DISCLAIMER: FLOPSHOW NEVER 'NEVER INDICATED'

Twenty days to go. Then I'll be back to my 'second home', as I had succinctly put it, on an earlier occasion. There goes. Abhee se hee senty ho gayaa saala. Sob! Can't help it. That's how I miss my college. An 85 day break! Surely injustice. I'm crazy as a loon over here. Literally, I'm only literally active...ha ha! Pun? Who gives a shit!

Burp! Burp! Burp!
Yawn!
Burp! Burp!
Yawn!
Burp!
Yawn!
zzzzzzzzzz......

This summarizes a typical daily routine on my schedule. Guzzle and Snore. That's all I do. Can anyone pull me through this? None whomsoever. Only good ol' college.

So...now that I've made it clear...can I just finish off with this post?
Yawn!
Feeling sleepy.
Yawn!

Holy cow!, how contorted one's face can look when one yawns. That face in the mirror I saw when I gaped resembled an ol' man who somehow got all his teeth back, trying to smile! hah! Guys, gimme a break. I won't talk about college here. About how great it's going to be, once I set foot there...

Yawn!...

Sorry for the flopshow...

Sleep encumbers me into faraway lands, and before my head hits the keyboard, let me go get my dose of somnolence(read 'beauty sleep')...an essential daily drug!

Yawn!

ON LIVING DESPITE LOSING

Once again, I chuck the basic theme for this blog. I have instead, created a poetic strain. And that's because I want to unwrap myself from a feeling of inadequacy. This is dedicated to a friend of mine, who has lost a loved one:

Scared am I by world's heartless gaze
Muddled, it has left her in an endless maze
No Inkling whatsoever, of faceless Morrow
None there saviour, to her sorrow?

Starlit skies strike awe no more
Heart has been dented to the core
As pendulum swings, and life takes new turn,
Will golden phoenix alight from ashes burn?

Hope dawns lazily as the rising sun
Birds flock in with a soft new hum
Time slows down at the pace of a snail.
Emotions tumble from tilted waters' pail

O friend, I'll bake a Pudding and Pie
No farce I put...Need I lie?
Sugar alone sweetens bitter taste
There be no need for addled haste

A falcon flaps his wings so Wide
His elegant sweep may capture, surprise!
Talons sharp, though grip so firm...
Out of the maze, with life's lessons learned

-A Friend

SHEDDING STEREOTYPES

What is to follow, is an earnest imploration to all those who are, or yet to find themselves rat-trapped into four years of engineering . Well, actually, this is my story. How I feel about engineering now...especially after having had the choice...to never get into it, in the first place!

Yepp! It sure is a rat-trap...We're so obsessed with getting into an engineering college (read coconut hooked to a trap lever), that we don't care what's actually in store for us(a closed imuration to get harried for quite some time...until, if lucky, to be set loose back into the fields, or worse, being drowned to death (that's one of my uncle's ways to get rid of the pesky rodents...caged, of course! ha!)

He He!

I know, it isn't all that fair to complain in that manner, but I'm cock-sure that close to 80% of us in college don't like what we're doing...to varying degrees, though. But there is this misconception...that if you can handle Math and Science well enough to clear the entrances with good ranks, you're engineer material. Bah! hogwash.

I'd say, if one is ready to devote time and energy into stuff as boring(or stimulating...to each, his own!) as building rails and flyovers, or designing circuits, or studying all the knotty lilliputian details of the working and construction of a 4-stroke engine,then honestly son, my heart goes out to you.

But don't think being all goody-goody and saying 'yeah, we'll be building rockets, roads, tunnels, machines...' is reason enough to be fervent about it. This is real work, and it ought to be done by people who actually have the determination, or rather cynosure towards it. Clearing an exam testing pure theory, that too basic Math/Science doesn't give out even the slightest inkling of one's aptitude for engineering.

I for one, believe in knowing 1% of 100 things, rather than 100% of just one thing! If there were one thing I could change about my past, it would be trading my B.Tech(God knows whether I'll make it!) with a BBA!!!

In fact, where do IIT's and NIT's feature in the research map of the globe? I don't think most big-shot IIT alumni are known to have contributed to engineering more than entrepreneurship and business! There are many other avenues to look forward to as far as minting money goes...It's a limited perspective that makes every Indian want his/her kid to go through the 'tried-and-tested' 'beta!!...engineer ban jaa'...or 'betee, tu to doctor hee banegee!'

It's this no-risk attitude that leaves us Indians way behind in many aspects...An imitation of this tendency can be seen in sport too...how cricket rules the charts!, and yet isn't what you'd call world-class, if you compare it to the Aussies, and the other sports are like kabaddi being played in alleys, and nothing more.

It's time to shed stereotypes.

Dare to let new games begin!

MY SONG FOR A FRIEND

Pardon me for this. Today I'll stray away from the 'Engineering' or 'NIT' theme. 'Tis because I long to get out of my system a built up frustratiom, only recently kindled...

I was helpless as it transfigured and took a poetic manifestation...to a somewhat healing effect.

Here I go:

Feigning isn't my my middle Name,

Though many a Judge cite the Same.

Play do I, with brimming Morn...

Never to cripple hearts per thorn.

Chum in Need, or forlorn

Pay me Heed, strip Gyves atorn.

For whence the throng owe not one stick,

And none stop by for but a shady glance...

Hail thou name of Lord Almighty!

Gabriel to thee, Be O Yours truly!

'All is Play', Comes from his Toungue

Then Curtains fall, and heal whose lungs?

Whisper not I, lest I miss!

The song of bells, the Wind's sweet hiss...

'Hope' a Friend, True and Lame,

Sets a Current hard to tame

Gone have I, many miles afar

Never This Lonely, through roads and tar.

- Yours Truly

ROOM FOR THOUGHT

Seenu and I have been room-mates for a year now. Mistake. Closet-mates, if at all there is this word. No problemo dude, even if there isn't. You see, if I'm not an Oxford sophomore, it's only coz I don't give a damn to what's there and what's not in that God-forsaken pillow of a dictionary. So...where was I?....yeah! see, the fun getting into college is that one gets to be closet-mates, bench-mates, shared-morning-newspaper-reading mates, shitting-in-adjacent-toilets mates, farting-at-the-same-time mates, and many more doing-this and doing-that mates.

Huh!..all this is a whack on the face at what I'm trying to blab about...so without further ado, let me get back to the point...So!...why did I say 'closet-mates'??

Well,the truth is this:

Closet does more justice in enabling the reader construe the kind of living-space we had to inhabit.

Hats off to the first year boys in 13th block, NIT W!!....or should I say, vests off!!(I'd gladly pull them off my back in our hostel!!...sickening heat for someone who's so conditioned to the air conditioner, ha!) As I was saying....those 3x3x3 cubic metre thingies were more like jails with windows...seriously....I watched Ashton Kutcher getting locked up into a better looking thing in ' The Butterfly Effect'. And that's sad.

Especially when you fit in two young adults into such cells, with only a not-so-large fenestra as saving grace...

These 'rooms' or whatever you call them, are meant for 'the single-bachelor-boy'...yet we bear the brunt of getting stuffed up as true blue couples!

And come next sem, it'll be four in a room(or jailhouse) meant for three...'let's be positive', I tell myself...4:3 is 25% superior to 2:1.

I all the more wish those guys building that mega-hostel Godspeed...can't wait much longer getting a 'room' for a change.


It's 2:40 am, and I'm comfortably lodged in a cushioned easy-chair. With the AC being an electrically run machine rather than the space by the window sill. Three more weeks for vacation to end!

I ain't complaining.

COUNTRY'S PRIDE LEFT TO BANE

4 NEW IITs. 6 NEW IIMs.

This piece of news is close to three months old. Yet, on the face of it, a perennial hornets' nest, that pisses me off and puts me to wonder whether it's haplessness or hopelessness that inflicts me. Or both.

It's clear at the onset, that to me, this is bad business. I remember as a kid, watching 'Border' on India's fiftieth year of independence on Star Plus, and sensing cool adrenaline build up my spine. Or kissing the smooth tile floor we had, every time AR Rahman rejoiced with 'Maa Tujhe Sallaam'. How innocent was I. Back then, as a 9 year old, I was blissfully ignorant of Congress, CPM and the likes.

The Nehruvian vision of oysters of engineering excellence is being dilapidated by his own partymen. The Human Resource minister is toying with the IITs and IIMs as a tool to meet his political ambitions while shoving down our throats a 27% OBC quota.

The trouble has just begun. The unleashing of the OBC quota starts an all new caste war. As Gujjars aren't too satisfied being OBC's, they'll fight for the SC pie, thrusting hell to the Meenas as a result. A caste war would mean having to satisfy the Gujjars' avails, or getting them an altogether new category of reservation! Huh! Meaning, less han 50% seats for the 'general category'.

All grubby vote bank politics.

A never-ceasing chain reaction that undermines democracy, and dints the IITs and IIMs to submission.

Forgotten have I Gandhi. Tilak. Nehru. Figures who dreamed and worked for an India that would represent a beacon of freedom and righteousness. That dream hasn't taken shape.

And my patriotism has been left to bleed.

LET'S KICK THE BUTT!

Smoke has infested many a budding engineer.It's an issue everywhere. And I fail to see how guys my age get into it in the first place...It's sweet life that's at stake. Let's take a look at the statistics.

A MILLION INDIANS.

EVERY YEAR.

FALL PREY TO TOBACCO.

70% OF THE DEAD ARE IN THEIR PRIME.

40% smokers die b/w the ages of 30-69. How encouraging is that to inhale the next puff? Beats me. If this doesn't get across the point, I hope what follows, will.

An act of rebellion is natural to teenagers, and smoking does qualify as one. Reason?

Reasoning itself. That shows how the numbers aren't potent enoughfor smokers to call it a day. So telling them to quit is like telling an infatuatd girl to stop seeing that enigmatic edgy guy, and she'll want him all the more. People are often defensive about cults/things that actually undermine them. What could be the reasons?

• 'Cognitive dissonance', is something I read about recently. It is justufying and rationalising to oneself to do something that has no advantages and many disadvantages. So, if a cult has soaked you dry of your money and health, the odds that you'll dismiss them as a waste are thin...
  

• Second. Misdirected rebellion. Of course, the smoker who is being killed tardily, should really be rebellious to the smoking itself.
  

I'd atlast say, that submitting to the will of others and getting forced into habits so pernicious is more cowardly than cool. Intoxicants and sense gratification at the cost of one's health defies common sense. It's all the more relevant to new college entrants, who find themselves overwhelmed by the new found freedom.

So let's say no. It's time to make the choice.

ADDLED 'Eww-LOGY'

Enough of all the NIT bashing I've done all along. Doesn't do justice. So, I'm on to phase II. NIT lauding. Now, now...where do I begin? hmmm...there's got to be something. ummmmm...well, lets say...Man! All this f*%#@*_ beats me! Chcheee... Saala thopdaa hil gayaa soch-soch kar....

Aha!

Finally, got my ruminations done. So here I begin.

Unity in Diversity sums up NIT Warangal. Though not on all occasions does that hold true! (okay beta...satyavaadi banega to post kabhee poora naa hone waala!) Where else does one get to be classmates with guys and gals from every nook and galli of India?(You won't even find that in the IITs, plus the IITs have a skimpy sex-ratio)

Then there's this city Warangal...where folks can floor you with their unique breed of Hindi alongside native Telugu.

Academics are a lot more sufferable thanks to a GPA (grade point average) system...Steer through exams in such a way that you aren't among the last six in class...and fail, you wont!! Higher gaiety quotient ensues.

Boredom is a word one usually draws a blank with. There are weekly informal and formal events that keep the throng occupied and the hostels give you a taste of what can be dubbed as 'night-life'.

Bas, thats all I can think of...mighty dumb of me trying to force out the 'good stuff' 'bout my college...when what I love is quibbling about, left-right and centre.

Wont make that slip again.

SIMPLICITY OR INCIPIENCE???

Surcease. This is not a metro. This is conservative South. A Town. An Arcadian squint. Moreover, this is how India really is. At least 99% of India. This is Warangal. But many of us hail from the other 1%.

I'm from Delhi. I came to Warangal as a Delhiite. Though I'm rustic now, and the mutation took eight months or so(Though it'll go on intermittently for the next three years, 'sob!'). I don't want to go nitpicking. Plain food for thought.

As far as the fashion sense goes, I must say, no one would notice a thing even if you wear a shirt with buttons falling off 'em, or you have sole-less shoes on (really got to admire the unpretentiousness bla... bla...). And guys, expect nothing more than ivied salwaar kameezes atop girls, and the once in a bluemoon T-shirt cum jeans for which missing class would be as good as skipping the day's meal!

Yes, buddy! Engineering wouldn't be the only nightmare that plagues the inmates of NIT Warangal. Well, do nightmares cease to stop? Heck No!

Sorry mate, if you're from Modern School, Barakhamba Road, dude! strut your stuff elsewhere, coz there ain't room for air anymore(no more adorning knicker bockers, he he! not here puh leez! ) else you're done for...Something like that happened to me...apparently, folks here cringe at the look of pileous legs spotted anywhere other than hostel rooms(as if they'd expected herbage instead of hair! hah!)

And if you're a guy on the lookout for demoiselles, channelize your energies on a same-state missy! Alternatively, embrace vexation and fight for vindication.

So there goes the NIT Warangal story, raa! Plain food for thought.

STATUTORY WARNING - PALPABLE SCALPS

I hope the heading speaks for itself! There is this issue I have. Though I would insist on emphasizing that the issue hasn't yet bowled me clean. It's actually great loss of certain parts of the body that calls me to caution many an aspirant before they enter these doomed portals, lest they join the balding troupe!

Yes, the truth however sour has to be uttered. And I'm obliging the fortunate few who are reading these words before getting themselves admitted here. Ho Ho!

I know not the teleology. Care do I neither! All I trouble for is the pelage. It is either turning a premature grey, or simply choosing to drop off our heads! And no one in the campus seems to make much deal out of it! I'm surprised! I pen down therefore, the hitherto unwritten...

On a more serious note, I'd say that hair(only referring to what fills our skull region) being the crowning glory of many a collegiate (owing to it's magical effect on the opposite sex), or any person in his/her prime for that matter is very much expected to retain its color, or at least stay put! It may be the water's hardness or the excess dissolved salts that cause the havoc! Mind you, I'm dead serious about this. It is a real health issue, and it's only in a laggard country like India where it is being given no notice.

Pretty negative this may seem...yeah!

But just walk down the corridors in our hostels to meet many young lads with thinning hairlines! O ENGINEERING ASPIRANT, YE BE WARNED!!!

MY OPENING ADDRESS

There goes this saying... something akin to pen being mightier than a sword!!...bah, utter nonsense these days...though I'd say that a keyboard definitely is!! See, that's how it works out today. A tussle between old day sagacity and modern day common sense leaves the old sayings less palatable!

Should I say I'm just beating about the bush (no two meanings please!!), and think it's better to follow convention and stick to reticent brevity!! hah!

Well, this is my private space...on the blogosphere where I can go riling and ranting, with none other than my take on a certain 'insti' , my second home and bachelor's hell... no points for guessing, NIT Warangal....which happens to be so less publicised yet supposed to be among the best of colleges in the Country...he he, I remember my friend asking me..."So where is it you said you studied?....Wrangler?" 'Man!', I thought. 'Our college seems to get more publicity for a type of jeans than an institute striving for engineering excellence' ha!

Well, this blog will deal with what this college is not...and what it could be! That's it...couldn't think of any other better way to end this patch of sentences...the reader has got to get deal with my abruptness, and no apologies for that!

Ha Ha!