A tribute to ......

A tribute to ******. An apple for the correct guess! :)

The twirling droplets of red,
Encircling a vision framed in blood
The searing impulse travels,yelling
A sensation; beyond articulation, a feeling.

The darkness outside seems bright;
A backdrop, worthy of the Final Fight.
The glint shines soft in unseen light,
Signaling its joy, a step closer to its birth-right.

The twitching limbs feel the still air,
As a cold sting on the standing hair;
Still the deaf nor the dead heard no sounds
The Night had spread its wings, deafening all earthly grounds.

The eternal Master moved ever so slow,
Savouring its actors as they moved along its flow;
Jets of crimson red played the carnal tune,a musical fountain:
And there I stood: cleansed, purged? An angelic baton.

Into the Wild

The cult of Chris McCandless. May it never die!

Read this article to know more. Jon Krakauer has writen a biography about him titled "Into the Wild". Also it has been made into a truly wonderful movie by Sean Penn. Do watch it, absolutely beautiful movie.

P.S. Kudos to Joy for recommending it!

Disconnected( Arbit?) Thoughts

Couple of days back, I wrote a quiz on the "Literature and Environment" course. The course is more about philosophy than literature or environment and hence interesting in a vague sense. A lot of stuff like Eco-criticism and Eco- feminism are things that I neither find interesting nor agree with. But still, there are these golden flashes of an elusive treasure that keeps occurring throughout. There is something about philosophy which is frustrating yet intriguing. Its like that Pandora's box which is half open and lures you in. Two steps more and you think the end shall be seen but reality shows it to be a bottomless pit.

I have always wondered what would happen if all the philosophical questions had objective answers. It would mean an end to all doubts about purpose and karma. There wouldn't be any police or law enforcement agencies, since everyone would know* what is right and what is wrong. Everyone would do only the right thing, since what is"right" becomes an absolute truth which is no longer dependent on subjective intrepretations. It would be the ideal world, but a boring one at that. Isn't uncertainty the greatest boon of mankind? I remember the dialogue of Brad Pitt as Achilles in the film Troy "The Gods envy us. Because we are mortal, because we are doomed, each moment is so much more precious."

Words are powerful, yet at some level only a symbol of man's effort to propagate( to others) and re-assure( himself) his own ideas and the objectives behind his actions. Without words an enlightened man is no different from an ordinary mendicant. Actions might speak for themselves but not so loudly nor clearly as words. Where would we be without them ?

Without words, we would have no way of sharing ideas with others, which in turn means that we would either try to figure things out ourselves or stop trying at all. Maybe the real answer is that, *that there is nothing to be figured out*! Things happen just because that is the way things are. This again is an oft repeated concept in our course. The "is"ness of a thing whereby it just "is" what it is. Probably deep down we all know that it is the truth, yet the hope of a greater reality pushes us to do more. We are not satisfied by eating good food or getting a shelter to sleep. Our wants go beyond. Maybe the realization of such a truth, *that there is nothing to be realized* might mean a return to the stone age or even behind, to a time when all we would care for is a good meal and a safe sleep.

So while engrossed in these Eco poems and essays, I did some googling on the "Zen" school of thought. The zen philosophy says that to attain enlightenment one should be "intentionally aware" of the "present" without being "judgmental" about it. After thinking on it for sometime I concluded that it probably means one should clearly *know* and make an effort to understand what is happening ( around), without trying to figure out if it is happening for the good or bad. This again means that you shouldn't try to "interfere", but just let things be. I agree that the above statement appears to be self contradictory at multiple levels, since most of our actions are reactions to external stimuli and thus its impossible to act and yet not "interfere". At some level even our very presence is an interference. Then again, it might mean you should do those things which come *naturally*" to you, without letting the guiding hand of knowledge nor the filter of civilization change that natural course of action nor modify it. Would this mean a return to the hippie culture of 70s, where people try to portray the rebel image? I doubt. The problem with a being a rebel is that you again made the conscious decision of being a rebel. To follow zen philosophy would probably mean to act in a way as though the society was never there, neither *against it* nor *with it* nor *parallely*, but in a way that ignores its very existence itself.

OK, .. this will be continued later in another post.

Political Correctness

In terms of being politically correct in speech, our Indian media has kept pace with its western counterparts at a rather amazing speed. Yesterday I read this article in Hindu which referred to a "short person" ( political correctness again :D) as a "vertically challenged" person.

"Vertically challenged". wow

Apocalypto

I seriously* recommend this movie. Absolutely wonderful direction combines with brilliant acting. There is so much raw energy in this film that at no point of time does the pace slacken even a bit. This film shows that though coated thickly by the outward paints of civilization, deep down we remain what we are, animals. A particular scene, one where the lead actress, being trapped in a pit with her son, fights off a charging monkey is simply movie at its best. The film also questions the ethos of "civilization" at large, where subjugation and slavery of a vast majority is essential for uplifting the standard of living of a few at the top. This is again contrasted with the primordial hunter village societies where almost everyone is on equal footing with no great misery nor luxury. To sum things up, definitely one of the best movies I have seen till date. The rating of 7.9 in IMDB belittles its true value by a long way.

Yet another pearl of wisdom

As usual, in one of those enlightening conversations with the Grandfather of All Knowledge ( a cliched but most fitting sobriquet! :)) , another pearl of wisdom came out: Here it goes,

" The passion that one feels for something is inversely proportional to how much one knows about it"

Enlightened? DEpassionate(d)*?

Serials

A long time since I wrote on the serials that has got me hooked for all of the foreseeable future and hence whole of eternity from my point of view. So here we go:

1. Dexter- Absolutely love this series. This series is not meant for everyone and if you belong that subspecies( I try to differentiate them from me :P) who faint at the first sign of blood, then it certainly is NOT meant for you. However if you are a Tarantino fan and if you give "Fight Club" a rating of minimum 4 on 5, then this series is tailor made for you! Watch it and trust me, you will be clawing your way to the next epsiode. :D

2. Boston Legal- To quote the words of the great "CB", it is "Inspiring!". I can't think of a better word to describe this series. "Oh_my_God_,_I_don't_know_what_just_hit_me" level dialogue coupled with a dismissive air of superiority that the actors seem to carry themselves around with, makes this show pretty much the slickest one on T.V. Watch this and I guarantee that you would think at least once, make that twice, about getting the hell out of here and becoming a lawyer in U.S :)

3. Lost- This is my old(all?) time favorite, been around for more than 3 years now. Starting its 4th season in January, I would be lying if I tell you I haven't missed it dearly. A show that practically reinvented the wheel and proved that it is worth doing so, the only catch being that the wheel should be capable of doing stuff other than just rolling on a plane ground.:D Plane crash in an island, people having no clue where they are, and noone to rescue them. If a deja vu has never been this strong then, yea, you probably went through one of those yourself . However, if you take this cliched plot, mix it with the right amounts of science fiction, supernatural nonsense and a bit of totally arbit nonsense which noone has no( double negative!) clue about, then bingo!, you have LOST. And yes, you yourself will be pretty lost for most of the time that you watch this series. But its good, both the feeling of being lost as well as THE lost. :)

4. Prison Break- Self explanatory title and a show that is desperately trying to be what it used to be. Period

5. How I met your mother- A wannabe "Friends". Probably the only series which has got even close to the timeless masterpiece. Good fun, totally worth wasting time on.

6. South Park- Makes you realize that whatever that you have seen till then is not the grossest thing which can be seen. Whatever you have heard of till then, is not the most insane thing that can be done. You realize that there are people who don't give a damn about anything, and I mean anything. And finally you realize that Eric Cartman is gawd. I bow to thee o Cartman.

7. Heroes- This was touted to be NBC's answer to ABC's LOST. Personally I would pick LOST over this anyday, but that doesn't mean its bad. The concept in general is good, the characters are good and the actors are also doing a pretty good job out there. But somehow the direction and screenplay leaves a lot to be desired. The series has immense potential if the director and script writers can exploit it properly. Lets wait for the second half of the second season before passing the final judgment.


P.S. The numbers doesn't, doesn't , indicate any ranking of sorts. These are just the order in which the respective shows came to my mind :)

Shock

I can't help but write about this. I am fully aware that these words will not influence anything in anyway. And I am also fully aware of my own inability to affect things that happen in this world. Still..

I am shocked, angry, appalled, sad, disturbed and more than anything feel a sense of incredulity at what has happened in Pakistan. How can someone, who had the highest level of protection, be murdered just like that? That too hardly 10 days after a failed assassination attempt. If the secuirity forces in Pakistan and their counter terrorist measures are this bad, then I would seriously advice each and every politician/ruler of Pakistan to start supporting the extremists and be nothing more than their puppet, if elected.

You might think why I, sitting so safely in India, in the comfort of my room, not being affected in a direct way by anything that happens in Pakistan, feel so strongly about this. I have no answer, but I DO. Benazir Bhutto might not have been Mother Teresa reincarnated, but she was as good a politician as politicians get. Educated at both Harvard and Oxford, one can at the very least assume her to be intellectually sound and politically aware ( in a global sense). For all the allegations of corruption against her, she showed her integrity and loyalty to Pakistan by taking the decision to leave the comfort and safety of London and return home to fight elections at a time when her country was being rampaged by dictators and terrorists.

Assassinations are not a new thing in South Asian politics. Still, this is the first time I have been exposed to one, alive as it happened. The shock that I feel, makes me think about what people in Pakistan must be going through. It is probably that very same feeling of shock and disbelief combined with anger and fear that drive nations into turmoil when leaders are killed. I can only hope that such a thing doesn't happen in Pakistan.

As UK Prime Minister said, the people who did this are nothing but cowards, "cowards afraid of democracy". Pakistan should now make them fear it even more.

Quote

A couple of days back, The Grandfather of All Knowledge shared a piece of his infinite wisdom with me, while we were vetting our appetites at the good ol' tiffanys. The story in itself, though a rather short one, is not of importance here. The important part here is the final line, and it goes something like this:

" It feels good to be wanted".

Musings

During one of thoes enlightening moments on campus ( and trust me, they are very very rare), I came to this realization that learning new stuff is actually fun. Such a realization came when I was having a conversation with the one grandfather of all knowledege whom I had personal access to. As usual he was putting gyaan to the surrounding mortals on those things that only he knows how he knows. Then I realized one more thing, its not the topic that makes it fun, more so its the person from whom the gyann is recieved! AND trust me, this grandfather can probably make even Man-Tech intersesting to a 4th yr mech student...... Thats saying a lot!

The purpose of me taking the pain to type this out here is rather simple. It is to re-empahsize the fact that teaching is arguably the most important of all proffessions, perhaps even more important than doctors. Teachers have such a great effect on society, yet we fail to take note of it , much less realize the sheer magnitude of it. We are living in an age where all the Toms, Dicks and Harrys who cant do anything else, end up teaching. As a high school student, I consider myself very lucky to have been taught by a select few, who had the abiliy to inspire their students. But with deepest regret, I must say, in the premier institute of technology in India, a lot is left to be desired in terms of faculty.

What is the solution here? As far as I can see, the Right to Teach should be made an exclusive one, just like the Right to practise Law or Medicine. One thing that most people don't realize is that people with a sound technical base or scientific know-how are not always the best teachers. Therefore the current practise of a Ph.D or M.S being the passport to teaching should be changed. There should be mulitple levels of qualifications which a teacher should clear and these levels should be an indication of both knowledge as well as the ability to teach. In this manner those who clear the highest levels should be made to teach in the premier institutes and they should be paid generously as well.

All this may sound complicated and cumbersome, but the social benefit of having good teachers will easily surpass the costs involved. More on this topic later.

Update!

Long time, no post! So here we go.

During my relentless quest to find relief from madness, I stumbled across this blog, written by the "Dilbert Guy". Not only is he incredibly witty, but he is also consistent at that. Not a single post exists on that site which is not an absolute cracker. Brilliant, I say.

The past couple of months have been enlightening, if nothing else. Along with a couple of other hundred people you realize one fine morning that you must decide what to do in life in a couple of weeks time. Some people start having dreams, others don't dare to do even that. In short, you fully realize the meaning of the statement "Ignorance is bliss!" and end up saying amen to that.

Any post written in the second week of november deserves a mention about the placements, cat and app. Being in mechanical engineering is good. It reinforces your long held belief that the average IQ of all the authorities is very close to/ if not forms the retard cut off. OF course its perfectly logical to keep 120 seats in Mech and just 30 in comp sci, when there are 120 jobs in comp sci and less than 30 in Mech. Isn't the terrible complexity of decision making parameters amazing!>

How I wish I would get an I-bank job! This would be the refrain of closely 90% of the people I know. The rest simply wish they would get the same in future. Three years ago I wonder how many would have even heard of the term "I-bank". Financial boom time it is and suddenly the golden egg laying hens of yester years, the ones who gave Indian graduates their first non zero paychecks( infinitesimally non zero pay checks which were paid by PSU's are not considered) are no longer that miraculous. Cheers to them, finally we are getting a salary which makes us above poverty line by Finnish Standards!

Now the stock market is slisha going bonkers over there at one end. We have an Indian becoming the richest guy in the world and then slipping down the ladder, probably after realizing that all that extra tax to be paid was simply not worth the token of honesty. I always wonder about the incentive for anyone to be honest in this world. We all are, at most times, better off lying!

Yeah, so thats enough blog for the day. I am too sleepy to write any more!

Quote

There is this documentary that I found on lan, titled "How Hitler Lost the War". The documentary ends with the following sentence:

" The malice of the wicked is never without the weakness of the virtuous".

Thought it was an interesting sentence. After all history is written by "those who hung heroes" :)

8 Arbit( Random :D) Facts

This post was overdue for way too long. I was tagged by Czar, Spanky and Mathew. So here are the rules of the tag.

1. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
2. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
3. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.


So here we go, the facts at the end of which I would have convinced everyone just how insane I am.

1. I talk to myself a lot. Yes, however vague and crazy that might sound, I do that. It is not that I talk loudly to myself, its just that whenever I think about anything, the thoughts come in the form of a voice. Dont know whether its same for everyone, never bothered to ask :D..

2. I daydream a lot. This means that you would physically be seeing me sitting in the class and looking straight at someone, but in reality my mind would be somewhere totally far off and thinking about the most arbit and unrelated of things. Because of this very same reason, I find it very difficult to concentrate continuously on anything, whether it be a conversation, lecture or what not.

3. I become emotionally attached to things very fast. Even small things hurt me a lot, even though this has reduced by a great extent in the past few years. One very small example, would be the fact whenever I am leaving anywhere, I feel sad. Its most irrational, because I know I am leaving a place to go somewhere, leaving which I will again feel sad. :D

Just as I become attached fast, I also become detached equally fast. So those two kinda make up for each other.

4. Movies interest me a lot! I am a huge movie buff and loves almost all genres. My favorite among the lot would be ones involving stylized violence. Yeah, i like stylized violence too..

5. Insects, especially spiders scare the freaking life out of me. I am 100% sure that if you lock me and a large brown spider together inside a small closed enclosure like a cupboard, I would die of heart attack before the spider can even think of attacking me. Yes, I AM that scared of spiders :|

6. As a kid, I used to very very naughty. Naughty is really an euphemism here. Somehow I loved to get into fights and arguments. Also I had this vague disregard and contempt towards authority and rules in general. However all that changed after my tenth, and now I am scared, if not petrified of authority. :D

7. I am both an introvert and an extrovert at the same time. It is very natural for me to go into a shell and totally shut myself off from the outside world when I am with relatively unfamiliar people, especially of the opposite sex. But more often that not, I would call myself an extrovert and enjoy hanging around with friends as much as possible.

8. Most of the time I act without thinking. This has led to a lot of bad decisions, but also a few good ones. So in the end I guess its the right thing to do. :|

I tag GT, Unnikuttan, PG, Varun, MRP, Joy, Nai and Wiper

Nayagan

Just finished watching "Nayagan", the tamil movie directed by Mani Ratnam, starring Kamal Hassan. As that epic sense of power, righteousness and karma slowly starts to wane and the blurred vision begins to distinguish the banal realities around, the realization finally dawns :"I just saw the greatest movie ever!"

An arbit blog!! :D

now... i am NOT a mcp or any crap like that..:D./..

but this IS a hillarious blog...

http://www.menarebetterthanwomen.com/

DO take a look!

YAAAY!!!!

Thats my baby!!!!

Two weeks of ordering and wrenching, screwing(:D) and bolting has finally resulted in this..

:)

Btw.. i haven tested whether it works yet.. :P

Update: It didnt work.. :(...

Updated Update: It has started working... bits and parts.. here and there.. :)

MVOSS

Maninomander stood gazing out of the grilled window. The cold was getting to his bones these days and he longed for the arrival of summer. "Soon" , he muttered beneath his breath, suddenly not sure of what he was wishing for. Years in the army had hardened him ; no longer a stranger to either death or pain, he knew that every breath was a gift hard earned and one that should be cherished. " But I am different" he used to remind himself proudly. He still smiled upon the carefree blithe life of the young and seemed to understand the happiness in the little mischiefs of life. He always believed life to be something that should be enjoyed, not bound and strained under the chains of authority and soceity.

Still today was different. He could no longer feel the warmthness inside his heart, as though the cold outside had chilled everything including the soul. " Hmm.. How can it be so cold?. Its only November and the winter hasn't even started?! "he mused loudly. The mountain looked gloomy and dark under the setting sun, it was as though the receeding rays were robbing the tall peak of its beauty and serenity. The general blinked his eyes, almost as though he was hoping against hope to wake up and feel the warm rays of the sun against his face.

The cool breeze kept wafting in. He could sense that smell, though he couldn't place it. The cold, he thought , its all the fault of the cold!. Suddenly, the mighty general felt weak and lost, as though everything he had ever held close to his heart and mind had become false and unreal. Leaning against the grill, he bent his head into the folded arms and as if from nowhere a small drop fell to the ground. " Sir, the priest has come", the sharp voice from behind the door declared.

The Prestige

Marvellous film!!!!

The best that I have seen in a long long long time!
This film is the mother of all tales with a twist. Will write more on the film later. So in the meantime please do yourself a favour and watch this film.
















P.S. Kudos to Vinay aka "czar" for suggesting this movie and then taking the pains to send it via gtalk!!

ARBIT THOUGHTS

I used to believe, till couple of months back, that man makes his own destiny, that our actions and choices make us what we are and decides what we will be. I was certain that the future is an unpredictable unknown entity and that whatever that I did presently was of importance because my future depended on those very actions. But as said earlier it was what I USED to believe.

Now the thing is I believe the entire world is like a series of events, discrete or continous, each influencing the other through connections which are unimaginably complicated. These sort of connections between 2 seemingly unrelated events is pretty well brought by scientific theories such as " the butterfly effect". Such connections can even explain the logic behing astrology, in which phases of our life are determined by the relative positions of planets. How the position of planets can affect our lives?.. I dont know, but I do believe that its not a totally impossible probability.

SO is the future predictable?... If it IS predictable, then it means its already decided, it means its already destined, it means our choices, decisions and actions are already laid out and we are just walking through them. It means choice is nothin but an illusion to keep the human beings in the dark about their own insignificance in the global order. But all this is true only if the future is indeed predictable....

SO what am I trying to say here>?.. Its not a solution for any problems, even if we are to finally get the truth of whether choice exists or not. Even if we realize its not, we cannot change anything bcoz all our actions including that of the current discovery was also predecided and destined to happen. Destiny, if it exists, is a weird thing, coz it makes u realize that neither the credit for successes nor the blame for failures is ures. It also brings out the irony in celebrating successes and rueing over failures..

IRONY!.. lets try n stay away from tht irony......

Arbit Update

This post is exactly what the title says! Its an arbit update. No particular reasons for doing this except that the blog has undergone 3 whole months of total inactivity and it was E-roding all the way to hell.

In the mean time the 5th sem has started and has almost come to a screeching halt(read end) .Yeah, yeah we all know how time files, dont we?Mech in IITM is a weird thing as in it starts in the 4th sem and ends in the 5th. All the other sems are just beautiful decorations to make it a fully fledged 4 yr BTech. The above statement should in no way be interpreted as me saying that mech in IITM is easy or that its a cake walk. Quite the contrary it is the very opposite of cake walk,its almost a fire dance or a fire walk, depending on what you choose to do.

But what i want to get across or imply or shout at your face at this point of time is that my absence from the field of blogging has indeed met a rather gruesome death at this very moment. A complete update on bloggable(read abnormal but not anti social) events that has taken place over the sem shall soon be made.

And my words of wisdom at this point of time is:

"Choice is an illusion of life, the greatest farce that man made himself believe!"