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Showing posts with the label Loose Talk

When Destiny Sends Its Helpers

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Keep running. The right people find you on the way. At different stages of life, you’re confronted with different challenges. And each time you cross a hurdle, you feel that familiar sense of accomplishment. It’s tempting to attribute that success to your own skill, tenacity, and willpower — to pat yourself on the back and feel proud of how you handled it. But when you zoom out and look at the moments where you somehow managed to trump the odds, a quieter realization sets in: It’s never just you. There is always an unseen army that shows up at the right time. It was 2005. I had decided to pursue my Master’s in the US. I picked a few schools in the Midwest where the expenses were manageable, and that’s how the University of Missouri–Rolla entered the picture. But funding was still a massive question mark. I hadn’t secured any assistantship, and we didn’t have the means to pay out of pocket. We went from bank to bank, hoping for an education loan. Each manager aske...
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Where is the OST?

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I generally do not keep track of the music world, except, of course, when it involves ARR . It goes by default that his songs would have made their presence felt on my laptop, and gradually found their way on to my first generation ZUNE (Yes, I know, I am the only guy using this. Honestly, it is not bad even though it is, maybe, as bulky as a 1970 transistor) I am not a person to make New Year resolutions, but, since I am very contemplative, I thought about a few things. I was just thinking of all those people whom I idolize, and one of the names to hit me, even without thinking too much, had to be ARR. I just admire him for what he is. He has made it a point to talk only through his work, and his modesty, and humility are absolutely unquestionable. What, with that amount of talent, anybody else would have taken an ego ride around the world in 80 seconds! As I went back to his work from the early nineties, I decided that I should be building a collection of ARR's music from a...
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A perfect gift

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Special occasions tend to create special moments and you generally tend to savour that moment for a lifetime. Happiness is a state of mind and you wish to share that with some people who make a difference. Gifts are a way of expressing your "something" for the person. The "something" can be a token of friendship signifying the person's importance. I am never a gifts guy, for I more often than not tend to forget the person's special occasion. The special occasion could be a birthday, wedding anniversary, graduation ceremony or anything else. The thought of gifting someone with something is really not an easy prospect. It is difficult to hit upon an object that would appease the receiver. This can be known only if you know the person well enough to understand what he/she likes. I have always considered books to be the best possible gift for anybody, though I guess I have now lost the moral right to talk about books. I hardly have read anything in the last cou...
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Pot-Pourri

It was one helluva month, what with the thesis defense and course completion. To top it all, the H1Bs were getting over even before it actually began. But, right now, the relatively free state of mind allows me to get back to blogging. I am going to be much more regular with my blog updates. It is like one of those television serials, " Amitabh Bachchan in a brand new avatar making a comeback like never before ." I also wonder at all the movie artists who make bigwig statements like " This movie is completely different. Such a sensitive topic has never been handled before. It is a once in a lifetime role ." What crap! What nonsense! It would almost make me tear my hair in agony at the cliched statements. I do not want to create that artificial hype and aura about my comeback to regular blogging. There would be periodic updates on anything I find remotely interesting. I would have loved to write about India's world cup prospects, but the way they have damaged the...
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Pencils and Rubbers

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It is easy to wax eloquent about those simple things in life that give you complete happiness. As a part of childhood, there are certain things that give you maximum bliss that would have no effect on others. I had this craze for good pens, pencils and rubbers (that's what I call it even though you have a better term in erasers!). That fanciful thought of buying new things came to me as and when I saw a new pen or pencil in the store. This theory worked for books too! The greatest aspect of my growing up can be attributed to buying the latest copies of Tinkle, Amar Chitra Katha, Champak and Chandamama from the local stores, as well as getting them from the library. On a more materialistic note, I used to envy my class mates who used to carry those sleek fountain pens and the so called jazzy pen-pencil (yes, that's what I call them. It was more like a pen, with a push pull projection at the back that could control the amount of lead coming to the fore). I am sure almost ev...
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Quote me right

As I have always reiterated, meaningful quotes have had a huge impact in my life. When you read a sentence, something strikes you so much in it that you go back to ascertain the hidden nuances in the words. Many a time, you are left wondering at the simplicity of the sentence. The profundity in the meaning is taken to new heights and all this with very simple usage of words. Reading books sure does lend a lot of much needed wisdom and gets you to the point of striking the perfect balance in life. Some of the movies have come up with unbelievable quotes that they just remain embedded in you for life. I was watching The Shawshank Redemption for the nth time and it just keeps getting better with every viewing. Strange are the ways of life that you still anticipate for certain things when you know what to expect(Looks like I just created a quote! Wow). Remember Red, Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies! is certainly one of my all time favourit...
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Writing style

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Writing is a favourite pastime, and it is highly variegated for obvious reasons. No two individuals are alike, and it is not a surprise that no two people have the same style of writing. All the same, it fills me with awe to look into different writeups on the same subject, but with very different and contrasting styles. This can be easily observed when in your school days, you look into your friends' essays and wonder How I wish I could have written it that way! But, at that point of time, you don't realise that the feelings are mutual. It is all the more interesting for school teachers to examine hundreds of essays, see the various viewpoints and thoughts originating from such a big group, and observe the subtle and not-so-subtle differences in style. The popular authors of the last century have inculcated within them a style of writing that makes it easy to identify them through their works. A topic can be approached in many different styles - humour, wit, sarcasm, phil...
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A Generation Gap

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I just had this feeling sinking in when in my final year of my Bachelor's programme, and that was way back in 2003. The incoming batch really had me in a complex, what with heavy put on accent and jazzy gadgets accompanying them always. They had a perpetual tilt with their head resting on one of their shoulders. Obviously, it is no easy task to talk all the time on mobile phones, what with terrific mobile plans in the offing. If Airtel and Hutch was trying to popularize something, SPICE used to be one notch above. Having a mobile was no longer a status quo - and we were really thrown into the oblivion. All of us were a bunch of jokers, carrying ourselves with utmost ease without a care in the world. Virtually, all of them had migrated from the good old bike days. There was a constraint of space due to the increasing number of four wheelers. By the way, Maruti was out of vogue. People had jumped to WagonR, Santro and the other new sleazy vehicles. Of course, cars had back...
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Thanks...But...!!!

I remember those days when my parents used to go out on important functions to travel out of Bangalore. It used to fall on a weekend, and generally, my brother and I stayed back home fighting out minor squabbles. I would make it a point to tell my mother not to tell the news of her travel anywhere outside, lest neighbours and relatives invite us for lunch or dinner. Anything appealed to us, except going out to somebody else's house for the sake of food. That has somehow not fascinated me or my brother much. Both of us would rather shell out that extra money on a good hotel outside and fill our stomach. But, going out to somebody's house exclusively for the sake of food is a strict NO NO. OK! If a couple of extra bucks have to be saved, save it on other things. Why cringe to buy good food? In all my years, anywhere, I have never cared to find out what my neighbour is cooking or what is going to be offered by whom. I still remember the times when my brother and I used to...
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Ties and Knots

A day prior to the career fair, we had to get our bearings right. This was our only exposure to the industry world through the school. So, off we went to JC Penney to buy formal trousers and neckties. I somehow have this fancy for ties. They look so colourful with a tinge of cushion protruding at the end. Myself, Samarsen and Karthik Sadanandam took a cab and we expected to come back in about an hour's time. Samar and I had a tough time selecting our trousers. Trousers that suit our waist size along with perfect length was tough to find. There was not many a choice to make the selection. We roamed around the store for quite sometime trying out various combinations to select the best fit. After a great difficulty, both of us ended up getting the right colours and the right fit. Then, we had to go to the ties. When I saw the ties from a distance, I thought that it shouldn't be all that difficult to get the right tie. But only after I started seeing the ties did I re...
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All that glitters is white

This forms the main ingredient of my sunday once in two weeks. Taking my laundry bag and walking upto a mile to wash my clothes at MOBIL is undoubtedly the most painful experience of the fortnight. Imagine doing this on a wintry afternoon at sub-zero temperatures. The pain would start two days before actually doing the laundry. The most common feeling would be - Oh No! Not again! The next obvious question would prop up almost at the next nano second - How I wish I had a car! Sadly though, student life does not yield handsome income, and we have to make do with what we have. But, this is definitely a much better situation to be in than washing it on your own. That would have been even more frustrating. No wonder I can imagine most of the hostel guys to wear the same old clothes for a long period of time. The colour fades to different shades, the original colour is lost by not washing it at all, and the brown tinge adds a totally new stinking sensation to your clothes. Most of...
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Generalization

It is not uncommon to generalize certain things when they follow a pattern. When things tend to fall on expected lines, there is no point in raising our eyebrows. So, what is the general criteria of generalizing? Where is it that we can draw a line and say confidently that such and such a thing strikes a certain cord? There are certain things that can be determined easily from experience, and others from careful reasoning. Each of them should have a reasonable logic in justifying your conclusion. Consider the example of our cricket team in the late nineties. The Indian team could never win its matches when Sachin Tendulkar was stiffled. It was a one man army breathing life into the team. The victories and defeats were by and large determined by the way he played the game. It was easy for us to generalize Indians cannot win without Sachin Tendulkar . Consider a movie in which Shahrukh Khan is the actor and the Johar/Chopra family member directs the movie. Most of them were roman...
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What a wild swing

I am not talking about the elegant backhand crosscourt winner from Federer's racquet. I am talking about the discussion I had with a bunch of guys here. It all started over a plate of bhel puri and pani puri. We started with the serials - Ramayana and Mahabharata about how the country used to come to a standstill during these episodes. There were other serials that caught our attention - Chandrakanta, Mungeri Lal, He-Man(Remember! Masters of the Universe), Reporter, Superhit Muqabala (DD Metro) and others. We also wondered how DD Metro was launched amidst a lot of fanfare. At a time when we were living with only one channel, it was a great relief to get another one. We then went on to the advertisements - Nirma, Pepsi, Coke, Wheel, Zandu Balm, fevicol and so on. The Pepsi advertisement taken in a rustic outlook with street children playing cricket and drinking pepsi from the cyclewalah selling pepsi, and wearing Sachin masks was voted as the best pepsi advertisement till...
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Or'cut' precious time!

About a year back, I got an invite for Orkut from a lot of friends, but I repeatedly ignored it. I was working then, and my company did not have internet access. So, these things hardly had any impact on me. About a couple of months back, I got the invite again, and this time, I had no hesitation in joining the social network where people spend hours of their invaluable time probing for contacts, and writing scrapbook entries that is absolutely meaningless and worthless. By the way, scrapbook entries are nothing but writing comments for your friends which can be anything trivial like Hi, how are you or Coming home for lunch . People get hyperactive when the number of comments in the scrapbook entry approaches a "milestone", which can be considered to be worthless again. How does it make a difference when people write 100 entries to you or 110 entries, I don't understand? There are people who also compete to write a milestone entry and feel really happy about it. Sc...
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Vishnu Sahasranamam

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Yesterday, I was having a conference with my friends (what did you imagine? some business partners!!!). One is in California (Prasad) and the other(Gopal) is in Kansas City. We were talking about everything under the sun and since we have done our undergraduation together, we have a lot of common friends to talk about. The topic was about how a guy comes from India and changes for the worst here. Believe me, we guys haven't changed a bit! So, the talk was obviously about somebody else about whom I am not going to disclose here. We meandered on and on about various other issues for close to half an hour. It was fun rekindling old memories and talking about the whereabouts of our friends. Suddenly, Gopal out of the blue says, Hey guys, I have to go. Today is a saturday. I have to recite Vishnu Sahasranamam with my TamBrahm friends here. It was nothing surprising though considering the amount of passion we develop towards being Indianised and more Indianised. During any co...
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