Potpourri

The Beggar

2009-07-07T23:13:00.000-07:00

A man is standing in front of me. He's handicapped. His left leg is missing below his knee. He gestures with his hand asking for money. I ignore him. The old man next to me gives him a coin. The beggar says "Have a safe journey". Before walking away , he looks at the book lying next to me titled Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy and tells me "I read that book twenty years ago, there's a sequel to it."

I'm speechless. He's gone.

I share my puzzlement with the people around me. I don't understand. I can't stand it. I wear my shoes and go after him. I find him limping two bogies away from mine. I accost him saying "Excuse me". He makes way for me. I wait until he turns around and sees me.

He's wearing a clean shirt. I notice his trimmed salt and pepper beard. I put him at mid forties.

I say, "I'm sorry but I don't understand why you beg".
He replies with a grim face, "Things are very bad right now, it'll be better soon".

I say, "But you can work, why are you begging?"
As polite as it sounded in my head, I see anger flash across his face momentarily.
He says, "I've seen a lot more of life than you have, this is only a temporary thing. There's nothing else for me to do. I've become paranoid$."

A pause ensues. The wheels pass over the rail joints making that rhythm typical of Indian trains.

"That's a funny book", he says.
"I've heard about it"said I.

He pats me on my shoulder saying "Thank you for your concern" and walks away.

I'm back in my place. I can't stop thinking about it. As the train starts moving I see him on the platform. I can't make out the expression on his face. He's gone.

I should not forget this encounter. It's important that I remember it. There's nothing else I can do.

- S5 Hussain Sagar Express 12th June '09, Mumbai CST.

Yin and Yang :P

2007-06-24T02:21:00.000-07:00

The iPhone

2007-06-20T23:13:00.000-07:00

After my 12 $ Indian lunch ( I dont have this everyday ob),I was roaming around in the Suntec city mall,next to my workplace Suntec Tower One, and I approach the guy at the ipod counter in one the stores, Carrefour.

Well I knew it'll be released next yr but just wanted to ask him for the heck of it

I ask the guy ..."So whens the iPhone releasing in Singapore?"

Guy: "The what?? U mean iPod? ( Trying to convince me that I meant iPod) "

P: "ummm...The iPhone" ( I started having my doubts now)

Guy: "No lah..never heard of it..what is it?"

P: "Well its this...."

and i spent like 10 min telling him in detail all the features of the iPhone and at the end I tell him its releasing in US next week....and he gives me this look.. {uh huh and where do u think u are??}

After having exhausted all my googling knowledge on him..

P: "So it will release here next yr then"

Guy: "Why did u ask me in the first place?... Is there anything else i can assist you with?"

P: "No I just came to enquire about the iPhone..sorry"

Quick exit

Chk out this Blog

2007-06-19T19:46:00.000-07:00

"Student: Sir, the firm's specialty has always been corporate law. They should cut down on litigation and eventually concentrate just on corporate customers.

Sir: What would happen if the corporate customer requires litigators?

Student: Sir, the company could probably refer the case to a firm with whom the company has friendly relationships.

Sir: Wonderful. If you have a beautiful girlfriend, would you go around introducing her to all your friends?"

Source:http://sleepless-in-iima.blogspot.com/2005/07/you-sure-you-wanna-raise-your-hand.html

Chk out the blog .... Its absolutely hilarious

Long time no post

2007-06-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

I've been out a lot .. taking pictures..videos.. i really love photography and thats one of few things i give my full atention to while im at it. I'll be uploading a few videos too and link them on this page itself ( Look top left ) but will keep only 5 of the latest or fav ones..In these three weeks ive had chinese, thai and a bit of japanese.. im yet to have japanese sushi nd korean .. and of course Durian, the king of fruits, atleast thats what the locals tell me.. do correct me if im wrong but isnt mango the king of fruits.. i mean thats what they told us right. Will update soon on my durian adventure :P..

2007-06-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

Couldn't resist uploading this :)

A sign of wealth and flourish

2007-06-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

The blooming orchid on the one Sing Dollar coin and the ripe ear of maize on the 1 Indian Rupee coin ,both represent a shift in economic prosperity.

Simply put

2007-06-05T05:08:00.000-07:00

Life is about creating yourself
~ George Bernard Shaw

A very fine city

2007-06-02T08:51:00.000-07:00

Ok the funda of this drink is that ull not know what is in it until u drink it ..
its randomly filled with various flavours so it can be anything.. yeah retarted i know but an eyecatcher nonetheless

chk out the ads in media section www.anything.com.sg/

A place not so far away

2007-06-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

Way too clean streets...Shopaholic city...Excellent civic sense...Dangerously short skirts...Welcome to Singapore :P

First couple of days were tough.. It's not advisable to experiment with food unless u have a very tolerable stomach.btw spicy thai is really very spicy. Electronic goods are reasonably cheap. if u go to little india to buy anything be prepared to use ur indian bargaining skills other wise u'll surely get ripped. Havent been out site seeing yet. Plan to go out this weekend so will upload some better pics then..right now its just roads and flyovers :).

my first surgery!

2007-05-14T10:08:00.000-07:00

well i had this wierd appendicitis, rare actually..which is why it was diagnosed so late.My surgery was in this asian institute of gastroenterology ..ok now the good part.
I was admitted on 11th morn and was getting bored watching tv reading my forsyth till about 12 i guess.since then i was taking liquids, soup and juices mostly, till 5 and then they gave something to clear my intestines ..let your imagination free and guess what its purpose was cuz its too gross to be written abt.after that a nurse puts an iv (an inch long plastic needle inserted in your vein, doesnt pain much unless you twist you hand) and i am on saline since then. the saline has remarkably just enough sugar to keep you from getting hungry and you still feel dizzy n weak.so that was till 10 next morn.then they take me to the anaesthetics room and leave me there for an hr . im lying there all ready to get operated and wondering why it was taking so long.
next they make me sign a form allowing them to cut me open and i see my parents and bro before surgery..
then they put some head gear and some thing to cover my feet. Enter OT III. i see these enormous lamps (dunno what else to call them, hardly table lights for crying out loud) and there are lots of other equipment lying around filling the place up pretty well.the doc comes in and starts asking gen stuff.what do u do ..where r u from n all.then with my hands and chest hooked up to the surrounding machines he says "i am going to put you to sleep" and the 5 sec drowsiness was so good ...heavy eyelids buzz in you head and blackout.next thing i remember i wake up with the attendents removing the probes and i feel this pain in my abdomen and i know it is over.they transfer me to another bed and man the pain was excruciating.
im in the icu next.Icu's are boring! most of the nurses are from kerala..dunno why..so anyway they were pretty friendly n all and no i didnt have enough energy to flirt with them :). i fall into a short spell of deep sleep and im dreaming of having solid food.that was how much i craved eating something solid.so next day they shift me back to my room and anand and sashank,iit frnds, were there.thanx for coming guys. i didnt realise then that it was so painful to laugh!so im dishcarged in the evening and home ridden for 4 days which explains the horrendous amount of detail i've put in this post :)
thats pretty much it ..was a unique experience ,one which i would gladly not undergo again but the pain isnt much compared to the relief u feel knowing your problem is finally over and this is a permanent solution to it.
ciao

its good to be home again :)

2007-05-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

waking up in the morning and lazing around till ur hungry

getting up and finding breakfast right in the next room

lazily enjoying a book with a hot cup of tea

talking on the phone for hours without a care in the world

no more desperate hunts for lunch

walking out to a calm and peaceful city

meeting up with old friends at the usual haunts

watching movies on the theatre and not on lan (hard on the cash though :( )

cappuccino cappuccino cappuccino !!!

will miss you guys though . enjoy ur pt's

ciao!

I

2007-04-22T06:11:00.000-07:00

Insightful questions are answered by metaphors..signs which we notice in our lives and once we start noticing them they're hard to shake off as coincidences..metaphors turn to insight into opinions into patterns of behaviour.In this one person cycle of biased learning how much importance do we give to these signs? maybe metaphors are the language of the brain. maybe recognition of a pattern is actually a pattern of electric signals running through synapses.an epiphany a surge of certain chemicals maybe..maybe..maybe.But when does conjecture turn to belief turn to one of those things we take for granted. with billions of brain cells dying and new ones replacing them everyday are we same person as yesterday..is our identity stored somewhere in our brain never to be changed..but the brain does change ..we change according to our changing priorities ..changing beliefs and changing environment..every thought and action we take biases us and we will most likely think that way and thus our biased brains optimizes.Do we stop growing at some point and just start changing .. adapting to our environment our friends our job our lifestyle.To a person who worships Ayn Rand this definitely is blasphemy but I cant help it.. If i ever find a hint of gold i will not rest untill the treasure is unearthed or im left with raw hands and a piece of shiny paper,metaphorically speaking of course. Thats just who I am.

My discussions on most topics turn to debates ..probably because i believe debates bring out two biased opinions and hopefully the truth will stick out when they are pitted against each other.. its so much better than both agreeing to the same thing everytime..but maybe this way of thinking always looks for contradictions even within oneself..after all the way we think reflects in the way we behave and therefore the way we act with other people must consequently reflect in the way we think.if say hypothetically the very romantic idea of two people stranded on an island were infact to happen then given time my guess is they would intially bitch there hearts out but if they ever got off the island they would behave more similarly with other people than ever before.

Is that what they mean when they say ur an iitian . is iit after all a factory where given a certain study environment you are a product which has the required properties.Can one then actually justify generalising people.Do universities we study in.. the people we meet..jobs we do...the accents we pick up..the food habits we change..the clothes we wear all factor in some how to affect our personality and if they do then do we really have a unique identity or is it just a function of some designed and some random events being beaten into shape by an ever changing hammer of events in the forge of our minds.

Maybe I am over reacting to this realisation of loss in uniqueness.Is uniqueness over rated? As always whenever in doubt i turn to the genome. Given that a bushman of the kalahari desert and I have 99.9% of the genome in common should i expect a totally distinct personality.What i mean is that maybe we're just aware of a very small part of ourselves and thats what we call consciousness. Because this is the only measure of individuality it is given a lot weightage and it could be undue. Is the common factor the basis of so called co dependant harmony in nature each plant and animal fitting into the ecological cycle like they we just made for each other.man is the only animal who ever had a problem with defining himself.What would happen if man evolved to this being who could converse with his brain like he did with his fellow man.Is this process already underway or is it just a fantasy.

I gave my life to become the person I am right now. Was it worth it?
One, Richard Bach

Vassili Zaitsev

2007-04-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

During the frigid winter atop the ural mountains hidden by snow clad trees, a lone wolf catches the scent of a horse.
Two men are lying close to the ground,their heads barely visible.
The young boy whispers
I am a stone
I do not move
very slowly I put snow in my mouth .. then he wont see my breath.
The wolf sees a horse tethered in the open restlessly whining.
I take my time..I let him come closer I have only one bullet..
I aim at his eye very gently..my finger presses on the trigger
The wolf starts running towards its helpless prey.
his hand starts trembling
The old man speaks
I do not tremble..I have no fear ..I am a big boy now.
The horse, mad with fear, is neighing wildly.
Ready Vassili...NOW Vassili FIRE..FIRE Vassili..FIRE.

Vassili Zaitsev,1047th rifle regiment of the Red Army
A sniper who played a key role against Nazi Germany in the battle of Stalingrad
quoted from the movie 'Enemy at the gates'.

Freedom from fear

2007-04-14T19:37:00.000-07:00

"It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it."

- Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese Freedom Fighter
Placed under house arrest first on June 20th 1989. Awarded the nobel peace prize in 1991. Currently under house arrest

quoted from the speech "Freedom from fear"

Two's a company Three's a crowd

2007-04-05T07:41:00.000-07:00

Of late i have become this hermit of sorts...I detach myself from whatever is going around me in order to gain insight into myself. I like this blissfully ignorant state where my priority is myself but only till there where it doesnt involve others.I have become an island unto myself.I like this place..i am the 3rd person, an observer observing my friends, my life, the world around me..never taking part in conversations ..only observing.Initially they think i'm having an off day or something.then i come off out downright rude.

Sometimes though inaction affects more profoundly than direct action.People form wrong opinions about you and act on it and if you dont correct them, sometimes even if you do, u find yourself in a very uncomfortable place where you have been judged as a person you are not.No matter.. i don't care about public opinion..but the fact remains man is a social animal and must interact with those around him..So i come out of this hibernation and start actively participating.as time wears on i notice i start laughing talking and behaving like the people in my group..i start having a group mentality and lose individuality..That is bound to happen given that i am with them like 15 hrs a day.After sometime i feel disgusted with myself and go back into my shell.

I tried this out lately and it was a better solution.i talked to every person im my group ,but individualy. It was so much better. Your thoughts are you own and you dont end up discussing the current 'popular' topics .Reverting back to group mentality .. because you end up discussing the current popular topics ll the time ..u prioritize them and tend to lose perspective, focusing only on them..but this problem of losing perspective would exist even if i talked to one person at a time..My priorities would keep changing everytime ..same so if i had conversations only with myself and blocked everything else out.
During Jee prep i used to listen to eminem and linkin park 24 hrs a day. i had this walkman and used to listen to the same cassette over and over again and believe me when i say i used to derive a lot of insight from them. Point is sit in a dark room long enough and ull start seeing familiar things and u start thinking what they might imply.

The hawk roosting atop the tallest tree in the forest sees all but the moment it swoops down focusing on its singular prey its lost perspective.

The Beginning

2007-04-01T06:54:00.000-07:00

Stop thinking so much

This is something i've been told so very often. I never gave it much thought until I realised why I started "thinking" in the first place. It was due to a contradiction of a certain belief.This was post 9/11 when i first started doubting the existance of destiny and karma. I wish I could have found some logical and unchanging rule i could hold on to and try to reason out what was happening .It was a futile attempt and then godhra happened. Numbers were meaningless at this point and then i remembered the world wars.

I have been scared before. Scared of failing in the exams and consequently getting scolded, scared of approaching a beautiful girl or calling her up for the first time or scared of not being accepted by my friends. But this time it was different.My heart wasn't racing wildly, I wasnt sweating profusely nor did I feel remorseful or dejected . Atleast then I knew why I was afraid and I could find a solution for it. I could find no answer to why people die (except of old age) and that led to - Is there a purpose in one's life.From that point on I had to find out answers to whether god existed, what is ,if there is, the purpose in life and then speculate on after life.

I was afraid of not existing or rather ceasing to exist. My search gave my some answers which always led to more questions. The path I have taken has led me to search for these answers in the genome.Why Dna? I have always been fascinated with biology and the mechanisms which help us live. I believe this is where my answer should lie.