Friday, June 26, 2009

The Secret

There isn't one.

Please carry on with your uneventful life.

Is MJ Mary Jane?

Sunday, November 16, 2008

The Pursuit of Good Food

Before I begin:
I realised blogspot has absolutely no problem publishing that which shall never be published by any newspaper of any repute whatsoever, so here goes.
And v is i

Unlike most other institutes, at the IITs we are granted a semi-vacation in the winter. It’s long enough to have an awesome time, yet short enough to not involve oneself in useless activities such as internships, internships and internships of a technical nature in India. From the deepest bowels of ******, we bring to you some wacky ideas about what could keep you busy over this short and sweet holiday, ideas that smell nothing like where they came from; we’ve already sorted out the ideas that stink!

We don’t think about this often, but our friends at the place we study are naturally the largest (or atleast among the larger) subset(s) of our global set of the same. In our personal capacity we urge you to pursue whole-heartedly in December, what we are most deprived of within the hallowed boundaries of our institute. Erm... good food *wink wink*

It is imperative, now that we’ve put this thought into your unsuspecting minds, to provide some definitive tried-n-tested sources where you actually may get some. Broadly speaking, there are may be 4 to 5 categories or many more for that matter, but numbers are so passé.

Educational: Naturally, when in the pursuit of good food, one may occasionally feel guilty and would like to attach something meaningful as a secondary objective. What could be more enhancing than a short computer course or learn a new language? French food is supposedly awesome!

The winter’s also a good time to get back into the shape you were never in. So you could head to your nearest sports complex, work up a sweat playing squash, tennis or swimming. Working-out can immensely increase your appetite for food. While on physical activity, one can’t fail to mention trekking and adventure sports. Treks are the most inexpensive and legal way to lose yourself, plus they’re undeniably great fun especially when you take some delicious food along.

We are all aware at some level of our social responsibilities and though most of us don’t give much of a thought to giving back to the community, being involved in some form of social service is definitely something to be experienced. And as ironical as it may be, most organisations looking for volunteers do provide them with ample opportunity to feed themselves before those wiling volunteers head out to feed the poor. The satisfaction at the end of the day is overwhelming to say the least.

Then ofcourse, the winter break, is just that, a break from the busy schedules we never had, the quizzes we never gave, the reports we never made, etc. It’s time to also pursue those activities you always cherished and probably did the night before the exam you gave up upon. Lose money over poker, argue about nothing over Mafia, win fake money at Stock Exchange, Monopoly (AND lose it over poker) or tingle your artistic sense through some more fulfilling hobbies such as photography, music, art, literature or perhaps indulge in theatre at places like Prithvi and NCPA. (The Prithvi cafe by the way, serves great food!)

Or well, there’s no shame in ancestral work. Infact, ancestral work is a sure-shot way of getting good (sometimes free) food or atleast the scent of it; but the quality and quantity of which are many-a-times grossly over-exaggerated. But well someone has to organise the Treasure Hunt we’re going to win, right? So go ahead, work your hearts out for MI, Techfest, E-Cell.

On a side note; what most of us will eventually do is lukkha, it’s probably what we’ll do too, but only after we get some good food :P

PS: Do share your great food experiences after you get back!!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Once upon a time, in Kuala Lumpur

Here's a shorty, shorty.

It's Diwali in a week yeah... It's a nice festival this one. Like with most other festivals I'd be saying 'darn here it is again... frivolous exuberant displays of devotion... more discord to public harmony not to mention the goddamn dirt and pollution....' And yes, I know Diwali is ALL of those things, dhanteras is just an excuse to go buy that new car you wanted, and get this there's a small Diwali and BIG Diwali and there's no difference!
You're just supposed to eat sweets and burst crackers on both days. Then there's Bhaidooj, another opportunity for evil sisters to rob me of my money (wasn't it Raksha Bandhan like a week ago?? I still haven't recovered financially... It's a global crisis I hear.)

But it's still Diwali you know, it's like you're going to be let on to this big secret. It's pretty sweet - the anticipation. Never mind that in one of those look-at-me-I'm-so-brave moments a cracker blew up right in my face. Never mind that when I was a kid, an older kid took all my rockets as his own. Never mind that a Singapore Airlines plane was held up for 2 hours because my sleep's more precious to me than some country's flight schedule!

Oh the last one's about Diwali too yeah and it's a story worth telling for sure.

Precisely seven Diwalis ago, I'm sitting my ass in Malaysia. I still don't know what got into my parents for sending me on that school trip. What? Did they expect me to be responsible and not sneak out of our hotels at night? tch tch. But my various escapades in foreign lands shall need another blog and another one of your lifetimes. Hence, I shall briefly narrate the events the way they played out on that fateful Diwali and I guess that'll give you some insight about my tryst with my sleep. My sleep... my precious... we likes it don't we? my precioussss...

we'll have to stick with the time funda again. So well, in short, here goes:

13/11/2001
8 pm
Instruction: "OK everyone, let's call it a day, now everyone of you go off to sleep by 9.30 pm. Make sure you're packed and that there's nothing left behind. Everyone shall assemble in the lobby at 4.30 am. We leave at 5.15. There will be no noise in your rooms after 9.30 pm, now good night."

Yeah... rite.

13/11/2001
10.30 pm
Instruction: previous one still holds, but we didn't give a fuck now did we?

Well, our flight was at 7.20 am, so we never really got what all the fuss was about. (we were in the 8th grade, immigration was too long a word for us back then)

We're all packed and pretty bored at around 10 pm. Once the 'check' were done with... Oh yeah, they 'checked' to see if we've slept or not, apparently if your door is knocked upon and you're not asleep, you'll open it and then you'll get caught - not sleeping.
But we worked around that brilliant scheme somehow, and 10.30 types we sneak away to the restaurant, and then the buffets free for guests, so we uhm... dug in.

14/11/2001
1 am
Instruction: seriously????

We're quite full, as anyone would be after a delightful and free midnight buffet.We decide to now call it a night and probably go sleep. In most hotels abroad you can only enter a room if you have the access card, which you need to swipe on the door. But due to a sudden sense of insecurity we decide that the entry cards arent good enough for us and manually latch the door. We thus felt safe from any attack by some random Malaysian Kung-fu fighter and slept like street dogs with full stomachs should. I know what your'e thinking.... Malaysian Kung-fu fighters can easily break down doors, but hey! eighth grade!

14/11/2001
3.45am types
Instruction: "Hello, hello... Shobhit?? this is a wake-up call, you're the only one whose picked the phone up on your floor, get ready quick and make sure you get everyone else too"

Now here's the thing about me:
As a lot of my friends would know, it isn't very difficult - waking me up. But getting me out of bed, especially when I don't want to (and I hardly ever want to) is pretty much impossible. And the best part is, that people who try to wake me up are thrown off gaurd by my sudden display of alertness. In the words of a friend, it's like some arbit African tribe, they're pretty much war-ready when woken up even from the deepest slumbers, I don't like the analogy much either, but it's all I have.

So it's no surprise that by the end of our conversation, this teacher of mine thinks I've been awake from the past half n hour doing my dailies, whereas yours truly was back asleep before she thought any of those things.

14/11/2001
6.00 am

Instruction: "OPEN THIS FUCKING DOOR!!!!"

I dunno if I really heard the f word. I was very sleepy. That alert-from-sleep thing hadn't been perfected then, I had no idea what was happening. I could hear accented voices,"We can't do anything with the spare access cards, Sir, the door is latched from the inside." I must admit, at that point I felt sooooo smug :D
But admidst the smelly smugness, that African war-ready thing took over and I had opened the door, blocked out all the shouting from my Principal, kicked my roommate off his bed, brushed my teeth put on some better clothes all in the span of some 15 odd seconds. I think this must've astonished even my Principal for he didnt really say anything as I escaped with all my luggage, discreetly. Meanwhile, in the red zone while I made a hasty exit my roommate was just lumbering off the floor shouting,"what the fuck! what the fuck!", and I don't know what happened after but that's when my roommate took one for the... uhm... team.

6.12 types I'm in the lobby with the rest of the pack. I'm getting the 'look' from them all. But my dear friend, who'd just minutes taken a bullet for the 'team' walked in with baggage n all at 6.30, visibly having gotten his hackles up. He was now the proud reciever of the 'look' Let's just say, he took another one for the team.

Now our trip co-ordinator is in fits!! He was like one of those characters you see in a play whose sole pupose is to make you feel good about your life. He's always picked upon, things always go wrong, his boss fires him, you get the drift. His rant's never stopped, "Oh no, after we encounter peak traffic time after 6 am!!!! There will be a increased rush in the airport too!!! There is no way we can reach the airport before 7.15"

Figures he was right about all of those things. Now if you've been to the airport ever, you know there's no way that a 100 people can make it from entry point to boarding gate within 5 minutes. A logistical impossiblity! But we're trying anyway, you know. "Let's just get in, we'll take another flight if possible."

14/11/2001
7.20 am

Instruction: no time for any

Any time now we're expecting our flight to take-off without us, while we're still in line for baggage check. We havent even checked in yet and time flies to 7.30 and then 7.40 and the flight's still there, I mean they just keep increasing the boarding time by 10 minutes everytime the deadline is reached!
But as soon as the very first one of us reached the security desk, the lady curtly informed us that we were expected more than an hour ago and she must've triggered of some alarm system 'cause minutes later the head steward from the plane was stomping towards our Principal visibly pissed. "We've had to delay the plane because of you! People have important meetings to attend to, places to be....." And so on...

Apparently the plane was a 100-seater and there were exactly 97 of us, now charter planes can't really fly off without the charterer, can they? :P

To top it all off, the Captain comes to meet us, all smiles and all. "Ah thank goodness you guys are late, I don't think I could've flown that thing without some more sleep. Relax, it's Diwali, no meetings to attend, no places to be!" This guy was the definition of cool....

Mister Steward is red in the face. We got onto our plane just fine. It took of at 9.15am. Did not crash mid-air as feared by some of our teachers (everytime there was turbulence, they went "oh god no oh god no oh god no1") But best of all, my twice-wounded friend and myself came out as the heroes of a tale worth telling!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Crossing the Line

I hated lines. I always did. I still do. They're just so straight. Not that I mind straight ofcourse, I mean, hey, I am good with straight men, attracted to straight women and even more so to curvy ones.

As you've probably figured out, the straightness of lines isn't what this blog entry is about, I was just beating around the bush and I am not ashamed of it. The last time I found a discarded first edition "Penthouse"! Have you any idea how much that's worth????????

3 bottles of lotion.

2 bottles a few days in advance ofcourse and 1 on delivery just for good measure. Just in case I had more luck beating around the bush.

Apologies, this wasn't meant to conjure up images in your head, but I guess it did and now that you have been scarred for life, we'll move on.

So I get up at 9 am for the class at 9.30 , and obviously I've gotten up too early, so I go back to sleep. I then wake up at 9.10, decide there's still time, then 9.15 ... 9.22. On a good day - 9.22, on most days 9.33 and then the same mad rush to make it in time i.e. before attendance. A frantic search for any change lying around ensues, I could get lucky and get a rick.

I have pretty much the same schedule for the afternoon class. Having slept at whatever time, I get up at 3, 310, 3.15, 3.22... [This Prof. is strict about timing so it's either 3.22 or 'class ditch', thus more often than not 'class ditch']

But yesterday I got up at 3.25. And I did not find a rick. This I think was the first real effort I put in all sem, I ran to class. Well, a few [42] feet away from class, by means of a hushed call from a dear friend I learnt of the early attendance.
Mission Objectives Update: return to room. drink beer. brood.

Well I wasn't going to ruin TWO missions in one day so those precisely are the things I did.

It struck me sometime, that I've missed a class too many in this particular course and having crossed the proverbial line I was now entitled to an XX. [applause] Well, been here done that, only this time... let's just say this isn't one of those things you get better at with practice. And I've had a little too much of practice.

I've been asked many times 'where do I draw the line'. That's always felt odd, 'cause I never drew one. I've hated lines, you get that, yes? But if, I were to now draw a line, I'd be way across it, on the wrong end. And that makes me wonder, I think I was always on the this side of the imaginary line... [If you're thinking jokes on II and III quadrants, die nerd!]

They say the grass just seems greener on the other side, so I guess I'd be wise to stay put for a while.

(sigh) subway enthu anyone?

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Rail-trip

We go out all the time don't we? but yesterday evening was inadvertently conclusive. It is imperative to follow the set of inconsequential events that led to these seemingly unrelated conclusions.

7/10/07 18:03 - at the basin
a distrait me in the middle of a shave receives a call from an excited saurav to hurry to kanjurmarg coz he, baban n jd were going to meet some random friend of jd's who was getting some more random friend's of hers to meet them. my disinterest in all the collective randomness elicited a sharper response from him emphasizing that they were female friends. that my 3 gud friends agreed to w8 at the station for the 30 minutes which i conveniently stretched to 50, is a mark of true friendship.

Conclusion 1:
"When you claim to have left the hostel, you are actually taking a bath (or some equivalent ritual) or still in deep sleep."

7/10/07 18:53 - at the station
after exchanging friendlies, mostly verbal abuse also known as friendly fire in certain parts of India, and family fire in the Zulu tribe, we trudged along to the platform, a feat that involved ascending AND descending some 73 odd steps. God knows we waited for a good 15 minutes for the train... (sigh)

Conclusion 2:
"It is only when the train arrives that you realise you haven't bought tickets."

7/10/07 19:20 - in the train
well belive it or not we were thinking about murphy's laws n all... so for no particular reason we started imagining the worst possible scenario...
to quote a random serd in our company:
"abhe jyada se jyada, woh akele aayegi!"
(Translation: "I am an ass")

somewhere in the conversation the disinterested part of me - still unimpressed by the collective randomness- states that, "guys, we leave if i get bored... (yawn....)"

Conclusion 3:
"Casual experessions by shobhit (me) can be assumed to be on the R.H.S - right hand side."

Corollary: (mostly dependent on the meaning of the word 'left')
"All remaining
statements obviously belong to the L.H.S - left hand side."

Exception:
"Any expression by
jd can be assumed to be on the W.H.S - wrong hand side."


(will not write date hereon) 20:20 - ground zero
so we reach marine drive huh... surprise surprise!!

Conclusion 4:
"Superlative is surely NOT the highest degree coz there is always a case worse than the worst possible case."

** Is this it for the fantastic 3+1? could there really be a case worse than the worst?? is the author of this blog a lying sob??? did anyone push jd into the sea????
Stay tuned for the next post at divinusinterponus.blogspot.com!!
**

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Suicidal instincts??

this one i'll keep short and mebbe even too the point if tht ever COULD be...

been in iit for a year now... iitb-suicide not exactly something out of the unknown... heard a random report before enrolling at iit, and was actually confronted by one after coming here. Srilu as he was known - i later found out - committed suicide in IITB on one very average normal day, another day to get on with for most iitians... just tht it wasnt to be... for many tht day turned out to be one they would never forget, for almost all others even remotely related, the date perhaps was lost, but the event forever etched in memory.

i won't bother with niceties like "may his soul r.i.p." or other euphemisms coz i simply do NOT believe in them... but i mean not any offense, so assume them if u may.

anyways... i thought of srilu out of the blue coz incidentally the room once occupied by srilu- was now allotted to a friend of mine... oh yeah... iitb can obv NOT make it a memorial, i mean cmon they've got to take in an additional 300 students man... so PUH-lease do not be taken aback by this... im just giving u the rational point of few...

i admit tht i in past, have been insensitive to those who have commited suicide. i infact made quite a few jokes with and on this friend who now occupies tht room.

i firmly believed suicide was for cowards. i thought srilu was a coward. i was wrong.

i for one cannot commit suicide even if i really wanted to.

explanation in order eh? why do u live?? coz u have a purpose. simple. there IS no other reason...
actually there is... we'll get to it... but it's really rare n for most ppl it stops at the first reason itself.

now imagine being stripped of ur purpose... haha u cant... i know u cant... dont try to fool urself thinking u can actually imagine... coz the pain of actually imagining it, is indeed next to the real thing. but i did imagine though. n i cried when i did.

with no purpose, irrationality takes a whole diff perspective altogether...
the only purposes i so cling to are the ones wherein i love the ppl who are close to me, too much... i'm not brave...oh no... i'd rather NOT bother with alien concepts like bravery.. im just trying to survive...

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Infinity n Beyond

firstly... this isn't a sermon... it just IS... there are gonna be loads of typos alot of "..." and some more typos...

the idea of caps never appealed to me either... so on that note my dear friends, well-wishers, ex-cons and mrs. smith we start off !!

divinus interponus - divine intervention... is in stark contradiction to evrything i blv in... and i dont believe in a lot of things mind u. Then why IS it my blog title so to say?? well simply because i think it's cool. tht's it, no other reason.

now tht we've got tht out of the way. this blog isnt about me, rather -inevitably- about things "about" me. with the preposition about used in the more general sense of it.

i dislike a lot of things about iit. period.

tht's alot said in just one sentence. i shan't say more (mebbe later though) coz then i'll be just another cribbing bitch tht im quite positive im not.

there are things i like about myself. im obstinate i think, flexible with ideas, make tht very and speaking of ideas - i have a whole host of ideas about anything and everything. and frm general discussions with diverse sects of ppl i find my ideas both valid and reasonable. my reasoning is something im proud of. tht apart, there's one thing about me, my first impression on ppl when im being myself or let me put it this way- playing the act of my normal self- is generall not the kind id percieve to be rite. i many a times come across as egoistic, selfcentered, and THIS one i hate the most - over-smart!!! the word's extremely cheesy and it has all the wrong letters...

anyways gotta sleep more later...

So here's the deal... i'm continuing this one after what 2-3 days... n i dont recall shit abt wat i've written above... n honestly... i dont give a fuck...

So enter Sophomore year IIT Bombay... alot of ppl wud giv a lot to be in my shoes right now and i say tht without any sense of pride or vanity for tht matter...
coz i do NOT envy myself my life or anything about me.
I have this nagging habit of being dissatisfied with myself about anything and evrything i do and contrary wat u may have been led to believe more than often its quite justly so... im doin nothing gr8 im just trying and thts as hollow as it gets... i dont personify uber-cool... i do things in bits and pieces and at the end of the day i can't make ppl tht matter to me happy.

So i say to myself wat IS wrong with being self-involved, self-centered, and even selfish... just that they're socially less acceptable?? preached to nursery kids as a "bad quality" by a society tht in itself exists for the sole purpose of upholding itself and its influence over the very ppl who're living lives tht aren't really theres and call themselves "free"...

i did say i dont believe in alot of things... well i believe im going to hell and i do not believe u when u say thts a bad place...