonely only because my head is brimming with my own musings. There isn’t space for anything else.

So going back to the point of this post I had a thought I wanted to put out to the world for feedback and discussion. I usually have so many unformed semi formed thoughts in my head at the same time most of the thoughts vanish ever before I can form complete sense or sentence from it. It is like there is a cloud of words, feelings, emotions, opinions, ideas sparks and in all of that there is thunder and rain going on at the same time. It is a cloudy thunderstorm inside my head so it becomes hard to put out all my feelings and thoughts into something some else will understand. That came out wrong, coz most of the time I myself mislead myself trying to follow a single train of thought then ending up worlds apart from it in a minute. Then I cant find my way back or forget that I started something somewhere. I start projects and never finish them as I tend to give them up midway. Either I lose the enthusiasm or something bigger catches my attention span and time. hm-mm.. I do sound like a baby or maybe a child who definitely had ADHD. I don’t know for sure if it is ADHD but I like to think I have something. At least I would be able to tell people in a word why I am the way I am maybe..sort of. Whatever, Lets get back to the point. One of the rarely formed train of thoughts and finally an idea which started this post was that

There is no if else in fate. It is just a linear script which is what you get

-Me

Lately I have been grappling with a lot of things. Not exactly the homeless or hungry crisis, but rather midlife crisis I like hear so much about on American sit-coms and culture. There are a lot of things where things aren’t going the way I would expect them to. Things arent going the way I want them to. As religious Indian I have grown up seeing everyone around me do “Mannat” to our deities for something. It is supposed to work like you make a deal with your chosen deity about something. Then if it happens you pay your respects in some form of sacrifice or elaborate worship to appease the deity. It is considered bad luck if such a promise made is not kept. I tend to believe in this deal making with a my beloved deity when I am in deep trouble but never done a deal like this yet. Two reasons:

  1. I might forget about it and the deal will stay unfulfilled bringing me more bad vibes from the universe
  2. I think the omnipresent collective consciousness which we all worship in different forms does not care about what you or I do.

People tend to give more importance to themselves and their work when they accomplish something. That is very much valid from their perspective that they did so they got. But if you see from a bit far and backwards in time you will be able to see that all of that, their existence in some place doing some certain thing at a certain time on the timeline of the universe and all that; all of that is the effect of some cause that has happened before. Causality does drive the whole universe starting from the subatomic quantum particles to the celestial galaxy cluster filaments. My point is that we humans believe we do things out of our free will, but do we really? Half of our decision are base done our mood which is totally affected by out intestinal environment which in turn depends on what food you had the time preceding to that which comes from something else and so on. So do we have free will actually or is it just an illusion to keep ourselves in the illusion of being free independent separate beings? I don’t know, you decide. But my feelings are more towards the no free will side. So if we have no free will and our decisions and situations are just result of chained causality then what is the point of fighting fate? Fate is what brought us here right here right now, me writing this post, you reading these words. Maybe this will trigger some more chained causality leading to something else like the butterfly chaos theory. But all of it is meticulously pre-planned. We are just the agents of execution. We may think a thousand things before a decision but what we are going to decide upon has already been decided. We are just the agents of this execution of grand scheme called the universe….

Sad.. on both ends of the bridge!

seems ’bout right!

Maybe I am being hormonal like a girl. Maybe it is the effect of middle age setting in. Maybe coz I saw the movie Bob Biswas. I need to write. I feel overwhelmed with depressing feelings and I need to get them out. Maybe coz I am alone only for 2 days now, and it will be over in a week, but I am feeling some feelings which I don’t like so much. I am already fighting a bout of common cold settling inside my nose. My nose which I don’t consciously feel all of the time is making its presence registered. Pulling back snot crawling down my left nostril I am typing on…

I completed the series Friends yesterday. Yay! I have finally crossed the bridge to the side where all the “Friends”-heads live! People would say move on to a new series and keep binging I guess. Sure, good point. But dunno why, I am not feeling those usual feelings. Strangely enough this means a totally different thing for me. All my life I have seen people do stuff I can’t or haven’t been able to, yet very much wanted. Not one or two things. Lots of things, some stuff I don’t even remember that I would have once ever thought of ever doing. Those “things” range from being good at studies and games to things like watching popular web-series with a cult like followings so I might be able to participate in conversations. So lots of stuff.

So basically I have an infinite number of stuff I ever wanted to do, and if you think another way so does everyone. So I am not any different from anyone else. I am just one among those infinite idiots who get overwhelmed with stupid little emotions. Completing Friends was one such thing I had in my mind, rather back of my mind. When I made these goals in my mind, I always used to think like Nah! that stuff is for rich kids, or poor kids with real good luck. I will just keep dreaming up new things and burying them in my mind. Yes, that actually made me happy! Now that I think about it from a somewhat aged and maybe little matured( I doubt this ) sort of view point. Dreaming that I could do some of those stuff someday did make me happy right there. Daydreamer I was, am still. It never felt like I would plan to do these leave alone actually doing them. Here I realize I am a master procrastinator too! Wow! Just a thought, a dream maybe and just poof! That used to be my dose of Dopamine! why did I plan on things as such. Oh yes! I remember now, one of those stuff was to be a hell of a programmer! Like a hacker or something. Alas! I am stuck with Cobol on mainframe for the last 8 years, but I did achieve my dream of being a coder in a software company. I love my job, but equally suck at my job believe me! I mess up stuff with so many silly mistakes that my supervisors/managers just keep me on projects coz they can’t find a better resource. Here, I am my own competition, but in a bad way. Back to the point I do have achieved one of my such small dreams of being a coder, just in not the way I expected. I got married to my love which is way way wayyyyyyy beyond my wildest reality checks and possibilities. I bought a flat with her, I got a car for us. I am buried deep in EMIs but I do have a minuscule number of stuff from among the infinitely huge list of things I ever wanted, with me as of today.

So what this rambling is all about? It is hard for me to believe that I am completing, to be precise ticking things off that bucket list. I should be happy! But I am not. I am trying hard to understand it but all I am feeling are pangs in my stomach as if something is gone.. As if a very near and dear one is gone from me forever. I guess I have been carrying these buried stuff for so long in my mind, that they became a part of my life, my personality. It is actually hurting like I lost someone dearest. Is this normal? Yes I am 32 now, it is indeed sort of bad feeling for me now that almost half my life is over now taking the average age of Indians nowadays. On one hand I am sad that I haven’t been able to accomplish so many things! Also I am sad about the stuff I have actually done. What the hell is this? Am I in need of a psychiatrist? Maybe I am. I want some one who can put these feelings at ease. But then when someone would actually provide closure to these I might be missing these feelings too I guess…. Still anyone with any ideas or at least a similar story? It should make me feel better I guess. After all opening up is one of the reasons why we write..

Of Inbox, Outbox and Drafts

Being more logical than sentimental, I have the uncommon habit of deleting all SMS-es at once. I never save any, don’t care for their emotional value. But lately things have been a bit off schedule and my mailboxes have been piling up. This morning I had a change of mind. I decided to read the old messages from my mobile Inbox and Outbox.  There are around 800 in all right now and all have their own stories worth telling.

There are many “best of luck”s, a few “congrats”es and some “sorry”-s. Apart from these there are the regular “Goodmorning”s, “Goodnight”s, “whatsup buddy?”s etc. Leaving which few are a bit different. Some of these SMS-es remind me of times when someone was in distress and asked for help. Sometimes just simple listening did wonders. Sometimes I had traffic jams in my head, I was terribly sad and wanted to talk my heart out to somebody. Some reflect my subtle diplomacy, some reflect my irrationally emotional moments and so on..

Then I came to the drafts. This is the most interesting of places. Some messages written in full, some left halfway and some just having a few lines or letters. Some written for apologizing, only to find that I had been forgiven already!! Some “sorry”s unsent coz I was too angry to admit my fault and was determined to defend my stand. Some “goodnight”s  left behind coz I slept off before they could be sent.. Some of my freshly baked jokes rotting coz just before being sent, an incoming SMS told me he/she isn’t in the mood for a joke. Some SMS-es written to inform some friends of some good news, only to find that they already know about it! Lastly, some written but not sent coz, they were typed when I needed to pretend being busy 😉

Each one of these have amazing stories worth telling. These remind me of some happy moments and some sad ones. The happy ones remind me of times when I would have wanted time to be frozen there, forever. The sad ones remind of some embarrassing moments, when I would have given my anything to someone who could have fast-forwarded me out of those frames. Pretty strange, that a few SMS-es could show me the movie of my own life. Life goes in a sine wave. It goes on through ups and downs, but never stops. Nothing is stagnant in this universe. These old frames of time, someday these will be replaced by newer ones which shall be lost again. After all I need space for new SMS-es.. So, I go back to my old habit and delete these reminders. All-at-once…

for those who question my taste in movies..

Friends ask me a lot, why I don’t watch anything other than cartoons and animations, why so? Here is the answer for anybody who cares to read..

I seldom watch any movie other than those made for kids. But when I do, it leaves super-permanent impressions on me. The last one I saw was Autograph and today it was Katakuti. In this movie, I found myself in Rony, an out of place character in this sickly twisted world, where nothing is straight. Being true to the saying “movies are the mirrors of our society”, these movies lay bare the darkest realities of life, and reality is damned confusing..

The more I see these movies the more I am reminded of a line I had read in some Bengali prose. A lady said, ভাষার সৃষ্টি হয়েছে মানুশের মনকে ঢাকা দিতে, Language was created to mask the mind. Truly enough, the more you mask your mind the better a person you are. Being transparent, I am the odd-one-out in this race.

The more I see these movies the more it seems, love is nothing but a device used to get something. Romantic partners love each other just to have a support on as-needed basis and satisfy their own false ego. They don’t love the person, they love to have somebody who is at the beck and call. I don’t know to what extent this is true, but this is my own perception.

The more I see these movies, I become more and more of a pessimist and skeptic. I find it hard to believe others. I find it hard to trust others. I am not that intelligent that I can perceive deception before being fooled.

Lastly what bothers me most is that, I feel the things shown may happen to me. I have already seen a few in my real life, and I have just heard about some others. Then the thought surfaces, it happens to some of my dear ones, then what shall I do? The mere thought chills my blood and Reality really hurts... Being bitten by a snake thrice doesn’t accustom you to the pain. It hurts like it did the first time, just the scream “MOMMYY!!!!!!” turns into a little “Ahh..”. Similarly, watching movie characters in pain doesn’t lessen the pain of watching them unfold in real life.

Animated movies are designed with kids in mind. They amuse us, take our mind off reality bites, and give us a break..  So why bother about extra pain when I can avoid it altogether. Better to laugh all the way to the grave because no one knows when and where the path ends. 🙂

Your thoughts please!

Undecided about taking the leap..

It has been my dream to be able to play a musical instrument since long..  This dream was half inspired my subtle show-off nature and the rest was my inborn knack. My mother says my sense of music and rhythm was pretty strong for a kid who had just learnt to walk. She talks of a particular incident often. She says, once I had gone to a theater with my mother. Most probably a folk play was being staged. I was sitting in her lap watching all and understanding nothing 😉 . There was a song and that turned me on. She says I danced so well to the rhythm of the Tabla that surrounding people were awestruck watching me. That playful happy carefree child is still there yet not visible to anybody. Age-derived maturity has pulled a lot of wraps over him. He is locked behind the bars of my ego and shyness. Does this bother him? Not at all. He is still there dancing and tapping his fingers whenever there is music around. He tries to coax me into joining him, but I can’t. Sadly, I am not one of those handsome guys who look smart no matter what. I am a inside-and-out stupid guy, who loves making others laugh with his stupidity..  True, I can’t dance in public. But nobody can stop me from strumming the strings of an imaginary guitar or drumming away at a tabla or tapping on a table top..

Sorry for diverting off the point. The point is I am finally getting a chance to realize this dream of mine. Most probably tomorrow, I am going to buy a guitar and start taking guitar classes within a week, this has been planned. So near to my destiny, yet something is bothering me. A lingering doubt.. Those who know me in real life have been pestered by my dialogue “I am gonna learn the guitar”, yet I was least sure about it. Now that I have fallen for my own con, I really don’t know if I would love the guitar. I never have handled one. I have just seen my friends strum away at those strings. So, my love for the guitar is mostly due to the glamor associated and its sound. You know, some of my favorite songs are those on a slow guitar ex. “Whiskey lullaby” by Brad Paisley.

I guess I don’t have another choice. I have to stick to this or be branded indecisive and fickle-minded. I am not saying that I will hate it for sure. There is a good probability that I will like it!

This is gonna be an unplanned adventure.  I hope the guitar will be able to interest me.. I will be updating about that for sure. 🙂 Any suggestion? Tips?

Stupidity Inc.

Over the years I have done a lot of stupid things, had a lot of stupid notions, told a lot of stupid things etc effectively making myself an object of ridicule. But I love sharing them with people for a laugh and I laugh all day!! 😀 I should say, there was a time when being ridiculed at wasn’t so funny with me. I used to be damned embarrassed should somebody bring them up. Then something happened to me.

Now I am much more of a sport. I make fun of myself when

The ambience starts getting bored!! Wow, it rhymes! 🙂  Here are some of my stupidities for u to laugh at..

  মুড়িঘণ্ট-তে মুড়ি কোথায় ? ( Muri ghonto te muri kothay ) –For them who aren’t Bengali I’ll explain. Ghonto is a kind of Bengali dish made from different kinds of vegetables. Muri has 2 different meanings, used in 2 different senses. One means puffed rice and the other one means fish-head. Here Muri Ghonto means a dish prepared with a Katla fish’s head. Delicious, u must try it! – I had never heard of this dish before (shame for a Bengali guy). My aunt had sent a tiffin box full of Muri Ghonto.  Quickly, I opened the box and within seconds I blurted  “Muri ghonto te muri kothay??” meaning where is the muri in muri ghonto??  I had mistaken the muri of muri ghonto for puffed rice.. 😛

Now let’s go back in time. It was the year of 2002. I had taken admission in a new school in Sixth Grade. 1st day in new school. I was in my line for the assembly. Standing and doing nothing I was getting bored. So, I started chatting with those standing near me. There was a girl named Satadipa, she was standing right opposite to me in the girls line. She was quite warm to me even though I was a stranger. About a minute into the conversation, suddenly she shut up like a computer and began to gesture me of something dangerous lurking around. I being a stupid curious began to look all around me for the danger. She hissed through her tight lips “Mrinal Sir!!”. I was even more curious! I had heard this Mrinal Sir was a teacher feared by all. So, I had a mental image of this man as someone tall, burly, bearded etc. towering over all the heads. Surprisingly, I could not see any head “towering over all”!  Unable to contain my curiosity, I blurted out loud “কোথায় মৃণাল স্যার?”, “where’s Mrinal sir?”. The next moment I had a vision of the floor and something fell with a loud thud on my back. Ow! I straightened up to see a medium-weight and short-height person asking me “Wanna know where is Mrinal sir?”. It was him. He was standing right before me but I was searching for him somewhere else! 😛

There was a guy in my class whom I could not stand. He was kinda mentally handicapped and I was his favourite subject! One day during the Tiffin period I had gone out to play. On returning I saw a lady telling something to that boy, it was common for guardians to visit kids during the recess time.. I was already angry. I went to her and complained to her to my heart’s content about him and she listened patiently. After she left the whole class burst into laughter! Another boy told me, she wasn’t his mother, she was our vice-principal! 😛

 When I was a li’l kid, I used to watch the idiot box awestruck. The ads were most attractive and I still remember them. A common phrase used in ads is “সাধারন ব্র্যান্ড-এর এই —–” implying that the ordinary brands of things have all the negative properties and so on. Each and every ad repeated this phrase so much that I formed this stupid notion that “সাধারন” or “Ordinary” was a brand in itself! Also I used to feel sorry for the “Ordinary brand” company coz all the other companies were targeting this single one! 😛

Did I manage to tickle your funny bone?

The most prominent scar, college life left on me..

These last 4 years left some permanent marks on me. Some emotional burns, cuts, bruises, and wounds left their permanent scars, which have shaped me into my present self.  The most prominent one which  actually made me write this post is that, I am a lot cooler than I used to be. I don’t mean handsome kind of cool, but cooler by state of mind. I shall explain with an example. Read on..

Just take the situation yesterday. I and Avinandan had gone to Kolkata for an informal job interview (we had a reference). By the time we were done with the interview and lunch, it was quite late. We were gonna miss the last buses back home. We hurried to Karunamayee. Bad luck, we didn’t get a ticket for the last bus which was leaving right then. Given the time available we couldn’t have opted for the train. So, we thought of going to Esplanade, hoping to get a ticket on another bus to Durgapur. We had no idea if we had already missed the last bus but we were hoping to be there in time. Owing to traffic jam on the way, our bus took around 1 hour for a route of 30 minutes. Luckily, we were there in time. Buying the tickets, we took our places on the bus, informed the ones concerned and everybody heaved a sigh of relief.. Avinandan asked me if I was tensed about missing the last bus and being stranded in Kolkata for a whole night. I said “Nope, I am much cooler now, thanks to you and my college mates…”.It made me reflect on what would have happened if my 18 year self had been through this.

First of all, hearing he had already missed the last bus at Karunamayee, he would have been half blinded by fear. He would have felt hugely nauseated and a migraine would have set in for sure. Each and every second on the bus to Esplanade would have been a huge torture for him. He might have cried out or fainted in the heat of summer. In the mean time he might have lost his mobile phone, bumped into a dozen people already destroying his specs and so on.. Cumulative anger and frustration would have made him half dead by the time he would have reached Esplanade.

Amongst all the different character traits that I have gained through my 4 years of college, this one is the most prominent. Knowing, believing and feeling are 3 different things.. There was a time when everybody used to say to me “don’t panic, everything will be alright”. Slowly I began to believe, but I never got the hang of “everything will be alright”, because I never saw beyond my immediate neighborhood. College life forced me to take a broader perspective and that changed me for good! Now I feel “whatever happens is always the best that can happen, my duty is just to hang on tight and enjoy the ride”. Whatever situation I might face, ultimately I am going to be alive, which implies either I will be successful or I will be defeated and embarrassed. In case none of these happen, it will be much simpler! I would be dead and be spared the trouble of facing others with the embarrassed look!

Thank you my friends! Thanx a lot..

The final day of college life!

My day started with the thought “What if I can’t write anything today in my exams, I don’t wanna fail in the last one…”. It was real scary.

By 10 I was at the exam hall. It was the usual scene; most were preparing cheat-papers and writing on benches with pencils etc. Few were talking about the extreme heat of the summer, laughing at some anecdotes and so on.  I was feeling as if I was in a slaughterhouse about to be killed. Cheating in exams that is something I had never done before. I didn’t expect that myself being able to do that without being caught. The question papers arrived 5 minutes earlier, it killed me on the first look just as I expected. There wasn’t a single question that I could have answered by myself, all were lengthy derivations and I hadn’t prepared them at all. Something else was playing at my fate today. Suddenly something like a heat wave rushed over me and I uttered “Hey Adra, Pass me the cheat”. I was surprised at my tone of voice. This was one of the strangest things I have ever done. Next 2 hours went like breeze! I deftly cheated throughout the paper. I completed the paper with 1 hour left. There was ample time left to throw away the cheats through the broken window behind me. Time became slow. I could not wait to submit my paper and break into the final celebration of my college life! After the exam I ran to the library to submit my last library book and it was done! I was free! We started writing on shirts in the library itself (on other days this would have earned us a good scolding, but not today). Friends and all, we had become a family. Today it was time to depart, time for the last get-together. It was time to get emotional, time to speak those unspoken words we had in our hearts for years. It was time to show off our pent-up sentiments and so on…. Here, u can see some pictures my friends taken by my friend Avinandan.

In front of our library

                  

Afterwards, we decided to spend the night at Sudipta’s mess and visit Sudipta’s hometown tomorrow. I had to do some packing and stuff, so I came back home. An hour later me  Avinandan and Arijit we  3 joined the 3 others, Suvajit, Suvayan and Sudipta (remember the making of the song “college er sei dingulo“?). For dinner we went to restaurant named “PANCH-PHORON” (it is a Bengali spice).Enjoyed a hefty dinner, but it was already past 10 so, we were gonna have to walk the distance back. Luckily enough we got the last bus on the route. It was already running late, so we were at Sudipta’s mess in no time. I got to mention, in my B.Tech life of 4 years, I haven’t ever seen these buses going so fast! Avinandan was adamant about taking a his first sip of beer. Sadly enough, there were many who had planned to take the first sip tonight! as a result we could not find any good one. At last we found a bottle of Haywards 5000, it wasn’t chilled though. Arijit had bought a cold 2l Sprite. We decided that it should be mixed with the beer to lower its temperature. Avinandan was the first to take a sip. But he could not drink much. The rest of the bottle was finished by Arijit and Sudipta. Then we decided for game of cards. I am lousy player, so I was taking a little rest and the others were playing. Around 2 am everybody got tired and we came out of the room into the open air.

Now it is 2 3o am. Tonight, sitting outside by the side of a well, with a few of my friends under the open sky, counting the stars and yawning, we are reflecting on our life for the last 4 years. It was 8th August 2008, that we started this journey, the journey of 4 years of B.Tech. Looking back there are a lot of sweet and sour memories but most have been victims of my short-term memory. So I am keeping quiet, laughing at their anecdotes. In the meantime we can hear funny noises from the girls mess just beside the place we were sitting and we are wondering aloud what they are up to.. I am terribly sleepy, but trying to keep myself awake.

This is our last night together, A memory we shall cherish forever!

a random confession..

It is said that People love to take part in your happiness, but are indifferent when you are in distress. However there are some who aren’t indifferent to others in distress, even though they seem to be so.. I am one of them.

This morning I was going through the new posts on my favorite blogs, when came across a nice post by Just Another Wakeup Call, click here.  Overcome with emotions I could not comment on the post. This reminded me of a sticky situation which crops up every now and then. I need your advice on this, so here goes.

I am fortunate enough to be comforted by my friends and close ones whenever in distress. I am grateful and hugely indebted to them. Yet when it is my turn, I am not of much help. Some of my friends  have often confided in me in their bad times. Since I am known as a patient listener, they expect I can be of some help; at least comfort them with words. They do deserve that. But all I can do is to nod my head. Their pain affects me so much; I myself hang on the verge of breaking down, and to prevent that I put up an blank face  trying to cover up my own mental turmoil. I feel for them deeply, but I can’t convey that. This pent up emotion is another trouble and cause of stress.. So, anybody and everybody who has ever felt that I have been indifferent to your sorrows please forgive me. This is an inherent weakness and I can’t help it.

Anybody and everybody whoever has got any advice for this poor soul, you are most welcome..

I got drenched!

You might think, what’s so special about getting drenched that I made a post of it? Read on please!

On this lovely day, I have come to Kolkata for our exams tomorrow. I and my friend Avinandan got off the bus at Esplanade. Lucky for us, the lights were still red. A short sprint and we were across the road. Within minutes we were down at the metro station, waiting for our rides. Avinandan was luckier, he got an AC one on his way to Dum Dum! I had to travel in the usual one. Never mind. The fun started at Tollygunge station. As soon as I got out of the station and boarded an auto, it started raining hard! On way, I got soaked to my underwear, but just on my left side. Anybody and everybody on road was cursing the rain, except me!

Guess why?

Coz this year I haven’t had the chance to get wet in the rain. Obviously, this was special! And moreover I got drenched in Kolkata for the first time! “So far off home“, “traveling alone” and “getting drenched in the rain” all together at the same time! To top it all, nobody was gonna scold me! It could not get any better!! So, I was really happy and excited! I could not contain my glee and my smile was driving my co-passengers mad! 😛 My co-passengers were an elderly couple. They were to attend a party. So obviously, getting wet was a real setback for them.  They were already frowning and my glee added to their anger 😉 .  Getting off the auto, I had a change of mind. I didn’t have any umbrella or rain coat.  I thought it might be  seriously careless on my part, if my exam hall ticket gets soaked in the rain, so I should wait till the rain stops. Yet, I could not resist the temptation of getting totally drenched. After a little fight, the devil won the match. I said to myself, “I haven’t actually prepared at all for this exam, if I don’t get an entry into the exam hall it wont be much of a loss. I am gonna lose anyway, so why not enjoy while I have the chance“. So, I decided to walk the rest of the distance, 15 minutes on foot.

I was enjoying every moment! My socks getting soaked in the puddles, dodging the potholes underneath, the vehicles passing by, their splashes, my windscreen (specs 😉 ) getting hazy, sudden thunder,lightning and the immediate following darkness… It was an experience worth in itself!  Loved every bit of it!

SantuOnline is 2 years old!

“YEAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!  SantuOnline is 2 years old!”. This was my first thought right after getting up this morning! I am sooo happy, seems like it is my own birthday! I still remember those days when I used to plead with my friends to visit my blog (I didn’t know how to get visits then). Most didn’t  care. Indrajit was the only one who used to comment on each of my posts and I had to be content with that.  It was only this January that I started blogging like I meant it and now have a handsome reader base! I am obliged. I guess I have improved a lot as a writer since I started.

Here are some old posts of mine. I know they aren’t as good as as my latest posts, still take a peek at them. Let it be your B’day gift to my blog! 😉

My very first post, Hello world! . Notice the way I have written? I didn’t know what to write and how to write then.

My first brush with wildlife photography, I clicked an awesome pic of a grasshopper at a distance of just 5cm!

CUTEsome THREEsome, I clicked a mommy dog and two puppies suckling! Cute indeed! U cant miss this one.

uffffffffff…….. chaap ketechhe   a post on an exam. I had been  in a pressure-cooker situation that day!

life at the end of two years in college  The title is explanatory enough. A sentimental one..

curious cutie Snap of a li’l cat, by my friend Tanushree.

HAD A GREAT FALL, I fell while climbing down a hill.

a Friendship day post! This is one of my personal favorites! I celebrated the afternoon of Friendship day, at a river side with my closest friends.

have free time, but I am trying to relax A miscellaneous post on a day I was bored of doing nothing 🙂

a Lovely Sunset.. Another one of my rarely awesome pics! Please, dont miss this. This is a pic of my hometown.

and lastly the series of 4 posts about  a job interview I had appeared for. My very 1st one away from home!

A JOB INTERVIEW, 3rd in my life,1st one away from home
A JOB INTERVIEW, 3rd in my life,1st one away from home -> The written test
A JOB INTERVIEW, 3rd in my life,1st one away from home -> Results are declared..
A JOB INTERVIEW, 3rd in my life,1st one away from home-> the journey ends..
 

An Indian myth about the West

The average Indians gets introduced to the western world mostly by Hollywood movies and RAP song videos. They like the stuff shown, think it is “Cool” to be wearing hooded tee-shirts, ripped and faded jeans, to get drunk, party hard late in the night, and all the stuff they see in those movies. Being western is the all-time favorite flavor here.

From the time of adolescence when we came to know about the world of “birds and bees”, we have been watching western models in porno stuff,  most of us have seen American Pie, all 7 parts. Even premarital sex is catching fast and so on. Simply put, we do a lot of things that our parents don’t approve of and think it is okay in the West, which is not true. Seriously, this generation  harbors  some  myths about the west and I would like to point out a couple of them.

We think

  1. It is in their culture to dress baring and suggestively, and their parents are absolutely “cool” and never have any problem with it.
  2. “Respect for women” ,“Respect for elders” and “Modesty” exist only in old Indian philosophy, Westerners never heard of that.

And much more of such crap..

I am not gonna lie, but I myself had such ideas, till I started blogging. I have been blogging seriously for around 6 months and the blogs I visited, I read them all very carefully. Some of which have corrected these beliefs of mine. I can’t recall all of them, but I am giving here the link to latest one I have read.

Bird’s Thoughts on Nipple Shirts and Lust  (If you don’t have enough time to read the whole post, just go through the 5th para and the comments. You will know what I am talking about)

Conclusion:

Westerners may not be dressed in saris and dhotis, but they do have the same ideals as we have. They aren’t any different, neither they support all that bad stuff that our parents don’t approve of.

Your thoughts please..

pondering over Plunging necklines and Waist-high slits

Aaahh.. the world of film stars and celebs. Norms and rules don’t apply there. No, I am not talking about laws. I am talking about something else. Read on..

plunging neckline

For the average guy, on seeing a girl, eyes go to rest on the *chest*, then travels all over her figure, leaving the brain to fantasize itself. This equation is same for celebs and fans. Word goes like, “Fans like to see, and celebs like to show off”. It is a win-win game. Earlier, just bikini clad poses in films were more than enough to tickle the sensitive organ. But “men are always men“. It is hard to satisfy them. So came, off-screen poses in plunging necklines and waist-high slits, without any underwear and tagged “hot”, “bold” etc. O! I forgot to mention, “Wardrobe Malfunction!” That is another phrase doing its rounds in the media parlance, lobbying for its place in the Oxford dictionary. Impressionable public calls these things “Kewwl” (Cool), although by sense it means the same as its dictionary antonym. 🙂

Assuming you are an average person, if you are videotaped nude or in any suggestive pose and that is posted on the internet, all your friends and acquaintances have seen it. Can u step out in public? You might be thinking, “I would definitely step out of this life before I step out of my room”. But, being a chicken-heart, suicide isn’t my cup of tea. I might try to move to someplace new, where nobody knows me.. (Wow! I made a poem 😀 )

Nowadays, I hear of lot of girls complaining of molestation. Then I think of the celebs. Their clothes, those are always on the verge of falling or being blown off. Why the fuss? I mean, if they can go bare on huge screens before billions of popping eyeballs, why at all take the trouble of wearing such about-to-come-off clothes. One feels like telling “Leave them at home! why not show off your assets like you mean it.”.. Yet, they manage to live comfortably lavish public lives!

Any idea how do they do it?

Pondering…

a milestone on our way to the end..

Yesterday, it was the last lab exam of my B.Tech.. getting pretty nostalgic right now. But this attack isnt as emotional as I had expected..

The day started with much excitement. Remember that song I was talking about in “Finally it happened“. We were planning to do a video recording of the song and dedicate it to all of us friends. Anyway, it was a typical Indian summer day. News forecast had warned that it was going to be 45 °C around noon, and it was hot indeed. Anyway, after the exams I took the bus to my friend, Sudipta’s mess.

Sudipta, posing with the guitar

Getting down at the bus stoppage I thought, I might have a bottle of Amul Kool, (saffron flavored milk). I bought one. No sooner had I put it to my lips, than I noticed two hooded guys approaching me. I was puzzled for a second at least, but their style of walking gave away. At once I recognised them; one was Suvayan (our lead singer)

Suvayan, our lead vocalist

and the other Avinandan (our only musician).

Avinandan, our only musician

Thankfully, they had come to pick me up. I was on the pillion when I heard the shopkeeper caliing me back. He had forgotten that I had already paid and was asking for it again. Damn! I never cheat on anybody, and how dare did he accuse me? Somehow, I managed to convince him of the truth and stomped off.. I left my bottle of Amul Kool there, it still had a some left in it..

With the usual welcome, I saw Suvajit was setting the plates and dishes for a treat of chicken Biriyani.

Suvajit, serving the BIRIYANI

It didn’t take much time to finish off the Biriyani, washed down with a few gulps of Thums-up. Then started the rehearsals for the song.

initial tuning..

Suvajit, posing with the guitar

Avinandan would think up and play some tunes and we would try to match it to the lyrics. It went on for around 20 mins. Finally we come to a decision on the song opening tunes. Then the rest went like a breeze. The different stanzas were being sung along with with the guitar.  The song video was being shot in pieces. Since this was our first chorus with a guitar in company, little flaws came up now and then. Somewhere the lines were too long, somewhere too short. But it was funny posing as composers and music directors 😉 .

We didn’t know when time flew by, until we heard someone shouting outside. We had frozen in our places for a minute, till Sudipta came back. He explained that ourselves, composing songs and singing at the top of our lungs, had added to his neighbors’ misery on that hot afternoon. Our rehearsals came to an abrupt halt, but we were too charged up to stop the shooting midway.. Suvajit then decided that we better go to another place (his previous mess), and within 10 minutes we were there. The juniors living there were kind enough to let us go on with our shooting, even after the abrupt murder of their afternoon naps on such a hot day. We are grateful to them. Now, the final stanzas were shot. Still, we hadn’t shot the whole song in a single video. So, it we shot another two to three videos on the whole song. The last one was the best. I have put it on YouTube, click here.

My first Blogger award!

First time is always special. And when it is a long coveted award, it is time to go NUTS !!! The saints say, one must always be complacent in order to achieve true greatness. But as of now I can afford to be non-complacent, for some days at least! 😀

I have been nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award, by Jenny’s Serendipity (http://jennysserendipity.wordpress.com/). Needless to say how much I love this!

Now, there are some rules that are to be followed when one gets nominated for this award. Here they are

* Thank the person who nominated you and link back to them in your post

* Share 7 things about yourself

* Nominate 15 or so bloggers you admire

* Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know

—————————————————–

7 things about me (other than that said on my ABOUT page)

1. My mother, my father and some very close friends, they are the only reason that I am what I am, today.

2. I have short term memory, but I remember long past events very well.

3. I am a die-hard cartoon and anime movie fan, and I hate sentimental love story movies.

4. Mostly lazy, but I prefer cycling (15 km to my college) to taking the bus.

5. I spend my free time observing and analyzing peoples’ behaviors.

6. I love songs which have meaningful lyrics, good music and touch my heart at the first hearing, no matter if it is Arabic or English or in any other language.

7. I love blogging (a new found love 😉 )

Here are my nominees for the One Lovely Blog Award:

  1. Indrakatha….written from the soul
  2. Namratakumari’s Blog
  3. THATLou
  4. My Love of Zoology
  5. My fancy world
  6. Camilla Carron, Writer
  7. My Year in Quotes
  8. drcristy
  9. Semi Coherent Ramblings and such…
  10. vighneshacharya
  11. merlinspielen
  12. The Middlest Sister
  13. Bird
  14. tenacioustraveller
  15. atranquilplace

I wish I could accommodate more bloggers.. Nyway, I gotta go. I have my exams tomorrow.

did I forget something.. Guess what?

Thank you Jenny! Thanx a lot! 😀