Life is a beautiful dream

One more boring lecture in college was taking its toll on me as i was drifting into the subconscious i remembered Ivan's justification for the Karamazov was of life in Feodor Dostoevsky's the Brothers Karamazov. Well i woke up from my reverie and penned down my understanding. Here it goes....

Life is a Beautiful dream-

There may be war and strife,

Blood and tears to shed.

Love might come and go,

But all this pain is trivial,

Trifles that are foced upon oneself and mankind.

For all life ends in the same way

It dosen’t matter how you lead your life

For death is a leveller like none,

That fuses your remains with the soil,

Like it does to all other life,

Whether good or evil while it lived.

Death is the equaliser,

The hammer of hell and heavenly angels a myth,

The ultimate fiction of man.

Such is the truth about life,

So let it be……. a beautiful dream.

P.S.- Not that i agree with Ivan's interpretations, the fallacy of which were justified albeit imperfectly in the same book.

The beauty of pit-stops

Formula 1. People should be able to relate to formula 1. or even NASCAR. Why is that? Well lets draw an analogy between life and a race… easier done than said, because life as I see it now is a race. Life being a race is one thing that’s common to every person in this world…something that does not discriminate on the basis of race or class or caste-just the race tracks are different. This is because we always aspire, compare, feel jealous of our neighbours. This urge, to acquire, to get the better of someone else, to ‘have more’, makes life a race. Why does man use the term ‘rat race’ to denote a particularly fierce competition or run? It makes better sense to say ‘man race’. In today’s world, this race goes way beyond basic survival and we can blame voracious consumerism of man for this race. This consumerism preys on one thing particularly; jealousy. Other positive factors are also present in this race…like a race for a girl you love, or making it in time for an important reunion.

Well if we know what the race is and what it is for, what are the pit-stops?

They are the moments in life, when you take a back seat, see the world rolling by in all its rage and fury, and not worry about catching up(I guess the not worrying about catching up is the only flaw in the analogy, I request readers to fill up that one with your thoughts).

Those moments of life that slows down, those moments when other memories flash back, small memories that linger in your mind, in moments. These memories, and those moments in life that bring them back, stimulated by various inputs ranging from achieving something you really want, mind blowing psychotropic drugs or even a roadside incident, these moments make the race worthwhile. The pit-stops as they usually work for a driver when he is not forced to make them because of some accident gives him a break from the race and also prepares him for the next run in the race. The pit-stops are the moments, the finish line brings back the memories of the moments, and these pit-stops get you geared and create the bullish mindset that you need for the next run. Life is a long road, and a long race; the pit-stops are far and few, but at the finish line, all that matters are the pit-stops that you make.

summer of 07: Edition 01

Disclaimer: By giving this brilliant new edition of hoi polloi the title of 'summer of 07' i do not mean that this will be the sole blog of the season.

The last time i updated my blog was ages ago. well to be more precise roughly 6 months have passed since 'was agnostic, but now i know better'. A brief update: i did get through the first semester without failing any of the papers and did an interesting intern with an NGO back home in hyderabad. Then i went back to college for a second semester, the adventures therein will form the contents of a book i am yet to write but have learnt to transfer the copyright to. Now i am back for for a break of 2 months with lots of time at hand, time enough to do mundane tasks like updating blogs; honestly, who in the world is jobless enough to read my blog? (except those who give me their feedback minus any criticism)

With the time of ages at hand and the responsibility of holding the world transferred to appolo, what does a SINGLE(does it look like an offer? it is!) 18yearold guy do all day?

go on a tour of the city with visiting cousins. I have to admit it was worthwhile. Places visited include 'Purani Haveli' with the world's biggest wardrobe, strangely enough once owned by a guy and this was way before the era of the metro-sexual, the eternally amazing Golconda fort, the zoo, which made me a little hostel-sick, a really cheap car museum that i wouldn't want to advertise on my blog apart from a couple of places i don't remember. Some photographs captured my my amazing new toshiba 'fly' 2060 cellphone with 1.3 megapixels of photographic ability follow. And yes toshiba does manufacture cellphones too many people have asked me after i tell them i got a toshiba, right after i just tell them, 'i didn't know toshiba makes cellphones." Well now you know.
Remember at all times that the copyright to these images is mine to give or to keep.

that's a part of the charminar i had to stick my neck out of a moving bus to get it and please don't try this yourself.

the Buddha on Hussainsagar lake. now this lake, for the ignorant, is between the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

White tiger cubs: a rare spotting even in captivity.


'Spot the beast(s)' is the name of the game. well i couldn't get in any more on the zoom.

something i realized during my visit to the zoo: most of the animals displayed traits that i could instantly attribute to my classmates. Is it because of a striking rate of similarity in their genetic maps? only science would tell. Moving on now...



That was me by lunchtime.

Later that day, hoping that they made these cannons to last. The fort was the last leg of that journey and it sapped my strength and my patience. My neighbour in the bus was a loud, smelly, obnoxious drunken old man. If you have any information leading to the extermination of that person please pass it on to me.

was agnostic,but now i know better

what did i learn in the past few weeks? The title could mean two things:-

• God exists
• He does not (its still a man's world people call me a chauvinist if you will)

I found the former to be true. No i am not a soldier of Billy Graham or any other energised evangelist. Even better. I'm at law school. But that dosent really make sense one might argue. It does to me. It is the only possible rationale, indeed, i've run out of reasons, to explain athe quantum of inexplicable events that happen here. The law school 'experience' is an understatement. I've been here for just 3 months. Life dosent change so much in three months; atleast not so much of change everyday. See, its bad karma. I think its because of flinging a tadpole from the school swimming pool when i was 10 or 11 years old. I think the tadpole must have been a favourite of god. Blessed by god it was. So by harming it i have incurred his wrath. Why didnt he punish me right then?
God is sardonic. Most of you get punished right away for such seemingly small sins. But like i said, this tadpole was a favourite. So what does god do? He sends me to law school. He first tells me, through his (sinister) minions on earth, that law school is a nice place- somewhere you go spend 5 years of your life, have a lot of fun, come out and get a white collar job earning salaries higher than many hardworking IITans. Its not completely false either; you do get white collar jobs arning salaries higher than hardworking IITans-but that comes at the price of sacrificing the 'having a lot of fun' part. Infact, your experience is quite opposite to what may be reffered to as the "having a lot of fun" part. Like i was saying, so he(the sardonic god) makes me work for it,(once again through his sinister minions on earth) almost takes me away from it, but gets me in in the last minute, just to make me feel better about it. Then i come in. Initially it didnt seem that bad; god was busy punishing others. That's when the tadpole's soul reminded him of me. It said it its squeaky little tadpollie voice-" punish him! Punish him!". I guess he made the ride rockier for the tadpole's amusement. But then, i fought on. I have survived for 3 months. I am now battle hardened but also brainf*&^$d. But victory is at sight. Semester ends on the 29th. The final task is the end sems looming over like a cloud of gloom. With homecoming in sight, i think i will survive. Wish me luck.Amen.

survival

good day to all.
Since i am blogging after a substantial amount of time, i must give you an update. I think i mentioned passing the boards? then i gave the entrance exams.6 in all. And the results came. the first four were rejections. Then came the news that i was waitlisted for gujarat national law university- non conclusive. I had to wait for an interview call. The next day i found that i had scored a state rank of 7 and a regional 2 in my backup exam- this was a bit of a relief. Few days later i get the interview call, get admission(cheers) and after a brief holiday in my hometown of chennai i was off to Gandhinagar, the state capital of Gujarat where the university was. I will write another detailed blog on Gandhinagar later. The atmosphere in university was a whole new 'experience'-neither a positive term nor a negative one- with all the new people you get to meet and the realisation of the magnitude of genetic and taxonomical evolution over centuries in the indian subcontinent. The only dampener was the customised personality development program of the seniors in the university. At that point of time, i, like many of my fellow batchmates, was full of enthusiasm and all geared up for the interesting life ahead.

walking the tight rope

Well if anyone reads this blog at all which i doubt,you might or might not even be interested to know that i have passed my boards.Ofcourse you might argue,if you were well versed with the ways of the Indian education systems with special reference to the central board of secondary education, that passing the boards is not a very big deal-getting a decent score is.To those who might argue that way-LAY OFF!.It is an entirely different matter that i have not yet managed to get a positive reply from any of the universities i have applied for.Infact, i did get negative results from 2 universities.Still, exams are done with and now i await results with bated breath(or without it sometimes) and wonder what to do with all this free time.I inferred that blogging is a sensible thing to do in such a situtation since everyone associated with it seem to have a lot of time at hand(LOT-to the point of being referred to as jobless) including you for you are as of now reading my blog.I really have nothing to say right now unless of course i want to treat this domain as a diary for which i have never had a sufficient amount of time.That might change considering the amount of time i have at my disposal right now.Boredom overwhelmes me since a lot of study time(including all time not spent sleeping + 2-3 hours a day).Since i REALLY have nothing to say i think it is time for me to end this monologue and leave you to ponder on this state of mind of mine and compare it favourably with yours.ciao for now.

college blues

Its that time of the year when us bums with not too much money or brilliant displays of dashing IQ and stupendous academic potential(cheers) write them bloody competitive exams hoping to improve our lots and work on that lamborgini galladro that we saw the rich dude from the posh neighbourhood drive even as we wait with bated breath the results of our board examinations and wonder whether we should tell our parents that we're not sure if we passed that migrane of a chemistry exam-scary yes.The glich is, them damn universities are becoming very choosy these days.

Bloody hell- you have to actually prepare for them just after the boards when you are spiritually drained and need to take that much needed holiday to axeland and rejuvenate your senses which dim with academic overtures.So the drugery begins as exam after exam we realise that we are headed nowhere and that we may have to postpone booking the galladro.I guess its to serve us bums with just that tithe of skill and no scientific temperament that the multitude of second rate(read as half-assed) colleges exist.Who knows-we might make it to a scorpio or something.For as a wise man once said-you dont have a maserati then you dont have a maserati.(isnt philosophy so innocent and blissful?Isnt life much better in the dream world?)

Meanwhile, after the screwup of the exams last week,another one fast approaches my horizon and i have been forewarned this time just like before.That does nothing from this one being just as catastrophic as the last one unless i show erstwhile sequestered penchant for my books which is as likely as as a pig with bionic wings flying over the river thames.With this realisation i leave you my friends and fellow bums to ponder on this vitriolic state of affairs the complications of which are reminiscent of those classic works of wodehouse only without the romance of it and return to my books hoping for a flash of divine benediction pegging my maserati hopes on that one last exam menacing over my dreams and the hope that you suffer as much as i do if not more.