The Chronicles of a Happy Life

Yesterday, a bunch of us went to Dola-ri-dhani, an artificially created Rajasthani village on the outskirts of the city. It was awesome. For the first time, so many of us went out together on a picnic. We started the journey packed in 2-seven-seaters. After two hours of non-stop joking, leg-pulling, drinking from Rumeet’s water bottle (to his utter dismay) and throwing projectiles at the other seven seater (we won 2-1 :D), we reached the place. The ‘welcome Jal-jeera’ was much looked forward to and it did not disappoint. Sadly, the puppet show (”Hathon ki karamaat, dhage ki safai”) was not a lot of fun to a bunch of guys who watched movies with billion-dollar special-effects every other day. Ice candy was! I had three of them - I don’t know why it’s not more popular. The camel ride and the boat ride were ok. There was even a magic show in which Amit ‘uncle’ couldn’t figure out how to take ribbons out of a bag and Rahul had one-rupee-coins come out of his ass :)) Rumeet was most interested in the ‘babes’ (many thought that they were actually men dressed as women) in the Rajasthani folk dance. The best part for most of us though, was the disco. The traditional Rajasthani dinner was simply awesome. When I got up (gasping for air, not unlike a beached whale), I knew that I would regret the act everytime I felt hungry for a long time. An astrologer told Priyanshu that he was going to have a love marriage by the time he was 25 =)). Anyway, a word is only a thousandth of a picture :) and so I’ll stop blabbering now and let the photos do the talking. Nayak saab and others, get them scanned quick.

A few days ago, a friend decided to write a series of controversial posts describing people he knew. For some reason, I was his first subject. Thankfully, it contained more good things than bad (unfortunately, for another friend who was the subject of his next post, his didn’t). Unfortunately, the post showed that he does not know me very well. This is not surprising since for various reasons, we have not interacted much through these three years we’ve been classmates. To be fair, I don’t think anybody I know, knows me fully. While some friends do know about the girls in my life (questions about whom are apparently the standard content in emails-from-old-friends-to-guy-in-new-college!), not many know how much I really study (or don’t study?!). What everybody (at least my friends in IIIT) knows is that I happen to have a high CGPA and presto - they form a preconceived notion of me. It’s not that I feel wronged or even disappointed, it’s just the way things are on this planet. After all, even I have some preconceived notions about people which are not fully justified.

In some ways, I feel good about the whole thing. It certainly made my day when I read stuff like “he is one of those fellows whom God has created to look upon and feel jealous of . He makes you feel what a waste of human efficiency we all are.” It also gave me a glimpse of what people generally think of me which is always good as even the greatest amongst us (not that I’m one of them) would do well to pay attention to feedback from his peers. Thank you, Lu.

Yesterday evening, I witnessed an interesting discussion between our resident Paresh Rawal (PR) and the resident one-man Think Tank (TT). The scene was a dilapidated classroom where innocent school children were punished by the modern education system during the day and we were punished.. uhm taught by CL at night. Our prof was a young dude (in all senses of the word!) and so Think Tank felt obliged to address him by his name whereas Paresh Rawal held that ‘Sir’ was the appropriate honorific to be used. This difference of opinion eventually led to a colorful exchange of words that included well-thought-out predictions on the moniker to be used for both parties by their respective progeny and so on, but a discussion of that would be a digression from the topic of this post. It also set me thinking.

In my first year, when we healthily interacted with our seniors - many happy and painful (sometimes together) memories there… I wonder why nobody has posted on it so far - our elders insisted that we address them as ‘Sir’ and ‘Madam’. It was a IIIT tradition. Of course, we willingly complied. I’ve always thought that it was a little silly but a tolerable foible of the seniors who did mind being called anything else. A guy I know once threatened to kill me just because I referred to him by the pronoun ‘him’ while talking to a junior in his presence! (He finally let me off after a couple of runs to and fro across a hostel wing). After the freshers’ party, we were told that we could address them by their names. However, the habit stayed with most of us till long afterward. Even today, I might start the conversation by addressing the senior by his first name but somewhere in between ‘Sir’ slips out of my mouth.

I’ve also had the opportunity to see the other side of the coin. I couldn’t interact much with many of my immediate juniors but the current first years have addressed me as ‘Sir’ more than most English Lords ever hear in their lifetimes. At one time, I tried to fight it. I explained to every junior that I saw, that I was not even a distant relative of any member of the English peerage and so the honorific with which he addressed me was not technically correct. Unfortunately, there were just too many of them and it was impossible to keep track of who had been instructed and who hadn’t. Furthermore, an entire batch of them would be added every year and it would be asinine to repeat the entire exercise all over again! So I gave up. It does do some good I guess. It does teach one the correct pronunciation of ‘Sir’ and ‘Madam’ and that would definitely help if one finds oneself working in a conservative bank somewhere.

BTW, I’ve managed to lose my big fat dictionary in my small room :( I’m as stumped as C was on Valentine’s Day ‘04, enroute to the terrace of the girl’s hostel! :D

I met a little girl in cyberland today.
We talked of the now and the before,
trifles a score, about my dog and her cat,
both of us loved Ram Gopal Verma more!

She is now angry at me,
felt sad, though knew it wasn’t meant to be.
Said sth stupid just like I know how
Foot in hand, open mouth now :(

Little girl, if you are reading this - the size of a person is determined by the kind of things that person gets angry at. I am also very sorry.

The following was my first entry in my personal diary. I wrote it before I owned a computer, when I was in class 7. I used to guard it with my life then and until now noone but me had read it. Forgive the pompousness, I was only a child then. I’ve not made any changes except obvious grammatical or punctuation mistakes.

I was never young, I never will be old. I grow larger somewhere, shrink somewhere else. Whatever I do, wherever I am, I don’t go unnoticed. Entire nations and yes, in some respects even the whole world depends on me for survival. In my enigmatic depths, I hold unnumerable secrets. Some I willingly share, others I have hidden and will contine to hide for centuries to come. There is complexity inside me. Mountains, valleys, cities all are present in me. Yet on the surface, I appear plain, simple, open to all. A thousand vile drains could not corrupt my pure heart. one million young streams submit to me and I, a graceful monarch humbly accept their offering. To the gentle I am kind, to an arrogant pride, I am invincible. I may kiss beaches but ddeep within me an undpredictable anger boils which can destroy ships, cities, entire civilizations like a pack of cards arranged by a foolish child. I shout and bellow at those who challenge, but I also comfortingly murmur into the ears of a little girl from a seashell. I am Sagar - the ocean.

They say that music is a great communicator - sth that can really express feeling. It really is. For me, music is a dear pal to celebrate success with, the best way to cheer up when I’m down, the only way to cool off anger with… Then, there are the other times when you just can’t seem to find the right song for what you are feeling. For example, what song does one listen to when one is in grief - not the sharp, numbing pain that is the subject of innumerable rock songs, esp Linkin park (rock purists who cringe at this point, can go to hell), but the slow, viscous feeling of sadness caused due to many small bad things. Then, which song would be most suitable when you are filled with the feeling of fighting against all odds, with your last ounce of strength.. the kind which in film would feature a blood-stained, half-dead soldier in great pain, who gets up with great difficulty, picks up his gun that has only one bullet in it, aims it at the head of a 10000-strong army of his enemies and fires… Or the feeling of achievement when he finds that, that bullet did hit its mark and that he can now die in peace.. Any answers?

It’s Nappy’s birthday today. Dude, wish you a long and fruitful life and everything else…

I was born at around 1:40 AM, 29th December, 1984 (So now you know abt the number in my blog address!). Some people firmly believe that your birthdate has a lot to do with the kind of person you are. I remember, once in first year, I was having a mess table discussion with Joon. I told him that the great Dhirubhai Ambani was born on 28th December and so was Ratan Tata… Thus, I joked that people born around that date are industrious, ambitious and hard-working and it was destined that I become a great entrepreneur. He chewed on his food for a moment and then said, “Vishwas Rao was also born on December 29″… I really didn’t, have much to say after that…

As a matter of fact, I was a great believer in astrology till I came here. I had read Linda Goodman’s ‘Sun Signs’ from cover to cover and the stuff about me and people I knew was almost always true. Of course, I’m more rational now and I’ve realized that a large number of vague statements with witty examples from real life not only make interesting reading but are almost always right about yourself and people you know, especially if you want to believe them. Also, in IIIT, I’ve met three other people - Aseem, Rao and Amit Handa born on the same day as me and all of us have totally different characteristics :D Btw, a good side effect of my faith in astrology has been that I can remember birthdates quite easily which is good.. even though at times, I’ve been terribly teased because of it ;)

I’ve never tired of looking for ways for classifying people.. This does not mean that I’m judgemental. I love to be friends with all.. It’s just that I’m somewhat of an amateur anthropologist - I love studying people. their reactions to different things, what motivates them, etc.. Not too long ago I read a book on the four personality types of Sanguine, Melancholy, Choleric and Phlegmatic. People who are Melancholy are perfectionist idealists and great for intellectual work but they also tend to be depressed for long periods of time. Cholerics are those who shout, “Do it my way… NOW!”. They are excellent at getting things done but some people find them arrogant and overbearing. Sanguines are everybody’s best friends. They excel at dealing with other people but they are not very good at maintaining systematic, order. They are the artistic type. Phlegmatic are not very good at anything, but they are the most peaceful. People love them though they are too lazy to even change the channel on their own! That is the best classification of people I’ve come across. According to the test at the back of the book - I was a combination of Melancholy and Choleric.. which makes me the ideal candidate for a high-paying job or starting my own business - you never know, what these recruiters or venture capitalists might be reading ;). Also, this means that I generally like girls who are the Sanguine type… all of which is perfectly true.. So what type are you?

Election fever is over. The results have not been announced though, the reasons behind which only God and the Election Comm know and that after repolling X-( “Who did you vote for?” was about to become the standard icebreaker on campus. It should be relegated to the bottom of the pile of ice-breakers, right there with ‘How was your exam?’ and ‘did u know we have an assignment submission tonight?’ Thankfully, all the contestants I met limited themselves to ‘Did you vote?’ Apparently, all of them think I’m going to vote for them - which is good, in some ways >:)

While on the subject of irritating things… work/play stopping problems with my PC are on the top of my list. Frequent readers of my blog know how much I love my computer and I just go crazy when I see that it’s sick.

It really sux when people you want to talk to don’t have cell phones and people you don’t want to talk to, generally have them with unlimited talk time to boot :( Jagan, I hope you remember me when you buy your first cell phone.

My cell phone has a virus :( I got an sms and when I replied to it.. all of a sudden the number of unsent messages in my cell increases from 7 to 254. I’m going crazy deleting each one!! If this was the USA, I could have sued the company and become rich by now… and I wouldn’t have to study for these stupid end sems in such beautiful weather. Dammit!