Happy Republic Day

Sixty years have passed since the day we became a republic and I as a citizen don’t even understand what India as a republic stands for ! Stories of cultural and regional conflicts are so commonplace that all the great things that I studied about my country viz integrity, unity in diversity all seems a passing fad.
Every now and then a Raj Thakrey sticks his head out of his shell and tries to terrorize this integrity and unity which the architects of Indian constitution would have took pride in. I am sure gandhiji would have gone on a fast to protest the mute acceptance of this terrorism on part of the state and the central government. But another thing that I am further sure of is that even then our respected leaders wouldn’t have yielded. And why should they care ? After all even gandhiji would have casted just one vote in the election, on the other hand they have the whole marathi bastion to please by letting all the Raj Thakreys do their deeds.

Could anybody explain me how does it matter if I call Maharashtra’s capital Bombay or Mumbai, why do we see protests on such meagre issues ! Sometimes I really wonder if  it’s all real. It’s difficult for me to digest that I am hurting the local people’s sentiments by calling Mumbai Bombay, more so when the latter is more famous name among the masses.

Every passing day a republic should have strengthened its basics, but it seems we Indians have switched to reverse gear where all the great work done by our revered leaders is  being undone by goons like the one I mentioned.

Here as I am looking at he map of India in front of me, I am trying to imagine how the map would look like if we don’t stop these terrorists and believe me I am even scared of imagining it.

I have no idea how this article should have been finished because I don’t even know what we as a citizen need to do ?  I feel it’s not just my perception that matters here. So here I prop this question up to you to see how you want it to be written off.

happy republic day

jai hind.

Let your logic prevail

Lets just talk about architecture today, I always wonder how superstructures like Hagia Sophia, Pantheon, Pyramids and many others that are worth a mention were built. Looking at the morphogenesis of human civilization, one would find that machines have been in use only since the past 200 years or so and the time period during which these structures were built is much before the aforesaid period. These comparisons just questions my logic.

Now have a look at this scene;  some architects are working in an office in Delhi, India. Power goes off and every employee takes a deep breath and thinks, at least now we are free until the power is resumed.

Somewhere in another office at Gurgaon, India; a trainee architect who wasn’t that interested in working starts exploring software like google sketchup and autodesk revitt just for fun, somebody from behind comments learn autoCAD first.

Showing you these two scenes the question I want to put up is, are we really that dependent on tools like software to build some structure ? Maybe yes we are, but then again I think these are just tools why are we letting them overtake our logic. Our ancestors have built without them and produced excellent results.

I don’t deny the fact that we can’t do without them today but I only get concerned when I see young architects talking and pondering more over these virtual tools than the actual thing. Why is it that we become so complacent after making a detail on computer that we don’t even bother to look at it when it is actually executed on site ? And only after some days if we happen to pass by that site the ‘Oh !’ expression suddenly appears on your face.

On the other hand when I look at works of somebody like Laurie Baker for example, I wonder at the ingenuity of the man. I know that everyone cannot be a Laurie Baker (money is such a trouble maker !). But at least we can try for our logic not being overtaken by anything.

Why do I contempelate !

Yet again I am at the peril of this affair. It has never worked the way I wanted it. Time and again I am haunted by the thoughts of my failure in numerous aspects. Sometimes I feel like yelling and crying my heart out, but I guess the luxury isn’t available to me. Everything seems so screwed up that I wonder if it’s really me at the center this time. Halcyon days are gone long ago, now is the time for this turmoil. Every little cause for being happy seems to have been lost. I do laugh even now but that’s when I get frustrated.  Seeing people happy around, I feel as if I am in an alien world. All the enthusiasm seems to be gone and spirit dead. It seems as if I am remembering some fairy tale when I think of my college days.

People so often say that there will be a sunrise after all the darkness, but it seems as if I am living on poles. I am desperately hoping for a ray that would glow up this darkroom.  I hope for some excitement but at the same time a quote that i read some where flashes in front of my eyes

life in the saddle will teach you one thing, it must be more fun in hell than alive.

A trip to the queen of hills

It was an idle Friday the day I boarded a bus from Noida to Gurgaon and while i was about to enter gurgaon, a very strange nostalgic feeling was creeping somewhere deep inside me and as i recall it, i must say what an irony ! Earlier when I lived there i used to look for reasons to run out of Gurgaon, and now going to gurgaon was as if i was going back home. After getting together in gurgaon a band of three boys started their destiny ride ( lets hope my calling it a destiny ride comes true ) to Shimla. As we reached ISBT to our luck ( prerogative this is one of the most talked about words between us for the past few months and ofcourse not to mention of that crap movie luck) we found a volvo bus to Chandigarh as if waiting for us. It was a smooth ride to Chandigarh and after reaching there we managed to get maggi at an eatery and then westarted for Shimla from there. Now the worst part I and Abhinav were on a seat just above the front tyre. I cannot express the pain we went through the journey; to make an attempt i would like to share a conversation between me and Abhinav. Abhinav- Have u watched DCH ? And I was wondering where the hell did this question arise from suddenly. The next moment as i said yes, I got the answer he said ” I need to get that pillow on which Saif sat afrter returning from Goa”. It was nearly mid night when we reached to the “queen of hills”. As we managed to get to the guest house booked for us we found that there was no one to show us the way to the rooms booked for us and by that time i was literally shivering outside the guest house. After some time an old man came and showed us the way to the room which was on the top floor of the building it was nearly ten past twelve in the midnight by the time we entered the room. As the date changed it was then that our luck started smiling pretty on us. What a night it was, weather was so pleasant and one could have easily felt the knocking of winter. After a very god sleep and having tea in the morning we left the room which was actually booked for Rs. 80 against the prevailing charges of Rs. 1000 a room for that night. ( you are definitely thinking of becoming a sarkaari  daamad now. Aren’t you ?).

Morning was a beautiful as the night we just preferred to walk to HP university. And while we were walking to our destination we felt why Shimla is called the queen of hills. Walking besides the gorge on a narrow road and feeling the morning was such an unforgettable moment for us. After writing our exam we reached Shimla bus station where almost all the buses were leaving jam packed. Then as we got on to a jam packed bus the conductor asked a family sitting by on a seat where they wanted to go and as the family answered ‘ to solan’ the conductor politely requested them to deboard the bus. The whole episode looked as if the moment conductor saw us he said to the family, please leave the league of extraordinary gentlemen is here ( if that wasn’t too much !).  All three of us were in laughter instantaneously. And as we boarded the bus Abhinav showed his concern on the possibility o missing the train which was scheduled to leave at 1650 hrs from Kalka (Did I already mention it ?). But that was the moment when Hemendra said we need not worry luck is smiling pretty on us, and then towards the end of our journey we realized indeed it was smiling pretty on us.  Somehow we managed to reach station on time and it was about half n hour for the train to leave.

P.s. – Guys don’t read this story ‘coz as i am writing even i am getting bored of the narration what’s the point in wasting your time. So sorry from my side i am leaving it incomplete.

You may say I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one.

I was a confused guy, the time I came for my internship here in Gurgaon. Lots of things were running through my head, whether to continue it or to take a break from all this stuff and pursue my dreams. Dreams ! What are they ? Are they just a series of images, ideas, emotion and sensation occurring involuntarily during certain stages of sleep or a condition or an achievement longed for. In whatever way one describes them they certainly are associated with ones past. Take me for example, I scored ok during my school as a result of which I started my JEE preparation as is the case with most of the boys. Those who scored good marks run into a blind race of  IIT JEE and then what ? Having spent almost five years in IIT Roorkee I started dreaming big; big about my life, big about my career but now here I am without a job from campus and doing my internship which I thought I would never do. Actually I was quite prepared for the halcyon days awaiting me after my academics, which never turned up.

Now after all this it seems my dreams have changed their attire and even they frighten me of the reality. They say one should live in present and forget past and future, this is exactly what I am doing now. For the time being I am living only in present, I don’t dream anymore. So is that it ? I don’t know. Last six months I have been ridiculed by fate many a times, so much so that fate seems a bete noire to me.

This morning while I was reading newspaper I came across this editorial titled ‘Blowing cold, blowing hot’ where in it I read about ‘Martin Fleischmann’ & ‘Stanely Pons’ and their cold fusion theory, well theory itself is irrelevant to the context I am talking in but what is worth mentioning is that these guys started their experiments with Cd/D2O combination in 1989 and they got some results. Now these guys started dreaming big about the energy possibilities they saw in their experiment. But after many more scientists tested the relevance of their research they found it to be uninteresting. As I imagine myself in their situation I must say my dreams would have been shattered. Anyone with an ordinary will power might have given up their experiment but that was not the case to be, instead their dreams became bigger and they started gathering more resources to support their research. And since 1989 they are working to turn their dream of alternate energy resource to a reality. That’s why it is said some men are made of different ground.

Will power is the ingredient that is required with dreams to make the recipe of success, though it may take some time to cook.

Coming across such examples it is inevitable that those who possess a strong will power never give up there dreams. And presently I am searching for the same in me and who knows may be tomorrow I start dreaming again.

Expectations

Did you ever wonder when is the right time to decide what one wants to do in his life, Baz Luhrmann says “Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.” Even though my heart says to subscribe what Luhrmann says but it really doesn’t make any sense. Because the most successful persons I know always knew what they wanted to do with their lives be it Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Sachin Tendulkar or for that matter Howard Roark all of them knew from their childhood what they would do with their lives. When it comes to me I find myself still puzzled what exactly I want with my life or maybe what life wants from me ? And while brainstorming over this issue I find that expectations are the real roots to this dilemma. Expectations of parents, friends and society make me handicap when it comes to pursuing my dreams. I belive “expectations lead to disappointment”, disappointment to both the parties involved and probably expectation is the real reason for people in our country chasing someone else’s dreams rather than his own. Maybe a day will come when people will stop expecting things from others and then probably everyone will be a Warren Buffett.

Rahul Dravid Vs Rohit Sharma

Whenever we watch Cricket we hear our commentators talk a lot about technique and class of a batsman and if somone like Rahul Dravid is playing they go ga ga about his techinque but truely speaking I get irritated when players like Dravid play a beautiful ondrive or for that matter any shot and it lands straight in the hands of a fielder and if its 20 – 20 format then you can ofcourse feel the frustation. One more thing that I feel is 20 – 20 cricket will ultimate replace ODI cricket in the same way as ODI cricket has replaced Test cricket and then probably every good batsman will have to be good at improvisation apart from good technique, that is where players like Rohit Sharma go far ahead from the likes of Rahul Dravid. Sharma similar to Dravid is a technically sound batsman but then we can see what improvisation can do. He finds gap easily on the field and with equal ease he can hit the bowl in air. Have you ever wondered what makes him so audacious; well I guess first one has to be good technically and then one should be fearless for improvisation. Fear of losing something always degrades our performance and one can be fearless only when one is technically sound, that remainds me of a saying which goes as “One should know the rules to break them.”

Bundelkhand

Whenever I come across articles such as India shining,

inclusive growth, economic supercharge of India my

native region Bundelkhand always comes to my mind

somewhere in the backdrop and I start pondering, upto

what extent are these things really positive to the litmus

of my region. And most of the times I feel that if whatever

I am reading about is really true than I must say that my

region is left somewhere behind.

Yesterday I read about farmers committing suicide inspite

of huge loan waiver provided by the government; this

surely brings out the sorry state of Bundelkhand. Is there

really something our leaders and we could have done to

avoid this state of affair ?

With Lok Sabha elections due next year this whole episode

provides political parties the platform to perform their

drama and mislead people because it has been repeatedly

proved that these people after getting elected adopt a

degage pose on the arm of an easy chair.

And then again the question rises what can we really do

about this episode of our region ?

Good But Not So Good !

I must say when one gets started for something he starts

neglecting the other, the same is perhaps true about me

for the simple reason that at this moment I should have

been preparing for my exams. But as far as i guess each

beginning brings in you a new fervor and enthusiasm that

one loses in quotidian functions be it study, play, travel

anything. So as far as I am concerned I am quite excited

by the thought that I am writing my frist Blog. So hello

all you bloggers there I wish myself a very best of luck

for the new journey in this virtual world.