Goa Beer Festival 2008

Anyone wants to join in?
Goa Beer Festival, coming soon...

Yes, I know. Its been postponed to October this year.
Its goin' to be a fun experience, the first of its kind. You Game?

Amazing...

Amazing by aerosmith... Its been twisting, turning, ringing and churning in the depths of my subconscious all morning.
The Lyrics just don't seem to slip out of my mind...

I kept the right ones out
And let the wrong ones in
Had an angel of mercy to see me through all my sins
There were times in my life
When I was goin' insane
Tryin' to walk through
The pain
When I lost my grip
And I hit the floor
Yeah, I thought I could leave but couldn't get out the door
I was so sick and tired
Of livin' a lie
I was wishin' that I
Would die

It's Amazing
With the blink of an eye you finally see the light
It's Amazing
When the moment arrives that you know you'll be alright
It's Amazing
And I'm sayin' a prayer for the desperate hearts tonight

That one last shot's a Permanent Vacation
And how high can you fly with broken wings?
Life's a journey not a destination
And I just can't tell just what tomorrow brings

You have to learn to crawl
Before you learn to walk
But I just couldn't listen to all that righteous talk
I was out on the street,
Just tryin' to survive
Scratchin' to stay alive

(Chorus)

"So, from all of us at Aerosmith
to all of you out there, wherever you are.
Remember- the light at the end of the tunnel
may be you. Goodnight!

The last time...

A long time since I updated anything here, and this post wont do justice to the short interlude between the two 'eras' of my college life.

There are a lot of experiences that all of us go through, and never have a chance to experience again. Yes, the list goes on... childhood, friends, the first time you went to a new school, the first time you went out with friends for a weekend trip, the first time you you came to college, the first time you spent a night out with friends... All of these and more will always be cherished and probably never forgotten.

But then there are other experiences. When you know you can only have it one last time. And you cant really plan it out. Like the ones I'm gonna talk about in this post...

It all probably started on 25 July 2008.

I finished My internship at IISc, and left for home by bus, bang in the middle of the bangalore blasts. The bus was delayed by more than an hour and as is typical of lady luck, it started pouring as I (and the other passengers of the ill-fated bus) desperately waited for it to arrive at the KSRTC bus stand.
After boarding, a general discussion swept us all inside the bus about the bomb blasts and the traffic situation.
And we soon discovered it ourselves, when our bus was checked twice for bomb suspects in front of hyderabad house!.
I can distinctly remember a gentleman too fat for anyone of his stature on an adjacent seat, praying over and over again. There was this young business-professional lookalike in a 3-piece suit sitting behind the fat-ass, who was always on the phone; and every now and then when the connection snapped, he would begin to panic. What added to this truly unique atmosphere were 2 kids on the last seat who couldn't stop howling and screaming all the while, and all the cajoling that their moms could offer seemed insufficient.

And as it played out, we were watching Live on the news about the discovery of 2 more bombs in other areas of bangalore within the last half hour. Our bus was enclosed with surrounding traffic by the police and separated from the maddening crowd for fear of a live bomb.
Thrilling - You say? Gross understatement.
But it was all over by midnight, and we were out of bangalore for good!

"Finally Going home!" I thought. But somewhere at the back of my mind it echoed "For the last time". It was the last time I was going to Kochi, calling it my home. In another 2 months, our family would shift to Delhi which would be our new home.

So the next 5 days (yes, thats how long my summer vacation lasted) was fun. Back at home with family. Kochi, the green, cool and beautiful place (with lots of rain and insects though).
It was fun driving along the foreshore road facing the backwaters at Katari Bagh, into the golf course and around the place in the morning. Its probably the last experience I will have, of living at 04-Katari Bagh.

And then, I had to return to college for my last semester on campus, with just 4 months of college life left.
After the course registrations and placement worries drift into the past, I still have to figure out how to spend the last 3 months of college life I have left.

Beauty

It seems to me that whatever else is beautiful apart from absolute beauty is beautiful because it partakes of that absolute beauty, and for no other reason. Do you accept this kind of causality? Yes, I do. Well, now, that is as far as my mind goes; I cannot understand these other ingenious theories of causation. If someone tells me that the reason why a given object is beautiful is that it has a gorgeous color or shape or any other such attribute, I disregard all these other explanations—I find them all confusing—and I cling simply and straightforwardly and no doubt foolishly to the explanation that the one thing that makes the object beautiful is the presence in it or association with it, in whatever way the relation comes about, of absolute beauty.

I do not go so far as to insist upon the precise details—only upon the fact that it is by beauty that beautiful things are beautiful.

This, I feel, is the safest answer for me oranyone else to give, and I believe that while I hold fast to this I cannot fall; it is safe for me or for anyone else to answer that it is by beauty that beautiful things are beautiful.

- (Plato, Phaedo, 100c-e)

Don’t you agree? I do.

Multiple Personalities

There is this magical connotation attached to the word 'personality'.
Everyone is obsessed with it, without exception.

From concerns of a first impression, to job prospects to even social interactions, personality is always at the forefront.
And the only thing that's constant about it is change.

With all the experience that life brings our way, we change; and so does our personality. But somewhere on this transition, we leave behind footprints and memories of what we were earlier.


From when I've arrived at bangalore, its been almost a new start.
Even though I wouldn't say I'm a hard-working-student here at IISc (am I? :-D), my every effort here is in trying to prove just that to my mentor and guide. Back at hostel, though, my sincere room-mate believes I'm a party freak and night-life addict who just comes back to the hostel for the night, late, and goes off in the morning (sometimes even staying all the night out, and almost more regularly recently!). I would've told him that its not really regular parties that keep me up every night, if it werent for this strong urge to play along... I'm still trying to understand the source of this great urge to 'play along' so to say. Probably its fun to just let people make assumptions and see how things go on. And probably it brings the fun back into your life and makes it a little more entertaining.

And again, there's this veteran owner of a chain of restaurants here who thinks I've just entered college. Of course he would, I had figured that while seeking accommodation, rather than explaining people about the concept of summer internship, I'd rather blend into the crowd and become a college-goer looking for a decent dorm. And now its fun to see him advising me about college life whenever theres an opportunity for an interaction between us. Again, wouldnt it spoil the fun if I told him I was 3/4th of my way through college already?

Of course, all of us have differing personalities. We are different to different people, and different at different situations. Some are radically different, while the others are far more subtle. But here's one thought worth deliberating: what if somehow one or more of these personalities came to a clash? Imagine if, say the veteran restaurant owner somehow turns out to be a relative of my faculty guide at college (O.o) Such are the what-ifs which convince one to live a simple and transparent life, void of inconsistencies. But living on the edge somehow seems to be a fascinating exercise for me (of course, only when taken lightly and not on a very serious note). Probably just adds a little spice to the mundane life we have. Or probably I'm just too idle to be thinking up all this (then again, if I wouldnt be so jobless, I wouldnt be writing this post).

I guess its time to try and figure out which of these personalities probably got someone to puncture my cycle tyre today morning...

Random Musings...

'convince the unconvinced'
---------------------------------------------------------
There was once this eccentric professor at college who was known for his absurd obsessions especially when it came down to testing the students for what they had learnt in a semester long course of Philosophy and spiritualism.

It was one such occasion, when the professor handed out test questions to all of his class students. The paper had just one question. Before the start of the exam, he had placed a wooden chair atop a table. The question asked the students to argue and prove that the chair did not exist using all the profound knowledge they had supposedly gained after the Philosophy course.

While all the students were busy jotting down theories, arguments and counterarguments to prove the nonexistance of the chair, one student had surprisingly finished the paper and handed it back within a minute. Considering him to be an ill-prepared student sure to flunk, the others continued on their quest. From buddhist non-materialistic view of the world to the various other analogies, the students profoundly related them to this particular chair, all in an effort to imply its non-existence.

Later after the exam, when the results were announced, it came as a surprise that apart from that one student, the professor didn't consider anyone worthy of having completed the course.

Upon request of the answer sheet, it was found that his paper had a one-line answer "What Chair ?"
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A little snippet I found adorned on someone's gtalk status :-P

Positive thinking is....

A little bird up in the sky,
U look up & it shits in your eye,
U dont mind & U dont cry,
U just thank god that...cows dont fly!!!!!

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I'm Looking for a dream...

I'm looking for a Dream
a glad respite yet a true calling...
savouring memories, so close and yet so far
Its not easy, not now or ever, to be me

I'm just here to find
the better part of me
and I realize I'm the kind
who was never meant to be

"close the world,think it through
is this, really, who is you?
not today, not tomorrow
maybe when your time is through...

They won't tell you,neither can I
it's your prerogative, learn to Fly
You are the one, just haven't figured it out yet
there's still Time, take the Plunge, make a Bet"

Im looking for a Dream
A Vision of hope, without judge
a glad respite yet a true calling...
until I find, decide and take the plunge...