A Historic Moment!!

It’s been quite a while since my last blog and at this moment there is only one thing on my mind that I can write about. It is as if a tidal wave of euphoria has swept through this country and people have only begun to come to grips with the awesome feeling. It will not be possible to express at a later time what I and a billion like me are feeling right now.

It’s the 3^rd of April 2011, 2.45 PM and not 18 hours ago, history was created, the names of 11 players and 1 team were forever etched in history and an entire nation paused and then erupted in a collective expression of jubilation.

Set an imposing target of 275 by former cricket champions and last time runners-up Sri Lanka, India stumbled in the beginning, losing the wickets of Sehwag and none other than GOD. However, in a display of sheer grit, the team picked itself up, dusted itself and began to run itself back into the race. Stalwart innings by Gambhir, Kohli and MSD (arguably the greatest captain India has seen) saw us close in on the finish line. Till that last six was hit, fittingly by MSD, the nation waited and watched with bated breath!!

We are the WORLD CHAMPIONS!! When we had won the Cricket World Cup back in 83’ there were many who had dismissed that as a fluke, but this time we have done it in style. We have beaten every former champion and 3 of them in the knockout stages. This is more than just a sporting victory. It is a arrival of a new, determined and resilient generation of Indians who never give up and have the fortitude to claw back from the brink.

Post match yesterday night, it was madness on the streets. Pure ecstasy!! The atmosphere was electrifying.  Never was an entire nation so completely united in a single emotion!! We were united in our grief during the Mumbai attacks. We were united in our happiness at the Olympic golds, but yesterday was simply magical!! We could have probably produced the biggest Patronus ever, had we tried.

I saw people dancing on the middle of the road, hugging and shaking hands with random strangers, riding atop rooftops of cars waving the tricolor and yelling themselves hoarse with one word… INDIAAAAAAA, INDIAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Poor labourers to bollywood superstars, auto-rickshaw drivers to sophisticated techies, they were all out there on the streets. Next day, they would return to their normal lives, but this night, whatever their economic and social standing might be, whatever their religious beliefs and regional origins might be, this night, they were all ONE and they were the CHAMPIONS!!

I didn’t know before I had experienced it yesterday that pure Joy reproduces exactly the same effects as alcohol. Entire families – senior citizens to children were out on the streets behaving in exactly the same manner. They were lightheaded, they were drunk, they were childish, they were mad but more than anything, they were INDIAN.  

At the stroke of the midnight hour yesterday, when the world slept, India actually awoke to life and freedom. But this time, we arose as KINGS – undefeated, unmitigated and unstoppable!! 

Paradise lost!!

Yesterday evening, I was returning home, when I heard these extremely silly noises somewhere behind me. I stopped, turned and proceeded to investigate. What I saw made me smile. A fond father was playing with his little baby. Junior was perched (quite precariously, in my opinion) on daddy’s shoulder and daddy dearest was endeavouring his utmost, with the help of these aforesaid weird sounds and appropriately accompanying actions to amuse Junior.

If one would care to observe the behavior of new parents (ignoring the activities of the baby for some time), I think that many of us would be frankly surprised at the ridiculousness and absurdity of some of the actions, the adults indulge in; supposedly to ‘play’ with the baby who I have no doubt, can make neither head nor tail of the absurd antics his doting parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles get up to.

These are the same adults who would scoff when asked to play Hide-n-seek or Tag-and-Run. They go about their business and work in a meticulous, orderly, planned manner, execute the designated tasks with precision and live their lives as an ‘adult’ should. They would feel insulted if someone insinuated that they were being frivolous or childlike and would rather that everyone respected them as grown-ups.

I believe that there is a ‘child’ in every single one of us whether our age is 10 or 30 or 50 or even 70. This child is immortal and indestructible as our soul. It manifests itself dominantly when we are young and sporadically in the later stages of our life when we play with babies or laugh when someone slips over a banana peel.

Stop and introspect for a moment. What was that period in your life when you were the happiest, felt most secure and were least worried? It was undoubtedly your childhood, assuming you had a normal one, of course. The greatest stress we faced were school examinations, the greatest responsibility we handled was safely getting our colony-wali cricket team the winning runs. Now we worry about Financial year ending, tax saving investments and project delivery. The difference is stark but inevitable. Naturally, as we grow older and mature, we must take up responsibilities as is expected of us.  

But it saddens me that many of us, as we grow older, try to consciously suppress this Child personality in ourselves and instead try to assume a socially appropriate grown-up one. In this process, we end up losing something invaluable – our childhood.

Stop running in this Rat-race for an instant and smell the roses on the sidewalk. Watch Cartoons or read Comics once in a while instead of CNBC and Business Today. Switch off that mobile phone and listen to the conversation of little boys and girls in your neighbourhood parking lot. They say the most remarkable things with utmost seriousness. Observe the patterns that motor oil makes on puddles of rain water. Imagine yourself (once again) as the Red Power Ranger or the Centurion-Air.  And most importantly, realize the fact that the key to our happiness is always simplicity and contentment and not material possessions.

We knew it when we were naïve and irresponsible but strangely, have forgotten it now, when we are mature and responsible!

My Unanswered Questions

I wrote this little piece on 10^th Dec 2004, 6.40 PM (I had actually noted the time as well).  It was shortly after the death of my grandfather who was suffering terminally from cancer. I was very close to him. His death was quite sudden and in reality, proved to be a blessing as he did not suffer long from his condition.  This piece echoes my thoughts after his passing. In remembrance to him.... 

Life and Death can be termed as two opposite extremes in this wondrous universe created by GOD. As far as we can fathom, there is nothing prior to Life and nothing beyond Death. By life, here I mean the birth of a living thing.

Most humans would experience joy at the birth of a new life form whether it belongs to them or their fellow human beings. Similarly, when one of us dies, the rest of us grieve. We mourn and occasionally become inconsolable in our sorrow. This occurs even in those exceptional cases where the person who has departed was suffering from incurable and unbearable pain and only Death could have provided solace and salvation from such torment. Even though we are aware in our heart of hearts that Death has mercifully put our loved one out of pain and suffering, yet we do not find it within ourselves to welcome Death and bid farewell to our loved one with a clear heart.

It is my belief that this grief and anguish that we experience at the death of a close person has very little to do with the person himself/herself. We do not grieve for the departed one for he/she cannot know or understand how we feel any more. That is to say - we grieve for ourselves.

We cry because we cannot bear the thought of ourselves existing without that special person. We weep because all the special moments that we have shared and experienced with that person will never come back to us.  If one observes, clearly one can decipher that in the above assertion, it is the concern for the ‘self’ that is predominant and not the concern for the departed person.

But then, an obvious question begs askance. All our lives, we have been taught the virtues of selflessness and vices of selfishness. We say and believe that selfishness is one of the seven deadly sins that were trapped in Pandora’s box. We loath selfish people and selfish behavior. Why then, can we not think above ourselves and concentrate even for a little time on the person who has departed?

Our prudent mind may tell us time and again that Death is an inevitability and in some cases, the savior. So, why do we not think about our loved one selflessly and say from our hearts – “Yes God, I give my loved one to you with a free mind and a clear heart.”

I do not mean to say, for even a single instant, that this behavior is wrong. Right and wrong are relative terms. What some consider being right others may consider being wrong. This sort of reaction is seen in all humans and one might say that it is due to ‘love’ for our close ones. However, isn’t it true that love teaches us to Give rather than Take; Selflessness instead of Selfishness?

But then, if everybody is made the same way, then shall I conclude that – It is human to be selfish? Or that it is selfish to be human?

I do not know who the right person to answer these questions is. I don’t believe that there is any human who can answer them because every other human being, like me, will be bound and fettered by the same limitations governing all humans. I can think of only GOD to answer my questions. I hope HE has heard me enough and will clear my doubts when the time comes.  

In the time that has elapsed since writing this article, my doubts have been clarified. I have found out the answers of my questions in the most obvious manner possible. However, that shall remain an episode for a later time.

Printer Wars!!

The following article is reproduced here from my old engineering notebook, at the express request of one of my most favourite people in the world – Ms. Pranali Kulkarni nee Ambavane. This was written during our engineering days sometime in 2004 in Sem VII during a theory class of “Mobile Computing”.  I have taken care not to add or delete anything, as I felt that, to do so would sully the originality of the article as it was written back then, when I was part of it. This is dedicated to all my DMCE friends and classmates. I hope this will bring back some very sweet memories!!

It is rather amazing that how a seemingly simple yet indispensable object such as a Printer can reduce intelligent human beings to the level of blood-thirsty carnivores! I don’t expect that a Commerce or Arts or for that matter even Science students will fully grasp the gravity of the statement. In fact I think only Engineering students, especially stupid computer engineering students, including myself, can fully understand what I mean.

I mean, you are friends for God-knows-how-many-years; you share, you help and support each other through thick and thin; your friendship has been a time-tested one; and then comes along the submission time. You suddenly realize that there are about 30 programs to get printed for each one of you and only one or two printers to do it!

And then your baser human instincts take over. You plot, you cheat, you plunder, you pillage, you use every ounce of your cunning to procure the required printouts no matter what, to get a chance to sit at the most coveted spot in college – the seat in front of the Printer. It really intrigues me as to how the sound of “Screeeech Screeeech” of a Dot-matrix printer can induce barbaric instincts in civilized men and women.

The conversation which goes on in the vicinity of the printer is fairly the same all the time. You decide to come to college early to get the printer and you find that all the other people have also decided the same thing; only, they have made it two minutes earlier than you.

Making a dirty face, you push your way to the printer to find this guy sitting before the printer like he’s been stuck to it with quick drying cement.

You ask him – ‘How many printouts are you taking? ’

‘Five Six’

‘How much time? ‘

‘Half an hour’

You come after 45 minutes. He is still perched as before, albeit holding a thick stack of printouts.

‘How many more?’  - You ask him angrily.

‘5 more’

‘But you said 5 more, 45 minutes back’

‘Those 5 were for that guy over there (gestures towards some random guy sitting far away).  These 5 are for me’

 You warn him with dire consequences and move off to return in another half hour.

Still he is there! (Sometimes I think that if these guys had shown such perseverance towards God, they would have surely attained salvation by now)

Anyway, you ask him, once more, how long will he take? Half an hour more, he says.  This time you change tactics. You tell him to take your printouts as well as his own.

Finally, after much bickering, quarrelling and a marked rise in blood pressure, you get your work done. Finally!!

When you look at those printed pages in your hands, you actually realize how Abraham felt when God told him – ‘This is the Promised Land. Take it and prosper!’

I would even go to the extent of saying that if you want to see who your true friends are, best do so during these ‘Printer Wars’ . And to think, Printers are a symbol of our development and civilization!

My first blog!

I have finally jumped on the blogging bandwagon!!! ......

I had started toying with the idea lately, primarily due to the efforts of my friend Mr. Jagannath Chakravarty who has been telling me to start blogging for quite some time now.

Although Jag had put the bug in my ear, the essential question still remained unanswered - What do I write???!!! Its all very well for people to say 'write about your thoughts, write about your experiences' but ridiculously and comically, my best thoughts used to come to me in the form of the finest flowing prose (no exaggeration here) when I was in the most inconvenient of places - e.g : in a crowded second class local in the peak hours, squished in 1 sq.meter space with atleast 10 overweight/ sweaty/ dirty men OR in the loo, especially when I am running late and my dad is yelling at me to hurry OR sometimes when I am taking a walk. By the time I got around to finding a piece of paper and pen or an open MS word document, everything would have evaporated!

However, today my problem was solved rather peculiarly. You see, today, 9th Jan 2011 to be precise, I was going through some old diaries and registers dating back from my school and college days. I found quite a few write-ups, articles that I had written in those days. I confess I had completely forgotten that I used to write back then. It was very refreshing for me to delve once more into those good old days and the thoughts gone by.

So, to start with, I have decided to post those old articles of mine with some comments added by me in the present time. I trust they will prove to be a good read.