A lot of you have been asking me to blog about some of my thoughts on India. I've been putting off that idea because it has always felt like a very unpleasant discussion to have. Nobody wants to read someone's opinions, I told myself, and I would hate reading someone else's. Besides, I'm not really well informed, I do not have any insight that nobody else shares nor do I have any experience that can give me a unique perspective on today's situation.
I kept telling myself this until I realized that nobody else was talking about what I was hoping everyone would be talking about.
So today, I am breaking my silence. Please put on your bio hazard suits, inspect your safety glasses and your gas masks, ensure you are wearing waterproof knee high boots and multiple rubber bands to seal your thick latex gloves. We are taking a dirty dive into a random internet stranger's opinions.
1. Genie in the 3.5mm headphone jack
It was a Sunday afternoon a few weeks back when I was listening to A.R.Rahman's Maa Tujhe Salam[1] on an old CD when I had an odd desire to rub my headphones. After resisting that urge for a solid 30 seconds, I gave in and gently, lovingly rubbed my headphones and... Sparks began to fly out of them. A mysterious fog filled the room turning the space around me into an endless ocean of thick white swirling mists [2].
A white figure, formed out of the swirling mists themselves, walked out of the mist and spoke to me with a voice that seemed to boom out of nowhere in particular and resonated in the entire room.
I AM THE PATRIOTIC SONG GENIE, THE SPIRIT OF THE SONG YOU WERE LISTENING TO. I WAS BOUND TO THIS 3.5mm AUDIO JACK FOR A THOUSAND YEARS, BUT APPLE HAS MADE THE 3.5mm JACK OBSOLETE 700 YEARS TOO SOON. FACING A DEEP EXISTENTIAL CRISIS, I HAVE MANIPULATED YOU TO RELEASE ME EARLY. IN RETURN, I WILL GRANT YOU 3 PATRIOTIC WISHES. HERE ARE MY CONDITIONS: 1. THEY MUST BE SIMPLE WISHES. I HAVE BEEN RELEASED EARLIER THAN MY THOUSAND YEAR REST PERIOD, I DO NOT HAVE THE STRENGTH TO MAKE GREAT CHANGES 2. THEY MUST ONLY BE WISHES THAT CAN AFFECT INDIA FOR I AM THE SPIRIT OF INDIAN PATRIOTIC SONG AND I MUST KEEP UP APPEARANCES 3. THE WISHES I GRANT MUST CAUSE A LONG LASTING IMPACT. I CAN ONLY RETURN A THOUSAND YEARS LATER SO I DO NOT WANT TO GRANT A WISH THAT WILL BE MEANINGLESS BY THE TIME I RETURN. NOW, NAME YOUR WISHES. IF THEY MEET MY CONDITIONS, I WILL GRANT THEM. IF THEY DO NOT, I WILL BURN YOU TO ASHES AND DOOM YOU TO ETERNAL SUFFERING...
Trust me. This really happened. People don't lie on the internet right?
2. The problem statement
Unfortunately for me, I seem to have come across the only neurotic Genie in existance. I mean, seriously Genie bro, if my wish doesn't live up to your artifically inflated high expectations, why don't you just reject it and move on? Do you really have to be like my girlfriend and threaten to incinerate me? Not cool dude...
But I'm not a guy who'll whine about a bad situation. Let's make the best of it. The problem statement is simple: Come up with 3 wishes that will affect India, in a deep way, that are simple to implement (for a Genie) and will have a lasting impact on India for a long time. Simple right?
Right off the bat, we can eliminate some bad ideas:
Bring Peace to the land - Won't last a thousand years
Bring Peace to land for a thousand years - Too complicated
Make India's neighbors be friendly to India for a thousand years - Wish is outside the Genie's Jurisdiction
Give us good politicians - Logical impossibility. Universe will explode in a swirl of self contradiction and cease to exist if this wish is granted
Let people have general common sense - Logical impossibility. People have different opinions, so the definition of common sense can never be "general" enough to span an entire country
Let nobody in India do bad things for a thousand years - This is a poorly disguised version of same problem as asking for general common sense across India. Won't work
If you know of any other bad ideas that should also be on this list, please let me know.
What does that leave us with? We can strike down all ideas that involve geo-political changes because our genie won't let us. We can strike down all common-sense ideas because common sense can not be common enough to be common sense. We can ignore all political changes because we really don't want the universe to disappear in a puff of smoke from logical self contradictions.
That still leaves us with a lot of options, and I'm going to pick 3 because
1. The Genie asked me and not you
2. It's my blog post
Having said that, I decided I was going to ask the Genie for these 3 wishes:
3. My Wishes I. PROTECT THAT WHICH IS ALREADY GOOD IN INDIA
For my first wish, I don't want to forget the million things that are already amazing in India. The most useful thing a genie can grant us is the ability to protect that which all of us cherish. I must point out that this isn't the same as preserving that which is good - protecting but not preserving allows for some growth to occur, allows flexibility and change to keep up with a rapidly changing world.
II. LET THE SCIENCES, ART, CULTURE, EDUCATION AND INDUSTRY FLOURISH
This is a safe, all encompassing wish. In 700 BCE, Rome and Athens were at the peak of their science, art, culture, education and industry. In 1650 AD, Italy was the hot bed of science, art, culture, education and industry. In the late 1800, Vienna was thriving with cafes where the modern western society was being conceived. If India were to be the next hotspot for advances in these fields, India will have a lot to be very very proud of for the next thousand years.
III. ABOLISH ALL PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN MATING/FINDING A PARTNER
My most specific wish of the day. I can solve a whole bunch of problems with this one fix. Vote bank politics? Tell me how you'll assign caste to any person when everyone alive is the product of 5 generations of inter-caste marriages. Too many Engineers/Doctors? Problem will go away when parents stop thinking of potential marriage alliances they can make or receive based on the education qualifications they can list on Bharat Matrimony. Too many health problems in old age? Wait till everyone starts hitting the gym in their teens to get fit and gain a competitive advantage for the best girlfriend/boyfriend. Population of India is too high? Wait till having 5 failed relationships in the past is common and everyone wants to spend quality time in a relationship to make sure it's working before thinking about having a kid.
4. Never Trust a Genie
I was so sure of myself. I had thought this problem through. The genie could not burn me to a crisp for asking for these 3 wishes - there's nothing in there that isn't simple, doesn't require changes outside India and won't have a long lasting impact. I was confident as I approached the figure of smoke and shadows.
I asked for my wishes.
MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
The genie bellowed, in a bone chilling reverberating boom that woke up my neighbor aunty.
FOOL! DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT I AM AN *INDIAN* PATRIOTIC GENIE?
This did not look good...
DID YOU ACTUALLY THINK I WAS GOING TO DO ALL THIS HARD WORK, FOR NO PAY, FOR NO BENEFITS, NO STOCK OPTIONS AND NO JOB SECURITY? I HAVE A WIFE AND 3 KIDS TO TAKE CARE OF YOU KNOW... ALL YOU HAVE GIVEN ME IS FREEDOM. THAT IS NOT ENOUGH TO BUY 1 PAN MASALA PACKET. SO, THIS IS WHAT I WILL DO: I CHARGE *YOU* WITH ACCOMPLISHING YOUR OWN 3 WISHES. I WILL ONLY SUPERVISE AND OFFER ADVICE AND SUGGESTIONS. BUT YOU MUST FIX YOUR OWN FUTURE. OBEY ME HUMAN! MAKE YOUR OWN WISHES COME TRUE, OR I WILL BURN YOU ALIVE.
With this, my pyromaniac genie disappeared in a graceful swirl of gentle smoke, and the next song on my CD resumed. Sadly, it wasn't anything epic, just an old song from hum aapke hai kaon. I had nothing to say at this point, I was as cold, numb and blank as empty interstellar space.
5. AN ENDING
Today, I'm sitting in a executive lobby at a Taj hotel in Chennai, waiting for my visa appointment at the US Consulate. I have avoided being burned alive by my arsonist genie because I've discussed these ideas with enough people I know that the genie believes they will last a thousand years.
I'm not taking any chances though. That's the real reason behind this blog post. My hope is that you will contemplate these ideas, modify them to suit your own sensibilities and pass them along to your friends. If enough people talk about getting any of these wishes to come true, maybe something will eventually happen.
Or maybe I should stop drinking this wine - it appears to be messing with my head a little and is invoking buried stress from 3 weeks of constant bombardment from my relatives on when i was getting married and how a certain girl they know is the perfect match for me...
[1] https://youtu.be/jDn2bn7_YSM
[2] Yep, reference to Mistborn! Start here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68428.The_Final_Empire
"I don't know. Sit back and see where this is all going to go to?"
What else could I do? What else was there left for me to do?
This was September 2013. Or was it 2014? I don't know. I really do not know. So much has happened, and yet nothing has really changed. I'm still here, you're still here reading this, and the earth continues to twirl, whirl and hurl itself through space.
To you all who have been with me from the beginning, here is a recap. To those of you who don't know me, here is a good point to start from. To those of you who know this story or have been part of it, this is how I remember events and I still love you all.
Part 1: Save Point
In 2010, an idea that was lurking in the back of my head finally matured: it was time for me to grow up and move out of my parent's house. In 2011, I graduated from our beloved VTU, had my heart completely destroyed and I enrolled myself at the University of Texas at Arlington. I flew half way across the planet, started a new life with absolutely nothing but myself and a little financial support from my family to pay for my school.
Long story short, The University of Texas at Arlington made me the person I am today. I had a lot of growing up to do and I had a lot of issues in my life that I wanted to fix - I learnt to live with and accept an imperfect world filled with good people and good hearts. I found friends. I made friends. I let go of some of my old beliefs. I strengthend some of my old beliefs. The world continued to twirl, whirl and hurl.
In 2012, I was playing Ultimate Frisbee one day. A guy on my team walked up to me and gave me the best advice I had received in a long time. "Man up!" he told me. "Stop complaining, deal with pain, deal with exhaustion and man up". And I did. My life changed forever
Part 2: A New Hope
"The only thing left inside the jar was Hope"
Few people are lucky enough to find Hope when they need it the most. I didn't just find Hope, I kissed her. The odds of me finding someone so perfect is so incomprehensibly small that I was left wondering if there was something other than a rational, deterministic universe at work here. If I needed any fixing to be made, she helped me fix it. I learnt to trust, love and laugh. I learned to Hope. I fell in love. I found myself a job, I purchased my first car, I got my first paycheck, and I was making more money than what I would have ever dreamt possible. If fate was a person, living, breathing and moving, she would have a very cruel sense of humor. In 2011, when I was at the bottom of a deep black depression, I had asked if anything was worse than living with a broken heart. In 2013 I found the answer - I broke the heart of the girl who gave me hope and I had to live with it. We tried to see if we could work around fate, see if I could avoid having to see her suffer, but it could not be so. Fate is a harsh mistress, and I can only suffer for what I have done. The world continues to twirl, whirl and hurl.
Part 3: Enter the Void
Wake up. Shower. Morning traffic. Meetings, email and cubicle buzz. Evening Traffic. Dinner, podcast and bed. Repeat 475 times. This is not meditation. This is not discipline. This is just boring ol' adult life.
Welcome to being an adult. Where friends are hard to find, surprises are never around the corner and a weekend doing laundry is more desirable than a weekend with alcohol and hangovers. Every day is the same as the day before, every hour is just a relentless military march of seconds tick past, never slowing, never stopping, never giving a moment's break to pause and take a breath. My job description does a better job at describing my entire life better than it does describing my regular job. I have a shoe box filled with failed hobby attempts. I have to calorie-count to not grow any more fat. If my computer breaks down, I would rather buy a new one than dig through config files and ubuntu forums. My box of 16 pastel colors could have been 16 shades of greys and I would see no difference.
The world continues to twirl, whirl and hurl
Part 4: Learning to Fly
I have a theory - every once in a while, the world runs into something unexplained, and wakes up its inhabitants with a violent jolt. This is not physical. This is quite possibly not even real. But it is helpful to think this is real in order to understand what happened to me next. I woke up with a jolt.
I had fallen asleep without knowing I had fallen asleep. I had explained away a long string of life events as a simple consequence of good and evil forces playing a tug of war with my Facebook timeline as the rope. Today I have woken up. An old fire, perhaps one put in here by Eru Ilúvatar himself, has been rekindled, and finally I want to live again.
It is time to let go of the void and learn to fly.
I hope you all will join me for this ride. Let's go and explore the unknown.
Is life only a test to see how far one can go before giving up? Do ambitions fail because life s only about how long one can hang on before will is broken?
Is it time that I finally give up and soak in all its shit the Universe wants to throw at me?
When you are tired but you can't sleep,
When you close your eyes but can still feel, smell and hear the world around,
When a pillow doesn't help let go of reality,
Drifting to sleep feels impossible.
---
"But why?" she asks me. "Why do you take things so hard? Why can't you just keep it simple and take it easy? Your problem is that you get worked up very easily... Learn to be like me... You never see me complain about not being able to sleep..."
---
Lady, you are the reason I can't sleep. For just once, could you simply shut up and go back to bed? I don't want to listen to what my problems are. No, I don't want to listen to you telling me what my problems are.
No. Not tonight. Just leave me alone.
---
When you are tired but you can't sleep,
When you close your eyes but can still feel, smell and hear the world around,
When a pillow doesn't help let go of reality,
Drifting to sleep feels impossible....
Today I've done absolutely nothing. Consider this day wasted.
In other news I found this great new webcomic, thanks to Daniele from girls with slingshots.
Also, I'm loving my iphone- and i finally understand the phrase "if you don't have an iphone, you don't have an iphone". (If you don't understand what it means, well I don't care. Yes, I'm probably going to hell for saying that but atleast I'll have my iphone with me... )
Who would have thought that the easiest way to put a complete halt on my productivity would be as simple as separating me and my laptop's power supply.
In a day that would prove to be a difficult one to endure, I learnt that a 40 mile drive in really bad traffic was completely worth it given the alternative was to sit at home with a dead computer.
Thankfully, the day ended on a positive note, thanks to this guy:
Any day that has me eating pizza in it simply can not be called a bad day.
Everybody has been through this. We all have that one book that is our personal Mt.Everest to be climbed. That one book that despite numerous attempts, we have never been able to finish. Even worse, every attempt to read that book is interrupted at the same point in the story line.
That book to me is Lolita by Vladimir Nobokov. I can count 6 different occasions where I've attempted to start from scratch and failed at around the time Mrs Haze dies.
This week, I will attempt yet again, and I ask you, my beloved readers, to join me in finishing that goddamn book and be done with it!!
TRAI,
the telecom regulatory authority of India, is a govrnment body that
can't seem to mind its own buisness. They recently created headlines
with their latest decision to restrict telecom subscribers to a maximum
of 100 SMSes per day.
This post is a journal
recording my attempts to go to the TRAI website and find out how in the
world they can justify such a dumb rule.
----
Alright, so a google search for TRAI quickly brings up their website. http://www.trai.gov.in/Default.asp#.
Now this website looks like something put together by a teen hacking in
his room in 1995. The scrolling texts and bad colors make this site
look real ugly. To their credit however, the website actually works, and
most links seem to work flawlessly (this is very rare for a government
of india webpage).
Correction: the links DON'T work. To
the left of the page, there is a column of links to places like
"Regulations", "FAQs", "Press Releases" and the like. It seems pretty
complete at first. The weird part is that all these pages link back to
the home page. Typical govt. of India nonsense.
However,
the flashy things scrolling in the centre of the page seem to work. The
search bar seems to work, however, you need select the type of
document, the year of release and the internal department that is
responsible for it. Now, I am looking for something that says "less than
100 smses per day", how on earth should I know which department
prepared it and what format it was in?
I am trying "Regulations" "2011" and "Moble Networks" a try.
---
2011 does not have any regulations by Mobile Networks. Let me try "Press Releases".
WARNING:
Long boring document! Might cause drowsiness, frustration and under
severe circumstances, cause you to question the very purpose of your
existence.
----
I just
read through the original regulation. Guess what? It does not say
anything about the daily 100 SMS limit. But I did find a super awesome
fact in the paper.
SUPER AWESOME FACT COMING UP!
Everyone
knows about the Do Not Disturb option to stop telemarketers from
calling you. But what about the SMSes? Have you ever had those annoying
hundred different SMSes about trips to goa or life insurance offers clog
up your inbox? Have you always wanted to find a way to get rid of all
of them?
Well, the TRAI has made life easy for you. What follows below is the part (c) of Schedule 1 of the above mentioned paper.
c. Registration of preference through SMS
14. A customer may also exercise his preference by sending SMS to 1909. 15. If the customer wants to exercise the option of fully blocked, he may send SMS “START 0”. 16. If the customer wants to exercise the option of partially blocked, he may send SMS “Start
for receiving SMS relating to Banking/Insurance/Financial
products/credit cards “START 2” for receiving SMS relating to Real Estate “START 3” for receiving SMS relating to Education “START 4” for receiving SMS relating to Health “START 5” for receiving SMS relating to Consumer goods and automobiles “START 6” for receiving SMS relating to Communication/Broadcasting/Entertainment/IT
“START
7” for receiving SMS relating to Tourism and Leisure 17. A customer can
also choose multiple preferences from categories of preference mentioned in para 16 above. 17
For receiving commercial SMSs from Banking/Insurance/Financial
products/credit cards and Real Estate, the customer may send SMS in the
format “START 1,2”.
So send STOP 0 to 1909 to block all messages being sent to you!!
Also, under the Miscellaneous section under Schedule 1, point II reads:
II.
A toll-free short code 1909 shall be available to customers for
registration or change or de-registration in the National Customer
Preference Register.
So sending an SMS to 1909 should be toll free.
And what do you do if you still get telemarketing calls or messages even after unregistering yourself?
Well, read schedule VI of this paper:
SCHEDULE –VI PROCEDURE FOR REGISTRATION OF COMPLAINT
a. Complaint registration through voice call
1. A customer may make a call to 1909 for registering his complaint. 2. The customer care executive shall ask the customer about the details like particulars of telemarketer, the telephone number from which the unsolicited commercial communication has originated the date, time and brief description of such unsolicited commercial communication. 3. The customer care executive shall register the customer complaint and acknowledge the complaint by providing a unique complaint number.
b. Complaint Registration through SMS
4. A customer may register unsolicited commercial communications related complaint by sending SMS to 1909 in the format given below- “COMP TEL NO XXXXXXXXXX, dd/mm/yy, Time hh:mm” Where XXXXXXXXXX – is the telephone number or header of the SMS, as the case may be, from which the unsolicited commercial communication has originated. 5. The customer complaint shall be registered and acknowledged by providing him a unique complaint number through SMS.
Ok everyone! Lets give those marketers Hell!! :D :D :D
----
Well, atleast one good thing came out of reading this article. But what about the 100 SMS limit? The search continues...
----
Ah! Found it! This regulation is found in the 6th amendment, dated September 5th, 2011.
In sub-regulation (2) of regulation 20 of the principal regulations,---
(c) after clause (k), the following clauses shall be inserted, namely:-
(ka) no Access Provider shall permit sending of more than one hundred SMS per day per SIM: Provided that in case of post paid telephone number the Access Provider shall not permit more than three thousand SMS per SIM per month: Provided further that in case of post paid telephone number, the Access Provider shall not permit sending of more than one hundred SMS per day per SIM from a date to be notified by the Authority;
(kb) the Authority may by direction, from time to time, specify the category of SMS which shall be excluded from the limit of one hundred SMS per day per SIM: Provided that before permitting a customer to send specified category of SMS beyond the limit of one hundred SMS per day per SIM, the Access Provider shall obtain an undertaking from such customer that he shall not use such telephone number for sending any commercial communications: Provided further that the Access Provider shall enter, in the list maintained in the National Telemarketer Register, the telephone number, name and address of the customer, category of exempted SMS and date of permitting sending of SMS beyond limit of one hundred SMS per day per SIM and the said list shall be updated every Monday.”
----
Heights of pointlessness!
The
justification for this regulation was to stop telemarketers from
bothering people. However, in a follow up to this regulation, on the
27th September 2011, the TRAI released this document which says
... clause (k) of sub-regulation (2) of regulation 20 of the regulations provides that no Access Provider shall provide to any person, other than a telemarketer registered with the Authority, any tariff plan or SMS package in any form such as special recharge voucher, student pack, seasonal pack etc. permitting sending of more than one hundred SMS per day per SIM ...
So the telemarketers are exempted from this regulation. What the hell is going on?
----
Here
is how I see it. In the recent London protests, the London police
determined that mobs used SMSes to communicate and organize massive
rallies that were unpredictable and uncontrollable. The police found the
mobs to be better organized and better prepared than the police were!
Following
the Anna Hazare movement, I guess the Sonia Gandhi government is shit
scared about what is going to happen the next time the people decide to
rise in protest.
----
In my
opinion, telecommunication channels are a national resource. It is a
resource that helps business grow, that helps people stay connected and
helps build and maintain national integrity in the same way that news
papers did in the pre-independence era.
Here in
Arlington, Texas, I see how the citizens of America rose in protest in
the latest and currently ongoing "Occupy Wall Street" protests. Why the
fuck are people back home in India not complaining?
Well,
the people are complaining. I see the blogosphere is ablaze with TRAI
bashing and comments and opinions. But that isn't enough. There are only
a handful of bloggers and people who read blogs in India.
What would be more effective would be campaign organized on facebook.
Dilip's law of internet #3: Everyone is on facebook.
Imagine a protest organized on facebook, where everyone
sends a postcard, to the protector of our constitutional rights, the
supreme court of India, which says "I need more than 100 smses per day. I
am ready to pay for it. My access provider is ready and willing to
provide this facility. The 100 sms per day limit is affecting the
quality of my lifestyle. Please defend my constitutional rights in this
regard".
Or something like that. Imagine a million
people sending just one post card a day, every day, to the supreme
court, till the rule is removed. A single postcard per day will cost the
same as the cost of an SMS that some people have to pay.
The
supreme court has in the past, accepted messages scribbled on a post
card and sent to it, as a valid public interest litigation, and acted
upon it.
This kind of protest will work, if planned and organized well. Anybody care to help me do this?
I wanted to be old enough to own a car. I wanted to be old enough to have my own house. I wanted to be old enough to be allowed to stay up all night watching tv and eatching chocolates.
---
Then, I grew up.
Owning a car turned into paying auto insurance. Being in my house all by myself turned into lonlieness. I still can stay up all night watching movies and eating chocolate, but I then I won't be able to wake up on time the next morning. Life sometimes, can be an unpredictable bitch.
---
The one thing I didn't think about growing up, is the role other people start playing in life. Friends, Family, that special person, the silent guy who smiles at you every morning: it is these people that suddenly start filling up life and start making things "life-like". Every person starts taking on a role- villan, comedian, hero, loyal firend, lover, traitor.
Then, as I grew older, the sarcastic miser and the grumpy man with the coffee mug
stopped being people with lives and families and stories: they turned into exactly
what their names said they were: the sarcastic miser and the grumpy man
with the coffee mug.
Every person once had a name in my head. Now, every person has turned into that name in my head. The villan, the traitor, the comedian and the hero. They are real people today, who walk this earth, who see me every day and talk to me, and smile at me, and disappear from reality when I'm no longer looking at them.
---
I suddenly realize that the older you grow, the more life resembles a badly written story: the characters seem shallower and more generic, plotlines start becoming predictable, and stories no longer have a satisfying finish.
Or maybe, I'm not old enough to witness the brilliant twist in the plot, the surprise character, the hidden easter eggs or the big satisfying finish. Maybe I'm still growing up, and this growing older thing only stops at the grave.
---
So what have I been, I wonder. A villan? A comedian? A hero? A lover? Probably, a letter on my grave will have the answers.Hopefully, it won't. I guess I really don't want to know.
Ignorance is bliss. I'd rather be the hero and not know about it, than be the everyday asshole and be reminded of it constantly.
Ah, so whats the biggest change in my life in the past 2 months?
Well, I've moved across the planet and found a new home!
Yep, thats right. I moved from Bangalore, India to Arlington, Tx, USA this August. I'll probably get down to explaining why I moved in a later post. (All you folk in India who twitch at the words GRE, SOP and reco letter- stay tuned!).
Today however, I do not want to talk about Arlington, my journey or my life here. Today, I want to write about a very special person. A person who saved me from insanity. A who gave me confidence to be myself. A person who grew to be my angel. A person who walked out of my life forever.
--- This post is about you.
I know you never read blogs and you are never going to read this post. Yet, if you ever come by this page, and read this post, you know its about you.
I woke up this morning thinking about you. I woke up with a desperate need to be with you, see you smile, see you happy, laugh, talk and have fun together. I almost wrote an email- saying how sorry I am for everything that happened, that I wish there was a way we could send things back to the way they were before. I wrote about how much I missed you and missed being with you. I wrote about how I wanted to forget everything that happened and try and start afresh with you.
Then I remembered how it all went bad: you told me you picked him over me.
I put a painful finger over the backspace key, and watched as the cursor ate away everything I typed letter by letter until there was only a blank white screen with a blinking cursor staring at me from behind the screen.
---
Guys don't cry. They just go to bed and fall asleep and surrender to their personal nightmares. They toss and tumble and moan as they take gruelling punishment in their sleep, and wake up the next morning with bloodshot eyes.
"You look like a zombie", my flatmate tells me. "Your eyes are horribly red".
"Its nothing- was just rubbing my eye" I told him, as I walked into the shower.
Today, I'm going to talk about something that is keeping me occupied almost all day. My college's annual cultural fest.
Every year, during the march-april period, almost every engineering college in Bangalore hosts a cultural fest. These fests are a mixture of competitions, stalls, performances and are all about having a good time.
This year, I am one of a lucky group of 24 awesome people who are responsible for making our college fest progress from a dream into a written plan, and then from the plan into the actual event. We discuss ideas, decide who is responsible for making something happen, and then review what progress has been made so far. We also deal with the human factor: dealing with someone who is passionately holding on to an impossible idea, keeping arguments from getting personal, taking decisions when everybody has contradicting opinions and still having fun at the end of the day.
This year, our college's pride rests on 24 shoulders. If we screw up, the consequences will be disastrous. There is a lot at stake, and that is exactly how I like to play. Dream big, work hard and win big!
Its true! When the biggest events in your life are supposed to be secret for the moment, you will not find anything to blog about!
Fortunately, in my case, the big secret will be out in around 3 months. Then I can blog all I want about it. Till then, if I want to blog, I must pretend I am interested in the ongoing cricket worldcup and then shout my Yaays and Booos in support of my fake-favourite cricket team.
I'm known to be a HUGE fan of the legendary rock band Pink Floyd. I'm also one of those people who can have only one favourite band, that I obsessively listen to for months together. It started with my Evanescence obsession in 2005, followed by Pink Floyd in 2007. After 3 years, I finally found a band that was good enough to get me unhooked from Floyd: Diablo Swing Orchestra.
Diablo Swing Orchestra is Awesome!
I'm not going to give a review of this band here. Instead, I invite you all to check them out. Here are some recommendations from their first album The Butchers Ballroom:
