I Thought I Was Moving Forward

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I still remember the moment I decided not to learn Sanskrit. I was in seventh grade in Bangalore, choosing between Sanskrit in the State Board and Hindi in ICSE. I asked my father what he thought. His answer was simple: “Why do you want to learn Sanskrit? It serves no purpose.” That was enough. I dropped it. It felt like a smart decision. Hindi seemed more useful. I even convinced myself I was choosing the “national language”—not realizing India doesn’t have just one. Looking back, the decision wasn’t about language. It was about how I was thinking. I chose utility. Whatever moved me forward faster. And for a long time, that worked. I moved to the U.S. Finished my Masters. Found a job. Built a life. There was always something more urgent—visa timelines, work, responsibilities. Life ran on schedule, and I stayed inside it. But something else was happening quietly. Distance was doing its work. When I visited the Kanchi Mutt in Malleswaram, ...
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Mechanics Rolling

Back from holidays where I did nothing to school, where I am doing nothing. I think the best thing to do these days is to spend as less a time as possible in front of the computer. Obviously, what would anybody do as soon as he boots the system:
  • Open the list of email applications where he has registered
  • Since there are N email applications, sometimes it so happens that not all of them have the same password
  • Take up the challenge of answering the hint questions - its not easy you see
  • One has to find out what is happening around the world - Come on! you can't be doing research all the time
  • One has to be upto date with sports, how else will you find out how many more runs did India and pakistan score more than 600 runs in a Test match
  • Crib about the lifeless quality of pitches in Pakistan as if that's the only concern on your head right now
  • Entertainment is a key to happiness! Rang De Basanti has to be found out through reviews!
  • With a painstakingly high resolve, click on that orange icon on the desktop (Thank God, its on the desktop) to open the Matlab Editor that stutters its way amidst a lot of obstacles
  • Open Google to find something which you don't understand and then suddenly realise that you forgot to respond to your friend's mail
  • If all this is not enough, your stomach too doesn't realise the situation and goes empty
  • You run home to grab a quick meal and run back as if you are running short of time
  • Even Einstein will get a complex to see you running back like a hare
  • Your research work commenes!!!

Finally, you realise that you are not getting the right results and I don't blame anybody for it!!!

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 28, 2006 at 11:56 AM

    You have given your work in a typical day....
    Why dont you give a list of websites which you visit everyday?

    May be it will help others to do the samething as you do :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 15, 2006 at 10:43 AM

    see ...i only have to say one thing...stupidy and research are the same...we do the same actions again and again ...repeating different results all the time....

    ReplyDelete

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